Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

“Get up.”

Jolt!

Wei Yan-ho bolted upright into a sitting position the moment Baek Mu-han’s words fell. He moved so swiftly that dust kicked up around his body in that instant.

“You must have slept enough?”

‘Damn old geezer!’

Wei Yan-ho pouted, but didn’t dare resist.

Of course not.

After nearly dying from beatings yesterday, how could he possibly resist?

“I asked if you slept enough.”

“…I only slept for one shijin?”

“That’s plenty of time.”

“One shijin?”

“Considering how much you’ve slept until now, that’s more than enough. Hmm! Make up for it with the sleep you got last week.”

“How is that possible!”

“Can’t you do it?”

“Of course not!”

Whack!

“Argh!”

“Can’t you do it?”

“Now that I think about it carefully, it seems possible.”

“Exactly. Nothing is impossible for humans.”

Wei Yan-ho shut his mouth before Baek Mu-han’s stone fist. Whether then or now, there was no hero before the rod.

“Listen well.”

“Yes.”

“There are no shortcuts in martial arts. No easy methods. Only consistent training is the path to improvement.”

“That’s right.”

“Learning my martial arts in five years is absurd.”

“You’re not about to tell me it’ll take even longer now, are you?”

“Would that be a problem?”

“It wouldn’t be impossible, but…”

‘Evil old geezer!’

Wei Yan-ho wanted to cry.

If things went wrong, he might end up trapped in this dark cave for decades without even getting married.

“Tsk, don’t worry. I am Baek Mu-han. Whatever I say with my own mouth, I keep no matter what.”

“Yes!”

Wei Yan-ho brightened up.

“However!”

Baek Mu-han smiled.

“The path to learning in five years what others take thirty years to learn can’t be easy. You’ll experience a hell with no time to sleep! When others sleep, you must train, and when others eat, you must train! A life of training! By training! For training!”

Wei Yan-ho quickly changed his tune.

“Learning quickly definitely doesn’t seem like a good thing. I think it would be better to take a little more time and learn properly!”

Baek Mu-han smiled.

“As I said before, whatever I say with my own mouth, I keep. No. Matter. What.”

“…”

“So you’d better prepare yourself.”

“Ugh…”

Wei Yan-ho made a tearful face. And so hell began.

Thud.

Wei Yan-ho collapsed to the ground.

After just half a day of training, Wei Yan-ho had become a rag and writhed on the floor.

“Ughhh…”

Baek Mu-han laughed smoothly.

“Is it hard?”

“Of course it’s hard, it’s not easy!”

“Really? You should be able to handle this much easily. Your physical conditioning seems lacking! Then I have no choice but to add a little more…”

“Your disciple isn’t struggling at all, Master!”

“Good, what a relief.”

“Sob.”

Wei Yan-ho wiped away tears. There was no way to escape from that demon-like old geezer’s grasp. He had no choice but to continue this hellish training.

‘Mother!’

He wanted to go home.

A place with a warm bed and warm meals.

“Home is where the heart is,” they say, and Wei Yan-ho realized anew that home—where no one tormented him—was heaven.

But returning home now was nothing more than a pipe dream.

“Give me something to eat.”

“Something to eat?”

“The provisions I brought are all gone. You must have something prepared.”

“Right. Open that jar over there.”

Wei Yan-ho struggled to get up and staggered toward the jar in the corner.

Then he opened the lid.

“Um… Master.”

“Hmm?”

“Is this what you meant?”

“That’s right.”

“This?”

“What’s wrong?”

Wei Yan-ho continued blankly.

“If you can see, I think you should take a look.”

“Hmm?”

The jewel flew through the air.

“It’s like dealing with a real ghost.”

Wei Yan-ho shuddered. Though he’d seen this sight often, he still couldn’t get used to it.

The jewel that flew through the air hovered over the jar.

“How did this happen?”

There was nothing in the jar.

If you looked hard, there was something black and dried stuck to the bottom, but if you called that food, there would be nothing inedible in the world. Weeds growing by the roadside or hard wooden blocks would serve the same purpose of filling one’s stomach.

“I definitely filled it with provisions…”

Wei Yan-ho’s face hardened.

“Did you think provisions would be safe for three hundred years?”

“Wouldn’t they be?”

Wei Yan-ho smiled wryly.

“Then there’s nothing we can do. Please open that door. I’ll go to the village and get provisions.”

“Do you think I’d believe that?”

“But I can’t just starve to death like this! I have to be alive for Master’s martial arts to be passed down to future generations.”

“That’s true, but…”

“So please open it. I swear on my name. I absolutely won’t run away.”

“I want to believe you.”

“Right?”

“Yes. It’s complete nonsense, but right now I want to believe you.”

“What do you mean?”

Baek Mu-han spoke in a serious tone.

“I can’t open it.”

“What?”

“With my abilities, I can’t lift something that heavy. I can’t break it either.”

“Huh? What are you talking about!”

“If it were my true body, it would be easy, but I’m currently in a state where only my consciousness remains. I don’t have enough strength to lift that.”

Wei Yan-ho went pale.

“So you’re saying I’ll starve to death like this?”

“…”

Even Baek Mu-han couldn’t answer, unable to find a suitable solution.

Wei Yan-ho’s eyes rolled back as he screamed.

“Ahhhhh! You crazy old geezer! I knew this would happen! What are we going to do now!”

“Be quiet!”

“Ahhhhh! Dying in this dark cave! Me dying here!”

“I said be quiet!”

“Then what are we going to do! I’ll die in less than ten days!”

“Who’s dying?”

“Then you have a solution?”

Baek Mu-han said calmly.

“Just open your mouth.”

“What?”

“Do you want to be beaten and then open it, or just open it?”

Whether it was from the aftereffects of two days of beatings or not, his body reacted before his mind could think. Wei Yan-ho opened his mouth without a word.

At that moment, the jewel that had been circling above the jar flew swiftly through the air and lodged itself in Wei Yan-ho’s mouth.

“Mmph!”

Before he could react, the jewel went down Wei Yan-ho’s throat and into his stomach.

“Gack!”

Wei Yan-ho retched from the pain of the jewel going down his throat and shouted.

“What did you do!”

Baek Mu-han said with a disgusted expression.

“If there’s no food, just don’t eat.”

“Then I’ll die!”

“I’ll control your body by infusing it with internal energy from inside, so it’ll be fine.”

“If you have internal energy, you won’t starve to death?”

“Of course not.”

“Then what’s the point?”

“I can maintain your body for about five years by drawing in external energy. My inner core contains the internal energy from when I was alive.”

“This is an inner core?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you usually become incredibly strong when you eat an inner core?”

“You really want to see me disappear, don’t you.”

Wei Yan-ho laughed awkwardly and shook his head.

“Of course not.”

“Hmph!”

Baek Mu-han snorted.

As if he’d believe Wei Yan-ho’s words.

“If you absorb the inner core’s energy, I can no longer maintain my consciousness. Consciousness also requires energy to be maintained.”

“Really?”

Wei Yan-ho’s eyes lit up.

“Yan-ho.”

“Yes?”

“Nice try. I won’t be absorbed that easily.”

“Hehe.”

Wei Yan-ho, who had been sneakily trying to absorb the inner core’s internal energy, said with a disgusted expression.

“Still, I really don’t like this. Master being inside my body! A man, not a woman! And an old man at that!”

“…”

“Wait! You’re not trying to steal my body, are you?”

“Ho?”

“I knew it!”

“How could that be possible! I’m already dead!”

“You’re a ghost, so who knows what you can’t do.”

“Ugh.”

After letting out a brief groan, Baek Mu-han soon smiled again.

“Anyway, now you can train without eating, so this worked out well.”

“Ugh…”

“Come, let’s begin!”

Wei Yan-ho made a tearful face. But in this situation, resistance was unthinkable. When that jewel was outside, he was already formidable, but now that it was inside his body, what couldn’t he do? Just thrashing around in his stomach would make his insides burst.

Whether or not he understood Wei Yan-ho’s trembling fear, Baek Mu-han calmly spoke.

“First, the martial art you must learn is Dream Training Technique.”

“Dream Training Technique?”

“That’s right.”

“Don’t you have any more impressive-sounding martial arts? Like Peerless Dream Training Divine Technique or something.”

“Do you want to be beaten while learning?”

“No. But what kind of martial art is this?”

“It’s a breathing technique that allows you to train even in your dreams.”

Wei Yan-ho immediately understood what that meant.

“…Can’t I not learn it?”

“I’d also prefer to just reduce your sleeping time and make you train rather than have you do this inefficient training, but thinking about it, if you do that, you’ll obviously regress when you leave the cave after five years. So you must learn this.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Wei Yan-ho smiled.

After all, whether it was Dream Training Technique or whatever, if Wei Yan-ho just didn’t use it, that would be that.

“By the way, once you learn this martial art, you can never escape it until you master it completely. If you don’t want to train in your dreams, you have no choice but to master it.”

“Ugh.”

It was truly ghostly.

“I’m really okay with getting stronger slowly.”

“I’m not okay with it.”

Baek Mu-han smiled slightly.

“Let’s give it a try. To learn my martial arts in five years, there will be no day or night. You’ll learn martial arts in your dreams, and when awake, you’ll see hell. If you can overcome that…”

Baek Mu-han said with a confident tone.

“No one in the world will dare discuss swords before you!”

It was truly an arrogant statement.

Wei Yan-ho honestly replied to that.

“I won’t discuss them anyway, so what’s the point.”

Baek Mu-han’s face twisted hideously.

What a tactless fool!

“Fine! Let’s see whether you’ll discuss them or not!”

Baek Mu-han, with large stones fixed to both fists, rushed at Wei Yan-ho.

“Ahhh! It was a joke, a joke! Master! Ahhh! Master!”

Wei Yan-ho screamed desperately, but Baek Mu-han mercilessly swung his fists.

Baek Mu-han’s training continued day and night.

During the day, he learned the sword without a moment’s rest, and at night, he discussed swords and wielded swords even in his dreams.

Life became the sword, and existence became the sword.

There wasn’t a single moment to indulge in laziness.

Time passed this way.

One day went by…

One month went by…

Spring left and summer came, autumn left and winter approached.

In a place without day or night, without seasons, he forgot time and devoted himself to training. The sword was me, and I was the sword. The boundary between the sword and myself became increasingly blurred.

And so…

Five years passed like an arrow.