The First Secret Art: Heaven-Piercing Ruined Cavity
The next day after learning the secret technique.
"What I will teach you from now on is a developed form of the Fourth Form, Ant Dike Breach."
As always, inside the training hall within the mansion, Tang Ho-chang met me and immediately began explaining the secret art of the Tang Family Fist that I would learn today.
"A developed form of Ant Dike Breach… you say?"
At my question, Tang Ho-chang nodded and continued.
"As you already know, Ant Dike Breach is a technique that creates openings by relentlessly attacking the enemy's poorly defended spots. And the first secret art of the Tang Family Fist that you will learn now—Heaven-Piercing Ruined Cavity—is the technique that drives explosive force straight into those artificially created gaps."
"Explosive force!"
When the name of one of the most iconic finishing moves in Chinese martial arts popped out, my eyes sparkled with anticipation.
"Why are you so happy?"
"Explosive force is like the dream technique for every fist fighter!"
"…Is that so?"
Tang Ho-chang made a slightly sour face as if he didn't quite understand, but honestly, I didn't care. The important thing right now was that I was about to learn explosive force.
"Anyway, before we begin proper training, I'll show you a demonstration."
With those words, Tang Ho-chang stood in front of a training log.
"Huu—"
He placed both hands on his waist, focused his mind, and then began attacking the log at high speed, following the set movements of Ant Dike Breach.
Fists, kicks, and even hidden weapons when necessary. A practical, combat-oriented martial art. That was the Tang Family Fist.
After rapidly pounding the log, Tang Ho-chang suddenly paused his fist right before delivering the final blow. Then, he lightly tapped the log with his fist.
Boom!
The training log literally shattered into pieces.
"Oops. Looks like I failed to control my strength."
The way he muttered that while shaking out his hand was honestly incredibly cool.
"How about it? Now you understand why I call this technique a finishing move, right?"
"Yes!"
When I shouted with full enthusiasm, Tang Ho-chang looked a bit dazed and muttered to himself.
"Why is this kid so pumped up again…"
"More importantly, let's start training right now!"
As I urged him from the side, Tang Ho-chang seemed overwhelmed by my momentum and shook his head, agreeing.
Explosive force. It was one of the ultimate goals pursued in every form of martial arts. Especially in murim novels, explosive force was generally divided into short-range inch force and mid-range foot force, but there was also a type called penetrating force that injected qi directly into the opponent's body at close range, devastating them from the inside.
Among them, the secret art of the Tang Family Fist—Heaven-Piercing Ruined Cavity—was classified as inch force. The struck area would become paralyzed and unusable for a while. In a life-or-death battle, a technique that rendered one of the opponent's limbs useless truly deserved to be called a finishing move.
"The problem is that it's ridiculously hard to use."
I let out a small sigh as I stared at my fist. To be honest, everything had felt too easy up until now, so I never expected learning something as crucial as explosive force would be this difficult.
The basic principle of explosive force wasn't simply striking with arm strength alone. It was about using the coordinated power of the entire body to concentrate force into a single point and release it. This allowed even a punch from less than an inch away to send the opponent flying. And the most important factor in that was lower body strength.
It wasn't for nothing that Tang Ho-chang had emphasized the importance of lower body training over and over again.
So far, the number of times I'd successfully used explosive force was around five. After practicing more than a thousand times, I had only succeeded five times. The success rate was a pathetic 0.5%. And even those successes had been lucky flukes; I still hadn't grasped the crucial technique.
It felt like I was blocked by a massive wall. When I asked Tang Ho-chang about this phenomenon, he chuckled and told me.
"The wall you're facing right now is something every martial artist experiences. Whether you overcome it or not determines if you can step into the next realm."
"The next realm?"
"Your current level of martial arts is roughly first-class. Your foundation wasn't bad to begin with, but learning the Tang Family Fist has rapidly improved your skills. However, you still haven't learned the most important thing—how to release your qi outward."
"Releasing qi outward?"
"If you used a sword, it would be called Sword Qi Wounding, but for fist fighters like us, it should be called Fist Qi Wounding. The realm where you can manifest the qi flowing inside your body is precisely Fist Qi Wounding. And explosive force is very closely related to that. The fundamental principles are almost identical."
"The principles are almost identical…?"
"Well, you don't have to try to understand it right away. I didn't think you'd be able to learn this technique within the remaining time anyway. After all, if you manage to reach Fist Qi Wounding, it would mean you've stepped into the Peak realm."
Peak master! Just hearing the word made my heart race. These days, murim stories suffered from such severe power inflation that the title of Peak master was thrown around like a neighborhood dog's name. But in reality, it was a realm that countless martial artists failed to reach and eventually gave up on.
Even Dokgo Hyeok, the eldest son of the Dokgo Clan, and Dokgo Seok, the second son, were both Peak masters. The higher you climbed in this world, the more it became a realm where talent alone determined success, regardless of age.
"Even after you enter the Heavenly Martial Academy, keep practicing explosive force steadily. It's an incredibly useful technique, so if you master it, you'll find a use for it someday."
"Yes!"
"Then we'll end today's training here. Good work."
With that, Tang Ho-chang waved his hand and left the training hall first. I watched his back for a moment before starting to clean up.
After finishing training for the day, I was on my way back to my room to wash up when I ran into Dokgo Rin, who had also been busy with her own training lately. She was waiting for me in the hallway.
"Good work, Chilbok."
"Thank you, my lady."
I took the cold towel she offered and wiped my face with it. Having just finished an intense workout, the cool sensation felt incredibly refreshing.
"What brings you here today? Isn't this usually the time when you're deep into sword training?"
Dokgo Rin looked a bit embarrassed as she answered.
"I recently gained a big realization and my realm has improved quite a bit. So I have a little more free time than before."
"A big realization?"
"Yeah. I'm probably not far from reaching Superlative now. What about you, Chilbok?"
"Me? I'm the same as always."
When I scratched the back of my head and vaguely brushed it off, Dokgo Rin made a strange expression before asking me.
"Is there something that's not going the way you want?"
"Actually… I have no idea how to use explosive force."
"Explosive force?"
"Yes. Do you have any good advice?"
I asked while clutching at straws. Dokgo Rin made a thoughtful sound and pondered for a moment.
"Then how about this?"
"How?"
"Meditation."
Meditation?
"From what I can see, your body is currently filled with too much unnecessary tension. But to perform explosive force, you also need to learn how to use only the minimum required strength. Meditation is the best way to achieve that."
"……."
It was true. I had been feeling like every single movement was packed with far too much unnecessary power. Since Dokgo Rin was far more skilled than me, she must have noticed it at a glance.
"Thank you for the advice. I'll definitely try it once I get back to my room."
"Good. I hope it helps."
After saying that and waving her hand, Dokgo Rin hesitated for a moment, looking like she had something else she wanted to ask. She fidgeted awkwardly before speaking.
"Chilbok… what do you think of Soso?"
"You mean Tang Soso?"
"Yeah. Ah, it's not for any particular reason. I'm just personally curious."
I wasn't sure why she was suddenly asking about Tang Soso, but there must have been a reason behind her question. I organized my thoughts for a moment before answering.
"Other than the slight inferiority complex she has toward you, my lady, I think she's a good kid. But why do you ask?"
"Mmm. It's nothing important."
There was a clear sense of relief on Dokgo Rin's face as she spoke. Could she have been jealous because I'd been spending a lot of time with Tang Soso lately? If that was the case, I could prove without a doubt that I had zero such intentions.
After all, I was definitely a breast man. Big ones over flat ones.
When I clearly expressed my preference like that, Dokgo Rin seemed to relax and let out a soft laugh.
"That's right. You always did prefer big breasts, Chilbok."
"Of course."
Then, after hesitating for a moment, Dokgo Rin stared straight at my face and asked.
"Chilbok."
"Yes?"
"Do you want to touch them?"
As she said that, Dokgo Rin thrust her ample chest forward.
"……."
I stared at those tempting fruits as if enchanted, then barely managed to regain my senses.
"Y-you can't say things like that as a girl!"
"Tch. You're the one who said that if I said this, a man would regain his energy, Chilbok."
"That was then, this is now."
I never imagined that the situation every man dreamed of would actually happen right in front of me. Anyway, after barely overcoming Dokgo Rin's wicked provocation, I turned my gaze away from her chest as if nothing had happened and said,
"Still, thanks to you, I've recovered some energy. Thank you for caring, my lady."
Upon hearing my thanks, Dokgo Rin smiled brightly like an angel.
"You're welcome."