The Genius Grandson of the Namgung Family Chapter 2

The Genius Grandson of the Namgung Family

Chapter 2

However, reality was cold despite his determination.

In particular, the distance from Shaanxi Province where the Shin family was located to Anhui Province where the Namgung family was located was too far for a 10-year-old child to walk.

‘I must travel only through mountain paths.’

Especially since Ha Hyeon couldn’t trust anyone in this situation, he was determined never to go down to civilian homes.

Because of this, the path to Anhui Province would be even more difficult.

Thud-

Though time was of the essence, he picked up a straight branch, stuck it vertically into the ground, and then sat down heavily, placing a stone at the end of its current shadow.

After about half an hour passed, he placed another stone where the shadow’s end had moved.

After gauging the direction by drawing a line between the two stones with the branch, Ha Hyeon dusted himself off and began walking east.

Currently, Henan Province borders the east of Shaanxi Province where he is, and only when you go to the southeast of Henan Province do you reach Anhui Province.

That’s why he set his direction eastward.

‘The shadow moves opposite to the sun. The first stone marks west, and the second stone marks east.’

Ha Hyeon recalled Shin Ji-hyuk’s words that seemed to ring in his ears.

Coincidentally, the person who taught him how to find directions using the sun and shadows was Shin Ji-hyuk, the enemy who killed his mother.

Grind-

Ha Hyeon unconsciously ground his teeth as he walked on.

Ha Hyeon continued walking for days on end.

The bundle his mother gave him contained small ornaments like rings and earrings, along with some silver pieces and dozens of currency notes.

How she managed to pack such things in that state of mind…

Ha Hyeon swallowed his tears once again, thinking of his mother, and walked on.

With his intelligent mind, finding directions wasn’t difficult, so he didn’t lose his way.

During the day he used shadows, and at night he used the position of constellations to continuously find his way to Anhui Province.

Of course, he had to be self-sufficient in terms of food and sleeping arrangements.

‘I almost died several times.’

There were times when he ate poisonous mushrooms out of hunger, and nights when he couldn’t sleep because of wild animals.

Since he had to save every single currency note, he slept in trees to avoid large beasts.

Because of this, it wasn’t easy to avoid the cold either.

The more difficult it became, the deeper Ha Hyeon delved into his memories with his mother, Namgung Yeong-ryeong.

About three years ago, she had taught him the verses of the Changgung Daeyeon Heart Technique.

Originally, the Changgung Daeyeon Heart Technique was a family martial art passed down only to direct descendants of the Namgung family, but Yeong-ryeong had recited the verses to Ha Hyeon once, just in case of an unforeseen situation.

‘No. There’s nothing good about learning martial arts unnecessarily.’

However, after reciting the verses just once, Namgung Yeong-ryeong never taught Ha Hyeon martial arts again.

This was because she wanted Ha Hyeon to never set foot in the martial arts world where people died in blade fights almost daily.

The reason why a martial artist of Namgung Yeong-ryeong’s caliber married into the small Shin family rather than a renowned martial arts family was also because she wanted to leave the martial arts world.

After the death of her mother, who was a martial artist of Sword Master Namgung Muryong, Namgung Yeong-ryeong came to despise the laws of the martial arts world.

That’s why she didn’t teach martial arts to Ha Hyeon.

And naturally, she thought Ha Hyeon would forget these long and difficult verses and tried to act as if it never happened.

But she didn’t know.

That with just one time.

With just that single recitation of the verses, Ha Hyeon had memorized all the verses, understood them, and was learning the mental techniques.

Until now, Ha Hyeon hadn’t put his full effort into learning the mental techniques.

He hadn’t felt the need to.

But in this situation, the colder and hungrier he got, the more Ha Hyeon clung to the mental techniques.

Because he felt that as his inner power grew, he could forget the cold and hunger, he continued onward. And that feeling was true.

Originally, as inner power fills the dantian, the body gradually evolves from that of an ordinary person.

Thanks to this, masters in the martial arts world can endure for long periods without eating, and are relatively free from cold and heat.

Ha Hyeon didn’t know that although his current situation was very difficult, paradoxically, it was very good for building pure inner power.

Consuming minimal food, constantly moving his body, and being able to focus solely on mental techniques.

It was no different from the environment that various martial arts sects and families provide to young children who have just begun learning martial arts, to help them build pure inner power.

‘Back then, mother said that the Changgung Daeyeon Heart Technique could only be used after completely mastering the Three Talents Mental Technique, but it doesn’t seem to be exactly like that.’

In any martial arts family or sect, the first sword technique and mental technique taught to young children are the Three Talents Sword Technique and Three Talents Mental Technique.

Although they don’t show tremendous power or effectiveness, they are the most basic of martial arts with almost no risk and allow for the gradual accumulation of pure energy, even if in small amounts.

Only after the Three Talents Mental Technique is completely mastered in the body do they begin to learn each family or sect’s unique martial arts.

However, Ha Hyeon had already completely understood and was experiencing the verses of the Three Talents Mental Technique.

Step by step, there was one ultimate purpose in being guided through the stages. To build as much high-quality inner power as possible.

Ha Hyeon skipping the Three Talents Sword Technique and utilizing the Changgung Daeyeon Heart Technique was perfect for this purpose.

What more explanation was needed for a mental technique that had placed the Namgung family at the very top among the Five Great Families in the martial arts world?

Moreover, despite his young age, Ha Hyeon understood even the Changgung Daeyeon Heart Technique perfectly.

Without needing to go through what martial artists typically call the stage of enlightenment, he understood the verses of the mental technique exactly as they were and applied them to his body.

Because of this, Ha Hyeon’s body and inner power were evolving day by day.

Two weeks had passed since Ha Hyeon began his endless walking.

During that time, his clothes had become as dirty as the time that passed, but his eyes remained incomparably clear and clean.

“Hoo-… Hup.”

And now Ha Hyeon took a deep breath behind a small rock and held it.

“Guruk… guk?”

A moment after Ha Hyeon erased his presence. A wild rabbit poked its head out from a rabbit hole between the rocks.

Swoosh-

Ha Hyeon reached for the rabbit’s head with lightning speed.

“Peek?”

But Ha Hyeon’s hand was too slow to catch a wild rabbit.

The rabbit easily dodged Ha Hyeon’s hand and began running away towards the exit of the burrow.

“Oh no!”

Ha Hyeon began chasing the running rabbit, but it was impossible to catch up with human legs.

At that moment, Ha Hyeon thought. ‘Move. Move more. Legs!’

It was an instinctive judgment.

The moment Ha Hyeon thought this, his inner power began to move.

The inner power coiled in his dantian began flowing like water towards his legs.

Ha Hyeon felt his legs, and soon his entire body, becoming gradually lighter.

‘I can catch it…!’

The distance between Ha Hyeon and the rabbit rapidly decreased.

But just when it seemed within arm’s reach, he couldn’t catch up any further.

At that moment, Ha Hyeon could clearly see the rabbit’s feet.

He even felt as if the world was slowing down.

Pack-!

The rabbit exerts all its strength the moment it kicks off the ground.

Unlike Ha Hyeon who was constantly straining his whole body while running, it concentrated its power only at the moment its feet touched the ground.

Understanding this in that instant, Ha Hyeon’s inner power moved from his legs down to his feet.

And the moment Ha Hyeon’s foot touched the ground…!

Boom-!

The energy that burst from the Yongcheon acupoint in the sole of his feet created tremendous instantaneous speed.

“Peek-!”

Ha Hyeon finally managed to catch the rabbit.

Without anyone teaching him, he had realized the lightness technique on his own.

Moreover, despite moving much more intensely than usual, he wasn’t out of breath, nor was his body tired.

‘This is the power of inner force.’

Ha Hyeon carefully observed his body.

He felt refreshed thanks to the inner power spread throughout his body.

So much so that he even understood why martial artists became obsessed with inner power.

“Peek, peek-!”

Ha Hyeon looked at the rabbit struggling to escape from his grasp.

For a moment, he felt pity, but Ha Hyeon steeled his heart.

‘Without pain, in one strike.’

Crack!

His fist filled with inner power struck the rabbit, and it immediately went limp.

The law of nature where one must take another life to survive.

And Ha Hyeon was learning the ways of the martial world one by one.

After that day, Ha Hyeon’s movement became incomparably faster than before.

But even though he was just running through mountain paths, Ha Hyeon wasn’t just running mindlessly.

‘When stretching my legs, stepping like this makes it easier to place the next foot. And the next foot…’

Thud- Roll roll.

“Ouch, that hurts.”

He ran while researching ways to run more efficiently and faster by himself.

Though he sometimes rolled and crashed…

“Ugh. Huu… One more time.”

Ha Hyeon got up every time.

While running through mountain paths, he was also learning how to stand up by himself.

As Ha Hyeon traveled further, time passed frighteningly quickly.

As he became more familiar with the footwork technique, and as he gradually mastered stepping techniques that suited him, Ha Hyeon’s journey to Anhui Province became increasingly faster.

What particularly satisfied Ha Hyeon was that now that he was significantly faster than small wild animals, hunting became easier and he no longer had to go hungry.

Crackle- Crackle- Crackle-

Tonight too, Ha Hyeon lit a fire and ate an easily-caught chipmunk while gauging his current location by the stars.

Since he deliberately avoided villages and moved only through mountains, it was difficult to easily determine where he was, but he could roughly estimate that he had long since entered Henan Province.

Chomp-

Ha Hyeon decided while taking a bite of meat.

“I should start heading down to the villages soon.”

There was only one reason for his decision.

Of the currency notes he received from his mother when he fled, only one remained.

Having used one note every two or three days, he had spent nearly thirty notes, meaning about two months had passed since he fled from the Shin family.

During these two months, Ha Hyeon’s clothes and shoes had become practically rags, making him look no different from a beggar.

However, his neatly pulled-back hair and seemingly radiant face never allowed him to be seen as just a simple beggar.

Ha Hyeon cleaned his body and face thoroughly whenever he found water.

This was because he seemed to remember hearing when he was younger that body odor might provoke wild beasts.

Of course, it would have been nice to wash his clothes each time, but since there wasn’t time to dry wet clothes, he had no choice but to undress and enter the water.

“If I had reached the level of Three Mysteries True Fire that I’ve only heard about, I wouldn’t need to worry about this.”

However, even his mother, who was considered quite a master in the martial arts world, hadn’t reached the level of creating fire with inner power alone, so he soon gave up on this fantasy.

Before deciding to go down to the village, Ha Hyeon carefully observed for several days whether anyone was following him, but found no traces of pursuit.

Well, since Anhui Province was in the opposite direction from the bamboo grove where Ha Hyeon first escaped, it was clear that no one would have thought he fled this way.

“Good.”

Ha Hyeon finished eating his meat, covered the fire with dirt to extinguish it, and climbed up a tree.

To conserve as much energy as possible, not knowing what might happen tomorrow.

Several days later.

Ha Hyeon finally arrived at a place where people lived.

The village he came down to after two months was bustling.

As luck would have it, it was market day when Ha Hyeon arrived, and the marketplace was crowded with people.

“Wow.”

The first thing Ha Hyeon uttered upon seeing this sight was pure amazement.

Just two months ago, Ha Hyeon, who had lived without wanting anything in Shaanxi, found the crowds of people he was seeing after two months fascinating.

But he couldn’t just stand there amazed forever.

Ha Hyeon soon gathered his wits and began collecting information while looking around here and there.

Though he was a head taller than others his age, Ha Hyeon was still just a child.

Most people saw Ha Hyeon’s appearance and, thinking he was just a curious little beggar, answered his questions.

Some adults, perhaps finding Ha Hyeon’s bright eyes cute, even gave him dumplings or sweets.

While chewing on the sweets, Ha Hyeon felt that kindness still existed in the martial world.

And the information Ha Hyeon gathered was this:

First, this place was Goshi County, located at the southeastern end of Henan Province.

Since this county bordered Anhui Province, it proved that Ha Hyeon had been running in the right direction.

And it seemed the people of the world were still unaware of the bloodshed at the Shin family.

Of course, in the martial arts world where blade fights occurred almost daily, the destruction of a small martial arts family like the Shin family wasn’t particularly noteworthy news.

‘I should leave as soon as I get currency notes.’

Since this was the edge of Henan Province, it wasn’t far at all to the Namgung family located in Hefei (located in the center of Anhui Province), the provincial capital of Anhui.

Ha Hyeon strengthened his resolve once again and jumped up from his seat.

And at that moment.

A loud voice came from somewhere.

“What stray mutt dares to look around in someone else’s territory!”

When Ha Hyeon turned around at the sound, he saw a beggar boy who looked a couple years older than him, with three beggars behind him, arms crossed, glaring at Ha Hyeon.