Chapter 141

I recalled something Jin Mukyung had told me a few days ago.

One God, Three Saints, Ten Kings.

Great martial artists who had already become legends.

Going by that order, Sword Saint Mae Jonghak had to be one of the top five Supreme Peak masters in the world.

Now even the Sword Saint is showing up.

Jin Mukyung had told me that the Fire King earned his place among the Ten Kings by hunting down and killing a thousand members of the Demonic Cult over four days and nights.

If that was what it took to earn a place among the Ten Kings, just how formidable was the Sword Saint, whose name ranked ahead of his?

Why do nothing but monsters keep popping up?

I was dumbfounded, but then I looked at Cheongpung and found myself nodding.

Beans grow where beans are planted. A monster had raised a monster.

There’s no way a gifted freak like that could appear out of nowhere.

Cheongpung was unquestionably a Peak master.

He was only twenty years old. If he had grown up under the guidance of a phenomenal master like the Sword Saint, it made perfect sense.

“Urk, bleeegh!”

…Actually, it was starting to make less sense. How had someone like that become a Peak master?

I asked Cheongpung, who was still retching, “Are you all right?”

“I’m all right, urk!”

“You’re clearly not.”

“More importantly, Senior looks badly hurt, bleegh!”

“Don’t call me Senior. I’m fine. A little spit and this much will heal right up.”

“Really?”

Of course not.

I patted Cheongpung on the back and glanced around. Everyone except Hong Jin was staring at us wide-eyed.

“S-Sword Saint Mae Jonghak? The Sword Saint I know?”

“That idiot is the Sword Saint’s grandson?”

“What on earth is going on…?”

Gong Ilhyuk’s reaction stood out most of all. Apparently forgetting his pain, he stared blankly at Cheongpung before suddenly shouting.

“Nonsense! The Sword Saint has been in seclusion for more than thirty years! How dare a piece of trash like you claim to be the Sword Saint’s heir?”

“Sorry to interrupt.”

I scratched my chin and continued.

“Why don’t you stop the bleeding first? You’re losing an awful lot of blood.”

“……”

Gong Ilhyuk’s face turned bright red. He had to be embarrassed. His arm had been shattered with a single blow, yet he was still calling someone else a piece of trash.

“Tch. If only I hadn’t let my guard down…”

“Then shall we arrange a rematch once you’ve recovered? I can lend you my family’s training ground.”

Even if they fought a hundred times, Gong Ilhyuk would lose all hundred. The gap between them was that obvious.

The proof was that the moment I offered to set it up, Gong Ilhyuk went silent as though he had swallowed honey.

“Stop the bleeding first. Stop the bleeding.”

“……You bastard.”

Gong Ilhyuk glared at me murderously.

It seemed he had finally realized that I disliked him, but I didn’t feel particularly threatened.

You should’ve stopped when I told you to.

If word of what happened today got out, they were the ones who would suffer. They had gotten entangled with the Sword Saint’s grandson, and even the Sect Leader of the Zhongnan Sect—Gong Ilhyuk’s father’s cousin—wouldn’t be happy about that.

Meanwhile, I wasn’t even directly involved, and I had gained an unexpected golden connection.

Listen here, I gave the Sword Saint’s grandson candied hawthorn skewers¹, took him to the hot springs, and did it all, okay? You bastard.

So this was how candied-hawthorn stock went through the roof.

I was smiling inwardly when Gong Ilhyuk finished stopping the bleeding and sneered.

“Come to think of it, this is ridiculous. As far as I know, the Sword Saint had no children. How could he possibly have a grown grandson?”

Cheongpung, who had just stopped retching, tilted his head.

“That’s not true. I really am his grandson.”

“The entire world knows that the Sword Saint devoted his entire life to martial arts! You’re obviously lying!”

“No, I’m really not.”

Cheongpung continued with a miserable expression.

“I really am my grandfather’s grandson. A crane brought me to him twenty years ago.”

“……?”

“……?”

What the fuck was that supposed to mean now?

As everyone’s attention turned toward him, Cheongpung looked back at me with a confused expression.

“Benefactor, am I mistaken?”

“What exactly do you know?”

“That cranes bring babies. Grandfather told me babies are chosen by Heaven, and when the time comes, a crane delivers them.”

“Who told you that?”

“My grandfather.”

“Oh.”

The story practically wrote itself. Their surnames were different, so the Sword Saint had obviously adopted him from somewhere…

Cheongpung had grown up alone with his grandfather in the mountains from an age he couldn’t even remember.

Whatever his grandfather told him, he must have simply accepted it.

“Cranes don’t bring babies? Then am I not my grandfather’s grandson?”

“Well, that’s…”

I continued with a heavy heart. Cheongpung was twenty years old. Now that he had come down from the mountains, it was time for him to learn about the world one thing at a time.

“There are three stages involved in having a child: ovulation, fertilization, and implantation. Try it.”

“With Benefactor?”

“Why would you do it with me? Are you insane? I said repeat the words out loud.”

“Yes. Ovulation, fertilization, implantation…”

However, my ambitious attempt at sex education had to end the moment it began.

“You bloody little bastards! How dare you behave like this in front of a great Senior of Murim!”

The owner of that growling voice was, of course, Gong Ilhyuk.

With help from the other two men officially known as the Three Hands of Zhongnan—but more accurately described as his lackeys—he had even gotten his arm splinted. Now he glared at us.

“A frontier bumpkin and a fool who throws his weight around just because he’s strong dare look down on a disciple of the great Zhongnan Sect?”

Cheongpung’s eyes went round.

“Am I the fool?”

“Probably.”

“Then Benefactor is the frontier bumpkin?”

“Thank you so much for clearing that up.”

I let out a deep sigh. The man was old enough to know better, yet he still couldn’t read the situation. Was his background as a member of the Zhongnan Sect, and his faith in his father’s cousin, simply too strong?

“Well, our Senior sure has a loose mouth.”

“What did you say?”

“Never mind me. What are you going to do if what this friend said is true?”

“If it were true, there’s no way Li Feng wouldn’t have recognized him.”

Li Feng? Why was Li Feng coming up now?

I looked at Li Feng, puzzled. He had gone rigid as though he had seen a ghost, but now he finally parted his lips.

“I am a lay disciple of Huashan. Until ten years ago, I was at the main sect.”

Gong Ilhyuk added with a mocking grin, “That fellow was quite prominent among the lay disciples. At least, until he lost to me during a friendly duel with our sect. Isn’t that right?”

“That’s right. I stayed at the Zhongnan Sect for two days for the duel, but I ate something bad and fell seriously ill.”

“That story again. Don’t you ever get tired of it?”

“Isn’t it a remarkable coincidence, no matter how often I think about it? Everyone scheduled to duel you, myself included, suffered the same fate.”

“……So you still can’t accept your defeat?”

“No. I accepted it long ago. In fact, thanks to you, I learned what Murim was really like. As tuition goes, it was a cheap lesson.”

Gong Ilhyuk’s eyebrow twitched at Li Feng’s calm tone.

“Enough pretending to be magnanimous. Answer me honestly. Have you ever seen that fool at Huashan?”

“Before that, let me ask you one thing. Do you still think I left Huashan because of you?”

“Of course. You ran away from Huashan less than two months after our duel. What excuse are you going to make now?”

“It’s true that I was discouraged for a while… but you’re wrong.”

Li Feng shook his head and continued slowly.

“It was about a month after that day. My Master suddenly said he had somewhere to go. When I followed him there, I found all the leaders of our sect gathered together, including the Sect Leader.”

“Did they hold a consolation banquet for a lay disciple? Huashan is more generous than I thought.”

“It is a generous sect. After all, they allowed a failure like me to accompany them on an important visit to see our Grandmaster.”

Gong Ilhyuk’s eyes narrowed.

“Your Grandmaster? Could it be…?”

“There is only one Grandmaster in our sect. Sword Saint Mae Jonghak. The one everyone knows.”

Gasps rose from several places around the hall. Meanwhile, growing unease spread across Gong Ilhyuk’s face.

“That’s impossible. I heard the Sword Saint hadn’t shown himself in a long time…”

“That’s true. But he was still on Huashan. His seclusion was simply so deep that we hadn’t been able to find him.”

“Th-Then what happened?”

“We combed through Huashan from top to bottom. Only after breaking through ten formations did we reach his residence. Can you guess what I saw there?”

Everyone present could guess. Li Feng’s gaze was fixed on Cheongpung’s face.

“A cute little boy. He was much smaller than the other children his age, but he was diligently swinging a sword… No one could laugh. Who could laugh after seeing a monster perform the Plum Blossom Sword Technique at the age of ten?”

“……!”

“……!”

Silent shock spread through the crowd. Gong Ilhyuk stammered.

“That—that’s impossible. As far as I know, one must be at least First Rate to perform the Plum Blossom Sword Technique…”

“Unimaginable things sometimes happen in Murim. Compared to that, pulling dirty tricks in a friendly duel is nothing.”

Li Feng gave a self-deprecating laugh.

“After more than a month of facing the wall in training, I came to a realization. I had no reason to remain there. That was why I left Huashan. What do you think? Isn’t it amusing?”

Li Feng’s story hit hard. Everyone, myself included, stared silently at Cheongpung.

Suddenly, I remembered the conversation I’d had with him at Honghwa Inn the night before.

“I was ten years old. One day, dozens of people came barging in and made a scene. I remember my grandfather shouting at them to get the hell out before he set fire to the mountain.”

“Ah. So that’s why he keeps changing where he lives…?”

“Yes. Fortunately, the mountain is so large that he’s managed to avoid them for ten years.”

Until then, I hadn’t known that the people who had come to cause trouble ten years ago were the leaders of Huashan, or that the Sword Saint Mae Jonghak was Cheongpung’s grandfather.

And the part about them making a scene was only how it had appeared from young Cheongpung’s perspective. The reality had probably been very different.

Who would cause trouble for the Sword Saint? That’s a perfect way to get yourself killed.

The Sword Saint who had threatened to set fire to his own sect wasn’t exactly ordinary, either.

In any case, on the day Huashan had nearly become a real volcano, Li Feng had met Cheongpung as a child and clearly despaired after witnessing his talent.

Fair enough. First Rate at the age of ten.

Countless people failed to reach First Rate even after turning twenty.

Two of the rising martial artists from the Five Gates of Shanxi present here still fell short of being called First Rate masters.

And yet Cheongpung had reached that realm at the age of ten.

Could Jin Mukyung have done the same?

The moment that question occurred to me, Gong Ilhyuk shouted as though having a fit.

“Proof! What proof is there that he’s that child?”

The rising martial artists of the Five Gates of Shanxi who had been trying desperately to curry favor, Hong Jin, who had been watching with great interest, and even the other two members of the Three Hands of Zhongnan all frowned as though they had planned it together.

“There is no proof. All I have is my memory.”

“Exactly. Mountains and rivers change in ten years. Should I really trust your paltry memory?”

“No. To be honest, I’m not certain either. I don’t know how that child grew up.”

Li Feng answered calmly, then suddenly drew his sword.

Shing.

He studied the blade as it radiated a cold chill, then asked Cheongpung, “Young Hero, how much do you know about Huashan’s martial arts?”

Cheongpung answered with a bewildered expression.

“Uh, I’m not from Huashan.”

“You’re not from Huashan…”

“No. My grandfather just taught me various things because he said they would be good to learn.”

“Then allow me to ask. Of the Six Harmonies Sword, Plum Blossom Sword Technique, Supreme Clarity Sword, Taeeul Miri Palm, Falling Flower Chasing Shadow Palm, and Scattering Flowers Shadowless Hand… how many do you know?”

“All of them.”

“Heh. All of them. Every one.”

Li Feng gave a hollow laugh and handed his sword to Cheongpung.

“Could you perform the Plum Blossom Sword Technique?”

“My grandfather told me not to show my martial arts to anyone.”

“One form—no, a single sword stroke will suffice.”

After hesitating, Cheongpung took hold of the hilt.

“Then I’ll show you briefly.”

The instant he finished speaking, something changed.

Sssssss.

Sword Energy? No.

From Cheongpung’s head to his toes, tangible strands of purple qi flowed from his entire body.

It was Extreme Yang internal energy so potent that merely being near it scorched the breath in one’s lungs.

“The Zaha Divine Technique²…!”

Li Feng let out a cry of delight.

At that moment—

Whoosh!

The tip of Cheongpung’s sword traced a beautiful arc.

Like plum blossoms falling at the end of the season, a single streak of Sword Energy cleaved the enormous table in half.

The food, the dishes, even the sturdy table.

“Ah…”

A gasp escaped me before I knew it.

Breaking things was easy. But Cheongpung’s Sword Energy was so sharp and clean that, if the table hadn’t collapsed a moment later, no one would have noticed it had been cut.

Boom! Crash!

As the table split in two and collapsed, Li Feng clasped his fist and palm in an exceedingly respectful salute.

“Li Feng, lay disciple of Huashan, pays his respects to Martial Uncle Cheongpung.”