For some reason, Seomun Hwa-rin had taken my clothes, an incomprehensible occurrence, but…
For now, the martial art training itself was proceeding smoothly.
Of course, there were still various problems to solve… but at least the movement of my sword had caught up to the speed at which my Intent could cut.
In other words, the awkward movements that had inevitably surfaced at the beginning had disappeared.
Having filled the immediate gaps, all that remained was to organize, in my own way, a sword that moved under a different system than the existing one.
Normally, this would be the point where one established a Technique.
However, in my case, creating a Technique would only serve to trap myself in a framework.
For a lifetime, I had pondered how to wield the sword where it was needed, without any special Technique. To now go and create a Technique all over again…
"No. It's worth a try."
The Sword Art I needed to establish from now on was not one that cut by imbuing the sword with Intent, but rather a way of handling the sword where the order was reversed—because Intent arose, the sword cut.
Since this was completely removed from the Sword Art I had learned until now, there was no harm in making a change to the methods I had long upheld.
And so, with the intention of testing it out, I gripped my sword and imagined various situations.
When the Opponent charged in, when I struck forward.
When surrounded by multiple enemies, when I had to pierce through a single, solid foe.
Beyond that—the way to strike down a swift sword before it could truly accelerate, the way to deflect a heavy sword with the minimum amount of force, the way to see through the root from which a Change sword extended, and so on.
I tried to organize every trick I knew into movements with broad applicability, but…
"Something's off."
Yes. Something was off.
It wasn't simply the awkwardness that came from unfamiliarity.
It felt like spotting a nail jutting slightly out of a well-made piece of furniture. Something was wrong… no, was that too strong a phrase?
Either way, something grated on me.
Just which part was it?
My sword had clearly become one with my Intent. And it had responded perfectly to the imaginary opponent I'd set up as well.
If I could wield it like this, anyone would…
"Ah."
Only then did I realize it. The true nature of the unease I'd felt.
The movements I'd just demonstrated weren't particularly efficient for me, but they were still clearly worthy of being called a Technique.
The problem, however, was that it was a Technique only I could execute.
Could anyone else be as sensitive to internal energy and Intent as I was? Could they see through an opponent's movements and, beyond that, lead them exactly where they wanted? And above all, could they thrust their head toward oncoming death without a moment's hesitation?
Perhaps someone somewhere satisfied all these conditions… but I had never once seen such a person, whether before my regression or now.
In other words, its versatility was far too lacking to call it a conventional Technique.
A Technique is both a key and a lock. You pose a problem to your opponent, answer their question, and continue the exchange.
That is why merely training Techniques can build one's martial skill, but in real combat, it is those who do not cling too tightly to Techniques and instead execute them in their own way who survive.
If that is so, then a Technique only I can wield… a question only I can understand and only I can solve—what meaning would it have?
Perhaps it could help me organize my movements a little more efficiently, but in the end, it would remain nothing more than a useless trick with no fundamental value.
In the end, it would be no different from just swinging my sword as I always do.
"It's not easy."
As I let out a deep sigh, a cool breeze suddenly blew from behind me.
Puzzled, I turned around and saw Seol Ri-hyang sitting in a patch of shade. She was lightly fanning the air in my direction… that must have been the source of the cool wind I felt.
She had infused her internal energy into the small breeze she stirred with her hand, sending it all the way to where I stood without letting it disperse.
It might have looked like nothing much, but the skill contained within it was considerable.
I couldn't say for sure about anything else, but when it came to handling internal energy, she might have surpassed the Transcendent Peak level.
And yet she herself didn't seem to be thinking about it at all.
"I appreciate it, but… what are you doing over there, Seol Ri-hyang?"
"What do you mean? I'm just watching you, Cheon Hwi."
"Watching someone else's martial arts training is taboo."
"Are you saying I'm someone else now?"
"…But I was going to say that since you're Seol Ri-hyang, you're not someone else, so it's fine."
"No. I said it half as a joke, but when you react like that, I feel a little sorry."
Seol Ri-hyang scratched the back of her neck with an embarrassed expression.
This was, how should I put it. A kind of habit or mannerism.
Before the regression. Seol Ri-hyang, who had lived a somewhat more unfortunate life than now, had a few obsessions.
One of them was that she always wanted to have the affection directed at her confirmed.
She seemed to know herself that going too far would backfire, so she tried to moderate it, but… to me, whose emotions had been so dried up back then, even that moderation was overwhelming.
Given that situation, she had set up her own model answers for how to respond to such questions.
Even after going through regression, this had reached a level where if Seol Ri-hyang poked a similar spot, the words would slip out of me before I could stop them.
"Come to think of it, this is also a kind of Technique, isn't it…"
As I muttered to myself, Seol Ri-hyang tapped the seat beside her and spoke.
"I don't know what it is, but you're stuck right now, right? Then how about taking a short break? Pushing yourself too hard won't bring good results, you know."
"Someone at my level can train day and night for Seven Days and Nights without any problem."
"I brought all sorts of things so we could eat together…"
"…But for some reason, my body isn't in great shape today. It wouldn't hurt to rest in the shade for a bit."
At the sight of her pulling out a neatly packed lunchbox, I immediately changed my words and headed toward Seol Ri-hyang.
As if she had expected this, Seol Ri-hyang grinned and made room for me beside her. Sitting next to her, I had to admit the shade was genuinely pleasant.
Even having achieved the state of being impervious to cold and heat, the summer breeze still felt good, I supposed.
Perhaps she was in a good mood too. Humming a tune, Seol Ri-hyang opened the lid of the lunchbox and handed it over to me.
"Did you make this, Seol Ri-hyang?"
"Nope? I asked the Head Chef here. How would I know how to cook? When I was young, you dragged me here and I only learned martial arts."
"Say it like that, and I sound like some martial-arts-obsessed kidnapper."
"Aren't you? Oh, this is good."
She tilted her head for a moment, then popped a piece of meat into her mouth and beamed.
It really is delicious.
We finished the meal while continuing that kind of idle chatter—nothing particularly meaningful, but it put the mind at ease.
As I was tidying up the empty lunchbox, I suddenly realized that Seol Ri-hyang was enveloping her surroundings with her internal energy as naturally as breathing.
For me, that was obviously possible, but for Seol Ri-hyang, it should have been impossible.
Wrapping one's own body in internal energy was one thing, but maintaining such precise, prolonged control over energy released outside the body was simply unheard of.
I'd always known Seol Ri-hyang had a talent for handling internal energy, but this was beyond anything I could have imagined, and I found myself speaking before I could stop.
"How have you been keeping your internal energy spread out like that this whole time? How is that possible?"
"Huh? It's simple. No matter how confident I am in my internal energy reserves thanks to my Constitution, it's not like I can afford to leak it out all day, right? So I just grip it tight and carry it around here and there."
"???"
Normally, internal energy disperses rapidly the moment it leaves the body.
That's why there's a massive difference between simply reinforcing the body and wrapping oneself in Sword Qi.
Well, one could hold onto it to some extent depending on one's skill, but keeping it up all day like this should be impossible.
Just as I handled killing intent like Intent, I wondered if Seol Ri-hyang might be unconsciously wielding a part of her Intent without knowing it, so I activated my Heaven's Eye and looked at her…
"Heh?"
I couldn't sense any Intent at all. No, it was there, but it was just at the Transcendent Peak level—nothing outstanding.
Pure talent. She was simply fixing the energy that wanted to scatter using her innate ability to manipulate internal energy.
Using no Intent at all, she walked around all day with internal energy wrapped around her, extending it like an extra limb whenever she needed it?
Even I couldn't do that right now.
"Just… how is something this insane even possible?"
"Calling it insane is a bit much. From where I'm standing, you're the strange one, Cheon Hwi."
Seol Ri-hyang shrugged. Still, she seemed willing to answer, and after mulling it over for a long moment, she continued.
"You were asking how I can keep my internal energy out all day, right? There's no special trick to it. Since I returned from the North Sea Ice Palace, I've only been training one thing."
"And what's that?"
"Internal energy manipulation."
Seol Ri-hyang grinned, the corners of her mouth curling up.
"My Fist and Leg Art and whip technique aren't much different from before. Just the basics, you know? Instead, I focused only on handling internal energy. To control more internal energy, more precisely, and over a greater distance."
"That's…"
"Inefficient, right? For an ordinary martial art, it would have been."
But Seol Ri-hyang was the exception.
The Glacier True Energy she had mastered was, from the start, a martial art meant to draw out the overflowing cold of the North Sea and create an environment where people could survive.
The arts of attacking and felling enemies were nothing more than a side branch.
That wasn't to say they were weak, though.
If only martial arts made to harm people were strong, and those that weren't were weak, then every Daoist and Buddhist sect in the entire martial world would have remained minor sects.
If one mastered Glacier True Energy to its absolute limit, they would be able to cause natural disasters with a human body.
And most people are helpless before nature.
Well. That's only in theory, of course.
After all, it's people who practice martial arts. All this time, Seol Ri-hyang had felt immense pressure from her own lack of strength.
With no shortage of real combat experience either, she would have wanted a martial art that could fell enemies more simply than the true meaning of Glacier True Energy.
However, Seol Ri-hyang never lost sight of the fundamentals, and quietly focused on controlling her internal energy.
The result is her current ability to manipulate internal energy beyond the level of Transcendent Peak.
Seol Ri-hyang gave a wry smile at my dazed expression. Then she wiped the traces of my meal from the corner of my mouth with her finger.
With complete naturalness, she began rubbing that same finger clean on my chest.
"You're wondering how I could keep training just this one thing, aren't you?"
"…That's right."
"Don't you remember? It was you, Cheon Hwi, who said the fundamentals matter. I'm just still keeping your words well."
That was true.
It was back when Seol Ri-hyang had only just begun learning martial arts.
At the time, Seol Ri-hyang thought she was falling behind because she had started martial arts late, and she pushed herself recklessly to catch up.
That was a given—since her body had only suffered backlash from the injuries, I had told her not to rush but to build a solid foundation step by step.
And now. Seol Ri-hyang had followed my words, mastering the fundamentals to their absolute limit, and was breaking through her limits in her own way.
If the basics alone were enough, without any grand technique or anything else…
"Ah."
I had said I would forget my existing sword art and rebuild from the very beginning, yet I had never actually thought to start from the basics.
To fill something in, one must first empty out what is already there.
I forget all sorts of Mysteries and Intents. And I begin again from the basics, just like when I first held a sword.
All that is needed to cut down an opponent is mastering a single inch of gap.
Haven't I known from the very beginning that no great skill, no anything, was needed?
I had been thinking too complicatedly, all about Techniques and such. The basics of the sword are, in the end, thrusting and cutting. Everything else is nothing but minor applications.
As if possessed by something, I draw my sword and swing it just like that.
What I reached after mastering countless Sword Arts and collecting their Mysteries to make them my own was—
Just an ordinary cut.
.
.
.
.
.
"If you move right after eating, your stomach will hurt…"
I ignored Seol Ri-hyang's voice coming from behind me.