Chapter 133
Chapter 133
Half a day.
That’s how long it took Jin Cheon-hee to find the secret manual that couldn’t be found for over a decade.
The Hwanggu & Noe-jin combination created a synergy that was beyond just being called unfair.
Hwanggu finds it by smell, and the Heavenly Thunder Hawk goes to check it out!
“What? It was there?”
Pant pant – No doubt about it, Master! Now, quickly, the reward!
Screech, peep! – It smells incredibly delicious. You cooked this for us, right?
Jin Cheon-hee gave everyone some premium lamb jerky grilled with the Five-Elemental Divine Technique.
As soon as Hwanggu put it in his mouth, his body suddenly stiffened.
Sniff, whine! – Th-this is… too delicious!Screeech! – The taste of fire is alive in it!
‘As expected, spiritual creatures prefer food imbued with energy (氣).’
The jerky grilled with the fire generation technique created a happy feast for the spiritual creatures.
After feeding everyone to their fill, Jin Cheon-hee headed towards the bottom of the cliff that Hwanggu had pointed out.
Rumble-
It was right next to a waterfall.
The cliff itself was incredibly slippery due to the moss created by the waterfall, and the updraft created by the waterfall made it difficult to descend even with a rope.
Moreover, even if one tried to dig down using internal energy to embed their fingernails, the geological characteristics of this area required enormous internal power.
‘What madman would deliberately try to go down beneath a waterfall? Except for me.’
Jin Cheon-hee stretched his body with cracking sounds.
“Noe-jin. Can you hold me and glide down?”
Peep? – Can’t go up. Can only go down slightly slower than falling.
“Well, I’m not in a child’s body anymore.”
Jin Cheon-hee took out a rope and tied it securely to a tree.
“Hwanggu. You must absolutely guard this rope.”
Woof! – Leave it to me, Master!
“And Noe-jin, guide me to where the cave is as you follow me down. Though it’s unlikely, if I slip, grab me immediately.”
Screech! – Don’t worry.
Jin Cheon-hee began to slide down into the valley, gripping the rope.
Peep? – Come to think of it, couldn’t you just dig in with your fingernails as you go down? You have a lot of internal energy, right?
“It’s possible, but that would hurt, wouldn’t it?”
Humans are tool-using creatures.
Going down that way might look cool, but it’s not particularly effective for training, so why bother?
While it might have helped with internal energy training during the Ten-Thousand Fire Carp incident, for descending a cliff, there are much safer ways to do it.
In his previous life, he had treated quite a few injured climbers.
The human body can be destroyed in various ways.
Some of these became permanent disabilities, becoming lifelong burdens.
‘Leisure activities should be done safely. Always be mindful of health and follow the safety officer’s guidelines!’
From a modern person’s rational perspective, the hardships during training were enough.
If it’s not for training, he just wanted to live comfortably.
How far had he descended like this?
He had reached the end of the rope, but the cave was still not in sight.
Peep – We need to go down further.
“Oh my, no matter how deep the valley is, I never imagined the rope would be too short.”
In the end, Jin Cheon-hee had to do the additional labor he didn’t want to do.
Thud!
He had to descend by making marks on the cliff with his bare hands, as if using bird claw technique.
“This is quite slippery.”
Peep peep – Almost there! We’re close!
“You and Hwanggu really found this amazingly well. How on earth did you find this place?”
Finally, they could discover a very small cave.
It was in an angle that was practically impossible to find with the naked eye, not visible even from nearby, let alone from afar.
“Right. This is a good place for a villain to fall and power up. This level is needed for it to be a fateful encounter.”
Peep?
“It’s nothing important.”
At last, his feet touched the edge of the cave.
Jin Cheon-hee balanced his body acrobatically and slipped inside.
“Phew, I made it.”
Inside the dark cave.
Before Jin Cheon-hee could summon fire energy with his Five-Elemental Divine Technique, the Heavenly Thunder Hawk deliberately drew lightning to illuminate the space.
‘This is really sweet too.’
Thinking about it again, choosing to risk his life to protect the Heavenly Thunder Hawk instead of coveting its inner core was the best decision.
How far had they walked through the winding cave?
Sunlight appeared.
Jin Cheon-hee went a bit further towards it.
There sat a skeleton in a cross-legged position, and in front of the skeleton lay an old book.
Jin Cheon-hee’s heart raced a little at this scene, which he had only seen in martial arts movies and novels.
A scene he had longed for, thinking he would never see with his own eyes.
A fateful encounter.
‘It’s exactly as I imagined.’
Jin Cheon-hee realized.
It was not even slightly different from what he had imagined.
The fateful encounters of the martial world carried weight just by their appearance.
He approached as carefully as possible so as not to disturb the deceased’s eternal rest.
On the floor there was the last will of the former elder of the Wudang Sect.
As befitting words written while waiting for the end of life, it was quite a long text.
To summarize, it said:
‘The finder may learn the secret manual, but please cremate the remains and deliver them to Wudang Sect?’
Although he became a traveler of no return at the end of his life, his heart was always with Wudang.
It contained his desire to return to Wudang, even if only as a corpse.
Jin Cheon-hee took the secret manual and bowed deeply to the remains.
“May you rest well in a good place…”
Then he used the fire generation technique of the Five-Elemental Divine Technique to cremate the remains.
Whoosh-
He gathered the ashes and put them in an empty container in his medicine box.
Suddenly, Jin Cheon-hee discovered writing just behind where the skeleton had been sitting cross-legged.
“Huh…?”
There were notes on personal insights gained while using the Dual Mind Technique and precautions to remember before learning it.
A position that Jin Cheon-hee would never have known about if he hadn’t respectfully taken care of the remains.
‘How meticulous, Elder.’
If someone had only wanted the secret manual and left with just that, they would have obtained only a dangerous half.
‘You wanted the secret manual to be passed on to good hands.’
Thus ended a simple but respectful funeral.
‘Since I’m here, it’s best to learn it here.’
There’s no one to disturb Jin Cheon-hee, and even if he temporarily goes mad from cultivation, there’s no one to hit him.
Jin Cheon-hee took out more jerky from his medicine box.
“Noe-jin, share this with Hwanggu. I’m going to completely master the secret manual before returning, so untie the rope above too.”
Peep? – To erase the traces?
“Yes. Play around nearby. If you get hungry, you can hunt with the babies.”
The Heavenly Thunder Hawk nodded like a person and called its babies before flying off with a flutter.
Now Jin Cheon-hee was alone in this cave.
Jin Cheon-hee slowly began to learn the Dual Mind Technique.
The safest form of the Dual Mind Technique, improved by the former elder based on his insights.
Its effectiveness remains to be seen.
***
-The Dual Mind Technique refers to two thoughts. However, it does not mean division, but harmony.
Jin Cheon-hee meditated, recalling the contents of the secret manual he had just memorized.
-Yin and yang generate and overcome each other, harmonizing all things in heaven and earth. It is the same for the microcosm of the danjeon.
The Zhuge Clan’s Five-Elemental Divine Technique interprets the world in five ways.
The Five Elements.
Water, Wood, Metal, Earth, Fire.
These five elements constitute all things and form the danjeon. In contrast, the Dual Mind Technique creates it through two elements: yin and yang.
Of course, some might think it’s easier than the Five-Elemental Divine Technique.
However, yin-yang and the five elements were different stories.
Jin Cheon-hee thought of the taiji symbol.
-The world is harmonized by the light and the heavy, light and darkness, cold and heat.
-In the world, the light does not mix with the heavy, light does not coexist with darkness, and the cold loses its nature when meeting heat.
‘Two different stories. But neither is wrong.’
Is it possible to interpret taiji through the five elements?
If he had only read this secret manual, he would have said it was impossible. But because of the words left by the former elder, he cautiously cultivated using them as a clue.
A thread-like realization passed by.
Jin Cheon-hee boldly threw himself into the swamp of thoughts to grasp it.
He had no regrets about the life he had lived.
His hands, unstained by blood, still grasped others and led them to life.
It was strange.
Jin Cheon-hee’s life was like that of a Taoist sage.
Helping patients, doing righteous deeds, sometimes troubled but still moving towards what seemed most right.
A life never lazy, never wavering, never stopping became selfless and enveloped Jin Cheon-hee.
Because there was no contradiction in his life, the heart demon did not come either.
His internal energy began to move according to Jin Cheon-hee’s mental image.
It was powerful yet gentle.
Suddenly, the question “What kind of life have you lived as a swordsman?” struck his mind, but there was nothing he couldn’t answer.
Woong-
Jin Cheon-hee slowly felt himself splitting in two. However, it was just the sensation of left and right hands, not the sensation of another person.
It was just Jin Cheon-hee himself.
“…”
When Jin Cheon-hee half-opened his eyes, it was long after that.
“I’ve gained enlightenment.”
Not only had he mastered the Dual Mind Technique, but his internal power had also increased.
‘Is this how Elder Gung-gwi felt?’
Although he hadn’t fallen into the Void Meditation, this alone was considerable progress.
‘Internal power of one Gapja plus ten years?’
The recent enlightenment had increased his internal power by ten years’ worth.
But that wasn’t all.
Jin Cheon-hee stretched out both hands and pulled the two swords he had laid out using only Void Seizing Technique.
The Ice Clarity Sword flew into one hand, and the Black Pine Cloud Sword into the other.
“Wow!”
The old Jin Cheon-hee would have only been able to call one Ice Clarity Sword.
The two thoughts allowed him to use two different ideas and two different martial arts.
‘Then, shall we confirm one more thing?’
The Dual Mind Technique, as the core martial art of the Wudang Sect, is a supreme mind technique that uses two thoughts for offense and defense.
The two thoughts, interpreted in modern terms, are like a computer’s dual-core.
Simply put, it allows one to do multiple things simultaneously.
However, if we only say this, some might ask how it differs from the Zhuge Clan’s Profound Origin Divine Technique.
The Wudang Sect’s basic philosophy is taiji, and by using both yin and yang energies together, their strength is increased.
Thus, scenes of Wudang Sect Taoists using two martial arts simultaneously have often appeared since the old martial arts era.
There is a risk of falling into mental division due to the heart demon, but if one overcomes that, a completely different world opens up.
Jin Cheon-hee needed this Dual Mind Technique.
‘Combine the Five Elements True Qi with the Dual Mind Technique.’
Jin Cheon-hee attempted something that an ordinary martial artist would never do.
The reason was simple.
No matter how he thought about it, this seemed rational.
The two thoughts moved stably according to Jin Cheon-hee’s will.
The Five Elements True Qi, starting from the danjeon, created different internal energies.