003. The Dohwang's Sensation (2)
I took the manual of the Changgung Daeyeon Shingong and headed to the underground training chamber located beneath the main pavilion. I needed to train quietly in a place where no one could disturb me. A private bedchamber or an outdoor training ground was naturally too dangerous.
Dancheol followed me as I headed to the underground training chamber. To dutifully carry out his assigned role, he intended to stand guard while I trained.
Doubt still lingered on Dancheol’s face.
‘He must think this isn’t like me.’
I hadn’t been particularly talented in martial arts. So I had even considered choosing a different path to be of help to the family. Thus, it was only natural that he found it strange to hear me suddenly say I would learn martial arts.
But even if it weren’t because of my past life, there was an event that made this easy to understand.
‘The fall of the family and my father’s death.’
There could be no greater reason than this.
As I arrived at the underground training chamber and was about to open the door and enter, Dancheol asked me, “Do you intend to train alone?”
“Yes.”
Worry appeared on Dancheol’s face.
“The Changgung Daeyeon Shingong is a martial art of a completely different nature from the internal cultivation technique you were learning, Second Young Master. Honestly, I am worried to hear that you plan to train alone so suddenly. Please inform the Head of the Sword Hall, at least.”
Head of the Sword Hall.
It was the tradition of our Namgung family to seat the family’s greatest master as the Head of the Sword Hall. And that tradition remained unchanged even now.
I understood Dancheol’s worry. Since he did not know I had awakened my past life, he felt my aptitude was insufficient to train in the Changgung Daeyeon Shingong.
“Are you saying I should seek help?”
“Yes. The Head of the Sword Hall is from a collateral branch, so even if he does not know the Changgung Daeyeon Shingong, he is well-versed in the principles of martial arts. Would he not be of help?”
I gave Dancheol a faint smile.
“Thank you for your concern.”
And turning around, I continued speaking as I entered the training chamber.
“But I am enough on my own.”
* * *
The underground training chamber was like a place severed from the outside world, an environment where one could immerse oneself solely in oneself.
Sitting in such a training chamber, I read through the manual of the Changgung Daeyeon Shingong.
It was a newly written book. It must have differed from when this martial art was first created. But it did not matter.
As long as the core had not changed, it could be applied in countless ways.
‘As Dancheol said, it is an internal cultivation technique of a completely different nature from the Cheongyo Simgyeol.’
The more I read the manual, the more a unique sensation blossomed throughout my body once again.
‘An internal cultivation technique that unleashes power by circulating true energy as if causing it to explode. It is a martial theory that suits heavy, rigid swords perfectly.’
The unique sensation pervading my entire body conveyed an extraordinary insight into martial arts.
‘The sword of the Namgung family that split Mount Tai and cleaved the heavens. We abandoned such a sword and chased after illusions.’
As the pages turned, that insight drew out even higher levels of thought.
‘Even though the essence was right here.’
I continued turning pages, moving my eyes along the characters, the essential formulas, and the annotations.
Endlessly, endlessly, without rest.
When I reached the final page, I closed the book without hesitation. There was no need to read it twice. Since it was a martial art passed down in the family for a long time, it could not have been written in a secretive and difficult manner. It was an annotated edition with interpretations added throughout.
I immediately sat down and closed my eyes. And I began circulating the Changgung Daeyeon Shingong. The gentle internal energy created by the Cheongyo Simgyeol resonated and gradually changed its nature.
Like a ferocious beast refusing to be tamed.
‘It is an internal force with quite a savage nature.’
The beast-like true energy rampantly coiled around my entire body.
As if begging to be allowed to explode even a moment sooner.
But I did not oppose it. And I did not even try to control that true energy.
Compliance.
I let the true energy run wild to its heart’s content. Not because it was wrong, but because this was the correct path.
‘I do not tame it just because it is a savage thing. No, there is no need to tame it. I must nurture this nature as it is so that when the time comes, I can unleash it outward at any time.’
I was comprehending the concepts of martial arts to a degree that surprised even myself.
That insight became enlightenment, and soon the true energy squirmed as if responding to that enlightenment.
As if it would explode at any moment.
‘The aura of a sovereign who overwhelms all. This is the foundation and root of our Namgung family.’
A smile formed from the satisfaction of enlightenment, and simultaneously—
The trajectory of sensation enveloping my entire body like the roots of an ancient tree.
Following those roots, the true energy began to race as if exploding.
* * *
I continued training in the Changgung Daeyeon Shingong for several days. I did nothing else. I slept in my quarters, and when I woke, I unconditionally headed to the underground training chamber.
The more I trained in the Changgung Daeyeon Shingong, the more I felt the true energy within my body condensing.
‘So this is how it is condensed and then detonated all at once.’
And there was another strange phenomenon.
A strange state that grew increasingly intense as the days passed.
The more I circulated the Changgung Daeyeon Shingong, the flow of the true energy changed.
A golden radiance flashed in my mind, an orbit guiding along the beam of light called sensation.
‘A meridian different from the manual’s teachings.’
It was strange, but I accepted that flow willingly. Since the accumulation and movement of internal force were gradually improving, I intuitively realized that this was the original flow.
When about ten days had passed like that, I sensed Dancheol’s eyes looking at me change.
“Why?”
“It is nothing.”
He mumbled as if it were nothing, but I could guess his emotions.
Surprise.
Even Dancheol, a martial artist, had felt it. That I was changing by the day.
‘Because even I could feel myself changing.’
Then Dancheol cautiously opened his mouth.
“But is it alright? Rumors have started spreading. That the Second Young Master has shut himself in the underground training chamber.”
“So what?”
Dancheol hesitated, then spoke.
“Stories are spreading that the Second Young Master, despite lacking aptitude, is training as if fleeing from the family’s current crisis. Especially from the collateral branch centered around the Head of the Sword Hall.”
I understood.
It seemed that in their eyes, my comings and goings to the training chamber, with my mediocre talent, looked like I was simply running away from the current situation.
“It does not matter at all what they chatter about.”
Moving my steps toward outside the training chamber, I continued.
“Because the day will come when I prove that the rumors were merely rumors.”
“Yes.”
“More importantly, I must go and fetch a sword.”
“I shall go and bring it.”
“No, I must go myself.”
Next to the original archive, accessible only to the direct line of the family, there was a small armory. This place too was accessible only to the direct line of the family.
It was smaller than the family’s central armory, a place where slightly more precious weapons were stored.
Unlike Dancheol, who was looking around curiously, I immediately walked to one spot. Because my goal had been clear from the beginning.
On the wall of the place I approached, a single sword was hanging.
A sword far wider and longer than an ordinary one.
The sword’s name was engraved on the scabbard in elegant calligraphy.
Changse.
Dancheol came to my side and stared blankly at that sword.
“Is this not the sword that Patriarch Namgung Musang wielded in the battle against the Demonic Cult 150 years ago?”
It was exactly as he said.
Many masters were lost in that battle, and this sword returned having lost its master.
‘And as the sword of the Namgung family changed, there came to be no one capable of using this sword.’
Because they pursued the martial logic of subtle and fluid transformations rather than heavy, rigid swords, they had come to use far lighter and narrower blades.
Without hesitation, I grasped and lifted the sword. Different in size from ordinary swords, I would have to carry it on my back rather than at my waist.
But it was not heavy.
‘Rather, it feels familiar. As if it were a weapon I originally wielded.’
Dancheol asked in surprise from beside me, “Are you allowed to use that sword as you please?”
“It is an armory made for direct descendants to enter and leave. It is a weapon stored there. And this sword.”
Rumble.
Grabbing the hilt and slowly drawing it, the blade revealed itself with a heavy resonance. Its color was somewhat cloudy and dull, but that itself exuded an overwhelming, crushing pressure.
“It is not a decoration made to be hung like this. It is a sword made to change the world.”
A sword only fulfills its value when it is swung.
* * *
Whoosh.
Returning to the underground training chamber, I drew the sword Changse and swung it through the air.
A heavy slicing sound completely different from that of an ordinary sword.
‘It is not like swinging a sword, but like swinging a saber.’
The moment I thought that, a tingling sensation ran from my head to my toes. And that sensation focused all my spirit on the sword in my right hand.
I swung the sword.
Swinging, swinging, and swinging again.
Not with thrusting movements like an ordinary sword, but as if swinging a saber.
And not any particular sword technique, but primitive movements.
‘For now, adapting to this sword is the priority.’
Forgetting everything, I focused solely on the Changse held in my right hand.
As time passed, the sword that had felt heavy due to its width had, before I knew it, made me forget that discomfort.
Whether it had become familiar to my hand, whether my muscles had developed, or whether I had simply forgotten, I did not know.
But I simply forgot and swung the sword.
Continuing for days on end.
The heavy slicing sound cleaving the air gradually grew fiercer.
‘It is like waves surging in the great sea.’
At times like a violent tide swallowing everything, at times like a tempest tearing the atmosphere apart.
Thus, sword winds raged within the training chamber.
The slicing sound, enough to make an ordinary person cover their ears, continued for days. I could intuitively sense that this was a realm entirely different from the initial heavy slicing sounds.
Yet I was not satisfied.
Because right now I did not want to lose this sensation, I continued to surrender my body to it and swung the sword.
After several more days, the slicing sound changed once more.
‘The sound is beginning to grow smaller.’
The slicing sound, which had reached its peak, was gradually descending, as if having touched the highest point.
It was a bewildering phenomenon, but I intuitively knew it was not wrong.
Crack!
The slicing sounds that had scattered violently gathered into one.
It felt as if the sound had been condensed.
And I realized.
‘If I can eliminate this slicing sound.’
If I reached that realm, I felt I could glimpse some new level.
But it was not easy. Even as more time passed, the sound no longer changed.
I lowered the sword and regulated my breathing.
‘So this is as far as it goes for now.’
The rest was a realm I would have to reach in the future.
* * *
As Namgung Rim came and went to the underground training chamber every day, Dancheol’s routine was also repeated.
Every day, he stood guard in front of the training chamber. But he did not find it boring. No, rather, each time he saw Namgung Rim changing day by day, he even felt a certain sense of awe as a martial artist.
‘Has the Second Young Master’s talent blossomed?’
Expelled from the Five Great Families, and the Patriarch had passed away. A situation capable of delivering a massive shock.
And a person can undergo unprecedented changes due to mental shock.
‘It seems the Second Young Master is in such a situation.’
In any case, it was an awakening that might be a fated opportunity for a martial artist. For Dancheol, who had served Namgung Rim for nearly ten years, it was a sufficiently proud matter.
But lately, a strange thing had been happening.
For a few days, a sound like thunder could be heard from inside the training chamber, but now that sound had begun to subside.
‘Just what kind of training is he doing with that sword?’
Since he had never seen the inside of the training chamber, nor Namgung Rim’s training, it was naturally a matter of curiosity.
While harboring such doubts, a voice came from inside the training chamber.
“Dancheol.”
“Yes.”
“Come in.”
Dancheol cautiously opened the door of the training chamber and entered.
“You cal—”
Dancheol stopped his steps without realizing it.
‘W-what is all this?’
A square training chamber surrounded by stone walls.
Something filled the surroundings of that training chamber.
Sword marks.
From the floor to the walls and even the ceiling, there were hundreds, thousands, no, countless sword marks filling the place.
To Dancheol, who was looking around the training chamber in astonishment, Namgung Rim spoke.
“I was thinking of having a spar.”