The Woo Sword Vies for Supremacy
Baek Ho-yang walked with his back perfectly straight, his steps light.
He appeared to walk as casually as if out for a stroll, yet in an instant he was dozens of paces ahead of Woo Geom-san.
Whenever the distance between them grew too great, he would stop and wait for the boy to catch up.
Woo Geom-san recalled Baek Ho-yang's gait and tried to replicate it as closely as he could.
Every person had different habits, stride lengths, and ways of distributing their strength when walking.
Likewise, Woo Geom-san had his own way of walking.
Woo Geom-san had trained in fist arts since childhood.
The fist art he had learned—the Eight-Step Heavy Mountain Fist—was a technique optimized for destructive power, characterized by heavy, grounded footwork. That kind of weight was necessary to maximize its force.
Because the nature of the fist art was heavy, Woo Geom-san's gait had naturally been influenced, becoming heavy as well.
That made it anything but easy to imitate Baek Ho-yang's ethereal movement.
He had to overhaul the habits ingrained in his body over fifteen years.
On top of that, Woo Geom-san's qi center was damaged, so he could not draw on inner arts.
He had to walk on nothing but his raw physical ability and willpower.
And his body was far from whole.
No matter how he looked at it, the burden on Woo Geom-san was immense.
Yet he did not utter a single word of complaint and walked on in silence.
Not even half a day of walking had passed, and already his body was drenched in sweat.
His breath had surged up to his chin, and his legs were so drained of strength that he teetered as if he might collapse at any moment.
Even so, Woo Geom-san absolutely refused to stop or rest.
He would sooner slow his pace than sit down, never once halting or pausing—he kept moving without cease.
Baek Ho-yang valued Woo Geom-san's tenacity highly.
'That kind of endurance is not something just anyone can possess.'
A person's true worth reveals itself in the face of hardship.
It is when one confronts the worst circumstances that hidden nature emerges.
That was precisely Woo Geom-san's situation now.
He could not use inner arts, and his wounds had not fully healed.
An ordinary person would have needed at least another full month of rest to recuperate.
Yet Woo Geom-san followed behind Baek Ho-yang without a single complaint, without resting, in dogged silence.
That kind of tenacity was not something just anyone could possess.
As Woo Geom-san drew close, Baek Ho-yang spoke.
"Let us rest here for a moment."
"If it is because of me, please just keep going. I can keep up."
"It is not because of you—it is because of me. You may be fine since you are young, but I am old. Walk too long and every bone in my body aches."
"In that case, shall we rest a little?"
"Yes."
The two sat beneath a large tree nearby.
"Hoo......"
The moment he sat down, exhaustion crashed over him.
His legs were sore, his whole body listless with fatigue.
Still, Woo Geom-san tried his best not to show how tired he was.
"Stretch out your legs."
"Pardon?"
"If you just sit and rest like that, you will not recover properly."
Baek Ho-yang placed Woo Geom-san's legs on his own knees and began to massage them.
He was pressing meridians and activating acupoints, infused with inner arts.
"You don't have to......"
"Be still. Can a grandfather not do at least this much for his grandson?"
Baek Ho-yang pressed meridians and activated acupoints with the fullest care.
At first, Woo Geom-san did not know what to do with himself, but he quietly accepted Baek Ho-yang's touch.
Partly because his legs felt wonderfully relieved, but more than anything, because he could feel Baek Ho-yang's sincerity.
Watching the old man tend to his legs with the devotion of a true grandfather, he would have to be less than human not to be moved.
"Thank you."
"Such a fuss. My master used to do the same for me. He would press my meridians and relieve my fatigue when I was worn out from training. Thanks to him, I was able to get through the hardest parts of my cultivation. If you ever have a disciple of your own someday, tend to them with the same care."
"Do you think I could ever grow enough to take a disciple?"
"Do not doubt your own potential. You can certainly become a greater martial artist than I."
Baek Ho-yang's answer was spoken with such conviction that Woo Geom-san's heart eased a little.
"That is enough now. The fatigue is all gone."
"Good."
"I'll prepare the meal."
"Only prepare what you need to eat. I do not require any."
"Yes!"
Woo Geom-san nodded.
Having watched from beside him all this time, he knew.
That Baek Ho-yang ate only fasting pills. And only once a day at that.
If he could, Woo Geom-san wanted to follow Baek Ho-yang's lead and eat nothing but fasting pills. But surviving on fasting pills alone was beyond him.
Having entered his growth years, Woo Geom-san was at the age of peak activity.
At an age when he would be hungry no matter how much he ate.
For someone like that, living on fasting pills alone was torture.
Knowing this, Baek Ho-yang said nothing about Woo Geom-san eating regular food.
Nor did Baek Ho-yang have any desire to raise Woo Geom-san into a Daoist.
If Woo Geom-san chose to become a Daoist someday, he would not stop him, but neither would he force the path upon him.
Woo Geom-san's future rested on his own choices.
Baek Ho-yang would simply help Woo Geom-san learn properly and grow without going astray.
Woo Geom-san quickly built a fire and set a small pot over it. He poured grain flour and water into the pot—supplies the villagers had packed for them.
Mixed into the grain flour were dried pieces of meat.
They had thoughtfully prepared it so that it could be eaten simply by adding water and boiling, without any further preparation.
Grateful for the villagers' consideration, Woo Geom-san waited for the water to boil.
Before long the water boiled and the grain flour thickened into a smooth gruel. It had become a hearty porridge.
Though the amount of meat in it was not much, Woo Geom-san was more than satisfied.
"Thank you for the food."
"Eat slowly."
"Yes!"
Woo Geom-san ate the porridge slowly, as Baek Ho-yang advised.
Baek Ho-yang watched Woo Geom-san eat with a contented expression.
The boy must have had so many questions, yet he endured in silence and followed without complaint—Baek Ho-yang found that admirable. He thought himself lucky to have gained such a grandson.
Woo Geom-san ate the porridge as slowly as he could.
It had not completely filled the hole in his stomach, but at least it was enough to keep going for a while.
Swallowing his regret, Woo Geom-san cleaned up the pot and the grain flour.
"If you are finished, let us go."
"Yes!"
Woo Geom-san answered briskly and rose to his feet.
***
Baek Ho-yang deliberately chose paths with few people.
There was always a reason paths were deserted.
The trails were either narrow or treacherous, keeping people away.
Thanks to that, the two could focus entirely on walking without worrying about other people's eyes.
Walking through rough terrain was many times harder than walking on flat ground.
"Hoo......"
Even from Woo Geom-san's mouth, rough breathing escaped on its own.
The path was so harsh that even Woo Geom-san, with his steady temperament and strong endurance, could not suppress the ragged sounds.
His eyes tracked Baek Ho-yang while his body tried to mimic the old man's movements—and his legs kept tangling up. He nearly fell several times because of it.
'I truly have no idea. How does he walk like that?'
Five days had already passed since they left the village.
In that time, Woo Geom-san felt as though he had fallen hundreds of times.
His knees were scraped raw and his shins mottled with bruises.
It was only because Baek Ho-yang tended to his meridians and acupoints that he could endure even this much; without the old man's help, he would have been bedridden for days.
Just then, Baek Ho-yang turned around.
"Are you still just watching with your eyes and trying to copy me?"
"Pardon?"
"What did I tell you?"
"To feel with my body and accept nature as it is......"
"And what have you been doing?"
"Well......"
"Exactly. You have been watching nothing but me. Use my movement only as a reference, and focus on yourself."
Baek Ho-yang's sharp rebuke jolted Woo Geom-san to full alertness.
Until now, he had been focused entirely on Baek Ho-yang's movement, while neglecting himself.
'I must feel it for myself.'
Woo Geom-san immediately took his eyes off Baek Ho-yang. And focused on himself.
At first, of course, he could feel nothing.
Because of that, he fell several more times. But each time, he brushed the dust off, got up, and focused on himself once more.
After concentrating like that for a long while, he felt something like a faint itch.
It was as though an ant were crawling between his brows.
Woo Geom-san concentrated harder. The sensation grew a little clearer.
He could faintly feel the stones pressing against the soles of his feet, the grass brushing past his ankles, the pebbles kicked aside by his steps.
Woo Geom-san walked onward, his attention fixed on the sensations in his feet.
At first, it all felt unfamiliar.
He had never walked this way before.
He avoided the jutting stones and took care not to let the grass touch him.
When he stepped on a raised spot, he relaxed his strength; when he stepped into a hollow, he put force into his legs.
Distributing his effort this way made walking far easier.
Only then could Woo Geom-san understand what Baek Ho-yang had been telling him.
'So this is why he said I needed to feel it.'
He had not yet received a mental cultivation art, nor had he been taught a footwork technique. But he had realized something more precious than either.
The act of feeling with his own body.
Once he awakened the sensation in his feet, walking from that point on became far easier.
Without even trying to imitate Baek Ho-yang's movement, he found himself walking in a naturally similar way.
'So this is how Grandfather walks.'
Of course, between Baek Ho-yang and himself lay an immeasurable, unclosable gulf.
What he felt and what Baek Ho-yang perceived were surely on entirely different planes. Even so, the sense that he had caught a small glimpse of the old man's secret lifted his spirits.
Following Baek Ho-yang was no longer as hopelessly difficult as before.
With steps a little lighter than they had been, Woo Geom-san trailed in Baek Ho-yang's wake.
Sensing the presence at his back, Baek Ho-yang smiled.
He could tell from the footsteps alone.
That Woo Geom-san's gait had changed.
'Not bad.'
Not bad was an understatement.
This was remarkably fast progress.
But it was too early to celebrate.
There was still a long road ahead.
The Quanzhen Sect's martial arts were truly vast.
Its history was deeper and older than that of the Wudang Sect or the Mount Hua Sect.
The number of its martial arts might be fewer than theirs, but the depth of those arts was greater still.
Even a lifetime of contemplation was barely enough to complete one or two of Quanzhen's martial arts.
Countless prodigies had challenged the Quanzhen Sect's martial arts but failed to achieve mastery, precisely because they had tried to understand with their heads.
To properly enter the gate of Quanzhen's martial arts, one had to feel first.
Some felt it easily, while others could contemplate for a lifetime and never feel it at all.
Those who did not possess a Vessel of the Dao could not sense it easily.
But those born with such a vessel, like Woo Geom-san, arrived at the realization early.
Yet Vessels of the Dao were exceedingly rare.
There were many Daoists in the world, but it was for precisely this reason that true practitioners of the Dao were so few.
Baek Ho-yang glanced over his shoulder.
Woo Geom-san was walking clumsily, but little by little, he was walking properly.
When those awkward steps matured into something complete, only then would he be qualified to learn the Flowing Void Steps.
The Flowing Void Steps was a footwork that embodied the culmination of all Quanzhen's teachings.
Following the Flow and Treading the Void.
Only by fully awakening to both could one complete the Flowing Void Steps.
Woo Geom-san had barely set foot upon the threshold of Following the Flow.
The road ahead was still long.
Lost in such thoughts, Baek Ho-yang's pace quickened of its own accord.
Woo Geom-san had to move faster to keep up.
Had this been a moment ago, he would have been spent before long. But now, Woo Geom-san's steps were lighter than they had ever been.
A breeze drifted in and softly caressed the body of Woo Geom-san as he walked properly.
It felt as though the anxiety and worries he had been carrying were swept away by the wind, sent sailing far into the distance.
A smile touched Woo Geom-san's lips.
'Walking properly is a good thing.'