Martial Arts Ain't Anything Special-Chapter 3: An Unexpected Reunion

“Huff...! Huff...!”

Chunbong panted and cursed.

“You, huff...! You bastard...! Can’t you do one thing right...!”

“No...! Cough...! It’s my first time, what do you...! Huff...! Expect me to do?!...!”

Seojun gasped for air, feeling like he was about to pass out as he held out his hand. In it was a dumpling, steam gently rising from its surface.

“Wait, when did you grab that?”

“I’m a pro, dumbass. Snagged it perfectly while we were bolting.”

Ignoring his parched throat, he stuffed the dumpling into his mouth.

“Ohh... that’s the stuff.”

Yeah, this is it. This heavenly taste, so different from those flour lumps. Today, he finally understood what it meant when they said the savory taste of meat dances in your mouth.

“Wow... You grabbed a dumpling in that situation? Those are hard to get, they’re usually in the back.”

“Of course, who do you think I am?”

Maybe it was because he had become a martial artist? He could feel qi circulating through his body, quickly restoring his stamina.

He felt like he could run another thirty minutes like this.

“Oh give me a break, you pathological bullshitter. You just started training, how amazing do you think a newbie like you could possibly be?”

“No, I swear I’m serious?”

This bastard Chunbong doesn’t believe me? No joke, my stamina has improved a lot.

As Seojun grumbled, Chunbong sneered and hurried home.

“Sure sure. First, learn the Three Principles Sword Technique properly before you talk.”

“Ha... You fucker. Not like I can even prove it to you.”

After returning to the vicinity of the half-collapsed building they called home, he gripped the rare stick in his hand.

Perhaps life hasn’t been completely miserable since falling into this martial arts world and meeting Chunbong? He had been bored to death with nothing to do, but in this situation, martial arts was like unexpected rain in a drought.

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“The forms of the Three Principles Sword Technique are really simple. Vertical slash, horizontal slash, and thrust. That’s it.”

Chunbong demonstrated it for him. It was exactly as said: a vertical slash, horizontal slash, and thrust.

But there was something refined about his stance, enough to show that he had indeed learned something.

“The Three Principles Sword Technique has spread so much that its names vary by region, but they’re commonly known as Weight of Mount Tai, Total Annihilation, and Immortal Pointing The Way. Sometimes they’re simply called Heaven, Earth, and Man.”

Chunbong wiggled the stick in his hand, urging Seojun on.

“Now you try. It’s not difficult, right?”

“Of course not. It’s nothing special.”

Vertical slash. It’s just swinging down from top to bottom, right?

Seojun gripped the stick tightly and swung it down.

Swoosh—!

The sound of cutting through air was refreshing.

“Well? How’s my skill.”

“You bastard, your skill ain’t anything special, huh?”

Chunbong sighed and came over to correct his stance: from how to hold the sword, to foot placement, how to swing the arm, where to look, and so on.

There was surprisingly a mountain of things to learn just to swing a sword once.

“Oh.”

With him sticking so close to Chunbong, he could see the top of that brat’s head moving back and forth right in front of him.

“Wow, you sneaky guy. What did you wash with?”

“W-What...? What’s with all this nonsense again?”

“Come here, you. Why do you smell so good? There’s no way you could smell like this with the water here and no shampoo.”

“Eek...!”

As he reached out to grab him, Chunbong panicked and quickly swung the stick in his hand.

“Oof...!”

Seojun barely dodged and backed away, pointing his own stick. It was a tense standoff. The red-faced Chunbong made the first move.

“Die, you homo bastard!”

“What did you just call me!?”

Such an insult cannot be tolerated. Seojun charged back at him.

Their somewhat of a spar continued for ten minutes.

*“Oh god, I’m dying...”

“Hmph, stop whining.”

My whole body aches. This little shit Chunbong. He’s not particularly fast, but as someone belonging to murim, his sword skills are on another level.

Either way, it’s a good thing he’s not that strong. If we had equal strength, I’d probably have a broken bone or two by now.

“But you...”

Chunbong narrowed his eyes and glared at Seojun.

“Why did you stop earlier?”

It was a pretty clean Weight of Mount Tai, and moreover, it was a proper slash infused with qi.

This shouldn’t be possible. How could someone who hadn’t even properly learned the form of the movements move qi at will?

He hadn’t even taught him how to circulate qi yet, just the sutra for the cultivation technique.

“What, should I have chopped straight down? What’s the point of cracking a kid’s head open?”

“What’s with that? You’re a kid yourself.”

Hmph, Chunbong snorted, then thought for a moment before speaking.

“I think qi arts might suit you better. You seem to have a talent in that area.”

“Qi arts?”

Having read his fair share of martial arts novels, he knew what this meant. But would knowledge from his original world work here?

Half-baked knowledge was often worse than complete ignorance. It would be better to start from scratch with the mindset of knowing absolutely nothing at all.

“What’s that?”

“It’s martial arts that directly utilizes qi. Hmm... how should I put it? To ordinary people, it may look more like sorcery than martial arts.”

Chunbong flailed his hands around as he explained.

“Like shooting fire or ice from your hands, or shaping and manipulating reinforced qi. That kind of thing.”

“Oh... like a mage.”

“...It’s different from that Western nonsense. This is martial arts in the first place, got it? Qi arts still require physical training at their core.”

Chunbong casually made a racist remark and clicked his tongue.

“That’s enough for now, let’s get some sleep. It’s been around since I’ve moved around this much, I’m exhausted.”

*A few days passed.

After learning the Three Principles Cultivation and Sword Techniques, Seojun finally earned a not bad evaluation from Chunbong one day.

And as usual, they set out on a journey for a meal.

“Be careful not to show your face. Your face is fairly well-known now, the merchants will recognize you.”

“Ha! Who am I?”

Seojun cracked his joints.

“I’m a MUGONG Master.”

“Oh shut up.”

As always, Seojun ignored Chunbong’s complaints and blended into the crowd.

Learning martial arts had taught him how to control his own body. Above all, the fact that he had only gotten younger from his original body was the biggest factor.

Since his current appearance was exactly the same as when he was young in his original world, adapting wasn’t difficult.

On that first day when he got stabbed in the gut by those criminal guys, if he had his adult body instead of this one, he might have been able to dodge it.

Of course, it was a pointless assumption. Whether it was fortunate or not, he did meet Chunbong because of it.

And today, Seojun was reborn as a martial arts master.

Secret Technique: Food Snatching.

As luck would have it, he spotted a spaced-out man holding a skewer and smoothly swiped it away.

Eating others’ leftovers didn’t bother him at all. This was practically a luxurious meal to him by now.

He managed to steal two dumplings, two skewers, and even snagged two tanghulu before slipping into an alley.

There’s no turning back now.

I, Lee Seojun, have stepped onto a path of unspeakable villainy!

Lost in thought, Chunbong, who had been keeping watching, hurriedly approached.

“Wow, you’ve really improved huh? Your thieving skills are no joke.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“Sort of?”

“Should I be grateful?”

“Why are you asking me that?”

Seojun shoved a dumpling into Chunbong’s mouth, who began nibbling on it.

Indeed. I, Lee Seojun’s skills have finally surpassed Master Chunbong in the art of thievery. Snatching meat dumplings from the inner stalls is hardly a challenge anymore.

“Are you planning to make a name for yourself in murim as a Master Thief or something?”

“When that time comes, I won’t forget you.”

“That’s not a compliment, you moron.”

“Give it back then, you bastard.”

As Seojun tried to snatch back the half-eaten dumpling, Chunbong desperately resisted.

“Who takes back what they’ve given?!”

“Heh heh, the one right here.”

“No! I won’t give it!”

But there was one thing he still didn’t know. While Seojun had already handed over the skewer to Chunbong, he hadn’t given him the tanghulu. He hadn’t even shown it to him yet.

“You! Take a look at this.”

“Gasp...! Th-That’s...!”

Fruit coated in what looked like hardened sugar. It was just tanghulu.

But for those who live day to day and had to resort to stealing, such a snack was an unimaginable luxury!

Chunbong’s eyes began to tremble.

“Don’t you want to have it?”

“Urgh... What do you want?”

“Keke, bow before me. Only then shall I bestow upon you one of my tanghulu.”

As they were heading home, bickering...

“Oops!”

They turned a corner, colliding with someone who had appeared out of nowhere.

“Ahh...! No...! My tanghulu!”

Chunbong screamed. The tanghulu had fallen to the ground, covered in dirt.

He quickly ran over and carefully dusted off the dirt from the tanghulu.

“Hey, there’s not much dirt on this after all... Wait.”

Seojun had no time to worry about tanghulu right now. There was a man they had collided into, and another man behind him.

“Oh ho, look who’s still alive? Quite the tough little punk.”

It was those criminal guys from before.

Seojun glanced around and luckily picked up a stick that was rolling nearby.

This stick is rare, no... unique?

Not bad. He wasn’t the same person he was back then.

Seojun glared at them.

“I shall avenge my gutted belly!”

Swoosh—! Crack—

His surprise attack with the stick was parried by a blade. As expected, it snapped.

“...Huh?”

They can parry this? These back-alley thugs?

This situation was unexpected.