Chapter 3: It works
[A spar with that bastard Yin Si-hoo in fifteen days, is it?]
It was convenient and nice that he already knew all about the running situation, so there was no need for me to explain.
[Can I speak honestly?]
“Speak comfortably.”
[I will tell you a poison recipe that can be made with herbs growing wild on Mount Wudang, so make it and slip it into that bastard’s food.]
“…”
How was I supposed to answer such words?
For now, I just listened silently.
[It’s not enough to kill him, but just a medicine that will make him suffer for a few months before getting up, so it would be better to fight him again then.]
“…That is unconventional.”
It meant that the situation for the next spar with Yin Si-hoo was bad enough that Master Zhang Sanfeng, of all people, had to speak like this.
“Is it that bad?”
[No matter how much of a tiger cub you are, when your body is not fully grown, you can be bitten to death by a wild dog.]
He was calling me a tiger cub.
One that, when fully grown, would become the master of the mountain and command the mountains and rivers.
Yin Si-hoo was, at best, a wild dog.
“It does make me feel good. Being called a tiger cub.”
Although it sounded good when thought of that way, it didn’t change the fact that I was currently nothing more than a cub.
If I fought, I would be bitten to death.
[It is a fact that his completion as a martial artist is far ahead of yours. The reason you were able to beat him last time was partly because you caught the opening in his routine, but fundamentally you benefited from him letting his guard down. However, it is difficult to expect such carelessness this time.]
“To ruin me even just a bit more, right?”
[Indeed.]
A Yin Si-hoo who threw away his carelessness.
I could clearly see that the gap was vast.
I knew it well because I had experienced it firsthand. In truth, my current strength was not even enough to handle Yin Si-hoo when he was playing around half-heartedly.
Certainly, fifteen days was too short to achieve anything.
[Still, if you really want to clash, we must at least look for a way for you not to get hurt.]
But it seemed Master Zhang Sanfeng had something in mind.
I wondered if I had to flee in the middle of the night, but having a way at least was a relief.
“What should I do?”
[First, relearn the Supreme Ultimate Fist.]
“Is that all it takes?”
It was an easier demand than expected. Since I had learned a bit of the Supreme Ultimate Fist, even if I relearned it, it would be quite easy…
[To be honest, the Supreme Ultimate Fist you perform is such garbage that every time I watch it, I want to gouge my own eyes out.]
“Is it really that bad?”
[It’s at a level where you have to learn it all over again. Although it may fundamentally be due to it being slightly altered as it was passed down to later generations, the Supreme Ultimate Fist you perform now is not the one I passed down to the Wudang Sect.]
The very origin of the Wudang Sect had handed down a verdict of it being a ‘knock-off.’
“Seriously, fifteen days is not even close to enough.”
Because fixing it moderately and learning it all over again were on different levels of difficulty.
If you thought of a human body as a sheet of paper, it meant my body was currently filled with the wrong Supreme Ultimate Fist written all over it. Even if I tried to write down what I newly learned, the characters written before would remain messy.
It meant that it would have been much better to learn from scratch on a blank slate.
“Isn’t there something like that in the heavens? A martial art that cleanly fixes unnecessary habits or something?”
Although I said it, I knew very well myself that it was nonsense.
What kind of beings were the ones up there, there was no way there would be a martial art for such failures.
Since fifteen days seemed far from enough, I ended up thinking of strange shortcuts…
[Actually, I was planning to teach you something similar anyway.]
“There is?”
[Ahem! It is a martial art I personally created.]
“…”
I think I had a very impious thought for a moment, but it didn’t show on my face, right?
Although it was just for a very brief moment, I think I recalled an impious thought like, ‘Would there be anyone in a place like the heavens who wastes time on unnecessary things?’
Was it just my imagination?
It was just my imagination.
[Aren’t you going to clap?]
“Wow!”
Let’s forget it. Let’s move on.
Let’s send it far, far away, carried by these two hands that were clapping.
[Your exaggerated reaction is somewhat…]
“I was merely expressing my devotion to you, Master.”
[Hmph!]
For some reason, I felt as if a gaze was upon me.
Was this also my imagination?
[Well, I’ll let it slide this once.]
It seemed it wasn’t my imagination.
Still, it was a relief that he let it slide to this extent.
[Because it seems you will have plenty of reasons to resent me in the future. Have you ever heard such a saying? That one should not treat a disciple as a human being.]
“…”
I seemed to find myself at a loss for words frequently today.
Was this also just my imagination?
No way.
[Anyway.]
Amidst my slight tension, words spread through my head.
However, the voice was different from just moments ago.
[What I will teach you is how to govern the mind.]
It was solemn.
While the voice of Master Zhang Sanfeng echoing in my head all this time had been incomparably clear and distinct compared to normal sounds heard with the ears, the voice I heard now contained something beyond that.
[This is a mind cultivation method, a teaching, an enlightenment, and a guide for those who wish to walk uprightly, so it is only right that you treat it without treating even a single character lightly.]
As if the characters took shape and moved, like raindrops pouring onto the ground, the characters cascaded into me.
The transmitted voice turned into refreshing water the moment it touched my head, flowing down inside my body. The sounds and characters melted and flowed like water. It felt as if a single stream of water flowing from high above was pouring onto the crown of my head and spreading to my limbs and hundred bones.
The strange thing was that while the refreshing water flowed, the very center of the crown of my head ached as if it would split open.
As if someone was really hammering the crown of my head with a stream of water from high above.
However, rather than such pain, I had no choice but to fall deeper into the sensation of something inside me moving due to this sound.
I took in everything that poured down inside me.
[…Thus, this is named the Clear Brightness Mind Method.]
Though I had merely taken in the pouring words, I could already feel a refreshing breath inside me.
That energy resembled its name very closely.
Clear and bright.
It felt as if both my body and mind were assimilated by that energy and became clean.
Even though Master Zhang Sanfeng’s words had finished, I kept my mouth shut and waited for the lingering resonance to settle.
Toward me, who was focusing so intensely, Master Zhang Sanfeng conveyed his voice as if finding me praiseworthy.
[This is the essence of mind study that I refined in the heavens after my ascension, so it has some difficult parts. Although it will take time to realize its true utility and harbor the energy, the power conveyed by the formulas of the text alone will help correct useless habits.]
‘Huh?’
But what he said was a bit strange.
Did it mean that what I was currently feeling was not the true utility?
I could clearly feel a refreshing energy flowing inside me, though?
Was this an illusion?
Confirmation was needed.
To see if it was really not my illusion.
I stood up.
Amusingly, the refreshing breath and energy of the Clear Brightness Mind Method flowing within me surged and moved without stopping even while I was moving my body.
Within that sensation, I felt as if I had become a calm lake.
A serene lake without a single ripple, enough to reflect the clear autumn sky.
Although the headache starting from the crown of my head did not stop, I moved my limbs without breaking that refreshing breath.
Swish! Swish!
Limbs in motion. The trajectory of those limbs was like water droplets falling into a calm lake. The beginning of a change that drew clearly visible ripples.
Since it was a change that occurred within serenity, the trajectory of its flow was felt so clearly from start to finish.
What went wrong, where it was loose, and how to fix it.
The clarity cleared the complex confusion and presented the right path.
Swish! Swish!
And when I moved once again next.
[…Why does that work?]
Much of my clumsiness had disappeared.
To the point where the word ‘leap’ was fitting.
The Clear Brightness Mind Method.
A tremendous performance of martial arts, which even Master Zhang Sanfeng had asserted would be impossible to master right away, had taken root in my body.
***
[You did it and it worked?]
“Yes.”
[The Clear Brightness Mind Method?]
“Yes.”
Master Zhang Sanfeng seemed to hardly find it understandable.
[…It worked, you say?]
But before I knew it, his voice had become gentle.
That felt similar to the voice my mother would secretly make when she was about to smack the back of my father’s head.
Was it an illusion?
[Close your eyes.]
A voice issuing instructions as if to verify something. Although I didn’t know the reason, I followed his words for now.
[Recall the breathing of the Clear Brightness Mind Method. Imagine you are submerged in heavy water from head to toe. Imagine that scene strongly.]
Closing my eyes, I concentrated on Master Zhang Sanfeng’s voice reaching my ears.
Perhaps because the concentration deepened. I really felt as if I were submerged in heavy water.
[You are currently in the water called the world.]
“Yes.”
[Even if it’s small, think about causing a slight ripple in that water.]
“Slightly…”
Causing a ripple in water was simple. You just had to touch the water surface slightly, very slightly. A mere flick of a finger would do.
“…Cause a ripple on the water surface.”
Did I really end up thinking I was in water? Strangely, I felt a shallow resistance at my fingertips, as if I were truly putting my finger into the water surface and stirring it.
That water was also within me. The refreshing energy of the Clear Brightness Mind Method communicated with that stimulation and flowed quietly.
Throb!
‘Ugh!’
Simultaneously with the resistance felt at the fingertips, a headache occurred in my head. It felt as if someone had stuck a needle in my brain.
The resistance starting from the fingertip met the refreshing energy created by the Clear Brightness Mind Method, soaring as if to pierce the center of my head.
When I opened my eyes, wondering why my head hurt when I had merely tried to move my finger.
Pop!
Along with a shallow popping sound, I could see the trace connected to that popping sound fluttering in the air.
As if someone had kicked the ground slightly, a few blades of torn grass soared into the air.
“Could this be…?”
I knew that the one who caused that phenomenon, resembling someone’s kick, was myself.
Because there was no one else around.
Looking at the phenomenon with disbelieving eyes, I voiced one thing that came to mind.
“Force?”
A martial artist who has accumulated internal strength emitting energy outward is called Force.
When this Force accumulates, it becomes Sword Qi, and going further, it becomes Sword Astral.
The power that practically serves as the standard for dividing experts and novices in the martial world is none other than Force.
[For this to work, it means that the communication between heaven and earth is already taking place… So if that’s why you can communicate with the Meridian Mirror, does it make sense?]
Communication between heaven and earth?
He was using difficult words again.
[Even so, to master all at once the foundation of a cultivation method that can reach the Supreme Heavenly Extreme Power when reaching the peak? No matter what, this is somewhat out of specification.]
Supreme Heavenly Extreme Power?
Just what kind of sound was that?
Since what’s good is good, it must be something good for now, right?
“Anyway, you mean it’s a good thing, right?”
[It is extremely short and implicit, which is highly absurd from this Master’s perspective… but for now… well, yes.]
“Then that’s fine, I guess.”
[If those Taoist scoundrels who know the extremity of Taoism heard what you are saying now, they would have tried to tear you to death regardless of cultivation or whatnot.]
Why speak of such bloodthirsty things.
[It seems your talent is far more outstanding than what I had estimated.]
“I guess so. I thought I would have no relation to the word talent after coming here. Somehow, the things Master teaches me fit my body perfectly.”
Anyway, it felt good since he said I had obtained something great.
“Then can I sufficiently handle that fellow Yin Si-hoo now?”
Although I emitted Force in a strange way just now, seeing how my head hurt after doing it once, it was not something usable in actual combat. As for the power, it was only about the level of a single kick.
At my concern, Master Zhang Sanfeng was quite dumbfounded.
[At the stage of obtaining the Clear Brightness Mind Method, it seems you have already passed the level of worrying about the likes of Yin Si-hoo, though.]
***
Fifteen days passed in the blink of an eye.
No, seriously.
Thinking about it now, it really felt like fifteen days passed in a single blink.
Lately, the days felt really short.
Was it because the next day came immediately as soon as I lay on the bed and closed my eyes?
The cause was indeed Master Zhang Sanfeng.
Since obtaining the Clear Brightness Mind Method, Master Zhang Sanfeng began to train me relentlessly. He made me do this and that, saying my talent was greater than expected, and wow, seriously.
Saying that no matter how great a martial art one mastered, it was meaningless if one couldn’t build a body to operate it, he made me do basic training in a bizarre way I had never heard of or seen in my life, calling it the advanced training method of the heavens.
Even mild-mannered me couldn’t help but curse.
No, really.
The words I heard the most lately were these.
[It works?]
The moment I heard those words, I could consider that day’s schedule ruined.
If I managed to do it, he would do it again.
[It works?]
Then it drove us crazy. Master Zhang Sanfeng, who slammed it down for me to take in, went crazy, and my body and head, which had to receive and take it in, also went crazy.
Every time he tossed something, I accepted and absorbed it readily, and I did absorb it very well indeed. Perhaps because I absorbed it so well, I felt like I might even be able to meet him face-to-face soon to express my gratitude.
Simply put, it meant I felt like I was going to die.
It felt as if he was personally demonstrating why there was a saying not to treat a disciple as a human being.
It felt like being tortured while fully conscious, so even a temper I didn’t have seemed likely to develop.
Even without that, lately Master Zhang Sanfeng had been nagging me, saying I seemed to have developed a bit of rebelliousness, which was rather unfair.
No, if one doesn’t develop a temper after being nagged to that extent, is that even a human?
It was truly unfair.
Then this unfairness should naturally be vented where it belongs.
“Are you nervous? Why is your face so stiff?”
These were Yin Si-hoo’s words.
Yin Si-hoo was in front of me, blabbering with a smirk on his confident face.
Looking at Yin Si-hoo, Master Zhang Sanfeng suddenly voiced.
[That fellow took some elixir, eh?]
“Is that so?”
[Yeah. The look in his eyes is deeper than last time. He hadn’t shown his face for fifteen days, probably to digest the elixir he consumed.]
It meant the other side had also grown quite a bit during the fifteen days.
Although it seemed like a situation where I should think about being at a disadvantage since the opponent I had to fight had become stronger, strangely, my mind did not shake at all.
On the other hand.
“It would have been better to just avoid it.”
There was someone who did not think so.
Myeong-jin, who took on a role like the referee of this spar, was looking at me with pitying eyes.
Apparently, Myeong-jin only found out today that Yin Si-hoo had consumed an elixir and grown his internal strength. Would he have told me if he knew beforehand?
“It is not too late even now.”
He would have.
A laugh came out for no reason.
Because there seemed to be at least one person here in the Wudang Sect who cared about me.
“I’m fine.”
So I should show him.
“Now, I am also quite decent.”
Just how much I have grown in the fifteen days.