Chapter 45
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Retainers
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After finishing the meal and even doing the dishes, Myeong-gak settled down on one side of the porch where I was sitting.
"Aje aje bara aje."
Myeong-gak, rolling his prayer beads and chanting sutras, looked every inch the monk from a temple.
'Is he really a Shaolin disciple? No way. A Shaolin disciple wouldn't devour meat without a second thought or hawk Buddha like some street vendor's wares whenever it suited him.'
After finishing his sutra chanting, Myeong-gak glanced sideways at me.
"Why?"
He jumped right in, as if he'd been waiting for me to speak.
"Where did you learn your martial arts, benefactor?"
"What business is that of yours?"
Tsk...
Myeong-gak smacked his lips and turned away, clearly uncomfortable under my displeased gaze.
A strange silence hung between Myeong-gak and me.
"Since you've had your meal on my dime, how about you get out of my house now?"
I broke the silence first.
"Where am I supposed to go in the dead of night? Just let me crash here for one night."
"No need. I'll write off the silver you scammed out of me, so get out of my house."
"Namu Amida Butsu, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva."
After chanting his invocation, Myeong-gak furtively gauged my reaction.
"You seem to be hiding your martial prowess, which suggests some special circumstances... Would it be alright if this little monk wandered the jianghu spreading rumors about you?"
This guy definitely wasn't a Shaolin disciple.
A real Shaolin disciple wouldn't threaten someone by exploiting their weaknesses.
"You want to die?"
I wasn't bluffing.
As my killing intent flared, even the night air responded, freezing cold.
Puhehehehe...
A frivolous laugh pierced through the ice-like chill and reached me.
Puhehehehe...
Myeong-gak's laughter turned into an intangible dagger, rattling my eardrums and churning my chest.
But the intangible dagger that had shaken me to my core was pushed back by the cold aura, fading farther away.
Myeong-gak's face, covered in dark bruises, drained of all color, turning deathly pale.
"Amida Buddha!"
A majestic aura spread in all directions with his invocation, dispersing alongside the cold killing intent I'd unleashed.
Ugh...
A groan escaped Myeong-gak's lips, thin trickles of blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.
"Benefactor, have some compassion."
I slowly released the fist I'd been about to throw.
"Get out of my house. If rumors about me spread, I'll scour the entire martial world and hunt you down to kill you. Your choice."
Myeong-gak rose silently and shuffled out the front gate with slow steps.
"Leech of a bastard."
After chasing out the scammer tougher than a leech, I sat back on the porch and caught my breath.
But it wasn't long before another headache came knocking at my door.
Bam!
With the rough sound of the front gate being flung open, a massive figure bounded into the courtyard.
It was Gwang-u.
"Bro!"
"What're you doing here?"
I looked up lazily at Gwang-u's face from the porch.
"What kinda talk is that? Bro, this is my house too, y'know."
Gwang-u pouted and pulled a manual from his bosom.
"Bro, help me figure this martial arts manual out. My head just can't wrap around it."
"Just ask the Seok family head. Or have him demonstrate it for you."
Sigh...
Gwang-u let out a deep sigh and slumped his shoulders.
"I tried all that. But the family head doesn't even know the forms from the eleventh to the sixteenth sword."
Gwang-u was exceptional at learning and practicing martial arts, but utterly hopeless at grasping the hidden meanings in the manual's verses.
I spread the manual out on the porch and examined it carefully from the first page.
"You got any idea how to make sense of it, bro?"
Gwang-u hovered anxiously beside me, prodding.
"Shut it and let me concentrate, you punk. I'm only on the fifth form right now."
The One Immortal Sect had its own martial arts manuals too.
Though our master had personally drilled the forms into Gwang-u and me even while ill, he'd also explained the manuals many times over.
After going through every last page, I closed the manual.
"You already know up to the tenth sword, so show me."
Without a word, Gwang-u grabbed a wooden stick rolling around in the yard and began demonstrating the Seok family's Sixteen Swords from the first form.
Whoosh, swish, swish.
Amid chaotic footwork, the stick sliced through the air, filling the courtyard.
The Seok family's swordsmanship was based on the subtle principle of stillness amid motion—dongjungjeong.
However, the One Immortal Sect's arts I'd learned, and the Great Heavenly Demon's, embodied the pinnacles of both stillness amid motion—jeongjungdong—and motion amid stillness.
Gwang-u finished the tenth sword and lowered the stick.
To mimic ten forms of the Seok Sixteen Swords this well after just a few days proved he was indeed the world's greatest martial bone, as our master had praised.
"Up to the tenth sword, the forms are infused with the principle of dongjungjeong, but from the eleventh, they shift to jeongjungdong—which is why even the Seok family head couldn't decipher them. I can't fully break down the eleventh to sixteenth right now either. Head home for today."
Disappointment flickered across Gwang-u's face.
"I bragged to the family head that you'd crack it right away and borrowed the manual. Please, break down the swordsmanship for me tonight—even if we have to pull an all-nighter."
Deciphering martial arts isn't something you knock out in a single night.
Irritated, I snapped at him.
"Hey, you idiot! You think I'm in charge of your martial arts training? I said no—take it and go!"
Gwang-u deflated instantly, clinging to my leg.
"Bro, please. I beg you..."
The guy was strong as an ox already, shaking my leg back and forth.
"Keep this up and I really won't do it."
"Bro..."
Gwang-u slunk away toward the gate, head hung low, then turned back.
"So how many days do I have to wait?"
"At least a month, conservatively."
"Got it, bro. I'll wait."
Once Gwang-u left through the gate, I grabbed the manual and headed inside.
"Shall I decipher the Seok swordsmanship for you?"
Those were the Great Heavenly Demon's first words when he saw me.
For some reason, his unusual gentleness today made my skin crawl.
"No need. I've grasped the gist already."
Heh heh heh...
The Great Heavenly Demon sneered at me.
"You think deciphering martial arts from a manual alone is as easy as it sounds? Only someone who's pored over countless manuals and unraveled them can do it. Watch closely."
The Great Heavenly Demon abruptly drew his sword and unleashed the swordsmanship.
It was the Seok Sixteen Swords, from first to last form without pause.
His version resembled what Gwang-u had shown, but was vastly different.
Sharper. More domineering.
I watched, mesmerized, as the Great Heavenly Demon demonstrated.
This demon was undoubtedly a genius when it came to martial arts.
"See that? Mull it over and savor what I just showed you. Even in this paltry swordsmanship, there's something to gain."
"...Thanks, Great Heavenly Demon."
Heh heh heh...
"Now, time to repay that gratitude, isn't it? Come at me."
Clang!
I drew my sword and charged right away.
Clang! Clang! ...!
The ringing clash of steel had never sounded so exhilarating.
A smile crept onto my lips unbidden.
But reality remained cruel.
The moment I felt I'd grazed the Great Heavenly Demon's shoulder, his blade was already slicing my wrist.
Slash!
My sword hand flew into the air, severed at the wrist.
I ignored it and barreled toward the Great Heavenly Demon, swinging my left fist.
Slash!
My left fist split apart, my leg hacked off.
"Looks like that's it for today. But you've improved a lot."
Slash.
Then my head floated up.
After completing my breath adjustment meditation, I stepped out of the house and strolled along the riverbank.
With Gwang-u around, mornings were chaotic and noisy from dawn, but alone, I found leisure and time stretched out.
The warm sunlight filtering through the leaves soothed my mind as well.
While enjoying my walk by the river, I spotted a gray lump under a large tree.
It was roundish and wriggling as if alive.
"You little shit..."
A curse spilled out the moment I saw the round thing.
At my curse, the round thing turned its head.
"You spent the night here?"
A round, bruised face looked up at me pitifully.
My brief moment of peace was shattered by this scamming monk bastard, Myeong-gak.
His pathetic eyes looked ready to brim with tears any second.
"You lunatic."
As I turned to head home, the scammer monk's voice caught me.
"All night... I retraced the events in Huanin County. From the Henan Jo clan's raid to their total annihilation. Word is, the Jo clan was wiped out around here. Before entering the village, I assumed you'd repelled them with help from Namgung Hye of the Namgung family and Zhuge Ji of the Zhuge family. But after meeting you, benefactor, I suspect my guess was wrong. I won't pry into it anymore. Nor will I ask about your true identity."
His words tugged at my heart just a little.
He was curious about my identity, and I was equally curious about his.
And above all, he wasn't a bad guy.
"What do you want?"
"Amida Buddha. Just some food, please."
A single meal? I could spare that.
"Follow me."
Puhehehehe...
The Si family of Huanin, having lost both family head and young master, was sunk in deep sorrow.
What made it even more agonizing and perplexing for the retainers was not even knowing if the head and young master were alive or dead.
The young master, who had left on the family head's orders, never returned, and now the family head himself had vanished while searching for him.
The retainers scoured everywhere for clues but found no one who knew their exact whereabouts.
Unable to just wander endlessly in search, the Si family's matriarch—Ma So-yong, wife of Si Ju-pyeong—had her second son, Si Wang-yu, take over the family head's duties.
But second son Si Wang-yu fell far short of his elder brother, Si Wang-saeng.
He wasn't skilled in martial arts, sharp in calculations, or versed in schemes.
The only thing Si Wang-yu had over his brother was his indulgence in wine, women, and gambling.
He loved booze, dames, and dice so much he'd froth at the mouth, earning constant scoldings from the family head.
With such a man suddenly thrust into the family head's role, things were bound to fall apart.
For about ten days, he holed up at home somehow, but soon grew restless and antsy.
In the end, Si Wang-yu took two retainers and left the estate.
"If the master finds out, he'll fly into a rage."
The retainers fretted greatly as they followed him.
But he paid them no mind.
If anything, he seemed confident, like he had a plan.
"Do you know why my brother, Si Wang-saeng, left the family?"
"No idea. Does the young master know?"
"Of course. Mother knows too. She's just pretending not to, because the opponent is too strong."
Si Wang-yu knew his brother Si Wang-saeng had left to visit the Henan Jo clan.
And after that, the Jo clan had raided the Seok family—so his brother must have been part of that group.
'Brother probably died then. Good for me.'