Chapter 376: The Jaha Divine Technique Obtained Through Mallyugwijong.

When I finished the qi circulation of the Geumgu Soyogong, muscle pain and heat coursed through my entire body. However, I couldn't stop just because there was pain. I was still submerged in a surging stream of water. Naturally, I calmly received the flow of water with the Wolryeong Mujeonggong.

On top of the muscle pain and the heat, chills overlapped throughout my body.

To be exact, the heat and chills alternated repeatedly.

It was difficult to tell whether this pain was imagined or real. Before I knew it, the surging great sea had frozen, leaving my lower body cold while it grew hotter toward the crown of my head. I had no choice but to enter the qi circulation of the Baekjeon Sipdangong. I felt good because it felt like tearing apart hot energy and cold energy simultaneously, but soon my entire body was seized by convulsions.

So this is why, if the frame of the body is not prepared…….

There was no reason to accumulate inner power deeply either.

A fear took hold that I might ascend to heaven while performing qi circulation. Still, my mind was clear. It was right to endure this level of pain. Because nothing in this world is given.

If one is not prepared, can one not receive even the greatest gift?

After enduring the heat, chills, and convulsions, I entered the qi circulation of the Geumgu Soyogong once more. I resolved that if burning my entire body could prevent a vain death, I would continue qi circulation until I lost consciousness. I furrowed my brow without realizing it. Three kinds of pain were flooding in. While believing that the pain would pass, I heard someone's voice.

“……Having a hard time?”

It was a voice I didn't recognize, but I answered anyway.

“This much is fine.”

“Why are you speaking informally?”

“Who are you?”

“Open your eyes.”

I opened my eyes in the middle of qi circulation.

All around me was the sea.

“…….”

I was standing on endlessly spreading water, and ahead I saw the owner of the voice. In an instant, giant pillars poured down from the sky, arriving as if to block the path between the owner of the voice and me.

Judging by their appearance, what had fallen from the sky were the iron bars of a prison. The fallen bars surrounded the man in a circle.

As I expected, beyond the prison, a man wearing old martial arts robes stood with his hands behind his back, looking at me. The man rested his forehead against the pillars that had fallen from the sky and gazed at me.

“……I didn't expect you to come for a visit this quickly. Surely you haven't died?”

It was the senior who had sent me back to the past.

“I haven't died yet. It's been a while.”

The man touched his ear with a finger and tilted his head.

“I can't hear you well. It seems your frame hasn't sufficiently matured yet.”

I realized that our communication was not going smoothly through the man's expression and the movement of his lips.

The man continued to look at me while resting his head against the iron bars, his expression peculiar. He seemed to regard me with pride, yet also looked exhausted from long imprisonment. But the energy hovering in his overall gaze was the same boundless confidence as ever.

The man spoke.

“……My abilities have greatly diminished, so I cannot know how you've fared. Come closer.”

I moved while splashing through water that came up to my ankles, then looked closely at the man.

As I approached, the man smiled.

“Jaha.”

“Yes.”

“When you haven't seen someone for a long time, you grow glad just to see a person. Whether they are evil or good.”

I couldn't immediately tell what nonsense he was speaking, but he was a man I was deeply grateful to, so I humored him.

“Is that so? Will I be able to visit often?”

The man tapped the iron bars with his finger.

“That won't do. Look at this. I've merely permitted a visit. Judging by the state of your surroundings, it seems you're standing on the boundary. When you wake from this dream, you'll forget that you came to visit as well. You look to be in pain; were you training?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me. What were you training?”

“The Geumgu Soyogong, the Wolryeong Mujeonggong, and the Baekjeon Sipdangong.”

The man cackled with laughter.

“You've learned quite the hodgepodge.”

Despite the situation having come to this, I laughed.

“I suppose I have.”

From beyond the iron bars, the man looked at me.

“Jaha, combine them into one.”

“How?”

The man tapped his temple with his finger as he spoke.

“You're truly a naive one. How would I know that? It's something happening in your body. You have to solve it yourself. Martial arts must always pursue Mallyugwijong—the convergence of all streams into one. There are no exceptions.”

“If I die in the process, everything becomes a bubble.”

The man nodded.

“Your words are correct. It may become a bubble.”

“Should I still attempt it?”

“Do you not know? You should know by now. If you do not attempt it, nothing will happen. There are answers that only reveal themselves when you stake your life. Only the decision of whether what you are attempting is worth staking your life on is yours to make.”

“I will attempt it.”

“That's the way. I once glimpsed your past life. You are not one to stay still. If you were, you'd be running some small inn somewhere. You wouldn't be standing on the boundary visiting me like this. I'm proud of you. I have much to say, but time is limited. Live brightly. I don't even regret receiving my punishment. I am not a man who regrets. You…….”

The man disappeared completely along with the iron bars in the middle of his words. I called out to him once.

“Master?”

I thought the visit would end just like that, but a voice echoed.

“Why would I be your master? Just call me Hyung.”

“Hyung? How can I get you out? Hey, Musin Hyung?”

The man's laughter burst out long and thin, and before I knew it, even that laughter was cut off.

I muttered as I looked around.

“He scams me with honeyed words and leaves. How am I supposed to combine them? Does he take me for some stupid innkeeper?”

He definitely hadn't said that knowing my exact condition. How could one combine the Geumgu, Wolryeong, and Baekjeon? They were martial arts with different paths and characteristics. I wracked my brain, drawing on every bit of cunning from my days as an innkeeper. If combining them was impossible, then not combining them was correct. This was a phenomenon that had occurred because I couldn't fully absorb the power of the Cheonok through individual qi circulations.

There was no method other than the Jaha Singong…….

I didn't know the qi circulation method of the Jaha Singong. How had I used it without knowing?

To be honest, I was curious about that too.

But the fact that I had used it meant there was a path along which inner power moved. How could I figure out the detailed path of the martial art I had unleashed in the demonic entrance state?

Suddenly, this thought occurred to me.

Even if I didn't know, the Cheonok would know…….

Because the power of the Cheonok had moved on its own even when I didn't designate a path. So Mallyugwijong was a fundamental law. From beginning to end, all I could do was open my heart and accept it. Even if my body burst like a torn drum from an insufficient frame, this was something worth staking my life on, as the Martial God had said.

I sat in meditation once more on the surging sea, stopped the qi circulations of Geumgu, Wolryeong, and Baekjeon, and accepted the surging stream of Cheonok with my body and mind.

If this was an innkeeper's trick…….

There would be no more absurd method of martial arts creation than this.

I entrusted my life to the flow of the surging waterway. Before I knew it, those I had killed appeared all around me and were swimming alongside me.

Did I look like a cripple?

I grabbed the head of one who rushed at me and shoved it under. Before I knew it, I was swept away by a giant stream of water, memorizing, capturing, and confirming the path the Cheonok traveled, while slapping the cheeks of those who rushed at me and kicking them away.

I am a man who never forgets, so I traveled through all kinds of blood meridians as if riding a slide together with the Cheonok.

I felt as if waters that had newly joined together were heading toward the sea.

I entrusted my body and mind to the Great Path.

This was the path that allowed me to unfold the Jaha Singong as I pleased. Only then did the stream of Cheonok grow considerably calm. It was amazing—not that I had created a new martial art, but that I had discovered the Great Path of a martial art I had already unleashed.

Though the stream had quieted, continuing to force it seemed excessive, so I set stages in advance. And so, I opened my eyes the moment I conquered the first star of the Jaha Singong with the power of the Cheonok.

If it was like this…….

The realms of Geumgu, Wolryeong, and Baekjeon would rise, and I would be able to unfold the Jaha Singong as I willed.

“As expected…….”

The Eldest Brother appeared before my eyes, reached out, grabbed my face, and examined me this way and that.

“As expected, what?”

“Will I even have a match?”

The Eldest Brother spread my eyes open with his fingers and checked my gaze.

“……Isn't this demonic release?”

“…….”

“How much stronger did you get overnight to say you have no match? You'll have a match.”

“Is that so? Bring them. I'll have to slap their cheeks first before fighting.”

The Eldest Brother burst into laughter and grabbed my shoulder.

“You've worked hard.”

Looking around, I saw that a partition had been set up. While performing qi circulation, I had felt as if I was sitting atop the sea, but in reality, splashing water had pooled abundantly beneath my bottom.

“What is this? It's too much to be urine.”

“Your whole body repeatedly froze and melted, so you became filthy like this. If it were urine, that would really be something…….”

I looked at the Eldest Brother.

“Really be what?”

“The third is a bedwetter, the disciple is a pants-shitter. It's a piss-and-shit festival.”

“Hm.”

It seemed I wasn't the only one who had gained enlightenment. I'd never seen the Eldest Brother talk so much. Had he undergone qi deviation? Why had he become so chatty?

“Eldest Brother, are you alright? You don't seem to be in your right mind.”

“You stink, so go wash first.”

As I rose, I felt muscle pain throughout my body. While going to wash, I wondered if part of my madness had transferred to the Eldest Brother. Was madness a contagious disease? To be honest, even I felt that while my martial arts had certainly grown stronger, I didn't seem to have fully recovered from that contagion.

Because while washing alone in the well, I somehow felt that I had become more handsome than before. There were occasional cases where one's appearance gained radiance when martial arts reached great heights; could it be that I was like that?

“……Could it be?”

As I washed, I realized I had no clothes to change into. I called out to the workers with a voice infused with inner power.

“Please give me a set of clothes. To change into……can you hear me?”

Perhaps because it was morning, fortunately one worker brought some clothes. I wasn't in a position to be picky about whether they were good or not, so I put them on roughly. They fit my body well, but they were dirty enough to render my washing meaningless. It seemed the worker had brought clothes he'd taken off after wearing them for a long time at the construction site, thinking he couldn't wear them anymore.

After all, clothes are not important for a man.

But money was important, so I retrieved my money pouch from my clothes. When I came out to the construction site, the Eldest Brother was lying diagonally on a wooden bench with his eyes closed. It seemed he had stayed up all night, so I left him alone.

I placed the wooden sword behind the lying Eldest Brother.

I looked around at the workers, then left the Jaha Inn construction site with an axe over my shoulder. It was still early morning. While walking, I let my hair down a bit, pulled out my dirty top to hang outside, and rolled up my sleeves. I went the long way around and entered the Demon Cult's barracks construction site, which had grown considerably, and looked for any firewood to split.

Fortunately, I saw firewood someone had abandoned after splitting it the previous day, so I was able to find work.

From what I'd observed over the past few days, the barracks crew, unlike the Jaha Inn crew, had a habit of working until dawn and sleeping until noon. Moreover, it had already expanded under various merchant group banners. Since they hired workers from many places, there was no way to know exactly who was splitting the firewood.

More than anything, my clothes were dirtier than theirs.

Without much thought, I split some firewood with an axe at the Demon Cult's construction site, counted the number of barracks, and observed how they were being built. Moving in the opposite direction from the Jaha Inn and looking around, I saw that a truly large barracks was being constructed.

It looked like a Great General's military camp.

Opening the entrance and looking inside, workers were lying down asleep.

Just who was coming that they were setting up a military camp so grandly? Because I was hungry and sleepy, I entered a small empty barracks and went to sleep with the axe tucked in my clothes.

I intended not to get up until someone woke me to eat.

It seemed the Demon Cult had sent only workers first to secure the grounds, but because they had sent only workers, I was able to infiltrate smoothly.

Without any intention of killing anyone right away……I simply went to sleep.

I was actually curious about who was in charge on this side.

While taking a morning nap, this thought occurred to me.

Unless the Three Calamities arrived, no matter who came, it would be difficult to face me. This was neither arrogance nor confidence.

My current state and reality were simply like that.

Because I had perfectly obtained the Jaha Singong through Mallyugwijong and the Cheonok in the demonic release state.