The following day, at dawn.
Having woken early, Hyeol-u dragged his stiff body upright.
'Unfamiliar.'
As a child, when going hungry was as routine as eating.
The feeling was the same as back then — when he would wake at the crack of dawn, crying from hunger, and the world suddenly felt strange and unfamiliar.
He hauled himself onto the red iron ore in the yard and slowly crossed his legs.
But then.
"Ack, nnngh......"
His legs suddenly twisted up like tangled vines.
"Why is this happening all of a sudden......!"
Only after kneading his joints here and there for a while did the numbed legs finally loosen.
And after that, he could do nothing but clutch his head and groan.
He had spent half a quarter-hour massaging his legs and scouring his memory, only to end up sighing.
His body had neither inner arts nor even a qi center.
That meant he needed to form one through a foundational mental method — but even that knowledge was tangled in his head like kudzu vines, a complete jumble.
'Nothing to be done about it.'
He settled into a rough cross-legged position and began basic breathing meditation.
But a short while later, he felt the sunlight on his face and simply opened his eyes.
Simple breathing meditation based on basic breathing technique was nothing more than a health exercise, no matter how many days he spent on it — it had no connection to inner arts.
Hyeol-u climbed slowly off the boulder and stared at it vacantly.
'When am I ever going to lift this thing?'
He had talked big, but Namgung Seong's despair at the impossibility of it must have been overwhelming.
"Ha, if only I could just hoist it up......"
Driven by frustration, he gripped one corner of the boulder and strained with all his might.
"Grrnngghh......!"
***
'What the hell...... is that bastard doing?'
Grand Steward Namgung Cheol, out on a stroll through the grounds, came upon a peculiar scene at Namgung Seong's quarters.
A pudgy youth was grunting and straining against a boulder that had to weigh at least several hundred geun.
'Wait, that kid is......?'
It went without saying.
He knew perfectly well who lived in this cottage.
'What an idiot. He thinks he can lift that boulder?'
It would have been better if he had never seen it.
The fact that this pathetic fool shared even a sliver of the Namgung bloodline was downright embarrassing.
In the end, Namgung Cheol could not help but bark at him.
"You there, boy! What do you think you're doing?"
"'You there, boy'......?"
Illegitimate or not, he was still a son of the clan head.
Hyeol-u furrowed his brow and shot the man a sidelong glare.
'What? He's a pig.'
The man looked to be around forty.
A plump body wrapped in lavish silk, a greasy, well-fed face.
Everything about him aside, the rose-decorated topknot ornament perched on his head was admittedly fine.
The impression he gave was that of a wealthy Anhui merchant — the kind of prosperous Hui trader that came to mind at the mention of the province.
'A merchant? Wait, he's got a sword at his hip. Decorative, maybe?'
While Hyeol-u tilted his head in puzzlement, the man jabbed a finger at him and shouted.
"You little brat! What are you gawking at? You're not even going to greet me now? Do I look that pathetic to you?!"
"Well, well......"
A pudgy merchant bellowing orders in the middle of the Namgung Clan — a martial house.
That was when it happened.
SCURRY—!
So-i came flying out of the kitchen and, out of nowhere, grabbed Hyeol-u by the ear.
"Oh no, Young Master!"
"Ow, that hurts!"
"Don't be a baby. Do you know who that man is?"
"Who is he?"
"Grand Steward Namgung Cheol."
"......The Grand Steward?"
Namgung Hyeon's cousin!
Hyeol-u had been about to give a small bow when his body froze.
'Of course he's an uncle by seniority, but what's the actual hierarchy here?'
Illegitimate or not, he was undeniably a son of the clan head, while that man was from the branch family.
So he decided to wing it and let the words fall where they may.
"Ah, my apologies. It's been so long since I've seen you — you seem to have put on even more weight, and I......"
At that, Namgung Cheol's face reddened.
Until recently, things had been different.
This same boy used to come scrambling the moment he spotted him, bowing so low his head scraped the ground, all with a simpering grin.
Then the boy had nearly died falling from a pavilion — was the aftermath really this severe?
'Has that brat actually gone and damaged his head?'
Namgung Cheol's eyes darted about.
If things went according to plan, this boy would soon be cast out as a penniless wretch — was there really any point in getting worked up over him?
His eyes glinted with a curious light as his lips twitched.
"Ahem, so — you saw the First Young Master yesterday evening, yes?"
"Yes, I did."
"I hear you received an allowance?"
"Ah, yes. He apologized that he couldn't give more. But is there a problem with me receiving it?"
"No, no, it's just — since you've received your spending money, starting today you'll need to pay for your meals at the......"
But he could not finish the sentence.
"Oh, wait! One question, if I may."
"Son of a......"
Cut off mid-sentence by Namgung Seong, Namgung Cheol's fleshy face crumpled in fury — but he forced himself to hold it in.
Picking a fight with a child would only make the adult look bad.
"What is it?"
"This place has a martial archives, doesn't it?"
"A martial archives? What do you mean?"
"The storehouse where the martial texts are kept. You don't have one?"
"We do."
"Then would you mind showing me the way?"
The boy had seized his hand and was dragging him along with such urgency that Namgung Cheol found himself escorted to the martial archives before he knew what was happening.
***
The Namgung Clan's martial archives, sitting forlornly among rockeries blooming with azaleas.
No roof, and the walls were charred black.
Two warriors stood guard, but they were little more than men lounging in chairs, chatting idly.
"This is the martial archives?"
"If it's not the martial archives, then what the hell would it be? Have you just woken up from a nap or something? Listen, kid! When the Blood Sand Wind hit, everything burned and that's all that's left."
"Ah, was that so? I can go inside, then?"
"What the hell for? Going to study martial arts at this point?"
"I just need to check on something."
"I have no idea what's going through your head, but most of the texts inside burned too. The only reason we haven't torn down the building is because demolition costs money, so we just left it standing."
In that case, there was no reason to post guards — but the fact that they were here, however perfunctorily, meant something still remained inside.
"Well, I've got permission now, so I'm going in."
"Hey, hey!"
Namgung Cheol felt like he had been hoodwinked by a ghost, but he let it go.
By rights, a branch family member like himself had no authority to enter the martial archives, but even an illegitimate son like Namgung Seong was free to go inside.
Of course, under the current circumstances, even that regulation was all but meaningless.
Inside the martial archives, everything was charred and blackened.
The bookcases that should have stood in neat rows were gone — only dark ash crunched underfoot.
Pressing deeper inside, he finally found a small room partitioned by planks, with a modest bookcase.
Only about a dozen texts sat on the meager shelf.
Disappointing, but he could not help feeling a spark of hope.
He had the chance to examine the secret manuals of the Namgung Clan — one of the Central Plains' most prestigious martial houses.
When you have lost your teeth, you chew with your gums, as the saying goes.
Lacking even the basic framework and physical foundation to learn advanced martial arts, this was the makeshift plan he had resorted to.
His first priority was to find a beginner's mental method suited to a member of the Namgung Clan.
If he could find All Streams Return to Origin — the Namgung Clan's supreme art — all the better.
"Oh......!"
Hyeol-u's eyes lit up as he scanned the catalog of texts.
Starting with the Great Expanse Heart Art — the foundation of all Namgung martial arts — the list continued: the Great Expanse Nineteen Forms, the Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art, the Heavenly Thunder Three Palms, the Heavenly Wind Divine Technique, the Heavenly Wind Palm, the Infinite Step, the Lone Soul Single Sword.
And at the end: the Emperor Sword Form and the Azure Sky Unhindered Sword Art.
A comprehensive collection spanning the entirety of the Namgung Clan's legendary martial arts, past and present......
"Hm? Tch, so much for that......"
But of all the texts listed in the catalog, the only surviving volume was the Lone Soul Single Sword.
As supplements, there were only the Sword Venerable's Absolute Invincible Martial World Travelogue and the Three Powers Heart Formula.
The wretched reality of the Namgung Clan, stripped of its supreme arts, was laid bare in this archive.
'Haah, this is maddening.'
The bigger the expectation, the bigger the disappointment — but more than that, he simply could not comprehend it.
Had the secret manuals that had built the Namgung Clan's glory truly all burned to ash and been lost, just like this?
Was there really not a single copy hidden away somewhere?
"Ugh, what a headache."
Hyeol-u decided to start with the texts he could see.
Setting the Three Powers Heart Formula and the Lone Soul Single Sword aside for later, he first pulled out the thick, sheepskin-bound volume titled "Absolute Invincible Martial World Travelogue."
'Absolute Invincible? Quite the grandiose name.'
It was probably nothing more than a run-of-the-mill travelogue left behind by some attention-seeking Namgung ancestor.
The ink had faded so badly that the characters were barely legible.
Still, holding the text made him acutely aware for the first time that he was a member of the Namgung Clan.
He focused on the text with the intensity of eyes that could see through the back of the page.
His eyes trembled with anticipation — the feeling that something would catch his attention.
Meanwhile, the text was so old and fragile it seemed ready to crumble at any moment, so he handled it with great care.
"All right. Let's begin."
The preface, which opened with "This old man is Changhae of the Absolute Invincible house of Namgung," went as follows:
Originally from Huizhou at the foot of Mount Huang, the Namgungs were a merchant family belonging to the Anhui Hui merchant alliance.
Three hundred years ago, just after they had transformed into a martial clan and established themselves in Hefei—
The text was a martial world survey record documenting the geography and locations, martial arts origins, characteristics, and counter-strategies of everything from the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Clans to the frontier sects, including the Northern Sea and the Demonic Sect.
If it was accurate, this text was a secret manual of incalculable value.
'Hm? He said three hundred years ago. Doesn't that oddly coincide with the period Namgung Hyeon mentioned?'
At that, his heart began to race.
His mind grew hazy, as if intoxicated by a dream-inducing drug.
"This can't be! Could this be connected to the legend of the Golden Oriole......? I'd better memorize every word, just in case."
Memorizing — easy to say, far harder to do.
The Three Powers Heart Formula and the Lone Soul Single Sword were slim volumes, but the Sword Venerable's Travelogue was nearly three inches thick.
Memorize all of that?
An ordinary person could not manage it in a month. Yet Hyeol-u spoke of it as if it were nothing.
FLIP, FLIP, FLIP.
Turning pages with the rhythmic speed of keeping time to a fast melody, Hyeol-u finished the entire book in barely a quarter hour and closed it.
But the moment he did, the book crumbled to ash in his lap.
"Oh? No......!"
He had suddenly become the clan's sworn enemy — the man who destroyed their texts.
But it was not intentional.
Glancing nervously around to check if anyone had seen, Hyeol-u let out a breath of relief and then—
Recalling the book's contents, he shook his head slowly.
"He made himself out to be the only genius and painted everyone else as fools."
A seed of suspicion took root.
'What if this man is the same person who discovered the Golden Oriole?'
"Surely not...... no way."
With a scoff, Hyeol-u turned to the next text — the "Three Powers Heart Formula."
Normally, a name like Three Powers would be paired with "Art" or "Divine Art" — but using "Heart Formula" was something even he had never encountered before.
Still, he had no great expectations.
The reason a secret manual remained unburned in the archive when everything else had been destroyed was obvious.
It was nothing worth stealing.
But this time, at least, he took extra care not to destroy the book.
"The Three Powers Art is a foundational inner arts mental method containing the basic principles of absorbing the qi of heaven and earth. Some dismiss it as a mere breathing technique, but to encompass heaven and earth is to encompass wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Upon mastery, one may amplify the energy of the five elements and enter the Transformation Realm."
A moment later.
"Good grief, what is this...... it's no different from a cheap manual sold at the marketplace."
So he said, but since it was a foundational mental method, it was honestly more than enough for his purposes.
What mattered now was forming a qi center and beginning to accumulate qi as quickly as possible.
He would need to lose weight first, of course.
And then, as he gently closed the final page, Hyeol-u's brow twitched.
CRUMBLE......
"Ugh, again?"
The book had been too thin and too old, and scorched by fire on top of that — the moment he closed the cover, it turned to ash.
Even the slightest stir of air sent it scattering into the distance.
"Nothing to be done about it......"
Hyeol-u picked up the last remaining text — the "Lone Soul Single Sword."
The previous two had been disappointing, but this one stirred a different kind of anticipation.
"Now this looks like it could be something."
Its name was proudly recorded in the catalog as one of the clan's martial arts.
He could not help but be hopeful.
"I left my clan at twenty and wandered as a destitute vagabond, only returning on the brink of death. My soul was lonely, and the world — where not a single person would befriend me — was truly a harsh place. Thus, the guide I followed my entire life was the 'Travelogue' left by the ancestor Namgung Changhae."
'What is this about?'
The Travelogue was suddenly appearing in the Lone Soul Single Sword.
"There's something here...... there's definitely something!"
Hyeol-u practically buried his face in the pages as he devoured the text.
But.
The shift from anticipation to disappointment came swiftly.