The World’s Greatest Martial Arts Instructor - Chapter 142

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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 142. Tch. What a Cunning Person

 

 

With Peng Do-yul’s declaration, the Winter Tournament came to an end.

There was no grand ceremony like awarding prizes to the winner.

Since it was a martial arts tournament to wrap up Gyoryong Hall’s year, it simply ended with announcing the winner.

Now that the second half of Gyoryong Hall was over, it would enter a closure period until the next first half.

Roughly two months of closure.

The gathered spectators began to leave one by one.

Carrying the excitement of the martial arts tournament, they chatted about the Winter Tournament with their close friends.

Some said they would remain at Gyoryong Hall during the closure period to continue training.

Seeing what the quarterfinalists had shown on the martial arts arena, they had developed the desire to become like them.

Though one wondered how many days that feeling would last.

The Academy Director and instructors on the platform also left their seats.

Though Peng Do-yul was still sitting there, they left first since he had ordered dismissal.

The Winter Tournament semifinals had been practically like a family celebration between the Seventh and Twentieth Groups of Maengryong Corps.

There was no reason for others to want to stay.

Thus, the only ones remaining on the platform were Peng Do-yul and Yeon Baek-jin, who had returned from Yeonryong Lodge.

“How was it? Vice Director.”

“He’s truly an amazing person.”

“You mean Ju U-myeong?”

“No. I mean Instructor Ha Mu-baek.”

At that answer, Peng Do-yul’s gaze turned to Yeon Baek-jin.

“Do you know about him?”

Peng Do-yul asked with a surprised expression.

Yeon Baek-jin smiled broadly and nodded.

“How…?”

“How do you know about him, Academy Director?”

Yeon Baek-jin asked back instead.

“I was on the battlefield during the last war…”

“There are many comrades who fought alongside him.”

“Even so. I happened to witness even the final battle.”

At those words, Yeon Baek-jin showed a surprised expression.

“That’s impressive. If it’s the final battle… actually, I don’t know that much either.”

“It’s just something shameful. The final battle. I participated as a member of that assault team but fell behind midway. I was knocked unconscious by the enemy. Well, my comrades probably thought I was dead. And when I came to, the final battle was taking place before my eyes. Somehow, the place where I had been unconscious had become a battlefield.”

The final battle would refer to the confrontation with the Demonic Cult Leader.

Yeon Baek-jin became curious.

“What happened?”

At Yeon Baek-jin’s question, Peng Do-yul shook his head.

“It wasn’t a battle to speak of carelessly.”

At Peng Do-yul’s answer, Yeon Baek-jin smiled and nodded.

“Academy Director, how many people in the world do you think properly know about Instructor Ha?”

“At most twenty. That would be about right. I’m not originally someone who should know either, but I learned because of my accidental survival on the battlefield.”

Yeon Baek-jin’s smile deepened.

“People in the world are not like you, Academy Director.”

“Hm?”

Curiosity appeared on Peng Do-yul’s face. He couldn’t understand what it meant.

“Just as you kept the secret from me, Academy Director, not all of Instructor Ha’s comrades kept that secret. Naturally. Where would you find someone who wouldn’t feel sorry that a hero who fought alongside them has no trace left in the world?”

At Yeon Baek-jin’s words, Peng Do-yul wore a blank expression.

It was something he hadn’t thought of.

Since he had been reluctant to speak about the battle, he had vaguely assumed others would be the same.

It was a naive thought.

“I was too foolish. I’ve lived my years in vain.”

Peng Do-yul, who realized the meaning of Yeon Baek-jin’s words, gave a bitter smile.

“Well, there might be fewer than twenty who know as much as you do, Academy Director. Since you witnessed the final battle. I also don’t know how Instructor Ha was in the final battle. The person who told me about Instructor Ha died in battle before that.”

Yeon Baek-jin’s face filled with sadness and longing.

From his words and expression, Peng Do-yul could guess who had told him about Ha Mu-baek.

“It was Elder Brother Baek Un.”

At those words, Yeon Baek-jin’s head snapped up.

“You knew Second Elder Brother?”

“I was also a comrade. He was an elder brother I respected. How else could Ha-min have stayed at Gyoryong Hall without catching the Yeon Family’s attention all this time?”

“Ah!”

Yeon Baek-jin let out a small exclamation.

Now one mystery was solved.

No matter how much the Yeon Family paid no attention to Gyoryong Hall, how could they have failed to find that child who had entered under his real name?

The reason was right before his eyes.

“Then sending Ha-min to Instructor Ha was also…?”

At Yeon Baek-jin’s question, Peng Do-yul nodded.

“I never expected that person would turn the main estate upside down and force me to leave Gyoryong Hall.”

In the end, that was how Yeon Ha-min’s existence became known to the Yeon Family.

Yeon Baek-jin gave a bitter smile.

In the end, his eldest brother was said to have not returned from Sanwol Demon Forest.

Since he understood the meaning, Yeon Baek-jin couldn’t just smile.

“Anyway, far more people than you think, Academy Director, probably know about Instructor Ha.”

Yeon Baek-jin left those words and departed.

Peng Do-yul remained alone.

He gazed quietly at the martial arts arena.

A place now completely shrouded in darkness.

Peng Do-yul could see through this level of darkness.

Ha Mu-baek still standing quietly beside the two students.

Peng Do-yul’s gaze became complex.

 

***

 

“Well then, let’s go down now too.”

Darkness had fallen all around, and the empty martial arts arena after all spectators had left.

Those remaining there were only Ju U-myeong and Baek Ri-pyeong, who were absorbed in energy circulation,

And Dan Mok Un-rae and Ha Mu-baek watching over them.

“Un-hye should go to her elder brother.”

Gongsun Mu-oe carrying Gung So-yu and Han Seol-bing carrying Dan Mok Un-hye leaped down.

Following them, Gongsun Bi-yeon also landed lightly on the ground.

“Elder Brother!”

Dan Mok Un-hye called out loudly to Dan Mok Un-rae and ran toward him energetically.

“Shh.”

Dan Mok Un-rae put his index finger to his lips toward his younger sister.

At that gesture, Dan Mok Un-hye reflexively slowed her steps and approached quietly.

“What did you come all the way here for.”

Dan Mok Un-rae gently stroked Dan Mok Un-hye’s head as he spoke quietly.

“Let’s move back a bit. Those friends are still in the middle of energy circulation.”

Dan Mok Un-hye didn’t understand what he meant, but sensing it was something important, she quietly followed her brother.

Dan Mok Un-rae continued speaking to Dan Mok Un-hye in a small voice, and accordingly, Dan Mok Un-hye’s voice also became quieter.

While the two siblings were catching up like this.

Gongsun Mu-oe stood beside Ha Mu-baek.

“That was an incredible martial duel. These children are of an age I can hardly believe.”

“Baek Ri-pyeong and Ju U-myeong are both nineteen, right?”

Han Seol-bing asked.

“Ri-pyeong is indeed nineteen. Though a year will pass soon.”

Han Seol-bing nodded at Ha Mu-baek’s answer.

“Well, then they could do that much. Valley Lord.”

Gongsun Mu-oe opened his eyes wide in surprise.

At least in Gongsun Mu-oe’s lifetime, this was the first time he’d seen such young talent.

In his memory, he had never seen anyone achieve such accomplishments at the age of nineteen.

At that reaction, Han Seol-bing shrugged her shoulders.

“I saw this guy up close when he was twenty years old.”

“Ah…”

At those words, Gongsun Mu-oe nodded as if he understood.

Right.

If it was Ha Mu-baek, he had to acknowledge it.

“Of course, he’s become monstrously strong in the past ten years, but even at twenty, he was already frighteningly strong.”

Han Seol-bing’s teasing.

Ha Mu-baek frowned slightly.

“Cut it out. The kids need to concentrate.”

They weren’t lost in selfless meditation.

During circulation meditation, their senses remained open.

In a situation where they needed to contemplate their interior and focus on healing internal injuries, it wouldn’t do to scatter their concentration with useless noise from outside.

“Oh my? You didn’t put up an energy barrier? Don’t you usually block out sound with an energy barrier at times like this?”

Han Seol-bing asked with wide eyes as if surprised.

Ha Mu-baek’s expression became even more distorted.

Then he turned his head toward Han Seol-bing.

“You know me annoyingly well. So cut it out.”

At Ha Mu-baek’s words, Han Seol-bing chuckled.

As expected.

Ha Mu-baek was already surrounding Baek Ri-pyeong and Ju U-myeong with an energy barrier to block external noise.

So they could concentrate on circulation meditation.

It was something he always did for subordinates who needed circulation meditation on the battlefield.

However, mentioning concentration earlier was just an excuse to make Han Seol-bing quiet.

Though it didn’t work.

“Ho. Instructor Han seems to know Instructor Ha very well.”

“We’re comrades who spent ten years together. Well, he did abandon such a comrade and run away.”

“I just moved according to my orders.”

Ha Mu-baek’s small protest.

“Tch. Cunning man.”

However, Han Seol-bing didn’t accept that protest.

 

Amidst such trivial conversation and bickering.

Baek Ri-pyeong and Ju U-myeong were absorbed in energy circulation, completely unaware of this fact.

Because it was strangely quiet, they could concentrate even more.

Thus, the two slowly healed their injured blood meridians, qi meridians, and dantian.

They didn’t know how much time had passed.

They simply focused on treatment.

They calmed their turbulent and boiling interior, tended to their dantian and blood meridians that were injured enough to make them cough up blood, and organized their qi meridians that had become a complete mess from excessive use of internal energy.

Ju U-myeong opened his eyes first.

Not only was the depth of his internal energy different, but the meditation technique he was learning was also different.

Ridiculously, Baek Ri-pyeong had not received the meditation technique of the Taiyi Heart Method.

This was because his grandfather had passed away before that, and the main sect had neglected him.

Therefore, the meditation technique Baek Ri-pyeong used was that of the Three Talents Heart Method.

A mind technique that was stable but slow.

The meditation technique was the same.

Ha Mu-baek could have helped, but he watched silently.

Time flowed and flowed.

Before they knew it, it was midnight.

Everyone had gone back.

Only Ha Mu-baek and Baek Ri-pyeong remained.

Ju U-myeong and Dan Mok Un-rae had insisted on staying together.

But Dan Mok Un-rae was sent back, told to take care of Un-hye.

Ju U-myeong was sent back, told to go in and recuperate more since he was still injured.

Han Seol-bing was told to properly take care of Ju U-myeong.

Gongsun Mu-oe nodded as if he understood why Ha Mu-baek was acting this way and left.

 

On the way back to the estate.

Gongsun Bi-yeon tilted her head and asked Gongsun Mu-oe.

“Grandfather was there too, and Instructor Ha is also deeply versed in medical arts. Why were they doing circulation meditation? With that level of internal injury, if Grandfather had just lent a hand, it would have healed quickly.”

It was incomprehensible.

So she finally couldn’t contain her curiosity and asked.

At his granddaughter’s question, Gongsun Mu-oe smiled broadly.

“Instructor Ha. Though he treated So Yu’s Nine-Tone Severed Meridians, he is a martial artist, not a physician. So he does such things. On the other hand, Yeon-ah, you are more of a physician than a martial artist. I can tell from how you’re frustrated, asking why he doesn’t treat them. Heh heh heh.”

Even while hearing her grandfather’s laughter, she still didn’t understand.

For her grandfather, the Seonyu Valley Lord, to step in for such internal injuries would be excessive.

But even if she stepped in, she could reduce the time to treat internal injuries to one-tenth.

Gongsun Bi-yeon had that much confidence in her medical skills.

‘Anyway, Instructor Ha is really a frustrating man.’

Gongsun Bi-yeon grumbled inwardly.

She still didn’t understand her grandfather’s words.

“Um… does circulation meditation also serve as cultivation for martial artists?”

Then Gung So-yu interjected.

At those words, Gongsun Bi-yeon opened her eyes wide with a blank expression.

…Right.

That’s it.

Why couldn’t I think of this simple principle.

I’m disqualified as a physician.

Such thoughts of self-reproach swirled in her head and even showed on her face.

Gongsun Mu-oe stroked Gung So-yu’s head as he spoke.

“So Yu’s thinking is correct. And Yeon-ah, you don’t need to blame yourself. It’s because you’re a natural-born physician. To understand these martial artist folk who even consider treatment as cultivation, you’d need to treat hundreds of such martial artist bastards.”

 

***

 

Baek Ri-pyeong slowly opened his eyes.

Time had passed during his energy accumulation.

Ha Mu-baek watched Baek Ri-pyeong with calm eyes.

“Thank you.”

Baek Ri-pyeong bowed his waist deeply.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but he realized that no one was in This Place except himself and the Instructor.

“Did you gain anything?”

At Ha Mu-baek’s question, Baek Ri-pyeong couldn’t readily nod his head.

“I’m not sure.”

“Everyone considers the Healing Formula of the Three Talents Heart Method to be something that exists but is useless. In fact, the Three Talents Heart Method rarely has occasion to use the Healing Formula.”

Building Internal Energy with the Three Talents Heart Method was a distant task, and most of those who learned the Three Talents Heart Method didn’t even have enough Internal Energy to sustain internal injuries.

That’s why the Healing Formula existed but was considered useless.

“But there’s nothing unnecessary in the Three Talents Heart Method.”

Ha Mu-baek left those words and turned around.

 

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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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