My Younger Siblings Are the Greatest Masters in the World - Chapter 21
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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21.
“What did you say?”
“It takes about ten days.”
Seol Ryeoseon held up the bottle of Bokhwaju and asked again.
“It takes that long to make just one measly bottle?”
“Do you think making Bokhwaju is as easy as weaving a Large Basket? And how difficult it is to get the ingredients. Plus, after about a month from now, we won’t be able to make it even if we want to because there won’t be any ingredients.”
Seol Ryeoseon’s incredulous gaze turned to Seol Changho.
It was a look that asked, ‘Do you have a solution?’
While it was an acknowledged fact that Seol Changho had the best brain among them, he didn’t have the skill to make alcohol quickly and in large quantities.
“That’s not the only problem. If we’re not just making one or two jars of alcohol, the brewery needs to be spacious too.”
“This Courtyard is wide, isn’t it?”
“Not even close! Even making this one bottle requires this much space.”
Seol Mantong made a big circle around the Main Hall and came back.
“Can’t you just roughly mix the ingredients and bury them in the ground?”
“To think Jugoe is saying such ignorant things. Tsk tsk tsk…”
Seol Ryeoseon bared her claws but didn’t pounce.
Seol Changho said.
“Realistically, making Bokhwaju is difficult, but it’s too valuable to give up like this.”
Seol Changho, who had been thinking deeply, asked Seol Mantong.
“You can make other alcohol besides Bokhwaju, right?”
A scream-like answer came not from Seol Mantong but from Seol Ryeoseon.
“That won’t do!”
“What a shock! I’m the one making it, so why are you the one saying what’s okay and what’s not?”
“Make Bokhwaju! Bokhwaju! All the other alcohol you make is trash!”
“How much have you even tasted! And it’s only trash to you, other people would just die for it!”
Seol Changho asked.
“Among the alcohol you can make, which one has ingredients that are easiest to obtain?”
Seol Mantong’s answer came immediately.
“Rice. I need a few other ingredients too, but nothing that’s hard to get. I can make it quickly too. The downside is that the taste is a bit…”
“Does it taste worse than the alcohol sold in the market?”
Seol Mantong jumped up.
“You can’t compare that sewage-like alcohol with the alcohol I make!”
Seol Ryeoseon grumbled.
“It’s like drawing lines on a pumpkin and calling it a watermelon – what’s the damn difference.”
“Let’s say we can make the alcohol for now, but the problem is the brewery.”
Naturally, as five-year-olds, they couldn’t set up a brewery themselves.
Since Seol Mujin would obviously be clueless about that area too, they needed to find someone else.
“We should go see Yeon Gok.”
***
“The energy that couldn’t circulate properly collided internally, and as a result, your energy channels have weakened. The reason you can’t feel the fullness of internal energy even when doing breathing circulation techniques is because it’s not operating properly.”
After a long pulse reading, Yeon Gok came to that conclusion.
“You know a lot about martial arts.”
Every time the man who appeared to be around forty spoke, his bushy beard around his mouth fluttered.
“It’s not for nothing that I’m rumored to be skilled.”
The middle-aged man who had been staring at Yeon Gok tilted his head.
“But haven’t we met somewhere before?”
He had no memory of meeting this middle-aged man, but he felt uneasy because of his troublesome past.
“I have no such memory. I’m even wearing cotton cloth like this, yet you’re saying such strange things.”
Yeon Gok pulled the cotton cloth up further, covering half his eyes.
Because of the cotton cloth, he could barely see the middle-aged man.
“I’m sure I’ve seen you somewhere…”
“If you’re going to talk nonsense, then leave.”
The middle-aged man raised his hand to cover Yeon Gok’s lower face.
It was exactly the same action Seol Ryeoseon had done.
“What are you doing! Get lost right now!”
It seemed he had shouted too loudly.
One side of the greatly fluttering cotton cloth dropped, revealing his face completely.
“Huh?”
“Eek!”
He hurriedly tried to pull the cotton cloth back up, but in his haste, he ended up grabbing at it frantically.
Both Yeon Gok and the middle-aged man’s movements stopped simultaneously.
“Black-robed… no, Physician Yeon?”
Yeon Gok covered his entire face with both hands and shouted.
“You’ve got the wrong person! I’m not someone called Yeon Gok!”
“I said Physician Yeon, I didn’t mention your name…”
“W-well, if the surname is Yeon, the name that naturally comes to mind is Gok!”
He made a ridiculous excuse, but it wasn’t a situation where that would work.
“It’s me! Don’t you recognize me?”
“I don’t know! I don’t know you!”
“It’s Byeon Taebang, who was the head of Myeongundang! The bald patch on my head! When there was a hole here, Physician Yeon fixed it for me!”
Now that his position in the Demonic Sect and his name had come up, he couldn’t keep insisting it was a case of mistaken identity.
“Stop shaking your head. You’re dropping dandruff. Sigh—!”
Yeon Gok sighed and stared intently at Byeon Taebang.
Although Yeon Gok was originally poor at remembering people’s faces, Byeon Taebang’s face was familiar.
“When I was exhausted, you even gave me a Fatigue Recovery Pill…”
Finally, he remembered clearly.
“The guy who got poisoned from eating a snake.”
Byeon Taebang’s face lit up with delight.
“You remember me!”
He had come to the medical hall about thirty times for various reasons, so of course he remembered.
Byeon Taebang had recognized Yeon Gok because he had seen him so many times as well.
“You’re not here to capture me, are you?”
“No way! That can’t be! Everyone thinks Physician Yeon is dead. That’s why I was so shocked too.”
“There are circumstances behind that.”
Yeon Gok lowered his voice.
“Did you come to the Central Plains because of a Demonic Sect, no, Bright Cult mission?”
“Actually… I escaped from the Bright Cult.”
“What? You escaped?”
“If I had followed the Cult Leader’s orders, I would have become a sinner against all under heaven.”
Yeon Gok fully understood Byeon Taebang’s feelings.
“For similar reasons, I nearly died after opposing the Cult Leader. With the Cult Leader’s current personality, there’s no way he’ll just stay quietly buried in the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains. A storm of blood will surely blow through the Central Plains.”
“But there’s still some hope.”
“What hope is there?”
“This is a secret… A real, real secret…”
After hesitating for a long while, Byeon Taebang whispered.
“Samtaesang has escaped from the underground prison.”
“Huh?”
“Ah! Physician Yeon probably doesn’t know that Samtaesang was imprisoned?”
He knew.
What actually surprised Yeon Gok was that Byeon Taebang knew this fact.
“You probably won’t believe my story…”
“Skip the introduction and just tell me the main point!”
“Why are you suddenly shouting…”
“Just hurry up and tell me.”
Byeon Taebang started from the story of how Samtaesang, who had fallen out of favor with the Cult Leader, was imprisoned.
Yeon Gok already knew all these facts, but he listened with as much patience as he could muster.
He was already well aware that Samtaesang had been poisoned, and that he had used the Rejuvenation Technique to become a baby while trying to expel the poison.
“So what happened next?”
“I helped them escape.”
“You did? You’re the one who helped Samtaesang escape?”
“Yes. If I had left them there, it was obvious the Cult Leader would kill them. Those babies wiggling their tiny hands and feet… Even knowing they were Samtaesang, I couldn’t bear to watch those babies die. I happened to be the guard watching the prison at that time.”
According to Samtaesang, someone had taken them out, but who would have thought that ‘someone’ was Byeon Taebang!
“They should be growing up well after meeting good people…”
Just then, a voice suddenly came from the window.
“Says the guy who abandoned us in the mountain and left?”
Byeon Taebang, startled and turning his head, looked bewildered.
Three children around five years old climbed through the windows one by one.
The first two were very cute little ones, but the third child… looked manly.
Even though he was only five years old, manliness radiated from him.
“Who…?”
Yeon Gok quickly stood up and bowed.
“Have you arrived? In case you don’t know, the door is over there.”
“Who…?”
Byeon Taebang asked again.
Seol Ryeoseon and Seol Mantong perched their bottoms on the table.
Seol Changho stood behind as if to prevent Byeon Taebang from escaping.
Seol Ryeoseon grabbed Byeon Taebang’s beard and shook it.
“Yes, this was the face. Back then you didn’t have this beard though.”
“Ah! Ah! K-kid, let go of this! No matter how cute you are, grabbing someone’s beard crosses the line!”
“You’re the one who crossed the line, you bastard!”
Rip!
“Aaaah!”
Seol Ryeoseon blew the plucked beard hairs at Byeon Taebang’s jumping face.
“What kind of behavior is this!”
When Seol Changho from behind kicked the chair, Byeon Taebang’s knees buckled as he tried to stand up and he sat back down.
“You have both merits and faults, but let’s address the faults first. Why did you abandon us in that mountain back then?”
“A-abandon you, what do you mean…?”
Byeon Taebang’s questioning gaze stopped on Yeon Gok.
Yeon Gok repeatedly mouthed the word ‘Samtaesang’ with just his lip movements.
“What? Th-these people are the S… S… Samtaesang?”
Seol Mantong spoke like a growling tiger.
“That’s right. We are those Samtaesang you left on the mountain to become food for wild beasts.”
“Y-you’re alive.”
“Are you dissatisfied with that?”
“Dissatisfied? How fortunate this is! It was worth risking my life!”
“If you risked your life for us, why did you abandon us in that mountain!”
“Because a woman desperately wanting a baby would pick you up. That’s why you’re alive like this, isn’t it?”
“A woman?”
“Yes. That Guardian Tree is called the Three Spirits Tree. Women desperately hoping for babies come there so often to pray!”
“You believed that and threw us away?”
“How could I shake off the Bright Cult’s pursuit while carrying Samtaesang with me?”
Considering the situation at the time, Byeon Taebang’s choice might have been the best option.
The Samtaesang exchanged glances and softened their anger.
Seol Ryeoseon patted Byeon Taebang’s cheek.
“Well done.”
“What?”
“Taking us and running away, especially abandoning us under that Guardian Tree.”
“You managed to survive well.”
At Seol Mantong’s words, Byeon Taebang scratched the back of his head.
“I’ve faced death more than ten times. I grew this beard as a disguise and didn’t use Bright Cult martial arts. It was difficult when doing work as an escort or bodyguard though.”
“How can you not use martial arts when making a living by the sword?”
“I used martial arts other than those of the Bright Cult.”
Seol Changho tilted his head.
“But the Bright Cult doesn’t teach other martial arts?”
Byeon Taebang took out three books from the bundle on the floor.
They were worn smooth from how much they had been read.
“These are secret manuals I stole from the underground library when I escaped from the Bright Cult.”
Seol Changho read the book titles.
“Hyeongi Brilliant Flame Heart Method. One Flash Ten Thousand Changes Sword Technique. Old Dragon Ascending Heaven Fist.”
“Huh? I’ve heard those names somewhere before?”
Seol Ryeoseon spoke to Seol Mantong who was tilting his head.
“The Internal Family Heart Method of Hyeongi Sect, which was once called the First Sect of Shanxi, is the Hyeongi Brilliant Flame Heart Method. Old Dragon Ascending Heaven Fist is Hyeongi Sect’s Unique Sect Fist Technique, and One Flash Ten Thousand Changes Sword is the Unique Sect Ultimate Technique of Choi Gyeonghu, who was called the Sword Ghost.”
“Ah! Those that were destroyed long ago!”
To be precise, they were sects that were destroyed by the Bright Cult during the Bright Cult’s invasion of the Central Plains two hundred and thirty years ago.
Their martial arts were strong enough for Seol Mantong to remember them, and they had inflicted massive damage on the Bright Cult at that time.
The Bright Cult collected martial arts secret manuals from Central Plains sects, and Byeon Taebang had escaped with three of those collected manuals.
“You rascal, to think of taking secret manuals even in that situation. You’re clever.”
At Seol Mantong’s praise, Byeon Taebang scratched his head.
“Hehe! My mind worked quickly in that moment. But how did the three of you come to be here? Don’t tell me Physician Yeon is…?”
“We met the kid recently, but why did you come looking for Yeongok Valley?”
Yeon Gok explained Byeon Taebang’s symptoms.
“It seems you’ve learned the Internal Energy Mind Technique incorrectly.”
Internal Energy Mind Techniques learned alone from just secret manuals often cause side effects.
And incorrectly learned Internal Energy Mind Techniques have a high probability of exacting a great price.
Seol Mantong asked Yeon Gok.
“Is this guy’s condition serious?”
“If we treat it with medicine, it will take at least six months. And martial arts use is forbidden during that time.”
Seol Changho stepped forward.
“Let me take a look.”
“You’ll really examine me?”
Byeon Taebang’s face was filled with emotion.
“When you think about it, you’re our life’s benefactor, so I should do at least this much. Sit down and try circulating your qi.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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