Star Instructor, Master Baek

Chapter 160: This Might Hurt a Bit

TL: FoodieMonster007

“I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry,” the Nine Yin Witch whispered tearfully, gently stroking Yeo Min’s cheek as if she were handling something precious. “I just can’t resist the yin energy inside you. It’s too tempting.”

Yeo Min remained unresponsive.

The Nine Yin Witch softly brushed her fingers over Yeo Min’s long eyelashes. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure it doesn’t hurt. You’ll just fall into a deep sleep, and when you wake up, Hayeon-unnie will be there to greet you,” she murmured, as if singing a lullaby.

She then placed her palm over Yeo Min’s qi center.

“You… crazy… witch…” Hyonwon Kang snarled.

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He and Ya Suhyeok glared at the Nine Yin Witch, grinding their teeth. Their bodies were frozen, unable to move, but somehow they both managed to stay conscious. Talking, though, was all they could do.

With a sly smile, the Nine Yin Witch remarked, “Your resilience is truly amazing. I didn’t expect you to be able to stay awake… but no matter. I have many questions for you two anyway. Who taught you those martial arts? Where are those people now? I need to find them all.”

As the Nine Yin Witch spoke, madness filled her eyes, and a terrifying chill began to pour from her body. Concentrating the White Ice Divine Art into her palm, she started absorbing Yeo Min’s yin energy.

Isn’t that the Star Absorbing Technique?1 Recognizing the nature of the witch’s martial art, Hyonwon Kang and Ya Suhyeok’s faces crumpled in horror.

“No… don’t…”

“Stop… right now…”

“Ahahaha!” The Nine Yin Witch threw her head back, letting out a maniacal laugh. She knew better than anyone that she was mentally unstable, and it was for this reason that she had hidden herself in the deepest part of the Valley of Evil.

She recalled a childhood so distant that she could barely remember it. Decades ago, her impoverished parents had sold her, a little girl with abundant yin energy, to a certain martial arts school in exchange for a few coins.

Unfortunately, the “school” turned out to be a research facility created by the Blood Cult.

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“Starting today, you will all learn martial arts. Specifically, the White Ice Divine Art. Aren’t you lucky that your parents sold you here instead of to a brothel?”

The Nine Yin Witch remembered her instructor’s unsettling smile which had left dozens of girls trembling in fear.

“Unfortunately, while immensely powerful, this martial art is incomplete, so you must figure out how to perfect it on your own.”

The instructors were ruthless. They would push the girls, who were not even ten years old, to their limits, and if they failed to make progress, they were severely punished.

“Each of you will learn the White Ice Divine Art in a different way. That way, we can gather plenty of data.”

Some girls were forced to recite the formulas backwards, some trained in the freezing cold, others in the scorching heat. The instructors treated the girls like test subjects, collecting data to perfect the White Ice Divine Art. As a result, many girls met tragic ends due to the harsh training and side effects.

“I hope we get at least one proper result this time. I’m getting sick and tired of this tedious experiment.”

“By the way, what happens to the rest when the divine art is completed?”

“What else? We’ll dispose of them all.”

The facility was a place with an absurdly low survival rate. Having only lost her sanity, the Nine Yin Witch was already considered relatively fortunate.

“Number Twenty Seven, you are making good progress, and your side effects seem pretty mild.”

“…Thank you.”

Among those who learned the White Ice Divine Art, only a few, including the Nine Yin Witch, lived past the age of fifteen. As such, the Blood Cult had high expectations for her.

“Purifying the contaminated yin energy using the Star Absorbing Technique… So far, it doesn’t seem like a bad method.”

For a long time, the Nine Yin Witch trained diligently, but the incomplete White Ice Divine Art had the side effect of making the yin energy in her body more impure as she progressed. To counteract this and prevent qi deviation, she used the Star Absorption Technique to absorb yin energy from living beings.

However, the more she absorbed, the more she craved, and soon her insatiable desire for yin energy consumed her, driving her insane. Birds, plants, animals, people… she didn’t discriminate as long as it was alive.

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“Ahhhh!!!”

“Twenty Seven has started suffering bouts of insanity, and they’re getting more frequent.”

“Is she a failure after all…?”

“Let’s observe a bit more before deciding what to do with her.”

One day, when the instructors were discussing her fate, an accident occurred at a neighboring Blood Cult facility.

“The test subjects have escaped from the Sword Cave!”

“They’re attacking the other caves!”

“Stop them! Somehow… Ugh!”

“Uwaaaagh!”

When the break-in occurred, the Nine Yin Witch discovered for the first time that the facility she was in was linked to three others, where children were being trained in swordsmanship, bladework, and external arts.

One of the boys leading the escape had a noticeable scar on his lip. Holding up the severed head of an instructor he had just killed, he had shouted, “Let’s get out of here!”

Immediately, she and another girl, Eun Hayeon, took advantage of the chaos and escaped, killing three instructors who tried to stop them.

Returning to reality, the Nine Yin Witch gazed dreamily at Hyonwon Kang and Ya Suhyeok. “You two come from that place as well, right?” she asked, recognizing the traces of the bladesmanship and external arts she had encountered in her youth.

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“What… are you talking about…”

“Crazy witch…”

Hyonwon Kang and Ya Suhyeok blinked in confusion. For obvious reasons, they didn’t understand what she was talking about.

“It’s no use pretending. You’ll end up telling me everything… Haha… Ahahahahaha!” the Nine Yin Witch laughed maniacally, feeling a thrilling ecstasy as the immense yin energy suppressed within Yeo Min flooded into her.

“I’ll make them pay! Those motherfuckers who turned me into this! Back then, I was powerless and ran away, but once I perfect the White Ice Divine Art, once I complete this cursed martial art…!”

Tears streamed down the Nine Yin Witch’s face as memories of her painful past surfaced, freezing solid before they could fall. The torment that began in her childhood had haunted her throughout her life, her longstanding anguish blurring the lines between past and present.

“Beautiful miss, may I know your name?”

“Oh dear! How did you end up here? You look hurt.”

If the Blood Cult wasn’t bad enough, when she first escaped, she was just an innocent and naive girl who knew nothing of the world. That was why, when several men showed her kindness—men with neat appearances and dignified bearing—she’d trusted them, thinking they would help her.

However, the moment she followed them home, they all suddenly transformed into completely different people.

“You came with us willingly, yet now you’re acting up?”

“Tsk. Why are you so disobedient?”

“If you don’t want to get hurt, you’d better… Argh! My arm! My arm!”

Most of the martial artists she had killed were either lascivious men who had tried to sexually assault her, or those who had unfairly exploited her martial prowess for their own evil ends. Among them were even famous figures from the orthodox sects.

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What was even funnier was that after she’d killed them and eliminated several of the pursuit teams they sent out for revenge, she earned her infamous alias and her place as one of the Ten Great Villains.

“That woman is a wicked witch!”

“She’s the Nine Yin Witch!”

Venting years of pent-up resentment, she shrieked at the top of her lungs, not caring if anyone was listening to her.

“They all called me a witch! But I never once made excuses! Do you know why? Because it’s true that I did terrible things while tormented by my martial arts. Sometimes, when the yin energy became so impure that it was unbearably painful… I would go down the mountains to the villages and absorb the yin energy of all the living things around. That’s why I came to the Valley of Evil. At least here, I feel less guilty.”

The Nine Yin Witch looked blankly at the villains frozen and stuck to the cave walls.

“…But that’s all over now.”

Her instincts told her that if she absorbed all the immense yin energy within Yeo Min, her White Ice Divine Art would be perfected.

Right now, through her palms, Yeo Min’s pure and untainted yin energy flowed into her. Perhaps because the girl was born to a mother who had learned ice arts, the purity of her yin energy was astonishingly high.

“Ugh… ugh…” Despite being unconscious, Yeo Min writhed in pain. Under the influence of the White Ice Divine Art, her hair turned snow white, and her face paled.

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“Ahh… Ahahaha… Aaaagh!” the Nine Yin Witch let out a bizarre sound that could have been either laughter or a scream. Overwhelmed by a mix of pain and pleasure, she unleashed a terrifying blizzard through the cave.

“Ugh…”

“M-My body…”

The biting cold was so intense that Hyonwon Kang and Ya Suhyeok could not even open their eyes. Their wounds reopened, and blood began to flow, but even that blood quickly turned to frost.

“Finally! Finally! I have perfected the White Ice Divine Art! Just wait, all of you! The bastards who made me like this! I’ll turn you into ice and shatter you into thousands of little fragments!” the Nine Yin Witch cackled, her voice echoing through the cave.

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A white light erupted from her eyes, and her snow-white hair fluttered as she hovered three meters above the ground, emitting a frigid blast.

Suddenly, a streak of sword qi flew from outside the cave, aiming for her heart. Scoffing, she unleashed a palm strike, instantly destroying the incoming sword qi.

“How dare you!” she screeched, before suddenly realizing that she had just fallen for a diversion.

In the short time she had been distracted by the attack, Baek Suryong had entered the cave with swift movement arts, grabbed Yeo Min, and used telekinesis to yank Hyonwon Kang and Ya Suhyeok to safety.

“You’re wrong, you know. The martial art you’ve learned is just a fake, clumsy imitation of the true White Ice Divine Art,” Baek Suryong said.

“Mr. Baek!”

“Teacher!”

Overcome with relief, Hyonwon Kang and Ya Suhyeok called out, their faces seemingly on the brink of tears.

“You guys stay back,” Baek Suryong instructed, stepping forward.

The Nine Yin Witch glared at him with wild eyes. “Did you just call my White Ice Divine Art fake?”

“Yes, why?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” the Nine Yin Witch bellowed in anger. Now that she had perfected the art, she believed she could defeat anyone, yet this man was dismissing her? How dare he?

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Baek Suryong sneered. “A martial art that becomes more impure the more you practice it, causing random bouts of insanity. Who on earth would call that a divine art?”

“How did you know that…?!” the Nine Yin Witch exclaimed, shocked that this young newcomer knew about the side effects of her martial art.

Baek Suryong took a step closer to her, saying, “I also know that it’s a martial art created with malicious intent. You can’t perfect it by stealing others’ yin energy.”

“Shut up! What do you know?”

“I know better than anyone…”

…Because I created that fake martial art. Baek Suryong swallowed his last words.

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Having sensed the Nine Yin Witch’s unique energy as he approached, he wasn’t surprised that she was practicing one of the fake martial arts he had created to sabotage the Blood Cult. After all, hadn’t he already experienced this situation before with Wiji Cheon, who had been given the fake Unlimited Sword?

Just how many crimes has the Blood Cult been involved in all these years? First, it was Master Moyong’s Unlimited Sword, and now, it’s Master Eun’s White Ice Divine Art.

Baek Suryong sighed softly, “The martial art you’ve learned was deliberately designed to cause qi deviation. Surviving this long after learning it… All I can say is that you are incredibly fortunate.”

Sensing sympathy in his gaze, the Nine Yin Witch shouted angrily, “Shut up! How dare you look at me like that! I’ll freeze you solid!”

Her clothes billowed, and pure white energy gathered in her hands. She unleashed a double palm strike, her qi blast taking the form of two soaring white dragons.

Baek Suryong didn’t dodge. Instead, he charged straight ahead, swinging his sword.

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BOOM!

The moment Moon Shadow encountered the twin ice dragons, a terrifying blast of cold froze everything in its path.

“Ahaha! Foolish man. Turn to ice… What?!”

When the Nine Yin Witch saw that Baek Suryong was still running towards her without slowing down, she flinched in confusion. “Impossible! How…?”

The answer was almost immediately revealed to her. As Baek Suryong moved, his frozen martial arts uniform shattered, revealing the Black Dragon Armor beneath.

Baek Suryong smirked. The Black Dragon Armor protected against extreme cold and heat. Trusting in that, he had closed the distance, catching her off guard. “I picked up something useful before coming here,” he replied snarkily.

“Die!” the Nine Yin Witch yelled, swinging her palms wildly.

BANG! CRASH! BOOM!

Her attacks were powerful enough to nearly destroy the cave, but Baek Suryong blocked and evaded them all with ease.

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“I won’t fall for techniques I know like the back of my hand,” he remarked.

The White Ice Divine Art that the Nine Yin Witch had mastered was actually a corrupted version of a martial art he had developed alongside the Ice Moon Empress. Furthermore, with his recent breakthrough, his skills had advanced considerably, and he now possessed the Black Dragon Armor.

“Impossible! I’ve already mastered the White Ice Divine Art!” the Nine Yin Witch exclaimed in disbelief, her increasing agitation causing her movements to become erratic.

“I told you, that martial art is fake,” Baek Suryong repeated, appearing behind the Witch. Reaching out and grasping the crown of her head where the Baihui acupoint was located, he warned, “This might hurt a bit.”

“What are you doing… Aaaaagh!”

Using the Heaven Defying Divine Art that had just reached the seventh star, Baek Suryong began absorbing the impure energy inside the Nine Yin Witch’s body.

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Translator’s Note: I think I can squeeze out one more chapter today…

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1. Star Absorbing Technique: Yet another martial art from the classic wuxia novel, “The Smiling, Proud Wanderer”, the other being Dokgo Jun’s Nine Swords of Dokgo. The Star Absorbing Technique is the main martial art of the Sun Moon Demonic Cult Leader Ren Woxing, but ended up causing qi deviation due to the clash of all the different qi he absorbed. ↩