Black and White Martial Emperor

Yeon Hojeong regained consciousness on the fifth day after receiving treatment.

“Ugh.”

“Are you coming around?”

Yeon Hojeong rose while clutching his head, his face deeply creased.

“Where am I?”

“My room.”

At Gi Uhui’s words, Yeon Hojeong looked around.

The room was packed with all kinds of medicinal ingredients and various documents.

It was not even an office, yet the room was like this. He wondered how anyone could possibly sleep in a place like this.

“How long has it been?”

“A full five days.”

Yeon Hojeong sighed.

“I’ve caused you trouble.”

“Don’t say that. It’s only natural for a physician to care for a patient.”

“You should’ve just thrown me into my room. I doubt you even slept properly.”

Gi Uhui smiled.

“I know your condition in detail, but even so, no one can guarantee what might happen to a patient who suddenly collapses. It’s far better to keep you in my quarters and monitor your state.”

“Thanks.”

“Not at all.”

Yeon Hojeong rubbed his stomach.

“Five days have passed, and my body still feels light. Though I am a bit hungry.”

“Drink water first. I boiled it a little while ago, so it’s lukewarm and shouldn’t burden your body.”

Yeon Hojeong gulped down the water in the bowl Gi Uhui handed him and let out a deep breath. Once water entered him, he certainly felt much more alive.

Gi Uhui said, “You had a lot of fatigue built up. You probably didn’t even realize that, did you?”

“I didn’t.”

“That’s just like you, Commander Yeon.”

“I still haven’t trained enough. I passed out just because I was a little tired. It’s embarrassing enough to kill me.”

Gi Uhui sighed.

“Don’t take fatigue lightly. Fatigue is the root of all illnesses. If you neglect managing it, a serious disease can flare up later. That applies to ordinary people and martial artists alike.”

“I’ll take that advice to heart.”

Yeon Hojeong observed his own interior.

“Hmm. You said five days? My internal injuries have recovered much faster than I expected.”

“That is why I said you have a body of iron, Commander Yeon. Even with the various True Qi you have refined, this recovery speed should be practically impossible. It was possible only because extreme training raised the density of your life force itself.”

“Of course, I shouldn’t ignore the credit of the physician who watched over me either, right?”

Gi Uhui merely smiled.

Yeon Hojeong smiled as well and rose from his seat.

“Is there anything I need to pay special attention to?”

“If I had my way, I’d prepare a medicinal decoction for you, but with your personality, you won’t drink it on schedule anyway.”

“You saw right through me. Of course, if I really felt like I was dying, I’d drink it.”

“You got back on your feet by your own strength, so as long as you manage your body properly, there shouldn’t be any major problems. I only hope you’ll make an effort to manage your fatigue from now on, even if you’re busy.”

“Understood.”

Yeon Hojeong patted Gi Uhui’s shoulder and headed for the door.

Gi Uhui, who had been quietly watching his back, asked as if tossing the words out, “It was the Divine Flame Cult, wasn’t it?”

Yeon Hojeong paused for a moment.

“That’s right.”

Gi Uhui’s eyes trembled.

“Is there nothing you want to ask me separately?”

“You already told me everything, didn’t you? About them.”

“Of course, but...”

Yeon Hojeong glanced at Gi Uhui.

“Physician Gi.”

“......Yes.”

“You broke ties with the Divine Flame Cult and entered the Martial Alliance because, in your own way, you were thinking of the greater cause. There were all kinds of complicated incidents, but in the end, you clearly chose to walk your own path. Am I right?”

“You’re right.”

“I treated you a bit harshly during our first few meetings, but at least as I see you, you have no talent for lies. And one of the many reasons you settled into the Martial Alliance is probably me.”

It was true. Though his temperament was somewhat rough, Gi Uhui had seen purity in Yeon Hojeong’s eyes.

The fact that he had treated her harshly, the fact that he had brutally killed a master of the Divine Flame Cult, and the fact that he was keeping the Mo Yong Clan Lord in check—all of it was for peace. At least Yeon Hojeong himself thought so, and Gi Uhui knew it as well.

In other words, Yeon Hojeong could be said to have had a profound influence on Gi Uhui’s judgment.

“You made the choice yourself, so you have to bear the responsibility yourself as well. Still, Physician Gi, you trust me, don’t you? Then I trust you too.”

“......Yes.”

Yeon Hojeong smiled.

“I’m going. Let’s have lunch tomorrow. You must’ve suffered because of me, so I’ll buy you something good.”

*****

After leaving Gi Uhui’s quarters, Yeon Hojeong headed to an unexpected place: the clearing in the Martial Alliance forest.

It was the place where he had once sparred with many people. Known only to those who knew, the place was quiet again today.

Yeon Hojeong sat cross-legged in the center of the clearing.

He had woken after a full five days, so he was hungry and his body felt stiff. At a time like this, the best thing to do would be to take in all the nutrition he had missed and sleep for a while, but he decided to put that off for a moment.

Hoo.

After breathing lightly, he focused his mind on the Yeon Clan Divine Core.

WOOOONG. WOOOOONG.

The Yeon Clan Divine Core, fixed solidly in place with tremendous density, let out a faint tremor at its master’s call.

It’s gotten smaller.

It was proof that the True Qi he had poured out in the previous battle had not yet properly recovered. At the same time, he was constantly circulating qi through his entire body to heal his internal injuries, so it seemed he would have to pay attention to his energy circulation for at least ten days.

Yeon Hojeong operated the Jade Wave Art.

HOOOOOOONG!

Deep blue True Qi surged up and steadied his mind and body.

The Jade Wave Art was always like that. It maintained his body and True Qi in a stable state, and since his spirit and qi stabilized, his mind also became peaceful.

There was no martial art like the Jade Wave Art for the beginning of energy circulation. Furthermore, the Jade Wave Art was a martial art absorbed within the Yeon Clan Divine Core, and because he was operating Jade Wave Qi, the movement of the Yeon Clan Divine Core also became active.

After he spent a long while focusing on stabilizing mind, qi, and body, Yeon Hojeong operated the Dragon-Embrace Divine Art.

HWAAAAAAK!

The change was unmistakable.

The blue True Qi, which seemed as if it could cleanse the heart merely by being seen, disappeared. In its place, roughly surging green True Qi rose.

A deep green light, clearly different from the blue-green color of Azure Dragon Qi, enveloped Yeon Hojeong’s entire body. It was an extremely deep green, but in a way, it also called a forest to mind.

Their natures were different, but their roots were the same. Whether the Jade Wave Art or the Dragon-Embrace Divine Art, there was no difference in that both used the energy of great nature after processing it to an extreme purity.

Good. The qi of the two divine arts hasn’t been disturbed.

Before he collapsed, he had constantly recalled the battle against Beonjak.

In truth, at Yeon Hojeong’s level, there was no need for that. To be precise, for Yeon Hojeong as the Dark Emperor rather than Yeon Hojeong as the Green Mountain Tiger Commander, Beonjak’s martial arts were unique, but there was not much in them worth learning.

Even so, Yeon Hojeong chewed over each and every one of Beonjak’s martial arts. Even while unconscious, even while dreaming, he examined his martial arts.

There was only one reason.

I went beyond dodging his martial arts and even counterattacked.

The Four Spirit Martial Art was a peerless art under heaven.

Its individual arts specialized in attack, defense, evasion and counterattack, and thorough killing. Their forms were established, but they were so free that they could be applied in any manner.

That was why they could be used well not only with weapons, but also through fists and feet. And that was also the reason the difficulty of the Four Spirit Martial Art rose straight upward.

A martial art whose forms were clear, yet could be transformed at any time depending on the situation.

Put another way, the prerequisite was to first attach another martial art to one’s body all the way to the ten-tenths realm. Other martial arts began with learning the techniques, but for the Four Spirit Martial Art, one could say the beginning lay in completing the form.

The completed form was then unfolded with creativity to fit the situation.

That was why no genius under heaven could draw out the power of the Four Spirit Martial Art to its limit without experience. The more situations one experienced, the more creativity increased, and the more the Four Spirit Martial Art’s range of application was maximized.

That was also why the Four Spirit Martial Art was called a martial art of the battlefield. It was because one absolutely had to experience blood and death to refine the use of True Qi and techniques.

Yeon Hojeong was a master of the Four Spirit Martial Art.

After summoning all Four Spirit Qi and perfectly mastering the forms, he had thrown himself into the Dark Path martial world and experienced countless battles. And all those battles had caused him to grow explosively.

But in his fight against Beonjak, unexpectedly, Yeon Hojeong had not benefited greatly from the Four Spirit Martial Art.

Even so, he had gone beyond avoiding all of Beonjak’s attacks and had even launched counterattacks.

How?

“Seeing weaknesses...”

Yeon Hojeong recalled Okcheong’s words.

“It’s talent. You instinctively see straight through weaknesses, don’t you?”

“I know your martial arts still fall short compared to those two. Even so, you attacked the formation’s weaknesses and broke down the battle formation step by step.”

The eye to see through weaknesses.

In truth, that was not something one could call talent. Yeon Hojeong had refined the Four Spirit Martial Art, a martial art counted among the greatest in martial-world history when it came to form, and had roamed the battlefield with that Four Spirit Martial Art for decades.

Once one experienced enough real combat to be called a master, one could dig into an opponent’s weakness in any situation. If there was no weakness, one could even create one and doggedly dig into it to bring the opponent down.

In other words, identifying an enemy’s weakness could be said to belong not to the realm of inborn talent, but to the realm of acquired effort and experience.

That was what Yeon Hojeong thought, and what he was certain of.

But what about when he fought Beonjak?

I merely looked at Beonjak’s martial arts, saw through his weakness, and counterattacked. I didn’t use a single technique of the Four Spirit Martial Art.

Against the weak, that could happen. To the eye of someone relatively stronger, the weaknesses of someone weaker would be visible in countless numbers.

But it was difficult to do that against someone stronger than oneself. No, it was impossible. Finding a weakness while one could barely receive the opponent’s martial arts was nonsense.

And Yeon Hojeong had done it.

Was it simply because my understanding is higher than his?

No. It was absolutely not that.

It had not been reason, but instinct. Yeon Hojeong knew that the exchange in which he had broken Beonjak’s martial arts and landed his fist technique had never been possible because of enlightenment.

“Well, now.”

Yeon Hojeong looked down at his fist as if seeing it anew.

“I wasn’t in any position to advise Jipyeong. If I really have that kind of talent, then I’ve lived for decades without even knowing it.”

To begin with, seeing weaknesses itself was relative. That was why he had thought such a talent made no sense.

And yet that nonsensical talent had existed in him.

Just like when he had broken the Evil-Smiting Three-Kill Formation, and just like when he had dodged and counterattacked all of Beonjak’s martial arts, which had been burdensome even for him to face.

I have talent? Me?

Yeon Hojeong felt his heart pounding for no reason.

Suddenly, he recalled a conversation with his master.

“Yes, you lack martial talent. You don’t have the kind of talent people call genius. But you, of all people, have completely attached the Four Spirit Martial Art to your body in less than five years, when it would be hard for someone with ordinary talent to attach it to their body even after ten years of effort.”

“......It was thanks to your guidance, Master.”

“The Four Spirit Martial Art is learned alone. I merely showed you several roads. You were the one who followed and mastered all of those roads entirely by your own ability.”

“......”

“Tsk. How can a man who does not even know the blade he owns is a peerless sword under heaven discuss the world, when all he does with it is cut meat? You still have a long road ahead of you.”

“What?”

“Enough. The one thing I will tell you is to look closely into yourself. If you can accurately see through your own abilities, at the very least, you will not die by the roadside.”

Could that conversation from back then have truly meant this?

Weaknesses...

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes deepened.

“I need to find out more. Whether this is real or fake.”

The matter of letting Beonjak escape had already disappeared from his mind. Even if he felt regret, once something had passed, he no longer concerned himself with it.

That aspect of him resembled Gangryang far more than Yeon Jipyeong. Of course, Gangryang had likely learned it from him.

Perhaps that quality was proof that he was still closer to the Dark Path than the Orthodox Path.

“Tsk. I don’t have the face to see Jipyeong. I should stop showing off so much from now on.”