The Feeling Sea Dragon
The next morning.
I brought the vegetable porridge that had been set out for breakfast into the reception hall and chatted quietly with Namgung Lin. I had, after all, started learning martial arts in earnest.
"The core of martial arts is right here."
"Here?"
Press.
Namgung Lin's fingertip and the end of her gaze both settled on my soft lower belly; she prodded it with her index finger. A little slope formed around the point of contact on that modestly fleshy abdomen.
"Yes. Well, men might not get it as easily, but for women there's this place that holds a child. If you approach martial arts with the feeling of shaping a vessel there, the entry is supposed to be easier than it is for men. There's even a baseless rumor to that effect."
"Do women just go around sensing the shape of their womb all the time? Why would that make it easier?"
"No, I said it's a baseless rumor. I don't know what a baby room looks like or feels like either."
"Ah."
I'd suddenly been told women had it easier than men and had assumed every human woman just felt it as a matter of course. I'd even thought maybe I couldn't feel it because I was a female sea dragon.
"I mean, women can roughly tell from the outside where the baby room is, right? There's a place that's a little more curved than everywhere else."
"Ah, I know, I know."
Its affectionate nickname was basically "uterus cover meat," after all. Anyone who'd spent time on otaku boards couldn't possibly miss it. Once you got a taste for it, whether you were looking at 2D or 3D, your eyes went straight there.
"Now you just need to picture forming a vessel in that spot while you recite the formula. Whether it's a bowl or a jar doesn't matter much. The key is conceiving of something that can 'hold'."
"So you need a vessel."
"Exactly. And the method that teaches you how to create what goes into that vessel—the dantian—is precisely the internal cultivation art. For now, I'll teach you the formula of the most basic one: the Samjae Simbup."
"Is that an entry-level internal energy method?"
"Yes. Even great sects like the Wudang Sect teach it as a temporary stop for children who just can't get a feel for things yet."
So it would suit me too, she said. Namgung Lin nodded as if to say just trust me, then began reciting the formula of the Samjae Simbup.
"Head holds the sky, feet tread the earth, mind stands in the center."
"Huh?"
And that was it…?
Only three phrases?
"That's the whole thing?"
"Yes, that's it. Head holds the sky, feet tread the earth, mind stands in the center. You memorize this formula, each person finds their own realization through it, and that way you learn the knack for shaping the dantian and accumulating internal energy."
"No, what the…"
Humans have to breathe, eat, and always drink water. They'd casually tossed me a string of equally obvious statements and labeled it a martial arts formula, then told me to go find enlightenment. What kind of shameless textbook was this?
If a textbook gave up on teaching its students, it stopped being a textbook at that point and became nothing more than a bound stack of paper with writing on it.
"It's quite abstruse, isn't it? Martial arts formulas tend to be that way. But that's also exactly why martial arts could exist at all."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Every martial art ultimately depends on the heart that receives it."
"Huh?"
"Even if you read the exact same formula, for one person it can become a perfect orthodox art of ascent, while for another it can turn into a vicious demonic art."
"So no matter what art you learn, what kind of performance it ends up showing is pure chance?"
"Yes. That's why a good martial art has a narrow range of variance. Even if the realizations people gain from the same formula differ a little, the final result gets corrected to a certain degree. That's how a method can be passed down for centuries, generation after generation, without its inherent character changing."
And then—
"Among the arts that are still in common use, there's one rare method that keeps that wild, unpredictable volatility. It can become anything, you can enter it through any form of realization, and to be honest its level is low enough that it never even has the chance to fall into demonic arts."
"And that would be the Samjae Simbup."
"That's right. So even if it's a small realization, try to find one while you recite the formula. Learning to find the path by looking at the sky, learning to run steadily, learning to control your anger—anything is fine. And the moment you gain that realization, Young Lady Hae will earn the right to become a person of the Murim."
Namgung Lin clenched her fist and asked me to walk the path with her, and I felt my own understanding of martial arts deepening.
This is just a game quest, isn't it? As long as you hit some decent threshold, you get the qualification and start getting stronger?
You could compare it to a memorization exam, but because there was no single fixed correct answer, the difficulty was far lower. I was starting to feel confident I could manage it.
"All right, fine. Honestly I still don't know what the Samjae Simbup is even talking about, but I'll give it a try. You think about it with me too."
"I've already graduated from the Samjae Simbup, though?"
"Ah, come on, play along a little."
"Of course—I was only joking. I'll help you as much as you need."
Hehe.
Namgung Lin gave me a bright smile, brushed off her rear, and stood up. She stacked the empty porridge bowl and spoon I'd finished onto her own plate.
"Then I'll go return these. We should head out for the Murim Alliance again."
"Good. We can't stay here forever."
It was time to leave the safe zone that was the Wudang Sect and step back out into the harsh Murim.
I wasn't afraid.
Our big brothers from the Wudang Sect would be watching over us.
"I never thought there would come a day in my life when I was assigned to escort a divine beast."
"You and me both, Senior Brother."
Two second-generation disciples of the Wudang Sect, a pair of Taoist brothers, were accompanying us. Mihyeon, who was grandfatherly to me, was of elder rank; the first-generation disciples were that elder's students, and the second-generation disciples were the students of those first-generation ones.
They looked like men approaching their forties, and with that age gap they didn't try to force conversation. They seemed to be being considerate in their own way, which let me walk along comfortably while thinking about martial arts.
Sky above the head, earth beneath the feet, mind between them.
I kept focusing on the formula of the Samjae Simbup inside my head as I walked.
How long had we been walking like that?
"Huh?"
A very small change began to appear in my body.
"What's wrong?"
"No, this is…"
Head holds the sky, feet tread the earth, mind stands in the center.
It was the most obvious thing in the world. That was why I hadn't been reciting the full formula of the Samjae Simbup for no reason, but had abbreviated it to "sky above the head, earth beneath the feet, mind between them."
And yet, even that casual abbreviation was enough.
Suddenly, the length of my legs and arms, the position of my head, even the position of my horns all became sharply clear. My field of awareness had widened.
The formula of the Samjae Simbup had become an opportunity to once again clearly map the form of my body, the range of motion of my limbs and joints. And the superior physique and instincts of a sea dragon meant that even that slight stimulus was enough: my stride grew more even, and the swing of my arms as I walked became a level more natural.
And—though I almost hate to say it…
I thought I felt it, just a little.
The location of the baby room, too.
Of course, it was only a brief sensation that faded almost at once. But the fact that I had felt it at all was enough to send chills down my spine.
If I summed up everything I was feeling right now, only one conclusion came out.
I just auto-hunted with a sea dragon's instincts.
My realization was thoroughly instinctive. I couldn't be sure, given how little I understood of martial arts, but a realization like this would definitely be highly volatile.
So I couldn't just let time slip by. The moment when even a fragment of this sensation still felt vivid—when my senses were closest to those of a martial artist—was now. If I missed this, I had no idea when the next chance would come.
"L-Lin!"
"I'm listening. So, what is it?"
"I… I think I'm getting the feeling right now…"
"Sit. Right this second."
"Ah—I sat."
I looked at Namgung Lin first; she, for her part, instantly read the situation and pressed down on my shoulders to seat me firmly on the ground.
"What are you doing?"
"We were walking along fine—why the sudden stop?"
"Young Lady Hae is in the middle of entering the martial path, and she just obtained a realization. I will perform the true-qi guidance."
"Do not worry. The elder asked us to provide every convenience possible, so the two of us will stand firm as protectors for this matter."
"Concentrate, both young ladies."
The second-generation Wudang disciples who had been bantering idly among themselves as they walked looked briefly put out, but they quickly settled into solemn stances, drawing their swords and taking positions in front of and behind Namgung Lin as if to guard her.
"Young Lady Hae, close your eyes."
"I-I closed them."
Namgung Lin's guidance began in earnest.
"I told you last time what the lotus seat is, didn't I?"
The lotus seat.
You could also call it sitting cross-legged, but it was a straighter posture more specialized for meditation. I immediately settled into the position, and within the senses sharpened by closed eyes I felt a body heat suddenly approaching from behind.
Then the owner of that heat—Namgung Lin—pressed her index and middle fingers gently against some point on my neck.
"I'm going to push my internal energy into Young Lady Hae's body. I'll guide it down to the lower belly where the dantian takes root, so use that as material and shape the vessel. Since you just gained a realization, you should be able to."
And from that point, something lukewarm began to flow in. It moved through my neck into my chest, from my chest into my abdomen—specifically the lower abdomen—and there it began to coil and circle as if settling into a nest.
Namgung Lin was telling me: she had provided the material, so creating a dantian would be far easier for me than for others. She was offering me an easy path.
I answered her in kind. I caught the lukewarm internal energy of Namgung Lin that had entered my lower abdomen and melted it into my body. I held it firmly so it couldn't escape.
Before long, it bore fruit.
I had succeeded.
I had succeeded in creating a dantian.
The leftover internal energy of Namgung Lin that hadn't been used up in shaping the dantian still remained inside the dantian in my belly, and Lin said it would probably stay there from now on. At first it would still carry Namgung Lin's color, but the amount was so tiny that it would gradually take on my own inherent hue, she claimed.
It wouldn't be a big problem, she said, and since internal energy had already flowed into my body, she recommended I try controlling it a little just for practice.
"Oh, so this is what it feels like?"
Moving internal energy wasn't particularly hard. Whenever I had to get an IV at the hospital, I would first feel a chilly sensation and sense something entering; internal energy was in charge of exactly that chilly feeling. It traveled to every part of my body, even to the joints of my fingers and toes, and I could feel a faint vitality gathering in those places.
Even this tiny residual amount of internal energy that Namgung Lin had passed over just to help me form a dantian was enough to do this much. How much internal energy would pile up once I took the Socheongdan Mihyeon had given me?
And from now on, how much more internal energy would I be able to accumulate? How strong would I be able to become?
For someone who had just developed an interest in martial arts, it was a situation I couldn't help but look forward to.
"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit! Lin! Lin!"
"What is it all of a sudden? What now?"
"It's a glow-in-the-dark sea dragon horn."
"What…?"
I had even figured out the gimmick that sending internal energy toward my horns made them light up.
This was secretly pretty fun. Later maybe I could even make the veins across my chest light up and stuff like that…
"I should try it once at night."
"Try what?"
"There's something. Something fun."