Chapter 4: Introduction to Martial Arts
Chapter 4: Introduction to Martial Arts
"Hwi has good wits, but his innate talent is so poor it’s a concern."
"Still, he carries your blood, dear. There’s no reason to worry. He’ll improve in time."
No.
Listen to me, you two.
"Why on earth are you getting stuck at the Myeongmun acupoint? If you struggle this much with basic Qi accumulation, how do you expect to master the family’s secret essentials later?"
"No, it’s just..."
Setting aside the fact that I wasn't planning on becoming an acupuncturist, why did I have to memorize every single acupoint so perfectly?
Those charts are based on adult bodies; it’s way harder to pinpoint them on a toddler.
If you take the distance between acupoints on an adult—measured in centimeters—and apply that same scale to a baby’s body, they’re practically millimeters apart.
"Hmm... To think he can't even manage five laps around the East Garden’s training grounds... How could one of the Peng bloodline be so..."
"No, really."
Where exactly does one report this kind of 'child abuse-workout'—making a five-year-old run laps while carrying iron weights?
I’m in trouble.
The fact that I learned Hanja quickly and could recite Confucian classics from memory without even studying them was being dismissed as mere 'cleverness.'
Swallowing tears of injustice and sorrow, I crawled into bed with an exhausted body.
The muscle aches were so intense I felt like vomiting.
I had underestimated medieval China far too much.
Unless I was aiming for a government post, studying beyond basic functional literacy was useless.
From the moment you reach the level of being able to read martial arts manuals, the word 'study' shifts its meaning entirely into the realm of 'combat training.'
They made me do Horse Stance for over three hours, forced me to memorize every single acupoint on the human body, and if I couldn't keep up with the Qi accumulation, they claimed I needed to 'circulate energy through movement' and made me do the Leopard Crawl with iron weights strapped to my back.
I had taken this too lightly.
To these people, 'innate talent' was measured by how quickly you learned how to kill.
A scholarly prodigy who mastered the Thousand Character Classic at three and the Elementary Learning at five was simply branded with the label of 'weakling' by their standards.
I’ll do it, if only out of spite!
At five years old, I ended my exhausted day by swallowing the bitter tears of resentment.
*
"Finally."
I muttered blankly, looking down at my fists.
Seven years old. My hands, which should have been soft and chubby, were covered in scabs and thick calluses.
I was achieving a level of physical growth that would have been unimaginable to my soft, 21st-century mindset.
Yes, perhaps this was the true reality.
Crrraaaaack!!
The log I had just struck fell over with a thunderous roar.
At seven years old, I had shattered a log. With my bare fists.
"You have completed the introductory stage of the Hunyuan Art. I thought your start was slow, but this is a decent achievement."
"Thank you, Father."
At my greeting, Father responded with a grunt, as if it were only natural.
"Hwi. Now that you are growing into a warrior of the Peng Family, do you remember the saying that the people themselves are strong?"
"Yes."
"Our family techniques are not the fastest, nor the most sophisticated, nor the most ferocious. There will always be arts in this vast Central Plains that are superior and more powerful than the Peng Family's heritage."
"Yes."
"However, there is nothing stronger than a 'person' of the Peng Family. Hwi, you must always keep these words in your heart."
The Peng Family members themselves are strong.
I had been feeling the weight of those words over the past few years.
They weren't called the greatest sect of the Black Path because they possessed the most transcendent martial arts in the Central Plains.
It was simply because anyone with Peng blood was, by default, a weight class above everyone else.
If you were born with the Peng bloodline, even a Third-Rate warrior could overwhelm a Second-Rate one.
A Second-Rate warrior could defeat a First-Rate one.
And a First-Rate warrior wouldn't lose ground even if they traded blows with a Peak Realm master.
It wasn't a matter of external arts, internal energy, or mental cultivation.
It was as if the very composition of the person was optimized for 'killing' one step further than other martial artists...
It was like being a different species.
In the era of the Three Kingdoms, these were the traits of a hero or a great general in a time of chaos.
If the family tradition had been even slightly different, they would have entered government service and become a lineage of generals.
No wonder they ended up as Unorthodox.
I nodded, letting out a sigh.
The assessment that they were physically powerful, slightly lacking in intellect, but possessed deep loyalty and righteousness was accurate.
Wasn't that why the Hebei Peng Family was usually depicted as an Orthodox sect in other media?
But if you thought about those traits carefully, they weren't actually elements of the Orthodox Faction.
Guys who smash everything without thinking but definitely take care of their own.
We’ve agreed to call people like that the Black Path and the Unorthodox Faction.
Isn't that exactly how modern organized crime syndicates operate?
"Since you've entered the Hunyuan Art, it's time you started learning the family's martial arts."
"Yes."
"What do you think the Peng Family's heritage is?"
"Saber techniques."
The Hebei Peng Family was famous for the saber, and the current Family Head was a powerhouse known in the Martial World as the Blade Emperor.
Naturally, the family's martial arts had to be saber techniques.
However, Father gave a smirk and spoke.
"Then do you know why, during the introductory stage of the Hunyuan Art, I taught you how to exert force along with the cultivation method?"
"...Pardon?"
"Take this."
Clank!
Father pulled a black mass of iron from his sleeve and tossed it before me.
It was heavy. Though it had a lining, it was essentially made of interwoven iron plates.
It rattled, held together by small chains and leather straps.
No matter how I looked at it, it wasn't a saber. It wasn't even a weapon to begin with. This was...
"A hand-wrap...?"
"It's closer to a gauntlet, actually."
"Pardon...? Do we learn fist techniques?"
"What family doesn't have a single line of fist techniques?"
That was true.
Grappling and palm techniques were basic skills learned alongside footwork, even in sects that primarily used swords.
But those were always supplementary.
It was rare for a family to master them to the point of wearing gauntlets for actual combat.
And besides, he only gave me one. It didn't seem like I was supposed to wear them on both hands.
Father shook his head as he watched me try to put the gauntlet on.
"Are you not right-handed?"
"Yes. That's why I'm putting the gauntlet on my right..."
"Wrong. Wear the gauntlet on your left hand. Now, watch. This is how it's done."
Before I knew it, Father was wearing a dark iron gauntlet on his left hand.
He naturally gripped a saber in his right hand, rested it over his shoulder, and then extended his left foot, looking down at me in a crooked stance.
"This is the basic stance of a Peng Family warrior once they have mastered the Hunyuan Art, the Hunyuan Cultivation Method, the Mountain Lord's Step, the Heart-Protecting Fist, and the Hunyuan Blade."
"Uh..."
"How does it look?"
Like a thug.
One hand with a gauntlet hanging loosely, the saber he bothered to bring resting arrogantly on his shoulder.
Standing with legs crooked, facing forward at an angle.
He looked exactly like a mountain bandit out to collect protection money. It was a posture that could hardly be seen as the martial arts of a prestigious family.
"Can you read the true intent in this form?"
"Hmm..."
"You haven't learned any martial arts yet besides the Hunyuan Art. So I don't expect you to grasp everything at a glance. However, think on it. The advantages of this stance, and the reason for wearing the gauntlet."
"The reason for the gauntlet..."
He extended his left foot forward.
That meant his left upper body would naturally be more prominent in the front.
And he was wearing a gauntlet on that left hand.
An iron gauntlet isn't just for increasing striking power.
In the first place, the primary purpose of a gauntlet wasn't to hit someone, but to 'protect' the hand.
Ah.
Protection?
"A shield...?"
"Correct. Excellent."
Father smirked as if satisfied with my answer and stepped back.
In the center of the Inner Hall's small training ground, Father stood alone and took his stance while facing me.
"There are four main introductory martial arts of the Peng Family. Can you name them?"
"The Hunyuan Art, the Mountain Lord's Step, the Heart-Protecting Fist, and the Hunyuan Blade."
"Yes. The Hunyuan Art is the cultivation method. You've already begun that, so I won't elaborate. Next, the Mountain Lord's Step."
It was footwork. An aggressive stance where the balance leaned heavily forward, like a beast lunging.
"The essence of the Mountain Lord's Step is, ultimately, the advance. The power to move forward regardless of what attack comes. It aims to step heavily, move quickly, and hold firm without wavering."
Thud.
Father took a step forward.
The beginning of the footwork.
With just that, the atmosphere shifted violently.
The kind, gently smiling father was gone.
His piercing gaze and aura seemed to make his body swell in size.
His long robes fluttered, and a crushing pressure weighed down the air.
Like a predator just before the hunt. Heavy, fast, and solid.
"The Mountain Lord's Step does not waste strides on evasion. That is why we do not learn lightness arts. Instead, it is refined solely for the purpose of breaking through even in the face of an enemy's onslaught to close the 'distance'."
There are clear limits to an offensive using a saber.
It’s easy to put power behind it and it's strong, but it’s vulnerable to change.
Saber techniques had to stick to linear paths to deliver a ferocious blow.
Therefore, all of the Peng Family's martial arts developed solely to support the saber.
To dismantle the ever-changing sword techniques of an imaginary enemy, and to compensate for the saber's weaknesses. To get close, giving the enemy no room.
Thud.
They had reached the present by researching and developing only the method of approaching.
"In that process, we do not use the saber to defend against incoming attacks."
The single saber was still resting casually on Father's shoulder. Instead...
Whoosh!!
A fist shot out.
The left hand wearing the gauntlet moved to block, strike, and deflect the imaginary offensive.
The tightly clenched fist moved like rain through the air.
The Heart-Protecting Fist. Modeled after the forepaw a fierce tiger lunges with to neutralize its prey just before biting.
A shield to deflect all attacks that hinder the advancing body.
"Once the distance is sufficiently closed like that... now you must create a weakness in the enemy."
Boom!!
Once you've stuck to them at point-blank range, they can't defend with most weapons.
Generally, the sword—the most common weapon in the Martial World—is not suited for cutting something attached to one's own body unless the grip is changed.
So, toward the empty body, to force the opponent's attention and defense...
He slammed a burst of force with the gauntlet-clad hand to break their posture.
The Iron-Shattering Hammer. A single punch that pours the full power of the Hunyuan Art into the Heart-Protecting Fist.
"If you can reach them at that moment, their balance will inevitably crumble. Even if they manage to block it without losing their balance, it doesn't matter. To block a full-force strike from a Peng warrior, your opponent must focus entirely on your gauntlet."
When that moment comes, then...
The Reaper that had been resting in his right hand finally moves.
The Hunyuan Blade. The final blow that falls upon the enemy's head.
That was the reason it had been resting on his shoulder from the start.
From the beginning, that stance was an upper-level posture prepared to slash from top to bottom.
It was so blatant, but for that very reason, it invited carelessness. A slouching posture that a third-rate thug or a mountain bandit might take.
Craaaaash!!
The fangs are driven into the prey's neck.
Father let the saber hang diagonally and turned back to me with a smile.
"Do you understand? Our family heritage is indeed the saber. Therefore, all our martial arts are merely the process of building up toward that single strike."
"If they can't block the Iron-Shattering Hammer..."
"They die. I just slammed a burst of force into their abdomen with a gauntlet-clad hand."
"And if they do block the Iron-Shattering Hammer?"
"They die. The force won't be something they can easily block. How could they possibly block the saber falling from the opposite direction immediately after?"
If they focus on the saber and don't block the fist, they die by the punch. If they block the punch, they die by the saber's strike.
It was incredibly simple, but exactly that lethal—a bloodthirsty offensive with no room for mere sparring.
This was the foundation of the Peng Family's martial arts.
"This is... a martial art that only a member of the Peng Family can use."
"Ha... Haha... Hahaha! You noticed? Impressive!"
Father laughed proudly, came over, and ruffled my hair.
"Yes, you're right. If you carry the Peng bloodline, the person themselves is strong. Therefore..."
A palm technique performed with one hand still has sufficient lethality.
And a saber technique performed with one hand is already heavy and ferocious enough to cut a man down.
This meant that even when operating different styles of martial arts in each hand, they could back them up with sufficient power.
In other words, the Peng Family's martial arts were only effective for those who carried the Peng bloodline.
It wasn't something you could learn just by stealing a glance at the secrets.
It was optimized that way.
The martial art itself was dependent on the lineage.
Someone who had trained their external arts to the extreme might be able to mimic it, but unless they learned all the insights, true intent, and the cultivation methods and formulas passed down as secrets, they could never reach the same level of mastery.
An outsider could only copy the form. That was the limit of what they could learn.
They weren't stupid.
I thought as I looked up at Father's beard-covered chin.
With an appearance that seemed dull and hot-tempered at first glance, combined with a massive physique, it was easy to look foolish.
And it wasn't as if his speech or actions felt particularly intellectual, but...
They're cunning.
Should I say they invested all their capacity into combat intelligence?
The Peng Family's martial arts were not simple.
Approach, counter, and strike down.
Even when performing just that, the countless variables and changes that would lurk in that process were being handled by combat intelligence.
Approaching while blocking the enemy's offensive?
The fact that this was possible meant they could read all the enemy's attacks and prepare a counter.
It was a condition impossible to meet with overwhelming physical ability alone. This was the realm of combat intelligence.
"This is merely the introductory martial art, Hwi. If you master everything your father just demonstrated... well. You'll have no trouble reaching the Second-Rate level."
Father gave a wide grin and picked me up.
Because they did not hold righteousness in the foundation of their martial arts, they were the Unorthodox Faction.
Because the purpose of their martial studies was focused on killing, they were the Black Path.
And because the depth of the martial arts they built surpassed all other Black Path sects...
The Greatest Sect of the Black Path, the Great Hebei Peng Family.
If even the introductory martial arts taught to a seven-year-old were this thick with killing intent...
What would the offensive of the Family Head, who had reached the pinnacle of the family's arts, or my father, the Young Head, who had fully mastered them, be like?
I stared blankly at my father, who was smiling kindly before me, and thought.
About the cunning and cruel Black Path martial artist hidden behind this warm and stoic smile.
That was the face of the Hebei Peng Family.
It was a ferocious, cunning, and cruel side lurking behind a dull demeanor.