The Battle for the Heavenly Sword - Chapter 49

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

49
The Battle of Woo and Geom
Baek Ho-yang opened his eyes in the early hours of the dawn.
He sat up and drank the bedside water he had set out the night before, just as he sensed a human presence outside.
A gentle smile touched the corners of Baek Ho-yang’s mouth.
He knew without looking that the presence belonged to Woo Geom-san.
At this exact time every day, Woo Geom-san would quietly get up and head outside.
It had long been Woo Geom-san’s habit to circulate his energy with Choyeon Simgyeol under the dead tree in front of the house, before climbing the mountain to practice his martial arts.
Since arriving at Cheonbaeksan, Woo Geom-san had not broken this routine even once.
Once his dawn training was complete, he would head over to Baek Do-gyeong’s house for breakfast, then spend the morning helping with the tea crops or the rice fields. In the afternoon, he would go out to the plank road to forge the path leading down the mountain.
He practiced Flowing Void Steps while farming rice, and mastered Chaeuolsu while plucking tea leaves.
As he broke apart the boulders on the plank road, he refined his eye techniques and force control; Woo Geom-san’s entire daily routine was an unbroken chain of cultivation.
By melting training into his everyday life, he was essentially practicing his martial arts all day long.
Even Baek Ho-yang had never considered this method of cultivation.
“They say a foolish man walks a long road, and he fits that to a tee, doesn’t he?”
The more clever a person was, and the faster they were at picking up on things, the less likely they were to stick stubbornly to a single task.
This was because they would always use their wits to find a shortcut and save time.
Of course, that did not mean they achieved nothing at all.
Because they did attain a certain level of success, such expedients were tolerated. However, a difference in the depth of mastery was bound to appear eventually.
A person who plods forward honestly down a single path might move slowly, but they will inevitably reach their destination one day.
Woo Geom-san was exactly that kind of person.
His talent was outstanding, but his stubborn honesty was greater still. That was precisely why he could connect every aspect of his daily life to martial arts.
Still, since the boy genuinely enjoyed his routine, the old man felt no need to say anything about it.
Organizing his thoughts, Baek Ho-yang sat down at his table and lit the lamp.
He then pulled a book from the shelf and spread it open.
It was the Daodejing.
The entirety of Taoist philosophy was contained within this single volume.
When he first entered the Quanzhen Sect, the very first book he had read was the Daodejing. His master had taught him to always read it with absolute devotion. Thus, over the years, he had read the Daodejing dozens of times.
Yet, from a certain point onward, he had gradually begun to neglect the text.
Just learning martial arts and keeping up with his master’s teachings had been overwhelming enough.
As he focused entirely on martial arts in that manner, he had grown into an old man with white hair before he even realized it.
Naturally, it wasn’t that he hadn’t read books at all while training his martial arts. But it was also true that he could not focus on them with the same intensity he possessed during his youth.
Consequently, he had forgotten the pure joy of reading.
To such a man, the hundreds of books Woo Geom-san had brought him restored the long-lost pleasure of turning pages.
The fluttering excitement he felt when opening the Daodejing once more—a book he had already read and memorized dozens of times in his youth—was utterly beyond words.
The very first phrase, beginning with “The Way that can be spoken of is not the eternal Way,” thoroughly shook his entire soul.
Baek Ho-yang fell into deep contemplation, savoring each and every phrase.
The dawn broke, and a significant amount of time passed, yet Baek Ho-yang’s reading continued uninterrupted.
He wished this kind of time could last forever, but unfortunately, his desire was not to be granted.
“Grandpa!”
“We’re here!”
“Grandpa!”
“Books!”
The young children burst into the house without warning, completely shattering his state of meditative immersion.
These were the children who had begun learning how to read and write from Baek Ho-yang.
The children piled into the study where Baek Ho-yang sat, their eyes sparkling.
“Ho-ho! You’re all here already?”
“Yes! I ate two whole bowls of rice!”
“I ate three bowls!”
“I ate a lot too!”
As one child boasted about eating a large breakfast, the others chimed in, clamoring that they had eaten far more.
The sound of the children chattering was dizzying enough to make him lose his senses, yet he did not feel annoyed at all.
Rather, the vibrant voices of the young ones lifted his spirits.
Baek Ho-yang handed a sheet of paper to each child as he spoke.
Written upon them were the passages he had painstakingly copied out, character by character, the previous night.
Since he could not provide an identical book to every single child, he had stayed up all night copying the text by hand.
“Now then, let us begin today’s studies.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Okay, Grandpa!”
The children answered energetically, their eyes gleaming.
These were children who had spent their entire lives tucked away in the deep mountains.
When the parents were illiterate, the children were bound to be illiterate as well. Naturally, reading and writing had been nothing more than a pipe dream. To such children, a golden opportunity to learn literacy had finally arrived.
Of course, they could not help but focus entirely.
Baek Ho-yang taught them the text with great care, character by character.
“Now, this character is…”
The children sat on their knees, listening intently to Baek Ho-yang’s words.
***
Although the children who learned to read in the morning returned to their respective homes, Baek Ho-yang’s daily schedule was far from over.
The twins, Nam Mu-rin and Nam I-yeon, remained behind without heading home.
The twin siblings had also learned to read alongside the other children.
Even though they were older than the rest, they were just as illiterate. Therefore, they had studied the script under Baek Ho-yang right along with children much younger than themselves.
Having learned to read in the morning, it was now time to learn martial arts in the afternoon.
It was the hour the two children had looked forward to so eagerly.
Learning to read was enjoyable, but learning martial arts was several times more thrilling.
Baek Ho-yang spoke to them.
“The martial art I am about to teach you from now on is called the Suyuchilseongong.”
“Suyuchilseongong?”
“Indeed! It is a martial art I created myself. If you train in it for a long time, your body will become robust, and you will not suffer from minor illnesses. Furthermore, you will be fully capable of protecting yourself from danger.”
The Suyuchilseongong was a brand-new style created by Baek Ho-yang, who had taken an existing martial art and infused it with inspiration from the phrase “The highest virtue is like water” from the Daodejing.
The ultimate good is like water.
It flows from high to low to fill what is lacking, and it never forces itself into rigid angles.
Because it embraces seven virtues—fairness, perfection, flexibility, humility, inclusivity, patience, and courage—it was called the Seven Virtues of Water.
Baek Ho-yang interpreted this through the lens of martial arts to forge the Suyuchilseongong.
The Suyuchilseongong consisted of seven stances in total, and its defining characteristic was that each form connected smoothly into the next without interruption, just like flowing water.
“Watch my movements closely. This is the first stance of the Suyuchilseongong, Chungcheon Choseong. Its characteristic feature is a movement that is gentle yet powerful, resembling the sound of spring water bursting through the earth.”
Baek Ho-yang poured his heart into teaching them, adjusting the children’s postures one by one.
Although the twin siblings were said to possess excellent talent, they were not the kind of prodigies who could learn ten things from hearing just one.
For the sake of children who were learning martial arts for the very first time in their lives, Baek Ho-yang had to demonstrate the movements repeatedly and constantly correct their forms.
Compared to Woo Geom-san, their speed of acquiring martial arts was as slow as a slug. Even so, Baek Ho-yang did not feel disappointed.
Every person had different strengths and a different pace of absorption.
There would be no end to it if he began comparing them.
It was enough to fully accept the children’s natural talent and teach them at a speed that suited them.
Fortunately, Baek Ho-yang happened to possess immense patience, and he was highly generous toward children.
Without showing a single hint of boredom, he taught the children the exact same movements over and over again.
Originally, in order to teach a proper martial art, one had to ensure the student mastered a heart method first.
For that reason, Woo Geom-san had also initiated his training with Choyeon Simgyeol before mastering the Choyen Sword Technique.
However, the Suyuchilseongong created by Baek Ho-yang required no separate heart method to be learned.
This was because the Suyuchilseongong itself inherently contained an internal strength cultivation method.
The moment one mastered all seven stances—consisting of Chungcheon Choseong, Yeonihanmu, Chwiugyeokseok, Pokpogyeongsa, Josaengyeongwol, Gyeongdoyeolan, and Ganghaegwiil—a complete mental law would be finalized.
While it could not grant the transcendent, monumental power found in Choyeon Simgyeol or the other heart methods of the Quanzhen Sect, steady practice would strengthen the entire body, yielding the benefit of longevity.
Additionally, it would grant enough strength to easily drive away average martial artists.
“Hiya!”
“Hah!”
The twin siblings trained in the Suyuchilseongong, their faces flushing red as they drenched themselves in sweat.
Baek Ho-yang placed a chair on one side of the courtyard and watched them practice.
Chirp, chirp!
The sound of sparrows chirping drifted from somewhere, tickling Baek Ho-yang’s ears.
With a smile on his face, Baek Ho-yang enjoyed the children’s spirited shouts mixed with the songs of the sparrows.
He felt a deep wish that this peaceful time could last forever.
***
“Move this rock over here.”
“Why are you leaving that protruding part just as it is? If people trip over it, they’ll get seriously hurt. Hurry up and split it apart.”
On the plank road, the villagers were moving busily.
Their orderly, systematic movements were enough to bring ants to mind.
The person overseeing the entire operation was the Village Chief, Baek Do-gyeong.
Baek Do-gyeong had entrusted all the farming duties to Baek Wol-sang, dedicating himself entirely to leveling the plank road.
The naturally formed plank road was rugged and uneven.
It was pitted and jagged in so many places that wagon wheels would inevitably be ruined in short order.
As for the actual construction to connect the plank road, that was handled exclusively by the strong young men of the village and Woo Geom-san, so there was no room for him to intervene there. However, smoothing the path like this to make it easy for people to walk on was something even the elders could easily manage.
Furthermore, they were simultaneously working on installing railings along the extremely perilous sections.
They used the stones cleared from the road construction to build railings, ensuring that even if someone lost their footing, they would not plunge into the abyss.
While Baek Do-gyeong and the older adults focused on leveling the road and ensuring safety, Woo Geom-san and the youths were fully occupied with carving out a new path at the very edge of the plank road.
The construction to pioneer the plank road connecting toward the base of the mountain was far more dangerous than the path leading toward the village. Therefore, the pace of construction was bound to be slow.
Woo Geom-san, who had been splitting boulders for a while, tilted his head in confusion.
Patter!
This was because stone fragments and dust had come showering down from right above his head.
Woo Geom-san stopped his work and looked up toward the top of the cliff.
He could see a considerably large boulder hanging precariously on the edge.
“Brothers, fall back. It looks like that boulder up there is going to fall any moment now.”
“Got it.”
“Looks like we’ve hit another rockfall zone.”
The young men immediately retreated dozens of yards.
Once Woo Geom-san confirmed they had retreated to a safe distance, he immediately vaulted his body up toward the top of the cliff.
With just a single kick against the cliff face, Woo Geom-san arrived dozens of yards above the plank road, right where the boulder hung precariously.
Woo Geom-san’s eyes caught the cracked crevice between the boulder and the cliff.
He immediately deployed Chaeuolsu, thrusting his hands directly into the gap.
A mighty force capable of plucking the moon instantly shoved the boulder far away from the cliff side.
Crash!
Watching the massive boulder plunge down the cliff with a thunderous roar, Woo Geom-san let out a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, the boulder fell far clear without causing any damage to the plank road.
Instead of dropping straight back down to the plank road, Woo Geom-san leaned against the cliff and looked out at the sky.
The scenery viewed from the plank road was beautiful, but the landscape beheld from a much higher cliff was as picturesque as a painting.
Woo Geom-san captured that entire grand vista within his eyes.
Though he worked in the exact same place every single day, nature was infinitely mutable, never displaying the exact same scenery twice.
Thanks to that, his eyes were treated to a magnificent feast every day.
It was at that moment.
Screeech!
A sharp bird call echoed from somewhere high above his head.
When he raised his head to look, a pair of hawks was circling around the open sky.
Their appearance made it seem as though they were wary of Woo Geom-san’s presence.
“It looks like your nest is somewhere near here. My apologies.”
Woo Geom-san immediately leapt down toward the plank road.
Only then did the hawks seem to settle down, as they flew off toward another area.
Woo Geom-san spent a long time gazing up at the figures of the hawks soaring through the wide-open sky.

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