Ch.231Side Story 2: When I Met Him (5)

# 02_When I Met Him_5

I’m seriously going to lose my mind.

What the hell did I say to make Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan push me around from morning till night?

“Time’s up. Get up again.”

“Just a little, just a little more rest…”

“The enemy won’t wait for you to recover your strength. Get up quickly.”

“Yes…”

I’ve rolled on the ground dozens of times. No matter how clean the training ground is, when you keep rolling around like this, your body inevitably gets covered in dirt.

With cuts and dust clinging to me from head to toe, I clenched my fists again. Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan saw this, twirled his wooden sword, and shouted.

“Begin again!”

I was the problem for being happy when I heard that ‘if I could land even a single hit on his body, today’s training would end.’

No doubt yesterday’s incident was the cause of all this.

After my sparring with the Cho Baek Squad, one of their members disappeared briefly, then returned to tell me that from tomorrow, I would be training with Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan.

Everyone knows that someone who rises to the position of Young Sect Master in the Divine Sect must have formidable martial prowess.

If someone who’s supposedly in poor health can serve as Young Sect Master, what would happen if they took the Great Return Pill, the legendary medicine of the century, and became healthy?

Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan held the wooden sword with one hand, maintaining his posture like a statue without the slightest tremor.

As if he wouldn’t move until I attacked, he simply stood firmly in place.

In the end, I had to approach him again.

I stepped forward, putting all my strength into my toes as I pushed off the ground. I pulled back my fist and then thrust it forward like lightning.

That’s when Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan moved. He looked like a grown man casually swinging a branch, but the power behind the wooden sword was incredibly strong.

Thwack!

The force in the wooden sword seemed like nothing, but when I was hit by the flat side of Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan’s wooden sword, I rolled over and over.

The Divine Sect’s martial arts are known to be quite violent and domineering, but Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan showed none of that—he was just clean and efficient.

Just one light swing, and yet it had enough power to send a grown man flying. Is it even possible that he didn’t use internal energy?

“I heard you defeated members of the Cho Baek Squad without using internal energy?”

This was a completely different image from the usually kind Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan. Befitting his title as Young Sect Master of the Divine Sect, he was looking at me with cold eyes.

“Huff… those members, they didn’t use internal energy either…”

I barely managed to answer Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan’s question.

It feels like my ribs are broken. They’re not actually broken, but breathing was difficult.

It hurt like hell, but since my bones were actually fine, I couldn’t even begin to gauge how skilled he really was.

As I struggled to stand up again on trembling legs, Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan looked at me and said:

“Unlike what the Sect Master said, you do have talent.”

“Ta-talent…?”

“It’s nothing. Come on, attack me already. Do I need to say something harsh to make you attack?”

“I can’t see, any opening, how… huff… should I?”

“…You have to create one somehow.”

As if I had asked something obvious, Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan looked at me and raised his wooden sword again.

Whoosh!

That wasn’t the sound of my sigh.

It was the sound of the invisible aura emanating from Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan’s body, pushing against the surrounding air.

My eyes stung, and I involuntarily shrank back as his aura made even the hair on my arms stand on end.

Closing your eyes during sparring is a mistake. But I couldn’t help squeezing them shut.

I don’t understand why he’s exuding such a terrifying pressure against a complete beginner like me.

What I had been doing just now wasn’t insincere, but I felt I needed to prepare myself a bit more.

Yes, even if my limbs were shattered, I had to somehow land a hit on him.

To dispel the fear that had unconsciously arisen, I needed to muster even a little strength.

Recalling the Six Harmonies Fist and external training I had learned so far, I clenched my fists tightly, and a certain confidence slowly bloomed from within.

Yes, I can do this. I must do this.

“……”

And at that moment, Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan’s eyes changed. From cold eyes full of pressure to the same gentle gaze as usual.

As I blinked several times at the sudden change, Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan twirled his wooden sword and tucked it at his waist, saying:

“Wait a moment.”

Along with his words, the invisible aura he had been exuding instantly disappeared. As the tension in my body gradually eased, a dumbfounded voice escaped my lips.

“Huh?”

“Did you know about your condition?”

“What?”

“Look at your forearm.”

“My forearm… oh?”

Wait, what’s wrong with my forearm?

My arm muscles had become firm due to recent training, but they now appeared much thicker than before and seemed to have a reddish tint.

While I was lost in these thoughts, the muscles quickly shrank back to their normal, plain color.

“What were you thinking just now?”

“Huh? Well… that I should try to hit you somehow…”

“That’s it.”

As if he finally understood something, Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan glided forward and began examining my forearm from various angles.

“It’s a bit uncomfortable when a man does this.”

“This kid really has no filter with his martial brother.”

Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan glared at me in warning, then slowly ran his hand from my shoulder to my wrist, saying:

“There’s definitely qi remaining.”

“Qi?”

“Yes, you don’t seem to have noticed it.”

How could I sense qi when I haven’t even learned internal energy? When I nodded, Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“As Juhan said, you seem to be unconsciously channeling qi into your muscles through your will. To think you’re naturally channeling the qi of nature into your muscles without even knowing it… this is worth researching.”

“…How would you research that?”

When I looked at him suspiciously, Seon Woo-dan lightly flicked my forehead.

Thunk!

“You brat. You’re not thinking I’d put a knife to your body, are you?”

Busted. When Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan glanced at me, I carefully avoided his gaze.

“Even though we’re called an evil cult by the righteous sects, we’re not cruel to our own disciples. Besides, you’re the Sect Master’s disciple—who would dare harm you?”

“Uh, maybe the Medicine Hall Master?”

“The Eccentric Doctor? Why?”

“He said he always wanted to see a person with colored eyes. He was curious about how they differ from Central Plains people and asked if he could cut open my stomach just once, promising to stitch it up without leaving a scar.”

I remembered how the Medicine Hall Master, who holds the highest position in the Divine Sect’s medical division, had looked me over with great joy when he first saw me.

If the Medicine Hall Master, known as the Eccentric Doctor, were on Earth or another planet, he would definitely be called a mad scientist.

The way that old man giggled when he saw me still gives me chills just thinking about it.

“…There’s a reason the Medicine Hall Master is called the Eccentric Doctor. If you get injured, you should go to the Sect Mother, not him.”

‘Sect Mother’ referred to Grandmother Hyeolbong. Of course, having once been called the Medicine Fairy, she must be exceptional in medical skills.

“But from what you’re saying, it really does sound like this place deserves to be called an evil cult. Telling me to avoid the Medicine Hall Master.”

“Ahem! It never hurts to be careful. Anyway, I was just examining the qi flowing through your body.”

Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan spoke again in a serious voice.

“Besides the external techniques you learned from us, you really haven’t learned anything else?”

“No. I’ve never formally learned any martial arts until now.”

Although I had lived isolated in space for five years, I had never systematically learned how to fight.

“It’s not the strong who survive, but the survivors who are strong. Fighting is the same, right?”

“That’s true.”

Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan agreed with my words, but also disagreed.

“But you’re different. You survived because you were strong.”

“Me? How am I strong?”

That’s nonsense. I’ve always thought I survived by being tenacious, not because I was strong.

But Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan seemed to think differently.

“Think carefully. Have you ever encountered an enemy you thought impossible to defeat, only to find strength welling up from somewhere to overcome them? Or perhaps you imagined that you couldn’t fall here because you had to protect someone, and then found yourself able to prevail?”

It was a very specific situation, one that wouldn’t happen to ordinary people. But I’m different. That’s why I could recall it immediately.

Eliya.

Most incidents where failure wasn’t an option happened when I was with Eliya, and if Eliya died, it would be as good as me dying too.

So I always fought with everything I had to protect Eliya, and even if I died, Eliya wouldn’t necessarily die, so I fought with my life on the line.

Each time, there were miracles that weren’t really miracles.

Like suddenly finding the strength to take down one last enemy when I was on the verge of collapse.

Or suddenly being able to see bullets that were normally invisible to the naked eye.

Until now, I had attributed these to luck, but when Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan pointed it out, I realized they couldn’t be dismissed as mere coincidence.

“Judging by your expression, it seems you’ve had such experiences, right?”

“Now that I think about it, I guess there were a few times… Wait, is that what that Talmyeong Squad member meant by ‘will’?”

Honestly, I know next to nothing about martial arts. A passing child might know more than I do.

But Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan’s words were different.

“You might not know this, but there are levels where one can use techniques like Mind Sword, Sword Control Art, or Void Object Manipulation. These allow one to lift objects or weapons with their will and harm opponents.”

“I think I’ve heard of those vaguely.”

“To put it simply, when you reach a certain level, you can control objects or weapons with your internal energy as you wish. What you’re doing is similar.”

“…Me, using telekinesis?”

“Telekinesis? That’s a new term to me, but it’s not entirely wrong. However, your ability to use qi through your will seems quite limited.”

“Oh, so… it’s only limited to muscles, right?”

“Probably. I doubt you can freely emit qi or perform similar actions.”

“Emit qi?”

As the Central Plains saying goes, seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times, so Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan drew the wooden sword from his waist again.

Then, after taking a light breath, deep red flames began to blaze around the wooden sword.

“Wow…”

“This is sword qi. It’s qi emitted into the sword.”

“If you emit it into your fist, is it fist qi?”

“That’s right. But you probably can’t do it.”

“Well… because I don’t have internal energy.”

“Unfortunately, that’s true. However, I think you can develop something even better than fist qi.”

Development. A good word.

But if such a word came up in the Central Plains rather than Earth, it was best to be suspicious first.

“Um, when you say development…”

“It’s not that difficult.”

Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan smiled and said.

“We just need to find out when our disciple becomes ‘serious.’ Today’s training was also a way to confirm that, and it worked very well.”

“Don’t tell me. We’re going to do training like today’s again?”

“We need to experiment to find out which method is most efficient for channeling will into the body.”

Senior Brother Seon Woo-dan patted my shoulders firmly with both hands and said:

“Tomorrow, let’s apply a little more pressure than today.”

“Ah… please, no.”

…I’m really dead tomorrow, for real.