Chapter 1

Each of the Nine Sects has a thousand years of history and a cultivated martial art.
The Nanhai Thirty-Six Swords of the Nanhai Sect.
The Sea Heaven Ten Swords of the Zhongnan Sect.
The Tai Qi Hye Sword of the Wudang Sect.
Shaolin’s Dharma Three Swords.
The Nine Yin Divine Sword of the Ami School.
The Great Bokken Law of the Joint School.
The Shang-Chi Mu Shang Sword Art of the Kunlun Sect.
The Silent Sword Method of the Jumchang School.
And…… the Purple Six Swords of the Huashan School.
These are the greatest martial artists who can become the greatest masters of an era.
The world recognizes the Shaolin’s Dharma Three Swords and the Wudang Sect’s Taijiquan Hye Sword as the best.
But the greatest of them all is the Jia Hao Six Swords of the Huashan School…….
This is the beginning of the rise of the Volcano Sect, which has been the weakest of the nine sects since Blood Heaven’s fright three hundred years ago.
Chapter 1: The Disciples of the Volcano Sect (1)
“Hurry up!”
“What…… are you talking about……?
“I said get up!”
‘Shut up…….’
“Hey!”
Mate!
“Ouch!”
I felt a searing pain in my cheek.
The burning pain stimulated my brain, shaking me out of my drowsiness.
“It’s either that or wake up, isn’t it?”
A child’s squeaky voice.
I lifted my head.
I saw a little girl with her hair tied back in a bun, her hands on her waist, and a pathetic look in her eyes.
“Mr. Wu Yi…… told you not to hit me when I wake up, but to shake me quietly to wake me up, Yan Hua!”
The girl in front of me was named Hong Yanhua.
Despite her pretty name, she’s a tomboy.
“That’s because you won’t wake up! Do you know what time it is? You’re late for training!”
“Oh, right! Morning training time!”
“Let’s go, we might be really late.”
Yan Hua said and stood up.
This was the Volcano Sect, built inside a volcano, on Jade Maiden Peak.
This is the Volcano Sect where the Dao Gate and the Sword Gate, the two main pillars of the Zhongyuan Sect, coexist.
It is said to be on the path of decline, but it is still worthy of decay.
No matter how decrepit they are, the Volcanoes have enough masters to easily defeat most small and medium-sized sects.
They also have a much stricter discipline than other sects.
“Hek…… hek…….”
Yan Hua and I hadn’t yet learned the Jingxin Gongfu, so we ran with all our might.
“Hmm…… Not late, but it was close. Be careful.”
“Yeah…… heck…….”
“Go to your seat and stand.”
“Yes…….”
This quietly-speaking middle-aged man in his forties was named Mu Jin Qin.
He is the elder who supervises the Bo Ping disciples of the Volcano Sect.
“Alright, let’s begin!”
“Yay!”
The hundred children shouted in unison and began to perform the same movements.
Of course, I do the same.
The movements we’re performing are the most basic martial art, Zhang Tianshu, which is taught to the inner family disciples of Huashan and the Bo Ping disciples.
It means the hand that lights up the sky.
I’m not sure why they chose to use the Chinese character “zhang” when there’s also the Chinese character “hu”, but the literal meaning of the name is “hands that light up the sky”.
But our hands don’t glow.
This is because we need to have qi, or internal energy, to make them glow.
Of course, I have it.
I’ve been in the Huashan School for about thirty days, and I’ve learned a basic method called the Purple Heart Method.
But it’s too difficult for us to move the inner gong with our hands through the blood vessels, so we’re just imitating our elder brother.
“Stop, Qingwu, you’re not doing it right!”
Master Mu Jin pointed out.
My mind was wandering and my focus was off.
I took a deep breath, concentrated, and mimicked the other children’s movements.
Master Mujin turned his head and watched the other children.
“From here, put your hands out in front of you and sweep them upward.
With a “boom” sound, they put their hands out in front of them, and then immediately brought them up.
‘It’s so weird…….’
I feel it every time, but something doesn’t feel right about this part, this part of Chung, this part of Seung.
It’s like the wrong parts were glued together.
‘But there’s nothing wrong with a herbal diet that has been refined for hundreds of years…….’
Zhang Tianshu was created about four hundred years after the founding of the Huashan School by a man named Zhang Hao-il, who was one of Huashan’s inner disciples.
It was the best and most groundbreaking martial art created by the inner disciples, so the Huashan School accepted it and taught it to the inner disciples and the Bo Ping disciples.
The elders of the Huashan Sect and the Zhang Wenyin Sect would fix any strange or incorrect parts by hand, so if it was strange, it was me who was strange, not the connection between the two.
“Let’s just ignore it.
This was the easiest thing to do.
While I was thinking about it, I finished my morning practice.
By the time I finished, the sun was high in the sky.
“After everyone has washed up, gather in the starboard pavilion.”
“Yes!”
The children all replied in unison, huffing and puffing and breathing heavily.
“Come on, let’s go.”
Yeonhwa, the girl I trained with next to me, patted me on the shoulder.
“Uh, yeah.”
The distance from the training area to the starboard angle is a bit long.
Since the volcano is so big, the volcanic waves created just below the peak of the volcano have a very long distance between buildings.
Therefore, I walked around and enjoyed the scenery.
The leaves of the trees were turning brown as the summer turned to early fall.
The crystal clear mineral water sparkling in the sunlight. And flower blossoms swaying in the breeze as if being stroked.
It was all beautiful and exquisite.
It was a beautiful sight to behold in one of the Five Mountains of Zhongyuan, the West Mountains, a volcano.
“Let’s meet after I wash up.”
Yeonhwa and I parted ways at a fork in the road.
I did as she said and went to wash.
After a while, when she was clean, they met again at the fork.
“Come on, let’s go to the starboard angle. Let’s walk a little faster so we won’t be late.”
“I don’t think it’s a bad idea to slow down and take in the sights.”
The scenery around us looked even more beautiful today.
It was like the first time I climbed a volcano.
“We’re almost late for breakfast,” I said, ”and if we arrive late again, we’ll be reprimanded.”
“That’s not gonna happen…… boom!”
I gritted my teeth and walked quickly along the trail.
As I said, the distance between buildings on the volcano is huge.
It feels especially far for those of us who haven’t even learned the Jingxin method.
After walking at a brisk pace for about an hour, we finally reached the starboard angle.
It’s not easy to walk at a fast pace, not running for half an hour, but not slow either.
The reason I did such a stupid thing was that my desire to see the scenery around me and my need to go fast compromised with each other and I decided to go at a fast pace.
Anyway, that’s why when I arrived, I stood in place and caught my breath.
Some of the kids did the same thing, standing still and breathing in and out, as if they were tired from running.
And when all the children were gathered, our teacher, Elder Mujin, walked in.
“Everyone has arrived.”
Seeing us standing in an orderly fashion, Master Mujin said with a smile.
“Now please take your seats and sit down.”
We went to the seats that Master Mujin had assigned to each of us on the first day and sat down.
The starboard angle was wide enough that there was room for all fifty of us to sit at a distance from each other.
“Turn the padded seats.”
We followed Master Mujin’s command and sat down.
Our legs were crossed and our palms facing the sky, resting slightly on our laps.
“Now relax and breathe in and out slowly, chanting the mantra.”
I took a slow inhale and a long exhale.
“Gongxin inhalation, jiaxin harmonization, haptian cognition.
I memorized the mantra, a simple combination of words.
After a few dozen repetitions, the natural qi that came in through my nose circled my body, and when I exhaled, more than half of it flew out.
I felt sorry for myself as more than half of the cool, warm energy was blown away, but I dismissed the thought as the remaining energy settled into a place called Danzhen and new energy came in.
It was so relaxing that I just wanted to keep crying.
“Come on, everyone, wake up.”
Stimulated by a voice outside, I opened my eyes.
It was Master Mujin speaking.
“Shouldn’t we eat lunch?”
At Master Mujin’s words, we all got up and went outside.
We headed to the outer hall to eat and then gathered back in the training hall.
“Let’s begin training. Raise your swords!”
We all raised our wooden swords.
This was because we had not yet studied martial arts deeply enough to hold a real sword.
Grasping the sword with both hands, we set the pole of the sword at about the height of a man’s middle, and step our right foot backward at an angle, facing forward.
This is the basic martial art of Bo Ping’s disciples, such as Zhang Tianshu.
Although it is similar in name to the three-headed sword method used by the three martial artists, it is actually a very different martial art.
Unlike the Three Swords, which consists of vertical slashes, horizontal slashes, and thrusts, the Three Swords is a sword art centered on transformation.
In fact, it was originally a martial art.
However, when a master named Woo Hyuk-chang visited the Huashan School, he was disappointed with the straightforwardness of the Three Jae Dao, so he added a change to it, and the change was so bizarre that it became a sword method rather than a tao method.
‘Even so, it’s only a basic kung fu technique…….’
He smiled and laughed, and then proceeded to deploy the three-pronged sword attack like the others.
‘Forward thrust…….’
He stepped forward with his right foot, which had been stepping backward, and stabbed forward while rotating his upper body.
A wind-cutting sound came out.
‘Slash to the right here.
He took a step forward with his left foot and swung the wooden sword to the right.
“Spinning slash.
Without going against the flow of the sword, he rotated his body once and slashed in front of him.
‘Swinging the sword pole, slashing several times.
Parrr!
The sword pole shook and made a strange sound.
With that, I stabbed at the middle of the throat, the uvula, and the tip as fast as I could.
Originally, I was supposed to make my opponent feel like I was stabbing him all over, not just in the middle of his body, but in his throat, but I wasn’t skilled enough to do that, let alone in the art of swordplay.
‘Place your left hand at a right angle to the hilt and draw back. Then thrust again!