Chapter 121: Mastery of the Art

As soon as I regained consciousness, a terrible pain assailed me.

“Uaaaaah…”

It was my body, but it did not feel like mine.

My consciousness had returned, but my body did not follow. It was to the point where even groaning was difficult.

If not for the pain hammering away at my entire body, I would have thought I was completely paralyzed.

Fortunately, it was not to that extent.

After regaining consciousness and circulating the internal energy in my body to check, I found that although the qi, blood, and nerves were a mess, they were not severed.

I had simply overworked them terribly.

‘I must be grateful to the masters who built me a sturdy body. Ugh…’

Perhaps if someone else had pushed themselves as hard as I did, they might have become a cripple who could not even lift a spoon for the rest of their life.

I had a similar experience once before.

When I had forcefully raised the power of the Heavy Earth Divine Art.

The masters had said that if I had not trained my body with the Earth Essence Art, I would have had to recuperate for at least half a year.

Although the intensity could not be compared, my physical condition was similar to that time.

‘…Oh! Wa-Wait…’

While recalling that memory, a strange sense of anxiety crept up on me.

‘…Baek Mu-ho, that bastard, did not… do anything weird, right?’

Although he was definitely a trustworthy friend to whom I could entrust my back in an emergency, in a situation like this, the most untrustworthy hazard was Baek Mu-ho.

What did he say back then? What did he say he would do after stripping off my pants?

Just then, a voice that stimulated instinctive fear resounded.

“Yo, are you awake?”

Even if a blood-drenched demon appeared behind my back, it would not be as terrifying as this.

Seriously.

‘It has finally come.’

I would rather pass out.

Foreseeing the dark history to come, I closed my eyes tightly.

“Hey, are you ignoring me?”

‘Huh?’

The voice that came again was still from the same spot.

If something terrible beyond my imagination were to happen, the voice should have gotten closer, right?

“Groan…”

Perhaps because my consciousness returned, my body seemed to have recovered slightly.

Gathering that mouse-tail amount of strength, I barely managed to turn my head and saw Baek Mu-ho.

“Ah… Hahaha…”

It was truly a blessing from the heavens.

He was lying on a bed in a complete mess, having been beaten black and blue by someone.

The situation where we could not control our bodies was the same for both that guy and me.

What a relief this was!

“Are you laughing? Laughing?”

‘Then of course I would laugh, would I cry?’

Usually, I would laugh heartily, but now my stomach was tight and I could not even put strength into it.

This was subtly painful.

“Talking… is hard… There is… no strength… in my stomach…”

Anyway, what a relief. It felt like I could safely let go of my consciousness.

Perhaps because my tension was released, my consciousness quickly began to fade into black.

***

When I opened my eyes again, it was evening.

The damp breeze characteristic of the night air brushed past the tip of my nose.

“Huaaaaah…”

My body was still in pain.

However, I became able to move a little.

Compared to just sleeping mindlessly, the recovery was fast.

‘Is it the power of the Heavy Earth Divine Art’s Fourth Stage?’

Although I had not noticed it when I opened my eyes last time because my mind was in a daze, now I could tell.

I felt the newly constructed power settling within my body.

I could tell that the more structured Heavy Earth Divine Art was embracing me.

Even while I was unconscious, it was moving on its own and helping with the recovery.

The body is honest; if one pushes oneself too hard, it surely leaves a trace.

In that sense, the power of the Heavy Earth Divine Art’s Fourth Stage was amazing.

I had overworked my body to its limits to the point where it would not have been strange if I had ended up a cripple, yet just sleeping and waking up recovered it this much.

‘How long was I asleep?’

“A day and a half.”

While estimating how long I had lost consciousness, a voice suddenly reached my ears.

Surprised by the characteristic voice that I could never forget in my life, I turned my head, and as expected, Jang Mun-gyeong was sitting on a chair, watching me.

“…Pardon?”

“Because if it were me, I would have wondered how long I was unconscious.”

He had pinpointed it accurately.

I had thought he was a man who subtly charged forward following his instincts, but it seemed he still had some thoughts.

“How… are you here…”

“My daughter has been nursing you all day.”

“Pardon?”

Young Lady Jang So-wol?

Wondering what he meant, I turned my head, and indeed, someone was leaning against my bed.

‘Kyaaaaaaaah!!’

Just as Jang Mun-gyeong said, Young Lady Jang So-wol was leaning against the bed, sleeping softly.

Looking at that, I felt a sense of crisis in a different sense.

‘Now that I think about it, didn’t this man start investigating my family background right off the bat?’

I wondered if my neck would really fly off at this rate.

A man like him would probably slice off my neck without even changing his expression…

“Excuse me…”

“Call me senior.”

Suddenly, one of the Ten Swords of Heaven had become a senior.

Well, considering the tangled hierarchy, it might be the most reasonable title.

“Yes, senior.”

“Hmph!”

When I answered “senior” right away without any reluctance, Senior Jang Mun-gyeong’s lips curled up slightly.

Then, he drove straight in.

“I have one thing to ask my junior.”

“Me?”

“When I heard the rumor that Senior Adept Heu-do received guidance from you, I did not believe it. However, after meeting you in person, I could see that your talent is marvelous. If so, the guidance that Senior Adept Heu-do received from you must not have been a mere coincidence either. Even if you did not intend it, he must have seen something through a part of your extraordinary talent.”

‘No, that was just Master Zhang Sanfeng pouring it out?’

He talked about extraordinary talent and all, but he completely barked up the wrong tree.

‘So telling me to call him senior was just preparatory work to throw this question?’

His disposition of knowing no shame in front of martial arts seemed to be engrossed in overtime work even though it was late at night.

Naturally, I could also guess what words would follow.

“What did you see as lacking in my sword?”

“Senior’s… sword?”

He asked something that was daringly hard to handle.

Perhaps the masters were not watching right now, as they had no words.

In the end, it meant I had to judge, analyze, and evaluate on my own.

The problem was!

‘…I had to have seen something to say anything.’

Even though I squeezed out everything, I could not handle a single stick held by Senior Jang Mun-gyeong. He probably did not even bring out a fraction of his true skill, yet he asked for an evaluation; I was truly apologetic.

Still, I could not just not answer.

Given Senior Jang Mun-gyeong’s personality, no matter how much I declined, he would definitely cling to me persistently.

It was a dilemma.

In a situation where I had to find the answer myself, I tried setting the criteria of my thoughts a bit differently.

I thought about how the masters would have viewed Senior Jang Mun-gyeong’s martial arts.

Because the masters’ martial arts were inside me.

“Although I am not in a position to dare evaluate…”

Taking the thoughts of the masters I had seen and experienced as a standard, I borrowed their perspective for a moment centered around that point of view.

“The sword Tao called seamless showed not a single gap. There was a structure in all the flows of the sword, reminiscent of a large and steep castle wall.”

Up to here, it was good words.

However, the masters always pointed out the flaws in my martial arts.

The flaw that I felt in Senior Jang Mun-gyeong.

“Therefore, while it could be a natural barrier, it did not seem able to become the sky.”

“Hmm… The sky, the sky…”

Something that is visible, yet unreachable.

That was about the best metaphor I could think of. Although it was a vague expression, I did not have the ability to explain it in detail.

“I see. If you want to see the end of the sword, achieve something that does not exist in reality?”

However, it seemed to have worked quite well.

With a dazed face like someone who had been hit hard on the head, Senior Jang Mun-gyeong was clearly accepting the meaning of what I said.

“No matter how great a natural barrier is, in the end, it exists somewhere under the sky.”

“…It must be a place that cannot be reached by talent alone.”

I spoke poorly, yet he understood perfectly.

Honestly, even I, who was rattling off words, did not know what it meant.

At any rate, those called geniuses are really something!

“Discard obsession with form… I must put something that is nowhere to be found in its place. A state of transcendence beyond form…”

However, unlike me, Senior Jang Mun-gyeong seemed to have gained something.

“Now, I know that what Senior Adept Heu-do said was true.”

“Ah, yes…”

I wished he would stop.

Now, even if I squeezed my head, let alone a poor explanation, not a speck of dust would come out.

“Rest. I will take care of my daughter.”

Fortunately, Senior Jang Mun-gyeong did not seem to have any intention of badgering me anymore. Moreover, he said he would take away Young Lady Jang So-wol, who was on my mind.

Suddenly, Senior Jang Mun-gyeong looked like a Bodhisattva.

“The night dew is not good for one’s health.”

Leaving behind those strange words, Senior Jang Mun-gyeong gently held Young Lady Jang So-wol in his arms and left the room.

‘Night dew?’

Suddenly realizing something from those words, I opened my mouth toward the ceiling.

“Come down.”

Yi Hwa, who had always stayed by my side since we met in Sichuan, was nowhere to be seen.

As expected, with a thudding sound, Yi Hwa approached my side.

Perhaps because she had been exposed to the night dew for quite a while, just as Senior Jang Mun-gyeong said, a cool chill lingered around her body.

Since she possessed a tremendous divine power of fire, that level of chill would not be a big burden, but the part I worried about was different.

“You didn’t sleep a wink while I was unconscious, did you?”

“…”

“Answer me.”

“…Yes.”

Since I was asleep for a day and a half, it meant Yi Hwa had been hovering around me without sleeping for at least two days.

“Go and sleep quickly.”

“I will sleep after seeing you fully recover and rise.”

“Should I get up now then?”

If she had kept staying by my side, she would have known that my physical condition was bad. When I said I would raise my body, Yi Hwa deeply lowered her head.

‘She seems to be feeling disappointed?’

Was it an illusion that the lips of Yi Hwa, who lowered her head, seemed to pout slightly?

It felt like she was resentful that I did not recognize her loyalty.

“Sleep.”

“Yes.”

At the firm command, Yi Hwa finally chose one of the vacant beds nearby and laid her body down.

While shaking my head as I watched Yi Hwa settle down like that, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

‘Huh? But why did Senior Jang Mun-gyeong just leave Young Lady Jang So-wol alone?’

It was a place like a communal sleeping room. They said it was built to be used as a ward depending on the occasion. Naturally, there were many empty beds around.

If Young Lady Jang So-wol was dozing off while leaning against my bed in an uncomfortable posture, why didn’t Senior Jang Mun-gyeong move and lay her down in a comfortable spot?

***

“The kid who used to be like a tomboy who only knew the sword has now become quite ladylike.”

Sleeping softly in the arms of her father, Jang Mun-gyeong, Jang So-wol’s face had a red blush, as if she were dreaming an embarrassing dream.