Layer Upon Layer (2)
Know your enemy and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.
That was the ancient saying. War and sparring were clearly different things, yet it remained true that the better one understood one's opponent, the easier it was to counter them.
Cheonhwa sought Myeonghwa's help to learn what he could about his final opponent in the preliminaries.
"Your last match in the preliminaries, huh..."
Myeonghwa rubbed his chin, sinking into thought.
"I don't know him myself, but someone who would know him does. You've already met the man once."
"Senior Yang Palsan of the Beggars' Guild?"
"Right on the mark!"
Strike while the iron is hot—Myeonghwa marched Cheonhwa straight over to Yang Palsan without delay.
"Information on the man your wooden sword is about to face? Of course I know it. What kind of Beggar would I be otherwise?"
Yang Palsan spoke with a face full of confidence.
"Perfect timing—it's meal hour. Let's talk over food."
"Then allow me to treat you. I can hardly take information for free."
"Fine by me. I know a decent place inside Dang-ga-ta. Let's head there."
Cheonhwa followed Yang Palsan to the restaurant. Once they had settled into seats, Yang Palsan ordered dishes in rapid succession. True to Sichuan cuisine, every plate carried a sharp, fiery aroma that stung the nose. Yang Palsan made no show of restraint as he devoured the food. Only after filling his stomach to a comfortable degree did he begin to lay out what he knew.
"As you may already sense, your opponent for the preliminary finals is no ordinary man."
Beomhye. Known by the title Iron Fist Dragon.
A third-generation disciple of the Shaolin Temple. At the age of thirty—the year of standing firm—he only barely met the age limit for the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering. He had competed in a previous Gathering and posted excellent results. At that time he had still been a First-class martial artist; now he stood as a Peak Expert. Every opponent he had faced in this Gathering had grown stronger during the match itself.
His primary art was the Shaolin Five Form Fist—literally a pictographic fist style that imitated the shapes of dragon, tiger, crane, snake, and monkey.
"That is everything I currently know."
"Thank you, Senior Yang."
As expected of the Beggars' Guild—to gather this much while competing in the Gathering itself. Some of it was information Cheonhwa had never even imagined.
"I never thought someone thirty years old would still be a third-generation disciple like me."
"Every sect takes disciples at different ages and by different methods. It's not rare for people of similar generational rank to have a large gap in years."
The major sects varied widely in when they accepted disciples. Some took them all at once; others might stretch the intake across nearly twenty years. Cheonhwa and Beomhye themselves were roughly ten years apart.
"And like Paeng Mu-jin, he has competed in a previous Dragon and Phoenix Gathering. Are all the ones who performed well last time at this level now?"
"Time cannot be ignored, but men like the Tyrant Blade Dragon and the Iron Fist Dragon are special cases."
There were always a few whose timing allowed them to enter the Gathering twice. Some among them had reached Peak Expert, yet it was extremely rare for so many Peak Experts to appear in a single year. Yang Palsan added that detail with a shrug.
"That's why they created extra rules this time—to keep Peak Experts from simply crushing everyone."
The Dragon and Phoenix Gathering was a place for the rising talents of the orthodox sects to gather and exchange skills. Life-and-death duels were a different matter entirely, so Peak Experts operated under several restrictions. Techniques only a Peak Expert could use—such as Intent Qi Manifestation—and limits on the amount of internal energy they could employ effectively forced them to fight at something close to First-class level.
"Wouldn't someone who finally reached a higher realm resent those restrictions?"
"Oddly enough, no. Looked at another way, the rules are a recognition of their strength—a request that they show consideration for their juniors."
Even with those constraints, a Peak Expert's true caliber did not simply vanish. Barring extraordinary circumstances, a First-class martial artist almost never defeated a restricted Peak Expert.
"Still, it seems Beomhye is not simply fighting to win."
Every one of his previous opponents had grown stronger mid-match. The pattern was far too consistent to be coincidence. Someone must have been intervening—almost certainly Beomhye himself.
"But from Beomhye's perspective, what good does it do him if his opponent grows stronger?"
"That is exactly what I cannot figure out."
Yang Palsan shrugged again. The circumstances made it plain that Beomhye was doing something, yet it remained pure speculation.
"And even if someone does achieve enlightenment, it still does not mean they can beat him."
"If it were that easy, one of the people who already faced him would have taken the victory."
Cheonhwa nodded. Even with the restrictions, his odds against Beomhye were not high. Strengthening his forms through intent might raise them to thirty percent at best.
If I can reach the culmination of the mid-section of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven, I might just manage it...
From Paeng Gun-ak onward, Cheonhwa had sparred against countless martial artists on his way to the preliminary finals. Through those matches he had refined the concept of the mid-section culmination to a considerable degree.
The Middle Path Sword, the Heavy Sword, the Strong Sword, the Blunt Sword—gathering the principles of every sword art I have learned into one.
Each principle carried its own strengths and weaknesses. Unifying them would erase the flaws while preserving the virtues. The idea had grown from the way the energies of the internal arts he practiced already followed the principles of the Five Elements.
But it is not going as easily as I hoped.
He could continue testing the concept, yet so far he had only managed to weave the somewhat similar Heavy Sword and Strong Sword together. Even that required time before the two melted into one. If those two alone were so difficult, binding the Middle Path Sword and the Blunt Sword as well was currently close to impossible.
Still, if I want to raise my chances at all, this is the only path.
With that thought, Cheonhwa parted from Yang Palsan and headed straight for a training chamber. The sparring stages of the training ground were being used for the Gathering itself and were unavailable, but the training chambers were managed separately and free for anyone to use. Quite a few competitors, like Cheonhwa, sought them out to polish their arts before a match. And so, until the day of the finals, Cheonhwa challenged the mid-section culmination inside a training chamber.
The day of the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering preliminary finals dawned.
Even though it was still the preliminaries, a final was a final, and the area around the stages thronged with people. Those already eliminated had gathered to watch the remaining matches.
"Which match are you going to watch?"
"Has to be the Tyrant Blade Dragon, right? Runner-up of the last Gathering."
"Or the Wudang side might be worth seeing."
"If we're talking like that, we can't leave out Shaolin either."
Spectators discussed which bouts to watch while jostling for good vantage points. Meanwhile the finalists themselves already stood on their assigned stages, waiting for the matches to begin.
In the end I never achieved the unification of principles.
Time had been short, but the greater problem was that he had failed to grasp the true core. Could he win without completing the mid-section culmination?
Cheonhwa smoothed the rising unease with controlled breathing and looked at his opponent.
The Shaolin martial monk Beomhye wore an expression of perfect calm. It was not the leisure of a stronger man facing a weaker one; his very heart seemed settled and still.
Their eyes met. Beomhye's lips curved into a faint, gentle smile.
"Donor, you appear to carry some worry."
"Is it that obvious?"
"Yes. I sense a powerful affliction."
Concern colored Beomhye's mild expression. To show such a face to the man he was about to fight felt utterly strange. Every opponent Cheonhwa had met until now had radiated open hostility.
"I hope this spar may help you free yourself from that worry."
As he spoke, Beomhye formed the formal salute. Even on the brink of combat, not a shred of enmity could be felt; instead there was something like compassion. Cheonhwa, whose talent for reading emotion through the eyes was exceptional, was certain he was not mistaken.
From first to last, this man is unlike anyone I have ever met.
Finding him endlessly curious, Cheonhwa drew Okgyeong and settled into stance.
Once both sides were ready, the referee raised his voice.
"Begin!"
At the declaration both men moved. The green wooden sword's arc and a fist dense with the marks of long tempering collided.
Boom!
The impact sent a heavy tremor through the air. In a single exchange Cheonhwa understood: this was a clash of arts both carrying the principle of Weight. It had to be the Dragon Fist, one of the Shaolin Five Form Fists, embodying the heavy power of a dragon ascending the heavens.
Truly profound force. The density of internal energy packed into that fist is this thick?
How much power one could pour into a technique determined the depth of the principle of Weight. Beomhye's heavy fist carried greater mass than Cheonhwa's heavy sword. Had Cheonhwa not instantly absorbed the shock through the Heavenly Downstream, he might have suffered internal injury.
Yet Beomhye's assault was only beginning. The instant wooden sword and fist rebounded, Beomhye's movement changed. What had been heavy and deliberate now turned sharp and secretive. A hand flashed out as though snatching prey, seeking to coil around the wooden sword—a seizing hand technique meant to seize and restrain. It was the Snake Fist, capturing the lightning speed of a serpent striking its prey.
If he grabs me, it's over.
The moment the sword was taken, recovery would be impossible. Cheonhwa unleashed a form of the Heavenly Downstream Force and flung Beomhye's touch aside. The counter came so suddenly that an ordinary martial artist would have been hurled backward by the shock. Beomhye was no ordinary martial artist.
The snake's shape shifted once more. He spun his entire body, receiving the force, and the elegant motion was indistinguishable from a crane's wingbeat—the Crane Fist, carrying the principle of Softness. Using the spin, Beomhye soared toward Cheonhwa as though taking flight, converting the impact itself into propulsive force. That graceful motion transformed into a bold, ferocious assault: the Tiger Fist, filled with a tiger's fierce strength.
Cheonhwa reset his stance and answered with the same principle of Strength. The instant his foot stamped forward, a sword stroke extended. Strong fist and strong sword collided; the stage floor could not endure the shock and spider-webbed with fine cracks. Immediately afterward Beomhye displayed strange footwork and bizarre movement. To block that dazzling mobility Cheonhwa employed the principle of the Blunt Sword.
The Shaolin Five Form Fist. Though it is not counted among the supreme arts, it fully deserves its place among the Seventy-Two Consummate Arts of Shaolin.
The Seventy-Two Consummate Arts of Shaolin—seventy-two martial disciplines that stood at the very peak of Shaolin's vast body of learning. True to its fame, the Five Form Fist was formidable. Each of the five fists was excellent on its own, yet Beomhye flowed freely among them. Cheonhwa himself handled many sword principles, but his opponent stood on a higher plane. Little by little, yet unmistakably, he was being pressed back.
A voice reached Cheonhwa's ear.
"Please calm yourself just a little more."