Chapter 10: Black Tiger Sect (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 10: Black Tiger Sect (1)
“Hey, Chun-bong.”
“…What.”
Chun-bong’s complexion was deathly pale. Seeing such a tiny girl in that state was pitiful enough to break a man's heart.
“I’m going to go grab some food, so just stay here and rest.”
“…Okay.”
Chun-bong stumbled unsteadily back into the house.
Seo-jun strapped his sword to his waist and stepped outside. He used Yellow Dragon Crossing the Clouds, one of the movement techniques of the Master of the Divine Sword Geum Family, to slip into the crowded streets unnoticed.
A spirit herb, huh…
It didn’t necessarily have to be a spirit herb. Anything that could improve Chun-bong’s condition would do.
Is there anywhere I can get something even remotely similar?
Lost in thought, Seo-jun stopped at the market to buy some dumplings.
Meat dumplings, obviously. Chun-bong was at an age where she was still growing; she needed to eat well.
“I should probably look for some money soon, too.”
Whenever he ran into Black Path thugs in deserted areas, it was like hitting a small jackpot.
Most were penniless, but those with a bit of rank usually had decent pockets. Catching just one of them meant not having to worry about food for several days.
And right on cue, he spotted a man loitering near an alley who looked like a Black Path thug no matter how you sliced it.
“Hmm…”
The man’s behavior was suspicious in the extreme. Looking around quietly, Seo-jun noticed several others nearby doing a poor job of pretending to be ordinary pedestrians.
“Not that it’s any of my business.”
Seo-jun walked on, feeling light on his feet.
As he entered the alley, he locked eyes with the thug hiding in the shadows.
“Hey, old man. Got any money?”
“You idiot. Today’s the day you die, Killing Ghost!”
The men who had been pretending to be passersby crept closer, surrounding him. Seo-jun let out a short laugh.
“Man, this is why I shouldn’t leave them alive.”
Chun-bong had nagged him endlessly about how blood carried a demonic nature, warning that he’d be in deep trouble if he developed a taste for murder. So, he had just beaten them up and let them go. This was the result.
“But have we met? Your faces don’t look familiar.”
“Get him!”
It was a narrow alleyway. The men, lined up in a row, lunged at him with their blades drawn.
“Always so stupid, these guys.”
In a place like this, he only had to deal with four at a time—two in front and two behind.
Tak!
Seo-jun lunged forward. Startled, the two men in front swung their broad blades in wide, desperate arcs.
Clang!
Sparks flew as sword met blade. Seo-jun locked eyes with the men and grinned.
“Hi there.”
He curled the fingers of his left hand. Then, with a motion as casual as flicking someone’s forehead, he snapped his index and middle fingers outward.
Psh-pshk!
The two men collapsed, neat holes bored straight through the space between their brows. Seo-jun grabbed one of them by the collar and hurled the corpse backward.
“Whoa—!”
The Black Path thugs behind them fumbled as they collided with the dead weight. Using the other remaining corpse as a meat shield, Seo-jun charged straight ahead.
Thud, thud, thud!
The ruthless Black Path bastards couldn't care less about their comrade’s body. The thug in the lead twisted the blade he’d just plunged deep into his dead ally and laughed.
“Die!”
In this narrow alley, there was no room to dodge. Thinking he had skewered the Killing Ghost as well, the man kicked the corpse away to wrench his blade free.
Splurt!
“Huh?”
But there was nothing behind the falling body. Instead, a giggling laugh echoed from beneath his feet.
Slash!
“Aaaagh…!”
“My—my legs!”
Seo-jun had dived straight between the man’s legs. With a wide, sweeping arc of his sword, he severed the legs of the thugs in his path.
The men who had lost their limbs thrashed wildly in the dirt before collapsing in agony.
Seo-jun, who had been lying on the ground propped up on one elbow, smoothly sprang to his feet.
“Hup!”
He tapped his shoulder with his sword and smirked.
How much would all this be worth?
“Looks like I’ll be living large for a while.”
“W-wait…! Spare me…!”
The back alley was stained crimson.
* * *
“Ugh…”
Standing alone, Seo-jun patted his lower back. His body ached after moving so violently.
“There were quite a few of them.”
Though he grumbled, he meticulously looted their pockets to increase his wealth.
However, perhaps because they had anticipated trouble, their pockets were thin. The haul was well below expectations.
Seo-jun clicked his tongue and tossed his blood-soaked dumplings onto the ground.
“A waste of time.”
As soon as he stepped out onto the street, people instinctively avoided him, likely because he was drenched in red.
Even the merchant selling dumplings trembled with fear.
After silently buying a fresh batch of dumplings, Seo-jun secretly returned home.
“Hey, Chun-bong. Big brother’s home.”
“You’re ho—hey, you crazy bastard! What did you do this time?!”
“I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake…!”
Chun-bong smacked her forehead and hurried about on her short legs to prepare a wet cloth.
“Wash up before you get blood everywhere!”
Once he’d washed off the dried, brown blood and changed his clothes, Chun-bong sat down with a serious expression and pointed to the spot directly in front of her.
“Hey, sit down.”
“Why?”
“Just sit when I tell you to!”
Seo-jun sat. Chun-bong opened her mouth to speak in a stern voice… but before she could get a word out, he stuffed a dumpling into her mouth.
“Mmph?!”
“Let’s eat first. Food first.”
As if she had no intention of spitting it out, Chun-bong began to chew vigorously.
“Look at you eat. Just keep growing up healthy like this.”
After swallowing the dumpling, Chun-bong glared at him.
“I told you to stop acting like a lunatic.”
“Hmph.”
Chun-bong let out a deep sigh and spoke.
“Let’s get out of here soon.”
“Leave? Why all of a sudden?”
“Don’t you get it after coming home like that today? If we stay, it’s only a matter of time before you get stabbed to death.”
At her words, Seo-jun grinned and tapped the sword at his waist.
“Come on, I could just crush everyone and take over this place.”
“No. How many people are you planning to kill?”
“People? As far as I’m concerned, you can count those Black Path guys like livestock.”
If they were livestock, then it wasn’t murder—it was butchery. Few people seriously worried about their mental health over a bit of butchery. Therefore, killing a lot of them wasn’t a problem at all.
Having perfectly justified his own logic, Seo-jun puffed out his chest.
“Pretty damn smart, right?”
“You’re a total moron.”
Chun-bong sighed. Seo-jun, who had maintained a playful attitude the whole time, suddenly let his expression harden.
“Besides, guys like the Black Tiger Sect might actually have spirit herbs.”
“You…”
“I doubt it, but you never know, right?”
Chun-bong squeezed her eyes shut. Before she could say anything else, Seo-jun stood up.
As he sauntered out of the house, a tiny voice drifted from behind him.
“…You’re such a fool.”
Pfft! Seo-jun laughed.
A fool, she says.
It was strangely amusing to hear Chun-bong use a soft word like "fool" after constantly calling him a moron, a bastard, and a son of a bitch.
“Hey, don’t worry. Who do you think I am?”
The martial arts expert, Lee Seo-jun. He wasn’t such a loser that he’d die from the blades of mere Black Path thugs.
Today, too, his sword tirelessly cleaved through the air.
* * *
Chun-bong had told him that he possessed a natural talent for manipulating Qi.
While he could probably handle the Black Path thugs just by swinging his sword like a madman, things might change if their numbers grew too large.
Psh!
Seo-jun scratched his chin as he idly fired a Finger Pellet into the dirt ground.
The realm where one can infuse a sword with Qi is the First-rate realm…
Going a step further, that Qi would manifest externally as Sword Qi.
Seo-jun was currently somewhere between the Second-rate and First-rate realms. It was an absurdly fast achievement for someone who had only been learning martial arts for a year.
Yet, Seo-jun still felt it wasn't enough. He felt like he could do so much more with Qi, as if he were fumbling around in the dark despite the path being right in front of him.
“Hey, I told you not to rush. For someone like you, it’s not just fast—it’s damn fast.”
Seo-jun didn't seem to hear her, continuing to fire Finger Pellets into the ground.
Watching him, Chun-bong clicked her tongue.
In truth, if he had focused solely on raising his realm, he would have reached the First-rate realm long ago.
However, for the past year, Chun-bong had hammered nothing but the absolute basics into him.
It was only natural. Unless one was a member of the Evil Sect, a solid foundation was more important than anything else if the goal was the absolute pinnacle of martial arts.
To begin with, messing up a technique of the Divine Art level could lead to utter disaster.
One wrong move, and you could skip Qi Deviation entirely and have your meridians explode, turning you into a human bomb.
And what Chun-bong had taught Seo-jun were the true Divine Arts of the Master of the Divine Sword Geum Family.
The Yellow Cloud Divine Art belonged to the highest echelon of Divine Arts. The Yellow Cloud Divine Sword and Yellow Dragon Crossing the Clouds were born from that exact same enlightenment.
The Yellow Cloud Divine Art was a heart method, while the Yellow Cloud Divine Sword encompassed both sword techniques and footwork. Yellow Dragon Crossing the Clouds served as a lightness skill and movement technique.
They were truly luxurious martial arts.
With Seo-jun’s talent, he had the potential to achieve great mastery, and if he did, he would easily earn a place among the Top 100 Martial Artists of the World.
“But why are you in such a hurry?”
“You’re asking because you don’t know?”
“I’m asking because I don’t— cough, hack! ”
Once the coughing started, it showed no sign of stopping. With each passing day, she could feel the biting Yin energy slowly creeping up from the tips of her limbs.
At this rate… maybe six months.
Biting her lip, Chun-bong glared at Seo-jun. She was a lost cause anyway. Spirit herbs were called spirit herbs for a reason. Ordinary people wouldn't even lay eyes on one in their entire lives.
So, she wanted Seo-jun—even if he was a bit of a fool—to grow properly and carry on the lineage of the Master of the Divine Sword Geum Family.
“Hey, this won’t do.”
So, please. She wished he wouldn't do something so reckless.
“I’m going out for a bit. Don’t wait up, just go to sleep.”
“Lee Seo-jun. Stand right there.”
Seo-jun’s footsteps stopped. His back, which looked particularly broad today, was firm. She suddenly had a premonition that it would be impossible to break that stubbornness. Even so, she couldn't help but try to stop him.
“It’s only been a year. What are you doing this for? All for the sake of a brat you’ve only known for a year?”
“……”
“Just train quietly. In ten years, you won’t have to bow your head to anyone in the Murim. That’s when you should make the name of the Master of the Divine Sword Geum Family known. Make it so it can be heard anywhere in the Central Plains. That’s all I need.”
Their eyes met. As usual, but even more so today, she couldn't tell what he was thinking.
Chun-bong continued as calmly as possible.
“And try not to trust people too much. I don’t know who destroyed the Geum family. It might have been the Righteous Faction. Those guys are all rotten to the core anyway.”
“……”
“Well, I guess that doesn’t matter to you. You’re the kind of guy who’d beat up a woman just for clinging to you.”
At the casual joke, Seo-jun’s lips finally moved. Chun-bong stared intently at the movement of his mouth.
“Hey.”
“…What.”
“Hee.”
“W-what’s with the sudden name?”
Chun-bong’s eyes blinked in confusion. Seo-jun smirked.
“Hee. Geum Hee, you bratty little sister. Are you seriously underestimating your big brother? It’s not like I’m going there to die.”
He stroked the sword at his waist. The thin moon was hidden by clouds, and for a moment, a darkness so thick you couldn't see an inch ahead descended upon them. Only his voice drifted through that darkness.
“Just wait quietly. Your big brother will bring back the medicine.”
The clouds covering the moon drifted away, and where the faint light fell, Seo-jun was already gone.
“…'Big brother,' my ass.”
Hee quietly lowered her head.