Chapter 8

The clothes that came into view after releasing the bindings.
The clothes had turned black as if they had been dyed.
“Haha, I guess I’ll have to throw these clothes away, huh?”
I changed into another clean set of robes and threw the reddish garment to one side of the room.
“You said it was a gongchuan plaque……, right…….”
Dark eyebrows and hood, bushy beard.
He looked like a bandit.
But the momentum he exuded was no match for bandits.
His eyes were the eyes of a mountain king, a tiger.
One look at him and he was saved.
He was different from ordinary people, stronger and more mysterious than the elders of the Volcano Sect.
‘It’s just my opinion, but…….’
I shook my head, dismissed the thought, and stepped outside.
It didn’t take long.
It was afternoon, a little after noon.
“Whoa, crawling…….”
I drew up my Qi.
The qi was incomparably stronger than before.
The amount didn’t increase, but the bowl became harder, and the density was enormous.
It was incomparable.
“With this kind of qi, I’m sure I can do something to Yu Hyuk and Zhang Il……….”
Yoo Hyuk and Jang Il.
The meaningful glances and goosebumps when they first met were due to their personalities.
Children who don’t know adults.
They were famous for their temper among their former students.
They are enemies, but also best friends.
Their favorite hobby is harassing priests.
They harassed them on the street, and when the masters weren’t around, they harassed them.
There are so many people who have been victimized.
I’m not one of them.
I’ve been victimized more than ten times already.
Ten times may seem like a small number, but how many times will a master fall from the side of his former student?
And when the intensity of the harassment is high, it’s like hell.
But I couldn’t tell the masters.
You say it sarcastically, and you vow never to tell your teachers.
Not even in front of them.
‘If I can beat him, no, not yet.
The odds of winning have increased. But you can’t win.
Why? It’s the difference in experience.
The two masters have a reputation among their former students as rascals, but their talent for nothingness is unrivaled.
A talent for nothingness that no amount of genius can seem to duplicate.
This explains why they bully us, but never once have we retaliated.
“So, we need to increase those odds even further…….”
There are three ways to increase them
The first is to dig a trap out of sight of the elders.
The second is to train with this increased energy.
The third is to go to the elders.
“The third, Your Excellency, is impossible. Then…….”
There is only training.
No, I didn’t want to do anything else anyway.
I must train, I must strive, I must keep up with them.
So that they can’t ignore me.
“But how to train, what is training, what is training?”
I pondered.
Honestly, there’s not much to training.
I’m just practicing my chi according to the methods I’ve been practicing, and I’m practicing my herbal diet.
“But if it’s the same as usual, when will I catch up to him?”
Possessing a natural talent for nothingness, the martial artists don’t rest on their laurels.
They just train endlessly.
Except for the occasional time when they bother us.
Then there are many, many problems with ordinary training.
When would I, an ordinary genius, catch up with them by training as usual?
It’s an unreasonable theory, a thousand year old theory.
“Haha, think about it…… think about it…….”
I forget why I’m suddenly so determined to beat the death penalty.
But it’s weird that it came to mind.
There’s nothing else to do.
As for enlightenment, it’s too much.
Enlightenment comes to those who are ready, but not to those who wish for it.
That’s why people are so happy when enlightenment comes to them.
Therefore, enlightenment is unreasonable because it’s just training, preparation, and being present.
“Oh, it’s not the time to think.”
Now that I think about it, the time for the executioners to come is not far off.
It would take at least a week for word of Master Mujin’s descent to reach the volcano.
That’s because Master Mujin lives far away from the main mountain.
Therefore, they must quickly cultivate for a week and think of a way to defeat the executioners.
“A week is a bit much, but what the heck.”
Blessed are those who dare.
A week is a short time, but it’s possible.
Hang on to that possibility.
“Now that I think about it, why am I out of harmony?”
A sudden question.
But it seemed to have something to do with what I was training for.
“Yes, it’s because of the upper chamber. The upper chamber is the place for the gods who oversee the souls and the white, a place that can be penetrated, but shouldn’t be penetrated.”
Excess is worse than insufficiency.
If he had stayed the course, he could have grown to the point where one day breaking through the top would have no effect.
But now that you’re already through, what do you do?
“No, that’s not right,” you think, ”I can’t train for the top game…… then.”
We just increased the interruption to temporarily harmonize.
But the top game?
I could clearly see that I would be stuck again.
“Then, after that, how about…….”
I trained the Plum Blossom Sword.
The martial art I was most confident in.
“Plum Blossom Sword. Yes, it has changed…….”
The Plum Blossom Sword had changed.
“I’m not the same sword I was before, and I’m not in control of my life…….”
You can’t control your appetite.
Then this is a problem.
I need to make sure I can use it at any time, especially if it’s a sword I use often.
“Okay, here’s what to do. The plum blade has changed, right? Controlling it is my task for the week.”
Once a decision is made, it must be executed.
I drew my sword and prepared myself.
“I’m a little scared…….”
Even though the harmony was restored, I was scared because it was only a short time ago that I had suffered great pain through the medium of the Plum Blade.
‘What if the harmony is broken again? It can’t happen all the time, can it? Okay, let’s just train as usual.
Just as I was about to lower my sword, I heard my master’s voice.
‘Wuwu, don’t be afraid. Yes, the medium was the plum blade, but the underlying cause was a breakdown in harmony. Since the harmony has been temporarily restored, there will be no suffering through the medium. Don’t be afraid.’
I kept repeating this in a hypnotic silence.
Suddenly, my fear vanished and I felt confident.
“Ha!”
With that confidence, he deployed the Plum Blossom Sword.
Boom, boom, boom, puck!
“Hmph…… hmph…… what…… ya…….”
I threw the sword to the ground, caught my breath, and shouted in disbelief.
“Why doesn’t it change!”
The plum blade had changed. But not now.
It was the same old Plum Blade.
“It doesn’t make a difference!”
No matter how many times you tried, it was the same.
The plum blade hadn’t changed.
“No, did it really change?”
I now doubted that the plum blossom sword had changed.
“Whoa, Chet…….”
Plum Blade hasn’t changed.
Then we’re back to square one.
“I give up on the plum blade. What’s left?” …….
You have to give up what doesn’t work.
I’m not the kind of person who can afford to dwell on one thing when I have so little time.
I quickly thought of something else.
“What’s left is…… harmony…… harmony…… harmony…… why do I keep thinking of harmony?”
It was the only word that kept coming to mind.
Harmony.
“No, maybe it has something to do with this.”
It’s harmony, but it’s not yin-yang harmony, it’s three-stage harmony.
“No, harmony is enlightenment. That’s a bunch of words. Maybe there’s something in the lower stage…….”
Danjeon.
This is where the chi in my body accumulates.
“Increasing the lower chi is associated with enlightenment, so it shouldn’t be…… Then it should be related to…….”
I pondered.
“Yes, the mind.”
The mindfulness method, to me, is the jhāna method.
“It’s related to jing-ki. Yes, let’s devote ourselves to qi for a long time.”
I had spent a lot of time practicing plum blossom swords for a long time.
“The basis of nothingness is qin. It’s first heart, then hand. The strength of herbivory and the cultivation of nothingness are related to qi. Yes, it’s a return to the roots. I’m doing it because I’m fighting against the death penalty, but it’s what I was meant to do.”
He sat in the center of the stage.
The center of the stage is where the sun shines.
It’s a place where chi flows well.
It’s the perfect place to train in the art.
“Woohoo.”
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
Contemplation within the body.
First, three steps.
The bottom step is the same as before.
The bowl is not full.
The middle stage is huge.
It’s bigger than it was before.
The top stage is…… unknown.
Only a small hole has been cut, so we can’t see what’s inside.
“Suck!”
Breathing.
The natural energy flowed in through his nose.
It traveled through his bloodstream and swirled throughout his body.
The churning Qi traveled back to the bottom and settled.
When you absorb it again, it travels up the meridians, swirls around the body, and settles again.
In this way, he concentrated on gathering Qi.
‘But…….’
As I absorbed more Qi, I felt something different than before.
The faster the Qi flowed through my body, the different amount of Qi was absorbed.
Before, only about five kilograms had settled at the bottom.
But now, between seven and eight percent of the energy was settling in the bottom.
‘Besides…….’
The amount of energy gathered was also different.
It seemed to be about twice as much as before.
‘If it’s this good…….’
You can do well.
If I continued to invest in my judgment, I would be able to defeat not only Harmony, but also Yoo Hyuk and Zhang Il.
How long has it been?
I continued to weep in a trance as I felt the energy build up to a distinctly different level.
“Huh.”
I felt like I couldn’t do it anymore.
I opened my eyes and stood up, and it was night.
“The body…….”
It was different.
The heaviness in my bottom increased.
“Hot!”
Bang! Pow! Pow!
“Whoa…….”
The chi moves, gathers in my fist.
And then I let it out!
It felt and sounded different.
It felt like it could crush rocks.
“Speaking of which, let’s try it.”
I stood in front of another rock, but not the one I had been training on.
“Whoa, hot!”