Chapter : 08
My Opportunity Is a Status Window (8)
Kanghochochul
[Goal: Ensure Gidae-seung, Young Chief of Jiangsu Escort Bureau, survives]
[Success condition: Gidae-seung survives past 00:00:10]
[Reward: 1 Intermediate Neidan, random Level-2 martial art]
[Failure: Two internal organs destroyed (random)]
00:09
00:08…
From the moment the success timer dropped below a day, the numerals switched to Western digits.
Whoever made this really knows how to build tension!
Every second that ticks down makes my butthole clench.
Ahhh!
Level-2! Just what is a second-tier martial art?!
How great will an intermediate neidan be?!
“Hoo… hoo…”
I’m so excited I can barely breathe.
Door’s definitely shut, right?
The safe house Dongchang provided was a true one-room-per-person luxury home.
Outer walls baked brick, roof tiled in black.
The oiled paper windows bothered me a little, but I could take the reward tucked away in a corner.
00:00
[Mission complete.]
[Intermediate Neidan acquired.]
[Yeonhwan Palm Manual acquired.]
—Pababat!
A rainbow halo formed, then condensed into a small pellet and a manual.
Ah…!
The scent stabbed my nose—far more refined than a beginner neidan.
Crazy!
Jackpot!
A beginner pellet… if you saw it on the road you might mistake it for goat droppings and toss it.
But this! Even someone who knows nothing about martial arts would sense it’s special. It smells like medicine.
I quickly grabbed it and swallowed it whole—before the scent leaked outside.
Time: Xushi (dog hour, ~7–9 PM).
Gidae-seung is resting, the two Dongchang guards watching me are resting too.
I’ve got all night.
Perfect time to melt its qi.
“…!!”
Fire.
I’d felt this before.
The first time I met Master—when I swallowed a pellet without knowing any better.
Zhangsam Divine Art!
I sat cross-legged and guided the flow.
I did everything I could to control the torrent of qi pouring like a waterfall from the neidan.
Ughhh…
The melted qi began pooling in my danjeon.
Even running Zhangsam Divine Art at full output, only a small amount rose along the Ren Meridian.
No flow was forming.
I lacked the ability to control it.
Dammit! No—get it up!
Blood stopped reaching my head.
Hands and feet tingled and numbed.
All my blood was rushing to my danjeon.
The internal energy there was hoarding everything—qi and even life force.
A step away from deviation—heart-devil madness.
There are many causes for qi deviation; swallowing more power than you can control is a classic one.
This won’t work—I need a drastic measure…!
The ordinary small heavenly circulation, danjeon → Ren → Baihui, wasn’t happening.
As I deliberated, my body worsened rapidly.
Vision dimmed, breath ragged.
Back to basics—Zhangsam Divine Art basics.
When life jams up, when you can’t see a path forward—return to first principles.
People may laugh at a town punk saying so, but kids who grew up without parents live more life than most.
Hushim—Empty Heart.
The very first phrase in the first martial manual I ever read.
The core of Zhangsam Divine Art.
Emptying out.
Most skim past it, but I read it over and over until I believed I grasped its essence.
Hushim empties the mind and empties qi so new power can fill.
So I chanted the formula I had memorized thousands of times:
心虛意實 氣虛力強
虛實互換 虛中生實
神動氣從 意念合一
Empty the heart, fill intent.
Empty the qi, receive strength.
Void and fullness exchange; power arises from emptiness.
Spirit moves, qi follows; will and thought become one.
I released control and stopped forcing the qi upward.
A gamble.
Win—jackpot.
Lose—death.
I pride myself on fast judgment: I can’t circulate an intermediate neidan right now.
I bet everything on Hushim.
心虛意實…
And then—Ah! It’s working…!
The tight mass of qi moved—outward.
Not into the channels, but leaking out of my body.
That’s… not ideal.
But survival comes first.
Soon it gushed out like a stream bursting free.
Consciousness faded—qi deviation, exhaustion—who knows.
My eyelids weighed a ton.
When the qi ball shrank to less than half—
I fainted.
“Hurrk!”
I opened my eyes.
Still alive.
Morning light.
My clothes reeked—must’ve poured sweat all night.
Ahhh…
I could feel it.
Much more internal energy than yesterday—but…
More than half leaked away?
Only part of the neidan settled inside me.
Most returned to nature.
Status window.
[Name: Dancheon (alias Gae Duphal)]
[Title: Porter, Jiangsu Escort]
[Combat Power: 778]
[Stage: Third-rate]
[Martial Arts: Zhangsam Divine Art, Zhanggwe Footwork]
[Current Mission: Awaiting new mission]
[>Show details]
Whoa!
Almost double combat power—even after losing half.
If I’d absorbed it all…
No.
Gratitude first—I lived.
My scholarly obsession with re-reading Zhangsam saved my life.
Hushim released the excess qi back to the world.
Pellets can be earned again.
Lives can’t.
No regrets.
Next to me: the Yeonhwan Palm manual I hadn’t checked last night.
Yeonhwan Palm—linked palms.
An actual attack art, at last!
Rustle.
I skimmed it fast.
There were illustrations—two techniques:
- Gale (Jilpung)
Speed-focused alternating strikes to overwhelm defense.
14 forms, 32 applications. - Flowing Water (Yusu)
Grappling and joint locks at close range—pure body technique.
12 forms, 48 applications.
Crazy good!
Especially Yusu!
Having learned brawling in Pimak Valley, I recognized instantly how advanced it was.
You’re all dead now. Hehehe.
I wanted to learn right away.
To grow stronger!
To make my name known in the martial world!
I’m a real martial artist now—hehe!
“Duphal, are you inside?”
Gidaeseung’s voice—
I hid the manual and answered.
…
[New mission]
[Goal: Become a member of the Wulin Alliance’s White Tiger Squad]
[Time limit: 187 days 21 hours]
[Reward: 1 Intermediate Neidan, random Level-2 Inner Art]
[Failure: Permanent vision damage]
Wulin Alliance?!
A countryside punk like me?!
Isn’t that somewhere you need backing just to enter?
And failure means… blinded.
Just say “death penalty”—they keep changing the wording, but it’s the same thing.
I need to get out of this safe house.
The time limit is long, but the mission scares me more than the timer.
The Dongchang guys? Still no word.
…
I spar with Gidae-seung one last time.
He’s earnest but talentless.
Afterward he suggests we drop honorifics.
From now on—Dancheon.
Remember my name, I say.
Soon I’ll shake the martial world.
He laughs, agrees.
Gidae-seung.
Hang in there, man.
You think you’ve lost everything—but you’ve got a tether to the Ming’s top power.
Live well.
As for me—
I’m off.
To the Wulin Alliance.
