Chapter 97: Meeting the Sword Demon (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 97: Meeting the Sword Demon (4)
Soon, at Ham Bi-hye’s direction, Physician Woo brought me the manual of regulations.
“I hope you achieve great things,” Ham Bi-hye said, looking at me with eyes full of affection.
“What kind of achievement can one have in just a day or two?” I replied, avoiding her intense gaze.
“I’ve heard that the insights of masters can lead to great enlightenment in a mere instant. How could a day or two be considered short?”
Ham Bi-hye stared at me for a moment before turning away.
As soon as she left, I immediately sat in the lotus position and began the Energy Guiding Technique.
First, I checked my lower dantian.
Having accepted Ham Jeok’s internal power, my lower dantian had grown significantly larger than before. It had gone from the size of a pea to the size of a fist. That size was exactly the dantian capacity corresponding to one jiazi of internal energy.
However, the dantian was empty.
The reason I had decided to perform the Energy Guiding Technique in the training room was because of the Divine Wood Blood Gu and the Circulating Dantian situated in my lower dantian.
Even though Ham Jeok’s internal power had swept through my lower dantian, the Divine Wood Blood Gu strangely did not interfere. Normally, such a foreign energy would have triggered a seizure, but there was none.
Furthermore, I had been worried that the formation of the lower dantian would affect the Circulating Dantian. Since a Circulating Dantian is typically created and maintained only in the absence of a middle or lower dantian, I feared it might disappear once the lower dantian formed.
But the situation I feared did not occur. On the contrary, as internal power began to accumulate in the lower dantian, I felt as though my total internal energy easily exceeded one jiazi.
Then, something strange happened.
The lower dantian is originally meant to be a foundation for accumulating energy, but instead of storing it, the energy pooled there like it would in the upper dantian before spreading out to other blood vessels. It was as if my lower dantian had become a second Circulating Dantian.
Perhaps my entire body had already become so accustomed to the Circulating Dantian that the lower dantian was functioning as a regular acupoint. I couldn't explain this phenomenon any other way.
All of this was a result of my Ren and Du meridians being unblocked. Now, I was finally capable of performing the Major Heavenly Cycle instead of just the Small Heavenly Cycle.
With my internal energy reaching the level of one jiazi, I was nearing the rank of a first-rate master. Even though Ham Jeok’s internal power had returned to him, the residual energy that had seeped into my fine vessels had gathered to form half a jiazi of power.
I had gained a fortuitous encounter while treating Ham Jeok.
In truth, while the difference between half a jiazi and a full jiazi of internal energy might seem large, the treatment one receives in the Murim is roughly the same. Of course, you are treated as a first-rate master, but it isn't exactly a grand reception.
Even small to mid-sized local sects usually have about five first-rate masters. They aren't that rare. There are probably hundreds of them in a single province. Even here in the Nine Demons Chamber, most of the warriors making up the front lines are likely first-rate masters. And the Blood Wind Squad members who entered the Hall of Hell will surely emerge as first-rate masters as well.
If a third-rate weakling is a pebble in the Yangtze River, a first-rate master is about the size of a small rock. I still had a long way to go before I could surpass the large boulders and become a cliff.
Still, becoming a first-rate master isn't easy, so there was no need to feel discouraged. Martial arts are such that people like Poison Wolf Ibu and Smiling Face Sword can spend their entire lives with a blade and still linger near the second-rate level. Being a first-rate master is impressive, even if it isn't legendary.
Still, I never thought I’d become first-rate in my lifetime.
I shed tears of emotion.
“First-rate is plenty. Now that my Ren meridian is open, I can use sound transmission, and the Scattering Light Red Sun Flash will be even more powerful.”
I started to leave the training room but stopped.
“Wait, this isn't right. If I go out now, I’ll definitely run into dangerous situations. Since I beat Yu Hong, those bastards from the Black Dragon Exploding Demon Squad will try to pick a fight, and there are plenty of people who hate the idea of me being the Acting Squad Leader of the Blood Wind Squad. If I run into a real master, I’ll just end up embarrassed.”
I muttered to myself, searching for a solution.
“It’ll be much safer to stay here a bit longer before heading out. Well, I have fasting pills, so I can hold out for a few days.”
Perhaps because this was the training room Ham Bi-hye used regularly, it was well-stocked with fasting pills. It was a sign of how dedicated she was to her martial arts.
I decided to put my mind at ease.
After a day passed, I grew bored and looked for something to do. I adapted easily to eating the fasting pills. To someone like me who treasures every grain of rice, fasting pills were a very welcome meal.
In martial arts novels, protagonists often train while eating nothing but fasting pills, and that turned out to be quite close to the truth. The only difference was that these fasting pills were the size of rice balls. Honestly, the idea of surviving a whole day on a single pill the size of a pea is absurd. Once eaten, these fasting pills swelled in the stomach, providing a sense of fullness. One a day was plenty.
Thinking that practicing martial arts would help pass the time without boredom, I recalled the Nine-Section Soul-Severing Sword. Since I had mastered the first form, Scattering Light Red Sun Flash, I intended to learn the second form: Whirling Wind Overturning Heaven.
After I had gained insight into the Scattering Light Red Sun Flash, I had given up on training the rest of the Nine-Section Soul-Severing Sword. Even if I had somehow understood the first form, everything from the second form onward seemed beyond human capability.
Whirling Wind Overturning Heaven was a technique performed alongside lightness skills, involving the occupation of thirty-two directions simultaneously to attack. Occupying thirty-two directions meant covering every possible angle around the opponent. It required moving and attacking with incredible speed.
How could a human possibly do that? Of course, genius masters might manage it, but for a dullard like me, it was an impossible technique, so I hadn't even bothered with it.
However, to celebrate surpassing one jiazi of internal energy, I felt like giving it a try.
“If I can master the second form properly, I won't have to fear clashing blades.”
Because I didn't know the forms properly, I had always been reluctant to let my sword meet an opponent's. That was why I had created the Draw Sword Instant Kill—to end things without a clash—but even that had its limits against true masters. Yu Hong had only lost because he was careless; if we had fought properly, I would have succumbed to his saber techniques within seconds.
I realized that if I had the lightness skill and swordsmanship to cut off thirty-two directions, I could transition between offense and defense at will.
To learn Whirling Wind Overturning Heaven, I first roughly drew footprints for the footwork on the floor. I used the water flowing through the training room to mark them. I began practicing the footwork by redrawing the marks whenever the water evaporated.
Whirling Wind Overturning Heaven was a footwork technique, but it was also a lightness skill and a body-lightening art. Mastering it was no simple task because it required all three.
Footwork refers to the movement of the feet in advancing and retreating. Lightness skills, specifically, refer to movements where the feet are not on the ground. Body-lightening arts are different from lightness skills; they involve making the body light to move, usually while the soles of the feet remain in contact with the ground.
Of course, these were definitions from the manual Phoenix King had given me. The difficulty lay in manifesting all three concepts in a single body.
The thirty-two directions meant not just up, down, left, and right, but also occupying the space above, weaving a dense net of positions. Anyone caught in this sword net would be unable to escape and would be utterly defeated.
Again, the crucial part was that this form had to be executed in a single breath. Moving in thirty-two directions and swinging the sword thirty-two times, all in one breath.
Was that even possible?
I began my training with doubt. In all my life, this was the first time I had ever focused so intensely on practicing martial arts. Even when I had first found the Nine-Section Soul-Severing Sword and spent three months hidden in the mountains, it hadn't been like this. Back then, I was passionate, but I had never clung to martial arts without sleep like I was doing now.
Until now, the only things that could make me focus like this were money and women. But martial arts training required even more concentration than either of those.
If my internal energy hadn't reached one jiazi, I wouldn't have even been able to dream of Whirling Wind Overturning Heaven.
That was the thought I had once I managed to move in thirty-two directions in a single breath to some extent. Moving in thirty-two directions at once in one breath was difficult enough. But adding sword strikes to that? I thought I could just move the sword as I moved my body, but it didn't go as planned.
The thirty-two sword strikes also had their own rules and lines of movement. I still had to go through much trial and error to follow those lines perfectly.
I calculated the days by looking at the seven missing fasting pills. I had placed thirty pills on the table, figuring that eating one meant a day had passed. Of course, I also tracked the days by the light and darkness leaking into the training room.
“Has it already been seven days?”
Seeing the missing pills, I realized a week had gone by. Time was passing faster than I thought. However, I had no desire to leave. I had finally begun to understand the subtleties of martial arts and was having fun; I didn't want to break that momentum. Moreover, I seemed to have a talent for lightness skills, which made it even more enjoyable. My previous hard work on the Cow-Step Footwork was finally paying off.
I regulated my breathing to attempt the second form of the Nine-Section Soul-Severing Sword again.
It took another seven days before I could finally move thirty-two times while executing the sword strikes. The movements of my hands and feet were naturally harmonized without any discord.
However, I felt more despair than achievement.
In the description of the Whirling Wind Overturning Heaven form, there was a specific passage:
When the second form of the Nine-Section Soul-Severing Sword, Whirling Wind Overturning Heaven, reaches the second level of mastery, Sword Wind is generated. At the third level, Sword Resonance occurs. At the fifth level, Sword Qi is stirred. At the seventh level, Sword Glare is realized. And at the tenth level of Great Achievement, one can command Sword Rings.
Even when I squeezed out every drop of my internal energy to perform Whirling Wind Overturning Heaven with all my might, I only produced Sword Wind. After fourteen days of training, I had barely reached the second level. Still, the Sword Wind wasn't just a breeze; it was strong enough to feel refreshing, which provided some small comfort.
They say the third level’s Sword Resonance requires one jiazi of internal energy. Seeing as I couldn't even produce a hum, it seemed that while my internal energy might numerically be one jiazi, it wasn't the kind of "one jiazi" meant for executing this martial art.
Thus, I spent half of each day on energy circulation and the other half practicing Whirling Wind Overturning Heaven.
It was truly a fortuitous encounter that, thanks to the Circulating Dantian, I could perform this sword technique—which normally required two jiazi of energy—with only one. But there was a downside.
Because I was performing the Nine-Section Soul-Severing Sword, which needed two jiazi for its proper power, with only one jiazi, its destructive force was significantly diminished. The manual said the true Nine-Section Soul-Severing Sword could split rocks and water, but currently, such power was a pipe dream.
In the past, I had dismissed such claims as exaggerations from martial arts novels. But after seeing the Scattering Light Red Sun Flash, I began to think it might actually be possible. Regardless, in a Murim where one could die at any moment, having a martial art that could properly protect my body was as valuable as a Thousand-Year Silk Robe.
After another seven days, I felt the internal energy circulating through my body was nearly at the full level of one jiazi. The Golden Qi-Poisoning Bracelet had been a huge help. The fusion of Ham Jeok’s internal power and the bracelet had acted like a spirit medicine, adding another half-jiazi of internal energy in a very short time.
This was just my feeling, so to confirm if it was truly one jiazi, I drew the Ghost Sword. I took a deep breath and thrust the sword forward. Simultaneously, in a state of self-transcendence, I rapidly executed the thirty-two movements.
Woooong! Woong!
Halfway through, a vibration started in the blade, and then a Sword Resonance was spat out.
“Oh! It works! It actually works!”
Having achieved the third level of Whirling Wind Overturning Heaven, I wiped away tears of joy. The hardship of being confined in the training room for twenty-one days had been worth it. True masters might go into closed-door cultivation for years, but if someone like me tried that, I’d probably die of boredom. Having achieved this much in such a short period of seclusion, I couldn't be happier.
As the Ghost Sword emitted the Sword Resonance, the training room was filled with ghostly energy. The sword had released its eerie aura along with the sound. This ghostly energy felt like a thick killing intent, enough to cause goosebumps and trigger fear. It was quite useful; a thick killing intent is effective for suppressing an opponent's spirit during a fight.
“It’s about time I headed out.”
I had to be satisfied with reaching only the third level. That was exactly the limit of what I could achieve. The fifth level’s Sword Qi would likely require one and a half jiazi, and the seventh level’s Sword Glare wouldn't appear until I reached two jiazi.
I didn't think I’d ever possess more than one jiazi of internal energy in my life. Luck has its limits, after all. Thus, the rest of the Nine-Section Soul-Severing Sword became even more of an unattainable dream.
Now that I had reached one jiazi, I realized that the other forms were techniques only possible in dreams. For instance, the third form, Galaxy Star Collapse; the fourth, Dark Sky Flying Explosion; and the fifth, Thunderbolt Shaking Heaven, were things I couldn't even begin to operate with a single jiazi of energy, even with a Circulating Dantian.
The most I could realize with my current power was up to the second form. And even that was only possible because of the Circulating Dantian; with normal internal energy, it would have been out of the question.
Well, since I had already defeated a super-peak master like Yu Hong with this much, I could afford to walk with my head held high. As for the sixth form, Soaring Clouds Without End; the seventh, Void Heavenly Strength; the eighth, Ten Thousand Flowers Rain; and the ninth, Morning God Worshiping Heaven... I decided to just keep them in mind as warm-up exercises, just like before.
They were the kind of techniques that would likely give me Qi Deviation if I tried to force them.