Seojun closed his eyes, resting a hand over the cauldron, then spread his qi sense. The scene inside unfolded vividly in his mind, almost tangible.
The Five Elents Formation was already mapped out in his head. All he had to do was guide the qi within the pill using his own inner qi and trace the formation—that would be the end of it.
Normally, one would need to match the ti intervals precisely. But Seojun didn’t even bother.
The reason for matching ti intervals was simple:
If the circulation cycle of the Five Elents Formation wasn’t followed, the flow would be disrupted, leading to a completely different outco. But that only mattered for people who couldn’t control the flow directly.
It was just that not many humans were capable of that. That’s why most had to follow the ti intervals.
However, Seojun was an exception.
Ignoring the usual timing constraints, he traced the Five Elents Formation effortlessly, making his progress incomparably faster than others.
This is easy.
A small smirk tugged at the corners of his lips.
*Namgung Youngbo watched Seojun for a mont before losing interest.
Sure, the Young Master could create divine-level martial arts from thin air, but that didn’t an he’d have any success in alchemy.
Still, he had hoped that a fresh perspective on alchemy might spark so insight—maybe a simple “Shouldn’t you do it this way?” would lead to an “Oh? This might actually work!” kind of realization.
After all, martial arts and alchemy didn’t share much beyond handling qi.
I should just finish what I was doing.
Just as he was about to leave, he caught sight of the two won’s expressions.
Namgung Suah looked full of hopeful anticipation. anwhile, the woman nad Chunbong, was watching the Young Master with a blank expression.
The contrast was amusing enough that Namgung Youngbo stopped in his tracks.
Hmm. Since I’m already here, should I take a short break and watch?
Falling instantly to the temptation of the demon, he sat down on the floor.
It’s not like a day or two will make much difference. A short rest should be fine.
Of course, others couldn’t afford such luxuries, but he was the Hall Master. If they had complaints, they could beco Hall Master themselves.
His conscience, in the form of lingering impatience, tried to nag at him, but he was too exhausted to care.
A well-earned rest after so long...
His expression softened considerably.
*Chunbong continued to stare at Seojun blankly.
She didn’t know much about alchemy, so she had no idea what any of this was supposed to an.
Yet one thing was certain.
It involves controlling qi?
Then there was no need to question the result. She could declare it with certainty.
If it wasn’t sothing completely beyond his level, there was nothing her big brother couldn’t do with qi.
This was Lee Seojun—the man who had been playing cat’s cradle with inner qi since the Peak Realm.
The alchemy thod was too complex? Well, as long as it didn’t involve manipulating nature qi, it would be more surprising if he couldn’t do it.
And then—
“Oh, done.”
Seojun, eyes still closed, lifted his hand from the cauldron.
Namgung Youngbo, who had been watching from the floor, let out a hollow laugh.
Even geniuses have their limits, huh...
He hadn’t expected much, but he had hoped, just a little. The disappointnt left a bitter taste in his mouth.
“It’s not easy, is it?”
“Uh... yeah. Well...”
“It’s natural you couldn’t do it. Alchemy’s a completely different field from martial arts.”
Namgung Youngbo dusted off his robes and stood, approaching the cauldron.
He had already prepared a few polite words since Seojun was the Young Master of the clan.
“Oh, even getting this far is.. Huh?”
Inside the cauldron, the dicinal ingredients had solidified evenly. Their volu was gradually shrinking, condensing into several distinct lumps.
Namgung Youngbo swallowed hard.
“I-Impressive. For the ingredients to naturally clump together like a pill... that ans the finishing process was done cleanly... Hmm...”
Wait. What is this? Why did it look so clean?
As if...
As if it had actually succeeded.
Faced with a completely unexpected situation, Namgung Youngbo’s thoughts tangled.
No way... It couldn’t have...
Alchemy required absolute precision.
For a spirit pill like the Heaven-Man Divine Pill, even a single second of miscalculation would render the entire process useless.
In the Young Master’s case, the timing had been far too short. It was only about one-tenth of the usual ti. No matter how skilled soone was, creating a proper spirit pill in such a drastically reduced tifra should have been impossible.
Had he just... cleanly finished the final step?
Namgung Youngbo picked up the pill, staring at it blankly.
A smooth sphere.
Bringing it closer, he took a sniff. The scent was balanced, harmonious.
It wasn’t too soft or too hard. Most strikingly, a faint blue glow shimred across its surface, smoothly connected.
Exactly like the Heaven-Man Divine Pill that Namgung Youngbo had envisioned.
“Huh?”
His hand trembled.
With an urgent motion, he split the pill in two.
The interior was uniform. There were no irregularities or lumps. And the qi that spread from the broken pill was so delicate and precise that it sent chills down his spine.
“Huhhh...?”
Namgung Youngbo turned to Seojun with trembling eyes.
Seojun, in contrast, simply looked confused.
“Is sothing wrong?”
“...Is this... the Heaven-Man Divine Pill...?”
“The Heaven-Man Divine Pill? Wasn’t that the formula we were making?”
“Wha...?”
“Huh?”
“Uh, uhh...”
“Excuse ...?”
Namgung Youngbo stood frozen.
Seojun, growing increasingly concerned, started to wonder if the man had finally snapped from overwork
That... wasn’t entirely wrong.
“Kyaaaaaah...!!!”
Namgung Youngbo suddenly scread and began jumping up and down.
Yang Songbaek, who had been observing from the side, beca terrified.
“W-Wait, Hall Master! Even if you pretend to be crazy, you still can’t skip work!”
“Vacation...!!!”
“Even if you actually go crazy, you still can’t!”
“What are you all doing?! Pack up! It’s vacation ti!”
“This is serious...”
A mont later, Yang Songbaek also started jumping alongside him.
“Va-Vacation...!!”
And soon enough, the entire Heavenly dicine Hall was jumping in celebration and happiness.
“Va-Vacation...! Vacation...!!”
“Is this real...?”
“Vacation...!!”
Watching them, Seojun’s expression twisted strangely.
“...Big sis, they’re not actually being treated like slaves, right?”
“I don’t think so...?”
If they were, even freed slaves wouldn’t celebrate this much...
Seojun seriously worried about their well-being.
*The liberated slave, Namgung Youngbo, shouted.
“I love you, Young Master!”
“...I like won, though?”
“That’s fine with !”
“No, what—what the hell are you saying?”
Seojun was montarily startled, but Namgung Youngbo just kept grinning from ear to ear.
“Hahaha! I believed in you from the start! I should’ve asked for your help sooner! But Yang Songbaek kept insisting it was impossible!”
“Haha! That’s right, Hall Master! This all seems to be my fault!”
“Exactly, exactly! Hahaha!”
Seojun, still staring at them blankly, spoke.
“...But isn’t the situation exactly the sa? The formula hasn’t actually changed.”
Silence.
The cheering stopped instantly.
Have you ever witnessed humans denying reality after having every last shred of hope ripped away before their eyes?
Seojun felt like he could answer that question now.
The way they exchanged vacant glances, their bloodshot eyes devoid of words, was unsettling.
Even the great Seojun couldn’t help but feel a bit of sympathy.
He quickly added,
“I think the formula can also be simplified.”
That day, Seojun beca a god.
*The alchemy process for the Heaven-Man Divine Pill was similar to sorcery.
While binding the ingredients together, one had to use inner qi to etch a Five Elents Formation within the pill itself.
The problem was that the Five Elents Formation was absurdly complex. Positioning and harmonizing the energies drawn from the ingredients into their respective positions was nearly impossible for a human.
On top of that, if the formation wasn’t inscribed at precise intervals, the entire flow would collapse, leading to a completely different outco.
For Seojun, controlling the flow itself was second nature, so it wasn’t an issue. But that wasn’t the case for most people.
So, Seojun simplified the entire process.
He left the Five Elents arrangent intact but optimized the qi flow connecting them.
Timing was still crucial, but with the streamlined process, alchemy beca far more manageable.
That said, the difficulty remained high enough that even Namgung Youngbo couldn’t guarantee success every ti.
“Why can’t they do this?”
Seojun was genuinely curious, but that didn’t solve anything.
In the end, he drew from past experiences to create a martial art.
The Heaven-Man Divine Pill Art.
He barely thought about the na. That wasn’t the important part anyway.
Inspired by the Thirteen Lightning Flashes he had previously created, this new martial art allowed practitioners to construct the Five Elents Formation inside the pill by simply following pre-set movents without too much thinking.
One week after handing over the secret manual with the sutra and explanations to Namgung Youngbo.
A smiling Namgung Youngbo ca to find Seojun.
“Hahaha! I’ve succeeded, Young Master!”
“Oh? So it’s vacation ti now?”
“Hehehe...! That’s right! I plan to not leave my house for months!”
Overco with excitent, Namgung Youngbo’s lips twitched as he continued.
“This is a massive achievent, Young Master! I’ve already inford the Clan Head, so there will be a reward. Most importantly, you’ll be the first to receive the Heaven-Man Divine Pill!”
“Ah, right. By the way, you said the ingredients weren’t that rare, right? Does that an it can be mass-produced now?”
“Not quite! While the ingredients themselves aren’t extrely rare, it takes over seven years to process and treat them with dicinal products before use. So mass production is still a ways off.”
Fortunately, since there was already quite a lot of already processed ingredients remaining, they could start producing pills imdiately.
Once that was done, he would finally be free.
Finally...!
For ten long years, what had started as his own boasting had spiraled out of control, growing bigger and bigger.
It was Namgung Youngbo’s own karma, but now that everything was resolved, he felt weightless. It was like his body might float right into the sky, carried by an enormous sense of liberation.
“From now on, it’s vacation! But if you ever need , please call anyti...! If the Young Master calls, I’ll co running... even if I’m in the middle of bathing, stark naked...!”
“No, I’d really prefer if you ca dressed.”
“Then I’ll quickly dress and rush over...!”
Namgung Youngbo truly looked like he’d dive headfirst into a fire pit if Seojun wanted him to.
Smiling at the sight, Seojun suddenly thought of sothing and asked,
“About the Heaven-Man Divine Pill... can I make it myself?”
“Of course! If it’s not too much trouble for you, Young Master, by all ans!”
“Really?”
“Yes! I’ll inform you as soon as everything is ready!”
It seed his idea might actually be possible.
Twisting the Five Elents of the Heaven-Man Divine Pill to go against the natural order. That is, the Reverse Five Elents and Heaven Defiance.
If he were to na a spirit pill created that way, it might be sothing like the Heaven-Man Demonic Pill. Or perhaps the Heaven Demon Divine Pill.
If it worked as he envisioned... he might be able to use the Heaven-Defying Sun-Moon Reinforced Qi with ease, even under normal circumstances.
And beyond that—the possibility of a realm beyond the Transcendent Realm. The Unrestrained Realm, the Supre Demonic Realm... or sothing entirely new. A realm yet to be defined. This could be the first step towards reaching an unprecedented realm...
Seojun’s mind raced.
*Inside the Clan Head’s hall of the Namgung Clan.
A man glared at Namgung Jincheon with cold, sharp eyes.
Namgung Jincheon, unfazed by the piercing gaze, remained silent.
The man’s expression twisted as he shouted,
“Clan Head...! Do my words sound like nonsense? This disregards the very history of the Namgung Clan! It could even cast doubt on the legitimacy of the successor! How could you act unilaterally on such a matter!”
“Great Uncle, does that truly matter...?”
The man was Namgung Jincheon’s paternal great uncle—his grandfather’s brother. In other words, Namgung Jincheon’s granduncle.
Namgung Hyeok simply couldn’t understand the situation.
The Sword Form of the Emperor—sothing even he had failed to master. It would be shocking enough if a direct descendant, one who wasn’t the successor, had learned it. But to teach it to an outsider?
One couldn’t commit such an act unless they were insane.
“Then what is important!?”
“Family... My family... Are you saying that a re martial art holds more weight than family...?”
“Family? Yes, of course, family is important! But that and the Sword Form of the Emperor are entirely separate matters! And you know it!”
“I have no interest in continuing this debate. But let be clear—there will be no interference with my family...”
“Clan Head!”
Namgung Hyeok shot to his feet, slamming his foot against the floor.
“Then what of , Namgung Hyeok? Am I not part of the Clan Head’s family? No, perhaps not. We’ve barely seen each other over the years, so I suppose there’s little to say on that. But a warning? To your own great uncle? What, do you intend to cut off my head if I dare lay a hand on your family?”
“If necessary...”
“My goodness...!”
Namgung Hyeok clenched his eyes shut, then opened them again, glaring at Namgung Jincheon.
“This will be my last warning. A son-in-law is, in the end, an outsider. Mark my words—you will regret this.”
“That won’t happen...”
Namgung Jincheon’s lips curled into a faint smile.
“My son-in-law’s contributions are no less significant than the Sword Form of the Emperor... Especially when considering the future...”
In terms of justification, it was more than sufficient.
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