CRD 14

Chapter 14 

Moyongbi stepped out of the Martial Pavilion and gazed at the eastern sky.

The pale sky was quite beautiful. For some reason, the sky here in Hubei looked better than in Liaoning.

“…If even the sky weren’t beautiful, it would be hard to endure this situation.”

Damn it, where should I even start?

“As expected, there’s nothing in the Martial Pavilion. The true techniques of my family weren’t passed down… I guessed as much.”

Seeing it firsthand only made his blood pressure rise. Oddly enough, since his body suffered from low blood pressure, his mind felt strangely clear.

“How on earth am I supposed to get through this mess?”

He paused to think, but there had to be a way.

Moyongbi took a deep breath.

“I’ll start with myself.”

The field administrator had been ruined and had even embezzled money, so the Black Tiger Gang must be quite busy.

That made it even more urgent to root them out quickly. Even if it was just Gahang, who knew how many lackeys were swarming the Black Tiger Gang’s main base?

There was no need to take a difficult route when the easy path was available. Living each day with an uneasy feeling didn’t suit his personality.

“Just wait a little, you black wildcats.”

Back at his quarters, Moyongbi stripped off his clothes and sat cross-legged.

He couldn’t tell how many times he had gone back and forth today, yet the place he saw for the first time already felt like his own room.

That brought him comfort.

“Let’s master the Thunder Gate Mind Technique calmly.”

When he first learned the Thunder Gate Mind Technique, he had only roughly practiced the Lesser Soul Method and then immediately moved on to the Second Method. He had to prove his usefulness just to avoid dying at the hands of a man he barely called “father.”

As a result, he suffered from madness twelve times a day, repeatedly smashing his forehead into the walls to calm his anger.

“Looking back, it’s a miracle I didn’t die, damn it.”

If he continued recklessly, he might become a “giant demon of a generation.”

“Let’s see.”

He calmly rested his hands on his chest.

The subcutaneous fat was so thin that his rib bones protruded.

“My body is in terrible shape. If I try to learn high-level divine techniques now, my eight extraordinary meridians might not hold, and I could drop dead. In that case…”

It was essential to nourish his body with basic techniques first. Just as the Lesser Soul Method had to be slowly cultivated like a rich broth, his body required the same careful preparation.

“Well, this is it.”

Moyongbi closed his eyes.

“Hunyuan Mind Technique.”

This was the second martial art he restored after completing the Thunder Gate Mind Technique.

The Hunyuan Mind Technique descended from the Hunyuan One Qi Gong, a divine skill of the Moyong family. Though considered a basic technique, it had considerable depth.

It was versatile and would not conflict when transitioning to other techniques later.

“Especially good for Sujeong.”

The Hunyuan Mind Technique was excellent at managing internal energy and consistently activating Yang Qi at the main acupoints, making it useful for healing. It was no wonder that Sujeong’s meridian recovered thanks to the advanced Hunyuan One Qi Gong.

Moyongbi chanted the hand seals of the Hunyuan Mind Technique and focused on his breathing.

In… out…

Only his breath could be heard in the quiet room.

After a short while, his breath began to deepen. The short, shallow breaths lengthened and became more profound.

Before, he could barely reach ten counts before running out of breath; after an hour, he could comfortably count twenty. Half a shijin later, he still wasn’t exhausted after counting fifty.

His lung capacity hadn’t increased—it was that his body had adapted to the breathing method of the Hunyuan Mind Technique.

“Good.”

Just mastering the breath left his whole body drenched in sweat.

“Next, inhale.”

With proper breathing in place, it was time to draw in external energy.

Moyongbi’s breaths became even deeper.

Whooosh…

The wind from the window brushed past his sweat-drenched body.

“Ugh!”

A sharp pain shot up from his dantian (elixir field).

“Descendant, how did it come to this?”

As he had sensed before, this body’s dantian had no proper form.

It was strange. Forming a dantian itself indicated the ability to control Qi with thought. If that were true, the dantian wouldn’t be so loose and distorted.

“Was it even possessed by a demon?”

Moyongbi clicked his tongue inwardly and directed the external energy into the dantian.

“I’ll have to erase it completely and make a new one.”

The moment the external energy gathered outside the dantian:

Vwoooosh!

“Gah!”

It felt as if a dagger pierced his lower abdomen.

When he tried to dismantle the distorted dantian, it instead forcibly absorbed the energy.

“What the hell?!”

Moyongbi hurried to draw the external energy back out.

But it wasn’t easy. The “vessel” had seemed worthless before, but once touched, it produced a terrifying attraction, drawing in Qi.

What shocked him most, however, wasn’t the force—it was the Qi itself.

“Qi!”

In martial arts, the dantian is the vessel that stores Qi.

It was a mixture of thought and Qi. Though it existed in reality, a normal person couldn’t see it just by looking at the abdomen.

It was the cradle of true Qi—a hidden but tangible source.

Yet the dantian in this body was no ordinary dantian.

“To be precise, it wasn’t a dantian at all.”

It was a distorted form of Qi that had gathered on its own.

Moyongbi was stunned.

Even with his world-class knowledge of martial arts and Qi, he had never encountered this before.

“How is this possible… Ah!”

He couldn’t help but exclaim.

“Idiot! There shouldn’t even be a dantian!”

If a dantian is a combination of thought and Qi, then in a body whose soul has died, the dantian cannot exist. The descendant’s soul, which connected to thought, had vanished.

To have a dantian after death, one’s martial arts level would have to be so supreme that the body could appear alive even after death, with willpower and Qi strong enough to sustain it.

Obviously, the descendant hadn’t reached such a level.

“How did I not notice?”

Even if his senses were dulled in the new body, confusing the dantian with Qi was impossible.

“Still… how can Qi accumulate if there’s no dantian? And not leak out?”

He probed the distorted dantian with his thoughts.

The more he examined, the more astonishing it became.

“Incredible density.”

A tiny, translucent, and distorted energy—but incredibly dense.

Fully released, it would be enough to rank as top-tier internal power.

Moreover…

“There’s Qi within the Qi…”

Inside the dantian-shaped Qi, there was yet another tiny fragment of Qi.

No wonder he had been mistaken for a dantian. Though distorted, it resembled a dantian, and inside, detached Qi had accumulated.

“What is this? How is this possible?”

There was no dantian, yet the Qi hadn’t leaked, and inside the Qi was yet another layer of Qi.

“And the nature of the Qi is remarkably pure…”

Focusing his mind on the dantian, Moyongbi made a decision.

“I’ll make it mine.”

The external energy’s absorbing force was strong, but it lacked thought. If so, he could claim it as his own.

“I need to create a large dantian to fully contain the dantian-shaped Qi.”

He chanted the Hunyuan Mind Technique, drew in external energy, and focused his mind.

Cold sweat ran down his body.

Forming a large dantian while controlling the incoming energy was difficult. And since this ownerless energy could go wild at any moment, time was critical.

But he was a former leader of the martial world.

Vwoooosh…

After a short while, a new dantian formed in his lower abdomen.

At that moment, the ownerless Qi inside violently filled the vessel. Once the vessel was safe, the Qi returned to its original form.

“Ugh!”

Moyongbi spat blood.

The surging Qi had shaken his dantian, causing internal injury.

“Damn it.”

Still, he had successfully formed the dantian and subdued the ownerless Qi in one attempt.

Yet his body was too weak to leave the Qi alone. He had only sealed it, and since it wasn’t his, it could go berserk anytime.

Moyongbi quickly chanted the hand seals, channeling his mind into the Qi.

The Qi surged through his acupoints, following his intense will.

“Ughhh!”

The dense Qi passing through his frail acupoints felt like a knife scraping against bone.

He endured and guided the Qi according to the Hunyuan Mind Technique.

Then an incredible thing happened.

Shshshsh…

A faint mist rose from his body.

The acupoints the Qi passed through were slightly damaged but immediately restored.

This was the unique healing power of the Hunyuan Mind Technique. Dense Qi, if the body could withstand it, could restore things to their original state.

Dense Qi, the Hunyuan Mind Technique, and Moyongbi’s extreme mental focus quickly restored his ravaged body.

Half a shijin later:

“Done!”

Nearly all damaged acupoints had recovered, and the ownerless Qi had transformed into Hunyuan True Qi.

“Hoo…”

He opened his eyes.

Sweat and toxins had been expelled, producing a foul odor. He had practiced in the nude for a reason.

Looking down at his chest, his expression became serious.

“What did you do?”

While converting the ownerless Qi into Hunyuan True Qi, he realized:

“How did it gather life force in one place?”

The “dantian-shaped Qi” the descendant had maintained was actually innate life energy, or Prenatal Qi.

Also called Yuan Qi, its density and quantity differ per person and determine lifespan.

“I see.”

Being Prenatal Qi, it hadn’t scattered or left the body. It wasn’t external energy—it was life force itself.

The descendant had somehow concentrated life force into the dantian shape, which had wrecked his body.

It made sense that external energy had been absorbed, just as upstream water flows downstream. Low-density external energy would naturally be drawn into the dense Prenatal Qi.

“I’ve heard Taoist practices have something similar.”

A familiar feeling lingered. He seemed to know of a method like this even before Taoist techniques.

He needed to investigate seriously: who the descendant had met, what they studied, and how they had resorted to such a method.

“Anyway.”

He rose from cross-legged meditation.

He felt light, energized by creating internal power, extracting impure energy, and healing his acupoints.

A smile involuntarily formed.

“Finally, it feels like a human body.”

With the foundation set, he could now properly train his body. Compared to his time as gang leader, the Qi was modest, but enough to accelerate bodily cultivation.

“Before hunting those wildcats, let’s fix Sujeong’s body first.”

Moyongbi washed up and headed straight to the family head’s room.

At that moment:

“Quick, bring Dr. Yang!”

“Sister! Wake up! Sister!”

Urgent voices.

Sensing something amiss, Moyongbi dashed into the room.

Seok-ung, Moyong Suhyang, and Gwak-no were there, all restless.

And beyond them, Moyong Sujeong lay motionless on the bed.

“Young master?!”

“Move!”

Pushing Seok-ung and Moyong Suhyang aside, Moyongbi checked Sujeong’s complexion.

“Damn!”

Her pale face had turned blue. The green mark on her forehead had doubled in intensity. Cold energy radiated from her, filling the room with a faint mist.

Her previously suppressed meridian disorder had worsened to a severe stage.

“What are you doing? Step back—!”

“Get Sujeong upright!”

Moyongbi’s fierce shout startled the three.

“What are you waiting for? Make her stand!”

“Y-Young master?”

“Idiot!”

He forcibly lifted her upper body, stabilized it with his own, and placed his hands on the Mingmen Acupoint.

Moyongbi’s face tensed.

“You’re not getting away either!”

Dense Hunyuan Qi began seeping through the Mingmen Acupoint.