Chapter 89: Black Kill Sword Wonho (2)
Yong Hwarin had a splitting headache.
‘Those bastards assassinated Father just to obtain the Divine Item.’
Still, it was a relief that he finally understood the reason behind his father’s assassination.
‘If I find and eliminate them first, Father will remain safe.’
Yong Hwarin quietly stood up and left the manor.
He asked the Demonic Master something he was curious about.
‘I have a question.’
‘What is it?’
‘Was this manor your secret residence, Elder?’
‘No, this place was a manor I purchased to give to someone.’
When the Demonic Master closed his mouth after that, Yong Hwarin refrained from asking any further questions.
Back at the inn, Yong Hwarin couldn’t fall asleep easily, so he entered Qi Circulation Training.
Yong Hwarin hadn’t had proper sleep in recent days.
Just as the Demonic Master had said, he focused on widening and hardening his Blood Vessels so he could continuously utilize the three gaps worth of the Demonic Master’s cultivation.
He had no time, yet too much to do. Even sleep felt like a waste.
Having achieved the Tai Chi Dantian, his top priority now was to accumulate energy into the Yin Dantian.
To do this, Yong Hwarin needed Dual-Mind Inner Art.
Splitting the mind in two and separately moving the original Yang Dantian and the newly formed Yin Dantian was an incredibly difficult task.
However, as he continued his training, he was gradually able to separate the Yang and Yin Dantian, and eventually, Qi Circulation Training became possible.
To reach this point, he had been shaving time off his sleep and devoting himself entirely to this effort.
Until now, he had never once performed Qi Circulation using both Dantian simultaneously.
He had successfully formed the Tai Chi Dantian, but for some reason, he had been unable to circulate Qi using the energies of both Dantian.
And yet, now, suddenly, the energy in his Dantian began to move, and he was able to circulate Qi.
When he realized he could perform Qi Circulation using both Dantian, Yong Hwarin felt a rush of ecstasy.
‘It works, it works! It finally works!’
How much anxiety had he endured because of this?
Although the Self-Rotating Blood Demon had allowed him to create the Tai Chi Dantian, circulating Qi using both energies simultaneously through Dual-Mind Inner Art was no ordinary feat.
He had thought it would take much longer, but suddenly, it had worked.
‘Could it be?’
He began to think there must be a reason why Qi Circulation, which hadn’t worked until now, suddenly became possible, so he retraced recent events.
‘That’s the only explanation.’
To infiltrate the manor, Yong Hwarin had learned Stealth Technique from the Demonic Master.
The technique the Demonic Master taught was an unorthodox method unthinkable for someone of Yong Hwarin’s level.
‘By using a method that absorbs the energy of objects through the Laogong Point and the Yongcheon Point, I must’ve unknowingly opened those two points.’
Sitting cross-legged, a line from the Tai Chi Dantian that had always eluded him came to mind.
It wasn’t quite a mnemonic phrase, but rather a remark left by Zhang Sanfeng.
“Even if Buddha wasn’t a god, he was someone who could truly have become one. It was only when I achieved transcendence that I understood the true meaning of the Buddha sitting cross-legged. Once you understand this, transcendence isn’t far away.”
Zhang Sanfeng’s words may not have seemed extraordinary, but Yong Hwarin came to realize that this passage was the most important one in the Tai Chi Dantian.
‘It’s no lie that Zhang Sanfeng realized the Tai Chi Dantian from the Buddha’s cross-legged posture.’
Without realizing it, Yong Hwarin drifted deeply into contemplation.
Fortunately, with the Upper Dantian closed, there was no room for the Demonic Master to intervene.
Yong Hwarin never woke the Demonic Master when he performed Qi Circulation.
That was because revealing the Tai Chi Dantian to the Demonic Master could instead become dangerous.
‘Current Qi Circulation Training is performed by sitting cross-legged and accumulating energy through breathing. Even though I was to accumulate energy through breathing, I always wondered why I had to sit in that uncomfortable posture. The only explanation was that it was a good posture for receiving energy. But now I understand. Sitting cross-legged means both soles face the sky, and both palms do as well, with the thumbs and middle fingers touching to form a circle. That is the Buddha’s cross-legged posture. Buddha didn’t assume that posture because he liked it. It was because he absorbed energy through the Laogong Point in the palms and the Yongcheon Point in the soles.’
Yong Hwarin’s thoughts deepened even further.
‘On top of that, since he also absorbed energy through breathing, it was like receiving energy throughout the entire body, and his Energy Accumulation would have been several times faster than others. That’s why it was said that Buddha couldn’t help but become a god, even if he didn’t want to. Modern martial artists in the murim are ignorant of this and sit cross-legged to accumulate energy only through breath—how foolish they are.’
The reason Yong Hwarin could connect with Zhang Sanfeng’s thoughts was because he hadn’t learned a diagrammed martial system from a young age.
Martial Principles weren’t something to be blindly accepted, but something that could only evolve through identifying and understanding the reasoning and process behind those principles, and resolving questions through that understanding.
Most martial artists did not question Martial Principles at all and merely followed them as they were, which made any shift in perspective extremely difficult.
‘There was a reason for sitting cross-legged while performing Qi Circulation Training. One must absorb energy through the Yongcheon Point and Laogong Point.’
Even while in meditation, Yong Hwarin smiled.
‘Even if I had understood this principle, I wouldn’t have succeeded in Qi Circulation. Unless you understand the principle that you must first release your own energy and then absorb it back along with ambient energy through the Laogong Point and Yongcheon Point, it’s all meaningless. Ah, I never imagined that the Stealth Technique taught by the Demonic Master would help in accumulating energy into the Tai Chi Dantian.’
Through meditation, his thoughts naturally led to Qi Circulation Training.
Using the method he had named Dragon Concealment Heavenly Art, Yong Hwarin absorbed the ambient Qi. Slowly, Qi began to seep in through the Laogong Point and Yongcheon Point.
It was several times the amount compared to breathing-based Qi Circulation Training.
‘Ah, ah. So it was through this method of Energy Accumulation that Zhang Sanfeng achieved transcendence. If I accumulate energy like this, I too can surpass the cultivation of others.’
As Yong Hwarin circulated Qi through the Tai Chi Dantian split left and right using Dual-Mind Inner Art and performed the Dragon Concealment Heavenly Art, he unknowingly fell into a meditative trance.
The energy of the Yang Dantian and the Yin Dantian began at opposite ends and gathered in the Dantian, not colliding, and completed the Small Heavenly Cycle several times faster than other Qi Circulations.
As a result, many times more energy was accumulated in the Dantian, making Qi Circulation Training using the Tai Chi Dantian no different than consuming spiritual medicine.
‘The reason Zhang Sanfeng was able to achieve transcendence after completing the Tai Chi Dantian was because he had accumulated cultivation that exceeded the bounds of humanity.’
Immersed in meditative Qi Circulation, Yong Hwarin felt as though he had met Zhang Sanfeng himself at that moment, as his presence vividly passed through to him.
‘Ah, even though he completed the Tai Chi Dantian and achieved transcendence, he didn’t pass down this Tai Chi Dantian because of the tremendous power of the martial art it enabled. That’s why Zhang Sanfeng didn’t even pass this unprecedented mental art to the Wudang Sect, where he is the founder.’
Because it was too destructive, Zhang Sanfeng had not left behind this mental art even for the Wudang Sect.
‘Even the Tai Chi Profound Heavenly Sutra does not describe how to realize martial arts through this mental art. That must be the reason. If I had obtained this mental art without realizing that, I would have dismissed it as a mere fantasy of some Daoist who couldn’t achieve his realization.’
It was because Yong Hwarin had witnessed with his own eyes how Ha Cheolryeong became the greatest martial artist in the world using this mental art that he could now follow these clues.
‘In that sense, the Tai Chi Profound Heavenly Sutra might be a martial art that should never have appeared in this world.’
Even now, martial artists who had mastered inner arts were incomprehensibly powerful compared to ordinary people. If such martial artists became even stronger, the gap between them and common people would become unbridgeable.
‘Power alone is not enough. If one is to cultivate oneself through martial arts and pursue the Way, it must be that profound. One should not become strong in an instant.’
If not, many Daoist-affiliated sects among the Nine Sects One Alliance would have had to close their gates.
Martial arts that were strong in power alone held no reason to attain the Way.
Of course, there were those in the murim who tried to attain the Way through such martial arts.
People referred to them as the Demonic Path.
Because the Demonic Path only pursued strength, it naturally inclined toward the Tyrant’s Path, which led to the spilling of much blood, and thus others came to call it the Demonic Path.
“Strength alone does not define martial arts.”
Perhaps it was for this reason that such a maxim had long circulated throughout the murim.
Yong Hwarin opened his eyes, feeling vitality overflowing through his body.
It was the first time he had properly performed Qi Circulation Training since forming his Tai Chi Dantian.
‘To think my dantian would feel this weighty with just a single Great Heavenly Cycle.’
It was a fullness he had never experienced before.
‘Ah, at this rate, I might really achieve Transcendence.’
Even though he had not slept, his head felt clear and refreshed.
When he opened his eyes, someone happened to be approaching from outside.
“Young Master, have you awakened?”
It was Jungwook.
“Yes.”
“Please have your meal.”
Yong Hwarin realized he had unknowingly practiced Qi Circulation Training throughout the entire night.
He had never known it could feel this good.
In the past, he had sometimes forced himself to do it for the sake of Energy Accumulation.
And so, those who were lazy could not help but progress slowly in martial arts.
Yong Hwarin washed up and went down to the dining hall.
The group was already seated at the table.
‘It seems I ended the Qi Circulation Training at just the right time.’
If he had continued longer, they might have stood guard for him as they had in the past.
Yong Hwarin spoke to the gathered group at the table.
“Let us finish our meal and hurry back to the main house.”
“You weren’t in a rush until yesterday. Why the sudden urgency?”
Namwook asked, as he was the one who had to drive the carriage.
But Yong Hwarin couldn’t honestly say that the Black Kill Sword, under the command of the Sagaram Shadow Division, would attempt to assassinate his father and that he had to stop it at all costs.
“There’s no reason to delay here any longer. And from now on, I need you to listen carefully to what I say. Instructor Mo must pass down a new cultivation technique to the disciples of the main house. If that is done, the strength of the main house will increase manyfold. When I return to the main house, I will appoint Instructor Mo as the martial arts instructor of the main house.”
Yong Hwarin looked seriously at the Twin Dragons of Fury as he spoke.
“The two of you must pass on the cultivation technique to the Sect Leader’s Guards and dedicate yourselves fully to guarding my father until further instructions.”
In the past, they would have asked why and argued over Yong Hwarin’s words.
But now, they understood that whenever Yong Hwarin gave an order, there was always a valid reason behind it.
Even Namwook, who liked to argue, kept his mouth shut and nodded.
He sensed there was a reason why the Young Master was speaking with such a serious expression.
“And Junior Brother Jong, I want you to enter the secluded training chamber at the main house and complete your martial arts there.”