Dangerous Company
Dokgo Ho-in, just as curious, peered into the wrapping cloth.
Kang Chu-mi untied it, unable to hide the disappointment that crossed her face.
"Huh? It's a book."
Dokgo Ho-in's eyes lit up.
"It's not just any book."
Just then Seo Joo-cheon stepped into the inn, having seen the Mount Hua Sect off.
"Big Brother, look at this!"
"What is it?"
"Miss Do left us something strange."
"Something strange?"
Seo Joo-cheon walked over to the table where the three of them had gathered.
"What's going on?"
"It's a pretty weird gift to give your sweetheart, don't you think?"
Seo Joo-cheon ruffled Kang Chu-mi's hair as she teased their second brother, then looked down at what lay inside the wrapping.
"Huh? What's this doing here?"
He muttered it under his breath, caught completely off guard.
"See? It's weird, right? She gave Second Brother a martial arts manual. But is this even useful?"
Kang Chu-mi flipped through the secret text.
Seo Joo-cheon let out a hollow, disbelieving laugh.
"Heh heh heh. Well, well."
There were two manuals.
◈ Gifted by Miss Do to Ham Cheon-yeong
◈ Arts Seo Joo-cheon had been seeking all along
Even after obtaining the Gongcheong Seokyu, he had found no lead on either art and had all but forgotten them. The truth was, the reason he had kept helping the Black-Eyed Swift Blade until the very end — kept finding reasons to stay in contact — was to get a clue about these two martial arts. It was hardly some deep bond of loyalty that had driven him to go that far. But the Black-Eyed Swift Blade had not said a single word about either art, and Seo Joo-cheon could hardly come out and demand them. And now the man's own daughter had handed them over as a gift to Ham Cheon-yeong.
So rewards find their way into your hands one way or another.
Seeing how unusually pleased Seo Joo-cheon was with the two manuals, Kang Chu-mi asked,
"Big Brother, do you know these arts?"
None of the three had ever heard the names before.
"These aren't well known in the martial world, but they're extraordinarily useful once you learn them. Yin-Yang Collision Cultivation is an internal art that continuously collides true qi inside the body to accumulate energy. The Thousand-Jin Weight Art applies the thousand-jin weight method to your inner energy, doubling or even tripling the power of your techniques."
"Whoa! Then these are practically cheat-level arts."
"That's right. And they're not particularly difficult to learn, either."
"Then why isn't anyone in the martial world talking about them?"
"The man who created them died not long after. The Black-Eyed Swift Blade happened to come across them by chance."
Kang Chu-mi's eyes were still shining.
"But how do you know so much about them, Big Brother?"
The question made Seo Joo-cheon flinch. For him to know about arts this obscure was, admittedly, strange.
"It's a story that's been passed down in our sect's texts. The person who created these arts was probably connected to us somehow. How else would I know?"
Kang Chu-mi nodded.
"Well, the White Serpent Sect was a major school among the Unorthodox. I suppose you'd know things like this."
Seo Joo-cheon ruffled her hair. Her questions were sharp, but she was quick to accept an answer.
"You three need to learn these. With these arts and the Phoenix Commanding Heaven Art, reaching First-Rate won't be difficult."
"Really?"
"Yin-Yang Collision Cultivation is said to make energy accumulation ten times faster. I plan to start learning it myself from today."
At his words, a fierce light kindled in all three pairs of eyes.
Seo Joo-cheon intended to use the Gongcheong Seokyu together with Yin-Yang Collision Cultivation to raise all three of them to First-Rate masters in short order.
With both of these arts, it shouldn't even be that hard. They might even step into Peak.
He found himself looking forward to it.
The truth was, he had obtained the Phoenix Commanding Heaven Art recently and had been practicing it steadily, but at a certain point his progress had simply stalled. It would not fuse with his White Serpent 72 Sword Art. The Phoenix Ascending Heaven Sword was a Peak Realm sword art, but it ran on an entirely different track from the White Serpent techniques — something about it clashed and caught, so he had stopped training it. He was just grateful that the Phoenix arts meshed so well with his three younger siblings. And now, having obtained these two additional arts on top of everything else, Seo Joo-cheon was delighted.
"By the way, where's Young Hero Jang?"
The ones who had not left were Jang Hyeon-nam, Sang Ryo, and Dang Seol-yong.
"He went to hire a carriage."
"A carriage?"
"Yes. His wounds are deep enough that he ought to stay here for at least a week of treatment, but it seems circumstances won't allow it — he needs to get back to his clan as soon as possible. So he's had no choice but to hire a carriage."
Kang Chu-mi asked again,
"When do we leave?"
"We'll probably need to travel with Young Hero Jang. First we see him safely to the Jang Family Clan Estate, then we head to the Yongcheon Sect."
Kang Chu-mi almost asked why, then closed her mouth. She trusted that Big Brother always had his reasons. In all their time together, none of them had ever argued with what he decided.
"By the way, this inn took a lot of damage. What should we do about that?"
Seo Joo-cheon answered Ham Cheon-yeong without hesitation.
"Don't worry. The Mount Hua Sect left a generous compensation for the damages."
"Really? I guess that's a great Orthodox sect for you. If it'd been Unorthodox or Black Path people, they wouldn't have given it a second thought. That's a relief. Otherwise we were going to pay for it ourselves."
Kang Chu-mi, too, had been bothered by the wrecked section of the inn.
Who'd look at people who worry about things like this and call them Unorthodox martial artists?
Seo Joo-cheon smiled, looking at his younger siblings. They might have come from the Unorthodox path, but their hearts were more righteous than most of the Orthodox.
"Let's get you treated today and leave tomorrow."
The moment Jang Hyeon-nam secured a carriage, he started preparing to depart, and Seo Joo-cheon stepped in to stop him. He had taken a deep sword wound, and his inner energy had not recovered. If they ran into enemies in that state, it would be a disaster.
"There's time enough to treat the wound, circulate your energy, and then leave."
Sang Ryo strongly urged him to wait as well. He had decided to accompany Jang Hyeon-nam all the way to the Jang Family Clan Estate, so taken by the young man's character that he had volunteered as his escort.
As expected — capable people just naturally flock to the protagonist.
Seo Joo-cheon considered it a stroke of luck.
And seeing Jang Hyeon-nam so downcast, he formed a different plan.
Originally, in Invincible Lay Disciple, Jang Hyeon-nam was supposed to obtain a divine art and be reborn as an absolute master after the first great martial war — the Great War of Black and Snake — had ended.
But that won't do. Better to give him the divine art sooner. And we can pick it up along the way, so it's not a bad idea.
Recently, after obtaining the Phoenix Commanding Heaven Art and watching his three younger siblings grow stronger, Seo Joo-cheon had changed his thinking.
I don't know how much this will change the story. But there are already so many variables that I won't worry about it.
He decided to give Jang Hyeon-nam the strongest martial art as soon as possible.
Dang Seol-yong tried to stop Jang Hyeon-nam from hiring another carriage.
"There's a branch of my clan in the next county. We only need to go that far, so a carriage isn't necessary."
"Your escort doesn't look like he can move easily, Miss Dang. This is a gesture of goodwill — please don't refuse."
Seo Joo-cheon watched Jang Hyeon-nam speaking with Dang Seol-yong and smiled with quiet satisfaction.
Seeing him attend so carefully not only to Dang Seol-yong but to her escort as well, Seo Joo-cheon thought there was a reason people gathered around Jang Hyeon-nam. People were moved by grand gestures, but their hearts were also stirred by small ones. Jang Hyeon-nam understood that.
"A carriage is just a short-term rental. But if a wound flares up badly, a martial artist's life is over."
Jang Hyeon-nam knew when money needed to be spent. Dang Seol-yong had used up every coin she had on her, preparing her dead escort's body and hiring a carriage to send him back to the Sichuan Tang Clan. Jang Hyeon-nam knew this, which was why he had made the offer. Anyone else might have used the gesture to put her in his debt. Jang Hyeon-nam was offering purely out of goodwill. Knowing that, Dang Seol-yong could not bring herself to refuse.
"Then I'll impose on you, just for a little while."
Seo Joo-cheon nodded as he watched.
With this, Jang Hyeon-nam has laid the foundation for gaining the Sichuan Tang Clan's support. If he becomes close with Dang Seol-yong, he'll have a powerful ally.
In the novel, Jang Hyeon-nam and the Sichuan Tang Clan had maintained a good relationship.
But Jang Hyeon-nam's kindness had created a problem that set Seo Joo-cheon's nerves on edge.
White Salt Blade Jeo Pung would be traveling with them.
In the original novel, the White Salt Blade — a martial artist of the Yeosan Sect — had been written with the purpose of assassinating Jang Hyeon-nam, a descendant of the Jang Family Clan. He had only set that aside temporarily when his sworn brother, the Black-Eyed Swift Blade, had fallen into trouble. Which meant he would now return to his original mission.
Seo Joo-cheon could not help but worry about how to handle the White Salt Blade.
The problem was that Jang Hyeon-nam, after this incident, had come to regard the White Salt Blade with genuine warmth. Seo Joo-cheon could not simply tell him to keep his distance. On top of that, even Ham Cheon-yeong was showing the man goodwill. As fellow saber artists walking the same path, they kept exchanging pointers and insights, and the rapport only grew with time. If Seo Joo-cheon told them about the White Salt Blade's true intentions, it might look like he was trying to sow discord.
True to his merchant-clan upbringing, Jang Hyeon-nam had a fondness for martial artists of outstanding skill. Many such warriors stayed as guest retainers at the Jang Family Clan Estate, so even though the Shaanxi Four Chivalrous Heroes and the White Salt Blade were Unorthodox, Jang Hyeon-nam felt no aversion. The current Orthodox martial world looked down on the Unorthodox, disparaged the Black Path, and hated the Demonic Path. That a Wudang lay disciple like Jang Hyeon-nam would associate with Unorthodox martial artists was not a particularly strange setup.
From Weinan to the village where the Tang Clan branch was located was a good six hours by carriage. So they set out in a hurry, hoping to arrive before the sun went down.
"We should make it before sunset."
Coming from a coachman who regularly traveled this region, the words were reliable enough.
Jang Hyeon-nam, Dang Seol-yong, and her escort rode in the carriage; everyone else traveled on horseback. Sang Ryo rode close beside the carriage as if he were already Jang Hyeon-nam's personal guard. Watching him, Seo Joo-cheon felt a strange swell of emotion.
In the original, Sang Ryo was a character who died at Jang Hyeon-nam's hands. Here, he's become Jang Hyeon-nam's man. What a peculiar turn of events.
By that measure, Seo Joo-cheon himself had been in the same position as Sang Ryo — yet now he had risen to something close to a supporting role. It was a lot to take in. On top of that, Ham Cheon-yeong, Dokgo Ho-in, and Kang Chu-mi were steadily walking the path of true masters. Once they consumed the Gongcheong Seokyu and learned the Phoenix Commanding Heaven Art along with the Thousand-Jin Weight Art and Yin-Yang Collision Cultivation, they would be the kind of people who could hold their heads high in the martial world.
Seo Joo-cheon needed to think carefully about his own path going forward.
First priority is getting Jang Hyeon-nam the Southern Splendor Immortal Art.
Jang Hyeon-nam had learned Wudang's Peak Realm sword art, the Drifting Cloud Sword, and the Heavenly Emperor Heart Art, but reaching the level of an absolute master would still be difficult. Consuming the Purple Dawn Pill had greatly increased his inner energy, but he was still a long way from becoming the overpowered protagonist he was meant to be. So Seo Joo-cheon planned to hand over the Southern Splendor Immortal Art — the absolute martial art Jang Hyeon-nam was supposed to obtain later — as soon as possible.
He had conceived the Southern Splendor Immortal Art as Zhuangzi's martial art. Seo Joo-cheon had structured the story so that Jang Hyeon-nam, being a Wudang lay disciple trained in Daoist martial studies, would obtain Zhuangzi's insights and become an absolute master. Among Zhuangzi's descendants, a martial artist of exceptional talent had been born, and on the verge of death he had awakened to Zhuangzi's enlightenment and left behind the Southern Splendor Immortal Art.
Seo Joo-cheon had even given it an epithet: the Five Realms of Southern Splendor. Because it consisted of five martial arts derived from Zhuangzi's philosophy.
I.Free Roaming Realm — the realm of wandering free
II.Following Natural Law Realm — the realm of following the natural order
III.Sitting and Forgetting Realm — the realm of reaching no-self
IV.Heavenly Balance Realm — the realm where all things are equal
V.Realm of Nothingness — the empty realm of void
These five were, in fact, Zhuangzi's core philosophical ideas, elevated into martial arts. In particular, the Five Realms of Southern Splendor would harmonize with the Heavenly Emperor Heart Art that Jang Hyeon-nam was already practicing, transforming into an absolute martial study. When the Drifting Cloud Sword was grafted onto the Five Realms of Southern Splendor, the resulting art would become nature itself — the cosmos itself.
The thought of watching Jang Hyeon-nam obtain the Southern Splendor Immortal Art and become an absolute master sent a shiver through Seo Joo-cheon.
Right now, Jang Hyeon-nam had suffered the humiliation of being bested by Bulsama and the Blood Heaven Hall, even being taken hostage. He was thirsty for strength. Because of that, if he were given the Five Realms of Southern Splendor, he would learn them quickly and become a true master.
The thought of an absolute-master Jang Hyeon-nam filled Seo Joo-cheon with excitement. Watching the protagonist become an absolute master from up close — as the author — would be a profoundly meaningful experience.