Ji-Hyeon then started doing all the exercises taught by Baek Seong-jun. After about an hour or so he started feeling something… it was a feeling he was very familiar with, he started feeling as if the world around him was blurring out and the only thing that remained was the earth and his body.
It was like what he used to feel when learning about new things in his previous life.
He started to notice all the minuscule movements of his body. When punching, he could not extend his arms as much as Baek Seong-jun did, so he adjusted his foot.
Going through every motion, he started to notice inconsistencies in what he was doing compared to Baek Seong-Jun. Not aware of time passing by, he fully immersed himself in his movements.
After what felt like a few minutes, he finally started to correctly do all the movements. When he wanted to check Ji-Hyeon's progress, he started to do all the movements in one full swing, but as he braced himself, his body failed him.
His legs gave out ,and he fell on his back.
Only when his back touched the ground and he felt a cold chill did he notice how he was drenched in sweat.
'What?! I have just been doing this for maybe an hour, but I am already in this state?!'
Seeing himself be so weak when he had the supposedly "Body blessed by heaven!" He couldn't help but speak out loud.
"So much for being talented…hah. To be degraded to such a state after a mere hour."
"More than 5 hours have passed, kid. Don't beat yourself up."
Hearing a voice in a room where he was supposed to be alone, Ji-Hyeon hurriedly looks all around the room but fails to see a single soul.
"Looking for me?" Hearing the voice so close to him, he looks to his right, where he sees an old man with a small beard and white hair waving at him, wearing clothes that seem to have not been washed for months.
'When?!'
Unable to comprehend what has just happened, Ji-Hyeon tries to calm himself down but to no avail. He again breathes in deeply. 'It's okay. He could have already killed me if he wanted to. My screaming won't change a thing. Also, why would he even be here to kill me in the first place? Calm down, calm down. Think. Right he was waving at me.'
Finally calming down, Ji-Hyeon proceeds to bow down to the old man in front of him, "Hello sir, Nice to meet you. I am Ji-Hyeon. May I know who you are and why you are here?"
Surprised by how his now grandson remained composed under such a situation, Kim Gwon Jang's already piqued interest only grew.
***
When his son sent him a letter mentioning his shenanigans, Kim Gwon-Jang was enraged at how brave his son had gotten to say such things through a letter, but reading through the rest of it, his rage quickly started to subside, and he felt goosebumps all over his body.
"The body blessed by heaven! In our blood!"
At the time of the establishment of the murim, the blade sect was undoubtedly the strongest. After all, it was established by the great general Kim Jin-Shin, and since he was the strongest in all of Murim, he was unanimously made the leader of the alliance, and until now, his descendants have continued to carry that mantle.
But would things remain the same in a century? No, in a few decades, probably not.
The reason for the blade sect and the general's descendants' strength was the lineage as well as the martial arts created by the general himself.
While until now it was undoubtedly the best martial art in murim, all the other sects were starting to catch up as no one as talented as the general was born again in entirety of murim let alone the lineage. So, while their martial arts remained stagnant, the other sects kept on improving decade after decade.
They would never be on par with the blade sect's techniques but as the techniques itself were hard to master the blade sect having the manpower in murim lagged far behind in numbers.
If things remained as they were, the blade sect would slowly lose its grip in Murim.
Because of such a situation, Kim Gwon-Jong was very desperate, so he had hoped his grandchildren would quench his thirst for power, but he was left disappointed seeing their talent.
They were talented, there was no question about that, but so were all the others from their lineage. What they needed was not someone who was merely talented or a genius but a monster who would make people question their views on the world itself! Only someone of that caliber could reach heights that would silence the other sects for decades to come or even produce better martial arts.
Though the latter was but an old man's dream, he at least hoped the former would be true.
Seeing how his grandchildren could not achieve what he hoped they would, he started to wander the world in search of an epiphany of sorts that could help him reach the legendary level that the general had reached. Divine!
But now the one he was looking for had arrived. In the letter, Kim Bai-Tian said the boy had never practiced martial arts, so he would be doing the basics in the secret chamber, and Kim Gwon-Jang should come after at least a few weeks.
However, knowing the person he was waiting for had already started training, he rushed with all his might and arrived at the estate just a short while later.
Reaching the estate, he quietly went inside the secret chamber as he couldn't care less about the small formalities.
Entering inside, he saw a child doing the basic movements of the blade sect.
Seeing the child do the movements almost entirely accurately, he nodded in satisfaction.
'For a child, this much is excellent.'
Then something dawned on him. According to the letter he received a short while ago, the child should not have trained prior to coming to the estat,e which was a little over 2 days ago but he had only started training today.
'What?! How is this possible?! So he reached such mastery in a mere day! No, a few hours!'
Feeling his heart pumping to its limit, Kim Gwon-Jang smiled with a wide grin on his face as if they were trying to touch his eyes.
'This is it! Talent that can make one's world view turn upside down!'
He continued observing the child, and by the minute he was getting more and more impressed. It was impressive how a child had such intense focus but what was even more impressive was how the child was improving more and more, adjusting the minor movements and perfecting the movement entirely!
After about half an hour the child's body could no longer keep up with his will and in turn gave out.
***
Seeing the child keep himself composed, Kim Gwon-Jang smiled further, 'Not just talented in martial arts he is also talented in the realm of mind! The body blessed by heaven truly deserves its name.'
"I am Kim Gwon Jang, your grandfather. Bai-tian told me about your constitution and thus asked me to come train you. Since this is a very sensitive matter, it would be foolish to invite outsiders after all."
"I see. But I was told you would come a few weeks later since my body hasn't been trained. May I ask why you came so suddenly?"
'I can't tell him I came so early because of excitement now can I…'
"Yes, that is correct. But that time was for someone who is merely talented, however, you are not merely talented now, are you? Since no one actually knows how much of a difference there is between someone with your constitution and one that is average or talented so I wanted to see for myself. That is why"
"And it turns out it was right for me to do so."
"Sorry?"
"Do you know what you just accomplished?'
"Ah, It was the exercises that sir Baek seong-jun assigned me. Why? Is there a problem?"
"It is not merely a series of exercises but the basic movements of the blade sect. And you just did them perfectly. Oh, it might be hard for you to understand but let me give you a reference. It took me 13 days for me to perfect that while it took your father 16 but you just did them in a day, a single day, no, no, no. A few hours. Now do you understand what I mean?"
Unable to believe in his capabilities that seemed far from the realm of reason he raised a question.
"May I ask how long it takes on average?"
Taken aback by the question, Kim Gwon Jang figures out what his grandchild was thinking just from his expression, "Hahhaha, You think it might be us who are not talented aren't you? Know this child to be the alliance leader one needs to be the strongest in the entirety of Murim! You think the blade sect has been the one in control of the alliance with just mere prestige. Everyone that carries our blood is far above the rest."
'Why am I telling all this to the child?'
Clearing his throat Kim Gwon-Jang sumps up what he meant, "What I mean is you are truly very talented. To give you a better idea outside of our lineage, others who train our martial arts take between a month or two to master this and we don't just accept just anyone in our sect, so even those guys are considered talented in the large scheme of things.