WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Ceaseless
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◈ Martial Arts Survival Guide ◈
Chapter 3: Innate Martial Genius
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Baek Hyun had performed the nine bows in an awkward posture, but Ju Han-o made no comment on that. He stood with his hands behind his back, looking Baek Hyun up and down.
“I asked whether you knew mu.”
“...The kind you eat?”
“...So you don’t.”
Ju Han-o clicked his tongue and muttered. In the end, he would have to teach everything from the beginning. At least Baek Hyun had been born with the same Innate Martial Genius as Ju Han-o. Of course, Baek Hyun had only learned of this blessing from Ju Han-o today.
“What’s Innate Martial Genius?”
“It is the blessing of martial arts.”
That was how Ju Han-o began his explanation.
“You seem never to have taken an interest in martial arts in your entire life, but your body was born with a greater talent for them than anyone else in the world. Such talent might appear once in a thousand years. No, perhaps not even once in ten thousand years. That is Innate Martial Genius.”
“...I’ve never felt like I had that kind of talent.”
“Have you ever tried to find it?”
Baek Hyun had no answer to that.
“How could you realize you had a talent for martial arts when you do not even know what martial arts are? That is why I said you were born into the wrong world. If you had been born in the Central Plains...”
Ju Han-o clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“...There is no point in saying that. Just remember this. You have greater potential than anyone in the world, and your master is stronger than anyone in the world. The faster you progress, the sooner you can return to the world you wish to go back to.”
In truth, Baek Hyun still hadn’t quite grasped the situation. That was only natural. Baek Hyun had never imagined anything like this happening, or that things straight out of a martial arts novel, like Innate Martial Genius and the Martial God Demon, could become reality.
Aside from having grown up in an orphanage, Baek Hyun had always thought of himself as a fairly ordinary person. School had gone smoothly enough, and so had graduation. With no money, college had never even been a dream. Sometimes there were freaks who could work part-time and still do well in their studies, but Baek Hyun wasn’t one of them.
Physical work? Sports? Did handing out flyers or working construction count as sports? Thinking it over, perhaps there had been some talent in that area. After a day of construction work together, Min-sik had spent the next day in bed, complaining about dying from the pain. Baek Hyun had been perfectly fine.
‘But Min-sik made such a fuss that we never went back.’
Baek Hyun hadn’t been in a fight since elementary school. Plenty of people had been nasty about Baek Hyun being from an orphanage, but it wasn’t as if beating up every last one of them was an option. It wasn’t so much a gentle nature as a desire to stay out of trouble. There were no parents to pay the hospital bills of anyone Baek Hyun beat to a pulp.
‘My life will change...’
The image of Ju Han-o walking across the pond lingered before Baek Hyun’s eyes. Baek Hyun swallowed hard and looked at Ju Han-o.
Ju Han-o had his fingers against his temple and both eyes closed. Baek Hyun watched him with wide eyes.
“What are you doing...?”
“Done.”
Ju Han-o opened his eyes. He raised a hand and spread his fingers. Thick books were then “created” above his open palm, piling up.
“...What... What are those?”
“What you must learn.”
Ju Han-o’s voice was flat. The books stacked on his hand floated into the air and flew toward Baek Hyun.
“I made them from my memories.”
Baek Hyun took the books with a dazed expression.
“...Can I do that too if I learn that... what was it, the Heaven-Shattering Divine Transformation Art?”
“...I did tell you to abandon common sense when learning the Heaven-Shattering Divine Transformation Art, but that was not one of its powers. It is a wonder possible only here, in the Peach Blossom Realm.”
Having answered, Ju Han-o put his hands behind his back again.
“First, learn everything in those.”
“...Um, Grandp...”
Baek Hyun couldn’t finish. Ju Han-o was glaring with eyes that seemed to burn with fire.
“...Master. I don’t really know about this Innate Martial Genius thing or whatever it is... but I’ve never thought I was smart.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Well... this book. No, these books. They’re so thick, I don’t think my brain can memorize all of them.”
“...Hyun. Are you making a joke?”
Ju Han-o looked utterly baffled.
“You cannot memorize books only this thick? What sort of nonsense is that?”
“No, I’m serious. I’ve never felt like I was smart or had a good memory. It took me about as long as anyone else to memorize the multiplication tables and things like that...”
“Do not talk nonsense. Being born with Innate Martial Genius means having the blessing of martial arts. That means your comprehension far surpasses that of ordinary people.”
Ju Han-o shook his head as he spoke. His attitude only made Baek Hyun more frustrated.
“Why would I lie about being stupid?”
“...Come here... No, never mind. I will come to you.”
Before he had even finished speaking, Ju Han-o was standing in front of Baek Hyun. He reached out without warning and grabbed Baek Hyun’s wrist. At the strange sensation in that wrist, Baek Hyun gasped. Something unknown passed through Ju Han-o’s hand into Baek Hyun’s wrist, then flowed through the rest of his body.
“...What is this...?”
Ju Han-o’s eyebrows twitched.
“Your energy points are all tangled, and what is all this impure energy...? Hyun, did you suffer some sort of accident as a child?”
“Well... I was in a car accident. The car my father was driving hit a truck. My parents died, and I almost died too, but I was lucky enough to survive.”
It wasn’t something Baek Hyun particularly wanted to remember. At the time, Baek Hyun had been only six, too young to remember much of it now. The relatives had divided all the insurance money and property among themselves. After barely surviving and spending some time in the hospital, Baek Hyun had been sent to an orphanage.
“...I do not know what a car accident or a truck is, but you suffered a serious accident and barely escaped death.”
“That’s right.”
“I thought as much... I did find it strange that someone born with Innate Martial Genius was unaware of being special.”
The lingering effects of the car accident more than a decade ago had left Baek Hyun’s body so damaged that the gifts of Innate Martial Genius had been unable to shine. In fact, it was thanks to Innate Martial Genius that Baek Hyun had survived the accident and lived without any disabilities. Of course, Baek Hyun had gone through life without the slightest idea of that.
“What do I do now? Do I just go back to my own world?”
“No!”
Baek Hyun had asked just in case, but Ju Han-o shouted.
“Tangled energy points can be untangled, and impure energy can be driven out or burned away. There is no problem at all. The accident may have blocked your comprehension, but it does not change the fact that you were born with Innate Martial Genius.”
As he spoke, Ju Han-o began taking off Baek Hyun’s clothes. Baek Hyun screamed and tried to run away, but Ju Han-o simply immobilized him by sealing his energy points. When the loud screams became annoying, he struck the mute point as well.
“I am the Martial God Demon.”
After laying the naked Baek Hyun on the ground, Ju Han-o rolled up both sleeves.
“There are few things I cannot do.”
Not claiming there were none at all was Ju Han-o’s own way of being honest. He focused and gathered internal energy at his fingertips. In truth, this was by no means easy. Performing Acupoint Striking without difficulty required a tremendous amount of internal energy, along with even greater precision in controlling it.
But Ju Han-o possessed both. Nor did he have any room to back down. He had to pass the Heaven-Shattering Divine Transformation Art on to Baek Hyun, even if it meant using every means at his disposal.
The Acupoint Striking began. It took a full day. Even after a day had passed, the sun in the Peach Blossom Realm had not set, and the sky remained gray. After working over Baek Hyun’s body all day, Ju Han-o finally stood up. The task had consumed a great deal of internal energy and mental effort, but he showed no sign of fatigue.
“It is done.”
Feeling pleased with himself, he looked down. Baek Hyun lay naked on the ground, twitching. There had been pain and relief, and traces of other sensations too difficult to name still lingered in his body. Most of all, there was a sense of helplessness and emptiness. Using Remote Object Manipulation, Ju Han-o drew over Baek Hyun’s clothes from where he had tossed them in a corner and threw them onto Baek Hyun’s body.
“I have put your tangled qi and blood back in order and cleared your blocked energy points. Your comprehension has opened up as well, so you should have no great trouble memorizing the books.”
Baek Hyun couldn’t answer.
He just wanted to go home.
But going home wasn’t an option. Ju Han-o said to use any empty room in the large mansion, so Baek Hyun picked one at random and went inside with an armful of books.
“...Come to think of it...”
Baek Hyun put down the books.
“...Why don’t I need to poop or pee?”
Baek Hyun didn’t know that a day had passed, but was aware that quite some time had gone by. Yet strangely, there was no hunger and no urge to use the bathroom.
“A soul does not need to eat, so it has no need to relieve itself.”
Ju Han-o had followed Baek Hyun into the room. At his answer, Baek Hyun turned around in alarm.
“...A soul? Am I dead?”
“...Hyun, stop saying such stupid things. Why would I take a dead person as my disciple? You are very much alive.”
Ju Han-o sounded irritated.
“But those with physical bodies cannot enter the Peach Blossom Realm. Besides, a feeble body would only get in the way of your training for now. That is why I went to the trouble of paying a price to bring you here.”
“Then... what you did earlier, when you took my clothes off and, um...”
“You mean Acupoint Striking?”
“Yes. Won’t that be pointless once I go back to my body?”
“No. The body is merely the shell of the soul. Since I have rebuilt your soul, your body will naturally change to match it when you return.”
After answering, Ju Han-o pointed at the books Baek Hyun had put down.
“Do you understand what that means? Here in the Peach Blossom Realm, you have no need to eat or relieve yourself. Nor do you need to sleep.”
“...Then...?”
“It means you can devote all your time to training.”
To Baek Hyun, those words sounded like a death sentence.
“...Even if I don’t need to sleep, I think I could still sleep if I tried.”
Ju Han-o silently glared at Baek Hyun’s face after that tentative remark. Without another word, Baek Hyun sat down in front of the books. Ju Han-o nodded as Baek Hyun opened a book.
“Memorize them by tomorrow.”
“That’s ridiculous...”
Listening to the door close behind him, Baek Hyun grumbled loudly enough for Ju Han-o to hear.
It didn’t even take a day.
“...This is ridiculous.”
After half a day, Baek Hyun had memorized everything in the books.
Footnotes:
Mu can mean either “martial arts” or “radish” in Korean. Baek Hyun mistakes Ju Han-o's question for one about the vegetable.
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