Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 21

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 21
Part 3. Training, Training!
Afternoon, with the sun at its zenith.
Un-hyeon had put Yeon-u to sleep after returning from the Government Office, rested briefly, and was now preparing a meal before the child woke.
But Yeon-u stirred awake early, and said something that left him startled.
“What—what did you just say?”
With puffy eyes, Yeon-u sniffled and spoke again.
“I want to learn Martial Arts. Will you teach me?”
Thunk—thud—clatter—
Un-hyeon dropped the bundle of firewood he was holding.
His lips parted slightly.
A brief silence fell.
Whoosh—
Un-hyeon moved toward Yeon-u, knelt down to meet his gaze, and gripped the child’s shoulders.
“You’re saying you want to learn Martial Arts? That you’ll study Martial Arts?”
Yeon-u nodded.
“Yes.”
“Ah!”
“You don’t want to?”
“D-don’t want to? Of course I’ll teach you! Naturally I will! I’m simply amazed—astonished, even—by this change of heart.”
“Grandfather said so.”
Yeon-u sniffled, wiping his nose carelessly with his sleeve.
“He said if you learn Martial Arts, you don’t have to die.”
“Yes. That’s right…!”
“So I decided to learn. Martial Arts.”
Another sniffle.
With his eyes so swollen, it was difficult to tell where he was even looking.
Yet to Un-hyeon, the child’s appearance seemed endearing.
In Martial Arts, the most important thing is the will to learn for oneself.
He had been wondering how to instill that very will in Yeon-u.
“You thought well. You thought well indeed.”
Un-hyeon stroked Yeon-u’s head.
“I will teach you with all my heart and devotion. You will surely be able to do this.”
He continued to pat the child’s head as Yeon-u stood quietly, sniffling.
“You will do well.”
* * *
“Do you know what is the most important thing in Martial Arts?”
After they finished eating.
Un-hyeon and Yeon-u sat facing each other across a small table.
At Un-hyeon’s question, Yeon-u tilted his head.
“The strongest power?”
“Strength? Yes. Power stronger than anyone else is indeed important. However, strength cannot be said to be the priority in learning Martial Arts. One can become sufficiently strong even without strength as a foundation.”
The Poison Art and Assassination Technique are examples of this.
There were countless Martial Arts where refined technique and broad knowledge were valued more than raw power.
“Then what is it?”
“The Five Senses.”
“The Five Senses?”
Un-hyeon counted off on his fingers as he continued.
“Sight, hearing, olfaction, touch, and taste. These five senses. When those become the foundation, one can further develop Qi Sense—the ability to feel the flow of Internal Energy.”
“Yeon-u has a good nose.”
“Yes. You were born with keen olfaction. Watching you all this time, it seems exceptional enough that you need not train it specially. Because of that, your taste will be without flaw.”
You can already judge whether something is medicine or poison by smell alone, without tasting it.
Yeon-u nodded with pride.
“So let us focus on training the other three senses.”
“Three of them….”
Yeon-u wiggled his fingers, counting.
“Sight, hearing, and… um… the other…?”
“Touch. And Qi Sense.”
“Right, that one.”
“For now, learning Qi Sense will be beyond your reach.”
I don’t yet understand what Internal Energy even is.
“Then we’ll begin with the fundamentals. Sight Training first.”
Tap-tap-tap!
Un-hyeon placed something on the table with a soft rustling sound.
Three teacups.
“Here. Three stones. I chose them especially for you—someone with such a keen nose.”
Un-hyeon opened his palm.
Three stones of identical size and shape rested there.
Two were black; one was white.
“I’ll place these under the cups and shuffle them about. Your task is to watch carefully and tell me which cup hides the white stone.”
“What? That’s easy!”
Yeon-u laughed, bouncing lightly on his heels at how simple it sounded.
Un-hyeon smiled faintly, watching him.
“It won’t be as easy as you think. I’ll shuffle them five times—watch closely.”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Three cups now covered the stones.
Yeon-u nodded.
The white stone was under the center cup.
He gazed at them with perfect confidence.
“Mm-mm.”
Un-hyeon’s fingers pressed lightly against a cup.
Whoosh—whirrwhirrwhirr—whoosh!
“…!”
In an instant, the cups had shifted position five times.
Exactly five. No more, no less.
The problem was…
“Now. Show me which one.”
“…”
Yeon-u looked up at Un-hyeon with wide eyes.
He hadn’t seen a thing.
Well, he’d sensed something blurring in front of him—yes, something had definitely blurred past—but the cups seemed to be sitting right where they’d started.
Un-hyeon’s hands had moved so fast that the cups appeared stationary.
“Didn’t I say it wouldn’t be easy? Go on. Choose.”
“I… I didn’t…”
Didn’t see any of it.
Fine!
Yeon-u pointed at the right cup.
“This one!”
Un-hyeon lifted the center cup.
The white stone tumbled out.
“Wrong.”
“Still wrong?!”
“To be precise: right, left, right again, then back to center—from your vantage point.”
“When?!”
“Don’t guess.”
“…!”
Yeon-u felt a flicker of embarrassment.
He was about to complain that it had been too fast when—
A soft rustle.
Un-hyeon retrieved something from behind him.
A cloth-wrapped chest.
Un-hyeon unwound the cloth and opened the chest, revealing it brimmed with dried meat, dried fruit, and other delicacies.
“Ah…”
Saliva pooled in Yeon-u’s mouth.
He reached instinctively toward the snacks.
Snap!
The lid shut before his fingers touched it.
Yeon-u stared at Un-hyeon in bewilderment.
“This is your reward. From now on, you’ll repeat what you did today—ten times daily. If you find the white stone three times out of ten, you’ll earn these.”
“…Three times…?”
“Wasn’t it supposed to be difficult?”
Who was the one humming just a moment ago?
“Hmph.”
Yeon-u’s shoulders drooped.
Watching him, Un-hyeon tapped his own eyes pointedly.
“Keep training hard, and one day you’ll see it.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
In time, your opponent’s movements will become visible to you.
The shift of their shoulders, the flex of their feet, the direction of their gaze.
You’ll come to see the movements they make before they strike, you’ll learn to identify their openings, and eventually you’ll develop eyes that can perceive even a step into the future.
“So train diligently. Until this becomes nothing but tedious play.”
Un-hyeon set aside a small piece of dried meat he’d reserved and offered it to Yeon-u.
Yeon-u bounced on his feet and grabbed the dried meat with his teeth.
“Grandfather, again! Again!”
A slight smile curved Un-hyeon’s mouth.
“All right.”
His hand closed gently around the teacup.
* * *
Splash, splash, splash—
Within the broad stream that flowed peacefully onward.
Yeon-u sat cross-legged in water that reached his waist, his eyes covered.
He was encircled by a tightly woven fishing net, and within it, fish both large and small swam serenely past him.
“Tactile Sensation Training is the sense of feeling your surroundings through your skin. Master it, and you’ll be able to read heaven and earth without sight or sound.”
Hardness and softness, cold and heat, the subtle vibrations of all directions.
Even the movement of air.
When your tactile sense develops, you can count your enemies by the tremors in the earth, and you can read their movements from contact alone.
Furthermore, you’ll be able to sense danger before it arrives, by perceiving shifts in the air itself.
“Tactile Sensation Training has an especially intimate connection to Qi Sense, so you must not neglect this practice.”
“Grandfather, I want to eat fish.”
“Didn’t I tell you—you can eat once you’ve figured out how many fish are around you?”
“But…!”
A training exercise: reading the number of fish swimming here and there in the flowing water by sensing the ripples they made.
The net was set so nothing could escape and nothing could enter—easy enough to say!
“How am I supposed to know!”
The fish aren’t staying still, so he couldn’t tell if this one was that one or if that one was this one!
“I can’t do it!”
“You can. Focus.”
“!”
Yeon-u furrowed his brow.
Hearing that he could do it made him suddenly want to succeed.
It still seemed utterly impossible, and yet somehow possible too?
Hmm.
“Feel the flow of the water.”
Seeing the child’s focused expression, Un-hyeon guided his mental state calmly.
His gaze fixed on the submerged boy.
‘It’s no lie to say he can do it.’
The Yeon-u that Un-hyeon had observed possessed senses sharper than any other child he’d encountered.
At first he’d thought it was only his sense of smell, but it was simply that his olfaction was exceptionally keen.
Sight, touch, hearing, taste.
All of them operated on a different plane than ordinary people.
That’s why he’d focused the early training on developing the Five Senses before advancing to Martial Arts.
But.
‘Yeon-u’s true weapon is not that.’
The boy’s real strength lay in.
‘His extraordinary focus.’
Once he set his mind to something, he possessed a terrifying capacity to shut out everything else around him.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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