Chapter 29
Bu Eun-seol's expression went blank for a moment.
Anyone could ask to be taught, but it wasn't guaranteed they would learn?
"The masters of the Main Pavilion each refine their own distinct martial arts through real combat. Aside from the Way of the Beast, there are no secret manuals or fixed foundational martial studies."
Dan Cheong spoke with a serious expression.
"However, since you have been chosen as one of the Ten Demonic Heirs, I shall grant you a great privilege this time."
"Thank you."
"What you need most right now is surely an outstanding internal energy method."
Bu Eun-seol nodded.
Because he had not trained in martial arts from a young age, he had no foundation whatsoever—not only in martial arts but also in internal energy.
At that, Dan Cheong turned his body and pointed to a mountain peak visible in the distance.
"That place is called Iron Staff Peak."
"Iron Staff Peak..."
"Indeed. Rest today, and tomorrow climb Iron Staff Peak."
Dan Cheong looked at Bu Eun-seol and spoke in a solemn voice.
"There is a master there who will teach you the finest internal energy method."
After resting at his quarters, Bu Eun-seol climbed Iron Staff Peak early, as soon as the morning sun rose.
Bu Eun-seol had prided himself on having obtained a body like steel from his constant training in martial arts, but the terrain of Iron Staff Peak was rugged beyond words.
"Huff. Huff."
After climbing for over four hours, his breath rose right up to his throat.
But Bu Eun-seol did not stop walking even once, and climbed the mountain without rest.
Thud.
At last, having reached the top of Iron Staff Peak, Bu Eun-seol opened his eyes wide.
At the edge of the peak stood a small thatched cottage, and in front of it, a giant of a man wearing a worn monk's robe stood with his hands clasped behind his back.
"Excuse me."
Bu Eun-seol approached the man in the monk's robe and bowed deeply.
"I heard from Deputy Pavilion Lord Dan..."
"So you are the one chosen as a Ten Demonic Heir of Langya Pavilion."
Along with a low voice, the man standing at the edge of the peak turned his body.
In that moment, Bu Eun-seol's eyebrows rose slightly. It was because the man's face, neck, arms—everywhere not covered by clothing—was densely etched with scars.
At a glance, he looked less like a human and more like a monster covered in wounds.
"Hm."
The man in the monk's robe looked at Bu Eun-seol with a slightly startled expression.
Until now, whenever people saw his appearance, he had always seen eyes filled with great agitation, regardless of age or gender.
Yet this boy, not even twenty years old, merely twitched a single eyebrow at the sight of him.
"You are not very surprised."
"Should I be?"
As he gazed at Bu Eun-seol's composed eyes, the man's eyes flashed.
"At that age, you must have seen many things you should not have."
He could tell at a glance that Bu Eun-seol had endured harsh hardships since childhood.
"The work of an undertaker is a job of seeing things one should not see."
"You were an undertaker, you say?"
"That is correct."
At Bu Eun-seol's reply, the man in the monk's robe asked in a low voice.
"Your name."
"Bu Eun-seol."
"Bu Eun-seol."
The man, who had quietly repeated Bu Eun-seol's name, opened his mouth again.
"Have you come to learn an internal energy method?"
"That is correct."
"It is not a new thing, but..."
The man turned his gaze to the distant sky and muttered in a bitter voice.
"I do not know why the personages of Langya Pavilion are all so greedy, every last one of them."
"What do you mean?"
"From the look of it, you seem to have already cultivated a mental method, yet you insist on learning an internal energy method anew from this poor monk?"
'Poor monk?'
"Poor monk" is a term a monk uses to humble himself.
Then did that mean this man in the monk's robe truly was a monk?
"I have never cultivated an internal energy method."
At Bu Eun-seol's answer, the man wore a contemptuous expression.
"You speak nonsense."
And with his finger, he pressed firmly near Bu Eun-seol's lower dantian.
At that, a rebounding force rose from around the lower dantian and smoothly pushed the man's hand away.
"At this level, it is as if you have systematically nourished internal energy since childhood. And you say you have never cultivated an internal energy method?"
"Why would I tell a lie?"
Even under the man's fierce gaze, there was no change whatsoever in Bu Eun-seol's eyes.
"Then it must be one of two things."
The man, who had swept his eyes over Bu Eun-seol's gaze, spoke coldly, as if spitting out the words.
"Either you are the greatest liar under heaven, or you cultivated an internal energy method in a dream."
Bu Eun-seol said nothing.
That was the greatest protest he could make.
"Hm."
When he could detect not a single speck of instability in Bu Eun-seol's eyes, a flash of light blazed in the man's eyes.
"This poor monk is called Blood Vajra."
Blood Vajra.
He had been a master from Heavenly Dragon Temple, called the sacred land of Yunnan, but he had been falsely accused of committing murder and expelled after having his internal energy destroyed.
Then, several years later, by some method, he perfectly recovered his internal energy and emerged into the murim.
Blood Vajra, who dealt with the fellow disciples who had framed him, and beat to death all those who came at him for revenge.
Afterward, several sects of the Righteous Path tried to kill him, but he, having mastered all the secret martial arts of Heavenly Dragon Temple, instead killed countless numbers of them.
'Why would the dharma name of an ordained monk carry the ominous word "blood"?'
Blood Vajra was a demonic monk who had dealt with numerous righteous warriors so far, but Bu Eun-seol merely thought of him as a monk with an unusual dharma name.
"You do not seem to know this poor monk."
Blood Vajra, who had been staring intently at Bu Eun-seol, grinned, baring his fangs.
"The reason the name Blood Vajra was attached to this poor monk is because I immediately beat to death anyone who offends my eyes. Do you understand?"
"I understand."
He answered, but Bu Eun-seol's eyes were full of distrust.
Blood Vajra's gaze was as clear as an autumn sky reflected in a well. He truly did not seem like a person stained by evil or one who committed murder.
Thud.
At that moment, Blood Vajra seized Bu Eun-seol's Pulse Gate with lightning-like speed.
"You said you've never learned an Internal Energy Method, so I suppose it would be fine to destroy all of your internal true qi?"
'Was I mistaken?'
Blood Vajra seemed to have not even a speck of hesitation about killing Bu Eun-seol, the one who had become the Ten Demonic Heir of Langya Pavilion.
"Of course."
As Bu Eun-seol nodded, Blood Vajra, who was gripping his Pulse Gate, suddenly felt something strange.
He discovered that Bu Eun-seol's body was merely full of true qi, but that no True Qi Circulation was occurring within him at all.
'Could this brat be...'
Blood Vajra released Bu Eun-seol's Pulse Gate and drew a deep breath.
"Have you learned it before?"
"What do you mean?"
"A secret method to calm the mind, or a way of breathing in and out."
"I learned it from my grandfather."
"Show me."
Blood Vajra spoke with a solemn gaze.
"I mean, do it right now, before my eyes."
"Understood."
Taking a deep breath, Bu Eun-seol focused his mind.
And then, standing stock-still, he began the breathing technique exactly as his grandfather had taught him.
"You perform the Circulation Art while standing?"
"What does breathing have to do with standing?"
Blood Vajra wore a baffled expression.
Even for a simple Qi Circulation and Breathing Method, the basics dictate sitting in the lotus position.
'If he can perform the Circulation Art while standing... doesn't that mean he can perform Inner Training in any posture?'
"Haa."
At that moment, Bu Eun-seol focused his mind and began to breathe.
The breathing, which started out ordinary, grew increasingly calm and long.
Before long, the time Bu Eun-seol took for a single inhale and exhale stretched beyond a quarter of an hour.
'This is...'
Blood Vajra's eyes flew wide open.
'The time for a single inhale and exhale is a quarter of an hour?'
Wasn't the breathing technique Bu Eun-seol was performing remarkably similar to the Qi Circulation Technique of the Sinew Reforging Marrow Washing Classic, which only the abbot of Shaolin was said to be able to master?
"What did I do wrong?"
Now Bu Eun-seol was even speaking, blinking his eyes as he did so.
'It is the Sinew Reforging Classic, after all.'
Among all the Internal Energy Methods scattered throughout the Murim, the Sinew Reforging Classic is the only one that allows the practitioner to open their eyes and speak during Inner Training.
Swallowing his complicated feelings, Blood Vajra extended two fingers and grabbed Bu Eun-seol's Pulse Gate once more.
"Don't mind me, and continue."
"Yes."
Bu Eun-seol focused his mind again and continued the breathing technique.
'This is...'
Blood Vajra, who had been standing still for a while, grasping the flow of Bu Eun-seol's Circulation Art, felt his eyes tremble faintly.
'Are you telling me he was only taught how to blindly accumulate true qi?'
What Bu Eun-seol was doing right now was not Inner Training for freely wielding true qi, but the Nourishing Life Secret Art, which simply accumulated true qi in the Lower Dantian.
'This is preposterous.'
Letting out a thick sigh, Blood Vajra shook his head.
'Could it be that he only taught him the Nourishing Life Secret Art because teaching the full Sinew Reforging Classic would reveal the Internal Energy Method?'
For such a thing to be possible, there was only one scenario.
A Shaolin master had deliberately separated only the Nourishing Life Secret Art from the Sinew Reforging Classic and taught it to Bu Eun-seol.
There was no other way to explain it.
"Stop."
At Blood Vajra's shout, Bu Eun-seol halted the breathing technique.
Seeing the worried expression on Bu Eun-seol's face, Blood Vajra let out a puff of air.
"Your grandfather taught you this breathing technique?"
"That's right."
"What you learned is not a breathing technique, but a method for building formidable Internal Energy."
At Blood Vajra's words, Bu Eun-seol could not hide his astonished expression.
"What I learned... you're saying it's an Internal Energy Method?"
"An Internal Energy Method and a Breathing Technique are different. What you learned is a method for accumulating true qi in the dantian."
Blood Vajra's expression, now stern, turned solemn.
"An Internal Energy Method is not only a way to nourish the true qi within the body, but also the secret to wielding it freely."
Bu Eun-seol's expression became strange.
'So that feeling of great strength whenever I put power into my lower abdomen... it was Internal Energy.'
According to Blood Vajra's words, Bu Eun-seol had only learned how to gather Internal Energy like a miser, but had never learned how to use it.
While Bu Eun-seol was lost in thought, Blood Vajra's explanation continued.
"Right now, your dantian has accumulated Internal Energy that a martial artist would need more than ten years of grueling training to obtain."
"More than ten years..."
"Moreover, since it is in a state of pure true qi, if your Hidden Acupoints were to be activated, your Internal Power would increase in the blink of an eye."
Only then did one question that Bu Eun-seol had always felt finally resolve itself.
The reason he had superior stamina and could run faster than ordinary people.
The reason he could execute the foundational swordsmanship of the Fire Rain Sword Sect with such might. It was all because, in the end, there had been a certain amount of internal power in his dantian.
"Can Internal Energy be built with just a breathing technique?"
"It is not just any breathing technique."
Blood Vajra's eyes flashed as he looked down at Bu Eun-seol.
"The Qi Circulation and Breathing Method you learned originates from an Internal Energy Method of the highest level in the Murim. If it were not so, such powerful Internal Energy could not have been built in such a short time."
Blood Vajra, who had been staring intently at Bu Eun-seol, asked again.
"What was the name of your late grandfather?"
After a moment of hesitation, Bu Eun-seol spoke in a low voice.
"He used the surname Bu, and his given name was Jan-yang."
"Bu Jan-yang."
As Blood Vajra repeated the name in a low murmur, his eyes darkened like a fading sunset.
"As far as this humble monk knows, there was only one person in the Murim who used the name Bu Jan-yang."
"Who is that?"
From Blood Vajra's subsiding gaze, an unfathomable divine light burst forth.
"The one called the Demon Path's Foremost Bladesman, the former Deputy Hall Lord of the Demon Hall. The Seven Fingers Demonic Blade, Bu Jan-yang."