Three Years of Blacksmithing, Achieving Divine Martial Arts - Chapter 6

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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 6. The Day of Entry
“Hwang Tae-gon?”

When So Cheol turned the name over in his mind, So Won’s lips twisted into a bitter smile.

“There are few people who make their living on the river and don’t know that man.”
“Is he that well-known?”
“Not for any good reason.”

As So Won rewrapped the Silver Coins on the cloth, tension crept into his fingertips. Five taels. Ordinarily, he would have to scrape and save for months to touch such a sum.

“He’s been swinging his fists since he was young. These days he keeps a whole crew under him. When he spots a fisherman at the Marketplace who’s sold a good catch, he comes up with some nonsense about stall fees or service charges and extorts money.”
“Does everyone just hand it over?”
“And if they refuse?”

So Won rubbed his neck with the back of his hand.

“The next day your boat’s smashed to pieces or your nets vanish. If you’re unlucky, you get beaten too.”

Im Ha set down her spoon with a sharp clink.

“Must you really talk about that man while we’re eating?”
“I’m not enjoying it.”
“You’re only bringing it up because you came back shaken down today.”

So Won fell silent.
So Cheol studied both their faces in turn. His aunt’s anger wasn’t simply about the five taels. She was thinking that without that money, So Won might have returned injured—or not at all.

“Doesn’t Joyun-bang do anything about it?”

So Cheol asked quietly.
Joyun-bang controlled the river and the ferry docks. If fishermen wanted to sell their catch properly, it was easiest to go through the fish market and trading posts they ran—and they certainly collected stall fees for the privilege. But if someone like Hwang Tae-gon was bleeding money on the side within their territory, something didn’t add up.

So Won gave a bitter laugh.

“What Joyun-bang takes is the price for letting us use the market and setting up a stall to sell. It’s not a guarantee that they’ll protect us all the way home.”
“What about the authorities?”
“Unless someone dies, they won’t move.”

So Won flicked a Silver Coin with his finger.

“Calling in the magistrate’s men over something like this would cost more than what Hwang Tae-gon took.”

Clink.

The coin fell onto the cloth.
So Cheol heard the sound in silence.
The order here was simpler than he’d expected. There was an authority. There were gang organizations. There were rules in every marketplace. But those rules didn’t protect everyone equally.
The Cheoljang-bang—if a miner carrying scrap iron to them was robbed on the way home, the organization wouldn’t send men to catch the thief.

It was the same principle.
The losses of the powerless remained mere misfortune until they grew large enough to threaten someone higher up’s interests.

“So Cheol.”

So Won called to him quietly.

“Yes.”
“Don’t let your mind wander.”

So Cheol lifted his eyes.

“What do you mean, Uncle?”
“I’ve watched that look in your eyes for years now. Do you think I wouldn’t recognize it?”

So Won exhaled deeply.

“I know you’ve grown stronger lately. Jin even said good things about your progress. But this isn’t the time to tangle with someone like that.”
“I wasn’t planning to pick a fight.”
“Are you certain?”
“Your life is worth far more than five silver coins.”

So Won’s expression softened slightly.
So Cheol pressed on.

“If something like this happens again, just give him the money. Don’t stubbornly resist.”
“What do you take me for, some fool to be pushed around?”
“I’m not asking you to be a fool. I’m asking you to come home alive.”

So Won started to reply, then closed his mouth.
Im Ha clicked her tongue softly from beside him.

“Stubborn as a mule, that man.”
“But I told you — I already paid him today.”
“And you think that’s something to boast about?”

The bickering between the two began anew.
So Cheol picked up his rice bowl.
He said nothing more, but the name Hwang Tae-gon was fixed in his memory.
There was no reason to seek him out now. He knew nothing of what kind of man this was, nor how strong. In four days’ time, So Cheol would still be an apprentice who hadn’t even sat for his Aptitude Examination.
What he needed now was not to recover the five coins.
It was to ensure that no one ever dared lay a hand on his uncle again.
That would endure far longer.
Im Ha, still unsatisfied, eyed the silver coins. So Won caught her look and handed over a bundle of cloth he’d set aside in the corner of the room.

“Did you buy this fabric yourself?”
“While I was at the Marketplace today.”
“Why did you get such fine cloth?”
“To make So Cheol a new set of clothes.”

This time So Cheol’s head rose.

“I still have clothes.”
“Those pants the crocodile half devoured?”

Im Ha cut off the protest with a single phrase.

“Never mind. I’ll take your measurements again tomorrow.”

So Cheol said no more.
On the very day their silver had been stolen, the two of them had bought clothes for themselves first.
* * *
That night, So Cheol extended his training hours.
Crocodile meat still remained in generous supply at home. Im Ha carved thick pieces and simmered them at each meal, and So Cheol consumed it almost like medicine.
It was unlike ordinary meat that merely filled the belly.
Even a few mouthfuls sent waves of scorching energy through his abdomen. If he didn’t move his body at once, the heat would circle within him, growing so stifling he had to act.
So Cheol waited for the Courtyard to darken before picking up his hammer.
He planted his feet firmly.
He lowered his knees.
He drew in a breath.
Whoosh.
His chest and belly swelled, then slowly subsided. In that moment, the heat spreading through his body flowed down into his arms and legs.
The hammer cleaved the air.

Whump!

At first, he retraced the path of power he’d discovered through fighting the crocodile. The force that began in his feet flowed unbroken through his waist, passed over his shoulder, and traveled to his wrist all in one motion.
He didn’t stop after a single strike.
As he moved into the second form, he recaptured his lost center, and by the third he shifted his breathing. Though he repeated the same posture, his body felt subtly different each time. In one instant his right foot bore more weight; in the next his shoulder led the movement.
He felt where he’d gone wrong and corrected it.
He swung again.
The heat rising from the crocodile meat consumed quickly.
Yet the strength that once required long rest to recover returned almost immediately.

‘So that’s why he said money was necessary.’

Now So Cheol understood why Jin had insisted that eating was crucial to training.
Without good physique and martial skill, there was nothing to draw from one’s body. The Bronze Cauldron had opened a path, but it wouldn’t freely forge the blood and flesh needed to walk that path.
That night’s training ended only as darkness deepened.
The next day was the same.
He struck metal at Cheoljang-bang, returned to eat crocodile meat, and when the house quieted he picked up the hammer again.
After two days passed, a change came.
So Cheol set down the hammer and, while steadying his breath, suddenly closed his eyes.
Before, whenever he tried to move the hot energy inside his body, it caught and stumbled in places. His arm glowed with heat while his back remained cool, or the energy rising from his waist scattered at his shoulder.
Now it was different.
As his breathing aligned, the same heat arose from more than half his body. It felt nothing like forcing something shut. Blood pooled where he willed it, and strength flowed in the blood’s wake.
Jin’s voice echoed in his memory.
Grade 1 Minor Completion: controlling three tenths of all the Vital Points in the body at will.
Six tenths meant the next stage.
So Cheol opened his eyes.

‘I’m close to six tenths.’

He had no tool to measure exact numbers. But compared to the sensation in his memory, he wasn’t far off.
His body had clearly advanced one stage beyond the day he’d caught the crocodile.
It was good news—and news he had to hide.
Tomorrow the Aptitude Examination would take place.
There, he needed to appear as an apprentice encountering martial arts for the first time.
So Cheol returned the worn apprentice hammer to the Bronze Cauldron.

“Don’t get excited and swing that hammer around needlessly.”

He murmured this to himself, then went inside.
* * *
The morning of the Aptitude Examination.
The hammer apprentices of Cheoljang-bang did not scatter to the forges as usual.
They gathered in one place, following Jin.
It wasn’t only faces So Cheol knew. Apprentices his age from other forges filed in by tens and twenties, lined in proper ranks. At the head of each group stood master smiths like Jin, who taught the apprentices.
All together, they numbered well over a hundred.
Han Yeol was nowhere to be seen—he wasn’t being examined today. Only apprentices who had progressed to actually wielding hammers stood in this place.

“Quiet.”

At Jin’s single word, the noise around them dimmed slightly.

“Where you’re going today is the Inner Gate. The place where your legs get broken if you show your face there on any other day.”

Several apprentices’ faces hardened.

“You’ve only got permission for today, so don’t fall out of line if you get distracted, and only do what you’re told. Understand?”
“Yes!”

The response was unusually loud.
The thick door swung open.
So Cheol had spent three years in Cheoljang-bang, but this was his first time stepping inside.
It was just a wall and a barrier away from the Outer Gate, yet the atmosphere was entirely different. The wide, swept path was laid with neat slate stones instead of broken gravel, and everyone passing by carried weapons at their waist without exception.
One person carried an enormous hammer; another wore a sword.
There was no one hurrying about like an apprentice.

‘Are they all Martial Warriors?’

At the Outer Gate, if even one Jin moved, the apprentices around him would instinctively clear a path.
Here, such people didn’t seem particularly special.
So Cheol deliberately refrained from looking around. He followed Jin, taking in only what naturally caught his eye.
Before long, a vast training ground came into view.
Above the red gate hung a large placard reading “Yeon-mu-dang.”
A soft gasp escaped from among the apprentices.

“That floor—isn’t that Azure Jade Stone?”
“No way. They laid something that expensive on the ground?”
“I heard a piece the size of a fist goes for several coins each…….”

So Cheol looked down at the ground beneath his feet.

‘Where there’s money, even the ground is different.’

His mind, which had moments ago been occupied with thoughts of the five silver coins Hwang Tae-gon had taken from him, naturally turned to different calculations.
Entering the Inner Gate wouldn’t just change the money available to him.
The food, the teachings, the metal he could use, the people he’d meet—
everything required for training would be different.
The other apprentices seemed to harbor similar thoughts, their faces flushed with anticipation.

“Three years I’ve held on. Today, I’m staying inside no matter what.”
“Please just don’t let it be Grade C. If I get Grade B, I go straight to the Inner Gate, right?”
“Why settle for just the Inner Gate? If you catch the eye of one of the three masters, you become a Direct Disciple right away.”

Someone beside him let out a hollow laugh.

“If Grade A physiques were that common, a thousand people would’ve gathered here, not a hundred.”

Direct Disciple.
So Cheol’s ear caught on that phrase.
He’d already heard about it from Jin.
At Cheoljang-bang, a Grade B physique was rare enough material. You could be taken directly to the Inner Gate at the examination itself. But Direct Disciples who studied under the organization’s core figures were treated on an entirely different level.
It came down to the medicinal herbs and meat you could use, the martial arts you could learn, the materials you could acquire.
The materials needed to open the second slot in the Bronze Cauldron flickered through his mind.
Pure Gold, Pure Silver, Refined Iron, Brass, Tin.
He could afford to buy some of it with what he had now. But the slots wouldn’t stop at just one. To go further and equip better things, he’d ultimately need resources.
The higher your standing, the easier it became to acquire those resources.

‘If it’s possible, there’s no reason to settle for just the Inner Gate.’

Still, he kept such ambition from showing on his face.
First, he needed to see how his physique would be assessed.
Two apprentices ahead were speaking in hushed tones about the three core figures of Cheoljang-bang.
Bangju Yang Jeong-cheon.
Dangjuh Wang San of Pargun-dang.
Master of the Jangsim-dang

Son Cheol-sim.
Three people who moved the Cheoljang-bang would come directly to today’s examination, he’d heard. The Bangju governed the entire organization, the Pargun-dang handled combat and discipline, and the Jangsim-dang bore responsibility for weapon-crafting—the very root of the Cheoljang-bang.
So Cheol’s ears perked up at that last name.
Jangsim-dang.
He’d started down this path by striking steel in the first place. Beyond simply growing stronger in martial arts, he harbored genuine interest in what he might gain as a craftsman.
At that moment, Jin stepped up beside him.

“Nervous?”
“A little.”
“That’s honest of you. Doesn’t sound like you.”

Jin let out a quiet chuckle.

“Don’t go chasing Grade A just because you hear others talking about it. Your Ten Thousand Ox Physique alone is plenty to draw attention. Grade B, and you’ve nearly locked your way into the Inner Gate.”
“What about Grade C?”
“Then I’ll cry for a few days.”

So Cheol smiled.
Jin hesitated for a moment, then added one more thing.

“But your skill at striking steel won’t disappear, no matter what. A single result doesn’t decide a man’s entire life, so don’t be too afraid.”

Behind the jest lay sincerity.
So Cheol nodded.

“I understand.”

Just then, a door opened from within the Yeon-mu-dang.
The murmuring apprentices fell silent one by one.
The warmth drained from Jin’s expression.
Those in front straightened their posture.
So Cheol lifted his gaze.
People emerged from within.
In that moment, nearly a hundred apprentices held their breath.

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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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