Chapter 15: Deep-Thinking Bastards
Chapter 14 – Deep-Thinking Bastards
That evening.
Namgung Cheon let out a deep sigh.
No matter how people could never be exactly as one wished, how could they be so short-sighted?
Having gone out of his way to give him a clean ending, Song Won-gyo ended up choosing a messy conclusion after all.
After class, Song Won-gyo had challenged Namgung Cheon to a duel with a look on his face that suggested he wanted to chew him up and spit him out.
Of course, he was now paying a heavy price for it.
His eye areas were swollen, blood was streaming from his smashed nose, his lips were torn, and one of his teeth was missing.
“You, you bastard… How…? Ugh!”
Song Won-gyo, barely spitting out the words, collapsed as blood trickled down the side of his mouth.
His legs trembled so much that he could not even keep his balance properly.
“Young Master S-Song…”
Baekli Hyang, who had been watching in a daze, muttered weakly.
She looked at Namgung Cheon with a trembling gaze.
The official pushover of Dragon Heaven Academy, who had been everyone’s laughingstock.
Yet he had become a completely different person.
That calm gaze of his was chillingly cold.
Finally, Namgung Cheon asked in a voice that exuded a freezing chill.
“Are you going to do this too?”
“N-No… I…”
Baekli Hyang quickly looked away.
She was flustered.
Avoiding someone’s gaze first? Me?
Had she ever avoided the gaze of a man before?
It had always been the exact opposite.
Yet right now, she did not have the confidence to look straight into Namgung Cheon’s eyes at all.
‘Why, to a pushover like that!’
Just then, Namgung Cheon’s voice reached her again.
“If you want to, just say the word. I’ll make sure to give you a proper lesson.”
“Insolent…!”
The words blurted out of her mouth before she knew it, but her mouth shut on its own the moment their eyes met.
It was a gaze that carried a hint of a wicked smile.
It was the same expression as last night when Namgung Cheon had performed that strange, wicked art on her.
As she suddenly recalled that event, her cheeks burned hot.
‘Why on earth am I thinking of that right now…!’
She still did not know.
What exactly had been done to her, and how.
Although she had described it as a wicked art, it was clear that it was not a demonic art.
For she could not sense even the slightest trace of evil energy.
It was only natural.
Although chamber arts originally appeared somewhat obscene, they were ultimately one of the Daoist cultivation methods.
Thus, it could rather be considered an orthodox martial art.
Namgung Cheon narrowed his eyes and glared at Baekli Hyang.
“Why no answer? Do you want to be punished more?”
“Ah, that is…!”
Baekli Hyang stammered, flustered once again.
Want to be punished?
Yes, she just wanted to be punished… that was all. Huh?
‘W-What am I thinking right now?’
Her heart felt as if it would burst.
At the same time, a sense of despair began to well up in Baekli Hyang’s mind.
‘What do I do? Am I going crazy?’
Unable to hide her embarrassment, Baekli Hyang suddenly spun around and ran away.
“Lady B-Baekli!”
The fallen Song Won-gyo called out to her with a look of distress.
However, Baekli Hyang had already disappeared around the corner of the pavilion.
Namgung Cheon tilted his head.
What was up with that absurd reaction? Could it be that the lustful energy still remained?
Perhaps…?
“I developed that chamber art myself and named it the Lust-Transforming Pure Mind Art. It makes it easy to remove the lustful energy after the deed, so there is no burden. Well, there are some unstable elements if it is removed too late… but it is nothing to worry about.”
Did that damn perverted monk pass off an incomplete chamber art to me?
Well, since he had not bought it with money, strictly speaking, it could not be said that the monk had sold it to him.
Still, he felt somewhat cheated.
If it had been an ordinary martial art, he would have supplemented its weaknesses with his First Sight Skill-Breaking Eyes after performing it once, but he had no reason to perform this chamber art, and since it was qualitatively different from martial arts, he had not realized its flaws.
But what if the unstable element was that the influence of the Lust-Transforming Pure Mind Art remained even after the lustful energy was removed?
What now?
‘Well, it is not my problem to worry about.’
Indeed.
It was, after all, a problem that Baekli Hyang had to resolve.
Was not everything karmic retribution and reaping what one sowed?
One reaped what one sowed.
He had done enough.
Rather, she should be grateful that he had not done anything worse.
By the way, what should he do with this guy now?
Namgung Cheon looked at Song Won-gyo, who was collapsed in front of him, with cold eyes.
Even in his miserable state, Song Won-gyo did not lose his malicious glare.
The fellow spat out bloody phlegm and snapped.
“Do you think this will get you out of being the pushover of Dragon Heaven Academy? I don’t know what you did to Lady Baekli, but you’ll regret it soon! Don’t expect the situation to change just because you learned some cheap tricks from somewhere and defeated me. After all, you’re just the bastard spawned by the bitch who slept with the Great Killing Star! The world will not leave you in peace! You would have been better off just dying!”
Ah, listening to this, his foul language was getting a bit too severe.
Did this academy teach its students how to beg for a beating?
Thwack!
“Argh!”
Namgung Cheon smacked the back of his head with all his might and squatted down in front of Song Won-gyo.
“You bastard. No matter what, the person who insults someone’s parents is the worst.”
“Hmph! I only stated the facts as they are…!”
Thwack!
“Ack!”
“You’re a bastard who doesn’t learn. Then you have to get beaten up, what else.”
“W-Wait! Stop! I admit defeat! This is not the etiquette of a martial artist…! Aaargh!”
Thud! Thud! Crack! Thwack!
Namgung Cheon said as he beat him up with all his might.
“Etiquette is something discussed between humans. Since you are not human, I will skip it.”
Even after that, Namgung Cheon continued the beating for a long time.
* * *
Having finished his meditation tonight as well without fail, Namgung Cheon repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fists as he sank into thought.
‘I have brought my physical condition up quite a bit, but… it is still not enough.’
He could easily deal with those who had reached the entry stage of the first-rate level, like Song Won-gyo or Baekli Hyang.
However, it would be dangerous if he exchanged blows with a peak-stage expert or faced multiple first-rate experts.
Of course, he possessed countless experiences that were second to none.
But he could not rest easy relying solely on that.
‘As Song Won-gyo said, right now I am a child carrying the blood of the Great Killing Star.’
People’s gazes would certainly not be kind.
He knew all too well that he would have to walk a thorny path.
Although it was a much better situation compared to his past life, he could not just stay relaxed.
Namgung Cheon stood up and walked over to the window.
The stars in the night sky shone brightly.
Namgung Cheon looked at the numerous clusters of stars and thought.
‘Are you watching? I punished those who bullied my son. You gave me this opportunity for that, didn’t you? Both you and Cheon. If only I could hear your voice. If only you could say a word of praise, telling me I did well, I would have nothing more to wish for.’
Connecting the starlight, it became a face he missed.
As he looked up at the sky for a moment like that, his eyes grew moist before he knew it.
“Ahem!”
He had momentarily indulged in sentimentality, which was unlike him.
Closing the window and turning around, Namgung Cheon pondered how to become stronger again.
After all, was not the Jianghu a place where one needed power to survive?
‘If it were the Namgung Clan of the past, by now I would have gulped down all kinds of spiritual medicines and built up a massive amount of internal energy.’
It had now become a family that could hardly afford such luxury.
That they had not been erased from the Jianghu even after forming a connection with the Heavenly Great Killing Star was likely because they were the Namgung Clan.
If so, the remaining method was indeed…
‘I have to go look for the safehouses…’
During the days in his past life when he was dodging the Martial Alliance, he had prepared safehouses as hideouts all over the Jianghu.
This was like a habit of those marked as public enemies of the Martial World.
Among the safehouses, there were places where he had hidden relatively precious spiritual medicines or artifacts.
He had prepared them so that he could visit a safehouse for first aid in case of an emergency.
He could also resell the artifacts if he needed urgent cash.
‘The problem is that this place, Wuhan, is the only one without a safehouse.’
Why had he not established a safehouse in a place with such a large floating population?
That was, of course, because the Martial Alliance was located here.
There was a saying that it is dark under the lamp, but that only applied if one was under the lamp from the very start.
If one foolishly crawled under the lamp believing only in those words, one would likely get caught and die before that.
Thus, he had no choice but to stay as far away as possible from Wuhan, where the Martial Alliance headquarters was located.
‘Would the closest place from here be Mount Dabie, at least?’
The reason he had established a safehouse on Mount Dabie was simple.
First, the mountain terrain was majestic, and because it was at the border of Anhui, Hubei, and Henan, it was easy to flee anywhere.
The problem was that traveling all the way there and back was no easy task.
‘Living as a student, there are unexpectedly many restrictions.’
Certainly, in this aspect, the life of a fugitive felt more free.
Was life, in the end, all about how one thought of it?
Ah, obtaining enlightenment even in the midst of this.
I am such a deep-thinking guy.
* * *
Thwack!
“Argh!”
Crash!
Kicked and sent flying, Song Won-gyo tumbled haphazardly along with miscellaneous junk.
Inside a dilapidated pavilion used as a storehouse in Dragon Heaven Academy.
“Urrrgh.”
Song Won-gyo squirmed, letting out a painful groan.
Thud, thud.
Along with heavy footsteps, a dark shadow approached and grabbed Song Won-gyo by the hair with a rough grip.
“Ugh!”
A man whose build was so massive that he was a head taller than most adults.
Holding Song Won-gyo by his hair, he dragged him along and threw him carelessly in front of a young man sitting on a chair.
Thud!
“Mgh…!”
With his eyes bloodshot, Song Won-gyo did not even dare to raise his head in this miserable situation.
Just then, as the moonlight leaked in diagonally through a gap in the window, the face of the man sitting on the chair was clearly revealed in the darkness.
It was a somewhat youthful face.
A voice as youthful as his appearance flowed out.
“Brother Song. There are two things you did wrong. Do you know what they are?”
A clear voice, to the point that the word ‘innocent’ suited it.
As Song Won-gyo merely clenched his teeth, the giant standing beside him delivered a punch without hesitation.
“Answer!”
Crack!
“Argh!”
Crash!
Hit in the face, Song Won-gyo was sent flying again, tumbling haphazardly.
The youth sitting on the chair said as if complaining.
“Cheol-ju. How can you beat someone up so ignorantly? If his teeth fall out, it will be hard to understand what he says.”
“My apologies, Young Patriarch.”
The giant bowed politely.
They were none other than the Young Patriarch of the Luoyang Jo Clan and his guardian warrior; the youth sitting on the chair was the Young Patriarch, Jo Kang-min, and the giant man was the Guardian, Gwak Cheol-ju.
The Luoyang Jo Clan, along with the Baekli Clan, belonged to the Seven Great Clans of the Jianghu, and the Young Patriarch, Jo Kang-min, was known as a rare martial arts genius.
There was even a rumor that the reason he was already a third-year student at Dragon Heaven Academy despite being only seventeen years old was because the Head of the Dragon Heaven Academy had stepped forward early on to bring him into the academy.
In response, the Luoyang Jo Clan had entered Gwak Cheol-ju, who was slightly older, into the academy together with him as his guardian warrior.
As a member of the younger generation receiving high expectations, Jo Kang-min was currently on the verge of the peak realm.
However, because he had failed to overcome that barrier recently, he was in a somewhat irritable state.
Jo Kang-min let out a light sigh and continued.
“Since Brother Song is stupider than I thought, I will point them out one by one. First, Brother Song presumptuously coveted Lady Baekli. Did you think I wouldn’t know? If so, you underestimated me. Either that, or Brother Song is fucking stupid. Second, the Young Sect Leader of the Zhengzhou Sect getting beaten up by the official pushover of Dragon Heaven Academy and coming to find his senior to whine like this… is a disgrace to our Henan. Isn’t that so? Aren’t you the young sect leader of a sect that even bears the name of a region? At this rate, your plaque is about to be taken down.”
“……!”
His pride wounded, Song Won-gyo flinched, but he did not show any other reaction.
For he might get hit by Gwak Cheol-ju again if he did.
Jo Kang-min swept back his falling hair and continued.
“Ah, well. Even so, since a junior came back beaten up like this, I can’t just stand by as a senior. Although I didn’t expect that even I would have to get involved in this kind of matter.”
“Y-You shouldn’t let your guard down. That guy… has definitely changed.”
“Letting one’s guard down is only done by stupid bastards like Brother Song. I do my best even when hunting a rabbit. Do you understand?”
As Jo Kang-min spoke in a chilly voice, Song Won-gyo asked while reading his expression.
“D-Do you have something in mind?”
“There is information that the students of our academy will be deployed in a subjugation expedition to Mount Dabie soon to gain real combat experience. It would be most natural to make a move then.”
As Jo Kang-min smirked, his teeth looked exceptionally white in the moonlight.
“Real combat like that is dangerous enough to get you killed if you make a single slip, isn’t it?”