Chapter 54: Our Disciple Had a Curious Talent

‘My masters’ martial arts are certainly different.’

Master Heavenly Demon’s martial art is void and emptiness. It is based on a power close to a supernatural ability that controls space, a realm that cannot be touched.

Master Bodhidharma’s martial art is to contain and nurture. It is a power to raise oneself greatly. It was a martial art of devotion where one reaps fruits as much as one puts in effort.

Master Zhang Sanfeng’s martial art is communication and unification. Combining by communicating. Organizing and binding together without conflict.

‘Each has their own domain.’

The colors are distinct enough to be seen even by a martial artist of only my level.

Perhaps it is a sort of standard for ascending to the heavens.

The ultimate.

‘Then, what is the ultimate that I, who have accepted all of my masters’ martial arts, will achieve?’

What will come out?

‘How far are my masters looking?’

I try to gauge the eye level of the heavens beyond heavens, but it is so high that I cannot even imagine.

Still, I have no intention of just admiring.

I will reach it one day.

To that high heaven.

“Hey! I’m here.”

For now, however, I am merely enjoying life in this lower world.

“It’s not that I particularly dislike this kind of thing, after all.”

“What is it? Why are you weighing likes and dislikes as soon as you see a person?”

Baek Mu-ho looked at me with heavily scowling, annoyed eyes.

I laughed aloud looking at such a Baek Mu-ho.

***

Confronting Baek Mu-ho as calmly as if we had met just yesterday, despite not having seen each other’s faces for a few days, I smirked and asked how he was doing.

“You didn’t bite your tongue, at least. That’s a relief.”

“What are you talking about? Would this Baek Mu-ho bite his tongue over such a thing? And do you think I’m Beom-gak? I know that a person doesn’t die just from biting their tongue.”

It seemed he had already erased from his mind the incident where he ran wild, claiming he would rather choose death.

Whether he couldn’t remember because he had lost his mind, or his brain just filtered it out on its own.

Either way, he had a brain that was truly good at selective memory.

“Indeed, you are not that fragile.”

“Quiet.”

Baek Mu-ho spoke bluntly, frowning.

Contrary to his action of pretending to be strong as if there was no impact, it seemed the memories he had suppressed were rising to the surface.

[Did something happen?]

Master Zhang Sanfeng wondered, as the talk with Baek Mu-ho seemed out of the blue.

It seemed Master Bodhidharma hadn’t mentioned it separately.

[Something tremendous happened.]

[Hmm! I feel like I missed a great spectacle.]

[Haha… I doubt that disaster could be called a spectacle.]

Indeed, even Master Bodhidharma was rendered speechless for a moment.

“Anyway, is something going on?”

“Huh? Something going on?”

“I didn’t expect you to come see me this quickly. Knowing your personality, I thought you would wait at least three or four more days. Or leave on an escort mission as if running away.”

“Damn bastard. You know me too well.”

Baek Mu-ho let out a long sigh.

“It’s just as you said. My mother wants to see you for a moment.”

“Your mother?”

Why suddenly her, whom I had rarely seen even when visiting the Baek Family Escort?

“Why does your mother want to see me?”

“After looking at the martial arts I learned at Mount Song and Mount Hua, she asked to see you once. She said it didn’t seem to be a Buddhist martial art.”

“Is so?”

“Yeah. So she wanted to take a look at yours too.”

[Oh?]

[She has good discernment.]

The masters spoke as if she was quite something.

And understandably so, since the outward appearance of Baek Mu-ho’s martial arts was merely majestic and heavy.

Considering it was a martial art containing a heavy temperament, it could have been seen as Shaolin’s martial arts of Mount Song, but judging at a single glance that it was not a Buddhist martial art was certainly a great discernment.

‘That means she is a tremendous expert, but just how much has she grasped?’

If she had grasped it deeper than expected, I might need to find out. After all, the source of the martial arts Baek Mu-ho obtained was a place that forced us to be cautious.

“Understood. Let’s go.”

“Great! Then we’re eating dinner at my house?”

‘This guy is too excessively happy.’

[Seeing him act like that, there’s definitely something up.]

[Hahah.]

The masters also seemed to gradually know what kind of fellow Baek Mu-ho was.

Seeing him pleased more than necessary gave me a feeling that something would happen when we went to the Baek Family Escort.

When I went to the Baek Family Escort now, what kind of incidents could there be that this fellow Baek Mu-ho would like?

Nothing in particular came to mind.

Because of that, I immediately pondered the problem at hand.

‘Aunt Han San-wol…’

It was just that I hadn’t seen her often; it wasn’t that we were strangers.

I drew the image of Baek Mu-ho’s mother, Aunt Han San-wol, in my head. The figure of a beautiful lady, whom Sister Seol-ah might look like when she aged, was pictured in my mind.

Yet, there was something that remained in my memory more than that beautiful figure.

A gaze that felt devoid of human warmth.

When I met those eyes and that gaze that quietly observed me as if trying to fathom my deepest roots.

I had thought it was scary.

‘If she was an expert, it would make sense.’

For if she could recognize its foundation just by looking at Baek Mu-ho’s sword, it meant she was no ordinary expert.

But what about now?

Pushing away the fear I had felt back then, I quietly stared at the existence in my memory.

‘It’s no use…’

For some reason, it felt like I was glaring rudely at Sister Seol-ah.

Thinking like that, I didn’t think I could engage in a battle of wills with Aunt Han San-wol.

‘There is no answer. I should just surrender unconditionally.’

Realizing the reality, I accepted the fact without resistance.

Even so.

‘Is this bastard gloating because of that?’

If the reason he was happy more than necessary was due to my meeting with Aunt Han San-wol, I should ask.

“Let me ask you one thing.”

“What is it?”

“I haven’t seen your mother much, have I? I saw her occasionally in the past, but we’ve never had a comfortable conversation.”

“True. Mother doesn’t show her face much to anyone outside the family.”

“Right. So I’m asking… what kind of person is your mother, roughly?”

“Our mother… Hm…”

Baek Mu-ho tilted his head sideways with a pondering expression.

Defining and expressing a person simply is more difficult than one thinks. Since people originally possess various sides.

Yet perhaps because they were family, Baek Mu-ho defined it quickly and simply.

“Would you say she’s someone Sister Seol-ah might turn into when she ages?”

“Is that so?”

Then it seemed there was no need to worry.

I brightened up and smiled widely.

“……Suddenly I wonder if I explained it correctly. Well, in any case, I definitely answered you properly.”

Seeing my reaction, Baek Mu-ho muttered something, but it did not reach my ears as I had set my mind at ease.

***

The biggest problem in going to the Baek Family Escort was Cheong-u.

I hadn’t been able to hang out with him for a while because I was devoted to martial arts training, and he became sulky upon hearing that I might eat dinner at the Baek Family Escort.

I managed to appease the sulky Cheong-u only by saying I would check how well he had trained in the Supreme Ultimate Fist when I returned at night.

Watching Cheong-u and me intently, Baek Mu-ho spoke with a peculiar look.

“It’s always amazing. Brotherly or sisterly affection must be a story that only appears in fairy tales, not reality.”

“It is a prejudice. If that were true, how would you explain the relationship between Cheong-u and me? And as I’ve said several times, considering she lets you live, I think Sister Seol-ah is sufficiently benevolent.”

Although it was something I felt since before, it seemed Baek Mu-ho had a very distorted perspective of Sister Seol-ah.

Whether this was also the effect of the instinct embedded deep in his blood that he talked about.

If he just looked at the relationship between Cheong-u and me, he could easily know that such a thought was merely prejudice.

“Although Sister treating this guy specially plays a part, there is also this reason why a fellow who isn’t slow-witted fails to pierce through Sister’s true nature.”

He grumbled and muttered softly, but to me, it was merely the complaint of a whiny younger brother.

“Make sure to have a son just like you.”

“Just curse at me, you bastard!”

It seemed he also knew that was a bad thing to say.

I didn’t know why a guy with self-awareness acted like that.

While exchanging silly stories that would sound like nothing to others, we eventually arrived at the Baek Family Escort.

The appearance of the Baek Family Escort, which we visited again after a few days, was somewhat awkward.

To be precise, the people were awkward. What on earth were those awkward smiles that caused cognitive dissonance just by looking…

“Sigh…”

Baek Mu-ho’s deep sigh answered instead.

“It hasn’t gone away yet.”

“Would that kind of thing disappear in just a few days?”

“True.”

My heart suddenly felt solemn.

Although it seemed there was some ulterior motive for this fellow calling me, whatever it was, I should turn a blind eye once.

Just as I made up my mind and was about to move, two eye-catching people entered my field of vision.

‘Is this what self-luminescence is?’

They shone even while standing still. Two people, each of whom would draw eyes alone, were approaching this way side by side.

Sister Seol-ah and Lady Jang So-wol.

“A battlefield, a battlefield, a bat-tle-field.”

“……”

‘What battlefield is this fellow talking about?’

Baek Mu-ho sneered in a voice small enough that only I could hear.

Sister Seol-ah was glowing on her own, while this guy was throwing a fit.

Since I had resolved to endure and let it pass once no matter what, I let him slide.

“You’re here?”

While carving the character for patience in my mind, Sister Seol-ah spoke.

“Because I heard Aunt wants to see me.”

“Mother? Ah, it must be because of the sword Mu-ho learned.”

“Yes.”

Sister Seol-ah seemed to know as well. Just as I wondered if I should gather more information, Jang So-wol spoke to me.

“We meet again, Young Hero Yeon.”

“Ah, Lady Jang. It has been a long time.”

Although it wasn’t to the extent of having a close friendship, since we had fought on the same side, I behaved politely.

“I heard you came just now regarding Young Hero Baek’s sword. Do you perhaps have deep knowledge of the sword as well?”

“Sword arts?”

“Actually, the reason I entered the Martial World was to broaden my horizons. In order to complete my father’s Peak Sword Tao, I need to encounter and experience more martial arts.”

“Ah…”

“I had a chance to witness Young Hero Baek’s sword recently. It was fluid like Mount Hua’s sword, soft like Wudang’s sword, yet carried a majestic heaviness that felt overwhelming. I was deeply moved, thinking, ‘So there is a sword like this.’ However, I heard that Young Hero Yeon’s help was involved in tempering that sword.”

Jang So-wol’s eyes shone like starlight as she spoke about the sword.

Having a rough idea of what it was about, a smirk escaped me.

‘As expected, it was indeed self-conceit.’

It was true that Lady Jang So-wol had come to find me. However, it was out of curiosity about martial arts rather than interest in me.

And understandably so, since the Extreme Might Strike I displayed in front of Jang So-wol was a martial art Master Bodhidharma had refined a thousand times in the heavens.

For someone who wished to witness numerous martial arts to complete their own, it was bound to attract their eyes.

Moreover, if she witnessed Baek Mu-ho’s Snow Plum Sword at the Baek Family Escort, she would instantly recognize that the sword was out of the ordinary, and hearing that my help was involved in tempering it would only peak her interest further.

Having discarded pointless thoughts, I could treat Lady Jang So-wol more comfortably.

“I have never learned sword arts. I don’t think I can be of help in that regard.”

“Ah, yes…”

“Still, if there is a part where help is needed, I will assist you with all my strength. Please speak comfortably.”

I spoke with goodwill.

Lady Jang So-wol was an influential person. Considering my future goals, she was also someone it would be beneficial to make an ally.

If I could show a smiling face and win her over without it costing anything, it was my gain.

Whether my words worked well, a brief ripple appeared in Lady Jang So-wol’s expression.

Lady Jang So-wol, who responded to the unadorned words, soon let out a small, awkward laugh.

“Yes, I look forward to working with you.”

***

[Those words, they really hit home, don’t they?]

[Judging by her expression, it seems to have become words that will remain in her heart.]

[She’s pretty and skilled. Since she has lived with people around her constantly putting her on a pedestal, she must be sick of hearing such words, but it’s a different story when someone she’s subtly interested in strikes out of nowhere.]

[Besides, that girl seemed to have waited, thinking Cheong-un would come find her right away, but she was unintentionally neglected all this time, leaving her drained. It’s a classic push-and-pull situation.]

[It’s a battlefield.]

[It is a shambles.]

[If some blades start flying around over there, it’ll be complete chaos.]

[Our disciple possessed a strange talent.]

Sitting side by side and looking at the Meridian Mirror, Zhang Sanfeng and Bodhidharma conversed with intrigued faces.

For some reason, it reminded them of the yellow wine and chicken drumsticks they had enjoyed in the lower world.