Chapter 6
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: Left Envoy - The Blue Light Burns with Pride
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You couldn't eat before the elders lifted their chopsticks.
Even if the era had changed, Geum-gang, born in the land of Eastern rites and etiquette, knew this all too well.
But what lay before her eyes was...
Clearly...
Lamb skewers.
High-quality lamb meat, no less.
"Um...!"
Gulp.
A dish she'd never tasted even in her past life.
She'd always just caught the scent as she passed by.
How desperately she'd wondered what it tasted like.
Even beyond the lamb skewers, tempting dishes filled the table.
Ha Jin and Hee Ji-jae had so much to discuss that they hadn't touched their food.
Normally, she'd prick up her ears to gather every scrap of information, but nothing got through.
The girl sitting across from Geum-gang seemed lost in the same thoughts.
A little girl staring piercingly at the tofu dish, a bit of drool trickling out.
The child introduced as Hee Ji-jae's daughter had a maturity beyond her years, but she still couldn't hide her hunger.
'What an idiot.'
Navy-tinted black hair with neatly trimmed bangs.
Round eyes, but with a sharp glare.
A youthful face, but her build suggested fourteen or fifteen.
Well-proportioned like a martial artist. Yet to Geum-gang, already shaped by Ha Jin's influence, it was all wrong.
Most grating of all: the imbalance between her shoulders and hips.
'A thrusting sword style, right?'
A thrust demands rotation.
Influenced by that martial art, her body tilted to the right.
'Shoulders and hips all out of line. I want to snap 'em and reset them.'
Geum-gang found herself lost in a deranged thought.
But more than that...
The girl drooling right in front of her looked just like a puppy.
She must have realized how ridiculous she looked, because she frantically wiped her mouth.
Hee Ji-jae finally caught on and rushed to wrap up his talk with Ha Jin.
"Ahem. Looks like everyone's starving. Left Envoy, you not feeding your disciple?"
"Hah, I stuff her till she bursts. You the one letting your daughter go hungry?"
With that, the two heavy droolers could finally dig in.
"So, Left Envoy, why'd you come here?"
Once the meal ended, Hee Ji-jae spoke up.
Now his tone turned dead serious, demanding the real reason.
A far cry from his casual chatter before the food.
"The Sacred Fire Festival's coming up soon. Thought I'd show off my disciple a bit beforehand..."
Ha Jin glanced at Hee Ji-jae's daughter.
A girl sitting prim and proper, eating neatly.
"And I wanted to see your daughter too. Heard she's quite the prodigy."
Hee Ji-jae's daughter, with a bit of food on her lips, waved off the praise humbly.
Utterly foolish-looking.
"No, no, Left Envoy. Rumors always get exaggerated."
"True, but sometimes they don't capture the full truth."
"Hm. Wonder who she takes after. She's exceptionally gifted."
As the praise piled on, Hee Yeon's cheeks flushed pink.
She put on a show of humility, but Hee Yeon already had no rivals among the South Heaven region's juniors.
At eleven, she'd bested one of the now-vanished Podal Temple's martial monks.
At twelve, she'd forced the young master of a nearby minor sect to surrender in under fifty exchanges.
As the South Heaven Sword Family's daughter, she'd faced countless junior challengers and crushed them all.
Yet still a child at heart, the praise embarrassed her.
She knew her father doted on her, but he rarely praised her in front of others.
As Hee Yeon's cheeks turned beet red and she ducked her head, sure enough, Ha Jin lit the fuse.
"Still, my disciple's better."
"What?"
Daughter-bragging turned to disciple-bragging.
The two top experts of the cult began their ugly contest.
"Hm, seems the Left Envoy doesn't know. My daughter greets me every morning as a given. Brews my tea. And that's not all—she embroiders for her father. See this?"
Hee Ji-jae proudly displayed the clumsy embroidery on his blue silk robe.
Crooked stitches, but full of earnest effort.
Ha Jin tossed a casual line at the smug Hee Ji-jae.
"Is that so? How dutiful. My disciple still sits in my lap."
"Master!"
Geum-gang's face burned crimson as she cried out, but no one heard.
"What?!"
The words rang with utter sincerity.
To think someone that age still sat in her master's lap—Hee Ji-jae had no choice but to concede defeat.
"Kh... Fine, what about martial arts?"
Unlike his "gentleman" reputation, Hee Ji-jae started clinging desperately.
This round's topic: martial prowess.
But Geum-gang was only a year into her training.
Hee Yeon, by contrast, had gripped a sword since she could toddle.
An insurmountable gap.
Hee Yeon's face burned with shame.
"Martial arts? My daughter's superior there."
Hee Ji-jae pressed on undeterred.
"Hm, well... Looks-wise, anyone's picking my disciple."
Of course, Ha Jin had no intention of losing a war of words.
The Geum-gang before them was a heavenly beauty, plain and simple.
Martial arts? Whatever. For a teenage girl, looks were what mattered.
Something scratched inside the pubescent Hee Yeon's heart.
Geum-gang hadn't heard, but she could tell.
"And martial arts too, obviously. Want to test it?"
"Hah, insulting my daughter. Hm."
Hee Ji-jae eyed Geum-gang with a martial artist's scrutiny.
Sizing up her skill, no doubt.
"Hm. Impressive indeed. Looks like your boasting wasn't exaggeration, Left Envoy."
Nothing weighs heavier than praise in someone else's home.
Especially when it's about someone else's kid, right in front of them.
'We're screwed.'
Hee Yeon glared daggers at Geum-gang with unprecedented fire.
"Young lady, I have a request for Father and the Left Envoy."
"Hm? Go on."
Whether oblivious or deliberate, Hee Ji-jae turned to his daughter.
"I'd like to cross hands with the Left Envoy's disciple. Please allow it."
She had plenty of reasons.
She wanted to test her own skills.
Sought a lesson or two... and so on.
Always admired the Left Envoy... blah blah.
Boiled down to wanting to thrash Geum-gang. But Ha Jin wasn't one to refuse a duel.
"I'm fine if—"
"Good. Lass, you've got your father's fire. Show my disciple some fear."
Ha Jin ignored Geum-gang entirely and pushed ahead.
Geum-gang's first spar.
First besides her master.
That glare promised no mercy.
'No better practice partner.'
Ha Jin wore a satisfied smile, as if she'd dragged Geum-gang here for the experience.
No choice now.
Geum-gang let out a sigh.
"Yes... Please go easy."
Geum-gang bobbed her head in an awkward bow.
She could act childish around Ha Jin, but to others, traces of 'Jung-seok' lingered.
Yet that attitude perfectly stoked Hee Yeon's competitive flames.
"This is qinggang stone. Must've cost a fortune for the training ground."
"You know it. I spared no expense."
The flat qinggang stone floor gleamed luxurious at a glance.
Bluish hue, with flecks making everything glow blue.
Setting the kids to fight while the grown-ups spectate.
Geum-gang sighed deeply.
Truth be told, she wasn't all that tense.
Just look at Ha Jin.
Golden locks framing delicate features in perfect harmony.
Red sandalwood hairpin and ornaments carved to grace—like a fairy...
No, wrong track.
Those golden hands.
Like the Unmoving Bright King's symbol.
Crushing boulders like tofu—after daily brawls with that monster, if she still tensed up, that'd be the real issue.
Merely inconvenient for Geum-gang. But across the way, Hee Yeon looked downright feral.
Wiping her sword with blue silk, muttering something scripture-like.
Eyes sharp as if prepping for battle.
As Geum-gang loosely stretched, Hee Ji-jae clapped to draw eyes.
"A plain spar would be dull."
Hee Ji-jae grinned mischievously and pulled out a small mother-of-pearl box.
"Not millennium-grade, but among my treasures, a rare spirit pill. From the Haocheon Fire Carp."
Haocheon Fire Carp.
A spirit beast said to absorb summer sunlight.
Not quite millennium carp, as the patriarch said...
"Hard to come by. Generous of you, Patriarch."
Even Ha Jin was impressed by its value.
One big problem, though.
"Our sect doesn't need spirit pills."
As Ha Jin said, the Golden Body Art was the pinnacle of external arts.
Utterly unlike ordinary internal martial arts.
Its fearsome power stemmed from innate essence carving the body—almost a phenomenon.
Entry began by destroying the dantian for qi storage, so spirit pills were pointless.
Unless specially attuned to boost innate essence.
"Hm, that's your problem, not mine."
"Fair enough. Guess we'll swap spit later. Geum-gang, do your best. Pill's yours if you win."
A prize that'd ignite ordinary martial artists. Ha Jin just shrugged.
Seemed she saw it as just pricey junk.
"Rules are simple. Step out of bounds or get beaten senseless. I'll step in if it's too dangerous, so no worries."
Hee Ji-jae spoke with barely veiled excitement.
He knew his daughter excelled, but curiosity as a father was unavoidable.
Never dreamed she'd lose.
How many moves to crush the Left Envoy's prized disciple?
He planned to tease Ha Jin plenty.
"Ready?"
Geum-gang stretched her limbs fully.
To the already irked Hee Yeon, it looked like play.
"Yes, Father."
"I'm ready too, Patriarch."
The two girls shone with their own colors.
Dawn yellow and deep indigo.
Geum-gang and Hee Yeon locked eyes, fists and sword gleaming.
Firsts always linger longest.
Geum-gang's debut duel would too.
This memory: the spark to shatter future walls.
The trigger to shake the world.
The start of an enduring grudge.
And so, Geum-gang's first duel began.