Martial Arts Ain't Anything Special-Chapter 6: Friends of Friends

The old blacksmith blinked at Chunbong and Seojun’s bold responses, then shuffled back to sit in his chair.

“Oh...”

Seojun honestly expected a fight to break out and ended up staring at Chunbong dumbfoundedly.

“What you looking at?”

“Nothing, nothing.”

So this is a normal murim conversation? Seojun had that strange realization as he followed behind Chunbong.

Chunbong stood in front of the few displayed swords and scanned them with her eyes.

“Hm... They’re not entirely unusable. Go ahead and pick one.”

“Me?”

He knew nothing about swords. Chunbong clicked her tongue when he looked at her with eyes begging her to choose for him.

“Just pick one already! If you choose something stupid, I’ll stop you.”

“How’d a kid like you end up with such a foul mouth?”

Chunbong glared at him.

“If... it... w...eren’t... f...r... y...u”

“If it weren’t for me?”

“...Just die already.”

Ignoring the pissed off Chunbong, Seojun examined the swords.

They mostly had similar lengths. About as long as you’d imagine for a long sword.

They were Chinese-style double-edged swords, and after picking up each one, the balance didn’t seem too bad.

“Not good?”

Well, it didn’t seem bad by my standards.

But among the similar ones, the one that caught his eye was...

“I’ll take this one.”

Chunbong carefully examined the sword he had chosen and nodded.

“You’ve got a pretty sharp eye.”

She snatched the sword and stomped over to the old blacksmith, slamming it down on the counter.

“Ring it up.”

“Hmm...”

The old man squinted and craned his neck back, then nodded as if finally focusing.

“One tael.”

“Silver?”

“What else would it be besides silver?”

“Have you lost your mind, old man? Half a tael. We can’t give any more than that.”

After a brief exchange, she succeeded in haggling the price down to half. Seojun applauded her insane bargaining skills, but Chunbong clicked her tongue.

“That’s the original price, you fool.”

“Aha, I see.”

On the way home after buying food with the pittance of money left, Seojun hummed happily at the weight of the sword on his waist. Chunbong snorted.

“Happy?”

“Extremely.”

“Bullshit.”

Suddenly, Chunbong grabbed Seojun’s wrist, stopping him. Their eyes met. She frowned for a moment before asking seriously.

“Do you know what it means to step into murim?”

“Is it anything special? Isn’t it just that if you swing a sword around, you might get killed by one?”

“If that were all, I wouldn’t have bothered saying anything.”

Chunbong stepped closer and tapped the sword at Seojun’s waist.

“The grudges of murim are like a tangled ball of yarn that can never be unraveled. You’ve already taken one step into it.”

She was referring to smashing those criminal guys’ heads. Seojun nodded, and Chunbong, who had been staring straight into his eyes, suddenly sighed.

“Anyways, do your best. Once you’re in, there’s no turning back. The moment you stop, you’ll get stabbed in the back.”

“Why’re you talking like someone who’s about to kick the bucket?”

“When’d I ever do that, you bastard?”

Seojun put his hand on the head of Chunbong making a sullen face.

“You little runt. When your big bro succeeds, he’ll take good care of you.”

“You son of a... Kyaa! Get your hand off my head!”

He grabbed her small head and ruffled it vigorously, and she seemed to be secretly loving every moment of it.

Cute little brat.

The day he’d have to send Chunbong off to be married after raising her so well, he might feel a bit sad.

*Back home, Seojun was about to examine the sword when Chunbong suddenly stuck her head in and glared at him.

“So, you said you’d tell me once we got home.”

“Tell you what?”

“The Finger Bullet Technique, you fucker!”

“Ah.”

I just said that to calm her down earlier.

After pondering, Seojun spoke honestly.

“I just told myself I could, and it worked. What about it?”

“Just die already. If you don’t want to tell me, just say so.”

“No! I’m being serious, I swear!”

After thinking hard, Seojun gathered qi at his fingertip once more and tried to explain the vague feeling.

“You just gather it at your fingertip, and then, like... Bam! And pow! That’s it!”

“It can’t be that simple! There’s no way that’s all there is!”

“But it works, so what am I supposed to tell you?”

Just like how one doesn’t consciously vibrate your vocal cords when speaking, he simply did it because he had a feeling it would work, and it did.

After another long explanation, Chunbong finally seemed to understand and rested her chin on her hand.

“This shitty world. What, just because you got some talent, you think the world’s gonna bend over backwards for you?”

“Why are you getting mad at me again?”

“Just because! You bastard!”

Seojun let her flurry of punches hit him, then adjusted his posture.

Pat pat pat! The back massage feels pretty good. What a devoted daughter. While enjoying the back rub, he decided to examine the sword.

Shing—

The slightly exposed blade from the scabbard gleamed. Oil? It seemed so upon touching it.

That reminds me, we got whetstone and oil too, don’t we?

Chunbong probably knows how to use them. That can wait for later.

“Hey, stop that, it’s dangerous.”

He made Chunbong stop the massage and stood up, drawing the sword completely from its scabbard.

“Oh...”

Shit. A real sword definitely has an intimidating air about it.

The pudao those criminal guys used? That ugly thing doesn’t even count as a sword. I never used clunky-looking weapons regardless of it being a sword or a saber even in games.

Swish—!

The sword being swung sounded vicious. It was close to a one-handed sword so it wasn’t too heavy, and while it felt a bit long for a child’s body, it wasn’t much of a problem.

“Hey! Swing it outside! Are you trying to break all our furniture?!”

“What furniture do we even have here? Speaking of which, let’s move.”

“...Move? Move where?”

After thinking for a moment, Seojun said.

“Those friends’ place?”

“Friend? You have friends?”

“No, remember those guys? The ones whose heads I smashed.”

Oh... Chunbong marveled.

“Are you really this stupid? If you wanted to get stabbed, you could have just said so. I’ll stab you myself. Come here, you bastard.”

“Oh come, why are you acting like this again?”

Seojun spread out his right hand. It’s not like I haven’t thought about this, you know.

“So what if their buddies show up? I’ll take them out one finger per person. If I pew pew from afar, won’t I win?”

Melee DPS can’t beat ranged DPS in the early game by nature. I just need to maintain a good spacing.

“Moron.”

Chunbong dismissed him simply and got up with a sigh.

“Follow me. Since we’re on the topic, let’s see what that thing of yours is.”

*After following Chunbong, he arrived at an unfamiliar place.

While he wasn’t exactly familiar with this area, the gloomy atmosphere made it somewhere he’d prefer not to visit.

“Shoot over there. From what I can tell, that’s not proper qi arts. It’s questionable whether the Finger Bullet Technique can even be considered qi arts in the first place.”

“Is that so?”

“It’s closer to something derived from fist techniques or finger techniques.”

Hm. Seojun tilted his head, then aimed at a piece of firewood far away.

Pew—

The inner arts shot from his fingertip hit the firewood.

Clack—

And shook it slightly.

“Eh?”

That’s all the power it has? It seemed to have dispersed a bit while flying.

This time, he concentrated more and condensed the qi at his fingertip.

Pew— Crack!

Seeing the firewood split in half this attempt, Seojun puffed out his chest.

“How’s that?”

“...Impressive.”

To recognize the problem and fix it right away? It was easier said than done, martial arts wasn’t that simple.

This was what they called the qualities of a Grand Master, and unbelievably, this lacking guy had those qualities.

“Try one more time.”

Seojun did as she said and aimed at another piece of firewood.

If executed properly, as simple as a flick to the forehead...

“Huh...?”

Seojun staggered and collapsed in place. The world was spinning. Looking at Chunbong with dizzy eyes, she nodded.

“That’s about right.”

“Why am I like this...?”

“What happened is natural. You only just formed your dantian, how much inner qi do you think you have?”

“Ah, I ran out of mana.”

It was a pretty awful feeling. The world was spinning like he had motion sickness, and it felt like something was about to come up, but nothing actually did, making him nauseous.

Meanwhile, Chunbong ignored Seojun’s strange words as usual and nodded.

“I get it now.”

“Get what?”

“That you’re trash? For now, stop showing off and just focus on training. Don’t get cocky and clash with those Black Path guys.”

“Yesh.”

Updated from freewёbnoνel.com.

He decided to do just that.

*Even though the sword wasn’t as heavy as he thought, a sword is still a sword. A piece of metal is much heavier than the stick he was swinging before.

With no phones or computers in murim, Seojun, unable to bear the boredom, began to immerse himself in martial arts. As days passed, his body started to become more toned.

“Hmm, looking pretty good.”

As he struck a pose with his shirt off, Chunbong’s gaze, like she was looking at a bug, flew his way.

“What’s a bastard that’s all skin and bone like you on about?”

“Hey I’ll have you know, lean muscle is what’s actually cool.”

Seojun put down the sword and sat on the floor, playing with his qi above his hand.

He thought the novelty of handling inner qi for the first time would wear off in a day or two, but the inner arts seemed endless the more he learned about it, showing no signs of becoming any less fascinating.

“Is it that fun? Isn’t it tiring?”

Chunbong seemed unable to understand.

“Why would this be tiring? I’m having nothing but fun.”

“To use your inner qi like that, of course it should drain your mental... nevermind, forget it. What am I even saying?”

Tsk, Chunbong clicked her tongue and flopped down.

“Ugh, screw this! A talentless idiot like me might as well drop dead!”

“Now now, it’s okay. Your big bro will take care of you.”

“What do you know, you son of a bitch?!”

“...What’s with you? Going through puberty already?”

Chunbong, glaring at Seojun, soon crouched down and started lamenting her situation.

“Let me tell you something, okay? Back in the day, I was praised as a genius and prodigy. You never know when all of that will vanish. Watch yourself.”

“What, are you putting a curse on me or something?”

CRASH─────────!!

The wall came crashing down and flew away. Blinking, Seojun looked at Chunbong, who was wavering her hands frantically.

“I didn’t do it!”

Cough! A cough came from the dust. As the dust settled slightly, several figures appeared, and a few men who looked like professional criminals clearly left their footprints on the floor.

“Hey, are these the kids? They’re just brats though? Are you sure you got the right ones?”

“Y-Yes, I’m certain, boss! Ah! Look over there!”

In the direction the lackey pointed, there were two pudaos.

“Well well?”

Under the man’s fierce gaze, Seojun thought.

“Take off your shoes before coming in, you sons of bitches!”