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I wasn’t in the right headspace to cultivate, and I didn’t really want to train, so I watched the clouds move.
It’s necessary to stay here for about three days to ensure that the procession from here safely enters the Flower Valley first. If anything could be considered boring before, then these three days will be even more boring. It will be a good break to rest in a mountain with such a good view.
I’m not doing anything because I need to rest more than I need to train.
What I am to do here is….
Look at the clouds and flowers.
It is to look at Ghost Demon looking at the flowers from time to time. The man who doesn’t get along with flowers. The man walking around with the unfamiliar flowers in his path.
Suddenly, I feel a bit impressed by the guy from the previous life and I call him.
“Yukhap.”
“What?”
“Why are you walking around like some street cat?”
“I am just walking.”
The man looking at the flowers couldn’t openly say he was looking at the flowers. I picture the Ghost Demon from the past looking at flowers and speak back what comes to mind.
“To be stuck in the corner of a valley and staring at flowers?”
When I say that out of the blue, he turns to look at me blindly.
“….”
I continue talking, pointing to him and the flower.
“The flowers moving in the wind asked.”
He asks me back,
“What are you asking?”
“I am asking where you are from.”
Ghost Demon answers in a calm tone.
“I am from Yukhap Sect.”
I answer,
“I am from Ilyang Count. The flowers might ask again.”
“….”
“They ask if there are similar flowers out there. As soon as they said that, the flowers seemed to turn to the sword.”
To which he says,
“Why?”
“They ask if the swordsman might hurt the flower with their sword. It was said that they never had such a thing happen, and the flowers were relieved. But I gave them the news that they will be coming in a few days.”
“What?”
“If the Demon Ghost comes to the Right Valley, I have no choice but to draw my sword.”
Yukhap asks me like he is playing along.
“And what did the flowers say?”
“It can’t be helped. They say they are happy to be able to talk even for a little while.”
Now, he turns to me.
“That is the true nature of flowers.”
When I nodded, he had an odd smile as he looked at the flowers.
“See here, it is Yukhap and not Yukgap….”
I burst into laughter at that.
“Hahaha.”
Yukhap smiles and says,
“Sect Leader, don’t waste qi by talking and use it with your sword.”
I get up and go to him. He portrays a look of realization.
Grabbing my wooden sword, I calmly say,
“Ilyang county’s server, Lee Zaha.”
Yukhap draws his sword.
“The last survivor of the Six Harmony Sect. Before I could fully master their martial arts, the sect vanished.”
“This has to be a coincidence.”
“What?”
“Our guest house was destroyed by fire.”
Yukhap laughs.
“Ah, I see.”
“But it is being built ten times bigger than the one that was taken down using the money of the Unorthodox Sect.”
To which he laughs and thrusts his sword.
“Such an evil man.”
I deflect his sword with the wooden sword and stay silent.
The two of us looked at each other like wild animals that came to look at the flowers.
And Master Yukhap says,
“The Sword of Six Harmonies is a simple sword technique. Blocking the four directions and countering attacks that separates the sky and land. After being thrown into Kangho, I learned various martial arts and hid them all into the Sword of Six Harmonies. After learning the complexity of all that, I tried to understand what it meant.”
All of a sudden, he was teaching me the Sword of Six Harmonies.
Without much thought, I competed with him. At first, it felt awkward to fight without infusing internal Qi, but since the attacks of the Ghost Demon were very simple, I was able to adapt to it without much difficulty.
In the middle of the fight, Master Yukhap suggests,
“Respond with Six Harmonies.”
As he says it, I counter by stabbing in all four directions and stab, cut, or strike only at the openings.
In a way, this could be called the most simple and basic sword technique because it didn’t need much movement.
Still, I had struggled against the Ghost Demon of previous life who stubbornly only used this technique. At one point during our spar, he steps back and draws his sword vertically creating a wind slash.
In an instant, my eyes close because of the wind. It is a move that couldn’t be avoided unless internal Qi is used.
It was shown with the intention of teaching me how to use the Sword of Six Harmonies, so I immediately create sword wind using a similar technique.
The two streams of the sword wind mingled like a whirlwind and then spread into the sky with a loud roar.
Master Yukhap sends out sword wind and lowers his sword.
“Do you understand why I continued to defend using the iron wall technique and lead with this simple sword technique?”
I realize and answer.
“The first is to let them make a mistake.”
“Second?”
“Sealing the matter with a variable.”
“Third.”
“To change the flow with a single sword.”
“Fourth then?”
“Without excessive usage of internal Qi without unnecessary movements.”
“Nice, fifth?”
It takes me a while to answer.
“… in the end, the six-step defense is a concept which can hide the important parts of martial arts.”
“Looks like you understood it. Then what next?”
“Is there more?”
He sits on the ground and tells me,
“Think about it slowly. Why would one insist on a simple sword technique?”
I sit across from him and cross my arms.
“In the end… the last attack which takes the breath of the opponent has to be of cut, stab, slash, no matter how many times it has to be done. In the end, in order to refine such a technique, into a proper sword technique which can kill one for sure. The martial arts which endlessly raises the level of performing a simple attack through complex training.”
Master Yukhap looks at me for a moment and nods.
“That is the Sword of Six Harmonies. There are dazzling techniques out there that deceive with movement through performance. But the sword technique I learn is that of a defense which neutralizes all the flashy techniques followed by a single counterattack. It requires stamina, endurance, and qi. It is a technique that will not tire the man out even if he is being attacked for three days and nights. This martial art is so simple and clear that it will be hard to achieve anything at a fast speed. Those who come in expecting something flashy would probably crawl out on their own hands and knees.”
“I guess so. What motivated you to hide the complicated martial arts you learned?”
“When I look at revenge, in the end, most of it is carried out by being stabbed or cut to death. I thought I found my answer. The secret to the sword technique isn’t to imitate others. After all, it is a complete martial art on an endless road, so one shouldn’t hurry.”
Endless road.
Because of Master Yukhap’s martial arts being like this, he must have been strong even in the past life as a Ghost Demon. No matter what personality he has now or in the past, he has the ability to become a great warrior.
I nod and advise him.
“Your first disciple must be the most patient kid in the world. It will be difficult to achieve greatness with normal determination.”
“I don’t know if such a disciple exists.”
“You need to find them. But why are you suddenly telling me the secret to your technique?”
Master Yukhap says it like it doesn’t matter.
“What is the use of keeping all of this to myself when I die?”
With the flow of the conversation, it was my turn to teach him a sword technique I learned. But in actuality, it would be a tough task because my martial arts are the complete opposite of what the Ghost Demon had learned.
For that reason, I also try to explain in words.
“Somehow, I am pursuing a sword technique opposite to yours.”
To which he shakes his head.
“Not the opposite.”
“Then?”
“It is difficult to say. When I was staying in the Black Rabbit Union, Seo Gun-pyung often shook the plum tree and then cut the falling plum blossoms with his sword. Is that what you are trying to learn?”
I nod.
“Right.”
“I was shocked after watching him, so I asked him what he was doing. And he said he was following you. He said that Sect Leader was ten times better.”
“So, what did you say?”
“I told him to stop because it is a training method with no hope for his skills.”
“Right.”
“Why are you hitting plum blossoms without a reason? It seemed like he was blindly following you.”
This guy is smart, trying to get things out of me even when I wasn’t teaching him a thing. And I say with ease.
“Because the beginning of the sword technique is nothing but a process.”
“Is that so?”
“If one stubbornly wields a technique without any changes, the opponent will see through and kill them. There are many techniques and forms in the world, but that is all for just training. And when directly fighting, one doesn’t use such techniques. Is there a warrior who can cope with all situations with the one technique they learned?”
“None.”
“Learning the basics step by step, and learning the mysterious technique is done with the intention to deal with the opponent faster than you think. And to do so, one needs to train their body and sword technique. What does that mean?”
“Terrifying training of pruning the plum blossoms will be one form. But when will that be completed? It will take a longer time to become a fully completed sword technique that would place in the top 3.”
As such, this was the difference between mine and Master Yukhap’s sword technique.
Even though we understand each other to some extent.
This will become the starting point for the Southern Edge Sword and the Mount Hua Sword to flow in different directions.
I think it is over and say to Master Yukhap,
“In my opinion, for the greatest swordsman to be born….”
“Go on.”
“I need to have the stubborn tricks of Yukhap and the freewheeling spirit of Mount Hua. If the disciples we raise do not interact with each other, great swordsmen are bound to come. Do you get what I mean?”
Yukhap nods.
“Because we both go after martial arts that are far apart. Both sides will have to fight and win. That is what you mean.”
The sky turns dark as we continue to talk all day. Only then did we head to the right corner of the residence.
Unexpectedly, Master Yukhap says,
“Fine. Sword is understood to some extent. Tomorrow we can talk about the spear, fist, and palm.”
“After that?”
“On the third day, let us discuss the way to express the Qi outside the body.”
“Let’s do that.”
If we think about it, the Ghost Demon and I were discussing martial arts despite not knowing when the Demonic Cult would come.
This is because those who are men don’t run.
While waiting for the enemy, they exchanged and argued about each other’s martial arts.
Is this why?
As I continued to stay here, I forgot about the fact that 5 or 6 days had already passed. One day, while we were discussing about internal qi in a place of flowers, I spotted a gray-haired man standing nearby with his hands behind his back.
“…”
I wasn’t sure if he was an enemy or ally, so I just greeted him first.
“Elder, welcome.”
The gray-haired man approaches and asks,
“Are you the Right Valley Leader?”
“No.”
The man approaches us and sits down at the table.
“Did the two of you kill the servants of the third young lord who came here?”
I look at Yukhap and reply.
“Right.”
The man nods.
“Then you did well.”
For a while, the three of us stared at the scenery around and the colors of the flowers all seemed to be turning white.
It seemed like he was the maternal grandfather to the third young lord.
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