Chapter 257: Video Call (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 257: Video Call (2)
Chun-bong was bored out of her mind. And it was all because that jerk of a brother showed no signs of coming home.
Since bothering Lee Seo-jun made up roughly ninety percent of her daily routine, his absence meant she spent ninety percent of her day just spacing out.
However, Geum Chun-bong possessed a restless, hyperactive personality that absolutely despised boredom. Spacing out was a routine she couldn't maintain for long.
Ultimately, not long after dragging a few talented kids out from the back alleys on the outskirts of Anhui, Chun-bong set out once again to explore the city.
Crunch!
Vigorously waving three sticks of tanghulu in each hand, she headed toward the back alleys once more.
Reflecting on how her memories of the gutters had grown faint from living so comfortably lately, Chun-bong bustled along until she found a decent-looking back alley.
“Oho…”
She puffed out her chest and strutted down the path, inspecting her new find.
Perhaps because Anhui was a relatively prosperous province, the state of this back alley was far better than the one where she and her brother used to live.
Black Path thugs acting high and mighty was just a universal truth of the slums. Rather, she meant there weren't many corpses of people who had starved or been stabbed to death lying in plain sight.
For a back alley, it was in excellent condition.
Chun-bong sniffed the air, her sensitive nose chasing the scent of food as she reminisced about the old days.
“Found it.”
She arrived at a dumpling shop. A large, bearded man—who looked more like a Black Path sect leader than a cook—greeted her with a warm smile.
“Aigo, young lady. Would you like a dumpling?”
“One meat dumpling, please.”
“Coming right up!”
After a short wait, Chun-bong received her order and blew on the piping hot, steaming bun.
And that was when it happened.
A tiny brat suddenly snatched the meat dumpling right out of her hand!
“What?”
“Hey, you little rat! Not again...!”
Chun-bong was a master of the Super Peak Realm. She could have stopped a back-alley brat from stealing her dumpling with her eyes closed, using nothing but her pinky toe.
But she didn't.
Instead, she watched the desperately fleeing child's back with a look of pure satisfaction.
“What a nostalgia trip...”
Back before Lee Seo-jun came around, she used to steal plain flour buns without any filling.
She remembered being absolutely appalled by Lee Seo-jun’s skillful hands when he first swiped meat dumplings, wondering if that jerk would eventually make a name for himself as the God of Thieves...
“It’s fine, just give me another one, please.”
Chun-bong stopped the dumpling shop owner, who was about to chase after the kid, and accepted a fresh dumpling.
“Aigo, I’m so sorry. Those parentless runts have been a real nuisance lately...”
Geum Chun-bong, who was also a parentless runt, looked a bit awkward.
“No, well...”
She gave the owner a polite nod and wandered after the dumpling thief, happily munching on her new snack.
Earlier, she had attached a sliver of internal energy to the child who stole her food.
I am Geum Chun-bong. Lee Seo-jun’s top disciple.
A parlor trick like this wasn't difficult at all.
She took her time, wandering around to see if there was anything interesting along the way. By the time she finally tracked the kid down, she carefully concealed her presence.
The kid was doing something.
Whoosh! Swish!
A tree branch cut through the air. Chun-bong stared at the sight, her mouth agape.
Wow...
Could a sword really be swung that terribly?
Previously, when she first saw Lee Seo-jun swing a sword, she had judged it as mediocre. But after watching this kid swing a branch, she began to think that Lee Seo-jun might actually be a once-in-a-century genius.
Of course, by that logic, she herself was Geum Chun-bong, a sword genius so talented she insulted the heavens themselves.
“Hey, kid.”
Unable to watch any longer, Chun-bong stepped out into the open.
“You...!”
The child's eyes widened, glaring at Chun-bong. As expected of someone who had inherited the legacy of a back-alley thief, the kid stood their ground quite boldly.
“What do you want! I’m not giving the dumpling back! I already ate it!”
The kid clutched their stomach and pointed the branch at Chun-bong.
Chun-bong remained silent. She wasn't debating whether or not to beat the kid up. Instead, she suddenly threw her arm out and pointed.
The roar of an enraged Geum Chun-bong echoed through the back alley.
“That’s not how you swing a sword...!”
*
After giving the branch-wielding brat a few noogies, the kid burst into tears.
However, having studied martial arts under the ruthlessly inhuman Lee Seo-jun, Geum Chun-bong proudly puffed out her chest, entirely unbothered by the crying.
“Hey, kid.”
“I’m not a kid...! I am Bi-yeon, the successor of the Yangrok Sect!”
“Then why are you acting like a street rat out here?”
“...Because it was destroyed.”
“What?”
As Chun-bong blinked, Bi-yeon, the self-proclaimed successor of the Yangrok Sect, began to vent her grievances through her tears.
“What! Do I look like a beggar to you too? I bet I do! Because I am a beggar! Because I’m a parentless orphan!”
“Um...”
“A sheltered greenhouse flower like you could never even dream of it! The pain of watching those Black Path bastards suddenly tear down our sect for no reason and shove a blade into the Sect Leader’s... into my father’s stomach! Do you have any idea how miserable that feels?!”
Surprisingly, she did. Chun-bong’s eyes shifted back and forth.
Bi-yeon shouted.
“That’s right! I’m an orphan! An orphan that no one would care about, even if I got beaten to death in a ditch somewhere!”
There were classes among people.
Classes divided by the presence or absence of power—money, authority, or martial strength.
In this Murim where superhumans roamed, the most highly regarded of these was, without a doubt, martial strength.
If one were to broadly categorize the hierarchy of martial artists, it would look like this:
At the very top were the great figures who lived above the heavens, like the Sixteen Major Sects and Clans. Below them were the martial artists who carried swords and went around stabbing people. And below them were the commoners who just tried to survive.
In the past, Bi-yeon belonged to the category of martial artists who carried swords.
Of course, Bi-yeon had never actually stabbed anyone. The Yangrok Sect was merely a tiny sect with fewer than ten members, so hardly anyone there had ever killed a person.
But regardless, Bi-yeon was a martial artist in her own right. And now, she was an orphan.
An orphan who belonged to the absolute bottom of the gutter, even among commoners.
She had plummeted from the heavens straight into the mud.
“Damn it... If only I had talent... If I did, then this...”
Blood dripped from Bi-yeon’s fist as she gripped the branch tight enough to pierce her own skin.
It was unfair and infuriating. She resented her own weakness. She felt absolute despair at her situation—she couldn't even feed herself, let alone seek revenge.
And she hated the woman in front of her, dressed in fine clothes, who was bothering her for no reason.
Bi-yeon glared at Chun-bong with bloodshot eyes and screamed.
“Why are you picking on me?! Why?!”
“Because you stole my dumpling.”
“Ah.”
Chun-bong was a total "T."
*
Too many things were decided from the moment of birth.
Family background and environment were one thing, but innate talent was another.
Bi-yeon had no talent.
No, from the very beginning, there was no one with talent in a tiny faction like the Yangrok Sect.
The Sect Leader and Bi-yeon’s father, Bi-so, had no talent. Sam-pung, the best swordsman in the sect, had no talent. Even So-so, the youngest who didn't even know what martial arts were, had no talent.
Bi-yeon just happened to have even less talent than all of them.
Still, she at least had a conscience.
“I-I’m sorry...”
Realizing that she had indeed stolen the very dumpling the woman was about to eat, Bi-yeon lowered her head in shame.
Chun-bong looked down at the top of Bi-yeon’s small head. She let out a thoughtful hum and stroked her chin.
Personality: Pass.
She didn't know the standards of the Namgung Clan, but the girl passed Chun-bong’s standards. The fact that she still had this much of a conscience while living in the back alleys meant the kid was naturally good-hearted.
“W-What are you doing all of a sudden?!”
Chun-bong grabbed Bi-yeon’s wrist and activated the Heaven-Chosen Talent Art.
If she had talent suitable for the Namgung Lineage, her eyes should have glowed blue... but there was no change in Bi-yeon’s eyes.
Well, it’s not like things from novels happen in real life.
Chun-bong felt a slight sense of kinship with Bi-yeon.
Similar circumstances, different outcomes.
Chun-bong had talent and the greatest brother in the Central Plains, Lee Seo-jun. Bi-yeon had absolutely nothing.
In truth, if one searched the vast Central Plains, there would be countless people in similar straits as Bi-yeon, but this girl was right in front of her eyes.
It meant Chun-bong couldn't help but care.
Chun-bong recalled something Lee Seo-jun occasionally said.
“Only martial strength is absolute.”
However, to build that martial strength, one naturally needed talent.
The kind of talent that would be chosen by the Heaven-Chosen Talent Art. The kind where a sword felt like an extension of one's body the very first time it was held, or where one could control Qi like their own limbs without even being taught...
Then, by what means could a talentless back-alley orphan move toward that absolute peak?
“You, follow me.”
And that was the reason Chun-bong kidnapped a talentless brat from the back alleys of Anhui.
*
Around the time Chun-bong’s kidnapping was successfully carried out...
Ring— Ring— Ring—
“What is this guy even doing, seriously?”
Seo-jun mechanically placed a video call to Geom-gwang, then moved the tab to the background and resumed the game he had paused.
For the record, he had already sent several texts.
They were along the lines of: I found the Yellow Cloud Divine Sword, so pick up.
But whatever this guy was doing, he wasn't answering, even though quite a bit of time had passed.
Ring— Ring— Ring—
Once again, the notification that the connection had timed out pierced his ears.
Did he die in the meantime?
Seo-jun ignored it for now and focused on his game, which was nearing its end.
With god-like hand movements, he narrowly dodged the projectiles fired by alien lifeforms, letting them graze right past his hitbox. He was just about to pour out his saved ultimate skills and bombs to finish off the boss, which had less than 1 percent HP left.
Brrrrring!
The game automatically paused, and the caller’s name popped up on the screen.
[Geom-gwang]
This piece of work had finally called back.