Chapter 18: Abuse of Power

Honestly, when Master Zhang Sanfeng or Master Bodhidharma spoke in a way that I would be bedridden for a few days, I was a bit scared.

But once I came to my senses, although it hurt a lot, it was bearable.

So I had thought that the story of Master Bodhidharma advising that it would hurt this time would also just be at a level that was barely tolerable.

It was not. Seriously.

It was to the extent that I wondered if it would have been better to just record a dark history once instead.

It turned out that it was bearable because the foundation that Master Zhang Sanfeng and Master Bodhidharma had ruthlessly hammered in was sturdier than expected.

However, they said this time it was like a process of firmly consolidating what was built upon the foundation, so it was a part unrelated to the foundation being sturdy.

Was it like the process of the Heavy Earth Divine Art taking root?

Master Bodhidharma’s opinion was that it would be a waste to just lose it in vain now that the water gate had been opened.

What else could I do. I had no choice but to endure it foolishly.

Still, there was an achievement.

[Perhaps because the foundation is sturdy, the Heavy Earth Divine Art is taking root faster than expected. The speed of achieving the First Stage will be shortened quite a bit.]

As expected of the trusted Heavenly Brand. The things called foundations being poured into my body, if looked at one by one, were all refined in heaven. So that was also why the development was this fast.

According to Master Bodhidharma’s words, the Heavy Earth Divine Art was a martial art he created in his later years, and that too, almost right before ascending to heaven. That was probably why he didn’t need to make divisions like the beginner level First Stage. It was because it was close to completion from the moment of creation.

However, if a division had to be made at my level, the beginner level First Stage was the realm that I had admired so much.

I feel like I am tired of being surprised now.

As I kept showing such surprised and admiring appearances, Master Zhang Sanfeng revealed a sharp voice.

[Just wait a bit. I will also teach you an amazing one soon.]

Master Zhang Sanfeng seemed to have been quite stimulated by seeing me active with the Heavy Earth Divine Art.

Well, although I did learn the Supreme Ultimate Fist and the Clear Brightness Mind Method from Master Zhang Sanfeng, it was true that now that I felt the power of the Heavy Earth Divine Art, Master Bodhidharma’s teaching felt more amazing somehow.

Of course, although the utility and capability of the Clear Brightness Mind Method were not to be compared in that they differed in direction from the Heavy Earth Divine Art, still, Master Zhang Sanfeng seemed to find that quite bothersome.

[I shall teach you one that is compatible with the Heavy Earth Divine Art without conflict, yet perfectly harmonizes as its superior. Although your level is too low right now to touch it carelessly, it will be one that can surpass something like the Heavy Earth Divine Art with even a mouse-tail-sized achievement.]

He seemed to look at Master Bodhidharma’s Heavy Earth Divine Art quite competitively.

[Hooh?]

At those words of Master Zhang Sanfeng, I felt as if Master Bodhidharma also felt slightly offended.

Either way was a good thing for me.

Just what kind of martial art is it?

Just imagining it makes expectation rise rapidly.

Before that, however,

“What, you recovered already?”

First, I needed to clear away the ○ in front of my eyes.

“Thanks to you, fellow.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Baek Mu-ho’s gaze, which had been scanning me up and down with suspicious, narrowed eyes as I stood up as if to show off, turned half-closed.

Isn’t that nod of the head too blatant?

That appearance of examining me as if to dig in if there were even a small gap seemed to tell me what kind of result it would have led to if I had not recovered by this morning.

Looking at this, I really felt that the suffering was worthwhile.

Yes, considering the suffering all night, there should at least be no dark history.

“If you need help, don’t feel burdened and speak up anytime. You know you and I have a relationship where we haven’t done nothing(?) together.”

“……I know. I know very well. *Grind!*”

It would have been really nice if there were no latter words.

At the words that we had done everything, unnecessary dark histories pass by like a kaleidoscope.

“Then if I fa! vor! you, you are helping me?”

“Tsk!”

Disliking my words that drove in the wedge, he clicked his tongue and stepped back.

But even so, he didn’t seem to have given up completely.

I should be careful until my body is completely recovered.

***

Although I showed wariness for a moment because of Baek Mu-ho who was constantly seeking an opportunity, surprisingly, the solution came through another direction.

Thanks to my position, which had been floating in the air, taking deep root within the Baek Family Escort, I could easily find people who would help me even if it wasn’t Baek Mu-ho.

Some of them asked about my well-being, saying they occasionally heard me groaning while enduring pain in the middle of the night.

They said they were quite worried after hearing me trying hard to endure it when it was fine to just show a painful sign.

Honestly, the main reason I groaned in pain was because of Baek Mu-ho, and the result all became the nourishment to help my growth, so I endured it so as not to disturb other people, but from other people’s perspective, it could be perceived differently.

Of course, I wore an awkward smile at those people’s words.

Rather than explaining one by one to clear up the misunderstanding, in a way, giving off a feeling like ‘I tried not to show it, but I got caught.’

Well, even if it was a misunderstanding, I did exert effort and achieve results worthy of receiving this much goodwill.

Anyway, thanks to that, the negative perceptions toward me that barely remained vanished completely, leaving only good aspects. To the extent that even a person named Nam Dong-bak, who had been the first to show his teeth to me when a dispute arose at the Baek Family Escort, came forward to apologize, saying he was sorry.

I guess this is why a person should live kindly.

Whether thanks to the light, or crazy if crazy, bickering between childhood friends, the escort journey progressed smoothly without big problems, not being boring in its own way.

Rogue bandits running wild didn’t even show their noses, and in the first place, excluding the interference of Hongwu Gate, it was an escort journey with nothing dangerous in particular.

Thus, the escort group was able to reach the destination without major problems.

“Because there are not many places bold enough to touch us openly in this vicinity.”

Baek Mu-ho’s words were filled with pride.

Was it almost twenty years since the Baek Family Escort began to fly its reputation?

Certainly, having taken charge of commissions in the vicinity for that long is enough time to have struck down or driven away most of the hostile forces scattered around.

“The Bright Fate Escort must have thought so too.”

“They were just out of luck. Still, I understand what you mean.”

However, the Martial World is a world where one cannot let their guard down. One cannot know when and where one will be entangled in what dangerous ill fate and conspiracy.

Since real danger is something that comes from unexpected places.

Originally, the moment the thought ‘surely’ arises is the most dangerous.

Surely it won’t?

Was it said that dismissing and ignoring such a thought, which came to mind unconsciously, as a joke is when one steps a foot closer to death?

The escort warriors who knew I was a newcomer to the Martial World, especially the middle-aged escort warriors who had known me for a long time, told me this and that about the Martial World whenever they had time.

There were many stories about basic information and precautions that would be helpful when active in the actual Martial World.

“They must have talked until it got stuck in your ears.”

As if it were not a very interesting story, Baek Mu-ho shook his head with his tongue out. Unlike me, it would be such an attitude because he had heard it several times before.

“There was probably also the meaning for you to take it to heart too, you know?”

“Well, probably.”

Baek Mu-ho understood refreshingly. It was an appearance of listening lightly. It would be because of such an appearance that the elders urged him repeatedly, though.

In my eyes, however, it seemed he acted like that because it was already sufficient.

Because he is a fellow who has no gaps, surprisingly, even though he looks lax.

Advice that would only be fit for a child does not help a fully grown adult.

In fact, Uncle Baek Jin-seong and Uncle Jeong Il-sang did not treat Baek Mu-ho that way.

Nevertheless, leaving the words spoken by subordinates out of worry for Baek Mu-ho unchecked without stopping them was.

“……Harassment?”

“What?”

“No, just because I think, surprisingly, blood cannot be denied.”

To think that Uncle Baek Jin-seong, who is like a model of a cool adult, has an aspect like Baek Mu-ho!

What a scary imagination.

“Hmm! I feel like you made some unpleasant thought?”

“It is not a thought you should feel bad about, so do not flare up.”

I glossed over it, but Baek Mu-ho kept lingering, whether it weighed on his mind.

*Thud!*

Since I had fully recovered my body in the course of coming here, I threw and drove him into a corner of the luggage wagon as an answer to that lingering.

Although I feel like there is something to be gained every time I throw and drive him like this once in a while,

Well, the master also said. The Tao is not stingy to those who ask for learning. If that is also his way of asking for learning in his own style, it would be human nature to gladly throw and drive him.

So, next time let’s do that crap near some outhouse. I will drive you into a definitely good place.

While exchanging short bickering in that manner, the luggage wagon before long reached inside the city, and then the large manor located inside the city.

As if preparing a joyful feast, the inside of the large manor was filled with the bustling presence of various people.

As if telling the origin of those presences, there were also many people inside the main gate, and things like gifts apparently brought by people were piled up high.

There was one scribe managing the line where people stood, and his attitude toward the people passing through the main gate differed case by case.

Perhaps disliking martial artists, when the people of the escort group entered carrying luggage, he blatantly made an unpleasant face and frowned.

It was a typical scribe’s reaction of considering all those playing around with swords as ruffians.

Because he was acting as the gatekeeper of the Assistant Director of the Ministry of Personnel of the Hubei Provincial Administration Commission, he did not hide such signs even more.

He seemed to think that, anyway, the people to treat carefully were not martial artists who were ruffians, but only merchants holding money, or officials in public office.

That guess was not wrong.

“Baek Family Escort. You brought Master Jong’s gift.”

“Indeed.”

“Understood. Pass. Hurry up and put the luggage inside. And once you are done with your business, do not linger inside and get lost. It is not a place where there is anything good in having things like you stay long.”

He spoke exactly as the emotion revealed on his face.

Several escort warriors of the Baek Family Escort twitched their facial muscles and frowned, but Uncle Baek Jin-seong snorted as if not influenced by such words at all.

“We shall do so. Since we have nothing to regret on that side anyway.”

“……Hmph!”

It is true that if the master is a high official, the servant working under him also gains power.

But that too was to some extent. Although one guarding the gate of the Assistant Director of the Ministry of Personnel in Hubei might have some power, still, he was not in a position to bring harm to the Baek Family Escort.

They were not opponents who could touch each other.

Unless one was in a situation with something to regret.

[Those fellows over there do not change.]

[They only opened their eyes but are no different from the blind, so what can be done.]

Whether there were many such individuals among those who held brushes and went into public office even in the two masters’ era, they spoke of their unpleasant feelings indirectly.

Since my grandfather had been in public office, I moved my body, passing over the masters and the surrounding atmosphere with a quite uncomfortable feeling.

The Baek Family Escort, having passed the main gate unpleasantly from the start, moved in a hurry to quickly place the luggage and vanish just as they heard, just as they spoke.

If it were the white jade that could be called the real gift (bribe) to be offered to the Assistant Director of the Ministry of Personnel, the client Jong In-geol would take care of it himself, so there was no need to care. It was not an item specified in the contract anyway.

[Hooh?]

“Master Bodhidharma?”

[Look to the side.]

Turning my head at Master Bodhidharma’s voice revealing interest, I saw people who made me understand why Master Bodhidharma did so.

Monks with ordination marks on their foreheads and wearing Buddhist kasayas were occupying a spot.

They were people who received the precepts of Shaolin.

[The one called Assistant Director of the Ministry of Personnel seems to have wider connections than expected.]

This place is Hubei. Mount Song, where Shaolin is located, is in Henan. Although it is the province right below that touch, the distance is not short. Having directed their steps all the way here across that distance meant they had a quite close friendship.

Is he a person of a personality that widely shares associations with figures of the Martial World like my grandfather?

Although I also thought I would like to meet such a person, looking at the returning situation, it seemed difficult to do so.

“Ahem.”

However, the gatekeeper scribe, who had been ill-mannered, approached us with a dry cough as we were diligently unpacking the luggage brought.

“By any chance, did the Baek Family Escort…… come from a place called Samyang County?”

As he threw the question cautiously, he was no longer in an ill-mannered appearance.

The way he asked secretly was without fail the appearance of having something to regret.

A smile was drawn slightly on Uncle Baek Jin-seong’s face.

“Indeed.”

“That…… by any chance, do you know the person using the characters Yeon, Ja, Yeom there……?”

“Of course I do.”

Grinning, Uncle Baek Jin-seong slightly turned his gaze toward my side.

Was it a coincidence? The escort warriors, wearing smiles similar to Uncle Baek Jin-seong, each looked toward the side where I was.

As the surrounding gazes suddenly focused in one place, the scribe, while wearing a face barely suppressing irritation, tilted his head in wonder.

It was an appearance of not understanding the returning situation at all.

“It is said that Master Yeon was the person whom the newly appointed Assistant Director of the Ministry of Personnel, Master Seo Yun-geon, admired the most. It seems Master Jong has spoken a word to Master Seo about it. So they wish to hear even a little about his recent status…….”

I understood why they called this side. And why that scribe suddenly came out in a low posture.

If they put on airs and went coercively like at first, and we just left in a flash, it was that side that would suffer a setback.

Furthermore, if the one called Jong In-geol also spoke about Uncle Baek Jin-seong’s status, they had no choice but to be even more careful.

If the figure named Seo Yun-geon really had a connection to Shaolin, there was a high probability that Uncle Baek Jin-seong, in the status of a lay disciple of the Mount Hua Sect, would also be treated well in his own way.

From the scribe’s perspective, it was a situation where he could not help but be disadvantageous in many ways.

“It turned out well. Since Master Yeon’s grandson is also here.”

“Yes?”

“Over there. That fellow is Master Yeon’s grandson. He is called Yeon Cheong-un. Wouldn’t he be the person who knows about Master Yeon’s recent status better than anyone? Hahaha!”

“Hahahaha!”

Uncle Baek Jin-seong laughed refreshingly. Following him, Baek Mu-ho and the escort warriors of the Baek Family Escort burst into laughter together.

The scribe’s face turned ash black.