The Farmer Who Ended Up Teaching the World’s Greatest Martial Artist - Chapter 59

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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 59

“This is the first time I’ve used it in actual combat, but it’s quite useful.”

Yoo Eun-hyun muttered as he slowly stroked his hammer.

The ten consecutive strikes of Pokjong Hyeong weren’t just simple attacks. On the surface, the hammer had merely crossed in an X-pattern, but beneath that, a process of overturning and compacting the flow of natural energy was taking place.

Like a farmer leveling a field before sowing seeds, he had subtly cultivated the energy of the surrounding space. Then he planted his internal energy on that organized grain of natural energy, and with the final strike, harvested it all at once. That was the basic principle of Pokjong Hyeong – Daepungnyeon.

“Remarkable. I’ve never heard of such a martial art before…”

Cho Yeong also seemed quite deeply impressed by Yoo Eun-hyun’s move, looking surprised.

But that expression was brief; Cho Yeong lightly regulated her breathing as if erasing her wavering and gripped her sword anew.

“Now that I’ve seen your true skill, I should also do this properly to avoid being rude.”

Cho Yeong’s tone remained gentle, but the momentum contained within was different from before. It wasn’t a playful test, but a challenge filled with clear intent.

“Wouldn’t this be sufficient for confirming my abilities? That’s why I gave it my best effort…”

Yoo Eun-hyun smiled with an embarrassed expression, but a heavy aura still lingered around the hammer in his hand. He himself knew that the exchange that had just continued was by no means at a light level.

“Honestly, it was surprising, but this much isn’t enough.”

Instead of answering, Cho Yeong slowly raised her sword.

And the blade tip was quietly aimed toward Yoo Eun-hyun. Cho Yeong took a step closer and whispered in a voice low enough for only Yoo Eun-hyun to hear.

“You’d need to be at least the best under heaven for me to acknowledge you, wouldn’t you agree?”

Swish!

Having thrown out that remark, Cho Yeong didn’t wait for Yoo Eun-hyun’s reaction and lightly thrust her sword as if telling him to retreat. Yoo Eun-hyun stepped back, lowered his head, let out a deep sigh, and gripped his hammer firmly.

‘I never thought she’d be this strong…’

As if not allowing even an inch of opening, Cho Yeong’s swift sword continuously pierced sharply. That killing intent was so fast it was invisible, and Yoo Eun-hyun’s stamina and concentration were already reaching their limits.

However, he couldn’t surrender either. The moment Yoo Eun-hyun cried surrender, not only death but all responsibility and burden would surely fall entirely on his mother, Soo Hwa-seon. Yoo Eun-hyun couldn’t tolerate that above all else.

Yoo Eun-hyun’s gaze grew sharper with that resolve. Rather than simple defense, he sought ways to create openings for attack even within defense, control the flow of natural energy, and utilize his opponent’s strength.

Swift sword, internal energy, and his own intuition meshed together as he deflected his opponent’s attacks step by step while watching for a chance to counterattack.

Swish!

At that moment, Cho Yeong’s sword tip began to fluctuate even more as if it had seen through Yoo Eun-hyun’s intentions.

Along with the minute trembling of the sword tip, the flow of air changed and the grain of surrounding natural energy seemed to waver.

Yoo Eun-hyun, who had been watching the sword tip, raised his hammer the moment Cho Yeong’s sword disappeared.

Clang!

The moment sword and hammer collided, the internal energy that had been building in both fighters crashed against each other and fluctuated violently. Small sparks flew up between the metallic sound of steel striking steel, shining as if burning the air.

“Urgh…!”

A strong impact traveled up his arm and shoulder, shaking Yoo Eun-hyun’s bones and muscles, but he gripped his hammer without blinking an eye and regained his center.

Clang! Clang!

Meanwhile, Cho Yeong’s sword was swung continuously at even higher speed. The flow of the sword leaving afterimages in the air pressed against Yoo Eun-hyun as if alive. Within that pressure, Yoo Eun-hyun swung his hammer while finely adjusting the flow of natural energy.

Whoosh!

Once again, Yoo Eun-hyun found the center of his hammer and drew up internal energy from deep in his dantian. By transmitting this to his fingertips and controlling his internal energy to flow away at the moment of impact, he remained unshaken even amid the fluctuations of sword and hammer.

In Yoo Eun-hyun’s eyes existed only Cho Yeong’s sword tip and its afterimages, and the flow of internal energy he had created.

‘Now!’

It was when Cho Yeong’s sword drew a diagonal semicircle and came down grazing Yoo Eun-hyun’s waist.

Confirming the opening, Yoo Eun-hyun momentarily gripped the hammer’s handle short and lifted it up forcefully.

“!?!?”

However, the sword that had been drawing a semicircle had long since disappeared from its trajectory. As Yoo Eun-hyun’s hammer leisurely cut through empty air, Cho Yeong’s sword appeared within his disrupted balance.

“Ugh!”

As it grazed his shoulder, his clothes tore and a small wound formed. At that moment, Cho Yeong’s voice seeped in like wind.

“Sokju Hwanggeom is a sword technique centered on Byeoncho and Heocho.”

The ultimate in speed lay in hiding one’s existence before the opponent’s eyes. Simple swiftness alone was never sufficient. The reason for mixing Byeoncho and Heocho was also for this purpose. It was to multiply the power and confusion of attacks.

‘Damn!’

Yoo Eun-hyun had to helplessly receive the trajectory of swift sword strikes that were incomparably more intense than before. As much more complex consecutive attacks than the barely blocked collisions came rushing in, small wounds naturally began to be carved on his body.

“This… doesn’t match well with Eun-hyun.”

Ju Yu-ryeon, who was watching this, muttered with a serious expression. Soo Hwa-seon also nodded with worried eyes.

“That Pokjong Hyeong – Daepungnyeon has strong power but needs time to execute. The opponent noticed that and is only repeating short, fast attacks. Indeed, the difference in experience is great…”

As Soo Hwa-seon said, Cho Yeong was fully utilizing the advantages of swift sword to press Yoo Eun-hyun so he couldn’t even attempt to attack. Though it was only one clash, Cho Yeong was already changing her movements to match her opponent. Her experience was fully revealed in that single move.

“Can Eun-hyun really win?”

“At this rate… it won’t be easy.”

Ju Yu-ryeon, who had been watching the situation, finally couldn’t hide her anxious expression and shouted toward Yoo Eun-hyun.

“Eun-hyun! Stop it! It’s okay to lose once!”

Then Cho Yeong, who hadn’t stopped her offensive, quietly asked Yoo Eun-hyun.

“She’s saying that, so will you surrender?”

“…Don’t talk to me. I’m too busy concentrating.”

As Yoo Eun-hyun said, right now he didn’t even have the leisure to decide whether to give up or not. He was simply pouring all his mental energy into one place without even a moment to catch his breath.

Cho Yeong’s swift sword was that fierce. It didn’t stop at simply mixing Byeoncho and phantom strikes to disturb the flow, but penetrated without missing minute gaps. That momentum was like a hunter targeting prey.

The sensation that if he let his guard down for even a moment, his life would fly away just like that. On that precarious boundary, Yoo Eun-hyun was moving as if entrusting his body while half-fallen into a state of selflessness, unable even to perceive his stamina and internal energy being consumed.

“You still seem to have some leisure.”

When Yoo Eun-hyun showed no signs of giving up, Cho Yeong wore a subtle smile and adjusted the rhythm of her attacks even faster. The swift sword unfolding in short bursts was the fastest among anyone Yoo Eun-hyun had ever sparred with.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

‘…How?!’

However, as the attacks continued, it was Cho Yeong who felt something strange.

Far from being confused by the attacks mixing real and false, Yoo Eun-hyun was increasingly meeting Cho Yeong’s strikes as the exchanges continued.

In Cho Yeong’s eyes, which couldn’t quite hide her surprise, Yoo Eun-hyun’s figure was clearly reflected.

‘If I read the grain of natural energy first… I can respond before the sword comes.’

Yoo Eun-hyun was reading Cho Yeong’s swift sword through a small shift in thinking.

Though Cho Yeong’s sword wavered like a phantom, at its foundation there was certainly a flow of internal energy. The moment internal energy was infused, the surrounding natural energy also wavered, so it could be easily detected.

To him, who had spent his lifetime touching soil and reading wind and humidity, the minute fluctuations of natural energy were not unfamiliar.

“Remarkable. To dodge an attack you couldn’t avoid just moments ago… But you can’t achieve victory through defense alone.”

As Cho Yeong said, if he only focused on defense, it would ultimately be Yoo Eun-hyun whose strength would be consumed first.

Nevertheless, Yoo Eun-hyun’s gaze didn’t break. Because he glimpsed a way to twist the flow of blocking and repay her in reverse.

Clang!

Yoo Eun-hyun shook off idle thoughts and received Cho Yeong’s thrusting sword with his hammer. Then the internal energy contained in sword and hammer scattered and the flow of natural energy changed.

Yoo Eun-hyun turned his body with footwork infused with internal energy and intentionally changed the flow of natural energy. The efficiency was different from when attacking directly, but this much was sufficient.

‘The only thing that can reverse the current flow is Paseomuggyeok.’

Now Yoo Eun-hyun’s internal energy was directed toward the ground.

If Paseomuggyeok failed, he planned to meekly accept defeat. Yoo Eun-hyun, having caught his breath, stood before Cho Yeong once more.

“Good. If you’re making a decisive move, I’ll accept it.”

Cho Yeong sensed what Yoo Eun-hyun was aiming for and could grasp that this was Yoo Eun-hyun’s final attack and desperate struggle.

Cho Yeong, who had watched Yoo Eun-hyun’s movements just now, also acknowledged that he was by no means an opponent to take lightly. She had confirmed that he had the potential to make her tense with just that one move that had briefly passed.

Soon Cho Yeong’s gaze sank. She no longer intended to flow her sword as if testing. She prepared to unfold Tuyeongcheonseong, one of the ultimate techniques of Sokju Hwanggeom.

Tuyeongcheonseong was a technique worthy of being called an ultimate move of Sokju Hwanggeom, where a single thread of real strike was hidden among countless scattered phantom strikes. Since all power was concentrated on taking a single person’s life, there were only two ways to block it.

Either block each and every phantom strike, or see through the single real strike that was hidden. Needless to say, neither was easy at all.

Cho Yeong drew up her internal energy without a moment’s hesitation.

‘…What is this?’

Cho Yeong suddenly felt a strange energy.

From her swinging sword, a subtle resistance as if catching on something in mid-air brushed her fingertips intermittently.

‘Reading the opponent’s moves is important too. However… sometimes there are times when you must trust your own strength and push forward.’

Since she had already guessed that Yoo Eun-hyun was preparing something, she had no intention of retreating. After firmly gathering the drawn-up internal energy in her dantian, she twisted her sword upright. It was the moment when Tuyeongcheonseong, the ultimate technique of Sokju Hwanggeom, was about to unfold.

Swoosh.

Along with a sharp cutting sound, Cho Yeong’s hair scattered into the air. There was no time to gauge the situation. This time, instead of cut hair, a cold sensation flashed as it grazed her earlobe.

“…!”

Soon after, her clothes rustled as if torn and a sharp energy grazed her cheek. At the consecutively penetrating eerie strikes, even Cho Yeong had no choice but to stiffen momentarily as if her breath was blocked.

Only then did Cho Yeong’s gaze turn forward.

Not eyes chasing phantoms, but eyes penetrating the flow itself. The air current spreading from Yoo Eun-hyun’s feet was quietly rippling.

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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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