Chapter 31
Another Greatest Secret Manual of All Time (1)
An old man was tending a field beneath the blazing sun.
It was the sort of weather that made a person sweat even while standing still, yet the old man tirelessly pulled weeds as though he did not feel the heat.
Although he appeared to be over seventy, his back remained strong. He bent and straightened it with smooth, fluid movements. In fact, he was not even sweating very much.
Just then, someone spoke to him.
“Isn’t it hot?”
The person walking along the narrow path beside the field was Baek Socheon.
Still bent over, the old man replied,
“What sort of farmer refuses to work just because it’s hot?”
“Real farmers probably wouldn’t work beneath such a scorching sun.”
The old man’s hand paused for an instant before beginning to move again.
“You have a sharp eye. I’m still a novice farmer.”
“What did you do before this?”
“Young people these days rarely take an interest in other people’s affairs, but you seem unusually curious about mine.”
“We aren’t strangers.”
The old man stopped swinging his sickle.
Only then did he straighten his bent back and look at Baek Socheon.
“Have we met before?”
“This is our first meeting. But we know a great deal about each other, Gwangsal.”
This old man was none other than Gwangsal, the man Baek Socheon had asked Cheon Geuk to arrange a meeting with.
Gwangsal had once been an extremely successful assassin.
He possessed outstanding skill and an exceptional instinct for assassination, allowing him to complete even missions that should have been beyond his capabilities.
Yet there was another reason he was so highly regarded among assassins besides his ability.
He was an assassin who had retired alive and unharmed.
Gwangsal was a historic figure among assassins, having gathered his juniors and formally washed his hands of the profession in a retirement ceremony.
Afterward, he left the martial world and secluded himself somewhere no one knew.
Only the Alliance Leader of the Assassins’ Alliance knew his whereabouts.
“Who are you?”
“Baek Socheon.”
Gwangsal tilted his head.
“Baek Socheon? There must be countless people in the martial world with that name...”
The next moment, Gwangsal flinched.
There might be hundreds or thousands of people named Baek Socheon in the world, but the most famous one he knew had suddenly come to mind.
“The God of War?”
“That’s right. Me.”
“You can’t possibly be this young. Did you undergo Rejuvenation?”
“I just have a youthful face.”
Gwangsal found it difficult to believe, and his grip naturally tightened around the sickle in his hand.
“Who told you I was here?”
At that moment, Cheon Geuk abruptly appeared behind Baek Socheon.
“I did.”
“Alliance Leader?”
“Elder, it has been a long time.”
Cheon Geuk greeted him respectfully.
Gwangsal had retired before Cheon Geuk became the Alliance Leader.
As the successor of the previous Alliance Leader, she had been cherished by Gwangsal like his own granddaughter.
After retiring, he had heard of the previous Alliance Leader’s death and learned that Cheon Geuk had become the new leader.
Because he had never particularly liked the previous leader, he had not broken his seclusion.
Had Cheon Geuk died, however, he would have emerged to avenge her.
“I’m sorry. Personal circumstances arose, and I had no choice but to tell him.”
“It is all right.”
“Please treat me as casually as you did in the past.”
“Now that you have risen to the position of Alliance Leader, I cannot do that.”
Gwangsal turned his gaze back toward Baek Socheon.
“Then you truly are the God of War.”
He recalled the past.
“Had I not retired, I would have gone looking for you as well.”
The Heaven-Measuring Alliance’s commission worth three million nyang had been issued after Gwangsal’s retirement.
“Had you done so, this field would now be covered in weeds.”
Gwangsal laughed coldly.
“A life lived by the blade is frightening indeed. More than ten years have passed since I retired, yet my competitive spirit still stirs. Very well. Why have you come looking for me?”
“I came to retrieve the item you stole.”
Gwangsal flinched.
“Stole? What are you talking about?”
“Did you steal more than one thing? As far as I know, there was only one.”
Gwangsal’s expression hardened.
“I never stole from the people I killed.”
“Except once.”
Gwangsal might have been an extraordinary assassin, but he was not a skilled liar.
His agitation was already obvious.
He glanced at Cheon Geuk, who stood beside Baek Socheon.
“This is the first I’ve heard of it.”
In truth, she was also bewildered.
She had never imagined that Baek Socheon had sought Gwangsal out to confront him over theft.
Gwangsal sighed.
“How did you know?”
He did not want Cheon Geuk to see him lying.
“Back then, I was in a position where very little escaped my notice.”
“Why do you need it?”
“I intend to learn it.”
Cheon Geuk, listening beside them, grew curious.
‘Learn it? Then it must be a martial arts manual. What sort of secret manual did Elder Gwangsal steal?’
After thinking for a moment, Gwangsal entered his house.
“Wait here.”
“Very well.”
What Gwangsal brought back was a single secret manual.
Nine Heaven-Overturning Fists.
It was the signature martial art of Fist King Lee Suhyeon, who had swept across the Central Plains three hundred years ago.
At the time, it was such a magnificent fist art that it had been called the Greatest Fist Art of All Time.
Unfortunately, that glory did not continue into later generations.
No successor ever achieved full mastery of the Nine Heaven-Overturning Fists, and eventually the art was lost.
Many stories surrounded it.
Only a genius could learn it.
The transmitted manual had been incomplete.
Among all the assassinations Gwangsal had carried out in his life, there had been only one occasion when he took something belonging to the person he killed.
That object was this very manual of the Nine Heaven-Overturning Fists.
“How did you find out?”
“I learned of it by chance.”
In truth, the previous Assassin King, whom Baek Socheon had killed, had told him.
Before dying, the man had begged for his life and revealed that Gwangsal possessed the Nine Heaven-Overturning Fists.
Baek Socheon did not know how the previous Assassin King had learned that fact, but the man had betrayed a retired senior assassin in an attempt to save himself.
Baek Socheon saw no need to mention it.
Cheon Geuk had been that man’s disciple, while Gwangsal had been his senior.
There was no reason to reveal such a truth and cause the living to suffer disappointment and pain.
“Why would someone without internal energy need this manual?”
“The Nine Heaven-Overturning Fists primarily uses techniques that borrow an opponent’s strength or return it against them.”
“Even so, it will be difficult without internal energy.”
“I’ll find a way to deal with that myself.”
“You are serious.”
Baek Socheon nodded solemnly.
His reason for learning the Nine Heaven-Overturning Fists was not merely to become stronger through fist techniques.
He wanted to gain new insight into martial principles by learning and mastering an art praised as the greatest of all time.
“Then why have you only come looking for me now?”
“I had no need for it back then...”
When he killed the Assassin King, the war had still been raging, and Baek Socheon had been the greatest martial artist under heaven.
He had possessed no interest whatsoever in other martial arts, especially a fist art rather than a sword art.
“But now I do.”
The secret manual Baek Socheon usually read was also a martial cultivation method once praised as the greatest of all time.
Immovable Wisdom King Cultivation Method.
He had obtained the manual during the days when he was the greatest under heaven.
He had been reading it in the hope of somehow restoring his dantian and recovering his internal energy, but it had yet to produce any results.
Then he met Cheon Geuk again and remembered that Gwangsal possessed the Nine Heaven-Overturning Fists.
He had jokingly said that he would no longer use a sword.
After eliminating Cheuk Su, he had also joked that using his fists felt satisfying.
Then his reunion with Cheon Geuk reminded him of Gwangsal.
It might have been nothing more than a series of coincidences, but he chose to think of it as fate.
After all, his desire to grow stronger remained unchanged.
He was not going to suddenly awaken one morning after undergoing a complete bodily transformation, so he intended to stake his hopes on martial arts bearing the title “greatest of all time.”
Perhaps if he continued walking among such peerless arts, he might even discover a way to restore his dantian.
“You want me to give this to you?”
“That’s right.”
“Why should I?”
Baek Socheon looked at Cheon Geuk.
“Don’t give it to me for my sake. Give it to me for the sake of your Alliance Leader.”
Cheon Geuk shouted in bewilderment,
“Why are you dragging me into this?”
“Who else am I supposed to drag into it?”
“What?”
“You’re the only person I can rely on right now. Give it to me for this woman’s sake.”
Cheon Geuk was about to protest again when Gwangsal spoke.
“Very well. I will give it to you.”
“Thank you.”
Cheon Geuk exclaimed in surprise,
“No! Don’t give it to him because of me.”
But the manual had already passed into Baek Socheon’s hands.
There were four martial arts in the current age that had been given the title of the greatest of all time.
Three existed as secret manuals, while the fourth was embodied by a living practitioner.
Baek Socheon had now obtained two of those three manuals.
He also knew where the remaining two martial arts could be found.
They would certainly not be easy to acquire, but he intended to make every effort to obtain them all.
There was a reason Gwangsal handed the manual over so readily.
For a very long time, he had struggled with what to do with it.
The manual possessed a value that could not be measured in money.
He had stolen it in a single, uncontrollable moment of greed, but afterward, disposing of it became a problem.
It was too late for him to begin learning it.
He could have sold it for a fortune, but that would have ended his peaceful retirement.
The moment rumors spread that Gwangsal had sold the secret manual of a greatest martial art of all time, all manner of people would come looking for him.
Yet leaving it to gather dust felt like an unbearable waste, and he had no one to whom he could pass it down.
On top of that, it served as a painful reminder of the one stain upon his lifelong career as an assassin.
It had become a troublesome burden that he could neither keep nor discard.
Then Baek Socheon had arrived today.
Had Baek Socheon come alone, Gwangsal would never have handed it over.
But because Cheon Geuk was with him, he could relinquish it willingly.
“In exchange, I have two requests.”
Because he spoke only after handing over the manual, they were not conditions but requests.
“Tell me.”
“After memorizing the manual, burn it.”
He likely wanted to erase the sole shame of his life.
“That won’t be difficult. What is the second?”
“Please take good care of our Alliance Leader.”
Cheon Geuk had not expected him to say such a thing.
She was embarrassed, but also deeply grateful.
Baek Socheon nodded.
“At present, your Alliance Leader is the one taking care of me. In any case, I understand your request.”
“Thank you. Now that the God of War possesses this manual, I look forward to hearing what news emerges from the martial world. Hahaha!”
Gwangsal laughed loudly, feeling as though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Cheon Geuk bid him farewell.
“I’m sorry, Elder.”
“There is no need. You have instead freed me from a lifelong burden.”
“Please remain healthy.”
“You too must take care of yourself, Alliance Leader.”
Baek Socheon and Cheon Geuk left.
Inside the carriage on their way back, Cheon Geuk asked,
“Are you truly planning to learn fist techniques?”
“Mm.”
“I can’t imagine using fist techniques without internal energy. Wouldn’t it be better to use a sword?”
“There is a limit to what I can achieve with swordsmanship alone.”
He could face ordinary experts such as Cheuk Su or Cheon Yang-ho even without internal energy, but once he encountered masters at the Peak Realm or above, every fight would become a precarious battle with his life at stake.
“Wouldn’t fist techniques have the same problem? No, wouldn’t their limitations be even clearer?”
“Perhaps.”
“Then why?”
“Because I haven’t tried yet.”
“...!”
It might have sounded like an insignificant statement, but it held tremendous meaning.
For a master of Baek Socheon’s caliber to attempt something entirely new was itself profoundly significant.
Anticipation rose within her.
A former greatest martial artist under heaven was about to learn a fist art called the greatest of all time.
What form would the Nine Heaven-Overturning Fists take in his hands?
As she stared through the window of the moving carriage, Cheon Geuk finally voiced something she had been holding back for a long time.
“Ever since I became the Assassin King, I’ve continued to hear news about you.”
“...”
“I thought that you, of all people, would overcome it. That even without internal energy, you would protect your position as Pavilion Lord, just as you did when facing me.”
After a short pause, Baek Socheon answered,
“What makes you think I’m any different?”
“Something happened to you, didn’t it?”
“Nothing happened. I was simply a powerful man who lost his strength, and afterward everything became irritating and tiresome.”
“That isn’t all, is it?”
“Stop overestimating people. It places a burden on the person being praised.”
As though unwilling to continue the conversation, Baek Socheon opened the manual and began reading.
Cheon Geuk, who had been about to say something, turned to look out the opposite window.
‘Do you think I overestimate just anyone? I do it because it’s you.’
When the carriage arrived in Munseong, Baek Socheon stepped down and handed the manual to her.
“Why are you giving this to me?”
“Burn it with Samadhi True Fire.”
She stared at him in shock.
“You’ve already memorized everything?”
Baek Socheon nodded.
No matter how exceptional his memory was, he could not have memorized an ordinary book this quickly.
But because it was a martial arts manual, it was possible.
Just as Go players could naturally reconstruct an entire match after it ended, martial artists could retain martial arts texts in much the same way.
“But how did you know I could use Samadhi True Fire?”
“I could tell from your movement technique. Hurry up and burn it, or I’ll sell it.”
Marveling at both Baek Socheon’s memory and his keen eye, Cheon Geuk summoned Samadhi True Fire.
Fwoooosh!
The secret manual blazed in her hand.
In front of Cheon Geuk, Baek Socheon fulfilled his promise to Gwangsal.
Cheon Geuk added one more reason to why she held him in such high regard.
‘How could I possibly not overestimate someone this intelligent?’