Treading the Void
When I opened my eyes, the Tyrant Emperor Yeom Gi-ha sat cross-legged at my side.
"Awake at last?"
The Tyrant Emperor's voice was languid.
Rising quietly and taking stock of my surroundings, I could feel that a very long time had passed. It was no mere impression, either — the blood cavern itself had gone stone cold, and that was proof enough. The scorching heat that had once forced me to borrow the yin of the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng just to draw breath was gone without a trace, and the cavern's peculiar chill now ruled the space. Even granting that I had absorbed the essence of the Ten-Thousand-Year Supreme Blood Treasure, it must have taken considerable time for this chamber to cool so thoroughly.
"How long was I out?"
My voice, still steeped in sleep, came out faintly hoarse — further proof, one might say, that no small span of time had slipped by.
"Couldn't say for certain."
This was a blood cavern where not a single point of light entered. Even the Tyrant Emperor, who had touched the supreme realm, would have found it difficult to track the flow of time in a place like this.
"Three days, perhaps four, I'd reckon."
An estimate to that degree, at least, he could manage.
"Hm."
I understood that plenty of time had passed — no, far more than I had expected. The Tyrant Emperor had stood guard over my unconscious body for a minimum of three days in this lightless dark.
"Why did you not simply carry me out?"
My question was a fair one, but—
"You were in the state of enlightenment."
"Ah."
His answer was a far fairer one.
Enlightenment. Sudden awakening. The shedding of the shell. There is a state known by many names. It comes when a martial artist who has reached a realm cracks open his shell and advances toward the origin of spirit and energy — and since martial artists of that caliber are rare to begin with, it is hardly a common occurrence. What matters more is that murim folk have learned, through bitter experience and rumor alike, that one carelessly roused from that state loses whatever he held in his hand, gone like a mirage.
In other words, the Tyrant Emperor had not laid a finger on me lest my enlightenment slip away. Which also meant he had gone at least three days without rest, watching over me.
"Thank you."
This was not a debt to be repaid with a fist-and-palm salute, so I bowed my head to the Tyrant Emperor. Come to think of it, I believe that was the first time I had ever bowed my head to the man standing at the very peak of the murim.
"I did declare I would take you as my successor. This much is only proper, no?"
Yeom Gi-ha snorted through his nose, yet made no show of the favor — and I found that rather pleasing.
Then, all at once, I remembered the Medicine Immortal — the figure I had met in that place I had taken for a dream. Taking the measure of my realm as it stood now, I knew I could no longer wholly dismiss that memory as a dream.
"That alone was enough," so had the Medicine Immortal said to me.
"This much is only proper, no?" so had the Tyrant Emperor Yeom Gi-ha just said.
For the briefest instant, the two men — alike in neither temperament, disposition, nor face — seemed to overlap. Blurry-eyed from a sleep not quite shaken off, no doubt.
Whatever the case, I found myself thinking that this life of mine held a great many people to be thankful for.
"The Fifth Stage — you reached it?"
Yeom Gi-ha asked, none too subtly. Asking after another's realm is taboo in the jianghu, but circumstances being what they were, it could hardly be called discourtesy.
"I have."
After all, Yeom Gi-ha had watched me arrive at Five Energies Converged at the Origin with his own eyes; this was merely a formality of confirmation.
"Good. That's good."
Yeom Gi-ha said it with a hearty laugh. An ordinary exchange — and yet the intuition I had honed razor-sharp upon reaching Five Energies Converged at the Origin rang an alarm through my skull. Somehow, I sensed that that good had not been for my sake, but for his own.
"In that case—"
"Let us first leave this blood cavern."
I cut him off before he could finish.
"Hm. Fair enough."
Fortunately, Yeom Gi-ha agreed. We had, it seemed, escaped the peril of being buried alive in the blood cavern.
"We go that way, then."
"That'll do."
With no other exit in sight, my gaze settled on the mouth of the cavern — the route by which we had come down, the fall we had endured for a good twenty breaths and more.
Tak!
Unfurling the Cloud-Treading Steps, I kicked off lightly from the wall. The Dancheon Myeong who had once groaned and clawed his way up the cliffs of Mount Cheonjung chasing the First Stage existed no longer.
And yet—
"Hold it right there."
Yeom Gi-ha shot upward and barred my path, and the two of us dropped straight back down into the blood cavern. Before I could even voice my confusion, he spoke.
"Watch closely."
And with those words, Yeom Gi-ha unfolded a marvel rarely seen in a lifetime.
Step.
Hands clasped behind his back, Yeom Gi-ha set foot upon empty air and stood there, serene and alone.
How could I possibly fail to recognize it? The Void Treading Steps — the lightness skill revered as the supreme marvel of the jianghu.
Hovering upon the air, the grand master opened his mouth with solemn dignity.
"You have reached Five Energies Converged at the Origin and set foot upon the threshold of the Profound Realm, which means you have gained an understanding of will."
Yeom Gi-ha was right. The moment I achieved Five Energies Converged at the Origin, I had come, quite naturally, to understand what will was.
"What, then, is the power of will? On that question, opinions remain divided even now — and rightly so, for the manner in which will manifests differs with the nature of the art and the temperament of the one wielding it."
Uncharacteristically, Yeom Gi-ha began laying out his argument in a measured, methodical fashion. Even his tone of voice was quite unlike his everyday self — proof of just how serious the man was about the martial arts.
"But no martial artist alive could deny that the most fundamental stage of will is to materialize one's inner energy and render it real in the world."
This, too, was a fact I knew well. It is why, in the current system of martial learning — where sword qi is equated with the Peak Realm, sword sha with the Transcendent Peak, and sword force with the Harmonization Realm — the Profound Realm is represented by the Formless Sword, or formless sword force.
Formless. To shape one's own inner energy without relying on the physical implement of a blade — that is the Formless Sword. It meant a martial art of will.
"The Void Treading Steps are no different from the Formless Sword. To materialize will in the shape of a sword within my hand — that is the Formless Sword. To materialize the shape of earth beneath my feet and tread upon it — that, I say, is the Void Treading Steps."
Step. Step.
As Yeom Gi-ha walked the air after finishing his explanation, I could grasp the rough mechanism of it through the ripples of energy he cast off. As they say, one sees only as much as one knows — only now, having entered the realm of will, could I at last glimpse, however faintly, the true depth of Yeom Gi-ha.
At my grave expression, Yeom Gi-ha flashed a grin. The solemn grand master of a moment ago was gone; the mischievous old man had returned.
"Kicking the walls is forbidden. Get yourself out of here with the Void Treading Steps."
With that, Yeom Gi-ha walked the air up to the entrance in the ceiling of the blood cavern.
"Ah — you're still a novice, so I'll let you make do with the Heavenly Ladder."
Leaving those words behind, his figure vanished in a flash.
"I will leave this place with the Void Treading Steps myself."
I assumed he had probably heard me.
"Wait for me."
It was a word spoken to him — and to myself as well.
The lightness skill — or, to give it its settled name, the light body art. As the martial learning of the jianghu took shape, the lightness methods and footwork methods, once separate disciplines, were merged and established as one.
Footwork pursues movement that is stable and, at the same time, unpredictable. Yet in the end the two were one and the same, for the root of their mystery lay in lightness. There are exceptions — stamping steps built to channel crushing force, or a lightness art like the Namgung style that takes heaviness rather than lightness as its essence — but even these, one could say, are rooted in lightness at their core. Only by knowing lightness can one give reality to heaviness.
The mysteries and stages differ with the art one learns, but the light body art, too, ordinarily has stages that correspond to realms.
Fish Leaping Skyward. The realm in which one harnesses the power of inner energy to leap vast distances in a single bound. The beginning of the light body art.
Flying Over Grass. The realm in which the grass beneath one's sprinting, stamping feet does not bend.
Treading Snow Without Trace. The realm in which even snow leapt upon leaves not a single footprint behind.
Crossing Water on Floating Leaves. The technique Yeom Gi-ha and I once used to cross the Yangtze. Walking upon water — the beginning of a realm one might call miraculous.
Ordinarily, this marks the limit of what inner energy alone can achieve. Beyond it, one requires will — or a lightness art of transcendent quality to match. And the first of those was the very Heavenly Ladder Yeom Gi-ha had named. If Fish Leaping Skyward is the art of kicking off the earth, then the Heavenly Ladder is best called the art of kicking off the air itself. Kunlun's lightness method, the Cloud Dragon Great Eight Forms, had melted the mysteries of the Heavenly Ladder into the art itself — which is why it is hailed as a marvel unique in all the jianghu.
Next came the Void Treading Steps — just as the name says, the art of walking, running, or standing upon empty air. It is a realm ordinarily equated with the Profound Realm, and the very thing I sought to achieve now.
Of course, the Void Treading Steps were not the end. No one in the murim of today could perform it, but there existed a realm known as the internal energy flight technique — the Crossing of the Void. The Medicine Immortal had said that if I reached the Sixth Stage of his Heart Decision, I would be able to achieve the Crossing of the Void, so it must be a realm that truly exists. Having yet to reach the Sixth Stage, I could hardly so much as dream of it — but to settle for the mere Heavenly Ladder would be a waste of the Fifth.
And so, rather than scheming my exit from the blood cavern by way of the Heavenly Ladder, I strove tirelessly to leave it with quiet grace upon the Void Treading Steps.
Materialize the will. Step. Set foot. Keep the body light, so the ground made manifest from inner energy bears as little burden as possible. Materialize the next stretch of ground with will. Step. Set foot.
'Ah—!'
The instant my concentration wavered, the materialized ground vanished. A stagger — a crash.
"Aigoo."
A martial artist who had reached Five Energies Converged at the Origin had just suffered the indignity of landing flat on his backside. I had poured every ounce of concentration into materializing the will, leaving nothing for so simple an act as landing.
"Again."
But my resolve did not flag in the slightest, and I stepped out into the empty air once more. A stagger — the will lost — a crash — flat on my backside.
"Aigoo."
Groan, and again. A stagger — the will lost — but this time, a clean landing.
"Oh."
Marvel at myself, and again. Only after several hundred repetitions could I finally manage a passable imitation of the Void Treading Steps.
"I've arrived."
At last, I stood face to face with Yeom Gi-ha outside the blood cavern. It had taken a good half day and more, and Yeom Gi-ha — evidently bored of waiting — was eating roasted meat from who knows where.
"That was fast."
Yeom Gi-ha said it with genuine surprise. I myself had thought I took rather long, so it seemed my assessment differed greatly from his. On reflection, though, he was probably right. Was it not as if someone learning to walk for the very first time had stepped out into the world within half a day?
"I learned a great deal."
I understood now that superior martial arts are, in the end, a process of shattering the frame of one's perception. I had reached the realm of will by my own strength, yet it was thanks to Yeom Gi-ha that I realized my perception still lingered in the Harmonization Realm. It meant he had bestowed a great grace upon me — and that I had received a great stroke of fortune.
"I've given you my teaching, so I'll be collecting my payment."
The man who had not so much as coveted the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng now spoke of repayment. I knew full well what he wanted. He had been holding back since the blood cavern; I reckoned his patience was now nearing its limit.
"Let's have ourselves a bout."
In Yeom Gi-ha's words lingered the innocent delight of a child expecting a great gift.
I snorted a laugh. I had seen this coming long before — and I had long since made ready in my heart.
"Come at me."
Hands clasped behind my back, I waggled my fingers at Yeom Gi-ha, provoking him. These days, I too understood a little of what the arrogance of the absolute felt like.
"Not bad at all."
"I had a good teacher."
"Pffhah!"
The moment Yeom Gi-ha realized that the teacher I spoke of was himself, he burst out laughing.
"A brat who bares his teeth at his teacher must have weak fists, I see!"
"No, you're the one who asked to fight f—"
KWAANG!
My words never reached their end, for Yeom Gi-ha's Formless Sword came hurtling at me in the blink of an eye.
"You brat! I'll pound you into the ground!"
"No, wait—!"
KWAANG!
It seemed my teacher was thoroughly worked up. If I wished to survive, I had best give it everything I had.