The Hundred-Eight Arhat Formation and Geumgang
When I arrived at the training yard, Geumgang, whom I had met before, was teaching the other disciples.
"Amitabha. Have you come, Master?"
As soon as Geumgang saw Master Won-gak, he came over to greet us.
"Ho-ho... Are you having any trouble with the teaching?"
"Everyone is working hard to learn, so there is nothing difficult about it."
"That's a relief."
Master Won-gak slowly climbed up onto the platform.
Then he spoke to the disciples.
"Today, someone who will become Shaolin's next leader has visited us."
At Master Won-gak's words, every disciple's gaze turned to me.
"That man...
"I heard he's the North Sea Divine Dragon."
It seemed my name had spread even to Shaolin, because everyone looked as though they knew who I was.
Master Won-gak motioned for me to come up.
So I climbed onto the platform as well.
"Since you are expected to become the next leader, it would be good for Shaolin and you to gauge each other's martial prowess."
I was startled by Master Won-gak's sudden words.
While I was still reeling, the many disciples all stepped out from their seats.
Seeing that, Geumgang moved to the very front of the group with an expression of obvious satisfaction.
"Ho-ho... Allow us to show you Shaolin's secret art."
Then he gently pushed me by the back, sending me down from the platform to face them.
Sohee and Shin Yu-eun were already seated off to the side, looking delighted as they cheered me on.
"Do your best! Big brother!"
I am curious about this secret art, too...
I looked around, searching for a wooden sword.
But unlike the other training grounds I had seen, there was no weapon rack in sight.
"Ho-ho... Shaolin doesn't keep wooden swords. We don't really stock other weapons, either. If the donor wants to use a real sword, that would be fine."
Master Won-gak said that with a small smile.
Still, I couldn't quite bring myself to draw a real blade in a spar, so I made sure the scabbard was fixed firmly in place.
No one should get cut if I do it this way.
My attitude seemed to please Master Won-gak, because he nodded and murmured under his breath.
Once I finished preparing and lifted my head, dozens of disciples were standing exactly where they had been.
"Then let us begin."
At Geumgang's words, I flinched.
"All of them at once?"
"Wouldn't that be the proper measure for Sir Han's skill?"
Geumgang grinned and took a ready stance.
The disciples behind him followed suit one by one.
However much stronger I had become, standing in front of so many people was still intimidating as hell.
What's more, they were all bald, all with similar expressions, all dressed in the same robes, so it felt as if I were staring at a mirage.
"Then let's begin."
I steadied my heart and lowered my stance.
Then Geumgang raised a hand and called out an order.
"Hundred-Eight Arhat Formation!"
At Geumgang's command, the disciples surrounded me in perfect unison.
What is this?
"Rotate!"
At Geumgang's shout, the disciples began circling me in different directions.
So many monks running around me in confusion made my head spin.
Since they all looked alike, their figures blurred together like afterimages.
"Huu..."
For a moment I was caught off guard, but I quickly recovered my focus and released my internal energy outward.
The air around me turned cold, and the floor began to freeze, slowing the disciples' footwork little by little.
"Strike!"
At the command, several of the disciples sprinting around me suddenly lunged in from odd angles.
They aimed with uncanny precision for my back and my flanks.
Since attacking one of them would leave me unable to handle the others' ambushes, I decided to focus on defense for the time being.
Ice Dragon Sword Dance, Fifth Form: Soft Flow Sword Dance
I calmly raised my internal energy and let their attacks slip past me.
I was handling them with ease, but the radius of the Hundred-Eight Arhat Formation kept shrinking, and my space began to disappear.
As the formation tightened, it became harder to respond to the ambushes springing from every direction.
Ice Dragon Sword Dance, Third Form: Ice Blossom Whirlwind
I took the dagger at my waist in my left hand and swung it wildly.
My aim was not to strike them, but to create room to breathe.
Thanks to that, the formation opened up a little, but it was still intact.
With the disciples continuing to race around me, it was dizzying just to keep up.
There’s no choice. Break through one side.
I decided that if I kept standing my ground inside the formation, I would hit my limit, so I made up my mind to force my way out.
I tried to break through where the formation seemed weakest, but since the people all looked identical as they ran, every opening seemed the same.
In the end, I chose a direction at random and decided to smash straight through it.
Ice Dragon Sword Dance, First Form: Ice Dragon Emerges from the Water
I gathered my internal energy into the sword and swung.
Because I was not drawing the blade, but attacking with the scabbard still on, the force felt much weaker.
"Defend!"
At Geumgang's shout, the disciples circling me collapsed inward in the direction of my swing.
Tathagata Divine Art, First Form: Diamond Indestructible Body
Tathagata Divine Art, First Form: Diamond Indestructible Body
The disciples took their positions shoulder to shoulder and joined together to block the sword with their bare bodies.
They did not turn golden like Geumgang had when I saw him before, but the place where they met my blade felt hard and heavy.
Perhaps because they were sharing the impact, Ice Dragon Emerges from the Water did not break through the formation.
"Now! Destroy!"
At Geumgang's command, several disciples rushed in at once from behind.
I twisted my body and spun around in a flash.
Spinning Slash
With the spinning slash, I barely managed to knock the charging disciples back.
It was clear that, whether because I still wasn't drawing the sword or because Shaolin's disciples were simply that skilled in body techniques, none of them seemed seriously hurt.
And so the standoff began again, when Geumgang shouted,
"Fight."
Then the disciples opened a path.
At the end of that opening stood Geumgang.
"As expected of the North Sea Divine Dragon. The Hundred-Eight Arhat Formation alone won't defeat you easily."
"So you're finally stepping in?"
"This time, you may have to draw that sword."
Tathagata Divine Art, First Form: Diamond Indestructible Body
Geumgang's skin turned golden.
With that golden skin, he really did look like a Buddha statue.
I quickly set my stance.
"Then here I come!"
Tathagata Divine Art, Second Form: Hundred-Paces Divine Fist
Geumgang moved like the wind to the very front of my face and drove a fist straight out.
His speed took me by surprise, and although I managed to raise my sword to block the punch, I was sent flying straight back.
"Draw your sword already!"
Geumgang clung to me and unleashed a relentless barrage.
They were nothing more than fists and kicks, but the sheer level of his body technique made every strike terrifyingly powerful.
Ice Dragon Sword Dance, Third Form: Ice Blossom Whirlwind
I fought back with everything I had, but Geumgang's body didn't seem to take any damage at all.
No choice, then.
I stepped back and lowered my stance.
Then I released the scabbard I had been fastening in place.
"So you've finally gotten serious."
Geumgang looked a little tense at the shift in my aura.
I gathered my internal energy.
I remembered the sensation of cutting down the Bloodsucking Demon.
That feeling, as if even the air around me had frozen and time itself had begun to crawl.
White Moon Blade thrumming, eager to leave its scabbard.
Ice Dragon Sword Dance, First Form: Ice Dragon Emerges from the Water
This time, it was different from before.
As I drew the sword from its scabbard, the form of an ice dragon burst forth along with the blade.
Even the air along my path to the attack froze over.
Tathagata Divine Art, Fourth Form: Ten-Thousand-Catty Hammer
The ground beneath Geumgang's feet sank a little under him.
He raised both arms, ready to block the sword.
I reversed my grip on the blade and, with the spine of the sword, struck him down.
The ice dragon that had burst from the scabbard with me swept over Geumgang, and his golden skin froze over.
I turned to prepare my next strike.
But Geumgang still hadn't moved.
"Huh?"
"Senior Brother?"
The disciples on the other side widened their eyes in shock.
Then Geumgang toppled backward with a thud.
Looking closer, he seemed to have fainted.
"Ho-ho... it seems a winner has been decided."
As Master Won-gak walked over with a kind smile, every disciple folded their hands toward me and bowed respectfully.
At Master Won-gak's gesture, the disciples supported Geumgang and carried him to the medical hall.
"Wow! What was that just now?"
Sohee and Shin Yu-eun came rushing up to me, still full of shock.
It was the first time Sohee and Shin Yu-eun had seen my evolved sword-drawing technique, so they were both terribly excited.
"Was that sword qi?"
"Sword qi?"
I looked at Shin Yu-eun with a blank expression.
"You made a shape with your internal energy just now!"
"Oh. That was sword qi?"
In truth, I had simply been channeling internal energy into the blade, and because the scabbard had filled with energy too, it felt as if I were firing the sword and all at once. I had assumed it was just some odd trick, nothing more.
Since I had unconsciously been called the North Sea Divine Dragon, and since Ice Dragon Sword Dance was the name of my martial art, I had thought the form had emerged as a dragon because of that. But apparently, it was a technique called sword qi.
"Ho-ho... It seems you don't know what level sword qi belongs to."
Master Won-gak slowly began explaining what sword qi was.
"Martial arts, broadly speaking, are composed of internal energy and forms. In martial arts, internal energy is more of a means to strengthen the forms. For example, in Shaolin, one strengthens the body itself, while in other arts one channels internal energy into a weapon to increase its power."
"Ohhh."
Sohee and Shin Yu-eun sat down as well and listened intently to Master Won-gak's lesson.
"When one trains that way and reaches a certain level, one becomes able to use internal energy itself as a weapon. The first step of that is what we call sword qi."
"Hmm... using internal energy as a weapon..."
Honestly, it was a little hard to grasp.
Shin Yu-eun and Sohee both wore the same expression of confusion.
"Ho-ho... For example, donor, if you did not have that sword and dagger, could you still perform your martial art?"
Master Won-gak's question was obvious to me.
"Without a sword, I can't use Ice Dragon Sword Dance."
"Ho-ho... But once you reach a higher realm and are able to use internal energy itself as a weapon, you will be able to perform martial arts even without a sword. Donor, you have reached the very threshold of that path."