That’s Not For Eating! (2)

“…y-you ate it?”

Yu Seol remained silent, merely stroking her stomach with her small hands.

Upon closer inspection, the upper half of the child’s body appeared to be turning red.

Yu Jinsan quickly put his granddaughter to sleep by pressing on her acupuncture points. Then he positioned her in a cross-legged position in front of him.

As he pressed his palm against her back to check her dantian, he was shocked.

A tremendous amount of qi continued to expand and surge within her body.

‘Just how…’

If left unchecked, the qi would run wild and potentially lead to her death. If she were an ordinary child, she would have died.

Fortunately, despite consuming that pill, her unique body constitution was neutralizing its toxicity.

First, he needed to absorb the surging qi into her dantian.

Following Yu Jinsan’s will, the qi swirled within the child’s body through her blood vessels.

As the process continued, Yu Seol’s dantian gradually accumulated the qi.

However, the amount of internal qi brought by the Blue Wolf’s pill was beyond imagination. It was questionable whether the child’s body could fully contain it.

After repeating this process dozens of times, the child’s dantian accumulated a kilogram’s worth of qi.

Now, the dantian, the vessel that held the internal qi, was full.

As time passed, Yu Jinsan grew anxious.

‘What should I do with this?’

At some point, a good idea occurred to him while he was lost in thought. The blocked blood vessels, which were known as the gates of the body, could be opened.

These blocked paths were known to be a matter of life and death. The remaining qi could be used to break through these two points.

The qi floating inside Yu Seol’s body changed direction and began to move toward the top of her forehead.

As if a tsunami were occurring within her body, it started pounding against the blocked blood vessels repeatedly.

Kwang! Kwang!

The blocked blood vessel known as the Iron Fortress collapsed after three clashes. At that moment, the child’s body was drenched in bright light.

Yu Jinsan blocked the force of qi and directed the remaining qi to the other blocked blood vessel. After five attempts, he managed to open it.

The bright light that had enveloped the child’s entire body moved to her stomach.

“Is her mid-dantian trembling…?”

It was the first step towards Body Reformation.

Yu Jinsan quickly absorbed the remaining qi in the child’s body.

Once the work was done, he wiped his forehead, which was covered in cold sweat. The process of a child undergoing Body Reformation.

“Phew. I can’t let that happen.”

Body Reformation refers to the complete realignment of the body into a perfect form suitable for martial arts.

A newborn baby having her body reborn.

When did something like this ever happen in the history of Murim? It was truly the first time for such a thing to occur.

Yu Jinsan was overwhelmed with emotions as he watched his granddaughter’s skin change, like a snake shedding its skin.

“Hehe. Hehehe.”

After a while, the bright light surrounding the child’s body disappeared, as if her body had absorbed it.

At the same time, Yu Seol opened her eyes. Her acupuncture points were automatically released at the same time as Body Reformation.

Did she feel lighter? Yu Seol blinked, then jumped up from her spot and ran around the room with her hands waving.

“Ha~”

Yu Jinsan, watching his grandchild smile brightly, felt proud.

She moved as light as a feather. And he could feel her full internal qi from her dantian. His granddaughter was the first to experience Body Reformation, something that even he, who had trained in internal qi his whole life, couldn’t achieve.

“This child… she stole something from her grandpa and ate it, and got good results.”

Contrary to what he had said, he actually believed that this was a good thing. He had no intention of retracting anything, but even if he did, he couldn’t guarantee that she wouldn’t have grown in some way.

Whatever it was, Yu Seol taking the pill was a true transformation.

His granddaughter, who looked at him, ran towards him with her arms outstretched and fell into his embrace.

“Grandpa!”

“Come on now. Grandpa will wash you up, and then I will make some delicious frog porridge for you.”

After picking up the child, he went outside and placed her in the yard.

After defeating the Blue Wolf, all the risks disappeared. Moreover, hadn’t the child just undergone a Body Reformation and gained physical strength close to that of the Immortal Buddha?

Now, he didn’t have to worry about wild animals. He could let the child run around to her heart’s content.

Yu Jinsan washed off the sweat and blood from his body and bandaged his wounds. After feeding the child, the day passed by swiftly.

He longed for a good rest after a long time.

As he lit the fire and laid her down in the bed, Yu Seol crawled onto his stomach and fell asleep there.

Yu Jinsan, lost in his own thoughts, stroked her head.

“At most, we have less than 10 days left.”

That should be the approximate time when Wudang’s punitive forces would appear. It was directly linked to the fate of the bandits.

Did he say that they hated each other?

He had tried not to pay much attention to the bandits, but now he felt concerned for them.

“Those kids… when I think about the past, I feel guilty, but they sure had a warm side to them. They also have the principle of not attacking regular civilians.”

They were all just deserters who had turned into bandits because they wanted to survive.

He wasn’t going to blame them. It was a basic instinct for humans to wish to live.

But helping them was a whole different matter.

‘Who am I to help others when I am stuck here myself? I have to hold my breath and endure things until I have a normal body.’

He had to shed this dying body and be reborn through Body Reformation. If that happened, he would go beyond his best state of body and enter into a new level where his martial arts would enhance.

But Yu Jinsan knew it too. It wasn’t going to be an easy task.

If he hadn’t achieved complete Body Reformation after so many years of training his body, it was normal to give up now. But he didn’t have any intention of stopping.

Lost in thought, he felt his chest turn wet.

“…Uh?”

Yu Seol, who had fallen on her stomach, was drooling.

Yu Jinsan smiled and stroked the child’s head.

A moment passed, and his hand stopped because he also fell into a deep sleep.

Kkoko!

A hen in the backyard gave them a wake-up call.

Yu Jinsan woke up first and began to start his day with cultivation.

From managing the chicken coop and crops, to childcare and physical training. There wasn’t even a moment of rest for him.

The same routine was being repeated every day.

Five days passed like that.

“Kuaaak!”

Then came a scream from far away.

Judging from how it echoed, it was a sound that came from at least 50 li away.

Yu Jinsan, who was plowing the field, stopped moving for a moment.

‘Looks like they have arrived.’

Yu Jinsan tried to ignore the screams and continue his tasks.

The opponent was a reputable sect, one of the Nine Great Sects. Even if one was lucky and defeated the punitive forces, stronger forces would be sent. Nothing good would come from him intervening.

As he plowed through the field, his granddaughter followed him around, making a mess with a stick in hand.

He couldn’t say anything because she was simply trying to imitate someone’s actions.

“Oh my, my back.”

There was a lot of work he had done today, and his back continued to ache. Yu Jinsan leaned back and looked at his granddaughter. He had a hat made of rice straw, and it looked quite good.

Yu Seol was imitating him by grabbing her waist with both hands.

“Oh my, oh my.”

“Where is this little crab’s waist now?”

Yu Jinsan grinned and grabbed the pitchfork again. At that time, a desperate scream could be heard.

“Ackkk!”

“Ack!”

This time, it was two people.

Sighing, he looked up at the sky.

His face was mixed with emotions.

While he was pondering, the memory of the day when he lost his family came to his mind.

‘I would have felt so grateful if someone had helped save my family from that situation. Jinsan… how can you think like this while abandoning your neighbor’s death?’

Suddenly, Yu Jinsan frowned.

He set the pitchfork aside and spoke softly to his granddaughter.

“Child, I guess today’s farming ends now.”

Yu Jinsan, who entered the house, wrapped the kid in a cloth and tied her to his back. And with his right hand, he grabbed the spear, their family’s heirloom.

The faces of the people who cheered for him when he was fighting the Blue Wolf came into his mind. He couldn’t just ignore them.

Moreover, if it was the Wudang Sect, wasn’t it a force that might be connected to his family’s enemy? If it was a sect related to the Murim Alliance, they would be shocked.

Holding the single spear, he ran through the mountains in the direction from which he had heard the screams.

It was when he had gone more than 30 meters beyond the area he lived in that his eyes found a body.

There were several scars on their shoulders and legs. Moreover, both arms were cut off. Yet no vital points had been attacked. So the man was killed in a very painful manner.

‘No matter how vengeful the blade may be, how can the hands of those who call themselves the Justice sects be this cruel?’

At that moment, he heard someone talking not too far away.

Yu Jinsan crept closer, leaving no trace to follow him.

“Are you going to tell me the location of the bandits’ base, or do you want to die like your comrade?”

The two Taoists from the Wudang Sect stood before the bandit, swords in hand.

A bandit kneeled in front of them, surrounded by the bodies of two more bandits that were horribly cut.

The bandit seemed enraged at how his comrades were treated.

“Stop messing around and just kill me.”

“It’s ridiculous to be concerned about loyalty to a bandit.”

The two Taoists looked very young, just as Yu Jinsan had expected.

Instead of sending the leaders of Wudang and wiping them out all at once, the independent sect chose to let the disciples of Wudang gain experience. For the bandits, who were weak in martial arts, it provided an excellent opportunity for practical combat experience.

The Taoists approached their ally, who had his sword aimed at the bandit’s neck, and whispered.

“Sahyung, looking at the mountain slope, the mountain bandits’ base should be near the top. Why don’t we go back to the meeting point and regroup?”

“Now that we’ve come this far, we need to find the exact location. I will check it with my own eyes and report back to the others.”

Although he was strong and confident, it seemed like he lacked experience.

His actions, tone, and voice were filled with the winning force and pride of belonging to the Wudang sect.

“I understand. Let’s finish up here first and then move on.”

“Right. And you take care of this one. You know what to do, right?”

“Don’t worry. I have no intention of leaving without taking revenge on Sajae.”

The bandit who was kneeling had his eyes closed, as if he had already given up on life. Then the Taoist warriors in charge of killing him stepped forward.

Next, at the moment when he raised his sword…

Suddenly, the voice of an unfamiliar old man could be heard from behind.

“Revenge is a good thing, but when you take someone else’s life, you have to be prepared to risk your own life as well. If you don’t have that kind of mindset, put down your sword right now.”

The Taoist, who was about to decapitate the bandit, furrowed his brow and stared at Yu Jinsan.

“Please reveal your identity.”

“Just call me the neighbor of the guy kneeling there.”

The bandit was overwhelmed with emotion and held back his tears.

“Elder…”

The Taoists remained motionless and turned their gaze towards Yu Jinsan. They sensed an eerie qi emanating from him.

“If you don’t know anything, stay out of this.”

“It’s you who don’t know anything. Do you know what fate awaits you?”

Yu Jinsan thrust his long spear into the ground.

Puak!

Then, a trembling voice escaped his lips.

“This is how much I’m restraining myself.”

A cold and deadly killing intent emanated from Yu Jinsan’s body.

At that moment, one of the Taoists seemed to realize what was happening and sent a message through qi to his colleague.

-Isn’t he the head of the Yu family, the one wanted by the Murim Alliance for extermination?

-Judging by his peculiar spear and the child on his back, it must be him.

-This is a great opportunity to gain fame. He said he’s an elder who has been in seclusion for a long time, so there shouldn’t be much to worry about.

-Just in case, you attack first. I’ll cover for you.

-Understood. And make sure the child doesn’t get harmed. They said the child needs to be rescued.

Yu Jinsan could more or less guess what they were discussing.

He sighed and shook his head.

“You still have a lot of life ahead of you, so I’ll give you one more chance. If you want to turn back, tell me now, and I’ll let you go. If not, you won’t find any mercy from me.”

“Look at him toying with us.”

One of the Taoists started running towards Yu Jinsan.

He raised the tip of his sword above shoulder level and arced towards Yu Jinsan’s neck.

However, he gracefully extended his arms, forming a loop. No, it appeared that way. That was until his hand grabbed his head and pulled his chin towards him.

Furthermore, since it was so close to his nose, he didn’t have enough distance to strike with his blade.

But before he could even react in shock, he opened his eyes.

Crack!

The satisfying sound of his spine being twisted reverberated through the mountains.