WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 11: Youth Ages Easily, but Learning Is Hard to Accomplish

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February.

Winter, with its cutting winds.

Around fifty trainees stood packed together in neat rows at Windflow Martial Academy's training ground.

At each command, they practiced the Warm Wind Formula.

The Warm Wind Formula was an inner cultivation method created by Yi Yubaek.

It was easier and more stable than the Willow Serenity Art.

Its progress was slower and its depth shallower, but it was more than enough to lay the foundation for a martial artist.

Most disciples of Windflow Martial Academy learned the Warm Wind Formula.

More precisely, all but three did.

In the eight years since Yi Yubaek founded Windflow Martial Academy, a total of around three hundred people had completed his instruction and been recognized as disciples. They were called registered disciples.

Around two hundred and seventy of them were outer disciples, living at home and coming to the academy for a few hours of training each day.

The remaining thirty or so were inner disciples, who lived and ate at Windflow Martial Academy, handled its work, and trained day and night.

All of them learned the Warm Wind Formula.

Only three.

Kang Muhyeok. Seon Jehun. Mo Cheong.

Known as the Windflow Three Young Lords, they lived closest to Yi Yubaek's quarters, received one-on-one instruction from him, and inherited unique martial arts such as the Willow Serenity Art and Willow Leaf Steps.

One of them would someday inherit Windflow Martial Academy.

They were called direct disciples, meaning disciples who inherited the orthodox lineage.

By Yi Yubaek's standards, the Windflow Three Young Lords were still only second-rate martial artists.

Yet just as not every second-string player in Earth's professional leagues was the same, there were masters even among the Jianghu's second-rate martial artists. Anyone could see the difference between martial artists who would remain second-rate for life and those merely passing through that rank.

Yi Yubaek's direct disciples, the Windflow Three Young Lords, were the latter.

They had proven themselves several times already and were now recognized as young experts representing Shinheung County.

Their treatment was entirely different because of that.

Outer and inner disciples called Yi Yubaek, "Academy Head."

The Windflow Three Young Lords, on the other hand, called him far more familiarly.

"Master~"

Outer disciples usually called direct disciples and inner disciples "Instructor."

Direct and inner disciples called one another senior or junior and shared a sense of comradeship.

Yet the direct disciples called one another senior brother and junior brother, living like family.

Today, every kind of disciple currently training at Windflow Martial Academy had gathered at the training ground.

Around forty outer disciples practiced the Warm Wind Formula in orderly rows, while about ten inner disciples moved among them, correcting their mistakes.

The three direct disciples stood behind Yi Yubaek like wooden dolls carved in human form.

Yi Yubaek spoke in a voice as cold as frost.

"You must achieve martial learning before you reach twenty. If you wish to live in this world as martial artists, you must."

At his glance, Mo Cheong, the third disciple, stepped forward.

"Huuu..."

As he drew a deep breath and circulated the Willow Serenity Art, white smoke soon poured from his mouth like clouds.

"This is called Breathing Smoke into Clouds."

A stage where one's exhaled breath became smoke and clouds.

"You make the fire inside you fiercely hot and burn away the impurities accumulated in the Eight Extraordinary Vessels. If you can't clean them out before twenty, turbid qi will accumulate faster as you age until you can no longer handle it."

Yi Yubaek continued.

"I call martial artists who have entered the stage of maturity third-rate, and those who achieve Breathing Smoke into Clouds second-rate. But they aren't all the same. Anyone who simply spews choking smoke is an idiot. If you burn turbid qi and essence-blood without distinguishing between them, that isn't cultivation. That's suicide."

Yi Yubaek pointed at Mo Cheong, his third disciple, who was exhaling white smoke.

"Proper Breathing Smoke into Clouds doesn't smell burnt. Done correctly, it smells like charcoal. Done even better, it smells like fired clay, like Cheong here."

Yi Yubaek emphasized his point.

"The stage of maturity is what matters. How can it be called the stage of maturity if you only burn things blindly? Like firing pottery, like tempering a blade, the key is gentle, persistent control of the flame. Preserve the essence you received at birth and burn only the turbid qi. You must all reach that stage if you wish to live as martial artists."

He looked down at the outer disciples struggling through the Warm Wind Formula.

They were all young. The youngest was twelve. Even the oldest was only eighteen.

Nine out of ten would never become martial artists. They would simply become sturdy farmers, porters, or laborers.

That was the life of third-rate martial artists who failed to reach second-rate in time.

They would fail to overcome that small limit, accept the fate assigned to them, and live accordingly.

Bowing their heads before the injustice and unfairness that filled this world.

That was why Yi Yubaek said,

"Be more desperate. Excellence doesn't come from ease and leisure. It comes from sensitivity and desperation. Youth ages easily, but learning is hard to accomplish. So devote your hearts to it more fully."

Yi Yubaek knew, too.

No matter how much he nagged them, few would truly listen.

Young trainees believed their youth would last forever.

Then, when they finally came to their senses, they would already be older and would realize too late that they could no longer remain martial artists.

The despair on the faces of those rejected by a world they had believed was theirs.

Yi Yubaek found that painful, so he always said,

"Become strong. Good people must be strong. People with conviction must be strong. Those capable of setting aside resentment must be strong, and strong people must be strong. Otherwise, bastards become strong. Instead of bastards, you become strong. In this lonely Jianghu, become dependable pillars for one another. Then the liquor will taste pretty good for the rest of your lives."

'I hope every one of you can live in your own way.'

Yi Yubaek silently recited those words as he looked at his young disciples.

Then,

suddenly,

he caught a savory scent.

A deeply savory scent, like roasted barley and Job's tears.

He instinctively turned toward it and saw a young man dressed lightly enough that the cutting winter wind should have troubled him.

Tall.

Pale, clean face.

Neat bearing.

He approached with confidence but no arrogance, with courtesy but no servility.

With each unbroken breath of the Willow Serenity Art, white smoke poured from his mouth like clouds.

Yi Yubaek suddenly wondered,

'How much time has passed?'

He counted it out. Five months.

Before even half a year had passed since entering closed-door seclusion, Yeon Sowol had broken out of it on his own.

Not only had he entered the stage of maturity, he had reached Breathing Smoke into Clouds.

"He wasn't even a youth anymore, yet he achieved it alone."

Yi Yubaek let out an empty laugh.

* * *

The reason Yeon Sowol decided to end his closed-door seclusion was simple.

'I want to learn more.'

It came after he had studied inner cultivation methods alone until he was sick of them.

"I want to learn how to make the fire hotter. How to use this power better."

Read a Book a Hundred Times and Its Meaning Reveals Itself.

The meaning had already arisen within him, and he had repeated and explored it until there was nothing left to gain from the book.

Now Yeon Sowol rose to his feet.

He walked to the spring and washed himself clean one last time. He shampooed his hair with sweet flag, rinsed his mouth with salt, and chewed cloves to get rid of any remaining bad breath. Yi Yubaek had made sure to prepare all the essential resources of civilization.

Yeon Sowol felt deeply grateful for that.

'It was brutal, but if I wanted to live like a person in this barbaric land, I guess all this suffering was necessary.'

With eyes full of mixed emotions, he looked around the seclusion chamber before stopping at the door.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

He knocked several times, but nobody came.

"Hm."

Yeon Sowol did not panic.

"If Academy Head Yi made sure nobody could approach this place, knocking won't do any good. So this means I'm supposed to break it."

He looked at the wooden door.

It was wooden, but nearly half a span thick, with sturdy hinges.

Still,

"Huuu..."

Yeon Sowol deepened his stage of maturity.

The Willow Serenity Art was a moving cultivation method.

It began from the outside and heated what was within.

Through kindling the inner fire, it first heated the Twelve Regular Meridians, then gathered that heat to warm the innate true qi within the Eight Extraordinary Vessels.

Innate true qi was the purest and hottest essence and qi, received directly from heaven and earth.

Yet living was the process through which even that innate true qi gradually cooled, grew turbid, and hardened.

The goal of inner cultivation methods was to heat that innate true qi once again and restore it to life.

As he added heat to the innate true qi that had been thickening and hardening, the stagnant substance writhed and began to move.

The impurities burned away in the process escaped through his mouth, becoming dense clouds.

"Huuu!"

Yeon Sowol exhaled smoke.

Within his Eight Extraordinary Vessels, his innate true qi surged with heat.

He suddenly recalled a piece of scientific knowledge from Earth.

「Life can exist on Earth because its inner core has not cooled and still churns even now.」

'It's the same.'

When the hot, pure essence that made up innate true qi pulsed, the postnatal essence that formed his bones and flesh resonated with it and took on spirituality.

Like an electric current generated when a magnetic field fluctuated around iron or copper.

The bones and muscles warmed by the Willow Serenity Art reacted more strongly, filling themselves with an immense power.

Essence was originally the root of force and matter.

It was not,

muscular strength,

firepower,

atomic force, magnetic force, or gravity.

It was simply power.

The purest and simplest kind.

The primordial force.

It had degraded greatly over time, yet an intangible force originating from that primordial power filled Yeon Sowol's muscles.

This was the source of the monstrous strength wielded by martial artists.

True qi.

Yeon Sowol extended a hand overflowing with strength and shoved the seclusion chamber's door.

Crack!

He could not break the bolt and chains, but the hinges could not withstand his strength. They split along the grain of the wood and tore away.

Thud!

Yeon Sowol passed through the wooden door, which had half collapsed and hung from its bolt, then stepped outside.

Everything was quiet except for the noisy training ground.

Without hesitation, he headed there.

Dozens of academy members were gathered and training.

Still, he did not stop.

His heart was pounding.

'I did it. I succeeded in that brutal closed-door training. No. I exceeded it.'

He had been calm until he stepped out the door, but as he walked here, it became increasingly real. His chest trembled.

'I can become a martial artist. I can live my own life without being tossed around by this barbaric world.'

The joy of overcoming harsh cultivation. The desire to move on to the next stage. The belief that no matter how difficult things became, he could overcome them again.

With all of that in his heart, Yeon Sowol walked on.

He wanted to face the result of the past five difficult months.

He did not want to delay it even for a moment.

"Hm?"

"What's that? It smells savory."

The Windflow Martial Academy members stopped training one by one and turned around.

Then they froze.

"Huh."

"No way..."

"He's not dead?"

They recognized Yeon Sowol.

Some had seen him before he entered closed-door seclusion, while others had only heard rumors afterward, but they all recognized him.

There were not many people that tall and clear-faced.

Then they were surprised all over again.

'What? Why is he so clean?'

'Didn't he enter closed-door seclusion?'

'And what is this savory scent?'

Following Yi Yubaek's teachings, the members of Windflow Martial Academy kept their bodies clean and their bearing proper.

But people did not change easily.

Whenever Yi Yubaek was not watching, such as when they were home or taking several days off, they naturally became grimy and musty. That was the average in this world!

And if someone underwent closed-door cultivation?

How could they bathe every day while enduring such grueling training? Of course they would end up looking like beggars.

Even if someone emerged reeking, it was polite to offer kind words like, "You're awfully clean for someone who just finished closed-door seclusion."

Yet Yeon Sowol was too clean.

It was as though he had bathed every day and washed his clothes in spring water every day.

Even his beard had been neatly shaved, and his grown-out hair was tied back cleanly with a ribbon.

Then there was the savory scent that came with the white smoke from his mouth.

The members of Windflow Martial Academy quickly realized.

"Could that be... Breathing Smoke into Clouds?"

"But it doesn't smell like fired clay. What is this savory scent?"

This was a stage even Yi Yubaek had never told them about.

The members of Windflow Martial Academy were overwhelmed.

By Yeon Sowol's immaculate appearance.

And by his immeasurable level of Breathing Smoke into Clouds.

The eighteen-year-old late starter, whom they had naturally assumed would die, had achieved the stage they dreamed of and appeared before them with confidence.

The crowd shifted aside in a wave.

Nobody said a word, yet everyone stepped aside to the left and right.

They opened a path for Yeon Sowol.

Yi Yubaek, standing on the platform, came clearly into view.

Yeon Sowol walked through the middle and stopped before Yi Yubaek.

"Academy Head, I have something I'd like to ask."

"Before that, I have a question for you."

Yi Yubaek asked,

"What was inside the Eight Extraordinary Vessels?"

Yeon Sowol answered.

"They were full of hot essence and qi received from heaven and earth."

"Yes. That is called innate true qi. What form did it take?"

"It was like a thick liquid."

"Correct. Hot, pure qi and essence mix together and flow thickly. That is why it is also called qi-blood and essence-blood. You must protect your qi-blood and essence-blood for your entire life. Gather the innate true qi within the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, and use the lukewarm, turbid postnatal qi that accumulates in your physical body. That is the essence of cultivation."

"Qi-blood... Essence-blood... Innate true qi... Postnatal qi..."

Yi Yubaek looked down at the muttering Yeon Sowol and asked again.

"Then what are the Twelve Regular Meridians?"

"If the Eight Extraordinary Vessels are a great sea that stores innate true qi, the Twelve Regular Meridians are paths that lead into the actual bones, flesh, and organs. Bones and flesh are hardened postnatal qi. By sending kindling the inner fire through these paths, I can heat them and restore them to life. The hotter the postnatal qi becomes, the better it resonates with innate true qi."

"Exactly."

Yi Yubaek was satisfied.

But Yeon Sowol did not stop there.

"Still, the Twelve Regular Meridians do not end with the Twelve Regular Meridians."

"Hm?"

"There were twelve side paths leading off from the Twelve Regular Meridians."

A look of amazement appeared on Yi Yubaek's face.

"The Twelve Divergent Meridians... You found them? By yourself?"

"There were also even smaller holes, like dog holes or rat holes."

"The Fifteen Collaterals too!"

Yi Yubaek let out a hollow laugh.

He shook his head and said,

"Your capacity has far surpassed my expectations. Yes. What are you curious about?"

"I want to know how to make the fire burn hotter."

Yi Yubaek answered at once.

"Make the postnatal essence that forms within your body fiercely hot. Then it will rise as hot sparks. Control them well and heat your meridians. Keep kindling the inner fire like that, preserving and compressing it. Then True Flame will bloom. I call those who bloom True Flame first-rate."

Yeon Sowol mulled over what he had learned.

He looked completely absorbed in learning.

Yi Yubaek hesitated slightly before asking carefully,

"It must have been hard. Don't you resent me?"

"I did resent you. But I'm all right now."

"Why?"

"Because I won."

Yeon Sowol smiled.

Yi Yubaek smiled too.

The Windflow Three Young Lords smiled, and so did the inner and outer disciples.

They all thought the same thing.

'The Windflow Four Young Lords will be born soon.'

'A new direct disciple.'

'He's more than qualified.'

'He started at eighteen, achieved Breathing Smoke into Clouds in half a year, and will become a direct disciple? Am I watching a legend?'

At last, Yi Yubaek spoke.

"But I'm sorry. I can't keep my promise. I simply cannot accept you as my disciple."

Yeon Sowol's eyes widened.

The crowd stirred.

"Your capacity surpasses mine. I cannot make a genius like you my direct disciple. Youth ages easily and learning is hard to accomplish. Don't waste your time under me. When the time comes, you must find a far better master."

Yeon Sowol had no idea what to say.

'What is this, then? It's not like we're breaking up because you love me...'

At that moment, Yi Yubaek's eyes shone sharply.

"However!"

Strength filled his next words.

"If you'll allow it, I want to become your foster father."

'Foster father?'

Foster father and foster son.

A parent-child relationship bound by loyalty, like sworn brothers.

The proposal had never once crossed Yeon Sowol's mind, and he froze.

"Sowol. The Central Plains aren't your home. But what if we became family? I would become your foster father and pass all my martial arts down to you. But I would not be your master, so you could choose anyone else as your master later. No. I will even help you find one."

'Become family?'

Those words struck Yeon Sowol deeply.

Regardless of whether he liked or disliked Yi Yubaek,

in this unfamiliar land where he had no one to rely on,

family.

And on top of that,

'My food and lodging would be covered. I could learn everything like a disciple without being one. I'd have a powerful backer. And he'll even find me a new master?'

The more he counted the benefits, the more one-sidedly favorable Yi Yubaek's offer seemed to Yeon Sowol.

Yi Yubaek's tremendous kindness.

'But accepting someone as my father...'

For a person from twenty-first-century South Korea, it was a possibility he had never even considered.

The words would not easily leave his mouth.

Yeon Sowol could only stare blankly at Yi Yubaek, unsure what to do.

Yi Yubaek gave an embarrassed smile and searched through his robes.

"If I'm going to be your father, I should return this."

He took out a small box.

Two gold yuanbao showed their golden faces from inside.

There had originally been three, but Yi Yubaek had given one to the county magistrate, leaving two. It was the gold Yeon Sowol had offered when he asked to be accepted as a disciple.

"I'll add this as an allowance, too."

Yi Yubaek took out another box. Inside was a single dried mushroom.

"This is a spiritual elixir. It can greatly improve your constitution. It should be worth at least three one-nyang gold yuanbao. What do you think? Is that enough for an allowance?"

It was hard to refuse...

Yeon Sowol immediately bowed his head.

"Father. I don't know whether I should accept something like this."

"Seeing how you conduct yourself, I don't think my son will starve to death wherever he goes. That's a relief."

Yi Yubaek laughed with a wheezing sound.

Footnotes:

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