Martial Arts Ain't Anything Special-Chapter 17: Primordial Divine Art

Looking into the woman’s eyes, he couldn’t help but think.

Is this bitch about to charge at me with a knife?

Sure, he had kneed her in the face, but was that really enough to warrant this reaction?

Of course she’d be pissed, but wasn’t it really the Black Tiger Sect’s fault? Whether Seojun had run away or fought back normally in that situation, the woman’s circumstances wouldn’t have changed.

“Excuse me.”

“...”

“Did I do something wrong? We were both victims, so why are you acting like this?”

“Did you do something wrong? Ha, something wrong. Are you fucking kidding me?”

Her eyes viciously glared at Seojun. The woman grabbed her collar and pulled it down.

Seojun momentarily froze upon seeing her exposed white skin, but then his eyebrows shot up at the blue and red bruises covering it.

It was clearly evidence of her being beaten, and not just a light beating either. The bruises were so dark that it seemed she might have died if she had been hit just a bit harder.

“It’s all because you smashed my face...! My leg tendons were cut, and I had to service one sleazy customer after another, the kind only the cheapest whores would take! My holes are worn out, and my face and body are ruined! If it weren’t for you...! If only you hadn’t messed up my face, none of this would have happened!”

It was an obvious fact, but one of the most important things in a back-alley courtesan house was beauty.

If you had a pretty face, you’d be treated differently even among courtesans.

Just look at Maewol, who was rumored to be the most beautiful in this courtesan house. Her leg tendons weren’t cut. Instead, she was just under slightly stricter surveillance.

It was far better to have the lower-class courtesans suffer a bit than to damage a high-quality product with exceptional beauty.

But that surveillance wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Strict surveillance meant many people were watching, which was essentially the same as having guards.

To begin with, courtesans with exceptional beauty could be somewhat selective about their customers, and if a customer became violent, guards would immediately intervene.

It was the complete opposite of this woman’s situation. Not only were her leg tendons cut, making it difficult to even walk properly, but instead of stopping violent customers, they would encourage them for an additional fee.

Despite that, barely any money actually reached the woman. She was lucky if she could just feed herself, and at this rate, it was obvious she wouldn’t last much longer.

“And you have the fucking nerve to ask if you did anything wrong?”

As the woman glared at him like she wanted to tear him apart, Seojun scratched his head.

“Uh... I didn’t hit you that hard.”

Honestly, saying her face was smashed was an exaggeration. It probably just swelled up a bit.

“Besides, your face wasn’t particularly pretty to begin with, was it? If you were pretty, they would have waited for your face to heal.”

“...What?”

There was a moment of silence. Even Maewol, who had been listening from a distance, blinked and covered her mouth.

He had spoken a bit harshly because he felt annoyed, but it wasn’t wrong. How many courtesans in this courtesan house were treated like Maewol anyway?

She would have ended up in the same situation even if left alone. Whatever the result, he had been stabbed too, and while he felt sorry for hitting her face, it felt weird to be looked at like an enemy.

“And even if you want to blame someone, why not blame those Black Tiger Sect guys? Why me? I got my gut sliced open too.”

“Y-You... Have you finished talking?!”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

As he nodded, the woman’s face turned bright red. Her face had already been flushed, but now it looked like she was about to explode.

Just as the woman was about to lunge at Seojun with her eyes wide open, Chunbong stepped in front of her.

“Enough. Don’t mistake who you should be angry at.”

“Ha, haha... What’s this now?”

The woman’s eyes glistened as she let out a hollow laugh. Her eyes looked ready to draw blood at any moment.

But Chunbong wasn’t about to be intimidated. She drew her sword and pointed it at the woman’s neck. It wasn’t just pointed either, the tip was slightly piercing into her neck, drawing a drop of blood.

While her circumstances were pitiful, that was all. She had mistaken who to resent.

“Know your place. This man is not a person someone like you can treat carelessly. There’s a limit to how much blame you can shift.”

“You...”

Drip—

As the sword dug in a bit deeper, blood trickled down. Chunbong’s eyes were sharp. Her reaction was more intense than expected, catching even Seojun off guard.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay. I don’t really, so...”

He had only come looking for this woman out of pure curiosity about what had happened to her.

Whether she resented him or not, what did it matter? If she came at him with a knife, he’d just deal with her then.

Still, since he felt a bit sorry, it might be better to lend a hand later if possible.

“My Chunbong is so kind, isn’t she?”

“...This bastard still with a bunch of bullshit even when I’m on his side.”

Hmph, Chunbong snorted and withdrew her sword. Seojun patted her head and looked at Maewol, who had been standing quietly behind them.

“Well, I’ll see you again sometime.”

“Oh my. Fufu, I’ll be sure to serve you well next time.”

Her seductive gestures were quite burdensome. Seojun subtly pushed Chunbong in front of him to maintain a safe distance from Maewol.

“Yeah, sure.”

The bruised woman glared daggers at their backs as they left.

*On the way home, to cheer up the slightly sulking Chunbong, he forcibly gave her a piggyback ride.

“Stop! Stop! I said stop it!”

Though she said that, he knew she actually liked it.

Seojun finally arrived home with Chunbong still on his back and set her down in the room.

“Wow, my Chunbong’s gotten quite heavy.”

“...You’re dead.”

“Oops, soz.”

Waving his hands, Seojun flopped down on the floor and stared at her.

Chunbong stared right back, not backing down from his gaze.

A sudden staring contest. The winner was Seojun.

“Ugh... You cheater. Using inner qi in a staring contest?”

“If it pisses you off, use it yourself.”

Seojun chuckled and coated his hand with golden qi. It was the characteristic inner qi of the Yellow Cloud Divine Art.

Though Seojun hadn’t seen many martial arts yet, he could tell that the Yellow Cloud Divine Art was quite distinctive.

“So, continuing from earlier. I get that I’ll be screwed if I obviously copy other people’s martial arts.”

“But...”

“Yeah, but... is it okay to use this? The Yellow Cloud Divine Art.”

Though it sounded like nonsense at first, Chunbong understood perfectly what he meant and shook her head with a bitter smile.

“Not outside, no.”

“Outside? You mean outside the back alleys?”

“Yeah. Honestly, around here it doesn’t matter. The Divine Sword Geum Clan didn’t have much external activities, so hardly anyone would recognize it even if they saw it.”

But if they were to leave this place and go to a major city, it would be a different story.

“People who have seen our clan members a few times would recognize it immediately.”

“I see...”

Seojun fell into thought.

The reason it would be troublesome if others recognized the Yellow Cloud Divine Art was simple. They didn’t know which forces had destroyed the Divine Sword Geum Clan.

Until they knew how those forces would react upon discovering a survivor of the Divine Sword Geum Clan, they needed to be as careful as possible.

Chunbong, who had been watching Seojun lost in thought, spoke up.

“I said before that the ones who destroyed the Divine Sword Geum Clan might be from the Orthodox Faction, but to be precise, that’s not it.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I sensed evil qi. They were probably from the Unorthodox Faction.”

Their eyes met. Though she said the culprits were likely from the Unorthodox Faction, her eyes still held a deep suspicion.

Now that he had become somewhat able to guess her thoughts from her reactions, he could tell she had more to say.

“And?”

Seeing her looking somewhat drained, he scooped her up and sat her down between his legs with her back to him.

She must really be tired, as she didn’t even resist.

Feeling sorry for her, he gently rubbed her soft cheeks. As he did so, she continued speaking.

“Mmm... but the orthodox sects are just as suspicious. Those unorthodox guys... they knew too much about the Divine Sword Geum Clan’s situation. Moreover, there was enough time for reinforcements to arrive, but not a single person showed up.”

“You’re saying there was a spy?”

“It seems to be the case. Whether inside the Divine Sword Geum Clan or within the Murim Alliance, I don’t know. Or maybe they just disliked our clan.”

Her suppressed rage and deep resignation were emotions far too thorny for a little kid who fit perfectly in his arms to bear.

He leaned forward as if leaning on her back and rested his chin on her small head. Though she whined that it was heavy, she didn’t seem to dislike it.

For some reason, this kid had been quite attached to him since they first met. Perhaps it was fate that they had encountered each other when she was too exhausted to even put up her defenses.

“That’s why I hate those bastards too. The Murim Alliance might’ve had their messages delayed by a spy or whatever, but there’s no way the nearby sects didn’t know what was going on. They act all generous normally, but when shit hits the fan, they’re nowhere to be found. Those fucking bitches. They put on airs of being virtuous and noble, but in reality, they’re just petty bastards chasing their own interests.”

“Those are some real sons of bitches.”

“Right? Fucking assholes. We should just beat the shit out of all of them.”

“That sounds good. Want your big brother to beat them all up for you?”

“Nah. I’ll cut their throats with my own hands.”

Chunbong chuckled and leaned back against him. Everything she did was just so damn cute.

As he opened and closed his jaw on top of her head to tease her, her tantrum was just like a chihuahua while looking just like a hamster.

“Well anyway... should we drop by the Clear Flowing Sect tomorrow?”

“Clear Flowing Sect? Wasn’t it the Clear River Sect?”

“Oh, right. Clear River Sect.”

Clear Flowing something was the name of their swordsmanship.

“Why the Clear River Sect? It’ll definitely end up in a fight if we go there.”

“I have some ideas.”

Ah, speaking of ideas, he just remembered something he had forgotten. With all these sudden events, he had completely forgotten about it.

“No, before we head to the Clear River Sect, let’s stop by the Black Tiger Sect’s place first.”

“Why there again?”

“We need to move.”

“To there? What about the corpses? And didn’t you say it was too big?”

“Now now, your big brother has it all figured out.”

For the corpses, they could just raid some Black Path sect and recruit some manpower, and for the rest, he had something he wanted to try anyway.

“Does my Chunbong want to go to sleep now?”

“...Can you not talk like that? It’s disgusting.”

“Hehe, I think I’ll sleep while hugging my Chunbong.”

“It’s hot. I don’t want to.”

How cruel.

*When he woke up in the morning, Chunbong was nestled in his arms.

She looked just like a little kid, curled up like a squirrel and snuggled in. When he tried to get up, she whined in her sleep, so he hugged her tightly again and continued the thoughts he had before falling asleep.

A martial art to replace the Yellow Cloud Divine Art.

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Chunbong had said it didn’t matter around here, but still, you never know. It wouldn’t hurt to be prepared.

And it’s not like the insights gained from learning the Yellow Cloud Divine Art would disappear just because he stopped using it, so it wasn’t a huge loss.

First, keep the Yellow Cloud Divine Art as the foundation...

Then mix in the Blue Cloud Divine Art. Since they were martial arts that aimed to achieve harmony between yin and yang by forming the Supreme Polarity as one ascended in realms, the Yellow Cloud Divine Art and Blue Cloud Divine Art could be considered a pair. Mixing them wouldn’t be difficult.

Add in the imagery of the Clear Flowing Sword... and maybe borrow some of its sword style too.

The Clear Flowing Sword was surprisingly a strong sword style. It resembled a raging torrent more than the gentleness of a flowing river.

A violently flowing river, and a sky alternating between light and dark.

Though there were still many gaps, he had grasped the general idea.

I can always learn and incorporate other martial arts later anyway. If I keep mixing in anything that looks good, something will probably come out of it.

Normally this would be considered insane, but he was confident.

No matter what martial art it was, he could achieve anything related to qi as he wished.

My own martial art that will someday be completed as time passes. Though it might be too early, if I were to give it a name...

Primordial Divine Art.

That name seemed fitting.