Episode 11: Walking the Road Together (2)
Light Novel: Volume 1 Episode 11
Manhwa: Chapter 8
Chapter 4 Episode 11. Walking the Road Together (2)
It was a month before Dam-ho could move on his own again, and during that time, he spent most of his time practicing internal energy circulation.
He would wake up at dawn, take a dose of Surging Yang Elixir, and then practice the Heavy Sky Heart Technique, and by the time he was done, the day would have passed without him even realizing it.
Just as Sage Hyun-so had promised, the Surging Yang Elixir and Heavy Sky Heart Technique created a harmonious synergy. The sticky, sluggish energy of the Heavy Sky Heart Technique would burn like wildfire once he took the Surging Yang Elixir.
Since Dam-ho was unable to move his body, he delved deeper into the Heavy Sky Heart Technique. As he delved deeper and deeper, he was able to see aspects he hadn’t noticed before.
While Dam-ho immersed himself in the technique, Sage Hyun-so went back to Three Elders’ Mountain to gather more herbs for making the Surging Yang Elixir.
When Sage Hyun-so returned back at his abode, he was carrying an enormous bundle of herbs. As soon as Sage Hyun-so arrived at his abode, he began concocting the Surging Yang Elixir again without taking a break.
By the time Dam-ho was finally able to move again, Sage Hyun-so was able to complete hundreds of Surging Yang Elixir pills.
“How is your body?”
“I’m strong enough to move.”
Though he said that, his condition was far from ideal. Having been immobile for so long, his entire body had stiffened. Restoring his hardened muscles to their original state took great priority.
His left leg, in particular, was a problem. He’d lost all the muscle he’d built up over the years of running up and down mountains, leaving him with practically nothing. He would need to rebuild them from scratch.
But Dam-ho didn’t feel discouraged. While he had lost much, he had also gained far more.
“Master.”
“Ho! As you know, the existing Mount Hua Sect martial arts do not suit you. We need to create a new martial art, one that is tailored specifically for you.”
Dam-ho’s eyes gleamed with excitement.
He already knew this. He had painfully realized it over the past five years.
“The first thing we need to accomplish is creating a footwork technique tailored just for you. You don’t need any flashy movements. With that leg, not only would it be impossible for you to learn complex footwork, but it would also hinder the learning of other martial arts.”
“I understand.”
Dam-ho readily agreed. He had been thinking the same as Sage Hyun-so.
“A simple footwork technique without unnecessary flourishes, but one that is optimal for executing your martial arts. What kind of technique could that be?”
Sage Hyun-so bent down and picked up the small stones lying on the ground and began to arrange them on the ground.
The stones were piled up like a miniature fortress.
“This is your enemy.”
“……”
“Those who have perfected their own martial arts, achieving the solid defense of an impenetrable fortress. How would you face such an opponent? What kind of footwork would you use? Have you ever thought about it?”
“I have to overpower them with strength. That’s the only way for me.”
“Exactly. You need to overpower them. But have you thought about how to increase your strength?”
“By building muscle—”
“It’s speed.”
“What?”
“If you increase speed, your strength will increase as well.”
Sage Hyun-so picked up a small twig from the ground and placed it across the stones.
The twig and the stone wall now faced each other.
Suddenly, Sage Hyun-so flicked the twig with his finger. The branch flew off at high speed, crashing through the stone wall with a thunderous crash.
“Battering ram, a siege weapon that can destroy a fortress in a single strike. Your footwork should be like this battering ram.”
“A battering ram?”
“Yes! Like a battering ram, it should concentrate all its power into a single point with terrifying speed. If you can do that, you can overcome complexity with simplicity. This is the solution I’ve come up with.”
“……”
Dam-ho couldn’t say anything. It felt as if the fog clouding his mind was finally clearing away.
A new possibility that he hadn’t seen before began to appear.
Sage Hyun-so’s voice echoed again.
“A footwork technique like the battering ram that breaks through a fortress wall—I shall call it Charging Steps.”
“Charging Steps…”
“It’s the footwork technique that you and I will create from now on.”
Sage Hyun-so’s voice resonated deeply in Dam-ho’s heart.
* * *
Charging Steps.
A footwork technique that resembles a battering ram charging toward a fortress wall.
Once the focal point was set, Sage Hyun-so and Dam-ho immersed themselves intensely. Sage Hyun-so began to share all the knowledge he had accumulated in his mind over the years.
“Among Jianghu’s famous martial arts, there is a technique called Blood Sky Kick.”
“Bloody Sky Kick?”
“It was the unique martial art of Woo Kyung-pae, the Iron Blood Supreme Demon, who roamed the Jianghu alone 120 years ago. The power of his kick was so immense that people said a single kick from him could cause a mist of blood to rise and paint the sky red.”
Woo Gyeong-pae, with just the Blood Sky Kick, had ascended to the ranks of the top ten martial artists of his time. However, due to his violent nature and indiscriminate acts of chaos, he became the public enemy of Jianghu.
At the time, hundreds of top martial artists of Jianghu banded together to eliminate Woo Gyeong-pae. Yet, he skillfully evaded their pursuit and vanished without a trace.
He was never seen again, and so he became a legend, so forgotten that few even remembered the existence of Woo Kyung-pae.
“People simply assumed Woo Kyung-pae grew tired of the Jianghu and went into seclusion, but the truth was different. The damage he caused to the Jianghu prompted Sang Cheonja, the Mount Hua Sword Immortal, and the greatest master of our sect at the time, to take action.”
Sang Cheonja, like Woo Kyung-pae, was one of the top ten martial artists of the time, and his swordsmanship was considered unrivaled.
Sang Cheonja and Woo Kyung-pae fought for an entire day and night. The battle was so intense that it seemed the heavens and earth were being torn apart. In the end, Sang Cheonja managed to win by half a second.
“If Woo Kyung-pae hadn’t exhausted his internal energy evading the pursuit of the other Jianghu masters, not even the great Sang Cheonja would have been able to defeat him. That’s how powerful Woo Kyung-pae was.”
After killing Woo Kyung-pae, Sang Cheonja tried to destroy the secret manual that contained the Bloody Sky Kick by burning it. But after closely examining the technique, Sang Cheonja had to change his mind.
“Even though it had been misused by Woo Kyung-pae, the Bloody Sky Kick itself was an extraordinary martial art. That’s why Sang Cheonja instructed the scholars of that time to memorize the technique orally, as it couldn’t be officially stored.”
Thus, the Bloody Sky Kick has been passed down through the oral transmission by the scholars to the present day.
“It is said that a master of Shaolin’s Shadowless Kick can perform as many as eighteen kicks while levitating his body in the air. This is due to the precise distribution of internal energy and the art of continuous strikes. But the Bloody Sky Kick is different. It doesn’t concern itself with finesse or the the distribution of internal energy— it just focus on annihilating the opponent in a single strike.”
Dam-ho gazed intently at Sage Hyun-so.
In the five years they had been together, it was the first time he had seen Sage Hyun-so speak so passionately.
“The Bloody Sky Kick doesn’t require fancy footwork. All that’s needed is a sturdy pair of legs to act as pillars. As you practice and delve into the Bloody Sky Kick, you will undoubtedly perfect the Charging Steps.”
“I understand.”
Dam-ho nodded.
He trusted his master. If Sage Hyun-so said something, there was undoubtedly a good reason behind it.
Sage Hyun-so’s face was flushed with excitement, but there wasn’t even a hint of hesitation when it came to teaching Dam-ho the Bloody Sky Kick.
The sect leader, Sage Hyun-cheon, had forbidden him from passing on the Mount Hua Sect’s martial arts to Dam-ho, but Bloody Sky Kick wasn’t part of the Mount Hua techniques. There was no reason to hesitate.
After hearing the forms and internal energy maneuvers of the Bloody Sky Kick, Dam-ho finally understood why Sage Hyun-so had been so passionate.
The Bloody Sky Kick didn’t require intricate movements. All it needed was a preparatory move to maximize its destructive power. It was a martial art that even Dam-ho, with his crippled legs, could fully unfold.
The challenge was that mastering the Bloody Sky Kick required tremendous leg strength, explosive lung capacity, and precise control of internal energy.
‘Master…’
Dam-ho couldn’t help but feel a surge of deep respect for Sage Hyun-so.
Sage Hyun-so didn’t just hand over an advance martial art and tell him to master it. Sage Hyun-so had taken Dam-ho’s physical condition, his past efforts, and the direction of his future growth into account to come up with this solution.
He could easily imagine how many sleepless nights Sage Hyun-so must have spent, agonizing over how best to help him.
Even after that, Sage Hyun-so continued to pour out all the knowledge he possessed. Dam-ho, having listened intently, engaged in intense discussions with him.
At the core of everything was the Charging Steps that Sage Hyun-so had first introduced.
Their ultimate goal was to create a martial art like the battering ram’s charge, along with complementary techniques to enhance it.
The two of them engaged in debates fiercely day in and day out. It became routine to stay up all night, and there were times when they wouldn’t sleep for several days.
Creating a new martial art was not an easy task, even for great masters. For a scholar who knew only theory and an inexperienced martial artist who had nothing but determination, the creation of a new martial art seemed nearly impossible.
But the two had something that others didn’t— neither of them know how to give up easily. And they were incredibly persistent.
Neither Dam-ho nor Sage Hyun-so held significant status within the Mount Hua Sect. Hardly anyone paid attention to what they were doing, and that worked to their advantage. It allowed them to experiment with and develop their martial arts in peace.
While Sage Hyun-so provided the theoretical direction, it was up to Dam-ho to verify it with his body.
Had it not been for the stability of the Heavy Sky Heart Technique, they wouldn’t have dared to attempt such a challenge.
Dam-ho had ceased his usual practice of climbing up and down Mount Hua. It was because doing so attracted too much attention to himself. Instead, he started training in a more unconventional manner.
Behind Sage Hyun-so’s residence was a small clearing and a large boulder. The boulder was as large as a grand pavilion.
Sage Hyun-so drew a small circle on the boulder, at about Dam-ho’s eye level.
Dam-ho watched Sage Hyun-so carefully as he did so.
Sage Hyun-so then drew a straight line on the ground from the circle on the boulder, leading toward the clearing.
A straight line was drawn on the ground, and Dam-ho stood at the end of it.
“This will be your task starting today.”
“How should I proceed?”
“Your training is to leap from this spot and strike the circle on the boulder with your fist in a single step.”
Dam-ho furrowed his brow slightly.
The distance between where he stood and the boulder was a full two zhang (approximately six meters).
It was too long a distance for a normal person, even for a fully capable martial artist, to make a leap in a single step.
Sage Hyun-so pointed to a line drawn on the ground.
“You must jump with your left foot only, and you absolutely must not cross this line.”
“Master…”
“I know that, with your leg, this seems nearly impossible. But you must achieve it.”
At the command of Sage Hyun-so, Dam-ho silently nodded.
His left leg was slightly bent and twisted. It made it difficult for him to exert any real force or gauge direction accurately.
This training was not just about strengthening his left leg.
Because his leg was twisted, Dam-ho’s body balance was significantly off. If he could complete this training successfully, his sense of balance would be honed to its peak.
“Let’s begin.”
“Yes!”
Without a word, Dam-ho followed Sage Hyun-so’s instructions.
Tap!
He hurled himself toward the boulder.
“Eugh!”
Dam-ho’s face contorted in pain.
He hadn’t even covered a third of the distance to the boulder, let alone touch it with his fist. The worst part was that he had strayed far to the left from the line Hyun-so had drawn.
It was clear proof that Dam-ho’s body was twisted to the left.
Sage Hyun-so’s stern voice echoed.
“Again!”
Without complaint, Dam-ho returned to his starting position and leapt toward the boulder again.
“Huff, huff!”
Dam-ho’s breathing became increasingly labored.
His body was covered in dirt as he repeatedly pushed off the ground and tumbled across it. However, his eyes shone more fiercely than ever before.
SoundlessWind21’s Notes:
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