Namsan Sect 2
Martial arts were never something one could attain in a single day.
Even so, when people saw those ahead of them pass through the first gate and move on to the next stage, their hearts grew restless.
The feeling of being left behind pushed at their backs.
They could not simply stand still.
There were neighboring sects.
There were rival sects.
The thought that they could not fall behind held them fiercely.
So they skipped their meals.
For martial artists, missing a single meal was no great matter.
The body might grow a little hollow, but it would not cause any serious hindrance.
Night came again.
Darkness covered Namsan.
Even so, the people on the mountain did not stop.
They had no thought of going down.
They defied the heavenly order that people must eat, rest, and sleep.
What could anyone truly achieve in a single day and night?
And yet they clung to it desperately.
Their breathing grew rough.
Their eyes deepened.
The mountain remained filled with murmurs and the sound of feet.
Before their eyes stood the greatest under heaven.
Each word spoken by a master of the Transformation Realm was accepted as truth.
Doubt found no place to settle.
Even Jimin's kicks as the training instructor no longer frightened them.
They paid no mind to legs trembling as if about to snap.
They clung to the training with the feeling that if they missed this moment, there would be no next time.
This moment was all that mattered.
Perhaps what came before achievement was not excellent instruction, but certainty.
The belief that this path was right.
A step taken without doubt.
That certainty drove people to the end.
In the night air of Namsan, that faith rose like madness.
A time of defying heaven was passing.
It was a time of enduring against the order that demanded eating, sleeping, and rest.
Soun closed his eyes.
He drew his breath long and lifted his senses outward.
One by one, he traced the changes in those who had entered his range.
One person's breath was blocked.
Another's energy circled in the head.
Another had lost the flow of qi in the legs.
At times, Soun gave a slight push.
At times, he deliberately cut off the flow and made them collapse.
He adjusted the flow and turned its direction.
Those who reached their limits quickly struggled at the boundary.
They seemed as if they would cross it with just a little more effort, yet that last little distance remained out of reach.
For those slow at memorizing, he made them hold a book while continuing the standing meditation.
For those whose sense of qi had not opened even after a full day, he added seated meditation.
Rather than force them to form the postures, he made them sit and establish their breath.
Time flowed without end.
The sun had already set, and the night had deepened.
The hungriest person of all was Jimin.
This was not her training.
Watching over someone else's training was labor.
Her body was tired, and her stomach was growing empty.
"Let's eat and continue."
It was the very thing everyone had only swallowed in their hearts.
They were grateful that someone had said it for them.
Jimin looked at Soun.
Soun, who had been sitting like a high monk in meditation while tracing the blocked flows of the trainees, opened his eyes.
Then he smiled faintly.
"You poor things. You have not even been able to eat…"
He let out a light breath.
The murmuring that had filled the mountain came to a brief stop.
"Today's training ends here.
Go down carefully in the dark.
Tomorrow… no, it is already today.
Gather here again at the same time and in the same place."
His voice was low, but clear.
"Remain exactly where you are now.
Change your place, and you will be sent down.
Stand in another group, and you fail.
I will take no questions."
When he finished speaking, the air tightened.
No one could move easily.
Relief and tension passed through them at the same time.
The relief that it was finally over.
The pressure that it would continue again tomorrow.
Slowly, people began to exhale.
The Heaven-Defying Method came to an end.
Perhaps defying heaven meant enduring against the time by which people lived.
The fifty or so people who remained at the very bottom were still continuing their standing meditation until the last moment.
When Soun's words ended, they sank down where they stood.
Their thighs trembled violently.
They braced themselves against the ground with their arms, but their strength would not hold.
Some rubbed their faces directly against the dirt.
Their breaths burst out roughly.
Some lay flat on their backs.
Some hugged their knees and lowered their heads.
Meanwhile, a few who had been practicing forms did not hear the announcement.
They paid no attention even to the sound of people collapsing.
With frowning faces, they continued repeating simple techniques slowly.
They adjusted the angle of their arms and the position of their feet.
They steadied their breath.
Then they repeated the same movement again.
That persistence caught the eye.
Their faces showed that they had pushed pain outside their awareness.
Their bodies were exhausted, but their will had not gone out.
Somehow,
there were signs that the strongest group was about to be born.