Chapter 151

The pavilion where I was staying had only been completed a few days ago.

Apparently, Jin Mukyung had made such a spectacular mess on his first day back at the Jin Family of Taiyuan that they tore down the old pavilion and built a new one.

The important thing is, I have a training ground now.

There was no way Jin Wikyung, who absolutely melted whenever it came to his younger siblings, would have cut corners.

The inside of the pavilion was decorated far better than before, but more importantly, I now had a private training ground of my own.

“They brought in the finest carpenters and stonemasons in the area to build it.”

“Really?”

I looked around the training ground as Hyuk Mujin gave me the sales pitch like a real estate agent.

There was a high wall to keep out prying eyes and a spacious training ground. In one corner, weapons for training—what were commonly called the eighteen traditional weapons—rested on a rack.

“Look here in particular. See how the floor has a bluish tint?”

“You’re right. It looks like stone.”

“Yes, it’s called bluestone. And it isn’t just nice to look at. Want to see?”

Bang! Bang!

“Hey!”

I shouted in surprise when Hyuk Mujin suddenly stomped down with all his strength.

This bastard had completely lost his mind just because it wasn’t his training ground.

But Hyuk Mujin pointed at the floor as though nothing had happened.

“Now, before you get angry, look at the floor. It’s perfectly fine.”

Really?

At Hyuk Mujin’s Level, he was more or less qualified to be called a First Rate martial artist, yet the floor had only suffered a few minor scratches. They must have spent quite a bit of money.

“High-quality bluestone is extremely hard. It takes quite a lot to break it.”

“Nice.”

“Wow, they have things like this too? I’ve only ever trained on dirt.”

Cheongpung tapped the floor in fascination, then lightly stamped his foot.

Crack!

“Huh? It broke.”

“…”

“…”

You little bastard. Who told you to put internal energy into your foot?

I stared sadly at the training-ground floor, which had been smashed before I had even gotten to use it properly, then turned toward Hyuk Mujin.

“I-I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You just cursed me out with your eyes.”

“Want me to do it with my mouth too?”

“…No, thank you. I’ll be going, then. I just remembered something important.”

Look at him trying to casually edge away.

I grabbed him by the back of the neck as he tried to sneak off.

“Why? Why?”

“Where do you think you’re going? You have nothing to do.”

“Nothing to do? Do you think I’m some idle wastrel? I told you, I have something important to take care of.”

“Then why have you spent the last two days lounging around my pavilion?”

“…”

“I heard you got reward leave. Your eldest brother told me.”

Cheongpung shot his hand into the air and shouted,

“Wow, reward leave! I want some too!”

“…Young Hero Cheongpung, are you making fun of me?”

“You there, clean up the broken pieces of bluestone.”

“Oh, yes!”

What a pointlessly cheerful guy.

Meanwhile, Hyuk Mujin, still kicking his feet in my grip, let out a deep sigh.

“Whew. Fine. Just hit me once and get it over with.”

“Why would I hit you?”

“Isn’t that why you grabbed me?”

“Of course not. Do I look like the kind of violent bastard who’d hit someone for no reason?”

“Yes.”

“Some people repay a thousand-nyang debt with a single word, but you earn a thousand blows with your mouth.”

Smack!

“Guh!”

“Don’t be such a baby.”

Hyuk Mujin rubbed his red, swollen forehead.

“You hit me once, so that settles it, right? I’ll be going now.”

“Going where? Stay here.”

“What good would staying do me? You’ll obviously just send me on pointless errands.”

When I merely stared at him without answering, Hyuk Mujin continued grumbling.

“You may have forgotten, Captain, but I’m a martial artist too. If I want to become Master of the Gatekeeper Pavilion, I need to train my ass off.”

“Who told you not to train?”

“Huh?”

Was he stupid, or had the thought simply never occurred to him? I clicked my tongue at Hyuk Mujin, who still hadn’t caught on.

“I’m saying you should train with us here.”

“…Me? Here?”

He stared back and forth between Cheongpung and me in bewilderment before stammering out a response.

“Am I really allowed to?”

“No reason it wouldn’t be. Is that okay with you, Young Hero Cheongpung?”

Cheongpung, who had been proudly examining the pieces of bluestone he had somehow managed to fit back together, nodded.

“I don’t mind. But you have to buy me lots of candied hawthorn skewers¹ later.”

“…Are you possessed by a ghost who died because they couldn’t get any candied hawthorn skewers?”

“A ghost? Benefactor, is there a ghost attached to me right now?”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

“Wow! A ghost! A ghost!”

“God, this is driving me crazy.”

This guy was completely out of his mind.

I shook my head repeatedly and looked away from Cheongpung. Hyuk Mujin was still standing there in a daze.

“So, what’s it going to be? You don’t want to?”

Snapping out of it, he vigorously shook his head.

“I do. I’d love to… but are you sure I can join you?”

“I told you, you can. What, did you commit some crime?”

“Still, it’s an unwritten rule of the Murim not to show others your martial arts…”

It was the same among Hunters, too.

It wasn’t as pronounced as in the Murim, where people killed one another, but Hunters were also reluctant to reveal the full extent of their abilities.

And the higher a Hunter’s rank, the more true that was.

Mediocre low-rank Hunters had no money, so they packed together and trained like regulars at a neighborhood gym. But once a Hunter reached the middle ranks and had some money to spare, getting a private training room was practically a given.

“Captain and Young Hero Cheongpung are masters who inherited the secret arts of your respective sects, but I’m different. I won’t be of much help while the two of you train.”

“Hmm. That’s true.”

“…Right.”

I continued speaking as Hyuk Mujin lowered his head with a dejected expression.

“That’s why you should take this chance to learn properly and make yourself useful.”

“What?”

“How long are you going to keep getting your ass kicked? Is becoming Master of the Gatekeeper Pavilion the goal of your life? If you’re going to advance with me into broader waters, you need to get stronger too.”

“…!”

“Just train hard. Instead of wasting time worrying about whether you’re qualified, keep your mouth shut, be shameless about taking the opportunity, and train even if you have to cut into your sleep.”

That was what I had done. For the past several years, I had struggled desperately to survive just one more day.

I had even waited hand and foot on senior Hunters, doing everything I could to learn one more thing from them. Then, through blood and sweat, I had absorbed those lessons and made them my own.

Having gone through that myself, I understood Hyuk Mujin’s hesitation. At the same time, it frustrated me.

He even has outstanding talent.

Martial artists and Hunters were different. Hunters received their abilities overnight, while martial artists built their skills from the ground up, one layer at a time.

In that sense, Hyuk Mujin’s talent was considerable.

I only have to compare him with the deadwood among the Five Gates of Shanxi to see that.

They had been born into martial families and practiced martial arts from childhood.

Hyuk Mujin, on the other hand, began learning martial arts at an age when his bones and muscles had already hardened, yet he reached the First Rate realm in only five years.

Of course, that was based on Level alone, but even in a real fight, he could easily overpower men of their caliber.

And it isn’t just talent… He’s got grit.

Five years. That was how long it had taken the son of a textile-shop owner to become a First Rate master. Hyuk Mujin had said that he had not returned to his family home even once during that entire time.

I remembered something he had told me a few days ago.

“I started learning martial arts a little late. What else could I do if I wanted to catch up? I had no choice but to work ten or twenty times harder than everyone else.”

Easy to say, but not something an ordinary person could do.

It meant that he had continued his grueling efforts while sacrificing even his sleep. In that sense, Hyuk Mujin and I clearly had something in common.

The problem is that our inferiority complexes are similar too.

That was why he couldn’t readily accept the goodwill Cheongpung and I were offering. He knew this was a great opportunity, but he couldn’t help wondering whether a nobody like him really belonged here.

Those feelings were holding him back. I looked him straight in the eye.

“I’ve made the offer. The decision is yours. If you want to keep going the way you are, I won’t stop you.”

“…May I ask you one thing?”

I nodded. After a brief silence, Hyuk Mujin parted his lips.

“Why are you going this far for me?”

“You said you were my right arm, didn’t you? Or was it my heart?”

“Pardon?”

“What do you mean, ‘pardon’? You went around saying that yourself.”

“And every time I did, you told me to stop talking nonsense.”

“That was just something I said. If I disliked you, would I have kept you around all this time?”

“Wasn’t it because you were bored? Sometimes you seemed to enjoy hitting me when your hands got restless.”

“…”

Just how much of a piece of trash did this bastard think I was?

When I glared at him, Hyuk Mujin hurriedly pretended nothing had happened.

“Ahem. Ahem, ahem…”

“Listen, if I hadn’t planned to raise you up, I would have gone around alone a long time ago. Why would I lug around deadweight like you?”

“Deadweight? Can you really change your story that easily? A moment ago, I was your right arm or your heart.”

“Right arm, my ass. At your current level, I’ll let you be my little toe.”

“Wow. That’s harsh. Really.”

He sounded hurt, but he couldn’t hide the corners of his mouth, which kept rising.

Right arm or little toe, they were both important parts of the body. That fact didn’t change.

Feeling strangely embarrassed, I shouted, “Enough! Are you doing this or not?”

“I’m actually a martial arts genius, you know. I might copy everything you do. Are you sure that’s okay?”

“Bullshit. Copy it if you can.”

“Really?”

“Ask one more time and I’ll hit you so it really hurts.”

Hyuk Mujin broke into a broad smile.

“I’ll do it.”

His voice sounded lighter, as though he had shed an old skin.

Hyuk Mujin and I sat on the floor of the training ground and looked at Cheongpung. Taking a seat was the basic requirement before the real lecture began.

“All right. Let’s begin.”

“I look forward to learning from you, Young Hero Cheongpung.”

“Yes, yes! Hoo, hoo…”

Every time Cheongpung took a heavy breath, white steam puffed from his nose into the cold winter air.

What was wrong with him all of a sudden?

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine!”

“You startled me. Why are you suddenly acting like this?”

“Oh. Um, well…”

Cheongpung hesitated, then spoke with a face flushed bright red.

“This is my first time teaching anyone, so I’m too excited and worked up… Whew, give me a moment.”

“…”

“…”

I knew this would happen.

Perhaps he was still nervous, because Cheongpung spoke in a trembling voice.

“Th-then I’ll begin.”

“Don’t make it so stiff. Just relax.”

“R-relax?”

“Yes. Relax. Just teach us in whatever way you’re comfortable with, Young Hero Cheongpung.”

“The way I’m most comfortable…”

“The way your grandfather taught you.”

“Oh. What an easy solution!”

Hyuk Mujin and I looked at Cheongpung with a mixture of anticipation and curiosity.

This was the teaching method of the Sword Saint himself. How had that great martial artist raised this genius?

It must be something completely different.

As Cheongpung sank into thought, a smile appeared on his lips. Apparently, merely thinking about the method put him in a good mood.

“Oh, I thought of something. This training will probably help both of you a great deal, too.”

“Ohhh.”

“Ooooooh. What is it?”

“Do you see that?”

We turned in the direction Cheongpung was pointing.

Hyuk Mujin spoke first, and I finished the thought.

“That’s…”

“The training hall.”

It stood roughly two hundred jang from the training ground. I had a pretty good idea what kind of training he meant, and a quiet laugh escaped me.

It was the classic touch-and-go method: repeatedly running like hell to touch the destination and come back.

I expected something special from the Sword Saint, but I guess he wasn’t that different.

It was certainly a classic, but it was an effective exercise for building endurance and strengthening the lower body.

I stood and began stretching leisurely.

“Do we just go there and come back?”

Cheongpung tilted his head.

“Huh? You’ve done this before?”

“Until I was sick of it.”

“Oh, I see. That’s a relief.”

Cheongpung smiled brightly and pointed to me, then Hyuk Mujin.

“Then I’ll give you half a shichen and one shichen, respectively.”

“…?”

“…?”

“What?”

I asked in confusion.

“Half a shichen? What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you say you’d done it until you were sick of it? That should be plenty of time for you.”

“That’s true, but… Ah, I get it. Do we have to make nonstop round trips for half a shichen?”

“No. Once will be enough for now. I’ll wait for you at the summit.”

“What? The summit?”

“Yes. There.”

This time, I saw it clearly. Cheongpung’s raised fingertip was pointing at the cliff behind the training hall.

Hyuk Mujin and I dropped our jaws at the same time.

Holy shit. What the hell is that?

The height was impossibly vast. Even judging by eye, it was a steep cliff hundreds of jang high. My vision went dark, and my hands and feet began to tremble.

If it affected me this badly, Hyuk Mujin had to be even worse.

“Are you saying… we have to climb that?”

“Yes! I picked it because it’s about the same height as the place I climbed every day when I was little.”

“…”

“…”

“Ah, that brings back memories. I fell halfway down and nearly died twice. It really hurt back then.”

“…!”

“…!”

He was insane. The Sword Saint was insane, and this bastard was insane too.