Birth, The Immortal (2)

Whuuumm—

It was the moment his Small Heavenly Circuit had just ended. Neung Je-gang meant to stop circulating. Even a single circuit had given him inner energy enough to satisfy him, stronger and greater than before.

But the inner force born from that circuit ignored his intent to stop and went its own way.

‘Ugh! W-what is this…?’

Neung Je-gang panicked. In the martial world this was called deviation and was the straight road to becoming a cripple. He thought it had come for him.

‘I’m ruined. That damned old quack!’

He cursed the Demon Doctor in his heart, lips clenched. So this “experiment” had pushed him into deviation, he thought.

At that thought, his strength went slack. He gave up trying to forcibly steer the rampaging inner force. The power roaming his body was simply stronger than his will.

But what was this? The moment he let go, he felt the energy compact into a powerful current and begin to move on its own along the meridians used by the Demonic Mara Energy Method. Its volume and speed steadily increased.

In an instant it completed one circuit, then another. With each cycle, it grew larger and more solid.

‘To hell with it. Do as you please.’

He chose to stop worrying about the movement of the force. There was no sense clinging to what he couldn’t control. Thinking, Well, then I might just die, oddly eased his mind.

Revenge and resentment felt like someone else’s story. Then a wild thought struck him.

‘What if I keep circulating until I die? No—unacceptable! I have to get out and take revenge on that bastard Gye Yu who toyed with us brothers. And I won’t put off avenging my parents and our household any longer.’

While he was off on that tangent, the ungoverned force completed twelve cycles—the limit of the Minor Heavenly Circuits.

Normally, after twelve cycles, the energy would return to the dantian and settle. But the force inside him trampled even that hope and, stronger and greater still, began to move again, slowly, along the meridians.

‘Damn. What should I think about now? …Since it’s moving itself anyway, maybe I should try what I thought of earlier?’

He started another reckless idea—this one truly dangerous.

Though his will had no control, he was, undeniably, in the middle of energy work. To execute a different art mid-circulation was against all common sense—worse, to practice an orthodox inner art directly opposed to the demonic Demonic Mara Energy Method.

‘Which one? If I’m doing it, it should match the Mara method in might. Yes—this. The Broad Yang Blazing Flame Divine Art! A fiercely Yang art not inferior to the Solar Divine Art. Master would have loved to see this…’

He plunged into the untested gamble. After memorizing the verses once, he began circulating according to the Broad Yang Blazing Flame Divine Art.

He thought all strength had already been sucked into the Mara method, but hidden reserves the Mara current could not draw burst out from tiny meridians and muscles everywhere and clumped together.

He focused only on steering the new power, forgetting the unhandleable tide of the Mara method.

After a long while, he finally completed one full circuit with the Broad Yang Blazing Flame Divine Art. Unlike the Mara method, this new force obediently returned to his dantian and settled.

‘Good. I was afraid this one would rampage too… Is it behaving because it’s an orthodox art? If so, I should’ve started with orthodoxy… But where is the Mara current going now?’

By then the Mara current had eased into motion again, entering a path he had never known.

It was the place commonly said to be the junction of the Ren and Du meridians, the gate that, once pierced, made energy handling easier and faster—a hurdle every master must clear.

‘It’s trying to open the Ren–Du.’

He tensed. He knew how deadly hard opening Ren–Du was.

Thunk.

Something bumped.

‘Huh? That’s odd.’

To open Ren–Du, one risked one’s life. That was the normal process.

But what was this? The Mara current kicked through the Ren–Du gate as if toeing aside a pebble.

‘A-am I allowed to be happy about this?’

If only the energy weren’t moving by itself, he would have leapt for joy.

Worse (or better), after piercing Ren–Du, the Mara current rushed straight toward the final stage of inner cultivation: the Gate of Life and Death.

Piercing that gate meant linking the two crown points at the top of the head—Baihui and Tianling. Normally, cultivated energy passes Baihui and returns; Tianling is not traversed. If one breaks the wall and unifies them, the path extends to Tianling. Along that opened way, innate Heaven–Earth qi continually enters the body and merges with one’s inner energy, forming a vast sea that never runs dry—true apex mastery.

But failure was more likely than success, and failure meant death. Hence the name: Gate of Life and Death.

The Mara current glided toward that gate.

‘Nooo! I can’t die here!’

When the current struck the gate, Neung Je-gang screamed inwardly.

BOOM!

This was nothing like Ren–Du. If Ren–Du had been a pebble, this was a boulder.

The unstoppable current faltered under the fierce rebound and recoiled.

Khff!

Even with this new body, enduring a backlash of inner force with a smile was impossible. Blood leaked between his clenched lips.

‘D-damn it!’

The energy gathered again and hurled itself at the gate.

BOOM!

Ghhk!

His whole body trembled. Another backlash rose up his throat; he could barely keep his mouth shut. Real signs of deviation.

Gulp!

He forced the blood back down. If he opened his mouth, it was over—no revenge, only dreams.

The recoiled Mara current seemed to know this was the last try and drew every shred of strength together.

But even so, it looked no stronger than before. Failure seemed certain.

Then—

Hummm—

Another phenomenon slipped his control. The energy from the Broad Yang Blazing Flame Divine Art, resting quietly in his dantian, shot through his meridians like lightning toward the Mara current—and slammed into it.

BOOM!

The Mara current was a taut arrow. The shockwave from the collision hurled it toward the Gate of Life and Death like a bolt.

The Blazing Flame current rallied and chased after it, charging the gate as well.

‘Th-they’re insane…’

He nearly blacked out at the clash of forces—this really was death’s doorstep.

KRAAASH!

The Mara current struck the gate—and before it could rebound, the Blazing Flame current crashed into it again.

VOOOM—

THUD—

“Kurrgh!”

GUSH—

A waterfall of blood spewed from Neung Je-gang’s mouth, and he lost consciousness.

Vvvvv—

Having pierced the Gate of Life and Death, the two currents tangled wildly and swept down along his meridians. They reached the dantian, then, still unruly, flowed on.

Perhaps because two powers had fused, more hidden reserves poured out from the farthest reaches, and the innate qi entering through Tianling merged in as well, becoming an immeasurable force.

Vooooom—

Unmindful of their senseless master, the energies continued along the channels.

And now, perhaps because they had joined, they moved through meridians Neung Je-gang had never known, cycling again and again.

At the moment they completed the Great Twelve Circuits—the Great Heavenly Circuit following the Gate of Life and Death—

FWAAASH!

The amassed energies scattered at once, threading every fine capillary meridian and piercing them through. Then the force burst outward through his skin.

A dark-blue airflow rampaged in the dark, whirling violently, Neung Je-gang’s body lifted and spun at its center.

The vortex widened, turning first fully black, then red, then back to dark blue—colors shifting until, at last, it glowed entirely blue.

The color ceased changing, and the motion changed again. What had spread wide now began to contract.

At some point it looked as if his body lay inside a large blue egg. Then the airflow slowly returned into him through Tianling.

Thump.

He dropped onto the stone table, lying there with a face as peaceful as sleep.

How long had passed?

He slowly woke. Opening his eyes, he jolted upright. It felt like he’d leapt from hell to heaven. The pitch-dark prison shone to him as bright as midday.

“My inner energy…!”

By habit he ran the Three Yang Energy Art—then realized too late that the Demonic Mara was now his main method. But even with the Three Yang Art, the energy surged up as if that were natural—in terrifying volumes he could never have imagined before.

Since he’d started it, he ran it through—and met no resistance. The energy flowed wherever he willed.

Not only that. After one circuit of the Three Yang, the Mara method rose at his command without strain. The Broad Yang Blazing Flame Divine Art followed his will as well.

Having finished circulating with three inner methods, he still could not fathom what had happened. The manuals were different—yet the moving energy was one.

“Heh… So I not only pierced the Gate of Life and Death—I became a monster who can run any inner method?”

He said it, but he couldn’t be sure.

He went straight to the stone tablets and found a manual he hadn’t fully grasped.

“Brahma Heaven Blood Demon Art… from the Esoteric Sect?”

He sat again and began breathing per that method. The energy rose naturally and followed the formula exactly.

“Looks like I really did become a monster.”

After one circuit, he stood and replaced the tablet.

“You’re only realizing that now? You’re my masterpiece.”

The Demon Doctor approached.

Sensing him naturally, Neung Je-gang wasn’t startled by the sudden voice.

“What in the world did you do to my body?”

Curiosity had become unbearable.

“I’ll never tell. One monster like you is enough for the world. What I will say is this: no one can kill you now. Heh-heh!”

He had no intention of passing on the Asura’s Dissection Divine Technique. It was his alone—and would vanish with him.

Besides, how could he explain that creating a monster like Neung Je-gang required the true blood of dozens of transcendents? Not knowing was better for the younger man’s sanity.

“In any case, thank you. I thought my dantian was lost forever… I won’t forget this.”

“Don’t you dare forget. It’s your duty to tell the world that I made you. Never forget.”

“I understand. I’ll make sure the world knows the Demon Doctor was, in truth, a Divine Physician.”

“That’s all I want. Nothing more.”

For a man who’d devoted his life to medicine, that would make his life not so bad after all.