Martial Arts Ain't Anything Special-Chapter 18: Clear River Sect (1)

After Chunbong woke up, they lazily made their way to the Black Tiger Sect.

As they walked with their few belongings stuffed into a single bundle, Chunbong, still rubbing her sleepy eyes, let out a small yawn.

“Yawn... It feels kind of sad. We lived in that house for a year.”

“A year in that house is a long time. From what I saw, it’s a miracle it didn’t collapse while we were sleeping.”

At Seojun’s words, Chunbong pouted.

“You’re right, but... Why do I suddenly want to hit you?”

“Now now, Geum Chunbong. Don’t say such naughty things.”

When he massaged her nape, her body stiffened and made a strange nyaaa! sound. What’s with her? Is she a cat?

“Anyways... Oh? Hey, you there!”

He called out to a rough-looking guy he spotted.

“T-The fiend...?”

“Oh, looks like I’ve gotten a bit famous. Everyone recognizes me now.”

“Shut up.”

Chuckling, Seojun went over and put his arm around the guy’s shoulders.

“Friend, know any guys around here? I’d like at least ten.”

“A-Are you asking me to sell out my comrades?”

“Why would you put it like that? Sell out? Just tell me where to find some guys you don’t particularly like, that’s all.”

The sourc𝗲 of this content is freēwēbηovel.c૦m.

The man’s eyes darted all over the place.

“...If you walk a bit, there’s a group called the Black Serpent Sect.”

Bingo.

*As the guy said, after walking a short distance, they saw a shabby building.

“Th-Then I’ll be going now.”

“Now now, where do you think you’re going? You’re coming with us.”

“You said you’d let me go if I told you!”

“When did I say that?”

I really never said anything like that though?

As he scratched his head, the man also seemed unsure as he frowned while trying to remember.

Well, leaving that aside.

BANG!

Seojun kicked down the gate and shouted loudly.

“Looking for ten friends to do some honest labor!”

Naturally, the response wasn’t friendly.

“What’s with this lunatic?”

“All kinds of idiots out there.”

The Black Serpent Sect members looked at Seojun with bewilderment before approaching with weapons in hand.

Well, when some crazy fucker breaks down your door, you’ve got to teach them a lesson, right?

That was their fatal mistake.

“These guys always need a beating before they’ll listen.”

Seojun raised his scabbard.

.

.

.

He lowered his blood-stained scabbard.

“Phew, now let’s go, boys.”

“...Yes, boss.”

After getting thoroughly beaten, their way of addressing him changed to boss. They really do only listen after a beating.

As he marched through the back alleys leading his new worker friends, they drew many stares.

Beggars peeked out while hiding their bodies, and Black Path thugs pretended to pass by while keeping a close eye on them.

Ignoring them, they walked for a while before arriving at the Black Tiger Sect, which somehow felt nostalgic.

“Oh... wow, what a mess.”

“Everything worth taking must be gone.”

As Chunbong said, the Black Tiger Sect had already been completely looted by the back alley folks.

But the important thing was the building itself, not what was inside it.

Seojun spoke to his worker friends sluggishly following behind him.

“Alright, boys. I’m not asking for much. Let’s just clean up these corpses, shall we?”

“Yessss...”

As they entered the building, the stench of rotting corpses was overwhelming.

There were corpses stretched out all along the corridor.

Even the hardened Black Path thugs were shocked, but apparently cleaning up corpses was better than getting beaten. Watching them clean up the bodies without complaint, Chunbong sighed.

“So many died.”

“They deserved to die.”

“That’s true.”

The Black Path was said to have all kinds of people, but even among them, the Black Tiger Sect was particularly vicious.

They were all the type to consider human trafficking as just basic business.

After his Black Path buddies finished their voluntary service of clearing away all the corpses, Seojun stood in front of a Black Tiger Sect building.

It was the largest of their buildings.

“We won’t need this, right?”

“Not if just the two of us are living here.”

That means we don’t need it.

Grinning, Seojun drew his sword.

The Primordial Divine Art he was creating began to color his mind’s eye.

Should I do one final check?

A violently flowing river, a sky alternating between light and dark.

He observed the world he had constructed in his mind.

What he had taken from the Clear Flowing Sword was its imagery and qi flow. Though Seojun had only copied what he saw of the swordsmanship, he had essentially taken its cultivation technique.

Even without knowing the sutra, stealing the visualization and qi flow meant he had taken about 90% of the cultivation technique.

Three different cultivation techniques mixed according to his taste, giving birth to something new.

“Haa...”

Seojun inhaled and raised his sword. A murky golden sword qi rippled violently above the blade.

“You... what is that...”

As Chunbong’s eyes grew round, Seojun brought down his sword.

CRASH────────!!

One wall of the building completely shattered along with its pillars. Seojun nodded with satisfaction at the rough sword marks left behind.

“Hmm. Not bad.”

“No, seriously. What the fuck is this? I never taught you anything like that.”

“Ahh, this? This is what I call the Primordial Divine Art.”

“What did you mix with the Yellow Cloud Divine Art!? You crazy bastard, you’re doing something insane! You’ll die doing that!”

“Come on, it’s fine.”

The Black Path friends trembled as they watched this lunatic demolishing a house with his sword.

Seojun glanced at them before speaking to Chunbong, who was glaring at him.

“Hey, Geum Chunbong.”

“What?”

“I kinda want Transcendent Realm.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

CRASH!

Seojun destroyed another pillar.

“Is Transcendent Realm the name of someone’s dog?”

“Well, Peak Realm isn’t a dog’s name either.”

“...You’ve got me there.”

Crack!

Three pillars were destroyed.

At that point, the building began to groan with an eerie sound.

Seojun gestured for Chunbong to step back as he raised his sword again.

Watching him, she said.

“But the Transcendent Realm is different. It’s not a realm you can reach just by being good at manipulating qi. Even for you, it should take at least ten more years.”

“Ten years? Ten days is enough.”

“Now that’s complete bullshit.”

Actually, I think so too. I just threw out ten days randomly.

The Transcendent Realm...

Transcendent Realm means surpassing the Peak Realm.

Then what is the Peak Realm? Just as the word suggests, it means reaching the highest realm.

But wait, aren’t there higher realms like the Transcendent Realm and the Unrestrained Realm?

Some idiots might say that, but that’s just them being stupid.

It means reaching the highest realm as an ordinary human.

In other words, from Transcendent Realm onwards, you’re not quite human anymore, but somewhere in between.

Rumble!

Seojun grinned as he watched the building finally collapse under his sword strike.

“My, how satisfyingly it crumbles.”

“Cough...! Ugh, the dust!”

“Aw, did my Chunbong get some dust in her mouth?”

“...You’ve been getting real cocky lately, haven’t you?”

“Oops, soz.”

Seojun stepped onto the rubble of the collapsed building.

Standing tall under the sun that hadn’t yet reached its zenith, he took a deep breath.

“YA──HOO────!!”

Chunbong made a truly worried expression.

“...Did he lose it or something.”

*Demolishing a building with a sword.

After checking off one item from his bucket list, Seojun hummed while starting to set up their new home.

Their new home was a modest building next to the large collapsed one. It was probably used as a warehouse before.

As for the worker friends? They were sent home.

“Isn’t this nice, Chunbong? We won’t have to worry about this one falling apart.”

“Yeah. As long as you don’t destroy it.”

“You think I’m crazy are something? Why would I destroy our own home?”

“Haha.”

Chunbong laughed soullessly while grumbling as she wiped the floor with a rag.

“Anyways, what’s this Primordial Divine Art? What happened to what I taught you? And is it even really a divine art?”

“I’ll need a martial arts to use when we go outside later, right? You said I can’t use the Yellow Cloud Divine Art outside.”

“Hmph.”

Ah, she’s sulking.

Chunbong seemed to be extremely proud of the Yellow Cloud Divine Art, so she appeared jealous that he was creating a different martial art.

“Fufu.”

But I’m a Geum Chunbong Master now. My major is Geum Chunbong Psychology. This level of sulking will disappear after a bit of poking.

“Yoink.”

When he mercilessly squeezed her soft cheeks, Chunbong had a fit.

“Hey stop! Stop! Stop! Stop touching my cheeks! They’ll wear out!”

“Oh no, whatever will I do? It’s my only joy in life...”

“What joy in life...”

Chunbong sighed and patted her slightly reddened cheeks that had been rubbed.

Seojun watched her while standing arrogantly with his arms crossed.

“Well, it might be iffy to call it a divine art right now, but it’ll be different later.”

The basic foundation was the Yellow Cloud Divine Art. Though it felt like its level had actually lowered because he had messed with it to his liking, this was only temporary.

Who knows? Later, the Primordial Divine Art might be called the greatest martial art under the heavens.

Even now, it felt like it suited him better than the Yellow Cloud Divine Art because it was tailored specifically for him.

“When that time comes, make sure to record that the Yellow Cloud Divine Art was the original.”

“Got it, you brat.”

Seojun roughly ruffled her hair.

After they finished cleaning up and took a break, Chunbong asked him.

“By the way, you said we were going to the Clear River Sect today. When are we leaving?”

“Let me see... Should we just go tomorrow? I’m kinda feeling lazy all of a sudden.”

— We know you’re in there! Come out now!

At the sudden loud voice, Seojun and Chunbong looked at each other.

“Looks like they came to us?”

“I knew this would happen.”

Chunbong clicked her tongue and stood up.

“Grab your sword. If a fight breaks out, don’t hold back just because they’re part of the Orthodox Faction. Your survival comes first, no matter what.”

“Oh? I’m touched.”

“What are you on about?”

When they went outside, there were several men wearing blue clothes.

The face of the one in front looked quite familiar.

“Ah, that Cheong whatever.”

“It’s Cheongwoon. The sect leader summons you, so come with us.”

“Okay~”

When he nodded compliantly, Cheongwoon made a suspicious expression but soon gestured to his fellow disciples and started walking.

“Let’s be off.”

*The Clear River Sect, which he had thought was some no-name sect, was larger than expected.

Cheongwoon, who had brought Seojun, briefly spoke with the gatekeeper before returning to his side and saying.

“Listen carefully. Do not show any frivolous behavior in front of the sect leader.”

“Sure~”

“That is exactly the kind of behavior I’m talking about!

“Senior Brother, we’re told to bring him directly to the sect leader’s quarters.”

“Tch.”

Cheongwoon nodded, then took the lead, heading somewhere.

When they arrived at the sect leader’s quarters, Cheongwoon bowed in front of the quite magnificent building.

“Sect Leader, it is Cheongwoon.”

“Enter.”

The voice was quite dignified. Following behind Cheongwoon, Seojun soon saw a middle-aged man who looked quite old.

“Is that the one?”

“Yes, Sect Leader.”

“You lost to a worthless Black Path vermin?”

“...Yes.”

“Oh? How shameful. It seems you must need more training.”

The sect leader was talking shit right to his face. Seojun scratched his head and opened his mouth.

“Hey, mister.”

“Silence. Keep your mouth shut, you vulgar thing.”

“But...”

“Shut up unless you wish to die.”

Tsk, the sect leader clicked his tongue and started speaking to Cheongwoon again.

He talked about how carelessness in murim meant death, and how one must always keep an eye out for underhanded tricks when fighting against the Black Path.

Seojun who had been standing there blankly, suddenly grinned.

“Haha, fucking bitch. Let’s have a proper talk, you bastard.”