Chapter 41
Chapter 41
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: Lightness Skill Race
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The path she had traveled alone before, now they raced along it together once more.
When Wi Sowol first went to Sian, it had taken a full month.
And that was at an incredibly fast pace.
Because tagging along with the Ha Family Merchant Group's caravan from Sian to Nanju had taken nearly two months.
But this time, it would be even faster.
Wi Sowol and Hwangbo Yun were unleashing their lightness skills without restraint, moving faster than galloping horses.
They could save time.
Even so, Wi Sowol's heart was far from at ease.
No, it was extremely uncomfortable.
"Heh. Tired? Should we rest a bit?"
That brazen face!
It drove her heart wild.
"...Yeah."
Frankly speaking, if Wi Sowol and Hwangbo Yun engaged in a life-or-death duel, Wi Sowol was confident she could win ninety-nine out of a hundred times.
That one loss would only happen if the faint pity, sympathy, friendship, and empathy she felt toward Hwangbo Yun combined into some miraculous forgiveness—and to Wi Sowol, Hwangbo Yun was nothing more than an adorable greenhorn.
But lightness skills were a different story.
For starters, Wi Sowol's body was weak.
There was no helping it.
The inevitable shortened lifespan imposed by the curse of the Nine Yin Absolute Meridian had been overcome with the Great White Light True Qi, but that didn't mean the Nine Yin Absolute Meridian was completely gone.
Half of the twelve major meridians connecting her limbs and torso were still severed, and even the Ren and Du meridians were only half-functional.
With a body like that, it was only natural her pure physical abilities were feeble.
Thus, Wi Sowol had always compensated for those physical shortcomings with qi operation that reached the heavens and exquisite techniques.
In other words, when deploying lightness skills, she had to supplement her deficient physical prowess with qi while executing the lightness skill separately.
This held true not just for lightness skills, but for all martial arts.
But what about Hwangbo Yun?
Despite having a woman's body, clearly more delicate than a man's, she was innately stronger than burly men dubbed "strongmen."
The Heavenly King Physique.
That body turned simple running into lightness skills—no need for qi or subtlety.
Wi Sowol ran using Star Lodge Divine Traces, a body technique blending footwork and lightness skills.
But Hwangbo Yun ran with the peerless lightness skill of Heavenly King Child Steps, optimized for her Heavenly King Physique and refined across generations?
If Wi Sowol was still faster under these conditions, Hwangbo Yun really ought to write her last will with Wi Sowol's name on it and hang herself.
"Now do you get it?"
"Mm. So, it's hard keeping up, so go slower? Got it!"
This...?
"Nonsense. I've been holding back the whole time—if you don't want to write that will, run harder."
Unable to utter weak words to Hwangbo Yun, Wi Sowol pouted her lips and snapped back.
Hwangbo Yun giggled, as if finding Wi Sowol's demeanor utterly cute.
"Yeah, yeah. Gotta follow sister properly, right?"
Sister...?
'No good.'
She couldn't endure it any longer.
She had to create one. A lightness skill.
Until now, Wi Sowol hadn't felt much need for a dedicated lightness skill.
At first, all her focus had gone into refining the Great White Light True Qi.
Once she had a solid foundation, there hadn't been much call for lightness skills anyway.
Her journey with the Weird Physician had been quite leisurely.
Star Lodge Divine Traces had sufficed for that.
But now.
More than ever, Wi Sowol felt an intense thirst for a new martial art.
'It can't be just about speed.'
That would be proof she'd yielded to Hwangbo Yun.
Speed was basic; what mattered more was efficiency.
Optimized efficiency—going farther with less qi consumption.
Wi Sowol had turned her back on paths like setting up a fixed clinic or taking an official post as a physician.
Like the Weird Physician, she had chosen to wander the world, honing her medical arts and meeting countless people.
For that path, a low-burden lightness skill was perfect.
'Never stopping, moving faster than anyone. Flowing onward on its own.'
The most crucial element in creating a martial art was the foundational imagery.
Mount Hua Sect's arts drew from the plum blossom's essence for splendor and variation.
Wudang Sect's from taiji for softness and circulation.
The imagery set the nature of any martial art.
Just as a ship's keel was paramount in its construction.
Martial arts were the same.
The clearer the imagery, the more solid the principles and subtleties.
'What would work?'
The martial arts Wi Sowol had created so far used flashes of inspiration as their backbone, fleshed out with her past life's experience and innate genius.
Of course, her genius had granted the necessary insights whenever she desired, but this time, she didn't want that.
This new martial art demanded meticulous calculation and design over mere epiphanies.
'Power source: Great White Light True Qi. Body for execution: Nine Yin Absolute Meridian physique.'
No matter how superb the imagery or formulas, disharmony with the user's essence, qi, and spirit meant no true power—and it could harm the body.
A body and qi filled with yin.
Even if Hwangbo Yun taught her the yang-based Heavenly King Child Steps right now, she'd only slow down.
'Suited to yin. Instant bursts and endless flows, all embodied in the imagery.'
Her genius swiftly pinpointed the ideal: time.
No one could seize time; it flowed ceaselessly, even in pitch-black chaos.
And in this era, time was measured by the moon.
That's why flowing time was called "seoyul"—years and months.
'The moon's motion is the flow of time. Time called gwang-eum, light-sound, thus light.'
Fastest of all, unstoppable, eternally flowing.
Time.
The moon's motion.
The white path tracing the moon's orbit.
'The target like an afterimage, arising from the heart without beginning.'
Time and moon.
With the core imagery solidified, Wi Sowol's crown point blazed white-hot, as if devouring all talents between heaven and earth, and began weaving the formulas.
Starting from the formulas of Star Lodge Divine Traces.
Body methods handling motion were the cornerstone encompassing footwork and lightness skills.
The new lightness skill was a derivative branch of Star Lodge Divine Traces.
'Mind's intent already as the moon, my motion one with the moon's path.'
Then layering the Great White Light True Qi formulas atop, linking qi and lightness.
For harmonious synergy between the qi and the lightness skill.
As the formula's frame took shape, Wi Sowol felt her Great White Light True Qi, having achieved the Great Circle, stir restlessly.
She didn't restrain the qi.
She let it go.
The qi roamed freely through her body, seeking circulation paths.
But it weakened at the severed meridians unable to flow smoothly.
That's when Wi Sowol began wielding her will to guide the qi.
'Lightness pivots on the legs. But weight shifts, arm swings for acceleration, torso balance neutralizing reactive force in turns—lightness is whole-body cultivation.'
The core principle of lightness skills was circulation.
Endlessly cycling qi within for sustained duration and efficiency.
That's why all twelve meridians and eight extraordinary vessels mobilized, even prioritizing the six foot meridians.
But for Wi Sowol, impossible.
Her body couldn't form the great circulation.
Yet her body had gained something greater.
'If small universe's great circulation won't work, make heaven and earth the great circulation, using even a single acupoint as my small universe.'
Attraction to yin qi between heaven and earth.
Use it.
'Moon orbits beyond the heavens, great earth turns in tandem.'
External qi seeped into the broken yin meridians, forming small circulations each.
Like water wheels.
The Great White Light True Qi acted as the priming water, opening the meridians, spinning the external qi, which then joined the circulation via the Nine Yin physique's pull and the True Qi's guidance.
Drastically minimizing internal qi consumption while co-harnessing external qi for sustained lightness.
The qi vacuum from her body drawing in external qi became another propulsive force.
Wi Sowol's entire body absorbed moonlight.
Her surroundings darkened as if bereft of light.
'Celestial revolutions, time's flow, light within.'
Moon, light, time intertwined as one.
Wi Sowol's body the wedge binding them.
'Illuminate the night path, shatter ignorance.'
With the formulas complete.
Wi Sowol's body shot forth like a beam of light.
Hwangbo Yun, who had been slacking off a bit to accommodate her, belatedly noticed the change and freaked out.
As she pushed the Heavenly King Divine Art to its limit and revved Heavenly King Child Steps to max speed.
Wi Sowol's petite frame, with its shorter legs, finally overtook her.
Right after, Wi Sowol glanced back and snorted.
"Hmph."
Pathetic.
This is my full power, you brat.
Seeing Hwangbo Yun stop, Wi Sowol also settled her qi.
Arms crossed, she looked down at Hwangbo Yun with a confident smile playing on her lips.
But Hwangbo Yun showed no jealousy or anger—just pure curiosity sparkling in her eyes.
"Wow! What was that? You had it and weren't using it? Or did you just make it now?"
"...Well, it was simple."
"You're amazing, Sowol... I haven't even mastered Heavenly King Child Steps yet, and here you are creating a martial art..."
At that pure admiration, Wi Sowol's face flushed hot.
What have I done...?
Fearing her face might show, Wi Sowol adjusted her beak mask.
"But what's its name?"
"Ah, um. The name..."
A martial art's name was a grave matter.
Having created it for the petty reason of not losing to Hwangbo Yun, Wi Sowol felt embarrassed affixing anything grandiose.
So she opted for something maximally simple and concise.
"Something like White Path should do."
The moon's path.
But Hwangbo Yun wasn't satisfied.
"Too plain. Ah! Just now, your surroundings got a bit dimmer, right? Not like a qi repulsion field or anything. Anyway, it felt like you were bringing the night with you. So how about adding Creation Night for 'creating night'?"
Creation Night White Path.
The night-creating moon's path.
"...Yeah. Let's go with that."
Wi Sowol suddenly had a thought.
It felt like every new martial art wove deeper bonds.
Like Seon Woo Hoon adding "faith" to Star Lodge Divine Traces.
Or Pure Void Daoist's plum sword inspiring the "flower" in Lotus Moon Spirit Sword.
Hwangbo Yun had now added a name to her new martial art.
Fate and martial arts.
Traces of this life accumulating.
A corner of her heart itched faintly.