Chapter 75
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: Reunion (3)
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Jinmyeong turned his head in the direction from which the sword that blocked his attack had come.
“My apologies for suddenly interfering.”
Jinmyeong frowned at the young man who appeared with an awkward smile.
‘Why are you here? Gang Muhwi.’
The novel's protagonist.
Gang Muhwi, whom he had met not long ago in Shaanxi, had blocked his attack.
“Even so, I thought it wouldn't be right to kill a monk.”
Jinmyeong sighed and looked at Gang Muhwi's sword, which was stuck in the ground.
At that, Gang Muhwi's sword trembled and then rose into the air.
“Take it back.”
As soon as Jinmyeong finished speaking, the sword flew back toward Gang Muhwi.
“Kuh!”
Gang Muhwi reached out for the sword flying at an incredible speed.
He managed to snatch the sword, but he couldn't overcome its momentum and was pushed back a good distance.
“You could have given it back nicely. Your prank went too far.”
“That was me giving it back nicely. I didn't think you couldn't even catch that.”
Gang Muhwi frowned at Jinmyeong's words.
“You seem to think you're some great master.”
“...”
“And speaking so informally to a stranger, you have no manners.”
It seemed that, unlike Jinmyeong, Gang Muhwi didn't remember him at all.
Jinmyeong had brown hair and slightly paler skin, making him rather easy to remember.
Besides, he had been with Shin Yehyang, the woman Gang Muhwi had been hitting on so much.
‘He didn't pay any attention to me.’
Even if he was completely smitten with Shin Yehyang, Jinmyeong never imagined Gang Muhwi wouldn't remember someone he had even spoken with.
‘Sometimes I think this really is the world of a novel, but whenever I see this guy, it doesn't feel like it.’
He hadn't paid close attention to the other characters' personalities, so he didn't notice any major differences, but Gang Muhwi was so different from the novel that it felt jarring.
‘And yet, he's telling me not to kill the monk.’
He didn't seem to be overflowing with a sense of justice, and he was rather impolite.
He was just a common martial artist you could find anywhere.
An arrogant martial artist, overflowing with confidence in his own skills.
“You seem quite arrogant just because you're a little strong.”
Of course, it seemed Jinmyeong appeared the same way to Gang Muhwi.
It seemed that most martial artists became similar once they grew a little stronger and gained some fame.
“From my perspective, you seem more like that. Now, can I know why you interfered?”
“...I have a small connection with them.”
Gang Muhwi glanced at Grandmaster Gongeun, who was fighting Maeng Yo.
“Then you should have gone over there. Why did you come here?”
Jinmyeong couldn't understand why Gang Muhwi, who had a connection with Grandmaster Gongeun but not with Gonghyo, would bother to interfere.
“You have a connection with all of Shaolin?”
“Not to that extent. And I have no reason to tell you such things.”
It seemed Gang Muhwi had no intention of elaborating.
And Jinmyeong, for his part, had no intention of digging into Gang Muhwi's relationship with Shaolin.
He just thought that since Gang Muhwi's master was no ordinary person, he might have some connection to Shaolin.
‘But that's that. Interfering wasn't necessarily the right thing to do.’
In the original novel, Gang Muhwi sometimes got into trouble because of his tireless sense of justice.
There were even times when he would suddenly decide to help an enemy if they were in a difficult situation.
‘No matter how good a person is...’
It was an aspect of him that Jinmyeong couldn't, and didn't want to, understand.
So, he decided to poke at that personality a bit. Not that it would change anything.
“Isn't it wrong to suddenly interfere without knowing the situation we're in?”
The martial world is full of complicated stories.
Gang Muhwi had interfered without knowing anything about the whole story.
“What if that monk was the one who killed my parents?”
“I-Is that really true?”
Gang Muhwi looked at Gonghyo, startled.
He never thought a Shaolin monk would do such a thing.
“No! This humble monk has never done such a thing.”
When Gang Muhwi looked at Gonghyo with suspicion-filled eyes, he quickly shook his head.
“Are you mocking me?”
“I'm just saying it could have been. You interfered without even checking, didn't you?”
Jinmyeong sneered at Gang Muhwi, whose face had reddened with anger at the thought of being mocked.
“That's why you shouldn't thoughtlessly meddle in the affairs of the martial world. That's my point.”
“But I have a connection with Shaolin.”
He had no intention of arguing who was right or wrong.
No matter how much they talked, the gap between his and Gang Muhwi's way of thinking would never close.
“I'm saying you should assess the situation before jumping in blindly. So, what are you going to do now?”
“How about we both withdraw for now?”
“Withdraw? The ones who should be withdrawing are Shaolin.”
At Jinmyeong's words, Gang Muhwi finally realized that he was in a place that had nothing to do with Shaolin.
“More importantly, I'm curious as to why you're here.”
The place Jinmyeong was in was the Unjeong Escort Agency. A place with no connection to Gang Muhwi.
So, for Gang Muhwi to appear in such a place, he was curious about the reason.
“I came to the escort agency to pick something up...”
Gang Muhwi was speaking, but then he quickly shook his head.
“That's not what's important right now, is it?”
“Isn't it important? Just hurry up, get what you need, and go. Don't meddle in this any further.”
“I cannot do that.”
Jinmyeong looked at Gang Muhwi's determined expression.
‘His personality seems a bit different from when I first saw him.’
Before, he thought him incredibly arrogant, but now he seemed very cautious.
It was enough to make him wonder if he had matured in the short time that had passed.
‘Is there really something like fate? It's a bit strange for him to run into me just by chance.’
It was to the point where he wondered if some unknown force was making him and Gang Muhwi keep meeting.
‘If I killed him, we wouldn't have to meet again.’
But he couldn't do that, which was frustrating.
The problem went beyond whether it was annoying or not.
In the end, this novel concludes with Gang Muhwi, who grew strong by continuously obtaining fortuitous encounters, killing the mastermind.
‘Though I did take a few.’
Jinmyeong had taken a few of those encounters and planned to take more, but the fact remained that Gang Muhwi needed to obtain most of them.
‘Not only do I not know his martial arts, but I also don't remember most of those fortuitous encounters.’
Including the smaller ones, Gang Muhwi obtains close to thirty fortuitous encounters.
And Jinmyeong didn't know all of them.
In fact, he only knew about the first one he obtained, the one he was supposed to get in the Green Forest, and the one he would get from the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult—only three.
‘These three alone won't be enough.’
The fortuitous encounters were one thing, but more important were the martial arts Gang Muhwi was learning.
He defeated the mastermind with those martial arts, which he developed and perfected to suit himself as he gained more encounters.
Jinmyeong believed Gang Muhwi's martial arts were the final key to defeating the mastermind.
‘Could I learn it just by watching?’
Suddenly, Jinmyeong recalled the innate talent his body possessed.
An incredible talent that allowed him to perform even the Supreme Ultimate Sword, Wudang's ultimate technique, after just reading the manual once or twice.
He wondered if he could imitate Gang Muhwi's swordsmanship after seeing it a few times.
‘No. It wouldn't have its full power anyway unless I used the same internal energy cultivation method that man learned.’
Jinmyeong wouldn't be able to defeat the mastermind in Gang Muhwi's place.
‘Still, since he's here, should I try to steal his swordsmanship?’
The Heavenly Arts Sword.
It meant a sword art comprised of incredible techniques, but it also meant a sword art that could only be learned by one with heaven-sent talent.
‘The epitome of unpredictability.’
It was probably the most outstanding among the unpredictable sword arts in the Central Plains.
‘It's the protagonist's sword, so it has to be strong.’
The Heavenly Arts Sword consists of ten forms.
The completion of this sword art is being able to execute those ten forms consecutively.
Each form was incredibly complex, so stringing ten complex forms together made it exceptionally difficult to master.
‘In fact, it was said that if one could execute all ten forms in a single breath, they could look down upon the world.’
This was what the protagonist's master had said when passing it down, but the author had also acknowledged it.
And what Gang Muhwi had to do in the end was to create a form that would tie all ten forms together.
The eleventh form of the Heavenly Arts Sword, which Gang Muhwi created at the very end after encountering various martial arts through numerous fortuitous encounters.
‘This sounds fun. I should give it a try.’
Having reached a conclusion, Jinmyeong looked at Gang Muhwi.
“How about it? Why don't you give it a shot?”
Gang Muhwi's expression hardened at Jinmyeong's words.
“I couldn't kill that monk because of you, so you take responsibility.”
“...Do you really want to fight that badly?”
“Shaolin was the one who picked this fight. Why do you keep talking as if I'm the one at fault? It's pissing me off.”
Jinmyeong immediately threw his sword at Gang Muhwi.
Clang!
Although it was a sudden attack, Gang Muhwi blocked it without any sign of surprise.
“To think you'd throw your sword!”
Gang Muhwi couldn't help but sneer at the fact that a swordsman had thrown his most important weapon.
It was a decent surprise attack, but if it didn't work, that was the end of it.
Indeed, Jinmyeong was now empty-handed, and Gang Muhwi thought he could easily slice his throat.
“Unlike your mouth, your martial arts are pathetic.”
Gang Muhwi rushed toward Jinmyeong, swinging his sword.
Clang!
“Sword control?”
It was the sword Gang Muhwi had just knocked away, yet it had flown back to Jinmyeong's side and blocked the attack.
“Give it a try.”
“Kuh! Don't look down on me!”
Provoked by Jinmyeong's relaxed demeanor, Gang Muhwi began to attack, swinging his sword.
‘Is this the Heavenly Arts Sword?’
However, watching Gang Muhwi's swordsmanship, Jinmyeong couldn't help but be disappointed.
‘There's almost no variation.’
Gang Muhwi's sword, fighting against Jinmyeong's sword control, had very little variation.
He couldn't possibly think it was the Heavenly Arts Sword.
‘Is it a basic martial art?’
The Heavenly Arts Sword was Gang Muhwi's ultimate technique, so there must be a separate swordsmanship for building his foundation.
He was probably using that swordsmanship to fight Jinmyeong's sword control right now.
“Is this really all you've got?”
“Keuk!”
Thinking that Gang Muhwi wouldn't use the Heavenly Arts Sword at this rate, Jinmyeong began to provoke him further.
“This is nothing special.”
Jinmyeong began to press Gang Muhwi by performing the Flash Sword, the martial art of the Great Elder Sword Demon, with his controlled sword.
“Kuh!”
Gang Muhwi was too busy defending against the storm of swift sword strikes.
“You can't even block this?”
However, unlike the frantic Gang Muhwi, Jinmyeong was growing more and more disappointed in him.
He was attacking with a slowed-down version of the swift Flash Sword because he wanted Gang Muhwi to counterattack.
But Gang Muhwi was only defending, unable to properly respond even to the slowed Flash Sword, making Jinmyeong wonder if he had misjudged something.
‘Is this guy really the protagonist I know?’
He was having such doubts.
If he hadn't felt that strange sensation when he first saw him in Shaanxi, Jinmyeong wouldn't have thought the Gang Muhwi before him was the protagonist.
“Try attacking a little more.”
“Keuk!”
As Jinmyeong's attack suddenly slowed, Gang Muhwi's face contorted.
“You will regret this.”
Gang Muhwi's aura changed, and Jinmyeong's expression became one of anticipation.
“Hah!”
Gang Muhwi's sword, which had only shown monotonous variations until now, changed.
‘This is it.’
Even at a glance, it was an incredibly complex variation.
‘Show me what you've got.’
Gang Muhwi, completely unaware of Jinmyeong's dark intentions, was performing the Heavenly Arts Sword against the controlled sword.