The Martial Genius Who Remembers Everything Novel - Chapter 162

Chapter 162
## Chapter 162. The Black Flame Dragon Who Calms the Chaos (7)

“You kicked off your blankets again in your sleep.”

Kang Yu-seong covered his sisters with their blankets once more and quietly left the room.

Darkness had quietly settled on all sides, and the sound of grass insects crying from afar told him that it was deep into the night.

Kang Yu-seong paid it no mind and slowly walked toward the small training ground.

This was Kang Yu-seong’s fixed routine.

It was a habit he had not skipped for even a single day.

‘Eldest Senior Brother said he can already draw six blades of the Ten Thousand Swords.’

Compared to the realm of his Eldest Senior Brother that he had heard about through the letter, he himself was only just able to create two blades.

When he thought that there had not been much difference between the times they began studying the Taeul True Scripture, impatience naturally rose within him.

‘Am I doing well?’

But then, when he thought back to the days when he had looked after his sisters alone with nowhere to rely on, a deep sigh of relief came out of him.

What would have happened if, on that day, he had not met his Eldest Senior Brother?

What would have happened if his Eldest Senior Brother had not told him to come to the Taeul Sect?

Thanks to him, Kang Yu-seong was now eating three meals a day properly with his sisters in a comfortable and cozy place.

Moreover, he was even learning the martial arts he had dreamed of so much.

To Kang Yu-seong, Jin So-un and the Taeul Sect were truly no different from the embrace of his parents.

‘I must repay this grace.’

Kang Yu-seong rubbed his drooping eyes and quickly moved his steps toward the small training ground.

“Haat!”

Clink, clink.

Along with a clear cry, a rattling sound rang out.

Something like pieces of iron flew and embedded themselves sharply into the scarecrow set up in the training ground.

The figure standing at the center fluttered her swaying martial arts uniform and created illusions, and from her hidden hands, pieces of iron were scattered once more, the profundity of Illusion contained within them so that they looked like dozens, hundreds.

Clink, clink, clink.

The scarecrow, which had been receiving a baptism of iron pieces, finally could not withstand it and toppled over with a crack.

‘Senior Sister Wang?’

Only then did Kang Yu-seong realize who the earlier visitor was, and he tried to quietly leave the small training ground.

After coming to the Taeul Sect, he had learned that among murim people, secretly watching another person’s training process was an extremely great discourtesy.

Just as he turned around and was about to look for another place.

“Junior Brother Kang?”

Wang So-so, who had been catching her breath, called Kang Yu-seong.

“Did you come to train?”

“Yes, Senior Sister. I can use another place, so you may continue using this place.”

“Really? Then since it has turned out this way anyway, shall we train together?”

“Yes?”

“Why? Am I too far below your level?”

“No, what…… How could you say that?”

“Then come here.”

When Kang Yu-seong approached, Wang So-so stroked his head.

Before his sisters, Kang Yu-seong was a dignified adult, but before Wang So-so, he became like the youngest little brother.

“You work hard, Junior Brother.”

“……Ahem. Senior Sister, what brings you here training until such a late hour?”

“Mm. When I go home, Father doesn’t let me practice. He tells me to sleep early because it’s tiring. But not training is more tiring.”

“…….”

Kang Yu-seong looked at Wang So-so as though he found her strange.

“Senior Sister……. May I ask you just one thing?”

“Mm? What is it?”

“I heard that your father sponsors the Taeul Sect greatly, and you said you would become a merchant later too, Senior Sister Wang……. So why do you work so hard?”

Wang So-so tilted her head.

“What does sponsoring a lot and becoming a merchant have to do with working hard?”

“Yes? Ah…… Mm, that is…….”

Kang Yu-seong began stumbling over his words, thinking he had said something wrong.

Wang So-so’s eyes turned a little sharp.

“Does sponsoring a lot and becoming a merchant mean I’m not allowed to work hard? Did I do something wrong?”

“……No! That is not what I meant……!”

When Kang Yu-seong panicked, not knowing what to do, Wang So-so burst into laughter.

“You swing a sword like a ghost, but what use is such a timid personality?”

“……That is too much, Senior Sister.”

“So what are you really curious about?”

Kang Yu-seong hesitated for a moment, then looked Wang So-so straight in the eyes.

“I mean…… I have received a lot from the Taeul Sect, but I have no way to repay it. That is why I am at least training hard. But I was curious as to why you, Senior Sister, who are giving so much to the Taeul Sect, are also training so hard.”

At Kang Yu-seong’s sincere answer, Wang So-so smiled gently.

“Ah! So that was your worry? Mm…… Well. Because I like the Taeul Sect?”

“You like the Taeul Sect?”

“Well, to be exact, it’s because I have received a lot from Brother Jin, but in any case, I thought there would come a day when I could repay him.”

Doubt appeared in Kang Yu-seong’s eyes.

To him, his Eldest Senior Brother seemed like a being so strong that he needed no one’s help.

“……Isn’t Eldest Senior Brother already incredibly strong? I wonder whether we can truly be of help…….”

“Of course he is remarkable……. To be honest, he is strong beyond common sense. I know because I often meet murim people while doing merchant work, but there don’t seem to be many people his age who can be compared to our Brother Jin.”

For some reason, Wang So-so shrugged as though she were boasting about herself.

“Even so, there will be moments when he needs help.”

“When?”

“How would I know? In any case, even if that is not it, the fact that we become strong will be an enormous help to Brother Jin. At the very least, we won’t become a hindrance to Brother Jin, right?”

A hindrance.

That was something he had never once thought about.

Kang Yu-seong asked back.

“……We could become a hindrance?”

“Of course. Special people like Brother Jin are bound to make many enemies in the world. Among them, there are also cases where they cannot do anything to Brother Jin, so they touch his sect or family instead.”

“Good heavens! How can they be so cowardly?”

“Exactly. So we have to strive not to hold Brother Jin back. Only then will Brother Jin be able to accomplish what he wants.”

Wang So-so had been stroking Yu-seong’s head as though dealing with the youngest little brother, but then she tapped his shoulder a few times as though striking solid wood.

“Furthermore, if the Taeul Sect grows strong, no one will be able to treat Brother Jin lightly.”

“In the end, the fact that we become strong will be an enormous help to Eldest Senior Brother.”

“That’s right!”

Kang Yu-seong’s expression cleared, as though a worry he had held for a long time had been resolved.

“I will work even harder.”

“Mm…… I think you’re already doing enough. Well, working hard is a good thing.”

“Yes! But Senior Sister, what training were you doing just now?”

“Me? I was practicing Throwing Arts.”

“Throwing Arts?”

Yu-seong tilted his head.

“Mm. Swords are good too, but I think Throwing Arts are a little more fun.”

“Then may I help you?”

“Will you?”

“Yes! I was also training the Ten Thousand Swords right now. I will bring the hidden weapons.”

“Thank you. I will catch my breath for a bit.”

While Wang So-so picked up the water flask she had brought and drank from it.

Kang Yu-seong approached the scarecrow.

‘Hm?’

Kang Yu-seong, who had been about to pull out the hidden weapons stuck in the scarecrow, tilted his head because the shape of the hidden weapons was strange, then looked at Wang So-so.

“……Senior Sister, have you perhaps been training with these until now?”

“Mm? Ah! I wanted to do it with throwing daggers, but Father said they were dangerous and told me not to use throwing daggers.”

“…….”

“While I was looking for something suitable……. Well, there were also the most of those at home.”

Kang Yu-seong looked once more at the hidden weapons embedded in the scarecrow.

“…….”

They were generally round in shape, with a square hole in the middle, made so that a string could be threaded through them easily.

However, most people did not thread string through these and carry them around.

Because there was a risk of theft, they usually placed them inside a small money pouch and kept them in the deepest part of their robes.

In other words, what Wang So-so had thrown so indiscriminately was precisely this.

“……You are using silver coins as hidden weapons?”

“Yes. So stop asking and bring them quickly!”

“…….”

Kang Yu-seong became curious.

If these hidden weapons dug into his flesh, would they perhaps become his?

And if so, how many hits could he endure?

“Bleeegh.”

After vomiting a handful of bloody fluid, the tightness in my chest eased.

“Haa, haa, haa.”

As I gasped for breath, my mind returned a little.

‘What exactly went wrong?’

I had certainly followed Sword Demon Baek Hae-gwang’s movements exactly.

My tattered muscles had changed into a form somewhat similar to his, and thanks to enduring the pain of my bones grinding together, my bones had also changed into a state sufficient to display the Three Forms of the White Moon Governing Heaven.

Even the oral formula and essential principles were perfect.

But whenever I tried to display the Three Forms of the White Moon Governing Heaven, the qi circulation of my inner arts kept cutting off, and it felt as though my Five Viscera and Six Bowels were being overturned.

I had imitated everything perfectly, but in the end, I could not even manifest the first form of the Three Forms of the White Moon Governing Heaven.

“Good heavens…… Young Master Jin.”

When I turned my head with a dazed mind, Namgung Seon-hwa’s pale face came into view.

“What on earth happened?”

“……Nothing happened.”

“Then what is all this blood?”

“…….”

Only then did I look around, and I saw that the clotted blood I had vomited was all over the place.

What was this? It looked as though I had fought a Life-and-Death Battle.

“I was training, but something seems to have gone wrong.”

“You call this training?”

Namgung Seon-hwa looked around as if she could not believe it, then handed over the water flask in her hand.

I drank nearly half of the water in the flask without stopping.

“Haa… haa… haa…….”

“…….”

What in the world went wrong?

As the time for the Martial Duel approached, desperation churned in my heart.

“……Master, Young Master Jin!”

“Yes?”

When I turned my head in surprise, Namgung Seon-hwa was looking at me with a face full of worry.

“What part exactly are you stuck on?”

“What part?”

“Yes. Isn’t everything you have spat out here blood?”

“That is correct.”

“That means the circulation of your Internal Qi is not functioning properly. If you keep overstraining yourself like this, Qi Deviation might occur.”

“…….”

It was certain that the circulation of my Internal Qi was not functioning properly.

No, to be exact, the circulation of my Internal Qi was running wild on its own, and I could not control it.

If I had at least not strengthened my blood channels and Dantian with the power of the Nine-Spirit Divine Herb, Qi Deviation would have happened ten times over by now.

‘Did this Sword Demon fellow perhaps give me the wrong oral formula?’

As I had that thought, I shook my head.

He had handed it to me first to begin with.

If his purpose had been to kill me, he could have simply killed me with his own hands.

The oral formula was perfect, the movements were perfect, and the time used for mastery was perfect.

Yet why could I not properly display the sword form?

“Miss Seon-hwa.”

“Yes?”

“Did you learn the Emperor Sword Art from the Divine Sword?”

“I did?”

“May I ask how far your achievement has progressed?”

Namgung Seon-hwa’s face stiffened.

Among martial artists, carelessly asking about another person’s realm was one of the discourtesies.

I continued speaking.

“What I mean is that I would like to know what level you are at compared to the Divine Sword.”

“……Compared to Grandfather?”

Namgung Seon-hwa relaxed her expression, placed a finger under her chin, and fell into thought.

“About as much as blood from a bird’s foot?”

“……Is that a figurative expression? Or a literal expression?”

“It is both.”

“Is it because of the difference in inner arts?”

“……That is not it. As you know, to learn the Emperor Sword Art, you must learn the Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art, but once you reach a certain level or higher, there is no great difficulty in displaying the Emperor Sword Art.”

That matched what I had thought.

No matter how remarkable the level of Sword Demon Baek Hae-gwang’s inner arts might be, with my current inner arts, there should be no great difficulty in displaying the Three Forms of the White Moon Governing Heaven.

“Then where does the difference in achievement between the Divine Sword and you come from, Miss?”

“……I suppose it is because of time.”

“Do you mean proficiency?”

“That is part of it, but…….”

“Then if you were able to display it with the exact same movements and posture as the Divine Sword, Miss Seon-hwa, would you achieve the same level of achievement as the Divine Sword?”

In my case, I had matched everything: the oral formula, the inner arts, and even the time for mastery.

Rather, it was stranger that the sword form was not manifesting.

Namgung Seon-hwa tilted her head, and her face gradually began to stiffen.

“What exactly are you plotting?”

I felt as though I would worry her, so I gave a suitable excuse.

“I was simply curious. Our sect does not have an absolute master like the Divine Sword. Then I was only curious why, even if one learned exactly the same way from someone like the Divine Sword, there would still be a difference in achievement.”

Even though I explained it like that, Namgung Seon-hwa did not seem to believe me at all.

“In this urgent situation, you suddenly became curious about that?”

Namgung Seon-hwa looked at the blood-soaked ground and seemed dumbfounded.

I answered without the slightest shame.

“Can a martial artist’s training truly distinguish between time and place?”

Namgung Seon-hwa, who had been glaring at me, let out a small sigh.

“……I do not trust you, but in any case, I will tell you. Something slightly similar happened in our clan. One of my uncles followed Grandfather around every day and tried to imitate not only his sword forms, but even his actions and habits.”

Oh, to think there was someone in the Namgung Clan who had the same idea as me.

For some reason, I felt a sense of kinship.

“How was that person’s achievement? Was it similar to the Divine Sword’s?”

“Not at all.”

Huh?

“It did not rise at all. On the contrary, his achievement was lower than those who began at the same age.”

“……Why?”

“Grandfather later said that if one merely imitated another person’s thing without one’s own enlightenment, it would instead only feel awkward, like wearing clothes that did not fit.”

“…….”

“He said Emptiness must be built by oneself, through one’s own power. He said that if one hundred people learned a single martial art, it would become one hundred different martial arts.”

“……!”

The images in my head rose clearly.

The Three Forms of the White Moon Governing Heaven displayed by the Sword Demon.

And the Three Forms of the White Moon Governing Heaven displayed by me.

Even though we swung the same sword, the profundity held within the swords was quite different.

When I overlapped the two figures into one, even though they were performing the same movements, they did not fit together exactly as one.

In the end, even if I perfectly imitated the Sword Demon’s sword, I could not produce the same level of power as the Sword Demon.

“Still, Grandfather said it was not a bad method. He said it was a method to embody, in the shortest time, the achievement that someone of a high level had built up over a long period. Though he himself disliked having others cling to him.”

“What actually became of that uncle?”

“He is currently serving as Deputy Pavilion Master in the Execution Pavilion.”

“Are you saying Great Hero Azure Dragon Jade Sword did such a thing in the past?”

Azure Dragon Jade Sword Namgung Seon-myeong, even in my past life, had been someone who enforced Alliance Law according to law and regulation rather than a person’s background.

The influence of the clan he possessed had been extremely strong, and because his own tremendous martial strength had also placed him within the ranks of the Hundred Greatest Masters of the Jianghu, there had been no one who dared exert external pressure on Azure Dragon Jade Sword.

“Yes.”

“…….”

Then simply imitating was not wrong.

It was only that I had, until now, pursued only the Sword Demon’s enlightenment, not my own.

The important thing was that, beyond imitating exactly, one needed one’s own enlightenment within it.

“Ah!”

Before the thought flashing through my head could fly away, I quickly sat cross-legged.

“Miss Seon-hwa, no matter what happens to me, please do not wake me.”

“……No, what on earth…….”

Before hearing Namgung Seon-hwa’s answer, I closed my eyes.

I began to form the Sword Demon holding a tree branch inside my head.

One person… eight people… fourteen people… thirty people…….

At the same time, I also formed myself holding the Black Dragon Sword.

Then, thirty Sword Demons and thirty illusions of myself began displaying the Three Forms of the White Moon Governing Heaven simultaneously.

Even though I was concentrating on Nothingness, I felt heat rising in my head.

To cool my head, which had become so hot that steam seemed ready to rise from it at any moment, I quickly sent Internal Qi to my Upper Qi Center and attempted to stabilize it.

Each time the thirty people on both sides displayed the forms, heat began rising not only in my head, but throughout my entire body.

Soon, a thick metallic smell soaked through both nostrils, and I felt liquid trickling down.

The Sword Demon’s sword forms were identical across all thirty.

Even if they began from different starts, their movements were the same, and they ended at the same time.

However, my forms were all different.

They began at the same time and ended differently.

I brought out one illusion each of the Sword Demon and myself and began a Martial Duel.

Three moves.

In only three moves, my illusion disappeared.

Cough.

Before I knew it, clotted blood burst out from my mouth.

-Young Master Jin……!!

I heard Namgung Seon-hwa’s voice, but I ignored it and continued the Martial Duel.

Second Martial Duel…….

Defeat.

Fourth Martial Duel…….

Defeat.

Seventh Martial Duel…….

Defeat.

Thirteenth Martial Duel…….

Defeat.

When the illusion of myself that came before suffered defeat, the illusion that followed after received that memory and responded differently.

The Sword Demon’s illusion was exactly as it had been when I met him in the Ten Thousand Book Repository.

The words he had spoken over the past month came vividly to mind.

-The essence of the first form is Extreme Swiftness. To be fastest, you must possess nothing.

Eighteenth Martial Duel…….

Defeat.

Twenty-first Martial Duel…….

Defeat.

Twenty-ninth Martial Duel…….

Defeat.

Thirtieth Martial Duel…….

Defeat.

My mind snapped awake, and something large surged out from my overturned insides.

“Bleeegh!”

My black martial arts uniform was stained with bloody fluid.

“Young Master Jin! Stop! You will die at this rate!”

I reached a hand toward Namgung Seon-hwa.

“Please…… stand guard for me.”

And once more, thirty Sword Demons and thirty of myself began to clash.

Thirty-fourth Martial Duel…….

Defeat.

Thirty-ninth Martial Duel…….

Defeat.

Forty-sixth Martial Duel…….

Defeat.

-The lightest state is what allows one to be fastest. A speed that nothing can chase is something nothing can block.

Fifty-first Martial Duel…….

Draw.

Fifty-fourth Martial Duel…….

Draw.

-An incomplete sword is nothing more than a sandcastle that can collapse at any time. Break it before it is completed, with the lightest and fastest sword.

Fifty-sixth Martial Duel…….

……Draw.

Fifty-ninth Martial Duel…….

Sixtieth Martial Duel…….

My entire body trembled, and my eyes flew open.

As convulsions took over my whole body, my muscles and bones went numb and began twisting on their own.

CRUNCH, CRUNCH. Crack. Crack.

The knotted nausea deep inside my body surged backward and quickly climbed up my esophagus.

“……Bleeeergh!”

As if I had drunk more alcohol than I could endure, I vomited bloody fluid and foam.

“Young Master Jin!”

Namgung Seon-hwa’s faint voice came from far away.

And in the end, I let go of my consciousness as it drifted farther away.