Sword Flight
There was one thing Yi Yeon-baek had never been told. The source of the qi A-rang wielded was none other than the life force known as Seoncheonjingi. Deplete it completely, and death would follow—just as it always had. Yet what if he grew better at controlling this qi? Would his lifespan not increase?
One could never know at birth how long a person’s thread would be, but instinct told him the truth. He would live far longer than ordinary men.
The courtyard buzzed with noise.
“It’s lively outside,” A-rang remarked.
“It would be,” Yi Yeon-baek replied, setting down his cup before striding ahead.
A-rang glanced at the empty cup and wondered, Now that I think about it… is the sect leader allowed to drink inside the sect?
He shook his head. If he was drinking, then it must be permitted. He followed after Yi Yeon-baek.
At the time, A-rang did not know that the Hyeongsan Sect, being Taoist, strictly forbade alcohol.
“Ah, my mistake. Today was the day.”
What exactly was Yi Yeon-baek looking at?
“Is there something down there?”
“There is.” Yi Yeon-baek smiled with quiet pride. “Mount Hua has its Plum Blossom Sword Master. Hyeongsan has its Cloud Blossom Sword Master. Among them, the one who earned the title Unbong at the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly has finally returned.”
A-rang’s body trembled slightly. There were surely other women in the Hyeongsan Sect, so why did the news unsettle him?
“Have you perhaps heard the name Yi So-so?”
Damn it. It really is So-so.
“I have not.”
Yi Yeon-baek could hardly remember A-rang’s own name, let alone a brief meeting from over ten years ago.
“Hmm… is that so? Then remember it now. If you aim for the top, you will surely clash with her one day.”
A-rang stared down the misty slopes of Mount Hyeong with sightless eyes. He had no idea how she had grown. In his memories, Yi So-so remained a seven-year-old girl. Yet he could not dismiss Yi Yeon-baek’s words. Whether So-so soared as a phoenix or not made no difference to him.
“I’m afraid she is not my opponent.”
“Oh?” Yi Yeon-baek’s smile deepened. “That child has also reached Jeoljeong.”
“It does not matter.”
A-rang met the sect leader’s gaze. “Would you care to spar?”
“…Hah!”
A mere Jeoljeong practitioner daring to challenge the leader of an entire sect was the height of rudeness and madness. Yet—
“Very well!”
After their brief exchange, Yi Yeon-baek watched A-rang gasping for breath and could only acknowledge the truth.
He was not bluffing.
The sect leader’s sleeve had been lightly cut. Even when holding back, A-rang’s technique had reached him. If they fought under the same conditions as Unbong Yi So-so, would the outcome be the same?
No.
What truly unsettled Yi Yeon-baek was the fact that A-rang had only awakened his qi a single month ago.
A talent for the ages, yet he refuses to join Hyeongsan. How frustrating.
If A-rang remained unaffiliated or joined the Murim Alliance, it would be tolerable. But if he entered any of the Five Great Sword Sects except Hyeongsan, it would sting. Therefore, Yi Yeon-baek resolved to leave a debt of gratitude—and imprint the name of Hyeongsan firmly in A-rang’s mind.
Teaching him Geomsa should suffice.
Geomsa—the ability to manipulate qi like threads—was a technique only Cho-jeoljeong masters could perform. If Yeon-gi-gyeong was comparable to Jeoljeong, then the next stage would lie near Cho-jeoljeong. A senior who showed the path forward.
Yi Yeon-baek nodded and looked at A-rang, who wiped the sweat from his brow and drew a deep breath.
“Hahaha!”
The sudden laughter made Yi Yeon-baek tilt his head. “Is there good news?”
“Yes.” A-rang smiled. “Would you understand if I said I gained enlightenment?”
“Enlightenment…? From our spar just now?”
“That is correct.”
“Well… as long as it helped, I suppose.”
Yi Yeon-baek scratched his cheek and offered congratulations. Sudden insights during sparring were not uncommon.
“Would you like to see it?”
“…Hm?”
Yi Yeon-baek looked puzzled. Show enlightenment? How?
A-rang set the Geo-ya Sword on the ground and stepped onto it. A moment later, Yi Yeon-baek’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.
“What the—?!”
Forgetting all decorum, the sect leader sputtered, “Sword control with qi…?!”
“Hahaha! It is not true sword control—only sword flight!”
One was wielding qi to command a sword. The other was merely riding it. The difference lay in whether the body touched the blade.
The sword A-rang stood upon hovered in midair.
“Absurd…!”
Yi Yeon-baek nearly dropped his own sword. Yeon-gi-gyeong, was it? What on earth did he realize…?
This was clearly far more difficult than the Geomsa he had intended to teach. Haha… even Geomsa is only possible at Cho-jeoljeong…
“Uwaaah!”
A-rang had looked confident, yet only seconds later he tumbled off the sword and landed hard on his rear. He winced.
“This is difficult…”
Yi Yeon-baek felt his head grow hot. “Difficult” did not even begin to describe it. Even he could not do this. Yet he said nothing.
“Ahem! Everything is difficult at first!”
“If I practice a little more, I think I can get the feel of it…”
“Kuh-hum! Kuh-huuuum!!”
The more he listened, the more the words made him cough. He had only meant to grant a small favor, yet with talent like this, he might soon have to hand over even the sect’s signature techniques.
Still, Yi Yeon-baek’s worries vanished with A-rang’s next words.
“This is rather shameless of me, but… I would like a few days to consolidate this insight. May I stay a little longer?”
“Of course! Stay as long as you wish!”
“Thank you…!”
Yi Yeon-baek laughed heartily, unaware that A-rang would indeed overstay his welcome without the slightest shame.
Time flowed like drifting clouds. Before long, a full month had passed.
Shuuuuk!
The sword embedded itself in a tree.
“Well… this is about as far as it goes.”
Sword flight had failed. Every time A-rang fell, Yi Yeon-baek’s expression grew strangely bright. Was that just his imagination?
Regardless, once he grasped the principle, he discovered something rather interesting.
“The Cheonjam thread is truly sturdy.”
True sword control—imbuing qi with intent—was still impossible. Yet by tying a thin thread to the hilt, he could now manipulate the sword from a distance. While it had countless drawbacks compared to true sword control, the advantage of ranged attacks could not be ignored.
According to Yi Yeon-baek, one day he would be able to draw qi into threads. When that happened, replacing the Cheonjam thread with Geomsa would allow true sword control.
A-rang sheathed the Geo-ya Sword and spotted Yi Yeon-baek meditating beneath a tree stripped of its branches. He had incurred a great debt these past weeks. The sect leader had given him precious Cheonjam thread despite A-rang being an outsider. He had even declared a false seclusion to create a quiet training environment, barring all outer disciples from entering.
Though A-rang had cleaned the grounds to avoid seeming completely shameless, Yi Yeon-baek had handled every other small task a blind man could not manage. When A-rang asked whether a sect leader should not be managing the sect instead of doing chores, Yi Yeon-baek had replied that menial work was a hundred times easier. He had seemed sincere.
A-rang set the Geo-ya Sword aside and reflected on his life.
I picked up a sword at thirteen. Seven years in the bamboo forest, three years as an escort, one year here at Mount Hyeong…
He counted on his fingers.
“Twenty-four already.”
What had he accomplished to already be past his coming-of-age and nearing his mid-twenties?
“Time really does… pass quickly. I suppose I have grown old.”
“Is that something you should say in front of me?”
“Hm…?”
Yi Yeon-baek, having finished his meditation, clicked his tongue as he approached. What nonsense was this brat—who had barely passed twenty—spouting before a man well past fifty?
“A mayfly sees its single day as its entire life. Is not the same true of how we perceive our own spans?”
“I have been meaning to ask—who taught you that glib tongue?”
“……”
Yi Yeon-baek sounded exactly like Elder Yul-heo. Was his way of speaking really that bad?
“Ahem…” A-rang coughed and dodged the question.
Yi Yeon-baek picked up the Geo-ya Sword and tugged on the Cheonjam thread attached to its hilt.
“I went to great lengths to obtain sturdy thread for you. It was worth the effort.”
“It is merely an imitation of dart techniques. The idea is not entirely my own.”
“The fact that you conceived and attempted it is what matters. If you master Geomsa at this rate, you will one day replace the thread and perform true sword control.”
“That is still a distant prospect.”
Thud! Yi Yeon-baek’s expression twisted in disbelief as he rapped A-rang on the head.
A-rang yelped in surprise.
“You thunder-headed fool! What you are doing is Uineomgi—a technique possible only at Hyeongeong—and you are already performing it near Cho-jeoljeong. You still call it far away?”
Even as a lesser version of true sword control, A-rang’s technique was something neither Yi Yeon-baek nor anyone else could replicate.
“It is still far. I have yet to find a way to accumulate true qi.”
Because he used Seoncheonjingi rather than ordinary qi, A-rang had begun calling it jingi to distinguish it.
“Hmm…” Yi Yeon-baek stroked his chin. “Then what you need is a heart method.”
“A heart method?”
According to Elder Yul-heo, only when both heart method and technique were present could something be called true martial arts. The Three Talents Sword Art, for example, consisted of only three forms—horizontal slash, vertical slash, and thrust—so it did not qualify as a complete technique and thus could not be called true martial arts. Yet all martial arts originated from the Three Talents.
So what exactly was a heart method?
“You have heard of Shaolin’s Yeokgeungyeong, Mount Hua’s Jahasingong, and Hyeongsan’s Eungwongong, yes?”
“Ah… I have heard of the first two. Eungwongong, however—”
Whoosh!
“Yes, it is famous. I have heard of it two or three times more than the others.”
Swish. Yi Yeon-baek withdrew the hand that had been about to strike again.
“A heart method is the art of governing the mind. That is only half correct.”
“Only half…?”
“Governing the mind alone will not make one stronger. Yet there is a reason we still practice it.”
The foundation of sword arts was the Three Talents. Therefore, the foundation of heart methods also existed.
“The root of heart methods is circulation. To make it simple: nearly all martial arts in the world trace their origins to Shaolin. Shaolin trains the body. So over those long years, what do you suppose Shaolin did to train the body more efficiently?”
One could sleep less to train longer or add weights to increase intensity. But those methods were far from efficient. As A-rang frowned in thought, Yi Yeon-baek spoke as though the answer were obvious.
“The answer is selection and focus.”
Discard the unnecessary. Concentrate only on what matters.
Understanding dawned on A-rang. “So a heart method… forces qi to flow only through specific meridians?”
“Damn it… tell you one thing and you grasp ten.”
Yi Yeon-baek cursed aloud, yet inwardly he was impressed.
The foundation of heart methods was circulation—specifically, the microcosmic orbit. Qi was made to flow evenly through every meridian, including those never used in a lifetime. It was stable, yet profoundly inefficient.
For example, the Peng Clan’s Five Tiger Severing Door Blade consisted entirely of “dominating” forms, so graceful “yielding” movements were unnecessary. Depending on the blood points involved, the muscles and meridians used for dominating and yielding were completely different. In other words, the meridians required varied according to the martial art.
Even if Yi Yeon-baek learned Mount Hua’s legendary Jahasingong, he could never draw out its true power without knowing the Plum Blossom Sword Art. Conversely, even if he learned the Plum Blossom Sword Art and followed its forms, without Jahasingong his strikes would lack even one-tenth the power of a true Mount Hua swordsman.
Because martial arts required both.
“Martial arts… require both heart method and technique to be complete…”
Yi Yeon-baek looked at A-rang’s dazed expression and sighed with a bitter smile.
“To enter a state of selflessness after hearing only a few words… A genius is truly a genius.”