The Battle for the Heavenly Sword - Chapter 18

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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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18
The Struggle for the Sword
Clack! Clack-clack!
Two steel balls rolled like wheels inside Woo Geom-san’s palm.
His fingers, which had once been fractured and crushed to the point of losing all sensation, now moved smoothly as if coated in oil.
Without even looking, Woo Geom-san maneuvered the steel balls freely using only the tactile sensation of his fingertips.
It was proof that the feeling in his fingertips had largely returned.
Even after disembarking from the boat, Woo Geom-san had not let go of the steel balls for a single moment.
He rolled the steel balls unconditionally while walking, and during his evening rests, he practiced threading a needle.
As a result, he was now able to manipulate the two steel balls at will, and his attempts to thread the needle had reached a level of success three or four times out of ten.
Compared to when he first picked up the needle and thread, this was a monumental leap forward. However, Woo Geom-san was not satisfied with this.
His goal was to freely handle three steel balls with one hand by the time they reached their destination, and to succeed a perfect hundred times out of a hundred attempts at threading the needle.
He had also grown somewhat accustomed to walking correctly now.
Shunliu.
He now had a definitive grasp on what it meant to follow the flow.
When he walked exactly as Baek Ho-yang had taught him, he could feel the flow of Qi.
To walk correctly meant to follow this flow without resisting it.
As he grew more accustomed to breathing correctly, the flow of Qi felt even stronger.
Woo Geom-san came to a realization.
He realized that the two types of training were not separate matters.
The two disciplines were connected as one, and they could not be properly mastered if practiced in isolation.
He absolutely had to cultivate both types of training together.
The most important thing was his state of mind.
Wuwei Ziran.
Do not force anything; follow the natural course of things.
‘Do not force the movement of Qi; leave it to the laws of nature. The wind blows on its own, and water flows to the lowest point. Qi is just the same, so do not try to grasp it, but let it flow.’
Accumulating Qi in his damaged Dantian was a foolish endeavor.
No matter how exceptional the Heart Method used to build up Qi, it would all leak out anyway.
If that was the case, there was no need to linger on the regret of not being able to accumulate Qi.
The Dantian was merely a pathway through which Qi brushed past.
It was enough to simply borrow and use the passing Qi whenever it was needed.
Though his learning was still shallow and he could not yet manipulate Qi exactly as he imagined, he understood the concept perfectly.
It was from that moment on.
His mind became significantly more at ease.
He was able to set down the heavy burden that had been pressing on his chest, allowing him to breathe and move a bit more freely.
Naturally, walking became much easier.
It felt as if this current way of walking had been his original stride all along.
A smile played at the corners of Baek Ho-yang’s mouth.
He, too, found joy in witnessing Woo Geom-san’s achievements.
‘Did my own master feel this way as well?’
The face of his master, who had passed away long ago, floated into his mind.
It had been too long for the image to be completely clear, but his master always seemed to be smiling whenever he looked at him.
Just like he was doing right now.
‘This is nice.’
Through his time with Woo Geom-san, he realized that traveling a path together with someone else was far more enjoyable than walking alone.
The fact that there was still more to realize even at his advanced age put him in an even better mood.
Just then, Woo Geom-san, who was walking beside him, asked as if the thought had just crossed his mind.
“Grandfather!”
“What is it?”
“By the way, where exactly are we heading right now?”
“Our destination, you mean?”
“Yes!”
“Have I not told you yet? We are going to Cheonbaeksan.”
“Cheonbaeksan?”
Woo Geom-san tilted his head.
It was a place name he was hearing for the very first time.
“True to its name, it is a massive rocky mountain where thick fog lingers all year round. It is surrounded by other towering mountains, and the only way in is through a narrow pass, making it difficult for outsiders to even approach. That is why almost no one aside from the local residents even knows of its existence.”
“It sounds like it is deep in the wilderness.”
“Indeed! It is the deepest of the deep wilderness.”
“How do you know about such a place?”
“It is this old man’s hometown. I was born and raised in a village nestled deep within Cheonbaeksan.”
“Ah!”
“To get to the nearest city from there, you have to cross nine separate peaks, so you can imagine just how remote it is.”
“How did you live in a place like that? It must have been incredibly difficult.”
Woo Family Manor, where Woo Geom-san was born, sat at the center of the waterways.
Since it was the intersection where the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal met, people and goods naturally gathered there.
Dozens or even hundreds of people drifted in and out of Woo Family Manor every single day, and the flow of people never ceased.
Naturally, the manor and its surroundings were always bustling with crowds.
Everything needed for daily life was within arm’s reach, and even if something was missing, it could be procured within a day.
Having lived in such an environment, he could not even begin to imagine how grueling life must be in a remote mountain valley hemmed in by nine mountain peaks.
Baek Ho-yang smiled at his grandson’s words.
“Yes! It was certainly difficult. But back then, I did not know it was difficult. My parents were both alive, and I had my friends. We lacked everything, yet the laughter never stopped. My parents and the village elders all worked tirelessly so their children wouldn’t starve. They reclaimed the steep mountainsides to create rice paddies and tea fields, so you can imagine how hard they labored.”
“It really must have been tough.”
“Even so, not a single person ever showed signs of exhaustion. They fed us with the rice harvested from the paddies, and they sold the tea picked from the fields to the city to buy the necessities we needed. How grueling and difficult that journey must have been? Yet none of them ever wore a strained expression in front of their children.”
Throughout his speech, the smile never faded from Baek Ho-yang’s face.
He was already over eighty years old.
Since he had left his hometown at the age of twenty, he had not returned to his birthplace for nearly sixty years. Despite that, the scenery of those days came back to him vividly whenever he closed his eyes.
Woo Geom-san asked cautiously.
“Then how did you learn martial arts? If you were in such a remote place, you wouldn’t have had any connection to the Quanzhen Sect.”
“At the time, my master was traveling around searching for places with excellent Qi. Eventually, he arrived at Cheonbaeksan, and he spotted me running around and playing with my friends.”
Baek Ho-yang was twelve years old at the time.
Recognizing Baek Ho-yang’s talent, his master stayed in the village and taught him martial arts.
“Back then, I didn’t understand. I didn’t know why he insisted on remaining in Cheonbaeksan just to teach me. It was only later, when I looked back on it, that I understood. It was because the environment there was incomparably perfect for teaching the basics of martial arts.”
The Qi of Cheonbaeksan was pure.
Touching the very sky and receiving almost no human foot traffic, it preserved its inherent purity.
Because Baek Ho-yang’s master was well aware of this fact, he had him build his foundation in Cheonbaeksan.
He spent eight years that way in Cheonbaeksan before leaving when he turned twenty.
“Then have you never gone back to your hometown since then?”
“No! I was so entirely absorbed in the martial arts of the Quanzhen Sect that I never visited even once. Though they say a Taoist is someone who severs ties with the secular world, I suppose I committed a terrible sin against my parents.”
A look of deep regret washed over Baek Ho-yang’s face.
When he was young, he could not bring himself to think about his parents or his younger siblings at all.
Simply learning and practicing martial arts had been overwhelming enough.
By the time his martial arts reached a certain level of completion, various matters held him back.
As the years slipped away like that, he suddenly found himself past the age of eighty.
He had grown old without visiting his hometown even once during that vast stretch of sixty years.
It was by no means a coincidence that he had thought of Cheonbaeksan when he took Woo Geom-san in as his disciple and grandson.
He had figured that if it was Cheonbaeksan—the very place where he had mastered the basics of martial arts—it would provide the absolute best conditions for teaching Woo Geom-san.
While there was almost no chance his parents or siblings were still alive, he felt he could pass away without any lingering regrets if he could just see even their descendants.
They say that even beasts yearn for their birthplace when it is time to die.
A Taoist who had cultivated for nearly seventy years was no different from a beast in that regard.
“I do not know what the Dao is that it made me distance myself so far from the bonds of flesh and blood. You must never do the same. Do not commit the folly of obsessing over the Dao and turning your back on your kin.”
“Yes! I will keep that deeply in mind.”
Woo Geom-san replied firmly.
Although he was traveling with Baek Ho-yang due to their shared destiny, not a single day passed without Woo Geom-san thinking of his family.
The very reason he had left Woo Family Manor was to protect his own flesh and blood.
He shared a bond that deep with his siblings.
Though he was currently alongside Baek Ho-yang, he constantly harbored the thought that he would absolutely return to Woo Family Manor one day.
Following that conversation, Woo Geom-san and Baek Ho-yang continued to walk while sharing many more stories.
As they walked on like that, the sun was already beginning to set.
Woo Geom-san’s eyes brightened as he scanned the area for a place to camp.
In the distance, a reasonably large village had come into view.
“There is a village over there.”
“So there is.”
“There seem to be quite a few houses, so I think there might be an inn.”
“Very well! Let us rest comfortably at an inn tonight.”
“Hehe!”
Woo Geom-san let out an embarrassed laugh.
They had been camping out continuously ever since they got off the boat to get here.
He had grown used to it by now so camping wasn’t all that difficult, but sleeping on the bare ground repeatedly made him want to sleep in a soft bed tonight.
The two of them stepped into the village.
“Oh! It’s even larger than it looked from afar.”
“At a glance, it appears to have at least a thousand households.”
A village with over a thousand households was by no means small.
Even assuming a family of four per household, that meant a population of a whopping four thousand people. For a village located far off the official road in the wilderness to have over a thousand households meant it was a significantly large settlement.
“Hmm!”
Baek Ho-yang, who was surveying the village, suddenly let out a low groan.
An discordant sight in the center of the village had caught his eye.
Red roof tiles soaring toward the sky and a massive Buddhist statue carved from rock could be seen rising above the roofs of the other houses.
Woo Geom-san said cautiously.
“Could that possibly be a temple?”
“It certainly seems to be the case.”
“It’s my first time seeing a temple right inside a village like that.”
Just like Taoist temples, most Buddhist temples were usually located deep within the mountains. The closest temples were bound to be on the outskirts of a village or a short distance away; for one to firmly take up residence right in the center of a village like this was highly irregular.
“The people of this village must possess an exceptionally deep devotion to Buddhism.”
Baek Ho-yang spoke with a thoroughly unsettled expression.
It was not a typical sight, but as a mere outsider, it was not his place to question the existence of a temple in the middle of the village.
After staring intently at the temple for a moment, Baek Ho-yang shifted his gaze.
“Let us find an inn.”
“Yes!”
Fortunately, finding an inn was not difficult.
There were as many as three inns established along the main crossroad.
The two of them walked into the largest among them, the Daefu Inn.
“Welcome.”
A young waiter greeted them.
“Do you have any rooms available?”
“Yes! We do, sir.”
“Splendid. Please calculate the bill to include tonight’s dinner and tomorrow’s breakfast as well.”
“Two meals for two people would be…”
“Hold on! Please prepare dinner for only one person.”
“Pardon? But there are two of you…”
“My stomach feels bloated, so I shall not be eating.”
Since there was no need to explicitly reveal that he was substituting his meals with a Biyogu Pill, he made up a casual excuse.
Fortunately, the waiter accepted it without suspicion.
Baek Ho-yang settled the payment and spoke to Woo Geom-san.
“I shall head up to the room first to rest, so you go ahead and have your meal.”
“Yes! Grandfather.”
Woo Geom-san replied politely.
With that, Baek Ho-yang went up to the room first, leaving Woo Geom-san alone in the dining area.
Fortunately, there weren’t many customers, so the inn had plenty of empty seats.
Woo Geom-san sat down in a suitable spot and looked around the interior of the inn.
It was quite a large inn from the outside, but the inside was highly dilapidated.
The pillars, tables, and chairs looked so worn out that they must have been made at least several decades ago. Perhaps because of this, most of the customers inside the inn were elderly, appearing to be long-time regulars.
They gathered in small groups of three or four, conversing in low tones.
The voices of some burly men sitting at a nearby table drifted over.
“The Honglian Festival is already tomorrow. I am truly looking forward to seeing who will be chosen this time.”
“I heard the Holy Monk himself will be appearing at this Honglian Festival to perform the ritual.”
“Then the Four Immortals of Baihong will naturally show up as well.”
“Just thinking about being able to see those fairy-like figures gets me excited already.”
“Hehehe!”
“Who will be chosen this time around?”
For some unknown reason, the eyes of the burly men who were conversing were bloodshot, and their faces carried a yellowish, jaundiced tint.
Woo Geom-san mulled over the conversation they were having.
‘Holy Monk, Honglian Festival, Four Immortals of Baihong?’
Somehow, it left an uncomfortable taste in his mouth.

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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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