How to Build Inner Energy as Easily as Eating Dang-gwa – 1
For the members of the Sayun Dan, what had just happened was the stuff of dreams. For me, it was, first and foremost, reality.
Which meant I couldn't afford to just stand there gaping.
"Indeed. That was a close call, wasn't it?"
"Oh, please, feel free to speak casually with me~."
The Sayun I had known and the Sayun standing before me now were two different people. One had been forged through every hardship and adversity imaginable, honed to a razor's edge and steeped in hatred for the world and its bitter cold, until she carried a chill like a freshly sharpened blade. The other was a girl who had only just begun to learn the warmth of the world.
Different in looks, different in temperament — but to me, and to us, Sayun was simply Sayun.
Which was why I could meet that gentle smile of hers with one of my own.
"I see. But why did you come into that alley?"
"Ah, well, you see..."
With a sheepish smile, Sayun explained the situation.
Today was the day she came down to sell the herbs and medicinal plants gathered on Mount Hongseong in the village. She had finished selling her goods and was about to head back up when her senior martial sister Yu Hui said she had some brief business and asked her to wait. Then she'd spotted me entering the alley, sensed killing intent seeping from within, and hurried in for fear that I might be in danger.
"I'm a disciple of the Hongseong Sect. And a disciple of Hongseong never passes by the weak in peril."
Watching her puff herself up with pride, thrusting out her small chest as if to say how about that, I couldn't help but laugh.
The girl we knew had been the same. She had lost so very much — but the spirit of Hongseong, that she had never once lost.
"Admirable. Truly."
"Hehe. Oh, it was nothing. Well then, I should be—"
"Boss! It's that bitch!!"
Just then, a pack of thugs came swarming out of the alley. All three of them looked like untrained mobs, no martial skill to speak of — but the man walking behind them, apart from the rest, was another matter entirely.
The gaunt man had a finger hooked through the ring at the base of his sharp dagger's hilt, spinning it round and round. He was different.
"A Hongseong disciple, I see."
"I am Sayun, disciple of the Hongseong Sect. And who might you be?"
I saw Sayun's throat bob, ever so slightly. Nerves, no doubt.
Only natural. The man before her was a strongman of a caliber that made the likes of Yu Jangcheol look like small fry.
One of the enemies from the middle stretch of Part One — and unlike the scraps over there, a man who had mastered genuine martial arts.
Sayun might have lacked real combat experience and a complete grasp of the Hongseong Divine Art, but she was still a martial artist in her own right. Which meant she could read the gap between her opponent and herself at a single glance.
And so her hand was tightening around her wooden sword.
Yes. She had little choice. For a girl who had barely learned the first half of the Hongseong Divine Art, beating that man would be anything but easy.
"Hoe-rang Gakjun."
Hoe-rang — the Sly Wolf — Gakjun.
A sell-sword who rented out his martial arts for coin; a mercenary, in plain terms. He ran with the unorthodox factions, and in the original story he was dispatched at the Iron Blood Dan's behest to strike down Sayun, the last survivor of the Hongseong Sect.
His art used a dagger to prey relentlessly on an opponent's weak points — a blade style like a wolf's fangs. The Wolf Fang Sword.
Taut with tension, Sayun swept her eyes over her surroundings. Perhaps sensing that something was deeply wrong, the market-goers began edging away one by one, glancing about warily.
Some would be running to fetch the constables. Some would be looking after their own skins.
And some, no doubt, would be off to call for disciples of the Hongseong Sect.
But the law is far and fists are near — there was no dodging the sharp fangs Gakjun was baring here and now.
"Hand that man over, and I will withdraw."
"And if I refuse?"
"Whew... You two, stay out of this. This is, after all, a perfectly legitimate duel."
Experienced, wasn't he.
If he ganged up on us here, Gakjun would make an enemy of the entire Hongseong Sect. But call it a sanctioned duel rather than an ambush, and the story changed. The Hongseong Sect was orthodox, after all — they weren't about to openly slap some kill order on a man over the outcome of a fair fight.
Gakjun shut his eyes briefly and let out a long breath. And the moment they opened—
"Let me teach your body just how much a wolf's teeth hurt."
With those words, he came flying at her like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Hoe-rang, the Sly Wolf. True to his epithet, Gakjun was a martial artist renowned for cunning tricks — which is to say, most of the methods he employed were brutally effective in a fight.
For instance—
PAHK!!
His charging feet stopped dead for an instant. Aiming for the beat where Sayun flinched at the sudden shift in his timing, he kicked the ground itself.
Dirt and dust burst upward, and in the heartbeat where Sayun's eyes squeezed shut, his sharp dagger lunged to tear into her shoulder.
She threw herself backward just barely out of range — but that single exchange was enough to hand the momentum to Gakjun.
"That's cowardly!"
"There's no such thing as cowardice in a fight."
Words of wisdom, truly.
Winning is all that matters.
If you win, that is.
PAANG!!
I hurled a rock at Gakjun. A big one. A nice, fresh one.
While he batted it aside, Sayun was able to swiftly rebuild her stance.
Butting into a one-on-one duel — isn't that cowardly?
Where in a fight is there any such thing as cowardice?
"...Yu Wol. You can just stand there quietly. You're coming with us either way, so... You damned bastard! Do you actually want to die?!"
The man, who had dodged the second thrown rock with nothing more than a turn of his head, exploded in fury.
Good grief! The farter's the one throwing the tantrum!
Since when does a man trying to kidnap people in broad daylight have this much to say?!
Ridiculous, yes — but it told me one thing. After all this, he still hadn't laid a finger on me, which meant he wanted to take me alive, whatever it took.
The reason being... my assets, I'd wager?
Well, fine by me.
At least I wouldn't be dying today.
At my smirk, Gakjun bared his teeth. Then, with a sidelong glance backward, he began cueing his lackeys.
"You goddamn punk."
"Today we're going to shatter every bone in your body."
What...? You... fucking... ill-mannered... bastards...!!
I'll smash every last one of you!
The three big brutes lunged at me, sneering, and I threw a rock at the head of the one who reached me first.
THWACK!
"......"
What are you all staring at?
Against punks who hadn't even learned proper martial arts, a rock or two was all it took.
I did, after all, hail from a country whose proud traditional pastime was seokjeon — all-out stone-throwing warfare!
I flung another rock from my hand; both punks dodged it. But that, too, was exactly what I'd wanted.
THWAAACK!!
"Ugh...!!"
The punk who'd flinched dodging the rock left an opening — and it produced consequences that would leave his wife, or his girlfriend, or failing both his own left hand, in tears every night.
With one foot planted on the head of the man sprawled out clutching his groin and foaming at the mouth, I turned toward the last one, who stood frozen holding his dagger.
CRACK!!
One hidden rock, one throw. Looking down at the punks collapsed and bleeding from their heads, I curled my lips upward.
"You think I've never put a lackey or two like you in your place before?"
I sneered at the unconscious bastards — no answers forthcoming — and turned my eyes to the main event that had kicked off without warning.
"Hup!"
"Haaap!!"
Sayun was fighting far more calmly, and far better, than I'd expected. Not well enough to beat Gakjun, of course.
Dagger rang against wooden sword. I'd assumed she'd be overpowered — but young as she was, Sayun wasn't giving an inch to the full-grown man's strength.
"Tch... The Hongseong Sect indeed..."
Only after Gakjun had whipped his dagger around a few more times and retreated several steps did Sayun finally take a deep breath and lower her wooden sword to middle guard.
TAAK!!
Had everything until now been mere probing? Gakjun's movements grew faster still.
Head. Head. Head. Throat. Chest.
The Five Linked Strikes, one of the Sly Wolf's forms, came pouring out like flowing water, all of it aimed at Sayun.
But it could do nothing to her. She slipped her head aside twice in quick succession, caught the third strike on the guard plate strapped to her left forearm, then swung her sword to beat the dagger away.
The final blow — the one aimed at her chest — she evaded by falling back, and with the Five Linked Strikes neutralized, Sayun's wooden sword stabbed into Gakjun's shoulder.
As Gakjun ground his teeth — his gains nil, his losses plenty — Sayun glared at him, sweat sliding down her face.
The hand gripping her wooden sword was trembling. Perhaps from the weight of real combat, the dread that a single failure could mean a grievous wound.
Or perhaps from the burden of knowing that if she fell, I might be dragged away — the pressure of having to protect a man she had met only today. Either way, she was wearing down.
And there was no chance in hell a veteran like Gakjun would miss it.
KUUNG!!
A lightning-quick step, and with it a lunge that moved like a wolf. Light gathered along the dagger in his right hand.
Sword Qi — a mighty power that none short of a first-rate martial artist could ever draw forth.
Gakjun was no master who could summon Sword Qi at will. And yet the fact that he could sheathe his dagger, however crudely, in a grey aura meant he was borrowing the power of his forms.
In other words: Gakjun was about to unleash the strongest technique at his command.
And there was no way I — a man with far more experience and knowledge of this world than Gakjun could ever dream of — would miss it.
"That's the Dual Fang Strike!!! Don't block it — dodge!!"
The wooden sword she'd raised to stop the right-hand dagger froze mid-swing. Sayun sprang backward, and in the instant the qi-laden dagger meant for her head sliced through empty air, a sharp fang very nearly buried itself in her side.
Yes.
It nearly buried itself.
TAK!!
Had the rock I threw not cracked against Gakjun's back and slowed his strike, it wouldn't have been 'nearly.' It would have gone straight in.
"Tch!! You damned—!!"
"Wow. Sparing a thought for me in the middle of that. Impressive."
Furious that his trump card had failed, Gakjun spat out a howl of frustration — and it opened the tiniest of cracks.
Sayun did not miss it.
Her lowered sword shot up through the air. When the wind-like slash went for his jaw, Gakjun snapped his head aside; the grazing blade came straight down in pursuit — and the very instant he barely twisted his body clear of even that—
BWOOAK!!
Sayun's left hand met his abdomen. In the same breath, a sound like leather splitting rang out.
The final stage that could be learned in the first half of the Hongseong Divine Art.
The Star Breaking Palm — the technique said to cradle inner energy in one's palm and burst it like a star.
"Kgh... H-how..."
Blood welled up and spilled from the lips of the dumbstruck Gakjun. Watching it, even I was stunned.
Seriously, though — how?
Back in the game, you could only learn the Star Breaking Palm after the prologue ended, by grinding through an entire event chain to get your hands on a hidden secret manual.
And she'd learned it before the prologue had even begun?
"Haa... haa..."
Whether I reeled at the inexplicable or not, Sayun was drawing back her outstretched hand, gasping for breath.
Gakjun, driven to his knees by the sudden blow and retching up blood again and again, finally toppled over. And looking down at him, Sayun crumpled in turn, her face gone gaunt and pale under the strain of the inner energy she'd overdrawn to fuel the technique.
Gakjun lay where he'd fallen without so much as a twitch, having spewed up a good basinful of blood — his insides had probably ruptured, leaving him dead or very close to it.
Sayun sat slumped on the ground, face drained white — but conscious.
Who had won this fight was plain to any eye.
"Haa... haa..."
The tension of a first real battle. The strain of the Star Breaking Palm.
And a dozen other things besides, all of them apparently settled onto Sayun's small shoulders.
I walked over to the girl, who looked as though she couldn't even draw a proper breath, and raised a hand.
"I'll stand guard for you, so focus on circulating your energy."
"I'm... fine. I..."
So she'd help me, but she didn't trust me yet. Noted.
And then—
"Sayun!!"
A sharp cry — a shout wound tight with worry and alarm — and running up alongside it came two girls.
Beautiful girls, dressed in the same Hongseong Sect disciple robes as Sayun.
"What is the meaning of this!!"
Was it because, unlike Sayun, these two were permitted live blades? Every one of their movements was polished and swift.
In a blink, one of them had reached Sayun's side to check her condition, and she pinned me with a stare and said, frostily:
"You will explain to me exactly what happened here."
An explanation, is it.
I smiled at the two lovely girls — whose edges showed as keen as well-honed blades.
"I can give you all the explanation you want, later. But I don't think that's what's urgent right now. That child seems to be suffering the strain of an overextended technique — see to that first. In my opinion, standing guard over her would be the better place to start."
"Ah. R-right, of course. Your energy circulation, quickly! I'll stand guard!"
"Yes..."
With that listless reply, Sayun folded herself into a cross-legged seat, intending to circulate her energy and ease the burden.
Anyway — an unexpected event, but a fine show.
And I'd gotten a clear look at Sayun's current strength into the bargain.
That said — first real fight or not, to be that spent from a single Star Breaking Palm...
I looked back and forth between Sayun and the other two girls, and nodded to myself.
Thanks to this sudden event, I had decided what came next.
I had to raise Sayun's inner energy.