Spiritual Nature (2)

“Hah.”

Dokgo Jin, the Founding Patriarch, let out a laugh before he even realized it.

He had demonstrated Body-Sword Unity only so the boy would take note of it for the day he might need it. He had never imagined Cheonhwa would succeed at it in actual combat without so much as a single proper practice session.

Even inside a mindscape, that is not a realm one simply steps into so easily. And yet this child keeps astonishing me at every turn.

The reason he had achieved Body-Sword Unity in a single attempt was almost certainly that he had already awakened heart-mind consciousness. Heart-mind consciousness was the sense that perceived intent, and a mindscape was a domain founded upon intent. He must have grasped the principle of Body-Sword Unity on pure instinct the moment he saw it.

Even granting that he awakened heart-mind consciousness through some stroke of fortune, I never expected it to go this far.

The Founding Patriarch swallowed another laugh. Of all the opportunities that had come Cheonhwa’s way, the greatest was surely ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the awakening of heart-mind consciousness.

If awakening heart-mind consciousness were easy, I never would have prepared something like the power of Contemplation in the first place.

The power of Contemplation, obtainable only by properly mastering the Vast Heaven Qi Art to completion, was a means of imitating a genius’s innate senses and of substituting for heart-mind consciousness until one reached the Peak. Cheonhwa’s order had simply been reversed. He had awakened heart-mind consciousness first, and only afterward obtained the power of Contemplation.

So of course handling intent comes more naturally to him than moving his body or his internal energy.

From the rank of a low-level martial artist he had already known senses that belonged properly to the higher realms. Of the three elements of Essence, Qi, and Spirit, only Spirit had come to dwell in a higher domain—and under the influence of that enlightenment, the growth of Essence and Qi had begun to accelerate as well. In all the Central Plains, Cheonhwa was surely the only such case.

Meanwhile, Cheonhwa poured every scrap of his attention into the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sensation of Body-Sword Unity. The feeling of achieving Sword-Self Oneness was unlike anything he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had known before—as if eyes had opened along the blade itself, and he were looking out at the world through the sword. From now on, no matter which sword art he employed, he would be able to wield it with the same precision as when he used heart-mind consciousness and Contemplation.

With this, I’ve closed the distance to the Founding Patriarch by another step.

The road ahead still stretched for ten thousand leagues, yet that did not make this single step meaningless. Cheonhwa savored the vibration of the longsword running through his grip and adjusted his hold on the hilt.

Once he was ready, the Founding Patriarch settled into his own stance, and the two of them began exchanging blows once more. Longsword and iron sword carved the air with vicious shrieks, scattering flashes of sword-light. Body-Sword Unity refined every movement still further—yet when the blades actually collided, the sharp clash of before did not ring out. Both of them were absorbing the impact with the fourteenth form of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven: Under-Heaven Rain.

Absorbing the shock alone isn’t enough. If I work it the way Neutralizing Jin does, I can ease the burden on the longsword while accumulating force far more efficiently.

Through Body-Sword Unity, Cheonhwa could now operate Under-Heaven Rain with far greater delicacy. He could swallow heavier impacts than before while reducing the damage taken—and more than that, he could draw the absorbed force into his body and recycle it as Stored Jin. What followed was the form that detonated the shock absorbed by Under-Heaven Rain: Under-Heaven Rainburst. Linked with both Jin Release and Stored Jin, the detonation no longer merely poured down like a sudden cloudburst; it rose like a towering tidal wave.

The Founding Patriarch answered in exactly the same manner. The instant iron sword and longsword met, the aftershock rolled through the entire cavern and shook it as though an earthquake had struck. But the contest of Jin Release force was only beginning. Each man absorbed the rebound of Under-Heaven Rainburst straight back into Under-Heaven Rain, then stacked Jin Release force again and finished preparing Stored Jin. Tidal waves of force crashed one after another, and the aftershocks rang through the cavern like endless echoes.

The upper hand in the Jin Release contest naturally belonged to the Founding Patriarch. As the creator of the forms, his mastery of them surpassed anyone else’s. So Cheonhwa brought out a weapon the Founding Patriarch did not possess.

Layered internal energy soaked into the longsword and made it heavy. The Jin Release force riding each stroke grew denser and more solid. With the most efficient of movements he answered the opponent’s every motion using the least possible action. It was the power of Layered Heaviness—the principle that took the Middle Way Sword as its foundation and gathered into itself the mysteries of the heavy sword, the hard sword, and the dull sword.

In pure achievement as a Middle Way Swordsman the Founding Patriarch still held the clear advantage, yet by embracing the mysteries of multiple sword arts Cheonhwa closed the gap, and in the contest of Jin Release force he no longer crumbled at once.

At the sight of the formula for Layered Heaviness, the Founding Patriarch burst out laughing.

“Magnificent. To think I would see with my own eyes the most ideal Middle Way Sword I ever imagined!”

Unless one was dealing with a supreme martial art, embracing several mysteries at once was no simple matter. Pack in too many and the result became a confused mess; consumption soared, and learning it became fiendishly difficult. That was why Dokgo Jin had chosen instead to forge a vessel capable of holding many mysteries—the Balanced Heaven Qi Accumulation Art and the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven, both of which carried the principles of harmony and the Middle Way.

The Middle Way Sword grew slowly, and completing it was harder still. It leaned toward nothing, and so it possessed no standout strength; at low ranks it was a thoroughly awkward, half-hearted art. Yet once the practitioner’s realm rose high enough, it could overwhelm every other sword art in every respect. The Founding Patriarch had prepared the intermediate stages needed to reach that height.

Of course, preparing something and being able to use it properly are two different questions.

Even now, after the Founding Patriarch’s death, not a single person had fully mastered the Balanced Heaven Qi Accumulation Art alone. Yet here stood the first exception—and the results Cheonhwa was showing not only matched the Founding Patriarch’s design, they surpassed it.

He has taken the Middle Way Sword as base and embraced three separate mysteries. The consumption must be severe.

But Cheonhwa could cover those problems with the powers of the arts he already possessed. Through the cavity breathing of the Balanced Heaven Qi Accumulation Art he recovered internal energy even in the middle of combat. The true-qi endurance of the Vast Heaven Qi Art let him unleash major forms without strain. The recovery of Dark Heaven True Qi continually mended the rebound and the internal injuries. It was the ideal chain of flow the Founding Patriarch had once designed.

When the Jin Release contest failed to decide a victor, Cheonhwa and the Founding Patriarch began in earnest to employ the other mid-stage forms. They drove successive sword-winds with Under-Heaven Windflow, launched sudden strikes and counters at speeds rivaling a swift sword with Under-Heaven Windfiend, unfolded external heavy-hand methods with Under-Heaven Drifting Clouds, and answered them by receiving and striking with Under-Heaven Cloud Peak. A banquet of true-qi techniques—Intent-Riding Sword, Jin Release waves, and external heavy-hand methods—unfolded in full.

The Founding Patriarch coiled the oncoming sword-winds around his blade and swung them straight back at Cheonhwa. It was the form that returned an opponent’s force-waves: Under-Heaven Returning Flash. Cheonhwa answered with an applied form that fused Under-Heaven Windflow and Under-Heaven Cloud Mountain into one—Windflow Cloud Mountain. A small vortex coiled around the longsword and sliced apart the rolling wave of force. Using the breaking power inherent in Windflow Cloud Mountain, he had severed the force-wave’s current strand by strand.

As expected, the difference in the completeness of each individual form is still enormous.

His opponent was the founder of the Zhongnan martial lineage. Layered Heaviness alone had clear limits. To overcome this he would have to employ the Boundless Ocean formula as well—but could he bear the consumption?

Even Layered Heaviness by itself was already a formula that drained stamina, internal energy, and much else to the extreme. He had reduced the cost somewhat by raising his achievement through relentless practice, yet the margin was still razor-thin. Adding Boundless Ocean on top of it would instantly push him past what he could endure.

Boundless Ocean breaks down the boundaries between forms as it operates, so its consumption is as severe as Layered Heaviness’s.

Even the Thunderbolt Flash he had unleashed in the finals of the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering had drained nearly half his internal energy with a single form. Only someone who had fully mastered three separate internal arts, like Cheonhwa, could even attempt it. As with Layered Heaviness, higher achievement would gradually lower the cost—but at his present level it was nowhere near enough.

Even so, if I don’t use it, I have not the slightest chance of winning.

Having made up his mind, Cheonhwa drew up the mindscape of Boundless Ocean and brought out the final mid-stage formula. He swung the longsword still wrapped in Windflow Cloud Mountain; a single stroke poured forth five successive force-waves. The Founding Patriarch recognized the combination at once.

He has added Under-Heaven Thunderclap to Windflow Cloud Mountain.

Under-Heaven Thunderclap was the form that raised external heavy-hand methods through sword-wind. By binding it to Windflow Cloud Mountain he had poured out multiple layers of force-waves in a single attack while also adding defensive breaking power.

Windflow Cloud Mountain is powerful, but it is hard to use unless one is already at close range. He solved that with Under-Heaven Thunderclap.

The purpose of the mid-stage forms ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven was to master Intent-Riding Sword, Jin Release waves, and external heavy-hand methods so that the final three forms could be used. Under-Heaven Returning Flash, Under-Heaven Thunderclap, and Under-Heaven Thunderbolt—all three required the simultaneous operation of those three techniques.

And yet he has gone and added a new form on top of an already complete one.

The structure of the form Cheonhwa had unfolded through Boundless Ocean still had many deficiencies. One could fairly say he had forced the forms together through intent alone, and the enormous consumption stemmed from that forced joining. What was even more astonishing was that, despite all of it, the form neither collapsed nor fell into disarray; he could still operate it.

Like Layered Heaviness, the Boundless Ocean formula still has room to grow.

Layered Heaviness would, in time, be able to accept new mysteries as he learned new internal arts and sword arts. Boundless Ocean could be applied to the latter-stage formulas of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven as well.

But mere possibility is not enough.

Advancing into the Peak meant surpassing possibility. That held true even for a disciple of his own main mountain who had inherited his true transmission. And so Dokgo Jin, the Founding Patriarch, resolved to face Cheonhwa with his full power.

As the successive force-waves came flying in, the Founding Patriarch raised his iron sword. The blade scattered sword-light as it traced its path. The moment each force-wave touched that trajectory, it shattered into fragments as though porcelain had been smashed. Immediately the aftershock of the broken form began to reverse-flow. Cheonhwa hastily severed the mindscape of Boundless Ocean and cut the reverse current off.

What in the world was that just now?

The form the Founding Patriarch had used was one Cheonhwa knew: Under-Heaven Thunderbolt, the form that carried the mindscape of a thunderbolt and severed the flow. Yet the gulf between the Founding Patriarch’s version and his own was truly heaven and earth. He had known that what the Founding Patriarch had shown so far was not the whole of his strength—but only now did he feel how bottomlessly wide that distance still yawned.

Half-hearted combinations of forms won’t work.

If he tried that again, Under-Heaven Thunderbolt would break them as it had just done, and the force and internal energy invested in the forms would reverse-flow without fail.

I have no choice but to pour every last reserve into one decisive strike.

Having reached that conclusion, Cheonhwa concentrated stamina, internal energy, and intent into a single point and unleashed the most powerful form he could currently perform.