Part 17 — Immortal Arts

It’s rather obvious, but Tempera Village isn’t that far away from the Arcana Kingdom. In fact, it’s in the territory of the kingdom itself, and exists as a sort of ungoverned no man’s land within it. When considering that Sansui and Suiboku lived in an untouched forest of their own within the kingdom, Saiga and company couldn’t help but worry that the kingdom itself contained quite a number of dangerous individuals and groups.

Then again, Sansui had been living in this area since before the founding of the kingdom, and Tempera Village has been here for over three thousand years. If anything, the Arcana Kingdom came into the area afterwards and laid claim to the land they’d been in for years.

Regardless, the combined Batterabbe and Tempera party were steadily making their way toward the village on a House Batterabbe carriage.

“What sort of place is Tempera Village?”

“It’s a boring little village. It’s a collection of several houses that teach martial arts, and each house has a main branch and cadet branches. Myself included, all five of us who left the village belong to cadet houses.”

It may be a hidden village, but they’re still inhabitants of this world, so it’s not that different from how things work here, generally. Even if each family is protecting a bloodline that makes it easier for a Rare Arts user to emerge, not everyone from that family is going to have the talent for that Rare Art.

Just as Tahlan was born with Shadow Presence from the Magyan Royal Family, which has a higher incidence of being born with Royal Presence, there would be times that Tempera villages would be born with a different ability, or just the ordinary ability to use magic.

“Even if someone is born to the main branch, if they don’t have the talent for their martial art, they’ll send them to a cadet branch, and they might be treated poorly, even in the cadet branch. But if it becomes clear that they have the talent needed for another martial art, they can end up being adopted by that house.”

That the four who are about to return to their homeland don’t look very happy is ultimately because they’re not very fond of the village itself. That said, they’re still going to try to return to obtain a kind of closure, and because they still have many things that they want to learn.

At the very least, the other four are simply lacking in skill and are far from being able to stand on their own yet. Whether or not they’ll take them back is a different matter, but they still need to put in some proper training.

“There would occasionally be those who left the village to look for a bride or groom. After all, there are those with gifts for the martial arts outside of the village.”

It’s true that, based on the descriptions, it doesn’t sound like a very interesting place. There’s nothing about the place that seems to go against the basic rules of the world. At least, Zuger and Sunae didn’t find anything unusual about the description they were hearing.

“That aside... Saiga, I suppose it’s late to comment on it, but you really do have the ability to learn multiple styles.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“And you’re also the apprentice of that man, Sansui. Does that mean he can also learn multiple martial arts, as well?”

Saiga is dumbstruck by Ran’s question, to the point where he can’t understand why she would think this. If that were the case, he really would be completely invincible.

“No, not at all. I’m the only one who has a talent for multiple Arts. Sansui’s an Immortal. He uses the Immortal Arts and only possesses Ki. He hasn’t taught me any Immortal Arts, and the only thing he’s teaching us is swordsmanship.”

“...Really?”

“Why did you think that? He’s only been using the Immortal Arts.”

“Well, uh... So, just what are the Immortal Arts?”

At what feels like a really obvious question, Saiga didn’t have an answer. It’s not just Ran. The others have the same expression.

“The Immortal Arts are techniques that Immortals use...and...uhh.”

The only two who knew about Immortals are Saiga and Tahlan. Those two only have vague images of what Immortals might be, and since Suiboku and Sansui were just as they imagined, they didn’t think to raise any further questions.

Flash Step, Feather Step, Ki Blade, Ki Wave... They seem natural techniques for an Immortal to use, but there’s nothing that ties them together.

“Eckesachs.”

Eckesachs is exactly the one to turn to in situations like these. After all, she accompanied an Immortal for a thousand years. No doubt she knows a lot about Immortals.

“Immortal Arts, mm...? Honestly, I don’t have a good grasp on them. They synchronize with nature and utilize its power, but it’s hard to put into words what sort of Art it actually is. Even if you were to ask the Immortals themselves, they could probably only tell you that it’s an Art that works in accord with nature.”

After all, they’re undying Immortals. They have their own point of view and their own senses, and it must be very difficult to share those senses with ordinary people. It seems that it’s impossible to give a specific description for the Immortal Arts. Still, she does have knowledge about what sort of techniques they can use.

“Techniques that concern vitality — Golden Balm, Coiled Peach, Divine Ginseng. Techniques that manipulate weather — Merciful Rain, Cleansing Flood, Great Thunder. Techniques that enhance one’s own body — Strengthen Self, Harden Self, Blink Step. There are also techniques that do things like shake the earth...”

Her descriptions just add to the confusion. Even if there are individual Arts that can manipulate those things, it’s difficult to imagine that a single art can encompass all of those things.

“Still, I doubt Sansui can use most of them. Given that even Suiboku said that he spent over a thousand years learning all of them, I doubt he could teach all of those in a mere five hundred years. Suiboku himself didn’t learn them from a single master, but instead went to an Immortal version of Tempera Village and sought instruction from multiple masters. Ordinary Immortals can supposedly only use one or two techniques.”

Even Eckesachs, who spent a thousand years — from twenty-five hundred years ago to fifteen hundred years ago — with Suiboku, evidently doesn’t know much about him from when he was still training. At a minimum, Suiboku spent a thousand years — spanning from thirty-five hundred years ago to twenty-five hundred years ago — being instructed by other Immortals. Since this is the history of one man, it’s natural that it doesn’t make sense to the others.

If there’s one thing that’s clear from all of this, it’s that the Suiboku that the Batterabbe party met is on a far higher plane than Sansui, as Sansui himself has stated multiple times. Those listening to the story have a hard time imagining the life of an individual that can be measured in millennia.

“If there’s one thing that I can state for certain, it’s that there are clear limits. The Art can’t be used like magic to create fire or water from nothing. To use fire techniques, one needs to be near a volcano or a fire, and to make it rain, there needs to be clouds in the sky.”

As it’s an Art that follows nature, although it’s able to make use of or manipulate things that exist there, it can’t create things that aren’t already there. Essentially, it’s an Art that is severely restricted by its surroundings.

“In that sense, the weather manipulation arts of the Immortals are far inferior to Vajra’s powers. Even with my help, it took Suiboku a week to gather up a cloud. Though, even then, Vajra was quite displeased.”

From the standpoint of farming, being able to create a cloud over the course of a week is a remarkable thing. From the standpoint of combat, however, waiting a week is something only an Immortal would stand around and do.

“In terms of vitality manipulation, whether we’re talking about the Golden Balm, Coiled Peach, or Divine Ginseng, it takes a ridiculous amount of time. It makes the amount of time required to make trees bear fruit look instantaneous by comparison. It depends on the scale, but evidently it can easily take a century or two. Once, when he needed to form Divine Ginseng to regrow an arm he lost, it took a full year to do so, even though he had me enhancing his Ki the whole time and used a giant elephant as the base. Oh, and there was that time when someone stole the completed fruit and he went into a rage.”

While Eckesachs is only retelling ancient history, Sunae’s expression freezes. It seems she herself has once heard of a tale of that sort as ancient history or some such. Evidently, the world is smaller than was previously thought.

“At any rate, there are many different branches of Immortal Arts, but most aren’t useful in combat. Even the Eight Sacred Treasures, myself included, have only heard of two Immortals trying to master battle and appearing in the mortal world: Suiboku and his apprentice, Sansui. Even if there are useful techniques among them, a reasonable Immortal wouldn’t bother causing problems for people. If anything they’d actively avoid doing so. The most they’d deign to do is return lost humans to their homes.”

The Sacred Treasure dedicated to battle thus basically tells them not to worry about it, because they’ll never actually end up fighting an Immortal.

“Then... What sort of fighting style did this Suiboku have when he decimated Tempera Village?”

Ran herself beat everyone in her own village, but she’s interested in hearing more about the man who’s supposedly more powerful than Sansui. Maintaining her calm, Ran asks rather hesitantly.

“Like the Marked, he enhanced his strength with Strengthen Self and his speed with Blink Step. Then, in a manner similar to the Four Vessels Style, he increased the toughness of his body with Harden Self, combined with the ability to attack with a touch like the Bursting Venom Style through using his Ki Wave. In the same manner as enhancement magic, he increased his own attack ability using Ki Blade. Depending on the weather, he might manipulate downpours and call down lightning with Great Thunder to burn away his opponents. Of course, depending on the circumstances, he would also use Flash Step and Feather Step, as well. When he thought there would be strong opponents, he also created Golden Balm and Coiled Peaches. Golden Balm is a tonic that strengthens his resistance, and the Coiled Peaches increase his vitality. Of course, I enhanced all of that.”

Just listening to the description, it’s a completely different style from Sansui’s way of fighting. If anything, back in the day, he fought like Saiga.

“Still, I think Sansui would be able to defeat him. Even you two should be able to put up a good fight against him. He was certainly always victorious at the time, but he didn’t always win overwhelmingly. There were times when he only barely won. Which, I suppose, is why he wanted to find a way beyond that, leading to the Suiboku and Sansui of today.”

She casually notes that Ran or Saiga could defeat the Suiboku of that era. At the very least, she didn’t say that they stood no chance against him.

“As you are now, even if the Immortal Arts have a substantial number of abilities, they don’t match a specialist in each area. And further, as the battles stack up, there is also fatigue that comes with them. In that sense, he was an ordinary opponent.”

“So, you mean that Sansui and Suiboku are no longer bound by the ordinary.”

Eckesachs, who considers even berserkers within the realm of the ordinary, finds Suiboku and Sansui now extraordinary, impossible to defeat. Hearing the facts as described by the ultimate sword created by God, Ran could only dwell on the revelations in silence.

“I will repeat this, but those two have now become ordinary Immortals. If you don’t pick a fight with them, they won’t come after you. It is a bit embarrassing to admit, but to challenge those two... Well, the results don’t even bear trying.”

While she is a sword that only accepts those who seek to be the strongest as her master, she does have some compassion. Given that the actual greatest warrior is the wielder who discarded her, she is able to talk the others around her down. Saying that it’s embarrassing to admit was the most resistance she could put up in the face of that reality.