The Martial God with Psychic Powers-Chapter 54

Crack—

Boom—

Yeon Woo Jin threw a punch so fast it was barely visible to the naked eye.

The sound of the air bursting came only a moment later.

Which meant the sound couldn’t even keep up with his speed.

Each time the air exploded, the shockwaves spread out toward the nearby students.

And just from those shockwaves alone, the kids staggered backward.

He hadn’t even used martial arts—he was just punching.

Seon Woo Baek and Jang Un spoke quietly to each other.

“He’s not planning to hit us with that, right?”

“C’mon... he said he’s just warming up.”

“Who the hell warms up like that? It looks like that fist could come flying at me any second.”

“I... I think I’m supposed to spar him directly...”

Seon Woo Baek's voice was trembling. Jang Un gently patted his back.

“Good luck, my friend.”

Jang Un was just glad it wasn’t his turn yet.

“Woo Baek and Un—come here.”

Just as he was feeling relieved, a bolt from the blue struck.

“Huh? M-Me too?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean ‘why’? Wouldn’t it be good to get stronger while we’re at it?”

“I feel like if I’m there, Woo Baek won’t be able to focus properly.”

Yeon Woo Jin chuckled at Jang Un’s words.

“Anyone will focus when death is staring them in the face.”

Death?

He was only seventeen...

“I haven’t even been married yet...”

“Don’t worry. I’ll only take you to the brink of death.”

He said it casually, like it was nothing.

“You know, just us doing this doesn’t seem fair.”

As soon as Jang Un said that, the other students scrambled to the training grounds and resumed practice.

Hup—hup—!

Not a single one dared turn their head toward Yeon Woo Jin.

Watching the kids suddenly go all-out, Yeon Woo Jin commented,

“They know how to motivate themselves.”

“Uh, Senior Go Seung over there looks like he wants to join.”

Jang Un turned and looked—Go Seung flinched and waved his hands frantically.

“Come on, think about it. Go Seung-sunbae is the top-ranked mid-class student. Wouldn’t it make sense for him to join us?”

“Hm, you have a point.”

Go Seung had just taken a short break to catch his breath.

Now this disaster had found him.

Yeon Woo Jin beckoned him over with a hand gesture.

Should he run?

Impossible.

If he ran, those terrifying people would come after him, yelling “You bastard!”

In the end, Go Seung dropped his head and slowly dragged his massive saber toward them.

Seon Woo Baek gave him a sympathetic look.

At least now, he wasn’t going to suffer alone.

****

“Gaaah! Gahhh!”

Seon Woo Baek gasped for breath like he was on the verge of death.

Jang Un and Go Seung were also panting heavily, barely able to breathe.

Their bodies were beaten so badly, not a single spot looked untouched. Without immediate treatment, they could genuinely die at any moment.

Gong Ya-cheon was stunned.

He never imagined Yeon Woo Jin would push them this far.

The problem now was that they needed to be rushed to the medicine hall.

But no one was moving.

Panicking, Gong Ya-cheon called out to Yeon Woo Jin.

“I-If you leave them like this, they really could die!”

“People don’t die that easily.”

That’s not for you to decide!

...He wanted to shout it out.

Then, Yeon Woo Jin placed his hands on their broken bodies.

Their breathing steadied, and the wounds across their bodies began to heal at a visible rate.

Gong Ya-cheon’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull.

As if it wasn’t enough that he could beat three people without even breaking a sweat, and that he had a godlike memory manipulation ability—now he had healing powers too?

At this point, Gong Ya-cheon was afraid to imagine what else Yeon Woo Jin might be hiding.

“I really thought I was gonna die this time.”

“Phew... Same. My dead grandfather showed up and told me to get the hell out of there before it was too late.”

“There was a black river flowing beyond the fog.”

“Sunbae, that was probably the River of Three Crossings. If you see it again, don’t look back—just run. Never cross it.”

They chatted casually, like they hadn’t just come back from the brink of death.

Wait—this time?

So this kind of thing had happened before?

“All right, if you’re conscious again, let’s continue.”

Yeon Woo Jin’s voice made all three of them whip their heads around in horror.

“W-Wait, we’re not done?!”

“Nope.”

“B-But up till now, we only had to go one round!”

“That was when we were still taking things easy. We don’t have that kind of time now.”

“B-But there’s no guarantee the fight will even happen this week!”

“You never know with people. It might happen tomorrow.”

“...I’ll endure it. I’ll swallow my pride and back down if I have to.”

“Oh, really? You’re gonna let some punk challenge you and just take it? And I’m supposed to sit there and watch that?”

He was smiling—but it was terrifying.

“No, I just...”

“Then stop whining and come at me.”

“...Okay.”

With a face like death, he stood up and glanced around.

The other students had all gone home.

Lucky bastards.

Why did I have to be the top-ranked one...

Should’ve kept my damn head down.

But there was no way out now.

Seon Woo Baek, Jang Un, and Go Seung all clenched their jaws and took their stances.

****

A shallow scratch was left on Yeon Woo Jin’s cheek.

“We... did it.”

“Hahh... hahh... We finally landed a hit.”

After an entire night of combat training, they had finally touched Yeon Woo Jin’s face.

Yeon Woo Jin rubbed his cheek and smiled.

“Well done. If you can manage this, you won’t get hit so easily elsewhere.”

That was a declaration of success.

At those words, the three collapsed like puppets with their strings cut.

Moments later, the sound of snoring filled the training ground.

The second they reached their goal, they passed out cold.

Looking at the sleeping trio, Yeon Woo Jin muttered,

“Finally acting like real martial artists. Phew. Raising them is no joke.”

Finally acting like people, he said.

With the power they had now, they probably didn’t have any real rivals left in the southern region.

Then again, Yeon Woo Jin’s standards were on another level entirely.

Gong Ya-cheon had seen it.

At the very end, Yeon Woo Jin had deliberately let their attack hit him.

He had moved his face into the path of the strike, just enough for it to graze him.

“Did you let them hit you on purpose?”

“Huh? You saw that?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh?”

Yeon Woo Jin gave him an intrigued look.

In that moment, Gong Ya-cheon realized he’d screwed up.

“Your dynamic vision’s pretty sharp. That means your body’s constitution isn’t bad either. Why haven’t you learned martial arts?”

“I have Qi Blockage. It’s not severe, but my Qi doesn’t flow properly—I can’t cultivate martial arts.”

“Qi Blockage, huh. I’ve read about it, but this is my first time seeing it in real life.”

“The ones you’ve read about were congenital, right? Mine’s not. It’s acquired.”

“Acquired?”

“Yeah. When I was little, my mom was carrying me on her back when she got attacked. She fell backward and my neck got twisted. Ever since then, my meridians have been blocked.”

“Treatment?”

“I tried... but since it’s not congenital, and my bones were warped in the fall, my Qi pathways are being pinched. They say the only way to fix it would be Bone Renewal.”

“Bone Renewal, huh.”

“Funny, right? To achieve that, {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} I’d have to cultivate martial arts and reach a high enough realm. But I can’t learn martial arts. So it’s literally impossible.”

He smiled bitterly, his expression full of quiet resignation.

In that moment, Yeon Woo Jin reached out and touched Gong Ya-cheon’s neck.

“What are you doing?”

“Hold still. Let me take a look.”

“You know medicine too?”

“A little.”

“How?”

“I read a book about it.”

“Reading’s not the same as actual treatment.”

“It still helps. Let’s see... so this is the twisted bone structure, huh?”

Crack—

“Gahh!”

As Yeon Woo Jin pressed near the base of Gong Ya-cheon’s neck, a joint popped with a nasty crunch and a wave of pain surged through him.

“It’s worse than I thought.”

“Ah—damn it! Stop that!”

Huff—

The pain made him snap, but in that instant, an enormous surge of energy burst from Gong Ya-cheon’s body.

“...Huh?”

Gong Ya-cheon looked confused at what had just come from him.

“I opened your meridians just a little to let energy flow—and this is what came out? You’ve got a martial body, don’t you?”

“Me? A martial body?”

“Yup. And not just any martial body—an exceptional one. So much so, those guys passed out over there can’t even compare.”

“T-That can’t be right...”

Trying to confirm what had just happened, Gong Ya-cheon drew up his internal energy again.

But at the part where his blocked meridians had been, it came to a halt—and vanished like smoke.

“I just opened it temporarily. It’s back to how it was. The long-term blockage has locked your skeleton in place.”

“So the only way is still Bone Renewal, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Right...”

The glimmer of hope he’d just felt now made him feel like a fool.

“Your body’s too weak right now to do it all at once. We’ll need to do it in stages.”

At that, Gong Ya-cheon tilted his head.

“Do what?”

“Your treatment.”

“W-What do you mean?”

Yeon Woo Jin smiled as Gong Ya-cheon looked at him in shock.

“I mean, I know how to do it.”

“Do what?”

“Reshape your bone structure.”

“Reshape... my bones?”

“Yup. Those three passed out over there? I restructured all of them too. That’s why they’re functioning properly now.”

“T-That’s actually possible?”

“Ever heard of Yoga-Reversing Muscle and Tendon Formation?”

The source of this c𝓸ntent is frёeweɓηovel.coɱ.

“Wait... that’s real?”

“So you have heard of it?”

“Yeah. It was the only known way to treat my body. But no matter how much I searched, I could never find it.”

“Of course you couldn’t. It’s in my master’s study.”

“In the strategist’s study?!”

“Yep.”

“But how do you know what’s in there? That place isn’t just open to anyone!”

“I’m not just anyone, am I?”

“...What?”

“My master personally took me inside.”

That’s right. Before he was the grandson of the Martial God Sect Leader, he was the strategist’s personal disciple.

He’d heard so many incredible things that he’d completely forgotten.

“Then... you can perform that formation?”

“I can. But it’ll hurt.”

“If I can just learn martial arts... then I don’t care! Even if I die from the pain, I won’t blame you.”

“Great. Then let’s start preparing tomorrow.”

“Tell me what you need—I’ll get everything.”

“All I need is your body. You’ll start learning Yoga Techniques tomorrow, so be ready. Ah—technically, it’s already morning, so I guess tonight.”

“Yoga Techniques?”

“To reshape your skeleton with Yoga-Reversing Muscle and Tendon Formation, you need to learn Yoga Techniques first. If not, your joints will all shatter and you’ll die.”

Gong Ya-cheon nodded seriously at Yeon Woo Jin’s words.

His cheeks were flushed with hope—maybe his lifelong wish could finally come true.

“Once your body’s back to normal, you know what comes next, right?”

“...Huh?”

Yeon Woo Jin motioned toward the three sleeping figures.

“You’ll be joining them.”

Gong Ya-cheon hesitated for a second.

‘Maybe... this is fine too. Do I really need to go that far?’

But he quickly shook the thought away.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

‘I’m going to see what the River of Three Crossings looks like too!’

A strange kind of determination lit up in his eyes.

****

Seon Woo Baek arrived at the academy looking like a walking corpse.

Seeing him, Heo Wook sighed and shook his head in pity.

“Whew... Thank god I’m not the top-ranked lowerclassman.”

Jin Jo, who stood beside him, chimed in.

“No kidding. I couldn’t live like that.”

Jang Un, staring off blankly, spoke up.

“You guys will start soon too, once you’re done with the basic curriculum.”

It was like a thunderclap out of nowhere.

“W-Wait, what do you mean ‘start’? Start what?”

“What do you think? You’ve been marked by Woo Jin.”

“Us? Why us? We’re way weaker than you guys!”

“Y-Yeah! Just you two should be enough!”

“Nope. Yang Woo, Heo Wook, Jin Jo, and Gwak Oh—you’re all confirmed as part of the elite unit.”

At that, Gok Yang Woo—who’d been quiet—jumped up in shock.

“M-Me too?!”

“Yup. You too.”

“M-Me? But I’m not even that skilled...”

“I told you—this is just the beginner stage. Once the real training begins, we’ll split everyone into ranks. You guys are elite.”

“What about you guys? Are you the same rank as us?”

“Us? No—we’re top elite.”

“And the rest of the students?”

“They’ll be in the skilled tier.”

“I-I see...”

“Anyway, you better train hard. Unless you want to start screaming later. That’s the only advice I’ve got for you.”

“He’s right. You better take it seriously—it’ll save your life.”