Chapter 5: Let’s See This To the End

We moved to a spacious clearing behind the pine forest.

Standing seven or eight paces away from the old man, I cupped my fist and showed my respect.

“I will receive your teachings.”

The old man waved his hand dismissively.

“Quiet. Just come at me already, you brat.”

I gladly took the advantage of striking first. Throwing the nine remaining pebbles in my pocket all at once, I used my flash step and arrived in front of the old man almost at the same time as the stones. The old man didn’t bother to knock away the pebbles and moved to his left. Having predicted his evasion, I aimed for the old man’s head with a whirlwind kick. The old man raised his arm to block.

Thwack!

My shin and the old man’s forearm collided with a dull thud. Even though I was three times his size and had the advantage of the attack, I was the one who lost out in that clash. The old man held his ground, while I, unable to withstand the impact, staggered.

The old man threw a punch at my lower abdomen as I lost my balance. I countered by striking the top of the old man’s head with my elbow. The old man gave up his attack and dropped down as if he were disappearing. But my knee was waiting for him below.

The old man caught my knee strike with both palms. His body was thrown back six or seven paces. But it was I who grimaced. The dark energy contained in the old man’s palms had made the bones in my entire body tremble.

The old man, landing lightly over twenty paces away, put his hands behind his back and acted leisurely. Staring at him, I took out my Jade Flute. The jade-colored flute glistened blue in the moonlight.

This time, I didn’t use my flash step but pressed the old man with a fast walk. Faced with my grim momentum, the old man also dropped his leisurely attitude and brought his hands, which had been behind his back, to his chest. Leaping from five or six paces away, I brought the Jade Flute down vertically as if it were a sword. However, my flute, instead of splitting the old man’s body in two, only cut through the empty air.

The old man, displaying a marvelous technique of shifting his form that ignored the constraints of time and space, swung his arm horizontally in a counterattack. But his hand-blade also failed to cut my waist. I had evaded it with a retreat.

Having fought to a draw in a three-to-four-second exchange, we clashed again without delay. The old man’s movements grew faster and faster to match my speed. The energy we both emitted also increased with each exchange.

In an instant, a hundred exchanges passed. I was thrilled. As I had guessed, the old man was no ordinary person. He was a supreme master whom I couldn’t guarantee victory against even if I used my full strength.

As the old man began to shoot flames from his palms, I also took out my Iron Staff. Holding the Jade Flute and the Iron Staff in each hand, I poured out my ultimate techniques without holding back. As we began to truly engage, an unseasonal storm raged in the clearing facing the pine forest.

It was a tight match.

We clashed fiercely, advancing and retreating repeatedly, but neither side could gain a clear upper hand. Both the old man and I would immediately unleash a powerful counterattack whenever we felt even slightly pushed back, thus maintaining the balance.

The old man was a master of the Scorching Sun Palm. The palm energy erupting from his hands had a wide range and was so powerful that I had a hard time getting close to him.

However, the old man also couldn’t easily handle me. The Iron Staff in my left hand shot out lightning, and the Jade Flute in my right hand created a whirlwind. The lightning and whirlwind would either pierce or bypass the curtain of palm energy the old man created, constantly striking at him.

The deadlock in this evenly matched fight began to change around the three-hundredth exchange. As my breathing started to become ragged, the old man didn’t miss the opportunity and launched a fierce attack. With my internal energy depleted, I had no choice but to retreat. The old man pressed on relentlessly, not giving me a moment to catch my breath.

Pushed back to the pine forest, I gritted my teeth. I would rather die than declare surrender like this. I wanted to win. Now that I had come out into the martial world, I wanted to continue my undefeated streak.

As I was enduring the old man’s wave-like attacks with the Five Absolutes Divine Art, I decided to use an emergency measure. The risk was too great, but it was the only way to turn the tide. However, just as I was about to release my mother’s primal energy sealed in my bones, the old man, who had been pouring down a rain of palm strikes, suddenly withdrew his hands and leaped back.

“What are you doing?”

“Can’t you see? Let’s stop here.”

“I’m not done yet.”

“I know, you brat. That’s why I stopped.”

“What do you mean?”

“A moment ago, weren’t you about to pull out your trump card?”

“…So?”

“So what, you brat. It’s obviously a dangerous technique. To counter it, I’d have to reveal my own secrets, and there’s a high chance I’d hurt you, so I’m showing you mercy. You should be grateful.”

“I don’t need that kind of mercy. Let’s see this to the end.”

“No, you brat. My sweat has already cooled. I’ve lost interest too.”

I was furious.

“I’m going to continue.”

“What a fighting cock of a brat. I want to see your trump card too, but I have my reasons.”

“…”

“The way your eyes are flashing, you look like you don’t believe me, but it’s true, you brat. In ten days, I have a once-in-a-lifetime duel with my lifelong rival. It would be troublesome if I got injured trying to check your trump card, wouldn’t it?”

When I still didn’t seem to agree, the old man sighed.

“This is a fight I absolutely cannot lose. So if you really want to see this through with me, wait. I’ll face you after I’ve settled things with my rival.”

Having achieved my initial goal, I hammered it in.

“No taking it back later.”

“You brat, you’d better not get scared and run away later. I’m going to smash whatever trump card you have.”

I grinned. Then, I cupped my fist toward the old man.

“I have learned well.”

The old man didn’t respond but just looked at me with eyes full of complex emotions.

The old man and I left the clearing, which had been turned into a ruin from serving as our fighting ground, and entered the forest.

When we came to a large, flat rock, the old man leaped onto it. I followed him and sat down on the rock. Before I could even settle my bottom, the old man spewed out words and spit.

“I have a mountain of questions. First, about your martial arts, the technique you used with the staff in your left hand was clearly a sword art, right? On the other hand, what you displayed with the flute in your right hand was a saber art. To realize the ‘left sword, right saber,’ which has long been dismissed as a fantasy, and not only that, to realize techniques with completely opposite characteristics beyond the properties of the weapons, and not at a clumsy level but at a high level of mastery, from which master did you learn? I prided myself on knowing everyone in the vast martial world, but I never dreamed that someone who realized the thousand-year-old fantasy of the martial world existed in this era.”

I was conflicted.

Should I be honest? Or should I be as sparing with my words as possible, as my father had advised?

My choice was the former. It was because I had judged the old man before me to be someone I could ‘trust my back to.’ My father had told me to be sincere with such people.

“I learned the sword art and the saber art from different people.”

The old man’s narrow eyes widened.

“What? Then did you integrate them yourself?”

“I did it with my late father.”

“Is that so? Then that’s strange. If he taught you, your father must have been a considerable master. Why did he leave the revenge to you? He could have easily taken care of not the bald head, but one of his subordinates.”

“Although he had outstanding martial talent, my late father was not a master. It was because he was deprived of the opportunity to grow into one.”

“Was the one who did that to your father that man, Grand Master Hong?”

“Yes.”

“Can I hear the story?”

I raised my eyes and looked at the full moon in the sky. The person I respected most in the world was smiling his characteristic smile with the corners of his mouth turned up in the moon.

---

Jeon Gwang was an orphan.

Jeon Gwang, who had been wandering as a beggar, became interested in martial arts at the age of nine when he happened to witness a duel in the mountains. Watching the valor of the young man who consistently pushed back and overwhelmingly defeated a disheveled madman who created a strange wind from his palms, Jeon Gwang was struck as if by lightning. It was a new world he had never imagined.

The young man who had defeated the disheveled madman glanced at Jeon Gwang, who was hiding behind a tree. Then, when their eyes met, he gave a slight nod. Jeon Gwang didn’t know what that gesture meant, but at that moment, he decided to become a martial artist like the young man.

The path of a martial artist was not smooth. For a beggar boy like Jeon Gwang, learning martial arts was like plucking a star from the sky.

However, as they say, sincerity moves heaven, and a path opened for Jeon Gwang. Thanks to his faithful work as an errand boy in the marketplace without receiving any wages, Jeon Gwang gained the recognition of several merchants and was able to enter a nearby martial arts academy as a servant through the recommendation of a cloth merchant named Gong. He was thirteen years old at the time.

While doing menial chores at the martial arts academy, Jeon Gwang would peek at the training and sparring of the martial arts students whenever he had the chance. At night, when everyone was asleep, he would sneak out of his quarters and practice the movements he had memorized in the backyard of an abandoned warehouse. In less than a year, he left the martial arts academy on his own. He had judged that there was nothing more to learn there.

For the next two years or so, Jeon Gwang wandered among the martial arts academies in the Seongju region, stealing and learning martial arts. He faced a decisive turning point just as he turned seventeen.

That day, as Jeon Gwang was practicing martial arts alone in a remote corner of the martial arts academy, he was unaware that there were eyes watching him. The owner of those eyes was a head instructor of the martial arts academy. It was no coincidence that he was there. He had come out to check after hearing whispers about a suspicious servant who secretly left his quarters every night and returned at dawn, drenched in sweat.

Watching Jeon Gwang’s training, the head instructor couldn’t believe his eyes. The small-statured boy was using his fist and staff techniques more skillfully than he could. No, it was beyond a difference in skill; the level itself was different. The boy had developed it to a higher stage. Suppressing the excitement that made his heart feel like it would burst, the head instructor went to see the academy master as soon as the sun rose that day. Then, he reported in detail what he had seen.

The academy master, surprised by the head instructor’s report, consulted with him and then summoned Jeon Gwang. From that day on, a new life unfolded for Jeon Gwang.

---

“I can imagine. He must have felt like he had hit the jackpot when he realized that a lowly servant he didn’t even know he had in his house was a prodigy with the potential of a grandmaster. So he must have given your father his full support. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes. My late father, who had obtained the internal energy method he had longed for day and night, was said to be overjoyed. It was because he had finally taken the first true step on the path of a martial artist. The master of the Cheong-in Martial Arts Academy not only gave him the internal energy method but also generously provided him with spiritual medicines that helped accumulate internal energy. The five head instructors of the martial arts academy also sincerely passed on their secret techniques. My late father, who devoted himself to martial arts training day and night, became strong enough to handle all of them a year later.”

“Hah, what a great genius he was. So what happened?”

“As they say, a talent in a sack cannot be hidden, and the rumors about my late father seemed to have spread beyond Cheong-in to the entire Seongju martial world. The academy master, who was anxious that other large martial arts academies or prestigious sects might snatch my late father away, hastily decided to have him participate in the Anpyeong Martial Arts Tournament. It was to make it clear that my late father belonged to the Cheong-in Martial Arts Academy. Of course, he also had high hopes for the championship. My late father was said to have shown a strength in actual combat that more than compensated for his weak internal energy.”

“Hmm, I see what type he was. You have that side to you too. In fact, the reason I started paying attention to you was…, no. If I go off on a tangent, we’ll be up all night, so let’s just hear the rest of your father’s story.”

“My father, who participated in the Anpyeong Martial Arts Tournament at the minimum age of eighteen, advanced to the main tournament with a series of victories in the preliminary rounds. All five matches were said to be one-sided victories.”

“That must have been the case. Eight or nine out of ten of the guys who come out to a remote martial arts tournament are chaff who haven’t even mastered the basics. So did your father continue his winning streak in the main tournament and win the championship?”

“He couldn’t.”

“Why? Did he meet an unexpectedly strong opponent? Ah! This must be where that enemy of yours appears. Right?”

“…”

“Why aren’t you answering, you brat?”

“…Yes.”

[End of Chapter]