The Limit of Speed
After she had grown somewhat used to living in a woman’s body, Cheongwol once asked when it would be all right to begin learning the Sunflower Manual.
Even if its techniques could be understood as the spear forms of the Byeoksa Sword Art translated into fistwork rather than bladework, the foundation of the art was still an internal cultivation method. Surely, she thought, there must be separate rules for breathing and for moving qi.
"You want to learn the Sunflower Manual?"
The moment So Gayul heard that, she burst into loud laughter.
"You already learned everything from that person, didn’t you? The breathing you use when you unfold the techniques of the Byeoksa Sword Art, the steps you take, the way you guide your qi—those are the entirety of the Sunflower Manual. What more is there for me to teach you?"
When Cheongwol looked at her in disbelief, So Gayul told her to demonstrate the Byeoksa Sword Art herself.
As Cheongwol revived the qi control she had let slip while burying herself in Yin-Yang Grind training and stepped into the first form, she was suddenly overcome by a strange, difficult-to-explain sense of discomfort.
...?
She had only decided to swing, and yet by the time she realized it, the sword had already moved.
Wondering what in the world had happened, she tried to launch the next form, only to find the result the same.
The moment the thought ended, the technique was already extended.
Although it was still her body, it felt as if it were not; a foreign, uncanny sensation flooded through her from head to toe.
When Cheongwol stared at So Gayul in shock, the older woman lightly tapped her own temple with a finger.
"For a martial artist to swing a weapon, there are two stages. Thought, and movement. No matter how great a master may be, they can’t escape the gap between the two. That is precisely why the Sunflower Manual is called a peerless divine art."
As soon as she finished speaking, So Gayul suddenly shot in close and thrust out a fist packed with yin and yang energy.
It was a blow that could easily have caused grievous injury.
It carried all the weight of the seventh star of Yin-Yang Grind.
Would she have dared evade it under ordinary circumstances?
Yet again, Cheongwol’s body responded on its own, slipping past the fist with the barest movement.
...
Even after pulling it off herself, she could only stare, too stunned to speak. So Gayul let out a small snort of amusement.
"To raise your level is to erase that gap. The Sunflower Manual is an internal art that removes it to the utmost through extreme yin. So from now on, there is only one thing you need to do."
Just as she had done to Ak Seo-ah, So Gayul reached out and pinched Cheongwol’s cheek.
"Train Yin-Yang Grind even deeper, and learn to let your qi flow freely. Then even the speed of the Sunflower Manual will change at your will."
---
After hearing that, two questions took root in Cheongwol’s mind.
The first was why training Yin-Yang Grind would help her learn the Sunflower Manual.
The second was what it meant to control the speed in the first place.
The first question began to unravel only after she repeatedly unfolded the Sunflower Manual, gradually acclimating her body to its sensations.
The extreme yin rising from her dantian, and So Gayul’s Yin-Yang Grind that freely manipulated yin and yang.
Strangely enough, even when she used the two arts together, they did not clash.
Was it because they were similar in the way they handled yin and yang energy, or was it merely coincidence?
She could not tell, but the instant she drew up her yang energy, she clearly felt the speed of her forms change.
Even so, to anyone else, they would have still seemed like nothing more than the blink of an eye.
However, unlike the first question, which resolved itself quickly, the second only became clear during a match with Ak Jiho.
"It wasn’t something that could only be unleashed through a form."
The true essence of the Sunflower Manual was, in the end, speed.
Only when that meaning seeped into every movement could it truly be called the Sunflower Manual.
Thanks to that realization, Cheongwol was able to slip away from Ak Jiho’s signature moves with nothing more than her footwork.
Of course, she had not forgotten So Gayul’s warning before she left—that she must not use the Sunflower Manual recklessly—but there was no need to worry.
After all, it was clear that the older woman had trained her in speed control precisely to prepare for situations like this.
Sure enough, when she stole a glance in the middle of the match, Jeonghwa and Ma Taesang were not looking at her with suspicion at all, but with eyes full of admiration.
It was the moment when the line they had vaguely drawn from her duel with the man in black hardened into a certainty.
"At this level, I can use the Sunflower Manual even if I’m not in a life-or-death situation."
In truth, So Gayul’s real intention had been to make her confuse her opponent by combining quickness and slowness, but there was nothing to be done.
The longing for the Sunflower Manual had already begun to stir in Cheongwol’s chest.
So quietly that even she herself had not noticed.
---
By the time the first form had driven Cheongwol back, Ak Jiho had thought the outcome would be decided with ease.
So the second, third, and fourth forms that followed had only sharpened that conviction with even greater force.
The fifth.
Again, the spear tip cut through the air and drove in as though it meant to split Cheongwol’s body in two.
At that moment, the first trace of doubt flickered across Ak Jiho’s face.
Surely the inner force behind the forms was growing deeper and heavier by the moment, so why did each strike still slip past as though it were on the verge of landing, and yet never quite did?
"She must only now be warming up."
Forcing himself to cast off the illusion, Ak Jiho once again scattered red petals with the spear tip.
By the time they reached the tenth form, the fifteenth, and then the twentieth.
Ak Jiho’s brow had twisted into a deep scowl.
Cheongwol was not simply avoiding his attacks.
She moved only at regular intervals, as though she were stepping along an invisible line.
She maintained that interval with absolute precision.
Just as the black-clad man at the inn had done, Cheongwol let the onslaught slide away and toyed with him in her movements, and Ak Jiho clenched his teeth in humiliation.
Yet he was still the young master of a family rigorously trained to prepare for every possible situation.
The moment rage threatened to blur his vision, the cold reason drilled into him through years of training crushed the flames of instinct.
...
What, they were saying he should be furious that the young master of the Shandong Ak Family was being made a fool of by a woman who had not even revealed her sect?
In the Jianghu, yesterday’s proud master could become a mere corpse by today, at the hands of someone whose name had never even been heard.
Since he himself had once wanted to keep his younger sister close for that very reason, how could he allow himself to lose his temper over something like this?
Rather, Cheongwol’s existence only proved that his choice had not been wrong. Thinking that, Ak Jiho twisted one corner of his mouth upward.
Clack!
He straightened the spear tip he had been aiming at her, then lightly struck the ground. The reverberation spread through the space.
"I hear you are a friend of my younger sister."
When Cheongwol gave a simple nod, Ak Jiho slowly began to turn the spear with his fingers.
"Then, since you have been standing beside her and watching, you know better than anyone why I acted as I did."
The rotation grew fiercer until, at last, a red circle was drawn in the air.
It was a hideous shape, like a hungry demon from hell opening its maw.
"You said that if I lost, I was to apologize to my sister? Very well. If that is so, then we both lessen our burdens. At least you can take comfort in having done your utmost for your friend."
He had been holding back until now, but at last Ak Jiho drew up every last trace of internal force remaining in his dantian.
"If I continue like this, someday I’ll get entangled with a powerful person like you, and then my sister’s head will roll. Who would you blame? It would be because I lost the match. So..."
The crimson tassel hanging beneath the spearhead rasped with a chilling friction sound as it began to cut through the air and the ground alike.
"To prevent such a thing from happening, I must do everything I can as the young master of a family."
---
As the spearhead bore down on her with the force to split her body in two at any moment, Cheongwol did not evade with the same precarious narrowness as before. Instead, she clearly widened the distance.
"...?"
And yet, somehow, even though she had certainly dodged it, the tips of her bangs were cut away, and a shallow slash opened across her forehead.
It’s longer than it looks.
It was not the spear blade itself, but the spear qi extending from it that had cut her.
Cheongwol’s face hardened as she looked at the blood on her fingertips for a moment.
"I understand what the young master is thinking. But..."
Thud!
The spot where Cheongwol had been standing caved in, and the floor cracked apart.
"You should know the difference between protecting someone and shackling them."
Cheongwol hurled herself into the spear wind that seemed capable of slicing even iron the moment it touched it.
"Good heavens...!"
At that sight, Ma Taesang seemed ready to leap in, but Jeonghwa raised a hand to stop him.
"Just watch."
At this rate that young woman was going to have her arm severed—what on earth kind of infuriatingly calm nonsense was that?
But then, a completely unexpected scene unfolded.
A hand pierced through the violently spinning spear blade and seized the shaft.
It was not merely the explosive release of yin and yang energy, but a higher realm in which the force was turned into a revolving flow and then handed back to the opponent in its entirety.
Drawing on the memory of a single prior experience, Cheongwol layered her own energy over the spinning spear.
At that instant, a tremendous wave of backlash surged back, crushing Ak Jiho’s arm and then overturning his entire body.
BOOM!
"Kkh!"
Ak Jiho, who might as well have been his nephew, was hurled to the ground, but Ma Taesang simply stared at Jeonghwa with wide eyes.
"Was she a disciple of Wudang?"
"There are martial arts that wield the subtle principle of using softness to overcome hardness everywhere, not only there. But for a young woman to display that level of skill, Wudang is the first place that comes to mind."
"Huh..."
As the misunderstanding between the two men deepened, Ak Jiho swallowed the shock and forced himself back to his feet.
He clamped down on the pain surging through his badly shaken insides and stretched out his arm to strike away the advancing Cheongwol—but at that moment, the fingertips of the hand he had thrust out merely seized empty air, trembling in vain.
...
There was no spear.
In the instant a chill ran down his spine, Cheongwol’s fist drove deep into his solar plexus.
"Khuh!"
Before he could even exhale, the heel of her other foot shot out and struck his knee, shattering his balance.
As his body reeled, the blade of her hand fell like lightning against the back of his neck.
Crippling blows landed so swiftly they were difficult to follow even between one blink and the next.
And yet, just as he tried to swallow the blood and haul himself upright, Cheongwol’s toe stamped firmly down on his chest.
To shake off the humiliation weighing him down, Ak Jiho drove internal force into his hand.
The final strike he could muster swept toward her ankle, only to cut through empty air once again, just as before.
Cheongwol leaned back just enough to avoid it, then kicked him simultaneously in the jaw and the temple.
Blood burst from Ak Jiho’s mouth and scattered over the ground.
Anyone could see that the result of the match had already been decided, so wasn’t it time to stop?
But Cheongwol’s hands and feet did not halt; instead, they continued beating Ak Jiho with cruel, merciless sounds, and Ak Seo-ah’s face turned white in an instant.
"Uncle, that’s enough already. Please..."
Ak Seo-ah grabbed Ma Taesang’s arm and pleaded with trembling eyes, but without taking his gaze off the two of them, he cut her off decisively.
"If one side does not acknowledge defeat, then so long as neither loses consciousness, the match cannot be stopped. Look there. Your younger brother has no intention of ending it, does he?"
At the thought that perhaps it couldn’t be, she turned her head again—and Ak Seo-ah gasped.
There was Ak Jiho, trembling all over as he barely managed to rise to his feet.
Both eyes were bloodshot with burst vessels, his gaze unfocused.
His arms and legs looked too weak even to stand, let alone wield a spear.
While she flicked the blood from her hands, Cheongwol asked quietly,
"Is it really so hard to admit it? That what the young master did was not protection, but obsession and abuse. The most terrible thing for Seo-ah was not some outside danger she might not even have known existed. It was you."
Ak Jiho gave a low laugh and glared at Cheongwol.
"You think I don’t know how much my sister hates me?"
After spitting out a mouthful of blood mixed with saliva, he went on.
"No matter what you say, my thoughts won’t change. If my sister keeps wandering the Jianghu like this after you leave, how long do you think she’ll stay safe?"
His voice grew louder and louder.
"In the end, the one who’ll be weeping blood before my sister’s corpse is me, not you! Don’t throw around words you can’t take responsibility for under the guise of momentary kindness!"
Determined to see it through to the end, Ak Jiho exploded with all the qi in his body.
Since there was no internal force left in his dantian, anyone could guess what kind of energy it was.
"If only I can save my sister...!"
By then, Jeonghwa and Ma Taesang could no longer stand by idly and were just about to move at the same time when someone shot forward like lightning.
WHAM!
A heavy sound rang out across all of Mt. Emei.
Like a bowstring snapping, Ak Jiho’s body pitched forward and collapsed.
At the end of everyone’s stunned gaze stood Ak Seo-ah, her hands trembling with tears as she brought the match to an end.
---