Internal Energy (1)

The question that popped into his mind was simple.

"Won't they teach us any formulas or principles for cultivating internal energy?"

It was a common theme in martial arts novels: the intricate formulas of internal energy cultivation. Characters would recite lines about the Taiji, the Five Elements, the Eight Trigrams, and other aspects of Eastern philosophy, leading the protagonist to a sudden epiphany.

"Well, there must be a reason."

However, since Mu-Jin knew nothing about internal energy cultivation methods, he simply followed Hyu Jong's instructions and focused on his breathing.

This was the time to learn internal energy!

The essence of martial arts novels, the source of power that allows humans to split mountains and fly through the sky.

What martial arts novel enthusiast wouldn't want to obtain internal energy?

"When exhaling, do it through your mouth. Think of expelling all the bad energy from your body, gathering it up, and then breathing it out deeply through your mouth."

"Whoo."

Knowing nothing about internal energy, Mu-Jin just followed Hyu Jong's instructions, eager to learn the Shaolin method of internal energy cultivation.

As Mu-Jin concentrated on his breathing, the senior disciples moved around the training ground, correcting the stances of the young monks and helping those who couldn't focus.

After about half an hour had passed,

"Everyone, open your eyes."

Seeing that the young monks had become somewhat accustomed to the breathing and meditation, Hyu Jong got them to their feet.

"What you have learned is the Tona method, the most basic breathing technique for sensing and accumulating energy in your body."

At Hyu Jong's words, Mu-Jin couldn't help but show a momentary look of disappointment. He had thought they were practicing an internal energy method, but it turned out to be just the basic Tona method.

But it was unavoidable.

"To use an internal energy method, you must first be able to sense energy. So from now on, you must practice the Tona method every day whenever you have time to try and sense energy."

As Hyu Jong said, to learn an internal energy method, one must first be able to sense energy.

The next step would be to make the sensed energy flow through the meridians.

"From now on, the senior disciples will hand out booklets showing the meridians of the human body."

As soon as Hyu Jong finished speaking, the senior disciples handed out thin booklets with the meridians marked to the young monks.

"You don't need to memorize all the meridians, but you must remember the main ones. Some meridians are crucial for the practice of internal energy, and many will be useful to know when subduing an opponent."

With that, Hyu Jong pointed to various parts of the senior disciple's body, naming each meridian.

"Oh, meridians."

Seeing the meridians, which he had often encountered in martial arts novels, Mu-Jin eagerly tried to memorize Hyu Jong's teachings and the contents of the booklet.

Another half an hour passed. After finishing the meridian lesson, Hyu Jong spoke in a stern voice.

"Once you have memorized the meridians and can sense energy through the Tona method, you will begin learning our Shaolin's introductory method, the Heart Fist. Understood?"

"Yes!!!"

Mu-Jin replied with all his excitement and anticipation.

"I will memorize it all by today."

He was eager to start learning the internal energy method immediately.

* * *

That evening.

After finishing his duties, Mu-Jin headed to his quarters with a brisk pace.

During the evening free time, Mu-Jin's heart raced at the thought of memorizing all the meridians and practicing the Tona method. However, his cheerful mood quickly plummeted when he saw Beob Gang training alone in the training hall of the Hall of Arhats.

"Beob Gang Sasuk! What are you doing right now!?"

"Hahaha. Thanks to the exercise Mu-Jin Sajil taught me today, my knee hurts less, so I decided to train a bit more," Beob Gang responded brightly, with the demeanor of a soldier.

Mu-Jin couldn't hold back and let out a deep sigh. 

"I gave you exercises to make your knee better, not worse! The exercises from this morning were enough!"

It was maddening for Mu-Jin as a trainer to see his "client" self-harming by doing exercises that were not prescribed. If it were a member trying to build muscle and compete, it might be different. But Beob Gang was clearly a patient.

"Listen, steel becomes stronger the more you hammer it. And it's the same with the human body. Look at these muscles, honed over eighteen years at Shaolin," Beob Gang said, confidently rolling up his sleeves to show off his biceps. To Mu-Jin, they looked pitifully underdeveloped.

Muscles grown on a diet of just greens and exercises that bordered on self-harm could hardly compare to the muscles on Cho Kang-hyuk's body. Those were merely skin-deep in comparison.

"Steel only becomes stronger if hammered appropriately. Hammer it too much, and it breaks. The same goes for the human body, Sasuk."

Mu-Jin sighed and forcibly stopped Beob Gang's training, then began massaging his knee.

In his eighteen years at Shaolin, this was the first time Beob Gang had ever been told to stop training to rest, and he looked at Mu-Jin with a bemused expression.

"This might hurt a bit," Mu-Jin warned.

He then started massaging Beob Gang's knee and surrounding muscles more thoroughly than he had in the morning.

True to his reputation as a paragon of patience, Beob Gang endured the intense pain transmitted through his knee without changing his expression.

"It's okay to say it hurts if it hurts."

But Mu-Jin, with his experience, could feel just how much damage had been done to Beob Gang's knee and surrounding muscles.

He knew all too well the extent of the pain that would accompany it.

"Oh dear, who keeps exercising to the point of breaking down? If your body breaks down, you're the only one who suffers. No one else will take responsibility. So please, take care of your body, Beob Gang Sasuk."

Mu-Jin's advice was filled with genuine concern.

As he massaged Beob Gang's knee, memories of his time in the special forces surfaced.

In the final years of his service, he had pushed his injured body to keep up with training until it was completely wrecked. Despite his efforts, he had ultimately been discharged forcefully, failing to secure long-term service.

Perhaps Beob Gang's military-like demeanor and the sight of him damaging his body through excessive training reminded Mu-Jin of his past self.

After silently observing Mu-Jin's worried and earnest expression, Beob Gang spoke with conviction.

"Mu-Jin, I don't know what you went through in the secular world, but I want you to believe this one thing. Shaolin does not abandon its disciples just because their bodies are a bit broken. No matter what happens, Shaolin will never abandon its disciples."

Mu-Jin stared at Beob Gang's eyes, which reminded him of his younger self, and then responded with a peculiar, childlike smile.

"Well, if you say so, then that must be the case."

Mu-Jin thought there was no point in arguing about something that could only be confirmed in the future.

Misinterpreting Mu-Jin's smile as a sign of agreement, Beob Gang burst into hearty laughter and started speaking nonsense.

"Hahaha! So, from tomorrow, trust me and follow our Shaolin training methods—Ahhh!!"

Beob Gang finally let out a groan due to Mu-Jin's sudden, intense massage.

It was the first time in eighteen years since he entered Shaolin that Beob Gang had let out a groan.

* * *

After about an hour of Muscle Stretching Technique and acupressure, Mu-Jin dusted off his hands and stood up.

"Thank you for enduring it, Sasuk."

"Humph. This is nothing," Beob Gang replied, drenched in sweat and muttering nonsensical bravado.

Feeling embarrassed by his empty bravado, Beob Gang quickly changed the subject.

"Ahem. Sorry for taking up your time. You seemed to be heading somewhere in a hurry. Where were you going?"

"Oh, I was planning to head back to my quarters to practice the Tona method we learned this morning."

"The Tona method?"

"Yes. They said I need to feel the qi to master the Heart Fist."

Beob Gang tilted his head at Mu-Jin's answer.

"But didn't you already feel qi through your family's internal energy techniques?"

If he were a child from an ordinary family, it might be different. But coming from a family of martial artists, it was highly likely he had learned his family's internal energy techniques.

Faced with Beob Gang's question, Mu-Jin managed to keep a straight face and lied.

"Due to family circumstances, I haven't learned it yet."

"Is that so."

"Yes, that's right."

"Hmm."

Beob Gang, believing that Mu-Jin would not lie to him, pondered for a moment on how he could help Mu-Jin.

The simplest method was to directly transfer qi through the technique of Gyeokche Jeongong.

If qi flowed through his body with external help, even a child with a poor sense of qi would be able to feel it easily.

However, there was a problem.

"That would violate our Shaolin principles."

Why hadn't they used Gyeokche Jeongong during the morning training and only taught the Tona method? 

Feeling qi was a kind of trial, a trial to select the true disciples. Only those with enough talent to feel qi through the Tona method alone could be chosen as true disciples.

Living and dying by the law, Beob Gang couldn't break such a principle.

Instead, he came up with an alternative.

"Then why don't you try the Tona method here instead of going back to your quarters?"

"Here?"

"Yes. I was just about to start my own breathing exercises. Who knows? Maybe it'll be easier for you to feel qi with me doing it nearby."

Although it wasn't a direct transfer, the artificial flow of qi created by another could be easier to sense than natural qi.

Mu-Jin quickly understood Beob Gang's intention and sat cross-legged on the training hall floor.

"I'm ready, Sasuk!"

"Hahaha. Then I shall begin my breathing exercises as well. Focus."

Beob Gang also sat cross-legged on the floor and began recalling the principles of his internal energy technique.

Through his nose, the qi from the air was drawn in, circulating through his body according to the Shaolin internal energy technique.

Some of it transformed into the unique, majestic qi of Buddhism, and the rest was exhaled through his breath.

But Mu-Jin, who couldn't yet feel qi, simply focused on the basic breathing of the Tona method with his eyes closed.

Once his body started mechanically repeating the breathing, he began to focus his mind elsewhere.

"Beob Gang Sasuk is currently doing his breathing exercises. There must be qi flowing around him. I have to feel that qi!"

Of course, it wasn't an easy task. He didn't even know what qi felt like.

So he thought.

"I need to sense the difference. I need to find something that I can only feel around Beob Gang Sasuk's mouth and nose."

Instead of blindly trying to sense qi, he aimed to recognize it through comparison.

Mu-Jin concentrated on Beob Gang's breathing for a long time.

At some point, as Beob Gang's focus on his breathing deepened, the majestic Buddhist qi began to flow around his body.

"Is this it?"

Mu-Jin, who had been concentrating hard, could sense the qi without difficulty.

Once he felt that qi, he realized that the same kind of qi was present in his own breathing.

"With the inhale, draw it as deeply as possible, down to the dantian at the center of the body," he recalled Hyu Jong's words from the morning training.

Mu-Jin imagined the qi entering through his nose and filling the dantian as he inhaled deeply. As he exhaled, he tried to retain the qi he had drawn in.

Naturally, it didn't work perfectly from the start.

The frustration of the qi slipping entirely out through his mouth was overwhelming.

But Mu-Jin was not one to give up easily over such a minor setback.

He continued repeating the Tona method, drawing in and releasing qi.

After a long repetition, he finally managed to retain an infinitesimal amount of qi.

If he inhaled 100 units of qi, he could retain about 0.0001 units.

It was an amount smaller than a speck of dust, but a deep smile appeared on Mu-Jin's lips.

"If they say even 0.0000000001% of truffle in a snack makes it a truffle snack, this counts as success too! Absolutely!"

The thought reminded Mu-Jin of the truffle snacks he used to eat during his mukbang sessions on YouTube.