Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Wei Yan-ho turned his head to look for a way out.

He couldn’t understand why he had to have this kind of conversation with a ghost that wasn’t even human.

“Three hundred years! Three hundred years have passed! No, then does that mean no one came to find me for three hundred years! Even though I kindly prepared a way for them to find me!”

“…….”

Wei Yan-ho slowly backed away.

From listening to him roughly, it seemed he wasn’t exactly welcomed by those around him even when he was alive.

“Anyway, so I’ll be going now.”

“Stop right there!”

A resolute voice caught Wei Yan-ho.

“……I told you I’m not learning.”

“You’re the only one!”

“I’m fine with that.”

“If you just leave like that, I’ll spend time in a daze like this and then disappear! No one has come for three hundred years, so if not you, then who else would come?”

It was a reasonable point.

But it had nothing to do with Wei Yan-ho.

Besides, wouldn’t it be good for the world if a ghost disappeared?

He wanted to say that, but it was too cruel to say in front of the person concerned.

Wasn’t Wei Yan-ho polite and kind?

“Then if I happen to meet a descendant of the Baek Family, I’ll tell them to come here.”

“……Can you find them?”

“I might happen to meet them while living.”

“Hmm.”

The jewel spoke in a serious tone.

“Why! Why won’t you learn! Does my martial arts look ridiculous to you! When I was alive, everyone recognized me as the Greatest Sword Under Heaven!”

“I’ve never heard of that though.”

“……Well, three hundred years have passed.”

Wei Yan-ho turned his head with a sullen expression.

If a great martial artist could be forgotten just because three hundred years had passed, then the legends of Zhang Sanfeng or Dharma wouldn’t have been passed down.

Even if he didn’t possess the martial arts of such grandmaster-level figures, if he had been recognized to some degree, Wei Yan-ho would have heard of him. In martial arts families, legends about such grandmasters are bound to be passed down.

But Wei Yan-ho had never heard of the title Mad Sword even once.

Then wasn’t it obvious?

He was just a fraud who was all talk.

“And even if you were to teach me amazing martial arts, I don’t really want to learn.”

“Why not!”

“Well…… you say I’d have to train for thirty years, would I be crazy to do that?”

“If you could become the Greatest Under Heaven with thirty years of training, wouldn’t that be too short a period! Looking at your age, you’d become the Greatest Person Under Heaven before turning fifty! Do you know what an incredible thing that is?”

“But I’d still have to train until fifty.”

“Of course! If you become the Greatest Person Under Heaven, all kinds of honor and wealth will await you. If you could get that with thirty years of training, it would be too cheap a price.”

“Eh, I’d rather just live comfortably from before I turn fifty.”

“…….”

The jewel was at a loss for words.

Even though he remained as a mere consciousness, he had never once thought he would face such a situation.

Who was he!

Wasn’t he the Mad Sword who had reigned alone and loftily in the world!

Why should he suffer such treatment!

But reality was harsh.

“If you become the Greatest Person Under Heaven, you can easily make money too!”

“Our family has a lot of money.”

“Not only that! All kinds of beautiful women will follow you! A man must succeed.”

“What’s the point of women following me after I’m over fifty? They’ll all be grandmothers.”

Even if they’re grandmothers, they’d look young after learning rejuvenation arts, you fool!

And it’s not just grandmothers, young ones would follow too!

He wanted to say that, but this wasn’t something he could say while maintaining his dignity.

“Uh…… And people will look at you with respect.”

“I don’t need that. I’m a bit shy around people.”

The Mad Sword’s logic was cleanly defeated.

“Argh! Quiet! You must learn! You have to learn! You absolutely must learn!”

Wei Yan-ho got up from his seat.

“Then I’ll be going now. Take care.”

“Do you think I’ll let you go easily!”

At that moment, the ceiling of the cave Wei Yan-ho was heading toward came down to the floor.

Thud!

A massive stone door dropped between the cave Wei Yan-ho had been in and the cave he was in now.

“Huh?”

Wei Yan-ho looked behind him.

The jewel emitted a bright light.

“Hahaha! How’s that! It’s a stone door one jang thick! With your ability, you can’t dare lift or break it! But if you learn my martial arts, you can cut through such a stone door like paper!” [TL/N: Jang (장) is a traditional Korean unit of length equal to about 3.03 meters or 10 feet.]

“……Can’t you just open it for me?”

“No way! You fool! Now what will you do!”

Wei Yan-ho sighed.

“Well, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Clang!

Wei Yan-ho’s sword was drawn.

“Hmph! I told you that you can’t cut that stone door with your ability!”

“I suppose so.”

Wei Yan-ho slowly approached the stone door.

“Tat!“

Wei Yan-ho leaped into the air and deeply stabbed the upper part of the stone door.

Clang!

But strangely, a sharp metallic sound was heard and the sword bounced off.

“Eh?”

“Hahaha! Did you think it would be empty just because the stone door came down from there? You fool! I’m right above your head! Knowing you’d try that, I reinforced that area with ten-thousand-year cold iron!”

“Hmm…….”

“Now obediently perform the Gubae ceremony to me and learn my sword! If you endure hardship for just thirty years, I’ll make it so you can cut through such a stone door like paper!”

“Thirty years?”

“That’s right! This is me being very generous.”

“I see.”

Wei Yan-ho approached the stone door with his sword.

“It’s useless!”

“I know.”

Wei Yan-ho slowly raised his sword and scraped it against the stone door.

Screech!

But only a small scratch appeared on the stone door.

The stone door’s thickness was at least one jang, so it was right to think there was no way to cut it with a sword.

“Heh, now give up…….”

Screech.

Screech.

Screech.

“What are you doing?”

Wei Yan-ho didn’t answer and scraped the stone door with steady motions.

Screech.

“I asked what you’re doing!”

“Can’t you see? I’m digging a tunnel.”

“Digging a tunnel?”

“No matter how hard it is, it’s still stone, so if I scrape it with metal, it’ll scratch even a little. If I keep scraping steadily, it’ll eventually break through.”

“That would take a long time.”

“Would it really take thirty years? At most it would take a year. If I’m fast, I could finish within a month.”

“……You’re going to do that for a whole year?”

“Haha, you say interesting things. The person who told me to train for thirty years.”

“Tr-training has something to gain.”

“This has something to gain too.”

“What could you possibly gain from that!”

“Twenty-nine years of freedom.”

“…….”

The jewel said nothing more.

He was fed up.

Where else in the world could there be such a person?

Baek Mu-han was now completely at Wei Yan-ho’s mercy.

If it were an ordinary lazy person, they wouldn’t think of digging through a stone door one jang thick just to avoid training.

But Wei Yan-ho wasn’t just any lazy person.

He was the greatest lazy person under heaven.

There’s a prejudice that ordinary lazy people find everything bothersome and don’t even think properly, but when you reach Wei Yan-ho’s level, the story changes.

When laziness exceeds a certain level, advanced judgment is required.

You need to be able to do what you can at the exact time and exactly right so that the time you can rest increases even a little.

Wei Yan-ho knew this fact all too well.

In this situation, the best choice he could make was to sacrifice one year of time to earn twenty-nine years of time to be lazy.

It could truly be called a rational decision.

Screech.

Screech.

“A-are you really going to dig through all of that?”

“Of course.”

“It would really take a long time.”

“You’re worrying about me so much.”

“……And what if it collapses by chance? You could lose your life if you’re not careful.”

“I’d die the same way just staying here. If I’m going to risk my life anyway, I’d rather bet it on something with possibilities.”

Baek Mu-han threw up his hands and feet.

This human was impossible to reason with!

He was a human who simply couldn’t be persuaded.

“D-don’t do that and how about learning my martial arts! Then you could really get out easily!”

“Haha, old man, you don’t seem to know what ‘easily’ means.”

“Grr!”

Baek Mu-han felt like shedding tears of blood at this first experience of miserable defeat.

“Don’t you have any dreams or hopes! I’m offering to teach you the greatest martial arts under heaven! Don’t you want to become the Greatest Person Under Heaven!”

“You call that talking?”

“You mean you have no dreams?”

“No. Of course I want to become one. I really want to become the Greatest Person Under Heaven too.”

“Right! Of course you would! Then what’s the problem! I’ll give you that martial arts! I’ll definitely make you the Greatest Person Under Heaven!”

Wei Yan-ho said listlessly.

“That’s true, but…….”

“Yes?”

“I hate training.”

Baek Mu-han was momentarily at a loss for words.

It took time for him to interpret what he had heard.

The shock that Wei Yan-ho’s words gave Baek Mu-han was so great that he had to take time to interpret a simple two-word sentence.

A martial artist!

A person who calls himself a martial artist!

Says he hates training!

He’d give up the path to becoming the Greatest Person Under Heaven because he hates training!

“What kind of talk is that! Isn’t it too natural that you must endure bone-cutting hardship to learn martial arts and become strong!”

“That’s right.”

“If you overcome that, you can become the Greatest Person Under Heaven.”

“I hate that.”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to become the Greatest Person Under Heaven?”

“I want to!”

“Then you have to train!”

“I hate that.”

“No, clearly…… you said you wanted to become the Greatest Person Under Heaven…….”

“Yes! I want to!”

“Then train…….”

Wei Yan-ho shook his head vigorously.

“I hate that.”

“…….”

Baek Mu-han was at a loss for words.

“I want to become the Greatest Person Under Heaven, but I don’t want to endure bone-cutting hardship. It would be really nice if I could become strong with just moderate training.”

“Huh…….”

Baek Mu-han felt like cursing heaven.

Who would have known that the connection he waited three hundred years to meet would be such a person!

Baek Mu-han swore he had never encountered a human with such a rotten mental state.

“And thirty years at that. Having to live thirty years in this dark cave would be truly terrible.”

Baek Mu-han felt like beating this pathetic fool to death in one blow if he could.

But he couldn’t.

If Wei Yan-ho died, there was no telling when someone would visit this cave.

Then Baek Mu-han might disappear miserably without ever meeting another person.

He didn’t have much time left.

“Th-then how long would you be willing to learn?”

“Huh?”

“……If thirty years is difficult, I’m thinking of reducing it a little.”

“You’re planning to teach me carelessly?”

“How could that be! Learning my martial arts means you’ll carry my name. If I taught you martial arts carelessly, it would tarnish my name!”

“Hmm.”

Wei Yan-ho fell into slight contemplation.

But there was something he needed to address first.

But is it really strong?”