Boundless Sea (3)

After his defeat by Cheonhwa at the Shaanxi Sword Gathering, Cheong-ha had replayed the match again and again, searching for the reason he had lost.

In that process he came to recognize his own shortcomings and immaturity.

My fundamentals are lacking.

With his eyes closed, Cheong-ha recalled Cheonhwa’s sword—an orthodox blade built upon fundamentals piled high through stubborn diligence. Facing that sword, he had no choice but to admit that the praise of those around him and his own natural talent had led him, without his noticing, to neglect the basics.

Now that I’ve realized I’m lacking, I can’t simply leave it be.

From that day on, Cheong-ha began training the Six Harmonies Sword Art once more to solidify his foundation. He could have learned higher martial arts, yet he refused of his own will. A tree without deep roots is easily shaken. Judging that studying advanced techniques without properly establishing the basics would leave some flaw, he declined.

So he spent his days practicing from the Six Harmonies Sword Art through the Seasonal Rain Sword, the Illusion Flower Sword, and the Wind Playing Sword. In the process Cheong-ha gained a new realization.

The Seasonal Rain Sword, Illusion Flower Sword, and Wind Playing Sword all originate from the Six Harmonies Sword Art.

Any who studied the martial learning of the Huashan Sect knew this as fact. But knowing something as knowledge and experiencing and realizing it for oneself were entirely different matters.

It’s like looking at a tree.

While thoroughly studying the Six Harmonies Sword Art, Cheong-ha unconsciously read the mental image within the sword learning. In plant terms, the Six Harmonies Sword Art was like the roots of a great tree. The higher sword arts—Seasonal Rain, Illusion Flower, Wind Playing—were the trunks extending from those roots. The trunks eventually branched out and bloomed flowers: that was the advanced martial art, the Plum Blossom Sword Formula. Thus every sword art of the Huashan Sect was ultimately derived from the foundational Six Harmonies Sword Art.

Learning advanced martial arts blindly won’t make me stronger.

For a flower to bloom beautifully, many kinds of effort are needed. Especially if the roots are not properly set, the plant cannot grow as it should. Cheong-ha devoted himself to training both the basic and higher sword arts. And so, without even learning a new martial art, his martial realm rose. In a way it was only natural. Though the Huashan Sect was a worldly school, its foundation remained a Taoist sect that pursued the Dao. Training according to the mental images steeped in the Huashan martial lineage, the rise in martial prowess was only to be expected.

While spending each day faithfully in this way, a new turning point came for Cheong-ha.

The Dragon-Phoenix Gathering preliminary finals: the match between Cheonhwa and Beomhye. Watching it, he felt as if lightning had struck above his head.

He bound the principles of heavy sword, strong sword, and blunt sword into one through the Middle Path Sword?

Every martial art held principles according to the purpose for which it was created. The more outstanding a martial art, the more martial principles it embraced. Thus binding principles together in that manner was practically the same as creating a new martial art. Yet for some reason… though it should have been a new sword art, the sword Cheonhwa displayed was still the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven.

How on earth is that possible?

From ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that day on Cheong-ha immersed himself in a new koan. Other Huashan disciples merely thought it amazing and could dig no further. But with his outstanding enlightenment and the foundation he had built studying Huashan’s martial learning, Cheong-ha could tell: the essence of that sword art also touched upon Huashan’s own sword learning.

Seasonal Rain, Illusion Flower, and Wind Playing are derived from the Six Harmonies. Then wouldn’t it be possible, like what Cheonhwa did, to bind the three sword arts centered on the Six Harmonies?

It was a rather eccentric idea. If other Huashan Taoists had heard it they would have laughed and asked how that could be possible. A Huashan master would have shaken his head, saying it was no easy path. But Cheong-ha never gave up and challenged it unceasingly until the main tournament. At last he saw the fruit of his labors.

Without Cheonhwa I would never have reached this path.

A method of binding the sword arts into one based upon the Six Harmonies—the foundation of the Huashan Sect—thus it should rightly be called the Huabon Sword Binding. At the same time it was a name that included the daoist title of Cheonhwa, who had been the catalyst for creating it.

What reaction will you show when you hear this name?

Cheong-ha looked at Cheonhwa before him. His consciousness, which had been reviewing past thoughts, raced through time to the present. Though he must have taken a heavy blow from the Flower Sword Binding, Cheonhwa was neither cowed nor discouraged. Rather he burned with fighting spirit and charged at Cheong-ha. Smiling as if he had expected as much, Cheong-ha leveled his sword tip at him.

I haven’t shown the whole of the Huabon Sword Binding yet. It would be troublesome if he falls like this.

Rippling force coiled around the blade of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Jade Plum Sword. As the sword body trembled lightly in the blade wind, afterimages arose and created thirteen phantoms. Then the afterimages collided with one another and shattered into pieces, forming countless new afterimages—a sword form combining the Illusion Flower Sword with the Seasonal Rain Sword. Along the trajectory of the swinging blade, a rain of whirling phantoms poured forth. Because fragments of rippling force were mixed among the sword shadows, distinguishing true from false became even harder. And because the sword’s sphere of influence—the sword circle—had widened due to the rippling force, evasion was no easy matter either.

Facing this, Cheonhwa chose not to evade but to confront it head-on. On the jade-colored sword body swinging to meet it, a blade of rippling force formed—an applied form combining Qi Projection Sword and Balgyeong wave into one: Clear Wind Fine Rain.

The moment rippling force collided with rippling force, Cheonhwa’s rippling force swirled and began to suck in all the sword phantoms.

As lightning sparked from the rippling force coiled around the jade wooden sword, Cheonhwa swung the small storm in his hand straight at Cheong-ha.

KWA-RUUUNG!

With a thunderous roar the storm was unleashed at close range—rippling force covering a wide area, an attack that came crashing in at point-blank range. Even if he wanted to dodge, there was neither space nor room. Thus Cheong-ha had only one choice.

I counter it.

Cheong-ha’s Jade Plum Sword swung swiftly—a swift sword that made oneself like the wind. He intended to cut through the rippling force with sword power generated by rapid sword speed.

A single acceleration won’t be enough.

So he accelerated multiple times. The true qi operation of the scattered sword that attacked multiple vital points simultaneously through collisions of rippling force—he converted those collisions into propulsive force for sword speed. In an instant the trajectory of a sword strike accelerated five times severed the storm.

KWAAAAK!

The sound of air being cleaved rang across the entire sparring stage. The aftermath of the collision between the storm of rippling force and the sword strike that cut it whirled about. Though Cheong-ha had put out the immediate fire, he felt a queasy sensation in his gut. The acceleration sword that combined scattered sword centered on swift sword originally put heavy burden on the body, yet the sensation he felt now was not the recoil of the sword art. The alien energy that had already seeped into his body proved it.

This is… the Internal Injury Infliction Method?

It seemed the sword wind Cheonhwa had used was not merely large and powerful rippling force.

Unlike Cheonhwa, who possessed recovery abilities, Cheong-ha had no means to heal internal injuries during a spar. Originally he would have been at a disadvantage in a prolonged fight, but now he had even less time.

I’ll decide it with the next move.

Cheong-ha steadied his breath, readjusted his grip on the Jade Plum Sword, and took the opening stance of the Six Harmonies Sword Art. His calmly settled mind drew up, through the Huabon Sword Binding, the mental images engraved in the Huashan sword arts.

The Six Harmonies Sword Art was the roots and the earth in which the plant took root—the environment and foundation necessary for a plant to grow. The higher sword arts derived from the Six Harmonies were the plant’s stems and the tree’s branches, and at the same time meant the elements necessary for the plant to grow. The Seasonal Rain Sword was rain falling at the proper time. The Illusion Flower Sword was sunlight pouring from the sky. The Wind Playing Sword was the wind that carried seeds aloft. A sprout grown from the soil of the Six Harmonies grew while receiving rain, sunlight, and wind. The Huabon Sword Binding was the same.

In Cheong-ha’s eyes that opened after once closing, profound mystery appeared. At the same time the sword began to move. To the sword path that began with the Six Harmonies Sword Art, elements of the higher sword arts were added. Then the rippling force coiled around the blade began to change. Multiple strands of rippling force extending from the sword tip collided and shattered into pieces. Fragments of rippling force mixed with phantoms and created a dreamlike form. Riding the wind as if flowing, that domain rapidly expanded. As time flowed the plant grew into a great tree. On the extended branches new life budded, and flowers bloomed in full. That was precisely the core formula of the Six Harmonies Sword Art.

At that spectacle, someone among those watching the spar said,

“Beautiful…”

It was a word that represented the feelings of those watching. The fragments of rippling force that glittered with scattered light as substance and phantom mixed were truly gorgeous, and made the viewers feel as if countless flower petals were scattering on the wind. It was simply astonishing that a sword art could be this beautiful.

Cheonhwa, facing it head-on, was equally astonished. He had known, but it was similar to yet different from the layered overlapping formula he himself had created. Cheonhwa had converged the principles of different sword arts into the single path of the Middle Way; the principles of the various sword arts formed a vertical. In contrast Cheong-ha connected the principles of different sword arts into one and sought harmony; the principles of the various sword arts formed a horizontal. The sword art converged through the Middle Way concentrated on a single point. The sword art connected through harmony spread outward. Similar yet distinctly different methods.

How can he connect sword arts like that?

Even as the sharp flower storm rushed in, Cheonhwa did not stop thinking. Concentration pushed to the extreme made even the approaching threat slow, and the accelerated flow of thought chased the answer, linking one after another.

Swift sword, illusion sword, scattered sword. Each has different characteristics in their principles, but there must still be common points.

Namely, they actively used rippling force—Balgyeong waves. The swift sword used rippling force as propulsive force. The scattered sword collided rippling force to scatter fragments. The illusion sword utilized afterimages made with rippling force.

Then what was a Balgyeong wave? A true qi art that transmitted explosive force using qi waves as a medium. Then what of the Qi Projection Sword and Internal Injury Infliction Method that were bound together with Balgyeong waves? The Qi Projection Sword was an art that connected external objects and people through true qi. The Internal Injury Infliction Method was an art that pushed internal energy into another’s body. These arts again shared the common point of true qi operation, and what made true qi operation possible was the will that moved true qi. That could be called a common point possessed by all martial learning in the world.

Suddenly the formula of the mid-stage peak flashed through his mind.

Three Arts Sword Intent.

What does one pursue with the three arts? Cheonhwa reversed the meaning of that question.

What must one pursue to be able to connect through the three arts?

Riding the continuing questions, he endlessly traced back until he faced the main current—the great sea named martial learning. It would be impossible to contain all of this in a single formula. At least Cheonhwa was not a vessel capable of such a thing. But it was possible to ride the streams he already possessed and advance into the sea. And that would become the foundation for understanding even a handful of this vast sea.

Then naturally the boundaries of the sword forms that used true qi arts also began to collapse. He might have lost direction and wandered if he made a misstep, but the Zhongnan martial lineage—the great path handed down from previous generations—showed him the way he must go.

The stretched time returned to normal. Qi waves surged on the jade blade of Okgyeong. Internal energy circulation as natural as moving hands and feet. No longer did he need to pass through applied forms like Clear Wind Fine Rain or Wind-Flow Cloud-Mountain to use the last three forms of the mid-stage. Since all forms were connected as one, there was no need to distinguish them. And it did not stop there—new applications of forms that had been impossible before became possible. The mental images of lightning, thunder, and thunderbolt harmonized into one and settled into Okgyeong. On the jade sword body light continuously flashed and vibrations arose as if it would explode at any moment.

Cheonhwa faced the essence of the Huashan Sect’s higher sword arts rushing toward ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠him. In response he released the thunder and lightning dwelling in the jade wooden sword.

The next moment, a flash of light ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠covered the sparring stage.