Five Moves?
“Eh? What? Junior brother!”
Ignoring Jung Nam-jung’s attempt to stop me, I walked slowly out onto the sparring platform.
The third-generation disciples around me, and even the instructors, were at a loss for words as they stared at me with their eyes wide open.
When I reached a point just a few steps from Cho Kyung-hoon, I stopped.
Then I brought my hands together around the wooden sword and bowed.
“Third-generation disciple Yoo Sung-woon humbly asks Senior Brother Cho Kyung-hoon for instruction.”
Cho Kyung-hoon looked at me as if I were absurd.
“Junior brother Sung-woon, you said you entered the sect eight days ago, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Have you formed your dantian?”
“No, I haven’t.”
Cho Kyung-hoon let out a sigh of disbelief.
Instructor Kwon wore a troubled expression as he said to me, “Yoo Sung-woon. If you only began Plum Blossom Qi Gong eight days ago, you still won’t be able to feel your own qi. You should wait until at least ten days have passed before taking part in a spar.”
His words were blunt, but beneath them I could sense concern for a disciple who had only just picked up a sword.
I appreciated the sentiment, truly.
But once a man has climbed onto the sparring platform, he doesn’t come down so easily.
I answered at once.
“No, Instructor Kwon. Under my master’s guidance, I learned how to move and handle my qi on the very day I entered the sect.”
In other words, I still hadn’t formed a dantian, but I could imbue my attacks with qi, however faintly.
Instructor Kwon asked back in surprise, “Is that true?”
“Though I haven’t yet formed a dantian, I’d like to experience Mount Hua’s sword for myself.”
Cho Kyung-hoon let out a sigh of relief this time.
He didn’t need to say it; I could read his thoughts well enough.
If I could already sense and manipulate qi, then the duel could proceed in proper form.
In that sense, I was actually a fairly decent opponent for a disciple who had only trained for a month.
Instructor Kwon nodded after some hesitation.
“Cho Kyung-hoon. Take this as an opportunity to teach your junior brother the basics of a duel.”
“Understood, Instructor.”
The worry was brief.
Cho Kyung-hoon’s face quickly filled with confidence, as though he were certain he could knock me down in short order. It seemed he had already decided I was at least a respectable opponent.
We exchanged bows and put about three jang of distance between us.
“Spar begins!”
At the call, Cho Kyung-hoon charged.
As he unfolded the Plum Blossom Steps, he swung his wooden sword at me.
He probably thought he was being serious, but there were more than a few clumsy points in his movements. It was the kind of opening that appeared when young disciples tried to use their footwork and sword techniques at the same time.
Considering how recently he must have entered the sect, it was impressive enough that he’d managed to form the shape of the techniques at all, even if they were rough around the edges.
I didn’t meet his attack head-on. Instead, I used the same Plum Blossom Steps to evade it.
Then I stretched out a leg toward the spot where Cho Kyung-hoon would step next.
“Ack?!”
His foot caught against my leg, and Cho Kyung-hoon stumbled forward with a strangled cry.
In that instant, I took the rear opening and swung my wooden sword without hesitation.
Thwack!
The dull impact of wood striking flesh echoed softly through Hwa-yeon Hall.
Cho Kyung-hoon lost his balance and toppled over at once.
Shocked by the sudden turn of events, everyone fell silent. Only Instructor Kwon, a beat late, finally announced the result of the spar.
“...Yoo Sung-woon wins!”
I bowed to the fallen Cho Kyung-hoon.
“I learned a great deal.”
Cho Kyung-hoon didn’t answer. Like a beetle caught crawling across the floor and then exposed to everyone’s eyes, he flattened himself against the ground and went stiff. His eyes, however, were blinking just fine.
He looked unable to accept either that he had lost to me, a disciple who had entered only eight days ago, or that he had been knocked flat onto the floor.
He had stepped up so boldly, only to lose to a junior brother; no wonder he was embarrassed from every angle.
I also greeted Instructor Kwon before coming down from the platform.
From here, the looks directed at me were easy to see at a glance. They were all different, and there was a certain pleasure in watching them. Most were stunned, some were curious, and some shot me resentful looks as if they thought I’d merely gotten lucky.
The latter included the disciples who had been gathered around Cho Kyung-hoon just now, along with a few senior brothers who were close to him.
Hmm. It’s been a while since I’ve felt this kind of attention.
It had been the same before my regression.
Though it had been after fifteen days rather than eight, I had also sparred with Cho Kyung-hoon and taken the victory.
Back then, I was a remarkable bastard, even by my own standards.
Through those duels, I immediately read the habits of my senior brothers and learned their techniques.
On that foundation, I went on to defeat opponents from the weakest to the strongest in turn.
Right now, the way people looked at me was still divided in many ways.
But it wouldn’t take long for those looks to merge into one.
It had taken half a year for the sect’s senior figures to stop ignoring my talent.
Only half a year.
I had to catch the eye of Mount Hua’s leading elders just as I had in my previous life.
I didn’t know how long it would take this time, but it would at least be no later than before.
When I returned to my place, Seo Jin-ah was practically bouncing with excitement.
“Sung-woon, that was amazing! Are you sure it’s only been eight days since you entered the sect?”
“It is. I just got lucky.”
“You moved as smoothly as flowing water, and you call that luck? You won in one exchange. How did you do it?”
At Jung Nam-jung’s question, I gave the answer I’d prepared.
“I still can’t unfold the Plum Blossom Steps and the Plum Blossom Sword at the same time like Senior Brother Cho, so I simply focused on evading his attack faithfully with the steps and then planned my next move.”
“So you stuck to the basics?”
“I just did as Master taught me.”
“And the trip at the end?”
“That part was intentional. I just didn’t know whether it would actually work.”
Jung Nam-jung and Seo Jin-ah patted my shoulder and back as though I were some clever little prodigy.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling all that pleased about having beaten a snot-nosed kid.
What am I even doing, at my age?
In childhood, I might at least have been able to bask in my own brilliance, but now I was far too old in the head for that.
Seeing Cho Kyung-hoon trudge back down from the platform with tears in his eyes made me feel uneasy all over.
Still, the job has to be done...
Even if I pitied him, I couldn’t stop sparring.
“If Seo-hwa had been here, she would’ve really liked that.”
Seo Jin-ah said with a laugh, and Jung Nam-jung responded to the name of the person who wasn’t present.
“Why bring that up all of a sudden?”
“Seo-hwa was the same as Sung-woon. Well, except it took her fifteen days after entering the sect.”
“True enough. There aren’t many disciples who end their first spar with a victory.”
And yet Jung Nam-jung and Seo Jin-ah were both talented enough to win their first spar against a senior brother.
In my previous life, the two of them became Mount Hua’s elite Plum Blossom Swordsmen while still young.
They held the highest seniority among the third-generation disciples, which was why they had no senior siblings above them. If they had, they would have walked the same road as Ha Seo-hwa or me.
Only then did Jung Nam-jung explain to me belatedly.
“Ah, I guess you wouldn’t know, Sung-woon. There’s a third-generation disciple named Ha Seo-hwa who never comes to Hwa-yeon Hall. She’s Mount Hua’s greatest genius among the third generation, with no equal to be found.”
“Even compared to senior brothers and senior sisters?”
“We’d lose too. Even a year ago, when we sparred ten times, we could barely manage three wins, if that.”
He and Seo Jin-ah both clicked their tongues, saying she was surely even stronger now, a year later.
I already knew why she didn’t come to Hwa-yeon Hall, but I asked anyway.
“Why doesn’t Senior Sister Seo-hwa come to Hwa-yeon Hall?”
“Well...”
As Jung Nam-jung hesitated a little, Seo Jin-ah picked up the thread.
“From what I heard, she gets better results training alone in the courtyard in front of her quarters than she does training at Hwa-yeon Hall.”
“I see.”
“It was just like this back then too. Don’t worry about it; things’ll be fine once some time passes.”
At Seo Jin-ah’s words, I looked around.
A few people were so startled they quickly turned their heads away to avoid making eye contact.
Jung Nam-jung and Seo Jin-ah, both highly respected among the third-generation disciples, had openly praised me.
Thanks to that, the sharp glances that had been shooting my way had dulled quite a bit, but the result was an awkward atmosphere all around.
I’ll have to bear it. There’s nothing else for it.
Talent is like poison.
When the one who stands out also learns how to make himself shine, the poison only grows stronger.
What if I were like that? What if I had talent like that?
All the disciples of Mount Hua had climbed the mountain because they wanted to become martial artists. So young, mediocre people found it easy to envy and resent geniuses. And from there, their hearts grew twisted and venomous.
Paradoxically, that malice became a poison even deadlier than talent itself, and it was what killed geniuses in the end.
A sad story, really.
No matter where you went, the tallest tree drew the strongest wind.
Talent was poison to everyone, yes—but to a snake that could make use of poison, it was something else entirely.
For a snake, poison was a weapon and a fortune, something that could protect it in a cruel world.
If it showed what that poison could do, then hid it beneath its fangs, no one would dare treat the snake lightly.
That was why even a person dozens of times larger would still fear a snake that merely crawled along the ground.
A snake that could wield deadly poison.
In other words, a person who could make brilliant talent their weapon.
Ha Seo-hwa had been that kind of person since childhood.
Well, the people around her didn’t exactly hate her.
The reason the other third-generation disciples didn’t dislike Ha Seo-hwa was simple.
For one thing, she was pretty.
She trained diligently, she wasn’t some arrogant tyrant running wild on the strength of her talent, and on top of that, she was a grand-disciple of an elder.
With such a solid backing, there were actually quite a few senior brothers and sisters who wanted to get closer to her.
Though given her habit of keeping people at arm’s length, she had never really become close with anyone.
Even I, who had once shared familiarity with everyone as the future sect leader, never truly became close to Ha Seo-hwa.
And I still have to duel such a woman somehow.
I would drag her out of her private world, pull her back from her quarters, and bring her once more to Hwa-yeon Hall.
Before everyone’s eyes, I would defeat Mount Hua’s greatest genius in a duel. And then I would show them that I possessed a poison even deadlier than hers.
I intended to make Mount Hua’s elders see it for themselves.
That was the first step of my plan.
* * *
“So what you’re saying is that some incredible genius has appeared!”
Ha Seo-hwa stopped swinging her wooden sword at Seo Jin-ah’s excited declaration. Drawing a breath that had climbed all the way to her throat, she steadied her heaving shoulders.
Wiping the sweat from her face with her sleeve, she turned her gaze to Seo Jin-ah, who was chattering away from the pavilion.
“...If you’re only going to gossip, then please go back already. You’re throwing off my focus.”
“Don’t just train so much—listen for a second. I’m telling you, it’s definitely interesting. Just as impressive as you are!”
“I already know what’s happening at Hwa-yeon Hall.”
“Really?”
Seo Jin-ah looked puzzled at the claim. There was no disciple other than herself who spent time around Ha Seo-hwa.
It wasn’t that the other third-generation disciples were excluding her. She was simply the sort of person who went alone.
The reason was just that it interfered with her training.
Seo Jin-ah, the only one who looked after the third-generation disciples as a whole, was Ha Seo-hwa’s sole conversational partner.
Ha Seo-hwa found her annoying, but she lacked the gift of gab, and there was nothing she could do against Seo Jin-ah, who came in smiling so warmly and casually.
What had started as a relationship from the time they first entered the sect had somehow become one in which Seo Jin-ah visited her quarters regularly to bring news of the sect.
“Who told you?”
“It’s just gossip; you can pick it up while walking past.”
“Isn’t it amazing? Since entering the sect, he’s been defeating his senior brothers one after another.”
“Yes. It is amazing.”
Despite the words, Ha Seo-hwa’s answer was flat.
Because she had done the same thing herself.
Since entering the sect, she had defeated both Jung Nam-jung and Seo Jin-ah within a year and stood above the third-generation disciples.
Her talent and skill were the real thing, enough to draw the attention of Mount Hua’s senior figures.
“How sharp and cute is that? Calling you senior sister this, senior sister that, and talking to you so earnestly...”
“Cute?”
Ha Seo-hwa tilted her head.
“I don’t think he was all that cute.”
“Have you talked to him?”
“Half a year ago... well, when he first entered the sect, just briefly.”
To her, Yoo Sung-woon was less cute than strange.
He had climbed Mount Hua and entered the sect despite the harsh weather. He had chosen the most difficult and demanding method of entry.
At first, even she had taken an interest in him because of that. But it faded quickly. She had dismissed the reason he’d managed to climb Mount Hua as nothing more than mental fortitude.
From that day on, Yoo Sung-woon became an ordinary junior brother who existed only in a corner of her memory, just like everyone else.
Colorless and unremarkable.
The same was true of Seo Jin-ah, who was talking with her now.
At present, only the wooden sword in her hand had any real color at all.
“Still, Sung-woon when he’s sparring is kind of scary. Today he beat Shin-pyeong in just five moves.”
Ha Seo-hwa, who had been about to swing her wooden sword again, stopped dead at the bizarre statement.
Unusually for her, she opened her eyes a little wider and asked Seo Jin-ah, “...Senior Brother Oh Shin-pyeong?”
“Yeah. Surprised?”
Surprised? It was more than that.
Oh Shin-pyeong was a disciple with considerable skill even among the third-generation disciples. He wasn’t as strong as Jung Nam-jung or Seo Jin-ah, but even the martial arts instructors acknowledged his ability.
More importantly, he was also someone Ha Seo-hwa had once lost to.
That had been around the same time she entered Mount Hua and half a year had passed, just as it had for Yoo Sung-woon.
After being defeated by Senior Brother Oh Shin-pyeong in Hwa-yeon Hall, she had trained desperately for half a month and then avenged herself in a rematch.
After that, she had forgotten his existence entirely for two years, only for this incident to drag him back out of oblivion.
“In just five moves?”
“In just five moves.”
At Seo Jin-ah’s echoed answer, Ha Seo-hwa fell silent.
Two years had passed since then. Oh Shin-pyeong hadn’t been idling away his time as a Mount Hua disciple. With two years of training behind him, he must have grown even stronger than she remembered.
And yet he had been defeated.
If it had taken only five exchanges to decide the winner, that meant the difference in skill had been unmistakable.
Ha Seo-hwa lowered her gaze to the wooden sword in her hand and thought quietly for a long moment.
Before long, she spoke.
“Tomorrow.”
“Hmm?”
“Tomorrow, I’ll train at Hwa-yeon Hall.”