The World’s Greatest Junior Martial Brother - Chapter 14

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Cheonha Jeil Sajae (14)
It’s not like it’s written on my forehead.
What a ridiculous sight!
Gwiju Daehyung, said to account for more than eighty percent of the Gwiju Eighty-Four Villains’ strength, had been reduced to a rag doll by a single blow from a boy of perhaps ten years old.
And he was a man who had ruled the martial world of the southwest with his cruel, vile hands and his poisons.
Besides, the boy had been defenseless, poking his head out of the ground.
“Y-you bastard!”
Unable to believe, and too humiliated to accept, that he’d been beaten by a little kid, Gwiju Daehyung shoved off the ground and shot to his feet.
“You son of a bitch!”
Whoosh—.
Rising like a great phoenix, he closed the distance in an instant and loomed right in front of Jin Muok.
“Die!”
Kwaaaang!
The fist of Gwiju Daehyung, said to be able to kill an ox with bare hands, erupted toward Jin Muok with enough force to pulverize him.
If that fist landed, not even dust of Jin Muok would remain.
And yet.
Swish—.
Jin Muok dodged.
And then.
Bam!
He snapped Gwiju Daehyung’s jaw sideways once more.
This time the blow was deliberate, and Gwiju Daehyung went flying backward, snapping four large trees before he crashed to a stop.
Kwooooo—.
Byeok Eunsa, who had been watching Jin Muok’s dazzling display in a daze, unconsciously nodded.
Grand, tangled words mean nothing to a villain. The only language a villain understands is a single punch.
Justice strikes like lightning.
Byeok Eunsa had understood Jin Muok’s punch in his own way, but Jin Muok had interpreted his own fist in an entirely different light.
‘How pathetic.’
Even if I did exert myself to crawl out of that cave, I can’t send a creature like this off with a single punch.
With a deep sigh to mask his bitter feelings, Jin Muok glanced briefly at the sprawled Gwiju Daehyung and the soliloquizing Byeok Eunsa, then slipped back into the hole he’d come out of.
‘Now I…’
Have I been ignored?
Nothing like this has ever happened to me.
With my tall frame, sculpted features, and an air so bone-chillingly cold that it left everyone with a vivid impression of me, no one has ever treated me like this, not once.
But to Jin Muok, Byeok Eunsa was none of his concern.
He was busy.
“Heave-ho.”
Byeok Eunsa’s eyebrows shot up at inverted angles as he saw who Jin Muok had hauled out of the ground and slung over his back.
“Unhak!”
“Hm?”
As Byeok Eunsa—no, Baekri Unhak—came toward him, Jin Muok thrust out a hand.
“Wait.”
“……!”
“I can tell you bear my senior no ill will, but I won’t allow you any closer.”
“Senior? You’re saying you’re Unhak’s junior?”
The puppet cradled in Byeok Eunsa’s arms tilted its head, as if genuinely puzzled.
What an exquisitely crafted puppet.
“I’ve never heard Unhak mention having a junior.”
Paying no heed to that, Jin Muok gently set Baekri Unhak down and laid a hand on his body.
“Wait.”
This time it was Byeok Eunsa who stopped Jin Muok.
“If you were Unhak’s junior, you’d have to be Jin Muok’s disciple, but Great Hero Jin Muok died ten years ago.”
The girl’s playful voice, which had been teasing only moments before, gradually took on a chill.
“So you can’t be Unhak’s junior.”
Krrrrack—.
Byeok Eunsa let loose a chill cold enough to freeze the already thick glacier even harder.
“Who are you?”
“Who are you, then?”
“Insolent little—!”
The puppet raged at the ten-year-old boy’s cheeky reply, but Jin Muok merely found the whole situation exasperating.
“Why are kids these days so slow to catch on?”
“Excuse me?”
*Clack.*
Jin Muok rose slowly to his feet. Byeok Eunsa was positioned somewhere behind him, yet Jin Muok didn’t even bother to turn around as he muttered.
“If you’ve got a problem with it, come at me.”
*Kkuuuuung—!*
An overwhelming force!
Could this truly be the pressure a boy of roughly ten years old was capable of giving off?
For a moment, Byeok Eunsa flinched, biting down hard on his lip.
‘Am I… actually…’
Have I been cowed?
By a boy who’s barely ten?
“Fine, brat. Don’t come crying later…”
*Sseu—pak!*
Before Byeok Eunsa could even finish, Jin Muok spun on his heel, launched himself forward, and surged at him in the truest sense of the word.
*Kwakwakwakwakwak—!*
‘Too… too fast…!’
This was no mere lightning-quick strike.
This was…
Ilseom!
*Bbak—!*
With that thought, Byeok Eunsa’s consciousness snapped off.
“Mm.”
Byeok Eunsa forced his eyelids open, and the moment he recalled what had just happened, he shot upright.
*Ujjeok.*
A savage throb radiated from his jaw, but before he could even register the pain, Byeok Eunsa was already scanning his surroundings.
*Kung!*
There! That strange little brat!
Hunched forward with his back curved, the boy seemed utterly indifferent to Byeok Eunsa, absorbed only in his own work.
‘How dare he!’
*Kuooooo!*
As Byeok Eunsa flared his murderous aura, Jin Muok muttered without even turning his head.
“Stop fidgeting behind my back.”
Fidgeting?!
Byeok Eunsa’s anger flared at Jin Muok’s insolent, bottomless arrogance. It was a rudeness not even Baekri Unhak’s junior brother could let pass.
No, precisely because he is Baekri Unhak’s junior brother, I must teach him what Inui Yeji Sin truly means.
I’ll carve it into his very bones.
Had he sensed Byeok Eunsa’s inner thoughts?
Jin Muok added, his voice low yet impossible to defy.
“The back of a warrior is sacred ground. Even if you’re the heir of Am-sa, I won’t forgive anyone who trespasses there.”
*Kung!*
‘This brat!’
Byeok Eunsa was known as the heir of Bok Yeu, the freak of an era who had elevated puppetry into martial art.
Yet he was influenced far more by Bok Yeu’s senior sister, Am-sa, than by Bok Yeu himself. For that reason, the one who truly served as Byeok Eunsa’s master should be regarded as Won Yeongyeong, Am-sa.
But hardly anyone knew this fact.
‘This boy…’
Just as Byeok Eunsa’s eyes deepened once more, Baekri Unhak, who had barely recovered his strength, let out a voice as faint as a breath on a winter’s day.
“That was the finest Junma Sapung, junior brother.”
“Senior Brother!”
“Unhak!”
“Even our late master could hardly have moved as swiftly as you did. Today I’ve truly feasted my eyes.”
A galloping horse as swift as the wind.
Recalling Jin Muok’s movement, as sudden as a thunderbolt, Byeok Eunsa’s head nodded on its own.
Junma Sapung!
One of the three great movement techniques that Bukcheon Sinmun takes pride in!
Jin Muok, weaving through the battlefield with Junma Sapung, was a heavenly general descended to earth to his allies and a terror to his enemies.
“But didn’t you go a bit far, knocking your senior brother’s friend’s jaw out of joint without a word?”
They say they are the Four Heroes of Xinzhou.
Byeok Eunsa, like Baekri Unhak, is said to have forged a bond of friendship the moment he appeared in the Jianghu as one of the Four Heroes of Xinzhou.
Sand, Mist, and Dawn Glow.
The three misfits known as the Samuha, together with Baekri Unhak, who held them all together, became the Four Heroes of Xinzhou, and they shared a bond of Geumran Jigyo.
Of course, Byeok Eunsa was the desert among the Samuha.
Jin Muok’s reply to Baekri Unhak’s explanation was a masterpiece.
“I didn’t write ‘Senior Brother’s friend’ on my forehead, did I?”
“Hahahaha!”
It was the plain truth. That was why the junior brother’s answer pleased him, and it set his mind at ease.
A junior brother who resembles the Master so closely. The true disciple of Bukjin Gwangpung is, after all, the junior brother.
Baekri Unhak wanted to double over laughing, but he was afraid his internal injuries would flare up, so he barely held it back and turned his head toward Byeok Eunsa.
“Somehow you’ve ended up as the sacrificial lamb of Junma Sapung.”
“Are you conscious?”
The little girl puppet asked, but Baekri Unhak only lowered his head again, still smiling.
“Unhak!”
When the little girl puppet cried out in alarm, Jin Muok pressed his palm against Baekri Unhak’s chest.
“Honestly, sticking your nose into other people’s business in that condition!”
Jin Muok scolded Baekri Unhak for shielding him. Beneath the reproach, of course, lay a current of apology.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
Once he had checked Baekri Unhak’s condition, Jin Muok began tapping briskly across his entire body, and the little girl puppet cradled in Byeok Eunsa’s arms let her mouth fall wide open.
“Are you performing Chugung Gwahyeol right now?”
Can’t you tell by looking?
“While talking, too?”
Yes.
At Jin Muok’s indifferent expression, Byeok Eunsa’s eyes grew even darker.
Chugung Gwahyeol is a method of healing internal injuries by stimulating the body’s three hundred and sixty great acupoints with one’s qi.
Because it works by directly rubbing the body’s vital points, it produces immediate results and is the finest stopgap measure, yet even the smallest slip can bring about the worst possible outcome.
For that reason, Chugung Gwahyeol is customarily performed in a secluded place, and only within narrow limits.
And yet here he was, carrying it out in such an exposed spot while even holding a conversation.
“Don’t worry.”
Jin Muok chewed on his lower lip.
“I won’t kill him.”
“Ha!”
The little girl puppet let out a sigh, as if she couldn’t believe it.
“You’re so confident right now, it’s—”
“For the moment, I’ve suppressed the turbid qi that was raging.”
Jin Muok let out a breath and wiped his brow, and Byeok Eunsa fell silent.
“But that’s only a makeshift fix. Even a small jolt could stir the turbid qi I’ve sealed away again, so Senior Brother needs a stable place to rest.”
Jin Muok laid Baekri Unhak’s body out straight and bound his arms and legs firmly with cloth.
“Even if he avoided the full force of the blast, he may have taken an internal shock, so we need a physician skilled in both internal and external injuries. Above all, it has to be somewhere close to here.”
And where would that be?
Jin Muok answered without hesitation.
“Tang Clan.”
* * *
Nothing in this world is free.
In the Jianghu, when you receive one thing, you must always give one thing back.
And when it comes to the Tang Clan, all the more so.
“The Tang Clan has survived for six hundred years in the Jianghu, a place thick with schemes, and kept its bloodline unbroken. What made that possible was not simply poison and hidden weapons.”
The scenery rushes past the carriage. Like the passing years.
“The source of strength that sustained them was a way of thinking and acting that was faithful to the Jianghu’s code. Repay a kindness many times over, and never forget a grudge, always returning it in full.”
Gunja Bogu Sipnyeon Bulman (A gentleman’s revenge is never too late, even after ten years).
“There isn’t a clan anywhere as clear-cut about what’s owed and what’s paid as the Tang Clan. That’s why I’ve always done my utmost to avoid being indebted to anyone.”
Jin Muok, who had been muttering all this while, suddenly flew into a temper.
“And why do I have to be the one driving the horse?”
Still gripping the reins on the driver’s bench, he whipped his head around and glared at the carriage.
“A boy who ought to be protected is holding the reins while a robust young man lounges in the carriage? That’s outrageous!”
From inside the carriage came a leisurely voice.
“I’ve never been to Sichuan before.”
The girl continued, her voice dripping with composure.
“On top of that, I have a dreadful sense of direction, so it might take three nights and four days to reach the Tang Clan.”
Ugh.
Jin Muok tore at his hair as he urged the horse on, pummeled by the double blow of being a stranger to the road and having no sense of direction.
How did you ever end up with a friend like that?
Blaming Baekri Unhak under my breath, I urged the horse on, and before I knew it we had reached the front of the Tang Clan’s compound.
“What now…”
I may have once bared my heart to Dang Cheon, the Old Clan Head and the elder of the Tang Clan, but that was thirteen years ago.
Besides, I smashed Namgung Ildo to pieces. No respectable martial family would welcome someone like me.
“Don’t worry.”
Echoing Jin Muok’s exact words, Byeok Eunsa strode briskly out through the Tang Clan’s front gate.
“There’s a guy inside the Tang Clan who insists on being the guardian of our Four Heroes of Xinzhou. He’s not all talk, either. His skill in medicine and poisons is quite good.”
“And who would that be…?”
“Dang Jong-o.”
Sure enough, the moment he laid eyes on Baekri Unhak, Dang Jong-o guessed his condition and immediately summoned the Tang Clan’s physicians to steady his heart and meridians.
He skipped the pointless greetings and questions altogether.
“Phew.”
After four full shichen of tending to Baekri Unhak alongside three physicians and me, Dang Jong-o let out a deep breath and stepped out of the sickroom.
“Now I can sleep.”
Grinning, Dang Jong-o began to take off his robes.
His bright, unclouded smile had obscured it, but his ornate garments and jade trinkets made it plain that he was the son of a powerful, noble martial family.
Dang Jong-o, radiating an air of wealth, glanced at Byeok Eunsa, then spotted the boy standing awkwardly at his side, and blinked.
“Are you, by any chance, the last disciple that Bukjin Gwangpung took in?”
Do you know me?
With another mischievous smile, Dang Jong-o shook his head.
“Namgung Ildo has a loose tongue, you know, more than you’d think.”
I should have killed him back then.
As the memory of Namgung Ildo’s flippant, arrogant manner flickered through his mind, Jin Muok scowled, and that was when Dang Jong-o seized his arm.
“Perfect timing. You’re coming with me.”
Are you already trying to settle the score?!
“Nothing like that. There’s someone who’s been desperate to meet you.”
Surely not?
“It’s Old Clan Head Dang Cheon.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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