Chapter 8
Chapter 8
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 008
Chapter Title: Continuing the Training
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Seok Du-myeong rolled around on his bed, briefly reflecting on the past, before stopping abruptly.
He didn't like dwelling on old memories.
Ever since his grandfather passed away and he'd ventured out into the world, there weren't many good ones among the experiences he'd had.
It hadn't taken long for the naive, kind-hearted boy who'd left home to become the world-weary Seok Du-myeong he was now.
Instead, he thought about the master he'd been meeting with for a full month now.
There was no doubt about it—the Clear Wind Heart Formula was an insanely efficient cultivation method.
Just as his master had explained, the energy gathered in the dantian flowed into the meridians and energy channels throughout his body, accumulating there.
Seok Du-myeong had doubted at first whether it could really work, but it did.
The catch was that he couldn't do it alone; his master had to guide the energy and lead it along.
That was the main reason the Heaven-Connecting Sect's arts were passed down only from one person to the next.
It also meant the master's own abilities had a huge impact on the disciple's training.
Ever since he'd first circulated the heart formula, Seok Du-myeong had been meditating under his master's guidance every single day for a month straight.
It was an art that demanded a ton of hands-on attention from the master raising the disciple.
But the stroke of immense luck for Seok Du-myeong was that his master, Dan Mun-hyeok, was an unofficial supreme expert of the world.
His mastery of energy manipulation was precise and meticulous, making it incredibly advantageous for guiding Seok Du-myeong's energy during meditation.
Because Dan Mun-hyeok was his master, Seok Du-myeong's cultivation was blessed beyond measure.
As he began circulating the Clear Wind Heart Formula, the twenty years' worth of internal energy that Seok Du-myeong had barely managed to scrape together and hoard over time dispersed.
All that remained was barely five years' worth, which made his insides burn.
However, his master Dan Mun-hyeok seemed satisfied and said to him,
"You rascal. You're lucky the heart formula you were practicing was the foundational Clear Mind Technique. Its slow accumulation makes it highly versatile and stable, so we were able to convert nearly all of it into Clear Wind internal energy with almost no loss."
'No loss? You mean you stripped away fifteen years from my twenty and left me with this worthless five?'
Seok Du-myeong wanted to snap back but held his tongue, fearing a smack from his master. Dan Mun-hyeok saw right through his grumbling thoughts and added,
"The rest is scattered through your latent channels."
'Latent channels? I can't feel a single one...'
Dan Mun-hyeok spoke as if peering straight into Seok Du-myeong's mind.
"You can't sense them now, but once you get used to manifesting and using energy, you'll know."
The question then was how to measure the amount of internal energy stored in those body-wide latent channels.
According to his master, it varied depending on the practitioner's constitution and the shape of their dantian.
His master said his own was about four times over.
In other words, if ten years' worth accumulated in the dantian, that made ten in the dantian plus forty in the latent channels—a total of fifty years' worth.
When Dan Mun-hyeok guided Seok Du-myeong's meditation and checked his dantian and latent channels, he was shocked.
Even a rough estimate put it over five times.
It was freakishly abnormal. Seok Du-myeong was a freakish idiot.
Even exceeding twofold was rare for most people, and among past sect leaders, many hadn't even reached one times.
Dan Mun-hyeok's own four times was already a historic anomaly, but Seok Du-myeong's surpassed even that historic level.
Dan Mun-hyeok was inwardly astonished and thrilled, but he never let it show.
Over the month spent with Seok Du-myeong, Dan Mun-hyeok had realized the boy possessed genius-level intellect and martial talent.
He was a heaven-sent talent with a dantian perfectly suited to the Clear Wind Heart Formula.
Except for one thing.
His personality!
In Dan Mun-hyeok's eyes, Seok Du-myeong had an oddly low passion for martial arts.
He was lazy to the bone because of it, and a bit of praise would make him strut around with frivolous cockiness permeating his entire demeanor.
In the end, Dan Mun-hyeok concluded that Seok Du-myeong's personality was perfectly suited to wasting his innate talents.
The silver lining was that Seok Du-myeong himself had no idea about his genius martial gifts and no interest in them either.
Dan Mun-hyeok's solution to this issue was simple.
Reform Seok Du-myeong's personality!
We're just gonna whip it outta him.
It was a highly efficient fix.
"Around three times, I'd say."
"Aw, man, only three times? Master, check again. Isn't it more?"
Seok Du-myeong eyed Dan Mun-hyeok suspiciously.
Another of Seok Du-myeong's personality flaws was his annoyingly quick instincts leading to excessive suspicion.
Dan Mun-hyeok, feeling a pang of guilt, shut it down firmly.
"That's plenty impressive, you fool!"
"Master, then how long does it take to build up about a year's worth in the dantian?"
Seok Du-myeong, mistakenly thinking he'd lost fifteen years, asked eagerly.
"That varies by person too. You have to try meditating to find out. Fast ones take months, slow ones years. Who knows."
'What the hell kind of martial art is this Heaven-Connecting Sect stuff? No system at all! Is the sect name secretly "Every Man for Himself Sect" or something?'
'When am I gonna scrape together another fifteen years?'
Seok Du-myeong grumbled inwardly.
The root of all Seok Du-myeong's personality issues was his fundamental pettiness.
Watching this, a clear principle for educating Seok Du-myeong etched itself into Dan Mun-hyeok's mind.
Yeah, this kid...
Just 'whip' it outta him.
*
It had been over three months since Seok Du-myeong began learning martial arts from Dan Mun-hyeok.
Now he could circulate the Clear Wind Heart Formula on his own comfortably.
As always, his master Dan Mun-hyeok stood in the garden.
"Master, your disciple has arrived."
Seok Du-myeong's speech had completely transformed. One slip-up and that staff would come swinging.
"Good, you're here."
Dan Mun-hyeok nodded at Seok Du-myeong.
"You've gotten fairly proficient with circulating the Clear Wind Heart Formula now, and your internal energy is steadily accumulating."
In truth, Dan Mun-hyeok had been repeatedly astonished while teaching him.
His first impression had been utter disappointment.
But after recognizing Seok Du-myeong's genius, he'd increasingly realized that beneath the slippery demeanor lay pure prodigious talent.
He just hadn't grown up in conditions that drew attention, so Seok Du-myeong himself was oblivious to his gifts and didn't care.
Without this fateful encounter with Master Dan Mun-hyeok, Seok Du-myeong probably would have been born a genius and lived his whole life as an ordinary man.
Worried his slippery personality might lead to slacking, Dan Mun-hyeok withheld praise and scolded instead, but he was plenty impressive regardless.
"Now it's time to learn the Wind Step footwork, the Clear Wind Sword Technique forms, and the Clear Wind Throw techniques. But first, tell me: do you have any martial arts you're already practicing?"
"I learned a sword technique called Piercing Swift Sword from my grandfather."
"Piercing Swift Sword, eh? Show me here. Let me take a look."
Seok Du-myeong's Piercing Swift Sword consisted of five front forms and four rear forms.
He demonstrated all nine forms in sequence.
Dan Mun-hyeok watched intently, then spoke once Seok Du-myeong finished.
"Fine swift sword technique. The mix of downward strikes, horizontal cuts, and thrusts is well-balanced. At this level, it qualifies as an advanced sword art. Does it have a heart formula?"
"Grandpa said the sword manual he got didn't include one."
"So you're substituting with the Clear Mind Technique you're practicing."
Dan Mun-hyeok paused, deep in thought, then looked back at Seok Du-myeong.
"Du-myeong, from what I see, for whatever reason, this sword technique you're practicing clearly has the framework of a top-grade art, but large parts seem missing. That's why the transitions between forms feel sloppy and overly simplified. The final forms in the front and rear sections lack power—probably because more forms followed them originally."
He finished speaking and fell into thought again.
"In my view, the Piercing Swift Sword you're using now can't even draw out a tenth of the original technique's power. Such a shame."
'As expected of my genius old master.'
How does he nail it after just one look? Like a mind reader.
"Master, then I won't use this sword technique anymore. Gotta learn a new one anyway."
"No need to go that far. The Clear Wind Sword Technique only shows its true power at mastery, which will take time. You're in the thick of war right now, so using the sword technique already familiar in your hands makes sense in the meantime. My thought is to add one form to the front sequence and one to the rear, refine the existing ones, and boost its completion. With such a solid foundation, it could become a supreme swift sword art."
Dan Mun-hyeok spoke of creating sword forms as casually as boiling an egg.
From that day on, Seok Du-myeong learned the footwork Wind Step and the forms of the Clear Wind Sword Technique.
As proper transmission of the Clear Wind Sword Technique began, Seok Du-myeong truly appreciated his master's words.
The phrases his master repeated most about the Clear Wind Sword Technique were:
It's difficult!
It's complex!
It's esoteric!
Seok Du-myeong's thoughts whenever hearing them had been:
Psh, how hard could it be?
Psh, how complicated?
Psh, how esoteric?
But learning it from his master changed that to:
Holy shit, it's insanely hard!
It's ridiculously complex!
Fuck, it's maddeningly esoteric!
The Clear Wind Sword Technique appeared neat at first glance: six front forms and five rear forms.
The problem was each form contained anywhere from three to thirteen sub-moves.
With a whopping seventy-three sub-moves total, and each packed with an absurd number of actions, it was no wonder the Heaven-Connecting Sect's lineage hadn't died out by sheer miracle.
Of course, Seok Du-myeong had no choice in the matter.
'Gotta learn it.'
Dan Mun-hyeok created two new forms for the Piercing Swift Sword Technique and overhauled most of the existing sub-moves.
He modified the Piercing Swift to work with the Clear Wind Heart Formula as its internal method.
With the revamped Piercing Swift Sword Technique added to the Clear Wind Sword Technique, Seok Du-myeong's busy days were set.
All in all, the sheer volume of things he had to learn and master was exploding.
Dan Mun-hyeok left naming the new sub-moves to Seok Du-myeong.
The names he came up with were Master's Revision and Master's Guidance—essentially, Master's Edited Guidance.
It was pure Seok Du-myeong simplicity.
But he had no idea that in the future, this sword technique would earn the ridiculously long name "Master's Revised Guided Piercing Swift Sword Technique" shortened to...
Master's Augmented Piercing Swift Sword Technique, shaking the world and gaining fame.