Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 43

“What a waste, seriously!”

His energy was being sliced away bit by bit. He tried to save what he could, but most of it was unusable.

Like cutting away the good parts from a rotten radish, he was now trying to get the purest energy from the Snow Plum Pill. Anything that wasn’t perfect was forcefully pushed out of his body.

This was something almost no one would even think about doing.

Wasn’t an elixir supposed to make your inner strength better? But Chung Myung was getting rid of the elixir’s energy.

If the people who made the Snow Plum Pill saw this, they would be furious and attack him!

“Do you think I want to do this?”

That darn foundation!

Now that he had gathered only the purest energy in his dantian (a place inside the body where energy is stored), he couldn’t just increase his inner strength however he wanted. Even the super-pure energy of the elixir was like dirt to him.

The purest energy he carefully gathered from the ocean of energy was only a handful.

He grabbed the last bit of pure energy and pushed it into his dantian.

Woooooong!

The pure energy joined with Chung Myung’s energy, which had been resting in his dantian, and started flowing through his body.

Once around. Twice around.

Quickly, it went around twelve times. Chung Myung, who was sitting like a lotus flower, started floating in the air.

Chung Myung’s normal energy couldn’t do this, but because this energy was so pure, something amazing happened that was beyond his normal power.

Woooooong!

The clear, pure energy flowed through his body, cleaning out all the bad stuff in his flesh.

“This isn’t right?”

This wasn’t what Chung Myung wanted.

He only wanted to get his energy back with pure energy, but his energy was now healing his body without him telling it to.

His broken wrists were fixed right away. Bruises all over his body disappeared, like they were never there.

Drip, drip, drip.

Dirty liquid poured out of his body, soaking his clothes and dripping onto the floor. It wasn’t just the main energy points he knew were open; even the tiny pathways inside him were now stretching wider.

Chung Myung tilted his head back without thinking.

“Celes… Celestial Connection?”

His crown chakra (a point on the top of the head) was opening.

Lower dantian.

The energy that started from the dantian had burst open the middle dantian at his chest and was now opening the upper dantian.

He suddenly felt scared.

Everything in the world has its own pace. A child has to crawl first. If they try to run before their legs are strong enough, they will fall and hurt themselves, right?

Chung Myung felt like that child.

“I have to stop it…”

Energy that is out of control is dangerous. When energy loses control and hurts the body, it’s called Qi Deviation (losing control of your energy). This felt like the start of that. Even if it was helping his body now, no one knew what would happen in the end.

Chung Myung tried to block the energy, but the pure energy ignored him and kept going its own way.

“Damn it, listen to me! It’s my energy!”

Chung Myung shouted again. The energy hesitated for a moment. It seemed to realize who its master was.

But only for a moment. The energy started rushing again. Chung Myung gritted his teeth.

“I’ll stop it!”

Even if it hurt his body, he had to stop this energy now. Chung Myung focused all his will to control the energy.

— So, are you a Taoist or a martial artist?

“Sasuk?”

He heard his Sect Leader Sasuk’s voice in his head.

Sasuk’s voice?

No! This was something his Sasuk had told him before.

— Martial artists control and hold back. But those who follow the Dao (a way of living) let things happen naturally. Hey, you rascal. Does stopping things really solve anything? If you build a dam to stop water, the water will just go over the dam.

Chung Myung relaxed his body.

— Let it be. If you leave it alone, everything will flow as it should. Trying to change nature with your own will? Foolish fellow. Humans are also part of nature. How can there be no humans in this big world?

The energy that had been given permission rushed through his body. The inner strength, which had been wild and strong, now flowed smoothly like water.

It flowed inside his body. The stream grew bigger and bigger, becoming a river, flowing through the world that was Chung Myung.

How much time had passed?

Flash!

Chung Myung opened his eyes. A bright light shone from them.

And…

Thud!

“Ouch!”

Chung Myung, who had fallen from the air, grabbed his bottom.

“What? Why was I floating?”

He couldn’t believe he had been floating. Chung Myung rubbed his sore bottom and stood up.

“Hoo. I almost died.”

That was dangerous.

If he had made a mistake, he could have been paralyzed or died. Falling off the cliff was nothing compared to this.

But it was worth it.

“Hmm.”

Chung Myung shook his wrist. His broken wrist was completely healed. It felt even stronger than before.

And it wasn’t just his wrist.

“There were impurities left.”

Even though he thought he had cleaned his body completely, he could see more now that his power had grown. He shook off the last of the bad stuff in his body. When he got even stronger, he would see things he couldn’t see now.

But all of that was not the main thing. What had really changed were his meridians (energy pathways in the body).

It felt like his whole body was open.

There was no block from his head to his toes. Before, his blood vessels were like small paths on a mountain, but now they were like huge roads leading to a palace. It felt like horses could run and hawks could fly in his meridians.

“My inner energy has also increased.”

His inner strength grew as he healed his body. It usually took a long time to increase his inner strength even a little bit because he only gathered pure energy, so this was great.

“My natural energy is also back.”

So, to sum it all up.

“My vessel has grown.”

For Chung Myung, the body is a vessel for his martial arts. If the vessel is small, you can’t hold much. Because of the Snow Plum Pill, he had broken through a wall, and his vessel had clearly grown.

He was only a little stronger now, but this vessel would help him become even stronger than he was before.

Chung Myung smiled.

“I would have been in trouble without Sasuk’s teachings.”

Did he learn something while almost dying? Sasuk’s words, which used to sound like nagging, now made sense.

He realized something new.

“I was just a swordsman.”

Hwasan is both a sword sect and a Daoist sect. That’s what makes Hwasan special. But Chung Myung wasn’t sure if he could call himself a Taoist.

Could someone like Chung Myung really bring Hwasan back?

“Ummm.”

Chung Myung scratched his head. This kind of worry didn’t suit him.

Let’s just try it!

“If it doesn’t work out, oh well.”

Chung Myung walked to the chest. He was surprised that his body was moving faster than he expected, but he quickly got used to it because this was how he used to move.

Click.

Chung Myung took the boxes with the Snow Plum Pill and the Plum Blossom Pill from the chest and put them in his sleeve.

“Tsk. What a shame.”

These pills were no longer useful to him.

The Snow Plum Pill had helped him heal, but its energy didn’t really make his inner strength better.

Even if the elixir is very pure, it is still like dirt to Chung Myung’s powerful energy. The Violet Gold Pill might be a little better, but not much.

Of course, it would help a little. But it was a waste to use the Snow Plum Pill like that. Someone else could get much more from it.

“Tch.”

Chung Myung clicked his tongue. Things were getting complicated.

“Eh!”

He closed his eyes and thought hard.

Why hold onto something that was no longer his? He had already gotten benefits that were better than ten Snow Plum Pills.

“Being greedy leads to trouble. Chung Myung, only take what you need.”

Chung Myung turned around without looking back…

Scamper scamper!

“Hmm hmm! Hmm! Hmmm!”

Two or three bottles of alcohol in the chest wrapped around Chung Myung’s waist.

This wasn’t because he wanted to drink. He was just curious about what hundred-year-old alcohol would taste like.

Chung Myung, who had packed the alcohol and the box, stood at the cave entrance and looked back.

“I feel strange.”

It must be because he could still see the past here.

This cave was the only place that still looked like it did in the old days. Being here made him feel like he was back then.

He missed it.

And he missed it again.

Chung Myung stared at the cave, smiled, and turned away.

“I should visit sometimes.”

He wouldn’t drink and party like he used to, but it would be a good place to rest when he was feeling down.

“Well, I probably won’t come often anyway. The past is just the past.”

It was true that he was the Plum Blossom Sword Saint Chung Myung. But now he was not the Plum Blossom Sword Saint, but Hwasan’s Third Disciple Chung Myung.

If you’re stuck in the past, you can’t move forward.

The past is just a sign to show you the right way.

“Then.”

Chung Myung jumped out of the cave without regret.

Whoosh!

His lighter body allowed him to move in ways he couldn’t before.

He pushed off the cliff with his feet and went up, and up again.

“Heave-ho!”

He jumped almost ten feet in the air with each leap. Chung Myung quickly climbed the cliff and stood at the top.

“Not bad.”

He took a deep breath.

The fresh air filled his nose, and more than ever…

“Urgh!”

He felt sick.

Then he realized his clothes were covered in the dirty liquid that had come out of his body. Chung Myung frowned and shook his clothes.

“What is this coming out of my body!”

Chung Myung took off all his clothes, held them up with his fingertips, and sighed.

“Ha, really. Nothing goes right. Where’s the nearest stream?”

First, he had to wash these clothes before going back to Hwasan.

Chung Myung walked down the mountain.

That day, the animals that drank from the stream all got sick and groaned for days.