Chapter 48
A few more days passed since the night my Martial Uncle and I decided to become master and disciple.
During that time, I sparred to my heart's content.
The Shaolin monks, who had learned that my martial arts had deepened overnight, tormented me without a moment's rest.
There was no end to the monks who wanted to spar, but since I only had one body, I had five or six spars a day as a basic, and sometimes even ten.
Among them, the monk I had fought the most was Monk Il-jik, who had picked a fight with me on the day I first came to Shaolin.
Of course, I never lost to him even once.
"Almsgiver Unhwi, it's a shame that the day of your departure has come."
"I know. I'm also very sad. If I had fought with Monk Il-jik a little more, I might have been able to master the Shaolin Five Fists."
"Hahaha! How about you take some time to come here again next time? At that time, I will secretly teach you the Shaolin Five Fists."
"Aigoo, do you want me to get a good beating from the monks of the Disciplinary Hall? I will diligently learn the martial arts of Wudang, Monk."
And finally, today is the day I leave Shaolin and return to Wudang.
My Martial Uncle... no, my Master said that the conversation with the Abbot went well.
But he said that the conversation started to go well after I ate the Small Rebirth Pill.
It must be that the Abbot, Grandmaster Gakil, had taken a liking to me.
As proof of that, even now, as my Master and I are leaving the Shaolin Temple, Grandmaster Gakil has come out in person.
"Abbot, I have received too much grace while I was here."
"Haha! If you think of it as grace, do you have any thoughts of changing sects? If you become our disciple, we can do several times what we have done for you now."
"Change sects... if our Sect Leader hears that, he'll jump up and down, you know? He'll scold me for how I behaved in Shaolin."
"If you don't want to be scolded, you can just come here, can't you? Our Shaolin is always open."
Grandmaster Gakil said with an expression that I couldn't tell if he was serious or joking.
"Abbot, they say that if the farewell is long, the end is not good. We will be on our way now."
"Ahem. I see. We'll see each other again soon."
"Yes."
My Master naturally blocked the space between me and Grandmaster Gakil and bowed politely, and Grandmaster Gakil could only smack his lips.
"Be really careful on your way. Oh, right. Almsgiver Unhwi."
"Yes, Abbot."
"I have one last thing to say."
"I'm listening."
"Don't be too hasty. Don't you, and our martial world, still have a lot of time?"
"......!"
With Grandmaster Gakil's words, which I couldn't tell if he said them knowing something or not, we left Shaolin.
When I was climbing Mount Song and now when I'm going down.
Although I am clearly the same person, it feels as if both my mindset and my martial arts have become those of a different person.
'Don't be too hasty?'
The words the Abbot said to me at the end.
Those words linger in my mind.
I can't quite grasp if he wanted to tell me to go back when I'm in a hurry.
"What are you thinking about so much? We're finally returning to Wudang."
"I'm not thinking about anything special. I'm looking forward to returning to Wudang."
"Are you planning to teach the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic as soon as you get back?"
I shook my head.
Although I had learned it with great effort, I didn't want to teach the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic to my senior brothers as it is.
"No. I've thought about it a little while learning the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic. This martial art is too precious to be learned through incantations."
"Too precious? What is?"
"This martial art seems to be most effective when learned by moving the body rather than just sitting and meditating."
"Yes. I also understood it that way."
My Master seems to have understood it similarly to me.
My conviction that my thoughts are right grows even stronger.
"If I teach my senior brothers the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic now, they might neglect their training because their bodies are suddenly getting better. So, I'm planning to change the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic from a Shaolin internal energy technique to a pupil technique that must be learned by moving the body and teach it to them."
"Oh-ho... teach it as a pupil technique... that's a good idea."
An internal technique is, after all, about arousing energy from the dantian, moving it through the body's meridians and qi and blood, stimulating those places, and accumulating energy.
And that energy naturally moves when the body moves.
A pupil technique uses that principle to make the body move to produce that effect instead of sitting and doing qi circulation.
Some might ask why one would bother to move the body and train when they can just sit and train comfortably.
But, my purpose in teaching my senior brothers the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic is not to increase their internal energy.
It's to strengthen their weak bodies, which are like weeds swaying in the wind.
Therefore, doing it this way will be much more effective.
"If my senior brothers are still training hard with my training method, their bodies will be moving enough. The conditions necessary to learn a pupil technique have been met."
"But... one thing I'm concerned about is, can you change it? It won't be an easy task to change an internal technique into a pupil technique. Even I can't get a grasp of it."
"Don't worry, Master. I'm Unhwi. I can do it all before we arrive at Wudang."
I can be confident that I have the highest understanding of pupil techniques in the martial world.
Because my training method itself is no different from a pupil technique in the first place.
Since I had learned an extremely inefficient internal technique, I had made up for the lack of efficiency by moving my body that much.
"But, to do that, there's one thing I have to do."
"What is it?"
"I'm a practical type, so I can't organize things well just by thinking in my head."
"So?"
"Haa..."
A sigh escapes me on its own.
To think that I would say such a thing with my own mouth.
"Shall we run...?"
"What?"
"Let's run to Wudang again. I'm planning to organize it by checking which meridian is most stimulated by moving my body while moving."
Seeing my powerless face, my Master's eyes widened, and then he burst into a loud laugh.
"Hahaha! I was thinking of renting a horse from a post station this time because you seemed to have suffered so much in Shaolin, but I guess there's no choice."
"Hoo... yes. I'll do my footwork training and my internal technique training while running... what's the point of going comfortably. I have to save even a little bit of time and train."
I shrugged my shoulders as if I had no choice.
Although Grandmaster Gakil had told me not to be too hasty, I have no choice.
To be honest, I'm not being hasty right now.
Because there are so many things to do right now, and the fact that I become stronger as much as I put in effort is happiness itself.
"Yes. That's a good mindset. Your internal energy has increased a lot, and you've also opened your Governing and Conception Vessels, so you'll be able to run a much longer distance at once than when you came here."
"Yes, Master."
My Master smiled slightly at my answer and then, without delay, unfolded his footwork and started running.
I also immediately started running after him.
The beginning of another tedious run.
***
Five days.
In just five days after leaving Shaolin, we were able to arrive at Wudang.
Although there was the matter with Chae Eung-seok and the Peng Family Head, it had taken ten days to go to the Shaolin Temple.
But on our way back here, we had cut the time by half.
"M-Master. I think I'm really going to die."
"The words 'I think I'm going to die' mean you're not dead yet. It's fine."
Although he said that, this time, my Master also seemed a little tired, as his collar was wet with sweat.
"Hoo. When I went to the Shaolin Temple, I felt like I had arrived even at the entrance of Mount Song, but how come I don't feel like I'm home even though I've already come to Mount Wudang?"
"The Shaolin Temple had stairs kindly built from the entrance of Mount Song. And, we have to cross a rugged mountain range."
"Why is our Wudang Sect in such a deep place? I wonder who on earth built it there."
"Are you speaking so disrespectfully of the founding master of Wudang, Jam Sang-bong? Of course, he built it there because that place is most full of spiritual energy and the divine energy flows well, isn't it?"
"I know that. I'm just saying it because it's hard."
I was grumbling, and then a thought suddenly flashed in my mind.
"Master. Then how about we also talk to the Sect Leader and lay stairs from the entrance of Mount Wudang?"
"Stairs...?"
"Yes. Of course, from the entrance to Mount Wudang is a little... no, a little too far, but if there are stairs, it will be much easier to climb. If that happens, more believers will come to our Wudang. I heard that the number of believers who visit Wudang is decreasing as time goes by, so wouldn't that solve that problem too?"
"That's true, but... who on earth would do that work? Even if we try to hire people with money, the finances are not in a good state recently, so we won't be able to pay the price. And the work of laying stairs from the beginning of Mount Wudang is not something that costs a penny or two."
I tilted my head.
It seemed my Master was greatly mistaken about something.
"Why do we have to hire people with money?"
"Why? Of course, you have to pay money to do a big construction. No matter how much we are Taoists, we have to pay a proper wage. If we don't pay the workers a price because we are Taoists, what's the difference from a mountain bandit?"
"No. It's not that, but in the end, the work of laying stairs is just pulling out trees from the mountain, putting stairs there, and tamping the ground, right?"
"Right?"
"And the stairs don't have to be real stairs, we can just put logs cut in half, right?"
"Right...?"
My Master answered hesitantly.
It's an expression that says he doesn't know what I'm up to again.
I pointed my finger towards the place where the Wudang Sect was and said, "There are two hundred workers up there, aren't there? Our senior brothers. And, we can just recycle the trees we pulled out."
"Are you saying we should use your senior brothers for the stair construction?"
"That was my point from the beginning. We can learn pupil techniques while moving our bodies, and also lay stairs on Mount Wudang. It's killing two birds with one stone, eating the pheasant and the egg."
My Master looked at me, shook his head, and clicked his tongue.
"This is the first time in my life I've seen someone who thinks of working people so thoroughly."
"It can't be helped. You've met me for the first time."
"Haha! If you can't even say it."
Perhaps because he thought it was a good idea after hearing it, my Master no longer refuted my words.
After getting some fresh air for a while, we started to climb Mount Wudang.
Although we could have gone up at once by unfolding our footwork, my Master said that when climbing Mount Wudang, he doesn't unfold his footwork unless it's an extremely urgent matter.
So as not to startle the mountain animals sleeping here and the souls of the deceased ancestors.
And so, after climbing the mountain for a long time and reaching the middle of the mountain, we heard the sound of people talking from somewhere.
I focused my internal energy on my hearing and listened to the voices.
"Where on earth do we have to go up from here? We're going to get lost in the mountains at this rate."
"No. There's a contradiction in your words."
"Why? Can you find the way?"
"No. I think we're already lost. It's wrong to say we're going to get lost at this rate."
"Are you kidding me right now?! Haa... I should have listened to the waiter at the entrance of the mountain who said he would guide us to the Wudang Sect for ten taels... what is this because of you!"
The voices of two men.
When I glanced at my Master, he nodded his head slightly towards me, as if he had also heard the conversation.
My Master and I naturally moved our steps in the direction where the voices were coming from.
(End of Chapter)