Nano Machine Chapter 6: Ma Fighting Academy Commences (B)

Master Jang was making breakfast with the groceries he had picked up the night before following his early morning training routine.

At one point he didn't even know how to cook rice, let alone prepare a whole meal from scratch.

But, since the time he discovered that Lady Hwa's death was the result of digoxin poisoning, Master Jang began to enter the kitchen each day to prevent the same from happening to Cheon Yeo Woon.

Now, his cooking skill had been so finely honed that he could even stand up to the cooking level of the village cooks.

He typically prepared a very simply meal for breakfast, but in addition to the red pork meat he had brought in the night before, he was even planning on making some eggs this particular morning.

He gave the meal extra thought since he knew that the Ma Fighting Academy was commencing at noon that day. He reasoned with himself that this might be perhaps the last meal Cheon Yeo Woon would comfortably eat, and therefore, wanted to prepare something extra for him.

"It would be nice to see him make it out alive, so I can one day prepare another meal for him like this."

As he fell into a semi day-dreaming state while carefully cutting against the grain of the red pork meat, he heard a faint but definite screaming in the distance.

"Aaaggghhh…."

Because Cheon Yeo Woon's room was close to the kitchen, it was easy to hear any sound coming from that direction.

Master Jang threw the knife he was using on the cutting board and quickly made his way to Cheon Yeo Woon's room.

When he opened the door, he found Cheon Yeo Woon foaming in the mouth with half of his body plopped on the bedroom floor.

"Sir Gong Ja!"

The startled Master Jang got near and assessed the situation.

Although he was foaming in the mouth, based on his pulse there was nothing particularly wrong with him.

It was just like when Master Jang found him lying in his own pool of blood a couple of days ago.

"There is nothing wrong with him physically. What could he have possibly been doing?"

Feeling a little suspicious, Master Jang identified a few faintly indented footprints that were marked on the floor of his room.

After carefully lifting Cheon Yeo Woon back to his bed, he quietly observed the footsteps.

"This can't be…"

In disbelief, Master Jang then began to follow the pattern of the footprints with his own feet.

Master Jang's pupils dilated.

The indented footsteps on the floor were patterned in a way that closely resembled that of the footwork of Dangeom Bisool, a specific type of style that he had mastered himself.

Although footprints form from someone just merely walking, since all high-level martial arts uses footwork as its fundamental element, the more advanced one became at it, the deeper the indentation that was left.

"Huh? Did Sir Gong Ja acquire Dangeom Bisool on his own?"

It was truly phenomenal to even imagine this.

The shock didn't come just from the fact that Cheon Yeo Woon simply watched, practiced, and developed his own moves.

Based on the pattern of his footsteps, it perfectly resembled the exact footwork from that of his own.

It takes many years to even get down just the most basic footwork. And then after that several more years need to go into learning and honing the basic movements of the style. Without this, it was impossible to produce such results.

"I allowed Sir Gong Ja to watch and learn my moves for two years at most."

Apart from his daily training in the morning and preparing meals for Cheon Yeo Woon, Master Jang was almost always by his side.

This left him with only one possible explanation. Cheon Yeo Woon self-training was limited to the brief time that he spent early in the morning as he watched Master Jang from a distance.

"He mastered something in two years that I took twenty full years to master. And that from merely watching me?"

"Sigh…."

He felt slightly defeated

At the same time, he couldn't help but wonder.

In his memory, Cheon Yeo Woon was always the son of the girl he once held dear in his heart.

Seeing now the giftedness of Cheon Yeo Woon, he felt his heart tighten up a little.

He quietly went up to him and checked his pulse again.

"His inner power is still the same as before. He must've only mastered the basics."

It probably was for the better anyway.

If it was found out that he somehow trained his inner power too, then it would bring the suspicion of the other clans.

At this point, Master Jang felt regrettable that he hadn't at least periodically taught him some of the basics.

"I was blinded until now to how much potential he possessed."

After sympathetically staring at Cheon Yeo Woon for some time, he quietly exited the room.

In such a manner, two hours swiftly passed by.

[Musculoskeletal restructuring has completed. Terminating dissociative anesthesia from the user's body.]

-Swoosh.-

With a strong sensation in his head, Cheon Yeo Woon regained his consciousness.

"Wh… whoa!"

Because his last memory was that of his body becoming contorted and being racked with pain, he hesitated to stabilize his breathing.

*- Gasp… gasp…-*

A cold sweat broke out from his forehead.

If asked to go through that pain all over again, there was no way in hell he would agree to it.

The initial muscle spasm was painful enough, it was incredible to think that some people in their right minds had the ability in to endure the contortion of muscles, ligaments and tendons that occurred during the restructuring process.

-Uh, uh…. Uh, uh… Never in a million years would I do that again.-

[I did warn you.]

-… Yeah?-

It was Cheon Yeo Woon's own choice to ignore Nano's warning.

After stabilizing his breathing, he got up from his bed and walked towards the center of his room. There he got in the Dangeom Bisool fighting stance again.

-It's not going to be painful anymore to bust out my Dangeom Bisool moves, right?-

[Through the process of simulation, your muscle has been restructured to mimic the skeletal and muscular systems of someone who has been training for over twenty years.]

-Good stuff!-

After hearing Nano's positive words, Cheon Yeo Woon once again began to perfectly execute all of Dangeom Bisool's basic moves.

*- Swing, swing, hop, swing. -*

The power that was felt in his punches had a significant level of force compared to before.

Every time he swung his arms, he felt the air being sliced as each movement's start and end became more pronounced.

-Swoosh, swoosh!-

As he positioned himself to move up to the second form in Dangeom Bisool…

-Thump!-

The wooden floor began to shake as it let out a loud thump.

The explosive power that was generated in the stance when a move was complete, as opposed to when it was being made, was at another level.

"Whoa!"

After hearing the loud thump that came from the ground, Cheon Yeo Woon abruptly halted what he was doing.

When he lifted his foot from off the ground, he found a firm indentation of his footprint there.

"I'm in trouble."

He was concerned that Master Jang might come into his room and discover the indented footprint.

"I guess it's possible to make footprints like this even without fully training one's inner power."

Although Cheon Yeo Woon found this fascinating, in reality, martial arts required the strengthening of one's physical strength through constant training, thereby perfecting the basics of the art. Then too, through immersing one's self in the appropriate meditation one can strengthen the inner self, a power that made one's martial arts exponentially more potent.

Consequently, the physical component of Dangeom Bisool was perfected by first training and developing the muscles and collagens in one's body.

Ignorant to the fact that he had already been discovered, Cheon Yeo Woon was frantically thinking of a solution to the footprint situation when suddenly there was a knock at his door.

"Knock. Knock."

"Sir Gong Ja, I brought you your breakfast."

It was Master Jang.

Startled by the situation, Cheon Yeo Woon desperately tried to flatten out the indentations by firmly stepping down on them.

Though it wasn't very likely that he would have success that way.

Meanwhile, Master Jang began to open the door to come in.

"Sir Gong Ja?"

"Ah, ah! Man, I'm really hungry today for some reason."

Not knowing what to do, Cheon Yeo Woon quickly pulled out the table that was leaning against the window sill in an exaggerated fashion.

"Haven't you also eaten near the window?"

"Well, since I won't be back here for a while I would like to try eating in the middle of the room just for today."

Although his sudden quirkiness and stuttering just added to the suspicion, Master Jang quietly put the tray-full of food on the table.

Without a sigh of relief, Cheon Yeo Woon slowly swooped down to sit on his chair.

"Ah!"

On the menu for today's breakfast was sautéed pork and bok choy with some rice and fried egg on top.

It was a far cry from the sumptuous feast that the candidates of the other six clans ate, but for him such a breakfast meal was considered quite the delicacy.

Cheon Yeo Woon stared at his unusually extravagant breakfast meal in awe.

Master Jang had specially prepared it with the menacing thought that Cheon Yeo Woon might never make it out of Ma Fighting Academy alive.

When Cheon Yeo Woon picked up his chopsticks and started putting food in his mouth, his throat closed as his eyebrows lifted up.

[Due to the rapid emotional changes, the food is causing acid to flow up into your throat. I will initiate secretion of the salivary gland. Swallow the food along with your saliva to wash the acid down your throat.]

-Stop saying stupid crap and be quiet for once!-

[Temporarily entering low volume mode.]

As Nano's voice faded, Cheon Yeo Woon swallowed his food.

He didn't want to waste any of it since it was the last meal Master Jang had specially prepared for him.

As he was picking off the last few grains of rice in the bowl, Master Jang, who stood quietly by him the whole time, opened his mouth to speak.

"Since when did you peep at my Dangeom…"

Wanting to stay courteous to Yeo Woon whom he had been serving for some time now, he quickly corrected himself.

"I mean, when did you learn Dangeom Bisool?"

"Ah! … I, I don't know what you're referring to."

It was apparent that Cheon Yeo Woon, who was still in a bit of a daze, was extremely thrown off by Master Jang's unexpected question.

Master Jang then moved the table on which lay the tray full of empty dishes and pointed to the wooden floor below.

There was a clear indentation of Cheon Yeo Woon's footprints on the floor.

He didn't fully realize it when he was in a panic mode earlier, but, looking at the footprints now, it was quite pronounced.

"It is as I suspected."

The most visibly prominent footprint was no doubt only possible when one struck the ground before going into the second form.

Even though Cheon Yeo Woon had never been formally trained in martial arts, being born and raised within the Ma faction he knew too well what behaviors were considered taboo.

Secretly watching another master's training regimen was held in contempt.

"Well, um…."

He really couldn't excuse himself since he technically stole Master Jang's skills through the nano machine's mind-blowing technology.

More than anything, he was afraid to look at the disappointment on Master Jang's face.

Suddenly, Master Jang swooped down on his knees to meet Cheon Yeo Woon, who was still fumbling for words, at eye level and spoke in a tender way.

"You did well."

"Ah…."

"So what if you learned my moves in secret? I am here to serve you. If it weren't for that darned oath, I would've surely taught you it myself.

"… Master Jang."

Far from being angry at him, Master Jang's soft-spoken words dampened his eyes.

Master Jang had always protected and cared for Cheon Yeo Woon and was like a father figure to him, if not more than one.

Then Master Jang pulled something out from within his mantle and gave it to Cheon Yeo Woon.

"What is this?"

"It's secret meditation techniques to develop the inner power you'll need to master Dangeom Bisool."

Why are you giving this to me?"

"I would love to give you my book on breathing techniques as well, but when you enter Ma Fighting Academy, you will find tons of resources far more valuable than what I can give. Train hard with the resources you find there."

At Master Jang's kindness and care, there were tears falling on the side of Cheon Yeo Woon's right cheek.

Despite his strong determination to never cry tears again after his mother, Lady Hwa, passed away, Cheon Yeo Woon was still a young boy who hungered for affection.

Perhaps out of courtesy to the young boy who was a bit emotionally shaken, Master Jang slowly got up from his one knee, picked up the tray and headed out the door.

He then suddenly stopped in his tracks to say one last word.

"Cry your last tear now. But from today on, you need to become more merciless."

"… Thank you."

It was something he'd been wanting to tell him since yesterday, no, for a while now.

After the tears dried out and he composed himself again, Cheon Yeo Woon cast off all hesitancy and fear.

He felt assured that even though Lady Hwa was no more, he still had a place to come back to.

After some time had passed, it was almost approaching noon.

The streets within the Ma fortress were bustling with foot traffic as noise pollution filled the air. It was because the Ma Fighting Academy would soon re-commence.

The teenage boys and girls in Ma faction, everyone between the ages of thirteen and nineteen, were anxiously making their way to the academy.