Chapter 3

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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“You are?”

“I am Je Un-seong, Martial Uncle.”

It was not that I did not know his name.

It was the thought of “why this fellow?” However, it was a situation where all three rascals—Seon-yang, Gye-yang, and Bo-yang—were turning their backs on me.

Instantly, I could tell there was some scheme afoot.

Whatever it was.

Right now was the time for Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands sparring.

“Very well.”

I paired up with Je Un-seong.

“I have always wanted to face Martial Uncle once.”

At Je Un-seong’s words, I replied reluctantly.

“I do not particularly wish to be popular with men, though?”

“I also dislike men.”

“What a relief.”

“Even more so those who do not put in effort.”

Even amidst the joke-like conversation, thorns could be felt in Je Un-seong’s words. The fellow was shooting a gaze that showed he was anxious to devour me alive.

Looking at such a Je Un-seong, I let out a sigh.

“I do not know what the problem is, but I hope we can clear it up through this Push Hands sparring.”

“…Let us do so.”

By the time our small talk ended.

“If you have paired up with your sparring partner, begin now!”

Senior Brother Myeong-cheol’s words fell, and we took our stances while facing each other.

What is Push Hands?

It means to push with the hands.

In other words, Push Hands sparring was training closer to grappling rather than striking.

Tai Chi Chuan itself was also a martial art whose emphasis was placed on mastering the natural shifting of the center and application of force, rather than being a fist method focused on striking.

In that sense, the significance of Push Hands sparring was.

‘To feel the force.’

Reading the opponent’s movements and feeling their force.

Thereby utilizing the opponent’s force in reverse.

That was indeed the core key secret of Wudang Sect’s high-level studies, Wisdom.

In other words, since the ultimate goal of Tai Chi Chuan training and Push Hands sparring was to reach Wisdom.

‘Standing upright and centered, relaxing the mind and energy.’

I took the Great Emptiness Form stance and observed Je Un-seong’s body.

Je Un-seong was approaching as fast as a wild horse along with a shout.

“Hah!”

It was the stance of Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane in Tai Chi Chuan.

The most violent stance even in Tai Chi Chuan, where one collided one’s body using the entire frame.

If it were in the past, I would have pressed him down with strength just the same, rather than trying to read the opponent’s movements, but.

I had changed since having that bizarre dream in the Library Pavilion.

‘I will watch until the end.’

As I discarded the mind of trying to respond in a hurry,

concentration reached its limit.

‘All unnecessary variables are removed.’

The form of Je Un-seong, which was like a wild horse, changed simply within my perception.

Just like an iron ball rolling down a straight slope.

The direction and magnitude of the force were easily read and engraved in my mind.

At the same time, the Tai Chi Chuan mnemonic formula moved my body.

‘Keep the head empty and spiritual, clearly distinguish between empty and full.’

I calmly watched the rushing iron ball to the end and lightly twisted my waist. Along with the twisted waist, the hip joint also moved smoothly.

The center shifted, and

it deflected the opponent’s momentum.

“Hup!”

The startled sound of the iron ball was heard.

In an instant, the tree shook in the wind, and

deflecting from the shade of the pine tree, sunlight fell upon my face.

I extended my arm, chasing the thoughts I had obtained under the sunset of Purple Yang Hermitage.

As if rolling the iron ball of the Tai Chi Ball Skill.

I lightly pushed his tailbone area.

Thud!

Je Un-seong lost his balance and collapsed.

**

Je Un-seong had disliked Yeon Baek-jung’s high-and-mighty face from the first time he saw it. Whenever various martial uncles and senior uncles, and the higher elders of the sect, looked at Yeon Baek-jung with affectionate eyes, he felt a humiliation he had never experienced while living as the eldest son of the Je family.

However, that humiliation did not last long.

‘He is nothing much?’

Seven years.

While Yeon Baek-jung ran in place, Je Un-seong grew.

Like that, he was able to escape his sense of inferiority toward Yeon Baek-jung. Until yesterday, when he saw Yeon Baek-jung’s Tai Chi Chuan.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The fist wind loaded onto the lightly extended straight punch of Advancing into Emptiness, Leaving the Temple.

The subsequent Grasping the Sparrow’s Tail was fierce yet soft, as if it would tear off even the tail of a Vermilion Bird, and the single whip punch extended was soft, as if the wind deflected on its own.

The sense of inferiority toward Yeon Baek-jung, which he had overcome over seven years, reared its head once more.

‘Nonsense. It is just a coincidence. An accidentally obtained realization. There is no way that is real skill.’

That was why.

He accepted Seon-yang’s proposal.

In addition, seeing Yeon Baek-jung watching him blankly without doing anything, Je Un-seong became even more convinced of his own thoughts.

However.

‘Clearly, it was just before pressing down with Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane……’

A straight punch strike completely different from the Advancing into Emptiness, Leaving the Temple he had seen so far, and faster than it, lightly shook his center, and

the match was decided in a single exchange.

Je Un-seong touched his waist while collapsed.

There was no pain at all in the struck area.

It meant he had perfectly managed the input and output of force.

‘I have completely lost.’

Yet what still remained unresolved was.

‘How?’

Clearly, he himself was faster.

Even though he moved ahead to an extent that could not be bridged unless there was a difference of dozens of levels in the depth of internal force and physical development.

At that moment, a shadow cast over Je Un-seong’s head.

Je Un-seong looked up at the shadow.

Yeon Baek-jung, blocked by backlighting, stood like a giant wall.

Je Un-seong could not help but ask.

“How so quickly…”

Because although it was Tai Chi Chuan practiced for years, there was no mnemonic formula for speed.

At that time, Yeon Baek-jung, who was looking down at his hand blankly, opened his mouth.

“Cycloid.”

**

People commonly think.

That an object rolling down a straight ramp will fall faster than an object rolling down a curved ramp. That was indeed intuitive. Because when connecting two points, a curve is longer than a straight line.

However, the conclusion of the dream where countless iron balls rolled down the slope last night was different.

Among the iron balls, the path that descended the slope fastest was not a straight line, but a curve.

And I was familiar with that curve.

‘The Brachistochrone curve.’

Gently curved eaves shed rainwater faster than a straight roof, and

when a hawk glides to hunt a rabbit, it also falls along a path of a smooth curve.

Since the path that pierces through two points fastest in a world where gravity exists was indeed the Brachistochrone curve.

The routine of Tai Chi Chuan that had not been resolved and had caught on my mind all along was finally applied, fitting my body perfectly.

‘It was laid upon the routine of Advancing into Emptiness, Leaving the Temple.’

Prior to calculation, the body moved first.

Interpretation was next.

I looked down at my hand and interpreted and organized the complex mnemonic formulas composed of numbers and symbols.

‘The centrifugal force loaded onto the extending fist, that centrifugal force replaces gravity. Like an iron ball rolling along the Brachistochrone curve.’

Accompanying the understanding that interpreted the phenomenon, I realized at the same time. The wisdom of Immortal Sanfeng contained in the modified routine of Advancing into Emptiness, Leaving the Temple.

By virtue of that wisdom, the Advancing into Emptiness, Leaving the Temple, which was deployed later, suppressed Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane.

The subtle truth of high-level studies, which I had not realized until now, finally touched my heart.

‘Striking Second to Control First!’

Inside my heart, the excitement of realization and the composure to gather that realization were colliding fiercely.

At that moment, a soft yet intense energy was felt behind my back. I turned my body and naturally paid respects with clasped hands.

“Senior Brother.”

Senior Brother Myeong-cheol, who was in charge of supervising Tai Chi Chuan and Push Hands sparring, had arrived.

I felt Senior Brother’s burning gaze piercing onto the back of my head.

Senior Brother Myeong-cheol opened his mouth.

“Did you say Cycloid?”

Realization manifested by the body.

Since that realization had popped out in unrefined language, so to speak.

I felt difficulty in how to explain this.

If it were me in the dream world, it would have been an easy task, but this was Wudang Mountain, the middle of Prince Slope.

“Ah… yes. That is, you see…”

However, Senior Brother was already not listening to my words.

Senior Brother Myeong-cheol, who was watching the air with dazed eyes, spoke as if he had realized something.

“Even if it seems not straight but bent on the surface, ultimately the winding path is truly the shortcut to the Way. Turning and turning, it is Tai Chi.”

Was it called a better interpretation than a dream?

At the words that were cleaner and more intuitive than the explanation I intended to utter in my language, I felt my head clear up.

“…Yes, that is correct. That is exactly it.”

Senior Brother lowered his gaze that was staring at the air and looked at me.

“To apply realization directly to martial arts… today, thanks to my youngest junior brother, my eyes have been properly opened.”

Senior Brother Myeong-cheol chewed over the words by himself, then bowed his head and held his clasped hands to me.

“Senior Brother!”

I tried to stop him in a hurry, but Senior Brother Myeong-cheol did not listen.

“I doubted your talent all this time, but only today did I know that doubt was nothing but an illusion. I apologize for disregarding you all this time, junior brother. And thank you. Thanks to you, I came to know that Tai Chi Chuan is not a simple basic skill.”

At such a figure of Senior Brother Myeong-cheol, the surrounding young Taoist boys—including Je Un-seong—also paid respects with clasped hands.

“We thank Martial Uncle for his teaching!”

‘Uh… is it to that extent?’

Although I was flustered and wriggled in the situation that was reversed without my knowledge, at the same time, I could not hide my shoulders shrugging. I tried to clasped hands in return.

It was the most pleasant training since I set out on Tai Chi Chuan training.

**

Wudang disciple Je Un-seong was stepping along the Tai Chi Chuan routine even in the mountain darkness that fell early. The Tai Chi Chuan with cautious and slow gestures to the extent that not even wind arose was nothing more than limp movements to someone who did not know. Even so, the sweat drops formed on Je Un-seong’s forehead were proof of how much he concentrated on the fist routine.

And someone who watched that figure from a distance approached Je Un-seong while clicking his tongue as if it were pathetic.

“What sudden whim has driven you to master the Tai Chi Chuan stances again?”

The man who approached.

It was Yeo Sim-yang, who wore a stylish hero’s headband on his head.

Even at Yeo Sim-yang’s question, Je Un-seong, instead of answering, continued his movements while chewing over the routine of the stances and the meaning of the mnemonic formulas accordingly. At that figure, Yeo Sim-yang roughly grabbed Je Un-seong’s shoulder.

“Un-seong! Even after having the Lesser Cleansing Pill snatched away like this, do you intend to just train in low-class martial arts like Tai Chi Chuan!”

“Phew.”

Only then did Je Un-seong catch his breath and look back at Yeo Sim-yang.

“Did you feel nothing even after watching that?”

The “that” Je Un-seong spoke of.

It referred to the Push Hands sparring that took place in the afternoon.

However, Yeo Sim-yang frowned as if asking what he was talking about.

“What am I supposed to feel? That the Yeon guy changed, just as that beggar-like fellow Seon-yang said?”

Unlike when other generation-brothers were present, Yeo Sim-yang did not hesitate to use harsh language. However, Je Un-seong did not agree, unlike usual.

“Watch your mouth. He is our Martial Uncle.”

At Je Un-seong’s words, bewilderment filled Yeo Sim-yang’s eyes.

“You…”

“Martial Uncle proved it with skill. Giving up the Lesser Cleansing Pill is also a matter of course. We are disciples of a Taoist sect. You aren’t trying to go against the natural flow, are you, Sim-yang?”

At Je Un-seong’s words, Yeo Sim-yang shook his head as if he could not believe it.

“You have completely lost your mind, haven’t you?”

Yeo Sim-yang was dumbfounded. Because they were two people who were anxious to devour Yeon Baek-jung together until only yesterday. Yet, to have his attitude change like this in a single moment, he was appalled by that double-sided figure.

To such a Yeo Sim-yang, Je Un-seong added exactly one word.

“If you cannot tell even after watching, face him yourself. Then you will know. What it means when they say the level is different.”

Having spoken thus, Je Un-seong turned his body and took the Great Emptiness Form stance again. It was a kind of dismissal of a guest. Even so, Je Un-seong, who glanced at Yeo Sim-yang who was not leaving, spoke as if advising.

“And do not disregard Wudang martial arts. Wudang Sect’s martial arts are not as loose as we thought.”

Ending with those words, Je Un-seong began to deploy the Tai Chi Chuan stances again. Je Un-seong’s words were also directed toward himself, but Yeo Sim-yang could not notice such details. Therefore, he looked at Je Un-seong with incomprehending eyes and spoke.

“Foolish fellow. Are you rationalizing after losing to a beggar-like bastard? Do not disregard a health exercise where practical utility cannot be found even with open eyes? Fine, live as a loser like that. Mastering foolish and slow Wudang Sect martial arts.”

Having poured out toxic words, Yeo Sim-yang left.

Left alone, Je Un-seong let out a light sigh and began to concentrate on the Tai Chi Chuan routine again.

Soon, the movements of Yeon Baek-jung he saw today noon overlapped with Je Un-seong’s own movements.

‘How is it possible?’

It is similar but goes askew.

‘The routine is important.’

The stance deployment that was unfolding slowly accelerated along the curved routine. With speed surpassing Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane, which was the fastest stance of Tai Chi Chuan.

Je Un-seong deployed the stances again as he saw, but.

‘This is not it.’

No matter how much he repeated the movements, the subtle truth of speed Yeon Baek-jung had deployed did not live. Halting his movements for a moment, Je Un-seong thought.

‘Striking Second to Control First.’

Actually, he had thought it made no sense.

Whenever the martial instructors showed the beauty of Striking Second to Control First through Wudang studies, he thought that was the difference in martial arts levels between the instructors and themselves.

However, Yeon Baek-jung showed him.

That Striking Second to Control First exists in reality.

‘I can do it.’

Even if I cannot do it now.

Because if I repeat it, the day to break the wall will come.

Je Un-seong devoted himself to Tai Chi Chuan training until the night grew deep.

It was a night where the full moon rose exceptionally bright.

**

After ending the sparring, I headed to the Library Pavilion again. Since there was no place like the Library Pavilion to gather the realization obtained from the sparring.

‘Ultimately, the answer was in the mnemonic formulas.’

Centrifugal force and centripetal force.

How to utilize illusion and reality.

By the time I summarized all those realizations, the sun was already standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the peak of Heaven Pillar Peak.

‘Oh dear. I am late for mealtime.’

With the thought of putting anything into my mouth, a certain object held in my chest suddenly came to mind, and

I fell into agony while looking down at the two pills, the Lesser Cleansing Pills, placed on my palm.

‘Do I eat all of this?’

Because it was a reward handed down to the winner of Push Hands sparring, it should originally be one, but the reason it was two was.

-Martial Uncle, please eat it.

Because after the sparring ended, Seon-yang brought one more.

-Why don’t you eat it?

-It belongs to Martial Uncle.

Besides, we already have pills distributed to us. Anyway, even if we eat more than one pill at a time, digesting it is not easy.

Seon-yang returned to his quarters after forcing the Lesser Cleansing Pill into my hand along with those words. It was an object containing a grateful mind.

Just as Seon-yang said, the Lesser Cleansing Pill was a basic pill, but at the same time, it was a Wudang secret pill.

Wudang Sect’s secret medicine that showed effects greater than spiritual medicines that could only be obtained by paying a high price in the marketplace or merchant groups.

Just as Seon-yang said, consuming two at once would not be a wise method.

However.

‘If I eat this, won’t enough internal force accumulate to reach the Release of Force?’

Even without that, in a situation where realizations rushed in recently, what if internal energy also rose?

With the thought that even the Release of Force loading internal force onto the fist routine might be possible.

‘Fine.’

Ultimately, greed pressed down worry and reared its head, and I carefully put the pills into my mouth.

As soon as they entered my mouth, a fresh fragrance like mint spread throughout my mouth, and the two Lesser Cleansing Pills melted like porridge.

I swallowed the Lesser Cleansing Pills down my throat just like that. Then, I felt the energy of the Lesser Cleansing Pills being absorbed starting from the esophagus. Just as plant roots suck nutrients and send them to the stem, the energy absorbed from the esophagus spread along the Lianquan and Tiantu acupoints, the connected Belt Meridian, and the fine vessels branching out from the Belt Meridian.

I began to guide the true Qi along the mnemonic formulas of the Primal Chaos Light Skill, one of Wudang’s nine skills.

And I realized.

That life is.

Real combat.