episode_0190

“Disciple.”

I glanced in the direction where the voice came from.

Judging from his still young appearance, he didn’t seem to be much older than me.

Rather, he looked a little younger than me.

“Yes, Master.”

Yet, I had no resistance to calling her my teacher.

As everyone knows, the world of martial arts is a dog-eat-dog world, and she was strong no matter who saw her.

And there was less resistance to using polite language to beautiful women.

Why, someone wants to be a slave and even pay for it.

It’s okay if it’s between a teacher and a student.

“You are my disciple.”

Every time I heard it, it felt awkward and like the subject was omitted.

I guess it’s because of his looks that he feels so attractive.

“…Yes.”

I wonder if he likes having disciples.

He had been sitting in the guest house drinking tea for almost ten minutes, calling me his disciple.

“Thank you.”

“…”

I couldn’t answer that question.

I became his disciple because I couldn’t overcome the threats, so I had a hard time responding even when I received gratitude.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Yeah.”

“You… still look young, why are you taking on a disciple…”

“Because I don’t know when I’ll die.”

“…Do you have any underlying medical condition?”

I just said it out of curiosity, but I was surprised to get a heavier answer than I expected.

On the outside he looked healthy.

Seol-yeong, who was a slurred speech, had pale lips and skin, and always looked a little weak, so anyone could tell that she was sick.

The teacher in front of me looked quite healthy.

Although her skin was on the white side, her cheeks and forehead were flushed as if she had applied makeup.

His body was also a result of training, as he had no fat and had muscles, making him look good.

Since you can’t say that the outside is the same as the inside, I cautiously asked if there was some kind of chronic illness, but the teacher tilted his head and asked what he meant.

“No?”

“…So are you being chased by someone?”

If not illness, then perhaps being chased by a dangerous enemy?

It was a common reason in martial arts.

But this time too, the teacher’s answer was the same.

“No?”

“…So what does that mean that I don’t know when I’ll die…”

“Because you never know when a person will die.”

“Ah…”

That wasn’t wrong.

After all, the world of martial arts is one where you never know when you might die.

Still, I thought there might be some deeper reason behind the flow of conversation.

Then, as if living up to expectations, the teacher spoke.

“You always have to be prepared, because the martial arts I learned are passed down from person to person.”

“Ah.”

There is something called a one-man martial art.

It refers to martial arts that a master who has mastered the art passes on to only one disciple, through word of mouth.

There were various reasons why martial arts were passed on to only one person.

The typical reasons were that the sect itself had to be kept secret, or that the conditions for becoming a disciple were extremely strict.

I thought I knew why she had sought out her disciple even by force.

Martial arts that were passed down by one person always needed disciples to learn from in order to continue the tradition.

If you die without taking on any disciples, the lineage of martial arts will be cut off.

The fact that she is urgently looking for a disciple to teach her martial arts skills means that her teacher has already-

“I see.”

“Yeah.”

When I nodded as if I understood, she didn’t say anything else.

Still, questions remained.

“…So the teacher’s name is…”

When asked for his name, the teacher hesitated for a moment, then slowly told him his name.

“Mo Yong-yeon.”

As he said that, Mo Yong-yeon looked into the distance.

It’s a job.

I definitely think I saw the name Moryong Sega among the Sega.

Why did she, who was from the Sega clan, end up with martial arts skills that were passed down from generation to generation, and not those of the Murong clan?

There were still things I was curious about, but the time we had known each other was too short to ask any more in-depth questions.

“End of questions?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, follow me.”

Then, Mo Yong-yeon slowly moved and headed out of the city.

Knock, knock.

Her pace was not fast, but she moved at a steady pace, not slowed down by any obstacles.

As I followed him, I felt a strange feeling.

Even though the crowd surged into the middle of the market like waves, he moved smoothly like water and passed freely between the people.

I tried to follow that movement too.

Bam.

“Ugh!”

“Oh my, I’m sorry.”

It wasn’t easy, perhaps because of its huge size.

Even when he left the city and climbed a mountain, Mo Yong-yeon’s speed did not slow down, regardless of whether it was an uphill road or a tree-lined road.

Thanks to that, even though it seemed like Mo Yong-yeon was walking, we ended up moving at a similar speed as me, who was running a little faster.

And then, it took about 5 minutes.

We arrived at a place.

“Hereㅡ”

So, what I saw while chasing after Mo Yong-yeon was a cave.

The cave, hidden among bushes and rocks and difficult to find by normal means, appeared to be a small cave that could accommodate one or two people.

But the inside was a little different from what I expected.

The ceiling was so high that I couldn’t reach it even if I stretched my hand upwards.

The floor was flat enough to walk on, as if it had been cut out of something, and the furniture, such as drawers, a small bed, and bedding, were all intact.

The room was divided into several sections, with two bedrooms and a large open space where training could be conducted.

Each room had a proper door installed.

It felt like a small academy had been built inside a cave.

However, Mo Yong-yeon’s expression was not good.

The eyebrows on his previously expressionless face were furrowed.

“Why are you like that?”

“Someone came in.”

Mo Yong-yeon slowly sat down on the floor and lifted up a long needle.

Then he placed the needle on the doorknob as if it were where it should have been.

And then, when Mo Yong-yeon opened the door-

Bam.

The needle fell weakly.

“Ah.”

The needle placed on the doorknob was supposed to fall off naturally when someone opened the door.

The person who dropped the needle probably didn’t even notice that the needle was thin and light.

Mo Yong-yeon opened the door and entered the bedroom. The first thing he did was open a drawer.

Mo Yong-yeon, who was looking inside the drawer, began to exude a spine-chilling murderous aura.

“The elixir that my master and I have collected over the past ten years…!”

“…”

I was surprised that Mo Yong-yeon could show that level of killing intent.

From the first time we met until now, there were not many instances of changes in facial expression or showing emotions.

And somehow I could guess the culprit of this incident.

They came all the way to this well-hidden cave and stole the elixir.

Besides, the cave was not far from the Humanities Building where I was staying.

‘Storm and clouds…’

If he was a regressor, wouldn’t he have rushed over and eaten up the nearby coincidence?

“Here’s a palm print…”

Because the dust had accumulated, a large man’s palm print was imprinted on it.

Mo Yong-yeon observed the mark carefully.

If that palm print is Cheongun, then it seems that Cheongun is currently facing a crisis in a place he doesn’t know about.

“Phew.”

So many emotions were contained in one breath.

Then, as if nothing had happened, Mo Yong-yeon looked me up and down with a calm expression on his face.

“Sorry, I have nothing to give you, my disciple.”

“…I’m fine.”

It’s an elixir.

Actually, my internal energy doesn’t really matter to me right now.

Because I had absorbed the negative energy of many ghost stories in the world of ghost stories I had heard before, my internal energy had increased considerably.

Of course, the internal energy was beneficial, but it was not something I could blame for losing.

“Have you ever tried black?”

Mo Yong-yeon glanced at my waist and asked me that.

There was nothing around my waist.

Since a swordsman usually carries a sword on his waist, it seemed like Murong Yeon judged that I did not use a sword.

There was a reason I didn’t carry a sword on my waist.

‘Because I have inventory.’

There was no need to bother wearing a sword on one’s waist.

But Mo Yong-yeon didn’t know that.

“Yes.”

Mo Yong-yeon went to a corner of the room in the cave and threw a wooden sword to me.

I skillfully caught and lifted the thrown sword.

It was quite heavy for a wooden sword and seemed to be made of quite sturdy wood.

‘Come to think of it, is this the first time you’ve held a sword since reaching max level in weapon skills?’

In the battle with the ghost story, a sword was not needed.

Rather, it was much easier to absorb the negative energy by using only two hands, so he fought using only two hands.

“Swing it once.”

My swordsmanship was nothing special.

I just swing my sword as my senses and martial arts guide me.

That alone was enough.

“Phew… Huff!”

Wedge!

As if releasing a rubber band that had been pulled, he quickly moved his body, which had been curled up, while breathing.

As the sword he swung without mercy gained internal energy, a thin sword energy appeared on the wooden sword he swung, creating a long wound on the cave wall he had not even touched.

“Ugh…”

I swung my sword and just stood there.

It had been a long time since I swung a sword, so it was difficult to control my strength.

I looked at Murong Yeon, wondering if the scratch on the wall was a problem, and Murong Yeon was slowly walking towards the wall and looking at the cross-section.

“Oh…”

Mo Yong-yeon, who was slowly stroking the wall in admiration, spoke to me.

“As expected, you are my disciple.”

“…Yes? No…Yes.”

It seems like my love for my disciples has grown.

I smiled awkwardly as I followed Mo Yong-yeon’s expression, who seemed proud of her disciple’s growth.