Brutal Training All Around (1)

Teaching someone a skill from scratch is tough.

The teacher naturally gets frustrated when the newbie can't get anything right, and the newbie becomes enraged that they cannot perform the task right. Such is especially the case when the teacher and student have no experience together, leaving both parties in a loop of frustration and anger until a mutual understanding of subjects is met.

If the newbie is smart and can learn fast, this mitigates the feelings of frustration and anger between the two, but in most cases it not so. But if the newbie is a genius, then no such feelings occur between the two.

But not many consider what happens when the beginner and the teacher are one person from the beginning. With the mind and body of an experienced martial artist, learning a new movement isn't too hard to do when it is akin to their current skillset.

But when a martial artist of such stature becomes the student of themselves as they try to apply their knowledge to something not within their skillset, one of two things will occur.

The martial artist will either fail and give up entirely, or succeed beyond what the human world has thought to be possible. The experience of thousands of years and the unused potential of my left arm, the teacher and the student, all in one body.

With every slash of the dragon horn blade I took my movements became more refined, my mind calculated everything that was wrong with each swing and changed only what needed changing before the next swing was taken.

A brutal two hours of this process had gone by, but the time spent training was worth it. By the time the two hours was up my entire body was quaking in pain, the sheer amount of training I had done with my left arm had shown me a whole other side to training I didn't know was there.

Although now that I could barely move my body, I think it would be best to lay down and relax until Pyo Yong comes to inform me that three hours had passed. As I laid down on the grass my sweat drenched robes acted as an ice pack for my aching body, helping me recover my strength much faster than I normally would.

Despite my body currently resting, my mind was anything but resting. One great benefit of being a martial artist for thousands of years is being able to mentally visualize any type of fight you could dream of. Want to fight a theoretical martial art only using a select few of your own techniques? Want to fight against someone who has reached the pinnacle of the weapon you want to fight against?

Even fighting against a martial art that is impossible to perform is possible, and such is how I learned to create martial arts techniques even when my body was sleeping. Have you ever wondered why our minds wander into dreams while sleeping? While sleeping, our entire body is supposed to be resting so it can function the next day, but mysteriously half of the brain still functions while the other half rests.

The right half of your brain, known for its connection to impulsiveness, fun, pleasure, and enjoyment, is the reason for this. This is why your dreams often reflect what your deepest desires are, or what you deem to be fun or enjoyable, and why they are hard to remember after waking up in the morning. But this part of your brain can be trained, just like every other part of your body.

But I wasn't sleeping, nor will I be teaching you how to do this for yourself. But that is the premise of what I was doing right now, using my new left-handed martial arts process to think of untold combinations of slashes.

Such training would speed up the process of creating an ultimate martial art, even if I couldn't physically test the martial arts I created yet. I could still create them so I could test them once I can use them.

However, my testing would last for long, as Pyo Yong landed beside me after I had been resting for who knows how long.

"Ryu Il, how was your training?" Pyo Yong asked, extending his hand downwards for me to grab onto.

Without opening my eyes I raised my arm and clasped Pyo Yong's hand, "Quite refreshing, I think I found out what the next step is." I uttered as he pulled me up off the ground.

"Already? You've only been thinking about this for one day, it must be great having so much knowledge to guide you."

"Pyo Yong, is something bothering you?"

I could feel it, ever since Pyo Kang and Pyo Yong became my disciples they hadn't called me by my name. But out of nowhere he called me by my name today, there had to be a reason.

"I'm worried about this whole situation, first there's the whole Demon Dragon Cult training, and there's also those two Namgung clan people who we're offering to take in. Everything is lining up too easily."

I could understand where he's coming from, but it's meaningless to worry about those things.

"Pyo Yong, the cult situation is truly understood by me and Baek Il alone, but don't worry, I have that situation under control. And as for those two Namgung clan people, you should be worrying about them, but you have to use that worry as a strive to get stronger."

"What if they bring the leader of the Namgung clan to stop us from trifling with their plans? Or the Namgung clan's main attack force to do the same? We won't be able to defend against that if they do!"

"Pyo Yong! Listen well, if the Namgung clan does come to kill us because of those two, their aim will be me. And if it comes down to it, I will sacrifice myself to them to keep you and everyone else alive. Do you want to know why I'll do that?"

"Please."

"Because I've laid my Silver Breath arts out already, it's hidden, but there. If I am to die, my last words to you and your brother will be the clue to finding where I left it."