The Genius Youngest Disciple of the Wudang Sect

Chapter 121

The Sovereign Sword Emperor, Nangong Sang-hyeon.

This was the first time I had seen him. In my previous life, by the time I had grown enough to even glimpse Nangong Sang-hyeon from a distance, he had already performed his Gold Basin Hand-Washing and entered a deep, secluded valley.

When the war with the Demonic Cult broke out, some people had said in regretful voices that if Nangong Sang-hyeon had been there, he could have certainly contended with the Demonic Cult's leader.

His title, the Sovereign Sword Emperor, literally means that Nangong Sang-hyeon is a person who has reached the pinnacle of the sword.

But it is also a title derived from his invincible, undefeated martial art, the Sovereign Sword Form.

They said that Nangong Sang-hyeon's Sovereign Sword Form could have faced the Demonic Cult leader's Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

However, the war happens twenty years from now. Even if he hadn't performed his Gold Basin Hand-Washing, he would have been a hundred and ten years old, so the possibility of him having passed away is much higher.

In fact, he didn't appear even when all that chaos broke out.

"Hoho. Your eyes are brighter than I thought. Is Ok-mu well?"

"Ok-mu...? Ah, are you talking about the Sect Leader?"

"That's right. I spoke too informally. Is the Sect Leader well?"

He laughed as if he had made a mistake.

Come to think of it, the Sovereign Sword Emperor was an old master whose standing in the martial world was much higher than our Sect Leader's.

Perhaps that's why I couldn't understand him at first when he called the Sect Leader like a neighborhood kid.

"Yes. He is well. But how did you find me? Did the Sect Leader perhaps write about me in a letter?"

"Sect Leader Ok-mu did send a letter, but there was no story about you. Well, it was just the usual boring congratulations and the obvious story of sending his disciples and asking me to take good care of them."

"But how did you know about me..."

"You were half right and half wrong. There was someone who wrote about you in a letter. The sender and the content were so unexpected that I became interested."

I tilted my head and thought.

Could it be my master? Did my master have a connection with the Sovereign Sword Emperor? As I was thinking, Nangong Sang-hyeon opened his mouth.

"And two people wrote and sent stories about you. Hahaha."

"Two people?"

"Yes. How could I bear my curiosity about a child who is so young and hasn't even officially entered the martial world, yet is already being watched by such big shots?"

"If you say big shots..."

"One is Paeng Geon-hong, and the other is Gak-il of Shaolin."

Nangong Sang-hyeon said it lightly, but I was so surprised that my eyes widened.

Paeng Geon-hong was the head of the Paeng family, and Gak-il was the abbot of Shaolin.

It meant that two of the masters who were always in the top ten when picking the strongest in the Orthodox martial world had directly mentioned me to Nangong Sang-hyeon.

Of course, I did have a deep connection, if you could call it that, with both masters.

"Especially Gak-il, he wrote down in detail what happened with you. He said you are a truly promising talent that transcends the two sects of Wudang and Shaolin."

"Everything that happened...?"

For a moment, I felt my face flush with embarrassment.

There were many unforgettable things during the few days I was at Shaolin, but the first thing that came to mind was, by far, the Small Rebirth Pill fart.

I still can't even guess why such a thing happened, and every time I think about it, I feel a cold sweat break out.

"Hahaha! There's no need to make such a face. Gak-il asked me because he wondered if I might know the cause of what you experienced. And fortunately, I have also experienced something similar to what you went through."

"......!"

I was looking at the ground in embarrassment, but I was so surprised that I looked straight at his face and said, "You also experienced eating an elixir and farting... no, completely digesting it, Great Hero?"

"Yes. I also grew up in a wealthy family my whole life, so I had many opportunities to encounter elixirs. I ate a lot of them without distinction, such as Wudang's Great Purity Pill, Shaolin's Great Rebirth Pill, and Huashan's Purple Cloud Pill."

He spoke in a light tone, as if he had eaten noodles for dinner last night.

I, a disciple of the Wudang Sect, have never even seen a Great Purity Pill, so the Nangong family must be very, very rich.

"Then, when I consumed two elixirs at once, or more, such a phenomenon often occurred."

"You also farted, Great Hero...?"

"Ahem. No. I have never done that. The elixirs that were not absorbed into my body were all discharged through my skin."

"Ah..."

Damn it. My face must be bright red by now.

I feel so pathetic and embarrassed about my current situation.

To keep talking about farts in front of a super master who might be the current number one under heaven.

"Well, anyway, whether you discharged it like that, or I discharged it through my skin, isn't it the same thing? Don't fall into too much self-pity."

"Thank you... Great Hero..."

Although he tried his best to comfort me, the embarrassment did not easily go away.

But then, a story that blew away all this embarrassment came out of Nangong Sang-hyeon's mouth.

"Ordinary people, if they overdose on elixirs, they can't control the power and fall into Qi Deviation, or some part of their meridians might be damaged. No, in the first place, overdosing on elixirs itself is a difficult thing. Do you know why?"

"Is it because they generally can't fully absorb the energy of the elixir?"

"That's it. From my experience, it's normal to barely absorb only two or three-tenths of the energy that an elixir originally contains. But to eat enough to be called an overdose of elixirs, you'd have to eat four or five at once, but are elixirs that easy to obtain?"

"Absolutely not."

"So, what we should pay attention to is not that you discharged the excessive elixir through a fart... ahem... anyway, out of your body, but that you have a constitution that can fully absorb the energy of the elixir before that."

Although I flinched at hearing something in the middle, he continued to speak.

"And so do I. A constitution that fully accepts the energy of elixirs. It's a constitution that neither my son nor my grandson inherited. But when I thought that you might have a similar constitution to mine, I couldn't delay our meeting for even a moment. That's why I called you at this late hour."

"I see. I understand."

I nodded my head with sparkling eyes.

Actually, I was also curious why he called me, but now I know the reason.

To be honest, I had also looked into my constitution in various ways, but there was no clear way to find out, so I had half given up.

But to think that Nangong Sang-hyeon had the same constitution as me. This is a joyous occasion, beyond just that fact.

Because if one of the reasons he could become so strong was this constitution, it means that I could also reach a similar level.

"May I examine your body?"

"Of course."

"Haha. Is it okay for a martial artist to offer his body so easily?"

"It's not just anyone, but the Sovereign Sword Emperor who is asking, so what is there that I can't do?"

At my words, which were full of flattery, Nangong Sang-hyeon narrowed his eyes and looked at me.

He doesn't seem to like such flattery or servile behavior very much.

So I quickly added, "In any case, even if you were to subdue me and examine my body, there's nothing I can do. It's better for me to do it myself than to be subjected to it forcefully."

"What? Hahahaha!"

Fortunately, at my words, Nangong Sang-hyeon burst into a loud laugh.

He seemed to like me, and he said to me with a face full of even more interest than before, "Then come here and sit with your back to me."

"Yes, Great Hero."

I obediently gave him my back, and he put his hand on my back and began to examine my body here and there.

This feeling of being scanned from head to toe by him was very strange, but I endured it without showing it.

After a short time, he took his hand off my back.

"Hmm..."

But when I turned around and looked at him, his expression was not very good.

In fact, it was very different from what I had expected.

To be honest, I had expected a reaction like, 'You have a similar constitution to mine! This kind of constitution will be more effective if you train like this and that!' but it doesn't seem to be the case.

"Could you wait a moment? I think I need to think for a while."

"Ah, it's okay."

Before I could even finish my answer, he was already deep in thought.

I was wondering what was going on and was quietly waiting for his words, when he suddenly moved a few steps away from me and began to move his body.

And it wasn't just moving, but he also stretched his arms and legs, drew a large circle and spun around, and stepped on some kind of unknown footwork.

The moment I saw it, my eyes widened.

'Dynamic Qigong! It's Dynamic Qigong...!'

As if possessed, I watched Nangong Sang-hyeon's movements and began to engrave them one by one in my mind.

What Nangong Sang-hyeon was unfolding was undoubtedly Dynamic Qigong.

There are two ways to accumulate internal energy. One is to sit down and accumulate it through qi circulation, and the other is to accumulate it while moving the body.

The fact that I constantly do physical training every day, and that I changed the Muscle/Tendon Change Classic that I learned from Shaolin into a way of moving the body, can all be said to be a type of Dynamic Qigong.

'Wait. But is it okay for me to watch this?'

Right now, Nangong Sang-hyeon, at his age of almost ninety, seems to have gained some enlightenment after scanning my body.

But I wondered for a moment if it was okay for me to watch it.

It's a great discourtesy to watch someone else's training, and I wondered if it was okay for me to watch the enlightenment of a martial artist of Nangong Sang-hyeon's level.

If we were from the same family or sect, I might not know, but in fact, we were complete strangers who had just met for the first time today.

However, the worry was only for a moment.

'I don't know. Is it my fault for watching? It's the fault of that old man who suddenly started performing martial arts here.'

And I focused even more and began to watch and memorize his movements.

Although it was not a very long time, I was able to gain various enlightenments by watching his movements.

The things that I had been doing vaguely without completely establishing them in theory until now seem to be organized through his movements.

I had thought that it was good to train a lot unconditionally, but how to be most efficient, how to make the internal energy settle most effectively, and how to make the circulation of internal energy smooth when performing martial arts are all coming into my head.

And so, Nangong Sang-hyeon's movements stopped.

"Hoo..."

He took a deep breath.

Beads of sweat had formed on his forehead.

For a master of that level to have sweated, I can guess how much mental energy he consumed to show the movements just now.

"Did you see well?"

"Yes?"

"You didn't happen to not watch because of etiquette or something, did you?"

"Ah, no. I saw well."

"And did you memorize it clearly?"

"I couldn't memorize each and every movement... but I think I saw everything you wanted to show me."

Nangong Sang-hyeon nodded his head greatly and said with a smiling face, "I thought you might have a similar constitution to mine, but it's a very different constitution."

"Ah. Is that so? But what you showed me just now...?"

"That's not mine. It's yours."

I couldn't understand his Zen-like words at all, so I looked at him with eyes full of questions, and he laughed heartily and then opened his mouth again.

"Your constitution was probably originally ordinary. If I had to say, it's a constitution where the circulation of bodily fluids is fast, so waste products are discharged well? But, the reason you have a similar constitution to mine now... is all thanks to your efforts."

"My efforts?"

"Constantly moving your body, training, building muscles... and not just doing it blindly, but thinking and thinking about how to make your body more suitable for martial arts... those thoughts and your efforts combined have changed even your constitution."

"Ah..."

For some reason, Nangong Sang-hyeon's words suddenly made my eyes well up with tears.

Should I say it feels like I've been rewarded for everything I've done so far?

At that time, Nangong Sang-hyeon came up to me, put his hand on my head, and said, "The Dynamic Qigong I just showed you is not something I newly created. I just organized the efforts you have made so far. So this Dynamic Qigong is entirely yours."

His hand, his voice, are so warm.

And without my realizing it, a tear trickled down from my eye.

(End of Chapter)