I Am This Murim’s Crazy Bitch - Chapter 214: Let Us Have A Martial Arts Match (12)
Qing returned to the Wucheon Pavilion and set Instant Flash Step and Flowing Willow Soft Refinement to One Star.
Shadowless Divine Hand was already at Six Stars, and there was no need to waste Practice Points on properly learning the Inner Qi Cultivation Technique.
Originally, according to her nature, she would have first reached great completion in the internal cultivation technique that gets better the more you have, and poured all remaining Practice Points into Qinggong.
But lately, not having cut down any evil people, her Practice Points were at rock bottom.
The Practice Points gained from pure training were tiny, and even then they only meaningfully increased the training level of that martial art, while Free Practice Points were just a bonus.
So Qing thought she had to be very careful in distributing the few remaining Practice Points.
Originally, when people have abundant money, they spend freely, but when their purse empties, they agonize over even one copper coin difference.
Just because there are a few more pieces of meat, the soup costs three more coins? Is it necessary to eat that much? Should I get one more dumpling instead?
Isn’t it like that?
Anyway, even reaching One Star is enough for the martial art’s formula to completely invade and occupy her mind.It was enough to show off to Cheon Yuhak that his disciple was such an excellent disciple.
By then, it was already late at night.
She had chatted with Cheon Yuhak until late, so it was closer to two rascals giggling together than learning, and she had just received martial arts manuals.
“Train with the Shijiang Scholar for a while.”
“Then, won’t you be lonely, Master?”
“Lonely? An old person who has lived long doesn’t have just one or two acquaintances. How could I have nothing to do? Even though that Cheon guy pretends to be vulgar, originally a Hanlin Academy scholar is said to have read at least a thousand cartloads of books, a giant among giants. This is a chance for my disciple to build up some scholarship too.”
“Scholarship? Does a martial artist need scholarship on top of being good with a sword? Hmm. But I want to eat scholarship.”
“…? That appetite of yours.”
Ximen Surin chuckled and said:
“This much is enough for evening greetings, so you may withdraw now, disciple.”
Then Qing hesitated as if she had something to say, not withdrawing and just looking around.
“Hmm? What’s wrong? Go to sleep quickly.”
“Master, you know.”
“There might be something, but. Yes. What is it?”
“Um, perhaps. Could I, sleep together with Master today…”
“Hm?”
Ximen Surin’s eyebrow raised a level.
Wasn’t this a truly unseemly and ugly thing for a grown disciple to say?
Then, watching Qing fidgeting and looking around, she suddenly realized.
My foolish disciple has fallen into inner demons!
When the mind and body feel empty and loneliness builds up, it’s a yearning for human warmth.
It’s also an inner demon experienced by drifters who have lost their roots and have nowhere to return to.
But how? Could it be that the Divine Maiden Sect failed to be a warm home for her disciple?
And then Ximen Surin had a past to reflect on.
How did she treat her just last winter?
She thought she was fine because the foolish thing always went around smiling.
If we had to classify it, it’s not exactly a dangerously severe type of inner demon.
However, if the inner demon isn’t properly resolved, in the end she’ll stand at a crossroads of extremes between attachment and detachment.
Either becoming a stupid good person like a dog wagging its tail at anyone regardless of right and wrong, good and evil.
Or becoming a cold-blooded person with an icy face and no interest in others at all.
Ximen Surin deliberately smiled kindly.
“Yes. This old person was just feeling empty too, so this is good. Come here. Let me hug my pretty disciple.”
“Hehe…”
Qing giggled like a child and, as she always did, pulled down her sleeping robe leaving it like a shed skin, and crawled into the bed.
Veins bulged on Ximen Surin’s forehead.
This damn girl still hasn’t fixed her shameless habit of stripping completely naked and lying down in such an indecent manner!
But she’s hungry for affection and fallen into inner demons, and it happens to be like this, so my heart softens.
Ximen Surin seriously considered whether to punish her or not, clenching and unclenching her fist.
In that time, she missed the appropriate moment, so Ximen Surin finally just sighed deeply and tightly hugged her disciple who was burrowing into her arms.
—-
She had breakfast with Ximen Surin.
Surprisingly, she didn’t say much even after seeing her rude behavior of wielding utensils at the table, because Ximen Surin had already heard about the sword hand training.
She thought that although it looked bad, her enthusiasm was commendable for bringing martial arts training into daily life.
Anyway, as long as she didn’t do it in front of others, it was fine, and Ximen Surin, who always emphasized behaving like a beauty, thought it was an idea she couldn’t have come up with herself, so she was impressed.
Of course, after getting severely cut once, Qing had become quite careful and wasn’t so reckless anymore.
And right after eating breakfast, she headed to the bath, because that’s what Cheon Yuhak had said last night.
So as soon as she entered the bath, the air was stuffy and acrid, with a terrible rotten smell that stung her nose so badly her eyes watered.
“Ugh, Master, what did you do to the bath?”
“External techniques are originally this nasty. How could softening the human body be an ordinary thing? It’s all drug effects. Here. That’s the medicinal bath I prepared for my disciple.”
Cheon Yuhak spoke with a stuffy voice.
Indeed, he had stuffed cloth into his nostrils and even clipped his nose bridge, so of course his voice was stuffy.
Qing turned her head following Cheon Yuhak’s finger, and there was a medicinal bath with disgustingly green smoke billowing up.
“Uh, you want me to go in there? That color looks like it shouldn’t exist in this world.”
The smoke was green, but the water was a reddish color with a slight purple tint.
“That level is paradise. Do you know Iron Sand Palm? It’s the most famous external technique in the world.”
Iron Sand Palm was also famous for its training of shoving hands into hot iron sand.
At the ultimate level, the hands become as indestructible as vajra, and the blackened hands are said to be coated with iron poison.
“Do you think external technique training is like sitting and circulating qi like studying? Usually you have to shed blood, sweat, and tears. Even external technique training is ultimately a combination of four methods.”
External technique training methods include overwork.
Partially destroying the body.
And there was torture.
Hitting, beating, burning, it was no different from torture except that the desired result was for the person being tortured, not the torturer.
And poison and medicine, making four.
“So just getting into the medicinal bath and enduring is paradise among external technique training.”
“If I go in there, I think I’ll really go to paradise. Besides, isn’t that boiling right now? Are you trying to make me into boiled meat?”
“That’s not boiling from heat, it’s because there are so many medicinal ingredients. The temperature is just right, so if you soak in it, whew. I used to soak a lot for training when I was young, it’ll feel sticky and squishy, like you’re buried in a sewer.”
Cheon Yuhak didn’t even try to hide his sneer and laughed out loud.
“You’ll know when you get in. Starting with that damn texture, and the smell, ugh, it makes you want to curse. There’s not a single clean spot anywhere. If you feel wronged, you can do it to your disciple later when you take one in.”
“That’s a complete inheritance of hatred.”
“Yes, that’s exactly the affection between thieves. But, have you memorized the formula for the Awakening Divine Art? The Venerable One said one night would be more than enough to learn it.”
“You just need to do True Qi Daoyin once for me.”
At this, the Divine Thief frowned.
“Is True Qi Daoyin like the Daoist next door? Do you know how difficult that is? This girl really has a thief’s mentality.”
“I don’t know because I haven’t tried it. Hehe, but didn’t you tell me to become the world’s greatest thief? Isn’t it okay?”
“Ugh. If I do that, I’ll be exhausted for three days.”
“Come on, Master. Just once. Just once.”
“Ahem.”
It was aegyo that wouldn’t work on Ximen Surin, but it was a direct hit on Cheon Yuhak.
Finally, Cheon Yuhak grumbled and slapped his palm on Qing’s back as she sat in meditation.
True Qi Daoyin is not an easy technique.
It’s a task of moving someone else’s internal power and leading it on a path that didn’t exist originally, so even Ximen Surin, a master of the Profound Realm, was drenched in sweat after doing True Qi Daoyin for Qing when teaching her the Zhu Xiang’s Heart Cleanse Mirror.
For Cheon Yuhak, a master of the Unrestrained Realm, it’s truly a difficult task that would drain his strength for three days, as he said.
But honestly, there’s nothing he can do when a pretty disciple acts cute.
Cheon Yuhak’s disciples, the Hanlin Academy disciples, are all grown men who don’t even know the most basic meanings of the Hundred Schools of Thought and just spout nonsense.
For reference, Cheon Yuhak is a giant of the Hanlin Academy, equivalent to a top university professor in modern terms, so his view of disciples perfectly matches how professors view their students.
So Cheon Yuhak managed to guide Qing’s true qi along with the formula of the Awakening Divine Art, barely completing one cycle of the microcosmic orbit.
“Wow, I can’t do it twice. I’d rather die.”
Cheon Yuhak lay down on the bath floor, groaning. Indeed, his clothes were soaked in sweat after just one ke, thirty minutes.
And in Qing’s dantian, a new member was welcomed for once.
The qi of all under heaven that entered through breath condensed into a tiny bit of true qi and took form, called the awakening true qi of the Awakening Divine Art.
After sweeping through the body once to check its territory and return, it found that what it thought was a single-family home, its own room, was actually already shared by several tenants.
Moreover, it wasn’t even a multi-family house, but a barracks thrown together without even a single wall or tent.
At this point, it’s too late to say “I’ll just leave,” because it has already become true qi, and if it disperses and becomes scattered qi, wouldn’t that be the annihilation of its existence?
It can’t just disappear saying “I’d rather die than live together!” so for now it entered the dantian and cautiously looked around from the entrance.
Having not seen blood recently and being peaceful, the Daoist and Buddhist true qi were sprawled out leisurely, just scratching their bellies.
On the other hand, the demonic qi that hadn’t seen blood at all were huddled in a corner, sitting in a somewhat pitiful posture among themselves.
And there in the very corner, a black and dirty demonic qi like mold was tightly bound, just rolling its hideous eyes.
Belonging to the weak yin-cold category and having efficacy in body refinement rather than qi accumulation, the awakening true qi was ambiguous about joining either the orthodox or demonic qi.
At times like this, you have to crawl on your own, so the awakening true qi cautiously looked around and attached itself to the stronger side.
The Daoist and Buddhist divine arts looked over the new member, just nodded once, and pointed with their chins to one side.
It meant they would accept it, albeit reluctantly.
As the awakening true qi uncomfortably settled in the lowest seat, the blissful true qi of the Blissful Maiden Arts, which had returned after chasing some evil qi to some extremity of the body, poked at the newly arrived member to test it.
Is this demonic arts? Or not?
Should I purify it, or not?
Then the eyes of the two true qi met.
“Hm?”
Qing tilted her head.
What? What is it? What’s this strange…
There was an inexplicable sensation, and even when she thought hard about it, she couldn’t grasp anything.
This feeling, something from before…
“Oh my, I’m dying. Did you reach One Star? Then just soak your body in there now. Oh my, I feel like I’ve aged a hundred years.”
Cheon Yuhak expressed his exhaustion with his whole body as he crawled towards the bath exit.
“Oh? Where are you going?”
“I may be a thief, but I’m not shameless. Would I peek at my disciple’s naked body here?”
“I think you were plenty shameless when you showed me that erotic art.”
“Kekek. I am shameless, that’s true. A man should be a bit shameless, if you’re too uptight you’re just a eunuch or castrated official. But no matter what, would I peek at my disciple’s body? Breaking the natural order makes you not human, but a beast.”
“Can’t you just turn around? How can I train alone if you leave? Do I just soak my body?”
“What kind of woman has no wariness? You shouldn’t trust men like that. There are beasts everywhere among men.”
“Come on, you’re my master.”
At this, Cheon Yuhak smiled.
How does she speak so prettily?
“I’ll be beyond that ventilation window anyway, so just speak. Damn, it’s smelly and stuffy, I can’t stay here anymore.”
The ventilation window referred to a small window attached to the floor for ventilation.
After Cheon Yuhak left like that, Qing stood in front of the medicinal bath.
It looked terrible from afar, but up close it was even more horrific.
Boiling like lava, and because of its high viscosity, the bubbles burst slowly, making it seem like not even bones would be left if you soaked in it.
It looked like what a hell bath might be like.
Qing shouted:
“Can I really get in this!? It looks like I’ll die if I go in!”
Then a reply came from beyond the ventilation window.
-The medicinal ingredients in that tub cost three guan of gold sycee. If I wanted to kill you, would I use expensive gold ingots when there are cheaper methods? Just soak in it fully. You won’t die.
***
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