Martial Arts Ain't Anything Special-Chapter 22: Red Moon Pavilion (2)

“You bastard, you went to a courtesan house.”

Chunbong had a sharp gaze.

Honestly, he hadn’t done anything wrong, but her look made it seem like she could create wrongdoings out of thin air.

“Uh... yeah?”

“...”

Her eyes traveled slowly from his head to his toes.

I’m innocent. I swear I didn’t spend a single coin.

Instead of making excuses, he puffed out his chest proudly.

“...Hmph. Look who’s acting all proud.”

“I didn’t spend even a single coin!”

“Moron.”

Pouting, Chunbong laid back down.

“You stink. Wash up before bed.”

“Yesh.”

He washed thoroughly before going to bed.

*When he woke up in the morning, Chunbong was tightly hugging one of his legs in her sleep.

Has she stopped sulking?

After poking her chubby cheeks repeatedly, he quietly got up.

Chunbong had been sleeping in often lately. It was probably because her condition wasn’t very good, and it was quite worrying.

“Sigh. Always making me worry.”

He left the house with only one sword in hand.

He wasn’t planning to go far. His destination was right in front of their house—the ruins of the collapsed Black Tiger Sect building.

Seojun climbed onto the rubble.

“The air’s nice.”

Unlike the stuffy air of modern society, the clean morning air filled his lungs.

After taking a deep breath, he drew his sword.

Supreme Polarity? How hard could it be?

According to Chunbong, the Yellow Cloud Divine Art was created based on insights into Non-polar and Supreme Polarity.

So if he could just create the Supreme Polarity properly, wouldn’t he make quite an achievement?

With that thought, he began circulating the Primordial Divine Art.

Crackle—

He converted his circulating inner qi into yin qi. The surrounding temperature dropped sharply as frost formed on his sword.

In that state, he layered sword qi on top, causing a somewhat gloomy blue sword qi to rise.

If I mix yang qi into this...

This time, he used the Yin-Yang Reversal technique he had been enlightened to before to convert yin qi into yang qi.

The surrounding air suddenly heated up as a brilliant golden sword qi erupted from his sword.

“Huh?”

Right. Supreme Polarity or whatever, the yin qi just changed to yang qi.

The metal sword even made an unsettling creaking sound, probably from the rapid temperature change.

“What the fuck...”

This isn’t going as planned.

Sighing, Seojun sheathed his sword. If it didn’t work on the first attempt, he could just take it step by step.

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This time, he decided to try putting yin qi in his left hand and yang qi in his right hand, then combining them.

Yin qi in the left hand...

He succeeded without difficulty.

Yang qi in the right hand...

Again, he succeeded without difficulty.

But when he looked at his left hand, the yin qi had changed to yang qi.

“Man, fuck this. I give up.”

He instinctively realized that his level wasn’t high enough for this yet.

Seojun clicked his tongued and then leapt down from the building ruins.

“Were you training?”

“Yep.”

Who knew how long she had been watching, but Chunbong was leaning against the wall looking at him.

“The Primordial Divine Art?”

“Yeah?”

“...What about the Yellow Cloud Divine Art?”

“Well, when you train one, the other is too.”

They weren’t completely different categories of martial arts. When you gained insight in one martial art, it usually raised the level of other martial arts as well.

“...Hmph.”

“Aw come on, why are you sulking again!”

Is she going through puberty or something?

A book was instantly written in Seojun’s mind:

I won’t sleep with you anymore!

Don’t come near me, you stink!

Ugh... disgusting.

I’ve decided to marry this person. Don’t look for me anymore.

Seojun covered his mouth. That cannot be allowed.

“No, Chunbong! I won’t allow it!”

“W-What are you on about...?”

“I won’t let you marry anyone weaker than your big brother!”

Chunbong’s expression turned serious.

“Are you sure you haven’t fallen into qi deviation? You seem to be getting worse by the day.”

“Deu-dda...?”

“No, seriously... Well, uh. Yeah, whatever.”

Chunbong frowned and scratched her head.

That’s enough fooling around. Seojun chuckled and patted her head.

“Alright, let’s go eat.”

“Before that.”

Chunbong waved the sword in her hand.

“Let’s have a spar.”

*It wasn’t anything special as far as sparring went.

Inner qi level was limited to first-rate, sword qi was forbidden, and of course, lethal moves were forbidden.

Though it was a bit dangerous using real swords, martial artists of Seojun and Chunbong’s skill could control themselves appropriately.

“Ready?”

Seojun glided forward, flowing with the Yellow Dragon Crossing the Rosy Clouds. His feet barely touched the ground, as if sliding on ice.

Clang!

The sword he lightly swung was blocked.

Making eye contact with Chunbong, Seojun freaking out, spun around.

The sleeves of his long robe fluttered. In that moment, Chunbong’s sword flashing through the gap suddenly whirled into a sweep, targeting his entire body.

Clang!

As Seojun swung in an arc, his eyes lit up. An opening. He thrust straight in.

Then Chunbong’s sword drew a gentle circle.

“Huh?”

He definitely put force into it, but it felt like it went somewhere strange.

When his sword drifted upward, Chunbong’s blade swiftly struck in quick succession.

Seojun desperately swung his sword to block, but his broken stance betrayed him.

Finally seizing her chance, her blade cut through the air like a beam of light.

Clang clang!

Her sword struck the same spot again and again. By the time Seojun could recover from the parry, Chunbong’s blade was already at his throat.

“Damn...”

“You’ve improved a lot.”

“What. You trolling?”

“Trolling?”

“I meant are you lying to me?”

Chunbong snorted.

“Do you have any idea how long I’ve been training? How many more years I have compared to you? I’ve been training since I could walk. It would be strange if you won.”

“Then is the Clear River Sect Leader a moron?”

“Ah.”

After pondering for a moment, Chunbong tilted her head.

“You might be right?”

“Oops.”

Seojun covered his mouth.

Chunbong chuckled and shook her head.

“Your talent just lies somewhere else.”

“Mm, that’s right. Speaking of which, want to have a match with qi arts?”

“No thanks. You’re trash at that.”

“What...!”

Recent record: 0 wins, 1 loss. He couldn’t argue with that.

“Man, so unfair...!”

“Whatever.”

Seojun grinned as he sheathed his sword.

“I’ve got a good idea.”

Under her questioning gaze, Seojun fired a qi bullet at the wall right in front of them.

Crack!

Part of the wall hit by it froze.

Seeing him now casually manipulating yin qi, Chunbong clicked her tongue.

“Tsk, fucking hell.”

“Now now, watch closely.”

Seojun once again held his middle finger with his thumb. This time with yang qi.

Boom!

The qi bullet flew and struck precisely where the yin qi remained on the wall.

That was all.

There were some cracks from the sudden temperature change, but nothing else.

“Tch... this isn’t it.”

“What are you trying to do? Even this much is pretty amazing, you know?”

Freely manipulating yin and yang qi?

Usually when someone claimed that, they’d either be dismissed as talking nonsense or accused of using evil arts.

Or they’d be suspected of learning the Sun Moon Demonic Art and treated as a Great Demonic Practitioner.

“No wait, one more time. I feel like I’m onto something.”

Seojun concentrated.

His inspiration came from Chunbong’s sword. The swordplay where she repeatedly struck his sword to parry it far away.

If he couldn’t handle yin and yang qi simultaneously, he could just break it down into steps.

“Huu...”

With his eyes closed, Seojun rapidly rotated the yin qi at his fingertips. He imagined a blue orb.

Suddenly opening his eyes, he fired a qi bullet.

Crack!

The qi bullet embedded into the wall. But this was different from before. The yin qi was swirling and staying in place.

Quickly firing another one, Seojun smiled faintly.

This, this felt good.

“Now, Geum Chunbong! This is the Supreme Pola—!”

BOOM──────────!!!

There was ringing in his ears.

“Cough...! Cough...!”

After a few dry coughs, Seojun looked at Chunbong in his arms.

“Holy shit.... Are you okay?”

“Uh? Yeah...”

Staring blankly at Seojun, Chunbong suddenly startled and grabbed his arms tightly.

“What about you!? Are you okay!?”

He let her force guide him into a spin, enjoying the cool air against his back.

These were new clothes too. Looks like we’ll need to buy more already.

As he sighed, he felt small hands patting his back.

“Haah... No serious injuries at least.”

“Of course not. I blocked it with qi. If I wrapped qi around my back... would that be back qi? No, dorsal qi?”

“Stop with that bullshit and put some medicine on it.”

Slap! He got hit on the thigh.

“But wasn’t that totally sic— What’s with that expression?”

She wasn’t crying, but her face looked like she might burst into tears any moment.

Alarmed, Seojun grabbed both her cheeks.

“Are you hurt somewhere?”

“...No.”

“Then why are you like this.”

She didn’t even react when he stretched her cheeks. This was serious.

Seojun bent his knees slightly to meet her eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

“...Just. It’s nothing.”

“What’s got you like this? Just tell me. Your big brother will listen to anything you say.”

Is she upset because I’d only been using the Primordial Divine Art lately and not the Yellow Cloud DIvine Art?

Maybe it’s because I kept doing weird things with qi bullets instead of using the sword techniques she taught me.

As he stared into her eyes closely, Chunbong finally spoke, her lips trembling.

“I just... wonder if I’m not helpful anymore...”

What nonsense is this? Is she actually going through puberty?

He swallowed the thoughtless words that were about to spill out of habit.

Chunbong’s words weren’t meant as a joke.

“Hee, what are you saying?”

“...I’ve taught you everything I can. You can do everything well on your own now. With the Primordial Divine Art, even the Yellow Cloud Divine Art isn’t that much help anymore. You’re getting into trouble trying to get spirit pills for me... and just now you got hurt trying to protect me... All I ever do is depend on you...”

Tears welled up in her crumpled eyes above her protruding lip.

She’s so delicate. Even though she acts tough.

She’d seemed lost in thought lately, so this is what she’d been thinking about?

Wrinkling his nose, Seojun picked Chunbong up.

“Look, Geum Chunbong. Honestly, I just got hurt doing something stupid just now.”

“Still...”

“Now now, this won’t do.”

Seojun expertly gave her a piggyback ride.

The dust had settled, revealing the completely collapsed wall.

He passed the ruined wall and used Yellow Dragon Crossing the Rosy Clouds to reach the market street.

When people came into view, Chunbong covered her reddened eyes with her hands.

Realizing his mistake, Seojun took her down from his neck and held her in his arms instead. Then, while patting her back, he said.

“Look look.”

“...At what.”

“Quickly.”

Chunbong slightly raised her head. As she glanced sideways at the people, he said loudly.

“Look at all these morons here.”

“What?”

Chunbong made a dumbfounded expression. Of course, the passing people did too.

My words might have sounded like nonsense just now. But I’m being sincere.

“Look at all these countless morons, then look at yourself again. You’re seriously amazing, you know that?”

“...Is that supposed to be comforting?”

“Of course.”

It’s fine even if you’re not helpful. You’re my sister. If it weren’t for you, I would’ve been a corpse in the back alleys long ago. You don’t even know how much you help me just from our daily banter.

He didn’t bother saying such obvious things.

“You were called a prodigy and genius, right? Soon you’ll probably be able to cure your meridian blockage, then you can try catching up to me. Who knows? Maybe you’ll become super strong and end up supporting me.”

“...”

“Well, by then I’ll probably have hit Transcendent Realm, so that won’t happen.”

It was meant as a joke, but there was no response.

But this time he was confident.

“I’ll probably be transcendent in popularity too. The line of women will circle around the training ground five times...”

“...Shut up, you idiot.”

“Yesh.”

He shut up.

But Seojun smiled. Because he had won.

Chunbong’s face, with her puffy eyes and reluctant smile, was too precious to keep to himself.