TGRMA 12

Chapter: 12

It was something that had happened so long ago that even the memory had become hazy.

One night, Jin Cheong-un woke up in the middle of the night and heard a strange noise coming from the training hall.

A thief.

Grabbing his wooden practice sword, he quietly crept over and attacked without hesitation.

“Hand over everything you’ve got if you don’t want to die, you damn thief!”

The next instant, Jin Cheong-un froze in shock.

Not only had his wooden sword been effortlessly blocked, but the person he thought was a thief was actually his master.

His master stood silently in the dark, deserted training hall.

And there, Jin Cheong-un saw a pitch-black hole.

The floor of the training hall, which had always seemed perfectly flat, concealed a passage leading to an underground chamber that no one knew about.

“Cheong-un.”

His master had always possessed a mysterious aura, but that night there was something especially different about him.

“When the time comes, you’ll understand. Until then, keep this a secret.”

Looking back now, his master had seemed far too calm, almost as if he had intended to be discovered.

But Jin Cheong-un had been far too young back then, so he simply replied,

“For free?”

After negotiating a dramatic settlement involving a handful of candies, Jin Cheong-un faithfully kept the secret.

In truth, he quickly forgot about it because he wasn’t interested. He had simply assumed that, since his master was a man after all, he must have been hiding some erotic paintings from the children.

Thinking back on it now… that was strange.

Why would a rural martial arts school need a place like that?

Obviously, it was to hide something.

Which meant he had to check it.

“Huff… Hah…”

His face flushed bright red as Jin Cheong-un tossed aside the shovel.

“Secret or not, at this rate I’m just digging my own grave.”

Thud.

He collapsed onto the ground and looked around.

Perfectly square stone slabs lay scattered everywhere. Nearly a hand-span thick, they had once paved the floor of the training hall.

Someone as neat as Master wouldn’t have dug all this up in the middle of the night.

There had to be some kind of mechanism.

But since he didn’t know where it was, there was only one option.

He would pry up every single slab.

“Hah!”

Climbing back to his feet, Jin Cheong-un’s eyes gleamed.

“Let’s see who wins.”

Thunk!

He wedged the shovel beneath another stone slab and used it as a lever.

Boom!

Grabbing the slab with both hands, he flipped it aside.

Thunk!

Then repeated the process.

Again.

And again.

Then—

Shift.

“…!”

He immediately threw away the shovel and crouched down.

This one was different.

Compared to the others, it was far lighter. Looking closely, it was also slightly thinner, and its edges had been carefully smoothed.

Almost as though it had been made to be lifted easily.

This is it.

Swallowing hard, Jin Cheong-un slipped his fingers into the crack.

Rumble…

The stone lifted with surprising ease.

Beneath it lay a hidden door.

Creeeak!

The moment he pulled it open, he froze.

“I expected maybe an underground storage room…”

Instead, beyond the entrance stretched a long passage leading into the darkness.

Tap. Tap.

His footsteps echoed through the narrow tunnel, whose end remained invisible.

Jin Cheong-un narrowed his eyes as he judged its direction.

If it’s headed this way… toward the back mountain?

In the martial world, when people built secret vaults, they often constructed long tunnels leading deep beneath mountains or underground.

Those with highly trained senses could detect hollow spaces beneath the earth.

But only wealthy sects or prestigious clans could afford something like that.

No matter how he looked at it, this wasn’t something a poor countryside martial arts school should possess.

And that wasn’t all.

Jin Cheong-un glanced upward.

Even Night-Luminescent Pearls…

Not cheap imitations that only glowed after absorbing sunlight.

These emitted light naturally.

At this point, he could only marvel.

Master… were you actually rich?

He had always lived frugally.

Had he secretly been a wealthy man all along?

Then again, for an ordinary countryman, he had always carried himself with an unusual elegance.

“…Wait.”

Jin Cheong-un suddenly stopped.

“Then… could this place actually be…”

The place where Master hid his secret fortune?

His pace immediately quickened.

Before long, he came to an abrupt stop.

A door.

A jet-black iron door.

Its surface was covered with intricate carvings so exquisite that it looked less like a door and more like a work of art.

Knock. Knock.

When he struck it, the dull sound that echoed back wasn’t like iron at all.

It sounded like an impossibly dense block of solid stone.

Jin Cheong-un clicked his tongue.

Blacksteel?

Blacksteel was worth as much as gold of equal weight.

And someone had used it to make an entire door.

Something is definitely inside.

Filled with anticipation, he grabbed the handle and pulled.

Clank!

“…?”

Clank! Clank!

“What’s wrong with this thing?”

Clank! Screeeech!

“Urgh!”

Bracing one foot against the wall, his face turning crimson from exertion, he pulled with all his strength.

It didn’t move an inch.

“What kind of ridiculous door is this…”

He let go of the handle with a defeated expression.

If it had moved even slightly, he might have believed he simply lacked strength.

But it hadn’t budged at all.

Was there some mechanism keeping it shut?

How was he supposed to open it?

Surely it couldn’t be impossible…

No.

After preaching mental fortitude to his disciples for so long, he couldn’t give up now.

I will inherit Master’s legacy.

If brute force isn’t enough, then I simply don’t have enough power.

I’ll borrow it.

The Qi Sea.

The lower dantian.

The mysterious true qi coiled within.

“Hoooo…”

Taking a deep breath, Jin Cheong-un carefully focused.

Carefully.

Even more carefully.

Like gently blowing on a fragile ember, he stimulated the true qi with delicate precision.

Ssssss…

Soon, white mist began rising from his body.

It looked like smoke billowing from blazing flames.

This was known as the Fire Stage of internal energy cultivation.

People compared controlling internal energy to controlling fire because the two were so alike.

But fire could also become an uncontrollable inferno.

Whoosh!

“Ghk.”

Suddenly, an agonizing pain squeezed his lungs.

Instead of flowing into his arms, the internal energy surged wildly toward his chest.

This was precisely why manipulating true qi without proper guidance was so dangerous.

Once control was lost, the internal energy could rampage unpredictably.

In the martial world, that condition had a name.

Deviation and Demon Possession.

Good.

Because that had been his intention all along.

If I can extinguish the fire before it burns me alive, that’s enough.

Anyone watching would have called him insane.

He was deliberately setting himself on fire internally, intending to stop only at the very last safe moment.

But he didn’t care.

Aside from eating and sleeping, he had devoted his life entirely to martial arts.

Surely he could control even his own body’s energy.

Of course it’s dangerous.

That’s why…

I’ll finish it in one attempt.

The instant he gripped the door handle with enough force to rip it off—

Whoosh!

His internal energy flowed effortlessly into the blacksteel door.

Click.

Then came the sound of hidden mechanisms engaging.

Jin Cheong-un stared blankly as he pulled the handle.

Creeeak.

The door opened.

Effortlessly.

“…”

The internal energy he had painstakingly gathered dissipated uselessly.

He stared at the door in disbelief.

Could it be… a mechanism that responds to true qi?

Did it recognize whoever opened it?

A wave of frustration suddenly washed over him.

Couldn’t someone have just written that down somewhere?

He had nearly suffered deviation and demon possession just trying to force it open!

“…No. Fine. At least it’s open.”

Letting out a long sigh, he stepped toward the doorway.

Then stopped.

And took one step backward instead.

For some reason…

The enormous pattern carved into the door felt strangely familiar.

Getting older taught a person many things.

What had Master needed most in order to run a martial arts school while taking in orphans and beggars like him?

Love.

A disciple became an adult through a master’s love.

And love comes from a well-filled purse!

Feeding children, clothing them, giving them a place to sleep, teaching them—

Everything cost money.

Hardly anyone actually paid tuition.

How else could the school have survived?

Therefore…

Inside this secret chamber…

Master’s ocean-deep love—

Bright, glittering love—

Surely had to be piled high in the form of treasure!

No…

It had to be.

Then why…

Why in the world…

“…There’s absolutely nothing.”

The chamber wasn’t very large.

It resembled a small storage room, furnished only with a few shelves and simple pieces of furniture.

Then something beside one of the bookshelves caught his eye.

What’s that?

A chest.

A very large one.

Jin Cheong-un rushed over.

I believed in you, Master.

What could be inside?

Shining gold?

Glittering silver?

Beautiful porcelain?

Ancient jade?

He carefully lifted the lid.

Sparkle.

Sparkle?

Silver?

Excited, he threw the lid fully open.

“…!”

The muscles around his eyes twitched.

Then his neck.

His shoulders.

His hands.

“What is this?”

Silver.

The problem was that the enormous chest contained exactly two silver taels.

An entire blacksteel door. Night-Luminescent Pearls. And only two silver taels? It’s not even that someone spent it all. Why use such a huge chest just to store two pieces of silver?

Wait.

Spent it all?

Come to think of it…

Old memories suddenly flashed through his mind.

The disciples constantly causing trouble.

Master repeatedly bowing in apology to people.

The heavy money pouch always hanging from his master’s hand…

Creak.

Thump.

Jin Cheong-un quietly closed the chest.

Then calmly nodded.

“What value is wealth? How could a disciple covet his master’s possessions?”

Money wasn’t important.

Now that he had inherited Qingyun Martial Hall and intended to rebuild it, he had merely wanted to confirm everything connected to his master.

That was the truth.

“…Still, there’s no point letting perfectly good silver gather dust.”

He reopened the chest, quietly slipped the two silver taels into his robe, then straightened up.

Only then did he properly notice the rest of the room.

There was no treasure.

But there were other things.

Martial arts manuals?

One of the five bookshelves was packed full of books.

He randomly pulled one out and flipped through it.

“…”

He froze.

It wasn’t a martial arts manual.

It was…

A diary.

Gyeongsin Year, Second Month, Day of the Tiger.

Un-a and Jin-a fought again today. Perhaps I scolded them too harshly. Maybe I should have spoken more gently.

When the children don’t listen to me, I can’t help thinking I’m an inadequate master.

The children have finally finished learning the Thousand Character Classic. I hope they’ll someday study the Four Books and Five Classics so they may become upright adults.

The weather was beautiful today, so I took the children hiking behind the mountain…

Reading carefully, Jin Cheong-un eventually reached for the oldest diary on the shelf.

Even if the children one day grow up and each walk a different path…

I hope this place will always remain their home.

I sincerely hope they’ll someday return and become a family to one another once again.

“…”

Jin Cheong-un silently stared at the bookshelf.

A faint, bitter smile escaped him.

So… he really did raise us with love.

There weren’t just one or two diaries.

There were dozens.

Every page overflowed with worry, concern, and affection for his disciples.

…This wasn’t the discovery I expected.

Jin Cheong-un quietly nodded.

Still… this isn’t a bad legacy.

Feeling strangely lighter, he turned to leave.

Then something caught his eye.

What’s that?

A bookshelf slightly smaller than the others.

Unlike the diaries, one book was wrapped in silk.

Carefully, he untied it.

Eight Desolation Martial Arts (八荒武)

Three imposing characters were written on the cover.

He quickly opened it.

Inside were a few more words.

Volume One

Heavenly Qian Art (乾天功)

Qian.

Qian, Dui, Li, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen, Kun.

The first of the Eight Trigrams.

The symbol of Heaven.

That single character revealed that this wasn’t a complete martial art.

Seven other volumes belonging to the same martial system existed.

Jin Cheong-un’s pupils trembled.

Master never taught me the Eight Desolation Martial Arts.

He taught me the Qingyun Art.

But the cultivation formula was the same.

No…

This version was far more complete.

It was as though his master had intentionally taught him only part of it.

“…”

Jin Cheong-un slowly looked around the hidden chamber.

Having served as a secret bodyguard, he had encountered martial arts from countless sects and learned innumerable hidden histories.

Yet even someone with his experience had never once heard the name Eight Desolation Martial Arts.

By the time Jin Cheong-un finished cleaning up the training hall after leaving the hidden chamber, dusk had already fallen.

I even read through every diary, just in case.

There wasn’t a single clue regarding the manual’s origins.

But then he noticed something odd.

Compared to the number of diaries, there were far too many bookshelves.

After all, who needed such a large secret chamber just to store journals?

He gently lifted the martial arts manual.

Eight Desolation Martial Arts…

The mysterious true qi inside his body probably came from this.

But why had Master never told him anything?

Thinking about it, he realized how little he had actually known about his master.

They had simply been too young to wonder about another person’s past.

Well…

There’s no point worrying about something I can’t figure out right now.

Stretching lazily, Jin Cheong-un shook away his thoughts.

“Time to eat.”

He had skipped lunch and worked all day.

His stomach was practically glued to his back.

Right now, the mysterious martial manual was far less important than whatever meal Jeong Soso had prepared.

He had even given her some money.

Surely tonight there would be meat.

If vegetables tasted that good, then meat dishes must be…!

He hurried toward the Jeong family estate.

But as he arrived, his steps gradually slowed.

A stranger was standing outside the front gate.

“Oh, you’ve returned.”

The man, dressed like a scholar, cupped his fists respectfully.

“This is our first meeting. I am Baek Seo-gun, the chief steward of the Black Tiger Gang.”

“The Black Tiger Gang.”

“Yes.”

Baek Seo-gun smiled.

“I’ve been waiting. Miss Jeong said I couldn’t enter until her master arrived. May we speak inside for a moment?”

His tone was remarkably polite.

Jin Cheong-un nodded.

“Come in.”

He let Baek Seo-gun enter first before following him into the Jeong family estate.

Then—

Click.

He slid the door bolt firmly into place.

Baek Seo-gun blinked.

“…Why did you lock the door?”

“Don’t mind it. Just making sure the door is secure.”

Staring intently at Baek Seo-gun, Jin Cheong-un asked,

“So, what is it that you wanted to discuss?”