It Works If You Just Do It
"Hyung. When I quietly observe the energies of the heavens, it seems the land we live on is spinning on its own. And it probably circles the sun as well. Hmm… and maybe the shape of the earth is round like a ball?"
"What kind of nonsense is that, little brother? Did you actually finish this morning's swordsmanship class properly?"
"What's the point of that stuff? From what I can tell, the Namgung Clan's sword arts aren't much. The joint movements look pathetic."
"Aigoo… Just grow up healthy, little brother…"
— From the childhood of the God of Martial Arts, age ten. A conversation with his brother. Excerpted from the memoir of his blood sibling Namgung Hyeon, The Most Factual Possible Records Concerning My Younger Brother Namgung Hwe.
Source — Namgung Clan Medieval Terra Era Archives (currently donated to the Galactic Government)
Gong Ryun and Medilla formed a master-disciple relationship.
For the time being, he would learn lightness techniques from the very beginning.
They did not forget the Nine Bows Ceremony either.
Literally translated, the Nine Bows Ceremony meant prostrating nine times. Its true meaning, however, was the ritual performed between master and disciple at the very start of their bond—a ceremonial way of saying, “Let’s get along well,” and sharing a good laugh together.
Yet that kind of ceremony belonged to the old days. In the modern era the Nine Bows Ceremony had, in practice, been replaced by something entirely different.
In modern murim, where intellectual property rights had become extremely important, forming a master-disciple relationship was a sensitive matter. Transferring the contents of a secret manual to another person meant the movement—or spread—of intellectual property. No one intended to ban it outright, but there was now an obligation to leave at least a minimal record.
That act of leaving a record was precisely the modern Nine Bows Ceremony. Skip it, and you were committing an illegal act; the Galactic Secret Manual Management Committee would come after you.
They touched their personal devices together and activated the Nine Bows Ceremony system. A top-tier encryption protocol for information transfer engaged, and the fact that the two of them were now master and disciple was recorded.
That information was stored solely in the data centers of the Galactic Secret Manual Management Committee; not even the police could access it casually.
“Kishishi! With this, we sail the same ship, it is!”
Medilla cackled with a gleeful u-heng-heng.
And several weeks slipped by.
Throughout that time, Gong Ryun diligently took lessons from Medilla whenever they had a free moment.
“My first disciple!!! What on earth is this talent of yours!!! A talent the likes of which this one has never heard nor seen, it is!!!!!”
Medilla’s cry echoed through the underground sewers. Somewhere along the way, the way she addressed Gong Ryun had shifted from “loyal subject” to “disciple.”
“Oh!! Medilla! Have you discovered something amazing?”
“Talent!! Talent!!!”
Medilla clutched her own head as she spoke.
“There is none!!! Not even a speck of talent for lightness techniques!!! None whatsoever, it is!!!!!”
“Ah.”
“How can this be!!! Even though this one has spent little time meeting people and has lived only in the sewers, this one has still seen and heard things as a martial artist! In all the years this one has lived, never once has this one witnessed such a thing!! How can you be so utterly without talent for lightness techniques?”
“…”
“No! This is beyond mere lack of talent, it is! Even if a person has no talent, continued effort is supposed to yield progress in proportion—yet after weeks of lessons there is not the slightest improvement! To fail to grasp even the most basic lightness technique… it is as if your very capacity to learn has been castrated!!! What a shocking affair!!!”
“Hold on—castrated?”
Gong Ryun felt awkward.
Back when he had bought a lightness technique manual and tried to learn it on his own, the pattern had been exactly the same.
It felt as though an invisible wall stood in the way, blocking any real progress.
There was a reason Gong Ryun had spent three whole years doing nothing but Geumna-su.
He had thought that having a proper master would make the difference—yet somehow it had no effect at all.
“Hwaaaaa… Disciple… what are we to do…?”
“Why do you look more dejected than I do?”
“Is that not natural…! When a student fails to learn, the shortcoming lies with the teacher…! Is there not a saying, ‘A poor student is the shame of the teacher, not the student’…?”
“Ah…”
Medilla wilted under the weight of self-reproach, looking ready to cry. Watching her, Gong Ryun felt even more apologetic for no good reason.
“But we did succeed a little, didn’t we? You got it working on my hands and part of my arms.”
“Hwaaeng… That is what we call failure, it is… Lightness techniques are martial arts that increase the mobility of the entire body—what good is it if only the arms become fast…? You cannot run while doing a handstand on your arms, can you…?”
Lightness techniques were martial arts that raised overall movement speed. They lightened the body, reduced air resistance, or used inner energy to reinforce the parts of the body most involved in speed—especially the nervous system, respiratory system, and joint muscles.
In short, they were a movement-speed buff.
Yet in Gong Ryun’s case, the effect manifested only in his hands and arms. It applied almost completely to the hands, but only about half as strongly to the arms. The farther from the palm, the weaker the effect. What was one even supposed to make of that?
Gong Ryun clenched and unclenched his fist. Shuk-shuk. Incredibly fast. Rapid-fire finger-flexing.
Swinging his arms had gotten faster too. Even basic lightness technique produced this much… it was a whole new world.
Honestly, Gong Ryun was already impressed and grateful for this much alone, but Medilla seemed to regard it as total failure. Then again, she herself practically flew around with a whoosh-whoosh.
Lightness techniques were fundamentally about running—crossing mountains in a single bound and the like.
“This one is sorry to be your first master…”
Medilla sat crouched in a pitiful heap, scratching listlessly at the floor with her fingernails.
…Wait, the sewer floor scraped that easily? Moles needed several of them working for days just to leave a scratch.
Huh? Her nails?
In that instant a new possibility flashed through Gong Ryun’s mind.
“Medilla.”
“Sniffle. Yeees?”
“You’re skilled in claw arts as well, right?”
“That I am. Lightness techniques, claw arts, and sensory arts—those three are this one’s specialties.”
“Could I maybe learn that?”
“…Huh? Claw arts?”
“Yes.”
Gong Ryun knew exactly why he had no talent for lightness techniques. His torso was simply too far from his palms.
Anything related to the palms, he used well. Anything that was not the palms, he could not. It was his own bizarre talent, and he was well aware of it.
And if he recalled the sensation of using Geumna-su, the fingers also counted as “palm territory.” More precisely, the inner surfaces and the sides of the fingers. (The sides only barely qualified.) The outer surfaces did not. From there on, it was considered a fist.
Gong Ryun tried to imagine claw arts—the martial arts that used the fingernails.
Nails were on the outside, so did that mean they were not palm territory? Or, since they were at the tips of the fingers, did they count as palm territory the same borderline way the sides did? He stared fixedly at his own hand while he considered it.
It was an area he had never developed, so he could not be sure. He would probably have to try it to find out. That was why he asked Medilla.
“Could I try learning claw arts once? Actually, I have some talent when it comes to hands…”
Yet her reaction was extremely strange.
“……. A man… is saying that?”
“Huh?”
“…A man… learning claw arts?”
Medilla’s face filled with profound bewilderment.
“…Uh… can men not learn them?”
“No… it is not that… it is just… the image is a bit…”
“…Why is that?”
“Claw arts require you to grow your nails, it is. Completely long.”
“???”
As she spoke, Medilla held out her own nails.
Long, beautiful nails painted with black manicure.
For reference, that manicure was not fashion—it was a special-material coating applied to enhance claw arts. In other words, to use claw arts you had to maintain nails that long and paint them with the stuff.
“Ah.”
Gong Ryun suddenly recalled something Un-rang had said.
— Ahem! Gong Ryun! Claw arts are something only the ladies learn.
So that was why the monk had made such a politically incorrect remark, so unlike himself. It had been because of this.
No matter how you looked at it, a man walking around with nails that long and flashy must have seemed a bit much from a monk’s perspective.
…Or maybe not. Martial artists themselves were such hardcore machismo enthusiasts that it could just as easily be that. …Honestly, he was not sure.
“Hmm… growing my nails that long and all would be a bit… Well, nothing we can do then.”
Long nails would get in the way when using Geumna-su too.
“Hmm… There is actually an auxiliary tool, though.”
“An auxiliary tool?”
“Yes. There are tools that fit artificial nails over the fingertips like thimbles, it is. They sell them at martial arts tool shops, so buy some next time you come. Well… if you still wish to learn, this one will teach you.”
“Hmm. Understood.”
Trying it once would not hurt.
He would give it a shot next time. That was what Gong Ryun thought.
And a few days later. The next lesson.
—Sseeeeeek!!!
“Oh. Success.”
Gong Ryun had successfully executed claw arts.
After receiving Medilla’s instruction just moments earlier, he had tried it himself.
And he had succeeded on the very first attempt.
“So it does count as palm territory.”
Gong Ryun felt proud of himself.
And then…
—Thud!
Something made a sound behind him.
He turned around to find Medilla collapsed onto the floor in a heap.
“Di… Disciple…?”
Her trembling voice rang out in the quiet.
“What did you just do…?”
Medilla was flustered. Her pupils shook.
“I… used claw arts…”
She was so shocked that Gong Ryun became flustered right along with her.
“…You said you had never learned claw arts before, did you not?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“But you just used them?”
“Um… yes…”
“How?”
“Because I saw them…?”
“Because you saw them… you say…? Are you telling me you used them immediately after watching a single form?”
“Yes.”
“In… all the world… that is… could it be…”
Medilla muttered with a blank expression.
Understand-at-a-Glance Talent
“Ilgyeonjeukhae-gijae…?”