Chapter 6 – A Hellish Drill Instructor

Chapter 6 – A Hellish Drill Instructor

“I have decided to take charge of that training.”

Huh?

“Why… Why?”

As I asked back with a bewildered expression, Tang Hae-soo calmly continued.

“Since your level is significantly lacking, shouldn't you catch up to match their level in order to learn the same martial arts as the other warriors?”

“No, that is true, but… I mean, why are you, Elder Brother, taking charge of my training…”

“Because I know your condition best.”

…You do?

Tang Hae-soo briefly explained the events that had occurred after I collapsed.

“The divine physician said your constitution is the Heavenly Martial Body.”

Cutting off all context and speaking only of the main point, it was indeed brief. It was so brief that hearing one thing brought three questions to mind.

Suddenly, the Heavenly Martial Body? …A heaven-sent warrior, a protagonist privilege? ……Why?

“Me?”

“They said you untangled your own twisted meridians and escaped the Heavenly Punishment.”

“……Me?”

“He also said that since you have resistance to poison, if you learn poison arts, you can reach the realm of the Ten Ten Thousand Poisons Immunity.”

“…………Me?”

As I repeated the same words, Tang Hae-soo frowned as if annoyed.

“That is what I want to ask.”

What on earth happened while I was asleep?

With a dazed expression, I began to organize my confused mind.

So… putting together the words Tang Hae-soo said next, it was like this.

That I had returned my twisted meridians to their original places on my own, and my constitution, which had changed as a result, was the Heavenly Martial Body that I had only heard of.

'…No, how?'

From birth, my meridians were twisted, making it a life destined to end early. In fact, just before I possessed it, hadn't this body already died? Yet, suddenly, it became a perfect warrior's body for learning martial arts.

‘Wait. He said it was due to an internal change? If so, the only predictable variable is… that the soul changed.’

The tickling sensation in my lower abdomen that I felt just before launching the flying dagger. It seemed that was the dantian where internal energy accumulates. Desperate to live, I had unknowingly used internal energy, bursting the accumulated energy.

‘As the strong power spread in an instant, it must have pushed the meridians back into place. Since the soul changed, the physical body changed accordingly as well.’

Perhaps that was possible because I am a modern person. Because I did not know how dangerous it was to twist meridians.

‘Is this what they mean by "ignorance breeds courage"?’

Since I did not know, it was no different from taking a gamble where ninety-nine out of a hundred die. Had I known, I would not have easily attempted it.

‘……This is a jackpot.’

But I succeeded. Although it was not intentional, the result was a jackpot.

“That turned out… well?”

“Turned out well? I do not even want to count how many times you have almost died in front of me anymore. Just what were you thinking…!”

For a moment, Tang Hae-soo raised his voice. As if trying to suppress his anger, he gulped down the cold tea.

“…Why did you not run away?”

He asked with a complicated expression, without meeting my eyes.

“…….”

Why did I not run away? Was it because I was sick of repeating bad choices as if pushed into them, or because I had already died once, so there was nothing more to fear?

I wrapped it up in plausible words, but in truth, I knew why I had followed Tang Hae-soo and why I had not run away. Because I knew the heavy sense of responsibility that drove him to wander out every dawn, despite knowing it was dangerous. But also because, in one corner of my mind plagued by lingering fear, I wished for someone to be with me.

Memories of my past life rose up like air bubbles floating to the surface of the water, and I chose my words for a moment.

“Because if it were me, I would have wanted someone to do that for me.”

“…….”

Tang Hae-soo merely toyed with his teacup quietly. I knew that feeling. The urgency of feeling like he had to do something, rather than logical thinking. Therefore, I did not particularly want to blame him.

“Has your memory still not returned?”

“…About that…”

“Yes. I see. We can just start over from the beginning.”

Tang Hae-soo, who let out a short sigh, grabbed my wrist.

“I will channel my energy into your body to guide you, so follow where it leads. You must not open your mouth or speak.”

I nodded and sat cross-legged as if meditating.

Since waking up, I had vaguely felt an energy inside my body. I could not be sure before hearing the explanation, but now I realized it was Qi.

‘He is probably trying to teach me the mental cultivation method to circulate internal energy.’

Before long, an unfamiliar sensation spread from my wrist. It was like a light guiding me, showing the paths inside my body one by one.

Although that bizarre sensation was something I was feeling for the first time in my life, it was neither uncomfortable nor painful.

‘Rather… it is becoming comfortable.’

Inside the dark abyss, I slowly moved the energy along the spreading light.

It was a fascinating thing. To be able to physically feel the formless Qi. Although it was not something I could grasp in my hand, I could tell it was moving as I wished.

As I followed the guidance, the path passing through the upper dantian located at the crown of my head and leading down to three inches below the navel, that is, the lower dantian, came into view all at once.

Tang Hae-soo slowly finished a single circulation of energy and withdrew his internal energy.

“Circulating the energy once along the path I guided you through just now is called a single circulation. It can be said to be the foundation of the cultivation method for operating internal energy.”

I carefully retraced the path I had passed through.

‘So this is the internal energy I have only heard of.’

I could clearly feel the condensed energy of life flowing. Feeling the energy in this way, training it with breathing, and guiding the dispersing Qi to store it in the dantian through breathing exercises is the fundamental work of regulating energy.

Now I just had to circulate the energy along that remembered path. Since the meridians were cleared without any blockages.

“I have memorized it. Should I circulate the energy like this?”

“No?”

“I can do it by myse… pardon?”

The rest of my words, trying to say I could do it on my own, were cut off. I truly could not keep up with what was in Tang Hae-soo's head, especially that way of speaking… Why, what is the problem this time again……

“Not yet. There is something we must do before that.”

“……?”

Tang Hae-soo spun the teacup sitting on the table and said.

“This is you right now. Small and fragile. Especially since you even have cracks, no matter how much internal energy you pour in, it will only overflow and break.”

‘…Ugh, what an analogy…'

“So we must rebuild that vessel first. So that we can contain more things in a sturdy and large vessel.”

“Does that mean…”

“From now on, we will learn external arts first. In other words, your physical body will be born anew.”

Even my soul was born anew, and now he was telling my body to be born anew as well.

“You can look forward to it.”

This, by any chance……

‘……means he is going to work me to death, right…?’

*Gulp.*

It was good that I got to learn martial arts, but I felt like I had been caught by a devilish instructor of all people.

Tang Hae-soo's faint smile felt chilling.

But, couldn't I accumulate internal energy while practicing external arts? In novels, it seemed like internal energy was far superior to external arts.

“Then why did you guide me earlier…! …I mean, sir.”

“Did I not tell you? You are a cracked teacup. You must slowly absorb the spiritual medicines you failed to absorb before and the poison Qi you held within to patch up the cracked parts. In the future, you only need to absorb exactly that much under my guidance.”

Ah, I see. So he wants to overcome my learning deficiency by setting up a systematic 1:1 curriculum?

As I nodded, finally understanding his true intention, Tang Hae-soo continued speaking.

“If you understand, change into your training robes and come out to the small training ground in the detached villa.”

Did I hear wrong?

“I am still a patient, though…?”

Heavens. It had not even been half a day since I collapsed vomiting blood and woke up.

Even if I am lagging behind, how could we start training right now, you bastard? I ended up stretched out like this because I retrieved you from the alligator's throat.

Truly, he had neither compassion nor loyalty.

“It is fine. Humans can only feel one pain at a time.”

Tang Hae-soo said out of the blue.

“What does that mean? …I mean, sir?”

“It is nothing much…”

“………”

“Just that somewhere else will hurt a bit from now on?”

At that chilling smile, my complexion turned rapidly pale.

***

“Spare me.”

Trembling all over, I asked in a pitiful voice.

“Hah.”

“I do not want to die yet.”

“…Hah?”

Tang Hae-soo clicked his tongue briefly, as if he found it absurd.

But I was also truly aggrieved. It was not that I did not want to work hard, I was just a bit aggrieved.

“It has already been two double-hours… sir. *Gasp*, until when do we have to do this?”

It was already the second double-hour in the horse stance, where you keep your back straight and bend your legs as if riding a horse. What did this mean? It meant I had been doing squats for four hours.

“Humans do not die that easily.”

Nobody died from doing horse stance? There probably was? For example, me… someone like me…

Tang Hae-soo continued, looking at me, who was drenched in sweat all over.

“Having thought about it carefully, I think your life thread is actually quite resilient. Since you even overcame that vicious Heavenly Punishment. So, would anything happen to you under normal circumstances?”

Did he mean he would run me to the ground since I survived?

As expected, Tang Hae-soo's words were correct. Due to the pain in my lower body, I could not even remember the previous pain. If I received another training tomorrow, the pain in my lower body would be forgotten, right? I had briefly forgotten that a martial artist's training was a brutal thing where pain is forgotten through pain.

It had already been a month since I received basic training like this.

Waking up at dawn to warm up my body, I did basic physical training with Tang Hae-soo at the small training ground.

“You must make your lower body solid and your upper body flexible.”

Starting from strength exercises to build up the lower body and moving on to the upper body and abdomen, completing one cycle brought us to around lunchtime.

After finishing a light meal, I also began studying the Tang Clan's poisons with Tang Hae-soo. I learned about the types of poisons, their respective functions and side effects, and antidotes.

“What is this? The smell is sweet, can I try eating it?”

“Go ahead. Though if you eat it, you will wake up a week later.”

“……Then can't you just tell me no?”

Once that study was finished, I started the physical training that had been repeated in the morning again.

This was finally time for myself. However, I could not let my guard down. Because I did not know when Tang Hae-soo would suddenly drop by. If I got caught resting, he would start tearing me apart with words. He only stopped just before blood dripped from my ears.

“Unable to endure even that short moment, are you lying down again? Tsk, tsk, what do you plan to do with that kind of determination? At this rate, you will die of old age before learning the secret techniques.”

'…I only rested for five minutes after training for three hours. It is truly unfair…'

But I did not speak it aloud. Because the nagging would only get longer.

“Young Master, open wide! You must eat to live, even if you have no appetite. Okay?”

“No, I really can't… *Ugh*, *gag*……”

When I repeated the training all day long, I lost my appetite. Dinner became at a level where Sawol forced it into my mouth. He told me to swallow if I wanted to live. I did swallow, but I wanted to cry.

By this point, I was so exhausted that there were many times when I did not even have the strength left to crawl to the bed.

Then, abandoning my human dignity, I lay sprawled by the doorway.

'…Humans really do not die easily.'

I also came to learn things I did not want to know.

“Tsk. Sit down.”

When that happened, Tang Hae-soo, who came to the annex, picked me up and made me sit cross-legged.

“Are you ready? Today, you are to absorb the energy in the same way.”

The end of the day was regulating energy to absorb the energy of spiritual medicines accumulated in my body into my dantian.

The body, which had been unable to even regulate energy properly due to twisted meridians, not only had its blocked paths burst open as the clustered power erupted, but it also expelled all of the accumulated turbid Qi. Thus, to the point where I could feel my body becoming lighter as I absorbed the energy of the spiritual medicine.

'No, my body is light again… *Sob*.'

A harsh training that a human could not possibly endure.

After draining my physical strength all day like a thresher, when night came, they recharged my energy as if inserting batteries.

'Why is my body getting lighter as time goes on, why!'

If I collapsed instead, they would not work me as mercilessly as they did now, but just how many spiritual medicines did this body eat, that even when I felt like dying, I became full of energy once I regulated my energy.

My excessively healthy body was a bit resentful.

While I was lying collapsed on the bed after finishing the energy regulation, Tang Hae-soo stared at me and said.

“Indeed, it is a constitution worthy of being called the Heavenly Martial Body. We can increase the training starting from tomorrow.”

“………”

A hollow laugh escaped me.

Living is this tiring.

In fact, I was the one who felt the results of the training most significantly.

Even so, it was not as if I suddenly became an absolute master or gained several sixty-year cycles of internal energy.

Clearly, it was a body completely different from the beginning.

“Well, can you keep up? Or will you know your place and give up now?”

Looking back now, from the very beginning, Tang Hae-soo knew exactly how to handle me.

“Ha, give up? What nonsense. Let's just do it!”

Because I was the type of person who had to see things through to the end once I started.

……And I also could not stand my temper being provoked.

Regardless of my like or dislike of Tang Hae-soo, his training was truly beginning to shine.