The Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method - 1
"Brother Ya. Let's go."
"Oh, sure. I'm ready."
We filed our outing notice with Tang Do-gyeong's father, Tang Mun-gi, and his mother, Tang So-so.
"Hey, older brother! After you're done with official business today, you have to teach Ryeo-a how to make coins disappear! You have to!"
"Haha, of course. Just wait for me."
The Ryeo-a that Tang Do-gyeong had boasted about so much really was adorable. Twelve years old, he'd said. It was still early for a child her age, and the half-lidded eyes she wore as she came out to see us off were genuinely endearing.
Yesterday she'd been quite shy around strangers, but after I showed her a few magic tricks her eyes had gone round as saucers, and she'd started trailing after me calling older brother, older brother in a way that brought out an involuntary dad-smile.
Practically speaking my work here was done, but it looked like I'd be staying with the Tang Family a while longer. There were still loose ends to tie up.
First of all, the official reason for my visit to the Tang Family was that I'd been brought in as an outside consultant to complete the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method. So the week I'd spent in the Clan Lord's Hall with the Clan Lord wasn't about teaching him gambling techniques—it was a period of martial research devoted to finishing the Combat Method. That was the cover story.
I'd settled on that arrangement last night with the Wind Shadow Hall Master when he came by.
Which meant that starting today, Tang Gwang-ryeol, Tang Do-gyeong, and the Wind Shadow Hall Master would actually set about creating the fourth form of the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method. Officially I was supposed to be contributing to the creation of those martial forms myself, so for the next few days I could just kill time in the Clan Lord's Hall.
"Ah, you've arrived, Master."
Tang Gwang-ryeol welcomed me warmly. His face was full of color—the man looked a full decade younger overnight. He'd recovered his hidden weapons, improved his gambling skills, and flicked as many foreheads among the direct-line descendants as his heart desired. Every last worry seemed to have melted away.
"Yesterday I delivered a measured 'reprimand' to the direct-line children and established proper rules for the Tang Family's wagers."
In other words, he'd formalized the hidden-weapon betting that had previously been conducted as quiet, informal arrangements between individuals. Wagering with hidden weapons or poisons was fine, but from now on a notary was required, and exchanging more than five hidden weapons in a single day was strictly forbidden.
Given that the main cause of the recent mess had been Tang Do-gyeong—an invasive bullfrog who'd learned his craft from me—crashing into a pond of native frogs who'd been contentedly gambling among themselves, it seemed the Tang Family had decided to use this opportunity to put more systematic wagering rules in place.
"You've set the Tang Family's laws aright, Clan Lord."
I laid on a little performance, picking up where yesterday left off, and praised him for a job well done. Tang Gwang-ryeol broke into a broad grin.
People's hearts change between walking into a bathroom and walking out of one, as they say. After unloading all that reprimanding on his direct-line descendants—his sacrificial offerings, rather—he might start thinking in a few days, Well, they did take those forehead flicks, maybe I ought to make it up to them. I'd need to manage that a bit.
"Now we should get to work on creating the new form. That way Brother Ya can get back to his real business."
"Mm, yes. I've got a rough outline in mind, but inventing a form is never easy."
As the three of them looked ready to dive into a serious discussion of the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method, I rose from my seat.
"Then the three of you should talk it over. I'll just pass the time somehow."
"Brother Ya, we're about to start talking—where do you think you're going?"
Well, now that the real discussion was starting, of course I was going to slip out.
"Haha. How could an outsider sit in on a discussion of the Tang Family's martial arts?"
Tang Gwang-ryeol laughed.
"Hahaha! Is that what you were fretting about? In general terms, yes—but Master Ya, weren't you invited here today as a consultant on hidden-weapon techniques?"
"No, that was only the outward—"
"It is not merely outward, Master. I've heard you received transmission of Do-gyeong's Fierce Tiger Fist Method."
"That's true, but…"
"This Clan Lord, learning from Master Ya, was able to set my own experience and the deceptions woven into the Tang Family's martial arts upon the solid foundation of systematic theory. And in learning about gambling from the Master, I also came to understand that a great portion of the hidden-weapon techniques mixed into the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method depends on the Master's own skills."
What on earth was he talking about?
Even if he asked whether my techniques had gone into it—I'd never even seen the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method.
Anyway, the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method… that name was far too long. I'd just call it the Combat Method. Whatever form the Combat Method took, what the Clan Lord was saying right now was extraordinarily radical.
Martial arts were frequently not shared even with one's own blood kin. So even granting that an outsider held a stake in it, I couldn't understand why he would open the Tang Family's martial arts to me.
"I think I know what Master Ya is thinking… but as things stand, the Combat Method is still incomplete. And even once it is completed, there is no reason to believe its present form will be the final version."
"…Hmm. Is that so?"
So because it was still an unfinished martial art in the development stage. Fair enough—to be refined into a true ultimate technique, it would go through countless further workings even after completion.
A single martial art needed at least several decades to reach completion. Across those decades the original forms would gradually shift; some would vanish entirely, others would be added, all of them polished and reworked. At a stage when it wasn't even finished yet, they apparently didn't consider it the kind of secret ultimate art whose leakage needed fretting over. I also had to factor in that the three of them, whose favorability toward me was already maxed out, simply didn't believe I was the sort of person who'd go around leaking the Tang Family's martial arts.
The Wind Shadow Hall Master slid a new document across. A fresh commission. Naturally it came with a confidentiality clause, and the sum… was considerable. At that price, there was no reason to refuse.
More than anything, I was genuinely curious about what the Combat Method actually was. In all my time playing the game, I'd never once heard of a martial art called the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method.
"Then first, as a way to loosen up, I thought I'd give Brother Ya a demonstration."
"Haha. Yes. Let's do that."
I went out to the training grounds with the three of them.
"Then I'll begin the demonstration. It is still an incomplete martial art, but this Tang will display it. Starting from the eighth form of the fist techniques, I'll perform them in order."
Tang Do-gyeong began unfolding the Combat Method.
"Hmm."
It had definitely changed.
I was someone who had acquired Tang Do-gyeong's original martial art, the Fierce Tiger Fist Method. My body was only Second-rate, but my knowledge of high-level martial arts was more than sufficient. Of course, I hadn't personally comprehended all of it—it was purely knowledge gained from the game.
It was a little absurd for a Second-rate like me to be evaluating a Super-Peak Realm martial art, but if I had to give an assessment: its completeness had risen dramatically. No matter how fine a tool you have, if you just shove forward relying on that alone, its weaknesses surface soon enough.
Complexity for its own sake wasn't necessary—but monotony without variation only raised an opponent's capacity to adapt.
Tang Do-gyeong's Fierce Tiger Fist Method had been exactly that. A powerful offensive art of real caliber, but filled with nothing but similar methods and similar force.
What martial art had been mixed into the Fierce Tiger Fist Method? Well, the only Tang Family fist art was the Tang Family Eight Fists, so probably that. I was a veteran player, but even so I didn't remember the movements of the Tang Family Eight Fists—a non-mainstream art of a clan famous for hidden weapons and poison—well enough to pick them out.
Anyway, what it had been mixed with wasn't the important part.
What mattered was that effective variation had been introduced into the Fierce Tiger Fist Method's monotonous, pure-offense approach.
After watching all eight forms of the Combat Method, I applauded.
I did get the sense that a few too many unnecessary feinting motions had been added, but compared to the old, monotonous Fierce Tiger Fist Method, the improvement was nothing short of leapfrogging.
Where the Fierce Tiger Fist Method had possessed Super-Peak-level principles of power but a structural completeness so low it was hard to even call it a proper martial art, these eight forms—though the degree of deception ran a bit high—had risen to a level I could acknowledge as a Super-Peak Realm fist art.
Even granting the boost from enlightenment, the fact that one person had created this deserved high praise.
"Then I will display the three forms that employ hidden weapons."
Tang Do-gyeong performed the three hidden-weapon forms. Only then did I grasp the meaning of all those feinting motions in the eight forms.
The chest. The shoulders. The waist. The wrists.
I'd thought he was spinning his hands and arms for no good reason—but every one of those motions passed through each of those points in turn.
And those were precisely the places where hidden weapons were stored.
A dry laugh slipped out of me.
Hidden-weapon techniques were fundamentally ranged attacks. And in this Murim, what a ranged attack implied was enormous. Because nine out of ten martial artists under heaven used fists, palms, legs, swords, or sabers. The remaining one-tenth was occupied by every other variety of weapon.
And among that assortment of weapons, once you set aside hidden weapons, almost nothing else counted as a true ranged armament.
That was why launching a hidden weapon in secret was extremely difficult. More precisely: launching one in secret while preserving power and speed was difficult.
The advantage and disadvantage of a ranged weapon was distance. The greater the distance, the more room you gave the opponent to respond.
"So that's why it's a Combat Method."
"Oh? You've already pierced through to the essence of the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method."
"The opponent will walk into fist range of their own free will—the very range you'd otherwise have to fight tooth and nail to enter."
"Exactly."
This was a complete hell of a binary choice.
The fist forms and the hidden-weapon forms shared the same feinting motions. I'd wondered what they meant when they said my gambling techniques had been applied—and here it was.
As the motion passed through the space where a hidden weapon was stored: had he drawn one, or hadn't he?
Was he holding a hidden weapon, or wasn't he? That core question of the Combat Method had been built on the sleight-of-hand of gambling.
Fist range was narrower than sword or saber range. So fist fighters would do whatever it took to break through a swordsman's or saber's space and drive into their opponent's guard.
And so swordsmen and saber users freely opened the distance. Why? Because simply putting generous space between you was far easier than precisely maintaining the gap. The difference in reach was a full zhang at most—usually half that.
Rather than delicately holding that short distance, it was far less dangerous and less exhausting to fall back, close in, and trade one exchange at a time.
But mix hidden-weapon techniques into that? And the tactic of trading a form and then pulling back became impossible.
Open a comfortable distance, and the other side could simply throw a hidden weapon at leisure.
For Tang Do-gyeong, it would be a situation where the opponent walked into fist range on their own two feet—but what about for the direct-line descendants? If someone tried to throw only hidden weapons, the threat of an opponent driving in would serve as a restraining force.
And if they drove in thinking a hidden weapon was coming—only to meet a fist form instead?
Not close range, but a sudden charge from open distance. In that situation, a single step forward by a Tang Family martial artist would put the opponent into inescapable fist range.
If someone mindlessly charged in assuming a hidden weapon was coming and took a counterstrike for it—would they really charge in the same way next time?
Another point worth noting: the principle of Illusion had been applied to the hidden-weapon techniques.
Illusion—. A principle that only worked at close range. Why? Because there was no time to respond and no leisure to judge truth from falsehood, so you could bluff your way through. What good did it do to mime throwing a hidden weapon from far away? You could see perfectly well whether one was flying or not.
In general, close-range hidden-weapon techniques were meaningless. With hidden weapons, opening the distance was always the advantageous position.
But the Hidden Dragon Combat Method could turn a closing distance into an advantage as well. So a method was needed to use hidden weapons effectively even in close quarters.
More precisely: a means of breaking an opponent who was perfectly maintaining their weapon's gap.
When you denied them fist range yet held a distance close enough that the advantages of hidden weapons faded—
You feinted a throw, or feinted not throwing. The distance wasn't far, so the opponent had no choice but to respond. Just as you couldn't tell whether an opponent was truly thrusting or only pretending to thrust, but once you'd finished judging it was already too late to block—so you had to respond first.
After witnessing all three hidden-weapon forms, I finally understood why I'd never heard of a martial art called the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method.
The Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method was a martial art that could never have been born if I hadn't taught Tang Do-gyeong the techniques of gambling.