Chapter 35

Chapter 35

What Should I Call It?

THUD!

I looked at the floor that had drawn closer.

It was a familiar floor.

“Get up. I know you can take more hits.”

At the wooden sword poking my side again and again, I squeezed my eyes shut.

I should not have bought it.

I had expected it to some extent, but it hurt a hundred times more than being hit with a tree branch.

It felt as if my bones were ringing.

“I want to get up too, but there’s no strength in my legs.”

“You are exaggera... Hm? That is true.”

After poking my legs a couple of times, Jin Hwayeon shrugged.

“There is one thing I’m curious about.”

“What is it?”

“I’m not trying to whine. I’m genuinely curious, so I’m asking. If you changed from a tree branch to a wooden sword, shouldn’t you hit me a little more gently? I think something really broke.”

Jin Hwayeon poked my entire body once again, then shook her head.

“This Exalted One’s control of strength was perfect. The proof is that not a single part of your frail body has broken. Training is something whose intensity must continue to rise. Next time, it will be stronger. By the way, brat.”

“Yes?”

“You dared to use a live blade without this Exalted One’s permission?”

“Was I not supposed to?”

“Enough. Take it out.”

“One moment, please.”

I barely stood and brought the Clear Stream Blade from the lobby.

Then, before handing it over, I looked at Jin Hwayeon with eyes full of suspicion.

Surely she did not have a greed-filled mindset like, What is mine is mine, and my disciple’s is also mine?

It was even scarier because if she took it and said she would not give it back, I had no way to take it from her again.

“I will not take it from you, so stop rolling your eyes and hand it over. I am seriously considering beating you.”

“Yes. Here it is.”

Jin Hwayeon drew the Clear Stream Blade with practiced movements and swung it.

“It has been a long time since I held a live blade.”

Jin Hwayeon swung the sword, gradually increasing her speed.

Then, while holding the Clear Stream Blade upside down, she stabbed it down toward the ground.

Just because it was not hers, she was driving that expensive Clear Stream Blade into hard stone—

?!

Rustle.

Pale-pink light seeped from the tip of the blade.

The light gradually grew clearer and took form.

It was a plum blossom, the very symbol of the Mount Hua Sect.

A moment later.

The petals increased from hundreds to thousands, and from thousands to tens of thousands, filling my vision.

“!!!”

They were not merely splendid and beautiful.

The petals spread out uncontrollably and completely ground down a nearby boulder.

They were no ordinary petals.

Each and every petal was a sharp blade.

If what had been there was not a boulder but a person, not a trace would have remained.

And one more thing. The blade body of the Clear Stream Blade, which had been intact, had vanished.

“Hm?”

Perhaps because she noticed me trembling.

Jin Hwayeon let out a faint laugh and opened her mouth.

“Do not worry. It will return.”

Just as she said, the petals began gathering again.

They positioned themselves beneath the handle and restored the vanished blade body.

I quietly wiped the sweat from my forehead.

That took ten years off my life.

I had thought a bladed weapon worth hundreds of millions had melted away in one technique.

“It is not a bad sword. Though it falls far short compared to my swords. Now, tell me your impression after witnessing this Exalted One’s technique.”

I received the Clear Stream Blade back and lifted my head.

“It is incredibly beautiful.”

Silence continued for a moment.

Jin Hwayeon’s eyebrow twitched.

“That is all?”

“That was my greatest expression, though.”

Jin Hwayeon openly wore an expression that said, Ugh.

Well, she was probably used to the grand and elegant expressions unique to martial arts novels, so I could understand that reaction.

“What realm would I have to reach to use the technique you just showed me?”

“You cannot use it.”

“Pardon? Why not?”

“You have no internal energy.”

Jin Hwayeon pointed beneath my solar plexus with her smoking pipe.

“For internal energy to gather, the dantian must be trained. But yours has not been. Therefore, you cannot use techniques that require internal energy.”

I had been meaning to ask about mana anyway, so this worked out well.

“How do I train the dantian?”

“You cannot. The dantian must be trained before the meridians and skeleton harden. Only then can one become accustomed to the sensation and flow of ki moving through one’s body. If not, and time passes, no matter what you do, even if you pour in desperate effort, you cannot recover that sensation. It is because a body that has grown without awakening to ki has already adapted to a state where ki does not exist. This is the reason outstanding martial families teach martial arts and make children practice Qi Circulation Breathing from a young age.”

Before entering Plum Blossom Venerable, I had hoped that mana and internal energy were the same existence, merely called by different names.

But after hearing that, my thoughts changed.

Please let them be different things!

“There is no need to be disappointed. You may be unable to reach a certain realm, but with swordsmanship that does not require internal energy, you can still enter the ranks of masters. I am teaching you mainly along that path as well.”

I carefully raised my hand.

“Speak.”

“Could you show me once how to train the dantian?”

“Are you referring to Qi Circulation Breathing?”

“I’m not sure what it’s called. I’m curious how someone who is training their dantian for the first time does it.”

Jin Hwayeon, with the smoking pipe in her mouth, let out a small sigh.

She did not show it outwardly, but she knew what sort of feelings Ryu Jin must currently have.

He was probably despairing and frustrated.

That was how difficult it was.

Acknowledging one’s own limits, that was.

Especially for someone with unusual talent like Ryu Jin.

‘What a pity. If I had met him when he was even a little younger, there would have been a way.’

Jin Hwayeon put down her smoking pipe and took her posture.

There was no way Ryu Jin could imitate her just because she showed him.

Still, she intended to show him without complaint.

Showing him that it was impossible and making him give up would be, at least, less painful for Ryu Jin.

She drew in a breath.

The dawn air of Mount Hua seeped deep into her lungs.

After fully feeling that coolness, she arranged her inhalations and exhalations.

Her breathing continued as a single flow, like calm ripples on water.

When that flow reached the dantian beneath her solar plexus, the tremendous amount of energy gathered there began to ripple.

She moved the energy and guided it so that it would flow through her meridians.

The abundant energy spread throughout her whole body.

The surrounding air vibrated, and pale-pink energy seeped from Jin Hwayeon’s body.

‘Wow.’

Ryu Jin, who had been watching with Evil Eye, let out admiration.

Flow Detection, the function of Evil Eye that had been unlocked this time.

Through it, he could tell.

Although it seeped out like a calm lake, its quantity was like an endless sea.

‘So this is the Mount Hua Sect Plum Blossom Sword Venerable’s Qi Circulation Breathing.’

Even while admiring it, my eyes continued chasing Jin Hwayeon’s ki.

The process of ki flowing out from the dantian and circling through the entire body.

After watching it as carefully as possible, I engraved it into my mind.

And how much time had passed?

The ki that had been vibrating the air was withdrawn, and Jin Hwayeon opened her eyes.

“It is the most basic internal energy cultivation method of the Mount Hua Sect. It is something one must practice every day without fail from the moment one enters the sect.”

Jin Hwayeon rose and exhaled tobacco smoke.

“Return for today. If you loosen your body in hot water and sleep deeply afterward, that feeling will fade at least a little.”

Jin Hwayeon closed her eyes.

She did not know whether making him realize his limits had been the right thing to do.

She was in a position where she somehow had to pass Plum Blossom True Origin Sword down to Ryu Jin.

Having suddenly faced a wall, Ryu Jin might never come again.

After letting out a small sigh, she opened her eyes.

“I hope to see you aga...!?”

She had been about to tell him not to give up here and to come again.

But she could not.

Thud.

The Plum Blossom Sword Venerable, Jin Hwayeon, dropped her smoking pipe.

---

She did not know when this memory was from.

It was simply a scene from long ago, around the time she had just begun retaining memories.

A small-framed Jin Hwayeon sat beneath a massive plum blossom tree.

She slowly closed her eyes and drew in a breath.

Then she focused desperately in order to feel the ki inside her body.

‘Today, somehow.’

It had started not long after she began walking.

The Mount Hua Sect she belonged to, and even the surrounding sects, had begun calling Jin Hwayeon a Heaven-Centered Talent with one voice.

At first, she had felt more bewildered than anything.

She had merely done what came naturally, so why were they making such a fuss?

Was what she had just accomplished really that impressive?

Were people unable to do even this at her age?

And at a certain point, Jin Hwayeon realized.

That what she had been doing was by no means ordinary.

That there were many martial artists who could not reach this realm even after a few years at least, or several decades at length.

Perhaps because of that, something she had not had before came into being.

It was something called pressure, burden, or impatience.

‘Please, just...’

As time gradually passed, young Jin Hwayeon’s eyes narrowed.

The flow of ki seemed close enough to grasp, yet remained beyond her reach.

It felt as if just a little more would be enough, as if she only needed exactly one more step, yet she could not reach it, driving her almost mad.

“Haa...!”

When the energy only grew farther away the more she focused, she eventually opened her eyes.

Crunch!

She clenched her molars and struck the ground.

This was the first time.

The first time she had been stuck in place at one point like this.

-Hwayeon. There is no need to be impatient. You are a once-in-ten-thousand prodigy bestowed by the heavens. You are already far ahead.

The Family Head had never once whipped Jin Hwayeon forward.

Far from that, he soothed her and told her to slow down.

But she could not do that.

Being a genius who might appear once among ten thousand people was not enough to satisfy her.

Jin Hwayeon’s goal was to become stronger than anyone in this world.

Someone else might have already completed their dantian at this age and be soaring far ahead, so how could she slow down?

Whoooosh.

Just as a cold wind blew, a chilly sunshower began to fall.

Jin Hwayeon’s hair gradually became wet and stretched downward.

Cold seeped into her body, but she did not care.

She steadied her breathing again and closed her eyes.

Because if she could not accomplish it, if she was going to fall behind someone else, she would rather freeze to death here.

Once more, she began wandering the dark path to grasp the flow of ki.

Rustle.

After finishing the recollection, Jin Hwayeon opened her eyes.

A faint tremor had come to her hand.

What on earth was that?

Even she, who had been called a Heaven-Born Talent, a Century-Defining Talent, and a once-in-ten-thousand prodigy, had barely grasped the first flow of ki through desperate hardship with the resolve to survive through death.

Then what on earth was that?

How could he not only grasp the flow of ki as if it were nothing, but even circulate it and create a natural flow?

Jin Hwayeon’s mind began working busily.

She was confused about what she should call that.

Heaven-Born Talent? Century-Defining Talent? Those were insufficient.

Because those were modifiers that had been attached to her.

‘...Let us stop.’

She decided to acknowledge it.

Within the boundaries of her common sense, it did not exist.

A modifier capable of describing that thing that casually turned the impossible into the possible.

Roooooar!!

At the dark blue energy that went beyond circulation and seeped out of his body, the corners of Jin Hwayeon’s mouth rose.

“You monstrous brat...”

At first, she had been furious that some random fellow had taken the Plum Blossom Jade.

But seeing such a sight, she had no choice but to acknowledge it.

It was heavenly fortune. And truly, a great relief.

That the one who had taken the Plum Blossom Jade was that brat.