Chapter 263: Talent (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 263: Talent (1)
Naturally, Seo-jun didn't just toss everything aside and bolt for the Western Regions.
He hadn't even resolved his Inner Demon yet, the political situation with the Black Lotus Union was a mess, and the war wasn't entirely over.
If he had to rank his curiosity about the Western Regions, it would sit somewhere near the very bottom of his list.
He figured he might visit once the situation in the Central Plains stabilized—perhaps for a second or third honeymoon.
That was why, upon his return to the Namgung Clan, the first thing that greeted Seo-jun was… the furious roar of Geum Chun-bong.
"No…! I told you, that's not how you do it! Huh? Just swing it! In a straight line! Bam! Whoosh! What? You can't even do that!?"
* * *
Everything that makes a human is decided before a child even leaves their mother's womb.
The body, the mind, the environment, wealth, talent… things like that.
While it's possible to hone what one is born with, the starting line is fixed from the very beginning.
To borrow Bi-yeon's words, too many things were decided at birth.
It wasn't Bi-yeon's fault that her talent wasn't just lacking, but practically non-existent.
She was simply born that way.
Setting effort aside, she hadn't chosen her own lack of talent.
This was why Chun-bong's feelings were so complicated.
She had wanted to give a chance to this back-alley orphan who lacked even the talent to stand on her own—a girl who had been robbed of the opportunity to move forward.
But she really hadn't expected it to be this bad.
"No! I—no! Huh? I mean… Noooo!"
Chun-bong hopped around, frantically swinging the wooden sword in her hand.
"Like this. Swing it straight. See?"
Chun-bong swung the wooden sword at a bundle of straw in front of her. Whoosh. The sword sliced through the straw without a hint of resistance.
Then, she nudged the top of the bundle. The cleanly severed top tumbled over. Chun-bong pointed at the cross-section.
"See? It's flat, right?"
"Ye-yes…"
"But you're swinging it like this!"
Chun-bong swung the wooden sword again. Thwack! This time, the sword slammed into the straw. Stalks of straw exploded outward in a messy spray. Bi-yeon nodded blankly.
"You mean my sword path isn't straight…"
"Exactly! That's it!"
Since it was Chun-bong swinging, the top of the straw bundle still flew off.
However, the cross-section—if you could even call it that, rather than the scene of a brutal murder—was a complete disaster.
It was jagged, and in several places, the straw had been ripped away rather than cut.
This wasn't a case of, "Well, I smashed the head, so it's all good!"
At this rate, you couldn't even say she was using a sword. She might as well be wielding a blunt club.
"Alright, let's try again!"
Chun-bong suppressed her frustration and ordered Bi-yeon to perform a vertical strike.
To put it more formally, it was the Mount Tai Pressure Peak of the Three Talents Sword Art. Simply put, a vertical slash.
Whoooosh—
Bi-yeon's sword wobbled as it came down from above.
"What the…"
Chun-bong's jaw dropped. Why? Was it really that hard to just slash downward?
It felt like if she just held the sword in the air and let go, it would fall straighter than that.
"Gyaaaak…"
Unable to scream freely for fear of hurting Bi-yeon's feelings, Chun-bong trembled with frustration.
It was then that a snickering voice reached them.
"Is our Chun-bu-i playing teacher?"
"Does this look like play to you—!?"
Chun-bong, shouting back on instinct, suddenly snapped her eyes wide.
"Lee Seo-jun!"
"Yeah, big brother's home."
"What took you so long!"
Chun-bong sprinted forward and delivered a practiced dropkick straight into Seo-jun's side.
Thwack!
Struck by that magnificent kick, Seo-jun flew back and—blegh!—coughed up blood.
"Huh…?"
Chun-bong's face turned pale.
"The culprit… is Geum Chun-bong…"
Leaving a dying message in his own blood, the Evil-Annihilating Heavenly Lord Lee Seo-jun closed his eyes.
"B-Big broooo!!"
* * *
"You crazy bastard! There are some things you don't joke about!"
Her face beet-red, Geum Chun-bong stomped her feet.
She hadn't actually hit him that hard. The blood was thanks to his Inner Demon.
"Hey, the blood-spitting part wasn't a joke."
"Th-that's…"
Chun-bong shriveled up instantly and started to mumble an apology.
"S-sor…"
"Sor?"
"Sorry my ass, you crazy bastard! You should've dodged it properly!"
Correction. It wasn't exactly an apology.
Despite the foul, trashy words coming out of her mouth, the words 'I'm dying of guilt' were practically written across her tiny face.
So, Seo-jun just chuckled and gathered Primordial Unity in his palm.
At the sight of that pitch-blackness—the cradle of all things, that high-dimensional something that couldn't be described in words—Chun-bong's mouth fell open.
"This is what they call Primordial Unity. I took a deep look inside it after clearing out my Mental Imagery Space without much thought. But in there… urgh!"
Drip, drip!
Blood poured from Seo-jun's mouth. Chun-bong turned pale again.
"Hey, hey, hey, wait. Don't do this here…"
Ptu! Seo-jun spat out the bloody saliva and shook his head.
"It's fine. If I just stay still, I'm okay."
He explained, rolling the sphere of Primordial Unity in his hand, that he only coughed up blood because he used it to peer deep into his mental imagery.
Chun-bong's eyes bulged as she shrieked.
"Then stop! Doing! It! Ukkyaaaaak!"
After venting her frustration with a roar, Geum Chun-bong huffed and puffed.
"Don't use it! That thing! Primordial Unity or whatever! Why do you keep using it when you know it makes you cough up blood!?"
"I mean, it's annoying. Who does it think it is, interfering with me using my own martial arts?"
Watching her brother pick a fight with his own Inner Demon, Chun-bong wore a serene smile. It was the kind of smile the enlightened Shakyamuni might have worn.
Then, she patted the shoulder of Bi-yeon, who was standing nearby, completely unsure of what to do.
"I'm sorry. Compared to him, you're actually a very good listener, aren't you?"
"Uh, um…"
Bi-yeon's eyes darted around before she lowered her head deeply.
Only then did Seo-jun take an interest in the girl.
"By the way, who's this kid?"
* * *
"Ah, so you kidnapped her from the back alleys?"
Seo-jun nodded after hearing Chun-bong's explanation.
Certainly, based on the story, the kid reminded him a little—well, a very tiny bit—of Geum Chun-bong.
As for why the supposedly cocky back-alley kid from the story had become so submissive? He didn't even need to ask.
Most people got intimidated the moment they stepped foot into the Namgung Clan.
To Seo-jun, it was just home, but to others, it was like entering a royal palace.
Chun-bong looked at Seo-jun and asked, "Yeah. So, what do you think we should do?"
Even if he didn't look the part, Lee Seo-jun was somewhat of a legend when it came to being a self-made man.
Starting from the very bottom of the back alleys, he had risen to his current position with only a little help from Chun-bong and his own insane talent—he was the very incarnation of self-made success!
Chun-bong figured that if she asked the greatest martial artist she knew (a title she believed he held even when Namgung Jin-cheon was alive), she might get an answer.
To his sister's unwavering faith, the brother replied, "Well, about that."
"Yeah."
"Shouldn't she look for a different path…?"
Chun-bong's flat stare pierced Seo-jun's face.
His skin stung under her gaze, but Seo-jun's answer was entirely serious.
"If you have no talent in a certain field, you should find another path. It'd be different if she loved martial arts so much she didn't care if she starved to death. But as long as her goal is to succeed, isn't it right to find a path that actually suits her?"
"You're the one who said the only way to stand on your own in the Murim is through martial arts."
"That's just my opinion. Even a master dishwasher can find fulfillment in their work, and that's enough. In the end, the world is defined by the perspective of the observer, which is 'me,' right?"
As Seo-jun spoke, he glanced at the girl, Bi-yeon.
Though she stood with her head bowed in intimidation, deep within her eyes, a fiercely burning emotion remained.
In truth, Seo-jun didn't really care what happened to a kid like Bi-yeon.
Seo-jun was satisfied as long as the people around him lived well. He didn't have some grand, righteous mindset of wanting to take care of everyone in the world.
However…
'Still, something about this…'
For the sake of his sister—now his fiancée—who was pouting while glancing at Bi-yeon, and for the sake of the Giant Chun-bong who had crushed the demon in his mind, there was no reason he couldn't help.
"Well, fine. It's not like thinking about it is that hard."
Chun-bong's head snapped up. Seo-jun grinned.
"For now, keep teaching her. No, wait, what are you teaching her right now?"
"She said there's a sword technique she was learning at her sect. But I thought it'd be better to build her foundation first, so I'm teaching her the Three Talents Sword Art."
"Oh, the Three Talents Sword Art."
Lost in nostalgia, Seo-jun nodded.
"The meat dumplings I ate back then were really delicious."
"I already ate some without you."
"What."
Seo-jun's jaw dropped at the sudden betrayal by his trusted Geum Chun-bong. Just then—
"Seo-jun!"
Namgung Su-ah came running from somewhere in a hurry. Her face was pale with panic as she frantically checked Seo-jun's body.
"Are you okay!? I heard you coughed up blood!"
"Ah, that. It's because I got hit by our Chun-bu-i's kick…"
"What?"
Namgung Su-ah's blue eyes widened, revealing a chilling clarity. Those cold eyes slowly turned toward Chun-bong.
"Geum Mae, no matter what, you shouldn't hit someone hard enough to make them cough up blood."
Her tone was sharp, almost uncharacteristically so. A surprised Seo-jun widened his eyes.
The usually gentle and mild-mannered Namgung Su-ah was getting angry at Chun-bong?
He had only said it as a joke, but her reaction was far more intense than he had imagined.
Of course, the target of that anger, Chun-bong, felt incredibly wronged.
"No, I mean… It's true! You're not wrong…! But…! Still…!"
Trembling, Geum Chun-bong eventually grabbed her own small head.
"U-Ukkyaaaaak!!"
Geum Chun-bong has found her voice!
* * *
Seo-jun hadn't offered to look over the martial arts of a strange kid like Bi-yeon while setting aside his own Inner Demon without any thought.
With his external-attachment Inner Demon suppressor, Geum Chun-bong, and the personification of mental peace, Namgung Su-ah, by his side, his Inner Demon wouldn't worsen immediately.
Furthermore, Bi-yeon's dilemma was somewhat related to Seo-jun's own insights.
Talent. The things one is born with.
Perhaps by contemplating that intangible leash, his Inner Demon could also be resolved…
…Can it?
He wasn't so sure about that.
Seo-jun scratched his head.