Chapter 2: Who Did You Say You Were (2)

They say that crazy people hear things like auditory hallucinations. There was a voice that was clearly heard in their own ears, but others could not hear it, so they began to feel a sense of detachment from reality and ran wild.

[What, you. Can you hear my words?]

If so, was I really crazy and hearing hallucinations right now? Rather, that side seemed more realistic than thinking of this as the voice of the actual Founder Zhang Sanfeng. At the very least, it was unprecedented for Founder Zhang Sanfeng to strike up a conversation.

But.

“Yes, I can hear you clearly.”

[Is that so?]

“…It is so clear that it’s actually troublesome.”

I made up my mind.

To believe in this voice echoing in my head.

Although a lingering doubt still remained in a corner of my mind, I folded it up and put it away.

Because there were aspects that didn’t make sense if I thought this was just a voice coming out from going crazy.

For example, the instructions regarding the movements that completely crushed Yin Si-hoo.

Those instructions were not something that could come out of me. It was impossible at my level.

So I had no choice but to believe.

I had to believe.

[You must have agonized over it quite a bit? Like, ‘Ah, I couldn’t handle the bullying I get in this damn place and finally lost my mind,’ something like that?]

“…”

Although it was something I realized anew, his way of speaking was truly cheap.

It was so casual that it was actually troubling. I felt like I couldn’t quite figure out how to treat this voice, or where to position it.

Suppressing a burst of laughter that threatened to leak out, I opened my mouth.

“Well, to be honest, I did think that I might have gone crazy…”

[But?]

“Rather than going crazy, isn’t it just better if this voice is really you, Founder?”

Being extraordinary versus being abnormal.

If I had to choose between the two, I would choose to be extraordinary.

In a way, it seemed like a shameless thought, but so what?

Anyway, it was a voice that started inside me and ended inside me. It didn’t seem like a voice anyone else could hear either.

What’s good is good.

[Hahaha!]

As if he liked my answer quite a bit, a laugh so loud it made my head hurt rang through my skull.

[This guy is quite interesting?]

“You are also more interesting than I thought, Founder.”

[How is moving so stiffly supposed to be the Supreme Ultimate Fist? You’re like a drunken wildcat.]

I replied as I recalled the words the Founder had said when he couldn’t hide his frustration upon seeing my martial arts.

Heavens. If I hadn’t heard it myself, I would never have imagined it. Who would believe it if someone said that Zhang Sanfeng, the founder of the Wudang Sect, spoke so recklessly?

But paradoxically, because of that exact behavior, it helped me believe that this voice was indeed the true Founder Zhang Sanfeng.

[Still, you are on the better side. If I had experienced this back when I was a human, I probably would have been slamming my head against a holy relic imbued with divine power all day to drive away evil spirits.]

Because if I had really gone crazy and created a fictional personality, the Founder Zhang Sanfeng I imagined wouldn’t have had this kind of character.

I would have made him have a more comforting personality.

Thinking that way, should I actually consider it fortunate that Founder Zhang Sanfeng’s personality was like this?

When I shifted my perspective, even this kind of thought crossed my mind.

Then, the nickname of Founder Zhang Sanfeng when he was alive and breathing in the martial world came to mind anew.

“Zhang Lata (Lata: sloppy/dirty). Sloppy Taoist.”

An eccentric man who, without minding formalities, treated everyone from the emperor, who was said to be the most noble under the heavens, to the lowest commoners without discrimination.

Indeed, if he had been someone who pretended to be noble and laughed gently, the nicknames that referred to him in future generations would have been very different.

[It’s a nostalgic nickname.]

Zhang Lata. Sloppy Taoist.

Nicknames he was called during his lifetime.

Perhaps because he hadn’t been called that since he became an immortal and ascended to the heavens, the voice in my head murmured the nicknames I called him with deep longing.

‘Come to think of it, this person is… an immortal, right?’

Perhaps because I had accepted it late, I realized once again that Founder Zhang Sanfeng, whom I was speaking with, was indeed an immortal.

An immortal is indeed an immortal.

As my thoughts reached that point, the thing I was most curious about came to mind.

It was a question that anyone born as a human would have harbored at least once.

“What is the Heavenly Realm like?”

The afterlife. The place where people go when they die.

If Founder Zhang Sanfeng, whom I was talking to, was real, it meant the afterlife also existed.

Just what would that place look like…

[It sucks.]

“…”

……Excuse me?

What on earth was this cheapness that suddenly rushed in?

Although I was aware of Founder Zhang Sanfeng’s character, this was a bit much.

[The answer you wanted was probably something like this, right? A beautiful, bright, warm Peach Blossom Spring that runs at the peak of peaceful contentment.]

“Yes, well…”

[Yeah, no. It sucks.]

“…”

[Even if you’re called an immortal, you’re just in a low-ranking position, so how good could it be? Well, once I get some seniority and get subordinates, maybe the day will come when my fortune opens up.]

“Oh, then…”

[But because the mortal realm is running like crap, there are no successors?]

“…”

It seemed like he had a lot of unspeakable grievances in the Heavenly Realm.

Perhaps because it was a story from too high up, it didn’t feel real.

“Still, you are an immortal…”

[Don’t you know the meaning of a low-ranking official? You would also be flabbergasted if you came up here. The Heavenly Demon is carrying a manure bucket to scoop dung, and Bodhidharma is plowing the fields and taking care of horse feed?]

Was this real?

“If it’s the Heavenly Demon… that Heavenly Demon?”

[Then would I be talking about a beast?]

The demon sent by heaven, the demon that covers the heavens (Heavenly Demon).

That Heavenly Demon whom the Demon Cult followers worshiped three hundred and sixty-five days a year, calling him the start of the great demonic path?

[He occasionally gets drunk and comes to make a scene after frying crappy bastards in the dung water of the Boiling Caldron Hell… Ugh!]

“…Are you drinking buddies? With the Heavenly Demon?”

[It’s originally like that here. That’s also why it’s the Heavenly Realm. Though to you, who belongs to the mortal realm, it might just look like a funny mess.]

“No, at that point, it has completely escaped the realm of being funny.”

I felt like I had heard something I shouldn’t have.

Those familiar names suddenly hit home.

“Then you, Founder…”

[Me, what?]

“No, it’s nothing.”

I felt like I had asked something I shouldn’t have.

Extremely so!

I didn’t think I should ask.

Let’s shut my mouth.

[If only a successor entered well, life here would be somewhat bearable… Huh? Hold on a second.]

Founder Zhang Sanfeng, who was complaining while mentioning successors, suddenly stopped speaking.

[Ho-oh? Look at this rascal?]

And he made a strange nasal sound.

What was this voice that sounded like a hunter who discovered prey?

[I don’t know what kind of trick the Meridian Mirror did to penetrate the Divine-Sealing Great Barrier surrounding the heavens and cause this harmony… but to look into the law of causality issues, this will require some preparation.]

“Pardon?”

Meridian Mirror, Divine-Sealing Great Barrier, law of causality.

From my perspective, they were stories that I couldn’t understand at all.

[No. Let’s meet tomorrow. Hehehe.]

With that, Founder Zhang Sanfeng’s voice was no longer heard.

“Yes, tomorrow.”

Having internally intended to say something, I murmured with a hint of regret at the voice of Founder Zhang Sanfeng who suddenly left.

***

Unlike the main sect disciples who lived under quite strict rules, the secular disciples enjoyed a relatively comfortable life.

Although they were in a situation where they lived locked up (?) inside the Wudang Sect away from the secular world, there was nothing else that posed a major problem.

As long as they participated in the group training led by a main sect disciple who visited in the morning, the rest of the time was not heavily interfered with.

They were let loose almost to the point of laissez-faire.

If one had to point out another thing, spars held between secular disciples occasionally to check their achievements were about all.

They said that the way secular disciples were treated was not like this from the beginning.

But now it had become so.

Presumably, it was because there were some precious figures on this side.

To give a concrete example, the second or third sons of somewhat influential families.

Since they were not the successors to inherit the family, but couldn’t just be cast aside like baggage, they were sent to a place like this first, saying they should be made to do something.

Perhaps because everyone thought similarly, as such people gathered one after another, it naturally became a place where they could build connections.

Building connections in a place like this, where many people from influential families gathered, became a strength in its own right. Just by building good connections, one could avoid becoming an unwanted nuisance.

Additionally, while learning Wudang martial arts, they also got the title of a Wudang secular disciple.

When mentioning the aspects that could be viewed positively, was there ever such a perfect place?

However, just as there was light, there was also darkness, so of course there were bad points.

That was the emergence of guys like Yin Si-hoo.

Although there were cases like me who came because they had a goal in martial arts, those who came with networking in mind had no choice but to try to get close to someone with a background.

From the standpoint of someone treated as an unwanted nuisance at home, it was a matter of life and death. If they wanted to be treated like a human being at home, they had no choice but to engross themselves in making their own value.

Regrettably for me, the family of that bastard Yin Si-hoo, who regarded me as a toy, was a family that wielded quite some power in various fields.

That was why it had been hard for me.

“The reason the atmosphere is chilly must be that too.”

Gazes that seemed to ask why I didn’t bow to Yin Si-hoo. Participating in the morning group training, I shrugged my shoulders as I faced each of those gazes that carried an atmosphere as chilly as the cold mountain air at dawn.

If I were to be intimidated by this atmosphere and tremble in fear, I wouldn’t have remained here in the first place.

Amidst the cold gazes stabbing from all around, I warmed up my body ostentatiously.

Meanwhile, there was someone who struck up a conversation with me.

“Is your jaw alright?”

It was the main sect disciple who oversaw yesterday’s spar with Yin Si-hoo.

Was his Taoist name Myeong-jin?

“Yes, more or less.”

He was someone I had been distant with all along, but today was the first time he spoke to me first.

Myeong-jin was a main sect disciple. His situation was different from the secular disciples. It meant he was someone who had no need to change his attitude toward me.

But why?

“You have a face that asks why I am suddenly speaking to you.”

“Probably so.”

Frankly, it was uncomfortable.

The fundamental reason Yin Si-hoo could run wild like that was because the main branch of the Wudang Sect stood by and watched such situations. Although the operational policy of the main sect couldn’t be seen as the responsibility of this single main sect disciple, it would be a lie to say I had no hard feelings at all.

Seeing me reveal my inner thoughts without bother to hide them, Myeong-jin chuckled.

“Yin Si-hoo, that guy is still in the medicine room. It seems the blow was not light.”

“Then it will be comfortable for the time being.”

“For the time being, that is.”

It was a significant remark.

Hearing those words, I understood why he came to me and said such things.

“It seems Yin Si-hoo said he won’t leave you alone during the next spar.”

“…I am prepared.”

If it was the Yin Si-hoo I knew, he would surely do that. As someone who had suffered a lot under him, I knew his personality well.

A venomous Yin Si-hoo would highly likely play too rough under the guise of making a mistake during the spar. No, rather than saying it was highly likely, it was ten out of ten, a certainty.

Myeong-jin was speaking like this: ‘If you don’t want to become a cripple by the time the next spar happens, run away, or steel your mind and think about becoming strong.’

“The Six Sealings and Four Closings you performed yesterday was excellent.”

He wouldn’t have said this if I were a yellow leaf with absolutely no hope. It seemed Myeong-jin felt quite some potential after seeing the response of the technique I performed against Yin Si-hoo. Seeing how he was telling me to beat him down once more, this gentleman didn’t seem to like Yin Si-hoo very much deep down either.

Then again, how many people would truly like that scoundrel.

“Begin the morning training!”

Having finished his business, Myeong-jin, who headed to the training ground platform, began the morning training as usual and started performing the opening stance of the Supreme Ultimate Fist.

The gathered secular disciples performed the routine of the Supreme Ultimate Fist, following Myeong-jin.

I also followed the routine of the Supreme Ultimate Fist like the other peers for now, but other thoughts were occupying my mind.

What should I do about Yin Si-hoo?

‘I don’t want to run away.’

If I were to think about running away just because I was scared, I would have quit long ago and gone home. And I would have looked for another path.

I was not a coward who ran away at the moment I had to fight.

It would be recklessness if it were a decision full of sheer stubbornness, but fortunately or unfortunately, this decision was not a choice made out of simple stubbornness.

[Must be a difficult situation, eh?]

A voice in which the emotion of excitement was thoroughly melted. At that voice that sounded as if it had been waiting for this moment, I smiled brightly and replied.

“It seems so.”

[Aren’t you smiling too brightly for a guy in trouble?]

He was nitpicking in a strange spot.

“I guess I’m an eccentric fellow. Don’t you like eccentric things?”

[Hahaha! I absolutely love them, of course.]

Founder Zhang Sanfeng laughed so loudly that my head felt painful. And his next words, carrying that laughter, followed.

[What do you want me to do for you?]

“I want to become strong!”

[Then, do you want to learn some martial arts?]

“Yes!”

One of the legends who left the deepest presence in the history of the martial world.

The founder of Wudang, Sloppy Taoist Zhang Sanfeng.

“I look forward to your guidance, Master!”

From today on, he was my master.