Chapter 45

Guest Instructor for a Day (2)

The walls on either side of the training ground rose higher, and the destination of the course appeared at what could only be called the summit.

Everyone raised their heads and looked up. They were even more tense than they had been during the previous exercise because this vertical course was far more difficult than the horizontal one.

Before, they had at least been able to keep their feet on the ground. This time, they would have to deal with concealed weapons while suspended in midair.

Numerous footholds had been installed along both walls. They had to climb upward by alternating between the left and right sides. Of course, someone with exceptional lightness skills could leap all the way up in a single bound, but that would be far too dangerous.

They might find themselves forced to block dozens of concealed weapons at once while high above the ground.

“Surely you aren’t planning to demonstrate this one as well?”

At Hwang Ilbi’s question, Baek Socheon nodded.

“This time, it really is impossible.”

“If you put it that way, the first one was impossible too.”

“This is different from before. How are you supposed to dodge concealed weapons in midair without internal energy? And what will you do if you fall from that height?”

“What else? I’ll die.”

“Then go die somewhere else. Why are you trying to die in front of me?”

“Are you worried it would break your heart if I died?”

“Would you prefer me to be delighted?”

Afraid that speaking his true thoughts aloud might somehow make them come true, Hwang Ilbi kept them to himself.

‘If you so much as get injured here, Corps Leader Chung will hold a celebration banquet. That’s why I’m telling you not to do it!’

Once again, Baek Socheon ordered the officer managing the course to set the difficulty to Extreme.

Naturally, compared to the High difficulty, the gaps he had to cross were wider, and the concealed weapons were far more threatening.

Baek Socheon addressed everyone.

“As all of you know, I’m not young enough to risk my life merely to show off. I’m old enough to know when to read the situation and protect myself. Even so, the reason I’m going out of my way to demonstrate this is the same as before.

“Watch carefully and remember it, so that someday, when your lives are in danger, you can use what you’ve seen here as a reference. If even one of you manages to save his life in the future because of this demonstration, then the risk will have been worth taking.

“So watch closely. Understood?”

“Yes!”

Drawing strength from their thunderous response, Baek Socheon leaped upward.

His first jump succeeded effortlessly.

It was a height that should have been unreachable for anyone without internal energy, yet he sprang up as lightly as a cat.

The concealed weapons had not begun flying yet.

Baek Socheon launched himself toward a protruding foothold on the opposite wall.

Swoosh! Swish!

Two concealed weapons shot toward him from the upper left and upper right.

Clang!

He knocked away the weapon coming from the left and twisted his body in midair.

Using the momentum from deflecting the second weapon, he lightly carried himself across to the opposite side.

Cheers erupted from below.

Baek Socheon’s body had already surpassed its limits several times over. On top of that, he had mastered the lightness technique contained within the Nine Fists of Overturning Heaven.

His movements continued to draw involuntary exclamations of admiration.

Baek Socheon’s footwork was nimble, and his judgment was precise. He clearly demonstrated how to distribute and control one’s strength while airborne to remain suspended for as long as possible, and how to exert force in order to move in the desired direction.

Everyone could see just how powerful a human body could become without internal energy and how much speed it could produce.

There were several hair-raising moments.

But each time, Baek Socheon overcame the danger through quick thinking.

The moment that drew the greatest roar of admiration came when he spun his body during a crisis, stepped on the concealed weapons flying toward him, and used them like stepping-stones across a stream to propel himself toward the opposite wall.

In that manner, Baek Socheon safely reached the summit.

It was a training course he had completed so many times that it had become familiar to him. His honed body and the lightness technique of the Nine Fists of Overturning Heaven had overcome his lack of internal energy.

When they saw him standing tall at the top, everyone burst into cheers and applause.

Overwhelmed by memories of the past, Hwang Ilbi unknowingly shouted,

“The Corps Leader never once stood behind us!”

The Iron Sword Corps warriors who had shared those days with him nodded.

He had always shown them his back.

Even when breaking through an enemy ambush, he had been the first to leap forward, just as he had now. Back then, too, he had looked down at them from above and encouraged them.

They remembered him watching over them from atop the obstacle, gesturing for them to hurry and climb.

That was why, despite taking on the most dangerous missions during Baek Socheon’s tenure as Corps Leader, they had suffered the lowest casualty rate.

‘Corps Leader! Please return to the way you were!’

Hwang Ilbi wished for it with all his heart.

Many others felt the same way.

Before they were martial artists, they were human beings.

People did not always wish to see heroes fall. Sometimes, they hoped for someone to become a hero. Sometimes, they longed for a departed hero to return.

To them, Baek Socheon was such a person.

Alternating between the walls, Baek Socheon nimbly descended.

“All right. Shall we begin the real training now?”

“Yes!”

The Iron Sword Corps warriors set the difficulty to High and began their second exercise.

Baek Socheon carefully taught them how to evade and respond to each attack. Just as he had said upon arriving, he faithfully fulfilled his role as their instructor.

That was the part that moved the Iron Sword Corps warriors the most.

Several dangerous situations arose during this exercise as well, but the training ended with only one person spraining his leg and two others suffering bruises.

Baek Socheon stood before them once more.

“Thank you all for completing the training safely.”

“Thank you for your instruction!”

The Iron Sword Corps warriors expressed their gratitude in thunderous voices. Their gazes were completely different from when Baek Socheon had first arrived.

“It felt good to sweat alongside all of you again after so long. To be honest, this training helped me more than it helped you.”

Through the exercise, Baek Socheon had gained a clear understanding of his body’s current limits.

It was then that someone spoke.

“Instructor, I would like to spar with you.”

The man who stepped forward was once again Cheon Su, Captain of the Sixth Unit.

Everyone’s attention focused on him.

Why insist on a spar in the middle of such a pleasant atmosphere?

Except for a few oblivious individuals, most of them understood what was happening.

Chung Yang had ordered him to do this.

Everyone knew that Chung Yang regarded Baek Socheon as his bitter enemy.

Cheon su likely had not challenged him because he believed he could win. During the previous two training sessions, Baek Socheon had already demonstrated skills superior to theirs.

For Cheon Su, this was simply an order he had to obey.

Baek Socheon readily accepted.

“Very well. Shall we exchange a move for old times’ sake?”

“Thank you.”

“Do it properly. If you waste time worrying about me, it will end in a single move.”

“Yes. Understood.”

With everyone watching, the spar began.

Cheon  su thrust his sword forward.

He truly did not hold back.

However, he aimed for Baek Socheon’s shoulder, a place where even if something went wrong, Baek Socheon would not lose his life.

Rather than evading, Baek Socheon charged forward.

“Ah!”

For an instant, Cheon su thought he had pierced Baek Socheon’s shoulder.

In the next moment, a tingling sensation ran through his wrist.

Then he felt as though his body were floating through the air, and the scenery around him abruptly shifted.

A moment later, he was lying on the ground.

Feeling the cold earth against his back, Cheon su looked upward.

Baek Socheon stood over him.

“I told you it would end in one move if you worried about me.”

In truth, Cheon su had done his best.

Baek Socheon undoubtedly knew that as well.

He had merely preserved Cheon Su’s dignity because the man’s comrades and subordinates were watching.

Baek Socheon extended his hand.

Cheon su saw neither superiority nor resentment anywhere in Baek Socheon’s eyes. Because of that, he could take the offered hand without hesitation.

“Thank you for showing restraint.”

The technique Baek Socheon had used was none other than the Nine Fists of Overturning Heaven.

He had executed the Flower-Bearing Wind, one of the seven forms of the First Fist, Wind Flowing over Clouded Mountains.

When the greatest fist art of all time was performed by the hands of the man who had once been the strongest under heaven, it brought down an Iron Sword Corps unit captain in a single move.

“Captain Cheon, you leave your right side exposed when you thrust your sword.”

By pointing out Cheon Su’s weakness as well, Baek Socheon confirmed the completeness of his defeat.

Baek Socheon turned to everyone.

“You all know that the situation outside is becoming ominous.”

As members of the Iron Sword Corps, they received the highest-level intelligence faster than almost anyone except the Alliance’s leadership.

“It is far more urgent than you think.”

“Do you believe war will break out?”

They all knew that if war began, they would be assigned to the most dangerous operations.

Baek Socheon nodded.

“Yes.”

“When do you think it will happen?”

“Within a year at the latest. At the earliest, this winter or next spring.”

It was an answer that neither the Alliance, their Corps Leader, nor Hyeoncheon Pavilion had given them.

“Three years ago, the leader of the Cheokcheon Alliance shattered my dantian. He has now completely recovered from his injuries. Even at my peak, I could not defeat him. And now, he will be your enemy.”

No one dared even breathe loudly.

“Tomorrow, the Hyeoncheon Unit will issue a recruitment notice. We do not have time to train new martial artists, so we need elites like you. The Iron Sword Corps is dangerous, but the Hyeoncheon Unit will probably be even more dangerous.

“Anyone willing to join me for one hell of a fight should come find me.”

At that exact moment, an enraged voice erupted from behind them.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

The man who appeared was Chung Yang, Corps Leader of the Iron Sword Corps.

“I sent you here to serve as an instructor, and instead you are recruiting members from the Iron Sword Corps? Have you lost your mind?”

Once again, Baek Socheon answered honestly.

“My apologies. My circumstances are extremely urgent.”

He could have humiliated Chung Yang as much as he pleased.

Assigning such a dangerous training course to a man who had lost his internal energy had clearly been done with malicious intent. If Baek Socheon chose to tear him apart verbally, he could thoroughly disgrace Chung Yang in front of everyone.

But he did not.

He believed that humiliating a leader in front of his subordinates would only encourage internal division.

To be honest, Baek Socheon now regretted beating Chung Yang in the past.

At the time, Chung Yang had deserved the beating. But after so many years, Baek Socheon felt that perhaps he had not needed to go that far.

Of course, a person’s feelings could change from one day to the next. By next year, he might once again think, ‘I really did a good job beating him back then.’

“My apologies.”

When Baek Socheon responded so respectfully, Chung Yang could no longer press the issue.

Chung Yang had been watching the training from a distance from beginning to end.

He had been too far away to hear their conversations, but as the cheers directed at Baek Socheon grew louder, he realized that his intentions had failed.

Even so, his final hope had been Cheon Su, Captain of the Sixth Unit.

Aside from Hwang Ilbi, Cheon su was known as the strongest in actual combat. He also had such a steadfast personality that he would never disobey Chung Yang’s order.

But Chung Yang had never imagined that Cheon su would be thrown to the ground in a single move.

Had he not already witnessed Baek Socheon skillfully completing the mechanism training, he would undoubtedly have assumed that the two men had conspired to stage the spar.

“As you are also aware, Corps Leader Chung, the situation involving the Cheokcheon Alliance is not promising. I believe this is a time when we should combine our strength.”

“My apologies, but I have absolutely no intention of cooperating with the Hyeoncheon Unit.”

“I understand. Then I will take my leave.”

As Baek Socheon turned to depart, the members of the Iron Sword Corps loudly called out,

“Thank you!”

“I should be the one thanking you. I realized and learned a great deal today, so I am pleased. Use me as an example of what not to do, and make sure none of you ever gets injured!”

Leaving those words behind, Baek Socheon departed.

Chung Yang glared at his subordinates.

His eyes delivered a clear warning.

Just try going to Baek Socheon. There will be consequences.

Even without such a warning, abandoning the exceptional treatment enjoyed by members of the Iron Sword Corps and transferring elsewhere was no easy decision.

After dismissing the warriors, Hwang Ilbi approached Chung Yang and tried to soothe him.

“Please calm down. You already know he isn’t someone who can be dealt with easily.”

Chung Yang abruptly asked,

“Are you going?”

Privately, Hwang Ilbi thought that Chung Yang possessed remarkably sharp instincts.

When Baek Socheon had invited them to join the Hyeoncheon Unit, Hwang Ilbi had wanted to run over to him immediately.

But Baek Socheon’s earlier words remained lodged in his heart.

If something happens, you must take charge of the Iron Sword Corps.

“Don’t you think Captain Baek has changed a great deal? He was never the sort of person who would apologize so readily.”

“Why are you changing the subject? I asked whether you were going.”

“Are you worried that I might?”

“You want to go!”

“No. I have absolutely no intention of going. I won’t.”

“Are you certain?”

“I will never go. If I leave, who will protect you, Corps Leader?”

Only then did Chung Yang’s expression soften slightly.

“Let’s go as well.”

“Yes.”

Hwang Ilbi followed behind Chung Yang.

Chung Yang’s concerns were justified.

Hwang Ilbi already had a feeling that several warriors would transfer to the Hyeoncheon Unit because of today’s training.

In fact, had Baek Socheon brutally beaten Cheon su or humiliated Chung Yang, fewer people would have wanted to follow him.

Whether Baek Socheon had intended it or not, the rational yet dignified conduct he displayed today had set everyone’s blood aflame.

Hwang Ilbi was no exception.

‘Ah, I don’t need to become Corps Leader of the Iron Sword Corps. Can’t I go with him too?’

He had been unable to follow Baek Socheon to Wensheng.

But this time, more than anything, he wanted to follow him.