Chapter 181
Chapter 181: Ten Thousand Things Known (1)
The empty backyard of the inn.
Early morning when the sun had just risen, Jeon Ra-hwa stood alone. Cold morning air entered her lungs.
Martial arts.
Martial and Arts.
Until just recently, these were two characters she'd never had the leisure or reason to contemplate deeply.
When she was very young, her family was exterminated and she lost the opportunity to learn martial arts, and from when she became a slave and was sold around here and there, she couldn't even dare to dream of learning, let alone have the opportunity.
Though she'd vaguely resolved 'Someday I'll definitely learn martial arts,' she never knew it would come so suddenly.
Martial and Arts.
As she breathed in the morning air deeply and repeatedly contemplated, her left shoulder suddenly stung.
She slightly lowered her collar to reveal her shoulder. There was still a vivid brand mark stamped there. The character 'Money'. That character meaning money was a mark showing she had been 'property.'
The reason pain she'd forgotten resurfaced was because along with the word martial arts, her former owners came to mind simultaneously.
Quite strangely, every single owner she'd met had been a master of some standing in the Martial World. So occasionally, very occasionally, she would pick up fragments about martial arts from them.
'Damn martial arts.'
The pain of that day when she was branded with heated iron vividly returned. The smell of burning flesh, that moment when she had to endure with her mouth gagged even though she wanted to scream, and along with it, fragments of the past rummaged through her mind.
***
― Martial arts, you see. It's not simply a fighting technique.
― Then what?
― It's a way one's inner self and worldview are roughly revealed. It just often appears violently.
― …….
― It's not simply 'swing a sword like this, throw a punch like this,' but a way of life where a person's constitution, personality, and enlightenment are melted in. Even learning the same sword technique, some wield it uprightly while others use it wickedly.
― So you're saying... martial arts ultimately reflect a person's heart?
'That bastard' laughed strangely.
― You really are an interesting bitch. Look there. Do the other bitches even care about this kind of bullshit? They only know how to roll around in bed. Fuck. Heh heh.
― …….
― Well, doesn't matter. Talking to you helps organize various things. Anyway, think of it as exactly opposite to what you said.
― Opposite... you say?
― Founder, creator, originator. However you say it is fine. They all have 'create' and 'person' in them so let's call them creators, whatever. The process of the learner reading and interpreting the heart reflected by the creator and melting it into their own worldview. The way that then bears fruit again in nature's violent language. That's martial arts.
― You mean the learner reads and reinterprets the creator's heart? Or not? You mean the learner fuses the creator's heart appropriately with nature and their own principles and releases it?
― Hahaha. Times like this I really feel regret. That you're merely a slave.
― …….
― A slave and a woman at that. If you hadn't been born that way, you'd have been timber whose name would spread through the Nine Provinces and Eight Desolations.
'That bastard' laughed for a long time afterward.
Whether it was mockery or just enjoyment was unclear.
***
'That bastard' had been her third owner.
Though he was less than human, he surprisingly had a magnanimous side and liked teaching her various things.
She probably wouldn't meet him again.
'Bukgung Ri.'
The inn had been in an uproar this morning.
Following the Iron God Society, even the Seven Star Immortal Assembly had disappeared.
She didn't know exactly what happened, but probably it was related to Kim Rae-won?
He would tell her when he felt like talking. Even if he didn't, it didn't matter.
Jeon Ra-hwa just recalled again the mnemonic verse of the 『Snow Snow Yin Cold Art』 she'd memorized until her throat was dry yesterday.
"When cold reaches its extreme, fire is born; within death's silence, life dwells.
Though snow covers a thousand miles, Yang sprouts within.
Yin cold becomes the shell; Yang birth becomes the core."
Kim Rae-won had also briefly told her yesterday that it wasn't simply martial arts that handled Yin Energy. Looking at just the name, it seemed to pursue only Yin perfectly, but the Snow Snow Yin Cold Art was martial arts pursuing harmony of Yin and Yang.
Paradoxical martial arts that sought heat within extreme cold, sought the birth of life within death's destruction—that was the Snow Snow Yin Cold Art.
'The process of the learner reading and interpreting the heart reflected by the creator and melting it into their own worldview.'
Bukgung Ri was a debauched, lustful human scum, but his words were worth engraving. After all, he was a master counted among the best in the Martial World.
Right now, every person, everything must become my teacher.
She closed her eyes and naturally chewed and chewed again, ruminated and ruminated again the remaining mnemonic verses of the Snow Snow Yin Cold Art.
Huuuuuu—
Each time she breathed in, her chest felt cold, and each time she exhaled, her lungs felt like a blazing furnace, but she didn't stop.
No, rather she immersed herself even more.
Because it was proof that the basic Circulating Energy method of the Snow Snow Yin Cold Art that Kim Rae-won taught her was the proper path.
― When you breathe in, think of drinking moonlight. When you exhale, think of spitting out turbid energy made of fire. You'll feel cold energy flowing through your meridians and hot energy flowing along your eight vessels before being discharged through your entire body's pores. It'll be painful at first, but that's proof your body is changing.
His calm explanation echoed in her ears.
Jeon Ra-hwa continued breathing slowly with her eyes closed. Air drawn through her nose descended to her Dantian. And there, something cold began to gather. Though just a little, it was energy as cold and still as the bottom of a midwinter lake.
Hu—
The exhaled breath mixed with heat. Kim Rae-won had said that was turbid energy leaving her body. It really felt like her body was becoming lighter.
'So this is what they call Internal Energy.'
Martial arts had been something she couldn't even dream of, yet she was so suddenly accumulating something called Internal Energy that it truly felt like a dream.
'Kim Rae-won......'
Her benefactor.
The day she first met him came to mind.
― Please, someone, help me, help us. If you just save us, if you just save us... I'll give my everything.
Life, soul, whatever.
And so a miracle occurred.
A miracle named Kim Rae-won.......
With overwhelming martial force, he suppressed Plum Blossom Stronghold and set her free.
That wasn't all.
He returned her life to her as a human. He made it so she could stay comfortably at this inn, and now he was even teaching her martial arts. Moreover, the Snow Snow Yin Cold Art was at minimum First-Rate martial arts.
'No, that's not right.'
At minimum Superior-grade martial arts. Doesn't the saying go that even a dog at a village school can recite poems after three years? She could feel it. Though she'd only memorized it and done one Lesser Heavenly Circuit, she could tell. This was comparable even to a great sect's secret arts.
Jeon Ra-hwa clenched her fists tightly.
'I must become strong for him too.'
He was strong. Yesterday he single-handedly exterminated the Iron God Society—though uncertain, it was probably true.
Perhaps.......
― Then that's settled. Your grudge is my grudge. From the moment you first spoke to me.
Hadn't he also eliminated the Seven Star Immortal Assembly?
If it was him, so strong it was excessive, it might be possible.
But one thing.
He was too upright a person. Perfect as a Chivalrous Warrior, but precisely because of that, he had a personality that easily made enemies. He couldn't stand seeing evil and couldn't just pass by injustice.
Look even now.
She didn't know exactly what happened, but he just went out for a 'stroll' once and eliminated the Iron God Society.
'Someday he might fall into danger because of that.'
Even a tiger can sometimes be brought down by a swarm of ants. No matter how strong, alone there are limits. At such times, she might be able to help. Though it would be about the strength of a fly.
'Even if not an eagle, I should at least become a crow and lend a hand.'
Jeon Ra-hwa focused on training again.
Cold energy flowed along her meridians. At first it felt like being pricked by needles, but gradually changed to feel like a cool stream of water. The stream didn't yet seem to reach the level of a river, no, a ditch, no, not even a stream of piss, but wouldn't it gradually thicken?
A fly. Yes, let's at least reach fly level first.
After Circulating Energy with the Snow Snow Yin Cold Art for about one hour, she ate a late breakfast and left the inn.
For something perhaps even more important than training martial arts. The one thing that even the tremendously strong Kim Rae-won lacked.
Memory.
If only she could find that for him, she might discover how he became so strong, and also why he was so obsessed with chivalrous acts.
***
Western Road District 3.
Leaving the inn, Jeon Ra-hwa walked along the complex alleyways there.
Unlike yesterday, the streets were buzzing. After the Iron God Society and Seven Star Immortal Assembly disappeared, forces large and small were fighting over territory. Gang fights broke out everywhere, and the scent of blood vibrated through the air.
Yet even amidst this chaos, ordinary people were just surviving.
Merchants were still selling goods, housewives doing laundry, children playing not on the Western Road's main street but in the alleys.
Because lawlessness that had continued for hundreds and thousands of years had itself become law and order.
To put it nicely, Gangdo's citizens were like rocks that didn't shake even in a storm, but to put it badly, they were like dust in a typhoon. Though swept this way and that, they just drifted around without any thoughts, any resistance—such existences.
Just like herself until recently.
Jeon Ra-hwa resolved again.
She would not live like that anymore. She would change.
When a storm struck, she would become the typhoon and repel the storm, and when a typhoon came, she would become the storm and fight against the typhoon.
Of course, right now, work for him—her own personal storm—took priority over that.
She turned the bends and curves of the alleyways and arrived at a shabby tea house.
Ten Thousand Things Known.
The name written on the plaque was strange to be called a tea house, and the smell drifting from there was far from tea fragrance. If anything, it was close to a stench.
But for those who knew, everyone knew—a tea house that wasn't a tea house.
Clatter-
As she opened the door and entered, the strong stench of beggars mixed with tea fragrance stabbed her nose. The acridness of smoking mixed in additionally, filling the interior with even more unpleasant air.
"Welcome."
A middle-aged beggar with a bushy beard looked at her with a shabby appearance. She couldn't understand at all why he bothered imitating a tea house if he was going to be like that.
Perhaps it meant he had that much confidence.
Ten Great Sects.
Among them, the Gangdo branch of the Great Beggar Sect that boasted the largest membership.
"What tea?"
The beggar smiled slyly as he scanned Jeon Ra-hwa up and down.
Though goosebumps rose slightly, she didn't show any sign of being flustered. Because she'd heard that showing weakness in such places could directly lead to the Yellow Springs.
The one who taught her this too was Bukgung Ri. She knew of this place itself because she'd heard from him.
"Human Tea."
People tea.
At first hearing, it was quite a frightening word, but the beggar, having heard it often, nonchalantly threw out another question.
"To drink? Or to buy?"
Drinking and buying here had completely different meanings.
She already knew from Bukgung Ri, so she immediately answered.
"I came to buy."
"In times like these, the unit price is quite high. Will that be alright?"
"Will silver coins work?"
The beggar shook his head.
Ordinary money wouldn't do. In other words, it meant only Martial Goods were accepted.
"How much?"
"Depends on the type."
"How much for Special Type?"
"Special Type?"
The beggar's eyes changed.
Special Type, slang used only here.
Simply put, special people, or supreme masters. Perhaps... Cultivation Seekers.
"I'll decide after hearing the name."
Jeon Ra-hwa stopped reaching for money and instead looked straight at the beggar before speaking each syllable clearly.
"Kim. Rae. Won."
"Kim Rae-won......?"
"Yes. Kim Rae-won. How much... Huh? Do you know that name?"
"Isn't that obvious? How could it be an unknown name?"
Obvious? An unknown name?
"How could a Martial World person be hearing this name for the first time?"
"......!?"
The Great Beggar Sect knew Kim Rae-won?
'Kim Rae-won... what are you? Really?'