166. Martial Alliance (9)
Martial Alliance (9)
166. Martial Alliance (9)
As soon as the copying of the secret manual was finished, I barely managed to escape from the Mount Tai Sect's estate. The two old men insisted they couldn't possibly send their benefactor off like this and tried to prepare some kind of reception, so I told them that since we were staying nearby anyway, I would visit again later, and I slipped out without even being able to exchange a proper farewell with Gyeong Su-yeon.
The Four Heroes of Dong-o were my masters and benefactors. Although I had first brought them here through the rude method of coercion, somewhere along the way they had become precious people—no, precious souls—to me. By finding a successor for the line of the Moonlit Divine Sword, which had died out, I had fulfilled Moon Immortal's wish. Though I thought it was probably impossible, just as Flame Emperor had hoped, I was still diligently training to obtain power surpassing that of the Four Heroes. Heosan could be taken to Wudang someday, and with this opportunity I had finally fulfilled Geo Am's wish, which truly lightened my heart.
"Wasn't that incredible? I never imagined that little girl could be that strong."
"Indeed, indeed. If only she'd landed that final strike, who knows how it would have ended..."
On the way back, a Qingcheng martial artist and a Diancang martial artist were conversing with faces full of admiration. But a Kunlun martial artist approached them and spoke.
"Ridiculous talk. Her strength may be remarkable, but she was never a match from the start. That girl knows that better than anyone. Even so, seeing how fiercely she burned with fighting spirit, she's clearly going to be the leading figure of the next Dragon-Phoenix Gathering—or the one after that."
Who could she be to receive such praise? Had a rival for our Senior Sister Cho just appeared?
"True enough. She looked so cute, but her viciousness was no joke. The Beggars' Sect has it rough, too. Who would've guessed that the great Jo Bok of all people would get her leg broken by that little girl?"
"Damn it. To be honest, I wagered ten taels of silver on Jo Bok this time. Ruined, completely ruined."
The grumbling Diancang martial artist. Jo Bok had been taken down? Not just any martial artist, but Jo Bok—the powerful Four Phoenixes favorite, the greatest talent under heaven, Drunken Beggar's disciple? I wasn't the only one shocked; martial artists were gathering here and there, seriously discussing the match between Jo Bok and the small girl. Jo Bok was even stronger than Son Yeong. She boasted the mightiest martial prowess among women her age, to the point that Murong Rin had given up on competing against her—and her leg had been broken? The Martial World truly was vast.
With an unsettled feeling, I returned to the estate to find it in tremendous chaos.
"Where is everyone?"
I asked a servant, and the servant answered urgently.
"Young Lady Cho returned after sustaining internal injuries in a match. Medicine Immortal and the Sect Leader are tending to her at this moment."
Wh-what? Cho-ryeong? She had crossed my mind as someone who, though she would lose to Jo Bok, could at least put up a fight. Still, I had never imagined that our gentle Cho-ryeong had actually fought Jo Bok and broken Jo Bok's leg. And internal injuries on top of that? At the servant's words, I hurried to Cho-ryeong's quarters, where Master, my senior sisters, and even Murong Rin had gathered to watch over her.
"SENIOR SISTER CHO!!!"
Traces of blood at the corners of her mouth. Someone seemed to have wiped them away with a cloth or the like, but for a martial artist to vomit blood was no ordinary matter.
"Junior Brother..."
Cho-ryeong looked up at me, her small fists clenched tight, on the verge of tears.
"Aish. You're going to be the death of me, Junior Sister. What possessed you to challenge Drunken Beggar Elder's disciple to a match?"
Lee Eun-ha smacked Cho-ryeong on the bottom and let out a sigh. It couldn't possibly have hurt, but Cho-ryeong pressed her lips firmly shut with an expression of injustice. If it was internal injuries, Lee Eun-ha would have already administered emergency treatment with her Jeong-hyang Pill or Son Yeong Pill, so it didn't look like a major problem, but a match so fierce that internal injuries and wounds were exchanged? Son Yeong I could understand, but Cho-ryeong had really fought such a bloody match?
"What happened?"
"She had a bout with Drunken Beggar Elder's disciple in the street. Ryeong sustained internal injuries, but her opponent's leg was broken, they say. She was supposed to be a strong favorite to win this Dragon-Phoenix Gathering, and I have no idea how I'm supposed to apologize to the Beggars' Sect Leader and Elder."
My master clutched her head and sighed.
"Wait, Master. We're the ones who should be receiving an apology. A full-grown adult—and a martial artist of such high caliber at that—inflicted internal injuries on our young Junior Sister Cho."
Son Yeong immediately voiced her objection to our master's words. Come to think of it, she was right. No matter how young Jo Bok might be, she was still an adult. In a fight between an adult and a child, the adult was naturally at fault.
"But Junior Sister Cho was the one who lunged at her first, they say. And she even broke her precious bamboo staff."
Jeong-hyang spoke in a worried tone. Ugh. So we threw the first punch, too? I wasn't in any position to talk, having picked a fight with the Peng Clan myself, but Cho-ryeong picking a fight with the Beggars' Sect right in the middle of the Martial Alliance—she truly was a fine senior sister of mine.
"What was it about, Senior Sister Cho?"
I quietly asked Cho-ryeong. She avoided my eyes and spoke.
"That woman. That beggar woman insulted you, Junior Brother. She said that man named Yeongmok was nothing, and that sooner or later she herself would trample him completely."
Ah... Jo Bok and I had been on bad terms from the start. Unlike Drunken Beggar, with whom I had reconciled at the Wine Immortal Sect, we had parted ways while both still heated—she must have been grinding her teeth over me.
"She was amazing, you know? That pipsqueak? While she was playing with our Jung-yeong, she overheard beggars talking among themselves in the distance and shot out like an arrow. That pipsqueak told Jo Bok to say it again, and Jo Bok, probably not wanting to deal with her, tried to ignore her and leave. Young Master Baek's Senior Sister—looks are deceiving, aren't they? She's got quite the temper. She went and kicked Jo Bok right in the backside just as Jo Bok turned away."
Murong Rin recalled the scene with the most entertained expression in the world.
"That beggar bitch isn't the type to take a hit and stay quiet. She swung her bamboo staff down lightly, and the pipsqueak reached out and snapped that qi-infused bamboo staff clean in two. And then the match began."
A match that started so abruptly. No, this wasn't a match or anything of the sort—it was just a street brawl. According to Murong Rin, Cho-ryeong was the inferior fighter compared to Jo Bok. Cho-ryeong had less internal energy, less experience, and even less reach, so she threw herself at Jo Bok desperately and chose extreme close-quarters combat.
"I might have been done in by it. That kind of fighting style doesn't exist in the Murong Clan, after all. But that beggar bitch, true to being a beggar, was quite familiar with dog fights. In the end, our pipsqueak lost. No matter how many times she kicked, her opponent wouldn't go down, until finally she took internal injuries, bled, and was sent flying.
"But then a funny thing happened. Our pipsqueak—I thought she'd been taking the beating the whole time, but she kept kicking at that woman's shin until she finally broke her leg. Serves her right. Even if the Medical Immortal herself came, mending that leg in fifteen days would be impossible."
Murong Rin wore a selfish smile at her powerful rival's injury.
"Ryeong. This is the Martial Alliance. It's a place where fearsome great sects reside. If you cause trouble in a place like this, how can this master possibly handle it?"
My master looked at Cho-ryeong, who had gotten into trouble for the first time, completely at a loss.
"But that woman insulted our Junior Brother. Junior Brother is the strongest martial artist under heaven, greater than anyone, and that woman insulted him. Didn't you teach us, Master, that a martial artist must never back down when it comes to the honor of the sect?"
Children were terrifying for this very reason. Watching her throw adults' own past words right back at them filled me with a profound respect for every parent in the world.
"Junior Sister. It was still reckless. Your opponent was a martial artist far stronger than you, wasn't she? You're lucky this senior sister of yours was here—an internal injury like that, a slip of fortune, and you could have lived out your life as a cripple."
"Next time we fight, I'll win."
Even under Son Yeong's scolding, Cho-ryeong burned with fighting spirit. I felt like I was only now beginning to understand what the Four Heroes had told me. I had been the greatest dullard under heaven, but the Four Heroes had remodeled my constitution—superb dynamic vision and instantaneous reflexes, quick situational judgment and composure. And despite all that, the Four Heroes had unanimously agreed that my innate quality was still abysmal.
The greatest talents I had ever seen were Son Yeong, Cho-ryeong, and Jo Bok. The one thing the three of them shared that I lacked was that boundless fighting spirit. In the past, Son Yeong had fought a life-or-death struggle against Cheon Myeong-hwa when she couldn't even control her own body. A mere third-rate martial artist, she had boldly declared she would one day destroy the Black Heaven Association. Jo Bok, faced with me, someone who possessed martial arts beyond common sense, had not been the slightest bit intimidated and had said she would defeat me someday. She was the same. And Cho-ryeong, whom I had seen only as young and cute, had faced that same Jo Bok with not the slightest intention of backing down.
Then what about me? Including my past life, had I ever once stepped into a fight I had no chance of winning? So this was fighting spirit—the most important quality of a martial artist.
"Well done, pipsqueak. Thanks to you, things might just work out nicely for your unni."
Murong Rin stroked Cho-ryeong's head with a satisfied face. Cho-ryeong looked up at Murong Rin with a displeased expression.
"I'm not a pipsqueak."
"Funny. Not a pipsqueak? What else would you be? When your tits get as big as mine, I'll call you a young lady then."
"Heroine Murong, yours are even smaller than our Junior Sister Lee's..."
"Your senior sister is just ignorantly huge. Anyway, thank you. You like dried persimmons, right? Some top-quality ones came in as a gift, so I'll bring you a whole bunch."
"Really?"
"See? You're definitely a pipsqueak."
Had Murong Rin ever doted on such a young girl before? It seemed Lee Eun-ha had firmly caught Murong Hyeok-jung's eye, and Cho-ryeong had caught Murong Rin's. Anyway, Jo Bok, was it. It was a shame about her leg, but it wasn't entirely our fault either, so—well, I could just buy Drunken Beggar a drink later.
This was why you never knew how things in the world would turn out. With the powerful favorite Jo Bok absurdly eliminated, would the winner be Myo Hong-seon—that crazy bitch? I'd rather that pretty Seo-ok won.
"Our pipsqueak young lady took care of Jo Bok for me, so if Medicine Immortal takes care of Seo-ok, and Young Lady Son takes care of Myo Hong-seon, and Daoist Jeong even takes care of Nangong Hye, then I could make it into the Four Phoenixes myself."
Murong Rin spoke cheerfully.
"I can't do things like fighting."
When Jeong-hyang said this with a laugh, Murong Rin shook her head.
"I'm just saying it for the sake of saying it. The talk about Young Master Baek finding a fortuitous encounter on his way back from the Murong Clan became reality like this, didn't it? Who knows? Maybe it'll actually happen."
"Even if it somehow did, Heroine Seo-ok would have to be handled by Senior Sister Jeong, not me. A beauty against a beauty makes for a fine picture, after all."
Lee Eun-ha played along with Murong Rin's joke. When it came to martial arts, maybe, but in looks, Jeong-hyang didn't seem like she'd be outmatched.
"Myo Hong-seon, was it. I've heard she's a formidable female master. She's far beyond my level to handle, but if the chance presents itself, I'd like to cross swords with her at least once."
Son Yeong, burning with serious fighting spirit all by herself. As expected, this species called genius was truly a strange one to observe from close up.
Murong Rin's joke, laden with selfish motives. At that moment, no one—including her—could have foreseen it. Jo Bok and Seo-ok. Myo Hong-seon. What would come of the Three-Tier System's Four Phoenixes candidates crossing paths with Yeongsan Sect—at that moment, no one could have known. Words become seeds. So it was probably from this moment that I resolved to watch my mouth.