Martial Arts Ain't Anything Special-Chapter 8: Divine Art (1)

Buzz—

A ticklish sensation on his face woke him up. Their eyes met. Fucking insect eyes. He jumped up, shaking his whole body.

“Ugh.”

The fly frantically escaped. But he wasn’t his old self anymore. The weak Lee Seojun who used to cower before flies was gone.

“Aka.”

Murasaki.1

He aimed and flicked his finger, and the fly hit by the Finger Bullet Technique was dismembered, ending its life.

“Phew.”

When will these damn bugs go extinct? He scratched his itchy-feeling arm while looking around.

Corpses. Flies. And Chunbong.

Chunbong seemed to have finished her qi circulation and was sleeping against the wall. He shouldn’t have fallen asleep while standing guard, but thankfully nothing happened.

“Geez, the house is completely trashed.”

All the furniture and everything else was smashed to pieces. It was already close to being a ruin, but now it looked beyond salvageable.

Thinking they’d probably have to move, he tucked that thought away and shook Chunbong’s shoulder.

“Hey, Miss Geum. Time to go to work.”

“Ugh... Cut the crap. Five more mins...”

She must be really tired.

He first gathered anything of value from the corpses around, then stretched his stiff body and checked the condition of his sword.

Is this okay?

The edge was completely dull, making him wonder how he managed to kill people with such a blunt sword.

Remembering what he had heard before, he started sharpening the sword with a whetstone.

Did the sound wake her up? Chunbong came over rubbing her eyes and blurted out.

“Yawn... That’s not how you do it.”

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“Then do it yourself.”

When he held out the sword and whetstone, Chunbong glared at him. But she still took them and started working on it. Such a tsundere. Cute kid.

Scrape— Scrape—

With the sound of sword maintenance in the background, he organized his thoughts for a moment.

First, we definitely need to move. And I need to find out more about those Black Tiger... Clan, Sect, whatever guys.

“Chunbong, those Black Tiger Clan guys, this can’t be all of them right?”

“Yeah. I know, the Black Tiger Sect right? They’re one of the bigger Black Path Sects.”

“Ah, so it was Black Tiger Sect.”

He scratched his head and watched Chunbong sharpen the sword for a while. The kid was quite skilled with her hands. A question suddenly occurred to him.

“By the way, how old are you?”

“That’s sudden.”

“So how old are you.”

“Sixteen.”

“What?”

She wasn’t in elementary school? With that body? Anyone would think she’s in elementary school!

“What’s with that look in your eyes? Creep.”

“Ah... It’s nothing.”

Chunbong sighed, put the sword aside, and turned around. Her eyes were calm. Wondering what was up, he met her gaze silently, and she spoke.

“Aren’t you going to ask anything else? You must have a lot of questions.”

“Nah, not really.”

“Really?”

“You’ll tell me when the time comes, I guess.”

It was rude to ask about things people didn’t want to talk about. Lee Seojun, a young man from a country of courteous people in the East, South Korea, was someone with good manners. He nodded coolly, and Chunbong sneered.

“Fool.”

“Hey, what’s that for!”

Chunbong looked at Seojun sulking and continued.

“I’m actually from the Geum Clan of the Divine Sword.”

“Oh.”

“That’s it? You’re not surprised?”

“What’s the Geum Clan of the Divine Sword?”

“Huh?”

Chunbong gaped. She looked at him like he was some primitive caveman.

“Your backstory is way too over the top.”

“What backstory, you brat.”

“You’re not really from the back alleys either, right? You seem like you’re from some noble clan.”

What nonsense is that? Seojun frowned and replied.

“What noble clan are you on about? I’m not from the back alleys, but...”

“But...?”

“I’m from another world.”

“Bullshit. You’ve got to fucking kidding me.”

Chunbong sighed and shook her head. Then she clicked her tongue and looked him straight in the eye.

“Well, if you don’t want to talk about it, fine. Well continuing on, I’m a survivor of the Divine Sword Geum Clan.”

“A survivor...”

Was there some kind of accident? As he looked at her with a strange gaze, she tossed him the newly sharpened sword.

Clack—

Seojun caught the sword and sat down on the floor.

“Is that related to why you cough up blood when you use martial arts?”

“Yeah. I was hit by a cold yin technique while fleeing.”

“Cold yin technique?”

“Something like that.”

Chunbong nodded. She wasn’t sure exactly what kind of cold yin technique, but it was clearly no ordinary martial art.

“It didn’t just cause internal injuries, it completely blocked my meridians. It’s like I developed meridian blockage.”

“Like the Nine Yin Meridian Blockage?”

“It’s not that serious.”

The Nine Yin Meridian Blockage was a rare condition where strong yin qi blocked the circulation of qi in the body, leading to a shortened lifespan. At least, that was what Seojun knew from his martial arts novel knowledge.

And Chunbong had a similar meridian blockage, so Seojun asked with a slightly more serious attitude.

“Then do you need to be treated with some kind of spirit pill containing yang qi?”

“Well... yeah, something like that.”

Weren’t there other treatments? The Nine Yin Meridian Blockage appeared frequently in all sorts of martial arts novels, so its treatments were more diverse than one might think.

Of course, there was no guarantee that would work here, but he asked just in case.

“So as long as there’s enough yang qi, it’ll work, right?”

“In theory, yes.”

“Then would something like this work?”

Seojun made a circle with one hand and repeatedly passed the index finger of his other hand through it.

“What are you...”

Chunbong stared at it blankly for a moment before her face turned bright red.

“Y-You crazy bastard!”

“Hey, I’m just asking if it would work.”

“How would that work!? How would you get yang qi from that!”

“Wouldn’t it?”

“It wouldn’t, you dumbass! Even if it did, it’d be a tiny amount!”

A tiny amount, huh... Seojun pondered for a moment before asking again.

“Then couldn’t you learn a related martial arts technique? You know, like those... what were they called? Bedroom arts? Yin gathering yang nourishing?”

“You crazy son of a...”

Hey, I was asking seriously, why keep getting mad? Seojun frowned.

“Should I just pounce you?”

“Go die, you asshole.”

He got hit.

*After Seojun’s declaration about pouncing, Chunbong looked at him like he was some kind of bug. She groaned for a while before repeatedly poking his side.

“Ow...!”

“Hey.”

“What now!”

She still seemed deep in thought. She squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them again before speaking.

“Hey, are you interested in learning a martial art other than the Three Principles Sword Technique?”

“Another martial art? What is it?”

“The Yellow Cloud Divine Sword.”

“Yellow Cloud Divine Sword? Sounds lame.”

Chunbong bit her lip hard.

“...It’s my family’s secret art.”

“Uh... I mean, it’s not lame... it’s a totally awesome name that’s glowing bronze!”

“Please, just stop...”

“Yes.”

As he kept his mouth shut, Chunbong seemed to sink deeper into thought. He could practically read her thoughts going, can I really teach it to this bastard?

But she seemed to have made up her mind as her expression turned serious.

“I’m not saying this lightly. It’s my family’s secret art. Originally, only the clan head and heir can learn it.”

“Is it okay to teach me that? I think the Three Principles Sword Technique is enough for me.”

“If I say it’s fine, what’s it to you? ...I’m the clan head now anyway.”

Chunbong tapped the floor with a gloomy expression.

“The Three Principles Sword Technique is a third-rate martial art. Even if you master it, you’d be lucky to reach first-rate. That’s as far as the principles behind it go.”

“All that talk about ascending to the heavens and becoming a heavenly being, and it’s nothing special?”

“I guess the creator was a bit of a braggart.”

Chunbong sighed deeply and suddenly stood up, but she seemed to get dizzy and plopped back down.

It looked a bit silly, but he just kept his mouth shut.

“...I-It’s not like I trust you or anything. It’d... just be nice to have someone by my side to protect me. Don’t get the wrong idea.”

“What if I learn it and run away?”

“...”

Chunbong’s gaze turned sharp. Her face was so red it looked like she might stab him at any moment.

“...Forget it, asshole!”

What a shame.

*The Yellow Cloud Divine Sword was one thing, but first they decided to move.

It was fine for now since not much time had passed, but once the corpses started to rot, it would be a real headache.

“Where are we going?”

Seojun kept looking around. Unlike the back alley-like area around their previous home, the atmosphere here was quite different.

There were quite a lot of people, and red lanterns filled the streets, giving the whole place a sticky atmosphere.

“Shh. Don’t do anything to stand out around here.”

Chunbong just rolled her eyes, scanning the surroundings.

“Half the brothels here are owned by the Black Tiger Sect. If we’re not careful... What the hell are you doing, you crazy bastard?!”

Chunbong’s jaw dropped. No matter how crazy this guy was, she never expected him to go this far.

“Uh... Was I not supposed to do that?”

Seojun looked bewilderingly at the woman sprawled on the ground after taking a hit to the guts. Of course, Chunbong was even more bewildered.

“W-Why did you...?”

“She suddenly clung to me.”

“Oh shit...”

Chunbong looked around frantically. All eyes were on them. Burly men were rushing out of what seemed to be the brothel the cheap courtesan on the ground belonged to.

Seojun tried to defend himself.

“I mean, you never know. If she clung to me and suddenly stabbed me with a knife, even I...”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re so great.”

Chunbong smacked the back of Seojun’s head and started running.

“Just run, you lunatic! What are you, some kind of eunuch?!”

“What’s the big deal? Just another day in the office.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake!”

“Geum Chunbong, my foolish little sister. Women are inherently untrustworthy crea—”

“Shut up and run!”

They ran like hell.

1. Jujutsu Kaisen reference to Gojo Satoru's Red and Purple technique.