Genius Martial Arts Trainer

I silently stared at the message Member Park Gyuchul had sent.

Member Park Gyuchul: (Photo)Member Park Gyuchul: I just left the barbecue restaurant! I’ll follow the diet properly starting today. I’m sorry, Gym Owner!What was with this sudden overreaction?

He truly was an unpredictable member.

First, he suddenly asked whether I had ever nearly died.

It was abrupt, but I simply told him the truth.

I really had nearly died several times.

During my days at Shaolin. More precisely, during the life I had lived as Mujin.

Especially when my side had been torn apart while fighting the Wolf King. I had truly hovered between life and death then.

“Hmm. Compared to those days, the present really is peace itself.”

Another Buddhist realization suddenly came to me.

“Amitabha.”

Right. Compared to the days when I fought Shincheon, arguing with members over their diets was nothing.

Of course.

Then, early the following morning.

While conducting a session with Member Choi Yujin, who came once every two days, I realized an extremely important fact.

Her improvement was far too slow.

I might not have noticed if I had only been treating Member Choi Yujin.

But because I had a comparison group, the difference was painfully obvious.

Naturally, it was not because I was taking her PT sessions lightly.

That left only one possible conclusion.

“Member? You are following your diet, aren’t you?”

My eyes, which had witnessed countless life-and-death battles in the martial world, did not miss it.

The instant Member Choi Yujin’s body flinched.

“You haven’t been following it, have you? This entire time.”

Member Choi Yujin belatedly shook her head from side to side.

It was useless.

Her head shook violently. Between the strands of hair swaying along with it.

Her pupils were trembling fiercely.

Hmm.

Was this prejudice too?

I had assumed she would quietly follow the diet properly.

That was why I had minimized contacting her whenever possible.

Because she was such a quiet member, and because communication made her uncomfortable.

But I could no longer do that.

“From now on, send me a photo of every meal. I’ll check your diet.”

Hmm.

How should I describe Member Choi Yujin’s expression?

She looked like a prisoner who had just been sentenced to death.

And the condemned prisoner’s resistance was fiercer than expected.

That evening.

Member Choi Yujin: (Photo)She sent only a photo without saying anything.

Well, she was shy around strangers, so that was understandable.

As I silently examined the photograph, a chuckle escaped me.

Me: You made this with AI, didn’t you?How many years had I worked as a trainer?

It was not as though I had only seen members fake diet photographs once or twice.

Member Choi Yujin: I didn’t. It’s my dinner.Me: Then take another photo with your fingers making a V above the food and send it to me.My phone remained silent for quite some time.

I could picture it without even seeing her.

She was probably displaying the composite image she had just created on a computer or tablet PC, then trying to place her fingers against the screen and photograph it.

Or perhaps she was photographing her own hand and asking the AI to combine it with the image.

She was obviously trying all sorts of things.

And all the results were probably so unnatural that she had no idea what to do.

Me: I don’t think photographing your fingers should take this long.Me: Put away whatever you were about to eat for dinner and eat the diet meal again.Member Choi Yujin: Yes.......Me: And take a photo and send it to me.I thought that warning would be sufficient.

However, Member Choi Yujin’s resistance was fiercer than expected.

Member Choi Yujin: (Photo)Member Choi Yujin: I followed the diet yesterday. I’ll have a cheat day today.Wow.

Now that deception had failed, she was attempting a frontal assault.

Me: A cheat day is normally once a month. Or once a week, Member.After that, I had to stop Member Choi Yujin from binge eating several more times.

Honestly, it was almost astonishing.

“Is following a diet really that difficult!?”

I could not understand it.

I looked down at the grass-like vegetables and chicken breast on the table.

“This is perfectly edible, isn’t it?”

My tongue, and occasionally the brain connected to it, screamed in agony, but that much could be ignored.

The tongue was a liar.

Everything the tongue claimed to enjoy was harmful to the body.

Following that bastard’s instructions was dangerous.

In other words, the fact that my tongue was suffering was an extremely good sign.

Of course.

I photographed my meal exactly as it was and sent it to Member Choi Yujin.

Me: I eat like this every day too, Member.Member Choi Yujin: Just looking at it makes me nauseous, Gym Owner. Please delete the photo.“.......”

It seemed even the member who had been so shy around strangers had grown fairly comfortable with me now.

Hmm.

“Ah. I almost lost muscle.”

I put down my phone and enjoyed my meal.

A diet that made my tongue scream in agony, but made my muscles cheer.

***

Member Choi Yujin’s desperate resistance continued.

After spending several days trying to prevent her from straying from the diet.

I decided that this could not continue and once again presented a drastic solution.

“Member. If you keep behaving like this, I can’t continue your sessions. I’ll refund the remaining cost of your PT sessions, so you should look for another gym.”

Instead of telling her over text, I said it while facing her directly.

Member Choi Yujin fidgeted helplessly, unsure what to do.

Was speaking aloud in person still too uncomfortable for her?

Then, at some point, Member Choi Yujin abruptly raised her head.

“I-I only need to recover my ability! If that happens, I won’t need to follow a diet!”

Her long and detailed story followed.

The ability called Metabolic Acceleration.

Her life as a hunter, during which she had constantly eaten high-calorie food.

Her injury and retirement, the ability that had suddenly become blocked, and the rapid weight gain that followed.

I see.

In fact, I had seen similar cases before.

Such cases were fairly common among retired athletes.

It resembled the problems caused when someone continued eating the same amount even though their level of exercise had decreased.

Before I knew it, moisture had gathered faintly around Member Choi Yujin’s eyes.

“Once I recover my ability, I’ll lose the weight anyway!”

After passionately making her case, she glanced at me cautiously and finished speaking.

“So, so. Can’t I just not follow the diet?”

Hmm.

It seemed tears had gathered in her eyes because of her aversion to dieting.

Well, the story leading up to this was rather unfortunate.

I also understood that she would lose weight anyway if she recovered her ability.

But that was exactly why I could not accept her request.

“Then you have even more reason to follow the diet. To recover that ability, I need to drive the turbid energy out through energy treatment, but you keep eating harmful food and accumulating even more turbid energy.”

Only after removing a certain amount of the turbid energy accumulated in her body could I begin the real treatment.

In fact, while listening to Member Choi Yujin’s story, I thought that my suspicions had been correct.

Because I had noticed something unusual during the energy treatments.

Several of her acupoints had been severely damaged.

Could those damaged acupoints be the reason her ability was blocked?

One might conclude that I only needed to treat the damaged acupoints, but that was not the case.

Those damaged acupoints were also completely clogged with turbid energy.

Moreover, every acupoint throughout her body was filled with turbid energy, so recklessly trying to treat the damaged ones carried the risk of seriously injuring her.

To compare it to modern medicine, it was no different from attempting surgery on a body covered in filth without even disinfecting it first.

In other words, one way or another, cleansing the turbid energy had to come first.

“As you said, once your ability recovers, there will be no need for you to diet. So conversely, let’s have you follow the diet only until your ability recovers. After that, I won’t interfere at all.”

She opened and closed her mouth several times as though she wanted to say something, then stopped.

Eventually, as though surrendering, she dropped her head and uttered a final groan.

“Yes.......”

She walked toward the Smith machine with the expression of someone who had lost her country.

Her shoulders drooped, and even her steps were weak.

She looked like a condemned prisoner being dragged toward the execution grounds.

***

After that day, the members’ diet management proceeded without any major setbacks.

Because Member Park Gyuchul and Member Choi Yujin had resisted so fiercely, the resistance from the others felt almost endearing by comparison.

Managing the schedule also proved less troublesome than expected.

For the first time in a long while, I had as many as seven PT members.

If all their appointments fell on the same day, I had to spend the entire day conducting PT sessions and energy treatments.

However, viewed on a weekly basis, I had more free time than expected.

And whenever I had spare time, I slipped in and out of the gate to continue training.

I sat cross-legged and focused my mind.

“Inhale. Exhale.”

I had to focus on circulating my energy rather than my usual training.

What I was cultivating now was not the most basic Buddhist Heart Art, but the comparatively advanced Prajna Divine Art.

More than a month had already passed since the gate opened.

Thanks to steadily cultivating the Buddhist Heart Art during that time, I had managed to drive a certain amount of turbid energy from my body.

That was why I had recently begun cultivating the Prajna Heart Method from time to time.

The energy raced through the acupoints across my entire body and accumulated little by little in the dantian located in my lower abdomen.

It was a truly strange sensation.

Because when I had lived as Mujin, I had not possessed a dantian.

More precisely, my dantian had been destroyed during the battle against the Divine Lord.

Fortunately, my other acupoints had remained intact, and thanks to my external cultivation reaching the absolute peak, it had not caused any major problems.

If I recovered the full realm of external cultivation I had possessed as Mujin, could I become even stronger than before?

Since I had a dantian now.

Hmm.

It was a difficult question.

On the other hand, this body was in far worse condition than Mujin’s had been.

Was lifting iron the answer after all?

Having reached a conclusion, I regulated my breathing and stood up.

Then I immediately walked toward the barbell.

“Inhale. Exhale.”

While operating the stable Buddhist Heart Art, I began lifting iron at the same time.

The heavy weight.

The muscles throughout my body screamed. No, they cheered.

Just endure a little longer. I’ll make you larger and stronger.

Ah.

If my muscles grew any larger, they might actually become inconvenient in a fight.

Well, it probably would not matter much.

Because my realm in the Iron Shirt was continuing to rise as well.

Once I reached a certain level, I could simply move on to the Jade Vajra Art.

The Jade Vajra Art.

The external cultivation art Grandfather Hyungwang had created especially for me.

It possessed many different effects, but its most exceptional effect was precisely this.

Muscle compression.

Rather than large but weak balloon muscles, it allowed one to develop truly dense and functional muscles.

However, there was one minor problem.

It would likely take at least several months before I could advance to the Jade Vajra Art.

Could I keep this gate hidden until then?

“Amitabha.”

I recited a Buddhist invocation and cast aside my distracting thoughts.

Idle thoughts during sacred lifting iron.

It was unthinkable.

After lifting iron for more than an hour, I left the gate.

It was not because a PT member was coming.

After washing myself in the shower area on one side of the gym, I left the building.

Naturally, I locked the gym’s front door.

It would be troublesome if someone entered and discovered the gate.

“It’s been a really long time since I went outside.”

Since the gate had opened, I had not taken a single step away from the gym.

Because I was worried that a monster might emerge from the gate.

But even after observing the gate for more than a month, not so much as a monster’s nose had appeared.

So today, I planned to relax a little and take a walk around the neighborhood for the first time in ages.

“If I walk too much, I might lose muscle, so I’ll just take a short walk around the area.”

I could also buy some chicken breast and vegetables at the supermarket.

To minimize muscle loss, I headed through a shortcut instead of following the main road.

At the entrance to an alley.

A little boy who looked about kindergarten age ran energetically ahead.

“Yaaaaah~!!”

A woman who appeared to be his mother chased after him and shouted.

“Suchan!! What if you fall while running!! And that’s not the way we’re going!!”

For some reason, the sight of the mother chasing her son while scolding him seemed warm and cheerful.

Memories of my life as Mujin came to mind.

Xuehua, with whom I had made a lifelong vow. And our children.

With bitterness and warmth mingling inside me, I watched the child and the mother chasing him for a moment.

“Huh?”

A crack suddenly formed in midair.

Vrrrrrrr.

A gate abruptly opened.

“Wooooow~!”

And the child named Suchan was sucked into the gate with an expression full of curiosity.

“Suchaaaaaan~!!!!!”

His horrified mother screamed and charged toward the gate.

“Damn it.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, I threw myself forward as well.