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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Bobt
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Before the regression, in his previous life, Joo Seo-cheon had lived a life that exceeded the age of seventy-seven. There was no way he could properly remember his childhood.
However, there was one thing he faintly remembered, and that was the Plum Blossom Qi Technique.
The Plum Blossom Qi Technique was the first internal cultivation technique he had learned after entering the Mount Hua Sect. It was a martial art he had learned to form the dantian and accumulate basic internal energy. He could never forget it.
“Back then, I tried my best to feel the Qi somehow…”
In his childhood, after being taken in by his master, there was one thing he had worried about while practicing the Plum Blossom Qi Technique.
What if he couldn’t learn martial arts properly and was abandoned?
This was a common anxiety not only for Joo Seo-cheon but also for children who had experienced starvation as orphans.
Although the training at the Mount Hua Sect was difficult and arduous, at least they didn’t let him go hungry. Moreover, he didn’t have to worry about freezing to death every winter. In order to not forget that sweetness, he had also taken martial arts training seriously.
However, contrary to his efforts, it seemed he didn’t have talent, so he had a hard time practicing the Plum Blossom Qi Technique.
“Ah, but now I have to deliberately slow it down.”
His spiritual enlightenment itself was at the Awakening Realm, so mastering a basic internal cultivation technique like the Plum Blossom Qi Technique was not difficult.
However, if he did that, the elders of the sect and his master would notice, causing a commotion, so he couldn’t do that.
Of course, the Plum Blossom Qi Technique was not a peerless divine technique like the Purple Haze Divine Technique, so mastering it quickly didn’t mean he would instantly become a master.
Unless someone directly checked his pulse, even if the greatest expert in the world came, it would be difficult to notice.
But now, with his master sticking close and monitoring him, he had no choice but to endure with patience.
* * *
A year passed like lightning.
Joo Seo-cheon turned nine years old.
“Oh, you’ve finally reached the fifth level. Well done.”
Yu Jeong-mok smiled kindly and patted his head.
Joo Seo-cheon showed an embarrassed expression but still smiled faintly, looking pleased.
At first, when he was treated like a child, it was a bit troublesome.
No matter how much he looked like a child on the outside, he was an old man over seventy years old on the inside. He was not at an age to have his head patted.
But there was no way Yu Jeong-mok could know that. Whenever he did something, he would pat his head and praise him, saying he did well.
As time gradually passed, Joo Seo-cheon also got used to it. Although it was embarrassing, it wasn’t entirely bad.
In his previous life, when he was alone, the only person who had cherished and been by Joo Seo-cheon’s side was his master, Yu Jeong-mok.
It would be a lie to say he didn’t miss that touch.
In this moment, forgetting his original age, he was happy to receive Yu Jeong-mok’s touch.
“From today onwards, you’ll have to do it on your own. It will be tough, but I believe you’ll do well.”
Yu Jeong-mok expressed his regret.
“Finally!”
In contrast, Joo Seo-cheon didn’t show it in front of Yu Jeong-mok, but inwardly, he cheered with his arms wide open.
For the past year, Yu Jeong-mok had been helping him with his internal cultivation technique every single day, so he couldn’t practice other martial arts.
But that too would end today.
Now he could put into action what he had been planning and putting off all this time.
“Fortunately, it wasn’t that boring.”
Deliberately adjusting the Plum Blossom Qi Technique and practicing it slowly was tedious, but the rest of his life was not.
First of all, the dreaded Rakan Hell!
Even for Joo Seo-cheon, who had experienced all sorts of turmoil in his previous life, going through Rakan Hell again was an extremely difficult task.
Seeing the supervisors uncannily sense the limits of his body and push him to the brink of death made his killing intent boil.
Just when he thought it was becoming a bit more bearable, the supervisor would raise the level and push him to the extreme again. That was still being repeated.
No matter how much he had been given the chance to live his life again, he really didn’t want to experience Rakan Hell.
“And…”
Organizing memories
This was the most important thing.
He had a fairly good grasp of what would happen in the martial arts world in the future. But it wasn’t perfect.
There was a limit to human memory. Moreover, it was nearly impossible to remember every detail of an entire lifetime.
So, Joo Seo-cheon desperately recalled and repeated the major events that would happen in the future every day, so as not to forget them.
If he could, he wanted to record them in a book, but if someone saw it and remembered it, he didn’t know what variables might arise.
Of course, even if someone saw it, they would likely dismiss it, thinking, “There’s no way this is really the future,” but you never know with worldly matters.
He was cautious and cautious again, and even if he took notes, he wrote them on the dirt ground and immediately erased them.
While organizing these memories, Joo Seo-cheon pondered and planned how he should move forward.
“They say knowledge gained is never wasted, and my visits to the library in my old age are proving helpful.”
The position of Fifth Elder of Mount Hua valued not only martial arts but also intellect.
Especially since it was right after the end of the age of war, he needed to have the ability to discuss the well-being of the martial arts world.
He had already been evaluated as having obtained the position of Fifth Elder of Mount Hua through a stroke of luck, so he had studied hard, racking his aging brain, because he didn’t want that.
“Now, the waiting is over.”
His basic training wasn’t entirely finished.
For a while, he still had to go through Rakan Hell and do joint training at the Cultivation Cave.
But it wasn’t the internal cultivation technique. On the contrary, until he fully mastered the Plum Blossom Qi Technique, he couldn’t learn any other internal cultivation techniques.
“I can put into action what I’ve been preparing for a year.”
A deep smile spread across his lips.
It was about the future, sixty-six years from today.
At that time, among the disciples of the Mount Hua Sect, there was a genius who had outstanding aptitude from a young age and overflowing talent in martial arts.
And thanks to that genius, a secret about a certain martial art would be revealed.
The identity of that martial art was the Plum Blossom Qi Technique.
“No one ever even imagined it.”
The Plum Blossom Qi Technique
A martial art known to every disciple of the Mount Hua Sect!
To learn advanced martial arts, one had to go through this process.
But that was all it was, nothing more.
In fact, even after the name of Mount Hwa became known and it became a major orthodox sect, hundreds of years passed, but no one even imagined that there might be any secrets.
Like others, Joo Seo-cheon had thought it was just a passing process, merely a foundation. He had wanted the next advanced martial art.
So when the secret of the Plum Blossom Qi Technique was revealed, he had been greatly shocked. He had even been skeptical at first.
“Fixed notions are truly frightening. Being unable to break free from them, even when seeing the true meaning, one fails to realize it and denies it.”
Throughout the long history, everyone had thought.
The Plum Blossom Qi Technique was just a basic thing to pave the way.
It was just a passing process, a mere stepping stone.
But everyone had been too indifferent to that stepping stone.
The Plum Blossom Qi Technique was an internal cultivation technique that ranked among the top in the murim, and it was also an internal cultivation technique that had been with the Mount Hua Sect since its inception.
When everyone was focused on advanced martial arts and passing by, only one person in the future would take an interest and discover the secret.
Joo Seo-cheon, having finished his reminiscence of the past, sat in front of a nearby plum blossom tree only after making sure no one was around.
What caught his eye was the pure white petals of the plum blossom.
“I’ve been with them all my life.”
The symbols of Mount Hwa were the sword and the plum blossom.
It was called the winter plum blossom because it bloomed in cold weather, and it even had a separate name, the snow plum blossom, because it bloomed amidst the snow.
When the martial arts world was caught in the whirlwind of turmoil, when the Mount Hua Sect was in crisis, he had always grown up looking at the plum blossoms.
In his childhood, when he became the Fifth Elder of Mount Hua, and even when he sensed his impending death, he had looked at the plum blossoms.
Now, he intended to unfold the secret of those plum blossoms.
“Phew.”
He sat cross-legged and straightened his back.
His chin was facing forward, and he closed his eyes.
He took a deep breath and exhaled.
Inhale, exhale.
Inhalation and exhalation. It was repeated in a steady rhythm.
It wasn’t simply breathing.
Although small, he began circulating his Qi, moving the warm energy starting from his lower dantian.
At first, it was the general Plum Blossom Qi Technique, but it changed halfway through. It was the secret Qi circulation method that would be revealed in the distant future.
“Plum Blossom Vitality Technique!”
For reference, this secret was passed down to the disciples of the Mount Hua Sect as soon as it was revealed.
At that time, the age of war had ended, and peace had finally arrived, but this peace was quite unstable.
The martial arts world had suffered numerous casualties due to the decades-long turmoil and was suffering from the aftereffects.
Compared to its heyday, its strength was barely at the level of thirty percent, and the Mount Hua Sect was no exception.
In order to regain stability, they felt the need to nurture their disciples, and it was then that the Plum Blossom Vitality Technique was discovered.
In Joo Seo-cheon’s case, rather than learning it, he had to memorize it to confirm the stability of this Plum Blossom Vitality Technique and pass it down.
“It’s faint, but it’s coming in.”
A deep smile naturally formed on his lips.
“The vitality of the plum blossom!”
The secret of the Plum Blossom Qi Technique, the reason it would later be called the Vitality Technique.
It lay in the vitality contained within the plum blossom.
An internal cultivation technique refers to a method of accumulating Qi circulating in the great nature into the dantian through a specific breathing technique.
That was the truly basic and fundamental principle.
However, the Plum Blossom Qi Technique had something additional to that basic structure, and that was the vitality of the plum blossom tree.
It was impossible with other trees, but when practicing Qi circulation near a plum blossom tree while reciting specific mnemonics, one could absorb the vitality.
At a glance, it might seem like a demonic technique, but it definitely wasn’t. It wasn’t stealing the essence of life itself.
If that were the case, the plum blossom tree would quickly wither and die, never blooming again. Then it could no longer be called an orthodox technique. It would be a demonic technique.
“I’m not stealing or borrowing vitality. It’s that I’m breathing in what the plant, the plum blossom, exhales.”
Qi wasn’t something that only existed in humans. It was present in animals, of course, and even in the weeds scattered on the streets.
Moreover, if it was a living being, it breathed.
The plum blossom tree was no exception.
And the Plum Blossom Vitality Technique allowed one to inhale the exhaled vitality along with the Qi of the great nature and slowly accumulate it in the lower dantian.
“Plum Blossom Unity”
He recited the mnemonics of the Plum Blossom Vitality Technique that would be revealed in the distant future.
To breathe as one with the plum blossom.
“I feel a bit guilty.”
Originally, this glory and fame should have gone to one person.
Uncovering the secret discovered by a disciple who hadn’t even been born yet made him feel like a thief, his conscience pricked.
So he had intended to keep the fact that he knew this Plum Blossom Vitality Technique to himself for the sake of that disciple.
“Alright, it’s fine.”
The biggest reason the Plum Blossom Qi Technique had to remain a passing process was due to Qi accumulation.
Everything else was fine, but in terms of the speed of accumulating internal energy, it was slow to the point of being considered third-rate in the murim at best.
That was why people had evaluated this as the only shortcoming of the Plum Blossom Qi Technique.
However, after the secret was revealed, it was different. Although it couldn’t be called a peerless divine technique, it was a top-notch cultivation method.
The issue with the speed of Qi accumulation was because the secret hadn’t been revealed in the first place. Once that was resolved, it became perfect.
“It’s not on the level of the Purple Haze Divine Technique, but it’s still a speed that doesn’t lose out to other advanced internal cultivation techniques.”
When he was eight years old, he had formed his dantian and started accumulating Qi, and now that he was nine, he only had about a year’s worth of internal energy.
But if he used this Plum Blossom Vitality Technique, he could gather it quickly in no time.
For the time being, his master wouldn’t check his pulse either, so he could hide it.
He couldn’t help but describe it as perfect.
The newly revealed secret had the effects of increasing the speed of Qi accumulation and expanding the total capacity of the dantian.
“Above all, what feels the best is…”
He couldn’t hold back the smile forming on his lips.
As if releasing all the pent-up frustration he had been feeling, he focused his mind and proceeded with the Plum Blossom Qi Technique in one go.
“That there’s no need to hold back anymore!”
He had already had the enlightenment to master the Plum Blossom Qi Technique early on, but he had to forcibly suppress it because his master checked his pulse every day.
But not anymore. There was no need for that now.
Mastering the Plum Blossom Qi Technique didn’t mean his realm would rise in an instant.
Therefore, unless the supervisors or other disciples directly intervened, they couldn’t notice, and teaching or checking the pulse of a young disciple was solely the prerogative of the master.
Except for special cases, they rarely checked the pulse, and if they felt something unusual, they would separately inform the master.
Due to these circumstances, Joo Seo-cheon proceeded with the Plum Blossom Qi Technique quickly without holding back, feeling relieved.
The enlightenment that had been chained burst forth like a flood, harmonizing with his mind and body. His will, riding the Qi channels, soon reached the dantian and brought about a change.
The Plum Blossom Qi Technique, which had been at the fifth level, instantly rose to the tenth level.
Mastery was at the twelfth level, but he couldn’t reach the next stage due to lack of internal energy.
But that was only a matter of time. If he rapidly accumulated Qi using the Plum Blossom Vitality Technique and reached mastery, that would be it.
“Finally, I’ve taken just one step towards the future.”
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