The Farmer Who Ended Up Teaching the World’s Greatest Martial Artist - Chapter 9

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

| Chapter 9

After Sa Un-sik left, Yoo Eun-hyun gained a new daily routine in the mornings and evenings. It was practicing the Mahon Cheongong that Sa Un-sik had taught him.

“Whew….”

Yoo Eun-hyun, who let out a long breath as if satisfied, raised his body.

Just circulating his internal energy once made him feel refreshed and healthy.

For Yoo Eun-hyun, who used his body every day, there was nothing better than this.

“It’s more interesting than I thought.”

But there was something else that made Yoo Eun-hyun even more delighted.

It was penetrating internal energy with his own understanding and establishing it as a principle.

At first, he accepted and operated internal energy only on the predetermined path according to Sa Un-sik’s teachings.

But after just a few days, Yoo Eun-hyun realized that this internal energy cultivation method was like tilling a field.

Accepting the energy of nature and making it flow naturally. This was very familiar work for Yoo Eun-hyun. It was like cutting down trees on the mountain and creating waterways to make the best field for farming.

“Let’s think of the dantian that stores internal energy by accepting nature’s energy as a field. And if we think of the blood vessels as passages through which that natural energy passes….”

Yoo Eun-hyun began adjusting the direction of the energies flowing through the detailed blood vessels while keeping the general framework of the internal energy cultivation method that Sa Un-sik had taught him.

If other martial artists had seen this, they would have clicked their tongues saying it was ‘perfect for falling into qi deviation,’ but Yoo Eun-hyun, who didn’t know this, simply regulated his breathing.

Like organizing the surroundings of the central field, he changed and accepted the flows of internal energy.

*

And about two weeks passed.

While his training went smoothly for two weeks, apart from that, Yoo Eun-hyun’s anxiety was gradually amplifying.

“It’s about time for mother to come.”

It was because his mother, Soo Hwa-seon, had not returned.

Soo Hwa-seon had clearly said two weeks would be enough. But she hadn’t returned, let alone sent word, so it was natural to be anxious.

“Geez. If she’s going to be late, she should at least say so. What about the person waiting….”

Yoo Eun-hyun was venting his frustration by catching and killing larvae eating the peaches.

After grumbling all day while doing peach sorting work, Yoo Eun-hyun’s steps stopped on his way back.

“Huh?”

Looking at the tree stump at the entrance near his house, Yoo Eun-hyun made a surprised sound.

It was a tree stump he had seen countless times on his way back, but it felt somehow different from usual.

Though it wasn’t clearly visible yet, he could feel the strange sensation very clearly.

This was possible because Yoo Eun-hyun originally had exceptional senses that even Sa Un-sik praised. Of course, it was also because his senses had become even sharper after gaining internal energy.

Hesitating, Yoo Eun-hyun began to approach carefully.

“Whew….”

Then Yoo Eun-hyun saw someone sitting on the tree stump.

The person sitting on the tree stump was none other than an old man with a cleanly shaved head, holding a long pipe. From his shaved head, he seemed like a monk, but even though Yoo Eun-hyun lived in the mountains, he had never seen a monk who smoked.

As if harmonized with the surrounding scenery, like a painting, Yoo Eun-hyun somehow felt reluctant to speak first.

“Young patron. May I ask you something?”

But fortunately, the old man turned his head and spoke to Yoo Eun-hyun first. The old man’s voice had a strange resonance similar to Sa Un-sik’s.

“Ah, yes…. Master…?”

At the word ‘patron,’ Yoo Eun-hyun naturally called the old man master.

But even so, Yoo Eun-hyun’s doubts didn’t completely disappear. To call him a monk, the old man’s pipe was still lit, and two swords hung from his waist, which looked like Taoist robes.

‘Somehow this person also seems to resemble nature like the great one…. Are all martial artists like this?’

Thanks to Sa Un-sik’s teachings, Yoo Eun-hyun knew that martial arts borrowed the power of nature. While thinking it could be so, the old man smiled kindly and said.

“Hehe. Call me whatever is comfortable. I’m neither a monk nor a Taoist, but in a way, I’m both a monk and a Taoist.”

From the old man, he could still feel a leisurely, nature-like energy similar to Sa Un-sik’s.

But unlike Sa Un-sik, from whom he felt nature’s wildness and unpredictable chaos, the old man seemed to emanate nature’s grandeur and calm order.

“Then I’ll call you Dosa-nim.”

“Dosa-nim…. Hehe.”

With a somehow comforting feeling, Yoo Eun-hyun made an uncharacteristic joke. Even though it was a trivial remark, it seemed to please the old man.

“It suits quite well. What meaning could there be in just a name…. But there is meaning in not denying what attracts you, so I’ll accept it.”

As the old man began rambling strange words, Yoo Eun-hyun’s face gradually contorted.

‘He said he’s both a monk and a Taoist…. So does he make his words twice as complicated too?’

Whether he knew Yoo Eun-hyun was thinking such thoughts or not, the old man just took out his pipe and exhaled tobacco smoke. The smoke carried the rich scent of medicinal herbs.

“Well then. May this old man ask you something now?”

“Ah, please go ahead.”

“Did someone perhaps visit this place recently?”

“When you say recently, how long ago…?”

“About 20 days ago.”

The only person who came around that time was Sa Un-sik. But Yoo Eun-hyun hesitated for a moment about whether he should mention that fact. Since he didn’t clearly know the old man’s reason for looking for Sa Un-sik, he didn’t want to get involved in unnecessary disputes.

“I don’t really know….”

Thinking that playing dumb was best at times like this, Yoo Eun-hyun was about to shake his head.

But at that moment, he ended up making direct eye contact with the old man.

At that moment, Yoo Eun-hyun had no choice but to swallow the words that followed. He somehow felt that the old man’s gaze seemed to know everything while still asking.

He didn’t want to get involved in disputes, but it wasn’t certain, and he didn’t want to lie while forcing himself to be hostile, so Yoo Eun-hyun eventually nodded.

“Someone did come.”

Indeed, as if he already knew this, even though Yoo Eun-hyun nodded, the old man’s appearance showed no sign of change.

“May I ask that person’s name?”

“He said his name was Sa Un-sik.”

“Hmm… How long was he here?”

“He came about 20 days ago, stayed for about 5 days?”

Since he had started talking anyway, Yoo Eun-hyun no longer had any desire to hide anything. He simply began answering the old man’s questions readily.

“Do you know his identity?”

“He seemed to be a martial artist? He said he came from somewhere… what was it, a place called Daessan in Cheonghae?”

Yoo Eun-hyun muttered as if recalling a vague memory. The fact that Yoo Eun-hyun, who didn’t even know the place names of the Central Plains well, remembered Sa Un-sik’s words about where he came from proved how powerful his encounter with Sa Un-sik had been.

At Yoo Eun-hyun’s words, the old man still looked at him with transparent eyes. It was a gaze as if he intended to see through whether Yoo Eun-hyun was lying.

When Yoo Eun-hyun maintained a confident expression since he hadn’t lied, the old man asked again.

“Could you tell me what he did while staying here?”

“He just watched me farm and asked various things, so I answered him.”

Naturally, he completely hid talk about martial arts and marriage. He wouldn’t lie, but he could hide disadvantageous truths.

“You’re saying he simply came to watch you farm?”

“He said he was traveling around looking for places with good scenery.”

“Really, that’s all?”

When the old man questioned him a bit excessively, Yoo Eun-hyun also frowned slightly. Though he had been answering as if entranced by the old man’s words, listening to it, there was no reason at all to be questioned like an interrogation.

“But Dosa-nim, do you know that great one?”

Then the old man paused his words for a moment.

Anyway, perhaps the old man also thought he had been excessive at Yoo Eun-hyun’s counter-question, as he exhaled pipe smoke once and lightly bowed his head.

“…I was very rude. Learning the whereabouts of someone I’ve been chasing recently, I must have been too hasty.”

When someone who looked much older than him took a humble attitude, Yoo Eun-hyun also became flustered and bowed his head in return.

“Not at all. We rarely have visitors here…. If you’d like to hear details, please come inside. Since you’re a guest, I’ll serve you tea.”

“Hehe. Would you do that? Well…. This old man is called So Bi-won.”

“I’m called Yoo Eun-hyun.”

After the old man’s introduction, Yoo Eun-hyun also introduced himself, then suddenly looked at the hill and was startled. Though it seemed like they had only exchanged brief words, the sun was already setting.

And somehow reminded of the story about time passing quickly in immortal games, Yoo Eun-hyun immediately shook his head.

‘That’s nonsense. After ghosts, now it’s immortals?’

“Young patron. What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing. Please, come in.”

At So Bi-won’s question, Yoo Eun-hyun shook his head as if dismissing idle thoughts. Thus, Yoo Eun-hyun came to host another guest two weeks after sending off Sa Un-sik.

*

Yoo Eun-hyun invited So Bi-won inside his house and served him tea. Then he continued the conversation they couldn’t finish earlier.

“Did Dosa-nim come all the way here chasing that great one?”

Actually, since So Bi-won had questioned him thoroughly about Sa Un-sik as soon as he arrived, it was easy to guess that he had come here looking for Sa Un-sik.

“You could say that.”

“If that’s the case, since he left quite some time ago, wouldn’t it be better to quickly chase after him rather than staying here like this?”

For Yoo Eun-hyun, who didn’t know how quickly a martial artist, especially a master like Sa Un-sik, could travel in half a month, it was a natural question.

However, So Bi-won let out a leisurely laugh as if there was no need to rush at all and said.

“Hehe. It’s true that this old man has been chasing that fellow, but I didn’t chase him to meet him. No, on the contrary, it would be troublesome to meet him. The truth is, I came only because I’m the only one who can pursue him… If we were to actually meet, it would be no different from one of our lives being forfeit, so I don’t particularly want to meet him.”

“What? Don’t tell me you two are enemies?”

“Hehe. No. That’s not the case. It’s just our positions that make it so. In a way, you could also say we’re people heading toward the same path. It may sound contradictory, but there’s no need for you to try to understand it, young master. If you’re not a martial artist, such relationships would be difficult to comprehend.”

Not enemies, yet they must fight if they meet, but they could also be companions traveling the same path.

Yoo Eun-hyun couldn’t fully understand So Bi-won’s words, but he nodded for now.

After all, if you start worrying about every incomprehensible thing one by one, life becomes too tiresome to live.

“That might be the case. But I don’t really know anything more.”

Since he had no desire to get involved in such difficult matters, Yoo Eun-hyun decided to play dumb.

“…”

However, So Bi-won just quietly stared at Yoo Eun-hyun. Yoo Eun-hyun flinched at that gaze.

A face that seemed to see through not the surface, but the inside. He strongly felt that he shouldn’t tell lies for some reason.

And as if peering into Yoo Eun-hyun’s inner thoughts, So Bi-won spoke in a calm voice.

“I’m simply interested in what that fellow was aiming for, where he headed, and what actions he took. Could you perhaps tell me?”

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