Dok Man-chung was now lying on the floor with his eyes rolled back, foaming at the mouth, and unconscious. After asking him everything I needed to ask, I hit him a few tis, and he ended up like that.
It's just a sha that kids these days have no guts. In my day, even if their limbs were cut off and their eyeballs were plucked out, they wouldn't even bat an eye. The thrill of making those kids open their mouths was sothing else.
Oops, there goes one of my bad old habits again.
I found out that it had been three days since I was captured here by Dok Man-chung, that they were engaged in piracy, capturing people living in Hainan and using them as slaves, and that they were collecting money by running salt fields with those slaves and selling the salt, which was a state monopoly.
Beyond that, it seed there was a restriction in place, as Dok Man-chung died instantly when he tried to speak.
Anyway, things got a little twisted, but what I had to do remained unchanged.
To et the Sword Empress and get her to join the plan.
However, one more thing was added to the list of things to do.
I have to repay what I suffered before my regression.
A person may forget when they hit soone, but they rember for a lifeti when they are hit.
And if the Sword Empress was involved in what the Black Heaven was doing, it was safe to say that I was also involved.
Dok Man-chung had said with conviction that the Sword Empress would die.
But based on the future I knew, the Sword Empress would not die right now. In fact, the date of the Sword Empress's death was a long ti away.
Still, I couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling.
For now, I have to get out of this cramped prison.
Co to think of it, I just now wondered if the sailors were safe.
Then, I recalled a presence I had felt just before I fainted.
I had never thought that she would have followed . But her being there ant that the sailors were safe. As a bonus, Namgung Mu-gwang would also be safe.
If she, a master of the Profound Realm, were to hide her presence, there wouldn't be many people who could notice...
Why on earth did the Rakshasa Divine Maiden get on the ship?
I brushed myself off and got up to open the prison door. Then, the people inside all looked at with expectant eyes.
I had no intention of helping them and letting them out.
Not only was I not a saint who unconditionally helped others, but my disposition was closer to that of a villain. Also, hadn't they turned a blind eye when I was about to die?
However, I had no intention of taking revenge on them for what had just happened. Objectively speaking, if I had been in the sa situation as them, I would have prioritized myself over others.
It was just sothing that had happened because their respective interests had coincided.
It was then.
"What are you guys doing? Hurry up and get out! Now is the only ti to escape!"
At the kid's words, the people in the prison looked at and slowly got up. I just stood there watching them.
Then, as one person ca out of the prison and ran up the stairs, people ca out in a rush. The kid waited until they had all gone out, left the guard in the prison, and locked the door.
I knew the guard was dead, but the kid didn't. It must have been a precaution against a possible situation.
Even though he must have wanted to get out of this place quickly himself, I quite liked the way he handled the aftermath cleanly.
The kid approached and bowed his head deeply.
"Thank you, mister! Thanks to you, we were able to escape from prison."
Although it wasn't an action I had taken to save them, the result was the sa. Unlike the shaless adults who had gone up the stairs without even a word of thanks to , the kid was polite.
"If we et again, I will definitely repay your kindness."
I said.
"Whatever."
"Yes, I will definitely repay you."
The kid, who had bowed to once again, passed by . For so reason, the kid's footsteps seed light.
"Cough!"
At that mont, the kid suddenly coughed and vomited blood from his mouth.
He stopped walking and slowly turned around to look at .
His face, which had been flushed until just now, had turned pale in an instant.
"Hehe, I'm sorry. I don't think I'll be able to repay your kindness."
Thud.
The kid collapsed on the floor.
I quickly approached the kid and checked his pulse. Although I didn't know much about dicine, I could do the basics using the flow of qi.
And I looked at the kid with a surprised face.
The kid's great ridians were blocked.
Congenital blocked ridians.
And all nine of them were blocked, the Nine States Closed Death.
Qi flows in the human body, and recovery occurs as it circulates.
But this child's great ridians, the largest passages for qi flow, were blocked, so recovery was almost non-existent.
The more he breathes, the more fatigue accumulates in his body.
The accumulated fatigue eats away at the body.
At first, a light cold-like illness develops.
Then the illness gradually becos heavier, more vicious, and more cruel.
In the end, it even eats away at the mind and takes everything away.
That was the usual end for patients with blocked ridians.
However, there is an exception to this, which is when the blocked ridians are discovered early. If this blocked ridian can be overco, one can possess martial talent and intelligence that surpasses ordinary people.
Yang So-pyeong of the Sura Divine Cult was of that kind.
Unfortunately, the timing of this child's discovery was already too late.
If even one of the nine had been open, it might have been different, but all nine great ridians had already completely hardened.
Perhaps even the Demonic Doctor or the dicine Sage would not be able to save him.
If only I had t him a little earlier... five years... no! If only I had t the child at least a year earlier, there might have been a way...
Unfortunately, the child's life was up to here.
On the contrary, it could be said to be a miracle that he had survived to this age with blocked ridians.
I placed my hand on the child's death acupoint so that he could at least go peacefully on his last journey. It was at that mont when I was about to apply force.
"Hehe. Mister. Am I going to die?"
The child's body was a ball of fire. Nevertheless, the child had not lost consciousness.
Also, he must be feeling the pain of thousands of needles piercing his body right now, but the child was smiling.
Although he was young, it was truly an amazing ntal strength.
I answered calmly.
"Yes."
I didn't hide the truth.
"That's a sha. I wanted to live a little longer..."
Blocked ridians are called a curse from heaven.
So it is also called the Cursed Blood Heavenly ridian.
Throughout the history of the martial world, only a few who had the Cursed Blood Heavenly ridian had survived.
It was called a miracle.
Before my regression, I had t one of those who had perford that miracle.
It was just a chance eting and conversation in a carriage on my way back to the Heavenly Demon Cult from the Southern Man.
What was certain was that he had survived despite having the Cursed Blood Heavenly ridian, and he was even stronger than .
I couldn't hold back my curiosity and asked him how he had survived, and he answered with surprising purity.
Perhaps the thought that he was telling so that others like him would no longer suffer now crossed my mind.
-The world seems unfair, but in the end, if you look for it, it's fair. Heaven took away my great ridians, but it gave sothing new instead.
-We've t like this, so it's fate. Please explain it a little more easily.
-Haha! I can't explain it well either, but if I had to put it into words... yes! This would be the right way to say it. If one part of the body is weak, another part naturally becos stronger. I call this the Different Blood, Sa Movent.
Different Blood, Sa Movent.
The reason why the eting from that ti ca to mind at this mont was surely not a coincidence.
If what he said was true, then if there was sothing in this child's body that replaced the weakened great ridians, this child had a chance of survival. And perhaps that was the reason why this child had not lost consciousness.
"Do you want to live?"
I asked, and the child answered.
"To the point of death."
I asked again.
"What I'm about to do to you is sothing that could kill you. Will you still do it?"
The child answered again.
"Even if I roll in a dog-shit field, this life is better."
At the truth that pierced through life, I let out a chuckle.
"Alright, let's do it. What's your na?"
"It's Nam Ji-hyeok."
It seed that heaven had not yet abandoned this child.
The Hainan Sword Demon, Nam Ji-hyeok.
The Sword Demon who suddenly appeared in Hainan after the Sword Empress died.
He single-handedly wiped out the entire Hainan Sect and his na was listed among the ten great criminals of the martial world.
What was surprising about him was that he couldn't use internal energy at all.
At that ti, I heard this and thought that the Orthodox Faction guys were lying again, but now I was thinking that it might be possible.
There is only one thing in the body that can replace the great ridians.
The fine ridians.
If these fine ridians could be used like the great ridians...
'I can strengthen my whole body.'
This was a story on a different level from simply strengthening the body through the blood ridians.
It infuses power into each and every muscle, and furthermore, into each and every cell.
If divine power was a power given by heaven, this was a true power that a human had obtained by overcoming the threshold of death on their own.
However, if an ordinary person were to use the fine ridians like the great ridians, the slender fine ridians would be torn to shreds.
I guided the rampant energy in the child's body to the fine ridians.
From now on, everything depended on the child, not .
If he survives, a peerless master based on external skills will be born in the martial world.
***
It had already been over two weeks since Murong Seryeong had been staying at the Sword Pavilion. She was now swinging her sword in the training ground.
Slice!
A clear sound, as if it had not co from a sword, was heard.
The line drawn by the sword strike was beautiful and clean.
But Murong Seryeong's expression was distorted as if she were dissatisfied with sothing.
"This isn't it."
In the fleeting mont of the swing, her will had been scattered.
She had to refine her will more sharply.
Just then, her concentration was broken.
Murong Seryeong shifted her gaze to the entrance of the training ground. The Sword Empress, Ma Hae-ryeong, was standing there.
Murong Seryeong greeted the person who had dared to disturb her training with an endlessly bright expression.
The Sword Empress gave Murong Seryeong a faint smile.
"You're working hard today too."
"I still have a long way to go."
"The coast has been noisy recently. I'm thinking of taking a look around the coast today."
Murong Seryeong, who had been staying at the Sword Pavilion for a while, had co to know the situation in Hainan to so extent.
At the Sword Empress's worried words, Murong Seryeong knew that the pirates had attacked again.
In the past two weeks, the number of tis the pirates had attacked Hainan was already over ten, and each ti, the Sword Empress had gone out to the sea to subdue them.
All of this was not because soone had ordered it, but because the Sword Empress was doing it on her own.
Murong Seryeong sheathed her sword.
"I'll go with you this ti."
The Sword Empress refused Murong Seryeong's help.
"No. I just ca to see you for a mont before going to the coast."
The Sword Empress smiled at Murong Seryeong's sweat-soaked training uniform and continued.
"You're doing well. Then I'll be back."
This simple statent touched Murong Seryeong's heart more than any other words.
"Yes, please co back safely."
As she saw the Sword Empress off, Murong Seryeong added inwardly.
'Master.'
And on that day, the Sword Empress returned to the Sword Pavilion covered in blood, dozens of people on the nearby coast were killed, and so were even kidnapped.
This incident, as if soone had intended it, spread throughout Hainan in an instant, and in front of the Sword Pavilion, people who had lost their families and hos were protesting.
"Why did you make a promise you couldn't keep!"
"My son lost his life because of you! Take responsibility!"
"Sword Empress, explain this imdiately!"
"Give us compensation now!"
Murong Seryeong, who had been listening to all this quietly from inside, clenched her fists. Blood dripped from her hand.
Murong Seryeong quietly opened the door and went inside.
The Sword Empress was lying there, unconscious.
And the next day, the Hainan Sect announced a piece of news to all of Hainan.
[From now on, we, the Hainan Sect, will protect your safety!]
(End of Chapter)
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