Chapter The Demonic Cult Instructor Returns Chapter 63
Chapter 63
Blink blink.
Only their eyes were blinking.
Their mouths hung wide open, unable to close.
Is this exactly what a mute person who ate honey would look like?
Actually, if they ate honey, they might not be able to close their mouths either.
In any case, the students gathered in the Special Purpose Pavilion right now had their mouths hanging open like mutes drooling honey, only blinking their eyes.
The person who finally broke the silence was none other than Yeom Ja-ryang.
“Ma… na, you said?”
“That’s right. It’s called mana.”
Sa Bigang maintained a consistently calm expression throughout.
One hour ago, Sa Bigang had summoned the students to this place.
And he began pouring out terms they had never heard before in their lives.
Methods of learning mana and ways to cast magic.
He suddenly recited these things and unilaterally ordered them to memorize everything.
It was as unfriendly a teaching method as his personality.
And now an even more unfriendly instruction was given.
“From now on, you will begin hellish training in preparation for the Spring Fragrance Festival. Anyone who doesn’t want to be in this class can leave. This is your only chance. If you intend to learn, sit properly in that spot, and those who want to leave should exit here now.”
“By any chance, isn’t this Demonic Arts?”
It was a question thrown by Gok Bo-ok.
Sa Bigang chuckled.
“No. But there’s enough room for stupid fools to misunderstand. So if you’re worried about public opinion, it’s better not to learn.”
“Why do we need to learn such a thing?”
Sa Bigang looked at Gok Bo-ok with sunken eyes.
Soon his mouth opened.
“Because if you don’t want to die a dog’s death someday, you’d better learn it.”
Though it sounded like a joke, Sa Bigang’s expression was more serious than ever, so no one laughed.
Instead, they swallowed dry saliva nervously.
Sa Bigang continued without caring.
“As long as you trust and follow me, you will become an invincible legion. I promise you that much.”
It seemed like an empty promise, but there was some resonance in his voice.
Along with an unusually serious gravity.
Finally, Yeom Ja-ryang sat cross-legged in place.
He realized that further questions would be meaningless.
The ‘secret principles’ of martial arts cannot be understood through a few questions and answers.
You must experience them directly.
Then Dan Li-jeong and Neung So-so sat down.
As they began sitting down one by one, only Yeon U-gyeong and the two students following him remained at the end.
“If you’re going to leave, go quickly. Don’t just stand there getting in the way.”
When Sa Bigang gestured with his chin, Yeon U-gyeong glared for a moment, then seemed to make up his mind and sat down.
Sa Bigang smiled slightly.
“Good. I’ll proceed with the class assuming you all agree. Then, welcome to entering the first hell. The first hell is the Black Dark Prison.”
A somehow eerie smile bloomed on Sa Bigang’s lips.
Soon after.
Click! Click! Click! Click…!
Weren’t all the windows around suddenly closing by themselves?
Sa Bigang had closed all the windows using Telekinesis magic.
When only faint rays of light seeping through the window cracks remained, Sa Bigang quietly murmured.
“Shade.”
Finally, the Special Purpose Pavilion training room was plunged into complete darkness.
***
‘Huh! How much time has passed?’
Yeom Ja-ryang suddenly came to his senses.
Until now, he had been circulating internal energy in a state of selfless absorption in perfect darkness.
When the complete darkness began, Sa Bigang had instructed them to circulate internal energy according to the mental cultivation formula he had taught them beforehand.
The Yin-Yang Transforming Mana Heart Method.
It was a heart method created by Sa Bigang that converted internal energy into mana.
The students soon followed the instructions, and Yeom Ja-ryang also closed his eyes and concentrated on circulating energy.
And then he realized.
‘This is somehow familiar!’
That was right.
In fact, the unique mental cultivation formula Sa Bigang taught today was based on the breathing technique he had taught the students morning and evening during their Martial Arts Study Journey.
In other words, the students had already been laying the foundation to learn this internal energy heart method for several months.
Once he knew this fact, circulating energy became much easier.
A strange sensation swirled through his entire body’s blood vessels, but it wasn’t unpleasant at all.
Rather, it was a refreshing feeling like scratching an itchy spot.
With the basics laid down, learning this new heart method for the first time couldn’t have been more enjoyable.
He had concentrated only on circulating energy like this and only now came to his senses.
‘About one period (approximately 30 minutes) must have passed?’
Actually, a full seven periods (approximately 14 hours) had passed, but the time Yeom Ja-ryang felt was only about that much.
However, the problem was from now on.
Beads of sweat formed on Yeom Ja-ryang’s forehead.
The nature of the internal energy that had been flowing smoothly had become heavy and sluggish from a little while ago.
An unpleasant feeling as if some other substance had entered his body and mixed in.
Moreover, the more he maintained energy circulation, the more his heart felt constricted.
‘What is this? Did something go wrong?’
Strange sensations when learning martial techniques bring enlightenment, but strange sensations when learning internal energy are a shortcut to Qi deviation.
Therefore, he even felt fear for a moment.
But his instincts were warning him.
He must not stop circulating energy here.
He must continue to the next stage of the mental cultivation formula.
The internal energy swirling through his blood vessels was continuously pounding his heart.
His constricted heart now began to hurt.
“Kugh!”
Finally, a groan burst from his lips.
‘This is definitely strange! Something’s wrong!’
He furrowed his brow tightly and clenched his fists.
Thump!
His heart pounded violently.
The energy in his body had collided with his heart.
‘Kuhek!’
It wouldn’t be strange if cardiac arrest occurred.
His heartbeat became noticeably slower.
‘Damn it, just once… more!’
Yeom Ja-ryang gritted his teeth and gathered all the internal energy in his body to shoot it toward his heart.
The internal energies that surged through his blood vessels crashed against his heart’s iron gate once again.
Boom!
An earthquake occurred inside his body.
But the tightly closed iron gate of his heart did not open.
‘Kughhh! Damn it…! I was wrong….’
That’s when it happened.
Sa Bigang’s sound transmission reached his ears.
[Don’t give up.]
‘Instructor…?’
[Just concentrate on circulating energy. What you’re feeling is exactly mana. You must have already realized that the nature of your internal energy has changed. It’s not internal energy, so there’s no worry of falling into Qi deviation. So rest assured and circulate according to the mental cultivation formula. You will now enter the process of gathering the converted mana in your heart. Once your heart accepts the mana, that pain will naturally be forgotten.]
Hearing Sa Bigang’s voice in his fear, Yeom Ja-ryang’s mind immediately became calm.
‘Is that so? This is mana…!’
It’s hard to express exactly, but compared to internal energy, it had a somewhat sticky feeling?
‘Good, then I’ll put aside my doubts for now.’
Once he steeled his resolve, his mind became much clearer.
He concentrated more and gathered the mana in his body to surge toward his heart’s iron gate once again.
Boom boom boom!
“Kuhek!”
This time too, a scream burst from his lips.
Now sweat poured down from his entire body like rain.
His body trembled violently.
When he first began circulating energy, he thought the expression “hell” was excessive.
But it wasn’t.
The pain he was feeling now was more extreme than ever before.
It was amazing that he didn’t lose consciousness.
‘Damn it! Do or die!’
Yeom Ja-ryang squeezed out all his strength one last time and surged the mana forward.
Then a strange phenomenon occurred.
Wasn’t the mana that had gathered like a giant wave hardening like a stone?
That was right.
The secret principle of the final verse lay exactly here.
If internal energy could be compared to rivers or waves, mana possessed properties similar to lava.
The lava that had been surging hotly soon cooled and hardened solidly.
And the hardened lava finally broke through his heart’s iron gate.
Rumble rumble rumble! Boom!
When the iron gate opened, the hardened mana started to flow like lava again and began pooling in his heart.
“Cough!”
A handful of blood poured from his lips.
Impure energy had poured out.
This was different from opening the middle dantian.
It wasn’t that he had gathered internal energy in his heart, but that he had stored converted mana.
‘My chest… is getting warm.’
Yeom Ja-ryang breathed roughly while memorizing that pleasant sensation one by one.
For a moment, he thought his heart would burst.
Now Yeom Ja-ryang had mastered the skill of converting internal energy to mana and storing that mana in his heart.
Sa Bigang’s sound transmission continued.
[You worked hard. Hehe. You were the fastest. Now the verse I’ll tell you is the method to reversely convert mana back to internal energy.]
Sa Bigang taught him the mental cultivation formula again.
Yeom Ja-ryang concentrated and memorized the mental cultivation formula, then began circulating mana accordingly.
Perhaps because he had successfully completed the conversion process once, reversing mana back to internal energy wasn’t very difficult.
‘This is really interesting!’
Yeom Ja-ryang again lost track of time as he played with the internal energy circulating through his body.
Yeom Ja-ryang still didn’t know how amazing this special ability he had gained was.
And he also didn’t know that the training would become even more hellish from now on.
***
Two full days had passed.
There was one dropout.
It was one of the students who followed Yeon U-gyeong.
If he had just consistently practiced the breathing technique Sa Bigang taught morning and evening during the Martial Arts Study Journey, he wouldn’t have dropped out.
But he had been lazy even with that.
He paid the price dearly.
In the end, he couldn’t endure the pain and fainted.
Tang Iháp came in and took the student to Busin Pavilion.
The person who took the longest was Neung So-so.
She had existing internal energy that conflicted with mana, so Sa Bigang had dissolved a considerable amount of it.
Therefore, the process of converting the few remaining bits of internal energy to mana wasn’t very easy.
But with Sa Bigang’s timely help, she succeeded in storing mana in her heart.
“Next is the Heavy Prison. Everyone open your eyes and pick up the weapons placed in front of you and stand up.”
The students each opened their eyes.
But it was still as if they were closed – they couldn’t see an inch ahead.
When they reached out and felt around, weapons were there, placed at some point.
Swords, sabers, spears, bows, and so on.
The weapons were varied.
The only person who wasn’t given anything was Neung So-so.
What was placed in front of Dan Li-jeong was, as expected, a large bow.
That bow he had received from Sa Bigang previously.
The students each picked up their weapons and stood up.
“From now on, you will undergo basic training.”
Sa Bigang told the students about training content matched to the weapons they held.
For instance, those holding swords should endlessly repeat sword strikes, and those holding sabers should endlessly repeat cuts.
Dan Li-jeong was instructed to endlessly repeat drawing and releasing the bowstring.
‘Really basic training.’
Dan Li-jeong, who had been very tense, felt somewhat deflated.
That was because the training he had done so far was at a much more difficult level than this, wasn’t it?
However, that thought didn’t continue for very long.
“Now, listen.”
When Sa Bigang’s instruction was given and Dan Li-jeong lifted his bow, it happened.
Rumble rumble rumble rumble!
“Huh!”
“Kugh!”
Groans burst out from here and there.
Dan Li-jeong almost cried out and fell to his knees right there.
Suddenly, his entire body became heavy as if it weighed a thousand pounds, didn’t it?
Forget drawing the bowstring – it was hard just to hold it.
As the hand holding the bow slowly lowered.
Whoosh! Smack!
“Kwahhh!”
Something flew and hit Dan Li-jeong’s forehead.
It was an ice ball shot by Sa Bigang – Ice Bolt.
Not only that, but dull impact sounds followed by screams burst out from various places.
Smack, crack!
“Kugh!”
“Ahh!”
Sa Bigang’s voice continued.
“Keke. Don’t expect that you won’t be seen because it’s dark. If you don’t do it properly, you’ll keep tasting these knocks.”
Only then did Dan Li-jeong raise his bow high.
And he belatedly realized that the training to follow would be hellishly painful.