Chapter 83
Chapter 83
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: Martial Arts (4)
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“I’m just giving her occasional lessons. Isn’t that not enough?”
“The Peng Clan’s martial arts are sufficient.”
“You know this, right? Strictly speaking, what I’m teaching isn’t the Peng Clan’s secret arts. I can’t teach those anyway. It’s too good to fill with mere miscellaneous techniques.”
“You want to make her a master?”
“She has the talent.”
Danmun looked serious.
Yeom Seoksan seemed surprised instead.
Danmun continued.
“The North Hong Heart Method is a fine heart method, but it has clear limitations in manifesting external power. There’s this thing called the Hundred Steps Heart Skill among the secular martial arts in this region. Please obtain it for me.”
“The Hundred Steps Heart Skill—that’s Southern Fist, isn’t it.”
“Yes, exactly.”
“And the North Hong Heart Method is Northern Fist style.”
“That’s right.”
“Then, they’re completely different…….”
“They match. Trust me.”
Danmun stated firmly.
Yeom Seoksan understood his concern.
The Hundred Steps Heart Skill, like the North Hong Heart Method, was a martial art whose oral formulas were already fully exposed.
A proper manual would be as expensive as the North Hong Heart Method, but it was still among the highest-grade martial arts available for purchase with money.
The issue was whether it harmonized with the North Hong Heart Method.
To cut to the conclusion.
It did.
Danmun recalled their previous conversation.
“Shall I teach her?”
“Teach who?”
“Yeom Seoksan’s daughter.”
“Why?”
“She has talent.”
“Not because you like her?”
“She’s cultivated the North Hong Heart Method.”
“That’s your type. That face.”
“Her foundation is solid. But the North Hong Heart Method has its limits.”
“You’re serious.”
“What martial art should we add?”
“I knew it from the start.”
“Stop it.”
“If you like her that much, make her your woman quick.”
“I’ll draw my sword.”
“Hundred Steps Heart Skill.”
“Hundred Steps Heart Skill? Southern Fist? Will that work?”
“It will.”
“Got it.”
If Cheonwi said so, then it was so.
Danmun trusted Cheonwi’s words without question.
“I’ll try to get it first.”
“Shall I assign Secret Agents to help?”
“No need. I should handle at least this much myself. Can’t be indebted to you for everything from one to ten.”
“Don’t push yourself.”
“Obtaining one widely known martial art manual—what’s so hard about that? Still, I’ll be especially careful.”
“Let me know the moment you get the manual. No need for annotations. I’ll prepare the harmonizing formulas with the North Hong Heart Method on this end.”
“Ah, then you don’t need a heart method instructor?”
“Just the manual will do.”
“Understood.”
Danmun finished his conversation with Yeom Seoksan and promptly left their residence.
Did he really need to go this far?
He felt a bit strange about himself for even worrying about Hyang’s training.
His direct superior, Branch Chief Paeng Jun-ui.
Inspection Division Chief Paeng Jaegwan.
The Peng Clan’s Four Heroes.
The clan head.
Imagining crushing them all brought him pleasure.
But his daily life was tediously ordinary otherwise.
Sparring with the Five Beauties was his only joy.
Even so, mastering the Escape Blade was still a distant dream.
He hadn’t even grasped the Escape Blade yet.
To point his blade at the clan head, even devoting himself solely to martial arts would fall short by a decade.
And yet, he was teaching martial arts to a complete novice woman?
It wasn’t going to happen.
‘Stop.’
Danmun halted his thoughts.
He wasn’t one to agonize.
Once decided, he would just do it.
Following his heart.
That was his path. Not the one dictated by the clan, but wherever his feet took him. He had decided that long ago.
What lay at the end was unknown.
He just hoped it wasn’t a bright future.
His vision of the days ahead was a total mess anyway.
* * *
The messy day arrived sooner than expected.
“Who’s coming?”
They had just finished sparring in the cave and were resting.
It was quite late.
Cheonwi, attuned to the deep night, sensed the presence first.
“Who’d come at this hour?”
“Stride, breathing, it’s the branch chief.”
Danmun answered.
Cheonwi hadn’t seen Paeng Jun-ui in person since arriving here.
Cheonwi’s brows furrowed.
“Paeng Jun-ui? Now?”
“It was about time. I’d noticed signs since last time.”
Oho wasn’t surprised.
As he sheathed his black-and-white swords into his sword case, he said,
“Wait here?”
Danmun asked.
Oho replied.
“Let’s go up. No need to show him this place.”
“He probably already knows.”
“Is that so? Well, yeah.”
Oho had no objection to Danmun’s words.
Paeng Jun-ui was inscrutable.
From an ally’s view, he was a thorough comrade; from an enemy’s, a sinister foe. The moment he learned of Cheonwi’s residence, he must have investigated it somehow without fail.
“More importantly…….”
Danmun turned to Cheonwi as if something had occurred to him.
“Wasn’t it reported that your arm was severed?”
“That’s how the report went up, right?”
“So then?”
“What can you do.”
Cheonwi undid his belt and removed his arm from his sleeve.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Oho grimaced, glancing between Cheonwi and Danmun.
“Cut it.”
Shring.
Danmun drew his crimson sword.
“Fuck?”
A curse escaped Oho’s lips.
“Blood will splatter. Just take it off.”
Danmun was calm.
“That might be better.”
So was Cheonwi. He simply stripped off his upper garment entirely and extended his arm out to the side.
“Crazy? You’re really cutting it?”
“Oho. Bring that over.”
Cheonwi pointed to a jade-green jar in one corner of the darkness.
“Why that?”
“No time. Hurry.”
Grumbling profusely, Oho still fetched the jar Cheonwi indicated.
“What for?”
“Put it below. To catch the blood.”
“Blood?”
“Wrist.”
“Wrist?”
“Grab it.”
“Ah, fuck, no way.”
Curses came naturally.
But Oho instantly grasped what Cheonwi intended as he questioned him. Gritting his teeth, he seized Cheonwi’s wrist.
“Do it.”
Danmun asked nothing.
It was just a total mess.
Ssshh! Slash!
The red blade traced the meridian lines at terrifying speed.
The essence of the One Stroke, Two Cuts Crimson Blade was used to sever his friend’s arm.
Splash!
Cheonwi swiftly lowered his shoulder near the severed end toward the jar Oho held. The gushing blood poured into it. Oho quickly supported the elbow of the severed arm with his other hand and lifted Cheonwi’s arm so the cut faced upward.
“Pour that in here too.”
“You mad bastard.”
Blood flowed from the severed arm as well. Cheonwi gestured impatiently toward the jar, as if even that was precious.
Oho spat curses nonstop but followed Cheonwi’s instructions.
In the darkness, Oho holding a human arm upside down was grotesque in itself. Cheonwi’s pale face, unchanged even after losing a healthy arm, was equally eerie.
No matter how it looked, Cheonwi didn’t care.
He knew exactly what to do next. He said to Danmun,
“Go up first. Stall for some time.”
“Got it.”
Not a drop of blood stained Danmun’s crimson sword. He sheathed it in his sword case and ascended casually.
The blood from the arm Oho held soon stopped.
“What the fuck is this shit in the middle of the night.”
His voice brimmed with unfiltered sincerity.
“Can’t falsify the report now.”
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
“It hurts.”
But he didn’t look it.
Either accustomed to pain or feeling less of it. Neither was normal.
“Where do I put this?”
“Somewhere out of sight.”
Oho shook his head in disbelief.
He thought himself abnormal too, growing used to conversing while holding his friend’s arm.
Spotting a wooden box nearby, he headed there.
“Here?”
“Yeah. There.”
Oho opened the wooden box.
Inside lay a golden sword.
As he placed the arm in, his eye twitched involuntarily. The severed arm twitched lightly. Even detached from the body, it seemed alive. He’d seen plenty of horrors in Secret Agent work, but this was different. He slammed the lid shut.
“Help me.”
Cheonwi now stood holding a strip of white cloth from somewhere.
The profusely bleeding wound had already clotted.
Impossible.
It was a clean amputation.
Not a finger, but a thick arm severed. Even pressing acupoints with powerful inner energy and binding tightly with a tourniquet wouldn’t staunch it this fast.
Oho stuck out his tongue in awe as he took the long plain cloth. He wrapped it around the severed stump swiftly, without a moment’s delay.
“Let’s go up.”
“Wait.”
“What.”
“You gonna reattach the arm?”
“Of course. One hand’s inconvenient.”
“You planning to cut and reattach it every time?”
“If needed.”
“Gonna pull this shit again? Fuck.”
“Actually, it worked out. Needed the blood anyway. Had to cut it once to handle that matter properly.”
“That matter?”
“Dealing with the manor. And the Haewu Sect.”
“What’s that got to do with your arm.”
“Secret Agents are everywhere in the Songgang Branch. To go out, I can’t show my face first. Whether I disguise it, wear a mask to alter my features, or some new person appears and moves—that’ll get reported to Branch Chief Paeng Jun-ui. Plus, Secret Agents are Secret Agents. Plenty of them, and sharp by nature. Even if I’m officially dead, any agent could recognize me.”
“Yeah, fair.”
“Even if they learn I’m alive, agents wouldn’t be too shocked. Dying and coming back? Normal in our line of work. But an arm that was severed being reattached? That’s weirder. Reviving a dead body happens sometimes, but reattaching a severed arm? They’ve never seen that.”
“Got it. I understand.”
Oho nodded and stepped forward. He picked up the fallen upper garment from the ground and tossed it to Cheonwi. Cheonwi caught it and put it on.
“But still…….”
Oho trailed off.
“What now.”
“Doesn’t dying and reviving seem weirder?”
Oho grinned.
Cheonwi didn’t respond.
They’d tarried too long. Paeng Jun-ui would find even this short delay suspicious.
Cheonwi ascended through the darkness to the surface. He opened the concealed warehouse door. The night sky was dark, but the moonlight was fairly bright. He saw Paeng Jun-ui and Danmun.
“Here it is. The fools’ den.”
Paeng Jun-ui stared piercingly at Cheonwi and spoke.
Cheonwi bowed his head.
“I see you, Branch Chief.”
“Your greeting’s too late. Making me come to you—what good is that.”
“My apologies. I wasn’t in a position to visit you.”
Cheonwi apologized but showed no remorse.
A smile formed on Paeng Jun-ui’s face. He laughed insincerely.