Chapter 79
The ship bound for Hunan Province set out at last.
Swishhhh—!
The prow cut fiercely through the current of the Yangtze River and surged ahead.
From Hubei Province to Hunan Province, the journey downstream would normally take three to five days.
Not even a full day had passed since departure, which meant time was still in abundance.
Geom Mujin and the child were inside the cabin assigned to them.
"Like this?"
"Yeah. Good."
As the child asked while gripping a wooden practice sword scaled to his size, Geom Mujin nodded.
Feet planted shoulder-width apart, left foot stepping half a pace forward. With both hands he held the hilt neither too tightly nor too loosely, angling the tip toward the sky. Then he shifted his weight slightly forward, ready to move at any moment.
It was a stance a swordsman should be able to take even in his sleep.
"That’s the basic stance."
Right now, I was training the kid.
I’d said I’d teach him martial arts, but last time I’d only gotten as far as teaching him a mental cultivation method because of the Tang family’s daughters.
Basically, I’d just installed insane hardware in the kid and called it a day.
And what good was martial arts if it only had hardware and no software—no proper techniques—besides Yijeongseumsugyeong?
But then you might ask: what kind of training are you supposed to do on a swaying ship?
Listen.
Was there ever a rule that training had to be tied to a certain time or place?
Back in my day, if the passion was there, you trained even inside a furnace. Or not. Whatever.
"From that stance, use the basic forms I taught you."
"Okay."
At my command, the child swung the wooden sword.
Whoooosh—! Fwip—! Swaaack—!
Mount Tai Presses the Summit. A Sweep That Cuts Down a Thousand Soldiers. Wind and Rain From All Directions.
The wooden sword traced the shape of a cross, then finished with a single dot.
It was the Three Elements Sword Art, the eternal bestseller of the martial world, equal in fame to the Three Elements Mental Art.
This sword art was supposedly imbued with the principles of Heaven, Earth, and Man—splitting the sky, subduing the land, and piercing through people—
Yeah, right.
People talked about pressing down Mount Tai and cleaving a thousand soldiers in half, but in the end it was just horizontal cuts, vertical cuts, and thrusts... basic attacks.
And yet every swordsman in the martial world starts there.
That’s because those simple forms—so simple they hardly even deserve to be called forms—contain the essence of the sword.
"Good. Repeat those forms a hundred times each."
"A hundred...?"
The child, having just performed the Three Elements Sword Art, shot me a strange look.
But only for a moment; then he resumed swinging the wooden sword.
Yep, there it is. He’s not happy.
I understood the meaning behind that glance instantly.
It was the dilemma of the Three Elements Sword Art.
When you first learn it, questions and complaints tend to overflow.
Because it’s a sword art you can master in ten minutes if both your arms are attached, and yet you’re made to repeat it a hundred, a thousand times.
I was the same when I first possessed this body.
Why spend your whole life using only basic attacks? Wouldn’t you eventually need to move on to advanced techniques like Quick Sword or Illusion Sword?
Learn only the basics, and you need advanced forms. Move into the advanced forms, and the basics become essential.
It was a real dilemma.
But as my level grew and my martial insight deepened, I came to understand it.
Whatever direction the sword may take in the future, the foundation that supports it is what matters.
Even if advanced techniques are delayed a little, you have to build the basics firmly first.
If you don’t, you may one day have to retrace the road you already walked.
What the kid was doing now wasn’t just learning forms—it was cutting down on that sort of useless waste of time.
Swaack—! Swish—!
Still, his physical ability really does outclass kids his age.
I watched the arc drawn by the child’s wooden sword.
Even after fifty repetitions, the path of the blade didn’t waver in the slightest.
That meant his strength and stamina were holding up beautifully.
Any other kid his age would have arms shaking like a newborn deer’s legs.
The mental method he learned recently is probably helping, but yeah, being a monster demon means his base physique is just high.
If he’s at this level...
He’d only really be matchable by the direct heirs of the Great Eight Families, the kind who’ve been scrubbed with herb-baths from birth and fed elixirs instead of baby food.
Then, all at once, I wondered who would win if the two of them fought.
...The kid has his special abilities too, beyond the mental method and martial arts, so overall, yeah, the kid takes it.
Though if they were official junior experts, that’d be a different story.
But if they’re the same age, even if the physical stats are equal, you just bite them once and turn them into a familiar and it’s over.
Not that I’d actually do that, of course.
Grin.
The kid won the little versus battle that had just played out in my head, and Geom Mujin found himself smiling.
"....?"
The child looked up at Geom Mujin, puzzled.
"I’m done."
And after finishing the hundredth repetition, he reported to him.
His breathing was still steady, and he looked composed.
That was only on the outside, though; inside, he was grumbling quite a bit.
"Haha, why? You’re sulking because I keep making you do something so trivial?"
"...No."
Shake, shake!
Having been caught, the child hurriedly shook his head.
"I really like this. Should I keep going?"
On the contrary, he even volunteered to keep doing the Three Elements Sword Art.
"You’re lying. It’s all over your face."
Geom Mujin snorted.
Then he reached out and rubbed the child’s head.
The boy had said he wanted to learn because he’d been dazzled by sword qi, so there was no way he could be satisfied with only the Three Elements Sword Art.
"Even if it feels boring and hard now, it’ll all become blood and flesh later."
Rub, rub—
"When I was your age, I didn’t just do it a hundred times..."
Geom Mujin trailed off.
Suddenly he got goosebumps.
Did I just sound like a total old man?
Only three things should ever come out of a person’s mouth when talking about “back in my day”: café latte, green tea latte, and mint-choco latte.
The moment you start hunting for a “latte” that a younger person can’t even remotely relate to, you can safely say it’s all over.
Damn it.
Come to think of it, I think I’d already been saying “back in my day” without realizing it...
Was I really reaching the age where the words of the past and unsolicited advice just spilled out of my mouth on their own?
Between his previous life and this one, his psychological age was around fifty, so in some ways he had already entered the danger zone.
"Mujin?"
The child looked at him with concern as he suddenly wilted.
"Ah, nothing. I’m fine."
He waved it off, not letting any sign of emotional damage show.
"More importantly, you did well today. That’s enough training for now."
I stood up.
I couldn’t take any more of this mental shock.
"...I’m going outside for a bit to get some air, so you should rest too."
"Kkii!"
As he was about to leave, Sodam hopped up onto his shoulder.
"Next time, I’ll teach you the Six Combination Sword Art."
The child’s posture was better than expected, so he figured they could move to the next step.
I’d noticed it before, but the kid clearly had talent.
"Okay."
The child’s eyes sparkled.
The Six Combination Sword Art!
It sounded somehow more impressive than the Three Elements Sword Art.
But what the child didn’t yet know was this:
The Six Combination Sword Art was just the Three Elements Sword Art with diagonal slashes added.
* * *
As the saying goes, even an axe handle rots away while an immortal enjoys himself in idle leisure; there was one black-haired man who didn’t yet realize he was growing old from the life of a Great Swordmaster.
"Hoo..."
I leaned my upper body against the railing and let out a sigh.
Kept taut by my transformed body, I’d forgotten one rather shocking fact.
Was this how Qin Shi Huang felt when he sent Xu Fu off to get his ass kicked in search of an elixir of immortality?
At this rate, if I got any older, would I have to start chasing youth by asking for a return to a child’s body?
No—before that, if you crave youth so desperately that you obtain it, can you really call that true youth?
At that point, wouldn’t it just mean you’d already admitted you were old?
As this unexpected question set his mind spinning, his anguish deepened.
"Kruuu..."
Sodam, sitting on his shoulder, rubbed its beak against him.
"What, are you comforting me?"
"Kkii."
"Thanks for worrying about me. Here, eat this."
I took a peppermint candy from my breast pocket and flicked it over.
Snap!
Sodam swallowed the peppermint candy in one bite.
"Woo-hmm~ wuh-hmm~"
The bird rolled the candy around in its mouth, clearly satisfied.
After leaving Hubei Province, I’d improved Sodam’s quality of life a little more.
I increased the number of peppermint candies I gave it, and even taking the ship like this was part of that.
I could have run myself while having Sodam fly after me, but...
What if it got hurt doing that?
This was to reduce Sodam’s unnecessary fatigue and keep it safe.
Such a benevolent owner.
That was me.
Still, I’d have to head to Jiangxi Province before long.
There was the matter of investigating Jamsungdan, and I also needed to talk about those Tang family daughters.
So eat up.
You’re going to need a lot of strength soon.
Whether it understood its owner’s intentions or not, Sodam looked delighted all the same.
The reason I’d improved the bird’s living conditions was because of that Sima-whatever-his-name-was.
The reason the demonic cult bastards had been smuggling Baekdu Cheongak-eung, information I’d barely squeezed out of him—
Clatter—!
Just then, the door to another cabin was flung open.
"Uuub...!"
A young man burst out and rushed hastily to the railing.
He was one of the ship’s passengers, just like me.
"Uweeeek!"
The young man immediately grabbed the rail and served breakfast to the fish living in the river.
So he ate meatball spaghetti for breakfast, huh.
Damn it.
Of all the places he could have gone, he had to come right beside me and do that.
"Kwoaaak."
Having been forced to witness something equally disgusting, Sodam’s face twisted in sympathy.
It asked me if it could finish him off.
No. Hold it.
I barely restrained myself from giving the order by mistake and moved to the opposite side of the deck.
"Uraaaagh... geh?"
The young man, dressed like a scholar, kept making retching noises and emptying his stomach.
He looked like a student, so it seemed this was his first time on a boat.
I was just about ready to swear that if he did it one more time, I’d really throw him into the river when—
"Ue... huh?"
As if he’d read my thoughts, the young man stopped vomiting.
His eyes shot toward the front.
And then, in no time at all, his face went paler than the white scholar’s robe he was wearing.
What the hell is he looking at—
"R-r-r-river pirates...!"
"What?"
I immediately turned my head.
Sending my inner energy to my eyes to sharpen my vision, I could see it clearly.
A ship was approaching us from far off, cutting through the current.
A skull was painted on its sail.
"Oh."
Flap—! Flap—!
The ship drew closer, flying the pirate flag of black stripes slashed across a skull.
Don’t have a fit about there being some kind of pirate banner in the martial world.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you do that, you lose.
"What the hell! It’s the black-haired pirate gang!!"
Separate from that, the young man screamed as though he’d just seen the Bag Man from some old ghost story.
Since they were bandits, that reaction was only natural.
"What do you mean—"
At the young man’s shrill shout, the ship’s owner, So Gun-hak, came hurrying over.
"No, sir, you said this boat wouldn’t be attacked."
"Right! That’s what you said!"
Geom Mujin and the young man both turned their eyes to So Gun-hak.
Under the combined pressure of their stares, he—
"Uh... it shouldn’t be like this... what do we do?"
"......"
"......"
What do you mean, what do we do? Why are you asking us, old man?
An awkward silence settled over the ship.
"Kahaha! If you don’t want to become fish food, stop the ship right now!"
The black-haired pirate ship had drawn up within striking distance.