Ten Paths of the Master - Chapter 5

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

Episode 5. I Need Jinshin
Throughout history and across all lands, rules and laws are like spider webs.
The flies and moths—the weak—get caught, while the birds—the strong—simply pass through.
Unlike the first generation, which had been purchased, many of the second generation were descendants of the Yuk-mun.
If the children who had been sold or kidnapped like Dan Yeop were flies, then Ma Eun-rok, the son of the Cha Clan’s leader, was a bird.
Even after his entrance, he met his father at Byungma-chong.
And he was not alone.
The children of the clan leaders, regional commanders, and branch masters all reunited with their families each season.
Of course they received separate instruction as well.
Ma Eun-rok was educated by his father on what to master at Byungma-chong and what to avoid.
For instance, the Ilwol-tonap-bigyeol, Baekryu-do-beop, Chilsang-do-beop, Beoncheun-su, Seomjeon-gak, and Biryu-bo were techniques he absolutely had to master, while Bunshin-gong was something to avoid.
Last year, when Ma Eun-rok discovered Bunshin-gong in the Library, he was tempted by the phrase “double the achievement” and secretly removed it, then asked his father if he could study it.
His father leapt up in protest then.
―That would be disastrous. The Wudang Sect has Yangui-shimgong, but even the Wudang masters don’t practice it. It’s far too profound—one could dedicate a lifetime to it and gain nothing. Besides, there’s talk that Bunshin-gong is a counterfeit martial manual made in imitation of Yangui-shimgong. If you can’t even master the genuine Yangui-shimgong, how could you possibly master a fake made in its image? You’d waste years and years and gain nothing.
After that, he returned Bunshin-gong to its original place and gave it no further thought.
Not until he saw Ha Yong-wol and Dan Yeop in front of the Dining Hall today.
When Ma Eun-rok saw Dan Yeop tuck Bunshin-gong into his robe, he inwardly cursed him.
‘Dan Yeop, you’re going to spend your whole time here at Byungma-chong with that thing.’
***
Dan Yeop’s daily routine changed after he began studying Bunshin-gong.
Before, he would spend one Sijin—two hours—in the morning studying the Thousand Character Classic, then train in the Cheonji-do-beop all day at the Jeommun Training Hall.
But as the season turned, he began going to the Library to read books from the Misi-mal onward.
It was because of Bunshin-gong.
The technique was far too difficult for him, a boy who couldn’t even make progress with the Thousand Character Classic.
He could read the characters, but he didn’t understand their meaning.
Frustrated, he went to find his Chinese studies teacher and was told, “That’s because you’re ignorant.”
Then the teacher said this:
―When you reach an impasse, you break through it. Why don’t you try reading some books?
After that, Dan Yeop began frequenting the Library with the regularity of a mouse slipping in and out of its hole.
The ridicule from his juniors only intensified, but he let it pass through one ear and out the other.
After all, he was stuck anyway with the Yuk-mun’s martial arts, so it hardly mattered what he did.
Spring came around.
Though he had been at Byungma-chong for eleven years, Dan Yeop’s progress remained unchanged.
When summer arrived, Byungma-chong stirred again with the Chulgwan-simsa for the second generation.
Then one day.
Ryu Seol-ri, who had heard something odd, hurried over to Ha Yong-wol.
“Did you know?”
“Know what?”
“That Dan Yeop has been going in and out of the Library constantly since last winter.”
“So?”
“Well, I only just found out why today. And wow, I think Ma really went too far.”
“What did Ma do?”
“Apparently, last winter Ma gave Dan Yeop Bunshin-gong to study.”
“What? Bunshin-gong?”
Ha Yong-wol’s mouth fell open.
As the daughter of the Gimun Clan’s leader, she too knew well what Bunshin-gong was.
As she understood it, it was a martial manual that couldn’t be mastered.
“Right. He couldn’t understand the content at all, so he started reading books in the Library. How could Ma do that to poor Dan Yeop? Isn’t Ma being incredibly cruel?”
“Ma really did that?”
“Go and Yeo said so, so it must be true.”
“Sigh……”
Ha Yong-wol shook her head slowly.
It had to be true—Ma Eun-rok, Go Jwa-ryeong, and Yeo Mu-seon were always together.
“And they say Dan Yeop hasn’t even finished mastering Cheonji-do-beop yet, so this year he won’t pass the test either, right?”
“If he’s learning Bunshin-gong, it won’t just be this year—it’ll be difficult for him for years to come.”
Ha Yong-wol suddenly sprang from her seat.
Ryu Seol-ri, startled by the motion, opened her eyes wide and asked.
“Are you going to see Dan Yeop?”
“If I hadn’t known, that would be one thing. But now that I do, I have to help him. Unlike us, ordinary trainees won’t find out unless someone teaches them.”
“If word reaches Ma that you’ve met with Dan Yeop, he won’t let it rest.”
“Hmph! You think I’ll just sit here? What are you going to do about it? Do I look like I’m afraid of Dan Yeop?”
“It’s Dan Yeop, the senior, not your sister.”
“It doesn’t matter. There’s only a few days left until the Chulgwan Examination anyway. Once I pass, he won’t be able to bother me anymore.”
With that, Ha Yong-wol bolted from the room like an arrow.
Left alone, Ryu Seol-ri muttered in disbelief.
“Goodness, what a passionate swordswoman we have here.”
***
Ha Yong-wol used the Gyeongsin-sul to race swiftly northward from Byungma-chong.
After a moment, a familiar place came into view, and her pace slowed.
‘Dan Yeop.’
Ha Yong-wol had first met him ten years ago.
More precisely, while pining for her mother and weeping alone, she had found him at her side.
Ha Yong-wol was six years old then, and Dan Yeop was five.
After that, whenever thoughts of her mother came to her, Ha Yong-wol would steal away to that place.
There were several occasions when the young Ha Yong-wol and Dan Yeop encountered each other there.
Once she had settled into life at Byungma-chong, Ha Yong-wol stopped visiting that place.
The bond they once shared had transformed over time into a kind of pity for Dan Yeop.
She guessed he was probably still there.
Unlike her, who had become the center of the second generation, he was an outsider.
And she was right.
Just as it had been ten years before, Dan Yeop sat motionless before the stone wall inscribed with the Mountain-River Stone Wall design.
“Dan Yeop.”
Her assumption was only half correct.
Dan Yeop wasn’t sitting before the Mountain-River Stone Wall simply because he was an outsider.
Since learning the profound secrets of Simjeongdan-gong from Dan Bul-wi last year, he had practiced it without fail every single day.
But had there been progress?
There had.
After receiving Dan Bul-wi’s teaching that “the mind rides upon the breath,” a change had begun in his Danjeon.
At first, while striving to still his breathing, he found his breath flowing continuously, sinking deep into his lower Danjeon.
If the mind rides upon the breath, then the mind had descended into the Danjeon.
Going further, when he tried not to consciously control the act of breathing itself, something unprecedented began to happen.
With each breath, a thin strand of energy began to unwind from his Danjeon and flow up and down along the Chungmaek.
It was as if a small ball of thread lay coiled within his Danjeon.
When he mentioned this to Dan Bul-wi, he received nothing but a stream of curses.
―Nonsense! The Chungmaek only opens after the Imdokmeak have been penetrated. Once the Imdokmeak flows freely, you’re already a Jeolse-gosu—why are you spouting such ridiculous delusions? You’re letting your mind wander during cultivation; that’s why these symptoms appear. Useless fool! I told you to clear your thoughts completely! Walking isn’t even your strength, and now you’re filling yourself with wild delusions!
After that, Dan Yeop tried to empty his thoughts altogether.
He regarded himself as nothing more than a tree or a stone.
Yet the ball of thread seemed to mock his efforts, growing larger with each passing day.
Each time Dan Yeop practiced Simjeongdan-gong, the thread expanded further, and fear seized him.
Eventually, merely recalling Simjeongdan-gong was enough to make his heart pound violently.
At this rate, cultivation would never progress properly.
Troubled, Dan Yeop suddenly remembered Bunshin-gong.
The principles of Bunshin-gong fit his situation perfectly.
[When a person is born, the Jinshin dwells in the Cheonmok, between the brows, while the Sakshin—the thinking consciousness—resides below it, in the heart.
The Sakshin easily wavers with emotion, but the Jinshin remains unmoved, however subtle the disturbance. This is because if the Sakshin is the Mushin, the Jinshin is the Munshin.]
Bunshin-gong was ultimately a method for cultivating both the Mushin and the Munshin.
Dan Yeop latched onto the idea of the Munshin—unmoved even by the subtlest tremor.
He revised his goal: “Calm the chest through Bunshin-gong, and clear the mind through Simjeongdan-gong.”
To understand the profound secrets of the principles, he read books in the Archive that he couldn’t even comprehend.
Was it true, as his writing teacher had said, that urgency brings understanding?
After throwing himself wholeheartedly into Bunshin-gong, he could practice Simjeongdan-gong again without his heart pounding.
Whether it was truly the Mushin and Munshin at work, or merely psychological stabilization, he couldn’t say.
From then on, he always practiced Bunshin-gong before Simjeongdan-gong.
Today was no exception.
[The Spirit is Fire, and when intention arises, movement follows.
Fire is flame, that is, light, and what moves is the Jinshin.
When light is turned back to illumine the Cheonmok—Hoegwang-banjo—the Beopsin is attained, and one comes to command both the Mushin and the Munshin at will.]
With half-closed eyes, Dan Yeop contemplated what light was and where it dwelt.
He had to understand what light was in order to illuminate the Cheonmok.
Just as Dan Bul-wi had suddenly said the year before that “the mind rides upon the breath,” Dan Yeop now believed that “light dwells somewhere.”
‘Surely he doesn’t mean I should shine a candle or something…….’
The Beommun cultivates what lies within; real flame was out of the question.
‘But then he’s saying there’s light inside me…….’
While Dan Yeop was probing the deeper meaning of the Beommun, a voice calling him jolted him back to awareness.
“Oh, Ha…… sister?”
At Byungma-chong, seniority was strictly observed according to one’s entry year, though in truth the trainees could be called martial siblings.
So Dan Yeop, who was a year ahead, had awkwardly addressed Ha Yong-wol as his junior.
Ha Yong-wol smiled, pleased by the term he’d used.
“Brother Dan, I hope I haven’t interrupted your training.”
“No.”
Dan Yeop shook his head.
Bunshin-gong wasn’t a practice so rigid that interruption during meditation would be dangerous.
“I’m relieved. I heard you’ve been working on something interesting lately.”
“Are you talking about Bunshin-gong?”
“Yes, is it true?”
“It is.”
“Well, you should stop at once.”
“What? Why?”
“If Brother Ma gave it to you, then……?”
“That’s right.”
“That’s just Brother Ma teasing you. The Bunshin-gong is a counterfeit — an imitation of the Wudang Sect’s Yangui-shimgong. It’s not even one of the Soyao Sect’s authentic teachings.”
“What? A fake?”
At Dan Yeop’s shock, Ha Yong-wol quickly elaborated.
“It hasn’t been proven to be fake outright, but the likelihood is very high. The content is far too dubious. Why would a genuine teaching of the Soyao Sect be rolling around the marketplace?”
But human ears hear only what they wish to hear.
“So you’re saying it’s not certain?”
“Listen — there’s a high likelihood it’s fake. And for what it’s worth, even the Wudang Sect masters don’t practice Yangui-shimgong. Perfection is impossible even after a lifetime of cultivation. So you should abandon it. The Chulgwan-simsa is only days away. You must pass this year.”
“I appreciate the concern, but I never intended to achieve perfection.”
“If it’s not proper cultivation, you could fall into Juhwa-ipma.”
“Ha, you know as well as I do — I’ve no talent for such a thing to happen to me.”
Having seen modest results from Bunshin-gong, Dan Yeop remained untroubled.
Finding her words falling on deaf ears, Ha Yong-wol’s brow furrowed.
Suddenly she wondered, as Ryu Seol-ri had said, whether it was kindness or simply a lack of sense.
Disappointed, Ha Yong-wol spoke with deliberate coldness.
“I’ve made myself clear. Whatever happens after this — that’s your responsibility.”
“Ah…….”
Cowed by her brittle words, Dan Yeop hunched his shoulders.
Ha Yong-wol let out a soft sigh and turned to leave.
As Ha Yong-wol grew distant, Dan Yeop finally lifted his head to watch her retreating figure.
The little girl who had wept ten years ago had become a skilled woman warrior, and yet he could not fathom why he remained as he was.
As a wave of self-reproach washed over him, he murmured almost unconsciously.
“What I need is Jinshin.”

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