Chapter 15: Heavy Earth Divine Art

Uncle Baek Jin-seong was not the type of commander who only gave orders and stood still. He was the type who led directly with his body.

After saying to sweep them away, he was the first to spring forward.

“……I got scolded for doing that.”

[You were scolded because it was a foolish act where you were too engrossed in rushing out to properly recognize the surrounding situation. He is different.]

Master Zhang Sanfeng snapped, as if asking if he really had to explain it.

I had nothing to say when he beat me up with facts like that.

Certainly, at that time, I was so focused only on the enemy in front of my eyes that I had completely missed the movements of my allies.

“Scolded? Are you talking about me?”

Hearing my words, Baek Mu-ho, who was running alongside me, asked.

It was not said to him, so it was extremely embarrassing.

“Just talking to myself.”

“Did you lose your mind because the clash is right in front of us?”

It was a situation of charging headlong at the flustered enemy. It was only natural for him to look at me strangely since I was babbling nonsense to myself while running as fast as I could.

“Mind your own business!”

Putting strength into my running lower body and the tips of my toes, my body accelerated and sprang forward quickly. Even so, it was barely enough to squeeze into the charging line.

As expected, my lightfoot art side was still immature.

Even if I had explosive power over a short distance reachable in a single step, it was not easy to maintain that explosive power when there was a distance.

“Hurry up, slowpoke!”

Baek Mu-ho, who had been matching my pace to some extent, dashed ahead.

“Hyah!”

One escort warrior, mounted on a horse and wielding a spear, rode vigorously.

The moment Uncle Baek Jin-seong clashed with the enemy camp at the very front, the enemy camp split apart.

Riding on the momentum, the spear of the escort warrior who ran on horseback drew a large, grand circle.

*Clang!*

However, unlike when Uncle Baek Jin-seong swung his sword, the sound made by that spear was heavy and dull.

Someone avoided the spearhead and struck the spear shaft.

What followed next was something fierce enough to fill the field of vision right before my eyes.

*Boom!!*

A resonance several times heavier than the earth shaking when passing right by my side erupted.

Along with the mournful cry of the horse, I could see a wave rising across the horse’s entire body.

A thrusting punch stopped the horse’s charge. With a single punch, it crushed the head and blew away the muscular body of the horse, whose charge could have easily sent a person flying.

The escort warrior who was riding on top dismounted nimbly, but the opponent’s movement targeting the moment of dismounting followed phantom-like.

At this rate, he would be defeated.

To save my ally, I had to block that punch.

At that moment, worrying about whether I could block that punch was not a subject of consideration. I slipped between the two at once.

Wudang’s softness. The neutralizing force of the Supreme Ultimate Fist deflected the punch that was lunging at my ally.

‘Ugh!’

Even though I avoided the front, clashed, and pushed the force to the side, it was to the extent that my wrist throbbed.

An inner energy so deep that an impact remained in my body even though I had redirected the force properly.

“You are in the way, kid.”

Gearing his eyes toward the culprit who made him miss his intended prey, the opponent continued his offensive without hesitation.

An outer crescent kick that drew a diagonal line upward. The moment I tried to lower my body against the attack coming up with the momentum to split my waist, a chilly sensation rang an alarm in my head.

A sensation of danger.

*Whoosh!*

Putting aside any sense of pride, a heavy force passed by the side of my head as I rolled on the ground with all my might.

“To think you would roll like a lazy donkey, you really do all sorts of things.”

A combination of fist strikes following the kick technique.

Cornering and striking.

Although I watched, understood, and responded, the opponent showed a difference in basic capability.

Conversely, perhaps the opponent had thought it would work for sure, as irritation could be felt in his voice.

When that irritation was loaded into his next movement, it became even fiercer.

And it was also that much easier to read.

This time, I snatched it.

The technique of deflecting a thousand pounds with four ounces, executed flawlessly to the point of utilizing the flow of the violently raging force, lifted the opponent’s body into the air so simply.

And slammed him onto the ground.

*Thud!!*

It was a painful move that dropped him headfirst. Fearing it might not be enough, I even kicked him in the face the moment he fell.

Normally, it would not be strange if his neck bone broke.

“…….”

However, the opponent raised his body as if it were no big deal. A nosebleed flowed, but he did not look like he had suffered a major blow.

Instead, his gaze turned cold. He did not say any more useless words.

Even though I had landed a proper blow, the opponent became serious instead.

“……I can’t win, right?”

My technique had no shortcomings. But my strength could not keep up with it.

[He is a guy who has learned martial arts quite orthodoxly. Although your achievement is fast, considering the age he appears to be, he must be a fellow who has accumulated at least twenty years of training. Isn’t it shameless to hope to overcome twenty years of time with less than a year since you started learning martial arts?]

Master Zhang Sanfeng’s words were painful. It also sounded like buying time would be winning.

However.

[Well, it’s not like there is absolutely no way.]

Even so, there was a way.

[You will be bedridden for a few days.]

“Please teach me.”

I replied the instant I heard the price to pay.

That much was extremely cheap.

As I steeled my resolve to bear the cost, Master Zhang Sanfeng continued speaking.

[Draw up the mnemonics of the Clear Brightness Mind Method properly.]

During real combat?

Of course, although the utility of the Clear Brightness Mind Method was often revealed during real combat, drawing it up properly was a different matter.

[I am not talking about a vague attempt like ‘let’s try.’ Do it. Otherwise, you won’t even be able to start.]

The desperate one was me.

With a threatening enemy right before my eyes, the breathing of the Clear Brightness Mind Method began to move within me.

A sensation of breathing by intentionally paying attention, of directly moving the lungs to breathe, spread through my body.

Was it because I was concentrating? The breathing of the Clear Brightness Mind Method rooted its influence more deeply than usual.

The noisy sounds of clashing all around felt quiet, yet more vivid.

Although I had doubts about whether I could execute it during real combat, surprisingly, I succeeded in one go.

Then, this time, Master Bodhidharma’s voice was heard.

[The origin of the Earth Essence Art is the Heavy Earth Divine Art. However, I did not call it the Heavy Earth Divine Art but named it the Earth Essence Art. It was merely borrowing a part of it to fill your lacking areas, and in reality, it is difficult to say these two martial arts are the same. The Heavy Earth Divine Art…… is different.]

“It is difficult.”

[There is no need to try to understand it now. Just feel it.]

How was I supposed to feel something I could not understand?

[Concentrate on the mnemonics.]

Even before that doubt could be resolved, Master Bodhidharma’s words poured into my head like a tidal wave.

“……?!”

I understood why Master Zhang Sanfeng had told me to operate the Clear Brightness Mind Method.

If I had received this pouring of mnemonics with a sober mind, I would not have been able to handle it.

Master Bodhidharma’s words carried power in themselves. They drove into my head as if being hammered in like nails.

The moment the tidal wave of pouring mnemonics reached its peak.

[!]

A bolt of lightning fell inside my head.

A sensation I had felt before assaulted my body.

The sensation of the head opening.

The feeling of something cool pouring down through the crown of my head.

That coolness entering the body spread to the four limbs and hundred bones.

When I first learned the Heavy Earth Divine Art, no, the Earth Essence Art, I had felt some unknown power taking root in the bones of my entire body.

As I followed Master Bodhidharma’s instructions, I felt the power residing in my bones begin to move.

It was a feeling of extending roots in all directions from the bones, the center of the body. Just like water filling up a dam overflowing.

The overflowing force filled the entire body, as if trying to tear down the boundary between bones and muscles.

A sensation as if the body were not a physical frame made of blood and flesh, but had suddenly transformed into something beyond the essence of human nature.

If the skin were torn and the flesh cut, it felt like what flowed from there would not be red blood. No, it felt like blood would not even flow.

The Earth Essence Art shed its shell and revealed its true, intrinsic form.

“What do you keep muttering to yourself?”

The opponent, whose irritation had deepened further, showed his anger.

Shifting from a unilaterally look-down attitude to showing a wary and probing posture while watching, the opponent began to move again.

He brought forward that deep internal power that had crushed the running horse’s head and blown its body away.

If there was a change, it was that he was no longer off guard!

His martial routine was clean enough that gaps were barely visible.

I charged head-on into that clean attack.

I did not avoid it anymore.

I did not bother to redirect it either.

It felt like it was fine to do so.

[Crush it.]

[Clash.]

It was a confidence backed by a guarantee.

*Crunch!*

The pinnacle of absurdity that crushed twenty years of time.

That pinnacle was expressed in sound.

My fist was perfectly fine.

On the other hand, the opponent’s fist broke like a sorghum stalk.

A face stained with shock was visible.

Even before a screeching scream could be heard, my foot, continuing the momentum of springing forward, extended without hesitation.

*Crack! Crash!*

With a sound of caving in the chest bone, he flew away scraping the ground like a kicked ball.

“What?!”

“Ack!”

The flying body swept over two or three people behind him. While those who collided fell letting out their final screams, the tattered body that was already motionless bounced slightly into the air before dropping straight down.

It was such a dynamic scene that several people fighting nearby gaped at it.

One of them was me.

Although it was something I did, it did not feel like something I had done.

[This is the Heavy Earth Divine Art.]

Master Bodhidharma did not mention the Earth Essence Art anymore.

He spoke directly.

That this was the Heavy Earth Divine Art.

Divine Art.

At last, I realized the weight of those two words.

“Is it really okay for a Buddhist martial art to be this ruthless?”

[Hahaha! Ending it cleanly before they accumulate more karma is also mercy.]

What kind of talk is that again?

Even for crazy talk, this was top-tier.

The problem was that those crazy words came from Master Bodhidharma.

[Where do you think the temperament of those Shaolin baldheads, who shout ‘I shall open the killing precept’ and crack skulls without hesitation when things go awry, came from?]

“…….”

Master Bodhidharma, weren’t you of the solemn attribute?

I saw Master Bodhidharma in a new light.

[This is not the time to be relaxed. Did you forget that our friend Sanfeng said you would be bedridden?]

He seemed to be changing the subject, but it didn’t look like I had the luxury to press for answers.

Honestly, I was scared now.

I couldn’t fathom how great the price of unleashing this much power would be.

Thinking about it, nothing the two of them did was small or petty.

Thinking thus, the warning that I would be bedridden approached very chillingly.

If so.

“They say pain becomes lighter when shared.”

You guys should hurt (die) too.

The battle was not over yet.

***

“Did that guy eat nothing but wild ginseng bibimbap at the Wudang Sect?”

Watching the attacker who flew away like a tattered rag, Baek Mu-ho let out a hollow laugh with an utterly dumbfounded face.

Even while doing so, the sword held in his hand did not rest.

It was fast. At the same time, it was infinitely variable.

A sword force that fully contained the characteristics of the Mount Hua Sect’s sword arts.

However, there was a peculiar point in the midst of it.

There was softness amidst the changes drawn by the tip of the sword.

Loading softness into sharpness.

The sword force of rapid changes mixed with softness contained something more than fierceness.

It was a change that occurred in a short period of time.

Within a short time, Baek Mu-ho had grown.

He became able to load softness into the sword.

However, he did not feel like boasting at all.

“Should I also try talking to myself?”