As the 3 pills of the Demonic Medicine Ayu Kalpa were passed out and Woon Seong sat down in meditation from his rewards of clearing his First Trial, he felt a surge of qi that was compressed within the pills.
Woon Seong roused his internal qi and opened up his pathways in vigor, in order to accept the mass of internal qi being supplemented into his body.
The Demonic Qi supplemented by the 3 Pills of the Ayu Kalpa surged violently and aggressively in nature, through Woon Seong’s dantian and pathways.
However!
Whooooooooooooooh!
A golden and blue qi that was originating from his Tempered True Blossom Technique offset the violent energy of the Demonic Qi and brought it under control.
His completely new technique that he had made by himself, was something so high-level, that even Woon Seong could not fathom just how incredible it’s true worth was. But it was definitely something that would not struggle to rein in the demonic qi from the 3 pills of Ayu Kalpa.
The Tempered Qi surged and mixed in with the demonic qi, melting the unrefined parts of the qi down, to become stable and suitable for Woon Seong’s body.
Swirling together with Woon Seong’s collected internal qi he had been cultivating ever since he gained the body of No.900, the Ayu Kalpa medicine’s qi was mixed into it and added efficiently to his already existing internal qi.
Woon Seong couldn’t help but struggle though.
Once again, he led the newfound internal qi throughout his body, restricting the rampant and undiluted demonic qi with the rest of his tempered qi.
Inside his body, Woon Seong’s internal circuitry was being forcibly expanded, along with the number of pathways being forced open, in order to adjust to the newly consumed qi.
As Woon Seong thought, this large surplus of Qi right now, would serve as the best foundation for his power to build in the future.
The meridians within Woon Seong’s body were pushed and stretched apart as they expanded to support his joints and flow of energy.
Once, twice and then a third time around.
Woon Seong started to memorize the new pathways and circulated the finished expansion of his internal circuit with his accumulated qi.
How long had it been?
“Huuu…”
Woon Seon opened his eyes, as he slowly took a breath in.
A slight amber gold sheen of color remained in Woon Seong’s eyes and then disappeared.
It was the last bit of unrefined qi within his body that had surfaced to his irises and then returned back down to his dantian.
Soon the eyes of Woon Seong regained their original color. It was too short of a time, that no one had seen the amber glow within his eyes.
It was about 20 years worth of qi.
It was safe to say that Woon Seong had been incredibly efficient with absorbing the maximum amount of qi possible within the Ayu Kalpa pills.
It was a waste that was about a year’s worth or so had been lost, but it was an inevitable loss for anybody who was intaking medicine to forcibly increase their qi reserves. Most children had probably lost about 5-6 years worth through this process.
So if anything, it could still be considered a large boon for Woon Seong that he had been so successful.
However, if his talent had been much higher in his current body through the Heavenward Soul Earthen Body technique, he wouldn’t have even lost that 1 year’s worth.
‘It’s a shame, but I can’t help it.’
Woon Seong let go of his lingering attachment and looked around his surroundings. When he looked around to see the other kids, Woon Seong’s gaze lingered on Ah-Young.
Just as she had passed the Trial before him, she proved her talent once more, she had finished absorbing the full effect of the Ayu Kalpa Pills before Woon Seong.
This just proved even further to Woon Seong, that a genius was indeed a genius.
Ah-Young mouthed her words with her lips to avoid the eyes of the instructors when she made eye contact with Woon Seong.
‘Did you do a good job?’, she mouthed to him.
Feeling no need to answer the question, Woon Seong snorted and turned his head away.(T/N : what a tsundere Woon Seong hehe)
It was needless to say that Ah-Young made an ambiguous expression.
How long had it been?
As time went by, the children began to wake up one by one.
There may have been individual differences between them, but everyone seemed to have achieved some results with the pills.
The senior instructor noticed that all the children were awake and stomped his foot to gather their attention once more.
Boom-
Each of the children focused their attention on the instructor as they heard the sound of foot stomping, echo throughout the chamber.
The same went for Woon Seong.
“Everyone seems to have absorbed the energy of the Demonic Medicine. Congratulations on becoming stronger.”
The senior instructor said so and gave a fishy smile. The smile felt as if he were really saying, that this was only the beginning.
Obviously, there were still several years in the 10 years required for the Cave of Latent Demons to graduate.
“Lucky thing is, this is not the only gift that the Lord has decided to gift you.”
The words shook the eyes of Woon Seong.
It was already a huge gift to receive those 3 medicinal pills. Most kids on average had absorbed 6 years worth of internal qi through those pills alone. For Woon Seong, he had gained about 20, which was a gift he already hadn’t expected.
‘But this isn’t everything…?!’
Woon Seong could not hide his surprise.
There were a number of children who were also surprised by this, but there was one who ooked as if they had already expected the next gift.
That one, was the calm facial expression of No. 17, Ah-Young.
‘You know something.’
Woon Seong soon stopped his useless thoughts and focused on the instructor’s next words.
“You can start learning proper martial arts finally… And these martial arts are the best martial arts known even across the entire world.”
‘In the world?’
Just what kind of martial arts were the instructors planning on giving them, Woon Seong wondered.
However, before Woon Seong could even formulate an idea about it, the instructor turned around and spoke.
“Follow me.”
It was a narrow road that the instructor led the children down within a large canyon. A canyon between the peaks of the mountain ranges within the territory of the Cult.
The children from the Cave of Latent Demons, walked along the narrow road through the canyon, following the instructor.
It was such a narrow path that it could only fit 3 people in width as a time.
As they walked along the road, Woon Seong examined the scenery with indifferent eyes.
The end of the canyon began to be seen.
The one at the end was a huge cliff. It was a high cliff along one of the peaks of the Cheonsan Mountains.
Underneath this cliff were two large iron doors.
And right above the iron gate, there were a series of characters engraved with brush strokes.
‘The Divine Demonic Vault!’
The eyes of Woon Seong who read the letters, trembled.
It was a library that was famously known all throughout Murim, that contained the martial arts of the Heavenly Demons and several Demonic practitioners of incredible legends.
It was one of the 3 largest libraries, within the cult, but this one was the most secretive of the three
The name of this vault was frequently mentioned amongst the several political factions beyond the regions of the Cult. It was that secretive and highly valued.
“Some of you might have heard of it. This is the Divine Demonic Vault.”
The senior instructor’s shout rang around.
These three demonic vaults could not be entered by anyone unless they had permission from the Lord of the Cult, himself.
Perhaps even at that moment, there were masters ready to ambush any unauthorized intruders.
“Give thanks to the Lord for his kind grace. Because of the Lord’s grace, who watched your achievements, has granted you the right to enter the Divine Demonic Vault!”
And right now, this very secretive vault, that several masters across Murim had heard of, and had envied the knowledge within it, was being opened to mere demonic soldiers from the Cave of Latent Demons.
‘What the hell is the Cult of the Heavenly Demon truly up to?’
This was definitely not like any past records Woon Seong had heard of, when it came to Cave of Latent Demons.
Woon Seong closed his eyes and thought.Young children that were supplemented and given massive rewards for massive growth. They were not simply just training the next generation.
This was the very basic of standards when trying to develop a Peak Realm martial artist.
Though Peak Realm Martial Artists were very few in number across the whole landscape of Murim, the Cult of Heavenly Demon was giving the basic support to produce several of these, and probably were aiming to cultivate Transcendent Realm Martial Artists, or even martial artists stronger than that!
Woon Seong’s eyebrows trembled slightly.
‘Is the Cult of the Heavenly Demon preparing for a war?’
It was a low probability, but incredibly dangerous possibility that could not be ruled out.
The Cult of the Heavenly Demon had always hoped to return their Cult’s practices to become the State Religion.
‘If so, it wouldn’t hurt to use them for my growth like they are trying to use me.’
The goals of the Cult, if they were truly for war, would be incredibly beneficial for Woon Seong to grow from and establish his strength to an unbelievable degree to achieve his revenge.
There was no need to think about loyalty to the Cult.
They were the ones who were trying to use him first. So it was only natural Woon Seong would use them as well for his own benefit.
Besides, The Cult’s practices were strictly a religious group.
In the history of Murim, it was incredibly rare for the Cult of the Heavenly Demon to ever start or initiate large-scale violence, let alone a war.
There were cases of them even doing their best to support the public welfare to expand their influence through non-violent means, which was rare for any unorthodox organization.
But if it was through war, Woon Seong would have great opportunities to prove himself to the cult and rise in political power. His goal was to become much much stronger than a simple Peak Realm Martial Artist or even Transcendent Realm Martial Artist, so it aligned with his goals if he could move his own power within the cult for his own goals.
‘It’s the last resort of options to gain power through the cult, but war won’t hurt me in terms of growing in strength.’
As Woon Seong thought so, the senior instructor continued to talk.
“But keep this in mind. You can enter this place only once in your time here, and only for one day! In addition, we limit the number of books that can be brought out of here to one book.”
Only one day.
It was impossible to go back inside once he came out.
And all he could bring back, was one book.
Woon Seong engraved the message from the senior instructor, in his mind.
One day may be considered a long time to some people, but for the children in the Cave of Latent Demons, it was not long at all.
‘I need to exploit as much knowledge as I can out of this opportunity.’
Woon Seong’s eyes glistened as he looked at the Divine Demonic Vault.
For the spearmaster sect’s disciple, Woon Seong, who had copious amounts of literary knowledge, this was a one-of-a-kind chance of a lifetime.
“So choose carefully. I hope you can choose the right martial arts for you.”
The senior instructor smiled politely.
And finally, the opening of the Divine Demonic Vault began to take place.
Grindddd- Grindddd-
* * *
“Did the children in the Cave of Latent Demons enter the vault?”
Sang In-hyo asked the senior instructor about the details of the event.
The senior instructor had just returned to report the amount of children who had survived the Trial of Life and Death.
“Yes, 72 surviving children, all entered the Divine Demonic Vault”
Sang In-hyo nodded at the words.
“Some average martial artists find opportune luck, and some talents become prodigies, but it all depends on their luck when picking the best martial art for themselves.”
Choice, knowledge and even luck was something these children needed if they wanted to succeed. But…. it would be rather interesting for Woon Seong.