The World’s Greatest Martial Arts Instructor - Chapter 136

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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 136. Wh-What the Hell Is This?

 

 

A brief moment to catch their breath.

Yeon Ha-min and Baek Ri-pyeong slowly calmed their excitement.

The situation just moments ago had been that thrilling.

However, Yeon Ha-min couldn’t easily escape from her confusion.

She still couldn’t understand what exactly had happened.

After a few breaths of time passed.

“Here I come.”

After Baek Ri-pyeong’s simple warning.

He swung his sword.

Once again, countless sword stars flew at her, surrounding her from all directions.

With the Taiyi Steps added, the storm of stars was truly ever-changing.

Yeon Ha-min once again faced Baek Ri-pyeong’s offensive with all her might.

Concentration upon concentration.

This was the best she could do right now.

Her concentration reached its peak.

And then what she saw was Baek Ri-pyeong’s sword striking from the side.

Yeon Ha-min quickly turned her body and swung her sword.

However, her sword cut through empty air,

And toward the spot where Yeon Ha-min had turned.

Whoosh!

Baek Ri-pyeong’s sword passed through.

If she hadn’t turned her body and only swung her sword, it would have been dangerous once again.

‘Again!’

Yeon Ha-min’s eyes trembled finely.

She fell into confusion about what on earth was happening.

 

Ha Mu-baek, who had been watching this scene, widened his eyes.

Once could have been a coincidence.

But this was already the second time.

It didn’t seem like a coincidence.

The moment he decided to observe a little more.

A similar scene unfolded once again.

This made it the third time.

It couldn’t be a coincidence.

Ha Mu-baek frowned once more.

‘At her current level, that kind of awakening is actually poison…’

Since Ha Mu-baek could guess what was happening to Yeon Ha-min, worry came first.

An ability he wouldn’t have known about if not for his experience in the last war.

‘Was it the Third Elder of the Blood Cult?’

He was one of the few enemies who had considerably troubled Ha Mu-baek during the last two wars.

Perhaps because he had tremendous pride in his own ability, he was a talkative fellow who boasted constantly.

When he thought he was cornering Ha Mu-baek, the Hocheon Corps Leader who had been troubling the Blood Cult, he became even more talkative.

He was also foolish enough to boast about his own abilities.

‘Well, he was weak after all. He must have had accumulated resentment.’

His martial arts level was low compared to his position. Though he was an expert above the peak level, for a Blood Cult elder—and the Third Elder at that—he should normally have reached a considerable level even among the transcendent masters.

After all, the Fourth Elder had been like that.

But he had become the Third Elder by overcoming that difference in realm with his peculiar ability.

It seemed he had suffered all kinds of hardships within the Blood Cult because of this.

When such a person managed to corner Ha Mu-baek, even if only for a moment, what must his feelings have been?

Throughout his boasting to Ha Mu-baek, he vented all that suffering and resentment. And that led to bragging about his abilities.

‘Well, he dug his own grave.’

Ha Mu-baek, who had been uncertain while facing him, was able to eliminate him precisely because of the abilities he had boasted about.

‘Future Sight. That’s what the bastard called it himself, wasn’t it?’

He said that during combat, he could just see future events roughly one to two breaths ahead.

When he became accustomed to it and his concentration reached its limit, he could even see up to three breaths ahead, wasn’t that what he said?

But so what? What could he do even if he saw it? Once Ha Mu-baek learned the true nature of the ability, whether he saw it or not, he just smashed right through.

Even if you could see it, if you didn’t have the ability to respond to what you saw, you just had to break through it.

Looking at Yeon Ha-min’s confused movements now, she was one breath faster than Baek Ri-pyeong’s attacks.

So she was seeing not the immediate attack, but the attack of the next breath, and taking action accordingly.

It was a sudden awakening.

An extremely dangerous one.

At least it was fortunate that this was a martial duel.

If she had awakened like this in actual combat with no one to help her, she probably would have suffered greatly from sensory confusion.

‘No, she could have died.’

That’s what real combat was like.

Thinking about it that way, perhaps it was fortunate that she awakened now.

‘But anyway. What the hell are these kids?’

Ha Mu-baek made an expression of disbelief.

The Five Cadets gathered under him.

None of them had been ordinary from the beginning, but the abilities they showed as they grew were absurd.

“Huh. Suddenly that child Yeon Ha-min’s movements are becoming strange. Has her concentration dropped? Tsk.”

Gongsun Mu-oe let out a pitying exclamation and even clicked his tongue.

He seemed to find Yeon Ha-min’s current situation quite pitiful.

“Her concentration is probably at its peak.”

Otherwise, Future Sight wouldn’t have manifested.

“But she looks like that?”

At Ha Mu-baek’s words, Gongsun Mu-oe spoke as if he couldn’t believe it.

“If she properly recognizes her current situation and adapts, things will change. If she can’t, she’ll lose as she is.”

Ha Mu-baek spoke calmly.

“C-Can’t you tell her, Instructor?”

Dan Mok Un-hye asked with an earnest face. She seemed to find Yeon Ha-min’s current struggle pitiful.

“If this were real combat, I would have. But this is a martial duel tournament. It would be against the rules for me to do that.”

Ha Mu-baek spoke firmly.

Dan Mok Un-hye turned her gaze back to Yeon Ha-min with a dejected expression.

Was it because she put strength into her clenched hands?

Her fingers dug into the rice ball.

 

***

 

‘Wh-what the hell is this?’

Yeon Ha-min was truly flustered. Her senses kept being wrong.

What should she trust and move according to?

She couldn’t trust what she saw with her eyes.

But she couldn’t close her eyes either.

She wasn’t some legendary master who could defeat enemies with eyes closed, relying only on presence detection.

The face of Baek Ri-pyeong, who was pressing such Yeon Ha-min, gradually hardened.

Since similar scenes had already occurred four times, Baek Ri-pyeong had also caught on.

‘Just now was the fourth time. All of them were responses to the next move.’

The first dangerous scene was the same. After he thrust forward and was blocked, he had tried to strike from behind immediately.

‘How?’

It was unbelievable.

The number of times Baek Ri-pyeong had used the Heavenly Star Sword Technique was extremely few, and adding Taiyi Steps to it was his first time today.

It wasn’t something that could be anticipated and countered in advance.

Then had she memorized all the sword paths during this short martial duel?

Yeon Ha-min was a genius, so she could memorize sword paths. But he too had pushed the speed of his sword technique to the limit, changing the pace of the sword path variations.

To respond in advance with perfect timing like just now?

It was impossible.

Unless it was that monster-like Instructor.

‘Something is happening to Ha-min.’

Baek Ri-pyeong concluded as such.

And.

He decided he needed to end it before Yeon Ha-min adapted to it.

He thought that perhaps he might be the one at a disadvantage as time went on.

Tahat!

Baek Ri-pyeong kicked off the martial arts arena ground forcefully.

His body movement disappeared in an instant.

Following Taiyi Steps, he deployed Taeeul Divine Movement as well. Running at tremendous speed, he used the entire martial arts arena.

Moving at a speed barely trackable by the eye, he unleashed countless sword stars.

‘Ah, aah.’

Yeon Ha-min fell into increasing confusion.

Just then.

A sword approaching before her eyes again.

And the sword behind it.

This time she could see two swords.

How should she avoid the two swords?

By convention, she should avoid the closer one first. But perhaps because of the four previous experiences?

Yeon Ha-min first avoided the distant sword, then struck down the closer one.

Clang!

It was the correct answer.

With a loud sound of sword clashing against sword, Baek Ri-pyeong’s body movement disappeared again.

‘Tsk.’

Another change had occurred in Yeon Ha-min. And in a direction unfavorable to Baek Ri-pyeong.

Baek Ri-pyeong drew up his internal energy fully.

Fast sword.

Changing sword.

This time he added power to it.

Stronger sword.

Baek Ri-pyeong pressed Yeon Ha-min like a storm.

A storm of stars filled the martial arts arena.

Amidst this, Yeon Ha-min was gradually adapting to what she could see with her eyes.

‘Maybe, maybe this is…’

Just as she was guessing what she was seeing.

The focus in Yeon Ha-min’s eyes gradually blurred. She had entered the initial stage of the State of No-Self.

Baek Ri-pyeong saw this too.

‘What the.’

Something he himself had experienced earlier in his martial duel with Namgung Ji-hu.

Now Yeon Ha-min was going through it.

Baek Ri-pyeong’s attacks became even more fierce.

Though they were comrades who had shared joys and sorrows, he wanted to win in this martial duel.

Baek Ri-pyeong’s internal energy operation changed.

Until now, he had been habitually using the Three Talents Heart Method.

Since it went well with any martial arts.

While training in combined formation at Maengryong Corps and fighting real battles with his comrades, it had just become an ingrained habit.

But now.

His obsession and desperation for victory surpassed that habit.

The internal energy in his dantian began to move violently.

Taiyi Heart Method.

The internal energy mental method that paired with Zhongnan’s Heavenly Star Sword Technique and Four Phases Sword Technique created a magnificent flow, and the power contained in his sword changed.

Clang!

Clang-clang-clang!

Clang! Clang!

Even sword qi was forming on his blade.

Baek Ri-pyeong had also become stronger once again.

A brilliant storm of stars striking from all directions.

Yeon Ha-min was blocking it all in her State of No-Self.

Since she could see where and how they would come flying, she blocked with all her might.

How long had she endured like this?

At some moment.

Clang!

She blocked another falling star.

Thud.

The sound of a sword falling to the martial arts arena echoed.

Yeon Ha-min looked at her empty hands with a dazed expression.

Her hands were trembling.

Her grip strength completely drained, unable to hold the sword hilt any longer.

That was Yeon Ha-min’s current state.

However, Baek Ri-pyeong didn’t stop. His stance allowed not even an inch of carelessness.

The next star flew and stopped in front of Yeon Ha-min’s heart.

“I, I lost…”

Only then did Yeon Ha-min come to her senses and speak.

And then, thump.

She collapsed right there.

Immediately, Ha Mu-baek leaped up onto the martial arts arena.

“Huh? In, Instructor?”

Yeon Ha-min looked at Ha Mu-baek with powerless eyes.

“Just sleep for now.”

Ha Mu-baek pressed Yeon Ha-min’s acupoints with quick hand movements.

Before she could collapse on the martial arts arena, Ha Mu-baek lifted Yeon Ha-min in his arms.

Then he handed Yeon Ha-min over to Han Seol-bing, who was just running toward the martial arts arena.

“Take her and let her sleep.”

“Dan-ju, what happened just now was what you once mentioned…”

“Just let her sleep first. She must be completely exhausted.”

Han Seol-bing had once heard from Ha Mu-baek about the battle with the Blood Cult Third Elder.

That’s why he had rushed to the martial arts arena upon seeing Yeon Ha-min, thinking there might be a chance.

“Yes.”

At Ha Mu-baek’s serious words, Han Seol-bing gave a brief reply and moved her to Yeonryong Lodge.

Everything had happened in an instant.

Everyone was stunned for a moment.

“Woooooooh!!”

“Amazing!!!”

“Incredible!!!!”

Tremendous cheers erupted.

In addition to the fantastic display Baek Ri-pyeong had shown, there was Yeon Ha-min who had blocked all those attacks.

The spectators hadn’t even noticed that her face veil was fluttering violently, constantly revealing her beautiful features.

The martial duel just now had been that spectacular.

Ha Mu-baek picked up Yeon Ha-min’s sword that had fallen on the martial arts arena.

“Instructor. Just now, Ha-min’s technique was…”

Baek Ri-pyeong tried to ask something, but Ha Mu-baek shook his head.

“Think about your next duel. It’s the finals now.”

Then he leaped up and returned to the rooftop.

Baek Ri-pyeong came down from the martial arts arena with a completely deflated expression.

He was the victor, yet he didn’t look like one.

“Phew.”

A deep sigh flowed from his lips.

Then Baek Ri-pyeong turned his head to look at the martial arts arena again.

‘That was close. If Ha-min had held out just a little longer, I might have lost…’

Without realizing it, he gently brushed his completely emptied dantian with his left hand.

 

“Amazing. Right, Jin-san?”

Nak U-jin asked with his mouth agape as he turned to look beside him.

Dang Jin-san nodded lightly.

“Indeed.”

Having been eliminated in the round of 16, today he was watching the duels from the spectator stands along with the other spectators.

This morning he had certainly urged his fellow cadets to win the championship.

But seeing this kind of display now, he felt frustrated.

At such a magnificent sight.

Dang Jin-san wanted to show such a display himself on the martial arts arena.

Watching a comrade who grew stronger with each duel, stepping into new realms.

He felt like he should do the same.

His clenched fists trembled with tension.

‘Should I pick up the whip again?’

Baek Ri-pyeong’s sword technique had noticeably improved after training at Maengryong Corps.

Dang Jin-san suddenly thought that perhaps he could do the same.

Their talents might be different, but at least their effort during training had been no different.

Though Dang Jin-san often showed a lazy attitude normally, he was always serious when it came to cultivation.

‘I should practice with the whip a bit today.’

Just as Dang Jin-san made up his mind.

Ju U-myeong and Dan Mok Un-rae were ascending to the martial arts arena.

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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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