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◈ Murim in my Hometown ◈
Chapter 42: Lost Art
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At last, I would learn the Latter Eighteen Forms of the Heavenly Steel Saber Method. Once I mastered them, the saber method would be complete.
The First Eighteen Forms were already a fierce and powerful saber method.
They alone had carried me through countless brushes with death. I had stubbornly brought down opponents stronger than myself.
The thought of how incredible the Latter Eighteen Forms must be, when they could not even be learned without an Internal Energy Method, made my heart race.
Even if Jeok Chuyeong was a renowned master of the Unorthodox Faction, wouldn’t I stand a chance with this? I was so excited and expectant that I could barely sleep at night.
The next morning, before the sun had even risen, Do Hoengil came to see me.
“Have you eaten breakfast?”
“I have. Are you ready?”
“Of course.”
In the middle of the yard, Do Hoengil drew his sword.
Without even taking a guard stance, he slowly raised his sword and gently cut through the air.
I held my breath and stared wide-eyed, determined not to miss the sword’s movements, his upper and lower body, his footwork, or even the smallest gesture of his hand.
A saber method performed with a sword was bound to feel awkward and lack its proper power. Still, I thought that a master like Do Hoengil might be different.
He certainly was different. But as I watched, I gradually found myself tilting my head in confusion.
This was a saber method...?
Unlike the fierce and aggressive First Eighteen Forms, the Latter Eighteen Forms looked like a sword dance.
It completely departed from the usual conventions of a saber method, which involved cutting and thrusting. Yet it was not swordsmanship either.
He was swinging a sword, but the sword itself seemed invisible. He was neither cutting nor stabbing anything. There were no visible forms to speak of.
From his fingertips to his toes, he was simply wind drifting past and clouds floating by.
After stirring the early autumn morning air with movements I could not understand to the end, Do Hoengil sheathed his sword.
“Did you watch closely?”
“I watched closely enough, but... is this really a saber method? It’s far too different from the First Eighteen Forms. Isn’t it just a sword dance?”
As though he had expected that response, Do Hoengil stepped aside and gestured.
“Perform it yourself.”
I did as I was told. The posture was not particularly difficult, but he corrected me as soon as I began.
“Your saber is too high. Straighten your upper body more. Keep more space between your feet...”
Even as he carefully corrected my posture, I had no idea what any of this was.
“It’s called the Latter Eighteen Forms, so where are the eighteen forms?”
“Ask those Saber Branch bastards. Since they derived the First Eighteen Forms from this, they must have assumed there were another eighteen and named it that way. Those who use sabers have always been crude and simple-minded, like butchers.”
I ignored the slander of that devious swordsman, who knew nothing of the bold spirit of saber methods, and diligently learned the movements.
I spent time learning the Latter Eighteen Forms, paying attention to my stance and repeating them several times. I felt nothing at all.
If I moved around so limply in a real fight, even a third-rate wandering martial artist would cut me down.
When I looked doubtful and confused, Do Hoengil spoke.
“Perform it while circulating your internal energy with your Internal Energy Method.”
I slowly drew up my internal energy. After confirming its steady flow through my limbs along the circulation path, I performed the Latter Eighteen Forms.
This time, it felt different. Whenever I extended an arm, took a step, or moved my body, my internal energy smoothly kept pace.
For the past month, I had repeated the act of having my internal energy support my forms countless times.
There was nothing new about that, but the Latter Eighteen Forms were completely different. My internal energy did not increase the forms’ speed or power.
It was the exact opposite. The forms guided the path along which my internal energy spread.
Whether I used a sword, saber, or fist, every martial art I had learned until now had been meant to defeat or kill an opponent.
They had been a succession of blood-soaked struggles, crossroads between life and death.
The Latter Eighteen Forms were not like that. What touched the tip of my saber was not some unknown enemy whose flesh I had to tear and whose breath I had to cut short.
It was merely a passage through which internal energy born from natural qi could rest and flow. Like water, internal energy could be held anywhere and was bound by nowhere.
The forms, resembling internal energy, abandoned their shape and drifted leisurely with the current.
If I had to put it into words...
It felt freeing, yet daunting.
I cut through the sky with my long saber and finished the Latter Eighteen Forms as though entranced.
Saaaah.
The scattered distracting thoughts gathered together again. I felt vaguely unsettled and unable to make sense of it.
“What... is this?”
“Do you understand now? Why the Latter Eighteen Forms cannot be learned without an Internal Energy Method?”
As I stood there with a blank look on my face, Do Hoengil frowned.
“It seems you still don’t accept it. Keep repeating it until you do. A supreme art cannot be learned through words alone. If you fail to gain enlightenment, your body will have to suffer for it.”
The feeling had not been unpleasant, so I performed the Latter Eighteen Forms again without complaint.
Do Hoengil watched for a while, then took off his shoes, climbed onto the wooden porch, and lit the brazier.
He boiled water and steeped tea. Without even watching me train, he simply admired the view of the mountain behind the house.
I stopped my saber when the sun slanted toward the western mountains and the sunset dyed its blade red.
The forms had not been intense, yet I was terribly exhausted. When I checked my dantian, I found that I had used roughly five percent of my internal energy.
I set down my long saber and dropped heavily onto the porch.
Only then did Do Hoengil turn his head and study me closely.
“Not bad for your first day. Now that you have learned all of the Latter Eighteen Forms, how do you feel?”
After giving it some thought, I honestly shook my head.
“...I don’t know. They’re too different from the First Eighteen Forms.”
“Tsk, tsk. Do you think a supreme art teaches you to block here and thrust there? The Latter Eighteen Forms condense our sect’s martial principles within the framework of a saber method. Didn’t you feel as if you had struck a wall while learning the First Eighteen Forms?”
I suddenly came to my senses.
“How did you know that?”
“The First Eighteen Forms of the Heavenly Steel Saber Method are a simplified version of the Latter Eighteen Forms. Even those called geniuses could not understand them, let alone beginners like you, no matter how much they were taught. So their level was lowered to emphasize practical combat. The martial principles contained in the Latter Eighteen Forms were forcibly clothed in forms and fixed in place. Like water poured into a container and frozen.”
Do Hoengil poured the tea from his cup onto the porch. Holding up the empty cup for me to see, he continued.
“The Sword Branch is no different. After learning the Jade Spring Sword Method, which gives form to martial principles through sword forms, they advance to the Immortal Radiance Evening Sword, a supreme art.”
“Then are the Latter Eighteen Forms and the Immortal Radiance Evening Sword the pinnacle of Cheongsan Sect martial arts?”
Do Hoengil shook his head.
“Our sect’s greatest supreme art is the Cheongsan Art. It is the essence of our sect, created by the second Sect Leader. Both the Saber Branch and the Sword Branch have their roots there.”
“Have you learned the Cheongsan Art as well, Elder?”
“I have not.”
Was it a realm so lofty that even a master like him had failed to reach it?
“It has been lost. It was not something that could be left behind in a manual, and no one besides the second Sect Leader properly mastered it, so its lineage naturally ended.”
Do Hoengil fixed his grave eyes on me.
“Now that you have received instruction in the Latter Eighteen Forms, you can no longer deny that you are the Direct Successor of the Saber Branch.”
“Fine. Let’s say I am.”
“Say it properly.”
“Very well. I, Jeong Daecheon of Seochon, am the Direct Successor of Cheongsan Sect’s Saber Branch.”
Do Hoengil nodded with a somewhat satisfied expression.
“Now that you are a disciple of our sect, stop calling me ‘old man.’”
“Then what should I call you? Junior Martial Granduncle? Senior Martial Granduncle?”
“Just call me Elder. I will tell you the direction your training should take from now on.”
I quickly took off my shoes, climbed onto the porch, and sat facing Do Hoengil.
Do Hoengil filled the empty teacup and looked at me with a serious expression.
“Take the martial principles of the Latter Eighteen Forms as your teacher and train in the First Eighteen Forms. Gain insight, and draw out the potential of the Heavenly Steel Saber Method that is trapped within the forms of the First Eighteen Forms.”
I had thought he would train me properly, but he was telling me to figure it out on my own.
I calmly reflected on the Latter Eighteen Forms that I had performed without rest for more than six hours.
I could certainly sense the martial principles of a supreme art, but nothing was clearly within my grasp. I still had a long way to go.
“I don’t think it will be easy...”
“It will not. But it is the fastest and surest path. If you seek only an easy path because the Latter Eighteen Forms are difficult to understand, you will eventually make foolish attempts, such as inserting the sword path of thrusting into a saber method.”
I was still young. If I trained for my entire life, perhaps I could reach that realm one day. But I did not have that much time.
Before the year ended, I would infiltrate the Black Night Gang and fight Jeok Chuyeong.
Even if I defeated Jeok Chuyeong and achieved my goal, I would have to fight the monstrous absolute master before me in five years.
“Is our life-and-death duel still in effect?”
When I asked just in case, Do Hoengil did not hesitate in the slightest.
“It is.”
“Why are we even having that damned life-and-death duel?”
Do Hoengil fell silent for a moment, then nodded as though he understood.
“Now that you are a proper Direct Successor of the Saber Branch, you have the right to know... The life-and-death duel held every five years was originally a desperate measure meant to keep disciples from killing one another in greater numbers.”
“What are you talking about? You said it was a tradition before.”
“The beginning was different.”
Do Hoengil absently fiddled with his empty teacup.
“The hatred between the Saber Branch and Sword Branch became so deep that they even began launching ambushes in broad daylight. They became bitter enemies. Unable to bear it any longer, the Sect Leader and branch leaders agreed that once every five years, only one person would settle their resentment through a life-and-death duel.”
No matter how I thought about it, Cheongsan Sect was not a normal sect.
“What happened within Cheongsan Sect that disciples of the same sect started killing one another?”
Do Hoengil truly seemed to have accepted me as a fellow disciple. In an even tone, he told me the hidden history of the sect without concealing anything.
“When the outside world was thrown into chaos by war, Cheongsan was peaceful instead. Since things outside were dangerous, everyone huddled in their safe nest. When a new country rose in the outside world, Cheongsan was greatly shaken...”
First was the stay-behind faction, who wanted to remain in the mountains, saying officials could not be trusted and the martial world was full of treachery.
Then there was the mountain-descending faction, who wished to descend the mountain, formally establish a sect, and make their name known.
The two sides split apart and fiercely opposed each other.
By coincidence, many of those who argued for descending the mountain were saber users.
Fearing that Cheongsan Sect’s existence would bring disaster if it became known to the outside world, the Sect Leader issued an order forbidding anyone from descending the mountain.
The mountain-descending faction disobeyed the order and secretly descended the mountain, where they clashed with swordsmen from the Sword Branch.
Several people died in the process, and the saber wielders who escaped the mountain brought outside forces into Cheongsan, just as the Sect Leader had feared.
They claimed they sought revenge for their unjustly slain fellow disciples and to free the oppressed disciples of Cheongsan Sect.
Revenge gave rise to more revenge and consumed the disciples. The few who died at the beginning were enough to set the wheel of resentment in motion.
“How did you end up joining such a murderous sect, Elder?”
“My master took me in.”
“Were you an orphan?”
“Both my parents were alive. They were slash-and-burn farmers.”
Do Hoengil turned his head toward the yard. Staring into the darkness beyond the wall, he continued.
“My master... was considered one of the most eccentric and violent people even within the Sword Branch. They said my master had originally been gentle and timid, but after losing all the fellow disciples who were like siblings to the Saber Branch, they became consumed by hatred and half mad.”
Do Hoengil narrowed his eyes as though looking into the distance.
“They entered closed-door training, vowing revenge, but only came to realize how lacking their talent was. After understanding that it was impossible for them to master the Immortal Radiance Evening Sword, they traveled throughout the Central Plains in search of a genius. That was how they found me in a slash-and-burn farming village.”
It was not uncommon for masters traveling the martial world to take talented children as disciples.
Do Hoengil was the same, except there was one great difference.
“They said I had good bones and talent for martial arts. It was clearly praise, but their gaze was so chilling that I was only frightened, as if I had come face-to-face with a wolf. My master said the same thing to my parents and declared that they would take me away and raise me as a martial artist. My parents gently refused. They trembled in fear before the martial artist with a sword at their waist and the smell of blood about them, but they would not give up their only child.”
Even so, Do Hoengil eventually became a disciple of the Sword Branch.
“It seems your master persuaded them well.”
“My master was not very skilled with words. Their hands were quick instead. Without repeating themself, they drew their sword and cut off my parents’ heads. Then, as I stood frozen and covered in their blood, they held out their hand and said this.”
“Do you want revenge? I will help you.”
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