Exchange Martial Arts With Me (1)

Sword Queen Soso floated Yu Seol in front of her chest.

“Is this internal qi? Moreover, she underwent Body Reformation… What just happened?”

Yet Yu Seol couldn’t answer that. She simply loved being raised in the air.

When the Sword Queen slowly stretched out both her hands, an air-like film formed around Yu Seol’s body.

Yu Jinsan, who was watching, asked with a worried look.

“What are you trying to do?”

He knew that she didn’t intend to harm the child, but he couldn’t guess her intentions.

“I am trying to display the universe.”

At that moment, a curtain of qi surrounding Yu Seol enveloped her in darkness. Inside, there was an amazing sight, as if shooting stars were pouring down.

It was an incredibly amazing sight to see.

“Universe…”

“If we can understand the universe, the foundation of all things, we can achieve enlightenment.”

The enlightenment that Soso spoke of wasn’t a simple thing. It was a requirement for humans to transcend limitations and become higher beings.

“But what kind of enlightenment can a two-year-old child gain?”

Could his two-year-old granddaughter gain enlightenment about the universe that he himself hadn’t been able to achieve in his entire life? What kind of absurdity was this? Yu Jinsan was dumbfounded and wondered whether he should stop her.

However, the Sword Queen’s expression looked so serious that he decided to watch a little longer.

“A child who holds innocence from the start can see and feel what we cannot. The more time begins to fall for her, the farther her path gets.”

“But even so, it cannot be…”

“Grandpa realizes it too, right? This child is like me.”

Then, suddenly, a light appeared around Yu Seol’s head, who was inside the curtain of qi.

It was like the grandeur of light when Buddha attained enlightenment.

“No way…”

“It worked well! My words were true, right?”

Who would look at her bright smile and think she was someone from Murim, and the best one at that?

When people imagined the Sword Queen, they often thought of a majestic appearance, but when he saw her in person, her actions held not the slightest bit of authority.

Yu Jinsan began to appreciate the unpretentious appearance of the Sword Queen little by little.

“Did you say it worked? Then, my granddaughter….”

“Yes. Is this the first time Grandpa has seen it? It’s a stage where you can say she is stepping into the Grandmaster stage.”

Yu Jinsan opened his mouth. He even thought he was hallucinating.

What was a Grandmaster? When one entered the higher levels of Murim growth, they would end up being able to control the flow of qi, and their physical abilities and five senses were said to reach a superhuman level.

It was truly a level reached only by the most gifted and talented warriors of Murim.

“G-Grandmaster! Is that even possible?”

“Why do you think like that? Grandpa can move to a higher level only if you can break away from the physical limits we create.”

Yu Jinsan couldn’t disagree. Although she looked young on the outside, he knew that this woman had the highest enlightenment regarding this.

Every word she said was nothing short of witty.

Yu Jinsan looked at Seol, covered in the golden light, and cautiously asked,

“Could you explain this entire thing to me?”

“Even a person without any internal qi can attain enlightenment if he or she awakens their body. How can it be possible to escape the providence of nature for the purity of the beginning, to attain enlightenment in the universe, and to reach the realm of harmony?”

As she said, the stage of Grandmaster wasn’t something anyone could approach as a warrior.

Just as beasts turn into Divine Beasts, and chrysalises become insects and spread their wings, Yu Seol also felt something, awakened, and advanced to the next stage.

This wouldn’t have been possible without the special constitution of her body and the help of the Sword Queen.

Regardless, a 2-year-old child reaching the Grandmaster stage left him unsure of how to handle it.

“Then my granddaughter has received such a great gift. How should I repay this…?”

Soso, who held Yu Seol carefully, handed her back to Yu Jinsan and smiled brightly.

“I heard it was fate that we met like this. I feel that too, so don’t take this too much to heart.”

“Then… it might not be a big thing, but please, let me give you some food at least.”

Soso shook her head with a faint smile.

“I truly thank you, but I need to leave. I have to finish my retirement ceremony by today.”

How could he hold her back? Before she left, Yu Jinsan asked her the question he was most curious about.

“If you don’t mind, may I ask why you want to leave Murim?”

It was impossible to judge the age of this person by her current appearance, but no matter how you looked at it, it seemed strange that she was so happy and energetic about retiring.

“I am heading to the west to find my parents. I think something happened to them when they went there a few days ago.”

The people who raised the Sword Queen. Yu Jinsan knew that her parents were famous people who dominated the land.

“Then, why didn’t you leave silently? Why put up a ceremony…?”

“Because I might never come back. Before that, I wanted to sort out any unresolved relationships. This is the way of Kangho.”

Not being able to come back also meant that she was risking her life. She was the best in martial arts.

That was probably why he couldn’t understand her.

He was curious about what was happening, but he couldn’t stop her any longer.

“…Then, I wish you luck.”

“Yes, Grandpa. Let’s meet again if we survive!”

Soso narrowed her eyes at Yu Seol and then disappeared into the wind.

Her footwork, which transformed her into a ray of light, carried her away.

‘What happened here was a rare display of warriors of this age and day.’

It was a pity that she had to leave this place. When she disappeared from sight, he turned to look at his granddaughter.

Yu Seol, fast asleep, breathed softly.

‘But, is our Seol a Grandmaster now?’

It was clear that she had achieved this semi-grandmaster state where her qi was being stored.

This was an unprecedented event in the history of Murim. No. No one would believe the current situation.

“I guess I should start boiling the meat porridge.”

He laid Yu Seol down in the room and headed into the kitchen.

While making porridge, he reflected on his conversation with the Sword Queen.

Although it was a brief meeting, he gained a lot of insight.

But it wasn’t enough for him to reach enlightenment, yet the conversation continued to linger in his mind.

But there was no need to rush. Now that the illness he had been suffering from was gone, there was no need for him to worry about dying early.

Yu Jinsan carefully stirred the ladle and made up his mind.

‘Things will go as planned.’

His first goal remained unchanged.

If the bones and body were reorganized, one could become younger to some extent and regain the martial arts strength of their prime. From then on, he planned to move ahead in earnest to avenge his family.

After a while, he put the finished porridge in a bowl and took it out of the kitchen.

“Come on now, let’s have some porridge! My granddaughter, wake up…”

Yu Jinsan was speaking until he was struck dumb.

Because there was a familiar child running around on the roof.

“Fun.”

Wasn’t she more than a foot tall? He was shocked as he watched her.

“H-How did you get up there?”

“Hiiiaaa~”

When he saw her innocent smile, he couldn’t even shout at her.

At that moment, Yu Seol jumped to the floor.

Like a frog, she gasped in vain and leaped.

“Huh?!”

Looking at her outstretched arms, she seemed to think she was a bird.

Yu Jinsan, flustered, adjusted his position from below and caught his granddaughter in his chest.

Thud!

“Oh my, we almost had a big problem! It’s dangerous, so don’t climb up there again.”

“No~”

Yu Seol, who was being hugged, buried her face in his chest.

In Yu Jinsan’s left hand was a bowl of hot meat porridge.

The temperature could have burned any normal child, but this girl was inhaling it as if nothing had happened.

“You can’t eat like that.”

He quickly pulled the child away and wiped the porridge from her lips.

Concern filled Yu Jinsan’s face.

‘Huh. I’m worried about the future.’

His granddaughter’s enlightenment wasn’t something he could simply be happy about.

Gradually, the child’s strength would be beyond his control, and he worried about whether he could raise her well.

He made Yu Seol sit on the ground and feed her porridge as usual.

“Eat it slowly.”

The porridge bowl was half empty.

Suddenly, she stretched out her hands and waved them, as if asking for the spoon.

“Seol, gib.”

“Haha. Right, you’re all grown up now.”

Why would he refuse her when she wanted to eat by herself? Yu Jinsan handed her the spoon without a second thought.

But her reaction was completely unexpected.

Yu Seol, who wanted to eat the porridge with her clumsy movements, held the spoon up.

“Grapa eat.”

She intended to feed him.

He couldn’t help but feel shocked and touched as she held out the spoon to him.

“Ehe. Hehehe.”

It seemed as if all the hardships he had faced that day vanished in an instant.

After taking a bite, Yu Seol looked up at him with her big eyes.

“Dasdy?”

How could it not be delicious? The happy smile on Yu Jinsan’s face didn’t fade.

“Of course. This is the most delicious porridge in the world.”

That was when he noticed it was already his third bite.

“Unnie, come.”

“Uh? Unnie?”

He couldn’t understand it since no one was around. At that time, she pointed somewhere.

“There.”

She was pointing towards the bandits’ village.

Yu Jinsan, who had been observing that place, was shocked because, from afar, Hyun Hee was approaching.

‘She sensed her before I did?’

He was left utterly speechless by her incredibly developed abilities to sense the presence of others.

“Grandpa!”

Hyun Hee was out of breath, as if she had run all the way to this place.

“You said you would come tomorrow. What happened? Calm down and talk. You’re running out of breath.”

“Where is the Sword Queen?”

“She left.”

Hyun Hee looked to the sides and stumbled.

“Haa…”

“What’s so great about her? You didn’t even meet her in person.”

“I will surely become like her in the future!”

Yu Jinsan put his granddaughter on his lap and laughed.

“If you become the Sword Queen, I will become a saint. Did the bandits make any progress in martial arts?”

“Most of them have mastered all the forms of the Wudang basic arts.”

The most well-known sword technique of the Wudang Sect had the advantage of being strong in the basics and easy to learn.

It was natural for the bandits, who only knew half of the martial arts, to lose their courage during the training of martial arts of sects.

“Thank goodness. They can’t neglect the training even for a moment.”

“Why?”

“Now that her retirement is imminent, the Wudang Sect will come here to investigate matters. Since you’re a Taoist, you should understand better.”

“I’m no longer a Taoist of the Wudang sect, Grandpa.”

Yu Jinsan nodded.

“Then, that’s good.”

“What is?”

“How about exchanging one of your martial arts techniques with one of mine?”

Hyun Hee looked unsure about this suggestion.

“Uh…?”

“If you teach me one martial art of Wudang, I will teach you one from the Yu family.”

The martial arts of Wudang focused on internal qi. Although there were a few, like the Taiji arts, they could be utilized with spear techniques.

Since many of the martial arts skills of Wudang had been taught to the bandits, there shouldn’t have been much concern. But he wanted to know one thing.

“The light footwork of Wudang?”

Yu Jinsan nodded and said what he wanted to know.

“From what I heard, from the second class disciples, this technique is taught in Wudang, the Ladder Cloud Arts.”

Ladder Cloud Arts were the representative art of Wudang, which allowed the body to move freely, as if walking on clouds.

But since it consumed a lot of internal qi and varied depending on the level of understanding, it required a huge training period to be used in fights.

Even Hyun Hee, an outstanding disciple, could only imitate the basics.

“Why that? What if you get hurt…?”

Yu Jinsan was too old to learn new martial arts. Moreover, was there any technique that consumed as much internal qi as this?

And it made no sense because he didn’t have to learn it.

The reason Yu Jinsan wanted to learn it, though, was because he was worried about his granddaughter jumping onto the roof.

“Please help my child learn it.”

“It isn’t as easy as you think. If you don’t learn the internal qi cultivation of the Wudang Sect, you can’t even practice it perfectly.”

“Don’t worry about the cultivation. She has already passed the point of being tied down by those things.”

Hyun Hee tilted her head like she didn’t understand it. And above all, the most basic problem remained.

“But how can I even teach a two-year-old child?”

“She is a child born with the qualities and talent of the Sword Queen. It is worth a try, right?”

“…Seol?”

Yu Jinsan patted Seol on the back and put her on the ground. Then he walked in front of the tree.

As he waved his hand and drew a Taiji sign, a cold wind swirled around him.

“In return, I will pass on the Yu family sword technique to you.”

A moment later, his palm, engulfed in red light, struck the tree right at the center.

Chaaang!

The tree shook so terrifyingly that it seemed like it would break at any moment.

A small gust of wind then moved to scatter the nearby leaves.

Despite the noise, not a single scratch appeared on the tree.

It didn’t seem like a big deal from the outside, but Hyun Hee was shocked.

“That’s terrifying. It shook from the inside without leaving any marks. Even the Immortal Buddha Body could fall if done correctly.”

“You observed it perfectly. Our Yu family’s palm technique subdues strength with softness. So, what do you think?”

From Hyun Hee’s perspective, there was nothing to lose. She nodded with a bright smile, as if she didn’t need to think about it.

“Great! I’ll start coming every morning tomorrow, Grandpa.”