Hyeonhwang Blacksmith (3)
Having driven Dan Myeong-geuk outside, Cheonhwa spoke to Gu Cheol-mun.
"If we fought inside, the blacksmith would be left in ruins, so I pushed him out. Just to be safe, once I leave, lock the door from the inside."
"Going outside? What do you intend to do, Taoist Cheonhwa?"
"I will stop the uninvited guest from causing any more trouble."
Cheonhwa picked up the wooden sword Dan Myeong-geuk had dropped on the floor as he was sent flying. The unique heaviness of the Sinking Heavy Water Tree branch was still there, yet it settled snugly into his grip, revealing at once that it was a finely crafted weapon.
"Thank you for the wooden sword. Once things are settled, we can decide on a proper name for it."
With those words, Cheonhwa stepped out of the blacksmith.
Dan Myeong-geuk, who had been blasted away by the palm strike of the Golden Wall Fist, had clearly rolled across the ground; the fine silk robes he wore were filthy with dirt.
"You bastard—what kind of sorcery was that?!"
Dan Myeong-geuk staggered to his feet and glared at Cheonhwa. Even if he had been caught off guard, the fact that he had been sent flying in a straight line from the workshop all the way outside clearly refused to settle in his mind.
"Sorcery? I simply sent you flying with the balgyeong of a strong fist."
In the process he had only used the Yukhapgamgakdo to confirm the path of the throw so no one would be caught in the middle. No strange or underhanded method had been involved.
At Cheonhwa's answer, Dan Myeong-geuk's face twisted with rage.
"Fine. If you insist on sticking to that story, then I'll simply have to deliver a fitting punishment."
"You really don't listen, do you? You commit the rudeness of drawing a weapon at will in someone else's shop, and then you have the gall to act this brazen."
"Shut your mouth!"
Dan Myeong-geuk drew the sword at his waist and charged. True qi seeped along the hilt and into the blade, sending ripples across the steel. What followed was a sword stroke swept horizontally as he stamped out a true step.
Cheonhwa took a wide retreating step and slipped free of the sword's range by a hair's breadth. In the wake of the blade's path, the residual force of balgyeong whipped past and fluttered his sleeves.
This balgyeong force… a hard-sword style, is it?
From the form his opponent had just displayed, Cheonhwa read the nature of the sword art at a glance. A hard-sword style moved in simple lines, so dealing with it itself was not difficult. The problem lay elsewhere.
This wooden sword is heavier than I expected.
Even though he had reached great mastery of the Gyunchon Chukgi-gong, the wooden sword of Sinking Heavy Water Tree was so heavy that the free, varied handling he had used before was impossible.
Delicate soft-sword movements are out of the question.
He would have to settle it with simple, straight-line motion.
I'll push him back with hard sword.
The simple movements unique to hard-sword technique would let him make full use of the wooden sword's weight. Decision made, Cheonhwa raised the wooden sword overhead. At the same time he circulated Hocheon-gigong and drew up his balgyeong force.
His opponent answered by sweeping the iron sword on a diagonal. The wooden sword that plummeted vertically and the iron sword that cut on a slant collided head-on.
Clang-scrape!
Iron and wood met, yet sparks flew as if metal had struck metal. Hard sword against hard sword. In the contest of pure strength, Cheonhwa held the upper hand. Forced backward by the sword force, Dan Myeong-geuk's face flooded with shock.
"How—why am I the one being pushed back?!"
"The core of hard sword is balgyeong force, and the foundation of balgyeong is the body itself. The one whose external arts have reached a higher level naturally takes the advantage."
"You're saying my martial level is below yours? Don't make me laugh!"
Dan Myeong-geuk ground his teeth and refused to accept reality. Drawing his internal energy to its peak, he charged Cheonhwa once more. Murderous light burned in his eyes; he clearly meant to use killing moves without mercy. The sight of him throwing a tantrum and trying to kill simply because things were not going his way made him look like a spoiled child who had been given power.
Cheonhwa found the attitude absurd, yet he calmly met every attack. Each time their hard-sword strikes collided, residual force sent gusts of wind racing outward. Each time, Dan Myeong-geuk was driven back by the sword force, only to charge in again.
While trading blows, Cheonhwa stole glances at the wooden sword. True to its origin as a branch of a spirit wood, even after clashing repeatedly with an iron sword reinforced by qi infusion, it showed not a single scratch.
With this, I can swing at full power without worry.
The situation remained overwhelmingly in Cheonhwa's favor from start to finish. The qi-infused iron sword was rendered meaningless against the wooden blade of Sinking Heavy Water Tree, and in the pure collisions of hard sword against hard sword he was crushing his opponent through sheer balgyeong force. If things continued this way, Dan Myeong-geuk's internal energy would run dry first and decide the match.
Dan Myeong-geuk knew that as well, so he threw out a final gamble. His aura began to swell and heave violently—the unmistakable prelude to chukgyeong.
He means to overturn the unfavorable tide with stored jin.
Chukgyeong was the art of drawing forth balgyeong force beyond one's normal limits by releasing accumulated power; used properly, it was as good as a life-saving ultimate move that could close the gap in skill. Yet the ability to reverse a situation also meant the ability to lock it down completely.
As if he had been waiting for exactly that desperate attempt, Cheonhwa's own aura expanded massively and sent ripples outward. Just as his opponent had been storing force while they exchanged blows, Cheonhwa too had been packing the rebound of each impact into his true qi.
Both men released the force they had held back. Two vivid trails of light carved themselves through the empty air. The moment the gray trajectory and the blue-green trajectory crossed—
BOOM!
The stored power collided, and a noise that tore the air itself echoed outward. The aftermath of the massive clash whipped up a gale and raised a cloud of dust. When the dust settled, victor and loser stood revealed.
The one still on his feet was Cheonhwa. The one lying on the ground was Dan Myeong-geuk.
"Cough!"
Blood trickled from the corner of Dan Myeong-geuk's mouth—the mark of internal injury. Residual force that had not been fully discharged in the chukgyeong contest had shaken his meridians.
"Do you intend to continue?"
Cheonhwa set the tip of his sword against the fallen man's throat as he asked. The meaning was clear: fight any further and his life could not be guaranteed. Understanding that, Dan Myeong-geuk bit down hard on his lip; moisture gathered at the corners of his eyes. To have his most trusted hard-sword style driven back head-on and end in defeat clearly galled him beyond measure.
"Damn it! Just what the hell are you?!"
"I already told you. I am an entry-level disciple of the Zhongnan Sect."
"There's no way an entry-level disciple like you exists!"
A formal disciple, perhaps—but where in the world was there an entry-level disciple who could overwhelm a first-class martial artist with pure capability? Even while coughing blood from internal injuries, he still refused to accept it and thrashed about. Cheonhwa could only find the whole thing absurd.
"So are you going to keep fighting?"
"…No. That is not my intention. I accept this body's defeat. In return, I ask that you treat me with the dignity due a captive."
"That will depend entirely on your own attitude, young master."
Once the rampaging Dan Myeong-geuk finally quieted down, Cheonhwa belatedly noticed how noisy the surroundings had become. Of course people had gathered; they had been brawling in the middle of the street in broad daylight. Through that crowd, three figures appeared.
"What is all this racket?"
"Heh. The front of the shop has been turned into a complete mess."
"Young Master, what kind of trouble have you caused this time?!"
Inwol and Gu Un-cheol, who had been out, had returned. The remaining man appeared to be connected to Dan Myeong-geuk; his face was pale enough that he looked ready to faint on the spot.
"Well, you see…"
Cheonhwa gave a wry smile and explained the situation to the three of them. The moment the attendant heard the story, his complexion turned deathly blue and he dropped his forehead to the ground at once.
"I beg forgiveness for the rudeness our young master has committed!"
"What is your relationship to this young master?"
"I am a servant who accompanies the young master. I had been searching for him after he ran off, but…"
"You heard the commotion, came to check, and found him already on the ground."
"Yes, that is correct."
Unlike the clueless Dan Myeong-geuk, the servant grasped the situation quickly. He had probably been assigned for exactly that reason—yet the problem was that Dan Myeong-geuk was so wild even a sharp-eyed servant could not rein him in.
"What should we do?"
Cheonhwa asked Inwol and Gu Un-cheol. From Inwol's perspective, a disciple of the Zhongnan Sect had been attacked. From Gu Un-cheol's perspective, a thug had run wild inside the blacksmith. Neither side looked ready to let the matter slide quietly.
Inwol and Gu Un-cheol seemed to exchange opinions with a glance. Then Gu Un-cheol stepped forward and spoke to the servant with a grim face.
"First, go fetch someone higher up. We will talk after that."
The pressure in his presence made it clear that failure to bring someone would not end gently.
"Y-yes, sir!"
Crushed by that force, the servant immediately turned and ran to carry out the order. Dan Myeong-geuk could only watch the servant's retreating back with a hollow expression. His suffering, however, was only beginning.
"Tie this insolent brat up with rope. If he starts thrashing, knock him out."
Gu Un-cheol ordered the blacksmiths to restrain Dan Myeong-geuk. Given the young master's temper, he should have been screaming for them to stop—yet he stayed quiet under Gu Un-cheol's gaze. That look said the blacksmith owner wanted nothing more than to hack off an arm right then and there, and it pinned Dan Myeong-geuk in place.
Watching Dan Myeong-geuk being dragged away, Cheonhwa asked Inwol,
"What will happen to that young master?"
"It depends on how the talks go. If their side keeps being stubborn, they might cripple his dantian."
Crippling the dantian. Shattering it would scatter all the internal energy he had accumulated so far, and the vital qi and blood that formed the foundation of the dantian would be damaged in the process. Done poorly, it could kill a man. Even if he survived, he would live out the rest of his days weaker than an ordinary person who had never trained in martial arts. For a martial artist who had devoted his life to cultivation, it was a nightmarish punishment.
"Is the offense really severe enough for that?"
"He laid hands on both the Zhongnan Sect—one of the great sects—and the Hyeonhwang Blacksmith, one of the two great blacksmiths of Shaanxi. If he shows no sign of remorse, he will have to bear responsibility equal to that."
The Zhongnan Sect and the Hyeonhwang Blacksmith each wielded influence in the Shaanxi martial world that matched their fame. Offending either one alone was already a problem; he had managed to offend both at once.
"What on earth was that young master thinking when he ran wild like that?"
"Being from a family that dominated an entire county, plus the fact that he himself was a first-class martial artist, probably played the biggest part."
"He kept boasting that he was a first-class expert. Is being first-class really that impressive?"
"You've spent all your time on the main mountain, so it's no wonder it doesn't feel like much to you."
Across the entire Central Plains martial world, a first-class martial artist was someone who could be called a true expert. In a small, remote faction, that level of skill was enough to make a man the faction leader.
"But that is only when you look at the Central Plains as a whole. There is always a higher mountain. In great sects that sit at the top of the martial world—like the Zhongnan Sect or the Wudang Sect—a first-class martial artist is just another fighter."
Inwol added that Cheonhwa and Dan Myeong-geuk were perfect opposites. Just as living in the Zhongnan Sect had made first-class martial artists seem ordinary to Cheonhwa, living in the Dan Family Manor had made first-class feel like the peak of mastery to Dan Myeong-geuk.
"In the county where he grew up, there were probably only a handful of people who could match him. On top of that, his family held enormous influence there, so his nose naturally got even higher."
Dan Myeong-geuk had never realized he was a frog in a well. Because of that he never learned humility, and that ignorance had brought about his own ruin—a case of reaping what one sowed.
"The cleanup will be handled by me and the owner. We'll call you again later, so go inside and rest for now."
"Understood."
Leaving the aftermath to Inwol, Cheonhwa stepped back into the blacksmith. The interior was just as unsettled; it looked impossible to continue work that day. Gu Cheol-mun, who had been directing the blacksmiths, spotted Cheonhwa and offered his thanks.
"Thank you, Taoist Cheonhwa. Because of you we were able to settle the matter without anyone getting hurt."
"I was only protecting what belongs to me."
At that answer, Gu Cheol-mun's gaze shifted to the wooden sword.
"You ended up putting it through real combat right away. I would like to hear your impressions after using it."
"It was excellent. It settles perfectly into the hand, the balance is well struck, and even though it is heavy and unfamiliar, it was comfortable to wield."
"That is a relief. Ah—about the wooden sword's name. Watching you fight, something suddenly came to me."
"What name?"
"Okgyeong."
The character for jade referred to the blue-green hue of the wooden blade. The character for hardness carried the meanings of firmness, strength, and unyielding effort. It was a name inspired by the unrestrained blue-green trajectory of the wooden sword Cheonhwa had swung.
"Okgyeong… that is a fine name."
Cheonhwa looked down at the blue-green wooden sword as he spoke. As if pleased to have received a name, the blade of the wooden sword glimmered.