Chapter 8: Chapter 8
Hyeon-do looked over Cheon-hwi.
‘His body has improved.’
A smile of relief appeared on his face.
Of course, he didn’t know Cheon-hwi in detail, nor had he met him often.
He had also visited him when he collapsed and wished for his safety.
‘Because he is Hyeon-gang’s disciple.’
Gazing intently at Cheon-hwi, he recalled Hyeon-gang, who was no longer in this world.
Eight years ago.
Hyeon-gang led his martial nephews, who had newly become Plum Blossom Swordsmen, and stepped into Jianghu.
And on that day, Hyeon-do entered closed-door training.
While he was proud of Hyeon-gang quickly catching up to him, it was also because his competitive spirit as a martial artist had been ignited.
However, that was the mistake of a lifetime.
Half a year later, as soon as he finished his closed-door training, what he heard was shocking news.
… Our youngest martial brother and martial nephews died.
It was what Hyeon-ryeo, who had become unspeakably haggard, blurted out as soon as he saw him.
Enraged and bursting with anger at those words, he caused a fuss, vowing to take revenge.
However, everyone stopped him.
The opponent was the White Ghost Castle.
As the Six Emperors Gate of the Four Black Alliances, it was a place that spread its prestige throughout the world.
He argued that even if it was too much for the Mount Hua Sect’s strength, they could just ask the Murim Alliance for help, but an unexpected answer came back.
The White Ghost Castle had stated that since they also lost the Extinction Ruin Sword and his subordinate Extinction Squad, they should just let it go, and the Murim Alliance accepted that proposal.
Therefore, if they wanted to take revenge, they were told to wage a sect-versus-sect war.
He was angry, and his frustration burst forth.
But even so, wage an all-out war?
He couldn’t bring himself to do that.
Unlike the White Ghost Castle, which had lost only the Extinction Ruin Sword and one out of their six martial squads, the Mount Hua Sect had lost Hyeon-gang and the Plum Blossom Swordsmen, who were their core fighting force.
An obvious defeat was drawn before his eyes.
He could not end the Mount Hua Sect’s nearly five-hundred-year history by his own hands.
Eventually giving up, he had asked Hyeon-ryeo.
‘Where did you bury them?’
‘According to our youngest martial brother’s last will, I sent them off as a handful of ashes into Mount Hua’s sky.’
It felt as if his heart was collapsing.
At the time, it was something everyone had laughed at.
Asking what kind of will that was.
However, no one in the Mount Hua Sect could have known that it would become reality.
Since that day, he had not been able to escape his sorrow for a long time.
If only I had followed them!
If only I hadn’t done the closed-door training!
Regret choked Hyeon-do.
He should have gone with them, no matter what.
And yet, merely because of his competitive spirit, he dedicated himself to closed-door training, and because of that, he couldn’t even greet the corpses of Hyeon-gang and his martial nephews.
Just then, Senior Martial Brother Hyeon-cheong laid everything down and entered the Ten Thousand Scenery Pavilion.
‘It is all because our sect is weak.’
The words he spoke before entering the Ten Thousand Scenery Pavilion brought a tremendous shock to Hyeon-do.
‘When I become an absolute master, we will never experience something like this again!’
Coming to his senses, he dedicated himself to training once again.
To become an absolute master.
Was it thanks to him putting everything aside and immersing himself only in training?
Only after six years had passed did he barely reach the edge of the Limitless Realm, and he was able to place the Heavenly Martial Realm right before his eyes.
Now, just a single step remained.
If he took just that one step, he could ascend to the Heavenly Martial Realm and become an absolute master.
However.
‘It still cannot be grasped in my hands.’
Even now, the wall of the Heavenly Martial Realm only flickered before him, and he could not approach it.
For a staggering two years.
Thud…
Hyeon-do slumped to the floor.
After that, he tapped the floor with his calloused right hand and spoke.
“Sit down for now.”
Soon, Cheon-hwi took a seat.
“Before learning martial arts, you must first polish the foundation of the heart method, so I will teach you the Breathing Technique first.”
Immediately, Hyeon-do clumsily recalled the time he had first learned martial arts a very long time ago and parted his lips.
“Because the mind and body must be clean to accept the proper righteous energy. Spitting out the stagnant qi, the old murky energy accumulated in the body, is the beginning. After that, taking a deep breath to accept clean energy is the Breathing Technique’s…”
Inhaling, and exhaling.
It was a long and lengthy explanation, but ultimately, the conclusion was just those two things.
Yawn, so when will it end?
He blinked his eyes at the boring explanation.
However, he had to pretend to listen.
Because across from him, Hyeon-do was glaring at him continuously with fire in his eyes.
By the time about fifteen minutes had passed as he pretended to listen, letting Hyeon-do’s explanation go in one ear and out the other.
“This is the Breathing Technique.”
Hyeon-do finished his words.
It finally ended.
As he put strength into his heavy eyelids.
“Then try it once.”
Hyeon-do said with a smile.
Although the Breathing Technique was the foundation of the heart method, since he knew nothing, it wasn’t something he could perform after just a single explanation.
Usually, it was mostly showing a demonstration or flowing true qi to help one learn the Breathing Technique.
However, he deliberately didn’t do so.
‘Please teach Cheon-hwi martial arts.’
Having received a request from Hyeon-ryeo, who rarely asked him for favors, and taking on the task of teaching Cheon-hwi, Hyeon-do intended to do it thoroughly.
‘For now, I can just observe the situation and make him feel the qi by flowing true qi or something similar.’
That was his martial arts philosophy.
That acting once was the most efficient, rather than hearing a hundred times.
“Understood.”
Cheon-hwi assumed the lotus position.
“Yes, yes. That posture.”
Hyeon-do smiled with satisfaction.
It was a better posture than he thought.
While most young children could not even properly assume the lotus position, Cheon-hwi was taking a perfect posture as if he were a Daoist who had trained for a long time.
‘He must have imitated our youngest martial brother after watching him.’
Just as he was sinking into memories while looking at the lotus posture that exactly resembled his youngest martial brother’s.
Inhale, exhale.
With both eyes closed, Cheon-hwi repeated taking a breath in and exhaling it out multiple times.
By the time about fifteen minutes passed like that.
Swish…
Cheon-hwi opened his eyes.
“I have finished.”
Hyeon-do nodded his head.
“That is Qi Circulation. If you do the Breathing Technique like that without missing a single day, at some point, you will come to feel a foreign energy different from usual…”
“Are you speaking of the energy that enters through the mouth and knocks on the lower dantian?”
“That’s right. Accumulating that energy knocking on the lower dantian becomes internal energy… What?”
Hyeon-do made a blank expression.
He felt energy on his first Qi Circulation?
It was a ridiculous notion.
“Wh-what are you talking about?”
“As you instructed earlier, Senior Martial Uncle, I have accumulated it in my lower dantian.”
At the ensuing words, he burst into a hollow laugh.
He perceived it as a prank.
“Haha. That’s a heavy joke.”
“A joke?”
Hyeon-do, who had dismissed it as a child’s prank, stiffened as he looked at Cheon-hwi’s expression.
There was not a single trace of falsehood on that face.
“…Really?”
“Yes.”
“Give me your hand.”
Cheon-hwi extended his right hand.
The moment he grabbed Cheon-hwi’s white and slender wrist, blew in his true qi, and checked the lower dantian, Hyeon-do’s jaw dropped.
“…!”
He almost jumped to his feet.
Internal energy was accumulated in his lower dantian.
Though it was still as small as a speck of dust, it was extremely pure internal energy.
“H-how?”
“I did exactly as you told me.”
“You mean following the oral instructions?”
“Yes.”
“That makes no sense!”
“Pardon? What do you mean by it making no sense?”
“How can anyone accumulate internal energy in a single attempt just by listening to the oral instructions.”
“Then were you telling me to do something that makes no sense?”
Cheon-hwi tilted his head.
Of course, on the inside, he was sneering.
A skill-less fool is testing me?
Noticing at a glance that the other was trying to test him, he spoke while deliberately feigning ignorance.
Unaware of Cheon-hwi’s thoughts, Hyeon-do shook his head and spoke quietly.
“I was going to help you if you got stuck. I was going to flow true qi to induce the energy to flow. However…”
Hyeon-do, falling into confusion, was pouring out his thoughts out loud before belatedly coming to his senses. Afterward, he put strength into his hand.
Squeeze…
“The Heavenly Venerable didn’t just take away our youngest martial brother for nothing! Hahahahaha!”
Cheon-hwi looked with a bewildered expression at Hyeon-do, who suddenly burst into laughter.
Is he crazy?
Hyeon-do, who was laughing heartily as if overjoyed about something, let go of the hand that had been holding Cheon-hwi’s wrist.
It hurts.
Cheon-hwi shook his throbbing wrist.
On his wrist, Hyeon-do’s red handprint remained vividly and had swollen up.
Hyeon-do looked at Cheon-hwi, who was caressing his wrist, and parted his lips.
“I will teach you the heart method.”
It was an unconventional statement.
Even if one accumulated internal energy, it was practically a custom of the Mount Hua Sect that one must get used to the Breathing Technique before learning the heart method.
Yet Hyeon-do skipped the process.
‘Not only did he feel qi with just a single session of the Breathing Technique, but it’s an astonishing talent that even accumulated internal energy in his lower dantian.’
It was too much of a waste to let such talent rot away by wasting time on the Breathing Technique.
‘If I tell Senior Martial Brother Sect Leader later, he will surely understand.’
Cheon-hwi looked at the deep-in-thought Hyeon-do.
‘Huh? I heard the Orthodox Faction learns martial arts step by step, right? I guess the Mount Hua Sect is different.’
It was an unconventional act of ignoring customs solely for one person, but the person involved, Cheon-hwi, thought little of it.
“What I will teach you is the Plum Blossom Qi Art. As a heart method that only true disciples of our sect can learn, it is the foundation of all martial arts in our sect.”
Hyeon-do’s explanation lengthened.
However, this time he was not bored.
It has a different feeling from when I was reading it, doesn’t it?
In terms of the Plum Blossom Qi Art, he had read it as a martial arts manual, and the oral incantations were exactly the same.
However, to make it easier to comprehend, Hyeon-do added his own interpretations in the middle, and that was drawing his interest.
“By combining the internal energy into one…”
* * *
The next day, when Cheon-hwi returned from the Ten Thousand Scenery Pavilion, Hyeon-do was waiting for him.
“Senior Martial Uncle?”
Hyeon-do extended the wooden sword he held in his hand.
“Take it.”
He accepted the wooden sword in bewilderment.
At that, Hyeon-do drew his sword.
The Hundred-Refined Sword, which originally would have boasted a pure white blade, was dyed in the setting sun.
Subsequently, he lifted the sword.
Swish…
Truthfully, his body was heating up.
It was exactly because of what happened yesterday.
Cheon-hwi absorbed the oral teachings of the Plum Blossom Qi Art flawlessly, and then accomplished the Small Heavenly Cycle.
In less than two hours!
In that moment, he realized.
‘He is a genius who will go down in history!’
He formulated a plan afterward.
A plan to raise Cheon-hwi into a master who would leave his mark on the history of the Mount Hua Sect, no, Jianghu.
“Watch carefully. This is none other than our sect’s sword technique, the Six Harmonies Sword Art.”
Hyeon-do demonstrated the Six Harmonies Sword Art.
Swish… Swish…
The sword swung powerfully.
Cheon-hwi, who had been glaring at Hyeon-do as he unilaterally spoke and acted, changed his gaze the moment the sword art began.
The sword Hyeon-do swung drew across all directions.
The sharp Hundred-Refined Sword, swung in every direction a human could move, was as free as if it could cope with any situation.
Yet, isn’t it a bit unnatural?
Cheon-hwi stared intently at Hyeon-do.
To figure out what was unnatural.
Fifteen minutes later, Hyeon-do, who had demonstrated a bout of the Six Harmonies Sword Art, retracted his sword and parted his lips.
“Did you watch carefully?”
“I did watch it.”
“Then I will explain the forms to you now.”
He raised his sword once again.
And executing the form he had initially swung once more, he began to explain.
“First is the first form, the Six Harmonies Open Array. Stretching out a step like this and raising the sword high is the starting stance. And in this state…”
Following the first form, the Six Harmonies Open Array, Hyeon-do demonstrated all of the remaining five forms, sheathed his sword, and then spoke.
“Then give it a try.”
He adjusted his grip on the wooden sword.
Holding a sword for the first time in a long while, a slight sense of exhilaration rose in his chest.
A sword, it’s been a long time.
For starters, he unfolded the Six Harmonies Sword Art.
About the time he repeated it several times like that.
This was the problem.
He found the reason why it was unnatural earlier when Hyeon-do was unfolding the Six Harmonies Sword Art.
There was absolutely no linkage between the forms.
While it seemed complete when looking at the forms individually, the flaw was highlighted when unleashing the Six Harmonies Sword Art all at once.
It would be better to unleash it like this instead.
Swish!
In an instant, the Six Harmonies Sword Art began to change.
The sword, which had moved freely and wildly without any connection between the forms, began to ride a flow and interwove into one.
Hyeon-do, who had been watching that transformation from beginning to end, narrowed his brow.
At first, it seemed like he was swinging decently as taught, but as time passed, the sword technique was turning abysmal.
‘To think he would be this unskilled.’
Was it said that the greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment? He felt a sense of regret.
‘No, too much is as bad as too little. Considering he’s a child who has never even held a sword, that much is a sufficiently satisfying level of skill.’
He shook his head.
It was a little disappointing, but it was fine.
‘Unlike the internal heart method that requires elixirs and enlightenment, in the case of a sword art, if you put in the effort, you can quickly reach the level.’
Hyeon-do, nodding his head once, strode over to Cheon-hwi, who was failing to properly execute the Six Harmonies Sword Art.
“It’s sloppy. Didn’t I explain about the Six Harmonies Sword Art? When swinging like this, you must raise the sword. You have to cleave the Heaven for the true full bloom to…”
“But isn’t it more natural to swing it like this?”
If it were the usual Hyeon-do, it would have been a matter to get angry over for interrupting his words.
However, since yesterday’s encounter, the sense of distance between the two had closed noticeably, to the point where Hyeon-do understood even if Cheon-hwi casually cut him off or engaged in conversation like this.
Gazing softly at Cheon-hwi, who wore an expression that seemed to say ‘Why don’t you know this?’, Hyeon-do asked.
“What are you talking about?”
“Look.”
Cheon-hwi, having answered, immediately unleashed the Six Harmonies Sword Art he had altered as he pleased in one breath.
Swish… Swish…
At a glance, it looked the same as what Hyeon-do had executed, but it wasn’t sharp, and the true essence of the Six Harmonies Sword Art didn’t remain. Soon, the Six Harmonies Sword Art transformed completely.
“You punk!”
Hyeon-do, who had been quietly watching, raised his eyes sharply.
“The Six Harmonies Sword Art is a sword technique passed down from generation to generation in our sect. Yet you are trying to change the sword art as you please, are you planning to commit the crime of deceiving the master and destroying the ancestors?”
“But this is better.”
“You still haven’t come to your senses!”
Barking in sudden anger, he drew his sword once more, radiating his internal power.
“Watch closely just how futile of an act you were trying to commit.”
To make him realize how huge of a mistake he had been about to make, Hyeon-do copied the Six Harmonies Sword Art that Cheon-hwi had just unfolded.
First form, Six Harmonies Open Array.
Second form, Six Harmonies Nine Streams.
Just when he swung up to the third form, Six Harmonies Bitter Rain.
Swish… Swish…
Without realizing it, he became increasingly engrossed.
Finishing the completely transformed Six Harmonies Sword Art all the way to the end.
“…”
Fifteen minutes later, Hyeon-do stood blankly.
The sword path of the Six Harmonies Sword Art he had unfolded was still vividly visible in his eyes.
“Such natural linkage…”
Cheon-hwi approached Hyeon-do, who was still unable to snap out of the lingering afterglow, and parted his lips.
“I was right, wasn’t I?”
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