Chapter 38. Twin Swords of the Wind and Clouds (13)
“For such a young brat, you sure run your mouth like a river. All flowery words, no substance. Either way, now is not the time.”
“Tsk. Fine, I understand.”
Woo-Moon backed down easier than Sang-Woon had expected.
But from Woo-Moon’s perspective, while it would be a lie to say that he had no desire to consume the Pure Stalactite Milk, it wasn’t as if he was obsessed with it either.
‘I’m already busy enough making sense of all the martial arts techniques I’m learning already. I need to focus on that now.’
Stepping away from where Sang-Woon was teaching Dae-Woong, Woo-Moon returned to his room and sat cross-legged. He focused on the Forbidden Divine Art and started to slowly and intently circulate his qi.
The qi of the Forbidden Divine Art, which had been naturally circulating within his body on its own before, began to move more actively, with great vigor, as if it was happy to see a good friend after being alone for a good while.
As it circulated, the enormous power of the Forbidden Divine Art began to express itself. The energy produced by this art was so incredible that it made his otherwise vast qi pathways seem narrow in comparison.
While there was nothing more foolish than trying to estimate one’s internal qi with just numbers, if Woo-Moon were forced to compare it to the standards of those in the gangho, his Forbidden Divine Art could be said to be already approaching the First Class realm.
Of course, just as the adage goes, great muscles do not mean one is strong. The same was true with qi.
It was surprisingly common for someone who had reached First Class with a low-level qi cultivation method to be unable to overcome someone with just ten years’ worth of a purer qi cultivated using a top-tier method.[1] However, as Woo-Moon's qi had reached a purity level that even Absolute Masters would admire, he didn’t have to worry about that part.
After cultivating the Forbidden Divine Art for some time, Woo-Moon then directly went to lay on his bed and begin his visualization.
The main thing he focused on was the Gentle Celestial Sword Art. Among its techniques, he could now use the North Wind and Cold Snow, from which he had derived the Raging Wind Palm, the Heavy Rain Fist, and the Northern Wind Steps.
Creating martial arts was generally something that could only be done when one had trained in martial arts for a long time—in other words, only after becoming a great master. Thus, for Woo-Moon to create such skills at his age was something that had never been seen before in the history of the murim, something that everyone thought impossible.
The reason he was able to perform such an incredible feat was that the Forbidden Divine Art and the Gentle Celestial Sword were truly excellent methods. In addition, thanks to his Solar Physique, Woo-Moon’s comprehension was at a level where it would be difficult to find anyone comparable in the gangho.
In addition, as he had spent all of the time he had been absorbed in the landscape painting practicing the two methods without care of day or night, it could also be considered that he had spent his training time ten times more efficiently than others.
That was how he had created these transcendental techniques—the Raging Wind Palm, the Heavy Rain Fist, and the Northern Wind Steps—on his own.
“Whew. There goes my cultivation for the day. Now, let’s try to analyze the contest between Grandfather and the Night Spear Devil.”
Muttering to himself, Woo-Moon first mentally drew an image of the battle between his grandfather and the Night Spear Devil, and through the insights he gained from recreating their battle, he attempted to unravel some of the mysteries of the Gentle Celestial Sword.
However, he quickly realized that there was something wrong with his method, and it was only after struggling for a while that he realized that he was doing things in the wrong order.
Thus, he used what he knew about the Gentle Celestial Sword as the base to resolve some of his confusion about the battle between his grandfather and the Night Spear Devil. Indeed, things that had been starting to frustrate him immediately became much easier to understand.
‘Ah, much better...’
In Woo-Moon’s head, things continued to break apart, and reform as new ideas emerged.
Through this method, he was able to see through everything he hadn’t noticed the first time around, things that he hadn’t even been able to detect when he visualized the battle normally. As he analyzed the martial arts of his grandfather and the Night Spear Devil and noticed their core aspects, he began to sense the high and distant truths of martial arts.
As he gained new enlightenment, Woo-Moon's body slowly rose upward, without him being aware.
His mastery of the Gentle Celestial Sword had just grown by another tier, and his Forbidden Divine Art resonated in response, making him fall into a state of floating trance[2].
At that moment, Sang-Woon, who had been watching Dae-Woong’s posture, suddenly looked over at Woo-Moon’s room on the second floor and muttered to himself in disbelief.
“What a monster. He may be my grandson, but isn’t this a little too much? It feels like he’ll reach my level in just a bit.”
As Sang-Woon muttered to himself, Dae-Woong lowered his hands ever so slightly.
“Pardon?”
“I’m saying that your son is a genius, you idiot! Are you deaf?! Wait, where do you think you are to slack like this? Do it properly!”
Sang-Woon’s attitude toward Dae-Woong was completely different when Jin-Jin was around compared to when she wasn’t.
“Understood!”
Dae-Woong immediately snapped to life with a mixture of surprise and fear in his voice. He punched forward again as he felt like he would die otherwise. Because he had punched with so much strength and so many times, his knuckles had been worn bare, and blood streamed from between his clenched fingers.
However, to his dismay, his father-in-law refused to let him stop, stating that this was the bare minimum in learning martial arts.
‘But did he just say my son is a genius? Who could he be talking about? It’s probably Woo-Gang, right?’ Dae-Woong thought to himself.
When night came, Sang-Woon would turn his attention to Woo-Gang and teach him martial arts. Of course, as Woo-Gang was a disciple of Mount Hua, he wasn’t allowed to take a person from another faction as his master without permission. However, his maternal grandfather, Sang-Woon, could be considered an exception.
The Palm Martial Emperor had an insatiable curiosity and a great desire to explore any martial arts that he didn’t know. Therefore, compared to other Absolute Masters of his era, he was considered to be much more knowledgeable in a variety of martial arts. It was easy for him to pick some of the martial arts he knew that wouldn’t conflict with what Woo-Gang had previously learned.
On the other hand, Woo-Moon wasn’t currently in a place where his martial prowess would improve even if he were to be taught any new techniques. Thus, Sang-Woon had simply told him to come and ask him if he found himself at an impasse.
While the men of the Song family were working diligently on their martial arts training, Jin-Jin wasn’t sitting idly, either.
She was in a weakened state, similar to how Woo-Moon had once been. With the help of Sang-Woon, her internal injuries had been healed, and her blocked qi pathways cleared. However, her body had become far weaker as a side effect of her internal injuries, and it was unable to keep up with the power of her qi.
She would only be able to use her qi to protect her own body using her cultivation once she had a basic level of conditioning, but at this moment, Jin-Jin’s body was much weaker than the average human’s, let alone a martial artist’s.
Thus, Jin-Jin trained her body consistently as she had first done as a child starting on the martial path. She was essentially training just like her husband was, but as she had already gone down this path once, her martial arts skills improved much faster. Also of great help was the energy of the Pure Stalactite Milk that remained after healing her internal injuries, which greatly aided the restoration of her capabilities.
***
Ten days had passed since Woo-Moon had experienced a sudden epiphany, falling into a trance.
‘...we have about five days left, then.’
Woo-Moon suddenly remembered the events that had happened over at the Leebi Merchant Guild. He had forgotten about it in the meantime, busy with his training. He thus left home in the morning to head toward the guild’s headquarters. However, when he arrived, he saw that the guild wasn’t as vibrant as it had used to be.
As there had been so many people who had joined Chae Noh-Cheol’s side that day and betrayed the guild, there were only about a dozen people left. It was such a small number of people that not only were they unable to continue with their merchant activities, but even the act of maintaining the manor was overwhelming.
In other words, the Leebi Merchant Guild was essentially ruined.
However, what surprised Woo-Moon even more than the disarray was that the people sweeping the yard were wearing mourning clothes.
‘It can’t be...can it?’
With a very ominous feeling weighing on his mind, Woo-Moon lowered his head politely and spoke to a servant who, busy cleaning, had not noticed him yet.
"Excuse me.”
“Huh? Ah! Young Hero Song!”
The servant’s face lit up with joy as he realized who Woo-Moon was. Woo-Moon’s concern lessened as he saw that, and he felt a little relieved.
“Why are you wearing mourning clothes?”
The servant's face darkened again.
“It’s because we are still in the mourning period. After what had happened that day, the Guild Master suffered for four days before eventually... He was already sick, you know....”
Woo-Moon felt a wave of sorrow hearing the servant’s words.
“I see.... Do you mind letting the Deputy Guild Master know that I have come to visit her?”
“Understood.”
The servant went into the main house for a moment and spoke with someone before coming back out.
“I’m sorry, Young Hero Song. The Deputy Guild Master, unfortunately, isn’t in a state where she can receive guests at the moment...”
She had clearly suffered quite the shock when her father died.
“I guess there’s nothing we can do. I understand. If you could please convey a message to the Deputy Guild Master... Please tell her that I offer my condolences and that I wish her all the best through these trying times. I hope she finds the power within her to brave through.”
“Understood, Young Hero Song.”
After saying that, the servant began to move toward the main house again.
“Just one more thing. By chance, do you know where Sir Jo Mu-Jae is?”
“Ah! Sir Jo is over there.”
Woo-Moon walked over to the direction indicated by the servant and met with Jo Mu-Jae.
“Young Hero Song!” Mu-Jae met him with cupped hands.
After a brief greeting, Woo-Moon brought up his reason for coming to visit the guild.
“I’m sorry to bother you, but there is something I would like to know. When Noh-Cheol tried to kill us, he used poison. Do you have any idea where he obtained it?”
There was no way that Noh-Cheol could have concocted such a poison by himself. Thus, he had clearly received it from someone else. Woo-Moon had already dealt with Noh-Cheol, but that was not the end of it. He had to find the one behind the poison and make sure that the matter was properly closed.
‘Nobody dares to try to kill my family and gets away with it. And even if my family isn’t the target, those who recklessly make and sell such catastrophic poisons should be dealt with,’ Woo-Moon thought, thinking in part to those that had been killed without reason by the Venomous Devil’s poison at Goryang Plains.
“Ah, so that’s what this is about. Actually, I have also been researching the source of the poison. From our investigation, it turned out that Noh-Cheol’s cousin is the head of the Inksmoke Gang. As we’ve discovered evidence of him meeting with his cousin not too long ago, we’re pretty sure that’s where he got the poison.”
“The Inksmoke Gang... what sort of organization is it?”
“It’s a medium sized power of the Black Hand in Guangdong Province. Like the rest of the Black Hand, they are a disgusting bunch.”
However Woo-Moon still had something on his mind. ‘The Inksmoke Gang... the Inksmoke Gang?’ He remembered having heard it somewhere.
‘Ah! That’s right.’
When Woo-Moon was young, most of the children his age that weren’t training to continue their family businesses entered either the Guan-Un Martial Hall, the Cheol-Ho Martial Hall, or the Leebi Merchant Guild.
On rare occasions, however, some of the children left for other places.
Excluding Woo-Gang, the one who had been the most successful among the children who had gone to another place was Choo Moon-Hwi, who had become a disciple of the Southern Mount Heng Sect. As for the one who had gone the worst route, that was Yeop Ji-Jil, the second son of the Cheol-Ho Martial Hall Master.
Yeop Ji-Jil1, who had been quietly ostracized among the children due to his bad temperament since childhood, had ended up entering the Inksmoke Gang, which was part of the evil faction of the Black Hand.
‘It seems I’m now completely at odds with that bastard. I mean, I did kinda cripple his father.’
However, Woo-Moon had no regrets over what he had done. Yeop Gu-Saeng was a man who had been blinded by wealth and had tried to slaughter the people of the Leebi Merchant Guild. As for the man’s son, he and other children had bullied Woo-Moon when he had been an idiot.
As those events occurred when Woo-Moon was a lunatic staring at a painting, it took him some time to remember what had happened.
“...Young Hero?”
“Ah! Sorry, I got lost in thought for a moment. Anyways, thank you so much for speaking with me.”
“It was nothing, Young Hero Song.”
However, Mu-Jae’s complexion was dark when he answered. Information regarding that day’s events was sure to have already reached Noh-Cheol’s cousin, and after hearing what had happened, the Inksmoke Gang was likely to take revenge. Thus, Mu-Jae was afraid of the actions the Inksmoke Gang would take.
Leaving him behind, Woo-Moon left the Leebi Merchant Guild, traveled to the market in Unhan, and proceeded to question the first person he met. Where was the Inksmoke Gang and how could he get there?
Finally, after gathering all the information he needed and making his preparations, Woo-Moon left Unhan before the dawn fog had completely vanished. He headed to Jeolnan, in Guangdong Province, where the Inksmoke Gang was located.
***
As Woo-Moon traveled fast using the Northern Wind Steps, he suddenly felt someone following him.
‘Who is it?’
Turning back, he was surprised to see Hyeon Yu-Yeon—a member of the Mount Hua party that he had met at Goryang Plains. She was said to be the golden child of the Mount Hua sect master.
‘Why is she following me?’
1. At this point, it hasn’t been explained yet how long normal cultivation takes, so this doesn’t say much. ☜
2. The original term here is 浮空三昧, which seems to be a term coined by fantasy authors. There is 空三昧 (shunyata samadhi) that literally means “empty/void trance” and is a state that both Buddhist and Yogi aim to reach. ☜