Star Instructor, Master Baek

Chapter 161: Ice Essence

TL: FoodieMonster007

“Kyahhhhh!!!”

The Nine Yin Witch’s shrill scream reverberated through the cave, threatening to bring the entire structure down.

“Ugh…”

“Gah…”

Hyonwon Kang and Ya Suhyeok clutched their ears in agony, blood trickling between their fingers.

Baek Suryong spun around and yelled, “Get Yeo Min to the Demon Doctor! Tell him I sent you, and that he must heal her even if it costs him his life!”

Without hesitation, the students hoisted Yeo Min onto their backs and dashed out of the cave.

“Let go of me! I said let go!” the Nine Yin Witch shrieked, thrashed wildly as she struggled to shake off Baek Suryong. Radiating a terrifying chill, she slashed at him with qi-infused hands, desperate to tear him apart. “Die! Die! Die!”

Unfortunately, none of her attacks made Baek Suryong loosen his grip on her head. His Black Dragon Armor, bolstered by the Heaven Defying Divine Art’s inner qi, shielded him from the bone-chilling cold, and he could easily see through her palm and claw techniques.

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How odd. Her qi cultivation runs deep, but her offensive techniques are surprisingly crude.

Baek Suryong frowned. The Nine Yin Witch’s martial arts development was peculiar. Since most martial artists learned martial arts to become stronger in battle, it made no sense that her offensive skills were far less refined compared to her mastery of the White Ice Divine Art.

Unknown to him, her instructors in the Blood Cult had never taught her any fighting techniques, focusing only on perfecting the White Ice Divine Art.

“Dieeee!” the Nine Yin Witch screamed.

CRASH!

Annoyed, Baek Suryong slammed her face into the cave floor, shattering the rock and leaving her body half-buried in debris. “Hold still, will you?” he snapped.

Writhing like a worm, the Nine Yin Witch groaned, “Ugh… ugh…”

“I’m not keeping you alive out of the kindness in my heart,” Baek Suryong stated coldly, though inside, he was deeply conflicted.

The Nine Yin Witch’s situation reminded him of Wiji Cheon. Like the boy, she had learned his counterfeit version of the White Ice Divine Art. This resulted in impure qi seeping into her bone marrow, which in turn caused qi deviation and episodes of madness.

I designed those martial arts to sabotage the Blood Cult and force them to give it up… but instead, they gathered children and made them learn the fake techniques, using them as experiments to perfect it.

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Baek Suryong bit his lip. It hadn’t been his intention, but he couldn’t help feeling somewhat responsible for the Blood Cult’s deeds.

“Listen,” he lied, “I’m helping you regain your sanity because I need information about the Blood Cult, alright?”

“No! It hurts! It hurts! Let me go, please!” the Nine Yin Witch sobbed, still pinned to the ground, thrashing like a child.

Baek Suryong pressed down harder, channeling the Heaven Defying Divine Art to absorb the impurities embedded in the Nine Yin Witch’s bone marrow. From her head, he extended his qi into her eight extraordinary meridians and the twelve main meridians, drawing out all the toxins that had seeped into her limbs.

The process was smooth-sailing. After all, when it came to handling impure qi, the Heaven Defying Divine Art was unrivaled. Still, extracting such deep-rooted impurities was dozens of times more painful than tearing off flesh.

“…!!” Overwhelmed by unbearable pain, with every muscle in her body convulsing, the Nine Yin Witch clawed at the ground helplessly, unable to even scream anymore.

Ice crystals formed on Baek Suryong’s hair and eyebrows, and his breath was frosty. Since he was in direct contact with the Nine Yin Witch, not even the Black Dragon Armor was sufficient to completely repel the White Ice Divine Art. Still, despite the freezing cold seeping into his body, he refused to let go and held her down firmly.

“Hang in there if you want to live,” he urged.

“Ugh…!”

Fortunately, as time went on, the bone-chilling cold radiating from the Nine Yin Witch’s body gradually began to fade.

With her immense qi, if she had truly completed the Ice Moon Divine Art left by the Ice Moon Goddess, I wouldn’t have lasted even half a second… Nah, even as it stands now, without the Black Dragon Armor, I’d be in real trouble, Baek Suryong thought, heaving a sigh of relief.

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After what seemed like forever, when the impurities were finally purified, the Nine Yin Witch’s pain eased and her convulsions subsided.

Baek Suryong stood up, staggering a bit as he paused to catch his breath. “Whew… It’s over.”

The Nine Yin Witch opened her eyes, gazing up at him in a daze. The constant needle-like pain in her head was gone. “…What did you do to me?” she whispered.

“I removed the impurities in your body caused by qi deviation,” Baek Suryong replied wearily, more drained from the qi extraction process than the actual fight. “Since I’ve cured the root of your madness, you won’t experience those random episodes anymore.”

The Nine Yin Witch widened her eyes in disbelief. “What? That can’t be…”

“You, of all people, should know if I’m telling the truth.”

“T-Then, it’s true…” The Nine Yin Witch stared down at her hands, tears streaming down her face. Unlike before, these were tears of genuine joy, not despair, pain, or insanity.

Baek Suryong clicked his tongue. “Don’t get too excited though. If you use or practice the White Ice Divine Art again, you’ll go crazy.”

The Nine Yin Witch stiffened. “Ah…”

Baek Suryong sighed. The Nine Yin Witch’s case was different from Wiji Cheon’s. Wiji Cheon was young and hadn’t delved too deeply in the fake Unlimited Sword, nor had he accumulated much inner qi, so his qi deviation was still reversible.

The Nine Yin Witch, on the other hand, had spent over twenty years training in the fake White Ice Divine Art, even reaching a level where she believed she had mastered it. Even for him, getting rid of such deeply ingrained martial arts was almost impossible.

“If you don’t want to lose your mind again, you have to give up your ice arts,” he said regrettably, despite knowing that asking a martial artist to give up their life’s pursuit was tantamount to asking them to die.

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“Okay,” the Nine Yin Witch immediately agreed, smiling faintly and nodding. “I’ll give up the ice arts. Now that my mind is finally clear… I can’t even understand why I was so obsessed with it.”

“What…?” Baek Suryong stared at the Nine Yin Witch in shock. He hadn’t expected her to accept it so easily. Freed from her madness, she appeared to be a purer soul than he’d imagined.

He nodded, a hint of bitterness in his expression. “That’s a wise choice. You’re strong enough even without those cursed arts… Now, tell me your story. How did you end up learning the fake White Ice Divine Art?”

“When I was a little girl…”

The Nine Yin Witch answered Baek Suryong’s questions without hesitation. In a steady, emotionless voice, she recounted how she was sold as a child and forced to learn martial arts, the horrors she faced in the Blood Cult’s training facility, the pain she’d endured, and how she eventually escaped.

Baek Suryong listened to her quietly, his expression darkening with each revelation. When she finished, he gritted his teeth, muttering,”…I see.”

He had anticipated some of it, but the Blood Cult was more vile than he imagined. Their actions had transformed an ordinary girl into one of the Ten Great Villains.

Who knows how many more victims are out there besides her…? I don’t even want to think about it.

Closing his eyes, he shoved aside his guilt, and a plan began to form in his mind.

“Nine Yin Witch, do you want revenge against the Blood Cult?” he asked.

“……”

“I have an idea. First, you need to take over the Valley of Evil.”

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Baek Suryong’s mind raced. Now that the Nine Yin Witch was sane, he could entrust the Valley of Evil to her.

The Valley of Evil is a natural fortress. If I start a war with the Blood Cult, this terrain would be invaluable.

His plan unfolded rapidly. By taking control of the Valley of Evil, he could forge another dagger, a second arm of the Rehabilitation Sect, one that would strike at the very heart of the Blood Cult.

“I need you to weed out the irredeemable villains and gather those who can be reformed or who were falsely accused. I’ll also teach you a martial art called the Divine Rehabilitation Technique, and you’ll pass it on to them…”

“I’m sorry, but I must decline,” the Nine Yin Witch interrupted him mid-sentence, shaking her head.

Baek Suryong blinked in confusion. “Why? Don’t you want revenge?”

The Nine Yin Witch smiled, her eyes shining with newfound clarity like a monk who had attained enlightenment. “For twenty years, all I wanted was to master the White Ice Divine Art and avenge myself, but now I see how futile that is.”

Baek Suryong looked at her intently. Her gaze was gentle yet firm, leaving no room for argument. She had chosen peace of mind over vengeance.

“If that’s how you feel… I guess there’s no helping it,” he sighed.

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It was unfortunate, but if she wanted to withdraw from the world and live in seclusion for the rest of her life, he couldn’t force her to do his bidding. That would make him no different from the Blood Cult or the men who had tried to take advantage of her.

However, the Nine Yin Witch’s next actions hit him like a ton of bricks.

“I have one request,” she said earnestly.

“You’re not exactly in a position to ask for favors.”

“Yeo Min.”

“……”

“I’ve hurt that child deeply. I want to make amends, even if just a little.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“…Because I’ll never see her again.”

The Nine Yin Witch smiled gently, then sat down in a lotus position. Bringing her hands together as if in prayer, she began to circulate the White Ice Divine Art.

Baek Suryong immediately shouted, “Hey! I told you not to circulate your qi! If your madness returns…”

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Focusing all the yin energy she’d accumulated over her life between her palms, the Nine Yin Witch laughed lightheartedly, “Forgive me. It’s the last time I’ll ever do this anyway.”

“What are you doing…? Wait, don’t tell me…!” Realizing the Nine Yin Witch’s intent, Baek Suryong face fell.

RUMBLE!

The Nine Yin Witch gathered all the yin energy she’d amassed throughout her life between her hands, compressing it into a single crystal.

“Are you… creating an Ice Essence?” Baek Suryong whispered.

An Ice Essence, a crystal formed from the purest yin energy, was a priceless treasure that any practitioner of ice arts would risk their life to obtain.

Moments later, the Nine Yin Witch opened her eyes, her face ghostly pale. In her palm rested a single snow-white crystal, slightly larger than a fingernail.

Without hesitation, she handed the Ice Essence to Baek Suryong, saying, “Please give this to Yeo Min. I’ve harmed her body greatly, and I hope this Ice Essence will make up for it.”

“……”

“Please.”

“…Alright.” Baek Suryong sighed, accepting the Ice Essence. It was so pure that he felt only a gentle chill when he touched it.

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The Nine Yin Witch smiled weakly. “It’s probably too much for Yeo Min right now, so use some of it yourself if you need to, though I doubt you need my martial arts…”

“No, I need it. I’ll use it well,” Baek Suryong interrupted. Even though he knew the Ice Moon Goddess’s martial arts, he couldn’t practice it due to his constitution and could only use her movement techniques. However, with the help of the Ice Essence, he could definitely learn the White Ice Divine Art.

The Nine Yin Witch sighed in relief. “That’s good. I’ve only ever caused trouble for others… I’m glad I can be of help to someone in the end.”

“Any last words?”

“……”

“Hey.”

“……”

“Hey!”

No response came. The Nine Yin Witch sat in a lotus position, her eyes closed. With a serene smile, as if she’d shed all the burdens of the world, she drifted into an eternal sleep.

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Translator’s Note: That’s all for this week! See you next week for the conclusion to the Valley of Evil arc!