The Imitator's Many Schemes
Brother. Lesson (2)
Watching the Great Strength Cannon General’s fist slowly grow larger, I took stock of what I had left. My stamina was just enough for one full-powered burst. I’d also been quietly siphoning off some poison since things started looking bad. Both arms were still intact, so I could sacrifice one as bait and steal his breath. I still had a sword in hand. With so many assets remaining, my thoughts naturally multiplied.
Since I still had decent stamina left, should I try to match the Great Strength Cannon General by forcibly drawing up his own heart technique? Even if the level of completion differed, the inner force concentrated on a sword tip and the inner force spread across a fist were not the same. What if I layered poison arts on top of that? Or, conversely, what if I threw the sword to steal his breath in an instant and then engaged him at point-blank range with poison hands? When the distance was this close, palm or finger techniques were more advantageous than fist techniques, and poison claw or poison hand arts were even better. Or, or, or… The clever schemes kept coming. None of them had ever been attempted before, yet each one looked plausible. And yet every single one was idiotic.
So I laughed. In the end, I was the sort of person who lived for amusement. Imitating, pretending, startling others… Even in the middle of a fight, I couldn’t shake the habit of enjoying myself like a child playing in the dirt. I had to admit it honestly. After managing to fool the Black Fog Poison General once, my lungs were properly inflated. It was true that I had a talent for imitating people. But no matter how convincing the imitation, could a hastily copied fake ever compare to the real thing? Whether it was the poison arts stolen from the Black Fog Poison General or the tendon-strengthening art stolen from the Great Strength Cannon General, if I could wield even one of them as well as its true owner, I wouldn’t be in this predicament now.
Theirs belonged to them. Then what was mine?
Facing the incoming fist head-on, I gathered the poison I had been holding beneath my tongue and forcefully expanded and expelled it like a dragon exhaling a great breath. The Great Strength Cannon General, confronted by the poisonous fog, quickly withdrew his fist and retreated, then immediately spat out the small amount of poison he had inhaled, mixing it with saliva. I had suspected for a while that he was deliberately keeping just enough energy in reserve to avoid the poison. It seemed he had already guessed something from the fact that I had stayed at the Dang Clan and defeated the Black Fog Poison General. For someone who looked like a bear, he had a rather fox-like side. In this case, however, that very caution had prevented him from gaining a decisive advantage. If he had pressed the attack while accepting the risk of poisoning, even in the worst case of mutual destruction, he would not have lost.
I used up the stored poison to buy myself one breath of time. Now my remaining assets were one breath’s worth of time, enough stamina to attempt one final move, and a single sword. I gripped the sword with both hands and drew it back as far as a hunter drawing a longbow. The distance of the draw was indescribably subtle. It had to change according to where I intended to thrust, where my body wanted to go, how sharp the sword was, and how heavy the air felt. Yet the most absurd part was that I must not obsess over perfection. Perfection only led to missing the mark. It was not about calculating excess or insufficiency through the pursuit of perfection, but simply about leaving no regrets behind.
The Great Strength Cannon General, who had been watching with caution, charged forward in a hurry and thrust out his fist. There was no reason to be impatient. Thrusting the sword was my role; deciding when to thrust was not. Only after exhaling a long breath did I finally feel my arm extend. When I looked down, the Great Strength Cannon General was lying spread-eagled on the ground, taking a late afternoon nap. Even when I nudged him with my foot, he did not wake. It seemed I had won. However, my own body was not in great shape either. Cold sweat poured down my temples like rain, and the skin on my left arm was completely peeled off, yet strangely it did not hurt. My head was dizzy and my body felt heavy. I considered just going to sleep right there. After roughly sheathing the sword, I flopped down onto the ground and immediately fell into a deep sleep.
“You will become an Absolute Master.”
It was a rather abrupt thing for someone to say after rushing into the dining hall right after waking up. Still, it was not an unpleasant thing to hear. Absolute Master—an absolutely supreme expert. Since people did not casually throw around the word “absolute” a hundred times, it sounded a notch above even the Top 100 Masters just by the sound of it.
“I think so too. Thank you.”
I was still a little short of twenty, yet I could already exchange blows with most of the Top 100 Masters. If I continued learning at this pace, by the time I reached the Great Strength Cannon General’s age I would probably become one of the top among the Top 100 without even needing to reach the level of the Black Fog Poison General. That was my guess. For some reason, this seemed extremely funny to the Great Strength Cannon General. He burst into laughter so loud the entire dining hall shook, while Dang Ju-yeon alternated her gaze between me and him with an indescribable expression. If it was something amusing, I wanted to know too, so I asked.
“By the way, what exactly is an Absolute Master?”
At that, the Great Strength Cannon General laughed even louder before choking and coughing, while the Yeom family members who had been eating with us also spat out their drinks and covered their mouths, laughing. Only after the commotion in the dining hall finally died down and the Great Strength Cannon General’s coughing subsided did he ask me in return,
“How can you say you think so when you don’t even know what it is?”
“I don’t know exactly, but I can guess. Isn’t it a higher level of expert than the Top 100 Masters? Since I can already reach the Top 100 before turning twenty, by the time I’m around forty I should at least become the top among the Top 100, shouldn’t I?”
“That is correct. There is no clear standard, but among the Top 100 Masters, those who are especially outstanding and can treat other Top 100 Masters as inferior are separately called Absolute Masters.”
“How many are there?”
“There are the Five Great Masters of the Central Plains and the Three Hidden Masters outside the martial world. Counting only those inside the martial world gives five, and including those outside gives eight.”
“A little less than ten. At that number, it doesn’t seem too difficult.”
“I think so too.”
His voice carried no trace of laughter. After saying that, he suddenly stared straight into my eyes. I stared back.
“You… marrying our youngest daughter…”
“I refuse.”
“As an adopted son?”
“I’m sorry.”
Why on earth would I enter the house of a bearded man I had only met yesterday? I was not some homeless beggar. Even after being flatly rejected twice in a row, the Great Strength Cannon General showed no sign of giving up. After pondering for a moment with his chin in his hand, he asked again.
“Then how about becoming sworn brothers with me?”
At least this was a more listenable proposition. While moving my chopsticks toward the Guizhou-style fried fish sprinkled with spicy and sour seasoning, I asked back,
“What benefit would I get from that?”
“I have quite a wide network. If you’re my sworn brother, you won’t be pushed around by status wherever you go.”
“Hmm…”
Becoming sworn brothers would not mean entering his household, so it was not entirely unacceptable. However, I suspected our master was younger than the Great Strength Cannon General’s father. I vaguely remembered hearing someone mention that the year of the rat had already come around again, which meant he had already completed a full cycle of the zodiac long ago.
“I’m not really feeling it.”
“Is that so?”
It was not easy to debone the fish using only my right hand. With a deeply furrowed brow, I kept digging through the flesh when someone sitting beside me, apparently unable to watch any longer, deboned it for me instead. When I turned my head to thank them, instead of a face I saw a neck. Only when I craned my head upward did our eyes finally meet. The round eyes and thick eyebrows seemed to run in the family.
“Thank you.”
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
“Good. Take this one instead.”
“What?!”
The tall young lady shot to her feet and glared at the Great Strength Cannon General. She had already looked large while seated, but standing up she resembled a stone pagoda rather than a person. The Great Strength Cannon General glared back without backing down. While the two of them engaged in a staring contest, I savored the texture of the perfectly deboned fried fish and swallowed. It was strange—same fish, same seasoning, yet the neatly portioned bite tasted far better than the crumbled pieces.
Even after I had swallowed the fried fish, the Great Strength Cannon General was still locked in a staring match with the young lady. I looked at him and asked,
“Me?”
“Who else would it be?”
I glanced sideways at the tall young lady. She was truly enormous. From where I sat looking up, I felt my neck might snap just trying to see her face. When I finally managed to look up, I noticed her caterpillar-like eyebrows, sanpaku eyes, and large mouth. Taken as a whole, it was not a face one could call unattractive, but… she really did look like a general.
“This young lady?”
“Yes. She is our eldest daughter.”
When making an offer to someone, people usually tried to propose something the other party would find tempting. Why had the Great Strength Cannon General thought I would be tempted by this offer? I thought about it carefully, but still could not come up with anything. In the end, I opened my mouth and asked,
“Why?”
“Hmm…”
The Great Strength Cannon General himself seemed to have trouble thinking of a reason. I was willing to wait patiently when the young lady cut off her father’s contemplation first.
“Father! That’s not what you said before!”
“What do you mean?”
“It was only a year ago that you said you would stop talking about marriage. You said you would secure an elder position for me so I could remain in the family for life and reach the Top 100 Masters!”
“Who said anything about marriage? Young Hero Yu is a senior among the Top 100 Masters and a renowned righteous hero. If you follow him, you can build both your reputation and connections. When you become an Absolute Master, you will benefit, and our family will benefit through you. This is all an opportunity.”
After the Great Strength Cannon General presented a fairly plausible reason, the young lady could no longer speak. Feeling that I had waited long enough, I asked him again.
“So why should I take the young lady with me?”
“You’re already taking Young Lady Dang around with you.”
All eyes turned to Dang Ju-yeon, who had been silently observing from the side until now. She looked at me and asked,
“What do you think? Wouldn’t it be better to travel alone comfortably rather than constantly adding more burdens like this?”
There was now composure in Dang Ju-yeon’s expression and tone. The reason was obvious. While I had been unconscious, she had applied ointment to my flayed left arm and sprinkled some strange white powder on it. For nearly two hours after waking, it itched and burned as if countless poisonous ants were biting me, making it difficult to even breathe properly. Even I, who was relatively tolerant of pain, felt irritated. An ordinary person would have fainted and woken repeatedly every quarter of an hour, cursing her name. Whether or not Dang Ju-yeon had achieved her own form of revenge, I had no intention of letting her go. She was fulfilling her role as a guide excellently, and ever since I learned that she hated walking more than two hundred paces, I had been looking forward to making her climb a mountain someday.
“I asked Young Lady Dang to come because I needed her. This case is different.”
“Ho-yun will be plenty of help as well.”
Ho-yun. Her surname was Yeom, so Yeom Ho-yun. In any case, I had no reason whatsoever to need Young Lady Yeom. From what I could see, her only notable skill was martial arts, and even in that I was clearly superior.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure.”
“Ho-yun is on the verge of reaching the Peak realm, drinks well, and rides horses excellently.”
“Hmm…”
“Ah, she’s also good at cooking.”
“That’s not bad.”
I glanced sideways at Dang Ju-yeon. The moment our eyes met, she immediately furrowed her brows. Suddenly, the day we would climb the mountain felt even more anticipated. Dang Ju-yeon was a gourmet who enjoyed spicy food, but as a young lady from a wealthy family, the only dishes she knew how to cook were a few medicinal cuisines that required all sorts of rare herbs. Such ingredients were unlikely to be abundant on the road, so whenever we camped, cooking always fell to me. However, when comparing the benefit of no longer having to cook rice against the drawback of gaining another troublesome mouth to feed, the loss seemed greater, even if not by a huge margin. While I was silently sending a look that asked if there was anything else, the Great Strength Cannon General suddenly spoke as if he had just remembered something.
“Ah, how about this? If you take Ho-yun with you, I’ll write you a letter of introduction so you can have a sparring match with the Wave Wind Blade Tyrant of the Wave Wind Blade Gate. He’s a close friend of mine and even more skilled than I am.”
“Very well. I’ll take her.”