Mixed Battle (4)
The wind howled.
Everyone in the world knew the profound mystery of Shaolin’s martial arts, yet whenever those techniques were actually displayed before their eyes, the majority of martial artists could only stand there with their mouths agape.
It wasn’t simply because of their overwhelming power.
Shaolin martial arts embodied the principle of **stillness within motion** and **motion within stillness**, presenting these concepts so clearly that they could be observed with the naked eye.
This characteristic was especially prominent in footwork. One could sense it just by watching Yi Cheol-gyeong’s movements.
Whoosh! Whoooosh!
The surrounding scenery rushed backward at a terrifying speed.
There was no dynamic burst of motion. He simply walked with his hands clasped behind his back, alternating his steps in a light, almost playful manner, as if crossing stepping stones. Yet his speed was frighteningly fast. With his torso held perfectly steady, he achieved a speed that defied imagination using only the light movements of his legs.
This was none other than the footwork Shaolin took pride in—the **Diamond Immovable Body Technique**. And only upon reaching its pinnacle did the legendary **Lotus Platform Nine Grades** reveal itself.
A mythical footwork that created nine afterimages with a single light step.
At just over thirty years of age, Yi Cheol-gyeong was already catching a glimpse of the Diamond Immovable Technique’s ultimate realm.
Whoooooooong.
After running for quite some time, Yi Cheol-gyeong suddenly glanced behind him. ‘Strange.’ A look of puzzlement appeared on his face as he observed Beom-oh. ‘Why does Senior Brother’s footwork…’
Yi Cheol-gyeong’s martial talent was truly exceptional.
Shaolin did not pass down the temple’s secret supreme arts to those lacking both talent and character. This was even more true for those from the secular world.
It wasn’t merely due to karmic ties with his predecessors. Yi Cheol-gyeong had earned full marks in both the talent and character Shaolin demanded. That was why he could wield the temple’s supreme techniques.
Beom-oh, on the other hand, was different.
Beom-oh had formed a connection with the temple’s Merit Grand Master at the spirited age of fifteen and become a formal martial monk of the main temple. To be mentioned as a candidate for the next Arhat Hall Master at his age meant his talent was in no way inferior to Yi Cheol-gyeong’s. Moreover, Beom-oh’s competitive spirit had driven him to the point of obsession with martial arts, allowing him to reach his current realm.
In terms of cultivation level alone, one could say he surpassed even Yi Cheol-gyeong.
‘Why does his true qi keep fluctuating?’
The footwork of the senior brother following behind him was peculiar.
He couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was, but it felt as though Beom-oh wasn’t properly following the subtle principles of the Diamond Immovable Technique. More precisely, despite having attained considerable mastery, it seemed as if he was forcibly twisting both his movements and his qi.
Given his senior brother’s skill, even after taking a break from training for a while, there was no way he should be falling short of Yi Cheol-gyeong. Yet he kept executing his footwork in such a bizarre manner.
Yi Cheol-gyeong did not bury his doubts.
“Senior Brother.”
Even while running at such high speed, Yi Cheol-gyeong’s voice remained perfectly steady.
Beom-oh looked at him with a puzzled gaze.
A hint of worry appeared on Yi Cheol-gyeong’s face.
“Your complexion doesn’t look good. Your footwork keeps faltering as well. I don’t see any signs of internal or external injury… Are you doing this on purpose…?”
“I’m fine.”
Unlike Yi Cheol-gyeong’s steady tone, Beom-oh’s voice trembled slightly.
“I won’t hold you back. So don’t worry and keep running.”
“Ah, yes.”
What else could he say when the man put it that way? Yi Cheol-gyeong buried his unresolved questions deep in his chest and continued forward.
At that moment, a light flashed in Beom-oh’s eyes. ‘This is it.’
The eyes with which Beom-oh watched Yi Cheol-gyeong’s splendid footwork were filled not with admiration, but with solemn focus.
‘Junior Brother’s footwork is truly exemplary. He is perfectly manifesting the subtle principles of the Diamond Immovable Technique. If he maintains this rate of progress, he may reach the Lotus Platform Nine Grades within ten years.’
Beom-oh could tell that Yi Cheol-gyeong’s footwork was nearly flawless.
Yet a question arose. ‘Why does it feel so stifling?’
Yi Cheol-gyeong’s footwork was identical to his own. They had learned the same principles, the same mnemonics.
Moreover, though there was a difference in their builds, their height and the length of their limbs were eerily similar. Beom-oh’s larger frame gave a more solid impression, but when it came to executing the footwork, it was no exaggeration to say they used the exact same posture and qi circulation.
‘Then why does it feel wrong when I do it?’
Beom-oh could perform the Diamond Immovable Body Technique just as Yi Cheol-gyeong did. In fact, when it came to proficiency, he was superior.
So why?
As they headed south together, he suddenly felt that Yi Cheol-gyeong’s posture looked awkward.
‘No. Junior Brother’s footwork is not awkward.’
Beom-oh’s eyes deepened.
‘It only looks awkward when I try to superimpose myself onto his movements.’
That was it.
Yi Cheol-gyeong had learned a form of footwork perfectly suited to himself. The exemplary form of the Diamond Immovable Body Technique aligned exactly with the footwork he pursued.
But that was not the case for Beom-oh.
‘My martial arts… No, my personality is different from Junior Brother’s.’
Though he often kept his thoughts hidden, Yi Cheol-gyeong was a man of such excellent character that he had earned full approval from all the elders of the main temple.
Beom-oh was different. From the moment he entered Shaolin, he had grown as one of the most promising candidates to become the Arhat Hall Master—a true martial monk among martial monks.
His character had never been particularly monk-like, even before his talent was considered. While he followed the Buddha’s teachings, he had grown first and foremost to become the incarnation of Shaolin’s martial arts.
Because their personalities differed, the way they interpreted the same martial art was bound to differ as well. If Yi Cheol-gyeong practiced the dignified, powerful, and occasionally yielding martial arts of a great hero that was characteristic of Shaolin, then Beom-oh practiced a more aggressive and destructive style.
‘This can’t be.’
The deeply sunken light in Beom-oh’s eyes gradually grew brighter and sharper.
‘To realize something so obvious only now.’
Even the words of sages could be interpreted in countless different ways by different people. How could martial arts be any different?
‘I have merely been imitating Shaolin’s martial arts all this time. I never truly made them my own.’
The first thing that came to his mind was the stern rebuke from the Abbot, his martial uncle.
‘Competitive spirit is something anyone who learns martial arts can possess. But arrogance is another matter. Perhaps your five years of wall-facing were not a success, but a failure.’
Competitive spirit was the driving force behind martial growth. However, arrogance and self-conceit were the main causes of stagnation.
Beom-oh had been arrogant. He had believed himself the greatest because of his talent and because his progress was faster than anyone else in the temple.
But that arrogance had been shattered to pieces before the incarnation of real combat, whose power surpassed imagination.
‘Yeon Hojeong!’
Yes.
Even judging purely by martial cultivation, Yeon Hojeong stood above him.
Beom-oh could not accept it. The fact that a youth nearly fifteen years his junior had reached a higher realm than himself.
Yet it was an undeniable truth. And during their spar, the man hadn’t even revealed half of his true ability.
Even then, he had overwhelmed Beom-oh. It hadn’t even been a proper fight.
Once again, the Abbot’s words echoed in his mind.
‘Defeat is defeat. If it had been a fight to the death, you wouldn’t be here complaining to me right now. You would be dead.’
‘Do you think locking yourself in a room and throwing punches will improve your skills? You may have grasped the principles of martial arts, but if you cannot express those principles through your body, your martial arts are only half complete. That is exactly what your current martial arts are.’
Beom-oh let out a sigh.
‘How shameful.’
Recalling that moment filled him with such embarrassment that his body trembled. No matter how great the shock of defeat had been, he had thrown a tantrum at his martial uncle with nonsense.
His refusal to accept defeat, his arrogance reaching its peak, had blinded him to what he should have seen. Because he had failed to do something as simple as reflecting on himself, he had disappointed the elders of his sect and even hindered his own progress.
‘Shaolin’s martial arts are peerless under heaven. However, what made Shaolin’s martial arts invincible was not the profound mystery of the techniques themselves, but the blood, sweat, and skill of the ancestral masters who proved them to the world.’
It was at that very moment.
Flash!
A faint golden radiance bloomed in Beom-oh’s eyes.
‘Defeat is not shameful. What is shameful is refusing to accept defeat and becoming obsessed with it.’
Obsession breeds anger, and desire breeds narrow-mindedness.
Uuuuung!
At that instant, Beom-oh heard the sound of a great temple bell ringing violently inside his body.
The sound of a bell echoing from Mount Song in Henan, from the Shaoshi Peak.
That majestic yet heart-calming chime was uprooting Beom-oh’s stubbornness from its very foundation.
Hwaaaaaaaaah!
Yi Cheol-gyeong, who had been running at the front, suddenly felt a volcanic wave of energy and looked back in shock.
“Huk! Senior Brother?!”
Beom-oh’s entire body was enveloped in a faint golden glow.
But that wasn’t all. Unaware of it himself, he had brought his palms together and was executing the Diamond Immovable Body Technique with half-closed eyes. The sight inspired a sense of solemn reverence in anyone who saw it.
Uuuuung! Uuuuuuuuung!
The subtly spreading sound of the temple bell shook Yi Cheol-gyeong’s inner power.
His eyes, once filled with shock, now shone with awe.
‘Manifestation of divine arts! What kind of enlightenment did he gain in that brief moment?’
Shaolin martial arts allowed no compromise in the harmony between mind and body.
Beom-oh’s mind, which had been stained with arrogance and weighed down by the sense of defeat, had bloomed clearly with a single moment of realization. In response, his body—which had withered from long neglect of qi circulation—began transforming from its very roots.
Flash! Flash!
The faint golden radiance suddenly exploded with intensity.
This was a true breakthrough of the wall of no-sect. The wall that his body had crossed but his mind had not yet escaped had crumbled away almost too easily.
The true awakening of Shaolin’s supreme art, the **Dae-seung-beom-cheon-shin-gong**.
Whoosh!
The golden true qi condensed into his body in an instant.
Beom-oh opened his eyes.
The moment their eyes met, Yi Cheol-gyeong felt himself shrink back slightly. The lion-like gaze in Beom-oh’s eyes was now completely different. It resembled the eyes of the legendary **Myeongwang**—the Wisdom King who trampled evil and purified it.
“Junior Brother.”
“Yes, Senior Brother.”
“I’ve caused you a lot of trouble by being such a pathetic senior.”
Parararak!
Beom-oh’s kasaya fluttered like the wings of a hawk.
“Let’s hurry. An ominous wind is blowing in from the south.”
Yi Cheol-gyeong grinned.
“Shall we run for real now?”
Baaaaaaaang!
The two men shot forward at an even more terrifying speed.
They were the footsteps of true new stars who would firmly support both the inner and outer strength of Shaolin.
* * *
“The Myeolsa Army Commander came himself?”
“That is correct.”
Sama Hyeon nodded.
“Bring him in.”
“Yes.”
A short while later.
Creeeeeeeak!
The door of the dilapidated building opened, and a young man holding a massive axe appeared.
Sama Hyeon, who had been sitting in the darkness, rose to his feet.
“You are the Myeolsa Army Commander, Yeon Hojeong, correct?”
“…….”
“……?”
“……
Well, this is nice to see.”
Yeon Hojeong grinned.
“That’s right. I am Yeon Hojeong, Shadow God.”