"Breathe slowly and deeply, and focus on feeling the shape of your inner energy. Do not force it."
I closed my eyes and looked inward, just as Do Gwang-il instructed. It was barely the size of a millet grain, but my heart pounded at this strange and mysterious sensation I had never felt before in my life.
It felt as if the path to becoming an absolute master, something I had only ever heard of, was unfolding before my eyes. My body trembled with joy. No matter what happened in five years, this was certainly an opportunity that would not come again.
With every breath I took, in and out, a refreshing inner energy, regardless of my will, spread through my meridians to my arms and legs. I focused all my mind on feeling and memorizing the path of the inner energy. How much time had passed?
The inner energy was sucked to one side, and Do Gwang-il removed his hand from my back. As the inner energy vanished, the small, faint inner energy that had settled in my energy core also melted away like a grain of snow. Left with nothing, I was dazed with a sense of emptiness.
Do Gwang-il stood up from his spot.
"That is all for today."
I thought he would leave just like that, but Do Gwang-il sat on the edge of the wooden floor and took out a bamboo tube from his bundle. Seeing him sip from it, it seemed to be liquor. I quickly went into the room and brought out jerky and flatbread to serve as side dishes, along with a liquor cup.
Do Gwang-il silently poured liquor into two cups. Sitting a short distance apart, we quietly drank under the moonlight.
"Kuh… is this bamboo leaf liquor?"
"Do you know the taste of liquor?"
"I may not know the taste, but I know it's expensive."
The moonlight was gentle, and the sound of the rustling bamboo forest made for a rather atmospheric summer night. With the addition of fine bamboo leaf liquor, it was the perfect time to bring up personal stories.
"Where on earth is this Blue Mountain Sect located?"
"It began with a group of refugees who fled the invasion of the Central Plains by the barbarians and hid deep in the mountains of Gansu province."
There was nothing particularly special about it. Most of the Nine Sects were also located deep in the mountains.
"They cleared fields by burning them and lived by hunting, then learned self-defense arts to protect themselves from bandits and wild beasts."
"Among them were descendants of fallen martial families, so it gradually developed into a martial school."
"I have never heard the name of your sect before."
I thought he might be offended, but Do Gwang-il calmly acknowledged it.
"That would be so. We remained in the mountains even after the barbarians were driven back north. Even if the name of the country changes, the exploitation of the common people does not, so there was no reason to come out."
"Are the Sword Sect and the Saber Sect really the same school?"
"They are brothers who split from the same root."
"Why do fellow disciples from the same school fight to the death?"
"It is tradition."
It is common for martial families and orthodox sects to have sparring sessions among their members. Sparring even once is more helpful for improving skills than swinging a sword in the air a hundred days. They mostly use wooden swords, and sometimes they spar with real swords.
But they never kill each other. The purpose of sparring is training, not murder. If one uses a killing move to kill or severely injure a fellow disciple, they are locked in prison or have their tendons cut and are expelled from the school.
That is, if it is a normal sect. There are exceptions if you look for abnormal places. Like putting a bunch of venomous insects in a large jar and making them eat each other until only one remains, there are inhuman groups that gather orphans and make them kill each other.
"Could it be that the Blue Mountain Sect is... something like a guild of assassins?"
Do Gwang-il glared at me with angry eyes.
"The Blue Mountain Sect is a famous righteous sect with a history of over a hundred years. How dare you compare it to such vulgar assassins?"
"Are there any other successors of the Sword Sect besides you, old man?"
"No." "What about your martial brothers?"
"They are dead."
"Don't tell me it was because of the life-and-death duels?"
"... The life-and-death duel between the Sword Sect and the Saber Sect is held once every five years. It has been held ten times over the past fifty years. Not a few have died, and those who survived gained enlightenment and grew stronger."
"Then why are you the only one left?"
It seemed there was some deep story behind it, but Do Gwang-il, unwilling to reveal it, spoke vaguely.
"Everyone dies. The lifespan of a martial artist is even shorter, and even at its peak, the number of disciples in our school never exceeded one hundred."
"The deep mountains and secluded valleys are barren. There is no reason why life wouldn't be hard with many mouths to feed who do nothing but swing swords all day."
"Martial arts is eighty percent talent. It is enough to select the gifted and focus on them."
"With that level of martial ability, you could have officially established a sect."
Do Gwang-il looked at me with cold eyes.
"From street thugs to the younger generation of great clans, everyone is desperate to become a master, but there are no true contenders who throw away their entire lives. They all just want to look down on the masses and show off. Martial arts is a means, and what they really want is to succeed in life and enjoy wealth and glory."
Isn't that how life is? Wealth and glory are sweet and comfortable, but what else can one become but a murderous demon by going crazy over martial arts?
"The warriors of the Blue Mountain Sect are different. They are born martial artists who wield their sabers and swords for a lifetime, seeking to see the end of martial arts with an infinite desire to become stronger. That is why when selecting disciples, we value not only martial talent but also a fighting spirit that disregards life and death."
To see the end of martial arts... It felt like a story from another world. I lifted my cup in silence when I suddenly thought of Won Seo-gang.
The words he said when he read the artificial sword path in my saber technique. The reason for forcefully inserting a sword path, even at the risk of collapsing the principles of the saber technique.
I had speculated that it wasn't a result of the saber school and sword school interacting and developing together, but rather a resentful last resort, squeezed out in a desperate attempt to win at all costs.
"Are the Sword Sect and the Saber Sect mortal enemies?"
As if struck by an unexpected question, Do Gwang-il flinched. He glanced at me with displeasure, as if I had ruined the taste of the liquor, then drained his cup.
"This is not a story I can tell someone who is only halfway there. If you wish to know the secrets of our school, master the inner energy and saber technique and become a formal successor of the Saber Sect."
He changed the subject, but I thought, that must be it. If they have been killing each other in life-and-death duels for a long time, it's impossible for resentment not to build, no matter if they share the same roots. This was much easier to understand than some lofty purpose like seeing the end of martial arts.
A life-and-death duel where they divided into sides and killed each other for decades in a deep mountain isolated from the outside world. How was that different from a guild of assassins that gathered orphans and made them kill each other until only one survived?
"What happens to the Sword Sect if you die, old man?"
"It will be annihilated, I suppose."
Do Gwang-il was calm, even though his school would end with his generation.
"What about disciples?"
"I have never taken one."
"Is there a reason you haven't taken any disciples?"
A sharp glint flashed in Do Gwang-il's eyes. I felt a vivid madness, as if the sword of his heart, long held and honed in his chest, was finally revealing its light.
"Revenge."
I did not understand what he meant, but the atmosphere was grim, so I did not ask further.
"What if I die in the life-and-death duel five years from now?"
"It would be the annihilation of the Saber Sect."
"Isn't there someone named Mun-hwi in Hangzhou? The one-armed saber wielder."
"He is dead."
"... Did you kill him, old man?"
Do Gwang-il emptied his cup and opened his mouth.
"Mun-hwi was a prodigy who mastered the Heavenly Steel Saber Technique to its peak and took the head of my martial elder brother."
"Ten years after that, he lost an arm to me and fled. I thought he would live in hiding and bide his time, but he became a wreck who couldn't live without liquor."
"It would have been good if he had created a one-armed saber technique, but losing one arm completely broke his will."
I thought of the one-armed saber wielder I had met in Hangzhou. He was always drunk. If things went wrong, his fists would fly first, and wherever he passed, whether it was an inn or an alley, it would often turn into a sea of blood.
Fascinated by his martial ability, I gathered my courage and asked, and he readily passed on his saber technique to me. I learned the forms and we sparred many times, but I never won once. I could not even brush the hem of his clothes.
Even now, it would be difficult to win against him. He was that powerful, even with only one arm. And this old man had cut off one of the arms of such a formidable master when he had both arms intact.
"He was a man who lived only with the desire to become stronger, so it was to be expected. When liquor was not enough, he became addicted to opium and was wasting away like a living corpse. I eased his pain. In any case, he is your master in a way, so I will not stop you if you seek revenge."
"No, thank you."
It is hard enough to bear my own grudges; there is no reason to carry the burden of others.
"When will you teach me the latter eighteen forms?"
"You are picking up your spoon before the rice is even washed."
Do Gwang-il put the bamboo liquor tube into his bundle and stood up.
"I will come again when the day breaks tomorrow."
I saw him off to the main gate, then returned and gazed at the moon before sitting cross-legged and closing my eyes. I looked inward and focused, but I could feel nothing in my energy core. The next morning, I received the direct transmission of true energy once again.
"Are we only going to do the direct transmission? What about the inner cultivation method?"
Do Gwang-il took a sip of cold tea, caught his breath, and then spoke.
"The path the inner energy takes from the energy core to the four limbs is the inner cultivation method. Explaining it in writing would only be complicated and difficult. The incantations are merely chants to clear the mind. As long as you remember the path, you can circulate your energy."
"I tried it alone, but it didn't work."
"That is because your energy core is empty."
"It was only the size of a millet grain, but I definitely felt inner energy."
"It all disappeared when I withdrew my inner energy, didn't it?"
"... Yes."
As I nodded reluctantly, Do Gwang-il stared intently at my lower abdomen.
"Strictly speaking, that was not your inner energy. It was your aptitude for inner energy cultivation reacting to my inner energy. In any sect, they use this method to separate the jade from the stone before starting internal arts training. Those without aptitude can never learn inner energy, no matter how hard they try."
"Then what about circulating energy?"
"You can do it on your own only when a certain amount of inner energy has accumulated. It's impossible with just direct transmission. The most reliable way with the fewest side effects is to ingest condensed natural energy."
I thought I knew what he was talking about.
"You mean elixirs?"
"If you want to live a healthy life, avoid elixirs. Most of the elixirs circulating on the market are fakes. Even the ones who made them don't know what they mixed in."
"But there are proper ones too, aren't there? Like Shaolin's Great Rejuvenation Pill or the Wudang Sect's Supreme Purity Pill..."
They were all legendary elixirs renowned throughout the martial world, yet Do Gwang-il sneered.
"Do you know that the Daoists offered elixirs of immortality to Qin Shi Huang?"
"Is there anyone who doesn't know that story?"
"Did Qin Shi Huang, who consumed countless elixirs that were the culmination of Daoist arts of longevity and alchemy, achieve immortality? Is he still alive today? He died before even reaching the age of fifty."
I had never taken an elixir, so I had no words to refute him.
"The problem was the mercury. Even now, Daoists consider that poison to be the foundation of their elixirs. The Buddhists are no different. You'd be better off taking Cold-Food Powder than eating the pills made by those quacks."
"Then where do I get inner energy?"
"The best way is to obtain a proper spiritual herb, process it according to the method, and consume it."
"Process it? Do you know how to do that as well?"
"You must entrust it to a physician. Processing medicinal ingredients is a basic skill of medicine, so any physician who isn't a complete quack should be able to handle it without issue."
Do Gwang-il dusted himself off and stood up.
"The direct transmission ends today. Now that your aptitude for inner energy has been confirmed, it is time to fill your energy core. Circulating energy comes after that. When you find a spiritual herb, come to the Wind River Inn."
"By any chance, do you have any spiritual herbs?"
"No." After Do Gwang-il left, I lay down on the wooden floor and fell into deep thought.
I knew nothing about what kinds of spiritual herbs existed, which were genuine, and which were fake. Getting swindled was the least of my worries; I was at a loss as to where I should even go. Where could I obtain a spiritual herb?
As I wracked my brain, I shot up. There was one place I could ask.
"... A spiritual herb, you say?"
Geuk-hwan tilted his head and stared at me.
"It seems you have made some progress recently?"
"Fate has led me to it."
He did not seem to have noticed anything specific. I had felt inner energy with Do Gwang-il's help, but it was still so faint that I couldn't even circulate it. It was probably just a guess.
A martial artist who lived by the sword would not seek a spiritual herb for a long and healthy life, so the only thing he could think of was inner energy cultivation.
"Will it be difficult?"
"There are no places that openly sell spiritual herbs and elixirs. All sorts of martial artists would be bloodthirsty and raid them. Our branch does not handle physical goods either. However, we do know a place where you can get them."
The Underworld Information Clan, as expected. I did well to form a connection with them.
"Where should I go?"
"You should try the black market."
"The black market? There is a black market in the Western Village?"
"There is a black market about a day's journey by carriage. It is small in scale, but it also deals in spiritual herbs. I will report to the pavilion master and write you a letter of introduction."
"I'd appreciate that."
Geuk-hwan went inside and returned with a letter of introduction before even a quarter of an hour had passed. After hearing the location and how to use the black market, I put the letter of introduction in my clothes and went home.