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[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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Chapter 37
As he was leaving the mansion, a small, stubborn boy blocked his way.
“Big Brother.”
“Title.”
“…Respected King Emperor Majesty Big Brother.”
“What is it?”
“Please duel with me.”
Chris stared silently at Teren.
His eyes were clearly different from before.
Chris realized Teren had grown.
‘Mid 2-star, huh. That’s fast.’
Teren was thirteen years old.
Even for someone born of a prestigious lineage, reaching 2-star at thirteen was quick.
And it wasn’t just the low stage, but mid—a level that signified maturity. Even among the Dark Demonic House, he wouldn’t be out of place as a prodigy.
“We’ll duel after I finish my training.”
“…It won’t be the same as before. Be prepared.”
“Alright. If that’s what you want, I’ll beat you to a pulp.”
“Big Brother!”
“Title.”
“…Respected King Emperor Majesty Big Brother.”
Chris chuckled and extended his fist.
Teren scoffed and bumped his fist against Chris’s.
Their fists met, and Chris entered his closed-door training.
\* \* \*
Fifteen days.
That was the actual time Chris had.
An absurdly short period to accomplish anything.
But time is relative.
For Chris, it wasn’t lacking in the slightest to achieve a goal.
‘First, reduce sleep time.’
Chris began using a secret technique.
In the past, he had been a master of medicine.
He had learned many secret arts of mysterious medicine.
Among them was a technique that allowed for maximum recovery with minimal sleep.
It couldn’t be used long-term due to eventual strain on the body, but for the next fifteen days, he could maintain his strength with less than two hours of sleep per day.
‘I should consume the Black Pill.’
Chris took out the Black Pill he had secretly acquired.
It shimmered with a deep, jet-black color like a fragment of the night sky.
‘But… how do I guide its energy?’
Chris paused for a moment.
Each pill had its own optimal energy-guiding method.
Without the proper method, the energy could be wasted, or worse—lead to deviation of the mind and body.
The problem was, this Black Pill was a secret formula of the main Dark Demonic House, and its guidance method was not known outside.
Originally, a senior from the main family should assist with the energy guidance process.
But Chris spoke casually.
“If I do it my way, it should be fine. The basic principles of energy guidance are more or less the same.”
This wasn’t his first time taking a mystical pill.
He had traveled with the Hero’s party and had plenty of opportunities to encounter various treasures.
He had even taken pills no less potent than the Black Pill before.
‘In the end, the principle of energy guidance is just leading the energy toward the core and absorbing it. The impure energy gets expelled out of the body.’
If others heard him say that, they would scold him for being reckless.
The process of absorbing a pill’s energy involved far more complex principles.
But stripping away all the technicalities, Chris wasn’t wrong.
Absorbing the energy.
If one could perfectly control the pill’s energy, there was no need for a guidance method.
It was only because that energy ran wild inside the body without proper control that the method was necessary.
‘I… can do it.’
Chris lay down on the bed in the training room.
Cross-legged meditation?
Why bother?
A comfortable position was best.
He swallowed the Black Pill, and soon it melted and was absorbed into his body.
Fwoosh.
Dark energy began to rampage inside him like an unbridled colt.
And it wasn’t just one colt.
To his head.
To his internal organs.
To his arms and legs.
The dark energy spread recklessly throughout his entire body.
Now he had to gather all that energy and guide it into his meridians.
‘It’s more intense than I expected.’
With his eyes closed, Chris furrowed his brow slightly.
More than anything, a foreign energy was rampaging alongside the dark energy.
It was light energy.
‘Was light energy also mixed into the Black Pill?’
Chris recalled how he had obtained the Black Pill.
Karazov, in ecstasy, offering his life for his master—this was the process by which the Black Pill was created.
Although it was forced through a blood ritual, it seemed that during the act of overcoming Gehenna’s fear through loyalty and sacrifice, some light energy became mixed in.
‘Now I understand why absorbing the Black Pill is considered so difficult.’
He had heard that the Black Pill posed a high risk of energy deviation, and that at least three elders from the main family needed to assist in the process.
Given that it contained light energy, of course it was dangerous.
To demons, light energy was an inherently incompatible force they could never control.
But Chris was different.
Light energy was a familiar force to him.
‘First, the dark energy.’
Chris exercised control.
It was the dark energy manipulation method he had learned from Count Khazar.
Different from what the direct line of the main family learned. The version permitted to branch members was a degraded one, with less efficiency in managing demonic energy.
But that was fine.
In the right hands, even an old sword could outshine a treasured blade.
The rampaging dark energy began to settle one by one.
He guided it straight into his meridians.
‘At the same time, the light energy as well.’
Normally, the light energy within the Black Pill was considered an impurity that had to be expelled from the body.
But Chris shook his head.
‘Why throw something this valuable away?’
He intended to absorb all of it—both the dark energy and the light energy.
While operating the dark energy, Chris simultaneously began to move the light energy.
The manipulation method of the Dark Demonic House.
And the technique of a swordsmanship family.
Both were unfolding within his body at once.
He was achieving something that was theoretically impossible.
And the shocking part didn’t end there.
Dark energy and light energy flowed together through a single meridian.
The two energies were like fire and water—should have clashed violently the moment they met—but shockingly, they remained calm.
Chris was perfectly controlling the two forces, keeping them from mixing like oil and water.
It was a deadly feat where even the slightest disturbance could result in horrific internal injuries—but Chris didn’t make a mistake.
With extreme concentration, he took complete control of the two wild forces racing through his meridians.
‘I have to use the pill’s energy to strengthen my meridians like this.’
Simply absorbing the energy into his core was a poor use of the pill.
By running the energy violently through his meridians, he could achieve the effect of strengthening them.
The issue, of course, was the risk.
Failure in control would instead cause massive internal damage to the meridians.
Especially since Chris was handling two conflicting energies at once.
Perhaps the wiser choice would’ve been to give up on strengthening and quietly absorb the energy into the core.
But Chris took the risk.
‘I can do it.’
Dark energy and light energy stormed through his meridians.
From the lower core to the heart.
From the heart to the throat and the head.
Outward to the arms and legs.
Then back to the core—repeating the cycle.
There were countless perilous moments.
At every twist and fork of the meridians, the dark and light energies surged and tried to mix.
Even a single drop blending would trigger a catastrophic chain reaction.
But he didn’t panic.
Chris calmly controlled both energies.
Eventually, the two clashing energies spiraled together as if becoming one.
Though they clung to each other as if fused, not even the slightest blending occurred—an unbelievable feat.
Chris’s meridians, stimulated simultaneously by dark energy and light energy, were strengthened—and at some point, an unexpected miracle began to occur within his body.
Crack, pop.
It went beyond merely strengthening his meridians—his physical body had begun to transform!
As impurities were flushed out, his skeletal structure subtly changed.
‘A complete physical rebirth?’
Chris’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.
No, it was similar—but not quite a complete rebirth.
Rather, this was a result of his meridians, simultaneously stimulated by both dark energy and light energy, becoming so highly strengthened that it triggered a transformation in his constitution.
His muscles and bones, which had already been in peak condition after a prior physical renewal, had now become even more refined.
From now on, his meridians would serve as stronger conduits for channeling both demonic energy and mana, and his body had become like a treasured blade, finely honed by a master smith.
‘Time to finish this.’
The rampaging dark energy and light energy that had been rushing wildly now entered his core.
The shock brought a wave of pain, but Chris clenched his jaw and endured it, guiding the dark energy into the outer core and the light energy into the inner core.
At last—
“Haa.”
Chris let out a deep breath and opened his eyes.
His gaze, now noticeably deeper than before.
‘Judging by the amount of demonic energy… around 3-star level?’
Three stars!
It was astounding.
Chris’s current rank was 2-star.
But the amount of demonic energy he possessed was lacking, even for a 2-star.
Strictly speaking, his demonic energy hadn’t even reached the level of a full 1-star.
While he had rapidly ascended in rank thanks to his exceptional talent, he hadn’t had the absolute amount of time needed to accumulate demonic energy.
Yet now, with just one pill, he had leapt two levels’ worth of energy.
‘And not only that. The mana used for union-level cultivation—Star Radiance—has also reached 3-star level.’
His mana reserves had been lacking just as much as his demonic energy.
Though he had reached 3-star in terms of achievement, the amount of mana he possessed was embarrassingly low for that level—but now that problem had been solved as well.
‘Feels like my face got more handsome too.’
Chris looked at his reflection in the mirror.
A handsome young noble with an irritatingly smug expression stared back at him.
Having gone through something akin to another round of physical renewal, he’d become even better-looking—and his face had become even more irritating to look at.
‘I can’t be satisfied with just this.’
Taking the Black Pill had only marked the beginning of his closed-door training.
His goal was to achieve star-rank elevation.
Chris intended to reach a much higher level than where he currently stood.
If anyone heard he was aiming to reach star-level achievement in less than two weeks, they would laugh in disbelief.
For reference, Chris’s current rank was 2-star Lower.
He had only just reached 2-star.
Normally, advancing from 2-star to 3-star took over five years.
Even going from Lower to Middle within the 2-star level typically required at least a year—even under the best conditions.
Even Teren, who was considered a prodigy, took a year and a half just to rise from 2-star Lower to 2-star Middle . Had he not been motivated by Chris, it might have taken even longer.
However—
‘I need to reach 2-star Upper before the Dark Baptism.’
A level right on the verge of reaching 3-star.
Even for a gifted talent, it was a process that would normally take two years.
Do you think it’s possible in just two weeks?
You’ll see for yourself.
‘Let’s begin.’
Flash!
Demonic energy surged from Chris’s body, and the true training began.
* * *
Time passed in the blink of an eye.
The day of Chris’s training completion had arrived.
“……”
A boy with a stiff, stern expression stood guard in front of the training hall.
‘I don’t like this.’
Teren frowned as he waited for Chris to finish training.
‘That annoying brother.’
Teren originally despised Chris.
It was only natural.
The old Chris had been a disgraceful, wasteful delinquent—worthy of contempt.
But at some point, Chris had completely changed.
He had become an entirely new person, displaying feats that were hard to believe.
Teren found that transformation in his brother… irritating.
‘If you were capable of changing, why didn’t you do it sooner? Why? Why did you live like a useless fool until the moment Mother died?’
Teren clenched his fist tightly.
To be honest, he didn’t even know what exactly he was feeling right now.
He was just angry.
He wanted to knock Chris down a peg.
‘I can definitely beat him.’
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[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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