Chapter 21
Chapter 21
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: The Value of Practice
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1.
The special training in the practice room had been incredibly effective.
No need to sleep.
No need to shower.
No need to eat.
The blessing that poured everything into convenience made a 20-hour daily instrument practice curriculum possible.
Of the remaining four hours, one was for smoking to avoid withdrawal symptoms.
The other three were split into one hour each for internal energy cultivation, martial arts training, and physical conditioning.
Raising one's realm was all well and good, but slacking off even for a day would cause martial arts performance to decline bit by bit. She had no desire to be lazy, not even for a single day.
Pipa Upheaval...
A maddeningly dizzying pipa performance.
Xun Penetrating Rain...
A heart-wrenchingly sorrowful xun performance.
Both naturally opened the human senses,
allowing one to slam in high notes or sonic blasts in an instant to render the opponent powerless—
martial arts perfectly suited to the purpose of sonic arts.
The Shadow Gate taught such arts to courtesans and lechers,
so it wasn't uncommon for masters threatening pleasure houses to have their eardrums burst mid-entertainment by ensemble sonic attacks,
or to be assassinated by the Shadow Gate's elites while weakened.
'Sonic arts shine most when catching the opponent off guard.'
Conversely, if the opponent plugged their ears tightly
and stayed on guard from the start,
forcing a sonic art was inefficient.
Whether one could endure that low efficiency
and still land an effective blow.
That was the difference between third-rate and second-rate sonic arts.
'If your performance skill is superb, the tone alone can unlock the heart's defenses.'
With diminished intellect and faded memory compared to her Murim days,
recalling the old Shadow Gate Lord's teachings was no easy task.
A week had passed, but reaching great success would take more time.
'And some people are annoyingly persistent.'
Even choosing times when no one was around
to monopolize the smoking room like a private lounge,
her excessively high charm inexplicably drew spectators one by one.
"Cough, cough."
"...".
"Ah, don't mind me. I've never smoked, but they say secondhand smoke is less dangerous than car exhaust."
If even non-smokers were coming into the smoking room to watch, that said it all.
"If it's okay with you, could you take my card...?"
"...".
"Ah, thank you! If you ever need an indie band, please call!"
Just as she tried to organize her insights in her mind,
business cards were thrust at her.
There were only 20 rooms, yet she'd collected over 50 cards.
Who were these people popping up from?
It was starting to feel a bit scary.
And that was hardly the end of it.
"Here, have some bellflower tea. They say it's the best for your throat."
"Ooh, boss is the best!"
"Ah, not you guys. I bought it for Hae Eung-eung here."
The boss's biased kindness.
"Have some tteokbokki while you work. Starving isn't good for practice."
Food keeps getting bought by Room 7's Jang Geon-young.
"Unnie, I'm here again today!"
Once a day.
Jua Young, showing up like clockwork.
Too many people drawn to her gaze.
"Found you."
That might have been why.
"You're the one, right? The bastard who messed with one of our guildmates."
The reason someone from that filthy Myeongho Guild had tracked down Hae Eung-eung.
2.
Sharp, viper-like eyes.
A coat with razor-sharp lapels.
A swordsman wielding a curved blade.
'Better than I heard. No wonder our guy caused trouble.'
His eyes bored into Hae Eung-eung.
She didn't avoid his gaze.
The man's eyes narrowed further.
An ominous standoff for no clear reason.
The tense silence, thick with impending violence, was broken by the practice room owner, Im Seong-tae.
"Customer? I don't know why you've come to our practice room, but you can't cause trouble here."
"Room 20 comprehensive practice room owner. Monthly net profit 3.5 million. Zero vacancy rate. Current sole proprietor, former Midas Entertainment chief manager. Still plugging promising talents into Midas, right?"
"...Who the hell are you?"
Im Seong-tae flinched.
He glared fiercely, eyes blazing, but the viper-eyed man ignored it, his face growing colder as a sinister sneer curled his lips.
"Myeongho Guild Vice Guild Master Kim Chang-sik."
"Gasp!!"
Im Seong-tae's legs gave out, and he collapsed.
Undeniable terror clouded his eyes.
"Oh ho. Seems you've heard of me somewhere."
Im Seong-tae broke out in cold sweat.
'Last year, he threw three civilians into a gate for interfering with guild business, with no one the wiser. It wasn't just a rumor.'
A guy like this would absolutely do it.
Forget ruining his business if targeted—
his life was at risk.
"Now that you get it, scram. My business is with that woman over there, not you."
He hated yielding to threats, but he had no choice in this humiliating situation.
Im Seong-tae bit his lip and backed away.
"Good, now we're alone. Shall we do this here? Or upstairs?"
Hae Eung-eung pointed upward with her hand.
The two emerged outside instead of heading down the practice room hallway.
Outside, over a dozen Myeongho Guild members Kim Chang-sik had brought were controlling the surrounding streets and buildings.
Stern discipline.
Tense air.
Intense pressure.
In a situation that would have left any civilian collapsing like Im Seong-tae,
Hae Eung-eung stood holding her instrument without the slightest tremor.
"Got some guts. In Myeongho-dong—named after and protected by Myeongho Guild, bearing our name—you touch one of ours and calmly play your instrument?"
"...".
"Guys these days aren't that bold. Very gutsy. And suspicious."
"...?"
"No name on the association roster. No activity records until last month. No residency registration, tax payments—zero leads."
Kim Chang-sik asked.
"What are you? Where'd you crawl out from?"
Returned after 20 years rolling in Murim.
Gender, birth, residence all changed—Hae Eung-eung had no past here.
Kim Chang-sik grew more suspicious of her clean record and investigated personally.
Now, face-to-face, he was inwardly convinced his decision was right.
"I remember hearing this: government awakeners erase their identities for secret missions."
"...".
"Doesn't that sound just like you?"
"...".
"Keeping your mouth shut doesn't solve everything, kid. That ridiculous name Hae Eung-eung screams fake from the start. You're busted."
If she'd seemed like a naive punk upon seeing her, he'd have just roughed her up and left.
But he could tell without crossing blades.
This woman was strong.
In his judgment, stronger than second-string gate runners—maybe even first-string raiders.
But stronger than him?
Not likely.
"Spill what the government had you doing, sneaking into our guild's backyard and plotting. Do it nicely, and no one gets hurt."
If she refused.
Then what?
Hae Eung-eung's silence seemed to ask just that.
The rotten smirk on Kim Chang-sik's lips deepened.
"That was the easy path. If you want the hard one, I've got another offer. Bring her out."
"Mmph! Mrrrgh!"
"!!"
"Rip off the tape."
"Unnie, run! Myeongho Guild's Kim Chang-sik is over level 150!"
Tape over her mouth, ropes around her wrists.
Jua Young, taken hostage.
I'm sorry, unnie. If me being alive puts you in danger... I can't... I'm sorry.
She'd witnessed it once before.
The gut-wrenching memory of utter devastation.
A situation where that ending might repeat.
Different world, different timeline, but.
Mess up the response, and something irreversible would happen.
That much was clear.
"Come quietly, and we release the girl. Resist or flee... I don't recommend it, but you'll find out then."
"What happens when a civilian gets dragged into a gate with no CCTV."
Deepest dawn, before the sun rose.
A perfect ambush avoiding all eyes.
While she settled into routine,
Myeongho Guild's Kim Chang-sik steadily dug into her background
and struck her unguarded at the perfect moment.
'So, will you draw your sword? Or run?'
Either way was fine.
Kim Chang-sik had confidence.
Confidence in victory if they fought, and in chasing her down if she fled.
Whoosh.
The moment Hae Eung-eung raised her hand,
the Myeongho Guild members aiming weapons at her
showed blatant bewilderment on their faces.
"An instrument?"
"What the hell is that?"
"Tennis racket?"
Stares of absurdity from all sides.
Even Kim Chang-sik looked puzzled.
Only Jua Young gazed at her unnie with a 'No way?' expression.
'You're really doing it?'
'Cover your ears.'
Hae Eung-eung finally began to play.
"What the hell?"
Kim Chang-sik panicked.
This wasn't in the plan.
Pipa Upheaval (7 Stars)
Sonic blast from 5 strings / Internal energy explosion / Instant area debilitation
The melody stretched out languidly.
The tempo and rhythm gradually quickened, heads nodding involuntarily.
Myeongho Guild members, immersed in the impromptu street concert, forgot to sneer.
'Freed!'
The moment Jua Young snapped her wrist ropes and plugged her ears.
The sound from the pipa's five strings
swelled ferociously like thunder behind storm clouds,
and the power from five years of internal energy
unleashed a dissonant explosion at explosive speed.
Screeeeech━━!
An ear-shattering roar.
Extreme dizziness making it hard to even stand.
"Aaaagh! My ears!!"
"Someone stop that thing!!"
"My head's gonna explode!!"
Those caught defenseless by the sonic art, ears open,
clutched their heads in agony too late—
one move nullifying their numerical advantage!
"Grrgh...!"
Even high-level Kim Chang-sik was no exception.
No—being high-level made his damage the worst among those gathered.
Combat power rose with levels.
Hearing was no exception.
Concentrated, he could hear a coin drop 100 meters away—
that hearing took Pipa Upheaval at 7 Stars at 120% efficiency,
blood trickling from his ears, even mild concussion symptoms.
Drip.
When the performance stopped,
Myeongho Guild members littered the street, groaning on the ground,
and Jua Young returned to Hae Eung-eung's side without issue.
Hae Eung-eung looked at Jua Young with worried eyes.
Jua Young found it both absurd and touching.
"Whoa... Unnie. It works on people too?"
Just last week, it had been mere unpleasant dissonance, but the result was shocking.
Even with ears plugged, her ears still rang.
She dreaded imagining the damage to those exposed defenselessly.
[Are you okay?]
"I'm fine, unnie!"
[What about those guys? Should we call the police?]
Ah, so it wasn't worry for her.
Jua Young pouted briefly in disappointment,
then smiled, thinking it unbecoming toward her rescuer.
"If we call the cops, they'll spill what they did to me first. Unless we report first, the local police won't move."
[No backlash then?]
"After a thrashing like that, they won't come at us again soon."
Just look at the guild members crawling on the ground
or staggering, dropping weapons, and collapsing—
they'd be fine for a while.
Even Kim Chang-sik's venomous glare at Hae Eung-eung held unmistakable fear.
In the lawless world of unorthodox sects and black paths, ruled by strength.
A stronger foe was the symbol of terror.
Hae Eung-eung's pipa performance was more than enough to instill fear in Myeongho Guild.
And so, the dozen-plus Myeongho Guild members
and their vice guild master Kim Chang-sik retreated.
"Whoa!"
"How'd you do that just now?"
"I know! It's that sonic gong thing from wuxia movies, right?"
The long-term renters who'd hidden at the practice room entrance cheered enthusiastically.