Chapter 89: Xi'an
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 89: Xi'an
As the cold morning air seeped through the gaps in the tent, Cheon Yeo-hwa snuggled deeper into my arms, rubbing her face against my chest.
“It’s cold…”
“Should I close it?”
“No, this is nice.”
Her half-open eyes fluttered shut again as she slowly leeched my body heat. I pulled her in tighter.
“Mmm, you’re squeezing me…!”
“But I like it.”
I rested my chin on the top of her head.
Even though she had just woken up, her hair was as soft as silk, and I could even smell a faint floral scent. Iris and Choi Hyena were the same. At this point, I had to wonder if we were even the same species.
I gently caressed Cheon Yeo-hwa’s skin, bare beneath the blankets.
Smooth and moist. We had sweated so much last night, yet she still smelled wonderful.
“After devouring me so roughly all night, are you now acting like a spoiled child?”
“…Me?”
I’ll admit to the ‘devouring you roughly’ part, but me, acting like a spoiled child?
“Your heart is pounding, and your pulse is unsteady. You couldn’t have fallen ill overnight, so could it be that you’re afraid I might disappear?”
“…”
“Hm? Hehe… I never would have guessed. A man built like a bear, worrying about such trivial things?”
“…It’s not like that.”
“Alright, alright. I shall grant you the special privilege of my embrace.”
Cheon Yeo-hwa wrapped her arms around my back, pulling me close.
I couldn’t find a single retort to her playful voice. Maybe she was right.
It had only been about three weeks, but it seemed I had missed Cheon Yeo-hwa more than I realized.
Like a small child who had lost their parents overnight.
I closed my eyes, quietly holding her. I thought I wasn’t sleepy, but my eyelids felt strangely heavy.
“By the way, Hyun-woo.”
“Yes?”
I forced my heavy lips to part, replying to the soft voice that tickled my ear.
“You smell of another woman.”
“…”
Correction.
A cold voice, laced with killing intent, stabbed at my eardrums.
The air around us grew heavy as if saturated with water, and strands of Cheon Yeo-hwa’s hair began to turn pure white.
“I believe we need to have a talk… What do you think?”
“…”
I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly feeling parched.
At some point, a dreadful chill had begun to radiate from Cheon Yeo-hwa’s body, still held in my arms.
“Answer me.”
“…You’re right.”
I spent the rest of the morning, until the sun was high in the sky, explaining the ‘Another World Dating App’ to Cheon Yeo-hwa.
At first, she was skeptical, but after I showed her the items I’d brought from Earth and placed a piece of chocolate in her mouth, she seemed to believe me with a blissful smile.
However, when I told her that I had been with other women using this ability…
CRACK!
A palm strike of terrifying power slammed into my solar plexus.
When I came to, nearly two hours had passed.
*
For the next half a day, Cheon Yeo-hwa and I ran through the forest, barely stopping to rest.
“Hah, haah…!”
My feet were covered in blisters, and my legs screamed with a pain so intense it felt like the muscles were tearing.
Even during our brief rests, my heart pounded as if it would burst—a clear price for pushing my body so hard.
My vision swam, and I couldn't catch my breath.
Of course, none of this applied to Cheon Yeo-hwa.
“To be this exhausted from so little… Your stamina is pathetic.”
“Hah, haah… I-I’m about average…!”
“It seems the meaning of the word ‘average’ has changed quite a bit since I last checked. At your current level of stamina, it’s clear you wouldn’t even last through the basic training of the Moonlight Guard. Of course, the Moonlight Guard is my personal escort unit composed entirely of women, so you wouldn’t be able to join anyway.”
As I lay half-collapsed on the ground, Cheon Yeo-hwa poked my cheek with her fingertip and let out a bewitching laugh.
She was enjoying herself while I was on the verge of dying. It seemed I would have to properly discipline her tonight.
By the way, a personal guard unit made up of women?
‘…I’m so jealous.’
If I let it show on my face, I might get another palm strike, so I kept the thought to myself.
“Now, it’s time to get moving again.”
“…Just a little longer.”
“No. We weren’t even supposed to be resting in the first place.”
Cheon Yeo-hwa forcibly pulled me to my feet as I was becoming one with the ground. I couldn’t resist her overbearing grip.
After all, I had brought all this suffering upon myself.
Half a day ago, I had asked Cheon Yeo-hwa to teach me martial arts, and that was the start of everything.
—I am sorry, but my martial arts cannot be learned by a man. It is based on dense yin energy. If a man were to learn it… in the worst-case scenario, he could become a eunuch. Would that be acceptable?
Of course not.
I would rather live my entire life without learning martial arts than become a eunuch.
Cheon Yeo-hwa seemed to share my sentiment, nodding as she continued.
—I am not well-versed in other martial arts, so I cannot be of much help to you. And I cannot teach you demonic arts, which are riddled with side effects.
—…I guess there’s no other way.
—However.
Cheon Yeo-hwa looked at me with a bright smile.
I couldn’t discern the meaning behind it, but a shiver ran down my spine.
—I can teach you anything else you wish, besides martial arts.
—Anything else…?
It was as if my instincts were screaming a warning.
Even now, half a day later, I still regret not running away then.
Needless to say, running through a forest is not easy. This wasn’t Earth; there were no well-maintained hiking trails.
Rocks jutted out everywhere, and the branches of overgrown trees obscured my vision.
I had been running at full speed through this terrain for half a day, with only the bare minimum of rest.
And I was doing it without even reinforcing my body with magic.
“I do not know exactly what this ‘magic power’ you speak of is, but seeing as it strengthens the body and allows you to use the dark arts of magic, it does not seem so different from internal energy. It is common sense that no martial artist uses internal energy when doing physical training.”
As I ran, I had no energy to argue that magic wasn’t a dark art.
“Your overall musculature seems well-developed, but that is far from enough. As for your stamina, you’re worse than a newborn who’s just started to walk.”
Even as her sharp criticisms rained down on me, Cheon Yeo-hwa was always running ahead.
There wasn’t a single drop of sweat on her.
“In my opinion, someone who has learned magic like you has no need to learn martial arts… but, setting that aside, a trained body is indispensable unless you plan on learning demonic arts. I may not like it, but while orthodox martial arts are slower to master than demonic arts, they have numerous other advantages.”
My head felt foggy from the lack of oxygen, but I struggled to hang on to her every word.
Unlike demonic arts, which were fast to learn but had severe side effects, the orthodox faction’s martial arts focused on building a solid foundation from the ground up.
Naturally, progress was slower compared to demonic arts, and it did not grant high realms to those lacking talent.
Nevertheless, orthodox martial arts widened narrow qi and blood passages, strengthened weak minor meridians, and pursued higher realms based on one’s own enlightenment. Therefore, at the same level, a practitioner of orthodox arts was bound to be stronger than one who learned demonic arts.
“Of course, there are always exceptions. In the end, if you cannot learn a high-level martial art, you will fall before powerful demonic arts no matter how diligently you train in the orthodox path. There are more people who wish to learn martial arts than one can count, but not all of them can master a high-level art. I imagine it is the same for your magic, is it not?”
Still running, I couldn’t answer.
But my ragged breathing seemed to be answer enough, as Cheon Yeo-hwa smiled softly.
“I do not know when it will be, but you need to train your body for the day you might learn a high-level martial art. Of course, considering your age, learning martial arts will not be an easy task.”
According to Cheon Yeo-hwa, as one gets older, the body accumulates impure energy from the filthy air of the secular world and from cooked food, making it harder to learn martial arts. At my age, most sects wouldn’t even accept me.
It seemed most sects began teaching martial arts before the age of seven.
“You need only trust in me, so you have no need to worry.”
Cheon Yeo-hwa had said she was a Transcendent master. I didn’t know exactly what that entailed, but judging by the aura she exuded, she was undoubtedly on a higher level than me.
However, that was only in close combat.
For a mage to fight a martial artist of a similar level in close quarters was absurd in the first place.
“Hyun-woo, you may stop.”
The moment permission was granted, I became one with the ground.
I gasped for air like a madman, gulping down cold water as if pouring it down my throat. I vaguely remembered someone saying you shouldn’t drink water too quickly after a marathon. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the luxury to care about such trivialities right now.
Cheon Yeo-hwa, who had been watching me with a smile, brushed my sweat-matted bangs to the side.
“Your stamina is pathetic, but your willpower is commendable. You are indeed the man I have chosen.”
A reddish blush bloomed on Cheon Yeo-hwa’s face, which had been as pale as frost in June when we first met.
“I believe this is enough training for today.”
Cheon Yeo-hwa’s slender finger pointed somewhere.
I lifted my head with great effort and looked.
“That is Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi.”
Beyond the clearing, a massive fortress revealed itself.
*
Shaanxi was home to the Mount Hua Sect and the Zhongnan Sect, both part of the Nine Great Sects and One Alliance. It was also one of the hubs of the Central Plains, connecting to Sichuan and Hubei.
Its geographical advantage of being linked to wealthy regions attracted merchants, and where they went, money and people followed.
It was only natural that Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi, was bustling with people, so crowded that there was hardly any room to stand.
“Oh, that was a concise explanation.”
“Hehe. Thank you, Young Hero. A humble server like me has to be at least this good to make a living, right?”
I pressed a few coins into the hand of the server, who was rubbing his palms together so vigorously they were shiny.
“Thank you, Great Hero!”
The server bowed a full ninety degrees before turning away with a beaming smile.
It was that easy to get a status upgrade from Young Hero to Great Hero in an instant.
“Hehe, Great Hero Kang? Would it be alright if this young lady offered you a drink?”
Cheon Yeo-hwa, who had been watching from the side, was so amused that she kept smiling as she sipped her drink. She was drinking Okhochun, a famous liquor from the Sichuan province.
It was normally difficult to find in Shaanxi, but in the capital city of Xi'an, you could get it if you had the money.
That’s right, if you had the money.
We had made it to Xi'an after many hardships, but we were broke.
It was only natural. Cheon Yeo-hwa was a fugitive, and I had just come from Earth. It would be stranger if we did have money.
In fact, the food I was eating and the expensive liquor Cheon Yeo-hwa was drinking were all bought with money we got from selling my survival gear at a large blacksmith shop nearby.
The survival axe, in particular, sold for a high price.
‘I remember the hairy old man at the shop who said martial artists would go crazy for it.’
Of course, we couldn’t make money like this every time, so I needed to find a proper job.
The best option was hunting bandits. I had only recently learned this, but apparently, there were bounties on bandits.
Of course, there wouldn’t be any bounties on pathetic grunts like the ones I killed before, but for those who knew martial arts or were notorious, there were some with silver, and even gold, on their heads.
‘How many gold coins was the bounty on the Green Forest Bandit Leader’s head again…?’
Of course, the authorities weren't fools. A bounty of gold meant they were all absurdly powerful monsters.
What I was aiming for were those with silver bounties on their heads, or a moderately-sized bandit stronghold.
To be precise, I was after the loot the bandits had accumulated.
The bounty itself was practically just a side income.
As I was seriously contemplating our future plans, the inn, which had been bustling with noise just a moment ago, suddenly fell silent.
Everyone’s eyes were focused on one spot.
‘What’s that?’
A group of men, each with some sort of flaw on their face, were approaching our table in matching uniforms.
Judging by the swords at their waists, they weren’t ordinary people.
‘Martial artists?’
I had seen a few since arriving in Xi'an, but these guys had a distinctly different vibe from the ones I’d seen so far.
They probably belonged to an organization like a sect.
Just as I was wondering, ‘Why are they coming this way?’
“Lady?”
The man who appeared to be the leader of the group not only sat down at our table without my permission but also began to speak to Cheon Yeo-hwa.
“My name is Lee Geon of the Hundred Flowers Sect. If it is not too much trouble, would you grant me the opportunity to know your name…”
SMACK! Before he could even finish his sentence, my fist slammed into his face.
Thud, thud—CRASH! I didn’t hold back at all. The man went flying, tumbling across the floor before crashing into the inn’s wall.
“Hitting on another man’s woman.”
You’re asking to die.