Visitors
With every member of the opposing faction except Daehwa volunteering to become his subordinates, Cheonhwa was nursing a headache.
He was hardly the most sociable sort to begin with. Suddenly taking on more than thirty people under his command was proving far more trouble than he had bargained for.
If it had been up to him, he would have simply picked a suitable figure from among the former opposition to serve as their representative and left them to their own devices. But given the trouble they had already caused, he could not rest easy doing that.
I need someone who isn’t from the opposition—someone who can manage a large group.
After long deliberation, Cheonhwa found the right person.
“So that’s why you came looking for me?”
Myeonghwa gave a wry smile at Cheonhwa’s request. Clearly he had never imagined the management of the group would be entrusted to him.
“Yes. Senior Brother Myeonghwa, you’re on good terms with the people who were in the opposition as well. You’re still exchanging news with them, aren’t you?”
“Contact broke off for a while while they were in the opposition, but once they switched to the supporting side we started talking again. Still—will they even listen to me?”
“I’m not asking for anything major under the name of management. I’d simply like you to make sure the former opposition members don’t gather together more than necessary.”
“In other words, you don’t want them functioning as a faction at all?”
“Exactly. The key is to prevent them from operating as a faction.”
Herding together might be human nature, but dividing into camps and fighting as they had done this time achieved nothing. Far better to keep any faction from forming in the first place.
“At the very least, I hope no factions form until the initiate-disciple period ends.”
“Well, once the initiate period is over some will become secular disciples and leave the mountain, so the numbers will drop.”
“Fewer people will make them easier to manage.”
“All right. I’ll help.”
“Thank you, Senior Brother.”
“Just remember I’m only temporary. The supporting side follows Junior Brother Cheonhwa, not me.”
“I know. Honestly, though… I have no idea what I’m supposed to do.”
Cheonhwa had never led a large group of people before. When he asked them outright what they expected of him, every last one only answered with a meaningful smile and told him to keep living as he always had. He found the whole thing thoroughly frustrating.
Myeonghwa chuckled and offered a piece of advice.
“You’ll have to pay a little more attention than before, but if you keep going the way you are now, you’ll already be halfway there.”
“The way I am now?”
“That’s right. Just keep striving toward your goal without stopping, same as always.”
Watching Cheonhwa put in the effort made people feel both admiration and the urge to work harder themselves. Whether that came from the achievements he had already piled up or simply from the sight of him grinding away in silence, no one could say—but everyone among the Hwa generation who held a good impression of him shared roughly the same feeling. They merely expressed it in different ways.
The opposition turning into supporters probably came from the same place.
The former opposition had watched Cheonhwa’s relentless effort from right under their noses. Facing him head-on had spurred their pride as martial artists; falling behind had made them chase the steadfast back that kept moving forward. After five months of constant contact, it was no surprise they had been moved by that unchanging consistency.
Looking at it this way, Cheonhwa and Senior Brother Daehwa are complete opposites.
Daehwa, as the scion of a prestigious house, bent people to his will through innate authority. Cheonhwa made people follow him naturally through upright conduct. Myeonghwa preferred the latter—not for any grand reason, but simply because it seemed more fun.
He’s making that meaningful smile again.
Cheonhwa tilted his head at Myeonghwa’s answer. It was at least proper advice, unlike the others, yet he still could not understand why everyone wore the same sort of smile.
And so the promising star whose worries affected the entire Hwa generation continued fretting that day as well.
Cheonhwa answered a summons and headed for Sanggyun Hall. He was there to receive the elixir awarded to the top ten finishers of the promotion examination. For some reason, however, everyone else had already received theirs; only Cheonhwa had been told to wait.
When he arrived at Sanggyun Hall, Muwol was waiting for him. The senior disciple came straight to the point.
“Preparations only finished yesterday. Take it.”
Muwol drew a wooden case from his robes and handed it over. The size of the case was different from before. Sure enough, inside lay a Chukgi-dan larger than the usual ones, its color deeper as well—clearly no ordinary Qi Building Pill at a glance.
“Martial Uncle Muwol, this is…?”
“An elixir made by combining two Chukgi-dan.”
That was strange. The Chukgi-dan was a precious elixir of which only ten could be refined in a year. There should have been no surplus allowing two to be given to a single person.
When Cheonhwa asked about it, Muwol revealed the truth.
“Junior Disciple Daehwa transferred his own Chukgi-dan to you.”
“Senior Brother Daehwa did?”
“Yes.”
Cheonhwa was more surprised by that than by receiving the combined elixir. What whim had prompted Daehwa to hand over his share? He wanted to go ask the reason himself, yet that was impossible.
“I heard Senior Brother Daehwa is currently inside the Punishment Cave.”
“He is. He confessed to being the ringleader who led the opposition and then volunteered to enter the Punishment Cave. He will continue wall-facing cultivation there for the next half year.”
Cheonhwa had already heard the news from Myeonghwa. The moment Daehwa recovered and left the Medicine Hall, he had confessed the crimes he committed under the name of his family and gone straight into the Punishment Cave. At the time Cheonhwa had assumed Daehwa was simply entering closed-door training ahead of their next match. Transferring the elixir, however, suggested another intention.
Leaving nothing but headaches behind until the very end…
He wanted to ask, but the other party had fled into the Punishment Cave; all he could do was sigh. Cheonhwa decided to think positively. Whatever the motive, receiving an elixir better than a single Chukgi-dan was still a good thing.
“You said two Chukgi-dan were combined. How does it differ from the ordinary elixir?”
“The duration of its effect is the same as a normal Chukgi-dan, but the medicinal potency is nearly fifty percent greater.”
“Two combined yet only fifty percent more? The efficiency is lower than I expected.”
“It is an elixir meant to be taken one at a time that was hurriedly combined, so some loss is inevitable.”
Even so, a fifty-percent increase in efficacy would greatly aid his progress in Gyunchon Chukgi-gong. Cheonhwa wasted no time swallowing the elixir. At once a current of energy generated by the medicine arose within his body. Riding that far more distinct flow, he added cavity breathing. A wondrous sensation followed as the distinctive warm qi of Gyunchon filled every part of him.
The synergistic effect between the elixir and cavity breathing is greater than I imagined.
With this, even if he finished later than hoped, he would still reach full mastery of the third stage earlier than originally expected.
“Thank you for the elixir, Martial Uncle Muwol. Thanks to it, training my foundational art will be far easier.”
“Give your thanks not to me but to Junior Disciple Daehwa. Without him transferring his Chukgi-dan, this would have been impossible.”
“…”
Cheonhwa offered an awkward smile and fell silent. He was certainly grateful, yet their relationship was still too poor for him to rejoice purely. Sensing the awkward atmosphere, Muwol changed the subject.
“I heard from Junior Brother Inwol. You said you were aiming for full mastery of Gyunchon Chukgi-gong.”
“Yes. I judged that completing the foundational art would be better than learning other mind methods.”
“It is the orthodox path, but a thorny one. It will take a long time as well.”
“I know. Ordinary training would take ten years; even with steady consumption of Chukgi-dan it would still require five.”
“Knowing that, why do you still cling to the foundational art?”
“Because for someone of ordinary talent to become a high master, the foundation is not a choice—it is a necessity.”
Muwol found himself nodding without meaning to. Cheonhwa’s answer was sound doctrine. Many high masters had emerged from the Zhongnan Sect, and not all of them had fully mastered Gyunchon Chukgi-gong. Yet every single person who had fully mastered it had become a high master—clear proof of the importance of foundation.
Most people look for higher martial arts rather than foundational ones. His schemes run deep. Or perhaps, looking at it another way, it is only natural.
If he did not value the foundation, how could he have raised the first half of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven all the way to the extreme realm?
“I understand your will well. If completing the foundational art comes first, then learning other mind methods would indeed bring no benefit.”
“Yes. Progress in Gyunchon Chukgi-gong only slows the more other mind methods one learns.”
The qi of Gyunchon Chukgi-gong was exceptionally inclusive and harmonized well with many different martial arts and energies. That quality only broadened as mastery rose, becoming the very groundwork that allowed one to learn a wide variety of arts with differing natures. The reason someone like Daehwa could learn Zhongnan martial studies without issue even after practicing other arts was thanks to the power of Gyunchon Chukgi-gong.
Yet Gyunchon Chukgi-gong had one critical flaw: learning other mind methods slowed its own progress.
“If one’s talent were outstanding, one could train the foundational art alongside other mind methods.”
“But with ordinary talent like mine, such skill is impossible.”
Even focusing solely on the foundational art would take a full ten years. Learning other mind methods on top of that would push completion past twenty years. Unless one possessed extraordinary aptitude like Yeonhwa, there was no reason to take the long way around for immediate gains.
I want to go back and train right away.
He was eager to test just how effective the new elixir was, yet just as he was about to take his leave of Sanggyun Hall, Muwol added one more remark.
“I will inform all the initiate disciples soon, but you should know—guests are coming.”
“Guests?”
“Yes. Guests visiting from another sect.”
Visitors themselves were nothing rare. The Zhongnan Sect was one of the great orthodox houses ranked among the Nine Great Sects; guests arrived frequently. For Muwol to go out of his way to mention it, however, meant the visit concerned the initiate disciples. As Muwol continued his explanation, Cheonhwa’s eyes went round.
Xi’an, Shaanxi Province.
As the provincial capital and an ancient capital, the city saw constant traffic of people. With both the Huashan Sect and the Zhongnan Sect nearby, Taoist disciples were a common sight—yet even to the people of Shaanxi, the attire of the seven Taoists who now set foot in Xi’an was somewhat unfamiliar.
“Hey, those people… don’t they look like Taoists?”
“Judging by their robes they certainly are. Faces I don’t recognize, though.”
“Doesn’t look like Zhongnan or Huashan, does it?”
“Wait a moment—the black-and-white taiji emblem on their outer robes… could it be…!”
Passersby stirred as they guessed at the Taoists’ identity, but the seven paid the stares no mind, long accustomed to such attention, and simply kept walking.
“Even though we followed the main road, it took longer than I expected, Senior Brother.”
“On the contrary, following the main road is precisely why we were able to reach here so quickly from Mount Hua.”
“Are we resting here for the day?”
“Yes. The road to Zhongnan Mountain is said to be rough, so let us stay a day in Xi’an before we go.”
“Before we left the Huashan Sect I asked around about a good inn to lodge at.”
“Excellent. Let us head there.”
The seven Taoists made their way toward the inn. The black-and-white taiji embroidery on their robes fluttered in the wind.
A sect that vied for the foremost seat among the Nine Great Sects—hailed as the Mount Tai and Northern Dipper of the orthodox martial world.
Known throughout the realm as Wudang, Honored of the South.
Disciples of the Wudang Sect had come to visit the Zhongnan Sect.