The Genius Youngest Disciple of the Wudang Sect

Chapter 304

To be honest, I knew that Seo Mun-wang-ryang was approaching from a while ago.

Perhaps because this was the Seo Mun family, he came stomping this way, emitting all the energy he had, and even the energy he didn't have.

I, after only glancing at Seo Mun-wang-ryang, asked Seo Mun-jong-tak, "Hey. Seo Mun-jong-tak."

"Why?"

"So, did you make up with your uncle?"

"Make up, my foot..."

Then Seo Mun-wang-ryang's face turned red as if it would explode, and he soon shouted, "You bastard! Are you trying to make a fool of me!"

"Make a fool of you? I was just talking with Seo Mun-jong-tak, and wasn't it you, Great Hero Seo Mun, who suddenly came in and interrupted us?"

"What did you say? Interrupted?"

I, as if I were a little displeased, frowned and said to him.

Seo Mun-jong-tak was just about to say something from his heart.

But because of Seo Mun-wang-ryang, that word went back in, so my mood is uncomfortable.

In the midst of that, Seo Mun-wang-ryang turned to Seo Mun-jong-tak and asked, "Jong-tak, was I interrupting?"

"Th-That's..."

"Don't be scared and speak your mind. Have you forgotten the conversation we had a little while ago? I was being sincere."

"......"

He looked at him for a moment, and then said to Seo Mun-wang-ryang again, "Yes. You were interrupting."

"Wh-What did you say...?"

Seo Mun-wang-ryang seemed to have received a great shock.

It seemed that the two of them had not had any conversation since the public duel.

"No matter how much I am under house arrest, and even though I am your nephew... where is the law that you can suddenly do this while I am talking with a guest? Isn't it because you, uncle, usually completely ignore me, that you are treating me like this?"

"Th-This bastard..."

Seo Mun-wang-ryang couldn't refute Seo Mun-jong-tak's words.

Because Jong-tak's words were true.

Even if it were a father-son relationship, not an uncle-nephew relationship, they should maintain etiquette between them.

If Seo Mun-jong-tak had been thinking of me as a guest and welcoming me, it would be as if he had suddenly intruded and shown a disgraceful appearance to the guest.

"Guest... guest?"

"Yes. He is my guest."

He seemed to have a lot to say, but he barely swallowed his words, biting his lower lip hard, and then turned around.

"Unhwi. Stop by before you leave. Let's talk for a moment."

"If it's just talking, I will."

"This bastard, until the end...? Haa... yes. It's just talking."

"Then I understand. Where should I go?"

"Come out of here and follow the path, and you will come to a small pond. If you go around the pond, a low pavilion will appear, and that is my quarters."

"I understand. I will see you later."

Seo Mun-wang-ryang then, without looking back, went out the exit, and just before passing the exit, he turned his head slightly and said to Seo Mun-jong-tak, "Jong-tak. I'm sorry for interrupting while you were with a guest. I apologize."

And he went out of the room.

I, with a chuckle, said, "Isn't that forcing an apology rather than an apology?"

But Seo Mun-jong-tak is looking at the door that Seo Mun-wang-ryang had opened and left with a dazed expression.

"What's wrong? Why are you like that?"

"It's the first time..."

"What is?"

"That I've heard my uncle say he's sorry... it's the first time in my life."

Although I wonder what's so great about someone saying they're sorry, if it's the first time you've heard that person say it, the meaning might be different.

I didn't interrupt his thoughts for a moment.

"Seo Mun-jong-tak. Let's stop this and finish the story we were about to have."

"Huh?"

He, as if he had just come to his senses, turned his head and looked at me again.

Then, a little while later, as if he had grasped what this situation was again, his face became a little more serious.

"What were you trying to say earlier? You are what?"

As I gave him a lead, he seemed to have recalled what he was trying to say.

"I... wanted to become a strong martial artist. I wanted to become a martial artist who would make a name for himself in the martial world, like my father, like my uncle."

"But why the past tense? You don't want to be one now?"

"I still want to be one."

"Then what's the problem?"

"I lack talent."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I snorted as if I were dumbfounded.

"Those who are born with talent like you don't know. The sorrow of the mediocre. No matter how hard I try and train, I don't improve as much as a talented person does by meditating for a moment. My father and uncle are people who heard they were geniuses and prodigies as if they were eating rice since they were young. That's why, at my age now, they had already become martial artists with a great reputation in the martial world. But what about me now? No matter how hard I try, I'm just in a position where I'm not recognized at all."

"So what?"

"So I have no choice but to live like this. Just hiding in the shadow of my family... like this..."

He made a gloomy expression.

I slowly approached him, and then, after slightly raising one hand.

"Keu-eok...!"

I gave him a good flick on the head.

If it were up to me, I would have wanted to hit him harder, but today was just a warning, so I stopped at this.

"Wh-What are you doing all of a sudden?"

"I was annoyed that a bastard who hasn't even tried properly is talking as if he has tried."

"What did you say? I really did try. Don't speak so easily of me without even seeing me train."

"Tsk, tsk. No matter how hard you say you tried, compared to the amount I train, it's probably at the level of a child's play. What? You think talented people like me don't know anything?"

I snorted and said, "You. To be honest, how much time do you think you spend just training in a day?"

"I-I can easily do about one and a half shichen (3 hours) a day..."

"What? One and a half shichen? For me, that's just about the end of my warm-up exercise."

"How many hours do you usually train in a day?"

"There's no set time! Just think of all the time except for sleeping, eating, shitting, and chatting with bastards like you as training. And is it just training? Absolutely not. I do the difficult and hard training that I have developed, which has the best training results in a short period of time. If you do the training method I do, you probably won't even last one shichen, no, half a shichen (about an hour)."

"D-Don't look down on me."

"It's not looking down, it's an accurate diagnosis. Looking at what you do and your physiognomy, you're probably just about that much."

Seo Mun-jong-tak, getting angry, stood up from his seat.

He still has some pride left.

"Let me try that training method of yours. What will you do if I can last half a shichen?"

"I'll apologize. And when I go back to Kaifeng, I'll secretly spread a rumor. That Young Master Seo Mun has some guts. I'm not teasing, I'm serious. Do you know that I've been getting close to the Alliance Leader these days? I'll speak well of you to the Alliance Leader too."

"Alright."

"Then what about the opposite? What will you do for me if you can't last half a shichen in my training?"

"I'll do anything."

"Really? Then I'll decide the condition of that bet then. Is that okay?"

"Do it. I'll endure it somehow."

"Alright!"

The atmosphere suddenly became like this.

He, saying that there was a small training ground right next to the pavilion and that he could go that far, took me and headed to the training ground.

On the way, he said to me with anxious eyes, "But there's one thing I didn't think of."

"What is it?"

"You could be unreasonable, couldn't you? If you force me to do impossible movements and intensities, saying it's your training method... it's a bet I can't win."

"It's your fault for not saying that beforehand..."

Before my words were even finished, Seo Mun-jong-tak suddenly shouted, "You cunning bastard!"

"You have a quick temper. I'm not finished talking yet."

"Hmm, hmm..."

"But I will absolutely not be unreasonable. What's the use of a bet won by being unreasonable? While I'm asking you to do the movements, I'll also face you and do the exact same thing. Is that enough?"

"Yes. I understand."

He readily accepted my proposal, and we immediately arrived at the training ground.

As soon as we arrived at the training ground, he and I faced each other.

I was worried about how to measure half a shichen, but there was no need to worry about that.

Because this small training ground had everything it should have, and there was also an hourglass that indicated half a shichen.

"Then, if you collapse before all that sand falls, it's my victory. If you follow my movements until the end, it's your victory. Do you understand?"

"Yes. I understand."

"But you're not going to use a single drop of internal energy, right? To be honest, I can't even tell if you're using internal energy subtly or not, so let's leave that to your conscience. If you're a martial artist, you must have that much conscience, right?"

"Of course."

He nodded his head.

Seeing his confident face, a smile unknowingly bloomed on my face.

I wonder if Seo Mun-jong-tak knows how I ended up here.

He probably thinks that I really came here to meet him.

That I suddenly got a burst of energy and ran in a direction I didn't know, and the place I stopped at happened to be where the Seo Mun family was.

And would anyone have been able to know that he and I would suddenly start training in the middle of the night?

I think there was definitely no one.

Great things often start from a series of such coincidences.

No one knows what effect the moonlight gymnastics that Seo Mun-jong-tak and I are doing today will have in the future.

"Then let's start. First, let's start with a hundred squats. Your knees shouldn't go past your toes, and sit using your buttocks and thighs. One, two, three, four, your posture has collapsed! Again from the beginning, one, two, three...!"

I, as if I were in Wudang, began to move my body excitedly.

***

A little while later, after some time had passed.

In the end, Seo Mun-jong-tak, who couldn't endure the training until the end, collapsed on the floor, and after blinking his eyes a couple of times.

The last grain of sand falls.

Seo Mun-jong-tak had really unfortunately not been able to endure half a shichen.

"Ugh..."

Seo Mun-jong-tak is suffering, holding his cramping leg.

I quickly went up to him, turned his sole to the sky, and pressed his toes towards his body to release the cramp.

Although I had won, to be honest, I was impressed.

'Even the Namgung siblings had a hard time enduring half a shichen at first.'

But Seo Mun-jong-tak, despite learning a lower level of martial arts compared to them, had endured almost all of half a shichen.

Perhaps if he hadn't collapsed from a cramp in his leg at the end, he would have endured the remaining time with grit and determination.

"Damn... damn...!"

He, as if he were angry at himself for not being able to endure until the end, repeatedly hit the floor and spat out curses.

"Stop it. You'll hurt your hand."

"Aren't you... tired? How are you so fine?"

"What I just did, I usually do for two shichen as a basic. When I do it for a long time, I sometimes do it for four or five shichen."

"Monster..."

"How long do you think I lasted when I first did this training? Just one shichen (2 hours). I got the stamina I have now by working hard every day and breaking my limits."

"If I could have used internal energy, the limits of this kind of stamina would have been nothing."

"Well, that's true. But do you know this? The more the body is well-trained, the larger the dantian becomes, and the stronger the qi and blood become, making it easier to circulate internal energy."

"Is that true?"

"Why would I lie about that? What do I have to gain from it?"

Seo Mun-jong-tak couldn't answer.

It must be because he had nothing to say in response to my words.

"So cancel what you said about me only having talent. To be honest, it's true that my talent is outstanding, but I also work hard, risking my life. Do you understand?"

"Yes. I understand. You're not just a genius, but a genius who works hard, right?"

"Well. That's not wrong."

Seo Mun-jong-tak, while breathing heavily, let out a chuckle.

He, as if he had resigned himself to something, said to me, "Yes. What is the condition of the bet? What do you want from me?"

I, shrugging my shoulders, said to him as if I were throwing it at him, "Do it every day."

"What?"

"What I just did."

"So what... this training?"

"Yes. You're going to do it every day from now on. Of course, I'm not going to check on you or anything. So promise yourself. And get stronger every day. That's my condition."

"Why on earth such a condition..."

I, looking at him, smiled broadly and answered, "It's my specialty. Nosiness. And who knows? Maybe you'll bloom later and become incredibly strong, and then the day will come when you save my life."

He looked at me as if he were fed up, and I, looking at him again, smiled sincerely.

(End of Chapter)