Chapter 8
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Watch Closely
His clothes, swollen taut, showed that Sado Gwang had channeled a massive amount of internal energy.
A fist flew forward, whipping up a fierce gust of wind.
Ha Mu-baek slipped his body aside just enough to evade it.
He easily dodged the next fist that came flying in quick succession.
Sado Gwang gritted his teeth and drew up even more internal energy.
"One strike."
Ha Mu-baek's voice flowed out indifferently.
"You bastard!"
Sado Gwang flew into an even greater rage and thrashed wildly. A kick aimed at the back of Ha Mu-baek's head came hurtling in.
Of course, Ha Mu-baek dodged that one easily as well.
The kick didn't end there—it shifted forms about three more times, mimicking the variations and trajectories from the Dragon Training Fist Method.
Ha Mu-baek advanced straight toward Sado Gwang's chest, evading the attack entirely.
"Two strikes."
A calm voice pierced Sado Gwang's ears.
His two fists whirled chaotically, targeting Ha Mu-baek's head and chest.
But Ha Mu-baek's light palm flick sent both fists veering off course, directionless.
"Three strikes."
With those words, Ha Mu-baek stepped back.
His gaze turned toward the five members of Seventh Squad.
"Watch closely. This is what the Three Talents Fist Method looks like. For the record, I'm not using any internal energy."
Sado Gwang's face flushed beet red at being utterly dismissed by Ha Mu-baek. And now he wasn't going to use internal energy at all?
To him—a first-rate expert on the verge of mastery, soon to hit the wall of peak realm—a mere Fierce Dragon Corps instructor dared to face him with the Three Talents Fist Method, without even using internal energy?
What kind of madman was this?
And the fact that the first-year cadets of Hidden Dragon Corps were watching him get toyed with by this lunatic...
It was humiliating.
He felt like a fool for letting such an arrogant fool spout off like that.
"You bastard!!!"
His internal energy erupted like a storm.
A faint glow enveloped both fists.
Fist qi had manifested, albeit weakly.
At the peak realm, it wouldn't have been this feeble.
Against an opponent who swore not to use internal energy, he was unleashing his strongest technique.
Rock-Breaking Difficult Dance Fist.
It was the sole ultimate art of the Sado family, his clan.
Now, that ultimate technique unfolded from his two fists, accompanied by faint fist qi.
His target was the insufferably arrogant Ha Mu-baek.
That damn dog.
"Whoa..."
"Wow!"
The cadets let out gasps of admiration as they watched.
Regardless of Hidden Dragon Corps or Fierce Dragon Corps.
Most people here had heard Ha Mu-baek's words.
His voice, spoken as if instructing Seventh Squad of Fierce Dragon Corps, had carried clearly enough for everyone present.
To use even faint fist qi against an opponent who vowed not to use internal energy...
A few Hidden Dragon Corps cadets thought Sado Gwang was going a bit overboard.
How could a mere Fierce Dragon Corps instructor possibly block that?
The Sado family might be a minor martial house, but the Rock-Breaking Difficult Dance Fist was a solid ultimate technique.
If mastered to the extreme, it could reach peak realm levels.
Such a fist technique now unfolded chaotically before Ha Mu-baek's eyes.
"Hmph."
Watching the trajectory, Ha Mu-baek could tell where the Dragon Training Fist Method's variations came from.
It must have been created by adapting those variations into the Three Talents Fist Method.
Mixing two incompatible fist methods made it crude, inevitably.
But the technique being demonstrated now was different.
It had real depth to its principles.
Still, it wasn't the right technique for this situation. He'd charged in to prove the Dragon Training Fist Method, only to switch to something entirely different.
'Well, doesn't matter to me.'
To Ha Mu-baek, it was utterly irrelevant.
"Watch closely."
Ha Mu-baek glanced at Seventh Squad's members and said.
Then he read the pattern in the whirling fists assaulting him and effortlessly slipped through the gap into the vulnerability.
Of course, he used not a scrap of internal energy.
"Sloppy variations that can't be properly controlled always expose openings like this. If you precisely find and move into them, internal energy isn't the key factor."
Ha Mu-baek's fist moved.
It was an initial form of the Three Talents Fist Method, one that anyone who'd trained martial arts even a little would know.
"Huh?"
"Ha?"
Voices from Baek Ri-pyeong and Dang Jin-san.
Those two knew exactly what the Three Talents Fist Method was.
But this was different.
What Ha Mu-baek showed was clearly the Three Talents Fist Method, yet it was worlds apart from what they knew.
Was the Three Talents Fist Method supposed to be like this?
Ha Mu-baek's lightly extended fist struck Sado Gwang's elbow pressure point precisely.
"Kuhk."
Fist qi or whatever—it was useless.
The opponent hadn't struck the qi itself but targeted the elbow lacking it.
The timing was so exquisite that he couldn't dodge even a fist without internal energy. Hitting the pressure point dead-on delivered massive shock despite no internal energy.
Ha Mu-baek's movements were fluid yet precise.
"If you target the pressure points in such clearly exposed gaps, there's no need to obsess over internal energy. Properly grasping the subtleties of the Three Talents Fist Method makes it no difficult feat."
His following fist tapped Sado Gwang's left shoulder.
"Kuh."
Even without internal energy, striking only the pressure point precisely caused immense pain.
It wasn't an acupoint seal, but the shock slowed Sado Gwang's movements. It disrupted his internal energy flow too.
"Like this."
Ha Mu-baek's face remained serene throughout.
The eyes of the watching Hidden Dragon Corps cadets grew wider and wider.
Sado Gwang stormed like a gale but only swung at empty air, while Ha Mu-baek's smooth counters landed solidly.
Without internal energy, his movements were slow and ordinary.
Yet Sado Gwang couldn't even evade those.
"What the hell is that?"
Someone muttered.
But no one could answer.
It was movements far beyond their level.
Ha Mu-baek moved across the training ground, leaving clear footprints on the dirt. His speed gradually increased.
"With diligent external martial training, you can achieve this kind of speed without internal energy. So never neglect your external training."
His speed reached a point unimaginable for movements without internal energy.
Sado Gwang chased after Ha Mu-baek's form.
He thrust his fist desperately to grab the bastard, but pain still lingered in his elbow and shoulder.
"Eek."
The moment he deployed a movement technique to seize Ha Mu-baek from behind.
"Gahk."
Immense pain exploded from his knee.
Ha Mu-baek's knee had smashed squarely into the pressure point beside Sado Gwang's knee.
"Gaaahhh!"
Sado Gwang let out a massive scream.
But the attack didn't stop there.
With swift motion, he struck the same spot once more.
In that instant.
Crack.
The sound of bone breaking rang out.
Sado Gwang collapsed on the spot.
Or tried to.
But Ha Mu-baek didn't allow it.
His right fist uppercut Sado Gwang's chin, and his left fist hammered the temple.
That was the end.
Sado Gwang's eyes rolled back as he lost consciousness and sprawled across the training ground floor.
His left kneecap was shattered.
Despite protective internal energy, Ha Mu-baek's attack—without any internal energy of its own—had broken it.
The Hidden Dragon Corps cadets' jaws dropped wide.
This was the chief instructor, no less.
Sure, chief instructor for the first-year cadets, but still a first-rate expert at the pinnacle.
Yet that expert had unleashed his ultimate technique at full power, only to be utterly demolished by an opponent's Three Talents Fist Method—without internal energy.
Was this even possible?
And the opponent was just a regular instructor from Fierce Dragon Corps.
This made no sense.
Silence fell over the training ground.
Mouths hung open, but no sound escaped.
The five members of Fierce Dragon Corps Seventh Squad were the same.
'What the...'
'What is this?'
Truth be told, they'd harbored doubts.
He never taught them anything.
All he ever said was self-study every day.
"You're all going to die anyway, so don't die like dogs—go home." That was his constant refrain.
Yet this man had taken down Hidden Dragon Corps' chief instructor without using internal energy.
Who could have imagined he was capable of this?
The five could only be stunned.
In fact, doubts had just started to sprout.
Maybe he acted that way because he had no real skill.
"Against an enemy who hasn't reached peak realm and can't use protective aura, you can break bones by focusing strikes on weak points like this. Precisely targeting vulnerabilities like the temple can knock out or even kill without internal energy. Got it?"
Ha Mu-baek's impassive face ignored the fallen Sado Gwang entirely as he looked at Seventh Squad cadets.
His eyes checked if they'd properly absorbed his lesson.
But his voice didn't register properly in the five's ears.
The spectacle Ha Mu-baek had just shown was too overwhelming.
"Training time's up. What are you all doing here?"
A loud shout came from afar then.
It was Jegal Myeong.
His assigned Hidden Dragon Corps cadets hadn't shown for training, so he'd come looking.
Seeing most of the first-years gathered here, he'd hurried over.
He checked the cadets, then turned to the training ground and froze.
He'd spotted the figure sprawled on the ground.
"Chief Instructor... what the hell..."
His eyes locked on Ha Mu-baek.
"Instructor Ha. What happened here?"
"Oh, just a light spar."
Ha Mu-baek shrugged.
Jegal Myeong's gaze shifted to the cadets. But they said nothing.
"Head back to the training ground for now."
Jegal Myeong dispersed the clustered Hidden Dragon and Fierce Dragon Corps cadets. Then he hoisted Sado Gwang over his shoulder and headed for the medical quarters.
He couldn't just leave him like that.
In the end, only Ha Mu-baek and the five squad members remained on the training ground.
This was originally Seventh Squad's training ground.
Now only those who belonged here were left.
"Alright, special live combat demonstration lesson ends here. Let's get back to the training we were doing."
Ha Mu-baek headed back to where they'd been cultivating heart methods, as if nothing had happened.
To him, nothing had.
Taking down a mere first-rate expert was no big deal.
"I-Instructor."
Dan Mok Un-roe called out to Ha Mu-baek in a trembling voice.
"What?"
"I want to get... strong!"
"Huh?"
Ha Mu-baek could only ask back at the sudden outburst.
"So I'll definitely come back alive."
Eyes filled with determination.
Ha Mu-baek saw that look and turned away again.
"Continue heart method cultivation."
He said indifferently.
The four sat in the lotus position.
Ha Mu-baek acted as if nothing had happened, same as always, but the others were different.
Rumors about Ha Mu-baek began to spread quietly among the first-year Hidden Dragon Corps cadets.
"Hmph. So it ended up in a big fuss after all. Tsk."
Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul clicked his tongue upon hearing about Sado Gwang.
He'd long known of his ambitions. That's why he understood Pang Do-yul's distaste for Fierce Dragon Corps.
But picking a fight with that corps' instructor at Devouring Dragon Pavilion...
It must have been an eyesore.
And of all people, it had to be Ha Mu-baek. He'd basically shoved his head into a tiger's jaws.
Though the man himself hadn't realized it.
"What should we do? A regular Fierce Dragon Corps instructor demolished Hidden Dragon Corps' first-year chief instructor."
Fierce Dragon Corps Leader Moyong Jin-ho asked Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul with a worried face.
He had every reason to worry.
Compared to Hidden Dragon Corps, Fierce Dragon Corps was powerless. If the Hidden Dragon Corps leader made an issue of this, he'd be the one in trouble.
"Eh, with so many witnesses, even the Hidden Dragon Corps leader can't complain much."
Pang Do-yul said dismissively.
"True, but..."
"Tricky, right? Ha Mu-baek."
"Honestly, yes."
Moyong Jin-ho could only nod.
"What can we do? He's been assigned here."
"..."
Moyong Jin-ho had nothing to say.