Chapter 3: Unexpected Reunion
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 3: Unexpected Reunion
“Huff…! Huff…!”
Chun-bong panted, muttering under her breath.
“You… huff…! You bastard…! Can’t you do a single thing right?!”
“Hey…! Ack…! It’s my first time…! Huff…! What do you expect me… to do?!”
Seo-jun reached out, gasping as if he were about to keel over. Clutched in his hand was a steaming hot dumpling.
“Wait, when did you grab that?”
“I told you, you punk. I swiped it right as we were booking it.”
Ignoring his parched throat, he shoved the dumpling into his mouth.
“Mmm…!”
Yes, this was it. This ecstatic flavor was worlds apart from a bland lump of dough. Only today did he truly understand the expression of ‘the savory flavor of meat dancing in one’s mouth.’
“Wow… You actually managed to grab a meat dumpling in that chaos? Those are kept in the back; it’s not easy.”
“Heh. Who do you think I am?”
Was it because he had become a martial artist? He felt his internal energy circulating through his body, rapidly restoring his stamina. At this rate, it felt like he could run for another thirty minutes.
“Bullshit. You just started. How much could a newbie like you have possibly learned?”
“No, I’m serious!”
This kid just won’t believe me. It wasn’t a joke; his physical condition had improved significantly.
As Seo-jun grumbled, Chun-bong scoffed and quickened her pace toward their home.
“Yeah, yeah, sure. Just learn the Three Talents Sword Art properly first.”
“Sigh… you little… I don’t even know how to prove it to you.”
Once they returned to the vicinity of the half-collapsed building they called home, Seo-jun picked up a branch.
Perhaps it was because his life hadn't been entirely miserable since meeting Chun-bong after falling into the Murim. He had been bored to death with nothing to do, so in this situation, martial arts was like a sudden, welcome rain in a drought.
“The forms of the Three Talents Sword Art are really nothing special. It’s just a vertical slash, a horizontal slash, and a thrust. That’s it.”
Chun-bong demonstrated.
It was exactly as she said: a vertical slash, a horizontal slash, and a thrust.
However, her posture was elegant enough to show that she had actually learned something. From her fingertips to her toes, nothing looked awkward. It meant there were no wasted movements.
Probably.
Then again, what would someone like him, who didn't know the first thing about swordsmanship, know just by watching?
“The Three Talents Sword Art is so widely spread that the names vary by region, but they’re usually called Mount Tai Pressure Peak, Sweeping a Thousand Armies, and Immortal Pointing the Way. Sometimes they’re simply called Heaven, Earth, and Man.”
Chun-bong flicked the branch in her hand, urging Seo-jun.
“Now you try. It’s not hard, right?”
“Of course. It’s a piece of cake.”
A vertical slash. It was just a matter of swinging downward from above, wasn't it?
Seo-jun gripped the branch tightly and swung it down.
Whoosh—!
The sound of the wind cutting was refreshing.
“How’s that? Witness my skill.”
“You bastard, you really don’t have a talent for physical labor, do you?”
Chun-bong sighed, stepping closer to adjust his posture. From how to grip the sword, to how to step, how to lower his arms, and where to look.
Surprisingly, there was a mountain of things to learn just to swing a sword once.
“Oh.”
Because they were standing so close, the top of the kid’s head kept bobbing right in front of his nose.
“Wow, you sneaky brat. What did you use to wash yourself?”
“What…? What kind of nonsense are you spouting this time?”
“Come here. Why do you smell so good? There’s no way you could smell like this using that murky water without even using shampoo.”
“Eek…!”
As he reached out to grab her, Chun-bong recoiled in horror and quickly swung the branch in her hand.
“Ack…!”
Narrowly dodging, Seo-jun scrambled back and leveled his own branch. A suffocating standoff ensued. The first move belonged to Chun-bong, whose face was flushed bright red.
“Die, you pervert!”
“What did you just call me?!”
He couldn't stand such an insult. Seo-jun charged at her.
The something-resembling-a-spar continued for ten minutes.
* * *
“Ugh, I’m dying…”
“Hmph, serves you right for messing around.”
His whole body ached. That brat, Chun-bong. She wasn't particularly fast, but being a local of the Murim, her swordplay carried a different weight to it.
It was lucky she was physically weak; if she had been stronger, he would have ended up with a broken bone or two.
“But you…”
Chun-bong narrowed her eyes and glared at Seo-jun.
“Why did you stop earlier?”
It had been a fairly clean Mount Tai Pressure Peak. And above all, it was a proper strike infused with Qi.
It should have been impossible for someone who hadn't even properly learned the basic forms to move his internal energy at will. She hadn't even taught him the method of Qi circulation yet, only the oral chant for the heart method.
“What, was I supposed to actually hit you? What good would it do to crack a kid’s head open?”
“What are you talking about? You’re a kid too.”
Chun-bong snorted, thought for a moment, and then spoke.
“It seems you’re better suited for Qi Arts. You seem to have a talent for it.”
“Qi Arts?”
Having read his fair share of Wuxia novels, he knew what that was. But would the knowledge from his original world apply here?
Sometimes knowing a little was worse than knowing nothing at all. It would be better to learn from scratch with the mindset of a blank slate.
“What’s that?”
“It’s literally martial arts that use Qi directly. Um… how should I put it? To an ordinary person, it looks more like sorcery than martial arts.”
Chun-bong explained, waving her hands around.
“Like shooting fire or ice out of your hands, or shaping Astral Qi into physical forms to manipulate it.”
“Oh… so like a mage.”
“…It’s different from that Westerner nonsense. I told you, it’s martial arts. Even for Qi Arts, you still have to physically train your body.”
Chun-bong casually tossed out a discriminatory remark and clicked her tongue.
“Whatever, let’s just get some sleep. I’m exhausted from moving around for the first time in a while.”
* * *
A few days passed.
It was the day after he had received the Three Talents Heart Method and Three Talents Sword Art from Chun-bong, earning a rating of ‘not too bad.’
As usual, they set out on their daily journey to scavenge a single meal.
“Be careful not to show your face. Your mug is pretty well-known now, so the merchants will recognize you.”
“Ha! Who do you think I am?”
Seo-jun cracked his knuckles.
“I am a martial arts expert.”
“Bullshit, seriously.”
Seo-jun ignored Chun-bong’s grumbling as usual and blended into the bustling crowd.
By learning martial arts, he had learned how to control his own body. Above all, the biggest factor was that he had simply become younger than his original self.
In other words, his current appearance was exactly how he looked when he was a kid in his original world, so he had little trouble adapting to the physical changes.
When he had been stabbed in the gut by those street thugs on his first day—if he had been in his original adult body instead of this one, he might have dodged it.
Of course, it was a pointless assumption. He had met Chun-bong because of it, after all.
And today, I, Lee Seo-jun, have been reborn as a Murim expert.
His sharp eyes scanned the passing pedestrians.
Just then, he spotted a dim-witted-looking man spacing out with a skewer in his hand.
Swish—!
Seo-jun’s hand moved in a flash. The man didn't even notice.
Seo-jun quickly left the spot, hiding the swiped skewer in his sleeve.
By now, eating food someone else had half-eaten didn't bother him at all. This was a luxurious meal.
In that seamless manner, he snatched two dumplings, two meat skewers, and even two sticks of Tanghulu before slipping into an alley.
Is there no turning back now?
I, Lee Seo-jun, have entered the path of a heinous criminal.
While he was lost in thought, Chun-bong, who had been keeping watch, hurried over.
“Wow, you’ve really improved, kid. Your thieving skills are no joke.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“In its own way?”
“Should I be grateful?”
“Why are you asking me that?”
He shoved a dumpling into Chun-bong’s mouth, and she immediately began to nibble on it.
“Whoa, a meat dumpling!”
That’s right. His thieving skills had finally surpassed those of Master Chun-bong.
By now, swiping the meat dumplings kept in the back of the stalls was no longer a difficult task.
“Are you going to make a name for yourself as the God of Thieves in the Murim later?”
“I won’t forget you when that time comes.”
“That wasn't a compliment, you idiot.”
“Give it back then, you brat.”
When he tried to take back the half-eaten dumpling, Chun-bong resisted with all her might.
“Who takes back something they already gave away?!”
“Ho ho, I do.”
“I’m not giving it back! I can’t!”
But there was one thing Chun-bong didn't know yet.
He had already handed her the skewer, but he hadn't given her the Tanghulu. He hadn't even shown it to her yet.
“Hah! Look at this!”
“Gasp…! Th-that is…!”
Fruit coated in a hardened layer of sugar. It was just Tanghulu.
But for street rats living day-to-day by stealing a single meal, such a snack was an indescribable luxury!
Chun-bong’s eyes began to tremble.
Seo-jun laughed wickedly.
“Don’t you want it?”
“Urgh… Wh-what do you want?”
“Heh heh, follow me quietly. Then I’ll let you eat as much Tanghulu as you want.”
It was just as they were heading home, goofing around like fools.
“Whoops!”
As they turned a corner, they collided with someone stepping out of the alley.
“Agh…! No…! My Tanghulu!”
Chun-bong wailed. The Tanghulu had fallen to the ground and become covered in dirt.
Chun-bong rushed over and carefully tried to brush the dirt off the candied fruit.
“Hey, it’s not that much dirt—wait.”
Seo-jun didn't have time to worry about the Tanghulu right now. The man he had collided with. And another man standing right behind him.
“Oho, this brat is still alive? You’ve got a persistent life, don’t you?”
It was those street thugs from before.
Seo-jun’s eyes darted around. Luckily, a stray branch caught his eye.
A branch like that shouldn't break easily, right?
The situation wasn't entirely bad. He wasn't the same person he was back then.
In fact, this was the perfect opportunity for revenge.
Seo-jun glared at them.
Tap—!
He lunged forward, snatched up the branch, straightened his posture, and delivered a massive upward slash.
“This is revenge for my gut!”
Whoosh—!
Snap—!
The branch he swung in a surprise attack was blocked by a drawn blade. Naturally, the wood shattered.
“…Uh-oh.”
He blocked that? A mere back-alley thug?
It was a completely unexpected turn of events.