Copying Versus Mastery
—Kagak! Kagagak!
"I offer this life to the Blood Demon!"
I had lost count of how many I had already cut down.
—Whirrr.
The soft swords that shot from So Yeomgyo's hands flicked like silver snakes across the Blood Cultists' throats. Dozens of corpses toppled to the ground. No matter how many she carved through, there was no end to them. A crimson tide came roaring in.
"Today's sacrifice will become the Blood Cult's eternal and glorious refuge!"
"We will seize the Guardian's pearl of the Emei Sect and offer it upon the altar!"
The Blood Cultists rushed to their deaths. One by one they piled into a crushing number, and their skill could not be taken lightly.
—Pish!
At last a Blood Cultist's blade forced its way through the gap between her soft swords and the White Cat Sword and scored her leg. So Yeomgyo felt a searing heat flare through her thigh as though it had caught fire.
—Pukaaak!
The sword she swung with her left hand sent the Blood Cultist's arm—still clutching its blade—flying away.
Tch!
She had carved her way through some of the roughest, most murderous battlefields in the martial world. To survive as a woman in this place she had willingly endured every training regimen that even the hardiest men of the Blood Death Sect could barely withstand, and she had inherited its secret arts. The experience of thousands of life-and-death struggles etched into her body painted, with merciless clarity, exactly how this kind of fight would end.
So Yeomgyo bit down hard on her lip against the despair that was seeping into her heart.
Do I really have to use that?
She glanced at her left thigh. There, sheathed and still unreleased, the second of her three swords—the one crowned with a red serpent's head—radiated a chilling aura.
—Puguk!
She beheaded the Blood Cultist who came charging in with a hook. He's been quiet for a while. Don't tell me Moyong Bi—?!
She kicked the corpse aside and, in that fleeting gap, looked behind her.
"…"
So Yeomgyo's mouth fell open.
Off to one side of her vision, Moyong Bi and a man who could only be a high commander of the Heavenly Demon Cult stood facing each other. Everyone else had stopped mid-clash and was staring at the two of them alone.
"That—that…"
So Yeomgyo flared with pure rage.
"What the hell does that idiot think he's doing?!"
Every last cultist of the Heavenly Demon Cult stood with their mouths hanging open, staring.
"Th-this is impossible…"
"That technique is almost identical to the Flame Wolf King's… no, that can't be!"
The handful of Emei martial artists among the defenders had already been cut down or left half-dead after a desperate bloodbath. The only ones left watching the great hall now were the Zhongnan disciples.
"Who the hell is that masked martial artist? How dare he even think of standing against the Flame Wolf King of the Demon Cult?!"
Gwak Ilsan, second-generation disciple of Zhongnan, clutched his bleeding arm and muttered in a daze. The Zhongnan man beside him, still binding the wound, swallowed hard and answered.
"The one in the red mask came in with that outsider the Military Advisor insisted on bringing!"
"A life-and-death challenge against the Flame Wolf King? Is he throwing his life away?! What a fool!"
—Wooooong!
The third horn blast rang out. Even through the chaos the Opening Ceremony continued. The surviving Zhongnan disciples seized on that sound like a lifeline.
"That's the third horn! If we hold out through just two more, the ceremony will be finished!"
Far off, the Emei disciples conducting the rite had their eyes squeezed shut, pouring every scrap of strength into the ritual, as though ending it a single breath sooner might still save them.
Gwak Ilsan ground his teeth.
"How much time is left?"
"One gak. Just one gak and—!"
Even the Demon Cultists held their breath, watching the duel. No one dared move. For safety's sake they all drew back as far as they could.
"…So all we can do is watch."
Gwak Ilsan let out a low groan. The two fighters were shouting something at each other, but the distance swallowed the words. The killing intent rolling between them was so thick that no one even considered approaching.
A wind rose.
And so, every soul present held their breath and watched the life-and-death match of those two men begin.
I stepped forward.
Jeokmaryeong took two steps. I took three. He broke into a run. I launched into a full sprint.
—Kwa-jik! Pa-jik-pa-jijijik!
The lightning coiling around Jeokmaryeong's entire body tangled with the lightning wrapping mine.
Heaven and Earth Great Shift against Heaven and Earth Great Shift.
"Moyong Biii!!"
I met the bloodshot glare of his eyes. We hurled ourselves at each other like sworn mortal enemies.
—Kwarung!
—Kwarururung…!
It was a brawl. In the blink of an eye, dozens of bare-handed techniques smashed back and forth. Pure, primal killing intent. No grand cause. No rules. Nothing but the raw will to crush and beat the other man to death filled the air.
—Jjjeong!
It felt as if my bones were shattering. As if my muscles were being ground to pulp. As if my organs were being shaken into pulp. I was being driven back. Of course I was.
His fist drove up through the gap between my guarding hands and slammed into my gut. I could not hold it. I vomited.
"Keuaaagh!"
"I'll kill you, Moyong Bi!"
Jeokmaryeong kicked my face as hard as if he were punting a ball while I was still on my knees.
—Kwang!
My nose bone twisted; my neck snapped backward as though it would break. I flew. My own weight slammed me into the ground twice, bouncing me across the earth.
Kwarurung!
I crashed into the cliff face and the rock gave way. Jeokmaryeong came flying after me like a madman.
"Die!"
Before I could even clear my head his foot smashed into my face.
"Keok!"
Blood sprayed and the world went pure white. He seized me by the hair and drove fists into my stomach and face.
—Kwang! Kwa-kwang!
"I've waited for this day! I've waited for this day! The day I get to kill you… and that Mount Hua Guardian bitch all over again!!!"
His knuckles came away coated in the blood and flesh I had spat out.
[Host! If you black out, you die!]
I snatched the fist that was about to cave in my face. I grabbed him by the collar. I smashed my forehead into his white mask.
—Ppakak.
The mask cracked. Beneath it, Jeokmaryeong's face glared out, blood streaming, eyes rolling with fury.
"You mongrel bastard!"
—Deolkeok!
His body, trying to explode into motion, locked up against the grip I had on his clothes.
"You—?!"
Bare-handed, I could not match him. In speed I could not match him. To keep up with that speed, I could not let go of his body. That was the only conclusion I had reached.
"So that's how you want to play it!"
Blood vessels burst in Jeokmaryeong's eyes. I bared my own bloodshot glare and roared back.
"Yeah, you son of a bitch!"
Because I was locked onto him, I could not run either. Fists and feet like iron maces hammered into each other with everything we had.
—Puk-puk-puk-puk, peoeok!!
We battered each other's bodies. My mouth turned into a shredded rag. I held on with pure flesh and smashed my fists into him. Thick clots of blood poured out with scraps of meat.
I had prepared myself. I had never clung to baseless hope. But I had not expected it to be this bad. The gap was overwhelming.
Am I even using Heaven and Earth Great Shift right now?
Even though Jeokmaryeong and I were applying the same martial art, the quality of it was worlds apart. My body's durability could not keep up.
"I don't know what cheap trick you used to copy my art, but it's clumsy as hell! You disgusting little shit!"
All I managed to do was successfully provoke him further. And in that moment I understood.
The Heavenly Demon's power. This ability to copy any martial art I saw had unquestionably given me a vast opportunity. But that was all it was—an opening, a hint.
I had chosen the Vajra Demon Subduing Fist as the foundation to support Heaven and Earth Great Shift, then gritted my teeth and trained it for two and a half years in Yuk-bi-dong until I had completely absorbed it. Through that experience I finally knew for certain:
"Copying" and "mastery" were completely different things.
Up to a certain level you could follow along exactly. But the moment you collided with the real thing, you fell short in pure quality. It could be a shortcut up to a point—but beyond that, you still had to grind and comprehend it yourself, just like everyone else.
Another kick slammed into my cheek. I lost my grip on Jeokmaryeong's collar. I went flying limply, slammed into the ground, and bounced.
"Haa… haa!"
I barely managed to gather myself and stand. Jeokmaryeong sneered down at me.
"Already out of tricks? Come on, keep flapping that mouth like before."
Heaven and Earth Great Shift, incomplete stage—second star. That was the refinement level I had currently applied. Even that I had only barely grasped after reinforcing my body and training again after the fight with the Golden-Haired Divine Ape.
I had trained myself half to death. And still this world was far too wide, and I was still far too lacking.
"How laughable and pitiful. Shall I tell you something truly despairing?"
While I gasped for air, Jeokmaryeong cackled and held up three fingers.
"I submitted to the Cult Leader's power and entered his service. At that time the Cult Leader himself placed a restriction on me: I was permitted only up to the third star of Heaven and Earth Great Shift. Anything beyond that I swore to use only after receiving his personal leave."
"…What?"
"Keuk. Look at that empty stare. It means you can't even handle the third star. Understand, you third-rate life that can only copy?"
He had said it to crush me with despair. Instead it gave me a completely different insight.
"Ke… kekeke…"
"You're laughing?"
Jeokmaryeong looked baffled.
"Fuck… I was already short even at full power. And on top of that I was incomplete, trying to match a third-star with a second-star level. Of course the fight couldn't work. Kekeke…"
"What did you say?"
Blood ran from the corner of my mouth. I wiped it with the back of my hand and stood. My body rattled. Lightning still coiled around me. Mumyeong's warning surfaced in my mind.
This lightning itself was the side effect of forcing a martial art my body could not properly handle. Heaven and Earth Great Shift was an art that exploded latent potential and strengthened the body the higher its stars rose. Raising it was fine. But if an unqualified body, without the proper preparation, forced the level higher, the entire frame would detonate into a state worse than death. The backlash was so severe that the first time I tried it, my body had unconsciously refused to activate the art at all.
I could still feel it now. My internal energy was leaking away like water through a sieve, far more than necessary.
Can I do it?
My body was already at its limit. Even at the second star it was screaming. My eardrums flickered in and out of hearing. I had stopped smelling anything a while ago. I could no longer taste the blood that kept flowing into my mouth. My vision had long since filled with red.
Off to one side I could still see So Yeomgyo fighting with everything she had. This time there would be no heavenly help, no Mount Hua Guardian coming to save me.
"Huuu."
I drew a deep breath. The calculation was simple. How does an incomplete Heaven and Earth Great Shift overwhelm the true one?
Simple.
"Mumyeong."
[That is an irrational judgment. Even if I pour everything into regulating your body from within, the probability that you will burst and die is eight out of ten.]
A cold autumn wind swept across the earth. Mumyeong continued.
[But you will do it anyway, Host. As you always have.]
"There's no other way. I'm counting on you."
[…Understood.]
I clenched my fists. I wrung every last drop of internal power from my body. Everything. Every scrap.
"Euh… euuuhh!!"
Veins bulged across my entire frame. I felt my meridians swelling as though they would burst.
"Uhahaha, what are you doing? Pouring out your energy so recklessly—that careless behavior is so ridiculous I can only laugh."
My internal energy drained away like flowing water. Before I even reached the point of qi deviation I felt as if my cerebral vessels would rupture and kill me. It felt like tossing firewood into empty air.
—Kwaruruk!
Even the residual energy of the Thousand-Flower White Ginseng and the Heavenly Thunder White Ginseng was being wrenched out of me, down to the last thread.
"Raising the level of Heaven and Earth Great Shift by crudely slamming energy into it like that is extremely inefficient. Is your internal energy overflowing that badly? It was already pitiful, and now you'll just collapse the moment it runs dry."
Jeokmaryeong sneered. His robes fluttered. The lightning and the flow of energy pouring from my body did not weaken.
My energy is being sucked dry? Then I'll just pour more in. Drink as much as you can.
Whatever else I might lack—I, at least—!
"Wait. What is this. You… this feeling…"
In pure quantity of internal energy, I had confidence. Black blood vomited from my mouth as I screamed.
"Ke… keuaaagh! Hea—Heaven and Earth Great… Shift!"
Fourth Stage
Crimson and violet lightning so fierce it seemed ready to scorch the surroundings themselves coiled around my entire body. The smile vanished from Jeokmaryeong's face as he stood with his arms folded in mockery.
"That's internal energy exceeding at least two gapsi! Impossible! How can an ordinary man of that age possess this much power?!"
—Pa-jik! Pa-jijik!
My whole body was burning. My hair was burning.
"Fourth stage…!"
Blood vessels stood out. My entire frame blazed scarlet.
[Activation time is only five ryo! You cannot endure longer than that!]
I clenched my teeth so hard my gums split and sprayed red blood. Even taking a single stance was agony. My hair bleached white. This still was not enough. Even if I forced the fourth stage of Heaven and Earth Great Shift, I could not crush him with pure physical technique.
To win—no, to kill him—I had to take one more step beyond this.
"Euh, euhik!"
I snatched a sword from the ground. From the start I could never win a pure brawl. With both hands trembling violently I clumsily wrapped my fingers around the hilt. To seize the slender thread of victory in this fight, I needed only one single technique.
[Beginning—five ryo!]
With the greatest force I could produce, I staked everything on a single form.
"You—!"
Sensing that something was wrong, Jeokmaryeong lunged belatedly.
[Four ryo!]
—Kuuung!
A storm of violet energy began to rage. There was only one thing I intended.
I coughed blood and screamed.
[Three ryo!]
"Namsang Samadhi!!!"
All residual internal energy forcibly poured into a single form
Blood-red light blazed from both my eyes. I slammed every last scrap of internal energy into it without leaving a single drop. As I forced the clumsy incomplete Heaven and Earth Great Shift higher, energy continued to leak away in streams. Lightning filled every direction. My entire body flooded with a blood-red torrent of power.
I had never once attempted this before. Using Heaven and Earth Great Shift to explode the latent power of my whole body and then unfold not the Vajra Demon Subduing Fist, but a higher-level ascending art—this was the first time. But this was the only method left.
[Two ryo!]
With force that seemed ready to shatter heaven and earth, a blue dragon coiled madly around all four of my limbs. Under a crushing pressure that felt as if my entire body was being twisted out of shape, I forced myself into stance.
—Kugugugu…
Energy incomparably greater than anything I had ever gathered before began to concentrate. The blue dragon thrashed as though it would overturn the heavens and the earth.
"Th-this is—what is this?!"
Jeokmaryeong screamed in shock. Mumyeong's voice cut through.
[One ryo! Host! Now!]
"Haaaap!"
I unleashed the technique with every last shred of power I possessed. It was the very foundation, the root of everything I was—the secret art once shown to me by the Eighth Elder of the Moyong Family, Moyong Taese.
The secret of the Moyong Family, one of the Five Great Clans of the martial world!
Twin Dragon Whirlwind Sword
"This—!"
Jeokmaryeong crossed both arms in front of himself to block.
—Kwadududu!!
Two blue dragons that overturned heaven and earth swallowed Jeokmaryeong in an instant.