By Zephyria 
HF 57
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Now, Cheon Mu-gyeong had a remaining time that could be described as either long or short. He could feel a steady flow of qi and blood emanating from the dantian of that body, which provided him such pleasure. Since the latent internal energy was so abundant, if he taught him how to manage his dantian, he would be able to absorb far more yin energy than he currently did.
It would be fortunate if that alone could quell the fire energy, but he could not guarantee what would happen when the day actually arrived. He wasn’t even sure if he would be safe after extracting and consuming Wi Ho-yeon’s dantian once the seals were fully released. However, it was a fact that his pain had been offset by taking Wi Ho-yeon’s energy.
Throughout his repeating lives, Mu-gyeong had grown numb to the persistent pain, to the point where he had forgotten that the sensation was even pain. The fire demon that circled his body as if to incinerate him was as familiar as breathing, but truly breathing was different.
The existence of Wi Ho-yeon made him realize what he had forgotten.
It wouldn’t have mattered if he simply grabbed the other’s nape and did as he pleased, regardless of whether Wi Ho-yeon resisted or not, but Cheon Mu-gyeong knew such people well. That they are infinitely gentle toward the weak, and though they may outwardly submit to the strong, they never break inside.
When Ma Young-mu acted like a young master, Ho-yeon had treated him like a loafer, yet hadn’t he still looked after him and even given him silver? He seemed to have picked up and raised children somewhere—some place called Eumbyeol Hall—and his meddlesomeness was quite considerable.
While he knew exactly how to handle Wi Ho-yeon, Cheon Mu-gyeong had no intention of playing along. He could take yin energy whenever he desired, so there was no reason to gain it by eliciting Ho-yeon’s sympathy; moreover, it was usually Wi Ho-yeon who pressed his body against him and incited arousal.
“It’s very lonely being in a place like that alone.”
Wi Ho-yeon seemed to think he had been neglected, but since he slept soundly every time Mu-gyeong visited, he had no choice but to be unaware.
Rising from the bed, Mu-gyeong loosely tied his waist with the sash of his robe and stepped out of the thatched cottage. As expected, he saw Ho-yeon sitting miserably with his back to a jar, having found nowhere else to hide.
Come to think of it, since Wi Ho-yeon didn’t drink, there were no liquor bottles in the cottage. Thinking that he would have the right guardian bring some bottles soon, Mu-gyeong abruptly lifted the jar filled with rainwater.
As usual, Mu-gyeong’s presence was undetectable, but Ho-yeon wasn’t surprised even when the jar behind his back suddenly vanished. He remained crouched, staring only at the ground.
It was quite a shame that the snowy-white nape of his neck was hidden by his hair.
“I wondered where you’d hidden after leaving so boldly.”
Even as the voice descended from above, Ho-yeon stubbornly kept his gaze fixed on the earth.
“You seem to have no talent for anything other than embroidery and playing the zither.”
“There’s nowhere to hide here.”
“I see there are no rafters.”
Ho-yeon snapped his head up and looked displeasedly at Cheon Mu-gyeong, who set the jar down haphazardly.
As expected, he knew even then…
More importantly, without even using internal energy, Cheon Mu-gyeong effortlessly lifted and moved that heavy jar filled with rainwater. Ho-yeon began to think that this man’s external arts must also be at a considerable level. Then again, just looking at a physique like the hundred thousand great mountains was answer enough.
Among those with outstanding martial arts, there were quite a few warriors who did not properly train their physical strength. The Ice Hall Master, who trained the rising generation of the ice palace, was excellent in ice art but tended to neglect building muscular strength. Thus, Cheon Mu-gyeong seemed remarkably impressive.
Ho-yeon, who hadn’t even touched the ground, dusted off his hands and stood up.
“Give me back my… oil-paper umbrella. I need to find my seven-stringed zither too.”
Unfortunately, Mu-gyeong’s chest was open, leaving Ho-yeon with nowhere to look. More than that, his mind had been cluttered for a while, wondering if what he suspected was true. Whether men truly used that part when they shared intimacy. Since he wasn’t ignorant of the fact that sexual acts involved inserting and withdrawing, he could roughly deduce it.
But perhaps it was a misunderstanding. Since that isn’t a place for insertion, maybe they just rubbed against each other.
The heat and sensation still seemed to linger between his member and his buttocks where Cheon Mu-gyeong’s touch had reached. How did people live and face each other after performing such embarrassing acts? He found it far too shameful.
Thanks to Mu-gyeong standing with the sun behind him, Ho-yeon was able to stay within his shadow. Because the altitude was high, the sunlight was even more intense, so Ho-yeon, lacking his oil-paper umbrella, rarely went out during the day.
However, Mu-gyeong seemed to have no intention of returning his belongings, as he only stared intently. Just as Ho-yeon tried to turn back toward the cottage, burdened by that gaze, his arm was seized and he was pulled close.
“Your external arts are obviously pathetic, but what about your martial arts?”
“What?”
Confused by the sudden words, Ho-yeon asked back, forgetting his embarrassment and shame.
“I’m asking if you lack talent in martial arts as well.”
The heavenly demon was asking about his talent for martial arts. This time, Ho-yeon truly wondered if it were possible.
No, this was a man who had no intention of teaching him anything. Without harboring any expectation, Ho-yeon answered with a slight pout.
“I told you I’m self-taught. Even so, for someone self-taught, I have some talent. I mean, I must.”
It was like “playing the axe at the gate of Ban.” He felt like the foolish man who bragged about his chopping skills in front of a master carpenter. His face flushed as he tried to boast of his talent to Cheon Mu-gyeong, who had been called a natural martial genius since childhood and was believed to be the reincarnation of the first heavenly demon.
“Then you should be able to endure this sufficiently.”
Cheon Mu-gyeong pressed firmly below the navel with his other hand. It was the lower dantian, where the qi sea point was located. Before he could even ask what he meant by “endure,” the man applied strong pressure below his navel.
“Agh!” At the sudden pain, Ho-yeon let out a sharp breath and tried to pull his waist back, but he was instead pressed closer, as if being sucked into the palm.
A heat far beyond anything before boiled from the right hand touching his stomach. The black inscriptions wrapping around his right forearm were the raging fire energy. Hot energy poured from Mu-gyeong’s hand into his qi sea point. Ho-yeon grit his teeth against the immense pain that struck simultaneously.
Unless one was insane…! Cheon Mu-gyeong was pouring his true qi into him.
It was like pouring a massive amount of lava into a narrow passage; his blood vessels felt as if they were expanding and tearing. The energy entered through the qi sea point and rampaged through Ho-yeon’s interior at will. It was a movement that seemed to scour and pierce every single vessel, moving between several dantians along the blood paths.
He couldn’t even utter a word of protest. Since he was being forcibly subjected to the opening of the meridians by Cheon Mu-gyeong’s true qi, he might fall into qi deviation if he dared to open his mouth. It was no different from a forced session of meditative breathing—and one driven by Cheon Mu-gyeong’s demonic energy, not his own.
Ho-yeon gripped Mu-gyeong’s robe tightly at the pain that felt like a glowing red sword stirring his insides. Cold sweat poured from his entire body, and beads of moisture formed on his forehead. The pain was so intense he feared something was going wrong. It felt as if a heated branding iron was passing through his blood vessels.
From the lower dantian to the middle dantian, and then to the upper dantian, the true qi poked and prodded through every minor meridian in his body.
Just as he was prone to loneliness, Ho-yeon was vulnerable to pain. However, compared to when he received the energy of the ice dragon, this was nothing. The memory of that day was so horrific he didn’t even want to recall it. But since that was a past pain, it provided no comfort.
If the ice dragon had given pain akin to the pressure of ten thousand jin, this was a thousand jin. A thousand jin was still incredibly painful, and thus Ho-yeon groaned incessantly.
He tried to endure it somehow, but the strength gradually left his legs. Mu-gyeong supported Ho-yeon’s back, yet did not remove his hand.
As cold sweat drenched his body, even his lower garments, which had been loosely folded and secured, became damp. Having lived in the North Sea, he had never sweated like rain, but now his clothes were soaked.
Ho-yeon felt that if he wasn’t careful, a plea to stop would leak out. However, even if he had to bite his lip until it bled, he endured until the end.
A single streak of blood trickled down his chin. Cheon Mu-gyeong slowly licked up the blood that narrowly crossed two points.
Ho-yeon continued to suffer, unaware of what he was doing. The pain of his blood vessels being slashed by a heated sword continued distantly. Then, at some point, the hand on his lower abdomen pressed harder, and Cheon Mu-gyeong’s true qi began to return to him.
The true qi, which had been moving slowly or quickly through his interior, vanished from Ho-yeon’s blood vessels in an instant. Haa, haa, only then did Ho-yeon release his clenched teeth and gasp for air. The hand that had been gripping Mu-gyeong’s robe also went limp as his strength vanished.
At first, Ho-yeon wasn’t certain, but now he knew exactly what the man had done. He had used his own energy to open Ho-yeon’s blocked meridians. That was why Ho-yeon had endured until the end.
Even absolute masters rarely performed such an act, and often could not, as it consumed their own cultivation power or true qi. It was also a dangerous act that could cost a life. However, Cheon Mu-gyeong had not only spent the energy but had even reclaimed it.
Ho-yeon realized once again that Cheon Mu-gyeong stood at a truly unfathomable height. He also felt a sense of frustration, wondering if he might be even more powerful than the ice dragon. But as they say, one must measure the length to know.
“Did you… open the ren and governor vessels?”
Ho-yeon, slumped in Mu-gyeong’s arms, spoke barely, his eyes squinting. Mu-gyeong carried Ho-yeon in both arms. Ho-yeon’s hair, with his head drooping toward the ground, swayed with every step Mu-gyeong took.
“I only opened the blood vessels that were blocked from the middle dantian. I thought you’d collapse, but you’re quite decent.”
The habit of Ho-yeon tapping his chest had existed because of that. Hearing Mu-gyeong’s words, it seemed it wasn’t a full opening of the ren and governor vessels, but the qi, which had been trickling through narrow passages, now flowed more smoothly through the blood paths.
“If I collapsed… you would have been in danger too…”
Mu-gyeong looked down at Ho-yeon with red eyes. Ho-yeon barely met his gaze, blinking slowly. This time, it wasn’t an act; his vision was truly blurring.
It does feel like my blood paths went from a trickling stream to a waterfall. But since I had to hurt anyway, he could have just opened the ren and governor vessels in one go… Or even hair shaving and marrow washing. Ho-yeon was unaware that such brazen words had escaped his lips.
“Young Master Wi, I thought you only cared for wealth, but to think you’d try to get your martial arts for free?”
In his fading consciousness, Ho-yeon seemed to hear Mu-gyeong’s low laugh.
“I expect my disciple to repay his master with an ice waterfall.”