The Tang Family Repays Kindness Twofold -1
“Hmm...”
There was a function in Murim Cheonha to create martial arts. But almost no one liked that function. I tried it a couple of times, but I didn't feel much attraction to it.
It was just that when I created a sect, I needed sect martial arts, so I made them occasionally.
Making martial arts itself took a long time and was inefficient, so there was no practical reason. But the biggest reason I ignored that function was that the martial arts created would just be mass-produced generic ones.
The martial arts of the Murim Tang Family have the Taiji symbol, the Volcanic Sect has plum blossoms scattered, but the martial arts made by players are just plain sword techniques without any individuality or flair.
They were created by combining a few predetermined patterns and that was it.
“Martial arts.”
I liked the image of the protagonist training martial arts and becoming stronger. I got immersed in the wuxia world. Training in the mountains, going out to the world, meeting masters through various events, training again, experiencing incidents, rising in martial arts...
Since I fell into Murim Cheonha, I wanted to try making martial arts too. Everyone who enters the wuxia world wants to become an absolute expert, right?
So, to break through the second-rate wall, I put in all efforts for two years. No matter how much of a veteran I was, the time it took for an ordinary office worker like me to become a 15-year-old youth in Murim and adapt to the world was one year. The time spent adapting to Murim Cheonha was one year, but the time spent trying to break through the second-rate wall was two years.
I wasn't particularly frustrated or anything. I just realized the reality.
It wasn't anything particularly amazing.
It was just the process of a 16-year-old Ho Cheon-an learning the world.
The transmigration truck didn't promise to make me the protagonist, so when I fell into this world, I just thought of it as a player character and had expectations.
I gathered money to visit famous doctors, took elixirs or acquired high-level martial arts to break through the second-rate limit, and risked my life trying a few. I did all sorts of things.
In the process, I realized something.
The land I'm standing on now is not the wuxia world I dreamed of in my head, but just the reality of Murim Cheonha.
I am not the protagonist, just one of the many people existing in this Murim Cheonha.
I accepted that I was neither special nor chosen.
So, I decided to just be moderately satisfied.
I can't become an absolute expert, but being a second-rate martial artist with a full belly is not bad. I can easily deal with mediocre small sect wandering warriors.
If compromise is compromise, after all, everyone lives like that, right? Everyone knows that you can't do everything you want because there are limits in reality, and there are walls.
It's just the difference between being visible and not.
Now that I realized I couldn't live squatting as a second-rate anymore, I decided to actively break the mold, but it wasn't that I sincerely wanted to become a first-rate like crazy, but just a choice to survive.
No, it's not a choice. It was just that this was the only means for me to survive.
Martial arts are not the purpose of my living in this world.
It's just a means and tool to survive in this world.
So, I learned gambling. Since martial arts was a tool that couldn't develop further for me, I had to acquire a new tool.
The gambling techniques I learned were mostly ones I created myself. There are few who master gambling techniques properly, and even fewer who teach their own techniques to others.
So, what can I do? I have to make them myself. Because I once had interest in magic or hand tricks, I used those memories as a hill to rub against and created them through trial and error.
Those gambling techniques became martial arts in Tang Do-gyeong's hands.
I gave up the tool of martial arts and newly honed the tool of gambling techniques. That tool became martial arts again through Tang Do-gyeong's hands.
What should I call this?
A feeling that couldn't be described made me laugh. If my limit realm wasn't second-rate, would I have learned the gambling technique? Maybe I would have learned it, but if I had only reached the peak realm, it wouldn't have been the gambling technique in this form.
Then, could the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method have been created like now? That unfamiliar martial art to me who has played Murim Cheonha for a long time.
I don't know.
Since I can't know the answer, I just continued to watch Tang Do-gyeong perform the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method.
It was just the sight of a tool changing to another tool.
I couldn't take my eyes off that single sight.
***
“Listen, crossing your hands like this. Can you see it well from behind?”
“Yes! Oppa!”
Ho Cheon-an smiled while looking at Tang Ryeo-ah who was clinging closely beside him. He had said he would show off his skills to his friends at the academy tomorrow. Seeing the enthusiastic student, Ho Cheon-an slowly moved his hands and taught a simple magic trick.
“Then, bro, I'll go out for a bit. Please take care of Ryea.”
“See you later! Oppa Do-gyeong!”
“Got it. Here, Ryea. If you hold it like this and twist your hand like this...”
“Ah, done! Success!”
“See? Good job. With a little more practice, you'll be better than me, right?”
While listening to the conversation coming from the way out, Tang Do-gyeong smiled.
The place Tang Do-gyeong was heading was the lord's residence.
“Lord, it's Tang Do-gyeong.”
“Mm. Come in.”
It was already a time where expressing it as midnight would not be strange, but Tang Gwang-ryeol welcomed Tang Do-gyeong without showing any surprise at the visit.
“You came because of the teacher?”
“Haha, yes.”
Tang Do-gyeong and Tang Gwang-ryeol sat facing each other.
“I thought that the teacher was a gambling expert and learned martial arts for practical purposes.”
Tang Do-gyeong evaluated Ho Cheon-an as a gambling expert rather than a wandering warrior. Most of the Sichuan wandering warriors, no, exactly excluding Heukmyo and Ho Cheon-an, all had passion for martial arts.
Considering the atmosphere inside the Wanderer Inn, it would be noticeable if you didn't train.
Nevertheless, since Ho Cheon-an didn't come out to train alone, they thought he was a person without interest in martial arts.
“However, seeing the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method today made me see it differently.”
“I felt the same.”
Tang Gwang-ryeol and Tang Do-gyeong had to think how to describe the expression on Ho Cheon-an's face after seeing the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method.
“An expression full of frustration, perhaps?”
“Perhaps it could be envy.”
The expression was too complicated to say it was just appreciation for his own technique turning into martial arts and being performed. Both Tang Gwang-ryeol and Tang Do-gyeong couldn't know exactly what thoughts Ho Cheon-an had while observing the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method.
They just read the longing for martial arts in Ho Cheon-an's eyes.
Tang Do-gyeong said playfully.
“You, the world's greatest gambler, are acknowledged, but in terms of martial arts, we are a few moves above you.”
“Hahaha! That's right. Today, I was very surprised. I knew that the teacher's insight was not ordinary, but I didn't expect him to be knowledgeable about the principles of martial arts, not just gambling theory.”
“Yes, that's right.”
Tang Do-gyeong recalled the Ho Cheon-an from the day. He was pretending not to be, but from the middle, he forgot even that pretense and spoke passionately about the principles of martial arts.
In reality, the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method had made a remarkable leap in just one day's time. The principles of martial arts proposed by Ho Cheon-an. And the close-range hidden technique used by Tang Gwang-ryeol in actual combat with the heretical faction. The direction of Tang Do-gyeong, who can be called the creator of the martial art. These three elements greatly developed the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method.
It was absolutely insufficient time to systematically weave them together, but if they could properly weave the materials accumulated in just one day, it was clear that the Tang Family Fierce Tiger Hidden Dragon Combat Method would become a stronger and more complete martial art.
There was no small share of Ho Cheon-an's contribution to that remarkable development.
“Just the principles of martial arts that can't come out with just the experience of a second-rate martial artist... knowledge that can't be accumulated without passion and effort for martial arts.”
Both Tang Do-gyeong and Tang Gwang-ryeol felt a deep sense of incongruity in that part. There are indeed people who are particularly knowledgeable only in theory, but the Ho Cheon-an they saw was not such a person. His body was well trained, and just from his hand movements in gambling, there was no lack of talent.
The image of Ho Cheon-an reflected in their eyes was not one who would be blocked by the peak realm wall, let alone the first-rate wall.
The two exchanging glances were confident that they had the same thought.
There was some special reason why Ho Cheon-an couldn't advance from the second-rate realm.
“Lord, this Tang Do-gyeong has a request that exceeds his station.”
“Hoho! Do-gyeong-ah! You've done well! Where, the teacher is your benefactor! I, Tang Gwang-ryeol, am your benefactor and the benefactor of this Tang family!”
Tang Gwang-ryeol tapped on the table. Tang Do-gyeong saw the item Tang Gwang-ryeol was teaching and gave a bitter smile.
“The lord had already figured it all out, so I was making a fuss for nothing.”
“No. This is also a precious reward... but the teacher is not an ordinary person. He must have thought of various means to solve it, but since he couldn't solve it, I thought it might not be an easy task.”
Tang Gwang-ryeol recalled a week ago. After hearing the full story, he immediately sought the fundamental solution, acted immediately, and built up preparations for the solution, the appearance of Ho Cheon-an.
It was truly extraordinary insight!
“A teacher with such insight wouldn't leave his own affairs unattended. He would have tried in all directions... but he failed, I suppose.”
Considering the current situation, Ho Cheon-an would likely have to work hard. But if he worked hard and got no results? He would just make his benefactor suffer.
“So, I want to give you a material reward thinking about the time of failure. I heard you competed with the Blood Jade Bi. Is there something the teacher would specially want?”
“Hmm....”
Tang Do-gyeong, who was pondering, suddenly raised his head.
“Then, how about this?”
The lord's residence.
The discussion between the two Tangs to repay kindness twofold continued deep into the night.