Ten Paths of the Master - 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. The Divided Mind Method—mastery achieved at double speed
In the Aemun training hall.
As Dan Yeop slipped inside, a bitter smile crossed the lips of Dan Bulwi, the Martial Arts Director of Aemun.
He had originally been a Gate Administrator at Aemun—a minor post—but ten years ago, against his will, he was left behind at Byeong-ma Chong.
Yet that had become a turning point in his life.
After seven years of grueling cultivation, he had been promoted to Fragrant Master three years ago and became the Martial Arts Director of Aemun.
With that promotion came the freedom to venture outside once a year, but Dan Bulwi, having developed a taste for secluded training, never left Byeong-ma Chong.
Though Byeong-ma Chong was an underground cavern, it had an unusual feature: a spot near its very center where light filtered in.
Thanks to that, he could sense the passage of day and night, and it greatly aided the peace of mind and spirit.
That was the real reason Dan Bulwi had planted himself so firmly in Byeong-ma Chong.
“What’s holding you back?”
Dan Bulwi was known among the trainees for his tyrannical nature, yet he alone showed Dan Yeop something approaching mercy.
Perhaps it was born of guilt.
After all, it was he who had snatched a four-year-old from the street, he who had given the child the name Dan Yeop.
He had also been the first to call Dan Yeop a “baby monkey.”
Though now the child was simply called a “stone monkey.”
Dan Yeop spoke with downcast eyes.
“The Heart Purification Elixir Method.”
“What about the Seven Wounds Sword Method? That would be more useful in actual combat, wouldn’t it?”
Aemun was thoroughly immersed in the Demonic Path, having made human trafficking its primary trade.
Thus it cultivated lethal martial arts like the Seven Wounds Sword Method.
The Heart Purification Elixir Method, true to its name of “emptying the mind,” excelled at calming agitation—but that was all it did.
Since it had nothing to do with Internal Energy, which mattered most to martial artists, even Aemun treated it as a useless thing.
“I can do that well enough already.”
“Tsk! Tell me—among the Six Disciplines’ Whip Method, Claw Method, Fist Method, Leg Method, Palm Method, and Sword Method, is there even one you can execute flawlessly from beginning to end?”
“No, sir.”
“Didn’t the Martial Arts Directors tell you that ‘one must be able to perfectly execute one of the Six Disciplines’ martial arts to achieve Graduation’?”
“It’s just that whenever I go on for a while, my chest starts pounding and my head feels fog-bound, and…”
“Even with the Seven Wounds Sword Method?”
“Yes, sir.”
For a moment, Dan Bulwi’s pity snapped.
“You fool! The more that’s true, the more you need to latch onto the Seven Wounds Sword Method! If your mind won’t learn, then make your body remember! How many times must I tell you?”
“It’s just that…”
“Just this, just that—you’re no better than a monkey, you dull-headed idiot! Water dripping from the eaves bores a hole through rock. You know why? Because it keeps at one thing until it wears through. But you—you’ve been pawing at all six disciplines for ten years? And on top of that, a head that’s already thick as a stone! And now, with Graduation upon us, what? You want me to teach you a Mental Cultivation Method again? You wretched cur! You’re doing this on purpose to stay planted in Byeong-ma Chong, aren’t you?”
“No, sir.”
“No? How is it no, you parasitic wretch? Byeong-ma Chong feeds you, houses you, clothes you—and you eat it up, don’t you? You need a new name. Not stone monkey, but parasite.”
“Director, I swear it’s not that. I thought maybe if I could settle my mind, my head might clear up a bit.”
Only then did Dan Bulwi cease his tirade, regarding Dan Yeop with fresh eyes.
The boy had a point, actually.
The Heart Purification Elixir Method was precisely a technique for calming mind and spirit to extremes.
“So you mean to use the Heart Purification Elixir Method to settle your mind and sharpen your clarity?”
“Yes, yes, sir. That’s exactly it.”
Dan Yeop pressed himself flat to the ground, not knowing when his director might explode again.
“Where’s the blockage?”
“The teachings say: when the mind becomes pure, essence is obtained; when essence is emptied, spirit is achieved; when spirit transforms into truth, one pursues enlightenment. But I don’t understand what essence and spirit mean.”
“Remarkable. In the three years I’ve taught the Heart Purification Elixir Method here, you’re the first to ask that. As I learned from my teacher, essence means the Original Essence in the lower elixir field, and spirit means the Internal Energy itself.”
“Then what does it mean to make the mind pure…?”
Before Dan Yeop could finish, Dan Bulwi answered as if suddenly struck by insight.
“The mind dwells in the breath. Breath is the force we accumulate from birth. When the mind—the sound of breath itself—vanishes, the Original Essence is attained…”
There is a saying that one learns by teaching.
Dan Bulwi, who had spent ten years in unintended seclusion, inadvertently unveiled a corner of the Heart Purification Elixir Method’s secret.
“Ah!”
An exclamation escaped Dan Yeop’s lips before he could stop himself.
Jolted awake by that cry, Dan Bulwi waved at Dan Yeop to leave at once.
He held his breath, afraid the sudden understanding he’d glimpsed might vanish.
Reading the signal, Dan Yeop prostrated himself and slipped out of the training hall.
Once outside, Dan Yeop began to walk, searching for a place suitable to practice the Heart Purification Elixir Method.
Byeong-ma Chong was vast.
Would even one-tenth of the hundred and eighty trainees explore it all?
It was a place discovered during grave-robbing, and there were still many passages left untouched.
Avoiding the trainees, he ventured deep into unexplored territory and settled into a suitable stone chamber, crossing his legs in meditation.
Shortly after, he began to breathe slowly and steadily, following the formula of the Heart Purification Elixir Method.
Rather than chasing after the nebulous notion that “the mind must be pure,” he concentrated on silencing his breath.
Unlike his usual unconscious breathing, when he began to inhale and exhale very slowly and finely, the sound finally disappeared. According to the formula, he had at last emptied his mind.
‘Was that success?’
But the Heart Purification Elixir Method was not so simple.
Though his ears heard nothing, because he had focused on sound, his breathing became all the more palpable.
How to put it—from his own nostrils, breath seemed to move back and forth like a spider’s web.
Since Dan Bulwi had said that breath was the mind, then the mind was wavering back and forth.
This way, he hadn’t even begun, and already he was failing.
From that point on, Dan Yeop concentrated on not being conscious of the act of breathing.
The other trainees had disregarded the Mental Cultivation Methods of Aemun, so none of them delved so deeply.
It was especially so because the Heart Purification Elixir Method was known to have nothing to do with Internal Energy—it was purely mind cultivation.
What Aemun truly needed were practical martial methods.
But Dan Yeop, whose mind grew foggy whenever he concentrated, was earnest in his pursuit of this seemingly useless mind cultivation.
How much time had passed?
With his eyes half-open, focused on the Heart Purification Elixir Method, Dan Yeop heard an old voice at his ear.
“Hey! Inma! What are you doing out here!”
Startled by Dan Jae’s shout, Dan Yeop’s eyes flew open.
Ten years prior, when Dan Bulwi had been a Gate Administrator, he had given names to three children.
The first was Dan Geum, the second Dan Jae, and the third Dan Yeop.
The names carried the wish that gold and treasure would flourish abundantly like leaves. Through this kinship, the three were known at Byeong-ma Chong as the adopted sons of Dan Bulwi.
“Oh, well, you see, I was in the middle of Mental Cultivation Method practice.”
“In the middle, my foot. You vanished all day, and both the eldest and I have been searching everywhere for you.”
“All day?”
Dan Yeop blinked his dazed eyes.
It had felt like barely half an hour had passed, but the claim that it was a full day left him bewildered.
“That’s right, Inma. The Graduation examination is today. You’ve gone missing and now everything’s chaos. Get out there right now.”
“What? Today?”
“Yes, even the first-generation trainees have been mobilized to search for you. If anyone complains, just say you were wrong no matter what. Well, you’ll figure it out.”
“Yes.”
Moments later, as Dan Jae emerged from the stone chamber and ran alongside Dan Yeop, he asked casually.
“Are you confident about passing the examination?”
Apart from Mental Cultivation Method and Lightness Technique, there were nine Independent Martial Techniques among the Six Disciplines.
The martial arts of Aemun, which was known in the Jianghu as third-class, was hardly difficult.
After ten years of training in such techniques, even a complete fool should have mastered at least one or two.
But Dan Yeop had not, due to his inborn constitution.
Since childhood, whenever he tried to do anything, he would grow short of breath and his head would fog over.
“Well, I… you see…”
Dan Jae didn’t wait for him to finish and spoke quickly.
“If you really lack confidence, try challenging the Heaven-Earth Sword Method. It’s the easiest martial art among the Six Disciplines. Mix in with the others and just muddle your way through, and you should be able to pass.”
“Yes…”
***
As it turned out, Dan Yeop failed the examination.
Following Dan Jae’s advice, he performed the Heaven-Earth Sword Method, but excessive attention from the Martial Arts Directors became the problem.
The examination itself was straightforward.
The Chief Martial Arts Director would call out the names—Mountain King Whip, Heaven Collapse Fist, Hundred Flowing Sword Method, Burning Heaven Water, Heaven-Earth Sword Method, Tiger and Crane Dual Hand Fist, Immortal Transcendence Kick, Falling Flower Mountain Water, and Seven Wounds Sword Method—and any first-generation trainees who had mastered them would file out and demonstrate.
Since better treatment was given to those who had mastered more techniques, no one would deliberately skip.
The Hundred Flowing Sword Method, said to be the most difficult, had ten participants, but the Heaven-Earth Sword Method had all the first-generation trainees taking part.
With seventy-two people, it was the kind of atmosphere where most would slip through unnoticed—but Dan Yeop was the exception.
The Martial Arts Directors scrutinized him with the eyes of hawks, famous as he was for being a stone monkey.
Naturally, from the midpoint of the Heaven-Earth Sword Method, as Dan Yeop struggled to keep pace with the others, he failed.
That day, seventy-one first-generation trainees departed Byeong-ma Chong alongside the Sect Leaders of the Six Disciplines.
***
Summer passed, and winter came.
Dan Yeop remained fixated on the Heart Purification Elixir Method, but progress was sluggish.
Even when he attempted something, his body wouldn’t cooperate, and his martial achievements remained perpetually at a standstill.
The second-generation trainees at Byeong-ma Chong would never treat him as a senior.
“Stone monkey” was the baseline, and there were many boys and girls who called him simply “hey, you.”
Go Jwa-ryeong, heading to the dining hall with his second-generation peers, deliberately provoked Dan Yeop the moment they crossed paths.
“Hey, stone monkey. Got pounded by a third-year yesterday, didn’t you? And you think you can eat with us? No way. Get to the back.”
At that, Dan Yeop flinched but retreated without protest.
Go Jwa-ryeong muttered then.
“Pathetic bastard.”
A first-year getting beaten by a third-year—at that point, you couldn’t really call him human anymore.
When Ha Yong-wol looked at Dan Yeop with pitying eyes, Ryu Seol-ri jabbed her elbow.
But by some wicked twist of fate, Ma Eun-rok saw the whole thing.
His appetite vanished without question.
After finishing dinner, Dan Yeop was summoned by Ma Eun-rok without a moment’s rest.
“Hey, stone monkey.”
At Ma Eun-rok’s call, Dan Yeop lifted his head, but soon cast his eyes down again.
It wasn’t because he feared Ma Eun-rok, the strongest of the second-years.
From the start, he’d never been able to look directly at anyone’s face.
His gaze always fixed on the ground, or on the tips of the other person’s feet.
“Yeah.”
“Does it upset you that a junior speaks casually?”
“No.”
“Good you know your place. You know Ha Yong-wol?”
“Y-yeah?”
Confused about the situation, Dan Yeop stammered as Ma Eun-rok kicked his shin sharply.
“Speak clearly, you bastard. Do you know her or not?”
“Ow, ow, ow—yes, I do.”
“Have you ever had a conversation with her?”
“A few times.”
It was natural enough—they’d lived in the same space since childhood.
Ma Eun-rok tilted his chin up arrogantly as he spoke.
“You should know, but my father is the Sect Leader of the Cha Sect. Ha Yong-wol is the daughter of the Sect Leader of the Gi Sect. When I graduate, I’m going to marry her.”
“Congratulations.”
“Ha Yong-wol is mine, so from now on, don’t even look her in the eye. Got it?”
“Yeah.”
“Can you graduate next year?”
“Don’t know.”
“I heard you’re only studying the Heaven-Earth Sword Method. So why don’t you know?”
“I can’t remember this form.”
“This guy’s worse than a monkey. You’re in real trouble.”
The Heaven-Earth Sword Method was a three-form sword method, and each form had nine variations.
That was only twenty-seven transitions—a few months of practice and you could execute it with your eyes closed.
“I understand.”
“This won’t do. Still, we’re from the same school, so should I help you out?”
“How?”
In answer, a book dropped at Dan Yeop’s feet with a soft thud.
“The Divided Mind Method. It’s a secret art of the Soyao School—it splits your mind in two and doubles your progress. Master this and even a half-wit like you could do his part, right?”
“Double?”
“That’s what it says. Not my words—they’re in the book. Master it completely and whatever you learn yields twice the achievement.”
In that moment, Dan Yeop’s heart stirred, and he snatched up the book eagerly.
If Ma Eun-rok’s words were true, this was martial knowledge made for him.
“Thank you. I won’t forget this kindness.”
“What kindness between schoolmates? Just study hard. You’ve got to graduate next year too.”
“Yeah, I’ll work hard.”
As Dan Yeop nodded with resolve, Ma Eun-rok gritted his teeth and held back a laugh threatening to burst free.

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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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