—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“I said you shouldn’t take that stance!”
“Ugh!”
Sanyeo had said that the serious training would take place after I took over the sect, but that didn’t mean that we wouldn’t be training for the whole month. According to Sanyeo, the quality of the training that we could do when we had a stable base and the training that we could do while living on the road like now were different.
“Okay, let’s try again. You start with a vertical chop, right?”
In an empty space a little far from the village, I was repeating the basics of the Mount Tai Ax, trying to get into the correct stance. Sanyeo, while facing me, was looking back and forth between the book of the Mount Tai Ax and me, correcting my stance, and I had to swing my ax at her without any hesitation.
“But, do we really have to train like this? What if you can’t dodge it and….”
But no matter how skilled she was as a master, it was still hard for me to attack her while she was looking away at the book. When I carefully asked, Sanyeo scoffed and flipped through the Mount Tai Ax.
“You’re the one swinging the ax right now, why are you worrying about that? You were just swinging your ax without any hesitation when you were chopping people’s heads when you were a bandit.”
“That was when it was okay to kill them, but now, it would be troublesome for me if you got hurt.”
“Are you worried about me?”
“If a woman from Sanyeo Valley with shackles on her hands got injured by an ax and had to be taken to a doctor, what would they say there?”
It wasn’t that I was worried about Sanyeo.
Even monkeys could fall from trees. If she was to get hurt by my ax, then I thought that the situation would be become troublesome, since she was wearing shackles, and she would draw attention if she had to be taken to a doctor, and if it was found out that she was from Sanyeo Valley, then pursuers might attach themselves to us at lightning speed.
The fact that she could get hurt was a considerable burden on me as I was swinging my ax.
Sanyeo smiled and looked straight at me. My calculating nature had worked well with her until now, but right now, it felt a bit off. She tilted her head like a winter branch and said,
“Do-cheol. When you’re using martial arts, you have to clear your mind of even those petty thoughts. We are practicing how to kill people, not how to save people.”
I stared blankly at my ax. The gleaming ax blade contrasted with her soft skin, making it look vicious. Sanyeo continued to speak in a gentle voice.
“There’s a chance that I’ll get hurt. It could be an innocent person. Because they’re just a child. Because they’re old. When you let those petty thoughts get in the way and waver in the moment of life or death.”
The wind blew. Because it was a strong gust of wind, I blinked for a moment. I suddenly heard Sanyeo’s voice from far away, and then her body odor suddenly assaulted me. Along with a scent like sweet flowers, I could see her sleeves right in front of me, and her shackled hand was stuck right near my neck.
Only then was I able to feel the sensation of her fingers touching my neck, and I started to sweat. My body was automatically filled with tension at the thought that I would have been killed if she had wanted to.
Sanyeo tilted her head and said in a low voice,
“Die.”
Her fingers fell. Even though she was wearing shackles, her hand movements were flexible and quick. Once I created some distance, I was finally able to see the Mount Tai Ax that had fallen to the floor. In the short moment that I had closed my eyes, she had thrown the Mount Tai Ax and lunged at my neck. Sanyeo picked up the Mount Tai Ax and continued speaking. The murderous aura that I had felt a moment ago was nowhere to be found.
“You’ll die, Do-cheol. With just a bit of hesitation, a martial artist will die like those normal people you killed. Meaninglessly.”
The Mount Tai Ax fluttered. She was waving the paper like a matador and said,
“So, you need to clear your mind. The things that will happen after I get hurt? Those are things that you don’t have to worry about. When you fight, you always have to clear your mind of those petty thoughts. This is training for that. It’s to make you not hesitate even when you’re attacking a fragile woman like me.”
“That’s true.”
Her words were the right answer. I would be meeting various people in the martial world in the future, and there would be times where I couldn’t help but wield my ax. Every time, if I was to have a soft spot for the situation of my opponent and give them some leeway in my strikes, then there was no telling where things could go wrong.
It was better to win first and then think about the things that were left over. Her way of teaching from the basics was different, as expected of a martial arts master.
Martial arts master?
As I repeated the words martial arts master in my heart, another question arose.
I had a master who had reached enlightenment with her own methods in front of me, so why was I still learning the Mount Tai Ax? Wouldn’t it be better if I asked her to teach me the martial arts she was using?
I readjusted my ax and said,
“By the way, Sanyeo.”
“What is it?”
Sanyeo was comparing the stance I had taken with the stance in the Mount Tai Ax and answered. I looked at her shackled hands and asked,
“You’re also a martial arts master, so why can’t you just teach me the martial arts that you learned? Then I would be able to become stronger more easily.”
She shook her head and said,
“My inner energy cultivation method is not compatible with the Shaolin method that you’ve already learned, and my martial arts… It doesn’t seem like a good idea for you to learn it since it would attract a lot of attention. It’s also hard for me to show you properly since my hands are tied.”
Sanyeo made a hesitant expression while saying that, before shaking her head. A martial art that would attract attention if I learned it? What kind of martial art was it that she was acting like this? Moreover, her inner energy cultivation method wasn’t compatible with the Shaolin method. It seemed like Sanyeo was a genuine heretic, even amongst the heretics.
“Did you perhaps learn some demonic techniques?”
“Why don’t we just say that I did?”
Sanyeo smiled and retorted at my probing tone. She clearly didn’t want me to ask further, so I shrugged and had no choice but to focus on my training again.
Sanyeo stood in front of me and fluttered the Mount Tai Ax and said,
“Do-cheol. Then try to swing it.”
She said that I shouldn’t hesitate, so there was nothing for me to fear. After giving her a knowing smile, I swung my ax with all my strength, aiming for her neck.
“Take this!”
“Your stance was wrong. You got too excited and put too much force in your arms. I said that you should clear your mind, that also means that you can’t be excited. You should always be calm and only think of this moment.”
Once again, before I could even swing my ax completely, I was grabbed by her and sent rolling on the floor, and was covered in dirt. Sanyeo wasn’t fazed by my rough reaction, and she flipped through the Mount Tai Ax and said,
“Even then, you’re definitely improving so that’s good. You have talent.”
I scratched my head. Dirt would fall off every time I scratched my head.
“But, do we really need to learn the Mount Tai Ax so seriously? If I get an even stronger martial art later, I’ll have to train with that anyway. So, there won’t be a use for this.”
Sanyeo shook her head at my words and said,
“Do-cheol. You’re greedy, but you still don’t know much about martial arts. You are learning the Mount Tai Ax right now, but you’re not just learning the Mount Tai Ax.”
“I’m not just learning the Mount Tai Ax?”
“You also learned lightness techniques, and you also learned the Seizing Hand, so at that point you should have realized something, right? The way you shift your center of gravity as you wield the Mount Tai Ax. The way you put strength in your swing. The way you maintain your balance while swinging a weapon, and the way you retreat without any blind spots. Do you think that those would only be used in the Mount Tai Ax?”
“Ah….”
When I thought about it, that was true. Even when I was learning bedroom techniques, everything was connected, so I learned the hand movements to hug a woman in the Seizing Hand, and I learned lightness and footwork techniques while training my thighs. And I also used the lightness techniques to infiltrate a woman’s home, and the Seizing Hand that I had learned to seduce women was useful to subdue a woman at that moment.
The Mount Tai Ax was like that too. The basics of martial arts were ingrained in it. Since it was a basic martial art, there were more things within it that would help me when I used other martial arts.
“That’s… how it is. Right.”
I felt like I had understood something. The movements that I had been vaguely memorizing and just following until now were now flowing into my head and forming a single movement smoothly.
The detailed things that I hadn’t been able to remember even when I was just trying to memorize them were now being described naturally in my mind.
Sanyeo remained silent while looking at me as I was blankly looking into the air.
After closing my eyes for a moment and recalling the techniques, I rose from my spot and picked up my ax.
I felt like I understood something.
I had understood at least a little the meaning behind that action that I had been repeating until now.
“Let’s try one more time. Just one more time.”
Sanyeo smiled brightly and nodded.
“Yeah.”
Sanyeo was standing there, waiting for me. I moved my foot forward by one step, and raised the hand that was holding the ax into the air.
There were no impediments.
As if it was natural, I swung the ax down following those movements.
The figure of Sanyeo, who had seemed like she was about to let me chop her head off, became blurry and then disappeared.
The ax just sliced through the air powerlessly.
“Pass.”
But I was smiling.
Sanyeo was also smiling.
