Fist Demon of Mount Hua - 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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Episode 4. When Some Things Change, Other Things Remain Unchanged—Part 1
Dam Ho rose early at dawn, and the first thing he did was prepare breakfast for Hyeonso. He rinsed the rice, then tossed together a few wild vegetables with practiced care.
It was work he’d been doing for quite some time, so his movements were remarkably deft.
Hyeonso didn’t eat large portions, nor was he particular about taste. He upheld the duties of a Daoist with such rigor that he refused any food with strong aromas or that conflicted with his teachings. This made Dam Ho’s preparations straightforward.
Dam Ho quickly assembled a tray and carried it into Hyeonso’s chamber, where the master was already awake, reading from the Daoist Scripture.
“Master, it’s time for your meal.”
“Has the hour grown so late already?”
Hyeonso closed the Scripture with a gentle smile.
Dam Ho set the tray before him. Rice, a few simple vegetable side dishes—nothing could have been plainer.
“This looks delicious. You’ve worked hard since dawn.”
“Not at all. Please, eat while it’s warm.”
“Very well.”
Only after Hyeonso picked up his chopsticks did Dam Ho begin his own meal.
The master spoke little, and the disciple honored the silence.
The room held only the soft sound of two people eating.
Hyeonso didn’t speak again until the meal was finished. He wiped his mouth and opened it once more.
“Ho-ya.”
“Yes?”
“That was excellent. Thanks to you, this old master lives in comfort.”
“Not at all, Master. It’s only what I should do. If you hadn’t taken me in, there would be no me today.”
Five years ago, had Hyeonso not saved him, Dam Ho would not exist in this world. More than that—when so many in the Hwasan Sect either shunned him or mocked him in whispers, only Hyeonso had treated him with genuine warmth.
To Dam Ho, Hyeonso was more than a master; he was a parent. And so the reverence with which he treated him could never be anything but absolute.
“Ho-ya.”
“Yes, Master?”
“Do you truly wish to master martial arts?”
“Yes!”
Dam Ho answered without the slightest hesitation. Seeing this, Hyeonso exhaled softly.
“This old master must be worthless, to put you through such hardship.”
“That’s not true.”
“Forgive me.”
“Master, please don’t say such things.”
“You know that I am a Scholar of the Way, yes?”
“Yes!”
“Then do you know what a Scholar of the Way does?”
“To study the scriptures of the Dao, surely……”
“That’s what everyone believes.”
“Then it’s something else, Master?”
“Do you know who my master was?”
“Was it not Cheon-gungja, sir?”
“Indeed. Cheon-gungja, who was called the greatest master of Hwasan, was my teacher.”
Cheon-gungja—now a legend—had been the premier master of Hwasan in his time. It was Cheon-gungja’s presence that had allowed Hwasan to reach the height of its prosperity.
He was such a relentless martial fanatic that he even surrendered the position of sect leader to his successor Il-gungja and devoted himself entirely to the martial way.
“When I first became his disciple, everyone held great expectations for me. They all thought I was a prodigy of exceptional talent. How could I not be? The disciple of Cheon-gungja, whose fame reached across all heaven—if he weren’t a prodigy, it would make no sense. Yet that impossible thing came to pass.”
A wry smile appeared on Hyeonso’s face. It was the sort of smile that seemed both bitter and resigned at once.
“Unlike my master, who was called a genius, I had little natural gift for the martial arts. My mind could grasp things to a degree, but my body simply would not follow. Inheriting my master’s art proved impossible from the very start.”
Dam Ho held his breath.
In the five years they’d been together, he’d never heard this story.
“My master was like the sun of heaven, while his disciple possessed mediocre talent at best. Naturally, there was much talk within Hwasan. I too wondered why my master had chosen me. So I asked him: why did you accept me as your disciple? And do you know what he said?”
“…”
“‘What Hwasan needs now is not someone with mighty martial power, but someone with a mighty heart. Someone who can preserve Hwasan’s spirit and pass its banner on to future generations. That must be your role, Hyeonso.’ So saying, he urged me toward the path of the Scholar of the Way. Do his words make sense to you?”
Dam Ho shook his head.
Though Hwasan walked the way of the Dao, it was undeniably a Martial Sect. One of the Nine Great Martial Sects, and even now striving to reclaim its former glory.
Had Hwasan been merely a Daoist order, how could it have been counted among the Nine Great Martial Sects? And how could Cheon-gungja, the greatest master of Hwasan, recommend to his own disciple the path of a Scholar of the Way?
A Scholar of the Way was, quite literally, one who walked the path of the Daoist through study of the scriptures. Though they pursued truth, in the present day Hwasan had established itself not as a Daoist school but as a Martial Sect, making such a position seem ill-suited.
As it had been before, so now the position of Scholar of the Way in Hwasan was regarded as nearly useless. Hyeonso received even the modicum of respect he did only because he was Cheon-gungja’s disciple; otherwise, he would not have been given so much as a proper room.
“At first, I resented him greatly. The greatest master of Hwasan’s disciple, relegated to the path of a Scholar…”
Great expectation breeds great disappointment.
The warriors of Hwasan had felt that disappointment keenly, and they’d regarded Hyeonso with pity. And so Hyeonso had walked the path of a Scholar of the Way, and so it remained to this day.
“Through all those years, I spent countless nights sleepless. Even as I read the scriptures, I could not extinguish the anger in my heart. But then, as time passed, the flames of that fury burned within me began to dwindle bit by bit. And I came to understand—that mastery of the sword is not the only path to enlightenment. That there are many ways to apprehend the Dao. Only then did I dimly perceive why my master had guided me toward the path of a Scholar of the Way.”
Dam Ho watched his master in silence. That Hyeonso carried such a story within him—this he learned for the first time today.
“Most people believe a Scholar of the Way merely studies sacred texts, but that is a grave misconception. A Scholar of the Way in Hwasan bears the responsibility of passing down the martial arts of Hwasan to future generations in their entirety.”
“What do you mean?”
Confusion flickered across Dam Ho’s face. He had never heard such a thing before.
“A Scholar of the Way studies the scriptures, yes, but he also bears the responsibility of recording all the martial arts of Hwasan Sect completely, classifying them systematically, and transmitting them to posterity. In the worst case—should Yeongbo-gung, where Hwasan’s martial arts are kept, burn to the ground, or should some rare technique be lost—he must have committed every technique to memory. That is the true duty of a Scholar of the Way.”
Dam Ho’s eyes changed.
He had never known that the position of Scholar of the Way held such meaning until today.
“I had no idea that was the true calling of a Scholar of the Way.”
“The current Sect Leader does not know it either. The previous Sect Leader passed before he could tell him such things.”
“Why did you not tell the Sect Leader? If he had known, surely he would have treated you far more properly.”
“What need is there to speak of it? Once I find a worthy successor and pass on my knowledge, that will be enough. Knowledge is transmitted quietly, you see.”
“Master.”
Hyeonso smiled with gentle warmth.
“But Ho.”
“Yes!”
“There is no need to cling stubbornly to a single path. The way of a Scholar is not such a poor choice, either.”
At Hyeonso’s words, Dam Ho’s lips pressed into a tight line. He was instinctively rejecting the Scholar’s path. But Hyeonso smiled as though he had known it all along.
“That’s right—your nature would never allow you to simply sit and parse ancient texts or organize martial arts manuals in your head.”
“I apologize.”
“No. Your resolve is so firm that I shall change my mind instead.”
“Master.”
“I know that the martial arts of Hwasan do not suit you. Hwasan’s techniques are so unpredictable in their variations that even those blessed with sound limbs struggle to master them. How much more so for you, whose legs are so grievously troubled? In that condition, you can never reach the heights of mastery. Do you understand?”
“But I will never give up.”
“You are not one to give up. If you were, you would have died five years ago. Ho!”
“Yes!”
Suddenly Hyeonso reached out and gently touched Dam Ho’s head. It was an unexpected gesture, but Dam Ho did not pull away.
The master’s hand upon his head was warm beyond measure.
“I believe in you.”
“…….”
Dam Ho’s shoulders trembled.
Something hot surged up from deep within his chest. Overwhelmed by an emotion he could not understand, Dam Ho was bewildered.
Hyeonso withdrew his hand from Dam Ho’s head and rose. Dam Ho stared at him dazedly.
Hyeonso retrieved an old manuscript from the chest of drawers along the far wall.
“Take this.”
“What is it?”
“I found it by chance while organizing the Daoist Scriptures within Yeongbo-gung long ago.”
Dam Ho accepted the manuscript.
Its cover was tattered as cloth from age, fragile enough that any rough handling would reduce it to dust.
“It is called the Jungcheon Heart Method.”
“The Jungcheon Heart Method?”
Suspicion crossed Dam Ho’s face. He had never heard that name before in his life.
“It is your first time hearing of it, yes? I felt the same when I first discovered it. After searching the records, I found that it was a Heart Method created in Hwasan Sect’s earliest days when they first settled on Mount Hwasan.”
“But why is it called the Jungcheon Heart Method?”
Dam Ho asked with a look of confusion.
The name of a martial art always captures its essential character.
The feeling that emanated from the name “Jungcheon Heart Method” was one of weight and solidity—quite foreign to the swift, ever-changing nature of Hwasan’s martial arts.
“Though the Hwasan Sword Technique is renowned throughout the land for its sharpness and unpredictable variations, was it always so? The martial arts of Hwasan’s early days must have been grave and substantial, like the great stones of Mount Hwasan itself. But over centuries, many changes occurred, and they developed into what they are now.”
Hyeonso had never learned martial arts directly. Yet through his work as a Scholar, cataloging and memorizing countless martial treatises, his understanding of martial arts was considerable.
“In this world, there are things that never change, but there are also things that transform with the passage of time. The martial arts of Hwasan, if I am honest, belong to the latter. They have been refined, changed, and advanced out of necessity, and so the Hwasan Sect’s martial arts as we know them today came to be. Everyone desires what is new. But does that mean the old is necessarily without worth? I do not believe so.”
In this moment, Hyeonso was remembering his master, Cheon-gungja.
Cheon-gungja had been a genius.
He had elevated Hwasan’s martial arts to new heights, and the warriors of Hwasan longed to emulate him. In truth, the present form of Hwasan Sect was trapped in the shadow cast by this extraordinary figure.
Cheon-gungja had wanted his disciples to discover something different from himself. Perhaps that was why he had set his only disciple, Hyeonso, upon the path of a Scholar.
“Ho, within this Jungcheon Heart Method lies the ancient wisdom of Hwasan intact. I cannot say what you will find within it, but I am certain that you will obtain what you seek.”
“Master.”
“If you cannot find what you desire in Hwasan as it is now, then seek it in Hwasan as it once was.”
“Yes…….”
Dam Ho held the Jungcheon Heart Method close to his chest.
No one could say whether he would truly find what he sought within it. Yet from Hyeonso’s single gesture of warm consideration alone, Dam Ho felt as though he had gained the whole world.
Watching him, Hyeonso smiled.
‘Yes, this is enough.’
***
Dam Ho entered his quarters and carefully unfolded the worn manuscript.
As he turned back the outer cover, faint characters inscribed on the inner pages came into view: Jungcheon Heart Method. Dam Ho’s fingertips lingered over the words for a moment.
‘Jungcheon Heart Method.’
Dam Ho turned the next page with deliberate care.
Hwasan stands tall and true.
Its form is like a sword, yet beware, you who dwell below.
Though Hwasan bears the shape of a blade, it is itself a mountain of stone.
It maintains its uprightness because it carries the weight of countless ages.
Heaviness comes first; lightness follows.
The mind must always be heavy, never shaken by idle tremor.
Heaven appears empty, yet it is full, and its weight encompasses the earth.
The human heart, too, is like heaven—if it can bear such weight, no wind shall move it.
Dam Ho absorbed each phrase into his chest as he turned the pages onward.
Heart Bears Heaven’s Form—the mind holds the image of heaven,
Heart Contains Heaven’s Weight—the mind carries the weight of heaven within.
Moving Heart Commands Heaven—when the mind stirs, it governs heaven.
Heavy Heart Moves Heaven—the weighted mind moves heaven itself.
Before him, the forgotten martial art of old Hwasan revealed itself in substance.

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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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