The Hologram's Secret
Dawn the next day.
Tap— tap tap—
At the faint sound drifting in from outside the window, Ouyang Qiangang jolted upright in bed, heart slamming against his ribs, cold sweat soaking through his whole body.
"Hoo... hoo..."
He gulped down ragged breaths and looked toward the window. The only thing moving in the darkness was a tree branch swaying in the wind.
'Damn it... to think a branch tapping the glass could do this to me.'
[Doctor, are you alright? Your heart rate has exceeded 140 beats per minute. Your cortisol levels are at 3.2 times baseline as well.]
'So this is what PTSD feels like. My head knows I'm safe, but my body won't listen.'
[Given what happened yesterday, it's a perfectly natural response. If someone who'd lived peacefully in twenty-first-century South Korea were suddenly targeted for assassination and showed no reaction at all, that would be the stranger outcome.]
Ouyang Qiangang dragged a trembling hand down his face. Sleep wasn't coming back.
'Might as well do some breathing cultivation. If I lie here doing nothing, the strange thoughts will just keep coming.'
He took out the Ten-Thousand-Year Warm Jade, closed his hand around it, and folded into a cross-legged position. With its warmth seeping into his palm, he breathed in for four seconds, held for two, released for six—and gradually, mind and body began to settle. A faint heat kindled in his dantian and crept cautiously along the Chong meridian.
By the time he finished the cycle roughly two hours later, he opened his eyes feeling noticeably clearer.
[Doctor, I have good news.]
Akasha's voice sat a full octave higher than usual.
'What's got you so excited?'
[I've finally cracked the secret of the pattern on the roof of Pohwa Hall. And it appears to contain far more significant information than we anticipated.]
'Really? Like what?'
[I think it would be faster for you to see it yourself.]
Ouyang Qiangang drew a deep breath and began pressing the rooftop patterns in the exact sequence Akasha had shown him mentally before. The moment he completed the unlocking sequence, crimson light erupted from the roof.
And a wondrous sight unfolded before his eyes.
Ouyang Qiangang's eyes went twice their normal size.
'A hologram... in a martial arts world...!'
The first image was a meridian chart of the human body—but on an entirely different level from anything in the Choyeon Mind Method. The red lines pulsed as though alive, rendering the flow of qi in real time.
'This is... four-dimensional data projected into three dimensions. A dynamic model with the flow of time built in!'
Just as he'd thought, tiny arrows ran along the meridians, marking the direction and speed of qi circulation—racing in some channels, crawling in others, spiraling in yet others...
The second image appeared. Then the third, the fourth... Each meridian chart depicted a different stage of cultivation, growing more intricate and elaborate with every iteration.
When the eighteenth and final image faded, the roof returned to its ordinary appearance.
Ouyang Qiangang couldn't speak for a long while. What he had just witnessed was simply too staggering.
[Doctor? Are you alright?]
'Akasha... what I just saw was real, right?'
[Yes! One hundred percent real!]
'I can't believe a world that resembles medieval Earth possesses technology this advanced.'
[Believe it. I saw it with you.]
Half hoping against hope, Ouyang Qiangang pressed the rooftop patterns again. Nothing happened.
[It appears to have been a one-time information transfer and demonstration system, Doctor. But there's no need for concern—every frame and every data point is safely stored in my memory.]
He nodded. 'The images the hologram showed looked like an internal energy cultivation method. How does the analysis look?'
[Hmm... the dataset is enormous, so I'll need a little time for a precise analysis. Please give me a moment.]
Akasha fell silent.
Ouyang Qiangang came down from the roof and replayed the images in his head. 'The meridian chart in the first image... I'm certain I've seen it somewhere...'
He walked to his desk and unrolled the Choyeon Mind Method manual Gu-yang Cheon-gi had given him. His hand stopped mid-page.
'This is it!'
The chart in the manual was strikingly similar to the hologram's first image. No—to be precise, the hologram was vastly more intricate and dimensional, but the underlying structure was identical.
'So the hologram really was an internal energy cultivation method...'
While he sat deep in thought, Akasha's voice returned.
[Doctor, analysis complete.]
'What did you find?'
[First, your guess was correct. This is unquestionably an internal energy cultivation method. But it differs from ordinary seated meditation or quiet cultivation.]
'How so?'
[This is a dynamic cultivation method (Dynamic Exercises)—a mind method practiced in motion. Rather than circulating qi from a seated position, the practitioner assumes specific postures and moves through them.]
Ouyang Qiangang nodded. 'So that's why the arrows moved so dynamically.'
[Precisely. And those arrows and bend markers charted the pathways, directions, and velocity changes of internal energy. It's an extraordinarily refined system.]
'How does it compare to the Choyeon Mind Method?'
Akasha hesitated for a beat. [To be honest... if the Choyeon Mind Method is elementary-school arithmetic, this is graduate-level calculus. They exist on different dimensions entirely.]
'That big a gap?'
[Yes. But Doctor, there's one more critical finding. This holographic dynamic method is not complete.]
His brow creased. 'Not complete? What do you mean?'
[The eighteen recorded circulation diagrams appear to represent only the first half of the full method. Judging by the complexity of the analyzed patterns and where the energy flows converge, a second half of comparable length would be needed to form one complete system.]
'Half a divine art... what a waste. Still, it beats having nothing.'
[Even at half, its value borders on the unimaginable. The principles alone would serve as invaluable reference material for revolutionizing your Choyeon Mind Method Plus. However...]
'However?'
[You cannot cultivate this dynamic method yourself, Doctor.]
Deep furrows carved themselves between Ouyang Qiangang's brows. 'Figures... it's the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, isn't it?'
[Correct. This method was designed for a normal body—one without heavenly afflictions like the Nine Yin Severed Meridians.]
'Ha... damn it...'
A bitter smile crossed his face. 'Half-finished, and it's a rice cake in a painting—something I can look at but never eat. Talk about a double insult.'
[It is not merely a rice cake in a painting, Doctor.]
'What's that supposed to mean? You just told me I can't practice it.'
[You can't practice it directly. But if we analyze the principles and architecture embedded in this incomplete method, there's a strong probability of extracting key clues for upgrading the Choyeon Mind Method Plus—much as a partial blueprint of cutting-edge technology can revolutionize what already exists.]
Ouyang Qiangang's eyes lit up. 'Oh ho? So even a half-finished blueprint is enough to work with, as long as the core principles are there?'
[Precisely. Certain circulation principles of this method—particularly those governing energy conversion and flow control—leave ample room to be adapted to your current physical condition.]
'What kind of improvement are we looking at? Baseline being the Choyeon Mind Method Plus.'
[Applying the principles of this incomplete method, we can project a minimum 200 percent gain in efficiency over the current Choyeon Mind Method Plus. Had it been the complete method, the effect would have been difficult even to model.]
'Shame it's half-finished and I can't learn it right away...'
[In situations like this, the sooner you let go of what you can't have, the better, Doctor. What matters now is extracting every ounce of value from what we can use.]
'Nothing to be done, then.'
His gaze hardened. 'I'm upgrading the Choyeon Mind Method Plus. Starting now.'
Ouyang Qiangang pulled out paper and brush and began sketching intricate diagrams. Together with Akasha, he laid the circulation pathways and principles of the incomplete yet wondrous method against the Choyeon Mind Method, hunting for the optimal fusion of the two.
Around noon, a knock sounded at the door.
"Young Master, I've brought your meal."
It was Hwang Nodae. Unlike usual, a stiff tension threaded his voice.
Ouyang Qiangang opened the door, and the old attendant stepped inside.
"Nodae, how goes the search for the assassins?"
"We're giving it our all. We should have their trail soon."
"If it gets dangerous, you stop immediately. Understood?"
Hwang Nodae offered only a bitter smile and no answer. Instead, his eyes fell on the papers strewn across the desk, and he asked with a puzzled frown, "Young Master, what is all this?"
"Researching a few things."
"Don't push yourself too hard. You'll wear your body down."
"Yes."
After Hwang Nodae withdrew, Ouyang Qiangang buried himself in the work again. Save for trips to the privy, he never left his seat, pouring every waking hour into the research.
By sunset, his face knotted with frustration, he slowly set down the brush. The dozens of sheets covering the desk bristled with dense calculations and charts.
[Doctor, we've completed the twenty-second revision, but... something still falls short. Because we're borrowing from an incomplete method, the energy flow turns rough and stagnates at certain junctions.]
'I know. Efficiency climbed, but the fundamental wall is still there. I can't stop the cold energy of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians from interfering...'
Then Akasha spoke, her voice uncharacteristically careful.
[Doctor, what if we turned the problem completely on its head?]
'On its head?'
[Yes. All this time, we've only tried to avoid or suppress the cold energy of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians. But what if we could harness that cold energy as a power source?]
'Hmm...'
[The holographic dynamic method is built on the precise equilibrium and mutual conversion of yin and yang—two energy systems of opposing polarity. Meanwhile, the cold energy in your meridians carries a clearly defined yin-energy spectrum.]
'Go on.'
[What if we isolated the logic governing yin-energy flow control and conversion from the method's principles and deployed it on its own?]
'Wouldn't that shatter the harmony and balance of yin and yang?'
[We would restructure and optimize it to match your unique biological conditions.]
'Have you run a simulation?'
[I have.]
'And?'
[The probability that we can selectively isolate and refine the cold energy into a usable power source for driving the system and sustaining your life comes out to 89.7 percent.]
'Hm...'
[And if we employ this approach, weakening the Nine Yin Severed Meridians itself is not out of the question.]
Ouyang Qiangang's eyes sharpened. 'Say that again?'
[The Nine Yin Severed Meridians is a condition born from cold energy continuously accumulating in nine major acupoints. But what happens if we keep draining that cold energy away?]
He folded his arms. 'For that to work, we'd have to burn through the cold energy faster than it builds up in the meridians.'
[Then we build it to do exactly that.]
'Easy for you to say.'
Grumbling under his breath, Ouyang Qiangang nevertheless bent over the desk and hurriedly began drawing a new diagram.