The Farmer Who Ended Up Teaching the World’s Greatest Martial Artist - Chapter 6

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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 6

It had already been four days since Sa Un-sik began staying with Yoo Eun-hyun. That day too, Yoo Eun-hyun was diligently working in the field as usual.

Since then, Sa Un-sik had been carefully observing what Yoo Eun-hyun was doing, and perhaps because of what had happened before, he now occasionally threw out questions.

And when the sun was almost setting. Sa Un-sik, who had been quietly watching Yoo Eun-hyun picking peaches from the orchard and dropping them on the ground, asked back.

“Little brother. Why are you picking and throwing away perfectly good fruit?”

“Ah, this? Because they interfere with the others.”

“They interfere? Isn’t farming supposed to be good when you have a large harvest? If you pick them all off like that, won’t only a few remain?”

“Well, it would be nice to harvest a lot, but… quality is important too. If there are this many, they can’t all grow properly.”

“They can’t grow properly? Once you plant them and care for them together, isn’t it the same whether you raise one or three?”

Normally it would have ended with a simple question, but Sa Un-sik seemed unable to accept it and began asking persistently. At this, Yoo Eun-hyun paused his work for a moment and cleared his voice.

“This work is called fruit thinning. If it were the same to raise one or three as you say, sir, I wouldn’t know, but the tree’s vigor… simply put, there’s a limit to its growing power.”

“Isn’t it because the tree’s ability is insufficient? When it comes to teaching people, it’s the same thing whether you teach ten or a hundred at once.”

“Yes. That’s true. But… teaching multiple people doesn’t produce the same results, does it?”

When Yoo Eun-hyun asked back as if it were obvious, Sa Un-sik nodded firmly.

“Of course. Since people have different individual abilities, even if they learn the same thing, their achievements must be different.”

“Then what happens? Usually… doesn’t attention naturally focus on those with superior abilities?”

“That’s right. If someone has outstanding talent, they’re worth teaching even if you pay a thousand gold.”

Saying this, Sa Un-sik looked at Yoo Eun-hyun with a strange gaze. Yoo Eun-hyun continued speaking without noticing Sa Un-sik’s look.

“But trees are uselessly fair and lack discrimination, so when many fruits are hanging, they try to send nutrients equally to all of them. So in the end, if you leave them alone, they all grow mediocrely. In the worst case, most of the fruits will be small and tasteless.”

“Indeed… Yes. Even I would prefer to raise one master rather than ten third-rate martial artists.”

Seeing how he related everything to martial arts, a martial artist was indeed a martial artist. Yoo Eun-hyun, who had been quietly looking at Sa Un-sik, nodded and said.

“But you can’t just pick randomly. You have to look at the tree’s vigor and choose carefully so that the leaves grown from the extended branches don’t block the fruit.”

“Recognizing talent isn’t an easy task.”

“Yes. And it’s different every year depending on the situation. In the end, the key is working with the future in mind – where and how this tree bore fruit well in the past, and how I will cultivate it going forward.”

Sa Un-sik paused at Yoo Eun-hyun’s words, then asked back as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Little brother, are you saying you can see that? How it will grow?”

“Yes. Though I’ve only been able to see clearly for about 2-3 years.”

“Oho… You can see the future.”

“The future? That’s ridiculous. I’m wrong sometimes too.”

In fact, when it came to farming, Yoo Eun-hyun could predict nine out of ten… no, ninety-nine out of a hundred times.

Since there was no need to mention this fact, Yoo Eun-hyun pretended not to know and cleared his voice.

“In the end, it’s about selection and focus. Knowing the target clearly, boldly discarding what should be discarded, and taking only what should be taken. Only after imitating existing methods and learning about the surrounding environment and trees for a long time can you finally discard.”

Recalling yesterday’s conversation with Sa Un-sik and speaking metaphorically, Sa Un-sik muttered.

“So in the end, it’s selection and focus…”

And seeing Sa Un-sik like that, Yoo Eun-hyun also paused for a moment before adding as if concluding.

“A few days ago, you also spoke about learning, sir. I think farming also began with understanding nature. But since that was too vast for just knowing, something one person couldn’t do, we gradually came to follow the accumulated paths of others.”

Sa Un-sik’s eyes, which had been quietly thinking about something, turned toward Yoo Eun-hyun again.

Though those eyes were directed at Yoo Eun-hyun, they strangely seemed to be looking at something else beyond him.

Yoo Eun-hyun simply continued speaking unconsciously, recalling the past.

“Following that path, I came to walk my own way, saw many things, and tried to chase only what was above. But that wasn’t right. What I needed to see was below, within myself. While my eyes looked upward, my mind always had to focus on what I had chosen, what I would do for it, and how I would do it.”

Though he didn’t know when, Yoo Eun-hyun had definitely felt that at some point.

In fact, there were many more things Yoo Eun-hyun had felt while farming, but this was all he could tell Sa Un-sik now.

Sa Un-sik’s eyes, which had been listening to Yoo Eun-hyun’s story, were now gazing at empty space rather than at Yoo Eun-hyun.

“I wanted to possess everything under heaven, but that too was choosing one thing called everything… In the end, I was too buried in my own desires to even notice that. Kuhahahat!”

Sa Un-sik’s atmosphere suddenly changed as he burst into wild laughter toward the sky. Even Yoo Eun-hyun could immediately notice this.

Though he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was, he could only vaguely feel that energy.

After bursting into wild laughter, Sa Un-sik suddenly disappeared without warning.

“Eek?!”

His movement was so fast that Yoo Eun-hyun screamed in shock as if he had seen a ghost vanish in broad daylight.

The area where Sa Un-sik had disappeared became quiet as if nothing had happened. At this, Yoo Eun-hyun scratched his head once and muttered.

“I wasn’t particularly thinking of catching him… but now that he’s disappeared like that, I feel strangely unsettled…”

Yoo Eun-hyun, who had been muttering, also became lost in the afterglow while chewing over what he had said. This was because he had never spoken so calmly about farming in words like this before.

“Oh! But this isn’t the time for this!”

Yoo Eun-hyun, who had been muttering and scratching his head, suddenly approached the peach tree.

The sun was about to set soon.

*

Evening time. Seeing that Sa Un-sik still hadn’t returned, Yoo Eun-hyun muttered.

“Did he leave completely? He’s like a ghost whether coming or going.”

He wondered if something had happened, and felt somewhat sad, but soon shook his head. Wasn’t he someone who would leave soon anyway?

“The Martial Arts World…”

Still, looking back, it had been quite a beneficial time. He had thought it was a story from another world that would never have any connection to his life.

Moreover, Sa Un-sik, who had seemed scary, didn’t appear to be such a bad person after actually living with him. Thanks to that, he could erase his vague fear of martial artists.

‘What would it feel like to have the power to fly through the sky and split the earth? But what do they do with such power? They wouldn’t farm like me.’

‘Farming is hard enough, but martial arts must be harder, right? Setting aside martial arts for now, I wish I could quit farming… no, take a break. It’s not that I hate farming, but living like this for my whole life doesn’t seem right either.’

Of course, though farming since childhood was tedious, he actually had no thoughts of wanting to do something else even if he quit right now.

He was just yearning for the outside, but after living with Sa Un-sik for a few days, he couldn’t help but feel more restless.

But Yoo Eun-hyun just pushed those thoughts aside. He wasn’t foolish enough not to know what he could do and what he should do.

“Hahaha. Little brother is still the same.”

And then, just as suddenly as when he disappeared, Sa Un-sik appeared behind Yoo Eun-hyun.

Yoo Eun-hyun, who jumped in surprise as if seeing a ghost as usual, blamed Sa Un-sik with a slightly excited voice.

“I thought you had just left, sir.”

“Haha. When I received such a great gift, how could I just leave?”

Sa Un-sik’s mood seemed very good, like someone who had obtained gold and silver treasures.

“Huh? A gift? From whom?”

“Who else? From you, little brother.”

“But I didn’t give you anything?”

At Sa Un-sik’s sudden words, Yoo Eun-hyun could only make a dumbfounded expression.

All Yoo Eun-hyun had done was have conversations with Sa Un-sik.

“Even if you did it unknowingly, it doesn’t change that it came from you, so I should repay you. Is there anything you want?”

Though he didn’t know what it was, it seemed to have been of great help to him. At Sa Un-sik’s question about what he wanted, Yoo Eun-hyun pondered.

‘…What should I say?’

When actually asked what he wanted, nothing came to mind. Of course, that didn’t mean he had no desires at all.

On a small scale, there were things like hoping it wouldn’t rain tomorrow, or that the wind wouldn’t blow too much.

And looking a bit bigger, there were things like hoping for good weather this year for a good harvest.

These were the only things Yoo Eun-hyun wished for.

What more would a farmer want besides hoping for good farming?

“Tell me what you want.”

Sa Un-sik began looking straight at Yoo Eun-hyun as if he would definitely grant his wish. In those eyes was confidence that he could fulfill whatever Yoo Eun-hyun said.

But those eyes somehow felt chilly and eerie. It felt like making a dangerous deal to sell one’s soul.

Yoo Eun-hyun, who had only been moving his lips, finally opened his mouth after much deliberation.

“I, I want to go outside once.”

Perhaps instinctively feeling unease, Yoo Eun-hyun spoke with a slight stutter. At this, Sa Un-sik asked back as if surprised.

“Go outside? Have you grown tired of farming?”

“It’s not that I’ve grown tired of farming, but…”

“Then do you have something you want to do?”

In fact, he had never thought that far.

When Yoo Eun-hyun shook his head, Sa Un-sik made a breezy laughing sound as if to ease the tension.

“Haha! How can a young man have so few desires! Think carefully. As long as you’re alive, there’s no one without desires. A person without desires is no different from a dead person. Even if they pretend to be detached from the world, everyone just buries it deep in their hearts.”

Sa Un-sik’s words had a strange resonance.

Yoo Eun-hyun began to think more calmly about what he wanted, as if dominated by it.

‘What I want is….’

It was indeed the health of Soo Hwa-seon, his mother. Perhaps Sa Un-sik, who seemed like a strong martial artist, might be able to cure Soo Hwa-seon’s chronic illness.

Though such a thought crossed his mind momentarily, Yoo Eun-hyun soon shook his head.

No matter how skilled a martial artist might be, they wouldn’t be able to cure Soo Hwa-seon’s illness.

And above all, Yoo Eun-hyun didn’t want to reveal Soo Hwa-seon’s existence to Sa Un-sik.

Since he suspected that his maternal family had connections to a martial arts sect, this feeling was even stronger.

Though Yoo Eun-hyun wasn’t well-versed in the inner workings of the Martial Arts World, he knew how tangled the grudges and favors of that world could be.

Carelessly mentioning Soo Hwa-seon’s name and having it spread like wildfire was something that had to be avoided.

“….”

When Yoo Eun-hyun couldn’t answer easily and remained silent, Sa Un-sik moved a little closer and spoke in a whisper.

“Kuk kuk. Little brother still doesn’t know how to properly reveal his desires. It can’t be helped. Someone who doesn’t usually harbor great ambitions wouldn’t be able to say such things right away. Good. Let me help you a little.”

“Pardon?”

Yoo Eun-hyun immediately asked back, not understanding the meaning behind his words, but Sa Un-sik asked directly as if he wouldn’t wait any longer.

“Do you have any thoughts of following me?”

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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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