Became a God-Level Martial Artist

Chapter 195 :

Sect Leader, the Wudang Sword Immortal, had left, and shortly after, a welcome figure came to see Jin Seong-un."How is your body? Are you feeling better?"

Lee Seowon asked as he closed the door. He carried a small tray on which there were decoctions and sweets that seemed to have come from the Medical Hall.

Jin Seong-un nodded calmly.

"I'm fine. It seems the Sect Leader left mercy in my hands."

"Don't say that. All the Taoists of Wudang are talking about the innkeeper. Before long the fame of 'Guest Dragon' would only grow. It would help business."

As always, Lee Seowon, being both steward and merchant, tended to steer every train of thought toward commerce.

Of course, Jin Seong-un rather found that pleasing. That was why he had brought Lee Seowon into the Seong-un Inn.

Lee Seowon continued.

"I'll leave the decoction here; take it whenever you like. It's not meant to cure anything — just to help you recover a little."

"Very well. By the way, where were the two of them?"

"Those two" was surely a reference to Seo Yu-gyeom and Seomun Ak. Lee Seowon clicked his tongue and said,

"Well, Lady Baek Seol had set out with them saying she'd show them around Wudang. Up to that point everything was cheerful. But then the problem…"

"They fought again, did they?"

"As expected of inn life. As always, Seomun the Young Master and Seomun the Chef started grabbing each other's collars over nothing, and that became the starting point for the young Taoists to begin dueling."

Jin Seong-un mulled over Lee Seowon's words for a moment. It was a statement that was not easily understood on first hearing.

Two people fought — how could that have escalated so far?

Then, recalling the Baek Clan later-generation prodigies he had seen so far, he quickly understood.

People of the martial world loved fighting. Having just witnessed the Sect Leader's lofty martial skill, youthful hearts would surely have been set ablaze.

Lee Seowon added in a discreet tone.

"Keep the fact that he awakened a secret just for today."

"That would be best."

Jin Seong-un thought, once again, that Lee Seowon was right.

If news of his awakening spread, many Taoists would come requesting duels.

While the two of them nodded to each other, Jin Seong-un suddenly asked as if something had occurred to him.

"So, have you found any clues about the martial art?"

One reason Lee Seowon had come to Wudang earlier than the others — aside from helping Hyeon-un care for the children — was to seek the aid of a renowned martial scholar who was in the sect.

Lee Seowon's expression grew briefly complicated at Jin Seong-un's question, then he spoke.

"Well, if you can call it a lead, it's a lead. I had many recent conversations with the Head of Martial Studies. Surprisingly, he had experienced the same problem when he was young."

"Oh, how did he resolve it?"

"He didn't."

"……."

A moment of silence followed.

Lee Seowon gave a wry smile and spoke.

"He said the root cause was simply thinking too much. Martial art was, after all, something enacted with the body, but with such exceptional insight — ahem — it was too pronounced…"

Embarrassed to say such a thing about himself, Lee Seowon cleared his throat for a second.

"Anyway, in each situation one had to judge quickly and move the body, but because of that unique insight, dozens or hundreds of possible futures would flit across the unconscious, stalling movement and making one anxious."

"Hmm…"

Jin Seong-un narrowed his brow.

If that were true, it would be difficult to resolve with ordinary training methods.

Telling an overly thoughtful person to stop thinking rarely worked as intended.

It was like telling a martial master to pretend not to notice an ambush. Even without intentionally spreading awareness, when danger approached, the body moved on its own.

"Fortunately, there was supposedly one method worth trying."

"What method?"

"Desperation. He said one had to feel it. For example, the desperation for life that a person facing death felt, or the hunger a beast felt after several days without food."

Jin Seong-un's expression changed subtly.

Seeing that, Lee Seowon immediately continued.

"No, not like that. He warned that forcing such situations in training was useless. Naturally, the Head of Martial Studies would have tried that too. The human unconscious was curious — it distinguished between fake and real situations."

Jin Seong-un clicked his tongue with slight regret.

So that's why keen-witted people—

"In conclusion, one would really have to survive a few life-or-death crises."

"It didn't have to be strictly life-or-death. It simply had to be a situation so urgent and desperate that instinct overrode reason. Of course, the fear of death was the most intuitive."

Jin Seong-un nodded.

Did one truly have to go that far to master martial art?

The thought crossed his mind for a moment.

Lee Seowon added in a similar vein.

"Well, I'm a merchant. If I were to happen upon enlightenment in the course of my life, I'd learn martial art; if not, so be it. Actually, the Head of Martial Studies had chosen the scholar's path rather than becoming a martial man, so he had hardly mastered martial art."

Still, he joked that since learning internal methods his body had felt much lighter, demonstrating by lightly rolling his shoulders.

"Other than the Myriad Gold Manor's martial men, was there anyone else who had learned the Black Wolf Saber Art? Apart from me."

"No. Myriad Gold Manor held the Black Wolf Saber Art in very high regard."

"But someone called the Righteousness Captain of the Murim Alliance had been learning the Black Wolf Saber Art."

"Eh?"

Lee Seowon blinked.

Myriad Gold Manor valued restoring the Black Wolf Saber Art as highly as trade.

That the first master of Myriad Gold Manor, the Merchant King, had been the greatest merchant of past and present and a martial man on the cusp of the Ten Great Masters made that matter weighty.

In any case, a martial art so important and treasured was rarely allowed to leave the manor.

"Actually, there had been some trouble at the Baek Li Clan."

Jin Seong-un recounted everything that had happened at the Baek Li Clan.

Lee Seowon pinched his brow and thought intently for a moment.

Jin Seong-un did not interrupt and sipped the decoction quietly. As the decoction's bitterness began to fade, helped by the sweets he had hastily stuffed into his mouth,

"If the Righteousness Captain was a big-built man with eyes slanting sideways like this, about fifty in age, and his surname was something like Cheong…?"

"Cheong Woo-seok. I heard that name."

Lee Seowon nodded and continued.

"He had no sect or family. I don't know the details, but he had a rather hard life as a child. People remember him because it was rare for someone without background to rise to a captain's position."

As in the martial world, merchants were also divided into classes.

Those who pushed business with instinct and momentum, those who built backgrounds through active exchange, the unscrupulous, the thoughtless, and so on.

Lee Seowon was the type who relied on information. He basically loved all information in the world. He liked anything in writing or numbers.

Because of that, rumors about the Murim Alliance's Righteousness Captain had remained in Lee Seowon's head.

Jin Seong-un looked at Lee Seowon with a surprised gaze and asked,

"Putting the two facts together—was the Righteousness Captain actually not without background?"

"Myriad Gold Manor likely helped in various ways. They might have taught him martial art, fed him tonic medicines, and possibly removed those who impeded his advancement."

The goal was, naturally, to plant their own people deep within the Murim Alliance.

“Given the circumstances, the possibility that the Righteousness Captain is one of Myriad Gold Manor’s people is over ninety percent. In that case, we must change the question.”

“Why does Myriad Gold Manor want the children?”

At Jin Seong-un’s words, Lee Seowon nodded.

“Myriad Gold Manor mainly does two things — earning money and restoring martial arts. Using children to make money is unimaginable, and since they said they selected the ones with martial talent…”

Lee Seowon thought that Myriad Gold Manor was gathering children with high martial aptitude to somehow use them for the restoration of the Black Wolf Saber Art.

The problem was that he couldn’t infer what that “somehow” was…

“Let’s go. The person most knowledgeable in the world about such matters happens to be here in Wudang.”

The Head of Martial Studies, Hyeon Baek.

Just like Lee Seowon, he was said to possess such extraordinary perception that it was difficult for him to learn martial arts.

And since such a person had devoted his entire life to studying martial theory, it was clear why Hyeon-un had called him the greatest martial scholar of the era.

Jin Seong-un and Lee Seowon moved in secret.

If they ran into the Taoists of Wudang, they would surely be challenged to a duel.

However, Wudang was smaller than expected, and the number of martial artists was greater than they’d thought.

They hadn’t gone so far as to use Step Without Shadows, so when someone spotted them — or rather, Jin Seong-un — that person pointed and shouted,

“There! The Guest Dragon!”

It felt as if he were some kind of thief; the absurdity of it made him dumbfounded.

At that very moment, several powerful auras approached rapidly from all directions — their presence felt vividly through his qi sense.

Without hesitation, Jin Seong-un lifted Lee Seowon with one hand and unleashed his movement technique.

When someone ran, it was human instinct to give chase.

“Catch him!” someone shouted.

Jin Seong-un let out a speechless laugh.

But since Lee the Steward looked like he might die if he ran at full speed, Jin adjusted his pace.

And so, an unexpected chase began.

“Guest Dragon Young Master!! Please, just one duel with us…!!”

He deliberately ignored the shouting from behind.

Yet the number of pursuers kept increasing.

Thanks to his extremely heightened qi sense, he could even hear their conversations clearly.

Unfortunately, it seemed that those at the very end of the group didn’t even know the reason — they were just running along anyway.

“What’s going on?”

“No idea. I heard someone say a thief broke in?”

“Then catch him first.”

Jin Seong-un realized that most of them were simply running because they wanted to.

At such an age overflowing with blood and energy, being confined to quiet mountain training made it only natural.

How long had they run like that?

At last, the signboard of a tranquil hall came into view.

Never had the words Martial Studies Hall looked so welcoming.

Jin Seong-un landed lightly in front of the Martial Studies Hall.

The young Taoists of Wudang who had been chasing after him flinched and stopped, keeping a respectful distance.

For a moment, Jin Seong-un was puzzled.

Their hesitation wasn’t because of his presence.

Their gazes were fixed on the signboard of the Martial Studies Hall.

Seeing this, Lee Seowon spoke, suppressing the queasiness rising in his throat.

“I’ve heard that the Taoists of Wudang fear the Head of Martial Studies more than anyone else. Especially the talented ones.”

“Why is that?”

“He… kidnaps them, apparently.”

“?”

Who on earth was kidnapping whom within Wudang?

As Jin Seong-un made a baffled face, Lee Seowon continued.

“Well, that’s how scholars are. When they find someone capable of inheriting their research, they feel an overwhelming urge — to pass down their achievements, to keep that person close, to study together, to tie that person to a chair and feed them three meals a day while making them research all day long, to kidnap them outright…”

That… sounded a little dangerous.

The thought crossed Jin Seong-un’s mind briefly, but when he saw the gleam of madness in Lee Seowon’s eyes, he closed his mouth.

After all, Lee Seowon was half a scholar himself — perhaps he understood the urge.

“Ahem. Anyway, that’s probably why they’re reacting like that. Now then, shall we go in?”

With those words, Lee Seowon lightly stepped forward, opened the door of the Martial Studies Hall, and entered.

Watching his back, Jin Seong-un somehow hesitated to follow.

When Jin Seong-un stopped, Lee Seowon turned to look at him. For some reason, the space beyond the door looked eerily dark and damp.

“Come on. People just misunderstand — it’s not that kind of place. It’s a good place.”

Standing against the darkness, Lee Seowon’s eyes gleamed dangerously as he beckoned Jin Seong-un to come in.

“…Did you, by any chance, get kidnapped by that person too?”

“Ah, how could that be.”

He definitely hesitated for a second.

Jin Seong-un’s eyes didn’t miss it.

That steward had simply found the next victim to escape himself.

While the two of them stared each other down,

An old man quietly approached beside Lee Seowon. To Jin Seong-un, he bore a striking resemblance to Lee Seowon.

His slightly bent neck and back revealed his scholarly devotion, and his faintly gleaming eyes shimmered dangerously in the darkness.

Jin Seong-un instantly realized who the old man was.

The Head of Martial Studies, Hyeon Baek — the greatest martial scholar of the era, and the Genius Hunter — looked at Jin Seong-un.

“Oh-ho.”

He let out a low exclamation.

Jin Seong-un swallowed hard.