The Farmer Who Ended Up Teaching the World’s Greatest Martial Artist - Chapter 58

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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| Chapter 58

 

“Then I’ll go in first.”

 

Cho Yeong said this as she drew the sword hanging at her waist.

 

Cho Yeong’s sword was much thicker and longer compared to the sword Ju Yu-ryeon carried, but it still looked slender and light compared to ordinary swords. It had a peculiar form that seemed like it would bend flexibly when swung, yet would extend straight when force was applied.

 

“I hope you won’t die too quickly.”

 

With those words, Cho Yeong’s aura completely transformed. The energy that had been pressing down on the air was instantly sharpened, then changed into a suffocating thick killing intent that penetrated in all directions. As if the gentle woman from moments before had never existed, the surrounding air cooled down chillingly.

 

Just from the aura he could feel now, it was clear enough. This coldness that showed no wavering despite releasing such killing intent. Cho Yeong was definitely a master who was one level, no, at least two levels above Ho Won.

 

Ju Yu-ryeon, who was nearby, seemed to have felt that energy as well and warned Yoo Eun-hyun.

 

“Eun-hyun! Be careful! Looking at her weapon, she’ll probably use a flexible sword!”

 

Yoo Eun-hyun couldn’t have been unaware of that fact either.

 

He swallowed dry saliva and drew up his internal energy. Without rushing to push it up hastily, he slowly gathered qi from deep within his dantian in rhythm with his breathing. The gently rising energy spread along his meridians, quietly lending strength all the way to his limbs.

 

Before he knew it, the tip of Cho Yeong’s sword was pointing toward Yoo Eun-hyun. Very subtly, but definitely trembling sword tip. Whether it was due to the wind or her momentum was unclear, but that small tremor was leading to tension about when it might explode.

 

Now it was a matter of who would move first.

 

Swish!

 

As expected, it was Cho Yeong who moved first.

 

The sword light that cut through the air first spread out like a wide surface, then contracted into a thin line.

 

And the moment even that line condensed into a sharp point, the sword disappeared.

 

“…!”

 

Yoo Eun-hyun instinctively twisted his head.

 

It seemed to have cut through empty space, but a moment later, Cho Yeong’s sword revealed itself again.

 

Swoosh.

 

Only then did the sound of wind brushing past his ear reach him belatedly. A speed that was already one beat too late to follow with the eyes. Only the sound of air being torn proved its trajectory.

 

“You dodged?”

 

“Even if I can’t see it, I can still dodge.”

 

“Interesting. It seems you’ve already surpassed the level of relying on sight.”

 

Yoo Eun-hyun gave no answer.

 

There was no need to deny it, nor to affirm it.

 

In fact, the sense of not relying only on sight had been ingrained in his body long before he learned martial arts, from when he was farming.

 

“At least you seem qualified to exchange moves with me. Shall the young hero try coming at me first this time?”

 

“Let’s do that.”

 

The tip of Cho Yeong’s sword, which had been trembling subtly, suddenly stopped. The momentum that had been cutting through the air also subsided, and the sword stood upright in quiet stillness.

 

This time she had passed the initiative to Yoo Eun-hyun.

 

After catching his breath for a moment, Yoo Eun-hyun reached toward his waist. Then he slowly drew out his weapon, a hammer. Seeing this, Ju Yu-ryeon let out a deep sigh.

 

“Why did he have to choose something like that even when picking a weapon?”

 

“It’s because it’s what he’s most familiar with. That hammer is something Eun-hyun has been using for over 10 years.”

 

“That’s not what I meant… Sigh, never mind. Anyway, for Eun-hyun, the weapon isn’t what’s important.”

 

Ju Yu-ryeon also knew. That the martial art Yoo Eun-hyun had learned was the technique of Deo Geom Ssang-seon, Mu Dong-hwan-mu.

 

In fact, at that level, the form of the weapon wasn’t very important. Whether it was a sword, spear, or even whatever was held in hand, the essence was to unfold it following the flow.

 

Whoosh!

 

Yoo Eun-hyun, gripping the hammer tightly in his hand, lightly leaped toward Cho Yeong and began swinging the hammer at her. Since the weapon was what it was, each attack was heavy and threatening, but Cho Yeong simply moved lightly and evasively, dodging Yoo Eun-hyun’s attacks.

 

After lightly swinging the hammer several times to get a feel for it, Yoo Eun-hyun’s movements suddenly became dramatically faster. The trajectory drawn through the air crossed once, then immediately intersected in a cross shape.

 

“Hmm….”

 

Seong Jung-hyeok, who was watching, made a quiet sound. The cross trajectory that Yoo Eun-hyun was drawing became increasingly dense, pressing forward as if roughly crushing the space.

 

That seemingly simple attack was a technique that required moving as if swinging almost simultaneously.

 

If internal energy was even slightly insufficient or breathing was off, maintaining that speed itself would be impossible. Rough on the outside, but never light on the inside.

 

“His internal energy level is considerable.”

 

He muttered quietly.

 

When the explosive cross strikes exceeded five, passed six, and finally reached the tenth.

 

Thud.

 

At that moment, Yoo Eun-hyun’s toes kicked off the ground.

 

Lightly lifting his body, he brought down the cross-intersecting hammers straight down as if driving in stakes. Cho Yeong also tried to dodge by stepping aside as before, but suddenly her face hardened dramatically.

 

“…!?”

 

The layered cross trajectories compressed into one, falling as if striking down the space itself.

 

Feeling the overwhelming pressure, Cho Yeong immediately raised the sword she had been holding downward.

 

Clang!

 

As soon as sword and hammer met, the single sword began to shake dazzlingly as if it had scattered into ten branches, starting to carve dozens of afterimages in the air. Silver trajectories intertwined densely, making it look as if a wall had been erected before their eyes.

 

Crash!

 

Simultaneously, a shock like lightning striking before a downpour echoed around them. Everyone present seemed stunned by this situation, unable to make any sound and just standing there dazed.

 

“To think you’d make me deploy Hwanrang Geommak from the very first move… What kind of technique is this?”

 

“It’s Pokjong Hyeong – Daepungnyeon.”

 

“That’s an unusual technique name.”

 

“As the name suggests, it’s a technique that cultivates not one but ten energies and detonates them simultaneously.”

 

Though Yoo Eun-hyun continued his explanation calmly, everyone present swallowed their breath upon hearing those words.

 

Originally, internal energy is the power to gather natural energy and handle it within the body. Once energy leaves the body, it naturally tries to return to its original place and rapidly disperses and disappears.

 

But in the technique Yoo Eun-hyun had just displayed, energy that should have already disappeared was layered and remaining.

 

“How is that possible?!”

 

Ju Yu-ryeon opened her mouth in disbelief at the sight, then immediately turned her head to look at Soo Hwa-seon.

 

“Auntie, just how much is Eun-hyun’s internal energy…”

 

However, Soo Hwa-seon showed no disturbance and was simply quietly following Yoo Eun-hyun’s movements.

 

Her eyes were calm, and her breathing remained steady.

 

“The year of training was worthwhile.”

 

At the quiet murmur, Ju Yu-ryeon’s eyes wavered subtly. At the same time, memories of training together with Yoo Eun-hyun at the Uiseonsu-ga floated in Ju Yu-ryeon’s mind.

 

*

 

About three months after beginning earnest training at the Uiseonsu-ga. In the deep of night when human presence had ceased in the mountains, in a clearing where only moonlight faintly descended, Yoo Eun-hyun sat cross-legged.

 

‘Mahon Cheonggong…’

 

Though he hadn’t realized it when first learning it or when training alone in the mountains, over the past three months Yoo Eun-hyun had come to understand somewhat the characteristics of the Mahon Cheonggong he had learned.

 

Mahon Cheonggong, said to be able to devour and absorb all martial arts under heaven. It was a mental cultivation method with infinite possibilities depending on how the practitioner handled it, but precisely because of that characteristic, no standardized training method existed. Since it wasn’t even clear how to build internal energy, it was actually an extremely difficult mental method for accumulating internal energy.

 

Unless there was a master nearby to guide him like ordinary people had, Yoo Eun-hyun had to build internal energy in the way he knew best.

 

“This method is the only way after all.”

 

For him, that was farming. Thinking of the dantian as earth and internal energy as crops, he realized that internal energy cultivation methods were ultimately no different from drawing natural energy to sow seeds in the earth and nurture them.

 

Though it was a sensation he had vaguely felt when training alone in the mountains, this method was indeed the most natural.

 

The process of tilling the earth that was his physical body and accepting natural energy to cultivate the crops that were internal energy. Adding the farming knowledge he had accumulated over his lifetime to that, Yoo Eun-hyun gradually improved the Mahon Cheonggong. But that was only temporary, as another question soon arose.

 

‘It would be good if I could hold onto internal energy for longer.’

 

Picking up a fallen tree branch nearby as a makeshift weapon, Yoo Eun-hyun lightly swung it to perform Pokjong Hyeong.

 

At the intersection point, a clear explosive sound rang out this time. Thanks to properly grasping the nature of internal energy, Mahon Cheonggong allowed him to perform Mu Dong-hwan-mu without difficulty. But for Yoo Eun-hyun, who had only learned basic techniques, there was still a feeling that something was lacking.

 

“This isn’t enough.”

 

Muttering as he sat back down, Yoo Eun-hyun fell into meditation.

 

‘In the end, if I view internal energy as crops, I need to find a way to preserve harvested crops for a long time…’

 

There were several ways to keep crops from spoiling. Burying them underground, storing them in sealed spaces – most methods involved cutting them off from the outside.

 

But how could he apply that to internal energy? While he was confident in farming more than anyone, he was still a novice when it came to martial arts.

 

“Because it’s natural energy, it disperses…”

 

Yoo Eun-hyun stood up and gathered internal energy to send to his fingertips. The internal energy that hadn’t yet left his body remained quietly in place. However, when released externally, it scattered as if seeping into nature before long. Even when operated with properties to linger especially long for Mu Dong-hwan-mu, the result was similar.

 

“Hmm…”

 

He repeatedly gathered and released internal energy several times, carefully observing the flow.

 

However, no clear clues emerged.

 

“There’s no way I’d find an answer quickly. Should I stop here for today.”

 

Just as he was getting up while muttering, a sudden wind blew. Yoo Eun-hyun released the gathered internal energy as if sending it on the wind.

 

Whoosh.

 

At that moment, the wind suddenly swirled and whirled, and he could see the released internal energy lingering in that spot for a while. Though it was pure coincidence, Yoo Eun-hyun didn’t miss that chance.

 

“Huh?”

 

He was able to capture it not merely by chance alone. It was possible because of his sense cultivated through farming according to natural energy and his concentration sharpened through deep meditation.

 

“Could this be….”

 

He tried circulating his internal energy while feeling the natural energy again. After repeating this several times, Yoo Eun-hyun’s eyes widened greatly.

 

“It’s not just scattering randomly, but moving and scattering along the natural energy…?”

 

He realized that his internal energy wasn’t disappearing randomly, but flowing along a certain pattern. It took several tests to gain certainty, but he eventually reached the conclusion that it scattered following the natural energy.

 

Of course, reading that flow wasn’t easy.

 

No, honestly speaking, if it hadn’t been Yoo Eun-hyun, even attempting it would have been difficult.

 

However, a satisfied smile spread across his face.

 

“It’s just farming after all. I should think of it as farming, not martial arts. Then it’ll be easy.”

 

Having grasped the clue, all that remained was application.

 

Yoo Eun-hyun continued his training in the direction of reading the flow of internal energy scattering along the natural energy and utilizing it without going against it.

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