Chapter 84: Crack After Crack
“It is demonic energy, but it is not from demonic arts.”
The energy emanating from Kang Yoohun was indeed demonic energy.
But not all demonic energy is generated through demonic arts.
“It’s demonic energy, but not from demonic arts? What is that, sothing like, I drank alcohol but I didn't drive the carriage?”
“Instructor Jang… no, let’s drop it. Divine Fist Beggar, now that this has beco a matter of the martial world, I will address you comfortably.”
The Association Leader flinched at the word ‘beggar’, but this was not the ti to be concerned about that.
“Divine Fist Beggar must have heard of it. The Magic Pill.”
“The Magic Pill!”
Those Demonic Cult bastards who wouldn’t be satisfying even if you ground them to death.
The Magic Pill was one of the ways the Demonic Cult increased its followers.
A dicinal pill that gradually taints the consur with demonic energy.
By the ti they co to their senses, they beco like Kang Yoohun is now and cannot stop taking the Magic Pill.
Around that ti, they stop giving the Magic Pill and instead recomnd demonic arts.
People who find it difficult to break free from demonic energy have no choice but to turn to demonic arts.
The Demonic Cult doesn’t even give them great demonic arts.
They usually hand over low-level demonic arts, use them as consumables, and then discard them.
In the end, they can never return.
“The fortunate thing is that it hasn't been long since he started taking the Magic Pill. This appearance is recent, right? Isn’t that so, Madam Hyeong?”
“Yes, yes! That's right!”
“Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to call for his mother.”
Kang Yoohun, with his acupoints subdued, was glaring at fiercely.
Receiving his gaze, I spoke to him quietly.
“I will bring you back.”
Beside , Madam Hyeong gasped, ah.
“Madam, can the family warriors be trusted?”
“Yes! They are all people who have protected the family for generations.”
“Just in case, Divine Fist Beggar, you stand guard as well. The detached building is sturdy enough to confine Kang Yoohun, so I will begin the treatnt here.”
“Hmm, I understand. I will protect you.”
Jang Gangcheon quickly stood firm in front of the detached building.
“By the way, Sword Hero.”
“What is it?”
“You are amazing. To distinguish between demonic arts and the Magic Pill, and even to drive out demonic energy. There was nothing like this in the rumors about you, Sword Hero.”
Well, that’s because my achievents were not at this level at this point in my original life.
“This Divine Fist Beggar is truly impressed.”
Jang Gangcheon made a fist salute.
His eyes were genuinely filled with respect.
“Thank you for thinking well of . But let's talk after the treatnt is over.”
He nodded.
I didn’t even pay attention to the Association Leader and imdiately took Kang Yoohun inside the detached building.
The lotus position is the best posture, but since the boy was acupointed while standing, I also stood behind him.
“You brat. I don't know how you ended up taking the Magic Pill, but it's going to hurt quite a bit. Driving out demonic energy is not easy.”
I slowly extended my palm and placed it on his back.
“But you have to co back. Even if it’s painful, shouldn’t you co back to your mother?”
Woooong-
The Eight Trigram Unity Technique arose.
And I led the energy of nature into Kang Yoohun's acupoints.
‘Hmm. Just as I thought.’
I felt a nauseating sweetness.
If the turbid energy was like a hazy fog.
The demonic energy feels like a sticky, dried residue.
It clings to a person’s pure energy, obstructs its flow, and also pollutes it.
Right now, it was clinging to my natural energy.
‘But this amount of demonic energy cannot stop .’
How could the Eight Trigram Unity Technique of the fifth stage lose to a few magic pills?
My inner energy advanced through his acupoints.
‘Hmm?’
Parrr-
For a mont, the demonic energy resisted.
For demonic energy that is not even being wielded by the person himself to resist like this.
‘It ans a Heart Demon has taken precedence.’
The demonic energy that enters a person with a Heart Demon settles in more easily. It can even react like demonic arts that were cultivated directly.
Of course, it’s not comparable to demonic arts, so there’s no problem in defeating it.
But if the Heart Demon doesn't disappear, he might fall into sothing like this again.
‘For now, let’s deal with the demonic energy first.’
There are priorities.
The Heart Demon cannot be dealt with from within the acupoints, so the demonic energy cos first.
Woooong-
The Eight Trigram Unity Technique pushed forward again.
A small resistance is useless.
Demonic energy residue is washed away, burned away, and blown away.
I infuse natural energy into every part of his eight extraordinary ridians.
Until it finally becos clear.
“Huuuu—”
I opened my eyes with a long exhale.
“……”
Inside the quiet detached building.
Before my eyes stood a boy who had returned to being a human, free from the beast.
I slowly walked past him and opened the door of the detached building.
Creeeak-
It was a small sound, but everyone reacted.
“Sword Hero, did you succeed?”
“Is it done?”
“Yoohun!”
I turned and released the boy’s acupoints.
Badeul, badeul.
His whole body is trembling.
It must have been an imnse pain.
Kang Yoohun, with his trembling body, walked forward.
The first words from his mouth were.
“M-mother…?”
“Yoohun!”
Madam Hyeong rushed forward, and Kang Yoohun collapsed into her arms.
“Mother!”
“Yes, yes!”
He's at most Yang Cheonjo's age.
Demonic energy.
It was too difficult an ordeal to endure.
Looking at Kang Yoohun in his mother’s arms, his impression had changed. With the demonic energy gone, his eyes drooped at the corners, making him look very gentle.
“Sword Hero. You have succeeded. Truly amazing!”
Jang Gangcheon ca to my side and continuously shook his clasped hands.
“The influence of the Magic Pill was not deep, so it was easy.”
“Easy? The fact that you could do this at all is an amazing feat. It’s not sothing that can be done just by having high martial arts.”
“Well, that is true.”
While we were talking, the Association Leader also approached.
“Instructor Jin. I am also in awe. First turbid energy, then demonic energy. I have never heard of such a thing in my life.”
“It’s not sothing one would normally hear about. But by the way, are you okay, Association Leader?”
At my question, she tilted her head.
“? Why? Are you worried I might have been surprised?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“You know, don’t you.”
I looked at her quietly.
Perfect control.
Perfect control over the Kaifeng noble family complex, especially the students.
Handangyudo’s turbid energy was sothing that had been there originally, but what about this Kang Yoohun now? To think that demonic energy had infiltrated a student of the complex.
Your world, is it okay, Association Leader?
“It’s okay.”
She understood too.
Her answer, after she understood, was unexpected.
“It’s okay?”
“Yes.”
“Even with sothing like this?”
“Because we just have to fix it.”
Fix it.
It ant she would nd this crack and strengthen the wall of control again.
“Yoohun was originally a student who did well at the academy. Now that the treatnt is over, he just has to return to the academy.”
As she spoke, she paused for a mont, and her jaw tensed.
“Then it will be fine. If he cos back from now on and learns well. Then everything will be back in its place—”
“I don’t want to!”
A sudden shout cut off the Association Leader’s words.
The montarily dazed Association Leader looked to where the shout had co from.
There was Kang Yoohun, who had been crying in Madam Hyeong’s arms, looking this way.
“I said I don’t want to! I’m not going back to the academy!”
“What are you talking about. Now that the demonic energy has been treated and you’ve regained your brilliant mind, why?”
“I—”
“Yoohun. Just a mont.”
Madam Hyeong raised her hand and stopped her son.
As if to protect her son, she pushed him back and stepped forward herself.
“The academy was made by adults, so this should be a conversation between adults.”
Between adults.
Madam Hyeong faced Madam Hahou directly.
“Madam Hahou. When you said you would co here, I answered that it would be good if you ca and saw for yourself. Do you rember?”
Madam Hahou also nodded.
I rember too.
I had thought Madam Hyeong would feel uncomfortable, but she had instead asked her to co, which was a little unexpected.
“There is a reason why I invited you, Madam.”
The words that Madam Hyeong continued were extrely calm.
“In the past, I always agreed whenever the academy’s education was strengthened. I thought it was for the good of the children.”
“Yes. We all thought so.”
“But. Was our previous thod wrong? It was a traditional thod of raising the children of prestigious families.”
“……”
“I don’t know if you know, Madam, but the more the education was strengthened, the more children appeared who were struggling.”
Madam Hyeong slightly turned her head and looked at her son.
“Among them was my son. And yet I…”
She shakes her head for a mont.
“I didn’t think of it as serious. When my child brought up that he was a failure, I just said he could do better. And so…”
A failure.
So that was the Heart Demon that made the demonic energy resist.
A son of a prestigious family, a boy who would have had no problems at all under a different curriculum, considered himself a failure.
If sothing had co along that would make him forget that feeling, he wouldn't have been able to refuse it.
Even if it was demonic energy.
Madam Hyeong raised her head, which she had been shaking, and looked up at the sky.
“By the ti I ca to my senses, my child had refused to go outside.”
“Ah.”
“That’s right. It wasn’t that he had returned after being away.”
Madam Hyeong lowered her head and looked straight at Madam Hahou. The truth flowed from her mouth.
“Yoohun has been here all along.”
Kang Yoohun existed.
He just wasn’t visible to people’s eyes.
Madam Hyeong brought out the truth, followed by the truth.
“The control of the Virtuous Mothers' Association, it is a failure, at least for my son and . We do not like it. We will not follow it anymore.”
It was a truth faithful to her own heart.
The academy, the inescapable net of education, the perfect control of the Virtuous Mothers' Association, whatever its na, it didn’t matter.
“I will also only send my child to the classes he wants to attend. If that’s not possible, it’s fine if he doesn’t go at all.”
Madam Hyeong had now clearly declared.
That she and her son would also beco a crack in the control of the Virtuous Mothers' Association.
Stumble, Madam Hahou was pushed back.
It was the first ti she had shown such a sign.
It must an that the blow was that significant.
“Most of the children are adapting well. Yes, we may have been insufficient in taking care of the struggling children, but our policy is not wrong. How much have the children learned within that policy? You know that, don’t you, Madam Hyeong?”
Even in her shaken state, Madam Hahou did not give up completely.
There are light and dark sides to everything.
Madam Hahou emphasized the bright side that her policy had brought. If the light was greater, then the policy could be maintained.
However.
“Forgive my impertinence in the middle of the adults’ conversation.”
Kang Yoohun interjected.
“I wasn’t the only one who was struggling.”
“What?”
Madam Hahou looked at him.
“I said I wasn’t the only one.”
Kang Yoohun opened his mouth.
“The physician at the dical Hall said so.”
“The dical Hall? The one at the academy?”
“Yes. The physician ca separately and gave a dicinal pill that calms the mind.”
Jang Gangcheon and I looked at each other.
So that's how the Magic Pill ca in.
Those Demonic Cult bastards, they didn’t infiltrate soone who had learned demonic arts into this place. They recruited those who didn’t know martial arts and sent them in.
Then even a martial artist wouldn’t be able to notice.
Kang Yoohun’s words continued.
“The physician said that there are many kids who co to the dical Hall just because they are tired. That there are many kids like . And that the other friends in the Jihak class have started taking this dicine too.”
“!”
I imdiately shouted.
“Association Leader! Please gather the children of the Jihak class at once!”
“At once? Th-that’s—”
The students of the Jihak class were supposed to be attending classes at the academy at this ti.
If all the students are pulled out of class and gathered now, a commotion cannot be avoided.
Then everyone will know.
That a crack that could neither be ignored nor nded had appeared in the Kaifeng noble family complex, which had been running quietly under her control.
“At once. And all of them. They must be gathered in one place!”
Will she accept?
Or will she interfere?
If she interferes, I will not shy away from subduing her.
Her choice was.
“Alright.”
Even though she must have been shaken, she made the right choice.
“The children are the most important thing, after all.”
She too was a mother.
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