## Chapter 55 – (6)
After finishing my Qi circulation, I cracked open my eyes to find Jung-sun staring intently at me from the side.
I glanced at Jung-sun, sweat trickling down my back.
Come to think of it, his ideal type was definitely…
A big, strong, dependable man.
How many boxes had I ticked off?
“Why aren’t you looking this way?”
“…Still circulating Qi…”
“Is that so?”
Obviously a lie.
There was no way anyone could talk so casually during Qi circulation.
And that was a fact known to all martial artists.
Jung-sun saw through my lie but didn’t say anything.
Peeking through my slightly opened eyelids, I saw Jung-sun’s eyes fixed on the small gap.
“Finished circulating Qi?”
“..Uh…”
Scary.
I felt like a deer in front of a tiger.
Even though I was closer to a tiger in terms of size and strength, there were some problems that couldn’t be solved with brute force.
And that problem was Jung-sun right now.
“I read this.”
Jung-sun was holding the Solar Heart Sutra.
I had already memorized most of the passages and didn’t need it, but Chul-woong wouldn’t let me return it, saying that the more I read it, the more hidden meanings I would find. So I had been carrying it around.
It seemed Jung-sun had read the manual too.
Jung-sun, who never paid me any attention.
“You knew it was an extremely Yang internal cultivation technique when you learned it?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you probably know why it’s avoided?”
“Because it’s hard to build internal energy?”
Jung-sun nodded at my words.
“There are only two ways to build extremely Yang internal energy. Devour Yin energy, or absorb Yang energy.”
“Ugh…”
A sound I didn’t recognize escaped my lips.
Absorb Yang energy?
That word alone made me uncomfortable.
Come to think of it, men usually have stronger Yang energy, and women have stronger Yin energy.
Jung-sun had stronger Yin energy.
It wasn’t that he had no Yang energy, but it was weak compared to his Yin.
“That’s why people from the Arctic Ice Palace can achieve high levels of mastery even when learning extremely Yin martial arts. Because they live in extreme environments.”
Right, that’s how Seol-young learned extremely Yin martial arts, but ended up with the illness called Nine Yin Severed Meridians.
Jung-sun, being a martial artist who had lived in this martial arts world, had a wealth of knowledge.
“So, I think I can help you.”
“…With what?”
“Qi circulation. You were eagerly devouring my Yin energy earlier, weren’t you?”
“…”
Was I caught?
Well, maybe it was obvious.
Just like how I could vaguely see other people’s internal energy as I learned martial arts and leveled up my heart sutra.
Jung-sun seemed to be able to see my internal energy to some extent, even if not accurately.
Yeah, it definitely helped.
Enough to level up the Solar Heart Sutra, which had been stagnant for a while.
But if I allowed this, it felt like I was crossing a point of no return, and I felt uneasy.
“Without my help, it’ll take you a long time to gather internal energy, you know?”
“…”
That was also true.
The higher the level of the Solar Heart Sutra, the harder it was to reach the next level.
Without Jung-sun’s help, I wouldn’t be able to master the martial arts in time.
I accepted Jung-sun’s offer with a face as if I had eaten something spicy.
“…If you do anything weird during Qi circulation, you might suffer Qi deviation.”
“Huh? I know?”
“No, just in case.”
Jung-sun looked at me strangely, wondering why I was suddenly saying something so obvious.
Yeah, it was obvious, but I wanted to give him one more warning.
Because I was anxious.
***
This time, the gathering place wasn’t the small clearing in front of the dorm.
It was the huge clearing where we had taken the entrance exam. The four of us gathered there.
And other disciples were also in the clearing.
There were even disciples I had never seen before.
Chul-woong beckoned us over, and we reluctantly stood next to him, feeling self-conscious in front of so many disciples.
“A total of five people will participate in this friendly match.”
From what I heard, five people would take turns fighting one-on-one until they defeated all five opponents in a row.
If I was lucky, the protagonist, Poong-woon, would take care of everything.
“And four of them are the new disciples next to me.”
Chul-woong pointed at us, and many eyes focused on us.
I understood what it meant to feel the heat of gazes.
The disciples started murmuring among themselves.
It was loud enough to hear from here, and the content was mostly the same.
“I can understand Poong-woon from the Heavenly Martial Academy and the young palace lord from the Arctic Ice Palace… but who are those two?”
“Junior disciples, of all people…”
“I heard that the big guy hasn’t even been learning martial arts for a month.”
“A month? Are they really looking down on us?”
The negative opinions were mainly about me and Jung-sun.
Sorry, but it hasn’t even been 10 days since I started learning martial arts.
By the way, there were seniors here too.
I had been mistaken because I had hardly seen any senior disciples at the dorm or during the exams.
Curious, I quietly asked Jung-sun, and he kindly explained.
“Martial academies like ours, which don’t receive much support, have to raise funds through requests…”
So, most of the seniors who could handle a job were out on assignments.
That was understandable.
The disciples who weren’t chosen were questioning me and Jung-sun.
Some were even complaining about Instructor Chul-woong, who had unilaterally decided on the participants for the martial arts tournament.
As the murmuring grew louder, I subtly said to Instructor Chul-woong.
“I can resign now…”
“Good. Then let’s have a martial arts contest for the spot.”
My words were ignored.
And Chul-woong made a proposal to the other disciples.
“A martial arts contest?”
“Except for Poong-woon, it’s winnable.”
“Sounds good!”
Of course, the other disciples accepted Chul-woong’s words.
They all had confident martial artist expressions.
Chul-woong approached me in the meantime and said.
“If you lose on purpose, you’re expelled.”
“…Yes…”
Chul-woong, who had noticed my intentions, blocked my escape route.
The method of choosing opponents for the martial arts contest was as follows.
Each of us four would designate a desired opponent and fight to take their spot in the tournament.
I was worried that Jung-sun and I would end up fighting all day, but that wasn’t the case.
“Then I’ll challenge that guy.”
As a man with an impressive scar on his face slowly walked out from among the disciples, many who had been about to designate me fell silent.
Judging by the atmosphere, he seemed to be quite famous in the academy.
“Don’t you remember? Number 2.”
“Number 2…”
I retraced my memories at Jung-sun’s words.
He seemed to have taken the entrance exam with Poong-woon.
Now that he mentioned it, I thought I had seen him.
Since I had no right to refuse, the martial arts contest naturally took place, and only me and that man were left in the center of the wide clearing.
“I’ll win this martial arts contest and confess to the waiter at the inn.”
“…Excuse me?”
“If I beat you, I can get recognition from Instructor Chul-woong too.”
“…”
I didn’t think I would lose.
The level of the Inmu Academy was the lowest among the martial academies.
I could tell now that I had grown.
Except for Poong-woon, a disciple of the Mount Hua Sect and a graduate of the Heavenly Martial Academy, most of the disciples here were virtually the same.
The man in front of me was no different.
I didn’t feel the pressure I had felt when receiving instruction from Poong-woon.
After leveling up the Solar Heart Sutra, my internal energy was quite stable.
Therefore, although the total amount of internal energy was small, I thought I could reproduce Jung-sun’s technique of quickly moving by circulating internal energy around his legs.
And in fact, I was able to clumsily imitate Jung-sun’s fast running.
As soon as the signal to start was given, I used the Swiftness skill and internal energy to quickly run towards the man.
The man swung his sword horizontally to match my speed, as if he were playing baseball, but I didn’t slow down.
Instead, I dug deeper inside and dodged the man’s sword.
If I had been afraid and slowed down, I would have been hit by the sword as the man intended.
“What theㅡ!”
It was a technique that the small, frail Jung-sun couldn’t do.
A technique that made full use of my size and speed to collide with the body.
A body slam.
A modern technique commonly used in wrestling and American football appeared in the world of martial arts.
I maintained my speed and rammed my shoulder into the opponent’s solar plexus.
“Cough.”
With the sound of stifled breath, the fallen man fainted.
It was a disappointing defeat for Number 2.
“…What, what was that?”
“Is that also a martial art…?”
“I’ve never seen it before…”
Everyone seemed more shocked by the unfamiliar movement than the result.
I had originally planned to run up and strike with a sword like Jung-sun, but I had no choice but to improvise because the opponent was responding well.
Although I had won, Poong-woon’s expression was strange.
“That… what… no, never mind, good job.”
“Sung-han! My movement!”
Jung-sun was happy that I had imitated his movement, and Chul-woong was smiling.
It was a smile with only the corners of his mouth raised, but for that person, that was probably a big smile.
“I, I won’t challenge him.”
“He uses some strange martial arts…”
Because of this martial arts contest, no one else applied to fight me.
Instead, attention turned to Jung-sun.
However, Jung-sun had also grown a lot in the past few days.
Jung-sun, who had been assigned Number 7 due to his overwhelming amount of internal energy, was able to focus more on martial arts itself rather than internal energy by teaching Seol-young, who couldn’t use internal energy due to the Nine Yin Severed Meridians.
It was the result of teaching Seol-young with the determination to be praised by Instructor Chul-woong, even though he had been angry at her on the first day.
He was really learning while teaching, just as Chul-woong intended.
“Jung-sun wins.”
Jung-sun was able to defeat a woman with the name tag Number 3.
As Jung-sun and I showed good performances, the disciples no longer applied to fight us.
Instead, they fought among themselves for the remaining spot in the friendly match.
