Chapter 547: Sword Demon (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 547: Sword Demon (6)
"Stop trying to feel it. Just see it."
It was about half a year after I had begun my training in earnest.
I had just been beaten to a pulp and left collapsed on the ground. The Dishonored Venerable stood over me, frowning.
"How many times must I tell you? This is what happens when you rely solely on your instincts to move."
I couldn't help but scowl at his words.
"If I wait to see before I move, it’ll be too late."
The goal of this training was to completely shut down the Dishonored Venerable's movements. Only by succeeding could I begin training in the Second Form of the Heaven Destruction Art.
But it felt impossible.
"Besides, isn't moving on instinct faster?" I argued.
Predicting the opponent's movements and then acting—it was only natural that acting on a prediction was faster than reacting to a visual cue. Even now, I couldn't comprehend the Dishonored Venerable's logic.
"Tsk, tsk."
Hearing my response, the Dishonored Venerable clicked his tongue in disappointment.
"A prediction is merely a guess. How can you move with absolute conviction based on something you haven't actually seen?"
The Dishonored Venerable extended his hand. Groaning, I took it and pulled myself up.
Ah, fuck… My ribs, right where he’d struck me, were aching like hell.
Clutching my side, I challenged him. "So, are you saying I should watch first and then move, even if it's slower?"
"No. As you said, if you wait to see with your eyes and then move, it is already too late. That would be pointless."
I scowled even deeper. This was ridiculous. "Then what the hell am I supposed to do?"
In response, the Dishonored Venerable pointed a finger at my eyes.
"Don't see with your eyes."
Then he pointed to my chest.
"See with your heart."
"…Huh? What kind of crazy… no, what kind of bullshit is—"
Smack!
"Gah!"
I staggered as a sharp blow caught me upside the head.
"The thorns on your tongue grow sharper by the day. Perhaps this old man should break them off for you?"
"…Ugh…."
I knew I shouldn't have blurted that out, but I felt genuinely wronged.
"What do you mean, 'see with my heart'? How is that any different from sensing with my instincts?"
"It is different. 'Seeing' and 'feeling' are two completely different things."
"Are you sure you're not just playing with words?"
"I am not."
The Dishonored Venerable let out a faint, confident smile. I always found that look of his so damn irritating. There’s nothing I hate more than someone who knows exactly how amazing they are.
"Every action has a tell. Are you aware of this?"
"…I know."
I nodded. It was a basic principle of combat. The shoulder moves before a punch is thrown. The torso shifts before the shoulder. By spotting those tells, you can predict the attack and move accordingly.
To me, cutting off an opponent's flow meant predicting their move and intercepting it before it could manifest. But what the Dishonored Venerable was suggesting…
"Is that not it?" I asked.
"That, too, is ultimately just a prediction, is it not?"
"…Then… what am I supposed to do?"
No matter how many times he explained it, I couldn't grasp it. What in the world did he want from me? I’d been getting my ass kicked for six months, and I was still in the dark.
Sensing my frustration, the Dishonored Venerable stroked his beardless chin and continued.
"Do you know what the most honest thing in this world is?"
"Well? Me?"
"Haha, what nonsense."
I tried to crack a joke, but it didn't land. As I stood there feeling a bit sheepish, the Dishonored Venerable let out a small sigh.
"There are many possible answers, depending on how you think. But for our purposes, the answer is 'Qi'."
"Qi?"
"Yes. There is no friend more honest and straightforward than Qi. Now, try a feint on me."
At his command, I immediately shifted my shoulder. The initial motion was a feint aimed at his face. The Dishonored Venerable shifted slightly. Seizing the opening, I changed my trajectory and aimed for his neck—
Thwack!
"Ugh!?"
The arm I had extended for the feint was casually swatted away. I hadn't even been able to fully extend it; he had shut me down before I could even put power into the strike. Every moment of every spar with him was like this.
Clutching my tingling wrist, I looked up at him.
"What do you think the problem was?" he asked, testing me.
I thought for a moment before answering. "…I don't know. Was my feint too obvious?"
"Unfortunately not. Befitting your twisted personality, you're actually quite skilled with feints."
"You're just insulting me under the guise of a compliment, aren't you?"
"Wouldn't you be more hurt if I said it outright?"
If only the old man knew that his "compliments" were even more hurtful.
"Then what was it?"
"I simply saw it. I saw exactly where and how you were going to move."
"Which means…."
How is that different from predicting? I swallowed the words before they could burst out. It was a question we had repeated countless times over the past six months.
"As I've said, moving based on tells isn't bad. However, once feints are mixed in, you're bound to be caught off guard."
Those who become proficient in fighting weave feints into their movements. That is the only way to subvert an opponent's predictions.
"A lack of certainty leads to unnecessary thoughts. And those thoughts make the body sluggish."
You have to process multiple possibilities in an instant; the slightest hesitation can cause everything to collapse.
"That is why you must see. To eliminate those unnecessary thoughts and move with absolute certainty."
"…If I'm not supposed to look at the tells, then what am I supposed to see?"
I still couldn't understand. No matter how hard I tried, I always ended up back at the same place. It was a cycle of the same questions and the same answers.
"What you need to see is not your opponent's body, my foolish disciple."
The Dishonored Venerable emphasized his point again.
"As I said before, I believe the most honest thing is Qi. Qi doesn't lie. In fact, it's transparent."
Whoosh.
The Dishonored Venerable thrust a fist forward.
"When a martial artist makes a move, what do you think reacts first?"
While I was pondering it, he answered his own question.
"It's the Qi. The Qi has already arrived at the conclusion its master intends to reach."
I didn't quite follow. "What does that mea—!"
Suddenly, a fist was right in front of my nose. I hurriedly twisted my head to dodge. Whoosh! The sound of the punch tearing through the air echoed in my ear. While I was stunned by the sudden attack, the Dishonored Venerable gave me his characteristic smile.
"If I intend to throw a punch at you, the Qi in my body has already completed that motion."
"Huh?"
"Qi is the path. Martial arts are the act of a martial artist creating that path with their Qi and having their body follow it."
Listening to his explanation, something finally clicked. If the Qi creates the result before the martial artist even moves…
"You… mean…."
"Yes." The Dishonored Venerable smiled, satisfied with my reaction. "If your opponent shows you the path beforehand, wouldn't it be simple to disrupt it before they can even set foot on it?"
[...]
Just hearing it described made it sound like an incredible feat. Whether the opponent used a feint or any other trick, if they intended to do something, their Qi had already revealed the path.
Since I know what the opponent is about to do…
It meant I just had to cut them off beforehand to shut them down. Thinking that far, I finally understood the meaning behind his words to "see, not feel."
"…Are you telling me to see the opponent's Qi?"
"Correct."
Don't watch the tells and predict. The opponent is already telling you what they'll do through their Qi. See that. That was what the Dishonored Venerable had been trying to teach me all this time.
Once I realized that, a natural question followed.
"Hey, Elder."
"Yes?"
"…Why didn't you just tell me this from the beginning? Why make me go through all this for so long?"
He'd been giving me these vague, half-assed explanations for months. Why wait until now to be clear? I asked, feeling a little dumbfounded.
"At first, it would have been pointless to tell you," the Dishonored Venerable replied. "Now, the time is right."
"Are you saying I've finally gotten a little smarter?"
"Haha, your arrogance pierces the heavens. It would be one thing if you could actually shatter them, but what you're displaying now isn't confidence—it's hubris, my foolish disciple."
"…Tsk." I wiped my nose, feeling awkward.
"Even if your mind had understood, your body needed time to catch up. Now that your body is ready to comprehend, I am explaining it in words."
A state where the body can understand. It was a difficult concept to grasp.
"Are you saying that time has come?"
"Yes."
I nodded. In any case, I was relieved that the conditions had apparently been met. But one fundamental issue remained.
"…But, Elder."
"Speak."
"I understand the theory, but…"
The part about Qi creating a path before a martial artist moves was a revelation. I should have been overwhelmed by the idea that I just had to see it and break it. But despite this incredible secret, the most important problem was still there.
"In the end, what am I supposed to do about the fact that I can't see it?"
I still couldn't see that damn Qi. That was the problem. The Dishonored Venerable said he moved by seeing it. That was why he could destroy all my movements, regardless of speed. He knew in advance how I would move because he could see it.
"But I can't."
I couldn't. Unless it was manifested Qi, how was I supposed to see an intangible energy?
"Haha!"
Did he find my frustration amusing? The Dishonored Venerable laughed out loud.
"No, my disciple. You can see it."
"No, I'm telling you I can't!"
"You can. You simply choose not to."
"…Elder, are you perhaps going senile…?"
"Since it's come to this, shall I make it so you can't see at all?"
"It was a joke."
The Dishonored Venerable raised his fist, so I quickly changed the subject.
"You cannot see it because you are trying to see with your eyes. Did I not say this before?" He pointed his finger at my chest again. "I told you to see with this."
"…I'm going to lose my mind."
It was still so abstract. Damn it all. Looking at how things were going, he should have been able to explain it more intuitively. Now that I thought about it, it seemed he was being vague on purpose.
"I have planted an eye in your heart. See not with the eyes on your face, but with the one there."
"Where is there an eye on my chest?"
"Why wouldn't there be? I certainly planted a seed in you."
"A seed?"
"Yes. The seed that is the foundation for reaching the Transcendent Realm, the one that continuously rebuilds your body."
[...]
Hearing his words, I thought deeply for a moment before it hit me.
"…The Heaven Destruction Art?"
At the words that flowed from my lips, the Dishonored Venerable looked satisfied.
"Correct. That is the eye you must see with."
In the end, he was saying that the Heaven Destruction Art would solve everything. Was the "body's understanding" he mentioned earlier related to this as well?
"That's insane," I blurted out. "Is that even possible?"
Artificial Rebirth. A forced state of selflessness. Those were already astonishing. And now it could even let me see the path of Qi?
"Just what…."
If that was really true, I wondered if a power of this magnitude could even be contained within the term "martial art." Moreover, this old man had created this all by himself?
"There is nothing in this world that cannot be done."
The Dishonored Venerable's smile deepened, and I found myself being swept up in his intensity.
"If you want to do something, you just do it until it's done. At least, that's how I've lived."
What I want to become, I will become. If there is something I want to create, I will create it. He made it sound so simple.
"And I will make you the same."
"That…."
"If the eye has not yet opened, then I simply have to make it open."
His voice was laced with a hint of madness. The more we trained, the more I could tell he was getting excited. I remembered what he had said when we first started.
—Nothing is impossible. I will make it possible for you.
If it can't be done, make it so it can. That was the Dishonored Venerable's creed.
"Fuck…."
I swore under my breath, but my body was already starting to move. If I didn't understand, I would do it until I did. That was his teaching method. The irritating part was that he actually made the impossible happen. That goddamn fact kept me moving.
"Another half a year to go."
—A year should be enough.
His past words overlapped with the present. His declaration that he would make it happen within a year. Remembering that, I steeled myself.
The Dishonored Venerable, as if he'd given me enough of a break, began to move again.
And so, after another half a year of being beaten—exactly one year after we started—just as the Dishonored Venerable had promised, my eyes opened.