Chapter 80 – Ursa Major (4)

Ckaj! Chak!

A blade sharply cut through the air.

Numerous lines were drawn by the tip of the Turbulent Sword.

I was now looking into the memories of Blue Decree Sword.
But this memory was different from the other memories I had seen.

Whenever I saw the sword move, the path and movement were engraved into my head.

My wrist and arms twitched as if I had suddenly become too antsy to remain still.

I was now watching the sword technique that So Ik-gyeom, the former head of the family who had perished in the war, was known for.

Rather than seeing it, it felt more like I was recalling muscle memory.

The five techniques which made up the second half of the technique, shown immediately after the five moves of the first half, were literally a feast containing the essence of a heavy sword.

Shhh! Swop!

The moment the sword slammed down hard, the energy wrapped around the sword continued downward even as the sword itself stopped, partially leaving an imprint in the form of a sword on the floor of the training hall; with such ferocity that the training hall felt like it would collapse.

It was quite a good technique.

Lord So Ik-heon added speed to his heavy sword technique to compensate for the missing second half, but there was no need for that level of speed originally.

Soon the scene faded and,

-Do you get it, Child?

Blue Decree Sword asked me.

It wasn’t like I had learned it, instead it was more like it had been engraved into my mind.

It felt like my body seemed to know for sure what the technique should look like, what it should feel like.
Then Short Sword spoke to me,

-Did you see all the techniques in such a short time?

‘Short?’

No way

Since the heavy sword was different from a normal sword, the process wasn’t fast.
I think it took me less than ten seconds to watch it.

-What are you talking about? What do you mean? It all happened in the blink of an eye…?

‘… the blink of an eye?’

-Yes.

At Short Sword’s words, even Blue Decree Sword seemed puzzled.

And that wasn’t all

-Same here, Wonhui

Even Iron Sword agreed.

‘Hmm.
Strange.’

Is there really a way to check and learn things in the blink of an eye?

I took a silver coin out of my pocket.

‘Blue Decree Sword’

-Speak.

‘If I flip the coin, can you show me the sword technique again?’

-Are there any difficulties? You just need to follow it.

Asked Blue Decree Sword.
As a test, I flicked the silver coin with my finger and floated it in the air.

At that moment, my vision blurred, and I saw the hazy scene once again.

I re-watched the technique, and when the vision was done, I returned back to reality.

‘Uh?’

And what greeted my return was a marvelous sight.

The coin I had flipped before rewatching the vision was still in the process of falling down.

This wasn’t in the blink of an eye, this was in an instant!

Tak!

I caught the coin.

‘This is unbelievable.’

This was amazing.

The perceived time when watching these visions was much different from real-time, this was just too shocking!

Then Iron Sword said something.

-Wonhui.
This seems like a really innovative ability.

‘Innovative?’

-Right.
My former master said that when one’s martial arts reach a certain level, imagery training is more helpful than physically repetitive training.

These were the words Iron Sword first taught me when we were learning the Xing Ming Sword.
He said that if the basic foundations of the body were laid through repeated physical training, then to ascend the movement of the sword, presence of mind was needed.

-Think about it.
Even as you are image training, as you better integrate the technique it then becomes muscle memory.
What if you do that over and over again? Naturally, you will end up mastering the technique.

Ah…

Does that affect my mind and body?

Thanks to what the sword showed me, I was able to see the complete technique twice.

For that reason, it remained more clearly in my mind

-If you repeat it ten or a hundred times, you will be able to see the results.

-Right!

Short Sword agreed.

It wasn’t as easy as how they made it sound.
However, as she said, if this succeeded I would be able to master the techniques of the best in a very small span of time.
This didn’t seem so bad.

Even if I needed to have the technique repeated to me, it was just an instant.

-I am fine, but you child?

‘I am fine.’

-Good.
If you tell me to stop, I will stop showing you.

As soon as Blue Decree said that, the memories began to flow once again.

Once, twice, thrice…

The more it repeated, the more it felt as if I was using the sword.
However, a problem arose as the repetitions increased.

I felt dizzy, my head hurt and even my innate qi was being consumed.

‘A little more… a little more…’

Just as we were on our twentieth iteration,

“Euk!”

I puked from the dizziness.

-Are you fine, Child?

The illusion disappeared and we returned to reality.

-Yah, are you fine?

-Wonhui!

Short Sword and Iron Sword looked anxiously.
It felt like they were spinning in front of me.

Eight or nine iterations were fine, but going beyond ten was quite a burden.

-You are sweating too much.

At Short Sword’s words, I touched my forehead with the back of my hand.
Sweat was dripping down as if I had been training hard.

‘Really?’

My fingers trembled.
Strangely I looked at my hand and wrist, and I saw them convulsing.

‘Ha!’

It was amazing.

In reality, it had only been a couple of moments, yet the condition of my body seemed to contradict this.
This was why I wasn’t simply tired, my body was feeling completely exhausted.

-Unbelievable.
I had no idea imagery training could work this way!

Iron Sword spoke, a bit shocked.

I was too, this bizarre thing happened when I repeated those memories.

Truly perhaps this was the power that came from Ursa Major.

-But I don’t think you should overdo it, Wonhui

My opinion exactly.

Not a hundred, but maybe end it after a dozen times.

“Haa… Haa…”

I was tired.

After repeating this twenty times, my mental and physical fatigue was immense, and I realized that doing it in succession had to be avoided.

Or I should just do them little by little with a gap to recover.

‘I need to cultivate.’

-Yes.

After cultivating for a little time, my innate qi and internal qi which were consumed would be restored.

If I hadn’t stopped I would have collapsed.

-Wonhui

Iron Sword calling out to me had retrieved me from my thoughts.

“Kuak!”

The lord, So Ik-heon, who had been half embedded into the wall of the training room, staggered down.

He seemed to calm down as he looked at me with a confused face.
I don’t know if it was because of his defeat, but he looked quite shocked.

“You…”

“It should be better if you cultivate”

Even though he managed to not be hit by my sword, he was still slammed with the full force behind it.

The qi of an opponent was not something one should leave in their body, as it will corrupt the body and the internal organs.

Sss!

A haze rose from So Ik-heon’s body.

In front of me, he couldn’t even cultivate, so he decided to forcibly push out the qi.
And he frowned,

“Why did your hand hold back?”

He seemed puzzled that my technique was orthodox.

“… did you want me to kill you?”

“… don’t say useless stuff, you let me live for your own sake.
Unless you prove that you aren’t a Blood Sect…”

“Stop provoking me.”

“What?”

“Let’s get rid of this pretentious act we do.”

“You…”

“I do not want you to misunderstand, your life is in my hands, and you aren’t even my father by blood; so you shouldn’t push your luck.”

‘…!!’

At those words, So Ik-heon looked shocked.
He never would have thought I would know the truth.

“You… how do you know that?”

Judging from this reaction, it seemed like my mother told him to never let me know the truth.
Confused he asked,

“… did you know?”

“Two hyungs, the way you look at your children is clearly different, did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

So Ik-heon gulped,

“… if your mother heard…”

Before he could even finish his sentence, I threw back his Blue Decree Sword.

Shh!

The sword infused with my innate qi flew to him and lightly brushed by his clothes and embedded itself into the wall.

“Do not speak of my mother with that disgusting mouth.”

So Ik-heon didn’t speak further.
From the start, we never had a good relationship.

His desire to believe that his actions and attitudes toward me were done in the name of taking responsibility only made me more disgusted by him.

And he quietly whispered,

“I am…”

“Do you want to say you have done enough for me?”

“…”

“Please don’t say that you were trying to protect me and Yong-yong from your wife and children.”

His face contorted.

He must be upset because he was being forcibly ripped out of the illusion, his false sense of duty, forced to see the truth now.

“For the sake of my mother, you said you’d treat me like your child.
It was to keep that promise.
And you justify your selfishness like that?”

“How do you!”

“If you really wanted to protect me or Yong-yong, wouldn’t it be by defending us when your wife was going to come onto us? You think ignoring us is a fair attempt with the other kids?”

“Kuak!”

Blood gushed from his mouth

He was pushing my qi out by circulating his qi, but it seemed like my words had disturbed his concentration.
It didn’t matter to me.

“I don’t care what you did behind us.
If you think that it is your duty and obligation that you did those things, let me tell you that you are mistaken.”

“Ha…”

His face turned dark.

Maybe it is because I told him that his reasons were shit.

“I… was protecting you….”

“Is pushing me out protecting me?”

“…”

“You were running away from your responsibility.
You did enough for a guy who wasn’t even your child? From now on whatever happens isn’t my fault? Is that your true intention?”

“Cough!”

He coughed and didn’t respond.
He must be upset now that the mask he had put on was being pulled down.

“If you hadn’t thought that and sent me out, I wouldn’t have been kidnapped by the Blood Sect”

‘…?!’

He looked quite shocked.
Look at how he reacted when I talked about the Blood sect.

“If my teacher hadn’t come to save me at that moment, I would have been pulled into those people.”

I took something from the sleeve and threw it at him

He received that thing only to show a shocked face.

“This…”

“The plaque of the Great Doctor.”

“This?”

“You might like to think that my dantian got healed by the Blood Sect, but this is the truth.”

I never thought I’d use the plaque of that man like this.

Well, this was no lie.
He did heal my dantian, or at least he tried to,

“Teacher had acquaintance with that man and he restored my dantian”

“Sigh…”

He sighed.
It seemed like he was a bit shocked when it was the best physician that had helped me.

But the important thing comes now.

“Did you think I don’t qualify to be a representative?”

Srng!

With that, I drew Iron Sword, puzzling So Ik-heon.

Not caring, I took the stance.

“You… no?”

His eyes widened as he recognized the stance of the Sodong Ranged Sword.

I moved my body following the memories I had seen, following the shadow of So Ik-gyeom.

Chak!

The movement of the heavy sword was being demonstrated and So Ik-heon became confused.

“I don’t….”

It was natural to show this reaction as this wasn’t some simple imitation.

Now, I was performing on the level of the former lord.

So Ik-heon couldn’t take his eyes off me even for a moment and the moment I finished, came a shout.

“No!”

His body shuddered as the first half ended and the second half was being unfolded.

Even if he hadn’t learned it, he was bound to recognize this.
At least, he should have seen his father do it.

Pak!

The floor of the training room was being dug into a hole as I continued to move the slashing sword technique.

I was able to perform it correctly, and as I finished he looked dumbfounded.

“Do you still think I don’t deserve it?”

At my question, he asked,

“H-How do you know that?”

I pulled out a paper that I had prepared in advance, on it was the latter part of the sword which I had written down with pen and ink in the training room.

“The Great Doctor always takes something in exchange for healing someone.
Even if it cannot be used, he decides to keep things for the sake of honor.”

“Then father?”

So Ik-heon connected the dots.

Thanks to this, I made a plausible situation and the man couldn’t take his eyes off the paper I held.

Seeing the full technique made him become quite shocked.

Now it was his turn to beg.

I took the paper back and said,

“Who is in the position to make requests now?”