Who threatened Cheonma Hara with a knife - Chapter 8



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Who threatened to call me Cheonmahara with a knife? Episode 8

The Sword of the Unmarried

“Okay, now I will tell you the first form of the Talhonmujeonggeom. In your opinion, what do you think is the most important form for a swordsman?”

“…Isn’t this a terrifying season that can kill an opponent in one go?”

The teacher shook his head at my answer.

“For a swordsman, the most important skill is to draw the sword. If you can’t draw the sword in a surprise attack or an unexpected battle, you will be defeated in vain.”

“Now that I think about it, it really seems like that.”

In the martial arts novels and comics I’ve read so far, the characters often have their swords or weapons drawn when they fight, but when I think about it, it seems like in real fights, there are often cases where they’re prevented from drawing their swords.

In a real battle, it’s extremely rare for an enemy to wait while you prepare your ultimate attack.

“Of course, it is a basic skill for a swordsman to learn the techniques of boxing, long-distance fighting, and geumna-su in case he cannot draw his sword. Also, even if he draws his sword, it may be more convenient to use the techniques of geumna-su or long-distance fighting when the opponent digs deep. However, think about it, if the level of boxing or long-distance fighting is higher, who would call him a swordsman instead of a swordsman?”

“That is very true, Master.”

As I appropriately added the flattery that I had developed through many years of social life, the teacher smiled faintly and finished the explanation.

“In that sense, the Talhonmujeonggeom is a pretty great sword technique. This is because the first movement of the Talhonmujeonggeom, Talhonbigeom (脫魂備劍), is a movement that is linked to drawing the sword.”

After finishing his explanation, the teacher took a step back with his right foot, slightly bent both knees, and assumed a flexible posture. At the same time, he pulled out the sword he had been carrying at his side and aimed it forward.

“As you step back, draw your sword and aim it at your enemy. And as you draw your sword, block the attack by following the path of the weapon your opponent is swinging, and draw your sword. This is the essence of this Talhon Bigeom.”

It seemed to be a technique for blocking enemy attacks while drawing the sword, and then immediately after drawing it, taking a flexible stance and aiming at the enemy, thus switching to an offensive stance.

But no matter how long the intention was, the visible results were quite vain.

All I had to do was take a step back with my right foot, draw my sword, and aim it at my enemy.

As my teacher looked at me as if telling me to try it, I held the scabbard with my left hand and the handle with my right and imitated the movement.

And once I tried to imitate it, I realized that it was not as easy as it looked.

The most awkward part was drawing the sword itself.

The blade was about three feet (about 90cm) long, so it was inevitable that it would get scratched by the scabbard during the process of being pulled out. Because of this, it didn’t come out naturally like the Master, but rather felt like it was being pulled out with a rattling sound.

My teacher smiled gently at me as I awkwardly drew my sword.

“Do you now understand why it is most important to draw your sword? If you draw your sword like that, you will die without even being able to fight.”

I don’t know why he smiles and spews out evil words.

But instead of spewing out evil words, the teacher taught us kindly.

“When drawing a sword, it is not only the hand holding the sword that is important. Depending on the angle of the sword that is drawn, the angle of the scabbard must also be turned with the hand holding the scabbard. And accordingly, the shoulders and body also need to be turned.”

He not only spoke, but also touched my body with his hands to help me correct my posture.

After drawing the sword under the teacher’s teachings several times, I started to get the feel of it.

Sreung!

When I took up my stance and drew my sword cleanly without any hesitation, my teacher nodded with satisfaction.

“It seems like you’ve taken a step forward. Let’s try to change things up. The enemy’s attacks won’t always come from the same place. You’ll have to draw your sword and defend yourself in various situations.”

As he spoke, the Master demonstrated various examples. It was the same simple act of drawing a sword, but the path the sword took as it was drawn was different each time.

Sometimes he would draw his sword and block the head, and sometimes he would block the legs.

And then he turned his body to the right and took a step backwards, blocking his side and drawing his sword at the same time.

“Now this old man will slowly swing his sword at you, so draw your sword and block it.”

As soon as the teacher finished speaking, he slowly extended his sword towards me.

A sword with a cool aura flew towards me. Even though the speed was slow, it was a sight that made cold sweat run down my back.

visor!

Still, perhaps because it was slow, I managed to draw my sword and block it.

And as I put my sword back into its scabbard, the Master stabbed me with his sword from a different angle this time.

Sling.

visor!

It was a strange feeling.

Even though he clearly had not practiced any other stances, he was naturally drawing his sword and blocking the attacks.

Sling.

visor!

Perhaps because I understood the concept of twisting my shoulders and torso and using the hand holding the sword, when I thought to myself, ‘I should move like this,’ my body naturally moved according to that thought and I pulled out the sword.

“Hehehe. As expected, this old man’s eyes are not wrong.”

The teacher burst into laughter as if he was pleased with my qualities.

“If you do that, I’ll increase the difficulty level.”

Wedge!

He immediately increased the speed at which he swung his sword.

‘Eek!’

Even as I almost screamed without realizing it, my body moved on its own.

Sling.

visor!

Sling.

visor!

After successfully blocking it a couple of times, my surprised heart calmed down. Then, seeing that my eyes had calmed down, Master increased his speed again.

‘Phew.’

But this time, I wasn’t as surprised as before.

Sling.

visor!

Dozens of times, I blocked swords flying at me from various angles, gradually increasing their speed.

Wedge-eeeeeek.

Sling.

visor!

“Hehehe. It seems like you’ve learned the basics of the Talhonbi Sword.”

The teacher smiled with satisfaction and took a step back.

“Phew.”

At the same time, the tension was relieved and I let out a sigh without realizing it.

Stop.

The sound of beads of sweat running down my head and hitting the floor pierces my ears.

Before I knew it, sweat was flowing down like a waterfall. I didn’t even notice it because my concentration was at its peak.

I looked at the hand holding the sword with half-dazed eyes.

‘Is this really my body?’

The attacks that the Master unleashed before he finally retrieved his sword were so fast that it was hard to follow them with the eyes.

To be exact, it was a speed that Seo Ji-hoon’s eyes, who was in his past body, would not have been able to keep up with.

But to these young eyes, the master’s swordsmanship was clearly visible. Of course, considering the mysterious movements he had seen in the guest house, he was being generous, but it was definitely an incredible speed.

However, I recognized the sword path exactly, and at the same time, as I thought that I had to block the sword path, my body moved naturally. Without the slightest hesitation.

‘What is this talented person?’

If he were born in modern times, he would have had the talent to aim for an Olympic gold medal in fencing.

Here, I was a disciple of a cult leader.

* * *

How many times did I have to practice the Talhonbi Sword over and over again?

The teacher’s voice pierced into my ears as I was dripping with sweat.

“Hmm. Now that I think about it, it’s already this much time. Since we only have this much left, I’ll teach you the inner strength techniques during the remaining time.”

As he spoke, the teacher approached me, ordered me to sit cross-legged, and helped me to get into that position.

“While the martial arts learned by the hypocrites of the Central Plains are all separated into the mind method, sword technique, and protective method, and take a long time to learn, the martial arts of our new religion are mostly combined into one. It can be said that this is because the prophets paved the way in advance, with the intention of making you strong in a short period of time and punishing the wicked. Hehehe.”

Although the teacher spoke with a tone full of pride, my mind appropriately filtered it and understood his true meaning.

‘Since the martial arts of the Jeongpa have no side effects and use pure internal energy, you can use different martial arts, and since it is dangerous to learn only one magic art, wouldn’t they have grouped together the most similar ones?’

Sword techniques, mind techniques, body techniques, light-hearted techniques, and even the minimum martial arts or geumna techniques to support sword techniques.

If you learn at least five or six martial arts as magic arts in the same way as Jeongpa, it means that you will suffer from five or six mental illnesses.

‘… Maybe the old demonic cult was really like that.’

The grace of the prophets that the Master spoke of was very deep. If it weren’t for them, I would have had to choose between five or six mental illnesses.

While I was thinking that far, I let out a sigh of relief.

“From now on, I will tell you the blood vessels through which internal energy flows according to the method of the Talhonmujeonggeom.”

The teacher continued his explanation while touching various parts of my body with his index finger.

“First, memorize the acupuncture points that Nobu taught you. You can learn the rest of the acupuncture points of the human body from Hayeon later.”

As soon as the teacher finished speaking, Jin Ha-yeon lowered her head and waist as if telling him to leave it to him.

And after the teacher finished explaining, he immediately placed a stick behind my back.

“From now on, focus. Originally, it was important to practice your internal energy yourself and become accustomed to it, but since you started learning martial arts late, Ichimoku will have Nobu personally help you with the practice.”

As soon as I finished saying those words, something began to enter me through the hand of the Master that was on my back.

It was a moment that couldn’t help but feel truly strange. It was a feeling I had never felt before.

And the energy that had penetrated my body settled near the center of my body and stopped moving.

“This is the dantian. If you say so, now take a deep breath through your nose. Feel as if you are pulling it deep into your lungs.”

Even while my master was sending his internal energy to my danjeon, he opened his mouth and spoke very naturally.

As I took a deep breath through my nose following the Master’s instructions, the Master’s energy that had settled in my danjeon began to move.

Those energies approached the air I breathed in, pulled something out, and returned together to my dantian.

Then, starting from my danjeon, they started to circle my body.

“This is Gihaehyeol.”

As the Master’s energy began to circulate through my body and the energy I inhaled reached a certain acupoint, the Master told me the name of that acupoint.

By feeling the energy directly in this way, I was able to determine the location much more accurately than if someone had pointed to it with their finger and told me.

So, how long did I have to focus on the Master’s explanation and the movement of the energy?

Repeat deep breathing dozens of times, and when you have succeeded in memorizing both the flow of energy and the blood vessels.

The Master’s energy that had been in my dantian returned to my hand, and my Master took back the hand that was on my back.

But now that I have become somewhat accustomed to ‘Qi’ and have successfully memorized the path of the mind method, I am able to somehow create energy on my own.

“Ugh.”

“Phew.”

Let’s practice the internal energy method alone for a while.

When the tiny bit of energy had completely settled into my danjeon, where I had felt nothing, I opened my eyes and exhaled calmly.

I glanced to the side and saw that the hourglasses that had been indicating the remaining time had all fallen off.

As I opened my eyes, the teacher smiled happily and congratulated me.

“Hehehe. Congratulations on your entry into the Talhonmujeonggeom.”

“Thank you, Master.”

“Hahaha. Now that I’ve entered the horse’s mouth, I must continue to practice diligently until I reach the horse’s exit.”

“I will make sure to do so.”

It was a given. I had no intention of living my whole life as a psychopath.

My teacher, who was stroking his beard as if he was satisfied with my determined expression, soon said something strange.

“In that sense, your will to choose the Talhonmujeonggeom is truly admirable.”

“???”

“The Talhonmujeonggeom is a martial art that gradually destroys an opponent by responding to their movements at any time and in any situation. Therefore, it is a martial art that must be perfected to be able to respond to any situation. In some ways, it can be said that such a side effect arose because of the nature of the martial art.”

“If you do it, will your achievements be faster than other martial arts?”

“As I said before, since perfection is required, even with the help of side effects, it is not particularly fast compared to other magic arts.”

Up until this point, I just felt a little disappointed. It meant that even with the help of side effects, the achievements wouldn’t be explosively fast.

However, it didn’t matter because this was the level I had expected from the moment I started learning magic.

Until the gossip started.

“One, no matter how perfectly you prepare, if you do it in a set way, you will eventually reach your limit. In order for the Talhonmujeonggeom to escape from the extreme and reach the Talma, a change that goes beyond perfection is necessary. It is truly difficult to escape the perfection that you have created due to the side effects of the Talhonmujeonggeom.”

“… … .”

So what that means is that it’s incredibly difficult to get to Talma?

“But since you chose that difficult path, I, as your teacher, am truly proud of you.”

“… … .”

I looked at the teacher and Jin Ha-yeon who were looking at me with happiness and thought.

‘You should have told me that before teaching me, you crazy idiots!!’

It was a scream that could not be uttered.