The World’s Greatest Junior Martial Brother - Chapter 18

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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 (18)
Jealousy Is My Strength
Because of that battle, Dang Cheon’s madness had deepened. Their reunion was therefore postponed indefinitely, so Jin Muok decided to pass the time with the thing he usually enjoyed, just as Dang Junkyu had mentioned.
If Dang Junkyu wanted to restrict my movements, then I’d simply move another way.
“Back then, that old man—!”
In the middle of a cluster of Uipa disciples, Jin Muok recounted his fight with Dang Cheon. His descriptions of the battle were gripping, and he had a gift for storytelling, so Myomyo and the other Uipa women found themselves on the edge of their seats.
“I was as good as dead, you know?”
He drew a finger across his throat with a chopping hand.
“Oh my!”
“Oh no!”
What do you mean “oh no”? If I’d died back then, would I be running my mouth like this now?
Anyway, once Jin Muok had poured his heart and soul into recalling the fight with Dang Cheon, the Uipa of Tang Clan could do nothing but sit there, utterly spellbound.
To them, Dang Cheon was a sky no one could ever touch, so when they heard that a small, adorable boy had fought him on equal footing, a sense of awe rose up in them without their meaning to feel it.
As the Uipa’s reactions grew more intense, Jin Muok lifted his shoulders slightly, then let them drop.
“If you’re already this surprised, I’ll be in trouble, ladies.”
The way Jin Muok addressed the women was the kind of playful term that men of middle age or older would use toward women. In other words, it was not a word that should come out of the mouth of a ten-year-old boy.
But the Uipa thought he was simply too pretty to be taken seriously, so they accepted his strange form of address as nothing more than a childish display of affection.
Young or old, people ought to be handsome first and foremost.
“Hidden weapons kept flying at me, there was nowhere to retreat, and right when I thought things couldn’t go on like this, a quick-witted idea came to me.”
He rose from his seat and, striking a pose, reenacted how he had turned the situation around with a stamp of his heel, and the Uipa let out a small cheer.
Why was it that Jin Muok, who until now had found the Uipa nothing but a nuisance, had suddenly started engaging with them so eagerly?
Well, that is…
“Even the old man was startled by my heel stamp, you know, while his mind was clouded by the poison.”
With his somewhat exaggerated gestures and his solemn yet somehow comical explanations, even more people gathered around Jin Muok, and the garden in front of the Infirmary became packed like a marketplace.
“I dodged it so cleverly, and then the old man cheated by pulling out the Blood Phoenix.”
“The Blood Phoenix!”
At the mention of a legendary name, the Uipa covered their mouths with their hands. The fact that a legendary martial artist had gotten hold of a legendary hidden weapon sent their tension soaring several times over.
“And then!”
Jin Muok, jabbing a finger at the midday sky, suddenly looked up at the heavens.
The sun was slowly climbing toward the middle of the sky.
“What, is it already this late?”
Brushing off his backside as he stood, Jin Muok winked his right eye shut and then open at the Uipa.
“It’s time for my morning exercise now, so I’ll pick up the rest tomorrow, ladies.”
The so-called Severing Divine Technique.
“Eek!”
“Tomorrow?”
The Uipa sighed in disappointment, but what could they do when the storyteller insisted on it?
“Well then, I’ll get on with my morning exercise.”
With a wave of his hand, Jin Muok began to jog slowly around the garden, and most of the Uipa returned to the Infirmary.
“I’m bored. Think I’ll go for a run too?”
Myomyo, who was off duty, swayed her full figure and followed behind Jin Muok, but she was all that remained.
Today.
The next day.
Just as he had the day before, Jin Muok unspooled his tale with enthusiasm, and at the decisive moment he once again pulled off the Severing Divine Technique and took off running. This time two more Uipa joined him, so there were four people running through the garden in total.
And the day after that.
“Alright. Alright, I get it. I’ll tell you how I survived the Blood Phoenix.”
Because he dragged things out so much, the Uipa’s complaints grew louder, and when they finally reached a level he could no longer ignore, Jin Muok raised both hands to stop them.
Torturing people’s hearts should be done in moderation, or if you keep piling on the firewood like this, something is bound to blow up.
“Actually, isn’t the Blood Phoenix one of the Three Legendary Treasures of the Tang Clan?”
The Uipa immediately perked up with pride. Though they had not been chosen as martial talents and wore physician’s robes instead, they were all members of the Tang Clan, and their pride in the family was second to none.
“A hidden weapon that can hit anything. In other words, a hidden weapon you can never dodge. Then I had to be hit, right? And the result proved it.”
Jin Muok ran his hand over his upper body, still wrapped in bandages, and his eyes lit up with a sparkle.
“So, how does one get hit in a way that people will say it was a good hit?”
Attention!
As the women awaited his next words with a rather reverent air, Jin Muok grinned widely.
‘Sure enough, these women have hot blood in them too.’
Gazing at the women who burned with the passion that any true martial person ought to possess, Jin Muok raised a finger.
“I don’t know how you ladies feel, but I had a few convictions of my own.”
Jin Muok mentioned the inner power he had gained aboard the ship and the stamina he had built living with Baekri Unhak, but he left out the Sword Empress’s single strike.
Out of respect for her.
“That’s all it took to escape a fatal wound?”
Myomyo asked sharply, and the Uipa echoed her doubt.
“It was a Blood Phoenix, wasn’t it?”
“The Old Clan Head threw it, didn’t he?”
“He held out with nothing but Inner Power and stamina?”
To them, I should repeat, Dang Cheon was the sky and the Blood Phoenix was a legend. If a cute little ten-year-old had weathered a joint strike from the sky and a legend with nothing worse than minor injuries, their pride was bound to sting.
“These sisters are underestimating basic physical conditioning.”
Clicking his tongue, Jin Muok twirled his index finger.
“You’ve only ever dealt with braggarts who won’t stop talking about Geomgang and palm strikes, so you think the Jianghu is some Divine Demon Great War playground. But even those fabled palm strikes and Geomgang need a solid body behind them to work.”
“Hmm…”
“Still…”
“Well, believe it or don’t.”
Turning his head, Jin Muok broke into a run again, and as many as eight Uipa trailed after him.
Taking the disciples into account, Jin Muok slowed his pace and glanced back.
“Senior Brother is still in that state, I take it?”
Myomyo, who had grown fairly close to him by now, sighed and shook her head.
“Young Master Baekri’s Yuan Qi is badly damaged, and he still hasn’t come to his senses.”
Jin Muok’s expression darkened.
If not for that incident, Baekri Unhak would never have been hurt.
Watching him bite down hard on his lip with concern, Myomyo rested a hand on his shoulder.
“Thankfully, our family has a treatment that works remarkably well for restoring Yuan Qi. So Young Master Baekri should wake up in a few days.”
“Really?”
Jin Muok brightened, grabbed Myomyo’s hand, and bounced on his toes.
“That’s a relief! Such a relief!”
Jin Muok laughed without a care in the world, and he looked so adorable with his guileless smile that Myomyo, without thinking, pulled him into a hug.
Whump!
“So trust this big sister and focus on getting your strength back, little Young Master.”
“Mmph! Mmmph!”
“Understood?”
“Y-yes, I-I got it! Mm, mmph!”
“Lucky little brat…”
The young disciples of the Tang Clan watched Jin Muok struggle in Myomyo’s generous embrace, and their fists trembled with envy.
She boasted the finest figure in the Tang Clan and a sophisticated beauty, which drew the eyes of countless men, but she treated men like stones, so none of them had ever managed to strike up a conversation with her.
And now some brat had tumbled in out of nowhere, monopolized her affection, and was even being hugged by her. How could they not be jealous?
“If only I were that kid!”
“I’d have no regrets, none at all!”
Amid the raging young men, someone with glittering eyes let out a snicker. He was a handsome young man in his early twenties, but unlike Dang Jong-o, who always wore a smile, there was something gloomy about him.
If he had wiped that dark look from his face, he would have looked far better than he did now, but gloom wrapped around him like a cloak, as if it were his nature, and he slung an arm around the neck of the young man beside him.
“Are you jealous of a ten-year-old, Bang Gyoak? Aren’t you embarrassed?”
“I-it’s not jealousy!”
As the young man named Bang Gyoak stammered, grumbling erupted from those around him.
“Myomyo is a goddess we’ve never once managed to speak to properly. And now some stone that rolled in from who-knows-where is pulling this kind of stunt, so of course we’re upset.”
“Besides, that brat is close with the Young Clan Head, so we can’t even pick a fight with him.”
“Brother Jong-ak doesn’t understand how we feel.”
Dang Jong-ak. He was the grandson of Dang Ik, who oversaw the Elders’ Hall of the Dang Clan, and Dang Ik was the younger brother of Dang Cheon, known as the Heaven of Sichuan. That made Dang Jong-ak the second cousin of Dang Jong-o, and a young man of formidable standing, ranked sixth in line of succession.
It was hardly surprising that the young men of the Bang branch, a collateral lineage of the Tang Clan, would complain that Dang Jong-ak couldn’t understand them.
Snicker—.
Dang Jong-ak smiled that twisted smile again.
“Don’t tell me I don’t understand.”
His smile had warped so completely that a foul stench stung the nose, but the young men, their sense of smell apparently numbed, failed to notice it.
“All right, all right, enough of this dull talk. Let’s go train in Mahyang Gwanseok. If you don’t master it by tomorrow, the instructor will throw a fit.”
Draping his arms around the young men’s necks, Dang Jong-ak led them away.
“That kid is the late-born disciple of Bukjin Gwangpung, right? And he knocked down Namgung Ildo, that troublemaker of the Namgung Family, and now he’s drawing the Murim Alliance’s attention?”
When Dang Jong-ak probed with his question, the young men spilled whatever they knew, one piece after another.
“Yes, and that might be why the Old Clan Head apparently wanted to meet him. You know that, Brother, right? That the Old Clan Head and Bukjin Gwangpung were drinking buddies?”
“And so something went wrong, I take it?”
“They say the Old Clan Head’s madness flared up and the kid barely survived. If he hadn’t been stuck with the Maebyeong and couldn’t show his true strength, the kid would’ve been a dead man. If it had been the Old Clan Head in his prime, there’d have been nothing left of him.”
“And the Young Clan Head found out about it?”
“Don’t even get me started. The Young Clan Head barely managed to restrain the Old Clan Head when he was raging. It was only because it was the Young Clan Head that he could stop him. If it had been anyone else…”
For a moment, a flash of jealousy that could not be hidden crossed Dang Jong-ak’s eyes, which had been merely playful until then, but it vanished faster than it had appeared.
“So that’s how it is, is it?”
Dang Jong-ak turned around. Before him unfolded the scene: the Ik-pa members, Jin Muok, and Dang Jong-o, who was approaching them with a broad smile on his face.
“Enjoy it while you can.”
…For now, that is.
* * *
Five days later.
Someone watched Jin Muok lead the morning run with the Ik-pa, which had now swelled to twenty members, and sneered in a shrill voice.
“They said you were on your deathbed, and yet here you are, looking fit as a fiddle?”
Byeok Eunsa followed the sharp jab with another, smearing on even more mockery.
“You strutted around as if the whole world were too small for you, and now it seems you’ve finally met your match?”
Byeok Eunsa’s doll mocked him with unmistakable delight. From a beautiful young man’s mouth came the voice of a girl, and ordinary people would have been horrified. The Ik-pa, however, seemed well used to it.
No, they even welcomed Byeok Eunsa’s arrival.
“Oh my!”
“He looks handsome again today!”
The Ik-pa clasped their hands together and bounced on their toes.
“That’s Sa-Mu-Ha’s Sa, the one they call Sa-mak, the third of Baekri’s bosom friends, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. Doesn’t his very name mean silver sand?”
Kkyaak, kkyaak, they carried on in an absolute uproar.
“If one of them shines this brightly, what would it be like if all of Sa-Mu-Ha gathered together?”
“They say it’s so dazzling you can’t even look at them!”
Ridiculous.
Put the three of them together and half the people nearby would go blind.
“Is your face a full moon or something? Dazzling, you say?”
Byeok Eunsa’s doll drew up beside Jin Muok, who pouted, and chattered brightly.
“Dazzling? What are you talking about?”
“Nothing.”
When Jin Muok waved a hand, Byeok Eunsa, who had been studying his face quietly, pulled a sheet of paper from his sleeve.
―What on earth happened?
Written conversation begins.
In truth, Jin Muok had summoned Byeok Eunsa the night before.
They had only recently become acquainted, but Byeok Eunsa was the only person Jin Muok could speak to with an open heart, and above all, he trusted Baekri Unhak’s judgment.
If Senior Brother had chosen the man, then he, too, had to trust him.
That was Jin Muok’s judgment.
―Are you out of your mind? Not content with trading blows with the Dang Clan’s Elder, you actually drew out Blood Phoenix from him!
Do you want to get yourself killed?
―Because of this, the entire Martial World has been turned upside down, not just the Dang Clan!
Taking the brush that Byeok Eunsa held out to him in reply to his demands, Jin Muok described the situation at the time.
Byeok Eunsa froze in place, halting every motion.
The testimony that Dang Cheon had shed tears seemed to shock him considerably, and he started to write several times only to stop again. Then, at last, he seemed to recall something.
―Actually, there’s a strange atmosphere within the Dang Clan. An Overbearing Qi unlike anything from before.
“……!”
So Byeok Eunsa had sensed it too, the Demonic Qi that enveloped the Dang Clan.
But since he had never truly fought the Demonic Cult, he had simply called it Overbearing Qi.
―So what on earth is happening within the Dang Clan?
As Jin Muok and Byeok Eunsa exchanged glances, other people from the Infirmary came over to the Ik-pa who had been watching them.
They whispered to one another with grave expressions. Some hurried off somewhere, while others stole glances at Jin Muok and Byeok Eunsa.
“What’s going on?”
Sensing that something was wrong, Jin Muok asked, and Myomyo, who had been hesitating, finally summoned her courage.
“Baekri Gongja’s condition… they say it has suddenly worsened.”
Suddenly?

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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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