I understood at once what the Heavenly Martial was.
Not because it was a word I'd come across in novels, nor because it was something I could guess.
It was the kind of talent you could only grasp because it had unfolded right before your eyes.
In truth, I'm the kind of person who denies the existence of talent.
If birth decides everything, then why on earth should I live? I've wondered that, and so I'm someone who believes effort makes up most of a person.
But I realized a talent had settled in me that threatened to break even that conviction.
Because I could truly see.
Every form of everything in the world had become vivid.
And things that should not have been visible began to show in my eyes.
I quietly took in a dazzling sight that left me struggling to describe it, even in my own inner monologue.
And all that came to mind was the simple phrase: the world had become more vivid.
If my eyes had a resolution, it had just jumped several times over, maybe dozens of times, or thousands, even hundreds of millions of times.
I couldn't even get a quantitative grip on how great the increase was.
The information rushing in as if in a frenzy wasn't limited to sight.
I was feeling everything in my body, and even a sixth sense beyond the five was stirring, taking in information about this world I exist in.
I thought it was enough information to drive me mad. Yet my brain was processing it whole and reading in the world.
So this is talent.
Because I feel something different even in the breath I'm drawing now.
Information so obvious surrounded me that I could immediately infer what qi circulation and breath regulation were, what a breathing-cultivation method was, what cultivated power was, and what force dwelt in a weapon being swung.
And so what I understood was…….
That the Heavenly Martial was knowing.
A knowing that shows you the direction to cut through, rather than merely drifting along in this world I stand on.
The true nature of the talent called the Heavenly Martial Body was a knowing so violent that I understood on my own that enlightenment in martial arts comes, in the end, from something like this.
Because even piercing all of that by intuition in this very moment was a fragment of what had to be called talent.
Every hair on my body truly stood on end.
I can't call it a thrilling shiver.
It was closer to fear.
What on earth are martial artists?
What kind of power are martial arts?
Is this how the world looks to the heavenly gods up there?
And soon, the fear turned to joy.
The joy that something had begun.
The joy that I'd finally set foot in the world I'd wanted and taken my first toddling steps.
Drunk on the chaotic information and emotions, I was looking up at the sky.
An urgent voice dragged me back to reality.
“Licentiate! Hurry and follow me!”
Even in Namgung Ran's urgent shout, I could now feel something different.
She was a martial artist who had reached the Peak, and emotion dwelt in her voice.
So the qi in her body resonated, and a tiny bit more force than an ordinary person's rode on her shout.
If she made this stronger, would it become a lion's roar?
By inferring like that, I began to understand.
Without time to think further about that question, I ran.
For now, I had to listen to her.
I pulled myself out of the shock of sudden knowing and went back to what I'd been doing. I had to somehow survive right now if I was ever going to enter the martial arts or whatever.
But even as I ran, I couldn't hold back my curiosity.
Even while panting, I stole a glance up at the sky.
Now all of it looked different.
I could clearly feel how vast and absurd the power those heavenly gods wielded was.
I understand why the Divine Sword spoke as if he had to block it himself just now.
If the Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit had landed on the earth as he was…….
I looked around at the ground again.
A small ruin had been made, but not many people had died.
I stretched my sight a little farther and surveyed as far as the mountain ranges at the border of the small city of Lizhou.
Probably…….
This entire urban area would have been crushed flat. The intuition born of the information the Heavenly Martial Body granted was telling me so.
And the aftershock would have spread wider still, setting off a light earthquake even in the mountains surrounding Lizhou.
An impact that would topple hunters' huts and knock over rotting trees would have struck the entire land of Lizhou.
And only after ten-odd minutes had passed did I finally feel the thrill.
I'm now standing at the threshold of reaching that realm.
I stood at the starting point of the path I'd given up and set down for the past five years.
But at exactly that moment, I felt the limits of my flesh.
My breath was at the end of my throat. I couldn't run any farther.
“Huff. Hah……. Wait a moment…….”
“Quickly, onto my…….”
Noticing that, Namgung Ho-won offered his back as if telling me to climb on.
For an instant, my pride raised its head. I'd gained a talent like this, and I had to rely on someone else?
But the Heavenly Martial also whispered despairing news to me at the same time.
‘My bones are utterly unsuited to learning martial arts.’
It was a fact I'd already heard and accepted plenty over the years.
But since it was my own body I was observing with overwhelming talent, I came to know it all the better. The genius I'd just obtained was telling me so.
The shape of my skeleton, the way my muscles attached and their quality, the coordination of the organs I was born with, the density of my nervous system…….
All of it was an ordinary man's.
Hong-hyung wasn't wrong. I was born with a body that could never become a martial artist's.
“Mister Namgung……. I'm sorry…….”
“It is fine. You are not very heavy, Licentiate.”
As I climbed onto Namgung Ho-won's back, an apology slipped out of habit.
At the same time, I was lightly impressed.
The body of the martial artist named Namgung Ho-won had a disposition exactly opposite to my current state.
His qi center, which I could feel because we were in contact, held a surprisingly faint cultivated power, yet his body itself was as sturdy as could be.
‘So these are the bones a martial house's descendant is born with. Indeed, it must be people like this who are said to be suited to learning martial arts.’
With a subject I could compare so thoroughly, it became all the clearer.
And I understood why Namgung Ho-won had shown a small tremor upon seeing Namgung Ran reach the Peak.
At the same time, I also understood why he'd stayed silent in front of the Governor instead of stepping forward.
His body was the only talent he'd been given.
No qi dwelt in his body.
A light even fainter than that of the military officers starting to move around us shone from his body.
Namgung Ran, running beside us, was practically a mass of qi shining like the sun compared to Namgung Ho-won.
Seen through the eyes of the Heavenly Martial, Namgung Ran spread qi thinly around her to the point of occupying the space.
The qi overflowing from that slender body was doing it.
What about comparing their total power?
Namgung Ho-won was no different from a firefly before the sun. No different from an ordinary person.
So in the domain of inner arts, this man was close to crippled.
“Hahaha…….”
At the same time, my own body was also close to crippled as a martial artist's.
At a glance, that would be despairing news, but…….
‘Now nothing is impossible.’
Is the Heavenly Martial Body all I can buy?
I didn't think so.
The moment a category called [Constitution] existed, impossibility vanished for me.
This book will always provide what I want most from here on.
It's unsettling and ominous.
It's a power that makes me think it can't possibly be given without a price.
But.
I looked up at the sky again.
Namgung Ho-won's posture as he ran was so stable that my body didn't even sway. So looking up wasn't hard.
Once again, vast forces were gathering, warping, for a clash.
If I survive now.
And if I can someday reach a realm like that.
Then couldn't I lend an ear to a devil's whisper, just for a while?
That's what I thought.
The struggle of the red and blue energies was still clashing fiercely enough to break the sky.
***
“We must stop the evacuation here. If we go any further, none of us will survive.”
“We must follow the road, so we need to hurry before it collapses. There is no telling how long the Elder Divine Sword can hold back the Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit.”
When we arrived at the government office, the Governor had already finished his preparations.
Folders of documents that seemed essential went into chests, those were wrapped again in cloth, and junior military officers shouldered them.
That was the scene I saw when I returned to the government office on Namgung Ho-won's back.
While I barely caught my breath, the conversation went on, and an evacuation column formed quickly.
Regardless of what had just happened, the affairs of Lizhou were still out of my hands.
Whatever talent I'd gained, for now I was merely an ordinary civilian.
I wasn't the one holding the reins of my own life.
I didn't mind.
Now I knew what martial arts were.
I know what to do, too.
Then it's a problem that'll all be solved as long as I get out of here alive. How could I mind?
Instead, elation rose, the joy that I only had to get out of here.
In that situation, I looked at the Namgung siblings' faces again. For now, they were reassuring.
Having clearly seen with my own eyes what the realm of a Peak Master was like, I could infer how mighty a power the martial artist named Namgung Ran could wield.
If not for those monsters in the sky, she was an embodiment of power burning brighter than anyone.
Peak Master.
Truly a realm said to have reached the peak.
Could even a modern tank stand against that? Whatever martial arts I'd originally known, that's how the power latent in a single human body looked to me.
So, barring anything unusual, escaping this hellish Lizhou didn't seem like it would be hard.
“We must leave Lizhou quickly! Everyone, move!”
“Do not take your belongings! Save your lives first!”
“You there, sir! Get on the cart!”
Amid the chaos, I kept my eyes moving.
My entry into the murim had only just happened. I tried to see and hear as much as possible.
Even as I moved with the evacuation column, I was at its head.
Because the military officers and the Namgung siblings were moving together.
With the wisdom of the Heavenly Martial, I examined the realms they'd achieved and felt out the path I should take.
Without rest, I took it in with my eyes and felt it with my body.
I steadied each breath and came to understand the way of drawing in and expelling breath within the body.
Whenever an explosion sounded in the sky, I raised my head and looked up there.
Now I can see.
I'm no longer Licentiate Heo who got swept up knowing nothing.
So I can watch and learn what kind of battle is happening in the skies above.
The evacuation column stretched out long, but everyone was somehow keeping up.
Military officers even carried elderly people who had trouble moving on their backs as they ran.
At some point, I got down and began walking too.
Because there were many elders who had more trouble moving than me.
Some evacuees fell behind, but it couldn't be helped.
Even the two Namgung siblings looked as if they already knew they couldn't save everyone.
By the time we reached the pass, the blue domain in the sky had visibly shrunk.
But its direction was reversed.
It seemed to be turning the Blood Heaven, which had been raining blood, to face the other way, trying somehow to open an escape route for the evacuees.
In fact, the Qingcheng Divine Sword seemed to be straining with all his might to do just that.
Once the flow of qi began to come into view, the tide of battle and the state of the fight became clear too.
My guess was that we didn't have very much time left. The blue sky was only barely holding its own against the Blood Heaven.
Namgung Ran must have declared what she did because she could see this too.
We began climbing the only official road out of Lizhou. I'd thought so when I went to Chengdu for the examination too, but it really was a steep pass.
As I trudged along, the Namgung siblings were already carrying small children on their backs.
What this Middle Kingdom calls a pass is on the scale of a small hill, so the grueling evacuation could only go on.
Before long, a few elders shook their heads and stayed behind halfway up. It was too high a pass for those already in their twilight to suddenly climb.
Their children bowed to the elders and walked on up again, weeping.
It was a sad parting that happened for the crime of not being martial artists, for the crime of getting caught up in a battle between Absolute Masters.
The Governor, who had been leading at the very front, also looked back with a tired, weary face.
Fortunately, most of the residents around the government office were moving away, painfully but on foot, from the calamity that had struck the ground of their lives.
I could see traces of those who'd fled ahead of us too. The Governor had done his best. He'd saved as many as he could.
My breathlessness began to gradually ease too.
Because I'd begun to accumulate, bit by bit within me, the world I took in with each inhalation.
Since a qi-circulation breathing method is ultimately about storing qi, even my feeble muscles gained a bit of vigor through the qi they were gradually taking in.
But every now and then, a wicked, ominous qi seeped into my body. Judging by the thick smell of blood that came with it, this must be what they called blood qi.
Now the two-colored sky was slowly warping, drawing a shape like the Taiji once again.
Namgung Ran's complexion brightened a little.
She went to the Governor, said something, and came back.
The Governor gave the order.
“Everyone, stop for a moment! The Divine Sword is still holding out for us. Catch your breath. Military officers, distribute water.”
It was fortunate that, being winter, the weather wasn't sweltering.
Everyone sat down for a moment where they stood. Namgung Ran set down a child trembling in fear and looked around.
When I waved, she brightened, ran over, and sat beside me.
Before I knew it, Namgung Ho-won had also settled in as if guarding me.
“What's happening with that up there?”
I asked, pointing at the sky.
I roughly knew.
I knew because I could see.
But that wouldn't be everything, so I tried to pick up whatever I could.
Namgung Ran came closer. With the presence of a Peak Master, shining like a bright sun, beside me, somehow it felt easier to breathe.
It seemed red blood qi lingered here and there on land the Blood Heaven had once covered.
At my words, Namgung Ran looked up at the sky with me.
“The Elder Divine Sword is struggling, but he is holding out. The Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit seemed to be half a move above him, but if that alone decided fights, there would be no fights at all.”
“Still, if he's pushed back in the end, aren't we all finished?”
I lowered my voice for this part. It wasn't something evacuees abandoning their homes would want to hear.
“Masters sometimes fight for seven days and nights without settling things. If they have fallen into a stalemate like this even after clashing their ultimate techniques earlier, it may go on much longer.”
“The Divine Sword must be trying to make it so.”
“That is right.”
Namgung Ho-won, who had been listening, quietly picked up the thread.
“It seems our role will end with getting everyone over that pass. Even masters who wield the power of heavenly gods find it hard to extend that power beyond a mountain range. The Governor will entrust the people to other towns.”
“That's a relief.”
“I think we should aim to return alive from there.”
His expression held a deep bitterness. It was the strongest emotion this expressionless second young master of the Namgung had shown since we'd met.
I know what that grief is.
Dissatisfaction with a life not in his own hands. And all the more, being born a young master of the Namgung with a body unable to learn inner arts.
Namgung Ran took my hand.
“Of course, we will escort you, our benefactor, to the Namgung Clan. Though our father has passed away. The family will never turn you away.”
And I realized something interesting: the reason I perceived the world more vividly was that I'd come to see with my eyes the qi that makes up all things.
And the feelings of those who had learned martial arts showed plainly in the flow around them.
Right now, Namgung Ran was grieving, yet also quite glad.
There was not a speck of falsehood in her wish to treat me as her benefactor and escort me all the way to Anhui.
They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. Sparkling with a bright inner image, her eyes were somehow like a rabbit's.
Namgung Ho-won let out a light sigh beside us.
“Hoo, but I am not sure whether my brother will escape in time. I can only believe he is not one to fall easily. I hope nothing happens to him until reinforcements arrive.”
“Reinforcements are coming?”
Namgung Ho-won explained briefly.
“It is a situation we can win as long as we hold out. However much the Demonic Cult's horde prepared this attack, all around us are the government troops of the Sword Pavilion, the Tang Clan of Chengdu, and the Qingcheng Sect.”
In the word "we," I could feel his pride as a Namgung.
At the same time, I glimpsed his sense of defeat at being of no help on this battlefield.
Namgung Ran added.
“The Divine Sword arrived first merely because he is the fastest. The fellows of the orthodox murim from every direction will soon gather and each lend a hand to subdue the Captain of the Blood Heaven Unit.”
I understood that the moment I heard it.
Even to me, lacking in understanding of martial arts, Qingcheng's blue sky was nimble and swift. It felt like the opposite of the Blood Heaven, which came in heavy and slow.
It was something that let me realize that was a martial art refined into a form for moving the body swiftly.
“Then I'll impose on the Namgung for a while. I have nowhere else to go, so I can only be grateful.”
As I was speaking, a question suddenly bloomed.
“By the way, would my staying at the clan also use up your merit points, Miss?”
“It would not, but……. Having you there, I might be tied up in my daily routine, so I will ask my brother for leave.”
No, seriously, that's harsh as hell.
But at her awkward smile, the mood did seem to loosen somewhat.
I'm getting out of here alive, somehow.
Looking down from halfway up the mountain, I caught a glimpse of what had to be called the site of Jeong Manor.
Five years I'd spent there alone. I hadn't known I'd leave like this, but becoming a benefactor of the Namgung was, by anyone's measure, good for my circumstances.
The Governor rose from his seat with a worried face.
“If you have all had water, move quickly. Everyone has a long way to go.”
Was he agonizing as the one responsible for Lizhou?
To me, it looked like he had some other worry.
And when we reached the top of the pass, everyone understood what that worry had been.
The village beyond the pass was burning.
And blood rain was falling there too.
Giants, conspicuous for being bright red, were already moving.
Where they were heading was the very pass we were standing on.
“The First Squad of the Blood Heaven Unit…….”
Namgung Ho-won groaned.
Even that composed martial artist's face went white.