The Genius Youngest Disciple of the Wudang Sect

Chapter 305

"You really are...!"

Seo Mun-jong-tak, trying to say something, swallowed his words.

And then, his expression rather cleared up, and he opened his mouth again.

"I lost."

"Didn't you see the hourglass? You lost even without me saying it."

"No, that's not what I mean. Just... I lost to you as a person."

He said in a voice that seemed to have matured a little compared to before.

"I will definitely keep my promise with you."

"Yes. You know well, but if you don't keep your promise, you're not a man. You know that, right?"

"I'll keep it even if you don't say it."

"Do you remember all the training methods I taught you a little while ago?"

"I remember."

"Don't skip a single day, and if you keep pushing yourself to your limits, there will be a moment when you break out of the egg. Work hard until that moment comes. That training method is very expensive."

"Expensive?"

"It's not something I teach to just anyone. Later, if you really see an effect thanks to me, don't forget to repay me."

I wonder if Seo Mun-jong-tak knows that the direct descendants of the Namgung family are treating me as their grandmaster to learn the training method I taught him a little while ago.

He might think it's a bluff even if I tell him.

Because it's such an unbelievable story.

"Then I should get going now."

I, lightly getting up, said.

"You're leaving already?"

"Why? Should I stay longer?"

"Hmm, hmm... since you've come all this way, it wouldn't be bad to taste what the food of the Seo Mun family is like."

He said to me, pretending to be saying something trivial.

"I'm very curious. How on earth does the chef of the great Seo Mun family cook?"

"Are you teasing me?"

"No. I'm serious. I'm really curious. But I can't today. I have to go back quickly because I came here without even telling my master. Come to think of it, I can't even go right away. I have to see your uncle and go back. If I just go back from here, he'll probably think of me as his mortal enemy for the rest of his life."

Seo Mun-jong-tak chuckled.

He must have thought that if it were Seo Mun-wang-ryang's personality, it would surely be so.

"Yes. I understand. I won't go far."

"It's not that you won't, but you can't, right? Your legs will be trembling so much that you won't even be able to walk properly."

"Keu-heum..."

"It's nothing to be ashamed of. Even I, after training with all my might, can't walk for a while because my legs lose strength. If your legs don't tremble, you haven't trained properly. And tomorrow, you'll have tremendous muscle pain, but overcome that and train again. That pain will become a measure that makes you stronger."

"...... I understand."

"Then see you next time. Be a little more developed then."

I said that to tease him... but he nodded his head with a serious expression.

Looking at that expression, I felt good.

I was like that in the past, but I like it when a martial artist who is walking the wrong path walks the right path.

I also like it when a wandering young man, through some opportunity, ends his wandering and has the face of a man.

Right now, Seo Mun-jong-tak had the face of such a man.

***

Leaving Seo Mun-jong-tak's training ground, I followed the path that Seo Mun-wang-ryang had told me and headed to his quarters.

Whether the path to that place was deliberately cleared of people, or if it was a path that people didn't usually take, I couldn't see a single shadow of a person.

Come to think of it, the atmosphere is also a little eerie.

I also thought that if I were to die an unnatural death here, my traces might disappear without a trace.

"...... You've come."

As I continued to move forward with a slightly anxious heart, Seo Mun-wang-ryang was already out in front of a small pavilion, waiting for me.

"Why did you ask me to see you and go? I don't think there's anything more to talk about between us."

"No, there is."

"What is it?"

"I still haven't been convinced."

"If you persecute me here, I will go to the Martial Alliance Leader right away. I will tattle on you, Great Hero Seo Mun, for bullying me."

"Hmph. No matter how disgraceful I looked then, do you think the Alliance Leader will cast aside a master like me, who is making a great contribution to the Martial Alliance at present, and listen to a young martial artist like you?"

"Of course. If that happens, I am the victim, and you, Great Hero Seo Mun, are the perpetrator. Do you think our righteous Alliance Leader would take the side of the perpetrator?"

Seo Mun-wang-ryang, with a slight frown, said, "Do you... sincerely believe in the Alliance Leader?"

"Yes. I believe."

"How do you believe?"

"It's just my gut feeling. My gut feeling is quite accurate."

"This... arrogant bastard."

I shrugged my shoulders.

In fact, the reason I can believe in the Alliance Leader this much is because I have experienced him once.

The Alliance Leader, whom I have watched from the side for a long time, is a person who loses sleep at night worrying about the martial world.

He is a person who did not go out to the marketplace even once until all his favorite dumpling houses had closed, because of the obsession that he, the Martial Alliance Leader, should not leave the Martial Alliance.

And if it were his movement technique, it would have been no problem to escape to the end of the Central Plains, but he is a person who even sacrificed his life for the Martial Alliance and the martial world.

So how can I not believe him?

"Then do you, Great Hero Seo Mun, not believe in the Alliance Leader?"

As if he had not expected me to ask back, his eyes widened.

Well, most ordinary next-generation talents would be overwhelmed by his energy and would not even be able to have a proper conversation.

But since I seem to have no effect, he might think of me even more unfavorably.

"N-No. I believe. I was just trying to test you."

"Right?"

He must have been genuinely flustered.

Because I could feel that his energy, which he had proudly displayed to pressure me from the beginning, had shaken a little.

'Is it the power of the Hwari's inner core? Or is it that the enlightenments I have been gathering have been manifested because my internal energy is sufficient? Seo Mun-wang-ryang's momentum doesn't feel that fierce.'

And more than anything, I can now leisurely let go of his energy, which I thought I would be overwhelmed by.

I feel like I can feel how much I have developed in just one day just by receiving Seo Mun-wang-ryang's energy.

"But did you call me just to talk about this? I think I should go back now since it's getting late."

"Of course not. I called you because I want to settle the grudge with you here."

"Settle the grudge?"

"If we part like this, wouldn't it be awkward for both you and me? No matter how much you look down on me, you wouldn't want to remain in such an awkward relationship with the Seo Mun family."

To be precise, I wanted to say, 'Isn't it a relationship with you, Seo Mun-wang-ryang, not the Seo Mun family?', but I barely held back.

"Yes. To be honest, I've let go of everything, so there's nothing awkward about it. It seems you, Great Hero Seo Mun, have many things left."

"I can't just let it go. After suffering such a humiliation."

"You brought that humiliation upon yourself."

"You really don't lose a single word."

"Because there's no reason to lose."

"Hoo..."

He let out a sigh that was close to a deep breath, as if he were starting to get angry.

If it were normal, I would be willing to accept it to some extent if the opponent came out like this.

But the reason I'm doing this to Seo Mun-wang-ryang is nothing else.

'If I bend and go in here... Seo Mun-wang-ryang is a person who can rather chase me around and bully me in the future.'

Although I'm calling him a great hero, in fact, he is not a great hero.

To be a great person, one must first be generous, but he is too narrow-minded for his skills.

I predict that if I say I was wrong here, he will surely use that as an opportunity to find more fault with me.

"Anyway, let's settle our grudge here. So apologize to me."

"Yes?"

"Apologize. For not respecting me then, and for not showing etiquette, and for humiliating me at the martial arts tournament... if you apologize for all these things, I will cleanly erase the grudge with you and move on. I will probably almost never see you again for the rest of my life."

I was so dumbfounded that I opened my mouth without realizing it.

Come to think of it, wasn't it Seo Mun-jong-tak and Seo Mun-wang-ryang who brought all this upon themselves? But the nerve to ask for an apology from me is so outrageous.

I thought that since he couldn't physically do anything to me, who is close to the Martial Alliance Leader, he was asking me to apologize to console himself, and to go to the Alliance Leader and say that I had apologized for being wrong, and that there was a misunderstanding about what had happened then.

In other situations, saying sorry might be nothing, but I don't want to do that today.

"I think there's another way besides me apologizing."

"What? You're not going to apologize? And what's the other way?"

"It's for you, Great Hero Seo Mun, to thank me."

"What did you say? I thought you were crazy, but you're really completely crazy."

"I'm not crazy. And I'm speaking sincerely."

"Ha! Why should I thank you?"

I, with a bitter smile, said, "Great Hero, don't you have any thought that I could have defeated you in the public duel, but I held back out of consideration for your face?"

"Wh-What?!"

"Don't you think that the reason I said I would stop the duel then was not because I didn't want to be hit by you, Great Hero Seo Mun, but because I thought I would hurt you if we fought seriously?"

"This! That's ridiculous!"

"Yes. To be fair, even if I couldn't have defeated you, I am confident that I could have fought on equal terms with you, Great Hero Seo Mun. Do you think it would have been me who would have been at a disadvantage if the fight had dragged on like that in the public duel and I had shown the audience that I was fighting on equal terms? Or you, Great Hero Seo Mun?"

"Th-That's impossible...!"

Seo Mun-wang-ryang shouted with a look of astonishment.

His face was shocked, as if he had never even thought that it would be so.

To be honest... it's a lie.

Because it's true that I didn't have the strength to do that then.

It's true that I just hit him as much as I wanted and then surrendered because I didn't want to be hit.

But it's different now. I, who have consumed the Hwari's inner core and the remaining energy of the Heavenly Transformation Pill in my body, am really confident that I can fight on equal terms with him.

"Then let's test it once."

"How?"

"Receive my attack this time as well. But this time, it's just one move. I will attack with a palm technique without even using a sword."

"You mean you were hiding... your strength?"

"In the martial world, there are sayings like 'Hide three-tenths of your strength. Even in a life-threatening situation, hide three-tenths.' Don't you know? To use all your strength in front of so many people?"

He, looking at me with a bewildered eye, said, "Prove... it."

"Right here?"

"Yes. I think this much of an open space will be enough."

I, looking around, nodded my head and said, "But please promise me one thing. Promise me on the honor of a martial artist, on the name of the Seo Mun family, and on your name, Seo Mun-wang-ryang."

"The promise is grand. What is the promise?"

"If you judge that my martial arts are really at the level of you, Great Hero Seo Mun, you will thank me and completely forget all grudges with me."

"Alright! What if it's not at that level?"

"I will kneel down and apologize."

His expression instantly became very serious.

"Yes. I promise. You promise too."

"Yes. I will bet on the Wudang Sect, my name, and what else is there? Anyway, I will bet on everything I can."

"Then come."

Seo Mun-wang-ryang, while speaking, very naturally took a defensive stance.

It is not the underestimating attitude of the public duel, but a defensive posture full of sincerity.

It was a posture that seemed to show his will not to be easily defeated this time.

"Hoo-woo..."

I, taking a deep breath, began to gather energy in both my hands.

While running here with a movement technique, I adapted to the newly obtained energy.

And while moving my body with Seo Mun-jong-tak, I narrowed the gap between my body and my energy.

Thanks to that, I have a premonition that I will be able to show my best move now.

At first, it seemed to gather slowly, but soon, the internal energy that had rushed in like a flood gathered in my hands and began to resonate with the surroundings.

A smile unknowingly blooms on my face.

Originally, if I had gathered this much energy, both my arms should have started to feel stiff, but now, I still have plenty of room.

It means that my energy has made a great leap forward.

At the same time, I, raising my energy, pulled both my palms back and brought them to the side of my chest.

Of course, the one move I'm trying to use is the Heavenly Firmament Demon Subduing Palm.

Although I pretended to be generous by saying I wouldn't use a sword, it is the martial art with the most destructive power among the martial arts I know.

Kung! Kung! Kung!!

I, stepping on the ground with a true kick full of energy, narrowed the distance with Seo Mun-wang-ryang and, stretching out both my arms, exploded the true qi of the Six Yang Divine Art once again.

I heard an explosion that only I could hear, and the true qi of the Six Yang Divine Art was fully gathered, and when I thought it was now difficult to handle my energy.

My arm finally reached Seo Mun-wang-ryang's protective qi, and a huge roar that could have shaken the entire Seo Mun family erupted.

Both my hands are tingling, and it feels like my throat is blocked.

It is the result of consuming too much energy in an instant.

The surroundings were filled with dust.

"Heup!"

I, retrieving my outstretched arm, circulated my energy and offset the damage I had received from the rebound.

And so, a little while later, the dust settled sooner than I thought.

I, discovering Seo Mun-wang-ryang, spat out a word.

"I guess I can't receive an apology."

Because he, unable to withstand my palm force, was lying carelessly in a corner of the open space, unconscious.

(End of Chapter)