Fundamentals (2)
Fundamentals (2)
It was a turbulent era for the Gangho.
It was a time of upheaval in the Gangho, a golden age where the Heavenly Demon had died, and the dozens of monsters and spirits who had participated in the Cheonma-hyeolsa were establishing sects, taking in disciples, and deepening their martial arts.
The Tang Clan, however, was left behind alone.
The founder had passed away in a foreign land with a dying wish forbidding anyone from entering Dangsan, and because of that, the Dangsan Immortal's miraculous medical and pharmaceutical knowledge was never passed down to future generations.
Naturally, the core of the Tang Clan's martial arts—coating Amgi with poison to shoot and kill opponents—also vanished.
'It was a situation where it was only natural for it to disappear.'
They were barely holding on by the reputation of a family that had contributed the most to ending the Cheonma-hyeolsa, alongside the Wudang and Shaolin sects.
When everyone calmly accepted that the family's fortune had run out.
Dohwa appeared.
At first, they thought the rumors about the Dangsan Immortal were exaggerated. They assumed their ancestor had held a special affection for a childhood connection and left behind empty records.
They thought everything about her was ordinary, save for her exceptionally beautiful appearance.
Because she had been swept up in a noisy crowd, trembling like a frightened small animal, and had just shoved herself into the dirt. Therefore, So-young hadn't thought much of Dohwa.
Not anymore. She knew now that it had been an absurd misjudgment.
"I'm sorry, Supreme Patriarch-nim. I was foolish and failed to realize those teachings......."
"......?"
Dohwa tilted her head in confusion.
Her ears were curled in a suspicious way, a gesture that truly showed she had no idea. So-young said with a faint smile.
"You don't have to pretend you don't know."
So-young had spent only a short time with Dohwa, but she had spent all of it in Dohwa's embrace.
They had shared body heat, and she had listened to her breathing and heartbeat from up close. Naturally, she had come to know the Supreme Patriarch-nim—the person named Dohwa.
She had seen how she treated Shin-ung.
She knew how much she cherished her friends.
Even the way she poured that affection onto her descendants.
Then, were all the things she had shown until now just coincidences, or things without any meaning?
'No. Everything was a teaching.'
So-young said, not withdrawing her calmly extended hand.
"I know now, Dohwa-nim."
Creating a small cave with Qi during their first meeting.
Showing the Peach Blossom Spring where a rain of flowers poured down.
Even the reason she embraced her.
It was all to show the direction the Tang Clan's martial arts should take in the future.
Hwa-ah—
So-young's eyes blazed with a strange radiance.
Her gaze drew long tails with a slight tilt of her head; it was Qi released in the form of a gaze due to an enlightenment that had transcended the realm.
It was a transcendental enlightenment.
Dang Gyeom's expression was filled with astonishment.
"The essentials of the Tang Clan's martial arts......?"
"The Supreme Patriarch-nim kept showing me. I was just dull, and I'm only realizing it now."
Having only just realized that easy-to-understand teaching.
So-young moved her Qi with a strange sense of exhilaration and a look of self-reproach.
The technique the Supreme Patriarch-nim had shown during their first meeting was still vivid. The way she had moved, coating every single grain of sand with unrefined earth energy—
'The first teaching.'
Saaa—
So-young drew a small semicircle with the tip of her flower shoe. She was starting by drawing the path her Qi needed to follow.
It was similar in size to the burial mound where Dohwa had hidden.
Hwa-ak—!
Due to the nature of the Tang Clan's martial arts, which use Amgi, her martial arts uniform was also structured to easily hide Amgi, and dozens of Amgi poured out from her wide sleeves.
So-young's Qi was coated onto every single Amgi.
"Heo—"
How could such detailed manipulation of energy be possible? Dang Gyeom gasped.
'I dare not even fathom it.'
It was absurdly profound.
"What on earth is this martial art......."
Dang Gyeom's voice, filled with awe, trailed off. Dohwa was equally bewildered.
Seeing Dohwa's bleary eyes, So-young said.
"You mean it's still lacking. Please watch a little more. I won't be able to unleash it all, but at least a part of it......."
"......?"
Dohwa was just watching quietly from afar, nervous, thinking that her friend's hand had reminded her of something, and not wanting to disturb that contemplation.
So-young, unaware of Dohwa's heart, moved her body slowly.
'The Supreme Patriarch-nim showed me in the world of the mind.'
She used the sea fog that was thick in all directions as the domain for her martial arts to extend.
If she did that.
The Amgi would fill the air and pour down like unavoidable rain. Just like the flower rain that fell in the world of the mind.
Huaaaak!
Qi was released with tremendous momentum, and the surrounding air rippled like heat haze at that force. It was enough to look like waves crashing on the ground.
Her finely trembling grip formed an intake flow, and a strange vortex was humming.
Seuaa—
The Qi coated on the daggers reacted to the vortex.
Transparent clouds rose thickly from below, and the Amgi floated up into the sky.
Mancheon (Filling the Sky). The thin, slender daggers filling the sky were quite beautiful. Wrapped brightly in Qi, their bodies swelled round, making them look just like flowers.
"Could Tang Clan martial arts be like this......."
She had heard that the Tang Clan's martial arts had secrecy as their essential principle.
Those who knew the old Tang Clan martial arts said the core was a technique of hiding poison-coated Amgi with Qi to target an enemy's vital points. It was called the Dark Poison Dagger.
At the time when the Tang Clan rose to power, it was an era where neither nobility nor a warrior's pride had any meaning in the face of the disaster that was the Heavenly Demon, so it was a technique tolerated because there was no luxury to be picky about means and methods.
Not anymore. It was often ignored as a petty technique.
-Amgi......? Isn't it petty? Aren't you ashamed? You lot who serve Dohwa-nim as Supreme Patriarch alongside us...... The Tang Clan shall not share a table with the Heavenly Palace. It lowers our status.-
-It's not manly. I don't know how it's any different from poking with a toothpick while taking a shit.-
It was that kind of martial art.
And yet—
The martial art blooming from her daughter's hands right now was absurdly beautiful.
Delicate and splendid, and as sorrowful as a single plum blossom.
Everything reminded one of the Dangsan Immortal, the Supreme Patriarch. Even that beauty did.
Kwaaaaa—
The vortex raging in So-young's grip seemed to have reached its limit.
So-young's mind was also constantly incandescent, and she was rapidly understanding everything Dohwa had shown her, wrapping it up with her own enlightenment. That entire process happened in an instant.
"Ah—"
It was the moment So-young sighed.
In an instant, green-colored gray hairs sprouted wildly along with her black hair. It was at the same time So-young's hand left a whitish afterimage.
The Amgi flowers filling the sky poured down.
Tsuaaaak—!
The sound of the air splitting was chilling. The Amgi fell in different ways, and the transparent clouds filling the surroundings encircled everything, raining down in an unavoidable trajectory.
It was a flower rain. How could a person avoid falling rain? It was close to a guaranteed hit.
"Divine Art. It is a Divine Art......."
It was a martial art worthy of being discussed as the best in the Gangho Murim.
It would have been enough to astonish any Martial God brought here.
A martial art that reached the realm of the divine. Thus, it was called a Divine Art. Such a martial art had manifested in the Tang Clan—in his daughter's hands. As a father, and as the head of a declining prestigious family, he could not help but be moved.
Dang Gyeom's eyes held laughter and tears at the same time.
"Thank you, thank you."
He bowed his head repeatedly to Dohwa, overwhelmed with gratitude. Dohwa wiped away Dang Gyeom's tears with her sleeve and approached So-young.
"Immortal...... no, Supreme Patriarch-nim."
She had unleashed a Divine Art that didn't fit her level.
It was inevitable that the recoil would be great. The ground that had received the Divine Art kicked up thick dust, but like in the Peach Blossom Spring, only Dohwa's figure remained clear.
So-young barely managed to hold onto her spinning consciousness and tried to steady her breathing.
'My head hurts...... I have to get up and serve her.'
Nausea kept rising, and her consciousness was fading. She had to ask how it was.......
Jjong-geut—
Dohwa's ears caught her inner thoughts.
It was a voice that suddenly came like a whisper from the sky.
Dohwa gave a bright smile and told her what So-young wanted to hear.
"It was very pretty. Yeong-yeong said so too, I had a good view. What are you thinking of naming it?"
"Mancheonhawu (Rain of Flowers Filling the Sky). That is what I want to call it."
"It's a fitting name."
Dohwa placed So-young's head on her lap and murmured softly.
"Do you have a burning pain? If you do, don't speak, just touch your fingertips lightly."
Tok, tok.......
She felt the sensation of her fingertips being tapped weakly.
"As I thought. Yeong-yeong used to be like that too. She would be like that every time she realized something on her own. Wait just a moment. It must hurt a lot......."
Dohwa held So-young's hand tightly and kissed her forehead.
Hu—
While breathing a shallow breath into her.
The exhale, imbued with a mysterious coolness, blew a refreshing wind into So-young's head.
After cooling the slight fever, it went down to her toes, passing through the middle Dantian and lower Dantian in turn.
'Healing through Qi Circulation......!'
It was a method of infusing vitality into the body with pure natural energy, a technique that only a very few among Taoists and monks who had reached the ranks of cultivation, or Martial Gods, could use.
So-young's expression became much more comfortable.
Dohwa massaged So-young's delicate limbs, pressing and pressing, while shelling an acorn. She was chewing it omu-omu, making it easy for So-young to swallow, and Dang Gyeom's eyes were once again colored with astonishment.
"P-Purple Haze Peach!!"
Isn't that the ingredient for making the Purple Haze Elixir of the Mount Hua Sect, which was said to vie for the top spot among the Nine Great Sects alongside Shaolin and Wudang?
They said its spiritual energy was equivalent to decades of cultivation.
'How could there be dozens of those.......'
Dang Gyeom could not continue his words.