Chapter 17
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Sorim Vegetable Fields 3
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“Don't worry too much. If superiority in martial arts were determined solely by size and weight, that Crescent Moon Sickle of yours would indeed be the best, but the principles of the world aren't always like that….”
Seonwoyong replied as he picked up his fan.
It was the same ordinary bamboo folding fan he had taken with him when he left that thatched hut in the bamboo grove long ago.
Baek Musang burst into hearty laughter upon seeing it.
“Kehahaha… You plan to face my Crescent Moon Sickle with that fan? Hahaha… You truly look down on me.”
“Don't you think the saying 'you'll know once you compare long and short' applies perfectly today? Then, this time, I'll take the initiative without holding back.”
Unlike in their bare-handed exchange earlier, Seonwoyong didn't hesitate and charged straight into Baek Musang's guard, swinging his fan.
He didn't open the fan but wielded the closed bamboo folding fan like a short judge's brush, slashing and stabbing.
When facing a long weapon like the Crescent Moon Sickle, giving the enemy any distance was a fatal mistake, so he had no intention of doing so from the start.
But Baek Musang was also a peerless master who had dominated the martial world for decades with just that one Crescent Moon Sickle.
Gripping the center of the Crescent Moon Sickle with both hands, he drew small circles to block Seonwoyong's approach and sought openings.
It was Tangsan Siu (蕩山細雨), one of the ultimate techniques from Baek Musang's Demon-Subduing Sickle Art, designed for close-range foes.
Seonwoyong used bizarre footwork and body techniques to weave through the fierce winds created by the Crescent Moon Sickle, probing for Baek Musang's gaps.
He avoided direct clashes with the Crescent Moon Sickle as much as possible, instead striking its sides to deflect or divert it.
It was the exquisite method of the Four-Two Pushing a Thousand Catties.
As dozens of exchanges passed and Baek Musang still couldn't break through the young man's martial arts with his Crescent Moon Sickle, impatience began to creep in.
‘Where did this monster come from? If I'm not careful, this old Baek will suffer a great humiliation today.’
In the current martial world, there were very few who could fight on equal terms against the Wide-Eyed Layman Baek Musang.
And Baek Musang knew most of them, of course.
No matter how hard he racked his brains, no master matching this young whippersnapper came to mind.
Especially one who used a single folding fan as a weapon.
Against his own Crescent Moon Sickle, no less.
Baek Musang decided to unleash his true martial arts without restraint.
There was no longer room for mercy, and his opponent wasn't the type to warrant it.
His Crescent Moon Sickle was forged entirely from dark iron. The crescent blade at the top and the large axe head at the bottom were separately forged and attached.
Baek Musang poured his profound inner energy into the Crescent Moon Sickle without holding back.
A faint golden aura enveloped the iron rod, while intense golden energy gathered at the tips of the crescent blade and axe head.
At last, his full power revealed its true form.
“Good! Excellent!”
Confirming the golden aura, Seonwoyong whistled with excitement instead.
No energy could be felt from the fan in his hand, but he charged at Baek Musang's Crescent Moon Sickle without a care.
Baek Musang unleashed the later ultimate technique of the Demon-Subduing Sickle Method, Wolah Musang (月牙無雙), thrusting straight at Seonwoyong's front.
The crescent tip stabbed toward Seonwoyong's chest at invisible speed. It was so fast it seemed like a golden beam piercing forward.
The only way to counter was to knock aside that crescent tip.
Seonwoyong swung his held fan from below to strike the crescent tip upward.
Clang!
Incredibly, the golden aura on the crescent tip—which seemed capable of cleaving anything it touched—was deflected by mere bamboo splints.
“What?!”
Startled, Baek Musang immediately swung the Crescent Moon Sickle again, this time slashing horizontally at Seonwoyong with the opposite axe blade.
Shiiiaang!
It was another ultimate technique of the Demon-Subduing Sickle Art, Axe-Crossing Whirlwind (斧越旋風).
This was no technique that could be deflected or diverted.
As the axe blade closed in on his waist, Seonwoyong opened his fan.
The fan, with silk stretched over bamboo ribs and painted artwork, unfurled to receive Baek Musang's axe blade.
How could this possibly make sense!
The golden axe energy, forged by Baek Musang's lifelong cultivation of the Mahayana Prajna Divine Art, was blocked by mere silk cloth.
At this moment, his axe blade was halted by the thin silk, trembling faintly without advancing.
But by then, Baek Musang had already lost interest in it.
His gaze was fixed on the painting on the silk of the fan that had blocked his Crescent Moon Sickle.
Two small birds perched side by side on a plum blossom branch.
“……!”
For a moment, the two stood frozen, staring at each other without moving.
Yet their expressions as they gazed at one another were peculiar.
Baek Musang's face flushed red and pale with suppressed agitation, while Seonwoyong wore a fresh, bright smile.
Finally, Baek Musang withdrew his Crescent Moon Sickle.
He slammed it into the ground beside him with a thud! and propped it upright.
Seonwoyong slowly closed his fan and tucked it into his sleeve.
The two slowly approached each other.
Then, without a word, they rushed together and embraced.
“You've gotten old too. What kind of sight is this?”
“Who are you calling old! What kind of mess is this getup? Looking hideous. An old man dressed like a kid.”
The field workers who had been watching their fierce battle were stunned, their eyes nearly popping out.
It looked like a grandfather unexpectedly reuniting with his grandson, but their words were the complete opposite.
“Come on. This isn't the place. Luckily, we boiled a pig today.”
Baek Musang grabbed his Crescent Moon Sickle in one hand and Seonwoyong's hand in the other, urging him along.
The two shot up the hillside in a blur.
* * *
“Hey! Bring five catties of good cuts of meat, and fetch a full jar of that aged sorghum liquor I've been saving specially.”
Baek Musang barked orders nonstop at the baffled man standing in front of the eatery, then led Seonwoyong to his thatched hut.
Upon entering the room, Baek Musang suddenly clasped his hands together in front and bowed deeply.
“With utmost respect, your unworthy younger brother Baek Musang greets his elder brother.”
Seonwoyong likewise formed a fist with his palms and bowed at the waist in return.
“Your utterly unworthy elder brother greets his younger brother. Have you been well all this time?”
The two exchanged greetings like this and sat facing each other at the table in the hut.
Baek Musang's age now exceeded ninety, approaching a hundred.
Deep wrinkles covered his face, and age spots mottled his hands.
But the man sitting across from him, Seonwoyong, was a youth in his twenties.
“What in the world have you been hiding away doing to show up like this out of nowhere? And what is with that getup?”
“That's how it happened. Sorry about that.”
“Sorry my foot… Just thinking back to that night….”
“Let's not talk about that time.”
“You're right. Of course we shouldn't. By the way, did you eat some thousand-year-old ginseng or millennium fleeceflower as side dishes? You've turned into a fresh young boy.”
“Hahaha… That's how it turned out. Somehow….”
“At any rate, Eldest Brother's energy far surpasses what it was before, so this younger brother can only congratulate you.”
“Thank you. I've only recently had some realizations. Still much lacking.”
“What nonsense are you saying? It seems you've reached a realm unimaginable in this mortal world.”
“Your energy has ripened even further as well.”
“No need for such words. Just lazing about as a bum, my skills have gone all sloppy. By the way, how is Sister-in-Law…?”
At Baek Musang's question, Seonwoyong let out a deep sigh and fell silent, upon which Baek Musang simply nodded.
He rose and faced south, bowing deeply once more.
“Sister-in-Law. This unworthy one couldn't even bid you farewell on your journey. Forgive me. May you attain rebirth in paradise, and may we meet again in the next life.”
As he did so, the door opened, and in came a large jar of liquor that must have held a full gourd, along with boiled pork on a bamboo tray.
After the worker set down various side dishes, seasonings, chopsticks, and cups and left, Baek Musang filled two cups to the brim.
“Here. A drinking party after sixty years with Eldest Brother. This younger brother plans to get thoroughly drunk today and act a bit spoiled, so please don't scold me too much.”
“Very well. That's how it should be. I'll get thoroughly drunk today too and sing and dance with you.”
The two raised their cups in a toast and emptied them at once.
This time, Seonwoyong filled the two cups to the brim.
The meat grew cold, but the cups never ran dry.
The two drank like that for a full day.
The sun set, rose again, and set once more.
Several jars of liquor were brought in, and several trays of food were emptied.
Throughout that day, both got completely wasted, sometimes singing, sometimes laughing and crying, pouring out all the pent-up emotions of the years.
Now the room was darkening once more.
At that moment, Seonwoyong, who had been silently hanging his head wordlessly for a while, lifted his head straight and spoke in a grave tone.
“Baek, my younger brother. The Smiling Buddha is still doing well, I presume?”
Upon hearing the name Smiling Buddha, Baek Musang's drunkenness vanished as well, and he replied with a somber face.
“So, Eldest Brother came to sacred Mount Song for that matter after all?”
“Wouldn't you think so? I came because of my curiosity, and things I need to take care of.”
“I too haven't seen Uncle-Master Smiling Buddha Hyeonjin in decades. No doubt, not even the current Shaolin Abbot or anyone else has.”
Smiling Buddha Hyeonjin.
He was precisely the reason Seonwoyong had left the Lotus Flower Pavilion and come to Shaolin Temple.
To attach the character for Buddha (佛) to the moniker of a mere monk signified that he was revered as a living Buddha.
That nickname alone showed how immense respect and trust he commanded not just in Shaolin Temple but throughout the Central Plains martial world.
He always wore an innocent, smiling face, yet he was the greatest prodigy in a thousand years of Shaolin history and the sect's strongest master ever produced.
The only high monk to fully master both the Muscle-Tendon Changing Scripture and the Marrow-Cleansing Scripture, as well as pushing Shaolin's supreme heart method, Supreme Great Ability, to its utmost limits.
Even the number of Shaolin's seventy-two ultimate arts he had mastered was unknown, making him the strongest master in the temple's history.
Moreover, Smiling Buddha Hyeonjin was one of the Three Hidden Ones, alongside the former Blood Heaven Emperor U Cheonso—now Seonwoyong—an absolute hidden supreme master of the previous generation.
Then, who could the remaining one among those Three Hidden Ones be?
None other than U Cheonso's son, U Gyeongcheon, who had led the Blood Cloud Cult uprising in the past before vanishing, the cult leader of the Great Cloud Bright Religion.
At that time, U Gyeongcheon's prowess had reached absolute transcendence; no righteous faction master could stand against him except Smiling Buddha Hyeonjin.
Even Hyeonjin couldn't claim certain victory.
Yet these three absolute transcendent masters had all vanished from the world after the Blood Cloud Cult incident, as if by prior agreement, after which they began to be collectively called the Three Hidden Ones.
“I see. Then no one knows where he is now either.”
Seonwoyong wore a regretful expression.
But Baek Musang spoke.