The Old Waves of the Yangtze River

I looked down at Namgung Jiwoo, who was still struggling with his missing lung. However, the hole in his chest had shrunk considerably, if I had given him another moment or two, he would have been completely healed.

"Say your goodbyes you old fuck." I said coldly as I placed my hand on his back near where his dantian would be.

Before Namgung Jiwoo could speak another word, I used my Silver Breath Arts; Force of Dusk. Piercing straight through his back, stomach and dantian as if it was a hot knife cutting through butter.

With his dantian destroyed his regenerative processes would slowly come to a halt, which would leave him dead within a matter of minutes.

Or so I thought.

Despite completely piercing through his body, Namgung Jiwoo's dantian remained untouched, floating in the newfound hole in his stomach. Blood flowed out of Namgung Jiwoo's mouth as his body fell flat onto the ground, first his lung, and now much of his digestive system had been eviscerated.

But seeing his dantian floating in place while its only connection to the body being its own energy flowing into the remaining parts of the body gave me an idea. An eye for an eye, a spiritual core for a dantian, such is the only way to make up for what was lost.

I stepped on Namgung Jiwoo's upper back as he looked on from the side of his eye. He had endured so much pain that his eyes turned bloodshot, and blood even spilled out of his mouth and nose.

"You remember how you killed that dragon on top of Mount Song? Well, his name was Jinlong, and I'm about to treat you the same way you treated him."

Namgung Jiwoo's pupils shrank nearly to the point where I couldn't see them, despite standing on top of him. I'm sure he was trying his best to stop what he thought was going to happen next, but with his current injuries and my foot pressing him into the ground, he was left unable to move.

I gathered Palm Force onto my hands and placed them between the two streams of qi flowing into Namgung Jiwoo's body. Absorbing qi from a dantian is exactly like absorbing qi from a spiritual core. However, dantian's don't have physical forms, they're a condensed amalgamation of qi in the form of a sphere.

But not being able to grab onto his dantian wasn't an issue, I quickly poked one finger from each hand into the sphere of qi and altered the flow of which the qi went.

Namgung Jiwoo's body went limp as the qi that was keeping his body alive had stopped flowing throughout body. My body had the opposite reaction however, as the qi from his dantian flowed up my fingers and through my meridians into my dantian, my muscles began to swell to match the new amount of energy entering my body.

There was one downside to this method of taking Namgung Jiwoo's qi as my own, the regenerative abilities given to him by absorbing a spirit beast's spiritual core wouldn't be passed on to me.

I also didn't gain any regenerative powers from Jinlong's core since it was broken, nor the Imoogi's core since the middle-aged bastard had already absorbed half of it before I stopped him.

As I continued to absorb Namgung Jiwoo's qi, a groan erupted from beside me. Both Pyo Kang and Pyo Yong were holding their severed shoulders tightly, trying to prevent the little amount of blood flowing from their bodies from escaping.

Absorbing Namgung Jiwoo's dantian, or saving two invaluable comrades that would help me fix this crooked world? The choice was obvious, if four hands are better than two, six hands were better than two by a long shot.

With only a little amount of qi remaining in Namgung Jiwoo's core, I decided to simply disperse the rest of his energy back into nature so I could focus on helping Pyo Kang and Pyo Yong.

"Don't worry you two, I'll reattach your arms nice and easy." I said to the twins as I walked over to them, pulling out a needle and thread from my clothes as I did so.

---

Many people think that death is the most painful thing that could be imagined.

Just the thought of dying sends shivers down a person's spine after all.

But death is much more relaxing than they may think. Even though every cell of your body is yelling at your brain to do something to save them, the brain blocks everything out, as it knows nothing can be done.

The pain, stress, and suffering all get put on mute, leaving only the last thoughts and emotions within the brain, so it can die happily.

But martial artist on their deathbed take longer to die than normal people, their brains still function at full capacity, even while every other part of their body has given up and died.

Namgung Jiwoo was experiencing this for himself right now, he no longer cared for whatever was happening around him, he only had one thought on his mind.

'Eun-Ju... I should have spent more time with you...'

Despite his own daughter's pleading, Namgung Jiwoo would always leave her alone with his servants for most days of the year so he could keep his position within the Namgung clan.

He only spent five days a year with his own daughter, such was the greatest mistake of his life. He was too focused on finding the dragon hidden within Mount Song that he had neglected his daughter. And in the end, he obsessed over a child not much older than his daughter, that wasn't even his own flesh and blood.

'How foolish I have been...' He thought as he gave in to the depths of the darkness.

But before his mind fully disappeared into the depths of death, a single voice entered his mind.

"The old waves of the Yangtze River get pushed out to sea by the new, younger waves. Make sure you remember that, as it is the reason why you lost."