Chapter 7: Chapter 7
It was shortly before Hyeon-ryeo arrived.
Flip… Flip…
Cheon-hwi followed the oral formulas written in the martial arts manual with his right hand and flipped the pages quickly with his left.
He shook his head as he looked at the blank paper that appeared while he was flipping through it.
‘Now there are lost oral formulas.’
He looked at it with a dumbfounded gaze, then decided to read the remaining oral formulas as if he was being tricked.
The core of the Orchid Blade Blood Hand was two things.
It was the Orchid and the Dao Acupoints.
‘Is it telling me to do it like this?’
Swish…
He raised his right hand and swung it.
From top to bottom, and from bottom to top.
His right hand, with fingers undulating like waves, rode the air like a fluttering wind and flicked the empty space a few times.
The two words that seemed completely unrelated to each other combined into a single martial art and bore fruit.
‘It was like this.’
As if handling an orchid, the soft and elegant hand gesture moved along the flow.
Srrk…
He pointed along the path where the acupoints were located.
Flow Exists to Guide the Way.
Only when there is a flow, does it guide the path.
This Flow Exists to Guide the Way, which was treated heavily in the last oral formula of the martial arts manual, was the very oral formula that pierced through the core of the Orchid Blade Blood Hand.
Tak.
After doing that for a moment, he withdrew the Orchid Blade Blood Hand.
‘All the important oral formulas have been lost.’
He figured out what the missing oral formulas were.
That was natural because the Orchid Blade Blood Hand was a technique used by an old woman in the past, so he had seen it many times and knew its flow.
He recalled in his mind the old woman who crazily unleashed the Orchid Blade Blood Hand while executing the Jade Ring Wondrous Steps.
That extremely vicious and wicked technique.
‘Then…’
He drew the shape of a person in the empty air and caught his breath.
Subsequently, he withdrew his right hand that had moved flutteringly and softly, and stood his fingers up straight.
In an instant, the air changed.
In a short fleeting moment, his right hand containing a sharp momentum took the form of a sword and was soon drawn diagonally.
Whoosh…
It pulled the shape of the person and bound it.
The soft hand gesture did not deflect the opponent’s attack like grappling techniques, but played the role of spinning the surrounding air to pull the opponent towards himself.
And the defenseless opponent.
Puk.
He pierced through.
Clang!
The shape with a hole pierced in it shattered.
‘Yes, this is it.’
This was exactly the Orchid Blade Blood Hand that the old woman used, a wicked technique that struck the dead acupoints without an inch of hesitation.
‘This is the true Orchid Blade Blood Hand.’
He recalled the alias that the cultists who saw the old woman’s technique called it in the past.
They said it was a technique with hand gestures as soft as an orchid, but the moment one approached closely, it became sharp and fierce like a blade that called for blood.
‘Of course, it must be forgotten now.’
He shrugged his shoulders.
Three hundred years had passed.
It was only natural for martial arts to change as well.
There were cases where oral formulas changed, and cases where oral formulas were lost like this.
It was especially severe for the Orchid Blade Blood Hand.
Of course, he could guess the reason.
This place was the Mount Hua Sect.
It was a Daoist sect.
‘Would the Mount Hua Sect, which has built a long history in Daoism, have left such a martial art with dense killing intent alone? No one practiced it, so they probably didn’t even notice that the oral formulas were lost.’
He stealthily gazed at the library.
The Demon Eradication Sword Art was also an outstanding sword art, but it was far from a Daoist sword art, so it was neglected to the point of gathering dust.
‘Well, that’s that.’
He sharply cut off his ongoing thoughts.
As he adapted to the current situation of being three hundred years in the future, this much was nothing.
‘I’m done with the Orchid Blade Blood Hand now.’
Tak.
Just as he placed the properly restored oral formulas of the Orchid Blade Blood Hand into his head and closed the martial arts manual with a satisfied expression.
“Hwi-ya!”
He turned his head at the ringing voice that shook the previously silent Ten Thousand Scenery Pavilion.
‘Hyeon-ryeo?’
He stopped the Orchid Blade Blood Hand at her completely unexpected appearance.
Right after, around the time he looked at her with a questioning expression.
Grip!
Hyeon-ryeo, who had approached right in front of him, tightly grabbed Cheon-hwi’s shoulder with her hand. Then, glaring her two eyes, she shouted loudly.
“W-when did you learn martial arts?”
“Pardon?”
He spat out his words as if it were absurd.
Cheon-hwi could be confident that there was no one in the world who had learned more martial arts than him.
But for her to ask if he had learned martial arts.
He was so baffled that he even lost his words.
“Martial arts since a long time ago…”
While saying that, he flinched.
His gaze overlapped with Hyeon-ryeo, who was making an expression of disbelief.
In her deep, clear, pitch-black pupils, the face of a young Daoist making a dumbfounded expression was swaying.
Oops!
He was so absorbed in martial arts that his realization was late.
That he was currently not Dokgo Gu Yeon, but Mount Hua Sect’s Cheon-hwi.
He moved his eyes back and forth in panic, found the martial arts manual in his left hand, raised it up immediately, and smiled awkwardly.
“Haha, I just tried following the contents written in this martial arts manual.”
“…!”
Squeeze!
His shoulder throbbed for a moment.
She’s damn strong.
Just as he endured his face trying to contort in pain, Hyeon-ryeo’s hand trembled.
“Are you saying you learned the Orchid Blade Blood Hand just by following the martial arts manual?”
Muttering quietly, she dropped her hand limply with a pale expression.
Then she shoved her face right in.
“Then what was the Orchid Blade Blood Hand you executed just before? How could you execute something that can never be learned because some of the oral formulas written in the martial arts manual are lost…!”
Cheon-hwi showed a troubled expression at her barrage of words.
How should I answer this?
That I saw it in the past? As if she would believe that.
Then that I recalled the martial art I used to use in the past and restored it?
This was an even crazier statement.
Around the time he was repeating so many worries, Hyeon-ryeo began to come to her senses, seemingly misunderstanding that Cheon-hwi was frightened in advance.
‘What did I do…’
She let go of the hand gripping his shoulder.
And she thought with a cleared mind.
‘I’m crazy. I’m crazy. To press a kid like this who can’t even execute martial arts.’
Hyeon-ryeo shook her head while blaming herself.
‘Perhaps his clumsy imitation without any inner qi just looked slightly similar to what was passed down through oral tradition.’
As she thought that, her mind felt at ease.
Soon, she made eye contact with Cheon-hwi and spoke.
“I’m sorry. You wouldn’t be able to properly execute the Orchid Blade Blood Hand because you don’t have inner qi, but a demon must have caught my eyes for me to make such a ridiculous illusion and corner you like this…”
Cheon-hwi remained silent at Hyeon-ryeo’s words that he heard while he was only worrying.
It was a good thing I didn’t answer.
The moment he was relieved that he had passed over a matter that could have become bothersome if he made a mistake, Hyeon-ryeo suddenly embraced Cheon-hwi tightly.
Sigh, again?
He shook his head inwardly.
It was a hug she did every time they met. At first he tried to reject it, but now he was so tired that he complied without even trying to detach her.
How many seconds did they hug?
Hyeon-ryeo released the hug and met his eyes.
“Hwi-ya.”
Calling Cheon-hwi, she bore a complicated look in her eyes and asked carefully.
“By any chance, do you want to learn martial arts?”
“Pardon? Yes.”
He was spacing out at the out-of-the-blue question that suddenly came in and answered on impulse.
Then Hyeon-ryeo nodded.
The speaking girl firmly clenched her two fists with a resolute look in her eyes and opened her mouth.
“I understand.”
After speaking as if she had resolved herself, she turned her body and went back down the stairs.
Thump… Thump…
As Hyeon-ryeo disappeared beyond the stairs like that, Cheon-hwi, who was staring blankly, muttered with a dumbfounded expression.
“Did she come just to say that?”
* * *
Two days later, at the hour of the dog.
The weather had become a lot warmer in the meantime.
The plum blossoms bloomed more rampantly than before, softly enveloping Mount Hua.
It was now clear spring weather.
Under the blue sky, Cheon-hwi, who came out of the Ten Thousand Scenery Pavilion at the usual time, was walking along the mountain path towards his thatched cottage.
‘The Orthodox Supreme Arts are much more different from the Demonic Supreme Arts than I thought.’
He had already skimmed through a hundred martial arts manuals.
He could learn many things during that time.
The Demonic Supreme Arts used any means and methods solely to become stronger.
But the Orthodox Supreme Arts were different.
An extension of cultivation.
Most of the Orthodox Supreme Arts were like that.
Building some Dao, gaining enlightenment to Ascend to Immortality.
Most pursued non-killing.
If they were going to do that, it would have been better to just learn mental methods rather than learning martial arts.
What was martial arts?
It was a weapon meant to kill opponents.
But they only neutralize the opponent?
If the demons of the Heavenly Demon Cult, who followed the law of the strong ruling supreme, saw this, they would have snorted and laughed at them.
However, Cheon-hwi felt intrigued.
‘It’s fun because it’s different from what I know.’
After walking while lost in thought for about fifteen minutes, he was able to arrive at the thatched cottage.
The next moment, his eyes sank coldly.
Shoes he had never seen before were neatly placed on the threshold of the thatched cottage.
It had already been ten days since he stayed here.
During that time, the only person who had come looking for him at the thatched cottage was Hyeon-ryeo, and even she did not enter the inside of the thatched cottage.
He slowly opened the door and went in.
Subsequently, at the moment he threw open the door to a room without a single light.
Flash!
Two lights of eyes flashed in the darkness.
“Are you here?”
His head turned at the thick voice.
In the center, a massive middle-aged man was sitting cross-legged with his arms crossed.
‘Who is it?’
He scanned the man covered in darkness.
Hair that was left untied as if whatever happens, happens, and a faint scar crossing his cheek.
He flinched for a moment.
What a surprise. I was startled thinking that bastard, Ghost Face Demonic Blade, was here.
The man, who possessed upturned eyes and thick sword-like eyebrows, did not fall behind that guy at all, who was counted on one hand for his scary impression even within the Heavenly Demon Cult.
If it wasn’t for the Daoist robe of the Mount Hua Sect he was wearing, his appearance was rugged enough to make one think he was brothers with that guy.
Cheon-hwi shined his eyes while scanning him.
It wasn’t just his outward appearance that was intense.
The man possessed the strongest aura out of all the figures he had met in the Mount Hua Sect.
‘He’s stronger than the Sect Leader?’
In an instant, a figure brushed past his mind.
“Hyeon-do… Martial Uncle?”
Thud.
Hyeon-do grabbed the floor and raised his body.
Then, Hyeon-do’s head, which used to be at chest level, gradually grew higher and went up to the point of almost touching the ceiling.
A height that was over six cheok just by roughly looking at it.
With his massive frame, he walked with large strides and approached Cheon-hwi.
“Hmm…”
He nodded as he looked down while touching his sparsely grown beard.
Soon, his tightly shut mouth, which seemed to have gathered all his stubbornness together, slowly opened.
“I heard you want to learn martial arts.”
Learn martial arts… Ah!
He was suddenly reminded of his impulsive answer during his conversation with Hyeon-ryeo two days ago and inevitably nodded his head.
“That is right.”
“So I have come.”
Hyeon-do raised his chin as he spoke.
He stretched his back out straight as he looked down with an expression full of pride.
“To teach you.”
“Pardon?”
Cheon-hwi opened his eyes wide.
‘It seems he’s touched that I’m teaching him.’
Satisfied with the surprised appearance, Hyeon-do showed a smile and gave a big nod.
But did he know?
That Cheon-hwi was not touched at all.
Rather, he found it absurd.
‘I have to learn martial arts from a weakling like this?’
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