Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Walking Together (2)

One month. That was how long it took for Dam Ho to regain the ability to move under his own power. During that time, Dam Ho spent most of his days circulating his energy.

Each dawn, after consuming a Nourishing Essence Pill, he would cultivate the Heavy Heaven Heart Method, and before he knew it, the day would slip away.

As Sage Hyeon-so had promised, the Nourishing Essence Pills and the Heavy Heaven Heart Method produced a wondrous synergy. The viscous, sluggish energy of the Heavy Heaven Heart Method, which had been as sticky as a swamp, now surged like wildfire whenever he consumed a Nourishing Essence Pill.

Unable to move his body, Dam Ho delved deeper into the Heavy Heaven Heart Method. He probed with such persistence that parts of it he had never perceived before began to reveal themselves.

While Dam Ho was thus immersed in the Heavy Heaven Heart Method, Sage Hyeon-so ventured once more into Mount San-gong to gather the herbs needed for another batch of Nourishing Essence Pills.

When Sage Hyeon-so finally returned to his dwelling, he bore upon his back a bundle as large as a mountain. Without resting a moment, he immediately set to work refining more Nourishing Essence Pills.

At last, when Dam Ho could move once more, Sage Hyeon-so had completed several hundred Nourishing Essence Pills.

"How does your body feel?"

"I can move."

Though he said so, Dam Ho's condition was far from ideal. After lying still for so long, his entire body had stiffened utterly. Resting muscles that had hardened like stone to their former state became the most urgent task.

His left leg was especially problematic. The muscle he had painstakingly built through months of climbing the mountain had withered away to nothing. He would have to rebuild from scratch.

Yet Dam Ho never once succumbed to despair. He had lost much, but he had gained even more.

"Master."

"Ho-ya! As you know, the existing martial arts of the Mount Hua Sect are not suited to you. We must create new martial arts—martial arts tailored solely for you."

Dam Ho's eyes lit up.

This was something he already knew. Over the past five years, he had felt it keenly enough to the bone.

"First, we must perfect a footwork technique designed only for you. You have no need for flashy footwork. With that leg, not only could you never master such steps, but they would hinder your learning of other martial arts."

"I understand."

Dam Ho nodded readily. He had arrived at the same thought as Sage Hyeon-so.

"Footwork that is simple yet unchanging, yet optimally suited for you to unleash your martial arts. What kind of footwork would that be?"

Sage Hyeon-so bent down and began gathering the small stones scattered across the ground, arranging them upon a low platform.

The stones were piled like a miniature city wall.

"This is your enemy."

"…"

"Those who have perfected their own martial arts, achieving an iron fortress of invincibility. To face such an enemy, what must you do? What footwork must you deploy? Have you ever considered?"

"I must crush them with sheer force. For me, there is no other way."

"Correct. You must crush them with force. Then, have you considered how you might amplify that force?"

"By building my muscular strength…"

"Speed."

"What?"

"Speed multiplies force."

Sage Hyeon-so picked up a small twig from the ground and placed it upon the platform.

A city wall facing a twig.

With a flick of his finger, Sage Hyeon-so sent the twig flying. At great velocity, it struck the wall of stones and sent them tumbling down in a heap.

"A battering ram—a siege engine that shatters a wall in a single blow. Your footwork must be like this battering ram."

"A battering ram?"

"Yes! Like a battering ram, you must concentrate all your power upon a single point with terrifying speed. If you can achieve that, then simplicity alone can overwhelm complexity. This is the answer I have found."

"…"

Dam Ho could say nothing. It was as if a fog that had long clouded his mind was finally lifting.

A possibility he had never seen before began to take shape.

Sage Hyeon-so's voice resounded.

"A footwork that smashes through walls like a battering ram—I shall call it the Charging Step."

"Charging Step…"

"From this day forth, it is the footwork we shall create together."

Sage Hyeon-so's voice left a deep resonance in Dam Ho's chest.

***

The Charging Step.

They would forge a footwork like a battering ram charging at a city wall.

Once the objective was set, Sage Hyeon-so and Dam Ho threw themselves into their work with an almost frightening intensity. Sage Hyeon-so laid bare the knowledge he had harbored only in his mind until now.

"There is a renowned supreme technique in the martial world called the Blood Heaven Kick."

"Blood Heaven Kick?"

"A unique, peerless art of Woo Gyeong-pae, the Iron Blood Overlord, who roamed the martial world alone a hundred and twenty years ago. It was said that a single kick could paint the sky red with a spray of blood—a technique of fearsome power."

Woo Gyeong-pae had risen to the ranks of the Ten Great Masters of his era with the Blood Heaven Kick alone. Yet his cruel nature and his willingness to cause trouble regardless of circumstance made him an enemy of the martial world.

Hundreds of the era's greatest martial artists set out to slay him. But Woo Gyeong-pae shook off their pursuit and vanished without a trace.

He never again appeared in the world. Thus he became a legend, and now he was so forgotten that few even remembered the name Woo Gyeong-pae.

"The world believes Woo Gyeong-pae simply grew weary of the martial world and went into seclusion. But the truth is different. It was the Mount Hua Sect's greatest sword master, the Sword Immortal Sang Han-cheon, who finally took up the challenge."

Sang Han-cheon was likewise numbered among the Ten Great Masters, and with a sword he could claim the foremost position of his generation.

Sang Han-cheon and Woo Gyeong-pae fought for a day and a night. The battle raged as if heaven and earth might be overturned, and in the end, Sang Han-cheon prevailed by the slimmest of margins.

"Had Woo Gyeong-pae not exhausted his internal energy evading the pursuit of the martial world's masters, even Elder Sang Han-cheon could never have subdued him. That is how powerful Woo Gyeong-pae truly was."

After slaying Woo Gyeong-pae, Sang Han-cheon intended to burn the scripture containing the Blood Heaven Kick to ashes. Yet upon examining it, he found himself unable to do so.

"Though it had found an unworthy master in Woo Gyeong-pae and been misused, the Blood Heaven Kick itself was a truly brilliant martial art. And so Elder Sang Han-cheon had it memorized by the Scholar Taoists of the time. He could not keep it in open record."

Thus the Blood Heaven Kick was preserved through the oral transmission of Scholar Taoists, passing down to the present day.

"It is said that when the Shadowless Kick of Shaolin is brought to its ultimate refinement, one can suspend the body in midair and deliver no fewer than eighteen consecutive kicks. This is possible through exquisite distribution of internal energy and the perfection of linked technique. But the Blood Heaven Kick is different. It concerns itself neither with linked technique nor with the distribution of internal energy. Its sole aim is to obliterate the enemy in a single strike."

Dam Ho stared intently at Sage Hyeon-so.

In all their five years together, this was the first time he had seen Sage Hyeon-so speak with such passionate fervor.

"The Blood Heaven Kick requires no elaborate footwork. All it needs is a sturdy leg to serve as its pillar. As you study and exhaust the possibilities of the Blood Heaven Kick, the Charging Step will surely take shape."

"I understand."

Dam Ho nodded.

He trusted his Master. If Sage Hyeon-so spoke, there was certain to be a worthy reason behind it.

Sage Hyeon-so's face was flushed red. Yet he did not hesitate for a single moment in imparting the Blood Heaven Kick to Dam Ho.

Grandmaster Hyeon-cheon had instructed that Dam Ho must not be taught the martial arts of the Mount Hua Sect. But the Blood Heaven Kick was not a Mount Hua art. There was no reason to waver.

Once Dam Ho had heard all the forms and internal energy methods of the Blood Heaven Kick, he finally understood why Sage Hyeon-so had been so impassioned.

The Blood Heaven Kick demanded no precise or intricate movement. What it required were only the preparatory motions to maximize destructive power. Even with his imperfect leg, Dam Ho could fully execute it.

The problem was that the Blood Heaven Kick demanded tremendous leg strength, explosive lung capacity, and meticulous control of internal energy.

'Master.'

Dam Ho felt a surge of profound respect for Sage Hyeon-so well up within him.

This was not simply a matter of presenting a supreme art and telling him to learn it. It was a solution born of careful consideration of Dam Ho's physical condition, his years of effort, and the direction of his future growth.

It was plain to see how many days Sage Hyeon-so had spent wrestling with this problem, how many sleepless nights he had endured.

Thereafter, Sage Hyeon-so continued to pour forth his knowledge. Having heard everything, Dam Ho engaged him in vigorous debate.

The foundation of it all was the Charging Step that Sage Hyeon-so had first proposed.

To create a footwork like a battering ram, and to devise martial arts that would complement it—this became the two's paramount mission.

They held intense discussions day after night. Sleepless nights became the norm, and at times they went several days without a wink of sleep.

Creating new martial arts was no easy task even for grandmasters of a generation. For a Scholar Taoist who knew only theory and a young martial artist who possessed nothing but recklessness, it bordered on the impossible.

Yet the two possessed an advantage others did not. Neither knew the meaning of giving up. And they were tenacious beyond measure.

Neither Dam Ho nor Sage Hyeon-so held any significant standing within the Mount Hua Sect. No one cared what they did. Thanks to this, they could test and forge their martial arts with far greater freedom.

If Sage Hyeon-so laid out the theoretical framework, it fell to Dam Ho to verify it with his body.

Without the stable foundation of the Heavy Heaven Heart Method, they would never have dared attempt it.

Dam Ho ceased his climbing of Mount Hua. It might draw unwanted attention. Instead, he began training in a special manner.

Behind Sage Hyeon-so's dwelling lay a small clearing and a great boulder. The boulder was as massive as a grand hall.

Sage Hyeon-so drew a small circle upon the lower part of the boulder, at roughly Dam Ho's eye level.

Dam Ho watched in silence as Sage Hyeon-so worked.

Sage Hyeon-so then drew a straight line from the circled boulder to the clearing.

A straight line was etched into the ground, and Dam Ho was placed at its end.

"Starting today, this is your task."

"What must I do?"

"From here to that boulder, you will leap in a single step and strike the circle with your fist."

Dam Ho's brow creased slightly.

The distance from where he stood to the boulder was a full two zhang—roughly six meters.

Even for a healthy person, even for a trained martial artist, it was too great a distance to cross in a single leap.

Sage Hyeon-so pointed to the line drawn upon the ground.

"You must leap with your left foot, and you must never stray from this line."

"Master."

"I know it is near impossible with your leg. But you must do it."

At Sage Hyeon-so's words, Dam Ho nodded without another word.

His left leg was slightly bent and twisted. Because of this, he could not properly channel his strength, nor could he accurately gauge direction.

This training was not merely about strengthening his left leg.

Because his leg was twisted, Dam Ho's bodily balance was significantly skewed. If he could complete this training successfully, his sense of balance would develop to its peak.

"Begin."

"Yes!"

Without a word of complaint, Dam Ho followed Sage Hyeon-so's command.

He launched himself toward the boulder.

"Kuh!"

Dam Ho's face contorted.

Not only did his fist fail to reach the boulder, he could not even cover a third of the distance. Worse, he had deviated far to the left of the line Sage Hyeon-so had drawn.

That meant his body was tilting to the left.

Sage Hyeon-so's voice, sharp as a whip, rang out.

"Again!"

Dam Ho returned to his starting position without a word. Then he leapt toward the boulder once more.

"Hah! Hah!"

Dam Ho's breathing grew increasingly ragged.

He pushed off the earth, tumbled across the ground, and his body became caked in dirt. But his two eyes burned brighter than ever before.