Chapter 18

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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After the moment of the warm reunion passed.

Master poured warm tea into a tea bowl and handed it to me.

While savoring the tea for a moment, Master suddenly threw a question.

“So. How was the Jianghu that you went out to for the first time?”

Massaging my swollen Hundred Convergences acupoint, I recalled the events in Wuchang at Master’s question.

The first thing that came to mind was the face of an old woman escaping from the prison of the Blood Selling Cult’s hideout. That wrinkle-covered face that did not lose its smile even in the dark and blood-reeking space would have been a face I could not see if I had only stayed in the Taoist temple on Wudang Mountain.

Before entering the Wudang Sect, the scrawny arm of an old woman holding a child about my size in her arms also stood as an axis of my memory. That arm, which seemed ready to break at any moment, yet wrapped around the young boy, looked rather firmer than my forearm, which had become solid from training.

Indeed, facts that could not be realized through training in the mountains alone. Since those facts built a solid fortress in my heart.

“I thought that it was good that I went out to the Jianghu.”

The answer came out naturally at Master’s question.

“Why is that?”

At Master’s counter-question, I recalled once again the image of the child who bowed and greeted while held in arms that were like sorghum stalks.

It was only moving as the alarm of the sect’s teachings and the Tai Chi Diagram Exposition rang, but it felt as if I had received a great reward. That feeling, like when a small sprout budded in my chest at the moment I took an interest in training, also broke through the fertile soil in my chest and revealed a new sprout.

At that moment, I knew.

The fact that the words Master had always said, to learn martial arts to protect the body and to cultivate the mind before the body, had germinated from seeds.

If the sprout grew, its stem thickened, and it became a tree? I would also become a tree that occupied a place in the vast forest called Wudang.

“Seeing that teachings that did not hit home are remembered anew, it seems that experience is important.”

Even though it was a limited and unripe answer, Master rarely raised the corners of his mouth. As if he had read all the true intentions contained in my interval.

My pupils dilated at that sight. It was because Master’s rare expression could not be missed. Of course, Master’s expression disappeared faster than my pupils dilated.

“You speak quite plausibly for a novice.”

Although his expression was firm and his tone was like scolding, I savored the real move within Master’s words and covered my mouth with the tea bowl. It was because I thought I would show a mischievous smile again.

“Since Master says so, I must go down the mountain often in the future.”

At my words, Master put down his teacup and spoke.

“You will be going down a lot in the future.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“It will not be a good thing for the world. What good is it for a mountain Taoist to draw a sword.”

“But are you allowed to just say such things?”

“Since we cannot change the flow of the world, things that are already happening.”

My achievement in the Tai Chi Diagram Exposition was too substantial to fail to read the anxiety hidden beneath his laughter-mixed words.

“Is something happening?”

Master spoke with a face as hard as a Beijing opera actor’s mask.

“It is not yet… to the extent that you need to know, but.”

Master chose his words carefully, which was unusual for him.

“When you set out to the Jianghu on a True Martial Pavilion mission, you must not let your guard down.”

At Master’s words, I could know instinctively.

“Is it because of the movements of the Six Great Evils?”

“……”

Master substituted his answer with silence.

It was so.

Even while we were laughing and chatting, many things would be happening in the world.

From the Dawn Sky Blood Cult, whose connection to the Blood Selling Cult was suspected, to the Chaotic Heaven Green Forest, which refers to itself as the Mountain Hermit and disturbs the world, and the assassin groups of the River of Three Crossings, which substitute human lives with gold and silver and treat them with contempt.

Because it was self-evident that the unorthodox groups represented by the Six Great Evils, or their leaders, the Six Mighties of the Demonic Path, were disrupting the order of the current Jianghu.

I recalled once again the events of this trip to the Jianghu.

They had ruthlessly kidnapped men who normally tilled the soil and women who wove looms to take their fresh blood.

Although there were many people saved, there must have also been many who died before that. Hostility arose spontaneously.

Master, who saw me like that, let out a sigh and opened his mouth.

“Indeed. Considering your stubborn personality, you would not back down even if you stood before the Six Mighties of the Demonic Path. A newborn pup knows no fear of the tiger.”

I did not reply to the obvious words, and Master looked into my eyes and continued his words of advice.

“At your current level, it is merely foolhardiness. If you had trained properly in the Library Pavilion, you would not be ignorant of ‘know your enemy and know yourself’ from military books.”

At those words, I finally became aware of myself.

The current me was merely at the level of slightly peeking through the veil at the high-level realm, the world of real masters.

An unripe fruit to face the demons who look down on the world and go against providence. Since I had to know myself to defeat the opponent, I looked into Master’s eyes and asked.

“Then how strong do I have to become to face them?”

Master’s answer to my question was immediate.

“At least surpass this master, or an elder of the Nine Sects and One Association. You must be at least that level to be able to block a single blow from those demons called the Six Mighties.”

It was not winning. He said it was just about blocking a single blow.

“Even if I surpass Master, it is only that much?”

“Yes.”

Master’s words were filled with conviction. Even though he was an elder of the lofty Nine Sects and One Association, the Wudang Sect, he said such things casually.

“You must have met my master as well. The Six Mighties of the Demonic Path are masters against whom even my master cannot be certain of victory.”

The master whom Master spoke of.

It was none other than.

The term referring to Grand Master Sword Immortal.

Even the World’s Best Sword, Immortal Jin-cheon, cannot guarantee victory? It did not mean he would not win. However, it was said that he could not be certain. It meant he could not guarantee a ten-out-of-ten win rate.

I recalled once again the moment I met Grand Master Jin-cheon. The true sky spread out above the peak. That realm which was still difficult to estimate.

A level at which even a martial artist who had reached such a realm could not completely be certain of victory. That was the level of the Six Mighties.

At that time, Master added words as if it were absurd.

“Of course, there is no way heavy-bottomed people like the Six Mighties would move to deal with a rascal like you.”

At the words that were a hundred times correct, I turned my inner gaze that had headed toward the sky back to the front. Since now was the time to focus on the present rather than looking up at a high place.

I also confessed to Master the worries about creating the dynamic cultivation method that I had shared with my senior brother and senior sister on the carriage returning to Wudang Mountain.

“…So, Senior Sister Yi Chae-yang advised me to refer to other internal cultivation methods of the Wudang Sect.”

The limit of the accumulated Qi capacity that I felt while unfolding the Four Symbols Wind and Thunder Palm.

The necessity of a dynamic cultivation oral formula to overcome this.

When I finished the explanation regarding the dynamic cultivation oral formula completed so far, Master opened his mouth with a lukewarm expression.

“So you are in the middle of making a new internal cultivation method? Based on the oral formulas of the Primal Chaos Light Skill and Tai Chi Chuan?”

“Yes.”

At my answer, Master’s expression became even more lukewarm. Since it was a very rare case for Master, whose expressions were not rich, I did not miss such a face of Master and captured it in my eyes. Despite the gaze I sent, Master seemed to not even realize what kind of face he was making himself. Then, Master suddenly opened his mouth again.

“Can you show me once? up to the part that has been completed so far?”

“Ah, of course.”

In the courtyard of the Purple Yang Hermitage where I stepped out like that, I displayed the dynamic cultivation method combining the Primal Chaos Light Skill and the Tai Chi Chuan routine. Matching my breathing with the flow of true Qi that pushed out and flowed in, I felt the internal energy absorbed along that breathing filling the Qihai acupoint, the acupoints, and the fine meridians.

On top of that, as the martial principles of the Violent Blood True Yang Skill that I had secretly added were also incorporated, a natural Release of Force occurred along the dynamic cultivation routine, and a wind of true Qi arose.

After finishing even the movements completed in my head.

I opened my mouth regarding the part that I considered insufficient.

“I made it up to here. It definitely yields double the efficiency compared to the accumulated Qi capacity of Wudang’s other internal arts, the Qi Circulation Breathing Method. At the same time, thanks to it being a dynamic cultivation method that follows the Tai Chi Chuan routine, it also helps with external art training. However, right now it falls short in terms of purity compared to other orthodox Taoist internal cultivation methods. I have not been able to resolve this part yet…”

Originally, catching two rabbits at the same time is not an easy thing.

However, I could know.

That if I could not catch those two rabbits, the day I would face the Six Mighties mentioned by Master would be delayed by ten years.

Was it said that necessity breeds inspiration.

I recalled a theory that naturally connected from the inspiration I had recalled when first making the dynamic cultivation method, electromagnetic induction.

It was the thought that just as electrons receive force in a specific direction by a magnetic field, the flow of natural Qi formed in a specific direction externally might also affect internal energy. However, the nature of true Qi, unlike electricity, was not divided only into Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang and the Five Elements, the Eight Trigrams, the Sixty-Four Trigrams, and so on. Countless classifications were possible. Among them, what about the turbid Qi to be filtered out? Its nature was infinitely varied.

I quietly murmured the fragments of intent that stirred in the upper Dantian’s Hundred Convergences acupoint.

“To solve this, it seems I should either differentiate the One Qi Primal Chaos into the Two Energies Yin and Yang… or differentiate external Qi through the circulation of the Primal Chaos Qi…”

**

Gangwon-jin-in looked at Yeon Baek-jung’s dynamic cultivation and, understanding it, trembled as a shiver ran up the Governing Vessel of his spine. This was because the face of his master, whom he had seen in his youth, came to mind.

– “This is the Yin-Yang Patterned Sword! I have finally completed it!”

His master, who had unfolded the sword forms of the Yin-Yang Patterned Sword with a broad smile, seemed to be dancing shoulder-to-shoulder just like his young disciple a moment ago.

In addition to that, when he even heard the explanation that followed.

‘Truly!’

Regarding his disciple, his martial nephew Myeong-cheol had discussed the qualities of a grandmaster.

Gangwon himself also thought that he had seen the qualities of a grandmaster in his disciple. However, what Gangwon himself had seen was an incomplete talent that had not yet fully blossomed.

But was that truly the case?

The thought occurred that perhaps it was not.

Although intent that had not yet been woven into clear oral formulas was released in words, his disciple’s thoughts touched upon the principles of high-level martial arts. There were even things that Immortal Gangwon himself had not even thought of.

For instance, words like the following.

“To solve this, it seems I should either differentiate the One Qi Primal Chaos into the Two Energies Yin and Yang… or differentiate external Qi through the circulation of the Primal Chaos Qi…”

The high-level martial principles of achieving harmony with natural Qi through internal energy had been utilized a lot. However, the idea of controlling internal energy through natural Qi was a first. Why had he not thought of that until now?

It was because of the prejudice that natural Qi cannot be controlled, and must not be controlled.

Actionless Nature.

The most core content of the Taoist teachings placed nature and the world as they were as the supreme value. Within such a Taoist academic tradition, an internal cultivation method that manipulates natural Qi to control internal energy was difficult to think of, and at the same time, it was natural that it could not be thought of.

Therefore, Yeon Baek-jung’s words were unconventional.

At that moment, Gangwon remembered.

That even among the geniuses who laid the foundation of the Wudang Sect in its short history, there was one who claimed an unconventionality like Yeon Baek-jung’s.

– “…You are saying that you divide not the internal Qi received into the Dantian, but the external Qi? Into energy of a different nature?”

– “Yes, you rascal. How about it? Do you want to learn it? Would it not be fun?”

– “In the Sichuan Tang Clan, there was also an old monster who had eyes like yours, Martial Uncle.”

– “You rascal! How dare you compare the elder of the great Wudang Sect with the likes of the Tang Clan!”

– “Anyway, please leave me out of that human experimentation. I do not want to become like my senior brothers who fell into deviation into heresy while learning the Four Symbols Wind and Thunder Palm.”

– “Tsk. Why do young people these days lack a spirit of challenge so much?”

In the days when Gangwon’s face did not yet have wrinkles and the roots of his hair were black, the old Taoist, who was Gangwon’s Senior Martial Uncle, entered secluded meditation and achieved ascension to immortality while in seclusion.

Leaving only a small, unfinished book by his side.

Having seen that incomplete manual of divine art, he could know. The dance moves of the dynamic cultivation routine his disciple had just shown—

‘They resemble it.’

The fact that both the concept and form were astonishingly similar to the internal cultivation method his Senior Martial Uncle had tried to create. Therefore, he could speak now of the principles of martial arts that he had not fully realized back then.

“You will control the external Qi to filter out the turbid Qi mixed in the inhaled internal force? You mean that by not differentiating the Primal Chaos Qi, you will not suffer a loss in accumulating Qi, and will take only the purity of internal energy.”

“Yes. Because the Two Polarities, the Four Symbols, and the Eight Trigrams are eventually branches differentiated from the Primal Chaos. Rather than splitting one into two or four, is it not Wuwei… to leave it as a whole, intact one? However, since there is no internal cultivation method based on the One Qi except for the Primal Chaos Light Skill…”

Although it was an idea filled with greed unbecoming of a Taoist disciple, at the same time, it was to apply the actionless properties of nature as they were, which was also the reason why Taoists studied providence and reason.

Therefore, Gangwon had no choice but to support his disciple’s thoughts.

“Such an internal cultivation method. It exists.”

“…I was thinking of asking to be sent on a mission where I could meet the Mount Hua Sect or the Qingcheng Sect next time I go out on a mission… Yes?”

“The internal cultivation method of One Qi you were looking for. It exists in our sect as well.”

His disciple’s pupils dilated.

Looking at himself reflected in those pupils, Immortal Gangwon recalled the phrase written at the end of the unfinished book.

– “Wash your ears and listen well, children. How can the One Qi Primal Chaos be divided into the Two Polarities, the Four Symbols, and the Five Elements? Because it is one and at the same time two, and two and at the same time four, five, and eight! One is not one. Bear this in mind, and he who completes this book will be like the Peng bird that will grow wings on the Kun sleeping in the barren North Sea and soar ninety thousand li above the Southern Sky!”

The junior disciple, who was still young then, could not understand the old Senior Martial Uncle’s arrogant last words. But now, that junior disciple, whose hair at the temples had turned grey, could know.

That just like the phrase left by his Senior Martial Uncle as his final realization before death, his young disciple was also about to grow wings under his armpits in the sea of the North Sea.

Thus, Immortal Gangwon spoke to the eyes where the past, present, and future crossed.

“In the past, there was someone who tried to do a similar thing as you. The one who had the idea of controlling external Qi based on the One Qi. The one who created the Primal Chaos Light Skill you learned and the Wudang Sect’s Supreme Clarity Mind Art, and who used the Taoist name True Emptiness and was a Senior Martial Uncle to me.”

If one were a disciple of the Wudang Sect, there was no way one would not know one of the Eight Disciples of Sanfeng.

“If it is a divine art created by that person, why has it not been known until now?”

“Because it is an incomplete martial art.”

“Ah.”

His disciple’s beating heart could be heard all the way here.

Looking at such a disciple, Gangwon said.

“Still, you want to see it, right?”

As if it were natural, his disciple nodded without hesitation.

“Then let us go.”

Immortal Gangwon took the lead.

“Yes? Right now?”

“Why? Do you not want to?”

“How could that be.”

“Why, if you are scared to learn it because it is incomplete, you do not have to go.”

“I said it is not that?”

“It is written on your face that you are scared?”

“I think Master also needs to learn the Tai Chi Diagram Exposition?”

“This rascal?”

Gangwon, who snatched the back of his disciple’s neck—who was unfolding the Flowing Cloud Movement Skill to avoid a blow of the temple fist—with Wudang’s secret transmission, the Eighteen Clothes-Dampening Falls Grappling Hand, put his arm around the shoulders of his not-yet-fully-grown disciple and spoke.

“You rascal. It is not that way, but this way.”

As he did so, he thought.

That he could still present a direction to his disciple.

Was a relief.