Chapter 40

The wind howled. Or I was swept by a current.

Every word that could mean rough fit.

That was exactly my state.

“Damn it...”

I was trapped in a storm, my body shuddering. A storm made of qi.

My mind flickered; my body couldn’t move.

I was clinging to a thread of consciousness.

Let my guard down for a heartbeat and I’d lose it. This must be what it feels like inside a storm.

“Fuck...”

What the hell is happening?

I didn’t know—just clung on and endured.

“That damned old man.”

What? The qi would explode? If I couldn’t endure, I’d die?

Why say that after I swallowed it.

“This is why I—!”

—don’t deal with vile spirits.

I didn’t even have room to finish the thought before I forced my mind to focus.

Rrrrrrr—!!!

The gale grew worse.

Qi tore through every part of me. Explosion, he’d said? Exactly.

The qi rampaging inside me didn’t stop for a moment; it only spun faster as it went.

Worse—

“It hurts like hell.”

It felt like my body would rip apart.

So this is what happens when qi is this abundant and moves this fast.

A truth I never wanted to learn.

“How am I supposed to endure this.”

The intensity kept climbing, and I had no idea how long I had to hold out—that made it worse.

If I let my mind slip?

“He said I’d die.”

He wasn’t trying to scare me. I knew because I could feel it better than anyone.

“If I lose it, I die.”

The instant I lost it, the spinning qi would halt.

Qi with halted rotation would lose its path.

Then—

“It’ll blow.”

This body can’t contain that gathered qi; it’ll burst straight out.

Not exaggeration—my body would literally rupture.

I’d never experienced this, never studied it, but I knew.

When this kind of qi fills your body, you know it by nature.

Qi you can’t fail to know.

“Of all things, death by internal explosion.”

I wanted to live till I smeared shit on the walls in old age, not die because I got tangled with a vile spirit.

But—

“How do I not die?”

Rrrrrrrrr—!!!

Inside qi that only grew stronger—what could I do?

I was barely hanging on; any stronger and I was finished.

Truth is, I was already on the edge.

“Damn it.”

What do I do? If the qi leaks or spreads here, it’s over.

The moment a gap opens, the qi will shoot out in an instant—so what do I do?

Then—

[In trouble, are you.]

Yoo Cheongil’s voice.

[Want help?]

Yes—were you planning not to, you bastard.

[From that flinch, you’re cursing me.]

Still quick on the uptake. Then you know what I need.

[Hm.]

A short grunt, and then—

[What should I do?]

He sounded like he was pondering.

Was he insane?

“You’re pondering this?”

I’m about to die—what’s there to ponder?

If I die, you die.

There was so much I wanted to throw back at him, and I couldn’t. That rankled.

Rrrruuumble—!

“—gh!”

The rotation spiked; a scream almost tore out. Meaning I almost died.

No—keep this up and I die anyway. I had to find something, anything.

“So if you’re going to tell me, tell me now.”

Grinding it out, I waited for him to speak.

[Good.]

He sounded refreshed, as if deciding.

[I have something to check. Endure it alone.]

“You lunatic.”

Utter bullshit.

Endure this alone? Why not just tell me to die?

“Maybe the old man doesn’t actually care anymore.”

He talks about finding who killed him and all that—

Maybe none of it really mattered to him.

If not, he shouldn’t be doing this.

“Maybe I should just drop it.”

I was so tired I was ready to let go when—

[I’ll give you a little counsel instead.]

He spoke.

[I already taught you how to overcome it. Boy, you can figure it out.]

“......”

He already taught me, and I can figure it out?

Again.

“Another riddle.”

Why keep forcing me to grasp it myself? I didn’t understand.

“Just give the answer. Why...”

What did he want from me?

If he wanted his grudge settled, we’d be better off moving quickly. Why this method?

It was like—

“He wants to raise a disciple.”

Was he really trying to make me his disciple?

“Not even funny.”

Disciple to the Sword Saint—his disciple, even—when he’s dead and only a soul?

Nonsense. Plenty would beg for that.

“Not me.”

That’s a life in the eye of a typhoon.

I want to live quiet as a spring field. I don’t want that kind of life.

So—

“Finish fast and run.”

All I wanted was to end this kind of life quickly.

Clench—

I ground my teeth and recalled Yoo Cheongil’s words.

“I already know.”

He said I already knew how to calm this qi.

I spun that thought, and spun it again, and searched for ways.

“...Force it into the dantian?” (inner energy center)

Gather everything and stuff it into the dantian—discarded the moment it came.

“Impossible to control.”

If I could do that, I would have already. With qi like this, it’s impossible.

Touch it rashly and it’s beyond control—dangerous.

“Then what else.”

Slow the rotation, gradually?

“......”

Discarded. The spin was too strong to intervene.

“Damn it, then what.”

I don’t even know how to handle qi.

I’ve only just scraped into second-rate. And this isn’t what I used to practice—it’s an internal art rammed into my body out of nowhere.

I haven’t had time to grow used to it.

And you want me to slow that storm?

“Bullshit. If anything, I could make it—faster...”

Huh?

“...Faster, not slower?”

Make it faster?

It was like a club to the head.

“...The root of the Blue Moon Heart Art is...”

Letting it rise.

The moon rises on its own when night comes, with no intervention.

“...That.”

I focused.

I thought I had it.

[Ho?]

I pushed my qi into the storm.

Not jamming it in—letting it be swept along.

And then—

Sheeeeeeeee—!!!

I made it go faster.

If I can’t control it and it explodes? Honestly, I was already past the point of caring.

The moment I did, the qi spun like madness, as if it had been waiting.

“Urgh.”

I almost lost my grip at the surge, but I clung on.

And then I saw it.

Driven to a frenzy, the qi took on a clean shape.

So fast there was no way for it to shoot out or burst.

Push it that far and—an unknown calm settled in. A perfect sphere formed.

A sphere holding blue light.

It was like—

“The moon.”

It felt # Nоvеlight # like the moon rising into the sky.

At that moment—

Fwaaaaaa—!!!

The storm cleared and darkness fell.

A night with only the moon.

“What...”

Why is it so calm? It felt like swimming the night sky.

What is this feeling—so unfamiliar. Swimming the sky. And—

“That...”

A spread night. And before me, a colossal moon.

A Blue Moon shining bright.

Too beautiful, too luminous. Close, even.

My hand rose on its own.

Maybe I could touch it.

Before my fingertips reached—

Vvvvvv—!!!

The great moon began to shudder like mad, and in a breath it hurled itself at me.

“Wagh—!”

I jolted awake.

My folded legs slipped; my posture collapsed.

“Hah... hah...”

I raked in air and checked around. The storeroom we’d come to.

My body was slick. Cold sweat soaked me through.

[Heh heh heh.]

Laughter.

[There now.]

Yoo Cheongil was looking at me.

[Didn’t I say you could do it.]

“......”

Do it? My eyes widened at that.

Did I really endure?

While my thoughts chased themselves—

[Look at your hand.]

I lifted my hand at his word.

“...Uh...?”

My eyes flew wide. They had to.

Blue light was coiling and rippling around my hand.

“What is this...”

[Congratulations.]

Before I could make sense of it, the old man offered me his congratulations.

[You’ve housed the moon in your body.]

“......”

Words I couldn’t understand.

****

I dragged my staggering body and barely made it up.

Thankfully, the quarters were quiet.

No one had come? I had to hope so.

“...Hoo... ha...”

The instant I got in, I collapsed full-length on the floor.

Every muscle was screaming; I couldn’t bear it.

Staring at the ceiling, breath ragged—

[Tsk, tsk. What did you do to get tired already.]

Yoo Cheongil’s voice, all disdain.

I didn’t have the strength to answer.

“Huah... hn.”

I let out a long sigh and clamped a hand over my mouth.

When I exhaled, blue smoke streamed out on my breath.

It’d been doing that for a while—smoke seeping out on its own.

[Don’t worry. By tomorrow it will settle.]

He said it with a smile.

If I could, I’d plant a fist in that sunny face.

But even before that—no matter how wrung out I was—I had to ask.

“What did you feed me...?”

What the hell did he make me swallow—for my body to end up like this.

[I told you. The Blue Moon Pill.]

“That’s... not what I’m asking.”

Damn it, every time I spoke, smoke puffed out; I must have looked ridiculous.

“What did you feed me that my mouth is smoking...”

[Heh. It looks strange—it suits you.]

“Are you joking?”

I was dead serious.

“I choke down an elixir, almost die, and my qi barely increases.”

That was what pissed me off.

I went through hell, and my body’s qi felt almost the same.

Then where did that mad torrent go?

If all I got for it was smoke from my mouth, I wasn’t letting it go.

“You keep trying to do something to me—”

[The Blue Moon Pill isn’t like other elixirs—it doesn’t simply raise your qi.]

He cut in.

His eyes, for once, were serious.

“Then what?”

[If I have to phrase its effect, call it a seed.]

“A seed?”

[Yes. A seed. A seed has been planted in the internal art inside your body.]

“...What kind of ghost-eaten nonsense is that?”

[Hm.]

Seeing I struggled with it, he shifted his explanation a little.

[Simply put—it deepens and strengthens your internal art.]

Easier to grasp, yes.

“...So all that qi went into strengthening the internal art?”

[Exactly.]

“All that? All that, and more?”

[Y-yes.]

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

[...Do you realize how tremendous that is...]

“Tremendous or not—right now I can’t use it.”

Still crap. Right now I need qi I can spend more than I need a stronger internal art.

That’s why I came for an elixir.

“At this rate, it was all for nothing...”

Even if my internal art improved—how much did it improve?

Right now, I swing once and topple.

“I crawled through hell and now I’m puffing smoke, and all I got is internal art reinforcement? What a shit life.”

All I could do was sigh. Do I really have to live like this? The self-disgust kept rising.

Then—

[Boy, you don’t seem to grasp this. This isn’t ‘just’ anything. I told you—a new world would come to you.]

“A new world where my mouth smokes?”

[Not that... ]

He groaned, frustrated.

[Wait and see. You’ll soon learn how great what you gained is.]

He declared it, bold as brass.

“...Right. It better be.”

It had better.

“If not, I really will burn it all down.”

If there wasn’t something, I wasn’t letting this go.

****

Grinding my teeth with that in mind—

It took not even a full day to learn the old man hadn’t lied.

“Holy...”

I thought it as I looked at the martial artist lying at my feet and felt the stares pouring in from around us.

“...This is insane.”

The old man was right.

Just as Yoo Cheongil said, a new world had opened for me.

Blue—bluer than blue.