Chapter 35

Chapter 35

The current Mujeong Hall is called the golden class, but it’s not as if only Mujeong Hall has had a golden class.

Actually, it’s only natural. The two great training halls of Mujeong and Muryeon have existed for hundreds of years. Would there not have been a single special class among them?

Both Muryeon Hall and Mujeong Hall have produced numerous golden classes, and among them were those who entered the ranks of the Ten Greatest Masters Under Heaven or the Three Great Masters. However.

Fifteen years ago, the golden class of Muryeon Hall held a particularly deep meaning for the Muryeon Hall trainees.

“Is, is it really Senior Un?”

“It’s Baek Riyun now.”

I smiled bitterly at the sight of the juniors asking with excited expressions. Fifteen years ago, when I entered Muryeon Hall, I used the single-character name ‘Un’ because I said I would sever ties with the Baek Ri Family.

Now I know that was meaningless, but back then I truly believed I could sever ties between myself and the family. That’s how the Muryeon Hall trainee ‘Un’ was born.

The me from fifteen years ago.

“I never imagined that the Sect Master would be Senior Un…”

“It seems you know me.”

“How could I not know! The Hall Director still speaks of you until his mouth runs dry, and moreover…”

Oh Ryeong swallowed and paused for a moment, then added in a crawling voice.

“…I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“I heard that you never lost once in four years, Sect Master… And that too, against the Wudang’s Greatest Talent.”

Was that so?

When I was studying at Muryeon Hall, there was a sword prodigy in Mujeong Hall who was said to appear once every hundred years. The martial uncle of Cheongha, who was my subordinate.

To put it bluntly, he was a monster. It would have been different if I could have used the Baek Ri Family’s martial arts, but I couldn’t, which made it even more so. But even so, I never gave him a single victory.

Though it was close.

“We’re just disgracing Muryeon Hall’s name…”

As soon as Oh Ryeong’s words ended, the Muryeon Hall trainees looked down one by one with heavy eyes. As if they thought I would scold them.

But that’s not what’s really important.

“It doesn’t matter if you’ve lost until now.”

“…Pardon?”

“I mean it doesn’t matter if you’ve lost a hundred times or a thousand times.”

Lost to Mujeong Hall.

That’s not the simple reason I was angry at them. Right now they’re divided into Mujeong Hall and Muryeon Hall, but after graduation, aren’t they comrades who will be assigned to the same military unit and share life and death together?

I wouldn’t scold them for losing a little to such comrades.

So that’s not why I scold them.

“Even if you lose a hundred times, even if you lose a thousand times, if you have the will to fight, you can win once. The true victor is the person who loses ten thousand times and wins once at the end. But if you lose your fighting spirit, that opportunity will never come.”

“Did you truly make an effort to defeat Mujeong Hall? Didn’t you perhaps have the mindset of ‘at least we won’t look pathetic even if we lose’?”

The strength of martial power doesn’t matter. Even a tiger will die if it doesn’t respond to a field mouse trying to eat it.

Those who don’t fight cannot win. The truth I taught the members first when I took the position of Changcheon Corps Commander.

That is what they lack.

“Now that you’ve entered here, forget your previous mindset.”

I declared and came down from the platform to stand in front of Seonwoo Gang. Gradually gathering attention.

“I will not make you strong. Becoming strong is your responsibility. The only thing I can do is tell you how to become strong.”

Even hellish training is meaningless if the will to follow through doesn’t come first. The path of a master doesn’t open to those without will.

“Can you follow?”

“…We will follow!”

“Even the most terrible training?”

At my question, the Muryeon Hall trainees exchanged glances with each other, then nodded with eyes filled with firm will. And the cry that burst forth.

“We will definitely follow!”

“Hmm.”

I nodded with satisfaction at the satisfactory answer and clasped my hands behind my back.

“Since your will seems full, that’s good. Then we’ll start training from today.”

“Yes!”

“It will be hellish training, so be careful. The first training will be conducted individually. Seonwoo Gang. Come forward.”

“…Yes!”

Seonwoo Gang, who came forward with his body stiff from tension, looked straight into my eyes. Eyes filled with the will to definitely accomplish any difficult training.

Looking at those eyes, I opened my mouth.

“—A hundred times.”

“Downward strike a hundred times. That’s this assignment. It’s a difficult assignment, so make sure to accomplish it.”

“…Pardon?”

I let out a chuckle at Seonwoo Gang’s bewildered expression.

The depths of the Murim Alliance.

“What does the Military Advisor think is the most important thing in training?”

The scholar who had been quietly sitting in meditation and sipping tea raised his eyes at the voice he heard and looked at the old man in front of him.

“…Training, you say?”

“That’s right. Training.”

“Training…”

Thinking conventionally, the most important thing in training anything is ‘habit.’ It wouldn’t just be about martial arts.

Training itself is like that in the first place. Isn’t training tedious and boring beyond compare? To endure that, nothing is more important than habit. However.

Who is the person before my eyes?

He is one of the Ten Heavens  and the peak of the orthodox martial world, Sword Saint Wi Jihak. Surely he wouldn’t be asking me a question just to hear such an obvious story.

Considering that, the scholar quietly gave his answer.

“I think it’s desperation.”

“Desperation, why do you think so?”

“There’s nothing that becomes motivation quite like the emotion of desperation.”

“That would be so. Hurhur. Whether it’s a desire for revenge or yearning, without desperation added, it’s only half-baked.”

The Sword Saint who let out a light laugh raised his finger and lightly brushed the top of the teacup.

“Let me change the question. What do you think is the significance of training?”

“…I think it exists to prepare for actual combat. It’s to prevent mistakes in real situations.”

The scholar answered as if there was no room for consideration this time, and the Sword Saint smiled faintly at him. And the statement that followed immediately.

“It’s not wrong, but it’s a bit different from this old man’s thoughts.”

“That perspective could exist. But this old man thinks that training is ultimately for the mediocre.”

“For the… mediocre, you say?”

“That’s right. For the mediocre. To be precise, it should be said that it’s closer to a condition for the mediocre to set foot in the realm of geniuses.”

The Sword Saint who briefly turned his gaze far away let out a hollow laugh and continued speaking.

“Geniuses are commonly called ‘hearing one and knowing ten’. A breed who awakens to ten things when they hear one thing. Those who pioneer their own path even without having to learn.”

“For such people, training is nothing more than a formality. Geniuses don’t make mistakes. No, even if they make mistakes, they quickly correct them and somehow make up for those mistakes. That’s why they’re called heaven-sent talents.”

“But for the mediocre, this is impossible. They only get one chance.”

“That’s why training is necessary.”

It’s a reckless, ignorant, and foolish act. It’s nothing more than trying to follow a stork’s stride with a sparrow’s body.

However, if ten thousand sparrows chase and study the footprints left by one stork, and finally find the answer.

It becomes a law and reigns over the sparrows.

“There’s a story I’ve been hearing.”

“What is it?”

“That this year’s Mujeong Hall children’s talents are particularly outstanding?”

“Yes. I’ve received reports that they’re achieving quite excellent results. It seems the military unit commanders are already engaging in a war of nerves to be assigned Mujeong Hall trainees.”

“What about the Muryeon Hall side?”

“Muryeon Hall is…”

The scholar who paused for a moment shook his head and answered.

“They’re not lacking in capability, but they’re being crushed because Mujeong Hall is too outstanding. At this rate, they probably won’t escape a slump for a while.”

“It seems the Second Military Advisor pulled some kind of move.”

“What kind of move could reduce that level of gap?”

“Well.”

The Sword Saint who briefly skimmed through the report in front of him with his eyes chuckled and tilted his head obliquely.

“I wonder if that’s really so.”

“…You see a possibility.”

“If it were a battle between genius and mediocrity, it would be different, but battles between mediocrity and mediocrity are dominated by numerous variables.”

“You see them as mediocre?”

“There’s no child that stands out.”

Mujeong Hall’s golden class.

Of course, it’s true that they have outstanding talent. Even if you search all of the martial world, those with such talent wouldn’t be common. Indeed, they were worthy of the pride that the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Families would take.

However.

Now the story is different.

“Let’s raise the stakes. There must be no chance of Mujeong Hall losing in this competition.”

“…What wind has blown through you?”

“Look at this.”

“This is…?”

The scholar who carefully received the red invitation  that the Sword Saint pushed forward and examined the name opened his eyes wide.

“The Evil Path Alliance Leader…!”

“He’s an unpredictable fellow. Is it because he’s a genius? Hurhurur. Competing with discernment.”

“What’s the content?”

“He said let’s make a bet. On which side will win in this competition.”

Conventionally, there’s no reason to accept such a bet. The Evil Path Alliance and the Murim Alliance are at war right now. In the first place, it’s not a bet that the Evil Path Alliance, which can’t even observe, should be able to make.

However,

“He said if he loses, he’ll stop all expansion and attacks for one year as long as he’s not attacked first.”

“…Really?”

“That’s right. He even went so far as to promise to stop attacks in the entire Hubei region immediately, saying that if it’s limited to an individual sect’s fight, there will be no intervention from the Evil Path Alliance’s side even if they’re attacked.”

It’s an absurd condition. From the Murim Alliance’s position, which is being pushed back somewhat in the war with the Evil Path Alliance, one year is a period long enough to reorganize considerably.

“It’s a good condition, but… since it’s a bet, there must be something in return. What is it?”

“That they fulfill one small request of his.”

“…A small request, it definitely won’t be small. What kind of scheme…”

“No, the Evil Path Alliance Leader isn’t that kind of person.”

If there were someone to whom the words ‘schemes and machinations’ were most unsuitable, the Sword Saint would have picked the Evil Path Alliance Leader. Isn’t he a man who is more arrogant, unpredictable, and simultaneously honest than anyone else?

“If I had to say, it would be greed.”

“…By greed, you mean.”

“What seems trivial to us looks different in that fellow’s eyes.”

That’s how geniuses are. People who see a world that cannot be understood with mediocre eyes and do things that cannot be understood.

“Either way, it’s a proposal I can’t refuse.”

The Sword Saint who finished speaking pressed down on the teacup and shook his head.

“Let’s raise the stakes. In addition, let’s dispatch a new instructor to Mujeong Hall.”

“Who should we dispatch?”

“Didn’t you say those children are at Wudang now?”

“Yes. I understand they just entered a few days ago.”

“Hmm.”

If a Wudang elder or sect leader personally oversees training, that would be against fairness. There would definitely be talk of it being unfair.

Then who should be sent?

The Sword Saint who briefly closed his eyes and was lost in thought gave his answer.

“Cheongryoo.”

“…By Cheongryoo, you mean.”

The senior of Mujeong Hall who graduated over ten years ago and the next-generation Wudang’s First Sword. The current Wudang’s Greatest Talent.

“Let’s go with that child.”

A fight between mediocrities anyway.

If it’s Cheongryoo, they’ll probably be able to ensure Mujeong Hall’s victory.