Chapter 35
Chapter 35
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: The Simple Downward Strike
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Just as Tang Moon-young mustered every ounce of courage to open her mouth, Dan Hyeong-u nodded.
"Go ahead."
Tang Moon-young froze in the position she'd opened her mouth to speak.
"P-Pardon? W-What did you... s-say...?"
She couldn't even string her words together properly. The situation was utterly unexpected. For someone to show up out of the blue demanding to be taught a martial art—one that was practically a famed ultimate technique—and for anyone to just nod along? Who would do such a thing?
Yet here was someone who did. Right in front of her eyes.
"R-Really?"
Tang Moon-young shouted without realizing it. Dan Hyeong-u merely nodded lightly again.
Tang Moon-young stared at him with a blank face. She couldn't make any other move. Her mind was blank, her face blank, her body blank.
The one who snapped her out of it was Umun Hye.
"No way!"
Umun Hye had been pretending to sleep while lying down, but she bolted upright and yelled. She'd been listening with ears wide open to everything that had happened. When Tang Moon-young asked to be taught Heavenly Thunder, Umun Hye had nearly burst out laughing. But the moment Dan Hyeong-u nodded, her laughter vanished.
How could anyone casually teach their martial arts to others like that?
Umun Hye glared sharply at Tang Moon-young. Neither the one making the request nor the one granting it seemed normal.
It hit Umun Hye that Dan Hyeong-u had lived in the mountains and was clueless about worldly affairs.
"Do you really think that's a reasonable thing to say?"
Umun Hye directed her words at Tang Moon-young. Tang Moon-young couldn't refute her at all. She too had just remembered that Dan Hyeong-u was ignorant of the world.
As Tang Moon-young fell silent, Umun Hye snorted mockingly and turned to Dan Hyeong-u.
"Hmph, you really know nothing about the world. You definitely need a good woman by your side. Don't you think?"
Umun Hye's subtle gaze bored into Dan Hyeong-u. He stared back at her calmly before turning to Jo Seol-yeon, who was still lying down.
"What about you? Do you think so too?"
Jo Seol-yeon flinched at his question and cautiously sat up. His voice felt like it was whispering right in her ear; she couldn't stay lying down any longer.
Once upright, she shook her head.
"Do whatever feels right to you, brother. You should do what you want."
Jo Seol-yeon's words brought a smile to Dan Hyeong-u's face.
Seeing that smile twisted Umun Hye's expression slightly as she glared at Jo Seol-yeon. Frustration welled up, but she swallowed it down.
I can do that too. I can make him smile like that.
With three women before him, Dan Hyeong-u spoke again.
"If you want to learn, then learn. Teaching it isn't that hard."
Tang Moon-young's eyes widened once more at his words. Then Umun Hye's sharp cry burst out.
"Then teach me too! That's fine, right?"
Dan Hyeong-u nodded at Umun Hye's words.
"Sure."
Umun Hye froze with a blank expression upon hearing that. She hadn't expected to get such an easy answer for herself.
Jo Seol-yeon's voice followed right after.
"Me too... Can I learn it, brother?"
Dan Hyeong-u smiled and nodded.
"Of course."
A bright smile spread across Jo Seol-yeon's face.
Umun Hye eyed their smiles with frustration.
Tang Moon-young was still in a daze. She couldn't believe she'd taken such a hard road when the path had been this easy. But no one in the martial world would believe what was happening here.
The next evening, the three women gathered to learn Heavenly Thunder from Dan Hyeong-u. His teaching method was incredibly straightforward. He demonstrated first, then had them imitate.
The three women standing before Dan Hyeong-u couldn't hide their tension. They were so full of anticipation about what this martial art would be like that they could barely focus.
Umun Hye and Jo Seol-yeon's excitement was beyond words. They'd seen Dan Hyeong-u slaughter enemies with Heavenly Thunder countless times. The technique he'd unleashed back then had been utterly invincible.
How could they express the thrill of learning such an unbeatable art?
Dan Hyeong-u stood still, gazing at the three women before looking off at the people standing at a distance. To prevent them from stealing the technique, Tang Ho-gwan and Umun Hye had kept a good separation, but everything was clear as day in Dan Hyeong-u's eyes.
Their gazes mixed envy, anticipation, and longing in a tangled mess.
"Bring them all here."
At Dan Hyeong-u's abrupt words, the three women—who'd been building their excitement—jumped in surprise. A moment of silence followed. Jo Seol-yeon was the first to understand.
She smiled faintly and nodded.
"I'll go get them."
As Jo Seol-yeon ran off toward the others, Umun Hye and Tang Moon-young finally caught on and gaped.
"Y-You're really going to teach it to everyone else too?"
Dan Hyeong-u glanced at Umun Hye.
"Why not?"
Though Umun Hye and Tang Moon-young wanted to say it was obviously not okay, they couldn't. After all, hadn't they themselves jumped at this absurd opportunity?
Before long, even the escorts had gathered before Dan Hyeong-u. Longing and anticipation flickered in their eyes too.
Tang Ho-gwan, along with the silver envoy, gold envoy, and silver envoy, felt excitement on one hand but utter incomprehension on the other as they stared at Dan Hyeong-u. He was someone beyond their common sense.
Seeing the assembled group, the corners of Dan Hyeong-u's mouth curved slightly. He drew his sword.
The people's eyes bored into his sword, not wanting to miss a single detail.
"Watch closely."
Dan Hyeong-u's sword rose slowly upward. Their gazes followed. Then it swept downward in a simple chop.
Swoosh.
"Try it."
Without exception, everyone wore a baffled expression at his words.
"I-Is that really all there is to it?"
Tang Moon-young asked in a trembling voice. Dan Hyeong-u didn't answer, merely repeating himself.
"Try it."
In the end, everyone had no choice but to imitate it.
Swoosh.
Every single person replicated the motion precisely, with hardly any deviation. It was just a light downward chop—who couldn't do that?
But Dan Hyeong-u shook his head as he watched.
"Wrong."
Everyone stared blankly at his words. What could possibly be wrong?
Dan Hyeong-u raised his sword again. And brought it down gently.
Swoosh.
Their expressions grew even more puzzled. This was truly incomprehensible.
That day's training ended with nothing but watching Dan Hyeong-u's downward chop and imitating it—and him repeatedly saying it was wrong right up to the end.
"I have no idea what any of this is about."
As Tang Moon-young grumbled, Tang Ho-gwan nodded with a troubled look.
"I don't get it either."
It wasn't just him. It was the common thought in the minds of everyone who'd tried learning Heavenly Thunder from Dan Hyeong-u yesterday. They'd spent over two hours doing nothing but that simple downward chop. A monotonous repetition of a feeble swing without any power.
No one knew what they were supposed to discover in it.
"Sigh, is it really...?"
"What?"
"Is he really planning to teach us that technique?"
Tang Ho-gwan gave a wry smile at Tang Moon-young's words. He'd been thinking the same. Logically, no one would teach such a peerless art to just anyone.
A technique like that wouldn't even be casually passed to one's own disciples.
"He's definitely doing this because he doesn't want to teach it. No doubt. What kind of training is that? We've done downward chops since we could walk, until we were sick of them. I know basics are important, but I don't need them anymore. What I need is Heavenly Thunder."
Tang Moon-young was spot on, and Tang Ho-gwan agreed. But he couldn't quit the training just yet. He decided to observe a few more days.
"I'm going to keep at it a few more days. Are you quitting today?"
Tang Moon-young pondered his question. Tang Ho-gwan genuinely thought she didn't need to learn this. And she reached the same conclusion.
"Sorry, but I'm quitting. No matter how I think about it, this doesn't feel right."
Tang Ho-gwan nodded readily.
"Do that. I think that's better too."
Tang Moon-young looked at him with slight pity.
"Grandfather, you should quit too. You know it's pointless, so why bother?"
Tang Ho-gwan smiled faintly.
"It's fine. This is all I can do anyway. You think of something else. If you want, we can resume sparring."
"N-No, sparring's enough now. I realized I can't gain anything from it. And I don't want to see you struggling anymore..."
Tang Ho-gwan smiled at her words.
"Alright. We still have plenty of time, so let's think on it a bit more."
"Yes, Grandfather."
That wrapped up the day for Tang Moon-young and her great-grandfather Tang Ho-gwan. Starting the next day, she skipped training.
She wasn't the only one who quit after one day. The silver envoy, gold envoy, and bronze envoys gave up too, for the same reason. But Umun Hye didn't quit. Most people knew it wasn't really about learning the art.
The escorts, led by Hyeong Pyo, didn't quit either. Unlike others, they knew Dan Hyeong-u wasn't one for complications. If he said so, it was so. They hadn't known him long, but he never lied.
And they wanted to quench their thirst for martial arts this way, even if it was just a simple exercise. Even that was fine. Just the fact that they could learn.
And so, the second day of Heavenly Thunder training arrived.
They only covered twenty to thirty ri a day. At this pace, the thousand-ri journey would take about forty days.
It wasn't much different from the trip from Heochang to Sichuan, but with no baggage and taking shortcuts off the main roads instead of sticking to them, it felt far more leisurely than the numbers suggested.
In truth, reaching Sichuan from Heochang in a month by carriage along the official roads was a record. Only the Henan Escort Bureau could pull that off.
Anyway, evenings left plenty of time. Training sessions stretched longer as a result.
Today was the same routine. Excluding a few, everyone trained with serious faces, but no one felt any progress.
Swoosh.
A simple downward chop—or something even simpler, lacking even that—repeated endlessly. Boredom set in, focus waned.
Moreover, those who'd quit watched comfortably, smirking faintly. Seeing that only shattered concentration further.
"Stop."
At Dan Hyeong-u's command, everyone halted and looked at him. He tilted his head.
"Why can't you do it?"
Swoosh.
His sword moved from up to down.
"Something this simple."
People let out slight sighs. No matter how they looked, it was identical to theirs.
Even Tang Ho-gwan, the highest skilled among them, shook his head. He saw no point in the training anymore. He'd quit after today, he decided.
Dan Hyeong-u eyed them thoughtfully before approaching Jo Seol-yeon. He grasped her sword-holding hand from behind, enveloping it completely.
"B-Brother..."
Jo Seol-yeon flushed in embarrassment. It looked like he was hugging her from behind—an awkward pose.
But Dan Hyeong-u's expression didn't change. He raised her sword upward, her hand naturally following since he held it.
Swoosh.
And the sword came down.