Chapter 37

Chapter 37

One day before.

“I’m going to be a hindrance. Junior.”

“Pardon…”

Wangpal blinked his innocent eyes as he watched Seohwa confidently declare.

“It’s something you’d know if you think about it even a little. Since I haven’t even mastered all the basics yet, I can be certain that I’ll definitely be a hindrance. Isn’t that right?”

“That part is as you say, Junior… but what are you thinking of doing?”

“What do you mean, I have to prepare.”

“Prepare, you say?”

“Exactly what I mean. Anyway, the Sect Master wouldn’t have given us an impossible assignment.”

It’s doable.

No one else but Baek Riyun evaluated it that way. How many times had things that seemed truly impossible until now succeeded when Baek Riyun judged them as ‘we can do it’?

So naturally, this matter too must proceed with the premise that we can do it. Then the remaining task is one.

“I need to think about how to win!”

“Hmm…”

Wangpal let out a groan while looking at Seohwa, who spoke decisively, then answered.

“Even so, isn’t it difficult to suddenly increase our level at this point? I’ll acknowledge that Junior’s growth speed is remarkably outstanding, but the gap is still…”

“Hey, do you think I wouldn’t know something that simple? Increasing our level in the meantime is naturally difficult. How can a person change in just one day?”

“Pardon?”

“The Sect Master said it. If you know the enemy and know yourself, you won’t be in danger even in a hundred battles. The enemy doesn’t know us. Then we need to know the enemy.”

Victory against martial artists and martial arts they’ve never encountered before.

Thinking simply, there are no elements that can be predicted. However, Seohwa and Wangpal already know the condition of this training. Precisely that they only give ‘one motion.’

“Martial arts aren’t established with just one motion, right? That means, even if they’ve learned a thousand branches of martial arts, the options for one motion are at most three or four kinds.”

“But didn’t the Sect Master say? Even one simple downward strike can contain dozens, hundreds of variations.”

“That’s in terms of principle. But whether there’s someone over there who dug that deeply into just one downward strike is a different story. Because—martial arts are flow.”

“…Flow?”

“I also heard this from the Sect Master, though!”

All martial arts are like that.

There’s no martial art that ends with one motion. Forms are a study of ‘how to link’ motions. Just as the spearmanship basic ‘Naryeotagon’ groups three motions into one set, other forms are the same.

“There won’t be many people who practice only one motion. Because that’s not a normal method.”

At Seohwa’s words that pierced the core, Wangpal, who had been listening somewhat indifferently, opened his eyes a little wider and looked at Seohwa. But Seohwa closed her eyes and organized her thoughts without caring.

‘I need to think about the cause.’

She recalls the first teaching Baek Riyun gave her. That there’s a cause for everything. The method of looking at the result and inferring the cause.

“Why is the Sect Master making us do this training?”

“Well, it’s for the improvement of our skills, isn’t it?”

“That’s for us. But what meaning does this training have for the Muryeon Hall trainees?”

The same motion a hundred times.

Moreover, those motions are part of the training the Muryeon Hall trainees have been doing every day. What would become familiar in a hundred times, and what could they hope for in a hundred times?

Thinking conventionally, this training is merely a trial for them, not training. However, Baek Riyun said this is training. Then one must think about what can be gained from this training.

The result derived from there is precisely.

“Forms.”

“The goal is to make them realize that one motion doesn’t simply end as ‘one motion.'”

If you combine three downward strikes and three upward strikes, you can create nine forms. Conversely, doesn’t that mean the opponent only needs to prepare for nine forms?

Then if you combine a hundred downward strikes and a hundred upward strikes, and continue to increase the number of possibilities like that.

The opponent must prepare for ten thousand forms.

“The Muryeon Hall trainees will probably catch on to this kind of talk quickly too. Since I figured it out. But just because you know doesn’t mean you can immediately fix it, right?”

“What are you planning to do?”

“I need to study the most standard ones. You said sixteen people, right?”

No matter how much it’s one motion, the Muryeon Hall trainees won’t have only one form. At the very least, they have a minimum of four forms ingrained in their bodies.

“Sixty-four total. It’s a bit tight to memorize in one day, but still.”

Seohwa, who clenched her fist tightly, grinned.

“I’m confident in memorizing.”

Pang—!!!

Seomun Cheok, who reflexively stepped back, frowned and widened the distance. Then Seohwa, pulling back her slightly trembling hand, exhaled “Hoo.”

‘I practiced this, but it’s not easy…’

Although there’s a difference in the ferocity of power, it’s still the form she expected as predicted. The form she faced dozens of times last night and found countermeasures for.

There’s a gap between practice and actual combat. No matter how much you memorize it thoroughly and engrave it in your eyes, what could have as much pressure as a spear charging right at you?

‘However, it’s more doable than I thought.’

Until the moment she entered the sparring match, her heart that had been pounding and asserting itself was quiet as if cold water had been poured on it.

Her vision that had been shaking was also looking ahead clearly. A sensation just like when she had the sparring match at Baekgeom Gate.

If she faces it like this, she can endure. Seohwa, who gained confidence, clenched her fist tightly, took her stance, and opened her mouth.

“I don’t want to hear that you let your guard down, okay?”

“…Did you hide your skills?”

“No. It’s exactly as you see. I’m still far from sufficient!”

One-on-one would be difficult. No matter how much she trained the forms, Seohwa was still nothing more than a greenhorn when it came to suppressing mistakes. However, the current situation is two-on-one.

Leave attacks that deviate from the set forms to Wangpal. Seohwa blocks attacks that come according to the set forms. And taking the gap revealed that way as an opportunity, knock down the opponent.

This was the entirety of the strategy Seohwa devised.

“…Tsk.”

Seomun Cheok, who instinctively sensed that this training wouldn’t be easy, bit his teeth with a crack and spun the spear shaft round and round. He seemed unable to even grasp how to proceed.

It couldn’t be helped. It hadn’t even been a quarter-hour since he heard that he must subdue the opponent with only push strikes. An unfamiliar combat method. An unfamiliar opponent. It would be strange if a conclusion came easily.

Then she digs into that gap. Seohwa, who finished her judgment, dug forward first this time.

Taak!

From top to bottom, from knee to toes.

The applied force powerfully pushed Seohwa’s body forward. At the sight of Seohwa digging into the gap inside the spear in an instant, Seomun Cheok immediately swung the spear. However.

Taaang—!!!

“Don’t forget about this side.”

Wangpal, who had already dug in from the side and struck the spear shaft, firmly protected Seohwa’s front. And simultaneously, Seohwa digging downward.

‘Low!’

He had allowed the gap too easily. Seohwa positioned at a distance where she could reach if she stretched her arm. At that sight, Seomun Cheok reflexively pulled and grasped the spear. And.

“Damn it…!”

The moment the instantly swung spear was about to touch Seohwa’s forearm.

Tok.

“Up to here.”

Baek Riyun, who appeared at some point and blocked the spear shaft with one hand, lightly separated Seohwa and Seomun Cheok.

“You know who won without me having to say it.”

“You were told to use only push strikes. I didn’t allow strike spears.”

At Baek Riyun’s words, Seomun Cheok, who bit down hard, gripped the spear shaft tightly, then lowered his head. Because it wasn’t wrong.

‘I didn’t try to push away.’

It’s that short a distance. If it’s just pushing away and ending it, that would likely interfere with the next motion.

That’s why he instinctively tried to strike it away as he usually did. If he had struck it away like that, either the opponent or himself would have been sent flying far away, and he could have bought time to reorganize his posture. However.

If he had done that, it definitely wouldn’t be a ‘push strike’ no matter who saw it.

“Seomun Cheok. Two bouts. Your opportunity today is over. Advance diligently.”

“…Understood.”

Watching Seomun Cheok quietly withdrawing, Baek Riyun nodded and slowly turned his gaze to give his attention to another Muryeon Hall trainee. And the words that followed.

“Next.”

The first one had just finished.

Behind Seomun Cheok, fifteen more still remained, didn’t they?

Seohwa, who steeled her resolve, clenched both fists tightly and took her stance. And.

The battle began again.

“Dan Riyeon, seventeen bouts.”

At my declaration, Dan Riyeon, who had unconsciously used a motion other than the allowed one, flinched and took a cupped-fist salute, then withdrew. And at that sight, Seohwa and Wangpal, who were gasping for breath, returned the cupped-fist salute.

“Huu, huu, we’ve learned well.”

Watching Dan Riyeon, who made a regretful expression, close her mouth and withdraw, I glanced at the records so far and nodded.

‘Most finished under ten bouts.’

There’s a saying that a three-year-old’s habit goes to eighty, and a saying that one can’t give away one’s own habits. For martial artists, habits are like that.

Most martial artists have it inputted in their heads like a formula—how to act when placed in a certain situation. When you touch a hot cauldron, you unconsciously pull your hand away; should it be said that you react according to the martial arts learned through acquired experience?

Of course, it’s not strange. Rather, being able to unfold martial arts unconsciously is also a good element. But the result is this.

‘Nothing is easier to read than stereotyped forms.’

They either get eliminated because they can’t control their unconscious and move according to habit, or they succeed in controlling their unconscious but get eliminated because they’re late in responding due to that.

The situation so far is one of the two. The fact that the number of bouts exchanged increases as it goes on is also because they drew up a composition to some degree after watching Seohwa and Wangpal’s movements. But even so, they couldn’t endure to the end.

Right. If for Seohwa and Wangpal this training is training to become familiar with others’ forms, for these people this training is closer to training that breaks their own set patterns .

“Then next is…”

“No, up to here.”

As I stepped forward slightly while watching Seohwa, who was wiping her sweat and looking at the last trainee, Seohwa looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“There’s still one left. Sect Master.”

“I know.”

“Then why…”

“Because that fellow needs to do slightly different training from you two.”

“…Different training?”

“That’s right. Didn’t I say? That I would set training methods suited to each individual.”

I turned my gaze slightly to look directly at the last remaining trainee, and the trainee shrank his shoulders. A trainee with a face familiar to me.

“You two go back to your lodging and focus on self-training.”

“When that fellow’s correction is finished, I’ll have him participate in your training too, so don’t worry too much.”

“Yes!”

After confirming that the Muryeon Hall trainees, who had been looking at me with firm expressions, returned to their lodging one by one, I sent Seohwa and Wangpal back as well, then lightly spread an energy barrier to prevent sound from spreading far. Because the story to be told after this is one that cannot be heard by them.

Seureurung!

“Now then, shall we have a talk?”

“A talk, you say?”

“Isn’t there still an unfinished story between you and me?”

Looking at the Muryeon Hall trainee who answered cautiously, I pulled out Uicheon Sword and thrust it firmly into the ground. Then, at that sight, the opponent’s pupils shook.

The appearance of clear tension. Looking at that opponent, I let out a small laugh.

“I ask.”

“Why is the Small Sect Leader of Hyeolgeom Gate, a pillar of the Evil Path, serving as a Muryeon Hall trainee?”

At my words, the Muryeon Hall trainee.

Seonwoo Gang’s complexion froze coldly.