The Right Mindset
After Gal Hyeonsang and Namgung Gyeom had left, Han Yumae turned to Ye Hajun.
“Um… Hajun.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you really think I can win?”
From Han Yumae’s perspective, she had accepted on the spot when he said there was a way to improve, but even she still had her doubts.
She could feel it herself—there was a clear gap in skill between her and Gal Hyeonsang, plus a bad matchup.
The Plum Blossom Sword Art, which scattered petals wide to bewilder an opponent, was a poor counter to the Crimson Flame Asura Art that incinerated everything in sight.
On top of that, she knew Gal Hyeonsang was simply stronger than her, so she couldn’t help wondering what exactly Ye Hajun had seen that made him decide she could win.
“I need time to sort my thoughts first. I’ll tell you tomorrow.”
No clear answer for now.
Anyone else might have grown suspicious, but Han Yumae already knew better.
He figured out the original forms of my techniques before. Hajun must have something in mind.
She nodded.
“Okay. I’ll come back around lunchtime tomorrow. Same place?”
“Yeah. See you tomorrow.”
Once Han Yumae was gone as well and Ye Hajun was left alone, he opened the gallery.
The moment he posted, Anonymous 1 appeared beside him in ghostly form, as if he had been waiting.
“So, our disciple has left, I see.”
“You’re speaking pretty normally. I was a little worried.”
“The posts this Daoist makes in the gallery are automatically converted by that Bloodcake bastard’s sorcery. As if someone who cultivated the Dao all the way to Ascension would ever write such vulgar garbage.”
Anonymous 1 stroked his long beard as he spoke.
His face was hard to make out through the hazy form, but the atmosphere alone said enough.
This guy’s a lot more uptight than I expected.
Having only ever seen him sowing chaos on the gallery, Ye Hajun was thrown off by how different he was in person.
Anonymous 1 ignored that and pressed on with what he wanted to say.
“In any case, you will be receiving this Daoist’s teachings, so promise me one thing.”
“What is it?”
“That little demon-head with the Gal surname must be defeated. Only then can I break that arrogant Heavenly Demon’s nose.”
Hearing that, Ye Hajun felt a renewed certainty that this was indeed Anonymous 1 and shot back,
“That depends entirely on you, Daoist.”
“This Daoist’s teachings cannot be wrong. If you still lose, the fault will be yours.”
“…”
“Anyway, how is the arm? You seemed to have just visited the Divine Physician’s lineage earlier.”
“Ah, I checked just in case. Asked if light lower-body work like footwork training would be fine, and they said it was okay.”
Ye Hajun showed the freshly wrapped bandages, and Anonymous 1 nodded.
“Good. Let us begin at once.”
Anonymous 1’s robes fluttered as he turned to face Ye Hajun.
“Do you know the difference between footwork and light-body arts?”
“…Aren’t they both just movement martial arts?”
“I already knew your learning was shallow, but you know even less than I thought. Open your ears and listen carefully.”
Anonymous 1 clasped his hands behind his back and began to explain.
“Light-body arts, as the name implies, are the skill of lightening the body to ride the currents of air and cut through the void. You draw the energy of the dantian upward, erase the weight of the flesh, and make yourself lighter still. You have already experienced this.”
Ye Hajun thought back to the first time he had used Force Emission and nodded.
“I think I get it.”
“Footwork, however, is different. If light-body arts are the hooves of a horse that can run a thousand li, then footwork is the pawwork of a tiger the instant before it snaps its prey’s neck.”
With that, Anonymous 1 began to move his feet.
“Evading an enemy’s attack by the width of a sheet of paper, slipping into their blind spot, and seizing the position from which to drive your own strike home—every principle of footwork was created for this purpose. And when footwork reaches its pinnacle…”
The steps that had been gradual quickened, and in an instant his form began to multiply.
Ye Hajun, who had been tracking the movements, soon doubted his own eyes.
Anonymous 1 just turned into several people…?
“One attains the divine realm known as Shifting Form, Changing Position.”
The voice came from behind him.
Anonymous 1 was already resting a hand atop Ye Hajun’s head, smiling as he spoke.
“Even if you master a peerless sword art that can cut down the entire world, what good is it if you cannot reach the enemy’s throat? In the end, the footwork that lets you claim their blind spot and slip past their attacks is the most important of all. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
Ye Hajun nodded, and Anonymous 1 nodded back, pleased.
“The other dullards in the gallery will each teach you footwork suited to their own martial arts. This Daoist will teach only the foundation. Especially those military types like the Spirit of Seeking Justice—they are always weak in footwork, so learn it properly while you have the chance.”
No matter how ridiculous he looked on the gallery, he had still been the greatest under heaven in his own era.
Ye Hajun nodded, impressed by the display Anonymous 1 had just given him.
“Yes. So what should I do from here?”
“Copy me.”
“Huh?”
“Are your eyes bad? I just showed you. Do exactly as this Daoist did.”
The respect that had briefly risen in Ye Hajun’s chest vanished just as quickly.
Just copy him, just like that?
Even so, this is a bit…
“You are thinking it is impossible, are you not?”
Anonymous 1 spoke as if he had read Ye Hajun’s mind.
“Do you know what thought a martial artist walking the Jianghu must never hold? Words that cast doubt on oneself—‘This can’t be possible,’ ‘Something like that is impossible.’ Those.”
“Yeah, but telling me to suddenly multiply into several people—”
“And swinging your fist at a tree monster several times your size inside the Rift in the Void made sense, did it?”
Ye Hajun froze at Anonymous 1’s words.
“In the common sense you used to know, Han Yumae scattering flower petals every time she swings her sword makes sense? That little demon-head Gal Hyeonsang spewing fire every time he swings his arm makes sense? By this Daoist’s standards, you using Force Emission in a single week looks far more impossible.”
“That… is true.”
“I know because I peeked at your memories through that Bloodcake bastard. That you came from a place where martial arts do not exist. And spending time among those uncultured Orthodox and Unorthodox trash meant no one noticed your talent either.”
At some point a tree had appeared beside Anonymous 1.
A plum blossom tree in full bloom.
“What matters most to a martial artist is conviction in oneself and never doubting what is possible. Once you set your mind to it, you can do anything. Watch.”
With that, Anonymous 1 began stepping up onto the drifting petals one by one.
As if weight itself did not exist for him.
He walked the empty air as naturally as solid ground, moving back and forth across the petals while he continued speaking.
“When light-body arts reach their peak, one can walk upon flower petals like this. It is the realm called Grass-Top Flight. And even up here, this Daoist is still treading the Plum Blossom Steps that are the pride of Hwasan.”
What had looked irregular at a glance revealed, upon closer inspection, a repeating sequence following a fixed pattern.
“Before I knew, it just looked like you were wandering around. Now that I’m aware of it, I can see it.”
“Exactly. In the end, what a martial artist needs is confidence bordering on arrogance, and conviction. If others can do it, why should you not? What makes you any different?”
Anonymous 1 descended again and matched eye level with Ye Hajun.
“Do not set your own limits and chain yourself with them. If you intend to learn every martial art of those dullards in the gallery, your mindset must become that of the greatest under heaven as well.”
“The greatest under heaven…”
What kind of mindset that required, Ye Hajun still could not quite grasp.
But he could easily imagine that, at the very least, it would be filled with the confidence that one could do anything, rather than fretting over whether something was possible or not.
“Fine. I’ll give it a shot.”
“That is the spirit. Then I shall demonstrate the footwork I just showed once more, so…”
“Um, wait a second before that. There’s one thing I want to ask before we start.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“You said earlier that you know I came from somewhere that isn’t here.”
“I did.”
“Then… does the Rift in the Void know that too?”
Anonymous 1 tilted his head at Ye Hajun’s words.
“What are you talking about?”
“Didn’t you hear it before? The Rift in the Void spoke to me. Called me a foreign object from another world.”
Anonymous 1’s face twisted.
“It said that? No—wait. The Rift in the Void spoke? To you?”
“You didn’t hear it?”
“Not at all.”
Ye Hajun, flustered, asked the gallery as well, only to get the same response.
I was the only one who heard that voice?
That couldn’t be.
He had clearly heard it.
As Ye Hajun’s mind drifted back to what had happened inside the Rift in the Void—
“You!”
“Whoa!”
Anonymous 1’s shout yanked him out of his thoughts.
“There is no way to figure out anything about that sorcery by fretting over it right now. That is Bloodcake’s specialty—leave it to him. That is not what you need to be doing at this moment.”
Anonymous 1 clasped his hands behind his back again and began to move slowly.
“How can you not understand that the most important thing right now is for you to master footwork first, so that our proud 37th-generation disciple of Hwasan, Yumae, can crush that arrogant little demon-head of the Demonic Sect!”
“…”
You just want to make the Heavenly Demon eat dirt, don’t you.
The words rose all the way to Ye Hajun’s throat, but as Anonymous 1’s movements gradually quickened he swallowed them back down.
“We will not waste even a handful of the two weeks remaining. Keep your eyes wide open and watch.”
“…Yes.”
With those final words from Anonymous 1, Ye Hajun instantly sank into a state of deep focus.
Watching him, Anonymous 1 swallowed a thought of his own.
The moment you realized Force Emission existed, you succeeded in copying it. With any other disciple I would never raise them this way, but for you this should be right.
Ye Hajun’s rapidly moving eyes were already beginning to track Anonymous 1’s trajectory little by little.
Seeing that, Anonymous 1 was certain his teaching method was correct and nodded inwardly.
That alone is impressive. Keep tracking the path with your eyes and you will gradually understand.
Still, even with Ye Hajun’s extraordinary talent, he wondered whether the boy could grasp even a fragment of it in a single day, and was just considering slowing down when—
“So it starts by moving roughly like this…”
Anonymous 1 stopped short at the sight of Ye Hajun beginning to copy his footwork bit by bit.
…Even so, this is only the second demonstration. And he is already following?
Just how much talent did Ye Hajun actually possess?
While Anonymous 1 was swallowing his astonishment at that bottomless gift—
“Aah, why’d you stop? I was just getting the hang of it.”
“What?”
Hearing the irritated tone in Ye Hajun’s voice, Anonymous 1 let out a disbelieving laugh.
“Fine, you brat. Showing it a little slower made you think you could handle it? Let’s see if you can keep up with this.”
“Hey, you said you were teaching me. Why are you speeding up again?”
“Hah! For an insolent whelp who does not even know respect for his elders, this is exactly the right pace!”
And with that, Anonymous 1 began moving his feet once more.