## Chapter 106 – 106. Introspection (2)
#106. Introspection (2)
The number of people in the investigation team heading to the ancient temple wasn’t that large. This was because the number of personnel each sect could send to the investigation team had been predetermined by prior agreement.
Nevertheless, Hwasan and Jongnam requesting manpower from their affiliated secular families, the Hundred Flowers House and the Great Tiger Gate, was a kind of power play.
The Hundred Flowers House, aware of this to some extent, had made unnecessary expenditures to send me and Chun Yeo-hwa to the investigation team.
Dozens of silver coins and a magic sword. I thought it wasn’t cost-effective, but now it seemed to make sense.
‘Even if it’s a loss right now, it wouldn’t have been a big loss for the Hundred Flowers House, which is one of the top sects in Seoan anyway.’
Moreover, in the long term, it was like currying favor with their backer, the Hwasan Sect, so it was reasonable to see it as a gain.
Anyway, as mentioned earlier, the number of people in the investigation team wasn’t that large. At most, it was around 50 people.
No martial artists from secular families joined the investigation team from other sects. Only me, Chun Yeo-hwa, and the investigation team leader joined from the Hwasan Sect.
‘Originally, the three of us were supposed to return with the other investigation team members, but the Hwasan Sect elder changed his mind because of the sparring match with the Sword Dragon yesterday.’
It was an unintended benefit. If I hadn’t known anything, I would have been told to return to the Hundred Flowers House, which would have been troublesome in many ways.
“Hyun-woo, concentrate.”
A finger pokes my cheek.
I immediately cleared my mind and focused on observing myself again.
If it were a normal meditation, I would have done it while walking with magic detection, but not this time. I was learning how to handle demonic energy from Chun Yeo-hwa during the break.
Thanks to Chun Yeo-hwa’s barrier, there was no fear of being discovered.
When I closed my eyes, the information coming in through my sight disappeared. As a result, the amount of information coming in through hearing, smell, and touch increased. But that wasn’t what I wanted. I intentionally blocked my senses to exclude even that information.
Only then could I peek into my own inner self.
It wasn’t the mana circle and magic circuit I had seen hundreds of times. It was the place called the dantian.
Whoo-oong-
A faint but intense and eccentric energy swirled. It was demonic energy.
“Suppress and subdue it. Energy that goes against the master’s will is of no use.”
Mana rushes unhindered along the magic circuit. In a strange sensation where the mental realm expands, I slowly refine the demonic energy. But as Chun Yeo-hwa said, suppressing the demonic energy wasn’t easy. Every time I tried to suppress the demonic energy with mana, it would rather increase its size and resist.
“Although you haven’t even learned a decent internal energy cultivation method, you can be said to be a master at controlling and managing energy. It’s an unusual thing. To control demonic energy, one must learn demonic arts, but not you.”
The reason why I, who had never learned demonic arts or even martial arts, possessed demonic energy was because the mana circle absorbed demonic energy at will.
It was something I would never have done normally.
There was no merit in accepting demonic energy, which had a sinister energy, when there was plenty of natural mana to be found.
But as I lost consciousness, the mana circle absorbed demonic energy at will, and for some reason, a dantian was created in the process.
I didn’t get all the vast amount of demonic energy that the Mad Demon Sword possessed. My mana circle extracted only the pure demonic energy while excluding all the dirty and miscellaneous energy.
“Concentrate.”
Chun Yeo-hwa’s finger pressed on my lower abdomen. It was where the dantian was located.
“Even when raising a dog, you educate it from the puppy stage. Now is the perfect time when the size of the demonic energy in the dantian is small. Although you can only control the demonic energy when you are conscious now, in the end, the demonic energy is also part of you. Don’t doubt it. You will be able to use the demonic energy like your limbs in the near future.”
Originally, mana, which shouldn’t be connected to the dantian, seeps into the dantian.
Saaa-
A heavy pain follows. It was the price for forcibly fitting roads that shouldn’t be connected.
Blood flows from between my lips. But if I stop here, it will be neither fish nor fowl. I continue to surround the dantian with mana and fill it up.
-!!!!
The demonic energy in the dantian struggles. It was a fierce resistance that made the demonic energy jump out of the body. If Chun Yeo-hwa’s barrier hadn’t been there, someone might have noticed.
“…This is beyond imagination.”
Creak!
Chun Yeo-hwa’s barrier shakes due to the demonic energy’s rampage. Small cracks even appear in places.
“The reason why the Divine Cult is placed under the law of the strong is because demonic energy obeys the strong. If it were mediocre demonic energy, it wouldn’t even dare to think of resisting in front of my Moon Spirit Demonic Energy…”
Leaving behind Chun Yeo-hwa, who had an interested expression, I closed my eyes again and focused on the flow of mana.
No matter how strong the fire, it can’t help but be extinguished by the constantly crashing waves.
The demonic energy, which had been struggling in the mana that rushed in instantly, eventually couldn’t withstand it and subsided. I slowly pulled the demonic energy out of the dantian. The demonic energy, which had become quite docile, moved along the meridians according to my will.
‘This… is harder than I thought…?’
It was a world of difference from when I was using mana.
“You look overwhelmed. But it’s a great thing that you can still move, so you don’t have to be so impatient.”
I could feel something accumulating in the dantian every time I breathed, but it was less than a fingernail’s worth. This was because I wasn’t learning a proper internal energy cultivation method.
Even then, the demonic energy in the dantian would often spit it out. It seemed to be clamoring that it wasn’t enough to mix with itself.
I was exhausted after only five breaths.
“Haa, haa…”
“Hehe, you’ve worked hard.”
Chun Yeo-hwa put my head on her lap and carefully wiped the sweat flowing from my forehead.
I closed my eyes for a moment and reviewed what I had done a little while ago. Certainly, meditation and circulating energy were different.
Both were the same in that they accepted the energy of nature, but the difference was whether they converted it into mana or accumulated it as energy.
To increase mana, you have to meditate, and to accumulate energy, you have to circulate energy.
‘Tsk, I need to get an internal energy cultivation method quickly, or I’ll feel like I’m losing out.’
It felt like everyone else was accumulating mileage and coupons, but I was satisfied with the card company points that were accumulating little by little.
“But is it okay to learn orthodox martial arts with demonic energy?”
At first, I tried to get rid of the demonic energy, but when the time came, I felt a little sorry. If it could even resist Chun Yeo-hwa’s demonic energy, it would definitely become a great force in the future.
“Let’s worry about that later.”
A strange smile was drawn on Chun Yeo-hwa’s lips. She suddenly covered my lips and actively mixed her tongue.
“Slurp, sshup, chomp…”
I felt good, but I didn’t know she would suddenly attack me in this forest.
‘Did she get excited by smelling the sweat?’
The alpha male skill is good, but it’s a bit of a flaw that it’s a passive skill that activates all the time. Is there no on/off function for this?
I split my mind into two, responding to Chun Yeo-hwa’s kiss while looking around the skill screen. Unfortunately, there was no such function.
Swish-
I felt a presence nearby.
“Ah, Brother! You were here…?”
It was none other than Yoo So-wol who appeared from beyond the bushes. It didn’t even take 10 seconds for the bright smile on her face to disappear.
The corners of her mouth, which had been raised high, drooped down expressionlessly.
‘I was wondering why she suddenly kissed me…’
Chun Yeo-hwa’s eyes curved softly. It was a clear mockery.
“Tsk… I’m sorry. As you can see, Hyun-woo is spending time with me, so he doesn’t have the leisure to listen to you. If you’re really busy, tell me, I’ll tell Hyun-woo later.”
“…They said we’re leaving soon.”
“Oh, that’s a shame. We were just about to get fired up.”
I could see strength in Yoo So-wol’s small, soft hands. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be angry enough for veins to pop out on the back of her hand.
‘…I’ll have to comfort her separately later when Yeo-hwa isn’t around.’
I quickly tidied myself up and immediately returned to the clearing where the investigation team was. There was nothing I could do. As I sat down in a suitable place, I made eye contact with a monk.
“Hello.”
“…Hello.”
He wasn’t an ordinary monk, but a Shaolin elder.
He gave me a gentle smile and nodded lightly. On the surface, he didn’t seem much different from the monks I had met when I went to get temple food, but I felt strangely uncomfortable.
‘It’s probably because of the demonic energy.’
I tried to hide the hostility that was trying to show on the surface and avoided the seat.
“We’re leaving!”
The investigation team, which had finished preparing, moved busily again. Around lunchtime, an old and dilapidated temple revealed its appearance among the dense trees.
***
In fact, I thought the ancient temple would only be a few buildings, but that was just my delusion.
The ancient temple was too big.
Dozens of buildings were spread out beyond the walls. Each one was a dilapidated building with no intact places, but its scale was so large that it couldn’t be ignored.
‘Well… if it were a small enough place, they would have finished the investigation a long time ago.’
Just looking at the vast scale, I could feel the atmosphere of the Earth’s continent.
“Isn’t it really amazing? Even the herbalists who have lived in Jinheung Village for decades said they first discovered this huge temple a few days ago.”
The investigation team leader put down his luggage on the floor and seemed overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the ancient temple, unable to close his mouth since a while ago.
“…Does that make sense?”
“I also thought it was nonsense when I first heard it… But isn’t this the place where the Diamond Divine Monk resided? Among the achievements he left behind, there were even more absurd things than this, so compared to that, I don’t think it’s that strange. Wasn’t it hidden by something like a formation?”
After finishing his words, the investigation team leader ran to where people were gathered. Unlike me, he had a lot of work to do. His main job was miscellaneous tasks.
Considering his experience, it wasn’t something he should be doing as the investigation team leader, but originally, experience is relative.
“A formation…”
Is it possible to hide such a large-scale structure for hundreds of years with a formation? It seems difficult even with magic.
‘…But if there’s something that can be the core, the story is different.’
It was just a hunch, but I had a feeling that there was something somewhere here that had been maintaining the formation for hundreds of years.
I don’t know where it is, though.
I stretched for a moment and turned my gaze.
Chun Yeo-hwa was away for a while, and Yoo So-wol was having a touching reunion.
“Master…!”
I saw Yoo So-wol being hugged by a middle-aged woman.
“A grown woman running around so carelessly.”
Even though she said that, the corners of the middle-aged woman’s mouth were raised high. After holding Yoo So-wol like that for a while, her gaze briefly swept over me.
I could see at a glance that she didn’t like me. It seemed like she knew about the relationship between me and Yoo So-wol.
‘She doesn’t know everything, right? If she did, she would have drawn her sword right away.’
The aura emanating from her was that significant. At that level, she wasn’t far behind White Beard Grandpa.
‘It’s full of monsters.’
Besides that, quite a few gazes were fixed on me.
They were the elders of Jongnam and Shaolin. It seemed like they had heard about the sparring match with the Sword Dragon. I didn’t have time to spend with old men.
I moved my steps towards the inside of the ancient temple.
From now on, it’s treasure hunting time.
