Internal Energy
The dark night sky glittered with a scatter of stars.
Under the soft wash of moonlight drifting over the ground, I slowly looked around.
Fortunately, the training ground was empty.
"……."
The incantation was one I hadn’t used in a long time, but it was still martial arts carved into my body, so there was nothing difficult about it.
As a sub-technique of Ilwol Eumyang Singong, Pungsinbo was based on yin, yang, and the five elements…
"Not bad."
I hadn’t even started yet. What the hell was she talking about?
I turned toward the voice, and someone stepped slowly out of the darkness, clearing their throat as they came.
"Ahem."
"You’re… Cheon…?"
The person who emerged from the darkness was the girl I’d seen getting beaten up by Namgung Jin’s gang.
This is bad.
I knew that, staying at Jeongdo Academy, I’d run into her again sooner or later, but this quickly?
No, getting tangled up with her was unavoidable anyway, if only because of the Heavenly Sword.
It was just annoying to meet her. It wasn’t something I could call a loss.
One of the Four Flowers representing the murim world, Ju Yeonhwa, the Heavenly Sword Maiden.
She was still unknown to the wider world, but the fact that she was hiding her aura even in front of me made her skill undeniable.
I’d recognized her at a glance back then, too.
Because she looked exactly like her illustration.
The cute girl with green hair that reached her waist stared at me.
"Cheon?"
She tilted her head, and when our eyes met, her blue-green irises were as clear and deep as a lake.
"Do you know about the Heavenly Demon?"
"The Heavenly Demon?"
Beneath the moonlight, her hair shone especially beautifully, sparkling as if each strand had been polished.
It was because of the special martial arts she practiced.
"Yes. How much do you know about the Heavenly Demon, the king of demonic cultivators who is said to have shattered the heavens?"
Ju Yeonhwa, who had been staring blankly at me, covered her mouth and giggled.
"What are you talking about all of a sudden? Of course I know. The Demonic Cult was the mortal enemy of the righteous murim just a hundred years ago, you know? ...Though these days, they’re nothing special."
"I’m not talking about the Demonic Cult. I mean one man alone, the Heavenly Demon."
Ju Yeonhwa shrugged and gave a snort of amusement.
"Isn’t that the same thing? Either way, he’s a loser who disappeared into the back alleys of history, isn’t he? He doesn’t even come out of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains…. There’s no need to worry about him."
So that kind of thinking had been rooted deep in her all along.
I thought of Ju Yeonhwa’s end.
When the Demonic Cult rose and the Heavenly Demon appeared, she charged in together with her martial sisters and senior brothers, only to be slaughtered to a man.
She had the skill, but I’d wondered what on earth gave her the confidence to rush in like that. With this kind of mindset, it made sense.
"……."
"Hehe… You really do have the bearing of a great hero, and you’re good at jokes too…. My name is Ju Yeonhwa. You’re Cheon Sojin, aren’t you?"
She had no intention of hiding the fact that she knew me.
As the heir to Seongcheon Sword Art, her voice carried a confidence that matched her words.
I gave a small nod.
"That’s right. Miss Ju, what do you need?"
"Ah… well…. I wanted to thank you. Is there anything you need, maybe?"
There was one thing I needed.
The Eumyang Pill…
But I didn’t say it, because I already knew I couldn’t get my hands on it.
"Miss, I only helped because you looked like you needed it. Don’t worry about it."
There was no way she’d come looking for me in the middle of the night just to say thank you.
She looked at me with those intense eyes, and then—
"Ah… yeah. Th-that’s true…?"
Her energy visibly deflated, and her shoulders slumped.
"……"
"...Are you training right now? Should I help you a little?"
To anyone who knew her, it would have been shocking how a thin stream of formidable internal energy was beginning to leak from Ju Yeonhwa’s body.
Super Peak level, maybe?
Maybe she’d heard stories like this before.
About someone who hid their identity by pretending to be a nobody.
Ju Yeonhwa was exactly that kind of person.
"I’m fine. Your thanks are more than enough, so please go back inside now. It’s chilly tonight; you might catch a cold."
"Ah! That… it might be weird for me to say this after you helped me, but I’m actually pretty good at martial arts...? So even though I was getting beaten up by those guys… I’m sure I can still help you, Sojin. Really…. I can help you. Please believe me."
She waved her hands and went on babbling incoherently.
Maybe she didn’t even know what she was saying anymore.
It wasn’t hard to understand, though.
She was a successor to a sect that had once helped the former martial lord drive back the Heavenly Demon, so of course she’d have a huge amount of pride.
But…
"I’m really fine. You don’t need to feel burdened, and you can just forget about it."
Get lost already.
I need to be the one teaching you people.
After I made my obvious dismissal,
"I do care!!"
Ju Yeonhwa shouted and reached out her hand.
"Huh?"
Of course I had no intention of being caught so easily, so I drew up Ilwol Qi and stepped back several paces.
She grabbed my hand.
"Got you…! Huh?"
It was only an afterimage.
"Miss Ju."
This was awkward.
Did she have some kind of obsessive delusion?
There had never been any such description in the novel…. If there was hidden background like that, this was going to be a headache.
"A-ah… well…. I was just joking around…. I’m sorry."
When I glanced at her with an unblinking stare, she immediately bowed her head.
Even while apologizing, she kept sneaking looks at me from the corner of her eye.
Dangerous woman.
"...Lift your head."
"So the conclusion is… that I’ll be helpful. Or… if not, I’ll just stay quiet and watch from the side, okay?"
Ju Yeonhwa clasped both hands together and looked at me with the eyes of a puppy waiting for food.
Her clear, innocent blue-green eyes reflected my face.
When I saw a gaze that earnest…
I shook my head.
"No. You know perfectly well that asking to watch someone demonstrate their martial arts is extremely rude in the Jianghu, don’t you?"
As if it mattered.
"B-but if we’re close, isn’t it fine…?"
"We’re not close. This is only our second time meeting."
"Then we can just become close starting today, can’t we?"
"……."
Wow.
So that was a method?
Why hadn’t I thought of that before?
"That’s okay, right? It’s fine? It doesn’t matter, right?"
As if it would be fine.
With Paeng Gayeon already in the picture, if Ju Yeonhwa got added on top of that, I couldn’t even guess how much of a nuisance she’d become.
"Miss Ju, let me make this clear. I understand that you want to repay a kindness, but you’ll only distract me from training. Don’t do this and go back inside."
"……H-heek! B-but…!"
I shook my head and refused flatly.
Ju Yeonhwa’s eyes went wide for a moment, then her shoulders drooped as if she were about to kill herself on the spot.
"Go on. I’m not seeing you out."
Then she walked slowly out of the training ground with the footsteps of a failed middle-aged father who’d just been fired from his company.
Even as she left, she kept looking back every ten steps with the expression of a little match girl freezing in the cold….
But still no.
Because of the nature of Ilwol Eumyang Singong, it wasn’t good to get too close to women before my realm had stabilized.
Even my grandmaster and master had warned me about that several times.
The reason was obvious enough.
"……."
At last, it’s quiet.
Only after she was gone could I finally resume practicing my footwork.
*****
South of Jianggang Province,
The members who had finished setting up camp sat in a circle and watched him leave.
"I’ll say it again, everyone worked hard for the past week. I couldn’t have managed it alone without all of you from the Hwacheon Squad."
"You’re too modest… We have you to thank for all of this, Young Master Woojeong."
"Exactly! As expected of the next Plum Sword of Mount Hua!"
Sun Woojeong smiled brightly, looking as though he didn’t mind the team’s flattery in the least.
He handed the beast core of a turtle they had caught from a spirit beast to the woman standing at the front.
"Then I’m counting on you. I’ll be back soon, so don’t lose it under any circumstances."
Sun Woojeong, dressed in a red martial uniform embroidered with golden threads, waved and walked off at an unhurried pace.
"Don’t worry and go on your way, Young Master Woojeong!"
"Have a safe trip."
I let out a quiet sigh.
Once Sun Woojeong was gone, it would begin.
I knew it.
"……."
Just as expected, the first to sneer was Jo Mijeong.
"I hate bitches like you best, the ones with loose asses."
Do you think I like you?
The words surged up to my throat, but I couldn’t say them.
Of all places, the Hwacheon Squad had one of these awful women in it.
Ha…
I sighed heavily to myself.
The Jo family had been our sworn enemy for generations. In other words, they were the enemy.
"I agree with what Miss Mijeong said. I hate people like that too…."
There was no one on my side in the Hwacheon Squad.
Even the woman who’d been bullied until I arrived…
"Yeah, trailing along after people like that…. It’s gross."
was saying things like that.
"……."
"You dumb mute bitch, say something."
"...I’m not mute."
"What was that? Can’t hear you. What is it, are you some child of the Shin family? I heard your merchant house went under this time too. Guess you’ll be a beggar soon. Don’t you smell like piss?"
She frowned and pinched her nose.
That was… the one thing I hated most….
My fist tightened.
No, I have to endure it.
It was painful, but there was nothing to be done.
I just had to bear with it.
As long as I endured it, that was enough.
Without Sun Woojeong, she was basically the squad leader of the Hwacheon Squad.
If I defied her, things would only get worse.
...Still, I couldn’t stop the strength from gathering in my eyes.
"What are you staring at? Why’d you even join us? Did you come here hoping to pick up a few crumbs or something? Dream on."
Jo Mijeong barked nastily and gave me a disgusting once-over.
"Honestly…. Our Young Master Woojeong is way better than some idiot like that. Didn’t that guy even change his name this time? To Cheon Sojin?"
"Ahahaha! So what if he changed his family name? His skill’s still the same!"
"What a loser… That’s exactly why he got exiled from his clan."
Many of the Hwacheon Squad’s martial artists simultaneously mocked Cheon Sojin.
Why the hell are they insulting Sojin?
They didn’t even know him properly.
How kind was that kid, anyway….
Maybe that was why the words slipped out before I realized it.
"...Don’t insult Sojin. He’s not the kind of guy you people get to talk about like that."
The moment I said it, Jo Mijeong and the others frowned and glared at me.
"Well, aren’t you the funny one? What did you say?"
"Didn’t you stab Cheon Sojin in the back and then join the Hwacheon Squad? It’s fine when you betray someone, but we can’t insult him?"
"At least we didn’t betray anyone."
I had nothing to rebut that with, so I fell silent.
But even so, I still didn’t want to see someone else being insulted.
"……."
I locked eyes with Jo Mijeong for a long while, the two of us glaring at each other in a silent contest.
"What, you won’t lower your eyes? Really insolent…."
...Though it was actually me who looked away first.
"Pfft! You’re truly useless. You still don’t seem to know your place…. Maybe we should call Shin Juha over?"
Jo Mijeong looked around at the nine members and waved her hand.
"Eek… I don’t want that."
"Where would I even use that?"
"Nope. I’m out too. I like men."
At the members’ reactions, she grinned and turned to look at me.
Her disgusting expression was like a rat that had just found cheese.
"You heard them, right? If you’re smart, you’ll get out of the Hwacheon Squad. We did all the work when we caught that turtle too."
"That’s right!"
Trying to ignore them, I turned away and pulled the blanket over my head.
"…Hmph."
The sneering went on.
Right up until the moment I fell asleep.
Ignore it and sleep…
*
SMACK!
"Y-you crazy bitch!!"
I woke up in a blaze of pain.
What?
The instant I opened my eyes, I saw ten squad members standing around me as if they were surrounding me.
"...What is this? What the hell are you doing?"
Rubbing my stinging cheek, I glared at them.
"What is it? You’re asking because you don’t know?"
"Wow, how shameless can you get…."
Everyone sent me ugly looks, but unlike before, there was a much harsher contempt in their eyes.
"What’s that?"
Jo Mijeong pointed at my hand.
What? Why?
"Huh? I-I didn’t steal it! ...And I-I’ll give it back, okay?"
Why was the turtle’s beast core in my hand…?
I quickly tossed the core I was holding to Jo Mijeong.
I couldn’t understand it.
How had it ended up in my hand?
S-still, that’s a relief… It wasn’t lost.
But the squad members’ anger didn’t subside.
"Are you messing with us right now? You fucking bitch!"
She snatched the beast core I’d thrown and hurled it to the ground.
"Huh?"
Then she cried out in fury.
"You sucked all the internal energy out of it!"
##