Defying the Heavens Scholar - Chapter 6

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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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Reverse Heaven’s Student, Episode 6

Episode 6. The Unnamed Internal Method

Fortunately, after I deciphered the Yellow Court Vein Manual, two months passed without incident.
During that time, I could freely enter and exit the chamber and immerse myself in the Research Journal left behind by members of the Je Gal Family.
I also had the opportunity to study several books on Formation Technique and the Qimen Formation Pattern.
For instance, simple formations that conceal a person’s presence and hide their Internal Energy.
There were formations that dazzled the eye, and even ones that heightened concentration—the variety was remarkable.
However, while the writings and diagrams he left behind were meticulous, there remained one final piece he never completed.
The ink lines seemed to break off in empty space, with voids between the patterns, appearing like either a seal or an unfinished scrawl.

‘So he stopped here. Or perhaps he had no choice but to stop.’

But to my eyes, it was different.
That emptiness was a flaw, a gap—and simultaneously, the flow that should have continued.
I stared again at the tangled threads covering the floor.
The diagrams on paper and the formation on the ground overlapped in my mind as one.
As the broken lines interlocked, the empty patterns filled.

“……!”

A thrill so intense my heart raced and tingled.
Without thinking, my fingers traced a line through the air.
The calculations written on paper sprang to life in my mind, and my fingertips followed of their own accord to complete the answer.

Click—

Like a lost key finding its place, all the lines closed as one.
The chaotic diagram converged in an instant into an enormous circle.
Suddenly, the threads on the floor blazed crimson and came alive.
Moreover, the air in the chamber itself felt strangely heavy.

“……Is it complete?”

Words that slipped out unbidden.
Though I felt no certainty, the threads on the floor forming a perfect circle clearly proved completion.
Yet at the same time, an inexplicable fear gripped me.
A strange Qi seeping from the center.
That foreign, heavy current seemed to pull at my very existence, as if it would swallow me whole.
My feet went rigid of their own accord.
A temptation to step forward and a terror that everything would end the moment I did—they tangled together, squeezing my chest.

‘I’ve finally completed it, but what should I do…….’

My breathing grew ragged, and my heartbeat quickened into an irregular rhythm.
The space was silent, but a fierce storm raged within me.

* * *

“You’ve practically been living in that chamber lately.”

At Kang No’s remark, I felt a pang of guilt inside but answered without letting it show.

“I wish to deepen my understanding of Formation Technique, so I’ve been examining the records he left behind. It’s so complex that the more I delve into it, the more my head throbs.”

There was no need to tell Kang No exactly which formations I was researching. Even if I mentioned something about slowing the flow of time, he wouldn’t believe me anyway.
And fortunately, thanks to using the Qimen Formation Pattern to keep the Qi in the chamber from leaking outside, Kang No neither noticed nor grew suspicious.

‘Whether the Formation Technique actually works or not…… I need to find out for myself now.’

While I pondered the Formation Technique that filled my mind, Kang No poured tea and nodded slowly.

“Don’t exhaust yourself. When it’s time to rest, rest properly.”
“I shall do so.”

I accepted the tea respectfully and savored its fragrance for a moment.
Silence settled between us. When Kang No had finished his tea, he spoke again.

“Have you heard of the Huashan Sect?”
“Yes, sir. I understand they belong to one of the Nine Great Sects.”

Kang No nodded slowly.

“The Huashan Sect excels in swordplay and possesses a remarkable sword formation known as the Plum Blossom Sword Formation.”
“Yes.”

At my brief reply, Kang No rose to his feet and exhaled heavily.

“A difficult task may fall upon you before long. So don’t become too fixated on Formation Technique alone—keep your eyes open to the martial arts of the Huashan Sect as well.”

My heart lurched at those words.

‘Finally…… it begins.’

Kang No left those words and made his way toward his quarters.
His retreating figure was heavy with shadow, and with each step a low sigh escaped him.
I rose slowly from my seat and moved toward the right side of Sword Cave.
There, the martial arts texts of each sect lay stacked in layers.
Thousands upon thousands of volumes were organized neatly by sect, and they gave off an overwhelming sense of stepping into a vast forest of the Martial World.

I paused to steady my breathing, then scanned the shelves.
Texts on the Huashan Sect’s Plum Blossom Sword Formation, the Internal Cultivation Method of Kunlun, the Palm Technique of Wudang, the Fist Method of Shaolin—thousands of volumes of martial texts were arranged in orderly rows by sect.
I opened the sword manual of the Huashan Sect first.
Sword forms that flowed like scattering plum blossoms, formations that layered like seven curtains drawn in succession.
Their intricate application possessed a completely different quality from any martial text I had studied before.

As I traced the words, drawn deeper and deeper, countless sword trajectories whirled through my mind and formations stacked upon one another.
Soon I reached for texts from other sects as well.
Kunlun’s Internal Cultivation Method was precise like a quiet mountain range, while Wudang’s Palm Technique flowed gently before suddenly surging like a fierce tide.
Shaolin’s Fist Method was simple, yet within that simplicity lay a force that bound body and Qi together as one.

I turned through the pages one after another.
Yet despite having studied the martial arts of the Huashan Sect and several other sects for two hours, strangely I could not concentrate as I usually did.

‘Is it this impatience…… ?’

A thought flashed across my mind unbidden: the Research Journal left behind by the Je Gal Family member.
The increasingly hurried handwriting as time progressed, the fading passion.
It was as if I were witnessing traces of their desperate struggle against an insurmountable wall.

‘No matter how hard I strive, I too will eventually hit that same limit, just as they did…… .’

As that thought grazed my mind, my heart grew tight with dread.
At last I closed the book and hurried to my feet, making my way toward his quarters.

* * *

I secured the iron door first, then installed a few simple Qimen Formation Patterns throughout the room, based on what I’d learned from his Research Journal. The effect of a Qimen Formation was to conceal presence as much as possible and erase Aura.
After setting up several formation patterns, I looked down at the floor.
Then six dizzying lines that I had erased earlier to avoid detection flickered back into view before my eyes.
I stared blankly at the hundreds of thread-like lines tangled across the floor, then exhaled heavily.

‘Slowing the passage of time. Is such a thing even possible?’

Doubt and disbelief still held me by the ankles.
Yet I couldn’t simply wait for death to come.
I gazed at the hundreds of thread-like lines entangled across the floor for a long moment, then finally drew a heavy breath.
My fingertips trembled faintly, and my chest heaved.
Fear remained, but there was nowhere left to retreat.

‘I’m afraid, but I can’t simply sit here and die.’

I knelt and pressed my palms against the floor.
The six erased lines were resurrected in my mind one by one.
Brush strokes seemed to overlap before my eyes as if drawn in mid-air, and soon my hands moved of their own accord.
Line after line traced across the floor’s grain as if I were drawing through empty space.
As the lines seeking their intersections interlocked and closed, a vast circle was completed.

Red light spread outward.
The thread-like lines on the floor writhed like living veins, and the air in the room grew heavier and settled lower.
Silence enveloped the space, and everything was trapped in quietude.

I forced my hesitant body to step toward the center.
With each step, a lukewarm Aura brushed against my skin.
The flow of air seeped in with the tactile sensation of ripples, tickling my flesh.
I tried to draw breath deeply, but strangely, breathing didn’t come easily.

Yet it brought neither stuffiness nor pain.
My body and nerves were unchanged from usual, but that unnatural calm felt all the stranger for it.
Standing at the center of the circle, I slowly surveyed my surroundings.

Only then did the sight strike me.
The view directly ahead wavered and rippled as if blurred.
Like gazing out of water from beneath it, the boundary wavered and twisted.

‘Is this…a barrier?’

I hesitated a moment, then reached out my hand.
As my hand extended beyond the barrier, it twisted in shape as if undulating like a wave.

…!

I gasped in shock and quickly withdrew my hand.
Fortunately the hand soon regained its proper form, but my heart raced all the more violently.
I could not bear it without confirmation.
I untied my hair ribbon and let it fall beyond the barrier.
The ribbon didn’t touch the floor—it hung suspended in mid-air.

“This can’t be real…”

On a desperate impulse, I picked up the ribbon suspended in the void beyond the barrier and dropped it again, this time from within the circle.
This time, unlike before, it fell straight to the floor.
I stared at the sight in bewilderment.
Outside, time seemed to stand still; inside, reality still flowed onward.
The fact that two worlds were divided by a single step forced me to rub my eyes countless times and doubt my own sight.

“This is…not something that can simply be called Heaven Transposition.”

This was no phenomenon that could be explained merely as transposing heaven.
It defied flow, defied logic, defied the natural order itself.
There was only one name fitting for a Formation Technique that contradicted all the laws of the world.

“Reverse Formation……”

From this moment on, it was my one gambit for survival.

* * *

In the cold winter cave, Kang No began to cough frequently.
His body appeared increasingly sluggish, and he found himself wrapping thick quilted blankets around himself more often.

“How are you feeling?”

I asked while pouring tea for him, and Kang No shook his head between repeated fits of coughing.

“It’s only natural that the body grows weak with age. Don’t concern yourself too much.”
“I worry you might fall seriously ill.”

At my sincere words, Kang No offered a faint smile and drank his tea.

“I appreciate your care. I’m only sorry my condition leaves me unable to look after you as I should.”
“That’s not necessary. Please don’t concern yourself with me. Just rest your body as much as you need.”
“……Thank you.”

Unlike usual, Kang No didn’t finish his cup of tea and left early to return to his quarters.
I watched his frail form disappear, then slowly rose to my feet.
I made my way to the library, gathered several books I’d had my eye on, and proceeded to the Research Chamber.

First, I lit a candle.
The melting wax was the only way to gauge how much time had passed.
Once the candle was burning steadily, I reconnected the Formation Technique and moved to the center.
The flow I felt beyond that threshold was distinctly different.
Outside the circle all was still and quiet, yet within it, I continued to move.

Even breath seemed to still in this world of profound silence, yet my consciousness remained perfectly clear.
The candle burned bright, but its flame didn’t flicker. Dust particles in the air hung suspended, motionless.
And yet I remained alive, moving freely—even my fingers turning pages did so naturally.

I unfolded the Plum Blossom Sword Formation of the Huashan Sect.
Tracing each movement of the sword form, I sketched on paper the intricate paths that traced petals scattering in the wind, rendering them as diagrams.
Matching line to line, I contemplated the subtle principles governing the moment the formation opened and closed.

Next came the Kunlun Internal Cultivation Method.
Like a chain of quiet mountain ranges, I visualized the flow of Internal Energy coursing serenly, rehearsing it dozens of times in my mind.
As I methodically unraveled the circulation patterns line by line, even my breathing grew still, flowing along the ridge of that mountain range.

The Wudang Palm Technique held within it the principle of waves.
I drew waves countless times on paper, imprinting upon my heart the undulations that could rise calm one moment and surge violently the next.
To understand the strength of bone and muscle hidden within the simplicity of the Shaolin Fist Method, I moved my body directly, verifying each aspect.

Time flowed and stood still simultaneously.
Outside, the candle hadn’t burned down at all, yet I was submerged in such focus that it felt as though I’d spent dozens of days here.
The moment I closed one book, I picked up another, and any passage I didn’t understand, I unraveled again and again, tracing its meaning.
Not rapid absorption, but a patient excavation—making it my own.
I didn’t rush through any step of that process; I poured myself into each one with fiercer concentration than ever before.

‘Intellectual understanding alone isn’t enough. I have to seize this opportunity to study these Internal Cultivation Methods and absorb them into myself.’

I cannot foresee what trials will come. Not truly.
No matter how much they acknowledge me, no matter how many martial arts they bestow upon me that I unlock and master.
The moment they deem me spent, my head will roll.
There is only one path to escape such a fate.
I must cultivate strength beyond their reach.
And it is possible only through a method they do not know, and cannot know.

I unrolled a sheet of paper and boldly erased the familiar lines of the meridian chart.
Rather than tracing the paths of acupoints and meridians, I drew out the flow of wind and water, fire and earth as I had felt them.
Unbound by the blood vessels. I would let the Qi flow against the meridians, sometimes breaking through where paths were sealed.
The traditional Internal Cultivation Methods follow the path; I would create one.

If Huashan’s Plum Blossom Sword Formation mimicked the plum blossom, I would capture the stubborn persistence of life that blooms anew even when its branches break.
If Kunlun’s Internal Cultivation Method was as tranquil as a mountain range, I would embed within it the violent upheaval of lightning striking those peaks.

If Wudang learned from the patterns of water, I would seize the reverse current of waves that shatter stone and surge upstream against the river.
If Shaolin found power within simplicity, I would shatter that simplicity and establish new order within complexity itself.

Perhaps without realizing it, I had been influenced by the Reverse Formation; the very foundation of my Internal Cultivation Method was reversal.
To flow against the current, to deliberately strike at blockages, to make contradictory Qi collide.
By conventional wisdom, such Internal Energy collisions bring disaster—but within that collision, I glimpsed a new equilibrium.

Fire and water meet without destroying one another.
They become mist, rising skyward instead.
Wind and earth mingled become a sandstorm that transforms mountains and valleys.
This is the path I seek.

I did not force my Qi into a single point.
Instead, I released it into the void, letting it flow freely before drawing it back to enfold me.
In that process, my meridians felt torn and electric; my organs swung between glacial cold and blazing heat.
Yet within that chaos, the Qi seeped deeper, more solidly into my body than ever before.
From this moment forward, the martial arts I will cultivate have never been learned before. A path that cannot be followed, cannot be broken.

I clenched my teeth and reached my hand toward the emptiness.
The Qi that rippled from my fingertips was faint, yet it sparked like flame and spread like water.
In that instant, I understood.
This was not a completed Internal Cultivation Method—it was an Unnamed Internal Method of my own creation.

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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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