Martial Arts Ain't Anything Special-Chapter 89: Soft (2)

The comfort of using a map hack, following Hwan Baeho’s guidance, they reached their destination quickly.

During the journey, the child hesitantly shared his brief story.

A tiny village that couldn’t even be called a city. Martial artists had invaded and taken away all the villagers.

The boy had been playing hide-and-seek with friends and luckily avoided capture, but others weren’t so fortunate.

His parents, friends, and sister had all been taken, it seemed.

When asked why he only mentioned his sister when they first met, his answer was,

“M-Mom said... I have to protect my sister...”

Ah.

Seojun licked his lips and patted the child’s back.

Then he carefully examined the crude building Hwan Baeho had discreetly pointed out.

It was halfway up a mountain not far from where they had fought the two Transcendent Realm martial artists. It appeared to be an outpost established to support them.

Seojun’s qi detection sensed only martial artists below the Peak Realm.

For an outpost built in orthodox faction territory, the forces were surprisingly weak.

Or is it? Maybe overinvesting on a base in enemy territory would be more dangerous.

There’s nothing more foolish than trying to guess what smart people are thinking.

That’s a job for other smart people. For martial artists like Seojun, the ability to destroy everything in sight was more than enough.

“Hmm...”

As Seojun peered at the Black Serpent outpost from behind a tree, Hwan Baeho approached.

“Young Master.”

“Yes?”

“What do you plan to do? Attack immediately?”

“I’m not sure. From what we’ve heard, there seem to be hostages, so wouldn’t that be risky?”

“Hmm... But I don’t believe dragging this out would be good either.”

According to Hwan Baeho’s explanation, the Black Serpent typically infiltrated enemy territory secretly to kidnap people.

These kidnapped individuals were used as human sacrifices for various rituals, and as time passed, more people would die.

“Various rituals?”

“Yes. Some temporarily increase strength, others help find specific targets—most ritual tasks become much easier with human sacrifices.”

“Oh...”

Seojun scratched his head and stood up.

Looking at his attire, he noticed his dirt-stained martial outfit with torn sleeves and various rips actually didn’t look too bad.

He untied the sword at his waist and handed it to Hwan Baeho.

“I’ll go inside. When I give the signal, rush in all at once and take care of them. You know what to do, right?”

“It’s dangerous.”

“Dangerous? For me or them?”

“I mean it’s dangerous for you, Young Master.”

“I see...”

So much for my joke.

“I’ll be fine. Who else could do this?”

Hwangbo Jun and Jang Geuk were likely known by the Black Serpent by appearance. Both were quite famous.

Especially Hwangbo Jun, who looked obviously like a martial artist and seemed incapable of acting, would only be useful for smashing things.

The Heavenly Wind Squad and Diamond Squad members were all merely Peak Realm, so they might have trouble handling unexpected situations—rejected.

Green Forest bandits? Obviously rejected.

That left only himself.

“Young Master. I hesitate to say this, however... you are more important than all the hostages there. Think of all the people you could save in the future, and the young lady waiting for you at the clan...”

“Now, now.”

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Seojun interrupted him and stretched.

“Even in this condition, these Peak Realm weaklings are no match for me.”

That’s probably true. I am Lee Seojun, God of Smurfing.

At those words, Hwan Baeho seemed to recall the demonic creature flood, his mouth slightly opening.

“Ah...”

“Alright, everyone understands, yeah? Come quickly when I send the signal?”

Seojun strode off. Watching him casually wave his hand, Hwan Baeho swallowed.

“Mmm... Let’s all prepare to rush in immediately.”

His back fading into the distance suddenly seemed so much larger.

The Young Master of the Namgung Clan.

May we never experience losing him, Hwan Baeho prayed to the heavens.

*Seojun hummed a tune as he walked toward the Black Serpent outpost.

He remembered his atrocious acting skills, but that didn’t seem like much of a problem.

Because he was genuinely in pain.

“Ugh...”

Not hiding his pain, he looked like an injured commoner to anyone watching.

As the staggering Seojun approached the outpost, the door opened slightly and two men appeared.

“What’s this now?”

“What should we do? Kill him?”

Oh. That would be inconvenient.

To defuse the situation, Seojun shouted,

“Du-dda...!”

“...What the hell is this guy saying?”

“Du-dda-uddada-duudada...!”

“Bastard’s lost his mind.”

One of the men twirled his finger near his temple and laughed.

“This idiot crawled his way here by mistake.”

“Should we just throw him in? We’re a bit short on sacrifices anyway.”

“Might as well.”

One of the men stepped forward and kicked him.

“Duddaaak...!”

Whump! Seojun rolled on the ground after taking a hit to the stomach.

It didn’t hurt at all, but it felt really shitty.

Should I kill him, Master?

Control yourself, my inner black flame dragon.

Argh...!

While having these pointless thoughts, Seojun trembled, and the man grabbed his hair and dragged him along the ground.

Concerns of baldness resurfaced, but a Transcendent Realm’s hair wouldn’t fall out from this mere level of force.

Feeling at ease, he comfortably let himself be dragged in until the man threw him somewhere.

Boom!

“Oof...!”

“This person is...”

After opening his eyes slightly he saw people who looked like kidnapped villagers from their appearance.

“A new friend has arrived, so have a welcome party!”

The Black Serpent man chuckled and patted his companion’s shoulder.

“Good work.”

“Tch. When’s the next shift? Feels like I’ve been here forever.”

“You’ve still got two more cycles left, man.”

“Motherfucker.”

That one seemed to be a guard.

Looking around, he saw iron bars.

Only adults were imprisoned in the same cell as Seojun. Glancing around, he saw children locked up in another cell across the room.

Different purposes?

Suddenly, his mood soured considerably.

“Hmm...”

When Seojun stood up, the guard kicked the bars and barked.

“Hey, if you’ve come to your senses, stay still. I don’t want to waste energy.”

“Okay...”

He shook his head once and looked around at his cellmates.

The types of gazes looking at him were quite diverse.

Some looked into empty space with dead eyes, seemingly indifferent, while others looked at him with pity.

Surprisingly, some even seemed to be sneering.

You’re also locked up, idiot.

Of course, since it’s impossible to guess thoughts just from eye contact, he refrained from smacking their heads.

“Hello.”

Seojun waved, and people quickly averted their eyes. One even snickered and muttered.

“A retard just arrived.”

“Wow.”

As Seojun expressed his admiration, an old man next to him tapped his leg.

“Listen, young man. It’s not good to speak unnecessarily. Otherwise...”

Despite the old man’s whisper, a club swung through the iron bars.

Whack!

“Ow.”

“Didn’t I tell you to shut up? Be quiet!”

“Okay.”

Seojun pouted and whispered to the old man.

“Is this everyone?”

“That’s why I said talking is...”

“No, this is important. So is this everyone?”

“...This is all of us from our village.”

“I see.”

His qi detection confirmed that this seemed to be the case.

“This bastard just won’t shut up...!”

The guard, quite heated now, drew his sword.

“Did I say you’d still be useful as a sacrifice even missing an arm or leg?”

“You didn’t?”

“Well, know it now!”

The guard thrust his sword through the bars. Seojun grabbed the sword with his hand.

“Huh?”

Seojun sent his qi through the seized sword.

The guard, merely between the Second and First Rate Realm, couldn’t even resist, and—

Pop!

His head exploded instantly.

“Wh-What...”

“Eek...!”

People hurriedly moved away from Seojun.

“Oh, for goodness sake.”

Seojun jumped up and grabbed the iron bars. The man who had been sneering shouted.

“As if the bars will bend! You fucking idiot! What the hell are you trying to...”

Brave or just stupid? Still acting like this after seeing someone’s head explode—maybe he’s a hidden master?

Creak!

The iron bars bent, creating enough space for a person to pass through comfortably. The man’s eyes widened.

Seojun pointed at his own eyes with his index and middle fingers, then at the man.

“Let’s behave, shall we?”

“Y-Yes, sir.”

Not a hidden master after all.

Seojun then left the cell and headed toward where the children were locked up.

“Uuu...”

“Waaah...! Mommyy...”

The previously quiet children burst into tears as soon as Seojun approached.

Judging by the bruises covering their bodies, they’d been beaten quite severely to stay quiet. Even so, they were naturally terrified when someone who had just exploded a man’s head came near.

“Oh man, um... kids? Is there a friend named Somi here? Her big brother is looking for her.”

“B-Big brother...?”

A young girl hesitantly raised her head.

Red handprints marked her chubby cheeks.

“These fucking bastards.”

Rage surged through him, but he restrained himself. Hitting his head a few times seemed to clear his mind a bit.

“Whew... Yes, your big brother came looking for you. He’ll be here soon, so let’s wait, okay?”

“Y-Yes...”

Her eyes darted around, clearly not believing him.

Seojun sighed and stretched his hand toward the ceiling. A signal flare would be easier to see.

He coated his index finger with yin qi, his middle finger with yang qi, and twisted them together.

Primordial Sun-Moon Art. The qi shot upward, breaking through the ceiling, and—

BOOM────────!!!

It exploded brilliantly high in the sky.

Soon, urgent presences were felt from all directions.

Several men hurried into the room, seemingly to check on the sacrifices.

“Who are you...!”

They shouted, but—

Bang!

Their heads shattered from the finger bullets.

Seojun looked at the people still blankly imprisoned in the cells.

“Friends will be here soon, so shall we wait a little bit?”

People nodded dazedly.