Free Web NovelOn the first day, I ran.
I ran all day long, chasing after Tang Jung as he strolled along like he had nowhere to be, until the sun set on the mountain peaks surrounding Chengdu.
On the second day, I ran.
The third day was the same.
I woke up and ran, ate and ran, collapsed face-first thinking I was going to die, and then the moment my eyes met Tang Jung’s, I ran.
When I barely dragged myself back to my quarters and sprawled out like a corpse, Tang Jung would slide in out of nowhere and press and knead my arms and legs with his fingers.
“This is called Chasing-Palace Meridian Points.”
And then the next day I could run again like nothing had happened.
Whatever trick he was using, I didn’t even get a single blister on my soles.
If I’d at least had sore muscles, I could’ve whined my heart out—but when I woke up, everything was clean and fine, so I couldn’t even complain.
A full week of running like my life depended on it—
Tang Jung, who’d been watching me jog up the mountain peak with lazy interest, jumped down from a tree and said,
“Looks like you’ve built up some leg strength.”
“I really, really hope so.”
I wanted to stop running.
Tang Jung smirked at my grumbling, walked over, and scooped me up like I weighed nothing.
“Now that you’re used to running, it’s time to climb a cliff.”
“...What?”
Climb what?
I heard wrong, right?
Say I heard wrong. Hurry.
I stared at Tang Jung with my eyes wide, but he didn’t care about my reaction in the slightest.
Tang Jung—who’d come down in a single step from the mountain I’d spent half a day climbing—set me down at the base of a sheer cliff.
Then he said, as if it was nothing, frёewebnoѵēl.com
“I’ll be up there, so come up.”
“...What?”
I looked back and forth between Tang Jung and the cliff.
Even at a glance, it was well over the height of a twenty-story building.
“How am I supposed to get up there?”
“You crawl up.”
Sir.
Are you out of your mind?
Even Deokju, who’d been standing guard in silence, spoke up anxiously.
“Grand Elder. The young lady can’t climb a cliff this steep. If she falls in the middle—”
“Then I catch her before she falls.”
Or—and hear me out—you could just not make a situation where I fall in the first place?
I was going to lose it.
“Grandfather. That’s insane. How am I supposed to—”
Huh? Where’d he go?
I whipped my head around, searching for Tang Jung, and Deokju whispered,
“He’s on the cliff.”
Only then did I see him, perched on a tree jutting out halfway up the rock face, looking down at me.
With a sulky expression like I was the one wasting his time, he crooked his fingers at me—come on.
I wanted to cry.
*****
Climbing the cliff with my bare body was a brand-new flavor of suffering.
“Gah!”
Every time my foot slipped, I heard the rattle of pebbles skittering and pouring down.
“Eek!”
“Young lady. Don’t look down.”
If I so much as glanced beneath my feet, the dizzying sight made the backs of my knees go weak.
I fought down the urge to cling to Deokju and sob, and forced myself to step—one foot at a time—toward the top.
Deokju, who’d ended up climbing with me, kept swallowing down groans every time I struggled and wheezed, like she was afraid to offend me.
What in the world am I even doing?!
Martial artists are all insane!
Hugging a rock that stuck out, I grunted and asked Deokju,
“How far did I get?”
“You’ve climbed about one-tenth.”
That answer was so painfully honest my nose stung.
Our pure, earnest Deokju didn’t know how to tell a well-meant lie.
It felt like I’d climbed a decent amount, and it was only one-tenth?
I couldn’t go up, and I couldn’t go down—so I just hung there on the rock.
Tang Jung, who’d been watching, clicked his tongue and came over.
He crossed a sheer drop with no footholds like he was walking flat ground—like a mountain goat that lived on cliffs.
“Let go.”
“If I let go here, I feel like I’ll die.”
“I’ll catch you. Let go.”
“You’ll really catch me, right?”
“I said let go.”
Tang Jung pressed me. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
Shaking all over, I squeezed my eyes shut and released my grip.
The sensation of my body tipping made a scream burst out on its own.
“AAAH!”
Tang Jung hooked an arm around my waist mid-fall and set me down lightly on the ground.
“That’s enough for today. Your stamina is pathetic. I should boil you some crucian carp.”
My eyes snapped open at the wonderful news.
“Then I can rest now?”
“No. You’ll study. Go back to your quarters. Tang Un will be there.”
Tang Jung answered like I’d said something ridiculous.
“...Yes.”
I trudged back to the annex.
*****
Tang Un, who I was seeing again after several days, was smiling as always.
Even though I was coated in dust and sweat, he didn’t care at all—he just waved.
“Sohae, you’re here. Did training go well? Sit down.”
The moment I sat in the chair without even washing up, Songji hurried over with a damp cloth.
From her expression, it looked like she was telling me to at least wipe my face.
I scrubbed my face in a panic, and Tang Un waited patiently—then smiled with his eyes curving.
“Today, we’ll read the Book of Changes. I’ll read first, so listen.”
“Yes.”
“Heaven is high and earth is low, thus the Heaven Trigram and the Earth Trigram are set. According to low and high arranged in order, honor and lowliness each take their place...”
Maybe because I’d wrung my stamina bone-dry all morning, sleepiness crashed over me before even fifteen minutes passed.
I tried to lift my heavy head, but my body wouldn’t listen.
Tang Un’s gentle voice grew smaller and smaller.
“...Sohae. Are you sleeping?”
Tang Un lightly patted my shoulder as I nodded off.
...Ah.
I wiped the drool in a hurry, but I’d already met Tang Un’s eyes.
I’d been caught sleeping, blatant as could be—yet he didn’t get angry. He just smiled softly.
“Training must have been hard. Shall we stop here for today?”
“Yes!”
I nodded with enthusiasm.
I was so tired I wanted to lie down on the floor immediately.
At my answer, Tang Un closed the book and slowly adjusted his outer coat.
“But you can’t just play all day, can you? If we’re not studying, then it might be good to teach you how the martial arts world works. What should we do...”
He fiddled with the bead ornament on his outer coat, then pulled his hand away as if something came to him.
“Right. Today, the story of the Ten Venerables of the Martial Arts World would be good.”
“The Ten Venerables of the Martial Arts World?”
“They call the ten peak masters—known as the ten greatest masters under heaven—by that name. Grandfather is one of them, too.”
“...What? Grandfather?”
“That’s right. Isn’t it amazing? The elder you see every day is a master counted among the strongest under heaven.”
I nodded, and Tang Un continued.
“Elder Peng Rak, who visited not long ago—you met him too, right? Just like his title, the Fierce Tiger Saber Emperor, he’s a master who pacified the world with the saber. They say if the Fierce Tiger Saber Emperor’s saber tears you, you’ll be shredded like you were ripped by a tiger’s claws.”
I pictured Peng Rak laughing boisterously and nodded.
That elder looked like he could tear a person apart with his bare hands.
“On the other hand, there are also people who are therapists, yet their martial arts are profound. The Ghost-Hand Divine Therapist, Im Seol-yak, is a master of both medicine and combat. As you can tell from the title, he’s a renowned healer of the Central Plains—someone any patient would want to meet. I wanted to meet him too, but I never had the chance.”
A bitter look flickered across Tang Un’s face, then vanished.
He changed expressions and asked, like he was giving me a quiz.
“You know the Nine Great Sects, right? Do you also know which sects among them are Taoist sects?”
“Uh... Taoist sects? Wudang Sect and Mount Hua Sect, right?”
If my memory was right, the sects the protagonist always cursed as “filthy Taoist priests” were either Wudang or Mount Hua.
“You know well. Both Wudang and Mount Hua are Taoist sects. Their names are more famous, but Kunlun, Kongtong, and Qingcheng are also venerable Taoist sects.”
“There are more than I thought.”
“Of course, if you ask which is the number one Taoist sect under heaven, it’s unquestionably Wudang. The current number one swordsman under heaven is there.”
“Who is that?”
“The Taiji Sword Immortal, Perfected Taehuh.”
I’d heard of the Taiji Sword Immortal.
Namgung Hwi’s rival—and, later, the number one swordsman of Wudang, Jinseong’s master.
In the novel, Jinseong had a pretty big role, didn’t he?
What was he doing right now?
As I sat there wondering about Namgung Hwi’s rival—whose face I’d never even seen—something else occurred to me.
“Do all martial artists use swords?”
“Not at all. Grandfather himself reached the Ten Venerables through poison arts. There are masters who rose through the spear as well. Have you ever heard of the Spear King, Ak Jibaek?”
“I know the Shandong Ak Clan is famous for spear arts.”
“Exactly. The Ak Clan’s spear techniques are very famous. And among them, Senior Ak’s spear is so fast it’s almost invisible. I’ve met him personally a few times. He’s active in the Martial Alliance.”
“The Martial Alliance?”
That thing that’s always busy stuffing its own pockets and then collapses the moment the Demonic Sect invades?
Is it different here?
“Yes. The main headquarters is in Wuhan. There’s a branch in Sichuan too, so you might even visit one day. And if you ever meet Senior Ak, be careful what you say.”
“What should I be careful about saying?”
“He hates people saying the spear is inferior to the sword. He also hates those who get lost in politics and put martial study last. And most of all... I think the thing he hated the most was the phrase, ‘You were a woman?’”
...You were a woman?
I gaped, and Tang Un tapped the bridge of my nose.
“Sohae had the same thought, didn’t you? Be careful. When that comes out of a man’s mouth, he punishes them.”
“What kind of punishment?”
“He hangs them from a great spear and suspends them atop a pavilion for two hours.”
Wow.
That’s... intense.
“As long as you avoid that, he’s a good senior, so don’t worry. If you’re respectful and polite, he’ll treat you ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ well.”
I shrugged.
Like I’ll ever meet him.
I wasn’t planning to go anywhere near the Martial Alliance.
Still, it was interesting enough to blow the sleep right out of me.
Maybe Tang Un was born to be a teacher.
He explained martial arts stories like he was reading me a fairy tale.
Maybe because he could tell how much I was enjoying it, Tang Un propped his chin on his hand and spoke again.
“If we’re talking about Senior Ak, then we can’t leave out the story of the Heaven-Sundering Sword Demon, Ja Unbi. It’s famous that they were once closer than anyone... and then became enemies.”
“They fought? Why?”
“Because of the Heaven-Sundering Sword Demon’s beloved.”
A lovers’ quarrel?
I tilted my head, and Tang Un smiled gently and continued.
“The Heaven-Sundering Sword Demon’s beloved was a coachman.”
“A coachman? He wasn’t a martial artist?”
“No. He was an ordinary man. But they say he was good at poetry. That’s how he met the Heaven-Sundering Sword Demon in the first place—because of poetry. People are drawn to their opposites, aren’t they? It was the same for the Heaven-Sundering Sword Demon. They say he fell hard for a man who recited beautiful poems to him, when he himself couldn’t read.”
A swordsman and a scholar’s love story.
This was like a romance novel.
“The man, too, fell for a strong swordsman. He wanted to be helpful to the Heaven-Sundering Sword Demon. But it isn’t easy for a coachman to help a powerful martial artist. After agonizing over it, the man went to the Hao Gate.”
“And then? What happened?”
I stared at Tang Un with bright, eager eyes.
