The Eunuch Regains His Manhood in the Second Round

21. Bokma Sword Technique

The place my senior brother guided me to was a passage opposite the entrance to the bathhouse.

After passing through the passage, which was not dark due to the numerous luminous pearls embedded in it, we arrived at a warehouse.

A warehouse filled with large jars.

—

—

On one side of the wall, although not as large as a bathhouse, water trickled down, forming a small stream.

Upon checking the contents of the jar, I found it to be Byeokgokdan.

I took out a Byeokgokdan and sniffed it.

‘It’s in good condition.’

Having wandered around the rugged terrain of Gongdong Mountain all night, my energy was greatly depleted.

Although I had taken a tonic earlier to replenish some vitality, it was still not enough.

I popped a Byeokgokdan into my mouth.

The taste was mediocre.

It had a bland grainy flavor.

The key feature of Byeokgokdan was not its taste but its preservation performance, which could be called a distribution revolution, remaining intact for 300 years.

The cliché in martial arts novels where the protagonist survives on Byeokgokdan found in a hidden cave under a cliff for over 100 years is not a lie. In this world, it was 100% true.

With preservation that lasted 300 years and calories equivalent to a meal in a single pill.

It was truly a revolutionary emergency food in medieval Murim, embodying the mysteries of the martial arts world.

Therefore, in the hidden caves created by the masters of the past, there was almost always a storage of Byeokgokdan, and this place seemed to be one of those locations.

The stream of water flowing down one side of the wall seemed to be for drinking.

“Where is the sword mark?”

With my hunger resolved by the Byeokgokdan and nutrients supplied to my brain, I asked in a calm voice.

In fact, I already knew the mnemonic of the Bokma Sword Technique.

It wasn’t just the Bokma Sword Technique.

The true martial arts techniques of famous sects, including the Nine Great Schools, were all stored deep within the Imperial Palace’s martial arts library.

The reason the Imperial Palace could maintain its superiority over the martial arts world despite the non-aggression pact.

It was because the Imperial Palace had already acquired the true martial arts techniques of famous sects, researched martial arts, and developed countermeasures for each sect.

However, they did not possess all the true martial arts techniques, only one representative technique from each sect.

The only martial art from the Gongdong Sect in the Imperial Palace’s martial arts library was the Bokma Sword Technique.

Anyway, I had memorized all the mnemonics of the martial arts in the Imperial Palace’s martial arts library.

‘But memorizing the mnemonics and telling them to my senior or others are different matters.’

Even though I knew the mnemonic of the Bokma Sword Technique, I couldn’t just tell it to my senior or master.

That’s why in my previous life, my senior came to the Guangxing Blood Cave to acquire the Bokma Sword Technique naturally, but was flustered when there was no secret manual.

If my senior hadn’t mentioned the sword mark, I would have had to go through the troublesome task of artificially creating a fortuitous encounter by secretly placing a secret manual in one of the caves scattered around Gongdong Mountain.

I’m glad that’s not the case.

—

—

“Here it is, my junior.”

I turned my gaze along with my senior brother’s words.

There, on the stone wall, were lines drawn in a chaotic tangle.

At a glance, they looked like marks made by a sword, in other words, sword scars.

“These sword scars seem to be the diagram of the Demonic Sword Technique left by the ancestor of the Honwon Sword Sect for future generations.”

My senior brother spoke to me with a slightly serious attitude.

I approached the wall and gently touched the chaotic sword scars at my senior brother’s words.

At first glance, the lines seemed chaotic and irregular.

However, having reached the realm of the Sage in my previous life and currently practicing the martial arts of the Gongdong Sect in this life, I could recognize the true nature of the sword scars on the wall.

‘My senior brother’s words were not wrong. These are the sword scars of the Demonic Sword Technique. Engraved by the Honwon Sword Ancestor himself.’

The basic forms and derived variations of the Demonic Sword Technique were engraved on the wall as sword scars.

The appearance of the sword scars, carved with terrifying precision and smoothness without any waste of effort, revealed that the person who engraved these scars on the wall was a master who had reached the highest realm.

If there was a master capable of engraving the Demonic Sword Technique on a stone wall with such quality, it could only be the Honwon Sword Ancestor.

The problem was.

‘These sword scars were not left to be passed down to future generations.’

Contrary to my senior brother’s words, the sword scars engraved on the stone wall were not a diagram kindly explaining the Demonic Sword Technique to future generations.

No, rather, they were closer to the opposite purpose.

I quietly placed my hand on the stone wall, raised my inner strength, and carefully projected my senses while closing my eyes.

As I operated my inner strength according to the principles of the Soyang Heart Method and focused my entire mind on my senses, I detected an empty space beyond the thick stone wall.

‘As expected. These sword scars were a code.’

After finishing my detection, I withdrew my inner strength.

It was a common pattern of fortuitous encounters.

Suppose a master of a prestigious sect left arrangements in a hidden cave.

Naturally, such a master would have a strong sense of belonging to the sect, and even if a future generation obtained the arrangements, they would hope that a disciple of the same sect would obtain it.

It was only natural to prevent the leakage of the sect’s secret techniques.

Thus, the device that appeared for security purposes was a special mechanism like the sword scars on this stone wall, which could only be opened by performing the sect’s secret techniques.

If a master who had mastered the sect’s secret techniques to the extreme was naturally a disciple, the previous generation master could leave the arrangements with peace of mind.

‘These sword scars are the same. There must be a mechanism installed that prevents the door from opening unless a master who has mastered the Demonic Sword Technique to the extreme performs it.’

So, the sword scars in front of me were a code.

It was likely that the door would only open if the Demonic Sword Technique, mastered to the extreme, was performed following the sword scars.

—

—

That means.

‘The real arrangement left by the Honwon Sword Master is beyond this stone wall.’

As I drew this conclusion, my hand trembled slightly.

The elixir that Yujinhwi from my previous life consumed in the Honwon Secret Cave was the Mita Holy Water, and the secret manuals he obtained were the Samum True Art, the Seven Kill Sword, the Hyuncheon Sword, the Flowing Cloud Water, the Demon Subduing Great Strength Hand, the Dry Yang Finger, and the Kun Yin Finger, totaling seven.

The Mita Holy Water was, of course, a precious item, and the seven martial arts written in the secret manuals could be considered first-class martial arts in their own right.

However, the Honwon Sword Master was a hero who blocked the advance of the Blood Sect during the chaos at the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty 300 years ago, saving the martial world and becoming the number one in the world, reaching the realm of life and death.

Unlike the history of modern Earth where I lived, the Ming Dynasty of this otherworldly medieval martial world, where martial arts actually exist, had maintained its state for over 300 years, longer than in the original history.

The Manchus, who established the Qing Dynasty in the original history, could not withstand the imperial martial arts and formations of the Ming Dynasty’s imperial army, which boasted a long history.

The large-scale peasant rebellions that were the cause of the Ming Dynasty’s downfall in the original history had disappeared. To be precise, the existence of the martial world, which cooperated with the imperial army in emergencies in exchange for non-aggression, suppressed the peasant rebellions at the small uprising stage.

Peasants who did not know martial arts or only had third-rate martial arts, and the Jurchen army that did not possess advanced martial arts, could not defeat the imperial army trained in martial arts and the martial arts masters who cooperated with them.

As a result, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty in the original history, the Chongzhen Emperor, became a revered monarch known for the Chongzhen Reign in this otherworldly medieval martial world, and the Ming Dynasty was enjoying its second golden age.

Anyway, the legacy left by such an absolute master in the secret cave was just seven first-class martial arts, the Mita Holy Water, and the Hongyangtai?

‘That makes no sense.’

It was nonsense from the beginning.

In other words, what the Honwon Sword Master left behind were merely bait.

The reason there were no special mechanisms near the Guangseong Blood was probably because the real thing was elsewhere.

And that real arrangement is probably beyond this stone wall.

However, Yujinhwi from my previous life did not reach the real arrangement.

Of course. No matter how much of a genius Yujinhwi was, he was only fifteen when he discovered the Guangseong Blood.

At fifteen, Yujinhwi had no knowledge of mechanisms.

No, rather, the fact that he obtained the Demon Subduing Sword Technique from these sword marks already proved Yujinhwi’s genius.

‘To reverse-engineer the formula of the Demon Subduing Sword Technique from the security sword marks? If that’s not genius, then what is?’

The sword marks engraved on the stone wall are not a diagram.

They were originally intended for encryption, making them unfriendly and difficult for outsiders to recognize.

If I didn’t have the insights of the Hyungyeong and didn’t know the formula of the Demon Subduing Sword Technique, I wouldn’t have realized that the sword marks were the Demon Subduing Sword Technique.

However, Yujinhwi reverse-engineered the formula of the Demon Subduing Sword Technique from the encrypted sword marks on the wall by mobilizing all the martial arts knowledge he had acquired from the Gongdong Sect.

The Demon Subduing Sword Technique is not some third-rate martial art from the marketplace, nor is it a first-class martial art thrown as bait by the Honwon Sword Master, but the representative advanced martial art of the Gongdong Sect, and he reverse-engineered it from such sword marks?

That’s truly insane talent. It’s no wonder he had the qualities of a great master.

Even though I knew from intelligence and records in my previous life, experiencing that talent firsthand is different from knowing it in my head.

‘That’s probably why he came to the Imperial Martial Library to confirm the formula of the Demon Subduing Sword Technique.’

—

—

At some point, it was highly likely that Yujinhui had figured out the secret of this stone wall.

There was a record that he had attempted to re-enter the Honwon Bido after he had grown up.

On the surface, it was for the purpose of closed-door training, but in reality, it was to obtain the true arrangement beyond the mechanical device.

Although the Bido collapsed and he couldn’t enter in the end.

In his previous life, Yujinhui entered the Imperial Palace and checked the secret manual of the Bokma Sword Technique, to see if the formula he had deduced matched the real formula of the Bokma Sword Technique.

His intelligence was so extraordinary that the term “Heavenly Martial Body” was fitting.

“But the diagram was too difficult to understand. Is it because it’s the ultimate technique representing our sect? I feel like I might understand it if I look a little more.”

Yujinhui muttered beside me.

Experiencing the scene of history firsthand, I was so dumbfounded that my jaw almost dropped.

But that was that.

Knowing that there was a real opportunity, I couldn’t waste any more time.

“Senior Brother, you don’t have to worry alone. Isn’t there a saying that a single hand cannot clap? Although I am not as talented as you, I am still a martial artist and your junior. So please allow me to offer even a small help in deciphering the diagram of the Bokma Sword Technique.”

I had to give appropriate hints to my senior brother, who was deducing the formula of the Bokma Sword Technique, to quickly complete the restoration of the Bokma Sword Technique and open that door.

‘Hehehe… I can’t back down from the arrangement left by the Honwon Sword Emperor.’

The Honwon Sword Emperor was the strongest martial artist in the history of the Gongdong Sect.

The arrangement he left behind with such a complex device was 99.9999% likely to be martial arts.

And the fundamental principle underlying the martial arts of the Gongdong Sect was the Yin-Yang Reversal.

The Yin-Yang Reversal is a means to achieve the Water Ascending and Fire Descending, and when the Water Ascending and Fire Descending is achieved, one attains the ultimate life.

Therefore, the goal of the Gongdong Sect’s martial arts is the ultimate life.

If the martial arts left by the Honwon Sword Emperor, who reached the state of life and death, were the ultimate martial arts of the Gongdong Sect, it would naturally be the supreme ultimate technique.

In conclusion, the martial arts left by the Honwon Sword Emperor were highly likely to be divine techniques that guide one to the ultimate life.

‘The ultimate life, having abundant life force means having abundant vitality… Therefore, the divine techniques left by the Honwon Sword Emperor must be the supreme ultimate techniques that can reach the ultimate vitality.’

Hehehe.

I barely held back the corners of my mouth from rising.

The martial arts of the previous world’s number one martial artist were not very important.

The ultimate life force, no, the vitality was important.

Missing out on the divine ultimate techniques that guarantee the ultimate vitality, left by a martial artist who reached the state of life and death and achieved the ultimate life?

‘That can’t happen.’

So I had to open that door. To obtain the ultimate vitality derived from the insights of the state of life and death as soon as possible.

The fundamental principles of the martial arts of other sects like Shaolin, Huashan, and Wudang do not have life force.

—

—

Therefore, their martial arts are useless for virility. So, they are unnecessary.

Taiji? Plum Blossom? What use is there in exploring such things?

Even the Shaolin Temple, which is considered the pinnacle of martial arts, is a Buddhist institution. Therefore, many of the Shaolin’s seventy-two techniques require the restraint of desire to deepen their mastery.

Restrain desire, restrain the pleasures of the flesh! It was truly a martial art with a dreadful philosophy.

But not the Gongdong Sect.

Indeed, joining the Gongdong Sect, which pursues vitality, was a good decision.

Anyway, since I already know the key formula of the Demonic Sword Technique, restoring it without getting caught is a piece of cake.

My senior brother’s eyes widened at my words.

He smiled bashfully and said to me in a bright voice.

“Really? You’re going to help? Thank you, junior brother!”

I laughed at my senior brother’s words.

Now, it was time to quickly restore the Demonic Sword Technique and go beyond the wall to obtain the ultimate virility.