Chapter 130: Undercurrents of the Jianghu
‘Relying too much on divine power… huh.’
I was poked where it hurt.
Reviewing the times I performed martial arts recently, I used my strength centered on divine power to the point that it could be said to be ‘without fail.’
Because that was stronger. Because it was convenient.
Naturally, I became absorbed in how to use divine power more smoothly.
‘Knowing full well how the martial arts of the Nine Great Sects came to go astray…’
I thought I would be fine.
In any case, I considered it a part of consolidating the Three Talents Unified Qi Art.
However, hearing Master Zhang Sanfeng’s reprimand, it seemed that I, too, was going a bit astray.
[Strength is merely a byproduct generated in the midst of pursuing self-perfection.]
The words I had heard when receiving guidance from Master Zhang Sanfeng at Mount Wudang struck home painfully.
‘He is not telling me not to use divine power. He is telling me not to obsess over it. I must guard against lowering the perfection of my martial arts by obsessing over strength.’
[Although it is amusing to see your expression changing moment by moment, at any rate, is your self-reflection all finished?]
“Yes!”
[Then start. Let us see just how much you have reflected.]
Perhaps as a sort of compensation, unlike before, he did not teach me right away.
Show how much you have reflected.
Reviewing the given proposition, I discarded the obsessive steps.
If I naturally acted just as I wanted to perform right now.
‘Shaolin Fist.’
There was nothing like this for striking forward.
To aid the operation of Shaolin Fist, the divine power of fire linked with internal energy reached the Yongquan acupoint at the center of the sole.
This was because Shaolin Fist was a martial art that required explosive power as much as it was strong and fierce.
‘If it had been before getting scolded by Master, I would have operated it differently.’
To operate strength more strongly and fiercely, I would have forced and intricately raised multiple powers using the divine power of earth or the divine power of metal.
Naturally, the process would become longer.
Unless the achievement of the Three Talents Unified Qi Art became high enough someday to easily handle it, hanging onto this now would rather only lower the perfection of my martial arts.
[Excess is bias, so it ultimately breaks the balance. Do not obsess over temporary things. A broken balance is bound to cause a breakdown someday.]
“Yes!!”
Bang!
Along with the certainty of the answer I had come up with, I sprang forward.
Even so, I did not recklessly rush in a straight line toward the opponent on the roof.
‘Attacking from below against an enemy who is firmly holding their position up above is inviting disadvantage. That much is common sense.’
What I aimed for was the building below them.
“Come down!”
Crash!
The moment my fist touched the pillar of the building the guy was riding on, the building collapsed in an instant with a violent sound.
“Not bad. Then shall we see the skills of the widely rumored Young Heavenly Dragon?”
Despite the situation where his eye level suddenly plunged, the opponent, who was wearing a strange smile, stretched out his hands just as he fell.
A pair of hands, bending like the claws of a beast, swooped down aiming for my head and shoulders.
Claw techniques laid their significance in scratching, tearing apart, or snapping.
If, as Master Zhang Sanfeng said, the essence of that black qi was dangerous just by coming into contact with the body, the opponent’s claw technique could not be ignored even if it was a simple stance.
Normally, that was.
Clap! Clap-clap!
A sticky sound came from my hands that I had stretched out to respond to the opponent’s attack.
A sneer spread across the opponent’s mouth.
“Ha! Are you trying to wage a contest of internal energy?”
The surging black qi widened its range. A black haze flowed down the opponent’s hands and into my hands, which were clasped together.
It looked as if my entire forearm was burning furiously in a black flame.
On the outside, that was.
The black energy wavered fiercely, but it could not actually penetrate inside.
“What is this… Why?”
“Why? What do you mean why?”
You didn’t catch me; I caught you.
I violently pulled the hands clasped together. At the same time, my head lunged forward.
Bam!
“Keugh!”
“It means you are a scrub.”
The sensation of smashing the opponent’s philtrum with my forehead was quite fresh.
[If that fellow Bodhidharma saw this, he would make you practice the Iron Head Art before long.]
‘It feels nice. Should I learn the Iron Head Art to use it often…’
[If you crush exactly ten thousand pebbles and flints, you could say you have entered the gate.]
‘…We are in the middle of battle, so you shouldn’t talk about strange things.’
I almost became a madman going around destroying a pagoda with my head in an instant.
“Hup!”
Even while his head was shaking from the impact, the guy tried to shake off my hands in order to somehow untangle our clasped hands.
While focusing attention on the upper body like that, my legs played busily.
Tap! Tap! Thud!
When I struck knee with knee, he raised his toes to pierce the sole of my foot.
When I struck with the sole of my foot, this time he pushed in with his knee, trying to twist my posture.
While conducting a contest of strength with both hands, he tried to shake my center with delicate techniques using both legs.
A close-quarters battle while parts of the body were touching!
‘What are you doing to someone who has learned the martial arts of the Wudang Sect right now?’
The strongest in this method of engagement was none other than the martial arts of the Wudang Sect.
I stirred the opponent by lightly pushing and pulling the knees that were touching.
“Heh?!”
The initial confidence could not be found anywhere in the opponent, who was taken aback.
He was certainly a master skilled in super close-quarters combat, but he was unlucky in that his opponent was me.
Bam!
“Argh!”
Since the balance of his lower body had collapsed due to my knee, I swung and waved my hands to the fullest, pulled them, and once again drove my head into his philtrum.
Perhaps because nosebleeds burst from both nostrils and his face was covered in blood, the sorrowful wailing suited him quite well.
The moment I thought I had cornered the guy to some extent, the solemn voice of Master Zhang Sanfeng was heard inside my head.
[Wudang’s martial arts are based on the circle. Therefore, the direction it aims for is continuity (: continuing and continuing without being cut off). Then, what is the essence of continuity?]
Keeping the flow of strength uncut!
Without interruption, passing and redirecting the opponent’s strength!
That the flow of strength was not cut off also meant maintaining a state where a fluid flow could be created continuously.
An uncollapsing completeness.
Perfection that protected oneself from anything.
[Cultivate that sensation.]
Although short, it felt as though things that could not be expressed in words were fully condensed within each and every character.
The moment those characters entered my head, they burst with a pop! and released what was contained inside, which became a distant flood and overflowed downward.
That flow, starting from the head, swept over the entire body.
[You can think of it as using the Spirit-Descending Hand aggressively.]
Because he explained it based on the Spirit-Descending Hand, I could understand the essence of the martial arts that Master Zhang Sanfeng envisioned more clearly.
‘Greatly expand the flow that protected me.’
Binding and swallowing like a lasso.
‘Confining the opponent within my flow.’
There was an imperfect impurity within me that went against the complete flow.
For a split second, the opponent in front of me looked full of holes, as if I could easily penetrate no matter where I attacked.
Tap!
The moment I released the two hands I had been clutching, the guy pretended to back away, then twisted his waist and bounced his upper body elastically. The fingertips, stretching like a strong bow centered on the upper body, drew a fierce change.
‘A method I have seen before!’
A bizarre martial art that appeared as one but poured three strikes in succession.
It was the method shown in the first clash.
However, the martial art that felt only fast enough to raise alarm now appeared trivial.
Tap-tap-tap!
In this clash, three striking sounds were made. It was the result of accurately matching and receiving each one.
While it was the result of seeing, feeling, and sensing, it was also the result of the process of utilizing strength becoming neat and refined.
“Receiving the Dark Soul Three Hands so lightly?”
“What a tacky name!”
While provoking the opponent, I thrust out my fist to verify what I was feeling right now.
Following the feeling that seemed to guide my body to strike here, the fist that threaded through the defense like a loach struck near the ribs.
Crack!
“Urgh!”
The sensation of it breaking cleanly remained in my fist.
‘The fist goes in just as I intended.’
The sensation I was feeling now was real.
Once again, I extended my fist and knee to strike the opponent.
Thud! Thud! Bam!
“Keugh! W-What on earth…!”
The face of the party being hit was also one that could not understand.
The flow of strength that was connected and connected inside the body became a torrent and surged.
The intangible energy resonating inside me spewed out the suppressed resentment.
“Is this how it is done?”
As I opened the way for that strength, which shouted in frustration, to stretch out, my arm showed a movement resembling that flow.
The waving arm rolled as if dancing and stretched toward the opponent.
Sensing a strong sense of crisis, the opponent desperately solidified their defense.
My hand touched upon the defense that stood firmly with both arms crossed.
Thud!
“Puuuuk!”
Although my hand had merely touched him, a fountain of blood erupted from the opponent, whose face was distorted in shock.
The opponent, who collapsed while vomiting blood, showed no sign of life as if he had already died.
A martial art that cut off the breath of life simply by placing a hand on the body.
[I named it Flawless Heavenly Net (: there are no flaws in heaven’s net).]
“Flawless Heavenly Net…”
The sensation of binding the opponent’s gaps in an instant was indeed worthy of being called heaven’s net.
However, there was one more highlight that was not inferior to it.
“Is it the Cotton Palm?”
[You have noticed it well.]
“Wudang Cotton Palm… Wow!”
One of the martial arts that was never left out when discussing internal hand techniques in Martial World was none other than the Wudang Cotton Palm.
[Just as Bodhidharma refined the Great Strength Vajra Palm, I have also refined the Wudang Cotton Palm. Although it is not a martial art one would bother to pay attention to after achieving the Unity of Heaven, Earth, and Man… Well, after refining it, something like that roughly came out.]
“Hahaha…”
Although he spoke of it lightly, from what I felt, it was an extremely dangerous martial art.
The power was power, but the unique flow refined while operating it and the sensation of moving toward completeness even felt somewhat similar to the Heavenly Demon Kalpaless Hand.
Looking at it from that perspective, the current situation of performing it without being able to gauge the power of the martial art felt regrettable.
‘I didn’t plan to kill him right away.’
Aside from him being stronger than expected, there was more than one thing among the words and actions he had made that weighed on my mind.
‘He pondered whether to kill me or capture and take me away. If he had captured me, where did he plan to take me?’
Was it indeed the Blood Cult?
However, I could not feel from this guy the unique unpleasantness that Yin Ji-seung, that crazy old man, gave off when performing martial arts.
‘Was it because he was someone who succeeded in the great art, according to Master Zhang Sanfeng’s words?’
If so, just what position did this guy hold within the organization he belonged to?
Seeing how he went around cleaning up the aftermath of the Jungshin Merchant Group and the Defeng Yin Clan, he did not seem to hold such a high position.
Thinking about it, it was a terrifying thing.
That the capability of someone who was merely a lackey running on the field was at this level!
‘Besides, looking at these things, Aunt Han San-wol’s words kept coming to my mind.’
The more I pondered, the firmer my decision became.
‘Defeng Yin Clan… Yes, let’s put an end to it this time.’
I have already received the Pine Pattern Ancient Sword from Adept Heu-do.
Although I was outside the Wudang Sect, I was not an outsider of the Wudang Sect.
It was highly suspicious that Yin Si-hoo, who was suspected of being a lackey of the Blood Cult demons, was still staying in the Wudang Sect.
The matter of the Bright Fate Escort Agency, the matter of the Jungshin Merchant Group, the work as a member of the Wudang family, and my personal reasons.
Everything gathered toward the conclusion of disposing of the Defeng Yin Clan.
To do that, the first thing to precede was this.
“First, shall we look for the items that old man Jong In-geol must have hidden?”
“I don’t have talent in shoveling, though?”
“…Huh?”
While I was organizing my thoughts in my own way, the voice of Lady Jang So-wol was suddenly heard.
The gaze that stared intently at me with a sullen face appeared full of dissatisfaction.
“What does that mean?”
“What do you mean what? It means I will bring you a shovel soon.”
Lady Jang So-wol, who was smiling beamingly but whose eyes were not smiling, turned her head with a jerk.
While I was still wondering what on earth that meant, I looked at Yi Hwa, who was pointing a finger down toward the ground.
A place filled with the debris of the collapsed building.
Only then could I understand what it meant.
“Damn it…”
It seemed that the building I had smashed was that old man Jong In-geol’s residence.
Naturally, it would be the most likely place where that old man would have concealed the evidence.
“Whatever the evidence was, I’ll have to pray it’s safe. Whew!”
Staring at the broken debris with gloomy eyes, I scratched the back of my head at a thought that suddenly popped up.
“Yi Hwa.”
“Yes.”
“Doesn’t Lady Jang seem a bit angry for some reason?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“…Why is she angry?”
“…”
Regrettably, at this question, Yi Hwa’s cheeks also seemed to puff up slightly.