Chapter 143
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 143
Chapter Title: How Should I Know?
The day dawned.
The sun rose in the eastern sky, no different from yesterday.
The day before yesterday and yesterday had been filled with countless events.
So today, he'd thought, might be something special.
But it was just an ordinary day, the same as always.
That was certain.
Just another one of those days, like always.
Yet the way people welcomed this day was different.
Dang Jin-san was out on the training ground early in the morning.
He was already drenched in sweat.
In his sweat-soaked right hand, he gripped not a sword, but a whip.
A black leather whip.
Back when he'd first arrived at the Dragon Training Pavilion, it was a weapon he'd always kept coiled around his waist.
He'd make sure the Sichuan Tang Clan emblem engraved on the handle was visible before wrapping it around his waist.
It had become a habit since his days in Chengdu.
For Dang Jin-san, who often had to borrow his clan's prestige rather than his own, it was a natural development.
But at some point, he'd set the whip aside.
It had been gathering dust in a corner of his room in the Fierce Dragon Dormitory for a long time.
Today, he'd pulled it out after what felt like ages.
Because watching Baek Ri-pyeong's match had sparked something in him.
Last night, he'd rummaged through his room to find it.
And at dawn today, he'd come to the training ground and swung it freely.
Ho-yeon Eighteen Whips.
The introductory technique of the Sichuan Tang Clan's whip arts.
It was the only whip technique Dang Jin-san had learned in the clan.
He had been taught the Spirit Snake Nine Whips, but he'd never mastered it.
When he'd first joined the Fierce Dragon Corps, he'd tried swinging the whip alone to mimic the Spirit Snake Nine Whips, but it had been impossible, as expected.
So today, he'd only practiced the Ho-yeon Eighteen Whips.
How much time had passed like that?
Steam poured continuously from Dang Jin-san's mouth with every breath.
"It's different, isn't it?"
A voice came from behind him then.
Baek Ri-pyeong was there, though he didn't know when he'd arrived.
"How's your injury?"
Baek Ri-pyeong shrugged at Dang Jin-san's question.
"Still sore. But I figured I should loosen up a bit."
He'd come to the training ground, but seeing it occupied, he'd quietly watched from afar.
Baek Ri-pyeong remembered Dang Jin-san swinging the whip when he'd first arrived at the Fierce Dragon Corps.
The Dang Jin-san of then was a completely different person from now.
"How is this even possible?"
Dang Jin-san looked down at his hands as he spoke.
Until now, he'd trained solely in the Three Talents Sword Method, Fist Method, and Heart Method.
Yet his whip arts had improved to an unbelievable degree.
There was no way he could easily believe it.
Baek Ri-pyeong just smiled at that.
He'd been the first to feel it himself, so he deeply understood Dang Jin-san's bewildered state.
"How should I know? It just happened, so I figured that's how it is. What was it... everything returns to its source? Something like that?"
Dang Jin-san shook his head firmly at Baek Ri-pyeong's words.
"It's so frustrating. Things I couldn't improve no matter how hard I trained in the clan... Just practicing the Three Talents Sword Method made this much difference. I might even be able to use the Spirit Snake Nine Whips now."
"Hmm. You learned internal energy methods in the clan too, right?"
Dang Jin-san nodded at Baek Ri-pyeong's question, then his expression changed.
He'd grasped the intent behind it.
"No way?"
Baek Ri-pyeong scratched his cheek and nodded.
"Starting midway through the semifinals yesterday, I unknowingly circulated my sect's internal energy method during the match... and it felt different."
"So that's..."
Dang Jin-san recalled yesterday's match.
The overwhelming display Baek Ri-pyeong had put on against Joo Woo-myeong.
He hadn't seemed inferior at all to Wudang's Taiji Radiant Sword or internal energy.
He'd thought the Heavenly Star Sword Method was one thing, but had the Three Talents Heart Method been that powerful?
No, it wasn't.
He'd been using the Zhongnan Sect's heart method.
And it was different from before, apparently.
Dang Jin-san picked up the whip again. He unfolded the Ho-yeon Eighteen Whips, starting with the Three Talents Heart Method as its base, then gradually shifting to the Three Yangs Returning to Origin Art.
The whip's movements changed once more.
After executing all eighteen forms,
Dang Jin-san stared blankly.
"What the hell..."
He even felt a sense of emptiness.
And then the thought that followed.
"Shouldn't this be called the 'Three Talents Divine Art' now?"
The words slipped out of his mouth unfiltered.
"Pfft."
Baek Ri-pyeong let out a laugh.
Then he nodded soon after.
"Who knows? That might actually be right."
He recalled what Ha Mu-baek had said last night.
That nothing was unnecessary for the Three Talents Heart Method.
Dang Jin-san gripped the whip again. He moved slowly.
A feeling came over him.
He could definitely do it.
With that thought, he moved. His body followed as intended.
"That's..."
Baek Ri-pyeong watched quietly.
It was a whip technique he'd seen before.
The one that had utterly crushed them.
The whip technique Dang Chu had used.
Probably the one Dang Jin-san had desperately tried to perform on the training ground but couldn't.
Now, it danced freely like a nimble serpent.
Its completion far surpassed what Dang Chu had shown.
"Is it really the Three Talents Divine Art..."
Baek Ri-pyeong murmured softly.
He knew this was the first time Dang Jin-san had touched the whip since learning the Three Talents Sword Method.
He himself had only trained the Heavenly Star Sword Method in his mind, but Dang Jin-san had completely abandoned whip arts.
He was utterly incomprehensible.
Their instructor was.
Just where did his abilities end?
And why was someone with such talents serving as a mere Fierce Dragon Corps instructor?
After watching Dang Jin-san a bit longer, Baek Ri-pyeong moved to a corner of the training ground to warm up.
If he kept just spectating, his own body would stiffen up.
Especially in this still-chilly weather.
And there were people watching them.
Nak Woo-jin and Dan Mok Un-roe.
They too had naturally gathered at the training ground.
The first day of the holiday break.
Ha Mu-baek watched them from afar.
"Well, no need to worry about them."
He muttered to himself and turned away.
He headed toward the twentieth squad's training ground.
Another person was there.
His younger sister, Ha Seol-ran.
She was earnestly swinging her sword with a serious expression.
Having gone through two days of the Summer Combat Festival and witnessed much, she must have felt inspired.
Among all the Dragon Training Pavilion students, she was the first out on the training ground today.
Ha Mu-baek looked at his sister with complicated eyes.
He was granting her wish, but he still wasn't certain.
Was it truly good for Seol-ran to learn martial arts and step into the jianghu?
He hadn't found an answer to that yet.
He could only do what he was able to.
As he watched her train for about half a shichen, something pinged on Ha Mu-baek's senses.
Ha Mu-baek turned away.
He'd keep sensing Ha Seol-ran from afar, of course.
"Brother! Thank you!"
His sister's voice called from behind then.
Ha Mu-baek paused.
He had no choice.
She'd sensed his presence.
He knew she'd awakened exceptional talent in sensing, but to notice his presence even during training...
'She surpasses expectations by too much.'
Whether it was a blessing or a curse.
He could only hope it was the former.
Yeon Ha-min sat up in bed with a dazed expression.
What in the world had happened?
She was sure that...
"I admitted defeat to Baek Ri-pyeong in the match and collapsed..."
She clutched her throbbing head and sifted through her memories.
A voice surfaced.
"The instructor?"
But how was she here?
No matter how she looked, this was her room in the Graceful Dragon Dormitory.
A place Ha Mu-baek could never enter.
With his abilities, he could slip in easily, but he wasn't the type to do so.
"What happened..."
She tried to get out of bed and set her foot down.
She wobbled.
Her body had no strength at all.
It was as if every ounce of energy had been drained from her.
"My internal energy?"
Checking within, she was relieved to find she still had some.
She quickly circulated it through her body, and a bit of energy returned.
She got out of bed and changed clothes.
She'd been in training garb yesterday, but now she was in sleepwear. What on earth had happened?
Her soiled training clothes from the match were neatly folded in a bamboo basket nearby.
Just as she finished changing into fresh training garb and fixing her hair,
[If you're awake, come out.]
Ha Mu-baek's transmission rang in her ears.
As she stepped out the entrance of the Graceful Dragon Dormitory, Ha Mu-baek was waiting outside.
"Instructor Han took care of you."
A curt statement.
But that one line explained everything. It answered what she'd been wondering about.
"'Get some rest first,' was it?"
She clutched her still-throbbing head, recalling her last memory.
"Yeah. I put you to sleep with a pressure point strike. Instructor Han brought you here like that."
"Why did you do that?"
"Let's head to the training ground first. Everyone's there."
Ha Mu-baek led the way, with Yeon Ha-min following beside him.
"Have you figured out what happened to you yesterday?"
"A little."
Yeon Ha-min nodded slightly and spoke softly.
"The state of your body now can be seen as the backlash from that ability."
"Ah..."
A small gasp escaped her.
"Honestly, I never imagined you had such latent potential. It's an extremely rare and unique ability. I've only seen one other person with it."
Yeon Ha-min tilted her head at Ha Mu-baek's explanation.
She had to.
Wasn't he speaking as if he had vast experience?
From what Ha Seol-ran had told her, Ha Mu-baek was only in his thirties.
There were limits to what one could experience at that age.
His abilities in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest had been astonishing, but she still couldn't get used to him sounding like a seasoned jianghu veteran.
"You're probably the only one in the martial world who truly understands your ability."
"You saw someone else?"
Yeon Ha-min's question carried doubt.
"Dead. By my hand. He was an enemy."
She stopped dead in her tracks.
And understandably so.
For that brief moment, the ability she'd experienced.
If it was what she thought, it was an overwhelming power akin to cheating.
And he'd killed someone like that?
She looked at Ha Mu-baek with newfound eyes.
She knew he was incredible, but the more she learned, the less she understood him.
"I learned everything about your ability from him, but I know quite a bit. He was a talkative one."
Step by step.
Only the sound of Yeon Ha-min's footsteps crunching on the half-frozen ground echoed.
"What is the ability you awakened during yesterday's match with Baek Ri-pyeong?"
Ha Mu-baek asked.
"I could see a little into the future."
Yeon Ha-min had precisely grasped her ability during the match.
That's how she'd fought Baek Ri-pyeong on even terms.
Ha Mu-baek nodded.
"Right. That guy called it 'foresight'."
"Foresight..."
Yeon Ha-min murmured softly. She thought it suited her ability well.
"Shortest is one breath, longest three breaths into the future."
What she'd seen was one breath ahead.
Even that had felt like her head would explode.
"The price for making the impossible possible is high. It consumes immense mental and physical energy. And you awakened it right into such an intense match."
Now she understood why her body had been completely drained. Why she'd collapsed right after the match.
"Yesterday was close. If the match had gone on a bit longer, your mental energy and qi would have bottomed out, putting you in danger."
"You would have stopped it before then."
Ha Mu-baek flinched.
This time, he paused briefly.
That trust of hers.
How did she see him to have such faith?
He didn't feel like he'd done much for the Fierce Dragon Corps students.
"Anyway, that's why I put you to sleep right away. Thanks to that, you can move around now, and your internal energy is intact."
"Thank you."
"Don't tell anyone about your ability. It's incredibly dangerous."
"Yes."
Yeon Ha-min answered shortly.
By then, the two had arrived at the training ground.
Four students were there, sweating profusely as they immersed themselves in training.