Genius Martial Arts Trainer

Chapter 5:

Choi Kang-hyuk demonstrated the “Close-Range Spear Technique” during the time from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and after completing all his daily routines, it was evening.

In front of the accommodations given to the novice monks, Mu-yul tilted his head and spoke.

“Mu-jin? What are you doing?”

“Whew.”

After repeating something for a while, Mu-jin took a break, caught his breath, stood up, and answered Mu-yul’s question.

“I’m practicing to defeat Mu-gung in one go.”

“To defeat Senior Brother Mu-gung?”

“Yeah.”

“Uh? Senior Brother Mu-gung’s punches make a whooshing sound like the wind. And he’s a whole cheok (about 30 cm) taller than us.”

“Come on, he’s not a full cheok taller, more like 20 centimeters… no, let’s see. One chi is 3 cm. So, he’s about seven chi taller.”

Mu-yul, puzzled by the talk about centimeters, again asked with a confused expression.

“Uh? Senior Brother Mu-gung is seven chi taller, and his punches make a whooshing sound?”

“Ts-ts. Mu-yul, in fights, it’s not always the bigger person who wins.”

“Gasp. It’s a fight? I thought it was sparring?”

“No, I mean, that’s just a manner of speaking.”

At Mu-yul’s innocent reaction, Mu-jin let out a light sigh.

“I can’t say anything in front of this kid.”

The advice from adults to be cautious with their words in front of kids wasn’t wrong.

“Anyway, sparring isn’t necessarily won by the bigger person. So, Mu-yul, even if someone bigger than you picks a fight, don’t be scared, okay?”

Mu-jin, who left Mu-yul with a life lesson, resumed the movements he had been practicing.

“Whew. Since it’s been a while, I need to practice.”

Although he had spent the last ten years focusing on exercises for building and maintaining his body, he was once a human weapon who served in a special forces unit for seven years. Well, he did struggle with injuries in the last two years.

At any rate, during the five years before getting injured, he practiced and experienced enough hand-to-hand combat to become sick of it.

And most real combat techniques are full of moves that could cripple or kill someone if mishandled.

The reason he was now practicing so intensely wasn’t to defeat Mu-gung but to subdue him without injuring him.

Not only had it been over ten years since he had used them, but his current body was also that of Mu-jin, not his original body of Choi Kang-hyuk, and it still felt unfamiliar.

Mu-jin judged that if he didn’t practice to some extent, it would be dangerous in many ways.

And while Mu-jin was focused on training to spare Mu-gung,

“Is Mu-jin an idiot?”

Mu-yul tilted his head again.

“He needs to defeat Senior Brother Mu-gung, so why is he rubbing his body against a tree?”

To Mu-yul, the training Mu-jin was doing seemed too profound.

* * *

After practicing techniques for sparring with Mu-gung during their free time, it was time to sleep.

“Hey, if you sleep like that, you’ll ruin your health.”

When Mu-yul was about to lie down on his blanket, Mu-jin suddenly yanked the blanket away.

“Why would resting and sleeping ruin my health?”

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When Mu-yul asked with an innocent face, Mu-jin clicked his tongue and said,

“Your muscles are strained from moving since early morning. If you don’t relieve those tense and tired muscles, they’ll stiffen up while contracted.”

“???”

“You don’t understand, do you?”

“Nope! Hehe.”

“If you don’t understand, just do as I say. I’m only saying this for your own good.”

“Hmph. I’m the senior disciple, you know?”

Ignoring Mu-yul’s whining, Mu-jin sat Mu-yul cross-legged, placed his right arm on his left knee, and stretched his left arm over his head to the right.

It was a stretching exercise for the quadratus lumborum, a muscle located at the side of the body connecting the pelvis and the ribcage.

“How does it feel? Does it feel good?”

“Huh? What do you mean by feeling good? Will this make my body cool down?”

“Uh… no. Haven’t your uncomfortable muscles relaxed?”

“Oh! Yes, yes! They feel so much better!”

Seeing how Mu-yul took everything literally, Mu-jin chuckled.

Afterwards, Mu-jin showed various stretching movements to relax his own body and also taught the same stretches to Mu-yul.

‘He’s an interesting guy. He seems a bit clueless, but he’s pretty good at following physical movements.’

Mu-jin marveled at Mu-yul who followed the stretches well.

* * *

Next dawn.

Mu-jin, who had gotten up early for morning training as usual, shook Mu-yul, who was still asleep, to wake him up.

“Ugh, huh? Why did you get up so early?”

There was still time before the bell rang for the dawn training.

“Stretching should be done before exercise.”

Yesterday, he had overslept after being abruptly dragged into a novel. Originally, Mu-jin was a man who lived so busily that he was called a workaholic.

He forcibly woke Mu-yul, who was dragging his feet, and began to loosen up with stretching, just like last night.

“But what is the stretching you keep talking about?”

When Mu-yul, who was loosening up with a sleepy face, asked while yawning, Mu-jin thought for a moment.

‘Well, it’s not like I can use English in a martial arts world.’

If he kept using it, people around him would definitely look at him strangely.

“‘Kinetic Thaumaturgy’ is what it means. From now on, that’s what I’ll call it. You understand what Kinetic Thaumaturgy means, right?”

“Yes! It means stretching muscles.”

“Good. If you understand, then it’s a good word.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“It was just me talking to myself, don’t worry about it.”

“Hehe. Mu-jin, you seem to like talking to yourself.”

By the time Mu-jin and Mu-yul had finished stretching adequately, the bell signaling the dawn at Shaolin echoed through the temple.

After getting ready, they moved toward the training ground.

As soon as the children arrived at the training ground, Hye-jeong, who appeared again, looked at Mu-jin briefly before turning away.

‘Since he showed signs of reflection yesterday, I guess he’ll participate in training today. Tsk. But I’ve already arranged a sparring session, so what to do now.’

Bothering a child who was reflecting was against the nature of Shaolin.

But Hye-jeong’s concern was utterly pointless.

Why? Because Mu-jin didn’t have the slightest intention of reflecting.

“Take the horse stance!!”

At Hye-jeong’s shout, the other novice monks began to torture their knees again.

“Sniff.”

Mu-jin assumed a posture completely unrelated to the horse stance and regulated his breathing.

‘I destroyed my lower body yesterday, so I can’t do lower body again today. Yeah.’

In modern exercise science, the method of building muscle is based on the theory of supercompensation.

According to this theory, when the human body is injured, it reinforces the injured area during the recovery process.

And what was really important here was ‘recovery’. Inflicting an unrecoverable injury on a muscle or continuously piling up injuries without time to recover.

That wasn’t exercise; it was self-torture.

However, just because of recovery, you couldn’t exercise for one day and rest for two or three days.

That’s why the weekly routine was developed.

If you spent one day destroying your lower body, during the period when your lower body was recovering, you would destroy other parts like your arms, chest, or back instead of the lower body.

Then, while you were destroying other parts, if your legs recovered, you would destroy your legs again.

Through such a regular routine, each part would rest in turn, but no exercise day would be skipped, creating a beautiful schedule.

Today, the area Mu-jin, who destroyed his lower body yesterday, chose was the chest and back.

Mu-jin placed both hands on the ground and assumed a push-up position.

“Sniff.”

Mu-jin inhaled and focused on the movement of the pectoralis major (chest muscle) and the shoulder blades as he slowly bent his arms.

“Whew.”

Exhaling, he straightened his arms again, lifting his upper body.

This action was commonly known as push-ups or press-ups.

While Mu-jin, a ten-year veteran trainer, was repeating push-ups with a form that could be called exemplary.

“This, this, this brat dares!?”

The veins on Hye-jeong’s forehead popped out as he was watching the novice monks’ horse stance.

“Did the act he showed yesterday mean that he was mocking me!?”

One of the greatest teachings of Buddhism was compassion, so Hye-jeong’s heart softened a little when he saw Mu-jin actively participating in the Revolving Fist Technique practice.

“He’s even worse today than he was yesterday!!”

At least yesterday, he had assumed postures somewhat similar to the horse stance (like squats or lunges, lower body exercises).

But today, why was he doing push-ups here all by himself?

If this act wasn’t intended to mock him, what else could it be?

“Tree… crack… Amitabha Buddha.”

Naturally, from the lips of Master Uncle Hye-jeong, the sound of chanting grew louder than the day before, along with the sound of this thinning.

“Swallow.”

“Sigh.”

Busy concentrating on his muscles, Mu-jin didn’t even bother to pay attention.

* * *

During the morning training session, Mu-jin, who had exerted his utmost in tormenting the muscles of his back and chest, was greeted by breakfast time.

“I would appreciate just a little more beans and mushrooms!”

Mu-jin, who had already filled his bowl with beans and mushrooms, called out as if he could not be satisfied with just that.

“Ah! A disciple of Buddhism is picky with food!”

The Second-class Disciple, who was serving the food, also already knew of Mu-jin’s notorious reputation and admonished him sternly.

“Anyway, don’t all the other kids avoid the beans and mushrooms, leaving so much behind? Would it not be a true mistake to waste the food that farmers and herbalists toiled to grow and gather? I shall eat the remaining beans and mushrooms to dissipate them, thus bestowing Buddha’s mercy.”

“……”

The Second-class Disciple, who seemed only in his mid-twenties and had not really lived social life properly due to over ten years of training, had no way of verbally outmaneuvering Mu-jin.

Having effortlessly handled the Second-class Disciple, Mu-jin made a mountain that looked like it could overflow with beans and mushrooms and then sat down next to Mu-yul.

“Here. You eat some, too.”

“Why should I?”

And, Mu-jin also showed compassion by passing on some of the plenty of beans and mushrooms he had gathered to Mu-yul.

The foundation of kinematics was in super-recovery, so in order to heal the lost parts of the body, it was necessary to intake the nutrients needed for that area.

This meant that a lot of protein was necessary. And in this damn Shaolin Temple, there were no protein supplements or even meat.

“In the end, to make up for the lack of protein, one had to force down at least beans and mushrooms.”

Of course, among the novice monks of the Shaolin Temple, who had no such scientific knowledge, there were some children who, true to their young nature, avoided beans and mushrooms.

Mu-yul was one of those children.

“Do you remember the Close-Range Spear Technique I taught you yesterday?”

“Yes.”

“Didn’t your body feel much more comfortable after doing it?”

“Yes.”

“It’s the same thing. Just trust me and eat for now.”

“Whine…”

Hesitating under Mu-jin’s persuasion, Mu-yul started to reluctantly eat the beans and mushrooms passed to him with a sullen face.

‘That brat. He’ll probably want to bow in gratitude later on.’

Watching his charming nephew, Mu-jin also began to reluctantly chew and swallow the copious amount of beans and mushrooms in his bowl.

The harsh training methods of Shaolin, which he had rejected, were too cruel for a child.

In modern times, it would be highlighted in the news for child abuse.

Mu-jin, who wanted to guide the training himself but hadn’t yet received recognition, at least wanted to take care of stretching and eating.

And why doesn’t he take care of the other novice monks?

‘Why should I care for those brats when they lack manners?’

Among the dozens of novice monks that could be seen as his motivation, the only one who did not scoff at Mu-jin was Mu-yul.

Goodness for goodness. Greater malice for malice.

That was the motto of Mu-jin, who had been through all sorts of trials.

* * *

In the early morning training, I beat the muscles, and in the morning training session, I practiced the Revolving Fist Technique, contemplating counter techniques. During my evening free time, I physically trained the counter techniques myself.

During mealtime, I forced down beans and mushrooms like rice to recover my body, and whenever there was spare time, I would stretch. Thus, the time known as seven days and seven nights flew by like an arrow.

And finally, today.

The day of the sparring match with Mu-gung has dawned.