Defying the Heavens Scholar - Chapter 4

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Against Heaven’s Course, Episode 4

Episode 4. Struggling to Survive. (四).

Left alone in the darkness, my chest tightened as if bound by rope.

‘A Medical Text… and Demonic Sect Martial Arts on top of it.’

Yet I managed to steady my mind quickly enough.

‘Better to try anything than die here like this.’

There was no time to despair. From now on, this was a battle with myself—and one where my life hung in the balance.
A fortnight slipped past. In that time, I wandered through every corner of the cave, devouring whatever texts lay scattered in Sim-dong and Gang-dong. When something eluded me, I asked Kang No, and he seemed pleased enough by my hunger for knowledge that he explained what he could within his own understanding.
Then at last, the first trial—one I dreaded even to contemplate—passed from Kang No’s hands into mine.

Across the heavy cover, carved in bold characters:

The Hwang-jeong Pulse Classic.

My fingers trembled. An ancient text I had never seen nor even heard of. The moment I opened it, dense diagrams of acupoints and meridians bored into my sight.
Nothing I had skimmed in Sim-dong could compare. My mind went hollow with vertigo.

“I’m not asking you to master it all at once. Don’t be impatient—read it slowly.”

Kang No’s voice rang in my ears. Though his eyes were sealed shut, he seemed to know precisely where my gaze had fixed itself.

“Don’t worry. Approach it as you would any martial technique. Haven’t I said your talent is no small thing? Here in Musim Cave, that gift will shine all the brighter.”

At his words, I forced my breathing steady and resumed reading the text.

‘Qi and Blood flow through the human body—to understand the birth and death of Qi, one must know the Twelve Primary Meridians.’

Each phrase loomed like a wall before me. Soon my stomach churned, and cold sweat beaded my skin.

“Would you care for some tea?”

“Difficulty is what you make it. If you think it hard, it becomes hard. Don’t strain yourself from the start.”

His words did nothing to ease the tension. I spent the next half day bent over the Hwang-jeong Pulse Classic.
Time flowed like a river, and I forgot hunger altogether.

‘Where to begin… how to start…’

Unable to grasp even the fundamental framework, frustration clawed at my chest. Two days, four days. Without food or sleep or rest, I clung to the Hwang-jeong Pulse Classic alone.
Then a flash of insight struck me.

‘The Twelve Primary Meridians… When I mastered the Un-hyung Sword Technique before, I compared the flow of clouds to rippling water. If I see this the same way—as the flow of water…’

I pulled a candle closer and sketched the shape of a river on paper.
Acupoints are rocky outcrops; meridians are the water’s course. Where the river is blocked, Qi pools. Where it flows, Qi circulates.
Hearing my low murmur, Kang No let out a sound of wonder.

“Ah… to grasp the flow without studying medicine—that is no ordinary gift.”

Yet I had no strength left to acknowledge his praise. Two more days, four, five. My fingers cracked, my eyes burned red with blood. But my mind had found stillness.

When I closed the final page, all that remained before me was a drawing of an island dotted on flowing water. That was my own ‘Meridian interpretation.’
Having finished my analysis, I lay down on the worn bed, hoping to shed the accumulated fatigue. But Kang No approached and pressed his fingers against my wrist.
After a brief silence, he spoke words I hadn’t expected.

“Your pulse has changed.”
“Pardon?”
“The flow of your Qi is awakening. It seems you’ve not merely read this, but inscribed it into your very body.”

For a moment, my breath caught. What I’d taken to be a simple act of interpretation had, somewhere along the way, begun to stir something within me.
Kang No slowly turned his body and leaned on his walking staff.

“There’s nothing to be startled about. How could training be confined to the body alone? Cultivation of the spirit, reading texts, seeking knowledge—these too are cultivation and training.”

His words carried a depth I couldn’t fathom.

* * *

The next day brought another brief silence.
Kang No kept his fingers on my wrist, eyes closed as if lost in thought, before finally opening his mouth.

“This time, you must prove that interpretation through your body.”

His voice had grown lower, heavier.

“Do you mean… a test, sir?”

At my careful question, Kang No nodded.

“Indeed. We must test whether you’ve truly awakened to that ‘flow’ you’ve grasped, or whether it was merely a delusion.”

My heart sank in that moment. Yet there was no escape. Having set foot in Musim Cave, this too was a threshold I had to cross.
Kang No tapped his staff lightly. With that, a black silk cloth hanging on the cave wall within Sim-dong slipped away, revealing a single stone statue placed within.
A statue carved in human form. But looking closer, I saw that the acupoints of the human body were densely etched into it as crimson dots.

“This is the Pulse-Acupoint Stone.”

Kang No’s voice resonated through the cave.

“With acupoints and meridians all carved into this stone figure, you must channel your Qi through it. Should you fail to channel properly, the Qi will reverse and harm your body.”

I swallowed hard. This was no mere textual analysis.
The moment had come to prove with my body whether the river’s flow I had drawn was truly the correct interpretation.

I slowly approached the Pulse-Acupoint Stone.
The acupoints etched densely as crimson dots seemed to pulse with life, casting a faint glow that followed my gaze.

“Place your hand upon it. Once you channel your Qi, your interpretation will immediately be proven right or wrong.”

Though Kang No’s tone was matter-of-fact, a subtle tension lay hidden beneath his words.
I drew a deep breath and laid my palm upon the statue.
A chill seeped through my entire body.
Yet thanks to all the martial texts I’d analyzed these past days, I knew well enough how to channel Qi without needing Kang No to teach me.
Soon the Qi began to flow.

‘Like the river’s current… where it’s blocked, it pools; where it breaks through, it flows.’

I recalled the image of flowing water I’d drawn over these past two weeks.
An interpretation in which I’d treated acupoints as islands and meridians as water paths. Trusting only in that, I channeled my Qi.

At first, all went smoothly.
Qi flowed into the stone statue like a small stream, gentle and even.
But soon an incomprehensible resistance blocked the path.
Like a river dammed and forced backward, the Qi surged upward of its own accord.

“Gahhh……!”

I couldn’t breathe. My chest constricted painfully, and the reversed current of Qi surged backward through my blood vessels, spreading to the crown of my head. My vision flashed white, and the taste of blood flooded my mouth.

“Stop!”

With Kang No’s command, his cane struck the stone statue sharply. Only then did the Qi flowing into it recede.
I collapsed to my knees where I stood. Blood stained the corner of my mouth, and my shoulders heaved with ragged breaths.
Kang No regarded me carefully, his voice low.

“Your understanding was incomplete. You saw the flow, but failed to pierce its depth. Reckless confidence has injured your body.”

I hung my head, words escaping me. The weight of failure pressed against my chest.
Yet Kang No’s voice remained resolute, warmed by something unspoken.

“Don’t despair. Cultivation is built upon failure, stone by stone. The Internal Injury you’ve suffered today will become the foundation of your strength tomorrow.”

I clenched my fists.
My body screamed in pain, but through it, the path forward began to glimmer faintly into view.

* * *

Collapsed on my bed, I could barely draw breath for a long time.
Heat blazed through my chest, and the reversed Qi scattered in all directions, shredding my body from within.

‘Of all times…… not now…….’

My fingertips trembled; candlelight wavered as if ready to extinguish. My vision swam, everything blurred beyond recognition. Yet within that haze, a strange awareness began to crystallize.
Even as the Qi dispersed wildly, I sensed the edges of its flow—faintly, but undeniably.
It was as if countless threadlike channels, not a mighty river, were spiraling through my entire body.

‘No…… I had pictured only a great river. But the human body is not a river at all—it’s like a forest of countless small streams woven together…….’

Spitting blood and gasping for air, I fumbled for paper with shaking hands.
And across it I drew not a mighty river, but countless delicate branches and tributaries.
Kang No’s words brushed through my mind.

‘How could cultivation be a matter of the body alone? Reading texts and seeking knowledge—these too are cultivation.’

I closed my eyes and felt my way through my body’s depths.
Not a great current, but subtle Qi flowing along fine branches and hairlike Meridians. Following that thread, the scattered Qi began slowly, steadily to converge.

‘Yes…… when blocked, water doesn’t merely stagnate—it overflows by another path.’

I gritted my teeth and seized the fragmented Qi.
Through pain that felt like my chest was tearing, a single thread of flow aligned and straightened.
A narrow path, but unmistakable. This was a new “reading of the Meridians”—one I had discovered myself.

* * *

Fortunately, with Kang No’s swift intervention, by the second day the tangled Qi within my body had settled back into place.
Feeling considerably lighter, I told Kang No I would challenge the Pulse-Acupoint Stone again.
And so the second attempt began.

With trembling hands, I placed my palms on the Pulse-Acupoint Stone once more.
Kang No made no move to stop me. Rather, he seemed absorbed in observing my energy, a faint smile playing at his lips.

The moment my fingertips made contact, the red acupoints within the stone statue began to glow softly once more.
And soon, the energy started seeping into my body.
At first, it was the same as before—blocked, coursing upward in resistance, compressed as though tangled.
But I kept my eyes closed and refused to force the passage open.

Instead, I followed a thin trickle. Not a mighty river, but a creek flowing through the forest.
Where it met resistance, it curved around; where the path twisted, it found a side channel—a fluid, yielding current.
In that instant, the pent-up energy released all at once.
A calm river seemed to flow and overflow within me, and the red points in the stone statue illuminated one by one.

‘It’s working—it’s flowing!’

My ragged breathing gradually steadied into a even rhythm.
The agonizing pain of coughing blood vanished, replaced by a refreshing sensation as if a gentle creek were washing through my entire being.

“Ah!”

An exclamation burst from Kang No.
But I barely heard it.
My entire focus was fixed solely on the flowing energy and tracing its path.

When the red acupoints finally all shone in sequence, the stone statue fell silent.
I gathered my energy to the very end, then slowly withdrew my hand.
Though breathing heavily, a subtle smile spread across my face.
From the agony of failure, I had found my own way.

“Elder.”

I called out in an exhausted voice from where I lay sprawled on the ground, and Kang No looked down at me with hands clasped behind his back, nodding slowly.

“Why do you teach me like this?”

Surely, even when I was first dragged away, and again when I came to Musim Cave, they examined my meridians to gauge whether I possessed any martial power at all.
And Jo Mugin, who brought me here, had certainly told Kang No something.
To watch me constantly. To remain vigilant.
Surely it was to prevent me from cultivating power and causing unnecessary trouble.
So why was Kang No, the very person supposed to guard me, offering me such an opportunity? I had to wonder what ulterior motive lay behind it.

“Why? Are you afraid I’ll report your current state to them?”
“That too, but… if they were to find out…”

At my fearful words, Kang No tapped his waist and shook his head.

“Don’t worry. They already know. But to dismantling higher-level martial arts, don’t you think you yourself need to reach a certain level?”

What was this about? Martial Art Dismantling, out of nowhere?

“Martial Art Dismantling? What do you mean by that?”

Startled by his unexpected words, I jerked upright.

“Ah, it seems you’ve been mistaken from the start. The reason they examined your meridians with such caution was to determine whether you had learned any unnecessary martial power that might be a hindrance to them. Fortunately, you had not.”
“Then…”
“Indeed. A pristine talent. An empty vessel untouched by any prior training—that is precisely what they need.”

I was left speechless by this revelation.
Then… did that mean the reason I was brought here was far more than simply to break my fever?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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