Chapter 197: Chapter 197

“How…… how did you use Lotus…….”

For the first time, Yaryul Geuk wore a foolish expression befitting his age.

“Lotus?”

I asked back, pretending not to know.

After all, the Lotus I had used was an Ascendant Form converted through Jegal’s Three Forms.

“Are you talking about the Transplanting Flower and Grafting Tree Art?”

“……You’re saying it wasn’t Lotus?”

“It wasn’t.”

Suspicion was thick in his gaze, but what was he going to do about it? I said it wasn’t.

It wasn’t as if the Flowing Cloud Sect had a monopoly on the Transplanting Flower and Grafting Tree Art.

“Are you done charging in? As I said, were you and your brothers all utterly useless after all?”

“…….”

Yaryul Geuk’s expression filled with resentment once more.

“Why are you the only one…….”

“Hm?”

“Why were you the only one who brought all your Junior Brothers with you?!”

The reason this bastard was so frantic toward me.

“Is that why you hated me?”

I had been in the same situation as him, yet achieved a different result.

The brighter I shone, the deeper his own darkness must have felt.

“Do you truly not know the reason?”

“The reason?”

Yaryul Geuk’s two eyes went round.

His expression seemed to hope he might hear an answer his own head could never imagine.

“Because you’re pathetic.”

“…….”

I was rather glad for his inferiority complex.

If he had truly given himself up to despair, he would have been consumed by his own darkness and become numb to everything.

“Why are you blaming others for your own inadequacy?”

Because some desire to change remained, he must have been feeling this frustrated with me.

“Go on, let that miserable pettiness of yours pour out even more, you hopeless bastard.”

“Aaaaaaagh!”

That was why I kept provoking him.

Because I thought Yaryul Geuk could use his darkness and wretchedness to grow stronger.

Yaryul Geuk drew on every bit of inner arts he could and rushed at me.

He poured out Hard Thunder Fist Art and Downpour Palm Art, but martial arts that weren’t even secret arts to begin with could not possibly work effectively against me.

Tap, tap, tap.

When I neutralized his martial arts with one hand, not even both, he apparently decided this would not do and executed Snowflower of the Flowing Cloud Divine Art.

If Lotus was a counter technique using the Transplanting Flower and Grafting Tree Art, Snowflower was an attack technique based on the principle of Four Taels Deflecting a Thousand Jin.

It was supposed to inflict immense damage on the opponent with a small force, and yet…….

“What is this? It isn’t even children’s play.”

His Snowflower felt like nothing more than a hand trick.

SMACK—

“Aaagh!”

Yaryul Geuk, whose wrist had been twisted, screamed and retreated.

“Understanding positional force and momentum is the foundation of Transplanting Flower and Grafting Tree and Four Taels Deflecting a Thousand Jin.”

Yaryul Geuk, who had been stroking his wrist with a grimace, glared fiercely at me.

I grabbed him by the collar and tossed him into the air.

“Aaaaaagh!”

In midair, Yaryul Geuk flailed and tried to regain his posture.

I put more strength into my hand.

“An object that rises high and falls to the ground—that is positional force.”

THUD.

And I slammed him into the ground.

“Ugh.”

Yaryul Geuk, having fallen below, ground his teeth, sprang up, and swung his fist.

I lightly avoided his fist, and at the same time, I hooked his foot while pulling his clothes in the direction he had been moving.

“The force held by a moving being is momentum.”

THUD, THUD, THUD.

After sweeping across the ground and rolling several times, the bastard staggered up, as if the pain was quite severe.

“If your sect’s martial arts focus on the principles of Transplanting Flower and Grafting Tree and Four Taels Deflecting a Thousand Jin, you should have learned the basic concepts. Did you fail to master them?”

“……Huff, huff, huff.”

As if my words did not reach him at all, Yaryul Geuk only kept panting.

The sight of him wasn’t unfamiliar.

“Like an older brother, like a younger brother.”

I murmured softly so he could not hear.

Yaryul Geuk was like that, but Yaryul Jae’s personality had been no less fiery.

When using the Transplanting Flower and Grafting Tree Art, they forced strength into it, and when using Four Taels Deflecting a Thousand Jin, they put more tension than usual into their bodies.

Because they tried to hit the opponent as hard as their temperament demanded, too much strength went in.

If it were a domineering martial art, that might have an effect, but with a martial art that had to use the opponent’s strength, there was no way it would work.

When I thought about the fact that the reason Yaryul Jae had ultimately completed the Flowing Cloud Divine Art near the end of the Great Righteous-Demonic War was because he had to fight without properly recovering his inner arts every time, which forced him to relax and unfold the Flowing Cloud Divine Art, it was truly contradictory.

‘He needs to relax a little.’

And when it came to making someone relax, wasn’t a beating the best way after all?

Of course, I had no intention of applying violence ignorantly like Ak Ju-pyeong.

My goal was different from that kind of bastard’s, after all.

If I performed Palace-Pushing and Acupoint-Passing while continuing to harass him so he couldn’t properly recover his inner arts, wouldn’t he realize it at some point?

Moreover, an excellent(?) teacher like me would also give him instruction.

Where else in the world could such customized education be found?

‘Those brothers are seriously irritating.’

Yaryul Geuk’s breathing was still rough.

“Already tired?”

At my words, he charged at me again with an expression that looked as though his eyes would roll back at any second.

He was truly easy to understand.

Tap, tap, tap, BOOM.

A chained sequence following Hard Thunder Fist Art and Downpour Palm Art.

It was a method Yaryul Jae had also used to a tiresome degree, so I was as familiar with it as could be.

If I added a slight counterattack here—

Grab.

As expected, the Flowing Cloud Divine Art immediately came in.

“Tsk, tsk. I told you it won’t work.”

I returned his Lotus to him and slammed him into the ground.

THUD, THUD.

“Ughhh…….”

This time, perhaps because it struck quite hard, the bastard twisted his body.

“Softness Can Overcome Hardness. Think again about what it means for softness to be able to overcome strength. Whether it’s Transplanting Flower and Grafting Tree or Four Taels Deflecting a Thousand Jin, they aren’t mere techniques. If you can’t understand the root of the principle, your sect’s martial arts won’t be completed even if you spend your whole life at it.”

Even while lying flat, Yaryul Geuk was glaring fiercely at me.

“…….”

The way he hissed like an injured cat was utterly laughable.

In any case, I had shown him clues to Lotus and Snowflower, so he probably wouldn’t do something like giving up again.

I mocked him once and left.

“F-fuck! Jin So-un! Watch the back of your head!”

Ha…… that bastard was still lying there thinking about the back of my head.

***

The next morning, when I straightened my clothes and left the pavilion, I sensed a presence above my head.

“Seriously…….”

Yaryul Geuk was leaping down from the roof, clutching one of his usual angular stones.

“Wouldn’t the sword you received from the Academy be better for an ambush?”

I truly couldn’t understand what the hell was inside his head.

To begin with, I had not understood Yaryul Jae’s personality either, so trying to understand the behavior of this bastard, his younger brother, was absurd in itself.

‘Did he catch some disease where he dies if he doesn’t keep what he says?’

Even so, the fact that he only aimed for the back of my head every time was more than a little strange.

I stepped back slightly and struck his abdomen with a roundhouse kick, said to be the specialty of worthless men.

THUD.

Yaryul Geuk flew nearly three jang and rolled across the floor of the private training ground, then began retching as if his insides had turned over.

But instead of food, he only vomited yellow gastric fluid.

“Tsk……. Did you come here without even eating breakfast?”

Well, I had been planning to go find him anyway, so I was grateful that he came to me in person, but not enough to go easy on him.

“I intended to deal with you after spending a peaceful morning, yet you dared disturb my morning routine.”

I unleashed the Ten Thousand Transformations Invincible Fist and performed Palace-Pushing and Acupoint-Passing across his entire body.

In other words, it meant I beat every corner of his body without leaving a single spot out.

“Guhk.”

The bastard, who flew another one jang, sprang up, then must have sensed something strange in his body, because he retched once more.

This time, it was not yellow gastric fluid, but dark red blood.

The stagnant blood that had built up inside his body over a long period had risen through his entrails.

“Damn it…….”

An ordinary martial artist would have hesitated, worrying whether he had suffered internal injury.

But Yaryul Geuk wiped the blood from his mouth with one swipe──. Then he prepared his Opening Stance again.

Then he rushed at me like a lightning flash.

‘Oh, he recovered this much in a single day?’

Perhaps because I had done some Palace-Pushing and Acupoint-Passing for him yesterday, his blood meridians had been stirred a little.

His movements themselves were much smoother and quicker than yesterday.

But──.

“Softness Can Overcome Hardness! Softness Can Overcome Hardness! You stupid bastard! Did you already forget what I taught you yesterday?!”

It was a domineering movement that did not apply the principles of the Flowing Cloud Sect’s martial arts at all.

Swallowing a sigh, I unfolded the Ascendant Form of Lotus from the Flowing Cloud Divine Art with one hand and slammed the bastard into the floor.

“Ugh…….”

Perhaps because he had rolled across the hard marble floor and unbearable pain had struck him, the bastard wriggled for a long while like a worm that had been stepped on.

I lightly pressed my foot down on him.

“If you’re going to charge in blindly, use a different martial art. If you’re going to use your sect’s martial art, bring its principles to life. You should at least do one of the two, shouldn’t you?”

“Huff── Huff──.”

Yaryul Geuk glared at me, rough breaths escaping him.

I crooked my finger and said,

“Come. You won’t ever crack the back of my head by glaring alone.”

“Aaaaaagh!”

Yaryul Geuk charged while letting out a scream.

Before even half an hour had passed, I completely exhausted him.

“Haa, haa, haa.”

Yaryul Geuk lay sprawled on the floor, breathing roughly.

I deliberately twisted up the corner of my mouth.

“Not coming at me?”

“……Y-you. Once I…… complete the Flowing Cloud Divine Art…….”

“Don’t worry. From what I can see, you have no talent for it.”

“Grr!”

He glared with both eyes in a fit, but what was he going to do about it?

All he could do was lie there and breathe.

“Master Jin So-un.”

At that moment, the Head Maidservant came out of the pavilion.

“It is time for breakfast. Shall you be dining with your friend?”

I looked at Yaryul Geuk and asked,

“You’re eating, right? The food at the dormitory used by the Representative is famous for being delicious.”

“……I-I’m not eating!”

For some reason, Yaryul Geuk blushed.

What is that?

“This one says he doesn’t want to go inside and eat.”

The Head Maidservant nodded and said,

“Then I will bring it here.”

“Please do.”

When the Head Maidservant said that and went inside the pavilion, Yaryul Geuk raised his voice.

“I-I said I’m not eating!”

Why was he shouting that he would not eat with such passion and sincerity?

That temper, seriously.

“Eat. I want to beat you more, but hitting a bastard who’s collapsed isn’t to my taste.”

“……Son of a bitch!”

A short while later, with the Head Maidservant in the lead, three Maidservants brought trays of food easy to eat and set them down in front of us.

The bastard who had stubbornly insisted he would not eat eventually took a spoonful when the Maidservants nearby waited without leaving.

“!!!”

With a single bite, Yaryul Geuk’s two eyes grew as large as a rabbit’s.

“It’s good, isn’t it?”

“……I can eat things like this as much as I want once I become a Representative!”

At the bastard’s words, laughter burst out of me without me realizing it.

“Ha ha ha! With that skill?”

“……!!!”

Yaryul Geuk clamped his mouth shut, glared at me, and trembled.

“The Flowing Cloud Sect’s Flowing Cloud Divine Art can counter any martial art! Do you think you won’t get caught by it?!”

Only now did I understand a little.

The reason this bastard had wanted no one’s help until now.

The reason he had kept charging in even while being beaten by Ak Ju-pyeong every day.

The reason he had sharpened thorn-like defense mechanisms.

‘This bastard…….’

He was struggling to protect a noble pride.

His refusal of others’ help came from the pride that he needed no one’s help aside from his brothers’.

The fact that he kept charging in even knowing he would be beaten to a pulp must have been his final struggle not to disgrace the brothers who had sacrificed themselves for him.

To protect those things, he had struggled and struggled until the verge of death.

A hollow laugh escaped me at his willpower.

‘……He was crazier than I thought.’

Yaryul Geuk quickly emptied the food while still glaring at me.

Without taking his eyes off me, he moved his utensils quickly, trying to eat faster than I did.

CLACK.

“Th-thank you for the meal.”

Then he awkwardly bowed to the Maidservants and looked at me again.

“How long are you going to eat?”

This bastard…….

Why did he still have that rude look only when looking at me?

I was clearly the one who had treated him.

In any case, it seemed he needed education in many areas.

“You’re dead.”

Training was good, but correcting his character came first.

I mean, after Yaryul Jae kept getting beaten, had he not become milder later on?

In other words, this was a method that had already been verified.

***

After feeding Yaryul Geuk all three meals, then immediately making him vomit up everything he had eaten afterward, I ended the day and changed clothes for my evening appointment.

Because I needed to prepare to form the Representative Delegation in preparation for the academic schedule that would soon resume.

‘First, Jang Woo-jae.’

Of the four vacant positions in total, one had been filled, leaving three.

And one of those three positions had been filled unexpectedly.

‘Nam Hwa-seong, huh…….’

A bastard I had not expected had appeared.

If they had wanted to know about the internal situation, I had thought Cheol Sun-jik would come personally.

‘To begin with, the idea of that man trusting someone and entrusting work to them makes no sense.’

For some reason, Nam Hwa-seong had applied to the Representative Delegation.

I asked him several questions to find out his motive for applying, but the bastard merely brushed them off with remarks such as, ‘I just wanted to. Is there a problem?’, and ‘Why? Do you think I can’t be an executive officer of the Representative Delegation? I’m not that stupid.’

“It’s suspicious, but it isn’t as if I didn’t expect something like this when forming the Representative Delegation in the first place.”

Even if I had to keep him in check, as long as he provided the bare minimum cooperation, I would not lose much either.

“Once I fill the remaining two positions, the Representative Delegation can formally launch.”

Thinking that, I moved toward the meeting place.

Compared to entertainment districts in other regions, Wuhan’s entertainment district had many martial artists carrying weapons.

Thanks to that, there were also many chances for disputes to arise.

I lightly used the principles of the Taeul Eighty-Thousand Divine Steps and slipped through the people.

‘Huh?’

But then, I had no choice but to stop in front of one man.

I had clearly scattered afterimages and slipped into an empty space, yet before I knew it, the man had blocked my path again.

This was clearly deliberate.

When I lifted my head, a huge man with fierce eyes was looking down at me.

“Are you Jin So-un?”

‘As expected…….’

The man continued without even listening to my answer.

“I am from the Execution Pavilion. Follow me.”

The man roughly seized my shoulder.