Revealed Will (3)

The next day, countless goods were brought into Jin-hyeon’s first house.

All kinds of beds, tables, cooking tools, and everything needed for daily life were delivered.

The one who sent furniture and daily necessities as if he had been waiting was Seomun Hoe. Jin-hyeon had not asked, but he carefully filled in everything Jin-hyeon needed, and everything he would need, down to the smallest detail.

Han Cheol-sang, who had somehow become something like a steward, coordinated where the goods should go and handed out water and food to the workers.

Im Yeo-wol and Do Il-gang also ran over as soon as they heard the news and helped with the work. It was not martial arts training, but they worked so hard that sweat poured off them in the middle of winter.

After three days passed like that, Jin-hyeon’s first house was complete enough to comfortably receive more than fifty guest retainers.

Seol Hong-baek and Seol So-ha came in person to congratulate Jin-hyeon. Jin-hyeon drank with the two until dawn, and Han Cheol-sang showed his skill with the side dishes.

The next day, another person came.

Surprisingly, it was Wi Gyo-hwa, Sect Leader of the Black Tiger Fist Sect. She looked much more at ease than when Black Bamboo Fort had been brought down, and she brought tea leaves as a gift.

Of course, Jin-hyeon did not make the mistake of seeing Wi Gyo-hwa’s smooth response and thinking she had become his ally. Work was work, and grudges were grudges. She had taken the Black Tiger Fist Sect thanks to Jin-hyeon, but Jin-hyeon was also the one who killed her father and brothers.

After that, the In siblings of the Beak-Star Saber Sect also came. It was an unexpected visit, but Jin-hyeon calmly expressed his thanks. The Sect Leader of the Beak-Star Saber Sect had sent his children, who were acquainted with him, to deliver his greetings in his stead.

If Jin-hyeon were some nobody, he would not have sent them. Jin-hyeon was someone connected to the White Sword Seol Clan, but after seeing several sects of the Eight Martial Houses collapse, the Sect Leader instinctively thought he could not let Jin-hyeon’s existence slip by.

The Abundant Prosperity Guild and the Divine Spear Clan were running around in all directions to find their masters. To begin with, they didn’t even know Jin-hyeon had obtained a house. It was also information they had no need to know.

And so ten days passed.

“Eat this.”

“Ah, thank you.”

Han Cheol-sang and Im Yeo-wol were now speaking comfortably.

Im Yeo-wol’s eyes went round as she ate the well-made dumpling.

“How is it? Good?”

“Yes. It’s really delicious.”

“It’s been a while since I made them. Before I met the Patriarch, I treated it like my main trade and even researched them.”

Im Yeo-wol silently chewed the dumpling. She was hungry, and there were absurdly delicious dumplings before her, so she had no time to speak.

‘Hmm.’

A strange glint flickered in Han Cheol-sang’s eyes as he looked down at Im Yeo-wol.

‘She’s fast. She’s already made the heart method take root in her body.’

He knew Jin-hyeon had taught her a martial art called the Three Yang Heart Method. He also knew the devotion Im Yeo-wol had poured in day and night to turn her original internal energy into Three Yang True Qi.

Even taking that into account, the change in her internal energy was extremely fast. It was not merely that she had talent. It was a speed that naturally made one say she was truly extraordinary.

‘She was an incredible raw gem. And they used someone like this as an errand runner?’

Once again, he was dumbfounded by the worthless eye of that man named Gwan Hong.

Her actual skill would have to be seen, but at least when it came to internal energy arts, she could be called innate. Since internal energy was a study of will and intuition, transforming True Qi this much in a short time also meant she had good concentration.

“I’ll make them again for dinner, so work hard.”

“Ah, yes.”

Han Cheol-sang, about to enter the kitchen with a small laugh, looked far off to the right.

Sak! Sasasak!

‘He really went far away to do that.’

The person running around excitedly like a puppy on the hill where snow had piled fairly high, swinging a sword, was Do Il-gang. He was not mixing internal energy into his swings, but the flashing sharpness was still quite impressive.

Han Cheol-sang’s eyes took on a strange gleam.

‘I thought so before, but it really isn’t ordinary martial arts.’

What Do Il-gang was displaying was the martial art he had shown in his duel with Ha Jun.

But Han Cheol-sang could see another martial art appearing for moments beyond that one.

‘He’s mixing them.’

He was slightly fusing an outstanding martial art with a lower-level martial art, trying to use it as a decisive technique in a crisis.

‘That idea itself is impressive. That brat isn’t an ordinary genius either.’

Im Yeo-wol, and Do Il-gang.

They were young, but overflowing with talent. He was already looking forward to how great their achievements would become in the future.

And Jin-hyeon.

Han Cheol-sang, who had been about to enter the kitchen, approached Jin-hyeon, who was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the courtyard.

“Patriarch.”

“Hm?”

He thought Jin-hyeon was circulating energy, but he was staring into the air and tilting his head again and again.

“What are you doing?”

“Uh, there’s something that feels like it’ll come to me, but not quite.”

“I interrupted you.”

“You did.”

That response was truly irritating.

In a way, it was the same Jin-hyeon he knew. But Han Cheol-sang could tell. Over the past ten days, when no one was around, Jin-hyeon had reduced his sleep to train and ponder.

Han Cheol-sang took a piece of jerky from his robe and handed it to him.

“Do it while eating something. You skipped breakfast too.”

“Did I?”

“You’re the first person to taste my cooking and skip a meal, Patriarch.”

“Now that you say that, I’m suddenly starving. Shall we eat dinner together?”

“I’ll try to break the table legs.”

“Good.”

And so Han Cheol-sang entered the kitchen.

Chewing the jerky, Jin-hyeon focused again.

‘Should I reduce the power after all?’

Over the past ten days, he had trained quite hard where his family could not see.

Of course, ten days of training could not change much. Still, time never returned once it passed, so he had focused as much as he could and refined his martial arts.

Especially since there had been so many real battles starting from the Radiant Sword Festival, he needed time to properly inspect his martial arts. If he did not completely internalize the results and changes gained in real battle, he was certain he would forget them all.

And now, Jin-hyeon was recalling the new sword technique he had used at the Divine Iron Merchant House.

As he immersed himself step by step in replaying it, he suddenly smacked his lips.

‘No. Reducing power because of the form makes no sense. This power is definitely too attractive to let go. I need to preserve the power as power, and find a way to make the form flow smoothly into the next movement.’

When it came to martial arts, he did not want to compromise. He raised his right hand and slowly stirred the air.

‘It definitely felt like this.’

Wooooong.

Because of the strands of Heavenly Wolf True Qi unraveling from his fingertips, the falling snowflakes scattered apart.

A lightly emitted formless force wave circled in the air, then vanished with a fwoosh.

His ability to emit and retrieve internal energy alone had already surpassed the realm of the Cunning Wolf Path.

That was why he had been able to use a sword technique carrying vicious penetrating force. That force, which climbed through the wounded area and madly gnawed away at the enemy’s insides, produced killing power beyond imagination, even if it came from a momentary realization.

Jin-hyeon made that realization wholly his own.

‘First Sword… Second Sword… Yes, Fourth Sword (四劍) is possible.’

It was not a sword technique with a clear form. That was why making the form for the next movement was difficult.

Of course, since it was a martial art that swept forward relying on real-battle sense, there was no particular need to set a form.

What mattered was the standard.

The standard by which the martial art extended. That standard would become the roots and branches, and make proper power and realization bloom.

Jin-hyeon looked up at the sky.

The snowflakes were not as large as at the Divine Iron Merchant House. The amount of snowfall itself wasn’t heavy.

But the snow falling endlessly, wavering here and there as if linked by invisible points, calmed his heart just by looking at it.

‘Hm?’

Jin-hyeon had been looking at the snow with satisfaction for a long while, but his expression suddenly changed.

‘It falls endlessly… without end?’

To have no end meant to have no beginning. Furthermore, it meant there was no break in the middle.

Jin-hyeon closed his eyes again.

In reality, he was swinging his hand through empty air, but in the darkness, he held a sword and swung it.

‘First Sword… Second Sword and Third Sword… and Fourth Sword…’

In that instant, Jin-hyeon’s eyes flashed open.

‘That was it!’

He rose from his seat and thrust out his clenched hand as if gripping an invisible sword.

Nothing changed, but Jin-hyeon’s eyes could see the powerful sword wind spreading explosively from the tip of the formless sword.

‘Next.’

The instant he thrusts, he steps in one more pace and cuts.

Vertical, horizontal, diagonal. It did not matter which. The pressure of internal energy entering during the process of thrusting and withdrawing naturally showed the path.

It was the power of wind.

Flash!

Jin-hyeon executed a slash again, then immediately thrust into the middle section.

‘This is it.’

Whether the First Sword enters as a thrust or cuts in as a slash, the next Second Sword always enters with the opposite method. After a thrust comes a slash. After a slash comes a thrust.

That simple change continues to the Third Sword. Like the Life-Snatching Chained Saber Han Cheol-sang learned, the sword he now swung was also a chained sword.

‘It is a free sword with two forms. An invisible line calls another line.’

Thrusting and cutting mean points and lines. In other words, swordsmanship is also nothing more than an extension of thrusting and cutting.

This martial art Jin-hyeon was newly creating began from the basics of the sword. But the power of internal energy emission wrapped around those basics was so fierce and overwhelming that it did not push the enemy back. It destroyed them.

‘Penetrating force can be dissolved with abundant internal energy. But if the enemy allows one or two such sword strikes, their combat ability can only plummet.’

The Heavenly Wolf True Art was a domineering and strong martial art. The Eight Wastes Alliance Leader’s Hungry Wolf Sword developed that martial art of power even further and drew out its power and killing ability to the extreme.

The martial art Jin-hyeon was creating was different.

The Heavenly Wolf True Art alone had enough power. Then what was needed to suppress, or kill, the enemy more efficiently was delicate and flexible strength.

That intent did not connect to the form, but to internal energy force waves, becoming the most flexible circular force and gradually amplifying killing power.

If the Hungry Wolf Sword boasted one-strike certain-kill power through straight-line force, Jin-hyeon’s new sword brought out the principle of Chain Certain Kill, where even if the First Sword was blocked, the Second and Third Swords immediately burst out in succession and killed the enemy in the end.

Like wind whose origin could not be known, and whose end could not be known either.

At the final technique, it was a martial art of wind that would create a storm fiercer than anything.

‘This is it.’

A martial art that could be performed without learning Heavenly Wolf True Qi, but that produced destructive power in the hands of someone who had learned Heavenly Wolf True Qi.

For now, only Jin-hyeon could perform it. It was not as powerful as the Hungry Wolf Sword, but it would guarantee as much killing power as the Hungry Wolf Sword. Yet it was Jin-hyeon’s own sword, far freer than the Hungry Wolf Sword.

That sword was finally revealing its form.

‘For this martial art, form matters, but internal energy operation matters far more.’

Any martial art has limits in its forms. The higher the level of the martial art, the more it is ultimately internal energy and force that bring out its power and mystery.

In that sense, Jin-hyeon was drawing on the War-Sword Three Arts, the Heavenly Wolf True Art, and further, the realizations of himself and the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader, to create a top-grade sword art.

‘This is a sword made by drawing on the Engage-character Art, Unbind-character Art, and Rouse-character Art of the Six-Character True Art. In other words, only by perfectly opening the Six-Character True Art can I see this martial art to the end.’

Even so, Jin-hyeon was satisfied.

This secret sword, which he had used in real battle and made wholly his own, had gone from formless to formed and fallen into his hand.

‘At the end, I might even be able to call forth wind that fills the whole sky.’

When his contemplation ended, the snow had stopped before he knew it, and the light of sunset soaked his face.

“Patriarch! What are you doing? I said the food’s ready!”

Jin-hyeon turned around with a bright smile.

“Did the table legs break?”

“If I put one more dish on it, they’ll break!”

“I’m coming!”