Chapter 162: Chun-bong's PTSD (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 162: Chun-bong's PTSD (2)
Geum Chun-bong vs. Jegal Hwi.
Today was the day she would harvest the fruits of her labor. It was time to show the results of enduring the relentless mockery her jerk of a brother dared to call "training."
With firm resolve burning deep within her small chest, Chun-bong marched toward the martial arts arena with a dignified stride.
"You know you enjoyed it too..."
"When did I ever?"
Chun-bong feigned total innocence.
To be completely honest, it had been a while since they’d played together so intensely, so it had been fun. But if she showed it, that guy’s ego would pierce the very heavens. She couldn't stand to see him acting all smug.
— Geum Hee of the Divine Sword Geum Family...!
Chun-bong, who had been calming her mind in the waiting room, stepped onto the arena grounds at the sound of her name.
Waaaaah!
The roar of the crowd erupted. When Chun-bong primly raised a hand, the cheering grew even louder.
— Jegal Hwi of the Jegal Clan...!
A fair-looking man stood opposite Chun-bong. He looked more like a scholar than a martial artist, but that was typical of the Jegal Clan.
Chun-bong offered him a traditional fist-and-palm salute.
"Please go easy on me."
"I look forward to learning from you."
Jegal Hwi unfurled an iron fan to hide his smile.
Watching him, Chun-bong felt the memories of the past few days surging back like a tidal wave. Lee Seo-jun. That petty bastard.
Dealing with someone who relied on nothing but sorcery truly taught a person the meaning of "blood-boiling frustration." Because of that, Chun-bong now harbored a deep-seated grudge against sorcery itself.
In other words, she felt an instinctive urge to lash out the moment she saw someone casting spells.
I should just...
Just as she was imagining herself raining down knuckle-strikes on Jegal Hwi’s crown, the referee shouted.
— Begin!
Reacting instantly, Chun-bong lunged forward.
You couldn't give a sorcerer time. If you gave them even a slight opening to set up their spells, things would get incredibly annoying.
Sure enough, despite her immediate charge, Jegal Hwi activated a technique.
Two Harmonies Wandering Strike.
A strange pressure bore down on the charging Chun-bong. She gave a sharp smirk. She could break through something like this with pure spirit.
"Hah...!"
Boom!
Bursting with internal energy, Chun-bong charged and swung her sword.
Swish!
The blade cut through empty air. She had struck nothing. As Chun-bong’s eyes widened, Jegal Hwi, having completed his formation, wore a mysterious smile.
In that brief moment, he had fired the ribs of his specially-made iron fan to deploy a makeshift formation. However, its power was far too great to be dismissed as merely "makeshift."
"Feel free to wander as much as you like."
"What did you say, punk?"
Look at the way he talked. People who used sorcery were definitely twisted inside.
Nine Palaces Star Might Formation.
The formation unfurled instantly.
The Nine Palaces Star Might Formation took the principles of the Nine Palaces as its foundation. Moving outward from the Nine Palaces, if one placed themselves at the center, the remaining directions became the Eight Trigrams.
By adding the subtlety of the Eight Gates, the gates of Rest, Life, Injury, Limit, View, Death, Fear, and Open were assigned to each of the Eight Trigrams to complete the framework.
The Eight Trigrams were a combination of three lines, or "yao," each represented as Yin or Yang. Thus, each element of the Eight Trigrams was a combination of three Yin-Yang aspects.
Based on these profound principles, sorcery of the Five Elements corresponding to the Eight Trigrams was planted in each of the Eight Gates. Anyone trapped within the Nine Palaces Star Might Formation would be buried under a tidal wave of sorcery the moment they stepped into any gate other than the Gate of Life.
However, since Jegal Hwi could manipulate the position of the Gate of Life at will, this duel was as good as won the moment the formation was set.
Show me what you've got.
Jegal Hwi’s eyes curved into a smile. There was nothing more enjoyable than watching others dance upon the board he had set. He had no doubt that this woman named Geum Hee would dance to his tune as well.
Watching the duel from the stands, True Human Heo-do let out a gasp of admiration.
"To have perfected the Nine Palaces Star Might Formation to that extent... As expected, the Jegal Clan's formations are second to none."
Seo-jun also nodded.
"He did make it well."
"Are you not worried?"
"No, it's not that."
Rather than worried, he was just exasperated. He could feel Jegal Hwi’s twisted personality radiating through the formation itself.
To put it simply, one could say he "fought like a real prick."
And over the past few days, Chun-bong had endured the relentless spite of Lee Seo-jun, the ultimate authority in the field of fighting like a prick.
The result was about to show itself.
"This little bastard..."
A world filled with nothing but thick, white mist. Chun-bong instinctively knew she was inside a formation.
Her eyes flipped. In Western terms, it was PTSD. Enraged by the overflowing frustration, Chun-bong gripped her sword tight.
What she had learned from her duels with Seo-jun wasn't anything fancy.
It was simply how to deal with sorcery and formations.
Relying purely on her intuition, Chun-bong charged straight toward Jegal Hwi.
"Oh dear."
The corners of Jegal Hwi’s mouth twitched upward. To think she would jump into the Gate of Death all on her own.
The Gate of Death represented the Seventh Palace of the Nine Palaces, the Lake (Tui) of the Eight Trigrams, and the element of Metal.
Swoosh!
All sorts of blades fired toward Chun-bong. Sharp edges flew at her from every conceivable direction. Chun-bong took a short breath.
"Hup—!"
Soon, her sword vanished, leaving behind only faint, white afterimages.
Clang-clang-clang!
Swung at an absurd speed, her sword deflected every single blade. However, the number of projectiles was endless. It seemed obvious that Chun-bong would tire out long before Jegal Hwi did.
Chun-bong’s eyes flashed.
"Found you, you bastard...!"
Her razor-sharp intuition had pinpointed Jegal Hwi’s location.
The method of dealing with formations that Chun-bong had learned from Seo-jun wasn't anything special.
Found him? Then wreck him.
Whether it was sorcery or a formation, there was nothing in this world that couldn't be cut. Chun-bong remembered the sensation of all the formations she had sliced through until now.
"Die...!"
Slash!
With a single swing of her sword, the Nine Palaces Star Might Formation itself was cleaved apart.
"What...!?"
Jegal Hwi’s eyes bugged out. Cutting the formation itself? That was impossible!
Chun-bong had originally thought it was impossible, too. It was just that after being ground into dust by her jerk of a brother, she could somehow do it.
Anyway, she could do it, so that was that.
A wicked smile played on Chun-bong’s lips.
"Hold your head still!"
Chun-bong lunged. Jegal Hwi hurriedly swung his iron fan.
Clang!
Chun-bong’s sword drew a circle. Flowing Clouds Blue Heaven. With a single move from the Azure Cloud Divine Sword, Jegal Hwi’s iron fan was sent spinning into the air.
"Huh...?"
Jegal Hwi’s expression went completely blank. This was not in his calculations.
Chun-bong’s eyes sparkled.
"Die, Lee Seo-jun...!"
Chun-bong’s dainty fist left behind a blurry afterimage.
Bam-bam-bam-bam!
A thirty-two-story tower of bumps was erected right on top of Jegal Hwi’s crown.
"Gah...!"
Jegal Hwi’s eyes rolled back as he collapsed.
Then came the final touch.
Konk!
Having finally made the tower of bumps exactly thirty-three stories high, Chun-bong smiled with utmost satisfaction.
"Phew...!"
Know your place, you spell-slinger.
Wicked spell-slingers needed to be wiped off the face of the earth.
*
— The winner...! Geum Hee of the Divine Sword Geum Family...!
Chun-bong held both hands high, basking in the cheers of the crowd.
Seo-jun watched the scene with a proud smile, yet he couldn't help but shudder.
She really had a lot of pent-up stress, didn't she...?
Those vicious knuckle-strikes... He could only pray for the soul of Jegal Hwi, who had been brutally sacrificed for Chun-bong’s stress relief.
"Ho...! No! How is such a thing possible? To cut the formation itself?"
Beside Seo-jun, True Human Heo-do was busy pouring out his admiration. He was practically a reaction vending machine.
Seo-jun nodded with a satisfied grin.
"A flimsy formation like that doesn't stand a chance against our Chun-bong."
"Did you teach her that?"
"I wouldn't say I taught her... She kind of learned it on her own? She just cuts the very axis of the formation."
Once Chun-bong’s eyes became accustomed to Seo-jun’s sorcery and formations, such a feat became possible. It was a perfect collaboration between her extraordinary insight and her peak-level swordsmanship.
Of course, after she figured it out, Seo-jun just started hiding the axis, making the skill meaningless against him...
"Ho ho... The rising stars of this generation are all quite absurd. By the time the back waves of the Yangtze River push the front waves aside, there will be no place left for us old men to stand."
"Our Chun-bong is kind, so I'm sure she'll guarantee you a good retirement."
"That's not what I meant... Well, putting that aside."
True Human Heo-do asked with a curious look.
"What on earth does that 'Chun-bong' mean?"
"Ah."
"Come to think of it, the successor of the Geum family said something similar when she dueled the Third Prince. 'The Bong among Bongs, Chun-bong'..."
After a moment of thought, True Human Heo-do nodded.
"Is it a title you coined? Chun-bong, the Spring Phoenix. It certainly sounds decent. I shall put my weight behind it during the next council meeting."
Seo-jun paused. Chun-bong’s martial title was going to become 'Chun-bong'? Everyone in the world calling Chun-bong 'Chun-bong'...
No. Only he was allowed to call Chun-bong 'Chun-bong.'
"Whoa, hold on! Chun-bong? No way. You know, there are plenty of other good titles like Sword Phoenix or Sparrow Phoenix."
"Sparrow Phoenix? A sparrow doesn't seem like a very dignified title..."
"Why not? Sparrows are cute."
"A martial title shouldn't be cute."
"That's just prejudice. You've got a total boomer mindset."
"What in the world is a 'boomer'...?"
"Sigh, this won't do."
That day, True Human Heo-do learned a whole host of new terminology.
*
The quarter-finals were over. Now, only the semi-finals and the finals remained.
A fairly long period of one week was given between the quarter-finals and the semi-finals. It was time meant for the participants to treat injuries sustained during the matches.
During that time, Seo-jun planned to travel around Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia.
Wouldn't it be nice to catch a demonic practitioner and plant a decent Demonic Art heart method into his mental imagery?
Of course. For someone who was the seed of the Lord of Ten Thousand Demons, wouldn't a Demonic Art be easier to learn than an Orthodox Art?
The guy already had a nice, crisp demonic energy about him; if he learned a proper Demonic Art, he might reach the Extreme Demon realm in no time.
Even if that wasn't the case, Seo-jun had been planning to try mixing Orthodox and Demonic Arts someday, so this was an opportunity too good to miss.
"So, I'm going to give you all a homework assignment."
Chun-bong, Namgung Su-ah, Namgung Myeong, and Hwangbo Hye-ji. Standing before the four rising stars, Seo-jun left each of them with a task.