Chapter 165
Chapter 165
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 165
Chapter Title: Heavenly Mechanism Bewildering Steps
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"Oh, you saw that far?"
I looked at Jegal Geun-yeong with a slightly surprised expression, then immediately explained the concept of wind rising from the soles of my feet and releasing internal energy outward.
"…You're saying to send internal energy outside the body?"
At first, Jegal Geun-yeong couldn't quite accept what I was saying.
But after trying it himself (of course, he flew around diligently and rolled on the ground), he had no choice but to acknowledge it with a dazed look on his face.
"Th-this… I never imagined something like this was possible…!"
He stared in bewilderment, then suddenly realized something and turned to me with wide eyes.
"Could that crescent moon I saw last time also be…?"
Crescent moon…?
Ah, he means the Transcending Heavens technique?
I nodded lightly in response.
"Yes. It was sending out materialized qi wrapped around the sword—sword aura. Remember how the Elder Council Leader called it the Sword Aura Merchant?"
"…Sword Aura Merchant."
Jegal Geun-yeong murmured my words with a meaningful tone.
A strangely serious expression.
I had a feeling I knew what he was thinking.
After watching him for a moment, I quietly posed a question.
"I've heard that House Jegal has a book designated as forbidden reading?"
"H-how do you know about…?"
I shrugged at his surprised and flustered reaction.
"I heard it from the Elder Council Leader. He said it contains records about the Sword Aura Merchant and the ancient murim."
Hearing my words, Jegal Geun-yeong nodded with a slightly stiffened face.
"…Yes. It's probably the only remaining record of the murim from before the Great Ming era."
His heavy response made my heart pound fiercely without me realizing it.
If I pressed him for details about the forbidden book now, he would probably tell me everything without holding back.
How the ancient murim fell into ruin.
Whether the warriors of that time truly wielded sword aura.
But,
"…We'll talk about that later. Right now, our priority is taking down the Chief Steward and getting our hands on that ledger."
I suppressed the urge to ask right away.
Questions about the forbidden book could wait until everything was over.
For now, focus on passing on the new technique to Jegal Geun-yeong.
With my mind set, I immediately gave instructions to Jegal Geun-yeong.
"Clear Bright, Receiving Tears, Four Whites. Circulate your true qi through the acupoints around your eyes."
"Yes? What does that have to do with anything all of a sudden…?"
Jegal Geun-yeong couldn't hide his bewilderment at the abrupt command.
But under my silent gaze, he tilted his head curiously and circulated his true qi as instructed.
Soon, as he felt the effect firsthand, his eyes widened in shock, and he opened his mouth as if about to scream.
"Th-this is…!"
Unable to hide his astonishment, Jegal Geun-yeong moved his head up, down, left, and right, taking in everything around him.
He looked thrilled, like a child who had just received a new toy.
No, more like someone completely drunk?
If I left him like this, he seemed ready to keep going until his internal energy ran dry.
I stopped Jegal Geun-yeong with a firm voice.
"Stop."
"…!"
At my voice, Jegal Geun-yeong snapped out of it, his pupils turning back to me.
Seeing him still blinking in awe, I gave him a warning.
"It's a technique that consumes quite a bit of internal energy, so if you keep circulating true qi like that, it'll run out in no time. Use it only briefly when needed."
"Ah, yes… yes."
After responding blankly, Jegal Geun-yeong came to his senses, shook his head, and bombarded me with questions.
"Y-Young Hero Goon. What on earth was that just now? Why did everything suddenly…!"
"How did it feel?"
Instead of answering, I countered with a question, and after pondering for a moment, he cautiously shared his impressions.
"Like my field of vision changed…? As soon as I circulated the true qi, I started seeing things I couldn't normally see."
Jegal Geun-yeong pointed to somewhere with his finger.
At the end of it was a weed blooming in a crack under the training ground wall.
"I could see the weed in the corner of the training ground and even the bug crawling beside it. It felt like everything around me was flooding into my mind."
"Good. You'll get used to it quickly."
As I nodded in satisfaction, his gaze filled with intense curiosity.
With a chuckle, I gave a detailed explanation.
"What you just used is called the Eye Technique. It's a method of circulating true qi through the acupoints around the eyes to make them take in more surrounding information."
"Eye Technique…!"
Jegal Geun-yeong nodded vigorously at my explanation, his eyes gleaming.
"So, use the Eye Technique to read the Chief Steward's movements and seize the advantage."
Right after saying that, he paused, a furrow forming between his brows.
"But just seeing won't be enough to gain the upper hand…?"
"Oh…."
Impressed by his sharp intuition, I nodded.
"Yes. You'll have to move your body based on the information from the Eye Technique, dodging well and attacking well. In other words…."
"Footwork. Combine footwork with the Eye Technique. Right?"
What a talent—he hears one thing and knows ten.
Chuckling, I nodded and began explaining the new footwork principles.
*
"Through the Eye Technique, grasp all information about the surroundings. Especially everything about the opponent you must fight. Which direction they're moving in, which part of their body is tensing with power."
Once you've grasped the information, next comes analysis.
Break down the obtained information and derive the optimal movements to counter it.
"Then, based on that, step through the Nine Palaces—Eight Trigrams plus the center—to move. Into areas the opponent's attacks can't reach."
Ja-seong explained that if mastered sufficiently, one could theoretically evade any enemy's attack, leaving Geun-yeong to murmur blankly.
"Nine Palaces directions…."
A subtle admiration laced his murmuring voice.
In truth, he was greatly astonished by the martial principles Ja-seong was sharing.
Teachings he had never heard anywhere before, never seen in any martial arts manual.
At the very least, it was clear this wasn't something to casually share with others.
That naturally led to a rising doubt.
'Why is Young Hero Goon going this far?'
It felt too… devoted, to be just for an alliance with House Jegal.
Teaching the new method of expelling internal energy outside the body was already a huge favor, and now even footwork imbued with such profound principles.
Giving endlessly like this made even the recipient wonder, what is this all about?
Moreover, one intuition surfaced in Geun-yeong's mind.
'This isn't just simple goodwill.'
He couldn't put it into exact words, but he felt Ja-seong had some other reason, one he couldn't fathom.
Yet, if asked if it was malicious intent, that was ambiguous too.
Geun-yeong looked into Ja-seong's eyes.
Cold pupils within sharp features.
At a glance, a chilling gaze, but at times, a fierce light would flash as if burning.
A light that seemed to pierce toward some distant place.
'What exactly is Young Hero Goon seeing, and where?'
Immersed in that strange sentiment for a moment, Geun-yeong soon shook his head and steeled himself.
Whatever Ja-seong was seeing, whatever his goal, what did it matter?
'Even if Young Hero Goon harbors some ill will, I have no other path. This is the only chance to set our clan right.'
If he let this opportunity slip… he didn't even want to imagine what would follow.
"Got the gist of it?"
"…Yes."
Geun-yeong nodded heavily at Ja-seong's question after finishing the explanation.
Seeing this, Ja-seong smiled faintly and rotated his ankle.
"Well, as they say, seeing is believing, so it's best to witness it directly, right?"
With those words, Ja-seong vanished from Geun-yeong's sight in an instant.
"…!?"
Startled, as Ja-seong seemed to shoot into the sky or sink into the ground, suddenly hiding his form.
"Y-Young Hero Goon?"
Geun-yeong looked around frantically for him, then felt a tapping sensation on his shoulder.
"Here."
He spun around at the voice from behind, but no one was there.
Yet again, a voice from behind.
"Here, I said."
He turned again, but still no one.
After spinning around another three or four times, Ja-seong finally reappeared.
Instantly understanding the situation, Geun-yeong asked inwardly thrilled.
"…Did you predict the direction my gaze was moving and shift outside my field of vision?"
"Correct."
Using the information from the Eye Technique for analysis, predict the opponent's movements, and move via the optimal path.
Having seen and experienced the footwork Ja-seong described, it felt real.
This was a peerless footwork unlike anything he'd ever seen.
As Ja-seong boldly claimed, if mastered properly, no attack would be unavoidable.
No, perhaps he could even subdue foes before they could attack.
And the even more astonishing part was how perfectly optimized it was for House Jegal's bloodline.
'Analyzing information from the Eye Technique fast enough for real combat— that's something Jegal clansmen can do better than anyone.'
Footwork requiring not martial talent, but extraordinary intellect.
It was footwork truly made for House Jegal, called the Divine Strategists.
"…It feels like footwork made for our clan."
Ja-seong chuckled at Geun-yeong's dazed murmur.
"Well, that's not wrong."
"…Pardon? What do you…?"
"No, nothing."
Ja-seong waved it off at Geun-yeong's puzzled question.
Geun-yeong stared at him oddly for a moment but soon forgot it, focusing back on the footwork.
It captivated his mind that much.
"…By any chance, have you named this footwork?"
"Yes. It has quite a grandiose name."
Realizing midway through the principles that he didn't know the footwork's name, Geun-yeong asked, and Ja-seong nodded vigorously in response.
"Heavenly Mechanism Bewildering Steps."