Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

“Huh?”

“You said you’d teach me the world’s greatest martial arts, right? But I’ve never heard of your name before, old man.”

At this point, Mad Sword wanted to cough up blood.

To ask him if he was strong!

Three hundred years ago, when he was alive, if there had been anyone who dared to discuss strength in front of him, they would have been seized by others without him even having to lift a finger and carried off to a physician.

Wasn’t he the one who had not only reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship but also created a new realm of swordsmanship for the first time in Martial World History?

To think that in this dark cave, he would have to prove his strength to some young greenhorn—if Mad Sword still had a physical body, he probably would have shed clear tears for the first time since birth.

“What nonsense! When I was alive, no one dared to lift their head in front of me. Even the monks of Shaolin avoided me, and the Taoists of Wudang didn’t dare discuss swordsmanship before me. The whole world praised me!”

Wei Yan-ho was unimpressed.

“I’d have to be able to believe it.”

“It’s true!”

“Yes, yes, I’m sure it is. Memories tend to be embellished, after all.”

“Grr~!”

Baek Mu-han was dejected.

The reputation he had built up during his lifetime should have been considerable, so how could it not have been passed down for even three hundred years? If his name had been transmitted even a little, things would have been somewhat easier.

‘In my time, they gilded their words, saying I surpassed Zhang Sanfeng and was the greatest of all time!’

Had all those many people changed their tune completely?

If even one-tenth of those who had praised him to no end had passed on the same words they spoke to his face, it would have been natural for him to leave his name in history as one who contended for the title of Greatest Person of All Time. Truly, the ways of human life were incomprehensible.

“Grr, it’s true.”

Wei Yan-ho answered listlessly.

“Sure, sure. Well, let’s say that’s the case.”

“It’s not ‘let’s say that’s the case’—it IS the case! It’s real!”

Baek Mu-han had never told a lie in his entire life, nor had he ever felt the need to lie.

Because of this, he had absolutely no idea how to persuade someone who didn’t believe his words. What would he lack that he would need to lie to others, and what would he be missing that he would need to persuade others?

To experience something in this form that he had never experienced while alive—suddenly, sorrow washed over him like a wave.

“But even if you were that strong three hundred years ago, old man, it’s still suspicious.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“What’s the basis for saying that the world’s greatest martial arts from three hundred years ago is still the world’s greatest martial arts now? Don’t martial arts develop?”

“Heh heh heh.”

Baek Mu-han laughed. This was something he could answer all too easily.

“Don’t Shaolin and Wudang still contend for supremacy in the world?”

“That’s true.”

“When were the martial studies of Shaolin and Wudang created! By your logic, they too should have fallen behind or created new martial studies. But has any martial study surpassing the Yijin Jing emerged? Has any swordsmanship surpassing the Taiji Wisdom Sword appeared in Wudang?”

Wei Yan-ho thought deeply and then shook his head. Indeed, he had never heard of such things.

“No.”

“Exactly! Martial studies do develop. But truly strong martial arts remain strong even for later generations.”

“That’s true. But whether your martial arts are truly strong martial arts is a separate matter.”

Baek Mu-han now wanted to cry.

Anger toward his descendants surged up anew. He had clearly left instructions for them to come find him when they truly desired it in their hearts. But how was it that not a single one of all those people had come to this place?

If just one of them had entered this place, he wouldn’t have ended up in such a troublesome situation.

But there was no use lamenting about it now.

“Hmm, martial arts whose strength is unknown, and whose proper learning is uncertain…”

“…”

If Baek Mu-han had a physical body, his heart would have shriveled up by now.

Such tension!

Even when the Taoist bastards of Wudang had surrounded him with their Taiji Sword Formation, claiming they would test his martial studies, he just laughed heartily—yet now he had to feel such tension in this situation!

‘What does martial study matter… I’ll just roughly grab any guy and pass it on to him.’

What could he do?

This was already a mistake from three hundred years ago, something that couldn’t be undone.

And Wei Yan-ho’s answer unfortunately didn’t stray far from his expectations.

“Ah, I’ll pass!”

“Don’t, don’t do that—try learning it once! I absolutely won’t disappoint you!”

“I’m not really interested.”

“In life, you can’t only do things that perfectly suit your taste. Don’t be like that—think of it as being fooled and try learning it once. I’ll teach you well. I’ll do my best!”

The roles had been reversed.

Throughout all history, had there ever been a teacher who had to plead so pathetically?

“Hmm…”

“I’ll somehow make it possible for you to leave this place within twenty years!”

“Twenty years?”

“That’s right!”

“Ah, that’s too long.”

“Twenty years is absolutely necessary! Twenty years is far too short a time to learn my martial studies. But I’ll somehow research and strive to make it possible for you to reach a realm equal to mine within twenty years.”

Even after going this far, Wei Yan-ho’s reaction was thoroughly unimpressed. Wei Yan-ho, who had roughly settled in a corner and sat down, kept yawning and gaping his mouth wide open.

“I was thinking about considering it if it were three years…”

“Three, three years! How could you learn my martial studies in just three years! Even if Zhang Sanfeng came back to life, that wouldn’t be possible!”

“Is that so?”

“That’s right! The realm of my martial studies is never inferior to Zhang Sanfeng’s. I simply didn’t say such things during my time out of respect for my elder, but in fact, everyone knew that I was at least one step ahead!”

If true, this would be tremendous content indeed.

Who in the world could say with their own mouth that they were ahead of Zhang Sanfeng? It was the kind of statement that would make Wudang immediately grab their Songwen Ancient Sword and rush to tear him apart.

Such tremendous words they were, but Wei Yan-ho remained listless.

“Then never mind.”

“Never mind!”

“Well, then there’s nothing to be done. I guess we’re not meant to be.”

Baek Mu-han wanted to go mad. But with only his consciousness remaining, he couldn’t even do that.

“Three years is impossible! Absolutely not!”

“I understand.”

“Then five years! How about five years?”

“Five years?”

“That’s right! Five years! I’ll use whatever means necessary to make you the world’s greatest in just five years!”

Wei Yan-ho spoke with a listless expression.

“You’re not trying to scam me, are you?”

“Trust me! I’ll definitely make it happen!”

“Hmm…”

Wei Yan-ho seemed to ponder for a moment.

If you thought about it, digging through the cave for a year wasn’t something a person should do either. It would be better to learn excellent martial arts even if it took a bit longer—he had known that from the start.

The problem was simply that the duration and degree of training weren’t at the level Wei Yan-ho wanted.

Now the duration was roughly settled.

“Is it difficult?”

“You mean the training?”

“Yes.”

Baek Mu-han studied Wei Yan-ho’s expression.

The moment he said it was difficult, he would obviously start digging through the cave again. As evidence of this, Wei Yan-ho still hadn’t put down the sword in his hand.

“What could be difficult about it! It’s not difficult at all!”

“Really?”

“That’s right! Ha ha ha!”

Wei Yan-ho looked at the jewel from which Baek Mu-han’s voice came with suspicious eyes.

‘The world’s greatest martial arts…’

It was tempting.

But something about him reeked of being a con artist. His speech was full of boasting, and the person had no gravitas at all.

But one thing had been bothering him since earlier.

That jewel.

Looking at it, it really seemed like a dead person had breathed their consciousness into the jewel, but he had never heard or seen such a miraculous thing before. A person capable of such an incredible feat couldn’t be an ordinary person.

It simply hadn’t been passed down, but perhaps half of what he was saying now was true. If so, he might really have been the world’s greatest master.

The world’s greatest…

His father Wei Jeong-han, who trained day and night, had only just managed to get his name on the bottom of the list of the world’s top hundred masters. But to become the world’s greatest person through five years of effortless training—that was a luxury no one else in the world could enjoy.

‘Right, I’ll become a master with this opportunity!’

As mentioned before, Wei Yan-ho had always dreamed of becoming the world’s greatest person and was prepared to make efforts toward that goal. The problem was simply that his physical laziness was greater than his motivation, so he could never take the first step.

If he could obtain results through moderate training, Wei Yan-ho could also make some concessions and compromise.

“I’ll do it!”

“Really?”

“Yes!”

Baek Mu-han was overjoyed.

“Then quickly perform the gubae to me! The formal master-disciple ceremony comes first!”

Wei Yan-ho smiled slyly.

“I don’t want to.”

“Huh?”

“You were planning to completely change your attitude using the pretext of being master and disciple after the ceremony, weren’t you?”

“…”

“I’ll just continue like this. So you can just continue as you are now too, old man.”

A quiet silence descended in the cave.

“Is there a problem?”

“No.”

“Yes.”

Wei Yan-ho smiled cheerfully.

Mad Sword Baek Mu-han.

It was the day when sorrowful hardships he had never experienced even once in three hundred years began.

***

“Did you say Mad Sword?”

The Historian tilted his head.

He was a person who recorded the history of the Martial World. Although he was investigating matters related to Wei Yan-ho, he was confident that he was more knowledgeable about basic Martial World History than anyone else.

But he had never once heard of a person with the nickname Mad Sword.

“That’s strange.”

Who was Wei Yan-ho?

The Radiant Martial Lord.

It was incomprehensible that the master of someone who had earned such a tremendous title just by hearing it would be a nameless person.

Of course, it would be possible if he were a reclusive master, but from what he heard, he seemed to be someone who had fame—so why was this a name that even he had never heard of?

“Is this the first time you’ve heard of him?”

“Yes. This is the first time I’ve heard the nickname Mad Sword.”

“Then do you know of the Mangeom Baekga?”

“Of course! How could I not know of the Mangeom Baekga!”

Guangqushen nodded.

“Right. Then who is the greatest figure produced by the Mangeom Baekga?”

“A prestigious family like the Mangeom Baekga couldn’t have just one or two great martial artists. The founder of the Mangeom Baekga, Mangeom-ja, and Bungsan Geomjon, who is said to have demolished mountains with a single sword… But if I had to choose just one, everyone would choose that person. The Sword Emperor. The very person called the Greatest Sword of All Time. The realms of the other masters were certainly not low, but it’s true that they pale before the name of the Sword Emperor.”

Guangqushen smiled.

“Right, that person.”

“…Yes?”

“Before that person was called the Sword Emperor, his nickname was Mad Sword.”

“What?”

Guangqushen chuckled.

“Of course, Wei Yan-ho didn’t know that at all at the time. That gentleman was also pitiful. The last person he met in his life happened to be such a person.”