Chapter 103: The Moment a Martial Artist Evolves
One of the Ten Great Swords of the Realm. Jang Mun-gyeong’s Peak Sword Tao was a swordsmanship created by gathering the strengths of all sword techniques under heaven.
An advantage was relative. Depending on the time and the opponent, it could rather become a disadvantage. Therefore, to properly perform the Peak Sword Tao, it was necessary to have a broad knowledge of and understand the various martial arts of the martial world.
Naturally, Jang So-wol’s discernment was far from ordinary.
Even to such a Jang So-wol, the martial art Yeon Cheong-un was currently displaying was peculiar.
‘Even his stance isn’t ordinary.’
A swordsman held their sword in front and hid their body behind it.
But Yeon Cheong-un was different. He protected his body utilizing both hands like someone fighting with a sword and a shield.
‘He is a peculiar person.’
Her first meeting with Yeon Cheong-un had been shocking.
The ultimate strike that shook her heart!
If someone without discernment saw it, it would have seemed like a mere straight punch, but inside was a high-density powerful strike tightly packed with an incredibly vast flow of force without any gaps.
Drawn by that uniqueness, she had ended up chasing him all the way to this Samyang County.
‘…And he’s a bad man too.’
If anyone asked if she was angry with Yeon Cheong-un, she would nod her head without hesitation. When she found out that he had left for Sichuan without a word after binding their relationship in a way that suggested they should get along well in the future, she really felt like she had been hit with a hammer.
Human emotions were not eternal. As her emotions cooled and her mind calmed down, she grew to hate Yeon Cheong-un instead.
The reason she had stayed in Samyang County, which Yeon Cheong-un had left, until now was because of the thought that she had to give him a blow before leaving.
Even if that was because she had arbitrarily interpreted and imagined the opponent’s goodwill, she felt like she had to do at least that much to soothe her wounded pride.
Looking at his posture with a sword, anyone would see a beginner, but the reason she had still used her hands roughly was for that very reason.
Swish!
‘He’s getting better!’
Nevertheless, there was something about this man.
Something that made it impossible to take one’s eyes off him.
Slice!
‘…I was cut?’
Something fluttering and drifting down came into view.
It was the hem of Jang So-wol’s sleeve.
***
What was a sword?
Depending on the listener, they would give a different answer.
Someone would say it was a tool of cultivation to reflect and refine oneself through the sword, while another would say it was a tool for killing people.
While there were those who regarded it as a means to achieve a goal, to someone else, it might be a commodity to make a living.
If you asked me now, I would answer like this.
To cut!
To swing.
More correctly.
More properly.
I knew how to put power into a fist. Although I could not put that same method directly into the sword, at least I knew the flow of force.
But if I put the method I knew into the sword, the result became a mess.
Naturally, a price followed.
Clang!
Fortunately, my familiar fist and foot techniques supported me from behind.
Utilizing that support, I tried putting strength into the sword once again.
Cl-clang!
‘It’s clumsy, but it’s improving.’
Clearly, it was sloppy at first, but it felt like something would come out the more I swung.
It was better than the first time.
The second time was better, and by the third time, I thought it had become decent.
Every time it accumulated, the sensation of something melting within flowed through my hands.
‘Because there’s a good textbook right in front of me.’
I thought I understood why Master Zhang Sanfeng told me to watch Lady Jang So-wol’s sword closely.
Lady Jang So-wol’s sword was colorful. The changes of the Mount Hua Sect’s sword art were visible, and there was the matchless valor of Shaolin’s martial arts. The flow connecting the two seemed to contain the softness of the Wudang Sect.
It was a dense structure that made one feel it had been devised after deep deliberation.
As my understanding deepened, something inside me moved. Melting slowly like a sweet candy dissolving in the mouth, that thing moved and moved, flowing through my fingertips.
A profound essence that could not be expressed in a single word flowed through my fingertips, permeating the lifeless blade.
Something living settled into the cold metal and pulsated.
The sensation as if blood was flowing through the blade.
The feeling as if something was breaking out of its egg.
‘It’s coming.’
Something that was just within grasp yet elusive.
The body reacted before the head. While leaving everything to sensory perception, something crying out from within the sword made its presence known.
‘…Yes, I know.’
There were such moments.
A sensation that flashed by in an instant like inspiration.
The moment of instinctively feeling that I could accomplish something.
Swish!
A martial artist evolves.
The moment I realized that something contained within me had melted into the sword, a novice who knew nothing of the sword infused something into it.
In that moment, for that brief moment at least.
‘Now!’
I was not someone who did not know the sword.
Slice!
In that split second, I did not know what I had infused into the sword.
Because this was not something done by thinking with the head.
I had simply infused something.
Whether it was the martial arts of Master Zhang Sanfeng, Master Bodhidharma, or Master Heavenly Demon, I did not know, but.
The result of having accomplished something was fluttering and drifting down before my eyes.
“This is…”
Although my mind could not keep up with how such a result was produced, Lady Jang So-wol, whom I was facing, also had wide, startled eyes like a rabbit. From our clashing eyes, the confusion she was currently feeling was conveyed as it was.
I lowered my sword with a smile.
“Shall we stop here?”
“After making my clothes like this?”
Perhaps still having her competitive spirit left, Lady Jang So-wol’s eyes slanted upward. She looked as if she would swing her sword at any moment.
I showed her the sword with an awkward look.
“Because I don’t think the sword can hold out any longer like this.”
The sword was trembling violently. It let out a painful sound as if such a thing had never happened when it was held in Taoist Master Heodo’s hand. Actually, the blade was quite damaged.
A sword was basically a consumable. Even if the blade was sharpened keenly, it would easily get damaged after clashing a few times.
At least in the case of experts, they infused internal energy into the sword to protect it, allowing it to be used for a long time, but I was still a beginner. Such delicate control was impossible.
“You went through a lot.”
I caressed the violently trembling blade with my fingertips as if soothing a child who had worked hard. With that, the sword’s trembling subsided.
In a way, it might have been nothing more than pressing the flat of the sword to suppress the vibration, but perhaps because there had been a bizarre connection between the sword and me until just a moment ago, it felt like the reaction of a living creature.
Seeing how I cherished the sword, Lady Jang So-wol also slowly lowered her sword.
“Pointing a sword at someone who says no wouldn’t be polite either.”
“Thank you.”
To Jang So-wol, who showed restraint, I gave an awkward smile and spoke words fitting a person who respected the sword.
“A sword is ‘nice’ too.”
“…Good grief.”
Lady Jang So-wol let out a somewhat empty sigh.
***
“Whoa! Shit!”
Watching the spar that ended very peacefully compared to its savage start, Baek Mu-ho let out a short sound that was hard to distinguish between admiration and a sigh.
“He wins that…”
Beom-gak, who was next to him, tilted his head.
“A winner wasn’t decided, though?”
“If they kept going, he would have won. Even though Cheong-un is unpolished, he was evenly matched with Lady Jang. If he is polished just a little more, it is clear who would have won. Well, if we only look at martial arts.”
Variables were not completely absent. If the sword was at its limit as Yeon Cheong-un said, the sword might have broken first before he could properly achieve success.
However, even so, he did not feel at all that Cheong-un would lose.
Should I say the opponent was unlucky?
Because although he was clearly a beginner when it came to the sword, in terms of martial arts, he was an expert counted as the head of the rising stars.
From the moment Yeon Cheong-un properly composed his skills, the outcome was as good as decided.
“You can see the outcome just by looking, and you don’t even know that?”
It was human nature to give as good as one got. Hearing the sharp reply, Beom-gak snorted and sneered.
“Ah, unlike you?”
“…Tch!”
The spar between Baek Mu-ho and Jang So-wol had ended in a draw. In that situation, Yeon Cheong-un had visited, and the sparring partner had changed.
Baek Mu-ho was left speechless.
Because it was true that it was different.
“Sigh! It’s a bit strange every time I hold a sword these days. It feels like the sword keeps trying to swing me. I think it’s been like that since around a place called the Seonhwa Sect…”
Baek Mu-ho had his own worries.
It was a change that arose since he purely felt the sword he swung at the Seonhwa Sect.
But Beom-gak, who had no way of knowing about such things, only scoffed.
“The world calls that an excuse.”
“You’re stepping out of line.”
Baek Mu-ho’s eyes slanted upward.
“Want to have a go?”
“Heek! No violence!”
Beom-gak took a step back and waved his hands.
“You’re not a disciple of Shaolin, are you?”
“What do you mean I’m not a Shaolin disciple! Can’t you see this clean-shaven head?”
“That’s just hair loss.”
“…”
At Baek Mu-ho’s reply, Beom-gak rubbed his head with a complex and subtle expression.
Turning his attention away from the depressed Beom-gak, Baek Mu-ho clicked his tongue as he recalled the spar between Yeon Cheong-un and Jang So-wol once more.
“Is it because I saw something good? I feel like I can achieve something too…”
Baek Mu-ho let out a sigh once more.
***
After finishing the spar with Lady Jang So-wol, I entered the deep recesses of the Baek Family Escort.
Unlike the outer area of the Baek Family Escort, which was always bustling with people, this was the place where Sister Seol-ah, who had been avoiding people as if shunning them since long ago, resided.
‘Hmm?’
On the way there, I received a sensation that was distinctly different from before.
‘Was it originally this kind of place?’
Things I did not know when my level was low. There were presences spread out everywhere.
“This place called the Baek Family Escort is more amazing than I thought.”
It seemed Yi Hwa had also sensed the presences around them.
“Do you feel it?”
“Yes.”
“…You are amazing.”
It was all I could do to just feel a faint presence.
However, Yi Hwa seemed to perceive the presences clearly.
Perhaps Yi Hwa’s power was even stronger than I thought.
Indeed, it was none other than divine power so vast that she could not control it herself. Rather, it was to the extent that she said she could use her power smoothly only if she shared it with me.
“Let’s pass by quietly.”
“Yes.”
Although it was only for a moment, a dangerous gleam was felt in Yi Hwa’s eyes.
To interpret it, it was like she was asking, ‘Who do you think you’re looking down on so insolently?’
Thinking that an unnecessary conflict might arise at this rate, I soothed her moderately and headed into the deep recesses.
At the destination, there was a single building standing solitary and alone.
An unusually cold air flowed around it. As if that feeling was not an illusion, white frost had settled on the building, and thin ice was formed on the ground nearby.
As if it was an extraordinary sight in Yi Hwa’s eyes as well, she watched with narrowed eyes.
“That is…”
“Sister Seol-ah sometimes gets like that.”
It was the place where Sister Seol-ah resided.
It was a sight I had seen from time to time since witnessing Sister Seol-ah’s power that day.
“Since Mu-ho went back, she must have heard that I returned as well, but seeing that there was no news from her at all, I did wonder if this might be the case.”
When she was like that, Sister Seol-ah looked very pained.
Approaching closely was not permitted.
“If it’s now…”
Though it was incompatible with the earth divine power that governed water qi, what if fire divine power that could counter the cold was added?
‘I can help.’
I was no longer the helpless child who had to just watch my suffering sister from afar.