Chapter 509

Ding.

System

• Linked Quest Fake Murim Martial Artist—Stage 2 has begun!
• This Quest will proceed regardless of whether you accept it!
• Quest forcibly accepted!

“……?”

What the fuck?

My thoughts must have shown on my face. Mungyeong’s eyebrows twitched as he looked at me.

“I clearly told you there would be another training session. Don’t tell me you forgot?”

“Excuse me?”

Forgot? Is he messing with me right now?

Dumbfounded, I looked back at Mungyeong.

“How could I forget after shitting blood so many times? Even thinking about it makes my asshole twitch.”

“……I understand. Stop there. That’s disgusting.”

“Ha. Seriously.”

The head might forget, but the asshole—no, the body—remembered.

Even now, whenever I closed my eyes, memories of shitting blood day and night came flooding back.

To exaggerate a little, if all the bloody liquid I’d passed over the past seven days and nights were collected in a tub, every mosquito in Hubei Province could gather for a feast.

It was horrible.

Some memories wouldn’t go away no matter how hard I tried to forget them. The Linked Quest the System had announced on the day of my last duel with Mungyeong was no different.

It hadn’t been long ago, and it was far too important to forget. I’d have to be out of my mind.

“Anyway, I haven’t forgotten. I remember every single thing you said back then.”

“Is that so?”

Mungyeong studied me.

“Then your reaction makes even less sense. I even warned you in advance. Why do you look as though someone just hit you in the back of the head?”

“……Uh.”

Because that’s exactly how it feels.

I knew another training session was coming, but I’d been certain it wouldn’t happen right now.

There was only so much he could teach me aboard this swift ship, which was even narrower than an ordinary vessel.

At most, a cultivation technique?

But a cultivation technique, the foundation of martial arts and internal energy, was not something that could be swapped out as easily as a machine part.

Especially not in my case.

The Fire Gate Divine Technique was the very root of the Fire Gate Clan. It transformed the nature of our internal energy into fire qi and amplified its power, so the cultivation technique played a far greater role in our martial arts than it did in those of other sects.

Mungyeong of all people had to know that, but I asked just in case.

“Um, you’re not planning to teach me a cultivation technique, are you?”

Whoosh! Slash!

I turned my head at the sound of the wind. A throwing blade shot past like a streak of light, missing my neck by a hair before slicing through the river behind me.

“……I heard your answer loud and clear.”

“Don’t waste my time with that kind of nonsense.”

“Of course. I was just asking on the off chance.”

Then what is it? Another poison-tasting session?

Foreboding and curiosity struck at once, but I put both aside for the moment. Not for any particular reason—Mungyeong had simply grown much farther away while we talked.

Whoosh!

The favorable wind and the waterway men’s sailing experience certainly helped, but the swift ship was several notches faster than an ordinary vessel.

We’d barely exchanged a few words, yet he was already that far away. I almost wondered whether the bastards from the Yangtze River Channel League had installed a motor.

Damn, it’s fast.

Even a model student who routinely came first in the entire school was bound to have one weak subject. Mine was movement techniques.

As befitted a Supreme Peak master, I could keep up using Rising on Duckweed, Crossing Water, but I wasn’t used to it, and it consumed a considerable amount of internal energy. Unlike on Dongting Lake last time, there was nothing here for me to step on, either.

“I’ll climb aboard first and listen. I can’t stay out here like this.”

Mungyeong nodded readily.

“Do that.”

“You’re not going to throw a hidden weapon at me as a surprise, are you?”

“I said I understand. Stop talking nonsense and come up.”

“Yes, sir.”

I concentrated the internal energy I’d drawn up in my toes.

The greatest advantage of the Fire Gate Divine Technique was the explosive force it could produce. One leap would be more than enough to get me back onto the swift ship.

One, two.

Now.

Bang!

The internal energy released from my toes slammed into the water. The river surged upward like a massive wall from the shockwave, and a fierce wind swept across my entire body.

In a moment so brief it could not even be called an instant, I covered over a hundred feet and landed on the stern of the swift ship—

Thwack!

What the fuck?

I went flying back even faster than I’d approached. I hurriedly sent internal energy into the soles of my feet and flipped myself around.

I’d been plunging headfirst toward the river, but I regained my balance just in time to stand on its surface.

What is this, déjà vu?

I looked at Mungyeong, who stood tall on the stern, with a thoroughly displeased expression.

“What was that just now?”

“What was what?”

“That thing in your hand. You hit me with it.”

“Oh, this.”

Mungyeong waved the large object he was holding.

“This is an oar. It’s mainly used to row a boat.”

“I wasn’t asking because I didn’t know that.”

“I thought you were.”

“Didn’t you promise not to do anything strange?”

“To be precise, I said I wouldn’t throw a hidden weapon. This isn’t a hidden weapon.”

“Oh, I see. You used a lethal weapon instead of a hidden weapon.”

“Something like that.”

Is he insane? Seriously.

Mungyeong stared at me with a profound gaze. No—with a profound gaze at the water rippling around me.

“The Yangtze River is still calm, yet chaos breaks out wherever your feet touch.”

“If you keep pulling stunts like this, I’ll be the one making a scene. Seriously.”

“Do you know why it happens to you in particular?”

“I don’t, but why are you doing this?”

Mungyeong ignored my question.

“It isn’t because your movements are clumsy and rough.”

“You’re making my personality rough.”

“Every movement a master of a certain realm makes has its own reason and purpose. In your case, the cause is your internal energy itself. It’s too violent. This is one of the longstanding problems with the Fire Gate Clan’s martial arts.”

“Ah, now I’m pissed. I’ll climb aboard again, so put down that oar first and—”

I stopped mid-sentence.

This wasn’t just Mungyeong being spiteful or playing a prank.

“Wait. What did you just say?”

“So your ears do work. I said the reason your movements are rough on the water is a longstanding problem with the Fire Gate Clan’s martial arts.”

A longstanding problem…

I couldn’t brush that off.

After a moment’s thought, I asked, “What does that have to do with Rising on Duckweed, Crossing Water? I’m just clumsy because I’m not used to it. Aren’t you judging too quickly?”

“You fool. It isn’t that simple.”

“You mean…”

“The stability and precision of your internal energy.”

“Stability and precision…”

“Rising on Duckweed, Crossing Water is one measure of those qualities. The more stable and precise your internal energy, the more freely you can perform it. It’s an advanced movement technique, but a Peak master with deep enough attainment can use it without much difficulty.”

Mungyeong continued without pause, then suddenly leaped down from the stern.

He was far enough away that an ordinary person wouldn’t have been able to make out his face. But my senses were keen enough to see and hear him clearly.

Softly, he landed on the water, as light as air. Not a ripple rose around him. It was as though nothing had happened.

Mungyeong turned his dry gaze on me.

“And you?”

“……!”

I instinctively lowered my head and looked at the water beneath my feet. But I already knew what I would see.

The path I’d taken chasing the swift ship was covered in white foam, as though another boat had passed through it.

Splash.

I took a cautious step. Dozens of ripples spread out from it, overlapping one another.

Even compared with Mungyeong, the difference was too great.

“You seem to know the answer yourself.”

I might have felt less embarrassed if he’d sounded scornful. Instead, his flat voice seemed to say, Yes, that’s about your level. My face burned.

“Do you understand what I meant now?”

“……I think I understand it to some extent.”

As Mungyeong had said, Rising on Duckweed, Crossing Water was an important measure of the stability and precision of one’s internal energy.

Depending on how well you distributed and controlled your power, the water beneath your feet could churn as though caught in a storm or remain as calm as a deserted lakeshore.

“Then tell me what you should gain from this. In your own words.”

“Hmm. I’ll be able to use my internal energy more efficiently.”

“I don’t like that answer.”

“I’ll gain stability and precision, and I’ll be able to produce the same amount of force while using less internal energy.”

“A little better. Still not enough.”

Each second seemed to stretch into a minute as I thought it over. Then the answer came to me.

“Amplification.”

“Explain further.”

“What I’ve said so far would let me apply the right amount of force where and when I need it. If I can control my internal energy that precisely… I can amplify it more than I do now, too.”

“So?”

“This isn’t just about stability and precision. The martial arts I’ve learned will become more powerful. Am I right?”

Mungyeong stared at me in silence before tossing out a single remark.

“……You’re not a complete idiot.”

That’s it. I got it right.

But the strange thrill I felt wasn’t from winning a little praise from Mungyeong.

If I can complete this training successfully, I can become stronger than I am now.

I’d hit a kind of stagnation. Maybe I’d grown too quickly. After advancing by leaps and bounds, my martial arts had stopped progressing, and I could feel a high wall blocking my path.

But with this training, I could improve my technique even without gaining some new enlightenment.

So I still had plenty of room to grow without enlightenment.

When had I started thinking about it all wrong? I hadn’t tried to fill the space I already had. I’d just kept wanting something newer and greater.

What a stupid thing to do.

It was like owning a one-terabyte external hard drive, filling only five hundred gigabytes of it with porn, then whining that I was out of space.

Mungyeong had shown me that I still had another five hundred gigabytes for porn—no, that I still had room to fill. No need to buy another external hard drive when the first one wasn’t full.

Ah, Great Lord Mun.

A halo seemed to shine behind Mungyeong’s shoulder.

At the sight of my eyes brimming with those feelings, Mungyeong opened his mouth.

“Keep your eyes straight ahead before I gouge them out.”

“……Ah, yes.”

“Anyway, you seem to have finally grasped the general idea.”

“Yes. I think I get it.”

“Then you must know what training you need to do now.”

Of course I did. I gave the answer I’d been expecting.

“Rising on Duckweed, Crossing Water. Am I right?”

“Yes. Better to experience it yourself than hear and think about it a hundred times. The Yangtze is the perfect place, so start now.”

So that was why he’d knocked me into the water without warning. He must have planned this from the beginning.

But I wasn’t annoyed or resentful. You couldn’t gain anything without paying a price.

It’s a little daunting with nothing but river around me, but I’ll get used to it if I keep practicing.

I answered without hesitation.

“Understood.”

“You’re more obedient than I expected. Keep that attitude.”

“Yes.”

If it meant becoming stronger than I was now, what wouldn’t I do?

I bowed to Mungyeong. Then I realized I’d forgotten the most important question.

“Um, by the way.”

“Hmm?”

“How long do I have to do this?”

“What a foolish question.”

Mungyeong spread both hands as though the answer were obvious.

Ten stars… no, ten shichen?¹

“W-wait. Even for me, ten shichen¹ is impossible. I have to keep up with the swift ship using Rising on Duckweed, Crossing Water. You know how much internal energy that’ll take—”

“What are you talking about? Ten days.”

“Excuse me?”

“Not ten shichen.¹ Ten days. Follow me the entire way until we reach Henan.”

“……Excuse me?”

As I froze in place, a familiar notification rang in my ears.

Ding.

System

• The training method for Fake Murim Martial Artist—Stage 2 has been newly established!
• The Instructor has set the training period to 10 days! This period may become shorter or longer depending on how long it takes to reach the destination!
• The countdown begins now! Hang in there—argh!
• Time limit: 9 days 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds.

“……”

Fuck. I have no words.