Hyeonjilmusin - Chapter 23



Only Krnovel

23. Name (3)

The martial arts training with Cheonghwa was truly on a different level. Even though it was the same Taesan Apjeong, if the same posture didn’t appear, he wouldn’t strike in one go.

“If I can swing a hundred times with perfect form, it will count as ten thousand swings.”

At first, it was nice to have it reduced to a hundred times, but now it felt like I had already swung it a thousand times. And since I had swung it a thousand times as if I had painstakingly carved it out, it was harder than if I had swung it haphazardly ten thousand times.

“Haa, haa.”

“Take up your sword. You can do it.”

“I told you I can’t do it!”

“Trust yourself! It’s not the sword that’s shaking, it’s you!”

“Oh, come on!”

I cried, but Cheonghwa was almost as deaf as before, unable to communicate. It seemed like there had been some strange misunderstanding since earlier, and when I tried to clear it up, she just shook her head.

‘I know your heart. You’re a wonderful person. So you don’t have to act any longer.’

What on earth could have been the mistake that made such a remark come out of my mouth? When I saw Cheonghwa, I thought of customers who couldn’t communicate. People like that need to be beaten to come to their senses, but I couldn’t beat Cheonghwa.

I gritted my teeth and lifted the sword again. No matter how light the wooden sword was and how strong my body was, it was difficult to swing it a thousand times. My arm felt heavy, as if it were soaked cotton.

After buying the lowest-grade sword talent that was worth ten nyang of silver at a discount for five nyang of silver, and swinging the sword, Cheonghwa’s eyes changed. If it was going to be like this, I shouldn’t have bought it.

The lowest discount unlock condition for the Sword Talent was to use the same skill a thousand times.

The reason I didn’t buy it right away and just flicked the sword was because I thought that if I filled up the number of times, another condition would be released. I’ll flick it again later. I swung it properly five hundred times and flicked it the remaining five hundred times, but the discount condition was still released, so it seemed like flicking was also considered a shame.

“You’ll probably be the oldest in the evaluation match. Normally, people your age would be second-class disciples.”

“It must be embarrassing. A young man who is sweating and clashing swords with kids.”

“Why bother caring about what other people think? A Taoist must be detached.”

“I am not a Taoist, I am a money person. I am a person made of money.”

“It seems like you’ve regained some of your strength since you’re talking nonsense.”

Certainly, after doing only horizontal, vertical, and diagonal slashes for almost two weeks, I had become quite proficient at it. It wasn’t such an absurd request to swing it ten thousand times at first.

In fact, after I developed my talent for swordsmanship, I felt like I needed to improve every time I swung my sword. In fact, my swordsmanship skills were improving.

“It’s a lot better now.”

Even Cheonghwa, who never talks nonsense when it comes to martial arts, would admit it. It was the result of swinging the sword five hundred times in the correct posture.

“At that level, it would be fair to say that you have mastered all three types of sword techniques.”

“It took me two weeks to learn all these third-rate martial arts. Am I a natural martial artist after all?”

“It took me two months to fully master the Samjae Sword Technique. Of course, I didn’t wield the Samjae Sword Technique as ignorantly as you do.”

“It was Jin-in who told me to do that.”

I answered in a gruff voice. I really had been using the Samjae Sword Technique for two weeks without any training. I wondered if this was the right way to train martial arts.

“Normally, if you swing your sword like that, you won’t be able to lift it. Then, you usually train in martial arts, long-distance martial arts, or boxing techniques. But strangely, you never let go of your sword. Is it because you have better stamina than others? That must be what shortened your time.”

Cheonghwa’s words were referring to my strong body. My strong body allowed me to last longer than others, and even though I was of the lowest level, I was supported by my talent in swordsmanship.

If it’s this good even at the lowest level, what would it be like at the highest level? If you just unfold the first chapter, wouldn’t it be an incredible talent that would be enough to understand everything?

“But how is the evaluation match conducted?”

“We randomly mix them up, match them up, and the winners face off against each other. That’s how we determine the ranking.”

“It’s a winner’s match.”

I nodded. Then I guess I should be lucky. I thought I should go to the store and look for any luck-related talents. I bought the sword talent, so I don’t have any money.

“Instead, to advance to the evaluation round, you must pass a certain number of tests.”

“Is there a test?”

“The ones with the biggest difference in skill are the three great disciples. The age difference is as much as five years. The difference between eleven and sixteen is much bigger than between thirty and thirty-five. If young children come out one after another, the rankings may be determined by luck, so they are also used as tests.”

“Will I be able to pass that test?”

“It’s up to you.”

I just wish I could just fail the exam this time and have my hopes dashed, but this time I have to show the elders how talented I am.

Cheonghwa was impressed by the speed at which I was learning the Samjae Sword Technique, but the other elders might not have taken into account the fact that I had only recently learned the martial arts. So I had to show them as much as I could.

“When is the test?”

“I see it now.”

“yes?”

“The examiner is the teacher of the three great disciples. If he judges that you are capable of competing with the other disciples, he will send you to the evaluation round.”

“I only learned the Samjae Sword Technique?”

“If you’ve mastered all that, that’s enough.”

Cheonghwa went to the tree next to her and broke off a small branch. A small blade of grass was the ideal slender branch.

“I’ll deal with this. You use the wooden sword.”

If it were someone else, I would think that I was ignoring them, but it was Cheong-hwa, one of the Eight Heavenly Beings. Even the thin tree branches did not look light.

“You have to get my total.”

“All right.”

“Then let’s start… … .”

I kicked the ground without even listening to the rest of the story. Cheongunbo’s graceful steps drew a curve as he approached Cheonghwa. Because we were close, I could see Cheonghwa’s expression. Cheonghwa’s eyes were following my feet exactly, and there was a faint smile on her lips.

“Forcing a merger whenever you want. That’s a good move.”

Cheonghwa held her left hand behind her back and shook the branch with her right hand. The branch only touched the wooden sword, but the tremendous impact made my wrist tingle.

“Huh!”

“Of course, that’s only valid when the skill gap isn’t that big.”

Cheonghwa also used Cheongunbo. However, my eyes could not follow Cheonghwa’s feet. No matter how much I concentrated, her feet moved differently from the path I expected and I missed her. It was like chasing a fly with my eyes.

Cheonghwa turned away from me in a gentle curve. Even though Cheonghwa turned away in front of me, I couldn’t attack it. It was like flowing water hitting a rock and deflecting away. Cheonghwa was standing next to me. A tree branch stabbed my waist. I knew I couldn’t retrieve my wooden sword, so I kicked my foot and tried to kick Cheonghwa’s wrist.

Then, Cheonghwa’s wrist twisted like a snake to avoid the path of my kick. However, that gave me time to retrieve my wooden sword. I grabbed the wooden sword’s blade with one hand and the sword’s body with the other, blocking it as if pushing away a tree branch.

thud!

Even though I blocked it, the shock ran through my entire body. My feet were pushed back, leaving furrow-like marks on the ground.

“Now it’s the second time!”

Cheonghwa ran towards me, shouting. I placed my wooden sword next to my waist and slashed with the bell. It was one of the first techniques of the Samjae Sword Technique that I had swung viciously, the Taesanapjeong.

The wooden sword and the branch collided head-on, but it was actually my hand that felt the sting. Before I could complain of the pain, the branch grabbed me in the opposite direction and tried to cut my arm. I countered it with a slash. My wooden sword cut the leaves, but the branch was still strong. It was no longer a weak branch, as it was infused with energy.

Next, Cheong-su struck me upwards in a trajectory from my thigh to my shoulder. I instinctively unleashed a diagonal slash, Pal-bang-pung-woo. Only then did I realize what Cheong-hwa was forcing on me.

Now he was checking if I had properly mastered the Samjae Sword Technique. I had to practice the Samjae Sword Technique I had practiced so far in a shorter and stronger way.

The test of Cheonghwa’s Three Disaster Sword Techniques continued. If I had been even a little lazy, these were swordsmen I could not have stopped.

Still, somehow, I managed to block up to nine attacks using the Samjae Sword Technique. Now, if I just blocked one attack, I would pass the test.

The blue flower flew up into the sky. It flew cleverly with its back to the sun, so it was hard to look at it properly. However, my senses told me when it would fall. Strangely, the time it would stay in the air and the time it would take for me to draw my sword were automatically calculated in my head. It was a feeling I had only felt when I was evaluating the value of an object.

“You have good judgment.”

But the martial artists were far beyond my common sense. I clearly slashed my sword at the speed of my fall. However, when my sword was pointed at the sky, Cheonghwa had already fallen to the ground. Only then did I remember. I heard that martial artists have a skill called Cheongunchu (千斤錘) where they quickly fall to the ground.

Cheonghwa made a mischievous attack that no form of Samjae Sword Technique could block. The last question was from a part that wasn’t on the test. My sword was aimed at the sky, but Cheonghwa’s sword was slashing straight into my chin.

I don’t know for sure, but it seemed like Cheonghwa had no intention of allowing me to take the test. I could tell just by looking at the strength contained in that sword.

“Ugh!”

But I couldn’t give up like this. No matter what Cheonghwa was thinking, I had to gain the approval of the elders.

I stopped the sword that was rising upward with great force and brought it down again. The countermovement put a tremendous strain on my muscles. It felt like my muscles were being torn, causing me great pain.

At that moment, I almost shed tears, as if the years I had lived up to that point were meaningless. It was an unbearable pain. It felt like someone was grabbing the inside of my skin with both hands and tearing it apart with tension.

“Eww!”

I screamed in pain and slammed my sword into the ground. Meanwhile, I raised my sword diagonally. It was a desperate attempt to defend myself to the fullest within my range of motion. Of course, this was also an unconscious act. If I hadn’t had the talent for the sword, I probably wouldn’t have thought of such improvisation.

bang!

My sword hit the ground, and the branch of the blue flower stabbed my left arm instead of my shin. I immediately dropped the wooden sword. My left arm swelled up rapidly as if I had been bitten by a bee.

“… … Huh. You blocked this.”

I dangled my left arm, which was weak.

“Of course you’ll fix it, right?”

“Okay. Since I stabbed you in the eye, you’ll only be unable to move for a little while. There won’t be any problems with your bones or your pulse, so don’t worry.”

“okay.”

“How did you stop it?”

“How can you stop it? How would I know? You seem to be only teaching me the Three Retribution Sword Techniques, but you suddenly use the Byeoncho.”

Cheonghwa smiled awkwardly at my reproachful words.

“I didn’t know you could stop it.”

“You didn’t want me to go to the evaluation match?”

“I can’t show you something that isn’t ready. I would be embarrassed if I did. You wanted to show it to me after completing it as much as possible.”

“You represent people as objects. The shaman’s morality has fallen to the ground.”

“Heh heh. I was just saying it to fit your gaze.”

After all, people are not much different from objects. Don’t we buy and sell our labor with money?

So how much value am I now? I held the wooden sword tightly in one hand.

“But since I passed the test, there’s nothing I can do. I just need to go to Samcheonggwan and say I’ll do the evaluation.”

“Thank you. No, I should say thank you.”

“After sparring with your master, you should always say thank you.”

“You are not a master yet, are you?”

“You will soon be called master.”

Cheonghwa said that and pressed the acupuncture point on my left arm to reduce the swelling.

I didn’t know what that meant. It wasn’t until I went up to Samcheonggwan to participate in the evaluation that I learned what it meant.

“You can’t participate because you’re not a disciple of the main temple?”

“yes?”

Cheonghwa. This kid, for real.