Spiritual Nature (3)
The Founding Patriarch calmly raised his iron sword toward the flash of light streaking toward him, just as he had before.
Ripples of force coiled around the blade, flashing again and again with a sharp, crackling roar. He swung the iron sword straight into the oncoming light.
A thunderous boom shook the cavern as man-made lightning and true thunderclap collided.
For a moment the two lights seemed locked in stalemate—then the thunderbolt sheared through the flash and drove forward, finally splitting it cleanly in two.
Cheonhwa immediately released the completed form of Thunderclap Flash, but the Founding Patriarch did not miss that fleeting opening. He lunged in.
Cheonhwa wrung every last scrap of strength from his body and unleashed the Layer-Upon-Layer formula within his Midway Sword.
Another peal of thunder. The form of Heavenly Thunderbolt crashed down like a true bolt from the heavens, and the Midway Sword—embracing three profound principles—shattered without resistance.
Hot blood surged up Cheonhwa’s throat. He forced it down and swung his longsword again.
The only internal energy left to him was the single breath he had recovered through the pupil-breathing method. With that meager store, Boundless Ocean and Layer Upon Layer were impossible. He tried to answer with the sword path of Life-or-Death Escape instead.
Thunder crashed once more. The Founding Patriarch’s lightning shattered even that free-flowing sword path head-on.
He had poured every capability of the Heavenly Dipper Sword Secret into the defense and still failed. The result was inevitable.
“Khahk!”
Blood poured from Cheonhwa’s mouth. Fresh internal injuries had pushed him past the limit that the restorative arts could handle. A tingling numbness raced through his entire body as though he had been struck by real lightning; his limbs trembled so violently that merely remaining upright was a struggle. Only the Unyielding-in-Battle formula kept him on his feet at all.
The Founding Patriarch would not even grant him that much.
A fourth thunderbolt fell. Overwhelming sword force tore away the rock-solid center Cheonhwa had rooted into the earth. Unable to withstand the impact, he was flung through the air and smashed into the cavern wall.
“Guhh—?!”
The collision drove every remaining breath from his lungs. Exposure to Jin Release force and internal-energy crushing arts had left his insides in ruins. He slid down the wall and crumpled to the floor.
Every breath brought fresh pain. Perhaps a rib had cracked against the stone. Shock and the struggle for air blurred his vision.
“Hahh… hahh… hahh…”
In the sudden quiet of the cavern, only Cheonhwa’s ragged breathing echoed.
The Founding Patriarch’s gaze, fixed upon him, was no longer the same. It held neither disappointment nor anger—only the same silent question as before.
Will you end it here?
Where has the proof gone that even an ordinary man can become a master?
Cheonhwa stared blankly through the haze at the Founding Patriarch.
Boundless Ocean, Layer Upon Layer, Life-or-Death Escape, Unyielding in Battle—every formula of the Heavenly Dipper Sword Secret he had built so carefully had been smashed to pieces. It felt as though the Founding Patriarch were declaring that all his effort until now had been nothing but empty ornamentation. Dokgojin, the Founding Patriarch, had proven it with a single form, free of flourish, that shattered the pinnacle head-on.
Then had the pinnacle of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven truly been meaningless?
No. That can’t be true.
Cheonhwa leaned on his longsword as a crutch. His shaking arms and legs were not enough to raise him, yet his eyes never left the Founding Patriarch.
His body was in no state anyone could call good. It was a wonder he was still conscious and upright. Even steadying his breath was agony, and the pain flaring everywhere felt like death itself beckoning. Yet those eyes still did not know how to yield.
I don’t want to die. I want to live.
That was the most primitive wish and instinct of every living thing. A man would abandon humanity and become a beast if it meant survival; in the depths of hunger he would not hesitate to kill for a scrap of food.
But more than that—I refuse to step back.
At the same time, there were moments when a man would not retreat even with death staring him in the face. He might give the last piece of food to his child rather than eat it himself. He might stand against a beast to protect his family, risking his life. Such choices were far from ordinary—and precisely because of that, they deserved to be called great.
Even the most ordinary person can make a great choice.
In that instant Jinhyun’s face flashed through Cheonhwa’s mind—the adult who, even as death closed in, had worried for those left behind until the very end.
Cheonhwa had always been weak. His natural talent was ordinary; without every fortunate opportunity along the way he would never have reached this place. If he gave up now he would surely keep his life. Yet as a martial artist, and as the person named Cheonhwa, he would be broken beyond any chance of rising again. More than anything, he wanted to become someone who would not bring shame to the Taoist who had already departed.
So I absolutely cannot give up!
A clear, ringing cry answered his will. The Heavenly Dipper Sword Secret sang as though telling him he was not alone—and at the same time as though it were calling something forth.
New presence filled the cavern.
Both Cheonhwa and the Founding Patriarch turned by reflex toward the source. Cheonhwa’s eyes flew wide.
“Jinhyun… Martial Uncle?”
It could not be the Founding Patriarch. He had already shed Jinhyun’s form, and the two of them stood present at once. Then what was the identity of the Jinhyun who had appeared?
Was he seeing a hallucination born of his own heart?
While Cheonhwa reeled in confusion, Jinhyun steadily closed the distance and supported him. Touch and body heat told the truth: the figure before him was no illusion; it possessed real substance.
When Cheonhwa looked up, Jinhyun simply smiled without a word. There was no praise. More precisely, it seemed he could not speak at all.
Only then did Cheonhwa understand.
The manifestation of the Six Harmony Sensory Path.
The Founding Patriarch had worn Jinhyun’s form only by borrowing the intent that dwelt within the Six Harmony Sensory Path. Now that he had cast the form aside, it was only natural for the Six Harmony Sensory Path to exist separately.
And the figure of Jinhyun was merely the beginning. New presences continued to multiply inside the cavern—a monkey with five-colored fur, a crane with long legs and beak, a swallow small yet swift. The owners of those presences were the martial arts Cheonhwa had mastered, given form. They wrapped around him, transformed into multicolored streams of energy.
Martial arts—the study of martial skill. And “study” meant the ability and mastery built through time and effort. Therefore these beings were the living proof of every effort Cheonhwa had piled up until now.
When the Five Elements Fist and Nine Palaces Footwork touched him, they were absorbed as naturally as breath. At the same moment the days he had spent training those arts rose in his mind. Martial arts sank into him; memories of training flashed past like a revolving lantern. At last even the Six Harmony Sensory Path in Jinhyun’s form and the Heavenly Dipper Sword Secret shaped as a longsword were drawn into Cheonhwa.
The more than ten years since he had entered the Zhongnan Sect asked him a single question: for what purpose had he trained and struggled so desperately?
Because I wanted to become a master—one who could weather the storms of the world, never bow to injustice, and remain unshaken by any hardship.
Why become a master?
Because a master is one who can carry his will through to the end.
Then what was required to carry that will through? The ten-odd years of memory looking back answered him.
Effort.
To pour body and mind into achieving a purpose. He knew full well that effort was not an all-powerful solution to every problem. Yet it was equally true that without effort nothing even began.
Until the very moment my breath stops, I will not cease walking this path.
A deep pulse throbbed inside him. The place where the heartbeat resounded was the head—the Upper Dantian that governed spirit among essence, energy, and spirit.
Through observation Cheonhwa grasped the change occurring within his body. Just as he had formed dantians in the lower and middle fields through internal energy methods, intent now gathered in the Upper Dantian and condensed into a light of unmistakable presence.
The crystallization of the purest intent: the birth of Spiritual Nature.
In the light of Spiritual Nature Cheonhwa felt a star of the night sky—a guiding star that glittered in the dark and showed the road ahead. That guiding star widened his mind’s awareness. Until now it had never left the bounds of his flesh; now it stretched outward. That meant he could wield intent outside his own body.
In his hand the longsword of the Heavenly Dipper Sword Secret—once absorbed—rested once more. With Spiritual Nature awakened, he could summon the manifested martial arts as freely as breathing. When he poured internal energy into the blade it rang with a clear cry, achieving unity of sword and self. Energy packed densely along the blade until a pure white radiance began to pour forth—radiance that recalled the bright, cloudless sunlight of high noon.
Twenty-fifth form of the latter half of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven — Sword Qi, the hallmark of a Peak Expert, also called Intent Qi Manifestation.
As Cheonhwa raised sword qi upon his longsword, the Founding Patriarch smiled without a word. At the same time he stirred force around his iron sword, preparing the form of Heavenly Thunderbolt. He looked like a master smith testing whether a newly completed weapon was worthy.
Cheonhwa answered by swinging the longsword that held the light of the sun. Thunderbolt and sunlight crossed, contending for supremacy.
The match was decided in an instant. Sunlight not only cleaved the thunderbolt but severed the iron sword itself and sliced through the Founding Patriarch’s sleeve.
The Founding Patriarch looked at the broken iron sword and the long cut left in his sleeve, then spoke.
“A form that compresses sword qi to the utmost upon the blade, maximizing cutting power. Without doubt—White Sun Under Heaven.”
Ordinarily, one who had just reached Peak Expert would first awaken the mind’s awareness and learn to reinforce internal energy with intent. Cheonhwa already knew that process, so he had skipped it entirely and moved straight to techniques that employed intent. From first to last the result had exceeded every expectation of the Founding Patriarch.
The Founding Patriarch’s body began to fade.
Though chance had granted him intellect, he had originally been nothing more than an obstacle standing before those who challenged the realm of Peak Expert. Now that Cheonhwa had achieved Spiritual Nature and stepped into that realm, it was only natural for his existence to scatter.
“Founding Patriarch—your body…?!”
“It is fine. This was always how it was meant to end.”
Cheonhwa flinched at the sight of the Founding Patriarch slowly vanishing; the elder calmed him, explaining that the phenomenon was natural. Ordinarily he would have disappeared in an instant, yet the clear intent he still carried seemed to delay the end a little longer.
In that brief span the Founding Patriarch posed one last question.
“If you do not mind, would you tell me what realization you awakened?”
Cheonhwa answered with the short phrase that had crystallized the insight he held when he forged Spiritual Nature.
“A slow horse may take ten days to cover the ground a fine steed covers in one.”
Even one of meager talent, if he strives, can become someone outstanding.
“Man’s determination conquers Heaven.”
Just as human effort can overcome Heaven itself, so too can effort overcome any hardship.
“…Kh—khuhk—puhahahahaha!”
Hearing Cheonhwa’s realization, the Founding Patriarch burst into laughter. “Man’s determination conquers Heaven”—that was the core formula of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven. It was unmistakable proof that Cheonhwa had inherited the teachings of Founding Patriarch Dokgojin.
The efforts of my past self, who founded the Zhongnan Sect, were not meaningless after all.
Until the very moment he vanished completely, a look of deep contentment remained upon the Founding Patriarch’s lips.