## Chapter 52 – (3)
[You have read and understood all content of the Solar Heart Sutra.]
[You have cleared the Hidden Quest.]
[You have acquired Solar Heart Sutra lv.1.]
[You have acquired Inner Force lv.1.]
“…Huh.”
I had a hunch, but it was registered as a hidden quest.
Reading and understanding all the contents of the book wasn’t difficult.
It would have been challenging with the original text, but thanks to my Translation skill, it read like just another story.
Even though I acquired the Solar Heart Sutra and Inner Force, I could feel a change in my body.
Light slowly streamed into the study.
It seemed someone had opened the entrance door.
“Both of you, come out now with the chosen manuals.”
Cheol-woong looked down at us as we emerged from the study.
Each of us held a book in our hands.
“That book is…”
“Huh?”
“…Never mind.”
Seol-yeong started to say something after seeing the book in my hand, but then firmly closed her mouth again.
Her expression remained blank.
Cheol-woong looked down at us, then opened his mouth at me.
“Well, now…”
Cheol-woong let out a hollow laugh, somewhere between admiration and bewilderment, then scratched the back of his head.
“To build up inner force, you must quickly read and understand all the passages in the book. …Follow me, you’ll need to familiarize yourselves with martial arts a little.”
Cheol-woong said he would start teaching us martial arts in earnest and returned to the training grounds.
Jeong-seon and Poong-woon were already there.
They looked exhausted, clutching their knees or lower backs, panting for breath.
Cheol-woong gestured for the two tired men to come closer.
He spoke to them as they trudged over.
“Number 7, teach Number 5. Number 1, teach Number 421.”
“…I want to teach Lady Seol-yeong!”
“No.”
“Please, I beg you!”
“Ugh…”
Poong-woon pleaded, and Jeong-seon grimaced as if he was utterly disgusted, but Cheol-woong was firm.
He added that the matter was already decided, and added one more thing.
“You’ll also learn something by teaching.”
Jeong-seon and Poong-woon just blinked blankly at Cheol-woong’s meaningful words, then eventually resigned themselves and approached us.
Poong-woon came up to me, but kept glancing in the direction of Seol-yeong.
“…Ah, sorry, you understand, right?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
We both started talking casually without any prompting.
And at the same time, we both looked at Seol-yeong.
“Snow-white hair and lake-blue eyes.”
“A beauty that’s hard to see in a lifetime.”
Then Poong-woon put his hands behind his back and said to me in a low voice.
“…You’re easy to talk to? Is it because you’re not from a sect?”
“Maybe.”
“Ah! Just in case, I’m not trying to be sarcastic.”
Poong-woon waved his hands, denying it.
I could see how it might sound sarcastic.
The speaker was from the Hwasan Sect, and I was just an examinee in the 400s who had never learned martial arts.
“Um… first, can you swing a sword a bit?”
Poong-woon said he wanted to gauge my skills and told me to swing a sword.
As he requested, I swung it.
Using my abilities moderately, I relied on the feeling of my level 4 Martial Arts skill, swinging horizontally, vertically, and diagonally without distinguishing between them.
I felt like it was gradually getting faster each time I swung the sword.
“…I see why Instructor Cheol-woong said that.”
Poong-woon admired, then stared at me intently, as if lost in thought.
“Your name is…?”
“Seong-han.”
“Seong-han… Seong-han, huh… I haven’t heard of you…”
He said that, then nodded, remembering my name.
It was an honor that the protagonist remembered my name.
But it felt strange, like he was hiding something.
Then Poong-woon slowly grabbed the sword at his waist and took a stance.
“Okay. We’ll learn Instructor Cheol-woong’s Inmu Swordplay.”
“Inmu Swordplay?”
“It’s a swordplay that Instructor Cheol-woong improved from the Three Powers Swordplay, which is one of the basic martial arts.”
Three Powers Swordplay.
Even I, who hadn’t read many martial arts novels, knew that term.
Horizontal slash, vertical slash, thrust.
It was a basic swordplay that used only three basic movements.
It seemed that Cheol-woong had improved the Three Powers Swordplay to create a swordplay called Inmu Swordplay.
The word Inmu probably came from the name of the Inmu Academy.
“I think I know why Instructor Cheol-woong told me to teach you.”
With those words, Poong-woon slowly drew his sword from his waist.
He had a different atmosphere from Cheol-woong.
When Cheol-woong drew his sword, everyone around him felt a heavy pressure and instinctively tensed up, but Poong-woon, on the other hand, had a gentle atmosphere even though he was holding a menacing sword.
That’s why it was more unsettling.
Like the center of a typhoon is calm.
I felt like something was about to happen.
“This is the original Three Powers Swordplay.”
Horizontal, vertical, thrust.
It was a stable stance without any shaking at the tip of the sword, but it was still somewhat lacking as a martial art.
“And this is Inmu Swordplay.”
It looked like the same movement.
But the result was different.
The movement that I thought was a vertical slash had already changed to a horizontal slash, and the thrust that followed was so fast that I could barely see the intermediate movements.
Finally, the slow vertical slash left a deep sword mark on the ground that was hard to believe came from such a long and thin sword.
It left a mark as if a giant axe had struck the ground.
“It’s a mix of the mysteries of Illusion Sword, Quick Sword, and Heavy Sword in the Three Powers Swordplay. Just remember it for now, you’ll only be able to do it after you start handling inner force.”
“…”
Inner force.
I had it, but I couldn’t handle it yet.
If I could handle it, would I be able to do something like that?
I nodded and engraved the movements of the Inmu Swordplay that Poong-woon showed me in my head.
Making inner force completely my power became my first goal.
At least, even if I wasn’t as good as Poong-woon, I had to stay close to him to survive in this world of martial arts.
After a short training session, we were slowly watching Jeong-seon and Seol-yeong’s practice from the side.
Watching the two of them train, I realized that our training had gone very smoothly.
“Okay, watch closely!”
“Okay.”
Like Poong-woon, Jeong-seon was showing Seol-yeong his Inmu Swordplay.
The difference from Poong-woon was that he was showing the Inmu Swordplay with a more flexible and upright feeling.
Jeong-seon, who had finished the movements while sweating, said to Seol-yeong.
“Then try it.”
“…Can’t do it.”
“Ugh…”
Jeong-seon gritted his teeth at Seol-yeong’s words, suppressing his anger.
Even when Jeong-seon was like that, Seol-yeong just stared blankly into the distance.
Jeong-seon’s anger grew even stronger at that attitude.
“Just infuse inner force and swing it! You can do it!”
“Can’t do it.”
“Why!”
Seol-yeong closed her mouth for a moment at that question, then finally answered.
“I have my reasons.”
“Ugh…”
Jeong-seon’s eyes rolled back halfway. He looked like he was about to pounce.
“I won’t do it! No?! I can’t do it!”
Jeong-seon turned his back and headed somewhere, angrily huffing and puffing.
It was possible because Instructor Cheol-woong was away.
My eyes met Poong-woon’s in the air.
Then Poong-woon smiled.
“Is it my turn now?”
Poong-woon headed towards Seol-yeong with confident steps.
***
Of course, the result didn’t change.
“Can’t do it.”
“…I understand, milady…”
Poong-woon also walked away somewhere with a dejected expression.
And naturally, my eyes met Seol-yeong’s.
In terms of flow, it was my turn to step up.
But I couldn’t.
“I’m also learning.”
I can’t teach what I don’t know.
But Seol-yeong’s gaze didn’t seem to mean that.
“…Did you learn that heart sutra?”
“Huh? Ah…”
She must be talking about the Solar Heart Sutra.
There was no need to hide it, so I nodded.
“Yeah.”
“…Now that you’ve learned that heart sutra, no elixir will have a big effect, right?”
Seol-yeong poured out her words as if she was rarely excited.
“I know.”
I already knew that.
Of course, I was a little disappointed to hear it again.
The cliché of gaining a huge elixir through a lucky chance and increasing inner force at once.
It was a story that often appeared in martial arts novels.
I was disappointed that the story was now impossible for me.
“…Is it because of me?”
“Huh?”
Seol-yeong was looking down at me as I sat with a blank expression.
Her expression hadn’t changed, but I could tell from the trembling of her voice and the tightly clenched fist.
Seol-yeong was feeling guilty.
“…Because I was looking at that book so intently…”
“No, I learned it because it suits me and this martial art?”
So I decided to be brazen.
To ease Seol-yeong’s guilt a little.
“…You want me to believe that…”
“Hoo…”
I could make her believe it.
Inner force heart sutras couldn’t be learned overnight.
That’s why Instructor Cheol-woong told us to choose a book from the study and bring it out.
But I understood the Solar Heart Sutra on the spot and acquired it as a skill.
It was still difficult to handle inner force, but I could use breathing techniques using the Solar Heart Sutra.
It was so-called circulating qi.
“Sss… Hoo…”
The Solar Heart Sutra’s circulating qi was different from other inner force heart sutras.
It was as if my body was becoming a giant furnace.
The inhaled breath turned into heat and made my whole body hot, and the yin energy in every corner of my body couldn’t withstand the heat and fled to my lungs.
And I exhaled that yin energy through my mouth.
Through this process, only pure yang energy remained inside my body.
“…How…”
Seol-yeong came closer to me.
I couldn’t react because I was circulating qi.
I saw it in the manual, but once I started, I had to complete at least ten long breaths.
If I didn’t keep this, there was a risk of qi deviation.
“…It’s warm…”
Seol-yeong’s hand touched my cheek.
Her hand was so cold that it felt like it was freezing, but the coldness seemed to gradually melt the moment it touched me.
It was a soft touch.
Perhaps she missed the warmth, she put her other hand on my cheek as well.
Yes, everything was good.
Butㅡ
‘Can’t we do this after I finish circulating qi?’
Forgetting that I was fighting the risk of qi deviation, Seol-yeong was enjoying the warmth with her hands on my cheeks.
