novelno Chapter 281 : Martial Arts Training
Chapter 281 : Martial Arts Training
Chapter 281: Martial Arts Training
When the Wood King tapped the place where the cultivator’s mouth had once been, the cultivator’s mouth reappeared as though by a lie.
“……There is something we are searching for.”
“Oh, right. You should speak quietly like this. Continue.”
“To be precise, it is the traces of a certain martial artist. We came to the Demonic Spirit Realm following those traces.”
“A martial artist? You mean one from the Central Heavens Martial Realm?”
“Yes. It was a martial artist who had ascended, and he left behind certain traces. We learned that his final trace remained within the Demonic Spirit Realm, so we came searching for it.”
“And this is related to that?”
The Wood King lifted a stone tablet.
[빿쓔뮤붼째]
It was covered in mysterious scribbles whose identity could not even be determined as writing or symbols. It was not much different from the stone tablet he had shown the Wind-Passing Great Sage before.
“Yes. That is one of the traces he left behind.”
“What kind of writing is this? Can it be interpreted?”
“We do not know either. We determined it to be a form of script, but no one has been able to decipher it.”
“Then why are you searching for his traces?”
“We do not know the exact purpose either. It is an order bestowed by the Great Being……”
“The Great Being? Who? Are you referring to a True Immortal?”
“…….”
Even though his mouth was perfectly fine, the cultivator did not speak. No, he could not speak.
Suddenly, the cultivator’s head shook violently, and silver light burst from his mouth and eyes.
“U──────”
An incomprehensible language erupted from the cultivator’s mouth. At the same time, silver light burst from the seven orifices of the surrounding cultivators, and the shaking head of the cultivator became still.
Kuuuuung!
A powerful wave of energy spread outward with the cultivator at the center.
An overwhelming aura. Pressure that crushed everything in all directions. Something beyond ordinary levels was entering the cultivator’s body.
Despite the bizarre appearance of his neck seemingly embedded into his pelvis, the cultivator was now emitting terrifying power.
“Hah, well now?”
Finding the situation amusing, the Wood King simply crossed his arms and watched.
The consciousness of a True Immortal descended into the cultivator’s body.
The great demons and divine beings of the Demonic Spirit Realm were not allowed to become entangled with beings from the Upper Realm because of the oath. Likewise, beings from the Upper Realm were not supposed to recklessly exert their power within the Demonic Spirit Realm.
Yet now, for some reason, a True Immortal from the Upper Realm was directly sending down its will.
Crack. Craaack! Puhk!
The vessel was too small to contain the will of a True Immortal, and the cultivator’s body cracked and burst apart.
A moment later.
Eyes radiating intense light stared directly at the Wood King.
A weak being would have had their heart burst or been crushed to death merely by meeting that gaze, but the Wood King was one of the great demons of the Demonic Spirit Realm. And right now, it was his true body facing the will of the True Immortal.
“What brings such an exalted being to this humble place?”
The glowing mouth of the cultivator slowly opened.
【──────】
A will powerful enough to explode the minds of lower beings was transmitted. It was a language he could not understand, yet the Wood King fully grasped its meaning.
As he listened silently, the Wood King’s brows twitched.
“A contract? A True Immortal wishes to discuss a contract with me?”
The Wood King grinned fiercely, and his aura changed.
The power emitted by the True Immortal’s will was instead pushed back, while a savage force swept outward like a storm and overturned the forest.
Fortunately, he controlled his power because this was his own dwelling. Otherwise, the entire forest filled with upside-down trees would have vanished instantly.
“What pointless nonsense. You truly think too lightly of us.”
The Wood King laughed and waved his hand.
Puhk! Pubeok! Puhk!
The overturned cultivators exploded into chunks of flesh. However, only the cultivator standing at the very front endured the Wood King’s power even as his body twisted grotesquely.
【──Contract───must──be fulfilled.】
The moment the words ended, the cultivator’s chest exploded apart, and a silver-glowing book shot toward the Wood King.
The Wood King reached out, caught the book, and read the contents written inside. His expression changed moment by moment.
“You are offering this kind of reward merely for capturing a single human? I cannot understand it. Why are you doing this?”
The will of the True Immortal answered that it could not reveal the reason.
The contents of the contract were simple.
If he dealt with one human, then in exchange, they would allow him to move his true body freely within another dimension.
It was an utterly unbelievable proposal. The contract reeked suspiciously from every angle.
Still, it was not a bad deal for the Wood King.
“Shall I hear you out, then? What sort of human must be dealt with?”
In a corner of the Demonic Spirit Realm, a True Immortal and a great demon began speaking for the sake of mutual benefit.
---
Jang Woo-hyun had climbed all the way here alone without a proper master. His talent had simply been too outstanding, so he had never encountered much difficulty.
However, in Lü Dongbin’s eyes, Jang Woo-hyun’s martial arts lacked structure and resembled a patchwork quilt sewn together carelessly.
“I suppose this too is fate.”
Though it had happened by chance, Jang Woo-hyun had obtained the Heavenly Escape Sword Art and met him. Because of that, Lü Dongbin decided to teach him. He wanted to correct the martial arts Jang Woo-hyun had learned haphazardly.
The masters Jang Woo-hyun had met until now only recognized his skill and offered small bits of help or advice. They believed his talent was beyond their ability to teach.
Even when he first began learning martial arts and knew absolutely nothing, he quickly surpassed Yang Hyo-myung and even ended up teaching him instead.
This was the first time since he began learning martial arts.
The first time Jang Woo-hyun would properly learn martial arts from someone else.
And this master was an extraordinary martial artist once called the very first Sword Immortal. Faced with the opportunity to learn something new, Jang Woo-hyun’s eyes shone brightly as he focused so intensely that he would not miss a single word.
“The foundation of martial arts lies in the cultivation method and the lower body.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Just as a tree must firmly root itself into the earth, the body must be solidly supported before one can learn all martial arts. That is why every sect makes its disciples take the horse stance constantly. Try the horse stance.”
Jang Woo-hyun spread his legs and bent his knees as though sitting on an invisible chair.
“That is the most basic form. Then you establish your center using the lower body as the foundation.”
Lü Dongbin approached, touched Jang Woo-hyun’s tailbone, then raised his hand to the back of his head.
“You establish your center through the lower body. There are foolish idiots who recklessly swing a sword first, but if you wield a weapon without training your center, bad habits develop and your balance collapses.”
“Yes.”
“In this state, you can extend your arms forward to improve muscular strength and stabilize your center more easily. If you stretch your arms toward the heavens and perform Qi circulation, it becomes the fundamental posture of foundational cultivation. Think of it as accepting the energy of heaven and earth.”
At Lü Dongbin’s words, Jang Woo-hyun immediately followed every instruction.
Come to think of it, Jang Woo-hyun possessed almost no basic martial arts knowledge. Yang Hyo-myung, who had taught him the fundamentals, had not been an exceptional martial artist, and Jang Woo-hyun had surpassed him quickly.
The masters he later encountered only saw his strength and told him how to climb higher. None of them taught him how to strengthen his foundations.
They regarded Jang Woo-hyun as an already completed martial artist, so such reactions were inevitable.
But Lü Dongbin was different. He began from the absolute basics, as though teaching someone learning martial arts for the very first time.
For quite a long while, Lü Dongbin spoke about the foundations of martial arts. Then suddenly he asked,
“Aren’t you bored?”
Though forced, Jang Woo-hyun had already stepped into the Realm of Wish and wielded its power. Even in Lü Dongbin’s eyes, it was strange to see such a martial artist quietly endure these simple and basic training methods without complaint.
“No, it’s fun.”
Since it felt like learning something entirely new, Jang Woo-hyun held no dissatisfaction. Where else could he have ever trained this systematically?
Thinking about it now, Lü Dongbin was right. He had always relied solely on his talent and learned martial arts however they happened to come to him. Perhaps it would have been good to solidify his foundation at least once.
‘I had become drunk on my own talent.’
He had been too exceptional to think about anything else. He had focused solely on battle, and his gaze had always been directed upward, never downward.
“As long as you have no complaints, that is enough.”
Truthfully, the training they were doing now would not greatly help Jang Woo-hyun. What meaning could such basic training hold for someone who had already climbed so high?
Even so, Lü Dongbin continued trying to fill the empty gaps within Jang Woo-hyun, and Jang Woo-hyun diligently followed his guidance.
---
The training continued endlessly within Jang Woo-hyun’s inner world.
Neither of them paid attention to how much time had passed.
One simply taught while the other learned.
“The foundation consists of four directions. From there, you can expand into eight or even sixteen directions, but the most basic are front, back, left, and right. Think of the front as attack, the back as retreat, and the sides as evasion.”
After hearing Jang Woo-hyun’s answer regarding the basics of footwork, Lü Dongbin raised his hand. A sword suddenly appeared in it and immediately thrust forward.
The momentum behind the sword was far from ordinary, so Jang Woo-hyun instinctively reacted and leapt backward.
“You understand it instinctively, but you have not clearly thought it through.”
“Pardon?”
“How did you evade just now?”
“I jumped backward.”
“Yes, you jumped backward. Now think beyond a flat perspective.”
“If it’s not a flat perspective……”
After hearing Lü Dongbin’s words, Jang Woo-hyun realized he had not simply retreated backward—he had jumped. That meant the directions of footwork were not limited to front, back, left, and right.
“There was up and down as well.”
“Precisely. To divide it accurately, there are front, back, left, right, and upper, middle, lower. And among them, the middle is the foundation.”
Jang Woo-hyun immediately understood and nodded.
“In truth, if your feet remain on the ground, upper, middle, and lower belong not to footwork but to body movement techniques. It concerns how you move the body. However, depending on the sect, footwork and body movement techniques are sometimes called by different names. Some sects refer to body movement techniques not as movement of the body but as methods of rapid movement. That is why footwork, body movement techniques, and movement arts—or lightness arts—should not be viewed separately but as one. That is why the three are collectively called Movement-Body-Lightness.”
Whether attacking or evading, there was footwork for close-range movement, body movement techniques for moving the body in harmony with the footwork, and movement arts that lightened the body to traverse great distances.
There was a reason why the martial world commonly grouped the three together. Some sects did not even separate body movement techniques and simply included them within footwork.
As each day passed, Jang Woo-hyun heard more foundational teachings and Lü Dongbin’s martial theories. Whenever he did, he felt the empty spaces within himself gradually being filled.
“Swing the sword ten thousand times.”
“Yes.”
“One hundred times quickly. One hundred times slowly. Alternate between them.”
Some days he was taught simple training.
“Climb the cliff.”
And on other days, the training became brutally straightforward.
“Can I simply climb it like this?”
“Of course not.”
When Lü Dongbin flicked his finger, chains attached to black iron spheres wrapped around Jang Woo-hyun’s limbs.
Feeling an enormous weight, Jang Woo-hyun began climbing the cliff that had suddenly appeared before him.
At first, it took him an entire day to reach the summit.
After several days, it took three shijin.
Two more days later, the time was reduced to one shijin.
Within the endlessly repeated time, Jang Woo-hyun discovered the martial principles hidden within the cliff.
As he analyzed where he should grasp and where he should place his feet, he realized this was not simply about climbing a cliff.
Hidden within it were methods of swift movement, ways of stepping through footwork, and the profound principles of bodily motion.
The faster he mastered the hidden training method, the faster Jang Woo-hyun climbed the cliff.
Even though the training was rigid, crude, and monotonous, Jang Woo-hyun never complained. As time passed, he absorbed everything Lü Dongbin taught him.
To others, it might have seemed like meaningless training for someone of Jang Woo-hyun’s level. But neither Jang Woo-hyun nor Lü Dongbin cared.
Lü Dongbin sought to compress his teachings into the short time available, and Jang Woo-hyun followed without complaint.
The holes riddling his martial arts were gradually being filled.
For the first time, Jang Woo-hyun was not climbing higher.
He was firmly strengthening the foundation beneath him.
So that he could rise even higher.