Conditioned Counterattack (3)

Take heed that you do not practice your chivalry before men in order to be seen by them.
Otherwise you will receive no reward from your Heavenly Father in heaven.
So when you practice chivalry, do not do it so that hypocrites may make a name for themselves in the martial world.
Do not unfold their stances before you in inns and streets.
Truly I say to you, they have already received their reward.
But when you strike, let not your left hand know what your right hand does,
Enact your chivalry in secret. Your Father, who works in secret, will repay you.
-Matthew Sutra 6:1–6:4-

Conditioning.

I wondered what kind of absurd nonsense that was.

Adapt to the 1200 Inch Punch? How could that possibly make sense?

Even if I had not brought the 1200 Inch Punch to great completion and truly could not touch a target beyond a hundred steps, declaring that one could break the divine arts and ultimate learning of Kingswood, was not merely arrogant. It was the sort of thing only a madman would say.

“Arrogant. I don’t understand what you’re basing that confidence on.”
“Hah. You still don’t understand.”

Pavlov let out a rough laugh as he glared at me.

“Russian Kung-Fuists aren’t so weak that they’d bow to a merciful Kung-Fu with not even a fingernail’s worth of killing intent in it.”
“…?!”

It was unexpected.

I never imagined a man operating demonic arts while stoking killing intent to the limit could perceive my intent so sharply.

My master and I, having learned the Renewal Lionheart Method, could keep our reason cold even while handling the power of demonic arts.

That was possible partly because the internal energy built through the Renewal Lionheart Method was extremely pure, and also because we could shove all the side effects of demonic arts into the sealed pseudo-persona of a physician inside our minds.

In general, those who learn demonic arts fall into Qi deviation during training and become weapons that scorch everything around them because they greedily seek strength through demonic arts without preparing any way to bear those risks.

The martial world overflowed with the tragedy of those who should wield power as a weapon according to their will, only to be wielded by power and become the weapon themselves.

And yet, astonishingly, that man was maintaining sharp intellect no different from before he unfolded demonic arts.

He couldn’t have learned the Renewal Lionheart Method, so it meant he was using some other trick.

“Is this the art of splitting your mind… Two Face…?”
“…You noticed well. Not bad.”

The moment he answered, Pavlov’s face twisted strangely.

I hadn’t seen it many times with my own eyes, but the sight of a face splitting left and right, each side forming a different expression, was unmistakably the mark of a Kung-Fuist who had learned Two Face.

“My physician persona and my soldier persona are perfectly harmonized. They form a single whole.”

“Oh.”

He revealed the method he was using to offset the demonic arts’ weaknesses.

Unlike Renewal Lionheart Method, which would eliminate risk by creating and sealing a physician persona, Pavlov was maintaining sanity by using Two Face to temporarily split his persona in two.

He was placing the power and ferocity of demonic arts wholly in the soldier persona, while the physician persona calmly observed the enemy inside his mind and made rational judgments.

If he could lend strength to one side so that the physician persona could fully control the soldier persona, it was a fairly clever method.

The efficacy of Two Face was temporary, so if he was confident he could handle the clash between personas when he released it, then the misfortune of committing murder swept up by impulse would not occur in ordinary times.

Of course, this too was like walking a knife-edge on a tightrope. Someday, when balance was lost, he would be swallowed by inner darkness.

Yet the fact that it could delay that day was enough to count as an unexpected application of Two Face, and it might even become a ray of light to demonic-arts practitioners.

From the standpoint of guarding the martial world’s peace, it was not welcome at all, but it was unquestionably an interesting method.

Decades ago, after it was exposed that a master among the Alps Wu-Tang Order who had brought Two Principles Heart Art to great completion was hiding the fact that he had learned demonic arts, a significant number of Wu-Tang Kung-Fuists vanished.

When I heard that news, I expected a newly risen demonic person would find new means to conceal their power, but I never thought I would find such a good sample here.

“As expected. You’ve used your head.”

It was gratifying to learn a new trick used by demonic-arts practitioners in a place like this, yet the two words Pavlov said earlier still bothered me.

‘Adaptation’ and ‘conditioning.’

He hadn’t even recovered from the hits he took from the 1200 Inch Punch. With what confidence could he boldly declare it no longer worked.

‘No matter how you split your mind in two, it doesn’t seem like you can counter the 1200 Inch Punch….’

As if refuting my doubt, Pavlov braced on the ground and rose.

Only now, as he took a proper stance, I could feel ferocious momentum like a wild beast.

“Hm…”

With so few clues, there was no choice but to collide and confirm it directly.

If what he said was true, then I had to be glad.

It meant I could face a new wall to overcome.

-Huk!

This time, before Pavlov could charge, I struck first.

Earlier, he mocked that my Kung-Fu contained no killing intent.

So I delivered a blow aimed not at his front or his back, but at the Hundred Meetings acupoint on his crown.

I had aimed for vital points a few times earlier, but this was different.

Hundred Meetings is a lethal acupoint. If struck properly, the thread of life snaps.

It was true I had no intention of killing Pavlov, but the moment I made that clear, he would have no reason to surrender.

Unless he was loyal enough to offer up his life for the Tsar, I would have to use a technique that threatened his life in order to break his will.

“Block this as well.”

Naturally, he could never respond.

1200 Inch Punch is a divine art that strikes by pushing away the natural energy surrounding me.

Unlike ordinary fist blasts or palm blasts that draw a straight trajectory, the released force of the 1200 Inch Punch follows my intent, using the Natural Qi in the air as its medium, striking the enemy along a complex path like the trace of a slithering snake.

For that reason, unlike fist blasts, the 1200 Inch Punch suffers less loss, so the impact it releases loses less power. It can also betray every prediction the opponent makes by deliberately twisting the route of the pushed energy, striking a little later than the fist itself.

Even if one could not change fist blast’s power and efficacy with Brain Stopper or other special Essence, the fact that it could inflict undefendable true damage already made it a profound Kung-Fu without equal.

No matter that it was not a technique created for killing, if you land a lethal blow at maximum power, a person dies.

If an underworld Kung-Fuist tried an ambush thinking the Dragon Head of the Homeless Clan, who had brought Golf Technique to great completion, could not beat someone to death with a baguette, there was a high chance he would die from being hit by bread.

By the same logic, it was true that Tai-chi Square Sword Dance was a health exercise for elderly women, yet if that technique were unfolded at the fingertips of the Sword Queen…

Ah, Your Majesty. I apologize. I found myself imagining you performing Tai-chi Square Sword Dance.¹

In any case, the point was that even if a Kung-Fu was not created for killing, the story changed if I unleashed it with the intent to kill.

-Kwajik!

That was what I thought, but.

For some reason, Pavlov precisely tilted his neck to the right and avoided the 1200 Inch Punch that poured down vertically.

“What kind of nonsense—”

Maybe it was coincidence.

-Kwaang!

I threw my fist forward once more.

The straight Punch went horizontally, yet the Essence I pushed with my hand subtly changed direction in midair and surged from below, aiming for Pavlov’s jaw.

-Huuuk!

Yet again, the bear-sized army surgeon swiftly twisted his body, avoided the strike, and began charging at me.

“So it wasn’t a coincidence.”

Not once, but twice.

I wanted to deny it, but he was finding the gaps in the 1200 Inch Punch and breaking it with precision.

I didn’t know the principle, but rather than blame Kingswood’s divine art, the problem must lie with me, who had not yet brought it to great completion.

-Boo-woong!

Pavlov, charging in, leapt into the air without warning, raised both arms high, and concentrated his internal energy.

He didn’t even wrap Defense Essence around himself. Without fear, he left the ground in a posture difficult to control.

Sensing my chance, I unleashed 1200 Inch Punch repeatedly, yet even as his entire body took the hits, he stubbornly whipped both arms down toward where I stood.

-Koogoong!

Almost at the same time I retreated using Scuabtuinne, Pavlov’s twin arms slammed into the ground.

Where he struck, a crater formed large enough to bury an ordinary-built duelist.

If I had retreated even a little slower, my shoulder would have been shattered beyond ever being usable again.

‘Did he realize that the 1200 Inch Punch’s raw power itself isn’t high, and only dodge when the strike comes at a lethal vital point. For most attacks, does he intend to endure, trusting the durability of his body, refined through external arts to the limit.’

I understood well what he was attempting.

Since defending was impossible anyway, he was clearly planning to avoid only wounds severe enough to end the life-and-death duel, and to end the fight quickly.

The problem was how he was predicting the 1200 Inch Punch’s unfathomable trajectory.

“So that’s what it was…”

When I raised my head and saw Pavlov’s eyes as he prepared his next strike, I gained a hint, however small.

The light of intellect was gone from his eyes.

His dull focus was certainly holding me within it, yet it was not capturing me fully.

‘He’s either reading the movement of Natural Qi with perception pushed to the extreme, or he’s sensing the air’s vibrations.’

A harmony impossible for a human, no matter how you looked at it.

Relying solely on senses, he was reflexively displaying the optimal response to the opponent’s Kung-Fu.

“An absurd Kung-Fu. No—”

The amount of saliva flowing from the corner of his mouth was steadily increasing.

He was already transforming into a beast that had lost reason.

Rather than calling him a Kung-Fuist, the word spirit creature suited him more.

-Grrrr…!

From Pavlov’s mouth, as he began crawling on all fours, a grotesque growl leaked out.

“Can something that forces you to discard even human dignity be called a Kung-Fu…”

It seemed my fleeting question did not reach the ears of Pavlov, who had already pushed his soldier persona fully to the forefront.