"I'll teach you about half of my footwork."
"If you're going to teach me, teach me everything. What's this about half?"
"Just in case you're wondering, I don't mean that since I only have one leg left, I can only pass on half the footwork."
"…What exactly do you take me for? I've never once had such a rude thought."
"It was a joke. Though I suppose it wasn't very funny."
He seemed to be trying to adapt to his new life as a one-legged man in his own way, but it was a joke I found hard to respond to.
Gwiyeong Sin-tu scratched the back of his head awkwardly and continued.
"Gwiyeongbo, my footwork, is built on deception. Through my footwork, I deceive the distance between myself and my opponent, and even deceive the eyes of martial artists in the Harmony Realm."
"Deception, you say?"
"Indeed. Since you've seen my movements, I'll ask you this—how did it feel?"
"They were faint and fast. Above all, I was impressed by how it forces the opponent to react half a beat too slow."
"…I didn't expect you to figure out that much, but you're right. Simple speed alone isn't enough to imitate my footwork."
Gwiyeong Sin-tu let out a hollow laugh and continued.
"Confuse the senses, make yourself seem unpredictable, and draw out an opening. Throwing your body into the gap that reveals itself—that is the essence of Gwiyeongbo. And it's what I'm about to teach you from now on."
"Which, conversely, means you have no intention of teaching me anything else."
"Didn't I say so from the start? That I would teach you only half. Secrecy was never something achieved through footwork alone. You'd also need to master a Light-Body Technique separately, which means you'd have to inherit nearly all of my martial arts. That won't do."
Light-Body Technique and footwork are inextricably linked, each influencing the other. It should come as no surprise that there are footwork styles perfected only through a Light-Body Technique.
After all, martial arts are about maximizing each other's strengths and covering for each other's weaknesses, harmonizing as one.
There was, however, one thing that weighed on my mind.
"You clearly had no desire to pass down your martial arts, Senior. Yet you've chosen to impart half of them to me. I'm curious as to why. Haven't you already repaid the favor of saving my life with the Glacier True Energy?"
"It's nothing much. I saw how you looked when you thought you'd fallen into Qi Deviation, and I heard how the sparring match with Jeon Il-bi went."
Gwiyeong Sin-tu's gaze grew distant for a moment, as if he were looking at somewhere far away.
"You must have lost something too, I'm sure. And the scar it left behind must have twisted you."
"…"
"The martial world is truly merciless beyond compare. Your circumstances are unfortunate, but you are hardly the only one to have suffered such a bitter experience."
"I am aware. Few survive a Qi Deviation, and fewer still rise to prominence among those who do—so it simply does not show easily."
Even at this very moment, someone somewhere must be chewing on their own misery.
The endless chain of Karmic Debt, where revenge begets revenge, is never far away.
Had I not experienced it myself before my regression?
Seomun Hwa-rin, having lost her clan, took her revenge upon the Unorthodox Sects of Gangseo Province, including the Black Heaven Sword Gate.
And the surviving son of the Lord of the Black Heaven Sword Gate became the Black Heaven Sword Emperor, rebuilt the Black Heaven Sword Gate, and repaid Seomun Hwa-rin in kind.
In that process, I lost Seol Ri-hyang and Seomun Hwa-rin, and I went and killed every single one of the bastards who had even the slightest connection to the Black Heaven Sword Gate.
Many fall along the way without ever achieving their revenge… but that is simply what the martial world is.
Is it not called the martial world precisely because it is a gathering of those who carry blades and hold their pride dear? Ha ha, ho ho—it cannot be all good things.
It is not for nothing that the Orthodox Sects are revered. They receive the recognition of the masses because they know how to sever karmic debts at a proper line, because they value favor over grudge, because they know how to give first.
However, what Gwiyeong Sin-tu wished to say was not the heartlessness of the martial world that everyone already knew.
"Yet you went and made new bonds anyway. For one who had already lost everything once, you have found something new to protect."
"That is…"
"I will not ask what circumstances you have. Just as I will not speak of my own. …However, I do not wish to see you—a young junior not even of the Age of Twenty—suffer the same mistake."
Gwiyeong Sin-tu said this while looking me straight in the eye. His gaze held regret, and a hint of relief.
"So grow stronger. And even after you become strong, do not forget what you wanted to become strong for. That is enough."
"…I promise. Your teachings will not be wasted."
This was from the heart. Though I often found myself astonished by the absurd scale of the Tang Clan while staying there, I too had once been a martial artist who reached the Transcendent Peak.
There were more things I could do than things I could not, and if I set my mind to it, I could have enjoyed any measure of Wealth and Glory.
Yet what I did was spend my entire fortune to buy up martial arts from all over the Central Plains… but at any rate, I had my own pride.
It shattered into pieces with the appearance of the Heavenly Demon.
The world is vast, and geniuses beyond my imagination exist. And I must protect my people from that monster.
There would be no room for pointless indulgence in power.
Whether my sincerity reached him or not, Gwiyeong Sin-tu flinched for a moment, then smiled with satisfaction and nodded.
"Good. Then from now on, I will pass on the Oral Formula. You'll be able to apply it directly to your footwork."
"Is that possible? No matter how you look at it, they're different martial arts."
"It's possible. In the first place, my martial art was made by stitching together various arts I stole, so it holds up decently wherever it's applied… and more than anything, I've already taken a look at the Seomun Clan's martial arts once, haven't I? I'll trim it to fit you properly."
"…"
As I stared at him without a word, Gwiyeong Sin-tu averted his gaze and cleared his throat.
"Ahem. Don't look at me like that. Didn't your master say he'd let go of trivial grudges from the past, just like me!"
"I was just looking."
"That's a pretty fierce look for 'just looking.'"
"I get that a lot. My face tends to be stiff."
"Your mouth was loose enough when you were with your betrothed…"
"Is a betrothed the same as an old geezer? Enough, let's just start."
"Tch. Is this what I get for teaching someone?"
Gwiyeong Sin-tu grumbled, but straightened his hunched back all the same. He cleared his throat once and opened his mouth.
"As I said a moment ago, the Gwiyeongbo is, at its core, a step of deception. Speed is nothing more than a secondary concern."
"I saw how you exploited the gap in perception while fighting the Slaughter Ghost. When you speak of deception, do you mean grasping that and turning it against the opponent?"
The blink of an eye, the moment an inhale becomes an exhale, a lapse in concentration, personal habits, the weaknesses of a martial art—all of it.
No martial art in the world is perfect, and no person is either. Even if only for a fleeting instant, everyone has moments when they are more vulnerable than usual.
Given the nature of my martial art—one that digs into those openings and bites down to the throat—I had no choice but to be familiar with it.
It seemed my thoughts differed from his, though.
"The result is the same, but the process differs."
Gwiyeong Sin-tu let out a soft laugh and lightly flicked his foot. In an instant, he was behind my back, continuing his words.
"Just now. Did you see my movements?"
"I did see it. You leaped to my right and took my rear."
"Right. Then what about this time?"
Turning to answer him, Gwiyeong Sin-tu once again demonstrated his footwork. But this time, his movements were not clearly visible.
I could tell he headed for my flank the same way, but then it was as if time had been cut off, and before I knew it, he was back in his original spot.
"…Did you increase your speed in the middle?"
"The speed was the same. Do you know where the difference lies?"
Closing my mouth for a moment, I carefully compared Gwiyeong Sin-tu's two movements. But all I realized again was that this was not a martial art simple enough to grasp with just a moment of thought.
"I don't know. I don't think I let my guard down, but…"
"It's only natural that you don't know. This is a martial art that makes sure even the person standing right in front of it—let alone anyone else—can't catch on."
Gwiyeong Sin-tu let out a low chuckle and pointed at the ground with his hand.
"I deliberately left footprints behind. Take a look. You'll understand right away."
At those words, I looked down at the ground, and the difference between the footprints left on either side was clearly visible.
"Ah."
"Now you see it?"
"Yes. The angles of the two footprints are different. And the depth they've sunk into the ground is different as well."
"Correct. The two look similar, but they're slightly different. However, you tried to judge the second one based on what you saw in the first."
"So it looks the same as before, but in reality it's different, so it appears to be a movement that defies prediction."
"Correct. Applying this kind of deception more precisely and over a wider range is what Gwiyeongbo is all about."
It doesn't exploit a gap in perception. It creates a gap in perception and then exploits it.
The footwork itself probably incorporates Hwanui Myori. But ultimately, what this martial art seeks is…
"Change."
It's not about always staying ahead of the opponent, but about being ahead only in the instant when their moves exchange.
A technique for striking the opponent's weakest point with one's strongest.
And thus, a mystery for maintaining the upper hand from start to finish.
It does not end with simply deceiving the opponent. It is a martial art meant to break the opponent's flow and create even more openings.
That was the Gwiyeongbo as I saw it.
"Is that not so?"
"If you say so, then it must be so."
"What kind of irresponsible answer is that?"
"We're not going to use it as-is anyway. I'll teach you properly, so just take what you need. It's more convenient for both of us this way, isn't it?"
"…That is true."
Neither I nor Gwiyeong Sin-tu had ever learned a proper martial art.
I had merely patched together what I'd picked up here and there, splicing it until it fit me perfectly.
Above all, Gwiyeong Sin-tu was someone who preferred escape over battle. Even with the same martial art, one's perspective was bound to differ.
As I nodded along, Gwiyeong Sin-tu clasped his hands behind his back and spoke.
"Since you roughly understand, focus. I'll recite the Oral Formula now."
The martial arts instruction that followed from Gwiyeong Sin-tu only came to an end as the morning sun began to rise.
I would need to refine it to suit me and train until it became second nature, but with this, I would be able to take another step forward.
***
During the day, I would sometimes spar with the disciples of the Zhongnan Sect, and at other times, I would stare blankly at the sword scar carved into the plaque.
For several nights, I pondered how to fuse the Gwiyeongbo I had learned from Gwiyeong Sin-tu into the Thunder Step, then returned to my room to chat with Tang So-wol before falling asleep.
Before I knew it, the person from the Tang Clan had arrived at the Zhongnan Sect.
"It hasn't been that long, has it, young master? It seems Miss So-wol isn't built for long excursions away from home."
It was the elderly man who greeted me with a gentle smile.
Tang Cheol-yeong, the Dark Soul Corps Master who had accompanied us before.