Bachelor Swordsmanship Remastered [EN]: Chapter 16

016. White Tiger Training Sword – Twelfth Form (2)

Instructor Il Chung-hyun’s satisfaction didn’t last long.

With a blank expression, Instructor Il Chung-hyun murmured to himself.

“Goodness, how many times is he going to repeat it…….”

Currently, Unhyun was in the midst of performing his first ‘White Tiger Training Sword – Twelfth Form’.

Flawless and perfect stances unfolded one after another, and each time, Unhyun’s sword drew a smooth trajectory, emitting a subtle wailing sound.

The problem was that Unhyun’s White Tiger Training Sword showed no sign of ending.

Even though he was already drenched in sweat, Unhyun’s eyes still sparkled.

He didn’t even glance at Il Chung-hyun, let alone seem to recognize him.

“He’s completely immersed.”

It was easy to notice that the same sword form was being repeated.

But Unhyun’s swordplay didn’t stop.

He was so naturally connecting the last form to the first.

It had already been more than half an hour since he began watching Unhyun’s repeated White Tiger Training Sword.

‘He probably can’t even hear my voice.’

However, Instructor Il Chung-hyun didn’t stop Unhyun’s training.

He too had a time when he was so engrossed in the sword that he forgot the passage of time.

Was it because of that faint nostalgia?

A soft smile hung on Instructor Il Chung-hyun’s face as he watched Unhyun.

In the end, it was more than another half an hour later that Unhyun stopped training on his own.

“Hoo.”

Drenched in sweat, Unhyun caught his breath and sheathed his sword.

Unhyun’s eyes were still shining, but his expression wasn’t very satisfied.

“Are you finished now, Scholar Unhyun?”

“Ah, yes.”

As if only then realizing Instructor Il Chung-hyun’s presence, Unhyun belatedly paid his respects and said awkwardly.

“As you said, it seems like because it’s a training sword form, I get this drenched in sweat even after doing it only three or four times.”

‘Three or four times?’

Instructor Il Chung-hyun shook his head slightly at Unhyun’s words.

He had already seen it more than twenty times in the past hour alone.

It seemed that Unhyun was more engrossed in training than Instructor Il Chung-hyun had thought.

“Then how much time do you spend training in a day?”

“I’m trying to keep it to about an hour for now, but as I do it, I always end up going over time……. I think I probably do it for about two hours.”

“Two hours, huh.”

Two hours was practically the entire afternoon.

He had heard that the reports were being rushed as well, so the fact that he was spending so much time on it showed how deeply Unhyun was immersed in it.

“But seeing it in person, the sword path seems very smooth. Rather than the White Tiger Sword, wouldn’t it be better to call it the Fairy Sword or the Seamless Heavenly Garment Sword?”

At Instructor Il Chung-hyun’s words, Unhyun hesitated for a moment before scratching his head and answering.

“That feels too feminine, so I don’t like it.”

Instructor Il Chung-hyun smiled at Unhyun’s answer.

“Scholar Unhyun, the female heroes of the Jianghu [the martial arts world] are even scarier than men. Hahaha.”

It was just a passing remark, but Unhyun showed interest.

“Female heroes? You mean female martial artists?”

“That’s right. Anyway, the name of the sword form can be whatever Scholar Unhyun likes.”

Il Chung-hyun smiled and continued.

“Now that you’ve grasped the sword, work hard and devote yourself to training. I’ll help you as much as I can.”

Seeing Unhyun’s eyes light up at the word ‘help,’ it seemed he didn’t need to be told to work hard.

Watching Unhyun nod with a bright expression, Instructor Il Chung-hyun tilted his head.

‘Immersion to the point of forgetting time……. Is it because he’s a scholar? Or is it because it’s a training sword form created by a scholar?’

To most martial arts instructors, scholars were a truly bizarre species.

Just looking at those difficult books that made their heads ache was one thing, but the tenacity with which they delved into the obscure content that seemed like mere wordplay was enough to make them shake their heads.

As Instructor Il Chung-hyun, who had been directly tormented by a barrage of questions for the past five years, he knew Unhyun’s scholarly nature all too well.

‘Moreover, it’s a sword form created by the same scholar…….’

Perhaps Unhyun’s immersion was a result of the combination of his scholarly tenacity, his attachment to the swordplay he was training for the first time, and the characteristics of the White Tiger Training Sword form that demanded precise posture.

Since a scholar created it and a scholar was learning it, perhaps it was a better fit for his constitution.

‘Anyway, it’s a good thing for Scholar Unhyun.’

“Ah!”

Instructor Il Chung-hyun was startled by Unhyun’s sudden voice and asked.

“What is it now, Scholar Unhyun?”

Unhyun said with a troubled expression.

“I didn’t write down what you told me earlier.”

He had been careless because he hadn’t had to write anything new lately.

Unhyun, who was feeling regretful, looked at Il Chung-hyun with expectant eyes.

“Um, could you perhaps tell me again…….”

But it had already been an hour since then.

No matter how good Il Chung-hyun was, there was no way he could remember all of it.

“Well……. I don’t remember what I said either…….”

Unhyun was crestfallen at Instructor Il Chung-hyun’s evasive answer.

***

After finishing his morning training, Unhyun stopped by Munyeon Hall as usual and wrote down his conversation with Instructor Il Chung-hyun as he remembered it.

He was a little disappointed that he couldn’t recall everything, but he still organized the records as much as possible.

Then, Unhyun left Munyeon Hall again for his afternoon training.

‘White Tiger Training Sword, that’s a pretty good name.’

Unhyun smiled as he repeated the name given to him by Instructor Il Chung-hyun.

He had unintentionally kept it a secret from Instructor Il Chung-hyun, but now that he had received a promise of help, he felt not just relieved but as if he could fly.

The problem was that these things had nothing to do with receiving recognition from His Highness the Crown Prince.

‘To have to stay up all night for a report that I don’t even know if His Highness the Crown Prince is looking at…….’

The more he thought about it, the more energy he lost.

Even though he was directly under the Crown Prince, he had never even properly seen His Highness the Crown Prince’s face.

‘Well, it’s not easy to meet His Highness the Crown Prince.’

He deliberately ignored the possibility that the Crown Prince had lost interest in martial arts and had long forgotten about the Changryong Battle.

Sighing with these thoughts, Unhyun arrived at his training spot before he knew it.

Finding the branch he had hidden behind the building, Unhyun found a suitable spot and swung the branch around.

Then, he slowly calmed his breathing.

‘To confirm for oneself…….’

Recalling the words Instructor Il Chung-hyun had told him, Unhyun stared at the tip of the branch.

The conclusion was that he had no choice but to confirm it himself.

And Unhyun was the only one who could confirm what the White Tiger Training Sword – Twelfth Form was saying.

Because Unhyun was the only one in the world who had mastered this White Tiger Training Sword.

‘Hmm, what I’ve realized so far…….’

He had gained a lot through the training sword.

A smooth yet uninhibited sword path, simple but constantly changing sword forms.

Above all, the fact that he was able to vividly recall the martial arts records, which were just sentences, was largely thanks to this training sword form.

However, if this sword form was originally intended to be something that could be said to be ‘filled with the Qi [life force or energy flow] of heaven and earth,’ he still had no idea.

‘A sword for training internal energy…….’

Thinking about Instructor Il Chung-hyun’s words, Unhyun shook his head.

As far as he knew, internal energy was a strange power that started from the dantian [energy center in the lower abdomen].

He had heard that using internal energy could unleash superhuman strength and push the five senses to their limits.

However, none of that applied to him.

If there was anything different from most other scholars, it was that he didn’t get sick as often.

‘I’ve probably forgotten most of the Four Books and Three Classics too.’

For five years, he had only read, thought about, and written about martial arts books.

So it was only natural that his head was full of martial arts.

“By the way, I can’t fool Instructor Il Chung-hyun’s eyes. How did he know I was training with a sword?”

He tilted his head, but he couldn’t figure it out. But either way, it was a good thing in the end.

Swish.

Holding the branch straight like a sword, Unhyun took the stance of the first form of the White Tiger Training Sword and closed his eyes tightly.

All the thoughts he had had until now were swept away from Unhyun’s mind like illusions, leaving only the sword path of the White Tiger Training Sword.

And the moment Unhyun opened his eyes, the branch was already drawing a smooth trajectory, beginning its uninhibited voyage.

***

“Hoo.”

Unhyun slowly sheathed the branch after finishing his sword form training.

His eyes were shining, but his expression was not very bright.

Unhyun tilted his head as he looked at the branch.

“I guess it’s still not enough. I was hoping for something when I did it with the sword earlier…….”

He had been training the sword form every day for five years without rest.

He had told Instructor Il Chung-hyun earlier that he trained for one to two hours a day, but in reality, there were countless times when he only realized how much time had passed after the sun had set.

But Unhyun didn’t care much.

Back in his student days, there were many times when he would read books all night long, and only when he raised his head because his eyes were sore would he realize that the sun had risen.

Unhyun calculated how many times he had trained.

He didn’t know the exact number, but even if he did it three or four times an hour, he must have done it more than ten times a day.

“So five years, no, four years in full, even if I roughly estimate, it’s well over ten thousand times. As the book said, I think I’m getting a feel for the movements too…….”

Unhyun stroked the branch he was holding with his other hand.

In fact, Unhyun’s calculation was not accurate. According to what Instructor Il Chung-hyun had seen earlier, Unhyun was performing the White Tiger Training Sword not ten times a day, but fifty to a hundred times.

“Until now, I thought it might be because it was a branch and not a sword…….”

Unhyun swung the branch a few times.

His face was slightly tinged with regret.

“I guess it’s still not enough to make it tremble. At this rate, will I only know the conclusion when I’m an old man?”

The expression ‘the sword trembles’ that Unhyun mentioned was an expression written by Scholar Baekhojeon.

The sign that the sword form of the White Tiger Training Sword had found its place and the training was on track was that the sword trembled, that is, vibrated.

“He said that when the sword path is uninhibited, the training is perfected, and you enter the beginning stage, the sword will start to vibrate on its own…….”

Unhyun held the branch out in front of him like a sword and took a stance.

“Is it like this?”

The branch in his hand began to tremble slightly.

The branch gradually shook more violently, and soon, a sharp sound of cutting through the wind leaked out.

But that was because Unhyun was shaking his hand.

“Ooooh.”

Swish, swish.

Unhyun, who was stiffening his face and shaking the branch with a serious expression, let out a chuckle.

“What am I doing, really.”

Unhyun released his stance and sheathed the branch.

With that, the vibrating sound from the branch also stopped.

It was hard not to feel embarrassed even thinking about how he was forcibly shaking something that should be vibrating naturally during the sword form.

“Well, whether it vibrates or not, it’s enough if I like it.”

He wasn’t clinging to the White Tiger Training Sword to see some great achievement.

Unhyun chuckled once more and turned to hide the branch.

At that moment, he heard the sound of small insects flying around in his ear.

Beeee.

“Heh!”

Unhyun moved his arm slightly and swung the branch.

Tick, tick.

With a small sound, two insects fell weakly to the ground.

“The bugs are acting up because the sun is setting.”

The bugs were already swarming because summer was approaching.

Unhyun was about to hide the branch when he suddenly stopped.

“Oh right, Instructor Il Chung-hyun promised to get me a wooden sword starting tomorrow, right?”

There was no need to cherish the branch anymore.

That wasn’t all. Instructor Il Chung-hyun had given Unhyun one more gift.

“And he told me to come to the Gold Guard training ground from now on.”

In the past, he would have shown reluctance.

He would have thought that going to the Gold Guard training ground alone would damage the dignity of a scholar.

But Unhyun was delighted at Instructor Il Chung-hyun’s words.

He was already curious about how other people actually trained.

The training of the Gold Guards would definitely be a great help in many ways.

It was also something that Unhyun was personally very interested in.

Swish.

Tick, tick.

Unhyun happily moved towards his lodgings, thinking about Instructor Il Chung-hyun’s promise.

Even in the midst of all this, Unhyun casually swung the branch and caught a few annoying bugs.

Unhyun was lightly swinging the branch to catch the bugs that he could only chase away with his hands, but he was not aware of when that had started.