Chapter 235: Chun-bu-i Oppa (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 235: Chun-bu-i Oppa (4)
Ju Won-jang. A master above the heavens, a descendant of the Martial God Ju Un-cheon who had once unified the Central Plains. He was the current master of the Imperial Family—one of the Sixteen Major Sects and Clans—and a man who could command the reverence of ten thousand with a single gesture.
Lee Seo-jun. A master above the heavens, though far less renowned, who stood as the fiancé to the direct line of the Namgung Clan. Rumors claimed he had single-handedly slaughtered countless martial artists of the Black Lotus Union and completely annihilated both the Giryeon Sect and the Sword Sect.
Two martial artists of the Transcendent Realm stood face-to-face.
The Emperor and the Evil-Annihilating Heavenly Lord.
Naturally, their meeting drew the attention of countless martial artists. A master of the Transcendent Realm was an existence one could hardly hope to glimpse even once in a lifetime. Not only the martial artists of minor sects, but even those from the Sixteen Major Sects and Clans swallowed hard, their throats tightening with suffocating tension.
What kind of conversation would these masters, who roamed such distant heights, share?
The watching martial artists held their breath, terrified of disturbing their moods.
“So, you’re the Evil-Annihilating Heavenly Lord, ain’t ya?”
“Are you going to keep using that awkward dialect?”
“My, my. Is it really that awkward?”
“Very.”
“Goodness. I tried it because I heard it makes me seem more approachable, but I guess it’s a total miss, eh?”
The Emperor laughed lightly. The Evil-Annihilating Heavenly Lord simply watched him with narrowed eyes.
Neither had unleashed their momentum, yet the mere act of their eyes meeting sent a chilling shiver down the spines of everyone present.
The onlookers held their breath, constantly replaying the dialogue between these two heavens in their minds. A single word from a martial artist at such a supreme height was worth more than a thousand pieces of gold.
Then, a light click of the tongue made the crowd flinch.
“I am Lee Seo-jun, the Grand Master of the Namgung Clan.”
“Grand Master? Oho. So that’s how it is.”
The Emperor scanned the Namgung Clan with a peculiar look in his eyes. Unlike the light smile playing on his lips, his gaze was dark and profound. The martial artists caught in his line of sight trembled, instinctively lowering their heads.
The Evil-Annihilating Heavenly Lord spoke in a low, sinking voice.
“Don’t stand around here being a nuisance. Go inside.”
“What did I do? Your eyes aren’t looking very kind.”
“Because I don’t like you.”
“Hmm. Now that’s a problem.”
The Emperor laughed and waved his hand. The wide sleeves of his loosely worn dragon robe fluttered with the gesture.
“Then let’s leave it at this for today.”
As he sauntered away, the Emperor glanced back at the Evil-Annihilating Heavenly Lord with a mysterious smile.
“See you again soon, young compatriot.”
In response, the Evil-Annihilating Heavenly Lord silently raised his hand and extended his middle finger.
Was it a variation of a sword seal? Many martial artists pondered the profound meaning of the gesture, unable to decipher it. But the Emperor seemed to recognize it instantly and laughed heartily.
“Haha…! Right. I’ll be looking forward to it too.”
* * *
“He seems like a bit of a weirdo, doesn’t he?”
Back in his room to escape the endless staring of the crowd, Seo-jun shrugged his shoulders.
“Tell me about it. He kind of gave off an ‘Lee Seo-jun’ vibe.”
“What…! Hey, Kim Chun-ppung…!”
“What? It’s true.”
“Good grief. I’m sleeping with Noona today.”
“What? You promised to sleep with me today!”
“Then take it back right now. How am I anything like him?”
“Why you…! You want to go?!”
“Fine! Bring it on…!”
Watching the two of them bicker and play around as usual, Namgung Su-ah burst into a giggle.
While the martial artists outside were busy scrutinizing every gesture and word for hidden meaning, even a great martial artist with the terrifying title of Evil-Annihilating Heavenly Lord was still just a person.
The same went for her father, Namgung Jin-cheon. He, too, was just a man who deeply missed his departed wife.
She couldn’t know for sure, but the Emperor was likely the same.
It was true that they possessed extraordinary power compared to others, but Namgung Su-ah knew that didn’t mean every little thing about them had to be deified.
Hadn’t Seo-jun often said, ‘Admiration is the emotion furthest from understanding’?
He claimed it was a quote from someone named Aizen who lived in a place called Soul… something, and Namgung Su-ah deeply empathized with those words.
If you treat someone like a god, they become a god. They become an incomprehensible existence, something entirely out of reach.
But if you look at them as a person—as an individual who sometimes grows weak and wants someone to lean on—she believed they would treat her as an equal, standing on the same ground.
“Right?”
Moving behind Seo-jun, Namgung Su-ah skillfully applied the Mount Tai Pressure Peak technique.
Silenced by the warm pressure weighing down on his head, Seo-jun nodded quietly.
“Right.”
However, there was one thing he needed to clarify.
“But keep in mind, it depends on the person. Like you said, there are probably bastards out there who have already become gods.”
“Fufu, of course. Anyway, the only one I want to know about is…”
After a moment of thought, Namgung Su-ah continued with a mysterious smile.
“My husband.”
“What.”
Seo-jun, who had been idly contemplating what move would follow Mount Tai Pressure Peak and Sweeping a Thousand Armies—perhaps the Immortal Pointing the Way—stiffened.
‘Husband?’
It was a short word, not even difficult to pronounce. Yet, it carried a strange resonance, almost like a Word Spirit.
Glancing at Chun-bong, she seemed to be thinking the exact same thing, her mouth hanging wide open.
“G-Giga Seo-jun.”
“Yeah, Chun-ppipppi.”
“Should I call you husband too…?”
“I don’t know…?”
Wouldn’t it be fine to just call him Oppa like she always did?
Even after marriage, calling each other by name felt a bit awkward, but Oppa seemed perfectly fine. She felt like she’d seen people do that before.
“I feel like I’m losing somehow….”
Chun-bong fell into deep thought. Seo-jun shrugged.
“I’ve never been married either, so I wouldn’t know.”
Slap!
He got hit. He wasn’t quite sure why.
* * *
Chun-bong, who had been agonizing over what to call him, fell fast asleep the moment it was bedtime.
The natural enemy of the good child Kim Chun-ppung was indeed the Water Demon of sleep.
‘Water Demon.’
Suddenly, Nok So-pyeong came to mind.
Just as he was wondering if he should recruit her and build a faction upon returning to the Demonic Cult later, a strange energy brushed against Seo-jun’s Qi sensing.
‘What is this guy actually doing?’
Seo-jun left the room with a furrowed brow. Lightly pushing off the ground, he glided onto the roof and found the Emperor waiting there.
“What is it, you punk?”
“Oho, are you trying to match my dialect? That’s a shame. I’ve already found using a dialect to be quite a chore.”
“That’s not it. I swear I’ll… just, ugh.”
Clicking his tongue, Seo-jun sat casually on the roof. Soon, another presence approached. It was Hwangbo Ryung.
“Mr. Ryung, did this guy call you too?”
Hwangbo Ryung looked at Seo-jun with a strange expression.
“Yeah.”
“Have you two known each other for a long time?”
“We’ve met a few times.”
“Then you must know. Isn’t this guy’s head a bit weird?”
“I can’t deny that.”
Having gained an ally, Seo-jun curled his lips into a smirk and looked at the Emperor.
“Did you hear that?”
“Now that’s hurtful,” the Emperor chuckled. Hwangbo Ryung simply watched him with narrowed eyes.
“So, what is it? You wouldn’t have called us for something trivial.”
“Of course. It’s not trivial.”
The Emperor pulled two items from his robe and tossed them to Seo-jun and Hwangbo Ryung respectively. Seo-jun caught his, an eyebrow twitching.
“Alcohol?”
“Shouldn’t we few compatriots build some camaraderie?”
“I have quite a few bad memories regarding the Imperial Family.”
“Ah, that fellow Ju Yang-il? He’s just a kid. Don’t be so petty.”
What was he thinking? Seo-jun watched as the Emperor drank from his own bottle without hesitation.
“Kaaah…. That’s why I came personally.”
“To apologize?”
“Why should I, when I wasn’t the one who did it? I just came to see. I wanted to know what the next generation of the Namgung Clan would be like.”
The Emperor grinned. Hwangbo Ryung eyed him warily but reluctantly tilted his bottle back.
‘Is he someone formidable?’
For some reason, it felt like Hwangbo Ryung was being overly cautious of the Emperor. It wasn’t submission, but rather an atmosphere of not wanting to clash unnecessarily.
Seo-jun clicked his tongue and shook his bottle.
“For someone who’s supposed to be the Emperor, you’re lacking in basic manners.”
“Hmm?”
“You shouldn’t exclude people.”
In an instant, the Emperor’s eyes flashed. Hwangbo Ryung also looked at Seo-jun with a strange gaze.
A thinly spread domain stretched out, catching onto something.
“You’re quite skilled for someone who only recently reached the Transcendent Realm.”
As the Emperor chuckled, a figure soared from a building some distance away.
“You insolent brat…!”
It was Pae Jin-gwang. Leaping up and landing beside Seo-jun, his eyebrows were furrowed into a sharp inverted ‘V’.
“What do you think you’re putting in a sleeping man’s mouth?!”
“The heavens?”
“Hoho, look at this fellow’s audacity.”
“Did you bring what I asked for?”
“Here.”
Pae Jin-gwang tossed a bottle over. Seo-jun caught it and immediately threw it to the Emperor.
“Take it.”
“Why this?”
Instead of answering, Seo-jun naturally snatched the bottle the Emperor had just been drinking from and handed it to Pae Jin-gwang.
“Here. This seemed like expensive stuff.”
He didn’t know for sure, but wouldn’t the alcohol drunk by the Emperor be of considerably high quality?
“Oho? Is this Shaoxing wine?”
Sniffing the liquor, Pae Jin-gwang looked back and forth between the Emperor and the bottle.
“If you’re in Beijing, wouldn’t Shaoxing wine be better?”
“One enjoys alcohol according to their own tastes.”
The Emperor chuckled and examined the bottle Pae Jin-gwang had just brought.
“It’s top-grade Nine-Fermented Spring Wine.”
He subtly increased the distance between himself and Seo-jun, guarding the bottle closely.
“I won’t trade back even if you ask. This is much better than the wine I brought.”
“What.”
Seo-jun glared at Pae Jin-gwang.
“Old man, what kind of alcohol are you drinking with the Namgung Clan’s money?”
“When you think of Anhui, you think of Nine-Fermented Spring Wine. I didn’t ask for it specifically. I just asked for alcohol, and they gave me this.”
“Drink something cheaper since you’re just going to guzzle it down anyway.”
“Even if I drink Nine-Fermented Spring Wine by the crate, it won’t make a single dent in the Namgung Clan’s fortune.”
He was right. In the first place, just having Pae Jin-gwang stay at the Namgung Clan was such a massive benefit that they could afford to give him enough expensive wine to burst his stomach and still come out ahead.
Wasn’t a martial artist of the Heaven-Containing Realm—a stage comparable to the Transcendent Realm—guarding their clan?
Pae Jin-gwang was one of the main reasons Seo-jun could roam the Central Plains to his heart’s content without worry.
“By the way, I didn’t expect the Fist King to have reached the Transcendent… well, not quite. Anyway, to think you’ve reached a corresponding realm. It’s surprising.”
The Emperor’s faint golden eyes locked onto Pae Jin-gwang.