The next day.

“Gasp!”

Mo Yong Yeonhwa sat up with a choking breath.

“...What?”

At that moment the door opened.

“Ah! Young Miss! Have you come to?”

“Red Wind Squadron Leader?”

The man who entered after opening the door was Cheon Ilsang, the Red Wind Squadron Leader who had accompanied Mo Yong Yeonhwa.

“Are you well?”

“Ah... I- I’m fine.”

Mo Yong Yeonhwa looked around.

Where am I?

A sharp pain climbed up from her thigh.

“Ugh!”

“Young Miss?”

“No. I’m fine.”

The stabbing pain brought last night’s memories vividly back.

Yeon Hojeong!

Mo Yong Yeonhwa ground her teeth without realizing it.

She demanded without caution.

“Where is that man?”

“Huh? Wh-what man are you speaking of?”

“Yeon Hojeong.”

For a moment Mo Yong Yeonhwa saw it: the look of displeasure shadowing Cheon Ilsang’s face.

“Yeon Hojeong... the Yeon family’s first son, you mean.”

“Is there a problem?”

“W-well....”

Cheon Ilsang stammered.

“I heard there was an altercation with the Yeon family’s first son....”

“And?”

“The situation is a bit odd.”

Mo Yong Yeonhwa narrowed her eyes.

“How frustrating. Get to the point.”

“Could it be that the Young Miss assaulted a killer for the Yeon family?”

“...What did you say?!”

Cheon Ilsang sighed.

“I think it absurd as well, but the rumor has already spread as if it’s an established fact. They say at the top floor of Lake Delicacies Grand Joy Pavilion, with the merchant-alliance youths present, you not only humiliated the Yeon family’s people but even attacked them to the point of killing....”

Bang!

A dent formed in the wall from Mo Yong Yeonhwa’s fist.

“That is nonsense!”

Cheon Ilsang squeezed his eyes shut.

“I also think it’s nonsense, but the rumor is spreading fast as if it’s confirmed. And the merchant-alliance youths....”

An inexplicable anxiety rolled in over Mo Yong Yeonhwa like fog.

“They admitted it as well and left first for the Merchant Alliance headquarters.”

Mo Yong Yeonhwa’s face flushed.

That bastard!

She felt as if she had been struck at the back of the head.

Now that she thought about it, it seemed he’d deliberately rendered her unconscious. After preventing her from answering the rumors, with a few words he’d managed to sway the fools of the Merchant Alliance.

Damn them.

It was not only Yeon Hojeong she loathed now; her anger toward the merchant-alliance scions burned hotter.

How dare they do this to me!

Later, when she moved to seize Zhejiang trade, she had dealt with these people. If not for that, they would not have even registered a speck of dust to her.

Those wretches struck her in the back. They poured salt into her wounded pride and then set it on fire.

“Let’s go.”

“Y-young miss! Meeting Yeon Hojeong right now is a little....”

“Not Yeon Hojeong. I’ll meet my uncle.”

Mo Yong Yeonhwa bit her lip.

“It’s too late to catch him now anyway. I’ll go to my uncle and take full control of those fools. Revealing the truth comes after that.”

****

“You up?”

“Ugh....”

Mookbi staggered again and again.

Yeon Hojeong clicked his tongue.

“After pouring it down like that yesterday... was your first drink irresistibly intoxicating or what?”

“Don’t talk to me. My head’s pounding.”

“You’re ridiculous. Then I’ll blow the booze out with inner force.”

“...Huh?”

“Expel the alcohol with inner force, you fool. What else would you do with your inner force?”

Mookbi blinked at him in bewilderment.

“Is that possible?”

“Can’t it clear the fog in your body? How could it not clear a little drunk feeling?”

A low hum.

No sooner had he said it than a faint shimmer rose from Mookbi’s body. A harsh smell of liquor accompanied it.

“Oh? It works.”

“You think I’d ask you to do the impossible.”

Yeon Hojeong looked at Mookbi with something like curiosity.

“Also, your inner-force application is peculiar. Is it mostly mobile work?”

In the past, when Mookbi led the Five Great Fronts, she was skilled at seated, mobile, and standing cultivation—Yeon Hojeong had taught her part of his martial skill.

But not now. Mookbi had never once trained inner force while seated. She had always been on the move, sustaining her body by active inner-force usage.

“The Living-Bow Steel-String Method...”

Mookbi’s eyes widened.

“You know the Living-Bow Steel-String Method?”

“Huh? Uh, roughly.”

Of course she knew. The Living-Bow Steel-String Method had given her the epithet Divine Bow; it was an exceptional art covering the whole of projectile weaponry.

But....

It needed supplementation.

The Living-Bow Steel-String Method unleashed world-shattering power, but ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) the deeper one mastered it, the more it caused problems for the body. To reach the worst of those problems one would need to achieve full mastery, but still—

“How do you know it?”

“Oh, that? Well...”

“Did your brother teach you?”

“...Well, yes.”

“I see.”

Mookbi’s face darkened. Even after quite some time she still felt sorrow when thinking of Baek Gungcheon.

Yeon Hojeong licked his lips.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“I’m planning a full day’s rest today, but don’t you want to learn a martial art from me?”

“Learn martial arts when we’re resting? Then it isn’t rest, is it?”

“You only improve when you train even on rest days. You have no desire to get stronger?”

“Of course I do.”

Mookbi shook her head.

“The skills I’m training are already too much for me. I don’t plan to learn another art.”

“What if you don’t have a bow?”

“Huh?”

“If you meet an enemy with no bow. Will you pick up chopsticks like yesterday? Or will you just kick with those legs trained by your method?”

“Hmm....”

“You have to be able to fully show your skill at any moment. The rivers-and-lakes world is harsh. Since you never know where things will happen, you must be thoroughly prepared.”

“Is that so?”

If she hadn’t experienced yesterday, she would have declined to the end.

But things were different now.

If yesterday’s men possessed martial skill beyond what Mookbi could bear—if they had set out with ill intent—then even Mookbi would have been overwhelmed. She might have escaped thanks to her method, but she couldn’t keep fleeing forever.

“All martial starts with bare hands. You should learn some unarmed striking.”

“...Alright.”

Yeon Hojeong grinned.

“Good. Today we’ll raise a ruckus out here in the courtyard—swing arms and legs with spirit.”

“Ah, understood.”

“And I’ll teach you a stable inner-force meditation as well. It’ll cover the Living-Bow Steel-String Method’s weak point—great for generating inner force.”

“A weakness in the Living-Bow Steel-String Method?”

“It has one. And I heard it from Baek Gungcheon himself, so don’t look at me suspiciously.”

“...Very well.”

Mookbi nodded.

“I’ll learn it for now.”

She meant she would try it; if she judged it useless she would discard it.

Yeon Hojeong liked that attitude.

Those who know their vessel rarely make wrong choices. Until a vessel breaks, one should focus on filling one’s own. In that sense, though Mookbi might be naive about worldly matters, she could see essentials.

Whether as a martial person or as a human.

“Eat first, then we start.”

“All right.”

After eating enough, the two went into the grove beside the courtyard.

“This place is wide enough. We can train here.”

Yeon Hojeong put down his Mad Dragon club and loosened his body.

“Let’s see your skill first.”

“My skill?”

At that moment—

FWOOOM!

Yeon Hojeong’s body shot forward at once to Mookbi’s front.

Mookbi was startled. There had been no warning and he was already almost on top of her.

There was no time to shout. She stepped back quickly.

Thud!

Mookbi’s body retreated rapidly.

‘I expected that.’ 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Then red martial energy flickered from Yeon Hojeong.

Flash!

Mookbi’s eyes widened.

‘That footwork!’

Just as the air seemed to heat, Yeon Hojeong closed from Mookbi’s rear-flank.

The speed was dizzying. Even a master of mobile methods like Mookbi lost sight of him for a moment.

Yeon Hojeong’s fist aimed at her ribs.

Wham!

Mookbi spun like a top and slipped off the strike.

Her movement was surely good. Even without training in Taijiquan styles like Four-Measure Launch Thousand Catties or Pear-Blossom Grafting, she deflected the attack.

It was an impressive move, but it failed against Yeon Hojeong.

He put weight into the flowing fist and twisted his body through.

The follow-up attack fell like an axe. It was an axing kick.

Mookbi’s expression changed.

A vertically delivered axing technique carried violent might. It was not an attack that could be shrugged off or easily blocked.

‘Ack!’

Thud!

Mookbi spun desperately.

Bang!

Yeon Hojeong’s heel struck the ground.

But the attack did not end. An axing pair implies large and small axes; having avoided the initial big-axe blow, the smaller follow-up axe remained.

Her pivoting leg changed—her right leg moved like lightning.

Smack!

“Ugh!”

Mookbi staggered back.

‘It hurts!’

She crossed her arms to barely block.

It was not a strength-pressing angle but a fast whipping angle. The arm that blocked had become the vital point, and a severe pain made her vision swim.

“Are you only going to dodge?”

Patter-patter!

Yeon Hojeong moved in a Z-shaped step and closed.

There was no time to moan over pain. Mookbi launched herself back to gauge Yeon Hojeong’s movement.

Huk!

Letting the enemy identify you is foolish. Yeon Hojeong, who had been moving everywhere, suddenly snapped into a straight line.

‘Gasp!’

It was a straight advance with a brilliant, fiery momentum.

‘Not this time.’

Thud!

Mookbi set herself to meet the attack. Simply dodging would not stop Yeon Hojeong’s rapid offense.

Yeon Hojeong closed to about one zhang’s distance.

As Mookbi tensed and set her posture—

KRAASH!

A tremendous strike shook the whole grove.

Swoooosh!

The fiery martial current carried a white wind. Hot, murderous qi instantly swelled into a grand, combative wave.

Mookbi’s eyes widened.

Yeon Hojeong’s fist came down filled with the force of a mountain.

BOOOOM!

“Gak!”

The unstoppable fist technique sent Mookbi flying; she struck a tree and fell.

Cough, cough!

She had no internal injuries, but her vision spun and her breathing was ragged.

Her eyes trembled as if with an earthquake.

‘Unbelievable!’

He had read everything from start to finish.

He attacked to cut off retreat when she stepped back, and when she flowed an attack, he used rapid offense that even flowing couldn’t counter.

Not only that.

When she braced with elastic resistance to withstand his flurrying attacks, he used an unstoppable strong blow that sent her flying.

‘He read me from the beginning to the end.’

He adapted as she changed.

It was a practical hand-to-hand fighting method full of sense—something not to be expected from an archer. He hadn’t shown flashy techniques, yet she couldn’t last a few exchanges before losing.

“Do you know your weakness?”

Mookbi looked up at Yeon Hojeong with trembling eyes.

Against the sunlight cutting through the trees behind him, Yeon Hojeong looked enormous, like a giant.

“To be cautious in close combat, you must have basic skill to accept the enemy’s attacks. But you don’t have that.”

“...!”

“A tactile, animal-sharp body skill. If you master that, you’ll gain the power to annihilate enemies with your monstrous chained shots.”

Yeon Hojeong smiled faintly.

“Consider yourself lucky. You won’t learn this anywhere else.”