The Journey Seeking Truth (1)
There stood a towering ancient tree, its leaves bursting with vibrant life force.
From a distance, the branches and foliage it spread outward somehow resembled a giant lotus flower.
Jeong-an liked that tree. Ever since arriving in Guangdong, she had taken pleasure in sitting beneath it and meditating.
Today, too, she devoted herself fully to the practice. She worked ceaselessly to empty her mind, striving to enter the realm of no-self.
But…
“Haa.”
A quiet sigh slipped from Jeong-an’s lips.
Just as she had tried for the past several days, today she once again attempted to sink into meditation. And just as she had failed during those days, today she once again could not reach deep meditation.
Well, perhaps this wasn’t the right time to comfortably lose herself in it. Even so, she had tried all the harder to master herself, but it truly wasn’t easy.
“You’re going to wear a hole in the ground.”
Jeong-an lifted her head.
There stood Yeon Hojeong with his hands clasped behind his back.
“Ah, Captain Yeon.”
Yeon Hojeong gave a small chuckle.
“Captain? Enough with the embarrassing titles.”
He was an odd man.
His speech was quite rough, yet it never sounded offensive. It seemed to match his nature perfectly. To someone who disliked empty formalities, his way of speaking probably felt refreshingly honest.
“Then I’ll call you Captain.”
“As long as it’s not ‘Lord,’ do as you like.”
“Understood.”
“That aside.”
Yeon Hojeong tilted his head.
“Did you find your answer?”
“Pardon?”
“Ever since that incident the other day, you’ve come here every single day and thrown yourself into meditation without pause. Even for a practitioner, the frequency was excessive. If you weren’t searching for something, there would be no need to go that far.”
Jeong-an offered a bitter smile.
“Perhaps my training is still lacking. I’ve made many attempts that seemed plausible, but far from finding any answers, I’ve only managed to muddle my head even more.”
“Is that so?”
Yeon Hojeong smiled.
It was a smile carrying a unique, indefinable quality.
“The harder you try to forget, the more vividly it resurfaces. The deeper you try to bury it, the more it rises to the surface. That is the nature of meditation.”
“You seem to know a great deal about it.”
“Countless people who have stood at their limits become masters of meditation. I am no exception. That said, even masters experience a high rate of failure when it comes to meditation.”
“I see…”
“Don’t struggle so hard to forget. Sometimes it isn’t bad to simply surrender your awareness to those distracting thoughts. Approach them closely, dig them up, keep digging, and eventually what you sought may reveal itself clearly from a place you weren’t even trying to look.”
His words carried profound insight. At least, that was how they sounded to Jeong-an.
They were not mere strings of plausible phrases. These were words born only from experience, carrying the resonance of true sincerity.
Most importantly, Yeon Hojeong stood at a far higher level than she did. He was not someone who simply wielded crude martial arts. He was a true master capable of imbuing every single movement with unfathomable martial principle.
That truth gave his words undeniable weight.
Jeong-an lowered her head.
“Thank you for the advice that will become my blood and bone.”
“It need not become blood or bone. Focus instead on protecting that pure and truthful heart of yours. Simply safeguarding it for an entire lifetime will make your path a difficult journey.”
Jeong-an looked up at him.
Yeon Hojeong was still smiling, gazing down at her with clear, deep eyes.
In that moment, a strange feeling washed over her. Familiar. Why?
Unlike their first meeting or the few conversations they had shared over the past days, today’s Yeon Hojeong felt strangely familiar.
How to describe it… it was as if he felt like family, or a fellow disciple from the same sect. The mysterious aura that radiated from his entire being carried the composure and depth one might expect only from enlightened Buddhist masters.
Perhaps that was why. A question she would normally never have voiced slipped from her lips without thinking.
“Have you ever witnessed a bewildering change in someone who felt like family?”
She was speaking of her teacher, Hwa-un.
Yeon Hojeong nodded.
“Of course. Though the circumstances were different from yours. I had never imagined my father as someone with such abundant laughter and ease in his character.”
“I see.”
“Rather, it was my father and younger brother who became flustered because of me.”
“Why? Did your personality change greatly from when you were young?”
“Completely.”
“How fascinating.”
Yeon Hojeong shrugged.
“Whatever the case, simply sitting here wasting time cannot be the right path. Do you circulate your energy every day?”
“Huh? Ah, yes. I never skip circulating my energy.”
“Good. Then shall we lightly exchange a few moves?”
“…”
“All of a sudden?”
“You tried to enter meditation but failed. And even if you attempt to surrender yourself to distracting thoughts, what you have learned and mastered is no-self, no-mind, so even attempting it won’t be easy, will it?”
Jeong-an’s face flushed slightly. She felt embarrassed, as if her inner thoughts had been seen through.
“In times like these, nothing beats sweating it out with the blade. Follow me.”
“You will spar with me personally, Captain?”
“There aren’t many here who can properly receive your sword. Among them, the one with the most free time is me.”
Jeong-an felt strangely pleased by Yeon Hojeong’s high assessment.
The two of them arrived at a small training ground tucked in a corner of the residence.
“Here?”
“Yes.”
“This place…”
“What? Is there a problem?”
Jeong-an cleared her throat.
“It’s not a major issue, but… as you saw last time, the range of my sword tends to be rather wide…”
She was too embarrassed to say outright that this narrow training ground could not withstand the power of her sword.
Yeon Hojeong chuckled.
“Let me add one thing before we begin. Freely expanding and contracting the sphere of your sword is also part of training. If you only endlessly expand the area in which you manifest your martial arts, you risk losing all delicacy.”
“Ah, yes.”
“If it’s narrow, then make the most of the situation. Focus on bringing out as much power as possible within those limits.”
It was sound advice. Jeong-an felt embarrassed, as though she had been caught bragging.
“Then… here I come.”
“Whenever you’re ready.”
Yeon Hojeong was empty-handed. Yet Jeong-an did not ask why he carried no axe or whether he intended to fight without it.
The martial prowess she had witnessed that day had been overwhelmingly powerful whether he held an axe or not. In such a confined space, she even thought bare hands might prove more terrifying than a weapon.
Baaaang!
Without any preparatory stance, without even declaring the start, Jeong-an moved.
If nothing else, she liked her attitude toward combat. Once a spar was suggested, it had already begun even without a formal signal. She understood the nature of battle well.
Swish!
The sharply thrust sword grazed past Yeon Hojeong’s hair.
It was an impeccably clean, fast strike. Even without invoking the Man-hwa-jeong-geom-gyeol, her sword was fierce. One of the reasons she had been able to reach a realm similar to Muk Bi’s at a similar age was precisely because of fundamentals like these.
Yeon Hojeong’s foot stamped the ground.
Boooom!
A kick that whipped through the air. With a sound like an exploding drum, an intangible shockwave spread outward in a circle. So fast! It was both fast and powerful.
Just that single kick sharply raised the tension. Had she not dodged, her head would have been blown clean off. Even if blocked, the impact would have left her unable to regain her senses.
Even in a spar, one could die. Any duel in the world was the same.
Jeong-an’s concentration surged to its peak in an instant.
Papapapa!
The trajectories drawn by her sword were astonishingly beautiful.
Beautiful, and incredibly fast. Before one slash could even leave an afterimage, linked attacks of two swords, three swords poured forth. Ordinary fast-sword users would not even be able to compete.
Yeon Hojeong’s hands moved with ferocious speed.
Tingtingtingting!
Jeong-an’s eyes trembled.
She had not used the Man-hwa-jeong-geom-gyeol, yet the sword forms were clearly threatening. And he had deflected such a dangerous technique with his bare hands. What terrifying dynamic vision! It would have been less shocking if he had struck the blade with hands reinforced by internal energy.
In that fleeting instant, Yeon Hojeong had used the back of his hand to strike the flat of the sword and completely alter its path. It was a divine defensive skill many times more difficult than simply protecting the hand with internal energy and striking.
And that was not all.
Thud!
The way he stepped forward and slithered into her space like a snake was so natural it nearly drew a laugh.
Fast, fluid, and completely natural movement. His insight—anticipating the opponent’s retreat and seizing the initiative half a beat ahead—had reached perfection.
Boooom!
Jeong-an jerked her head back. A fist like forged steel surged upward like a cannon blast. Had she not dodged, her jaw and skull would have been pulverized.
Swish!Ugh! She tried to strike downward with her sword, but the rising fist moved instantly and seized her shoulder.
Her right shoulder—the one holding the sword. The swinging blade stopped barely an inch from Yeon Hojeong’s flank. Her shoulder joint was locked, rendering her unable to move.
It was a moment of pure astonishment. In Botam, where the sword served as a tool of practice, there existed sword studies worthy of discussing the greatest under heaven, yet there were no close-combat techniques or killing methods grounded in profound anatomical understanding.
Yeon Hojeong, still gripping her shoulder, swung his arm.
Jeong-an could offer no resistance. She spun helplessly through the air before slamming into the ground.
Kwaaaang!
Jeong-an’s eyes shook.
From the back of her head to her spine, she had fallen without even managing a proper break-fall.
Yet strangely, there was no pain. The force should have been enough to shatter her skull and damage her spine, yet all she felt was a heavy impact.
Yeon Hojeong, looking down at her, grinned.
“I was hoping to work up a sweat, but it ended far too anticlimactically. You weren’t this weak, were you?”
“It seems the Captain is simply too strong.”
“For you, perhaps. Still, you shouldn’t have gone down this easily. However, I think I understand why you fell so quickly.”
“What is it?”
“You were half-hearted.”
“…!”
Releasing her shoulder, Yeon Hojeong brushed off his clothes and continued.
“You hadn’t clearly decided whether to strike with killing intent or merely respond moderately. That’s why you fell so quickly. If you had concentrated a little more, your shoulder would not have been caught, nor would your swordplay have been blocked.”
“……”
“Whether in meditation or combat, being half-hearted is worse than doing nothing at all. Once you have chosen your path, sweep away the confusion as quickly as possible and charge forward without hesitation. Do not fear taking risks.”
Lying on the ground and listening to Yeon Hojeong’s words, Jeong-an closed her eyes.
“I am a coward.”
“I know.”
“Even after witnessing the bewildering changes in the adults, even though I knew it was wrong, I could not actively stop them.”
“I know that too.”
“Even if I stepped forward alone, it would not change Botam. Yet I still should have done so. I should have risked my life to stop it.”
“That’s not it.”
“…Pardon?”
“By stepping forward, you have already changed Botam. The reason I called you a coward was not because you failed to stop their rampage.”
“Then why?”
“Because you were half-hearted.”
Jeong-an’s eyes flew open.
They were filled with shock.
She had not fully related to the earlier mention of being half-hearted. But these words now tore mercilessly through her heart.
Yeon Hojeong, who had been quietly watching her, turned away.
“I will soon leave Guangdong. I am heading for the Martial Alliance.”
“……”
“But there is a place I must stop at along the way. The group whose leader provided the pretext that left Botam in that ruined state.”
“…?!”
“If you wish to come with me, begin disciplining your mind and body from today onward. I will be frank—I cannot guarantee your life.”
A brilliant light flashed in Jeong-an’s eyes.