Martial Arts Ain't Anything Special-Chapter 41: Martial Arts Tournament (1)

Chunbong scratched her chin and spoke about the realm above the Unrestrained Realm.

“It’s often called the Profound Realm, or the Demigod Realm. There’s probably... only a handful of martial artists at that level in all of Murim?”

“It’s to that extent?”

“Of course. Hmm...”

Tilting her head, Chunbong added to her explanation.

“Actually, there might be quite a few if you really searched everywhere. Some ancient Masters from many generations ago might be living quietly somewhere.”

“At that age, wouldn’t they have died of old age?”

“There’s no limit on lifespan around the Profound Realm. You can live forever as long as your willpower allows. Well, that’s just what I’ve heard, so anyway...”

Unrestrained Realm.

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She wrote on the ground and added its other name next to it.

Creation Realm.

“The Unrestrained Realm, true to its name, is the state where one achieves perfect harmony with the qi of all creation, Mother Nature. It’s said that those who reach this realm can manipulate qi even at great distances from their physical form.”

One of the most iconic symbols of the Unrestrained Realm is Sword Intent.

It means controlling a sword with qi, and it’s said to be a technique that can only be learned after fragmenting the state of one’s mind and learning to manipulate the qi of nature.

“How do you know all this?”

“My father told me.”

“Ah, I see.”

Suddenly curious, Seojun asked.

“By the way... what realm was your father at?”

“He was at the threshold between Transcendent and Unrestrained Realm.”

“Was he the strongest in your family?”

“No. The strongest in our family was a distant ancestor. We just called him grandfather...”

Chunbong smiled like she was about to cry as she gazed blankly into the empty air.

“Grandfather was a Profound Realm master. He was truly a god of the sword, befitting the name Divine Sword Geum Clan.”

“Oh... um...”

Seojun wanted to ask how on earth the Divine Sword Geum Clan was wiped out then, but he couldn’t bring himself to.

So he just gently patted her head, and she smiled bitterly.

“But you’re probably wondering how the DIvine Sword Geum Clan was wiped out then, right?”

“What, you can read minds now?”

“You’re just obvious.”

Chunbong chuckled and explained.

“One day, grandfather suddenly disappeared. He couldn’t have been attacked, so he probably ascended.”

“I see...”

“And unfortunately, my father was quite vulnerable as he was in the process of fully entering the Unrestrained Realm... We were hit hard at our weakest moment. Which means someone must have leaked that information.”

“Fucking bastard needs to be killed.”

“Yeah, the son of bitch needs to be slaughtered.”

Crunch, Chunbong ground her teeth.

Seojun picked her up and rocked her back and forth, and he heard a chuckle from her.

“It’s fine. Stop it. It’s all in the past now.”

“Now now. Just accept it when it’s given.”

“You talk too much.”

Chunbong, who had been giggling, whispered in Seojun’s ear.

“Anyway, let me know if you’re ever in trouble. Since I’m treated as grandfather’s disciple, my status is ridiculous. Except for the Murim Alliance Head, there are few in the Orthodox Faction with higher status than me.”

Of course, it didn’t have much practical meaning, but it could command a certain level of respect.

“Hmm, so...”

Seojun did some rough calculations.

So while Chunbong is just a kid, Geum Hee of the Divine Sword Geum Clan will be treated like a very well-aged elder?

“Gasp! Geum Chunbong, you brat! You were actually a granny all along?”

“You fucker.”

He got hit.

*According to Chunbong’s further explanation, even with Geum Hee’s status, she wouldn’t be treated like an elder.

The Divine Sword Geum Clan was a family, not a sect, and apparently other sects didn’t really care much about status between them.

Status itself is just like calling someone dad or little brother within the same sect?

Of course, how many people will be able to ignore someone saying ‘I’m the Sword God’s disciple’?

Anyway, Seojun roughly understood and pondered Chunbong’s explanation as they returned to the inn.

Profound Realm.

The realm where mind becomes martial. The state where one’s mind becomes martial arts itself.

Apparently, those famous techniques like Mind Sword were used by martial artists around the Profound Realm.

No Sword in Hand but Sword in Heart.

Just hearing it sounded so cool.

Though there’s no sword in hand, there is a sword in the heart.

Drop a cool one-liner, unleash the Mind Sword, and everyone around would just lose their damn minds.

Of course, that was far beyond his reach right now.

Forget Profound Realm. First, he needed to find clues about the Transcendent Realm.

“Hmm... Transcendent.”

“Stop it. If you rush, you’ll only end up slower.”

“Not that, I just think the word sounds lewd.”

“...You crazy bastard.”

Actually, he’d been thinking about this for a while.

Cute transcendent girl. Wouldn’t you get locked up for how absolutely degenerate just saying that is?1

Of course, he was thinking some bullshit.

“Anyway, the preliminaries are next week, right? I should train until then.”

“Want me to help?”

“Weren’t you going to train together anyways?”

“Well, yeah.”

Hmph. Chunbong snorted and held Seojun’s hand tightly.

“I’m holding it so you don’t get lost.”

“Yes yes. I’ll do as you say.”

“Mm. You better.”

“Yes ma’am~”

And so it was decided.

*If one hears the Dao in the morning, they may die content in the evening.

Yes. If I can touch Chunbong’s soft cheeks in the early morning, I can die without any regrets in the evening.

“Mm. Very good. Satisfactory.”

“What exactly are you doing?”

“Examining your body?”

With a PhD in Geum Chunbong Studies, I can tell her condition today just by touching her cheeks.

Seojun, who had thoroughly indulged in Chunbong’s cheeks through the face veil, exhaled fully satisfied.

Chunbong frowned as he did this.

“How can you do this bullshit every single day without fail?”

“Because... that is who I am.”

“Good grief.”

Seojun and Chunbong left the inn.

Today was the day of the martial arts tournament preliminaries.

No wonder. As soon as he stepped out onto the street, Seojun smacked his forehead seeing the immediately visible bustling crowd.

“Wow... This is really too much.”

“Yeah. It doesn’t look like it’ll be easy to get through this.”

—We ask spectators of the martial arts tournament to please move in an orderly fashion!

It seemed Mount Hua Sect members were trying to direct traffic, but honestly, it was far from enough.

“But this isn’t normal times. Should we go by rooftop?”

“Yeah. Looks like quite a few people are already doing that.”

Several martial artists were quickly moving across the rooftops.

Seojun nodded and picked up Chunbong.

“Let’s go, Geum Chunbong!”

Finally, the long-awaited start of the martial arts tournament.

*The preliminary venue was relatively less crowded when they arrived.

This was thanks to Mount Hua Sect controlling how many spectators could enter or leave.

“Number seventy-eight. Head to where you see the large seventy-eight sign over there.”

“Okay.”

The tokens received after passing the log-cutting test had numbers written on them, which were apparently used to divide participants into groups.

“What number are you, Miss Geum?”

“One hundred twenty-five.”

“This is bullshit, seriously.”

Isn’t there an inhumane amount of participants? Seojun sighed.

“I guess I’m heading over there then?”

“Yeah. Come back victorious, Geum Chunbong.”

“Sure thing. You better win too.”

“Of course I will.”

It had been a while since he acted alone, separated from Chunbong.

Seojun, fighting back an irresistible urge, suppressed his trembling hands as he headed towards the flag with a large 78 written on it.

“Is this it?”

As he was looking around, a man in blue robes called out to him.

“Number seventy-eight is this way.”

“Ah, right.”

Five people were already gathered in front of the man. They all seemed to be participants.

In the middle of the sharp, wary gazes, Seojun just plopped down on the ground.

“Excuse me, how many people need to gather before we start?”

“Group seventy-eight has eight people, so we need two more.”

“I see.”

This Mount Hua Sect friend seems a bit stiff. The one I met before seemed more friendly.

As he sat blankly waiting for everyone to gather, someone came running urgently from afar.

“Group seventy-eight here!”

“Stand over here.”

Now there were seven.

Though the last person hadn’t arrived yet, it seemed time was up as the Mount Hua Sect martial artist started speaking.

“Due to the circumstances, one person will receive a bye. We will move to the training ground for now.”

After walking for a bit following the martial artist, they came upon a clean training ground.

He didn’t know what materials were used or how it was made, but it immediately gave off the impression that quite a bit of money had been spent.

Wow, they even built something like this in a city right at the foot of the mountain, not even on Mount Hua itself.

Well, if you really think about it, Mount Hua Sect is probably equivalent to a kingdom, so it’s not like they can’t afford it.

“The bye will be determined by drawing lots. From the left, numbers one through seven.”

The Mount Hua Sect martial artist took out some kind of container, put what looked like wooden chopsticks in it, and shook it.

He drew one out and the character written on its end was seven. Seojun, who was standing on the far right, scratched his head.

“Oh man, I didn’t exactly need that.”

If anything, it was disappointing.

Seojun clicked his tongue, and the man next to him grinned and patted his shoulder.

“Looks like the young friend got lucky. Though you’ll be eliminated right away anyway. Hahaha!”

What’s this bastard’s deal?

As he stared blankly, the Mount Hua Sect martial artist once again determined the matchups among the six people.

It seemed like they were conducting the preliminaries half-heartedly due to the excessive number of participants.

“Seo Bokwoo, Myeong Joo-am, come forward. As this is a match, killing is strictly forbidden. If you attempt to kill...”

After a brief instruction, the match began immediately.

It seemed the Mount Hua Sect martial artists, one assigned to each group, were also responsible for safety, and they appeared to be around the Peak Realm.

In other words, Mount Hua Sect had over a hundred Peak Realm martial artists.

Damn, they really are huge, huh.

While he was lost in thought, the first match ended.

“Winner, Seo Bokwoo! Next...”

It was the turn of that old man who had been yapping away earlier.

“Park Leehong, Dam Je-il, come forward. The rules are the same as before. Once again, I will remind you...”

So his name’s Dam Je-il. How can a person’s name be First? Is his younger sibling Dam Second then?2

“Dam Je-il? That Dam Je-il from Madan County?”

“Dam Je-il the Tyrannical Blade! Damn it. This tournament is ruined too.”

Surprisingly, it seemed this old man was somewhat famous.

The motivation of the other participants visibly dropped.

“Begin!”

As soon as the referee called to start, Dam Je-il quickly rushed forward.

He was quite fast despite his bulky physique.

Boom!

“Ugh...!”

“Hahaha! Just surrender quietly!”

Every swing of his blade sent his opponent staggering. In a heartbeat, Dam Je-il’s eyes glinted and his blade flashed forward.

“Huk...!”

It stopped just short of his neck, and the man crumpled to his knees.

“I-I surrender.”

“Hahaha! How boring!”

“Winner, Dam Je-il!”

Seojun scratched his head as he watched Dam Je-il laughing so loudly it hurt his ears.

He doesn’t seem that strong of a Master though.

Man, do these guys actually just give out fancy titles to anyone?

I really don’t get it.

How are you supposed to understand what these martial artists are thinking?

Anyway, he uses a blade...

The Wang family half-sword technique... I mean, the Wang family blade technique. Should I counter with that?

1. The joke in Korean is that Transcendent sounds like Elementary School Climax.Transcendent = 초(등)절정,초등 = Elementary,절정 = Peak (Climax).So this joke here is Cute Elementary School Girl Orgasm.2. In Korean, Je-il (제일) means first, and Je-ee (제이) means second.