A Lesser Version of the Galaxy's Number One
Rewind time to the moment today's lesson had just begun.
Gong Ryun asked Medilla to show him a demonstration first rather than dive into theory.
So Medilla kidnapped a savage mole, hauled it back as a living sandbag, and demonstrated a single form.
"Kishiishi! This is the claw technique known as the Fairy Wave-Rending Claw, it is! Honestly, this isn't beginner stuff—it's intermediate martial arts—but I'm showing it early just so you get the idea of 'ah, so this is what a claw technique looks like,' it is!"
Gong Ryun asked her to run through the motion several more times, and Medilla obliged at blinding speed, repeating it dozens of times until the corpse was sliced nearly as fine as knife-cut noodles.
Even that wasn't enough. He asked her to spar lightly with him.
And so Medilla toyed with Gong Ryun for quite a while using only that one form. He simply couldn't keep up with her speed and took a thorough beating. Her expression looked thoroughly delighted.
"Playing with my disciple is fun, it is! Kyarruk! I've always wanted to try this!"
She was exactly like a cat-owner dangling a toy wand with a pom-pom on the end for her pet.
Of course, for Gong Ryun it was pure hell. He felt ready to die. It was only because he made such a sturdy sandbag that he survived at all.
In the middle of getting hammered, he felt a certain sensation. The same strange feeling he'd had during his one-on-one with the robber last time.
His opponent's hands looked slow. Every motion stamped itself into his mind like a photograph. He understood nothing of the principles or theory of the martial art. But the movements themselves—he could copy those. The instantaneous flow of internal energy when the arm whipped out, the posture of the body, the path of the hand… all of it was visible. Even without knowing the principle, he could produce the result.
When the spar finally ended, Gong Ryun slipped artificial nails onto his fingertips—metal thimble-like tools. Then he swung exactly as the image burned into his mind dictated.
Over the same mole corpse. In the exact posture Medilla had used.
"Sseeeeeeeek!!!"
And it worked.
A clear sound of rending air rang out, and at Gong Ryun's fingertips the claw technique was complete—in the exact same stance as Medilla's.
As expected. It works.
Gong Ryun had more or less anticipated that this would be possible.
He'd felt the same thing when he used the Yellow River Palm before.
Even as a child he had picked locks with pure grip strength. His palms alone could go into factory machinery and come out uncut.
Unconsciously accustomed to his own talent, he simply thought, as usual, Heh, of course it's me, and moved on with quiet pride.
Medilla's reaction, however, was far more dramatic than he expected.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"
"Whoa—!"
"Heukyaaaaaaaaaah!!!!! You just watched and learned it!!! Without a single word of theory!!! Just from seeing the form!!! Do you even know what kind of talent this is!!!!!"
"Heh. My ridiculous palm talent…"
"Nooooooo!!! That is not something you brush off with a smug little snort, it is!!!!"
Then Medilla shot toward him like a flying squirrel, landed on his shoulders, and clambered up piggyback-style.
Thrilled, she ruffled and tousled her disciple's hair with both hands.
"Disciple!!! I'm so proud of you!!! What auspicious fortune is this!!!"
"Heh. Anything I do with my hands, I do well."
"To think you grasped every principle and law just from watching the form!!! This is practically the greatest talent in the galaxy!!!"
"Huh? No, not really. I couldn't understand the principles at all?"
Medilla froze for a beat.
"…Huh? How can you use martial arts without knowing the principles…?"
"I'm just copying the posture."
"But… even if you copy the posture, you shouldn't be able to copy the flow of internal energy, right?"
"…Well… when I did it, it just worked…?"
"What do you mean, just worked! You mean you didn't understand the principle embedded in the form—the way molecular crystal structures shatter and micro-cracks form when matter breaks—and use that understanding to execute the technique!"
"Molecular structure…? Oh, so that was the principle? I don't understand a single bit of that, honestly."
"Eung? So you used martial arts without any principle at all? With an incomplete mental image that shouldn't even be possible… Hmm… Uuuuuhm? Well, the universe is vast and mysterious talents are many, so there must be talents even I don't know about, it is."
"Sounds like you had something in mind?"
"Indeed. It looked extremely similar to the talent known as Ilgyeonjeukhae-gijae—the Understand-at-a-Glance Talent."
"Oh, One-Glance-Understanding. I've heard that a few times."
He wasn't sure where he'd heard it, but the word felt extremely familiar.
"Kishiishi! Of course it's familiar! Do you know who else has it!!!"
"Who?"
"Star Lord, it is!!! The Galaxy's Number One—Star Lord!!!"
"…Huh?"
Ah… so that was where. He'd probably caught it in passing on the news.
Star Lord.
The Galaxy's Number One.
The current strongest in the martial world.
Medilla spoke in a fever of excitement.
"The star among stars, the star that leads all stars! The Galaxy's Number One! The one closest to the Martial God in this generation!!! The monster of the Orthodox Path who not only took the Heavenly Demon's head but also won the war against the Cosmic Locusts!!! Star Lord, it is!!!!!"
"Whoa…"
"The Understand-at-a-Glance Talent means the highest-tier ability to grasp the very principles of something after seeing it only once, it is. The reason she walks around with her supreme analytical eye technique—the Fiery Eyes Golden Gaze—running twenty-four hours a day, copying the martial arts of everyone she meets, is all a mad feat made possible by that talent!"
"Okay, that really is insane."
Star Lord was the most famous person in the galaxy, showing up on the news at every opportunity.
An unbreakable superhuman who had held the seat of Galaxy's Number One for nearly two hundred years already.
"Those with Understand-at-a-Glance are the sort who look at a form and understand the principle itself, it is. They are born with the method of inferring the cause—the principle—from observing the result—the form. From the result they reach the root, and from that root they freely derive other results—other forms and variations. They are people who understand martial arts themselves."
"But I'm someone who doesn't know the principles yet can still look at the result and copy it exactly. Hmm… a lesser version of the Understand-at-a-Glance Talent?"
Because he didn't know the principles, he couldn't freely modify forms to suit his taste.
Because he didn't know the principles, he also couldn't achieve true understanding of martial arts themselves.
How to put it… a lesser lesser version?
"Even lesser versions have their own ranks, it is. Star Lord possesses a once-in-several-centuries, peerless talent! She's even spoken of as someone who might one day succeed the Martial God and reach the Ascension Realm. If you're a lesser version of a monster like that, you'll be able to do whatever you set your mind to from here on!"
"Kya!!!!!"
Gong Ryun let out a great cry of admiration.
I knew I could trust these palms of mine. Never doubted them for a second.
"But disciple! I have a question!"
"Heh. What is it, Medilla?"
Medilla gently cradled Gong Ryun's head with both hands as she spoke.
"Why…! Why can't you learn lightfoot techniques!! Are you deliberately refusing to learn them!!!"
"Ah. About that."
In the end Gong Ryun laid out the full story of his bizarre, palm-only talent.
When she finished listening, Medilla was stunned.
"What is this!!!!! What cruel joke of fate is this!!! What vicious prank of the universe!!!!!"
"Haha…"
"How lamentable!!! If even half—no!! A quarter of that talent had been spread throughout your whole body, you could clearly have aimed for the realm of a 'Star'!!!!! You might even have become the Number One of the Unorthodox Path!!! That talent that could have become one of the galaxy's brilliantly shining stars!! Concentrated solely in your palms!!!!! What is this!!!"
"What can you do."
"If it were me I'd be so bitter I couldn't sleep at night!!!"
"It's a little regrettable, but what's there to feel bitter about? Shouldn't I just make good use of the talent I have?"
"Heoeo!!! To think that way is admirable, it is!!! Yes!! My disciple is right!!! Since it's come to this, you simply walk the path that is yours alone!!!"
Medilla flipped off Gong Ryun's shoulders in a spectacular backflip and landed cleanly on the floor.
Then she thrust out her hand and declared,
"Kishiishishi!!! Since it's come to this, first you will master claw techniques, it is!!! This woman shall transmit every technique she knows!!!"
"Ooooh!!! Perfect!!!"
"Perhaps someday you could become the Galaxy's Number One Claw!! Just like the Galaxy's Number One Sword!! Or maybe the Galaxy's Number One Palm?"
"Oh. Galaxy's Number One Palm doesn't sound bad."
"And this woman will be your first master, it is!"
"Heh. Even after I make it big, I won't forget."
"Exactly that, it is! Kishiishishi!!"
"Hahahahaha!!"
Warm laughter passed between them.
And several hours later, Medilla's voice echoed through the underground sewers.
"Whyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!"
"Huff… huff… huff…"
"Disciple!!! Why!!!!! What is this supposed to be!!!"
Gong Ryun lay sprawled on the floor. Rough breathing. A body drained of strength.
Internal energy exhaustion.
"Disciple!!! What is this elementary-school-level internal energy capacity!!! You can't use advanced techniques because you don't have enough internal energy!!!!!"
"Huff… huff… haha… huff… Yeah… huff…"
"I taught you the techniques, so why can't you use them!!! You can learn advanced techniques but you can't actually perform them!!! Stop nerfing him alreadyyyyy!!!"
In the end Gong Ryun decided to start by finding a way to increase his total internal energy capacity.
He still had a long road ahead.