For a few days, Jin Mu-Won rode towards the sunset, until finally, he arrived at a lone barren mountain situated west of the fortress. The mountain rising from the t, deste ins looked no different from an uninhabited ind in the middle of the ocean, except that the rust-colored rocks emanated an unearthly, sinister aura.
The original name of this rocky mountain was Mount Cinnabar (赤巖山)[1], but because of its macabre aura that prevented nts from growing on it or near it, and the fact that it scared off both humans and animals, it was moremonly referred to as the Ghost Mountain.
Most importantly, Jin Mu-Won knew that Heaven''s Summit was not aware of the existence of this mountain.
"Young Master, do you really n on living here?" Hwang Cheol felt terrible at the thought of leaving Jin Mu-Won alone in this deste ce while he returned to the Central ins.
On the contrary, Jin Mu-Won liked this ce a lot. He replied, "Yes, I do. This is the perfect ce for me to concentrate on learning martial arts."
Back when he lived in the Northern Army Fortress, he was closely monitored day and night by Heaven''s Summit. At least here, he wouldn''t have to constantly be on the alert for spies and carefully choose his every word.
<i>To the world, the man named Jin Mu-Won is dead. They might be suspicious at first, but as time passes, they will forget me and move on to the next piece of interesting gossip, for that is the true nature of mankind.</i>
<i>If there are any problems with living here, it would have to be the difficulties in securing living necessities. I''ll have to depend on Hwang Cheol''s seasonal visits for that.</i>
"Uncle Hwang, I know this will be hard on you, but would you mind continuing sending me supplies regrly?"
"Oh dear! Please don''t say such things, Young Master. Taking care of you is my duty. You shouldn''t worry about me and focus on learning martial arts."
Jin Mu-Won smiled and said, "Thank you, Uncle Hwang."
However, instead of making Hwang Cheol feel reassured, Jin Mu-Won''s smile only ended up making him feel even more guilty.
Jin Mu-Won looked up at the giant mountain before him.
"This is the ce where I will learn to spread my wings and take flight."
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After Hwang Cheol had left, Jin Mu-Won carried his luggage into a cave on the side of the mountain. The naturally formed cave was wide and deep, perfect for his living and training needs.
When he was done moving his luggage, Jin Mu-Won did not rest. Instead, he piled up a stack ofrge rocks into a certain shape, then headed to the bottom of the mountain and filled up a sack with soil.
The broken bone in his left arm hadn''t healed, and it was painful to put a lot of strength into it, but Jin Mu-Won did not want to take a break. Soon, his body was drenched in sweat, and his muscles were twitching uncontrobly from the overexertion.
Still, he did not stop. He drew some water from a crack in the rocks near the cave and mixed it with the soil to form y. He then used the y to fill the cracks in between therge rocks that he had piled up.
Just like that, three dayster, Jin Mu-Won finished making himself a gigantic furnace three times the size and thickness of the one in his old smithy. The reason for thisrge furnace was that there was no firewood avable near Mount Cinnabar. Instead, ording to the "Record of a Thousand Weapons", he''d be able to find coal in the mountains. The mes created from burning coal were far hotter than that created from firewood, so he needed a furnace that could handle much higher temperatures.
Two dayster, after searching around the mountain, he found a location where he could mine a ck rock that matched the description of "coal" in the "Record of a Thousand Weapons".
"Phew!"
Jin Mu-Won observed the white-hot mes in his new furnace. The heat spreading out from it was so intense that it was hard to breathe even far away.
He tossed several chunks of iron ore into the furnace. He needed to forge himself a new sword, as the one he had made previously was shattered during the battle with Tae Mu-Kang.
The new sword had to be much sharper and more durable than the previous one.
Smithing was also a good way to pass the time while he was still recovering from his injuries. Two weeks had passed since his ribs were broken by Tae Mu-Kang, but even with the help of the Art of Ten Thousand Shadows, he needed to rest and meditate in-between smithing for another two weeks in order topletely recover.
"Huu…"
Jin Mu-Won took a deep breath and looked up at the blood-red rock wall in front of him. It was thergest cliff face of Mount Cinnabar, being 300 ft tall and 500 ft wide.
<i>It''s like a giant among giants is looking down at me; like nature''s majesty and supremacy is aiming to crush my spirit.</i>
<i>This wall is the backbone of Mount Cinnabar, and the red coloration is its blood.</i>
<i>I hereby name this wall, the "Sword Wall (劍壁)".</i>
"From now on, you will be my opponent."
In his hand, Jin Mu-Won held a new short sword that he had spent thest month forging.
It was two feet and seven inches long, and weighed around half a pound. The sharpness of its de could be discerned from the way the steel glinted in the bright sunlight.
Jin Mu-Won had used every forging technique he knew to create this sword, and as a result, the size and weight suited him perfectly. It looked crude and simple on the outside, but he was very satisfied with this piece of work.
He poured his chi into the de, and the de hummed in response. This was the sword acknowledging his chi.
While maintaining the chi in the de, he closed his eyes and recalled the Shadow de of Destruction.
He was the Lord of the Northern Army, and all Lords of the Northern Army desired fighting on the frontlines more than sitting around enjoying life, because only when they were fighting the Silent Night, could they get stronger and obtain even more inspiration to improve on their martial arts.
The Shadow de of Destruction was the culmination of their efforts.
No one understood the pros and cons of the Silent Night''s martial arts more than the Lords of the Northern Army. The Shadow de of Destruction was the result ofpiling all the knowledge they had collected over a hundred years.
However, the Shadow de of Destruction was not the sword technique''s original name. It was formerly called the "Demon ying Sword (滅魔劍)"—the sword created to y the demons of the Silent Night.
When Heaven''s Summit betrayed the Northern Army, Jin Kwan-Ho decided to change the name of the technique. It became the sword of shadows that ys not only demons, but destroys the heavens—the "Shadow de of Destruction". The new name was a reflection of Jin Kwan-Ho''s rage and hatred for Heaven''s Summit.
Jin Mu-Won went through the six basic forms of the Shadow de of Destruction in his mind.<ul> <li>Meteor Soul (流星魂)</li> <li>Wall of the Northern Heavens (北天壁)</li> <li>Dividing the Heavenly Seas (斷天海)</li> <li>Storm Forest (暴雨林)</li> <li>Bloody sh (閃光血)</li> <li>Shadowless World (無影界)</li> </ul>
As expected of thebined creation of multiple Lords of the Northern Army, the defenders of the world, just one of the six basic forms would be considered equal to the Silent Night''s and the Central ins''s strongest martial arts.
However, the really scary part of the Shadow de of Destruction could only be realized when the forms werebined and performed in conjunction. It''s true strength was not the sum of the six individual forms, but the strength of the six forms multiplied together.
For example, if Meteor Soul and the Wall of the Northern Heavens were to be merged, it would result in a new form that was clearly distinct from the two original forms. Simrly,bining Dividing the Heavenly Seas with Storm Forest would give rise to yet another new form. Theoretically, simply bybining only two forms, one would be able to create thirty new forms. Adding that number to the original six basic forms, that would be thirty-six forms in total. And that was not the limit.
The keyword there was "theoretically". Not even Jin Mu-Won knew if it would actually work, since none of his predecessors had actually reached that level of mastery.
Right now, Jin Mu-Won had only learned the first three of the six basic forms. Even then, it had taken him many, many repeated experiments and failures to iron out the mistakes and problems with the forms. Turning a theoretical martial art into reality ended up being a lot harder than he thought it would be.
He didn''t know how much more time and effort it would take him to fix the remaining three forms, but he felt that as long as he kept trying, he''d surely seed one day.
<i>The Path of the Sword.</i>
<i>The current me is still standing at the beginning of that path.</i>
<i>Thankfully, my shackles are gone. I can finally begin moving forward.</i>
Suddenly, Jin Mu-Won looked up at the sky and whispered to himself, "I swear that I won''t let you wait that long for me, Ha-Seol."
Right now, Good and Evil, Heaven''s Summit, and the Silent Night were things that had nothing to do with him.
He turned to face the Sword Wall and swung his de.
A sword cried, and the wind rose.
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<b>Footnotes:</b>
[1] Mount Cinnabar (赤巖山): Literal trantion – Mount Red Rock. Mount Red Rock sounds terrible, and I chose "cinnabar" because nothing can live on or around that mountain, like a toxic cinnabar (mercury sulfide) mine.
[2] Old Matriarch: If you read Leviatan''s trantion of the manhwa, they called her Noh Tae-Tae. That is not her name but her title, meaning "Old Lady". Her real name is Jang Mun-Hwa. I decided to call her "Old Matriarch" as "Old Lady" seemed extremely underwhelming, and also didn''t contain the White Dragon merchants'' sense of respect for their founding CEO.
<b>Trantor Notes:</b> This is the END of the first arc. To celebrate, download the epub in the next post on the blog