The Immortal Points the Way
A clumsy night. Moonlight spilled over the windowsill and onto the table.
I am... the former 28th Abbot of Shaolin, known as Yul-heo. The reason this old monk, already retired from the front lines, leaves behind these words is simple. I experienced something unbelievable over the past year, and I wish to record it without embellishment or omission.
First, a matter must be made perfectly clear. This old monk never bestowed upon him any Shaolin elixirs or secret manuals. I taught only the fundamentals and the basics. I declare that I imparted not a single advanced martial art beyond that.
Furthermore, with that child... Yeon A-rang, I never formed a master-disciple bond.
I ask that you keep all of the above firmly in mind and read carefully.
Looking back now... everything began with the basics. With the Samjae.
* * *
"That... Samjae. You mean the one I'm thinking of? Vertical slash, horizontal slash, and thrust?"
"Correct."
"The same thing even children know? The one not even Third-class martial artists bother with?"
"Correct. Why do you keep asking?"
".....Never mind."
Even as he spoke, A-rang looked at Yul-heo with a dissatisfied expression. It was only natural. After all the grand talk, what he was being taught amounted to nothing more than the Samjae. Any child would prefer something flashy.
"Haha! Even if I wanted to teach you more, I can't. Your dantian is destroyed."
"The dantian... isn't that supposed to be a martial artist's life?"
"You know that much?"
"Not the details. It's just a famous term, so I know the name."
"Well, martial artists are as common as pebbles on the road, so it would be stranger if you didn't know. You're right. The dantian is a martial artist's life. When it breaks, it's the same as their life going out."
Yul-heo swept a hand across his lower abdomen and gave a bitter smile.
"So I'm no longer a man of the martial world."
"I see..."
"I've had my fill of regret! Enough idle talk. Untie whatever's on your back."
"...We're starting with a real sword?"
"Would you rather use a wooden one? Do you have money to spare?"
"No."
"Then draw it."
"....."
—Shrrrk.
Unable to argue, A-rang slowly unwrapped the tightly bound cloth. Yul-heo raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? That's no ordinary aura."
It was only natural. The sword had once belonged to a young master of the Peng Clan. Yul-heo looked genuinely surprised. The shape of the guard separating hilt from blade was familiar.
"The Peng Clan's... guard? Where in the world did you get this?"
"Ah... would you call it a fortuitous encounter?"
"Hah..."
What kind of encounter had this self-deprecating brat stumbled into to obtain something so rare? Yul-heo was frustrated that the boy wouldn't give a straight answer, yet he couldn't pry into matters before their meeting. Still, something else troubled him.
'So the Peng Clan truly casts aside the sword.'
It was no exaggeration to say the Peng Clan was closest to Shaolin. Their martial arts had branched from the same great lineage. That was why the sight of them abandoning the sword pained him.
"Doesn't matter. With enough exaggeration, the Samjae can be performed with a tree branch."
Horizontal cut from left to right. Vertical cut from top to bottom. Thrust from inside outward. As long as the forms were present, that was the Samjae. Containing the principles of Heaven, Earth, and Man, it was the most fundamental technique.
"The Samjae is the foundation of peerless martial arts, yet mastering only the Samjae does not make one a martial artist."
"Why is that?"
"Because it is far too basic."
The notion that perfecting the Samjae would let one grasp the pinnacle of the sword was nonsense.
"The profound mysteries of martial arts are hard to explain in a short time, but the Samjae alone carries a fatal flaw."
Indeed. If the Samjae alone sufficed, secret manuals would not exist in this world.
"That flaw is 'combinations.'"
Combine 'vertical' and 'horizontal' to create 'curve.' Combine 'curve' and 'point' to create 'segment.' Join segment to segment, and you eventually reach fearless 'dominance.'
"The Peng Clan's Five Tigers Severing Door Blade was built upon dominance. It originated from the Samjae, yet it can no longer be called the Samjae. When we gather such things together, we agreed to call them 'forms.'"
When at least two techniques are linked, they can be called a form.
"Furthermore, when two or more forms are joined, we call it a method. Thus, anything referred to as a method consists of at least four techniques."
Two techniques become a form; two forms linked become a method. A method is fundamentally composed of four techniques.
"That is why the Samjae cannot even be called Third-class martial arts."
"Because it only has three techniques: vertical slash, horizontal slash, and thrust."
"Correct. It fails to meet the definition of a technique within the internal and external methods that constitute martial arts. Yet every martial artist still polishes the Samjae to its limit. You, with your sharp mind, must have already guessed why."
"Because the most important thing for application is the fundamentals."
"Haha! Boring brat."
Yul-heo laughed as he spoke.
"You've grasped the theory well enough. Now swing it."
Clutching the sword, A-rang asked one final question.
"Until when?"
"Until you're satisfied."
"....."
—Nod.
. . .
Seven days passed. Eating and sleeping posed no problems. He could catch birds, pull weeds, or chew on bamboo. The real issue lay elsewhere.
"I've never seen such a dullard in all the world."
Even accounting for blindness, this was excessive. Horizontal slash, vertical slash, thrust. Even with only two legs and one arm, the most basic movements should settle into a consistent rhythm after enough repetition.
"The gap changes with every swing. What happened to your senses?"
At this point, one had to wonder if his head was injured rather than his eyes. Yul-heo had intended to stay out of it, but watching had become painful.
"Come here for a moment."
"Yes..."
A-rang lowered the sword and approached Yul-heo.
"I didn't plan on this, but I need to check your meridians."
—Grab!
Yul-heo seized the trembling wrist and examined the racing pulse. Operating true qi with a destroyed dantian was extremely dangerous, yet he forced the energy through his own body, shedding blood, just to assess A-rang's unfathomable talent.
'This can't be...'
Yul-heo wiped the blood from his lips with his sleeve and looked at A-rang.
"I've watched long enough. I'll give you my conclusion. Put the sword down."
"...Why?"
"I'll be direct. You have not a shred of talent."
Without proper food or rest, his bones and muscles were already ruined. But what about his meridians?
"It's not absolute meridian blockage, but your channels are far too thin. At this level, we might as well call it absolute blockage."
In other words, a life destined to be thin and short. It was questionable whether he could even manage daily life, let alone walk the path of martial arts.
'Heaven is truly heartless. This is no different from openly telling him to die. How...'
Simply staying alive was already a feat. His body was so broken that dying tomorrow would not be strange.
"Haa... I only meant to teach you enough to become a porter..."
—Shhhk!
"Does even being a porter require talent?"
Despite Yul-heo's words, Yeon A-rang picked up the sword and resumed the Samjae.
"Even healthy young men line up to apply for porter work. If a blind boy like you wants any competitiveness, you'll need at least the strength of a armed escort."
"It's all because I'm lacking."
—Flinch.
"....Yes. That is so."
Yul-heo's voice grew quieter, yet he did not yield his stance.
"Of course, even that will be difficult. Under prejudice, you'll face dozens, hundreds of rejections. Still, I thought that if you endured and seized the single chance when it came, you could at least earn a living by the sword. But—"
—That would be impossible.
Despite Yul-heo's words, A-rang continued swinging the sword.
"It doesn't matter."
"No! It does matter. If you keep swinging a sword with that body, your lifespan will only shorten."
"What problem is that?"
"....?"
—Hoo.
A-rang spoke without looking at the hesitating elder.
"Elder, if I set the sword down as you say, what will I have left?"
He might survive by begging like a vagrant. He could live each day clinging only to the already severed and reforged 'connection.' A life that could not last a single day without someone's help.
"Even beasts don't live that way."
A weakling with no choice. Yul-heo had misunderstood all along. He thought A-rang simply wanted to live comfortably by the sword like everyone else. That was not it. Born as a person, he wished to live as a person and die as a person. That was A-rang's will.
'Damn it... When he says it like that, there's no way to stop him...'
Yul-heo let out a sigh. A child not yet in his teens was far too mature. While other children learned to act spoiled in their parents' arms, this boy had learned how to survive. Yul-heo gazed at A-rang swinging the sword with pity.
. . .
I swung the sword despite Yul-heo's dissuasion. A weakling deprived of choice... perhaps that was how others would see it, but I thought differently.
'Let me be grateful that a path still remains.'
Anyway, rather than worrying about porters or escorts, something else had caught my interest.
'He said combining vertical and horizontal creates curve, and curve combined with point eventually becomes segment. In other words, segment is essentially the extreme of the Samjae using vertical, horizontal, and point simultaneously.'
'Then what exactly is dominance? He said linking segment to segment creates dominance, but is that possible? At minimum, only one segment can be executed with a single sword. To create dominance, you'd need two swords.'
So I pondered. Perhaps the elder had spoken incorrectly? After seven days and nights of thought and practice, the answer was no. If that were false, then the seventy-two techniques of the Five Tigers Severing Door Blade, built upon dominance, would not exist in this world.
Yet the Peng Clan's martial arts were real. Therefore, the conclusion was that neither the elder nor the question was wrong—I myself was.
As I continued swinging the sword...
—Shhhk.
'Ah... so that's it...?'
—Bang! Bang!
Two sonic booms from a single swing. A single weapon could naturally only perform one swing, and that single swing was called one technique. Linking one segment technique to another to perform a dominance technique should have been impossible. But there was one way to make it possible.
'Treat not only the sword but my own body as a weapon.'
It was enough to link the segment of the body with the segment of the sword. The Samjae was used with all manner of armaments. And Shaolin used the body instead of weapons. The Four Heavenly Kings centered on Immovable Wisdom King—unyielding even if broken. In other words, the immovable and unchanging 'immovable mind.' One must advance without doubting oneself and strike without the slightest hesitation. Only when mind and body harmonized could one truly become a person.
Shaolin's segment and Peng's segment combined to become dominance. If Yul-heo had taught me Shaolin's martial arts, this result would never have come about. Because he hadn't, I could harbor doubts, and my thinking expanded without limit.
Why had the Peng Clan used the dao?
'They gave up the advantage of a double edge in exchange for increased weight.'
What was the difference between dao and sword?
'Then what if I mix in etiquette?'
Sometimes that became progress. 'Ah...? The force disperses. Then there's no reason to use etiquette.'
Slowly, the form took shape. In the end, it reached a single slash. Yet the result was—
—Krrrrrrk!!!
"This is impossible!!!!!!"
Yul-heo's eyes widened in shock.
—Boom!
"He cut down a massive tree with a sword carrying no internal energy at all!"
Even an Ilryu expert could not fell a great tree without internal energy! As the tree fell, another tree five paces away let out a thunderous crash.
—Crack!!!
The tree five paces away began splitting vertically.
"Wh... what!?"
Yul-heo's mouth fell open at the bizarre sight. But it was not over yet. Beyond the bisected tree stood a third. That one produced no sound at all.
"This... defies reason."
Only a large hole pierced its center. It was a single slash. The result manifested as vertical, horizontal, and point. Yul-heo stood frozen, alternating his gaze between the trees and A-rang. A-rang finally sheathed the sword and smiled.
Only seven days and nights. Even a talentless person could achieve the Samjae in that time. Yet A-rang, with a body abandoned by heaven, had shown what lay beyond. The legendary Immortal Points the Way.