Chapter 17

Long ago, a Daoist from the Zhang Clan established a Taoist Temple at Mount Taihua’s Jaso Peak.

One day, the Zhang man had a dream where he met a celestial being wielding a sword and sought his teachings.

Awakening from the dream, he spent ten months in meditation, and when he opened his eyes, he had already reached a realm where the sword moved on its own.

Thus, he built a hermitage and named it Wudang.

From then on, people referred to Mount Taihua with the nickname Wudang.

And here, there were those heading towards the Wudang Sect.

“Master, do you really need to be carried like this?”

“Yes, this is enough.”

“Then…”

“Oh dear, what sorrow comes with age! My only disciple seems to only think about abandoning me for the morning and evening chat. Oh, primordial Celestial Master.”

“Master, what do you mean by that? You will live forever! At least understand that your disciple is always praying for that.”

“True. Still, if I alone live forever, what glory will that bring me? I do pray for my disciple’s future too.”

The Daoists following them laughed.

They say that if you complain, you’ll live longer.

“But Master, why are you hanging on like this?”

“I decided to hang on because it’s tough to carry.”

“Indeed, the Celestial Master is quite indifferent. How can He leave such a living legend like you here without taking you away?”

“If I were to take a step into the celestial realm, why would I need to prepare?”

“I have a reason. The way of the immortals doesn’t partake in earthly bonds, so the ranks are based on first-come, first-served!”

“Ha ha, I beg you, just fulfill my wish.”

The young man, Hwan-yuk, who was carrying the old man, gritted his teeth and sighed.

“My fortune is as grim as it gets! I heard that Chang-bin, the practitioner at Hwasan, serves his master so well, eating elixirs like rice while aiming for supreme mastery. And here I am, unable to even catch a glimpse of the remnants of Jaso. They say fate is the fortune of three lives; how am I so unfortunate!”

“Indeed, you’ve hit the nail on the head. If I had a disciple like Chang-bin, I could feed him elixirs like rice too. Such a pity.”

“Master! Isn’t this too much?!”

Hwan-yuk was just getting riled up.

The soft, shifting tactics of the Wudang were so far beyond him; compared to his master, he was still a rookie.

The Daoists of Wudang were on their way back.

A month ago, Elder Taesang from Hyeongsan had come along, and having finally stepped outside, they were enjoying the scenery of Dongjeong Lake while refining their skills.

The pouting disciple was scolded by his master, Master Seung-soo.

“Kid, are you feeling neglected? Although I can’t take care of you as much as Jeong-ho does, at least I’ve given you something more precious.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, Master? I can’t recall receiving anything from you, so what kind of joke is this?”

“Kiddo, receiving well isn’t only about possessions. Even if you’re at some supreme level, being jealous doesn’t help.”

“Thinking about it, your words are like gems. Aren’t you tired from hanging? Is it alright if your unworthy disciple gives your heavenly backside a little pat, huh?”

Hwan-yuk’s expression turned serious.

“Did you hear that?”

A human scream.

Faint but desperate, it made one feel terrible just from hearing it.

—-

The Rat-faced Man was crawling on the ground, a complete mess.

Suddenly, a shadow fell over him, and he looked up to see A-Qing squatting down, looking down at him.

“P-Please… save me…”

“Me? How? Do I look like a physician to you?”

“Please, just save me…”

“That’s not really my area of expertise.”

Suddenly, a memory surfaced.

Friends gathered before a flowerbed.

Someone was shouting for everyone to come quick.

A worm was crawling on the cement floor.

And the magnifying glass in a friend’s hand.

Each of us was eager for our turn, shouting to let me have a go first on that sunny day.

I couldn’t quite remember the face or name of any of those friends.

But the desperate writhing that day, the worm swelling up and bursting under the scorching sun’s light, was clear as day.

A childhood memory.

“That’s right.”

“Help!”

“Did that worm squirm a bit more?”

“Please just save me, please…”

“But doesn’t it hurt? Why not just die? Just ask for a quick death, why prolong it?”

A-Qing tilted her head, seeming confused.

The Rat-faced Man looked up at A-Qing.

And his eyes met hers.

With the sun at her back, her eyes sparkled with light.

At first glance, they seemed violet, yet red like blood with blue veins and a glaring golden flame from the sun.

It was entirely black and sometimes white, yet somehow transparent.

Truly a color that existed nowhere else in the world.

As the essence of Heaven’s Kill seeped into his bones, it illuminated the world with ominous starlight.

“Demon! It’s a demon!”

He suddenly looked up as a young man with a sword rushed in.

A-Qing swung her sword in response, but the young man dodge it mid-air, stepping off the air as he leaped away.

One of the unwritten rules of the martial arts world was to always pay reverence after witnessing the stunning footwork of a disciple just before entering the Wudang.

A cultured martial artist would shout, “What marvelous footwork!”

But A-Qing lacked such manners.

She was too busy trying to fend off attacks that came in the most unbelievable way.

She bounced seven times in mid-air, changing direction.

Left, right, up, and all around, she finally flipped mid-air at a point where her opponent vanished and lunged forward.

The tip of her sword rushed at him like a mountain.

A-Qing gritted her teeth and positioned her sword sideways.

The Moonlight Sword just barely twisted around her opponent’s weapon tip as it shot toward her.

At that moment she caught a glimpse of the young man’s empty left hand.

A series of punches unraveling one after the other.

Oh no.

A-Qing poured her underlying power into her heels.

Smack. A-Qing was sent flying and tumbled to the ground.

Planting her feet on the earth with a churning stomach, she vomited a bowl of dark blood.

Unfortunately, A-Qing’s chest protruded more than others. The blood spattered all over her clothes, making them soggy.

“Hmm…?”

A-Qing blinked.

She got hit once but why did she feel so refreshed?

In truth, the Wudang’s Qixing technique and the magic of passive skill both had extraordinary purifying properties.

Two potent cleansing abilities combined would strike her with more than three times the purification power.

Fortunately, A-Qing was the owner of the Moon Lady’s Heart.

The Moon Lady’s Heart was also a martial art of the Tao.

It was hard for practitioners of the Dao to use Qi Mastery against each other.

Among Dao practitioners, they tended to safely withdraw, shouting, “We are on the same side!”

However, the Moon Lady’s Heart, which faced the essence of Heaven’s Kill alone, was able to draw strength from Wudang’s pure energy.

As the essence seeped from his marrow and bled into his body, it decomposed and expelled from her being.

It was a stroke of luck.

Even so, it only temporarily postponed encountering the doom of Heaven’s Kill.

Strangely enough, she felt quite lively.

A-Qing returned to her usual self and shouted.

“Coward! You sneak attacked from the front!”

“What…?”

“Useless arguments! Here, today, vile perverts won’t survive! Die, you child predator!”

Those words were merely what she shouted when she gained confidence.

To be honest, after taking a hit, it hadn’t been much.

A mere surprise by the never-before-seen dimensional movement; all she needed to do was just pin him down so he couldn’t leap around.

Jeon-woo might be a marvel of the martial world, but Moon Lady’s Step was the forgotten legend and myth of that world.

More than just anti-gravity foothold, it was something entirely other.

As if floating, the new form rushed right at them, causing Hwan-yuk to panic and clash his sword.

“You perverted bastard! Child molester! Horny dog!”

While the ambiguous clashes of their swords were threatening enough, the constant vulgarities slamming into A-Qing’s ears were far more horrendous.

“How can you even think about it?! You can’t even grow yet you’re still erect! Isn’t that just pathetic? Even animals don’t mate with their young! You’re less than a beast! Don’t compare yourself to animals! Cut it off! Cut it off!”

“Wait, wait a minute…!”

At that moment.

“Stop!”

A frantic voice amid the rushing footsteps made A-Qing hurriedly step back.

For a moment, she questioned just what these boys were trying to do to that innocent child. The martial realm sure is well-organized.

She might as well wrap this up with Buddha’s Physical Body and make her escape.

Thinking this, A-Qing glanced at the young man.

Suddenly, she noticed the number of karmic ties—57.

What’s going on, why is it so high?

Soon, a wave of Wudang warriors dressed in azure robes rushed in. While there were some variations, they all accomplished something remarkable.

Among them, there was even one who broke the record: 183.

The old man with the record said, “Disciple, calm your rage. It seems there’s some misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding? Can I hit someone if there’s a misunderstanding? Can’t you see this?!”

A-Qing gripped her blood-soaked robe near her chest and waved it.

Coughs arose here and there, and curious eyes scattered around the distant mountains where something curious had occurred.

“Disciple, what in the world is going on? Why is that person hurling such filthy insults at you?”

“That’s because… I saw him using demonic essence to try and kill that guy!”

Master Seung-soo looked into A-Qing’s eyes.

The Moon Lady’s Heart had distinctly suppressed the essence of Heaven’s Kill, and it was finally showing its worth.

The eerie feeling that emanated from A-Qing’s eyes.

While sharp and chilling, it was unarguably one of the Dao’s.

Normally, the internals of the Dao and the monks were easy to read from the eyes.

“Ho-ho, you’ve gone quite blind, haven’t you? No matter how I look, that person seems like a Daoist to me.”

“No, but that woman was emitting ominous starlight trying to kill that man!”

In response, everyone’s gaze shifted toward the Rat-faced Man.

What a horrifying sight to behold.

Now the attention shifted to A-Qing.

“I swear that guy’s a bad man! A pervert who tried to assault a child!”

Again, the gaze turned back to the Rat-faced Man.

“No, no! I was only trying to kidnap…”

“Look at this punk! Just kidnapping? Do you even know what would happen to that child? Huh?”

“That’s…”

The Rat-faced Man was left speechless.

A-Qing proclaimed boldly, filled with confidence.

“See? Be it a child predator or whatever wanted to sacrifice me!”

Master Seung-soo stroked his beard and said, “Heh, have you ever seen such a beastly creature in this world?”

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