The Grandmother's Nuclear Noogie
Seomun Cheong's eyes widened. Even within her limited common sense, she knew that to learn martial arts, one had to become a disciple, and to become a disciple, one had to join a sect. She hadn't known that at first. It was only after wandering around at the start of her journey, thinking she might learn a variety of martial arts, that she found out.
"I don't have to join the Sinnyeo Sect?"
"I'll be honest with you. You're not even twenty, yet you've reached the late stage of Peak. That kind of talent is something any master in the murim would covet. There isn't a single one who wouldn't."
Seomun Cheong was startled. "I'm that young?"
"Young one?"
"This body doesn't exactly have a girlish figure……"
Her face had already scored the lowest possible in the looks department anyway.
"Young one. Could it be… you don't know your own age?"
"Probably not."
"Did you come up with the name Acheong yourself?"
"Yes."
More precisely, it was a Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V. She had to do that to receive the purple-grade martial art.
"Your original family name?"
"I don't know that either……"
Seomun Su-rin's expression filled with pity. It was the same misunderstanding as that person from Hebei. It wasn't that the Peng fellow was stupid—anyone with a bit of sense in this era would reach the same conclusion.
"Aigoo, young one. How did you grow up so well in such hardship? Remarkable, truly remarkable. So lovely."
At a loss for words, Seomun Cheong simply laughed awkwardly.
"Still, it seems you had some luck with masters."
"Master?"
"……You don't have a master either? Then where did you learn your martial arts, young one?"
"I just… happened to figure it out somehow……"
"Self-taught?"
"I suppose so?"
Seomun Cheong answered with a question. It wasn't as if she'd learned through proper methods.
Seomun Su-rin's face turned to shock.
"That pure and lofty flow was clearly the orthodox lineage of Daoist arts. And not just any internal energy—it was a profound one worthy of being called a divine art. What a fortuitous encounter. What was the name of that qi art?"
"Wolnyeo Mind Method."
Seomun Su-rin slapped her knee.
"Oho! So that's why you're Acheong. This is truly astonishing! A divine art that existed only in legends is real, and its owner stands right here. The murim is vast indeed—there is still so much we do not know! However."
Thwack!
A nuclear noogie descended upon Seomun Cheong's crown at the speed of light. The impact shook her skull. It was a nuclear noogie launched like an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Seomun Su-rin looked sternly at Seomun Cheong, whose eyes were now brimming with tears.
"You answer so readily when asked? You foolish, empty-headed, dull, stupid girl. If people learn of your martial art, the entire world will chase after you with greed. It's a miracle you've survived this long. Tsk tsk."
"Ow."
She'd gained another piece of valuable knowledge. Her master was like a vending machine for common sense. Hit her once and important information came pouring out.
"Ow? That crude way of speaking! Is that something that should come out of a young lady's mouth?"
"It just slipped out……"
"Well. I suppose it can be forgiven if it's you."
Seomun Cheong wasn't sure what that meant, but she nodded anyway.
"Haah. You're like a child left by the riverside. If you go out into the secular world like this, your life won't last long."
"Me?"
"Didn't you already make an enemy of the Sinchang Yang Clan? That pitch-black fellow beside you must have been an assassin from Salmak."
Seomun Cheong had no idea. Her blank stare said it all.
Seomun Su-rin let out a deep sigh.
"Haah. You hopeless child."
The words were harsh, but the concern behind them was clear. Seomun Cheong could only offer an awkward smile.
"And that child ate the Great Returning Pill of the Shaolin."
"Great Returning Pill?"
Seomun Cheong echoed the words. She had no idea what that was.
Seomun Su-rin chuckled.
"The Great Returning Pill is considered the greatest among all elixirs under heaven. They say you couldn't buy it even with a thousand gold."
"Ah……"
That was why Yang Sowol had scammed people for the money.
"Haah. Sowol, that girl."
"Huh, you know Jangmyeong's mother?"
"Of course I do. She was once one of us."
The Sinnyeo Sect was a sect of women. And its disciples were not allowed to marry. However, since human nature made people want to have children of their own, they could instead adopt girls as daughters.
"Then, don't tell me Jangmyeong is……"
"No. She is that woman's daughter. The girl ran away after falling for a man."
"Ah."
That said, the Sinnyeo Sect wasn't some extreme feminist group that screamed "No marriage! Stop marriage!" If a disciple fell in love with a man and wanted to marry, all she had to do was return what she'd received from the sect and leave. In other words, destroy her dantian and go.
Seomun Su-rin's face twisted.
"She was full of nothing but greed."
Yang Sowol had run away because she hated that. And she hadn't just run—she'd emptied the Sinnyeo Sect's storehouse as her dowry. She'd planned it thoroughly, taking only the most valuable items. That was why Jin Jangmyeong remembered her past as affluent.
Seomun Cheong was dumbfounded. She hadn't expected that from the woman.
"I should have chased her to the ends of the earth and beaten her to death. I shouldn't have let it go just because I couldn't bear to lose what was in my hands. I shouldn't have overlooked a shameless girl who would even steal from her own sect in the end."
That had been the root of the problem. A child born with Pure Yin Blood would die before reaching twenty. It was a cruel heavenly curse. However, to a martial artist, that curse could also be the greatest blessing—because it was the finest qualification to become a supreme master under heaven. A child born with Pure Yin Blood could certainly become a renowned expert. The problem was that learning martial arts with Pure Yin Blood was nearly impossible. The body was frail, yet the energy was fierce, causing issues from the very first step of forming a dantian.
"Then what?"
"She needs the help of a master. At the very least, the help of a true master who has reached the Harmonious Realm."
A master of the Harmonious Realm could forcibly inject qi through direct transmission to create a dantian. However, direct transmission cost the master decades of their internal energy.
"So that girl couldn't possibly have brought her daughter back. After breaking the sect's rules and stealing its treasures to flee."
That was why she'd obtained the Great Returning Pill. If the pill's medicinal properties could substitute for internal energy, there would be no need for a master to suffer a loss. She could simply guide the medicinal energy to form the dantian.
"She must have been prepared to offer her own life in exchange. Just to save her child. Since the child had already taken the elixir, she was only asking for guidance."
"Ah……"
"That damned girl! She betrayed the sect—how would she know what level this Daemo has reached? Hah!"
The Daemo had already achieved great success ten years ago. She had reached a level where she could contain the overflowing Pure Yin energy that would otherwise harm the body and form a dantian. Direct transmission hadn't been necessary in the first place. If the child had simply been brought to her, the Daemo would have saved Jin Jangmyeong.
"It wasn't even necessary to begin with."
If they'd known about Jin Jangmyeong's constitution and brought her immediately, the Daemo wouldn't have been able to bring herself to kill the mother of the child she had personally saved, no matter how grave the offense. The father wouldn't have had to lose his life either. The head of the Sinchang Yang Clan would still have been injured fighting the man-eating demon, but the child would have already been affiliated with the Sinnyeo Sect. Then that great clan that had long protected the eastern sea from the Japanese wouldn't have been scammed……
"This is karma. One evil deed has thrown so many into the pit of sorrow. That is the wickedness of evil karma."
Seomun Su-rin warned her sternly.
"So you must remember this well too, young one. Especially you, who bears the most ominous star."
Seomun Cheong didn't know much about murim. So she didn't really understand what the relationship between master and disciple meant in the Central Plains. In the Central Plains, a master was a sabu—a teacher equal to a parent. However, to a modern Korean who didn't distinguish between a teacher and a master, the master-disciple relationship was far too light. The biggest reason Seomun Cheong had casually agreed to become a disciple without much thought was this perception. Besides, she had always secretly craved warmth. It was only natural that she would be completely taken in by Seomun Su-rin, who radiated grandmotherly energy.
Thus, Seomun Cheong performed a deep bow to Seomun Su-rin.
Therefore—
"If you go out into the murim like this, your life as a disciple will be in danger and quickly cut short. So first, we must hide your identity."
"Hide my identity?"
"Yes. Your face as a disciple has already been sold, hasn't it? Especially since you've made an enemy of a Transcendent master, you'll need to reach the same level yourself if you want to survive. Until then, hiding your identity would be wise."
"Ah."
She hadn't thought about it that way. She'd just figured she'd fight if she could win and run if she couldn't. Seomun Cheong was confident in her movement techniques.
"So from now on, let's call you Seomun Cheong."
"Muncheong. Then I'll go with Muncheong from now on. The family name is the same as Master's, right?"
Muncheong or Acheong—it was all the same anyway. Giving her the family name felt a bit burdensome, but since everyone in the murim seemed to be called by their family names, using just a given name felt strange. Well, she supposed she was now of the Seo clan. Now that she thought about it, she could have just used her original surname—
Thwack!
"Agh!"
Seomun Cheong screamed at the terrible pain. It was an involuntary scream that burst out instinctively. It was a hydrogen nuclear noogie that surpassed even the nuclear noogie. What kind of noogie was this? Had her head split open? Was she bleeding? Seomun Cheong rubbed her head, checking her fingertips in between. Still, there was no blood. She'd thought there would be.