That’s Not How You Use Martial Arts

Chapter 2
Even the Greatest Techniques Start from the Bottom (2)

『 Translator – Divinity 』

After leaving the school, I didn’t head straight home…

When I almost reached my house, I turned aside and headed towards my personal training ground in the back mountain.

It was just an empty lot in front of a small cave, though.

As the surroundings had become completely dark, I used flint to light the torches I had placed around the empty lot.

And I recalled the sparring I had with Master today.

The moments of the beating disguised as a spar.

“Ouch, really. Just thinking about it makes me feel the pain again.”

I grimaced at the unpleasant feeling as if the pain that had just subsided was returning.

Why couldn’t I defeat that man?

It had already been five years since I pestered my parents in this world and started attending the newly established Cheonpung Martial Arts School.

It had been five years since I waited for a peerless master to pass through our village until I turned ten, then tearfully gave up on finding a fateful encounter.

It had been five years since I realized the truth that things in the world weren’t so easy… Ah, damn it, stop!

Why keep thinking about it when it only makes me annoyed?

Anyway, it had already been five years since I started learning martial arts.

But I still couldn’t defeat Master Wang-sam, who was probably just a third-rate warrior in this village.

My ambition to surpass my master in three years had long since crumbled.

“As expected, this won’t do.”

Newly realizing this harsh truth, I strengthened my resolve.

This wouldn’t do.

With some third-rate cultivation technique and swordsmanship that could be found lying around anywhere, I wouldn’t be able to use Sword Qi, Sword Force, let alone lightness skills.

Even now, I could accelerate by releasing internal energy from the soles of my feet and jump over a height twice my size.

Certainly, I thought that alone made the past five years of training not in vain.

But what I truly desired wasn’t just that.

Flying dozens of jang with a single step, drawing out a Sword Force over three jang long with a whoosh and sweeping away everything around…!

“Kuuu…”

Just thinking about it made my heart race.

But my heart, which had been pleasantly pounding, quickly sank with the sudden recollection of an unpleasant memory.

—Lightness skills? What nonsense are you talking about?

—Sword Qi? Sword Force? Puhahaha! To think there’s someone who actually believes in such nonsense!

“…Just you wait.”

I remembered your face clearly.

Let’s see if you can still say that in front of me when I draw out my Sword Force.

“Huu…”

Anyway, returning to the main topic, as I said before, it was a distant situation for me to reach the level I desired at this rate.

Third-rate martial arts wouldn’t cut it. I needed a peerless technique.

But a peerless technique wouldn’t just fall from the sky, and a fateful encounter that hadn’t come to me in ten years wouldn’t suddenly appear out of nowhere.

So there was only one answer.

“I’ll create it.”

If anyone heard me, they would laugh at me for having a foolish delusion.

It didn’t matter if they laughed. It was a foolish delusion.

For now.

But the end wouldn’t be a foolish delusion.

As the saying goes, the beginning may be insignificant, but the end will be glorious!

With renewed determination, I thought about what I had to do to create a peerless technique.

There were two ingredients.

The ‘Three Talents Technique’ I learned from Master Wang-sam,

And my imagination based on the countless martial arts novels I read in my previous life.

How to cook these two ingredients depended solely on my ability.

I entered the cave, sat cross-legged, and closed my eyes.

And the moment I was about to enter a meditative state,

“Ja-seong, you! What are you doing here again!?”

“Cough…!”

Startled by the sudden shout, I couldn’t even start meditating and had to open my eyes, coughing.

As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw a woman with blazing eyes standing in front of the cave and gave an awkward laugh.

“Ah, ahaha. Noona, were you looking for me?”

“I knew you’d be here again. Why are you here again when you should be coming straight home after finishing training at the school?”

“Uh, uhm. It’s only natural for a true martial artist to devote himself to training day and night…”

“You wanna die?”

“…I’m sorry.”

I flinched at the cold words of Gun Su-ae, the third in line in our Gun family, my eldest sister.

Perhaps annoyed that I made her come all the way here, she dragged me by the ear all the way home.

“Ow, ow…!”

I rubbed my ear, which felt a stinging pain, and groaned.

Damn. Was my ear okay? Wasn’t it half torn and dangling?

Fortunately, it seemed like it wasn’t that bad when I touched it with my fingertips.

As I diligently rubbed my ear and glared at my sister resentfully, she completely ignored my gaze and went inside the house first.

I didn’t have the guts to run away again here, so I obediently crossed the gate of the house, and soon a magnificent manor revealed itself.

This was the Gun family estate.

A family of landowners with a long tradition in Gun-gang County, and my home.

It was also the source of income for Cheonpung Martial Arts School, which had a measly three disciples.

Growl

As soon as I entered the house, a loud sound came from my stomach.

Hmm, come to think of it, was it not dinner time yet?

“The other family members have already finished their meal. I’ll tell them to bring your meal to your room in the annex, so go see mother first.”

“Ahem. A martial artist in training should abstain from cooked food. I’m fine with bigu pills…”

“Do you really want to die?”

“…I will gratefully enjoy the meal.”

Seeing me back down once again, my eldest sister clicked her tongue.

“A kid should eat well. What’s with all this bigu pill nonsense?”

Although her tone was blunt and harsh, it was laced with affection for me.

Knowing that made me tease her even more.

After bowing to my sister, I headed to mother’s room.

I quietly made my presence known in front of the room where the light was on.

“Mother, I’m here.”

“Ah, Seong-ah has come. Come in.”

I carefully opened the door and entered, and mother smiled at me.

“Did you come back late again after going to the martial arts school today?”

“Ah… I was a bit late after finishing and doing some personal training. Ahaha…”

Seeing me awkwardly laugh and scratch the back of my head, she shook her head as if to say she couldn’t help it.

“It’s already been five years since you started going to the school to learn that martial arts or whatever it is. Aren’t you tired of it?”

“Tired? I enjoy it every day.”

I enjoyed learning martial arts.

Not getting beaten up by Master Wang-sam.

That damn master, despite being a third-rate, he really had murim experience, skillfully hitting only the spots that wouldn’t show.

Thanks to that, no one in my family knew that I was getting beaten up by master every day.

Of course, I had no intention of telling them first.

A man has his pride; I couldn’t just go around saying I got beaten up.

Besides, I was planning to beat up that third-rate martial artist someday when I became a master.

Imagining Master Wang-sam being thoroughly trampled by me and begging for his life, the corners of my mouth naturally lifted.

“You like it that much?”

“…Yes? Ah, yes! Of course.”

Mother gave a wry smile, perhaps misunderstanding my smile.

After that, the usual loving nagging followed.

Don’t be late for mealtime, don’t go around showing off your martial arts skills… and so on and so forth.

In the end, I left mother’s room only after half an hour had passed since entering.

“Huu…”

I devoured the meal, which was incredibly plentiful for a supposedly separate setting, and lay down on the bed, clutching my full stomach.

Checking the time, there was still some time left before the jasi hour (9-11 pm).

“I can’t forget to cultivate internal energy before going to sleep.”

I wanted to research martial arts if I had time, but it was probably impossible.

This damn third-rate martial arts technique I learned from Master Wang-sam, the ‘Three Talents Technique’, true to its third-rate nature, had a terribly slow cultivation speed.

It took at least two hours for one cycle, so really…

But I couldn’t skip it either.

I was so frustrated that I was determined to create a peerless technique no matter what.

After a brief lament about my situation, I sat cross-legged on the bed and started cultivating.

The Small Heavenly Cycle, where the internal energy sent from the dantian ascended to the Crown point along the Governing Vessel and then descended back to the dantian along the Conception Vessel.

As I felt the internal energy, moving as slowly as a turtle on land, enter the dantian again along with the tiny amount of accumulated energy added through breathing, I opened my eyes. As expected, it was already past the jasi hour and nearing the chuksi hour (11 pm-1 am).

“Oh, really.”

I wanted to cultivate all night long, but my body was complaining about the fatigue from not moving even a bit for two hours.

“Wasn’t cultivating supposed to relieve fatigue and make you not need sleep?”

I actually tried cultivating all night, but instead of relieving fatigue, I almost died from drowsiness.

Because of that, I couldn’t focus all day and ended up getting beaten to death by Master Wang-sam.

Was this because the cultivation technique was trash, or was it a historical inaccuracy in the martial arts novels?

While pondering the question I couldn’t yet find an answer to, I lay down on the bed.

“At this rate, when will I ever be able to create a martial arts technique and draw out Sword Qi?”

Could it be that it would take another five years, a total of ten years?

Eh, no way. I believed in my genius.

At most… three years? That should be enough.

…There was a time when I thought that.

They say that ‘expect the unexpected,’ but I never dreamed that it would actually take five years.