The Genius Youngest Disciple of the Wudang Sect

Chapter 253

I met Un Gwang's eyes.

Although it wasn't a matter of me giving my all, Un Gwang would have to use all his strength just to face me.

Moreover, the power Un Gwang possessed was not weak. He had more internal energy than most first-rate martial artists, so a slight misstep could lead to a major incident.

"Hwi-ya. Don't worry too much. I'm still relaxed. If things get dicey, I'll switch to the Taeguk Sword Art to face you."

"Alright."

At Un Gwang's confident tone, I decided to relax a little.

A person's reliability is bound to increase based on their words and actions shown so far.

In that respect, Un Gwang, both in his past life and this one, always kept his word and showed a consistent appearance.

It meant my trust in him was almost at its peak.

"Then, here I come."

"Alright. Come at me!"

I took a deep breath in and out, then began to raise my internal energy.

As I said before, it was weak by my standards, but Un Gwang's power was enough to split a rock.

I also focused quite a bit and raised my internal energy.

Un Gwang was also looking at me with intensely focused eyes.

Around the time the sound of the two energies meeting and resonating echoed.

I began to move my legs and run towards Un Gwang.

I didn't perform the footwork with all my might.

Since the reason we were clashing now was not to kill each other, it was enough to just let him know that I was approaching him.

Around the time I almost reached Un Gwang. I imbued my sword with the mystery of Taeguk, gathered that energy at one point, and then thrust it out as if squeezing all the strength from my body.

It was a form of the Heaven and Earth One Sword that I was now so familiar with that I could perform it unconsciously.

As I thrust my sword, I glanced at Un Gwang's expression...

Grin—

He was smiling.

And it was a smile as if a child were playing with a toy, a smile that said he was having the time of his life.

The moment I saw that expression, the tension that had been building up in my heart was released.

It was just my own groundless fear. Un Gwang had so much confidence in himself.

At that moment, Un Gwang's sword swung wide.

On the outside, it was a simple horizontal slash, but the content within it surpassed my imagination.

I was the one who performed the Dugu Nine Swords...

Suddenly, a tremendous shockwave poured towards me, to the point where I momentarily lost my balance.

The force pouring towards me included the energy Un Gwang had unleashed, but most of it was my own energy.

With a single clash, Un Gwang had returned both the Heaven and Earth One Sword I had performed and his own energy to me at the same time.

But the amount of internal energy felt even greater than the sum of both our internal energies.

'If the first form returns the existing force as it is, this form amplifies the force and sends it back!'

I shook off the internal energy that was overwhelming my body by raising my original energy.

Amazing. I can't think of anything other than the word 'amazing'.

This is not simply a martial art that can face a martial artist stronger than me, but an amazing martial art that can deliver a fatal blow to an opponent stronger than me!

But... a question began to arise in my mind.

'Wait. But where did the amplified energy come from?'

That's right. One plus one cannot become three.

No matter how efficient a martial art is, it doesn't make sense to suddenly create non-existent energy and return it to the attacker.

And thinking about it again, the source of that energy is very clear. It must be Un Gwang.

"Heh, hehe... success..."

Un Gwang said so, then suddenly collapsed onto the spot.

His already white face turned as pale as a sheet of paper, and his lips turned blue.

On top of that, he was suddenly breaking out in a cold sweat. He had become close to exhaustion from consuming too much internal energy in an instant.

"No, Grand Senior Brother!"

I hurriedly approached Un Gwang and began to pour my energy into his Myeongmun acupoint.

Fortunately, it seemed his innate true qi was not injured, as his complexion quickly began to return.

"Hwi-ya... thank you."

"Thank you, my foot! Isn't something wrong with this? Is this supposed to happen?"

"Yeah. It's originally this kind of martial art... The third form consumes all the power I have... to return it with a force stronger than the opponent's..."

Un Gwang, as if it were still difficult for him to speak, spoke with intermittent pauses.

"Then what were you going to do when I used a strong force? Couldn't you have touched your innate true qi like that? Didn't you know that if you draw on your original essence, your dantian could be permanently damaged?"

"No... I knew. But in theory, I wouldn't have used that much..."

"In theory! You should have explained that this would happen to me from the beginning."

"If I had said that, you wouldn't have helped me, would you?"

Seeing Un Gwang answer with wide, clear eyes, I let out a deep sigh.

And then, without answering, I focused on pouring energy into his back.

I tried to recall if Un Gwang had always been such a reckless person, but no matter how much I thought about it, Un Gwang was not that kind of person.

On the contrary, you could say he had a safety-oriented personality.

He preferred certainty over adventure, so I couldn't quite understand why he had done such a reckless thing.

'Could it be because of me?'

Then a thought suddenly occurred to me.

The thought that Un Gwang's personality had changed like that was ultimately my fault.

In his past life, Un Gwang was said to have trained in martial arts day and night without ever leaving the Wudang Sect until he was almost thirty.

Living in the Wudang Sect like that, not knowing the dangers of the world, not knowing anything about the ways of the world, and only cultivating the Tao and training in martial arts, he had no opportunity for adventure.

But in this life, a being like me has intervened.

So I gave Un Gwang a dream, gave him hope, and even performed the martial arts he devised with my own body.

On top of that, the exploits I perform while going outside the Wudang Sect would be enough to stimulate the still young Un Gwang.

"Hooo... it's okay now. Thank you, Unhwi-ya."

How much energy had I poured into him?

Un Gwang finally spoke to me in a normal voice.

Fortunately, since we were from the same sect in this life, the efficiency of transmitting the standard was high, so he seemed to have recovered quickly.

"Theoretically, it's perfect, and the implementation was successful, but now that I've performed it with my own body, I see some shortcomings. If I supplement those, it will become a more complete martial art."

"It seems like an amazing martial art even as it is now."

"Really? I'm happy that you say so, Unhwi. You know a lot of other advanced martial arts."

"It doesn't seem to fall far behind those martial arts. Except for the third form..."

"Haha. If you learn the third form well, you might be able to use it someday, right?"

"I guess so. It could be a life-saving ultimate technique in a really important moment."

Un Gwang grinned.

He seemed to be thinking something similar to me.

"Alright. I have a rough idea of how to improve it. I'll teach you this martial art soon."

"You'll teach me right away?"

"Yeah. This martial art was made for you in the first place."

Un Gwang looked at me intently and continued, "I overheard the Sect Leader talking, and he said you're already out in the martial world fighting strong enemies, right?"

"Hmm... am I?"

I said so and thought about the opponents I had fought so far.

The leader of the Changjiang Waterway Gang, the Demonic Flower Hall Master, the leader of the Four Evils Alliance, etc... That's right. They are all much stronger enemies than I am now.

"I wanted to give you at least one more means to counter such strong enemies."

"Grand Senior Brother..."

"And I'll also be making my debut in the martial world someday, right? To face such strong enemies that even you are struggling with now, I need to build up my strength too. As I am now, I wouldn't even be a single-strike opponent for them."

A strong will could be seen in Un Gwang's eyes.

Originally, Un Gwang's debut in the martial world was a story for ten years later.

But somehow, in this life, it seemed Un Gwang would step out into the world much faster.

"Senior Brother. Are you okay now?"

"Yeah. Thanks to you, I'm as energetic as usual."

"Then stand here again."

"Huh? Why?"

"Even if we do the third form later, we can still train the first and second forms a little more, right? I'll try to raise my power a little more, so let's keep practicing."

"No... we don't have to do it right now. I'll try to improve it a little more first..."

"Wouldn't that improvement be faster if you clash with your body countless times? You can't say you know all about that martial art after just doing it once, can you?"

"That's true, but..."

Un Gwang had a troubled expression. It seemed he was tired now and wanted to rest a little.

But who am I? I'm the one who makes people who say they can't run run one more step, and who pesters people who say they're tired to train.

"Let's do it a few more times for now. There will be things you can only know by doing it now. And please increase the completeness of that martial art even more."

"Ugh... alright."

Un Gwang reluctantly got up from his seat and picked up his sword, and I, after watching him with a satisfied expression... rushed at Un Gwang several more times.

Un Gwang's and my training continued for a long time after that, and Un Gwang was so exhausted that day that I had to carry him on my back and put him in Room One.

I was interrogated by the other senior brothers in Room One as if they were asking what I had done to the Grand Senior Brother, but I had nothing to say other than that we had trained together.

***

And a few days passed by in a flash.

For the past few days, I had spent almost all my time with Un Gwang, perfecting the Taeguk Nine Swords.

As a result, Un Gwang had perfected the first and second forms, except for the third form, to a level close to completion.

Instead, I made one promise with Un Gwang.

That is, not to perform the third form recklessly until he becomes much stronger than he is now.

Since I had agreed to help him complete the first and second forms on that condition, Un Gwang did not train the third form.

Of course, he would be perfecting it more himself in theory.

And now I am training with my master.

Since both my master and I are in the process of learning the Pure Yang Supreme Art, we sometimes share what we have felt while training separately, and we also share what we have each realized.

The important thing is that I am not learning from my master, but that we are learning 'together'.

It feels as if we have become colleagues learning the same martial art, rather than a master-disciple relationship.

"Hwi-ya. Are you preparing for the martial arts tournament separately?"

During a short break while training the Pure Yang Supreme Art.

My master asked me.

"No? I'm not preparing anything separately."

"Really? That's surprising. I thought you'd be working hard with fire in your eyes."

"What more is there to work hard on? I've always been working hard. I'm just doing as I usually do."

At my words, my master smiled slightly.

He seemed to be quite pleased with my answer.

"Your goal in this tournament is of course first place, right?"

"Yes. I'm going to get first place somehow."

"Yes. That's a good thought. I'll be cheering for you."

"But I'm not going to use the Pure Yang Supreme Art in this martial arts tournament."

"Really?"

"It's still incomplete, and more than that, I want to make it an opportunity to completely solidify my basics."

My master nodded his head.

Even if it's a martial arts tournament, it's just a tournament among the third-generation disciples.

In the first place, I am looking much further, so I don't need to be so desperate for such a martial arts tournament.

"Good. Then let's make a bet."

"What kind of bet?"

"If you win this tournament with only basic martial arts, that is, the Three Talents Sword Art and the Taeguk Sword Art, I will speak to the Sect Leader and have him introduce you to the Martial Alliance Leader."

"The Martial Alliance Leader? You mean..."

"It means I will let you take on a solo mission for the Martial Alliance."

My eyes sparkled.

To be able to take on a solo mission for the Martial Alliance.

Because that was the same as being fully recognized as an independent martial artist.

(End of Chapter)