Divided Mind Technique: Double the Achievement
The Amun training hall.
As Dan Yeop slipped quietly inside, a bitter smile spread across Dan Bul-wi’s lips.
He had once been nothing more than a low-ranking Munwi of Amun, but ten years ago he had been left behind in Byeongmachong against his will. That moment, however, became the turning point of his life.
After seven years of brutal training, he had risen to Hyangju three years earlier and taken the position of martial arts instructor for Amun. The promotion allowed him to leave once a year, yet having grown addicted to closed-door cultivation, he refused to set foot outside the underground cavern.
Though Byeongmachong was a subterranean complex, a single shaft of light pierced its exact center. Thanks to that beam, one could track the passing of days and nights, and the steady rhythm did wonders for calming both mind and body. That was the real reason Dan Bul-wi had chosen to remain.
“What is it this time?”
Dan Bul-wi was infamous among the trainees for his vicious tongue, yet he always showed Dan Yeop a strange leniency. Perhaps it was guilt. After all, he had been the one to kidnap the four-year-old from the streets and give him the name Dan Yeop. He had also been the first to call the boy “baby monkey.” These days the nickname had hardened into “stone monkey.”
Dan Yeop kept his eyes lowered. “The Heart Purifying Technique.”
“What about the Seven Wounds Blade Technique? That would be far more useful in real combat.”
Amun’s primary trade was human trafficking; they had planted both feet firmly in the unorthodox path. Consequently, they polished lethal arts such as the Seven Wounds Blade Technique. The Heart Purifying Technique, true to its name, excelled at calming agitation, but that was its only merit. Since it had nothing to do with inner energy—the true foundation of any martial artist—it was treated within Amun as something neither fully useful nor entirely worthless.
“I already know that one well enough.”
“Tsk! Among the Six Gates—evasion, footwork, fist, leg, palm, and blade techniques—is there even one you can perform from start to finish?”
“No.”
“The instructors told you that you cannot leave until you have perfectly mastered at least one of them.”
“Well… whenever I practice for long, my chest starts pounding and my head goes fuzzy…”
“Even the Seven Wounds Blade Technique?”
“Yes.”
The pity that had been restraining Dan Bul-wi finally snapped.
“You damn idiot! Then you should have clung to the Seven Wounds Blade Technique even harder! How many times have I told you—if your head won’t work, make your body remember!”
“That’s…”
“That’s this, that’s that—you stone-headed bastard who’s worse than a monkey! Rainwater dripping from the eaves eventually bores a hole through solid rock. Do you know why? Because it strikes the same spot without fail. Yet you’ve spent ten years dabbling in every single one of the Six Gates’ arts? A fool whose head was never any good to begin with! And now, with your departure date staring you in the face, you come asking for mind-technique instruction again? You son of a bitch! Are you deliberately trying to stay locked inside Byeongmachong?”
“No, sir.”
“No, my ass. You parasite. They feed you, clothe you, give you a roof—must be nice, huh? We should change your nickname from stone monkey to parasite.”
“Instructor, it’s truly not that. I thought that if I could calm my mind, my head might clear.”
Only then did Dan Bul-wi stop his tirade and look at Dan Yeop with fresh eyes. The boy’s reasoning was sound. The Heart Purifying Technique was, after all, a method that brought extreme tranquility to both mind and body.
“Haa… So you plan to settle your thoughts by calming your mind with the Heart Purifying Technique?”
“Y-yes, that’s correct.”
Dan Yeop pressed his forehead to the floor, afraid the instructor might explode again at any moment.
“Where exactly are you stuck?”
“It says: When the heart is pure, essence is attained. When essence is emptied, spirit is attained. When spirit transforms, truth is realized. Pursue the light. I don’t understand what essence and spirit refer to.”
“Impressive. In three years of teaching the Heart Purifying Technique here, you’re the first to ask that question. As my master explained it, essence refers to the primal essence stored in the dantian, while spirit simply means qi.”
“Then the part about the mind needing to be clean…”
Before Dan Yeop could finish, Dan Bul-wi answered.
“The mind resides in the breath. Breath is the energy we accumulate from the moment we are born. Only when the sound of the mind—when the sound of breathing—disappears can one obtain primal essence…”
There is a saying that one learns by teaching. Dan Bul-wi, who had spent ten years in unintentional seclusion, had unwittingly unraveled a fragment of the Heart Purifying Technique’s secret.
“Ah!”
An involuntary exclamation escaped Dan Yeop’s lips. The sound jolted Dan Bul-wi back to his senses, and he waved the boy away. He dared not speak, afraid the fleeting insight would vanish.
Reading the mood, Dan Yeop bowed deeply and left the training hall.
Once outside, he began searching for a suitable place to practice the Heart Purifying Technique. Byeongmachong was enormous. Even with one hundred and eighty trainees, they probably used less than ten percent of its space. Many areas remained unexplored since its discovery during tomb excavation.
Avoiding the other trainees, he ventured deep into an undeveloped region and settled inside a suitable stone chamber. He sat cross-legged and began breathing according to the technique’s formulas. Instead of chasing the vague instruction to “make the mind clean,” he focused solely on erasing the sound of his own breath.
Unlike his usual careless breathing, he inhaled and exhaled with extreme slowness and thinness. Only then did the sound disappear. According to the formula, he had finally emptied his mind.
Did I succeed?
Yet the Heart Purifying Technique was not so easily mastered. Although his ears heard nothing, the very act of focusing on sound made the breathing even more vivid. It felt as though a spiderweb of breath was threading in and out of his nostrils. Since Dan Bul-wi had said breath was the mind, it meant the mind itself was coming and going. At this rate he would fail before even beginning.
From that point on, Dan Yeop concentrated on forgetting the very act of breathing. The other trainees had never dug this deeply because they dismissed Amun’s mind techniques, especially since the Heart Purifying Technique was known as mental training unrelated to inner energy. What Haomun needed were practical methods. But Dan Yeop, whose head grew foggy whenever he tried to concentrate, threw himself earnestly into this seemingly useless practice.
How much time had passed?
While he sat with eyes half-closed, a rough voice shattered the silence.
“Hey! Kid! What the hell are you doing in here?”
Startled by Dan Jae’s shout, Dan Yeop’s eyes flew open.
Ten years ago, when Dan Bul-wi had still been a mere Munwi, he had named three children: Dan Geum, Dan Jae, and Dan Yeop. The names carried the hope that gold and talent would flourish like leaves. Because of that bond, the three were known inside Byeongmachong as Dan Bul-wi’s adopted sons.
“Uh… I was, um, practicing the mind technique for a moment.”
“A moment, my ass. You’ve been gone all day. Big brother and I have been searching everywhere.”
“All day?”
Dan Yeop blinked, dazed. It had felt like less than half a shichen.
“Yeah. The exit examination is today. The whole place is in chaos because you vanished. Hurry up.”
“Today?”
“Even the first-generation trainees were mobilized to look for you. If anyone curses at you, just apologize. You’ll figure it out.”
“Yes.”
A short while later, as they ran side by side out of the chamber, Dan Jae asked casually, “You confident you’ll pass?”
Excluding mind and movement techniques, there were nine signature arts of the Six Gates. Haomun’s martial skills were considered third-rate throughout the jianghu and were not particularly difficult. After ten years of training, even an idiot should have mastered at least one or two.
Yet Dan Yeop’s innate constitution had prevented it. Ever since childhood, any serious effort left him short of breath and foggy-headed.
“Well… um…”
Dan Jae didn’t wait for the rest. “If you’re really unsure, try the Heaven and Earth Blade Technique. It’s the easiest of the Six Gates. Just blend in with the crowd and copy them. You should pass that way.”
“Yes…”
A secret art of the Carefree Sect that splits the mind in two, doubling one’s rate of achievement.
Upon reaching great completion, any art learned will yield twice the usual progress.
***
In the end, Dan Yeop failed the examination.
He had followed Dan Jae’s advice and demonstrated the Heaven and Earth Blade Technique, but the instructors’ excessive scrutiny proved fatal. The test itself was simple: the head instructor called out the names of various arts—Mountain King Whip, Heaven Collapsing Fist, White Flow Blade Technique, Heaven Flipping Hand, Heaven and Earth Blade Technique, Tiger Crane Double Fist, Lightning Flash Kick, Falling Flower Mountain Hand, Seven Wounds Blade Technique—and those who had mastered them would step forward to perform.
The more techniques one knew, the better the treatment, so no one skipped any they had learned. Ten people challenged the notoriously difficult White Flow Blade Technique, yet every first-generation trainee participated in the Heaven and Earth Blade Technique. With seventy-two participants, it should have been easy to blend in, but Dan Yeop was the exception. The instructors watched the boy known as the stone monkey with hawk-like eyes.
Naturally, once the form passed its midpoint, Dan Yeop could no longer keep up with the others and was eliminated. That same day, the seventy-one successful first-generation trainees left Byeongmachong together with the leaders of the Six Gates.
***
Summer passed, then winter arrived.
Dan Yeop continued to cling to the Heart Purifying Technique, but progress remained agonizingly slow. His body refused to cooperate, so his martial achievement stayed stuck in place. The second-generation trainees of Byeongmachong had no reason to treat such a person as a senior. “Stone monkey” was the mildest insult; many simply called him “Hey, you.”
Go Jwa-ryeong, heading to the dining hall with fellow second-generation trainees, immediately started trouble when he spotted Dan Yeop.
“Hey, stone monkey. I heard you got your ass kicked by a third-generation trainee yesterday. With that kind of record, you think you can eat with us? Back of the line.”
Dan Yeop flinched but retreated without argument. Go Jwa-ryeong muttered, “Pathetic bastard.” To be beaten by third-generation trainees as a first-generation disciple meant he was barely human.
When Ha Yong-wol looked at Dan Yeop with pity, Ryu Seol-ri nudged her elbow. Unfortunately the scene caught Ma Eun-rok’s eye, ruining his appetite.
After dinner, Dan Yeop was summoned by Ma Eun-rok before he could even rest.
“Hey, stone monkey.”
Dan Yeop raised his head at the call, then quickly lowered his gaze again. It wasn’t fear of Ma Eun-rok, the strongest of the second generation. He had simply never been able to look anyone in the face. His eyes always stayed fixed on the ground or the other person’s feet.
“Yeah.”
“Does it offend you when a junior speaks casually?”
“No.”
“Good. You know Junior Sister Yong-wol, right?”
“Uh… yes?”
Not understanding where this was going, Dan Yeop stammered. Ma Eun-rok kicked him in the shin.
“Speak clearly, bastard. Do you know her or not?”
“Ow! Yes, I know her.”
“Have you ever spoken with her?”
“A few times.”
Having lived in the same space for nine years since childhood, it was inevitable. Ma Eun-rok lifted his chin arrogantly.
“As you know, my father is the leader of the Cha Branch. Junior Sister Ha is the daughter of the Gi Branch leader. When we leave, I will marry her.”
“Congratulations.”
“Junior Sister Yong-wol is my woman, so don’t even look at her from now on. Understood?”
“Yeah.”
“Think you can leave next year?”
“I don’t know.”
“I heard you’re only practicing the Heaven and Earth Blade Technique. So why don’t you know?”
“I can’t even remember the second form.”
“You really are worse than a monkey. You’re seriously hopeless.”
The Heaven and Earth Blade Technique consisted of three forms, each changing nine times, totaling twenty-seven movements. A few months of effort should have been enough to master it blindfolded.
“I know.”
“This won’t do. Still, since we’re fellow Haomun members, I’ll help you.”
“How?”
A book dropped at Dan Yeop’s feet with a thud.
“It’s the Divided Mind Technique. A secret art of the Carefree Sect. It splits the mind in two and doubles your rate of achievement. Learn this, and even a half-wit like you might finally pull your own weight.”
“Double?”
“That’s what it says. It’s written in the book, not my words. Upon reaching great completion, anything you learn will yield twice the usual progress.”
Dan Yeop’s heart stirred. If the claim was true, this was the perfect art for him. He snatched the book.
“Thank you. I won’t forget this favor.”
“No need for talk of favors between fellow disciples. Just train hard. You need to leave next year too.”
“Yeah. I’ll work hard.”
When Dan Yeop made his resolute vow, Ma Eun-rok clenched his teeth to keep the laughter from bursting out.