abcnovels
Chapter 82
Chapter 82
Chapter 82
After putting Jin Cheon-hee through hellish training far beyond the Dragon Phoenix Gathering, making him gain enlightenment, he collapsed when the tension finally released.
In the original work, he couldn’t leave his sickbed, but now he moves around normally and only confines himself when he gets tired.
‘Even so, the fact that he’s getting worse hasn’t changed.’
Thermal therapy, antibiotic treatment, forcibly infusing fire energy to replenish…
Fighting against fate is always overwhelming.
Jin Cheon-hee prepared to move on to the next stage to save his master.
After finishing preparations, he gave Yoo Ho a long explanation.
As he finished explaining, rain began to fall outside the main hall.
The scent of cold mud filled his nostrils. Jin Cheon-hee cupped the teacup with both hands.
Yoo Ho said:
“What the hell… are you talking about, young master?”
“I said I need the Profound Origin Five Elements Divine Pill. Don’t you understand? Should I explain again from the beginning…?”
“No, that’s not it. I’m asking why you need it.”
The Profound Origin Five Elements Divine Pill. The Zhuge family’s secret medicine.
Comparable to Shaolin’s Great Return Pill or Wudang’s Supreme Clarity Divine Pill, Zhuge Rin created it by further refining the existing Five Elements Divine Pill.
He made a total of 3 pills, one of which Zhuge Rin took himself.
Currently, 2 are being kept.
“But that’s the master’s life-saving medicine, isn’t it?”
That’s right. But like Five Elements Divine Pill, it’s just an emergency medicine that temporarily improves dizziness or paralysis in the moment, it doesn’t solve the fundamental problem.
“You know that even if he takes both of those pills, it won’t do any good.”
At Jin Cheon-hee’s words, killing intent rose from Yoo Ho’s body.
Grrr-
The teacup trembled.
Yoo Ho’s shadow split into three, four, five.
Jin Cheon-hee couldn’t breathe in the face of such horrifyingly dreadful killing intent.
‘Damn it, what the hell did this bastard learn?!’
Jin Cheon-hee circulated his inner energy to recover.
If he showed any sign of being suppressed here, that would become a weakness. He pretended to be as calm as possible and swallowed his tea.
He couldn’t taste the tea at all.
Eventually, Yoo Ho’s shadow returned to normal.
The killing intent also subsided as if it had never happened.
Yoo Ho grumbled:
“Even so, isn’t this too much? There’s nothing better than that for emergencies, the Profound Origin Five Elements Divine Pill isn’t some dog’s name.”
‘You almost killed someone just to grumble a bit?’
Jin Cheon-hee clicked his tongue inwardly.
Thinking that Yoo Ho, that bastard, was really trash. But also thinking that he should use what he could use since he was very useful.
“The White Dragon Divine Pill I made is actually more useful for Master’s illness.”
“…”
Yoo Ho fell into thought.
“Take it. After getting permission from the master, I’ll give it to you right away. Of course, he’ll unconditionally allow it since it’s your request, young master.”
This easily?
He thought there would be a fuss for a while, but the man accepted more readily than expected.
Yoo Ho asked again with an expressionless face:
“Is there anything else you need?”
“Guide me to the library.”
“Which library?”
“The innermost library where various secret manuals are gathered. Master said he made arrangements in advance, so there shouldn’t be any procedural issues.”
“…Understood.”
“You’re not saying anything?”
“You’ll do as you please anyway, won’t you? Besides, if you can’t fix this after all this, I can just kill you, young master.”
“There’s that threat again.”
Jin Cheon-hee smirked.
“I’ll take that as you trusting me, Yoo Ho.”
“Don’t you need companions when you go to catch the Ten-Thousand Fire Carp? There’s Phantom Archer or the Martial Force Hall Master, or myself.”
The Ten-Thousand Fire Carp.
It’s a carp that has lived in sulfuric hot springs for a thousand years, absorbing the energy of fire.
It’s an essential ingredient for treating Master.
Jin Cheon-hee shook his head.
“Due to the nature of the Ten-Thousand Fire Carp, only someone who has mastered the Five-Elemental Divine Technique is needed. Unless you’ve properly mastered fire energy, earth energy, and ice energy, it’s impossible to catch it without getting injured.”
“You mean any number of people would be a hindrance?”
“Yeah. Someone who has properly mastered the Five-Elemental Divine Technique needs to go. Or someone who has mastered the Demonic Cult’s Heaven and Earth Unity Technique or Yin-Yang Taiji True Qi.”
The reason the Ten-Thousand Fire Carp hasn’t been discovered until now is because of the energy it emits and the place where it lives.
Not only is it not easy to get there safely, but it’s also a problem to kill it without injury, and after killing it without injury, you need to protect it with earth energy to prevent the loss of fire energy while bringing it back.
To do that, the martial arts listed above are greatly needed.
“You mean you’ll go after your closed-door training, right?”
“Of course, it’s a secret from Master.”
“Hah, if he knew, he’d confine you. He’s the kind of person who would rush back from the Alliance of Martial Artists with just one letter about you.”
“Yeah. He’d stop me even if it meant putting shackles on my ankles.”
“Huhuhu, he was already getting Ten-Thousand Cold Iron. Judging by how he was eyeing your ankle size, it’ll be completed soon.”
“Come on, that joke is too much.”
Jin Cheon-hee grumbled. Yoo Ho said:
“You don’t believe me? Anyway, I understand. You want me to only tell the master about your closed-door training, right?”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
“Why are you telling me all about such a plan instead of hiding it from me too?”
“There are two reasons. First, if I didn’t tell you this, you would never have given up the Profound Origin Five Elements Divine Pill. And second.”
The boy took a sip of tea and continued.
“Master’s lifespan is more important to you than someone like me, right? So you’d want to save Master even if it means sacrificing my life.”
“…”
Yoo Ho didn’t answer. Eventually, he smiled his usual smile.
“He’ll be reluctant to give up the Profound Origin Five Elements Divine Pill. It would be a loss if you ate it and then died.”
“Make up for it with the White Dragon Divine Pill. Then can you prepare it by tomorrow?”
“There’s no need for that. I’ll prepare it right away.”
Seeing that vicious smile makes cold sweat form on my back.
***
The library was opened.
The Zhuge family is famous for being strategists, and strategies come from books.
The library where secret manuals are gathered could be said to be the core of the Zhuge family.
It’s a place all martial artists and strategists want to visit at least once. It’s said that all the world’s rare ancient books are gathered there.
Jin Cheon-hee gained the authority to go to the deepest part of that place.
In other words, she had the same authority as the family head.
However, the place Jin Cheon-hee headed to was the general library that anyone with even a slight connection to the Zhuge family could access.
“The secret manuals here are just miscellaneous techniques that can be bought in the market. Why bother…?”
Yoo Ho asked, puzzled.
Jin Cheon-hee didn’t answer.
‘Even if I say I need it because I know the future, he won’t believe me. And if he does believe me, that’s a problem in itself.’
There’s no better puppet than a child who knows the future.
Jin Cheon-hee didn’t want to be treated like a crazy person or used as a puppet, so he just shut up and smiled.
As he lowered his eyelashes and smiled gently, passing doctors blushed.
His charming appearance, enhanced to perfection by mastering the Five-Elemental Divine Technique, shines here.
However, only Yoo Ho makes an expression of utter disgust, as if looking at a bug.
“Do you want to die, young master?”
“Oh? A death threat even though I smiled at you. You’ve grown a lot, Yoo Ho.”
“It’s amazing. I got goosebumps because that was supposed to be a smiling expression…”
Let’s stop talking with this bastard.
Jin Cheon-hee clicked his tongue and scanned the bookshelves one by one.
As expected of the Zhuge family, even the miscellaneous books in the corners were properly organized according to the table of contents.
After running his finger along the book spines for a while, his hand stopped at just one spot.
“Do you need the secret manual for the Rolling Dog Technique?”
The Rolling Dog Technique.
It’s a technique for evading by rolling on the ground. It’s considered shameful because the appearance is said to resemble a dog rolling.
It’s the most trivial appearance that any martial artist should avoid.
Jin Cheon-hee said:
“Yeah. I really need it. Really!”
Thenshe picked up a couple more books.
One of them is an erotic book so obscene it would make one blush.
“…This can only be borrowed by adults, young master.”
Jin Cheon-hee replied nonchalantly.
“My mind is that of an adult.”
Yoo Ho sighed. As expected, he knew he wouldn’t believe him.
“Yes, yes~ Then I’ll lend it to you as if you were.”
He picked up a few more books like that and came out.
All of them were closer to miscellaneous technique books rather than martial arts manuals.
Then, after packing only the minimum necessary luggage, he headed to the closed-door training room without looking back.
“Don’t open it until the time comes, no matter what.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t open it even if you beg me to.”
Jin Cheon-hee nodded.
“Good, that’s the attitude.”
Then he went inside.
The coldness of the chilly cave walls seeped into the soles of his feet.
The door closed behind Jin Cheon-hee.
Bang!
The firmly closed door was so solid that even Jin Cheon-hee himself couldn’t open it.
“Closed-door training begins.”
For some reason, his heart was pounding.
‘That’s right. The flower of the martial arts world is closed-door training.’
The fact that he was doing it himself made him strangely happy.
If Yoo Ho had heard, he would have clicked his tongue saying there’s no crazier fool than this, but Jin Cheon-hee was excited.
‘Being locked up like this and just training! And getting stronger!’
The combat power of martial arts novel protagonists could be divided into before and after closed-door training.
Regardless of what others might say, Jin Cheon-hee was happy.
***
Closed-door training. It is the flower of martial arts novels.
The protagonist becomes stronger through closed-door training and advances to a higher level. A period where you can’t meet people and have to train half-crazed.
Refining your inner self while looking at the wall, and refining your body through daily training.
It’s a period where these two aspects combine to refine martial arts.
There’s no set time period.
Some protagonists spend as short as a few months, while others spend decades.
The important thing is becoming strong enough to be satisfied.
The closed-door training room was no different from what she had seen in novels.
Inside the vast cave chamber, there were wooden dummies and various weapons stuck in for training, and simple bedding and fasting pills to take care of eating and sleeping.
There was a hole in the impossibly high cave ceiling where light came in.
Night-luminous pearls were also embedded in the ceiling so that one could practice qi circulation regardless of day or night.
There was a pond inside the cave, and it was very clear as if groundwater was welling up.
Unknown fish were swimming in it, so they could be taken out and eaten whenever needed.
It was literally a space created so that one could practice without being disturbed by anyone.
Days of idyllic closed-door training continued.
Today too, Jin Cheon-hee started doing squats with a huge bronze Zhuge Kongming statue on his shoulders.
Its official name was the Bronze Sleeping Dragon Statue.
“Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, a hundreeeed!”
Thud!
He put down the huge bronze Sleeping Dragon statue and counted with his hands how many sets he had done.
‘I’m probably the only person who uses the Sleeping Dragon statue like this.’
Originally, it seemed to be something the ancestors had brought for meditation and mental cultivation.
There were traces of incense being burned in front of it, as if someone from a previous generation had used it.
Jin Cheon-hee was using it like a barbell in a gym.
If the deceased Zhuge Liang had seen this, he would have risen from his grave weeping tears of blood.
“No. The size and weight are just right, so maybe this was also arranged for this purpose. Yes, yes, it’s too well-balanced to be used just for meditation.”
Jin Cheon-hee hypnotized himself that he was not disrespecting the ancestors at all, but following their arrangements. When he thought about it that way, it seemed to make sense.
“Well, I’ve rested, so let’s start again!”