Chapter 76
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: Tigers of the Central Plains
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Crash!
A young man, thoroughly drunk, swept everything off the table.
With the table now cleared, his bloodshot eyes and the sword at his waist stood out starkly.
"You've had quite a bit, Young Master."
A warrior placated him with a straight face.
It made sense, setting aside matters of loyalty.
As the heir who had lived without want, it must be hard for him to accept a situation like this.
"Young Master Peng?"
"Hoooh."
Peng Horip raised a hand to silence the warrior as he regulated his breathing with a long exhale.
The Great Harmony Inn was entirely occupied by his group, with him at the lead.
No need to worry about prying eyes, so his rampage grew ever more fierce, leaving the innocent servers to watch nervously.
Grind.
Peng Horip ground his teeth every time he chewed over that one person.
'Seo Mun-ha...!'
Even after several seasons had passed.
A warrior who still hadn't left Shandong swallowed a silent groan.
'How did it come to this...'
The once supremely confident rising star was nowhere to be seen.
Peng Horip, ruled by his heart over his head, had committed blunder after blunder in the past, and those burdens now weighed him down.
Looking back, it was all due to his own overreach.
He had taken on the Child Ghost Rebellion's demon alone and failed the pursuit.
It had tarnished his clan and his name, leaving a dent in the impenetrable fortress that was the Peng Clan—but fallen reputation was secondary.
Fortifying the stronghold or elevating the Peng Clan right away wasn't even his real concern.
Even if the people of Shandong gossiped about the Seo Mun Clan and Seo Mun-ha, or if commoners praised anyone, it meant little to Peng Horip.
'He never cared much anyway...'
What he truly desired wasn't the people's attention, but that of one single person.
"Where is Lady Baek Ri?"
"She's said to be heading to Jiangnan soon."
Peng Horip ground his teeth again at the mention of Baek Ri-seol's whereabouts.
In truth, there was no connection between Seo Mun-ha and Baek Ri-seol's movements.
The Baek Ri Clan had responded to a long-time ally's request.
Baek Ri-seol's cooperation with the Seo Mun Clan's affairs was at the clan level, and publicly, it was because the Murim Alliance had requested their assistance as well.
But Peng Horip, blaming himself for his failures, soon pinned all the blame on Seo Mun-ha.
"Damn it."
Whirlwind Blade Dragon, Peng Horip.
The dragon cast down to earth drowned his sorrows in drink, haunting Shandong's outskirts.
Gulp. Gulp.
It was only natural he couldn't accept it.
"Urgh."
Wasn't this the same Seo Mun-ha who had been known as a wastrel not long ago?
'It's utterly absurd!'
Acknowledging Seo Mun-ha's achievements would undermine his own righteousness.
Peng Horip, who had sent assassins against him day and night under the pretext of his wastrel ways, had grown obsessed with Seo Mun-ha instead of Baek Ri-seol as time passed since the gathering.
For someone who only felt satisfied after seizing everything he wanted, this string of failures was impossible to stomach, leaving him stagnating in place as time slipped away.
If only he were the sort who could laugh it off carefree like others.
Even attending that farce of a gathering had bruised his pride before, and now he had no face to show to Baek Ri-seol.
At some point, his focus had shifted.
'Because of those idiots from the Hwang Bo Clan.'
Peng Horip thought of Hwang Bo Woo-jun, one of the culprits, now dead.
If he had done his part properly, things wouldn't have gotten this tangled.
The enemy of my enemy is a friend—he had proposed cooperation by letter, yet even lambasted the faded Hwang Bo Clan along with them.
"Young Master..."
Another guard approached as he shook an empty bottle.
"What is it? I said not to let anyone in!"
He was idly groping for some solution when...
"There's someone who insists on seeing you..."
The guard whispered in his ear.
Peng Horip's drunken haze lifted in surprise, and he ordered the man brought in.
Thud.
The unexpected guest was a man with a long, bony frame.
"First time meeting you. Young Master Peng."
The hem of the man's robe bore the emblem of the Foreign Eagle.
"I heard you were here, Young Master, so I came. I think we'd get along well."
The man smiled faintly and cut straight to the chase.
"Be specific..."
Peng Horip's hazy eyes sharpened with faint glimmers of life.
It was a temptation too alluring to refuse.
A spring breeze blew in.
Her swaying locks brushed against her back, then tickled her nose as they drifted forward.
Seo Mun-ha stood steadfast.
His broad shoulders and imposing frame, at their peak, evoked the image of a robust young man.
It was the ideal warrior's physique.
Well-proportioned muscles over a sturdy skeleton.
His near-perfect build was balanced, somewhat at odds with his handsome features, yet viewing him felt like beholding a masterpiece painting.
"Hyah!"
It differed from the sturdy build he had enjoyed in his previous life.
"Good spirit, but shouting like that won't help."
Undimmed by it, the aura and gleam in his eyes marked a fully matured Seo Mun-ha as a man.
"Urk!"
Seo Mun-ha shifted his stance slightly, tripping a comparatively small boy.
"Again."
Seo Mun-ha was overseeing the martial arts practice of A-so and a few others, and the changes weren't just skin-deep.
"Yes!"
It was the inner energy lying dormant within.
He had fully subdued and controlled the wild qi rampaging through his activated yang meridians like untamed stallions.
Paradoxically, his refined qi aura asserted an even stronger presence.
Whoosh!
Facing him, A-so swung his large longsword wildly, stirring up the training ground noisily.
It had been nearly three months since he began training with Seo Mun-ha, yet A-so had never so much as grazed his clothes, always collapsing from exhaustion on his own.
Clang!
The even heavier sword clattered to the ground.
"Hah, hah."
A-so sprawled out, his youthful face twisted as he panted heavily.
"Still better than before."
If that was praise, it was praise.
Seo Mun-ha offered no further glance at A-so with his curt assessment, and the boy pouting in complaint was routine by now.
"I wouldn't know."
"Your stance is settling in nicely. In your own style."
Seo Mun-ha held a sheet of fine paper.
"Sparring ends here for today."
Throughout, he hadn't taken his eyes off the letter.
"I've been wondering... what are you reading?"
"Intelligence."
And yet, A-so hadn't landed a single effective blow, so his earlier evaluation might sound like empty words.
"Intelligence?"
A-so asked with a pouty face.
"Gotta know what's going on in the world."
"From that Beggar Sect fellow?"
"'Fellow' what?"
Seo Mun-ha flipped the page, correcting the ridiculous title with a chuckle.
The unknown naturally breeds fear.
Ghosts terrify because their outsides are unknowable; people because their insides are.
"What's wrong?"
A-so blinked innocently, still too young to grasp it.
"Nothing."
In not feeling fear, Seo Mun-ha was much like A-so, showing faint interest and anticipation instead.
The jianghu martial world always churned with unrest.
The restless murim inevitably tied the Seo Mun Clan and Seo Mun-ha to it, directly or indirectly.
Wu Xue-feng's updates were basic situational reports, but frequent exchanges let Seo Mun-ha stay informed on distant happenings.
Rustle.
He turned to the next page and asked,
"You plan to sit there all day?"
"You said sparring's over."
"Training isn't. Start with horse stance, then a hundred reps of each form."
"Young Master?!"
Seo Mun-ha's guidance was brutally demanding.
A-so paled and grabbed his sword with a grimace, while Yang Jeong and Gu Chil, in similar straits, offered brief sympathy from a step away.
As grueling as it was, they had improved greatly.
Their complaints had lessened, after all.
Perhaps desperation had set in from the harsh regimen, but day by day, they adapted out of necessity and grew.
Swipe.
Seo Mun-ha casually extended a hand.
Ignoring his trembling legs, he lightly lifted A-so's drooping elbow.
As if he had eyes on the side of his head.
'What's different, exactly...'
As if reading his thoughts, Seo Mun-ha adjusted A-so's posture himself and explained.
"Like I said before, it's the strength and weakness of our clan's sword arts."
His eyes, words, and actions operated independently.
Seo Mun-ha handled two, no, three things at once.
Multitasking that demanded full focus on each, yet he wasted none—a near-divine skill.
Precisely, divine qi rather than skill.
The heart technique's effect of emptying the mind and clearing the spirit.
With Northern Bright Heart Method at fifty percent mastery, simultaneous cognition and action became possible.
"Our clan's arts resemble Pure Sect martial arts in general."
Like now.
"Uh... Buddhist philosophy? Systematically walking the middle path?"
A-so listened intently to Seo Mun-ha.
Yang Jeong and Gu Chil often griped at his strict demeanor and simplistic drills.
Seo Mun Young-ryeong and Seo Mun Jun-sang occasionally sparred with him too, shaping their days, and none could dispute his skill or vast knowledge.
"Entry-level arts are ultimately tailored for the masses."
Seo Mun Young-ryeong's eyes would light up at the word "training."
Unlike her enthusiasm, his stoic face hid a seriousness toward practice.
"Everyone's different. You can wear it, but it's like clothes that don't quite fit. At the basics."
Some have long limbs, others short.
"Some are flexible, others not."
Weights varied with height and build; strides and motions by physical condition.
"Weapons aside, opponents aren't always men or master swordsmen. To execute forms perfectly regardless of person or situation..."
"Yes?"
"Takes time and effort. Experience, naturally."
All arts were thus, but great mastery meant infusing it with one's own color.
"So, making it your own isn't easy."
Warriors in pursuit honed unique weapons through hundreds, thousands of swings.
"So... you're saying it's fitting my body better now?!"
A-so nodded vigorously, grasping it.
The Flowing Cloud Heart Technique the three practiced.
Based on it, they endlessly drilled two sword forms and one footwork.
The clan's most basic, universal arts, yet their power varied wildly.
"As the saying goes, know your enemy and yourself. This is all part of knowing yourself."
Thanks entirely to Seo Mun-ha.
"Know heaven and earth, and you'll triumph in a hundred battles! I read it in a strategy book!"
Reinvigorated, A-so swung his sword with renewed vigor.
Swish!
Silently, like his master.
"D-done, Young Master!"
"Huff!"
Gu Chil and Yang Jeong followed.
Their training volume dwarfed A-so's; they also handled marching drills for stamina and Black Wind Unit training.
Seo Mun-ha finished folding the letter just in time.
Though drenched in sweat, the two deathly pale faces meant one more round awaited.
"W-wait a moment, please!"
Yang Jeong, panting before their one-on-three spar, tried buying time.
"In what you said earlier... you missed the downside!"
His hometown flashed desperately in his mind.
"No unique traits. Anyone can learn it."
Seo Mun-ha grinned, seeing through the obvious ploy.
"Come at me."
For him, it was a mutually beneficial sparring method.
"Heh heh heh."
Half-mad Gu Chil swung blindly.
Days of repetitive training.
Change came after finishing today's session.