Martial Arts Ain't Anything Special-Chapter 55: Transcendent Realm (2)

Seojun and Chunbong packed their bags and left the inn.

This would be their last time at the inn where they had stayed for quite a while.

The day to leave Huayin had finally come.

“I don’t like sleeping on the streets...”

It felt like just yesterday they were sprawled out sleeping in back alleys, but Chunbong, who had gotten used to clean accommodations, grumbled.

“Isn’t it kind of nice? Just roll up and sleep, it’s warm and cozy.”

“There are so many bugs though.”

“That’s true.”

As Seojun trudged along, he suddenly had a good idea.

Could he create a martial art for repelling insects?

It seemed possible to make one using frequencies or smells that insects dislike.

The only problem now was how to figure that out.

“Miss Geum, do you know any scents that insects hate?”

“Hmm. Was it citronella grass? I think I heard they dislike that scent.”

“Oh.”

He made a mental note to try it out later.

As they were slowly leaving Huayin,

“My, what a coincidence.”

Namgung Suah appeared.

Having expected this, Seojun debated whether to draw his sword or not, but decided against it.

She seemed to be a decent person after all.

“What brings you here?”

“I was about to leave Huayin too. To think we’d run into each other by chance like this. Isn’t this what they call fate?”

“I don’t think so?”

This is probably called stalking, not fate.

Namgung Suah, completely unfazed, naturally moved closer and peeked at the map Seojun was looking at while hugging her long greatsword.

“If you’re going this way, it’s faster to cross that mountain over there.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. You’re heading towards the Wudang Sect, right?”

“For now, yes.”

“It’s good timing then. From what I know, exchanges between the Tang Clan and Wudang Sect have become more active lately, so the food there has become incredibly delicious.”

Seojun frowned at her words.

“That doesn’t make sense though.”

“Pardon? What doesn’t?”

“The Tang (Sugar) Clan and Wudang (Zero Sugar) Sect are exchanging? Wouldn’t that be difficult given their opposing ideologies?”1

“Ideologies? While the Tang Clan is occasionally criticized for being too close to the Unorthodox Faction, they’re still a respectable Orthodox Sect. There shouldn’t be any major ideological issues?”

“I see.”

Seojun looked at Chunbong.

Unlike Namgung Suah, she had perfectly understood his joke and was raising her eyebrows sharply.

“Oh, seriously, you bastard!”

Thump thump thump! Seojun chuckled as he got hit. Watching this, Namgung Suah tilted her head and smiled slightly before subtly pressing against him.

Squish—

“Eek...!”

A startled Seojun reflexively threw a punch.

“Ugh...!”

Namgung Suah, clutching her stomach where she’d been hit, blushed and panted heavily.

“Haa... Haa...”

Her gaze was heated.

Seojun genuinely panicked and backed away at the sight of teardrops forming in the corners of her narrowed eyes.

“Th-This is sexual harassment!”

“Yes... I’m sorry... I didn’t mean to...”

Lick— Namgung Suah’s pink tongue swept across her lips.

Is it really okay to travel with this woman?

He trembled as he hid behind Chunbong.

*In the end, Seojun decided to travel with Namgung Suah.

He had an irrational fear, bordering on a paranoid delusion, that Elder Jongin might be chasing after them.

Of course, unless that old man was truly senile, he wouldn’t actually chase after them, but even if such a thing happened, Seojun calculated that with a Namgung Clan heir by their side, he wouldn’t do anything strange.

And if he still did something weird? That would be truly unthinkable.

If he messed up, it could lead to a war between the Namgung Clan and Mount Hua Sect.

Surely, even he wouldn’t go that far...

“This way, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

The group decided to cross the mountains towards Hubei as Namgung Suah had suggested.

There were three Peak Realm martial artists among them.

Chunbong’s physical condition had improved significantly, so crossing a few mountains was no problem for them.

However, there was one slightly annoying issue.

“It’s the Yin-Yang Twin Tigers. I heard demonic creatures have been increasing lately...”

The occasional demonic creatures that popped up were a bit of a nuisance.

One tiger was engulfed in flames as if on fire, and another tiger was in ice as if frozen solid.

Namgung Suah explained.

“They’re not difficult to deal with for those at the Peak Realm. However, yin-based martial arts don’t work well against the Yin Tiger, and yang-based martial arts don’t work well against the Yang Tiger, so some people occasionally struggle with them.”

Of course, she said that if you overwhelm them with pure strength, there’s nothing you can’t kill, but this didn’t really apply to Seojun.

— Grrrr...

The Yin-Yang Twin Tigers were wary of the group.

Seojun stepped forward with a smirk.

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to try.”

He had wanted to do this within Mount Hua Sect’s territory if possible, but the opportunity never arose.

Seojun carefully wrapped yang qi around his right hand and yin qi around his left, then carefully brought his palms together.

Rumble──────────

The yin and yang qi seemed to harmonize for a moment, but a subtle misalignment grew until it finally began to break apart.

It would explode at this rate.

Naturally, if he held onto it, Seojun would become ‘Lee/Seo/Jun’. So he had to release it before that happened.

Seojun took a deep breath, twisted his waist, and brought both hands to his right side.

“Ka────!”

Surprised by the unnatural torrent of power, Namgung Suah shouted.

“Young Expert! That’s dangerous!”

Seojun paid no attention.

“Me────!”

Watching Seojun, Chunbong shook her head.

“He’s always like this, just leave him be.”

“Hwa────!”

However, the Yin-Yang Twin Tigers weren’t going to just stand by and watch. Anyone could see he was about to use a dangerous technique.

“Groooowl...!”

The Yin-Yang Twin Tigers charged.

“Me────!”

Just as the twin tigers’ front paws were about to strike Seojun from both sides,

“Hwa──────!!”

Kamehwamehwa (Beautiful Coal Disaster Plum Blossom).2

The blooming plum blossoms are like a beautiful inky black disaster.

Seojun untwisted his waist and extended his hands, and the willed destruction shot forth from his palms.

────────────!!!!

A magnificent energy wave... no, it’s the Kamehwamehwa.

Seojun puffed out his chest proudly as he saw the corpses of the Yin-Yang Twin Tigers with most of their bodies gone.

“That’s...”

A strange energy emanated from the corpses.

Seojun rummaged through the remains with his foot and found two round inner cores.

“Oh?”

One from the Yin Tiger, one from the Yang Tiger.

When he held them up and looked at Chunbong, she put her hand on her chin and pursed her lips.

“Hmm... Usually, when demonic creatures prepare to advance to the next realm, the power they store up becomes their inner core. In the case of Yin-Yang Twin Tigers, I heard that when they both reach the next realm simultaneously, they merge into one creature... The name was... Chaotic Thunderbolt Heaven Breaking Tiger? Something like that. Probably that.”

“What the hell? Why is the name like that?”

“I don’t know either. But I heard it’s about as strong as a Transcendent Realm martial artist.”

“Oh...”

Seojun scratched his head as he held up the two inner cores.

One inner core was cold as ice, and another was burning hot.

“These are spirit pills, right?”

“How could they be spirit pills? Those are lumps of monster qi, if you eat them raw you’ll fall straight into qi deviation. Don’t do anything crazy and just throw them away.”

By then, Namgung Suah had come to her senses and said while shivering.

“Ah, no... Wait a moment, Young Expert. What was that just now...? I’ve never seen such a martial art in my life...?”

“Ohh, you mean the Kamehwamehwa. Well, that’s...”

Seojun grinned and pointed at Chunbong.

“She’ll explain it to you.”

My Chunbong is smarter than me.

She’ll know what to explain to Namgung Suah and what to keep hidden.

“Sigh.”

Chunbong let out a deep breath.

And then Seojun popped both inner cores into his mouth at once.

“What the...! You fucking dumbass!”

She got very fucking angry.

*Seojun swallowed the inner cores with a certain conviction.

There was a bizarre energy tingling at his fingertips.

This should be monster qi if Chunbong was right, but he found this sensation familiar.

It’s not that different from inner qi.

While it was his first time seeing monster qi itself, in the end, this too was transformed qi.

Inner qi is qi that martial artists have absorbed and dyed with their own color using the power of their cultivation techniques to make it easier to handle, and monster qi is similarly qi that demonic creatures have dyed with their own color.

So it naturally wasn’t difficult to absorb.

Less than a minute after swallowing the inner cores, he opened his eyes and smiled brightly.

“Chunbong! Big brother is fine!”

“Die, you asshole!”

Chunbong flew at him with a drop kick.

That hurts.

Seojun gently rubbed his back where he’d been hit and examined the inner cores now settled inside him.

This might work.

The Essence-Qi-Qi-Qi-Qi-Mind meta. That wasn’t just a joke.

Use qi to supplement essence and spirit to achieve balance.

Essence-Qi, Qi-Qi, Qi-Mind.

These inner cores were the preparation for that.

Since it was a sudden idea he of course couldn’t be completely certain, but after creating something similar to an inner core inside his body, he became confident.

Form a physical organ with qi to supplement essence, and imbue that organ with consciousness to make up for the lack of spirit.

Now he was certain that with just one more catalyst, he could break through the Conception and Governing Vessels and reach the Transcendent Realm.

“Everyone, stop fighting and let’s eat.”

While lost in thought and getting beaten by Chunbong, Namgung Suah had apparently prepared a meal.

“Huh?”

A meal? How did she manage that?

Looking around blankly, he saw traces of cooking—a campfire, a dagger, ingredients.

It seemed Namgung Suah was a talented individual capable of cooking!

“Ah, I was just lost in thought for a moment... Wasn’t it hard doing it alone?”

“Pardon?”

Namgung Suah chuckled.

“I’m a Peak Realm martial artist too, you know. This much isn’t difficult at all. And...”

She subtly pointed to a spot.

The ingredients were a mess, turned into what looked like garbage.

“Sometimes not helping is the best way to help.”

Chunbong’s body stiffened.

“It’s okay, Chunbong. So what if you’re not good at cooking? You fulfill your role by being cute.”

“Shut up!”

Surprisingly, Namgung Suah’s cooking was delicious.

*The group cleared the area for camping and replenished the firewood for the campfire they had used for cooking.

Flap flap—

The birds flying around were quite annoying.

Feeling uneasy about their presence, Seojun gathered all the inner qi in his body to create a sphere.

Seojun’s intuition had always been pretty good, but since falling into this martial world, as his realm increased, it had become sharper, boasting considerable accuracy these days.

Besides, he could quickly replenish his inner qi anyway.

As he was kneading this lump of inner qi, Chunbong poked her head out from behind him.

“What are you doing?”

“Making a homemade bomb.”

“...Wait. What?”

“I’m going to bury it in the ground.”

He kneaded together yang qi and yin qi, creating a barrier of neutral qi between them.

To slow down the dispersal of inner qi, he wrapped it in a shell of hardened inner qi before burying it in the ground. With that done, he stretched.

“Phew... that was tough. It should last about six hours?”

“And after six hours...?”

“It’ll just dissipate, that’s all.”

Chunbong stared blankly at him.

“Wait... have you been fighting with common sense lately?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Why are you getting further and further from common sense, you bastard! No! Seriously, how did you do that!? How the fuck can you knead inner qi like dough!?”

This chapt𝙚r is updated by freeωebnovēl.c૦m.

Ta-da! Seojun pointed to where he had buried the bomb.

“See? It’s possible.”

“Gaaaaah...!”

Chunbong went berserk.

Namgung Suah approached leisurely and chuckled at the sight.

“You two really get along well. I wish I could join in.”

“Hmph, why don’t you go away?”

Chunbong seemed to have become friendlier with her while cooking and pushed her away.

“Don’t be like that...”

“Shh.”

Seojun suddenly stood up and stared closely into the darkness of the forest.

“Kamehwamehwa!”

─────────────!!!!

Namgung Suah’s jaw dropped at him suddenly destroying a mountain.

However, knowing Seojun, Chunbong quickly got up and drew her sword.

“Hey, what is it?”

“Don’t know.”

“As always.”

Tsk, Chunbong clicked her tongue but gradually raised her inner qi.

“Hoho, isn’t that dangerous?”

In the darkness cleared of trees, a figure appeared.

“Elder Jongin?”

Namgung Suah furrowed her brow.

“Indeed, child of Namgung. You should quickly leave this place. I must swiftly punish these two criminals.”

1. "무당" (mudang) here refers to  Wudang. Here, it's used as "무(no/zero) + 당(sugar)". Similarly, "당" (dang) is Tang but the joke plays on its meaning of sugar. The author also added sugar in parentheses in the raws so I've decided to leave it in the text.2. It's a martial arts meme about Mount Hua Sect, which can also be read as 'Volcano Wave' and Dragon Ball's Kamehameha in Korean is 'Energy Wave'. For this technique they're just playing around the word Maehwa which is Plum Blossom.