A Wandering Warrior's Survival Guide - Chapter 44

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Asakusa

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◈ A Wandering Warrior's Survival Guide ◈

Chapter 44: Every Connection Is a Fortuitous Encounter (5)

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The books Cheon Hwi had laid out were as follows.

<Flash-Breaking Sword Abridged Explanation>

Then...

“Y-You brat, you know how to pick books.”

Looking even prouder than Cheon Hwi himself, Murong Gyu fetched a book from the third floor and casually let it drop as though by accident.

A fist manual. Once again, it was exactly this book.

‘Is there no chance of getting a sword manual?’

At times, Murong Gyu even openly snorted and mocked him. Most notably, whenever Cheon Hwi picked out books here and there on inner cultivation methods, footwork, fist arts, and even external arts, all in a seemingly random jumble.

Back then, Murong Gyu had only given a faint laugh, as though thinking him greedy.

Even if Cheon Hwi returned the books and picked up a scroll or manual that drew a reaction, Murong Gyu's interest would not return once it had turned elsewhere.

‘If it's a movement technique, focus on movement techniques. If it's sword arts, focus on sword arts. That's what he's saying.’

By analyzing and working around Murong Gyu's reactions in that manner, Cheon Hwi found that, regrettably, two martial arts manuals were the limit of what he could obtain through them.

─

─ Twin Dragons Whirlwind Fist.

Even that was something to be grateful for.

After all, Murong Gyu was taking a considerable risk. Giving an Outer Hall warrior books from the third and fourth floors was something that would be difficult to escape severe punishment for if discovered.

Perhaps that was why the book they offered was a fist manual rather than a sword manual. Maybe they thought they could not show Cheon Hwi sword arts, if only for the sake of their conscience.

“I heard the Murong Clan is famous for its swordsmanship. Are there people here who practice fist arts as well?”

“Fist arts are formidable too. The Third Young Master also specializes in fist arts.”

“I see.”

Or perhaps Murong Gyu simply thought it did not matter, since Cheon Hwi would be leaving in a few shijin anyway.

‘Thank you.’

Cheon Hwi now naturally shared fasting pills with them. The elderly Murong Gyu put one in their mouth merely to taste it, then shook their head as though it tasted revolting before leaving.

Certainly, the books Murong Gyu had given him, along with those in his hands, were books that could not be mastered deeply without the Murong Clan's main-line inner cultivation method.

But that was all right. Cheon Hwi had not approached them with the resolve to learn each martial art exactly as it was.

He had two clues that would help him develop his swordsmanship.

The first was the Three Powers Sword Art, the beginning and foundation of all martial arts, which he had already learned.

Then there was the Murong Annotated Edition of the Three Powers Sword Art, in which the Murong Clan had added interpretations to that art.

Using the Three Powers Sword to raise his understanding of their martial principles as far as possible, he broke apart the passages in the other sword manuals, chewing over and swallowing every line.

The other approach lay in the Returning Star Sword Art.

As he read the Returning Star Sword Art, which preserved in full what had been erased from the Returning Star Sword Primer he had seen in the Outer Hall Archive, his understanding reached its peak.

Through those two books, he understood the essence of the expressions and terminology they used, along with the flow of their martial principles.

Sword arts flickered through Cheon Hwi's mind.

At the same time, he felt the sensation of spreading the inner power cultivated through his inner cultivation method. The principles of the Meteor Chasing the Moon Movement Technique, which he had grasped through movement manuals, extended along a path different from Returning Cloud Step.

‘I want to move and test it.’

But he could not do so before learning and absorbing as much as possible here.

From the Flash-Breaking Sword Abridged Explanation, he stole the method of explosively releasing momentum in an instant. From the Flying Swallow Twin-Stream Sword Explanation, he borrowed the eye needed to distinguish two currents.

He had not learned the Eye Art and footwork possessed by the Murong Clan's swordsmen, nor the Eye Art and footwork Murong Rin, as a user of the Flying Swallow Twin-Stream Sword, would possess. Nor had he learned the inner cultivation methods that would supplement them and allow them to function properly. Yet little by little, there were things he could read and infer.

Their martial principles, which redirected force, read its flow, and turned it against the opponent, rested on a firm foundation. It was a foundation with enough strength to form its own school and grow into a great clan.

Beside the sturdy pillar that was the Murong Clan's martial principles, he could see the flow of the clan's martial arts, made up of branches extending outward.

‘It's so systematic and orderly. It's beautiful.’

Through this realization, Cheon Hwi thought he might be able to shape a new sword art, one that went beyond or advanced anew from the three-form framework of the Three Powers Swift Sword Forms.

He sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.

He cut through the characters with his eyes and swallowed them, drawing them into the space of his mental image. He was not merely reading words.

Within Cheon Hwi's mental image, in the darkness, the mnemonic formulas from the books became chilling sword paths and rose in human form.

The first mental image he faced was the Murong Clan's Returning Star Sword Art.

A black human-shaped figure held a sword seemingly formed from black mist and took its opening stance.

The swordsman in the mental image gently diverted Cheon Hwi's thrust.

Clang!

With the sound of metal, the force Cheon Hwi had sent forward twisted strangely, then rebounded in full and broke the bones in his own wrist.

The bizarre sensation of the force he had thrust forward returning to him. This was surely the true Returning Star Sword, a step beyond the incomplete version that merely deflected attacks.

Sitting cross-legged, Cheon Hwi fought the Returning Star Sword in the illusion again and again. His understanding of it began to rise.

‘I can use it to turn the opponent's force against them and make them lose their way.’

When that realization struck him like lightning, the sword within Cheon Hwi's mental image cut down the phantom of the Returning Star Sword and shattered it.

Next came the phantom of the Flash-Breaking Sword.

This phantom had been created from other annotated editions and such, so compared to the others, it was much blurrier and weaker. Still, the swordsmanship he had glimpsed during his spar with Murong Jun helped give shape to the mental image.

With a flash of light, the phantom swordsman vanished from his sight. At some point, a chilling blade sliced across Cheon Hwi's throat.

Death within his mental image.

Cheon Hwi's eyes flew open, and he desperately delved into the passages of the book.

He felt as though he could reach something beyond Heaven Piercing from his Three Powers Swift Sword Forms.

A new swordsmanship containing his own martial principles, as though it held the principles of an entirely new martial arts manual.

A new sword art he would create based on the Returning Star Sword, the Flash-Breaking Sword, and his other sword arts.

Last came the Flying Swallow Twin-Stream Sword.

Naturally, Murong Rin's swordsmanship helped shape this phantom.

The swordsman's blade in the mental image split into two like a swallow's tail and flew toward him. As though he were facing two swallows freely flying at him from both sides, this phantom overlaid with Murong Rin's movements was the most difficult to deal with.

Facing twin swords required an entirely different feeling from facing other sword arts.

After dying dozens of times within the illusion, Cheon Hwi glared at the phantom's sword path with bloodshot eyes.

‘This is no time to be stuck here.’

If there was anything he could strengthen by adding an inner cultivation method, he had to do so. He needed to learn the Meteor Chasing the Moon Movement Technique, and acquire a usable lightness skill as well.

There were too many things he had to patch together like tattered clothes.

As he drove himself onward in frustration, he thought he heard his father's voice.

“Look. See? You can't even tell, can you? If you patch it like this, it's even sturdier!”

‘Father... There’s a hole on the other side this time!’

“Urgh... Just wait. We can stitch it up slowly. We have plenty of time.”

Strangely, remembering that time made his impatience subside completely.

Cheon Hwi, whose breathing had become hurried, soon steadied it.

Then the image of his father appeared in his mind, clumsily sewing clothes with thick fingertips covered in scars. Even those sewing tools had been borrowed after his father had desperately pleaded with someone.

And the clothes patched together with extra fabric had indeed become sturdier, just as his father said. They might have looked shabby to others, but it was true.

That was what unorthodox martial arts were like.

And Cheon Hwi did not dislike that.

Yes. He was not following a set path, but forging a new one. How could that process possibly unfold as smoothly as a broad road from the very start?

‘Don't be impatient.’

The Murong Clan's orderly martial arts manuals, which began with qi circulation methods and Breathing Techniques, and even established one's mindset before holding a sword, could have intimidated him.

Instead, Cheon Hwi was coming to realize the value of what he possessed.

* * *

It was only after at least several hundred hours had passed that Cheon Hwi considered leaving the Martial Classics Pavilion.

“This is too much now.”

If he memorized anything more, it felt as though his head would burst.

More than that, even if he greedily continued memorizing things, he felt that when the time came to stand on the training ground and practice them as martial arts, he would end up accomplishing neither this nor that.

Now, beyond memorizing the formulas, understanding them in his mind, sitting cross-legged, and engraving them into his body through qi circulation and breath regulation, he needed to move his body and practice them for real.

“Leave the books you were reading where they are. Your allotted time has ended.”

Cheon Hwi bowed deeply in salute and headed outside.

Creeeak.

Thud.

How long had it taken him to enter through this door and leave again?

Thinking about it made Cheon Hwi's mind reel, and he felt dizzy.

Yet to the world outside, only six hours had passed.

Not even half a day.

By the end, Cheon Hwi had even improved his attainment in his inner cultivation method. After taking a Lesser Yang Pill, he had reached the point where he could distinguish and guide the energies without dying.

The backlash from the conflicting energies, which had once made him collapse while vomiting blood, had now lessened to little more than an upset stomach.

And so, when he emerged after the promised three shijin had passed, the night sky was filled with a profusion of stars.

His qi sense had become frighteningly sharp.

“Haa... Haaa...”

He could feel the clear, pure night air filling his lungs with each breath before flowing back out.

‘I need actual combat to consolidate what I've learned.’

He had read, seen, memorized, and realized so much that Cheon Hwi began counting it on his fingers to organize it, only to stop when it grew too complicated.

Right now, he only wanted to draw his sword and test the martial arts he had understood and was learning in actual combat.

Just as he wanted to throw even a pebble rolling on the ground into the sky and unleash sword forms against it...

Step. Step.

From the darkness in the distance, a sturdily built man approached as though he had been waiting for him.

A menacing fighting spirit with no attempt to conceal it.

Soon, the man stepped beneath the moonlight. Judging by his clothing, he appeared to be from the Murong Clan's direct line.

Whoever he was, to Cheon Hwi, the man approaching with a clasped-fist salute looked like an excellent practice dummy that had walked over on its own.

“I am Murong Geon. I study fist arts, and the martial art I mainly use is...”

“Twin Dragons Whirlwind Fist, isn't it?”

Murong Geon's expression shifted in surprise at Cheon Hwi's words as he returned the clasped-fist salute.

“You seem to have heard about me somewhere. Hahaha!”

Perhaps embarrassed, he burst into laughter.

Of course, that was not it. It was simply that the bearing of the fist artist before him overlapped with the Twin Dragons Whirlwind Fist Cheon Hwi had read and memorized.

“What do you say? I'd like to request a spar to broaden my experience. I heard that you defeated the Black Fist Twin Tyrants, and I'd like to ask you to teach me a thing or two. Surely you won't refuse?”

Cheon Hwi nodded.

“If you grant me one request, I'll accept your challenge, Young Master.”

“Hm. What is it? Speak.”

“Not tomorrow.”

“...Hm?”

“Let's do it now.”

Cheon Hwi and Murong Geon smiled at one another, their teeth bared like fangs.

They had recognized each other as similar beasts.

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