The World’s Greatest Junior Martial Brother - Chapter 5

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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 (5)
Ten Years Later, Homecoming
Thanks to the Changgang Sipalchae banner they had secured in exchange for toll fees, the ship moved along the river as smoothly as if a favorable wind had filled its sails. On the Yangtze, that banner carried the weight of an imperial decree.
As for Jin Muok? After his dazzling display aboard the ship, he had earned the admiration of everyone on board, and he spent his days in peace circulating Byeonggi Cheonsang, gathering a rather respectable amount of internal power.
Kkuuuuu―.
The closer they drew to Sichuan, the deeper his understanding of Byeonggi Cheonsang grew, and his body became far sturdier and tougher than when he had first woken up in Market.
Rapid progress!
His inner power had grown only a little beyond the size of a red bean, but it was so refined and concentrated that it rivaled the strength a common man would gain from training for an Ilgapja.
‘This should do.’
I can now endure more than one fierce battle while deploying the Bukhae Mupa!
A swell of pride rose in my chest. My heart felt full to bursting.
If I work just a little harder, Unhak and I will join hands, cut down the Murim Alliance’s spy with a single stroke, and then the Blood Demon of the Demonic Cult, the Blood Demon, the Blood…
“What?”
Jin Muok asked, scowling, at the Sword Empress, who was leaning her head forward and staring at him.
“You seemed so absorbed.”
She answered in a tone that was every bit as sullen as his.
Seeing her this close, she was undeniably beautiful. It was no wonder he had forgotten that Geumsa Yongje belonged to the Changjiang Water Fort and had made a mistake because of it.
For a moment he gazed at the Sword Empress, then casually turned his head away.
“She was quite pretty too.”
“……!”
He mumbled it under his breath, but his muttering was more than enough to reach the Sword Empress’s ears.
‘Hmm.’
The Sword Empress had been cut off from the world for over ten years, forced to live the life of an ascetic. Because of that, she could not help being rather oblivious to worldly matters.
‘Young people these days really do wake up to first love early.’
Having interpreted Jin Muok’s muttering in her own way, the Sword Empress abruptly thrust a fist toward him.
Pak!
Jin Muok let her attack slide away with the Ihwa Jeopmok technique and tried a counterstrike with his other fist. Since her assault carried no killing intent, he jabbed back half in jest, half in earnest.
Pabababak!
In an instant, the two of them exchanged some thirty moves.
The Sword Empress’s attacks were resolute and rigorous, pressing him hard enough, while Jin Muok’s defense and counterattacks were subtle yet slippery, as though he were enjoying the moment.
In truth, Jin Muok was bored. For nearly two months of travel, he had been stuck in a corner of the deck doing nothing but drilling Byeonggi Cheonsang over and over, and now that a woman of striking grace had started a game with him, his blood was up.
But…
‘Huh?’
The Sword Empress’s hand was no mere pastime. She was relentlessly imprinting a single form onto Jin Muok.
As if to say, make sure you learn this.
‘This is—!’
The moment he realized it, the Sword Empress’s ordinary-looking movements began to shift in strange and intricate ways.
Paraarak!
Just when it seemed to move from vertical to horizontal, it dropped straight down; just when it seemed to lift upward with the force of Cheonwang Takdap, it swept sideways like Hoengso Cheongun, sweeping through the air.
Then, at some point, her technique—which had moved with complete freedom—suddenly lunged straight for Jin Muok’s chest.
Tap!
Jin Muok caught her index finger.
The Sword Empress, who had been watching him in silence, withdrew her hand.
“Fun, wasn’t it?”
“Fun doesn’t even begin to cover it.”
It was a move more precise and more dangerous than any form he had ever known.
Perhaps this woman was far greater than he had guessed.
“For a kindness, that was a bit much.”
When Jin Muok let out a snort of laughter, the Sword Empress, thinking this boy was truly special, lightly fired back.
“It wasn’t too much.”
As she turned back toward her seat, she murmured to herself quietly.
“Not in the slightest.”
Ddeng-ddeng―.
“We’ve finally arrived!”
“Ah, thank heavens.”
“I thought I’d go mad from sitting still so long.”
The Hwaseon, delayed by half a day by the pirates’ disturbance, dropped anchor at the Sichuan ferry landing, and the passengers began to disembark, grumbling as they went.
“Thank you all.”
Jin Muok hopped down from the boat, thanked each of the crew members in turn, and turned away.
Every moment feels like three autumns. Let’s hurry to Unhak.
Two pairs of eyes watched Jin Muok as he hurried off somewhere.
“He’s an interesting one, isn’t he?”
“Indeed he is.”
“Shall I look into him a little?”
“Hm?”
“If I put my old trade to use, I can make a fair guess at his past.”
Mi Buin wore an enigmatic smile.
“No, there’s no need to go that far!”
Sword Empress reached out, but Mi Buin had already reached Jin Muok’s side.
“What?”
Mi Buin had planted herself in his path without warning. He knew she served Sword Empress, but why was she meddling with him?
“Since we’ve crossed paths, let me read your palm.”
No telling when she’d tucked it away, but a banner bearing the character for divination snapped from her travel gear.
“There’s no need for that…”
As Jin Muok waved her off, Mi Buin gently seized his wrist.
Capture-and-seize technique. And an advanced one at that.
He could have shaken it off if he’d wanted to, but out of consideration for Sword Empress, Jin Muok offered his hand.
Anyway, Sword Empress had held her tongue, so nothing terrible would come of it.
“Looking at you, you have such delicate hands. You could pass for a respectable young lady’s, you know. But still…”
How did someone like her come by such martial prowess?
The question sat in Mi Buin’s glance, and Jin Muok pretended not to see it.
“Aren’t you going to read it?”
“Of course I am, of course. In my prime, I could read the fortunes and misfortunes of all heaven and earth as plainly as the lines on my own palm.”
Smiling graciously, Mi Buin studied his palm.
“Let’s see here. Your early fortune, the early…”
Something seemed off, for she bent over his hand so intently it looked as though she meant to bore a hole through it.
“Hmm.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Ah, no, nothing.”
Glancing back and forth between Jin Muok and his palm, Mi Buin shook her head and returned to the reading with renewed focus.
“We’ll skip your early fortune for now. The heavenly stem is Mu-Gi, the earthly branches are Jin-Sul-Chuk-Mi, so dry earth and damp earth are tangled together, storing and releasing in turn.”
What on earth was she going on about, grabbing a busy person like this?
Jin Muok scowled, but Mi Buin paid it no mind and kept chattering.
“Jin, Sul, Chuk, Mi. Taking the mighty power of earth as a companion, you stand at a crossroads where you discard your arduous first birth and prepare for the next cycle.”
She had a fair bit of the fortune-teller’s air about her.
At first she’d looked like nothing more than a peddler of quack remedies, but as time went on, Mi Buin transformed herself into a fortune-teller reading fates.
Having rattled off all sorts of things, Mi Buin finally released his hand.
“Your destiny is awfully close to earth, you know.”
With a pleased smile.
“Everyone is born from earth and nourished by it, but you are so close to earth it’s excessive. That’s why dry soil and damp ground are mixed together in you.”
Again, I have no idea what she’s talking about.
“So, um, you are about to face a great turning point.”
Was there ever a more obvious fortune reading?!
That a child should reach a turning point in life is only natural. It’s the same as the sky clearing after the rain.
Jin Muok gave her a look of doubt, as if to say even he could see that much, but Mi Buin was nothing if not unabashed.
“Aren’t most destinies like that? Anyway, a great crossroads awaits you…”
“Thanks.”
Cutting Mi Buin’s words clean off, Jin Muok returned a fist-in-palm salute and hurried on his way.
She’d wasted her time after all.
Once he had shrunk to a speck, Mi Buin, left standing alone, let the smile drop from her face and muttered something heavy with meaning.
“Double first birth
and double turning
), is it?”
“What’s that supposed to mean, big auntie
?”
Sword Empress had drawn near without anyone noticing, and her eyes gleamed brightly. Even if you gathered every starlight in the world, none of them could match a single glimmer of her eyes.
“I don’t know either, Master.”
“Can’t you figure out that brat’s past, Daesim?”
The Sword Empress’s voice shot up sharp and piercing on its own. She let out a startled breath, and the veil covering her face fluttered in the wind.
“I’m not sure it’s wise to bestow such a great kindness on a boy like that. We don’t even know where he came from.”
The Sword Empress is a master of Murim Iljeol.
Countless people queue up hoping to learn even a single move from her, yet she had handed one over to a boy she’d never met, without a second thought. Mi Buin could not help but be puzzled.
“It’s reciprocity.”
“Pardon?”
“Mutual help. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that someday, I’ll be the one who needs help from that boy.”
“And what makes you say that?”
“Just a hunch.”
Blink.
At the Sword Empress’s offhand answer, Mi Buin’s mouth fell open. The woman had always been unpredictable, but today she was utterly impossible to pin down.
“Well, well. Let’s drop that topic and get moving.”
As the Sword Empress turned away, her tall, slender frame seemed to flicker and fade like a firefly.
“Yes, Sword Empress.”
Sword Empress!
* * *
Mount Jiuding sits in Mohyeon, in Chengdu, Sichuan.
Lying along the banks of the Min River, in the middle reaches of the Longmen Range, Mount Jiuding takes its name from its nine peaks, which resemble a cluster of wine cups.
Mount Jiuding, said to rival the snowy mountains where immortals dwell.
On Guihwa Ridge in these mountains stands the Bukcheon Sinmun’s mountain headquarters.
“Huff! Huff! We’re here at last.”
Gazing at Mount Jiuding, where the sect stood, Jin Muok let out a sigh that sounded almost like a groan.
The serviceable inner power he had built by circulating the Byeonggi Cheonsang day and night on the water had been completely drained, spent on the sprint from the moment he stepped off the boat. Two whole months of grueling travel had left both body and mind worn to the bone, and it was no wonder.
Even Bodhidharma himself would have collapsed under a journey this long.
“F-first, let’s head straight to the sect.”
Once we reach the hut, I’ll be able to think about what comes next.
“But.”
Would Baekri Unhak believe me if I said I was his master? When I’ve regressed into a ten-year-old’s body?
‘He’ll most likely take me for a lunatic.’
The door will be slammed in my face, that much is certain!
‘But I have a trick up my sleeve.’
All the countless conversations and memories Baekri Unhak and I shared. If I bring up everything that only the two of us knew and only the two of us kept, even the most stubborn man will fall to his knees, tears streaming down like fat raindrops.
‘Wherever, whenever, and whatever form he’s taken, I’m confident I’d recognize Unhak. At a single glance.’
Unhak will feel the same way, I’m sure.
Forcing his trembling legs to move, Jin Muok climbed the mountain, and at the entrance of the hut he spotted a figure as familiar as the mountain’s own contours.
Swaying like a catkin, he looked as though he might collapse into a sickbed at any moment, yet there was a slender young man whose clever eyes surveyed the world.
A young man in the prime of his youth, with pale lips that made you want to wrap an arm around his shoulders out of pity.
There was no need to explain who he was.
“Unhak?”
“Hm?”
The scholarly young man turned his gaze toward the sound.
“Did you just call me?”
When Baekri Unhak startled, Jin Muok, who had been holding on through sheer superhuman willpower, sank to his knees as relief washed over him.
Rustle.
Somewhere, a small blossom came drifting down.
“At last…”
Baekri Unhak tilted his head, and upon hearing Jin Muok’s words, his face showed clear disbelief.
“At last, I’ve finished my reconnaissance mission in Sipman Daesan.”
Really?
“Am I too late?”
Because it’s been ten years.
Jin Muok watched Baekri Unhak rushing toward him in a daze, and then he collapsed as if his strength had simply given out.
“I’m sorry…”
Thud.

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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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