Chapter 215: Let's Hold a Spar

Qing climbed the steps leading to the medicinal bath.

Looking down, the sight was so dizzying she wondered if this was what staring into lava felt like.

Tentatively dipping a foot in, Qing recoiled.

What the hell? Why is this solid?

“What is this!? It’s solid!”

-You can even jump on it. Strange, isn't it? Jump a few times, then stand still, and you’ll slowly sink in.

Following his words, Qing hopped up and down a few times on the surface of the potion-filled bath. The sticky sensation on the soles of her feet was deeply unpleasant, and jumping in place was something she personally found extremely awkward, so she stopped after a few hops.

And so, standing atop the medicinal bath, her body began to slowly sink.

Qing raised her right arm high, giving a thumbs-up.

Unfortunately, the liquid stopped just around her navel, so the picture she’d envisioned didn't quite materialize.

Then, forcing her upper body down against the resistant liquid, she finally managed to sit on the chair submerged within. The liquid level came precisely to the base of her throat.

And her feelings about being submerged in it…

“Ugh. This feels disgusting…”

-Keke, right?

It wasn't watery like normal liquid; it was almost solid, a viscous substance you could actually jump on.

Clinging stickily to her body, it felt like being smeared head-to-toe in glue—thick and slimy, raising goosebumps and triggering an instinctive revulsion.

Moreover, the smell… with the surface right below her nose, the sour, rotting stench, like deeply fermented skate fish, stabbed at her head with painful intensity.

“Ugh, ack, what, what did you put in here! Ugh.”

-It’s better if you don’t hear it. If you knew, you’d never get back in there. Just know this much.

That was a dreadful thing to say, worse than not hearing anything at all.

What on earth could he have put in that warranted a warning like ‘if you knew, you’d never get back in there’?

Hearing that made it suddenly feel even more horrific and unclean, to the point where she imagined tens of thousands of insects crawling all over her submerged body.

-Pretty awful, right? There's a rumor that you get used to it and it becomes bearable, or something like that, apparently.

“Haven’t you been in this before, Master? Why ‘apparently’?”

-Because you absolutely never get used to it?

“Why do you keep saying things like that…”

-The bath’s very name is the Purgatory Bath. Ahem. Now, you just need to circulate your qi. Circulating the Awakening Divine Art is best. Later, if your successor has their own cultivated internal arts, you can just have them circulate whatever they possess. However, if they haven't learned the Awakening Divine Art, you just need to double the duration, but… hmm. I’ll explain that part later.

“So I just need to circulate the Awakening Divine Art now?”

-Yes. You’ll feel a slight itching sensation, but that’s a natural phenomenon as the medicinal effects are absorbed, so there’s no need to worry much.

“Ah. So it wasn’t just my imagination…”

Indeed, her entire skin surface felt itchy, as if being pricked by needles or gently brushed by feather tips. At the same time, it felt like it was burning hot, as if smeared with spicy peppers.

Experiencing this all over her body simultaneously made it difficult to just sit still.

But her body wouldn't move.

Like someone submerged in quicksand, she couldn't budge at all. Even Qing, with her monstrous strength, could only manage minuscule, incredibly slow movements.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t escape if she really put her power into it, but Qing forced herself to endure and pushed the True Qi of the Awakening Divine Art forcefully through her meridians.

As she did, the itching finally subsided somewhat.

The medicinal energy permeated her entire body following the circulation of her True Qi. Her skin felt scorching hot, as if on fire, leaving no room to even feel the itchiness.

If she hadn't been clenching her jaw shut due to the qi circulation, a pained groan of ‘Kuuaaack’ would surely have escaped.

-Heh. You’re in for some hardship now. Time crawls when the body suffers. When the pain subsides, it’ll itch, and just when the itching seems bearable, the pain will return. Try to endure the next two shichen as if they were a year.

Even in this situation, Cheon Yuhak didn't stop teasing her.

Qing’s eyebrow twitched.

Damn it, I feel like I’m dying here.

Agh, it stings, it’s cold, it aches, it burns.

The truly malicious part was that the pain wasn't overwhelmingly agonizing to the point where she couldn't think.

She could endure it if she had to, but it was like a constant, low-level scratching at her nerves, a persistent poking.

And the itching, too, wasn't severe enough to make her burst into laughter or tremble uncontrollably. It was more like the frustrating sensation of being constantly on the verge of a sneeze that never comes, just aggravating her.

It wasn't unbearable difficulty; it was the constant prodding that interfered with her concentration for qi circulation and reminded her how slowly time was passing.

In Qing's experience, it felt like listening to a notoriously boring four-hour lecture while dealing with a nagging stomachache.

Ultimately, just as Cheon Yuhak had said, it was a period of time so unbearable that maintaining sanity felt like trying to endure a year.

Since Cheon Yuhak was speaking from his own experience, how could it be any different?

After it was over—Whoa, holy crap.

“Master? What’s wrong with me? My hand, what is this?”

-What, is your body all swollen and bloated? Of course it is, you devoured all the medicinal energy from the bath. It’ll return to normal within the day, so don’t worry.

Qing looked down at her hand.

Her fingers had doubled in thickness. Touching them, they felt puffy and squishy, like waterlogged flesh.

It wasn't just her fingers; her palms were also swollen, resembling bear paws. Glancing down further, she saw—No, seriously, what is this? What… what in the…

If someone from modern Korea saw this state, they might have recalled the promotional mascot of a certain Western tire company.

Her body below the neck looked like that, while only her face remained beautiful, making the sight even more bizarre.

However, without a mirror, Qing didn't know this.

Since he said it would return to normal within the day anyway, the easygoing Qing quickly brushed it off and turned her attention to the state of the medicinal bath.

“Master? Is the bath supposed to look like this?”

-Keke, surprised to see rotten water? That’s how the Purgatory Bath works. The medicinal properties go in, the impurities come out, so it ends up as filthy water.

“Ooh.”

Qing looked down at the bath she had been soaking in.

The viscous, slimy, nose-stabbingly foul medicinal bath had somehow transformed into a murky, milky-white broth, like bone soup.

“This doesn’t seem that filthy…”

-Keke. Since it came out of your body, you probably can’t tell how dirty it is. Wash yourself thoroughly with clean water, get dressed properly, and then call me.

It was a bit strange to keep talking through the wall.

Qing washed herself with the clean water provided at one side and put on her clothes.

She now understood why he’d told her to wear loose-fitting, oversized clothes—it was all part of the plan.

Afterward, Cheon Yuhak entered the bathing area and peered into the medicinal bath.

“Let’s see, let’s see just how rotten my disciple’s body was… hmm? What? Why is the color like this?”

“Did something go wrong?”

“No. Isn’t it true that too much medicine can become poison? The medicinal properties enter, the excess exits, dissolving the body’s impurities along with it.”

Because Qing’s constitution nullified all poisons, she had absorbed all the medicinal properties while neutralizing the toxicity, meaning nothing came out.

Since Qing had chosen this constitution herself, she didn’t know the exact mechanics but had a rough idea, so she understood with an ‘Ah, that could be possible.’

“Maybe I didn’t have any impurities.”

“Heh. What, did you achieve Overhaul Rebirth or something? Why wouldn’t you have impurities? People are born with—”

“Didn’t you hear? I already went through Overhaul Rebirth. Last year.”

“Ah. Is that so? Still, it’s strange. Setting aside the impurities, it’s impossible for a human body to absorb that much medicinal potency all at once…”

Since no Divine Thief in history had ever achieved Overhaul Rebirth before even starting their training, he had no choice but to accept it.

“Phew. That was tough. Can we go eat now?”

“You absorbed an entire medicinal bath and you’re still hungry? Eat what? Before the medicinal properties get digested and turn into crap, we need to start the real training.”

Qing’s expression then shifted.

It was a face evenly split between pitiful sorrow and shocked betrayal, as if asking how he could say something so horrifying.

“Real training? What on earth does that mean? Then what we just did was…”

“The preparation. The core of it is twisting the joints while the body is infused with medicinal energy. Now, the time has finally come to use this.”

Cheon Yuhak dragged something over from a corner. No matter how she looked at it, it resembled a torture device more than training equipment.

It looked somewhat like the stocks used to bind criminals.

However, bizarre contraptions were attached to each joint area, making it clear this was no ordinary object.

“Uh… Master?”

“Didn’t I tell you before? External Arts training is a combination of several of the four elements: overexertion, torture, poison, and medicine.”

At that, Qing pointed a finger at the device.

Cheon Yuhak chuckled and replied.

“It’s a combination of two. Overexertion. Torture.”

“Hmm, now that I think about it, do I really need flexible joints when I already have such a sturdy body…?”

Cheon Yuhak offered a benevolent smile.

“It’s a joke, you fool. It looks sinister, but it’s not that horrible an object. And the training isn’t that difficult either, so you don’t need to be so scared.”

“What the—you startled me.”

Relieved, Qing lay down on the frame.

Cheon Yuhak muttered something about how tall this girl was, fiddling with the device—turning, tightening, pulling, and inserting parts—as if adjusting the frame. Soon, with metallic clicks, iron restraints fastened over her entire body, practically encasing her.

“Master? It’s too tight, it hurts.”

“It’s because your flesh is swollen from the medicine. It’ll fit perfectly once the medicinal effects subside.”

“It hurts quite a bit…”

“It’s fine. That level of pain will be nothing soon anyway.”

“…? What did you just say?”

“Now. Say ‘Ah’. You might damage your teeth clenching them too hard.”

As he spoke, Cheon Yuhak held out a gag.

Qing’s expression turned serious as she asked back.

“Master? You said it wasn’t a horrible obje—mmph!”

Cheon Yuhak was a Divine Thief. Stuffing a gag into Qing’s mouth the moment she opened it to say ‘Ah’ wasn’t a particularly difficult task for a Divine Thief.

“That was also a joke. You idiot. Can’t you tell just by looking? It looks like it’s designed to properly screw someone over. How are you going to navigate the treacherous martial arts world being so naive?”

“Mmph, mmph…!”

“Sorry. I’m just paying back what I suffered. Didn’t you say something nice? About the generational cycle of hatred. If you’re really upset, you can just pass it on to your own disciple.”

“Mmmph! Mmph…!”

“I’ll wake you up even if you pass out, so don’t trouble your master unnecessarily and stay conscious. You need to endure the pain while conscious for the medicinal energy to gather properly.”

Forcibly bending the joints in the opposite direction while the body was swollen with medicinal energy—that was the true nature of the Lithe Grace Refinement External Arts training.

Because the body was already saturated with medicinal energy, any damage to the joints would heal instantly, gradually increasing the range of motion.

However, the pain of having one’s joints forcibly bent was extraordinary. The medicinal energy only reacted intensely to pain severe enough to border on crippling, which was why anesthesia or fainting wouldn’t work.

Faced with such agony, it was only natural that thoughts of master or parents would vanish.

One would inevitably thrash wildly, flailing arms and legs in every direction—hence the specially crafted steel frame.

“Just endure it for about one shichen(2 HOURS). If you think of the achievement gained as proportional to the pain, it might be bearable.”

With that, Cheon Yuhak finally revealed his true colors, unable to hide a smile of pure wickedness as he continued.

“For the record, I couldn’t bear it. I ended up bawling my eyes out, snot and tears everywhere, a truly pathetic sight. But hey, it’s fine. You won’t die.”