Chapter 353. Repeat It, and One Day It Will Explode.

Naturally, I did not leap up the waterfall only once. As I was surging upward more than a dozen times, battered by the pouring torrent, Cheonak, who had been watching, jumped down and said to me.

“Sect Leader, come out now.”

Without thinking much of it, I sprang out of the waterfall and landed beyond the dragon pool. Strangely, it felt as though I had leaped farther than usual.

Who knew moving where there was no torrent could feel this easy?

It was as if I had become a bird. Startled all over again, I looked at the pouring waterfall.

“…How curious.”

Of course, this was only possible because I had trained both external arts and internal energy from the beginning. I had merely failed to cleave through the torrent in one go; I still had enough strength left to surge upward over a hundred more times. People were this fickle. It felt as though I had shaken off the shackles called the waterfall.

I looked at the waterfall, then said to Cheonak.

“Senior, I’ll have to come here again.”

“It would be better to raise your level first, then come check from time to time. The gap you’ve surpassed through improvement will be visible to the eye…”

Cheonak snapped off a long, sturdy tree branch, looked up at the waterfall, then threw it toward a point around the middle. The branch shot through the air like an arrow and lodged itself in a crevice in the rock beside the waterfall.

Thud!

“That is the height you reached.”

Seeing it like this, it seemed fairly high, yet considering that I possessed rather deep internal energy, it also seemed low.

Cheonak draped his upper garment over one shoulder and said.

“Let’s go.”

I, too, draped the upper garment I had taken off over my shoulder, then followed Cheonak.

In other words, there had been a consistent meaning in the actions and words Cheonak had shown me since yesterday.

He had added weight to the motion of contesting palm force to apply pressure.

He had applied pressure to my thighs while I bore the twin iron heavy staffs on my back.

Today, I had combined internal energy and external arts to climb against the waterfall.

And before breakfast, he had explained the harmony of external arts and internal energy through the Middle Finger Flick Technique.

In truth, if he had explained this much,

it was detailed enough that I could continue the next training on my own.

Cheonak spoke as he walked.

“Remember the sensation of power surging upward vertically, in a straight line. When you hook each finger with your thumb, only the middle finger extends in a perfectly upright line. The other fingers—the index, ring, and little fingers—either have their direction twisted, or the position of the thumb is not stable.”

As I listened to Cheonak, I checked the Finger Flick Techniques of my fingers. Just as Cheonak said, only the middle finger beginning from the thumb was perfectly straight, as though a straight blade were shooting out.

Cheonak continued.

“When one trains a sect’s fist arts, sword arts, palm arts, and the like, what are commonly called forms are a kind of fixed pattern.”

“That’s true.”

“If someone follows that pattern without the slightest deviation even in an actual fight, is he an expert, or a fool?”

“Naturally, he’d be a fool.”

“Everyone makes variations according to the situation and the posture they must take at that moment. Is that not so?”

“It is.”

Cheonak stopped walking and looked at me.

“Then why do so many sects practice, repeat, and train those fixed patterns every single day?”

My eyes widened.

“Not for the sake of variation, but to train a harmonious and ideal attack through its repetition? Like training the Middle Finger Flick Technique.”

Cheonak nodded.

“That may have been true at first, but is it still truly so now? They do it because their master or senior brothers tell them to. Without recognizing the purpose that actually matters. In the end, the rest of the body must also be trained to achieve harmony between external arts and internal energy. Even the meaningless repetition of kicks gains meaning once it catches up to the level of perfection of the Middle Finger Flick Technique.”

“…”

“Trying to defeat others with only the brilliance of your forms is a vain desire. Even if some scrawny fellow displays a rather famous palm art, if he is caught by an ignorant strongman a rank or two above him, all his limbs will be broken. Then what use is the brilliance of his forms? What developed after that was internal energy. If one merely increased the power of simple strikes, it might appear quite strong, but that is not perfection.”

I nodded.

Cheonak continued.

“Even so, those who instinctively realize the meaninglessness of such actions often find their own path and meaning through training. You are likely that type as well. There are those who train arduously without knowing the purpose, then belatedly discover that purpose because of an insight gained from training itself. It is late, but such people do become experts.”

“That’s true.”

“But they cannot close the gap with those who knew the purpose from the very beginning. The reason prestigious powers are prestigious is because they possess more of this specific oral transmission than the phrases written in secret manuals. They do not weaken easily.”

As we conversed, we descended the mountain path again and came upon a gently flowing river. It was quite wide, a river that flowed with stately force.

Cheonak headed toward the riverside and said.

“If a great deal of time passes, martial arts will gradually disappear or decline.”

“And why is that?”

“Because the nature of most humans is either lazy or averse to pain. Even that Baekga fellow possesses outstanding comprehension, but rather than training that invites pain upon himself, he finds interest in miscellaneous studies like modifying tools such as folding fans to make hidden weapons, and devotes much of his time to that. Baekga’s harmony stopped long ago. He knows it himself.”

Cheonak, who had been looking at the river, asked me.

“Do you intend to give up on harmony as well?”

This question sounded to me like this.

Will you stop training once you have become moderately strong?

I had never been asked such an intense question before.

Perhaps the mindset with which I answered this question would determine my limits from here on.

I stood beside Cheonak and looked at the flowing river.

It was a simple question, but I could not answer easily. Because even I felt that once I became as strong as I had imagined, I would somehow be satisfied with the situation and live in leisurely ease.

If so, Cheonak was warning me that my growth would end precisely there.

“Senior, do you intend to train until you grow old and die?”

Cheonak answered with his arms crossed.

“I will not die of old age. I will die on my way to becoming the best under heaven.”

“…”

“If your purpose is clear, neither old age nor illness can obstruct the journey.”

Becoming stronger through training was merely the result that came after.

It felt as though this mindset itself had been the starting point that made him an expert. Until now, when I imagined competing in mindset over the course of my life, there had not been many people I thought I would lose to, but Cheonak had now been added to the list.

How absurd…

The Three Calamities were the Three Calamities after all.

I was feeling that Cheonak’s mindset was more frightening than Cheonak’s martial arts.

‘Impressive.’

After throwing that topic of contemplation at me, Cheonak did not force me to answer right away. He crouched down, picked up a small stone, and sent it flying with the Middle Finger Flick Technique.

With a sharp pak, the small stone flew forth, stretching out over the stately flowing river.

It was different from the stone-skipping I often did.

The pebble had not touched the surface at all. Even so, the force with which it shot forward was carving a straight line through the calm water. In an instant, the pebble flew across and finally reached the far bank, where it rolled along the ground.

It was a Tanjigong I could not imitate for the time being.

I picked up a pebble and skipped it across the water with a throw. The low-flying stone bounced off the water as it shot forward, then reached the opposite side.

Now that I thought about it……

I could not be trapped in a place like this and do nothing but train like a seeker of the Dao.

I was not the sort of person who could cut himself off from the world and focus only on training in pursuit of harmony between internal and external arts.

That was because I was the sect leader of Haomun.

That did not mean I intended to fall into laziness either.

Cheonak had posed his question in his own way, and now it was time for me to give my own answer.

I conveyed my thoughts to Cheonak.

“I cannot do it like you, Senior.”

“Is that so?”

“It may take ten years. It may take even longer than that. But I will try to embrace harmony. Not only the harmony between internal and external arts, but also the harmony between extreme yang and extreme yin. I will try to blend my personal happiness in life with Im Sobaek’s sense of responsibility. I must watch over Haomun, and I must also watch my young disciple grow. I am not the kind of man who can enter a cave alone and turn his back on the world. I am too meddlesome for that…… I will harmoniously accept your relentlessness, Senior, and the beggar senior’s letting go. Then one day, if I feel my limits as the Martial Emperor did, I will pass on what I learned from my seniors to my disciple. Among my disciple’s disciple, that disciple’s disciple, my disciple’s friend, or a friend’s son, perhaps at least one person who inherits what I teach will become the greatest under heaven.”

Cheonak looked at me once, then turned his gaze back to the river.

“…….”

“The world will continue on, so I must make sure the harmony you taught me continues on as well.”

Cheonak said,

“Is that the chivalrous hero of a thousand years you supposedly spoke of to that Baek fellow?”

“It is.”

“How grand.”

Cheonak picked up a pebble and skipped it across the water as I had done. Seeing him like this, his movements were so natural it seemed as if he had skipped stones many times in the past.

The pebble Cheonak threw flew as if grazing the surface, raising ripples in its wake.

Suddenly, Cheonak snorted and laughed.

“……Admitting that you cannot do it is also your path. No one can know who will become the greatest under heaven. Since it cannot be reached by human strength alone, heavenly fortune must follow. I hope you have that fortune. Let us return.”

I headed back to the Steel Mountain Villa with Cheonak. As if the conversation we had shared while looking at the river had nothing to do with this, Cheonak said,

“The fact that the Baek fellow brought you here means you are not an enemy of the scholars.”

“I am not.”

“And if you and Im Sobaek are helping each other, then you are not an enemy of the orthodox path either.”

“That is true too, but I am always someone’s enemy. If we speak in terms of slaughter, I have probably killed even more than you, Senior. I am not a peaceful man.”

In truth, if I had turned away from the world and shut myself away somewhere to focus only on training, I would never have met Cheonak either.

In the end, my guiding principle had not changed.

When it came to the mindset for training, Cheonak and the Cult Leader were probably similar.

I did not expect that I could surpass the two of them in the same way. Nor could I pursue enlightenment with a kind of empty-hearted mindset like the beggar senior.

I was the sort of person who wiped tables with a rag in hand, eavesdropped on the customers’ words, occasionally butted in, and often, unable to control my temper, got into fights with bastards like brazen thieves.

When we arrived at the training ground,

the White-Clad Scholar was holding on to a lump of iron, standing on his hands, and doing push-ups.

Cheonak said,

“What the hell are you doing all of a sudden?”

The White-Clad Scholar answered while continuing his push-ups.

“If I have come here, of course I should train. Once I go outside, I will be too busy to train properly.”

Cheonak loosened up while prowling about like a tiger, then grabbed the twin heavy iron staffs. I took a suitably sized lump of iron in each hand, moved to a somewhat spacious area, and repeatedly sat down and stood up.

In any case, I intended to keep doing this until Habok made us lunch.

Looking at the three of us objectively all over again……

there were no madmen in the world quite like us. In any case, I had set my goal for descending from the Steel Mountain Villa. I intended to pierce through the waterfall and climb up it. At any rate, if I wanted to succeed at that absurd stunt, I had to lift more iron even if no one ordered me to.

The White-Clad Scholar moved while looking at the world upside down.

Cheonak had begun performing staff techniques while holding the twin heavy iron staffs.

And in the midst of it all, I repeated sitting down and standing up with a lump of iron on my shoulders like an idle loafer who had forgotten worldly affairs.

Because if one repeated something enough, someday it would explode.

...The Lust Demon, who had returned to Baengeungji, left the Sword Demon’s residence and headed home. He could not even gauge how long it had been since he had returned. On his way back, he had felt unfamiliar men looking at him several times, so he had circled around his master’s residence a few times before returning; by then, the sun had already set.

It was a neighborhood road he had not walked in a long time……

but nothing had changed.

In the past, he had usually walked this road at dawn or in the morning while drunk, so he wondered if he was going home too early.

As the Lust Demon walked down the darkening road, he suddenly stopped and looked back.

“…….”

Of all places, it was a spot with alleys on both sides of the road, and it was also along the route he had taken when fighting the third bastard.

The Lust Demon slowly moved his head this way and that, then said,

“……Come out.”

“…….”

“I said come out, you dumb bastards.”

As soon as the curse left his mouth, old men who looked exactly alike walked out from the alleys on both sides. The Lust Demon touched his nose and said,

“What are you? Ghosts? Twins, huh.”

They were rare twins whose clothing, appearance, distinguishing features, and even gait were the same. One of them said to the Lust Demon,

“Young Master Mong, I heard a rumor that you have learned ice arts.”

The Lust Demon answered,

“So?”

“It seems it is true.”

The Lust Demon looked at the twins, then nodded.

“You two are not ghosts after all. I heard about twins somewhere a few times……”

The Lust Demon searched his memory, then said to the two men,

“The Yin-Yang Family Heads?”

The two old men laughed at the same time. One of them said to the Lust Demon,

“Young Master Mong, shall we have a bout? If you are afraid, run and call your master now. Bring that fellow called Yukhap or whatever as well. We will face you three against two.”

“Why have you two come looking for me? Did you cling to the Demon Cult? Or else.”

“Or else what?”

“Are you going to suck down my internal energy? If you want to learn ice arts, prostrate yourselves first. I will take you as my disciples, you ill-mannered old bastards.”

When the twins’ complexions flushed red at the same time……

the Lust Demon bared his teeth and laughed.