The next day, when the pool was finished, the water was poured in. He jumped, and huge waves rose all around it.
Then he told a guard to bring him a heavy stone ball with a rope on it, and to tie it to his leg. The guard obeyed the order. Once the stone ball was fastened to his leg, the men took hold of him and, with all their strength, threw him up into the air. This pool was going to be shallow for a man like that. But he went to the bottom like the Titanic.
Down there he began his water training. He started his internal energy practice. His masters had created a method they called the Spiritual Energy Heart Cultivation Technique. Instead of storing the energy in the core, he used his heart, and the energy travelled through his blood vessels instead of through the meridians. He finally got it working. The energy spread out into the water, and through it he could sense the current and use it.
Then he unleashed the most powerful move of Shaolin's ultimate fist art. The Mystic Fist of a Hundred Feet struck the water so hard that everything went to chaos.
After that he kept training under the water like a madman. With the knowledge of his past life he improved quickly. In a single month he had mastered the technique. Now it was time to go back up.
First he had to check how much weight had come off. So he asked the vassal to bring the scale. If there had been no weight loss, how was he going to face his masters?
After a long wait, the number came back. His weight had gone down slightly. At least the rope did not break this time. They laughed with pure joy. The vassal admitted that he had had his doubts earlier.
Now Han had to become stronger, and quickly, if he was going to stop that servant from bringing the chaos. So he ate everything that was put in front of him, and he cultivated the food before it had even finished digesting. He did that again and again.
Then two months passed. Now, at the bottom of the pool, he used a palm technique, and the entire surface above him was charred.
The vassal could not make himself believe it. How could a pig do a thing like that, came out of his mouth.
At that same moment, someone behind him asked whom exactly he was calling a pig. It was the patriarch, and he was furious. Han's fun looked as though it was going to end right there. But his father's personal guard told the soldiers to take the man away at once — not for punishment, only for rest, for having worked so hard for the young master. Afterwards, tears of joy came into the vassal's eyes.
Han's father was overjoyed that his son's palm art had blown the water apart. There was real martial talent in the boy. He wanted him to keep up his reading, but to support his martial training as well.
Then the old man's expression turned serious. He ordered paper and ink, to send messages to the palace.
The next day Papa gave him the Divine Manual of Heaven, and Han's face turned serious in its turn. This was the manual the Emperor had written out and given with his own hand. It showed how much influence his father actually had.
Papa said he had recently told the Emperor that Han had begun learning martial arts. So the Emperor had personally chosen the best manual in the palace for him.
Han did not know how hard the old man had pushed on his behalf. He had sent the Emperor letter after letter, asking and asking until they had forgotten what they were even being asked for. All of it so that enough pressure would be put on the man to make him say yes. Honestly, it sounded more like a jealous lover's tantrum than a court petition.
Apart from that, his brother-in-law became his martial arts teacher.
That was Dam Chunwoo, the husband of Han's elder sister. He proudly claimed that his school was the most famous in the province. His real skill was probably nothing at all next to Han's. But Han could not reveal that just yet. So he knelt beside him, and there was no option except to accept his brother-in-law as his master. His father was so touched that he almost cried, and kept thinking to himself, son, since when did you become so respectful?
Getting back on his feet without his brother-in-law's help would not have been possible either.
Over the next few days the training was like torture. Dam Chunwoo mocked him constantly, and called him a killer as well. That made Han furious, and he actually challenged his master. He said he would prove that he already knew the basics.
Dam Chunwoo took it as a joke and laughed so loudly that the situation only got worse. But when Han mocked him back and asked whether he was feeling scared, he accepted the fight instantly and sealed his own internal energy. Even that did not feel like enough to him, so before they began he tied his own arms as well.
Han used his combat technique. It was quick and it was powerful, although the heavy body still slowed him down. His brother-in-law was shocked. How was Han blending fighting styles as naturally as that?
Han knew there were limits to his strength, so he had to finish it fast. He put his brother-in-law down quickly. The man started asking for mercy, but Han did not stop. He only left once he had knocked him out.
Afterwards, Dam Chunwoo was so badly hurt that he could not even scratch himself, and Han's sister had to scratch his head for him. He had no problem with any of it, because Han was doing very well. He had always said the boy was a martial arts genius. The sister was unable to hide how happy she was.
One day Han went out for a walk in the town. He had never seen the people there so happy. Merchants were trading. Children were playing. And he remembered the past, when there were dead bodies lying in these streets, when everyone lived frightened and hungry. The Servant of Chaos had destroyed all of it and taken their peace away from them.
Now, when the townspeople saw Han, they came running, filled with admiration. They could not believe that the young master was really up on his own two feet. Soon they began giving him gifts, and food as well. He had only gone out for a walk. But the townspeople kept feeding him until he started to feel heavy again. He was so kind that he could not refuse any of it.
This was what gave him a stronger resolve to save the martial world. People this good did not deserve to die.
Only then did he notice that a martial artist was secretly watching him. The man was surprised that the fat boy had noticed him at all. Han appeared suddenly behind him and tried to talk to him. Startled, the man attacked with full force and blew him away.
He was clearly no ordinary fighter. Han was knocked senseless by the impact, and the attacker used the chance to escape.
When Han woke up he was furious and wanted to kill the man who had hit him. People nearby asked whether he was all right, so he behaved as though nothing had happened, although he was clearly hurt.
That, too, pushed him to become stronger.
At the same time, his Papa and his sister were talking. Papa wanted Han to make an arranged marriage, so that he might one day become a famous general. But the sister felt it was far too early. She guessed that Han's sudden change had come from the broken engagement with the Namgung daughter — a girl who did not want to be married at all, who only wanted to live her own life and follow the martial path.
Even so, Papa wanted to ask for her hand again, and soon. The Namgung family were close by. They were sitting there working out a way to reject it politely.
Meanwhile Han went down to the beggars' district to ask about the ginseng. But he searched for a long time and found nothing at all. Somebody told him that it had been more than twenty years since the beggars had disappeared from there, ever since the patriarch built houses for them. Han needed information on a treasure of the realm as well. But now he did not even know where the beggars had gone.
At that same hour, the Namgung family were checking their records because of the marriage proposal.
A beggar explained to them that Han was a specially adopted son, so no work connected with him could be done without the permission of the Central Beggar Office. They had marked him top rank, because he was the son of the patriarch. The wealthy and powerful Namgung immediately piled up coins and said he would give whatever it took. It was still not enough. The rules of the beggar network could not be broken.