DR Chapter 15

Not all Gong family sword techniques were fast.

Some were even slower than ordinary swords. However, they weren’t studied in depth because they were deemed unsuitable for actual combat.

Her sword began to slow down as it sped up.

It was a contradiction. But it felt natural.

It was like an endless stream of pine needles.

Jin Cheon-hee stood still, watching her enter a state of selflessness.

‘Wow… Is this what enlightenment looks like? It was awesome in novels, and it’s awesome in real life too. By the way, I wonder if this is enough to repay the Black Pine Cloud Sword? Well, truthfully, my intention was more about creating a debt for later.’

As he was thinking this and watching, he saw someone approaching hurriedly.

A woman wearing a face veil.

He knew that in this place, only Gongsun Hyeon would dress like that.

Jin Cheon-hee put his finger to his lips and made a “shh” gesture. Gongsun Hyeon stopped in her tracks, clasped her hands in a salute, and bowed her head.

Jin Cheon-hee returned the salute and quietly left the place.

Gongsun Hyeon came and stood guard in the spot Jin Cheon-hee had left.

Leaving Gongsun Hyeon watching over Gongsun Yeong, Jin Cheon-hee walked away with a smile.

***

The long period of selflessness was coming to an end.

Gongsun Yeong’s world slowly moved from the past to the present.

She forgot herself and everything she had learned.

She forgot the sound of birds and the smell of grass.

Beyond forgetting everything, only a boy’s whisper helped her.

But she couldn’t remember the boy’s name.

Who was it?

It didn’t matter. She had already forgotten even her own name.

Only a calm selflessness dominated her.

Her sword moved forward silently in any situation.

One second.

The answer lay in that one second slower than others.

Why was swiftness swift?

She had to hone swiftness for that slow second to become the second that overturns everything.

‘I was intoxicated by the tree, not the forest. The forest is what’s beautiful…’

Her sword dance moves towards its finale.

At last, a single flash unfolded from her hand.

Gong Sword Technique

Blue Pine Half-Return Sword

Single Annihilation

A sword path that advances more as the enemy’s sword gets stronger bloomed at her fingertips.

Her sword energy pierced through the huge black granite rock in the empty space.

It didn’t crush it. It didn’t break it.

To cut through it like cotton required an incredibly high level of sword enlightenment.

Her sword didn’t cut. The condensed sword path became a point and pierced space.

The line became a point.

And the point became a line.

It looked just like pine needles.

“Whew–“

At the end of selflessness, she felt regret.

The time of selflessness was something a martial artist might experience once in a lifetime, if at all.

She had grasped it and achieved something. But she wanted to gain more.

It was the desire of a martial artist.

‘More…’

At that moment, her sword changed.

The sword energy finally became sword threads.

From the shape of a heat haze, the energy began to connect thinly like threads. And then those threads broke.

At that moment, the broken threads began to spread out, drawing dozens of straight lines.

Crash—!

It would have been a shocking sight if Jin Cheon-hee had seen it.

He would have shouted, ‘This goes beyond counterattacking, it’s saying it’ll just kill you if you touch it!’

The selflessness finally ended.

She pondered what name to give this sword path.

With two realizations, she felt that she had entered the ranks of peak masters.

“It’s a blessing for the Gong family.”

She raised her head at the voice. Gongsun Hyeon was standing there. Gong family martial artists were guarding around her.

“Sister.”

“Congratulations on becoming a peak master.”

Her voice was stiff and her face expressionless, conscious of others’ eyes. However, she couldn’t hide the flush on her cheeks.

Her cheeks were redder with joy than usual.

Following her words, the Gong family martial artists each spoke up.

“Congratulations, young miss!”

“My goodness, congratulations.”

“This is great news. We should inform the family right away.”

The people who were chattering looked at each other’s faces and then shouted in unison.

“Congratulations on becoming a peak master!”

Gongsun Yeong waved her hand.

“This is all thanks to Jin Cheon-hee, that child. I’ve incurred a debt that can’t be repaid with just the Black Pine Cloud Sword. Where is that child?”

He had begged to see her use the Black Pine Cloud Sword, but instead gave her a great opportunity.

She had to repay this great kindness that couldn’t be repaid with a sword.

Returning favors or grudges as received.

That was Gongsun Yeong’s chivalry. But at that moment, Gongsun Yeong’s body staggered and collapsed.

It wasn’t just an ordinary sword, but a sword of selflessness.

She had exhausted all her true energy to gain enlightenment while in the state of selflessness.

She had swung her sword filled with energy for half a day straight.

It’s stamina far surpassing ordinary martial artists.

But even that has its limits.

Her surprised sister, Gongsun Hyeon, shouted.

“Support her. Quickly! No, I’ll support her myself.”

Forgetting about the gazes around her, Gongsun Hyeon personally embraced and supported her sister.

‘I need to go, I need to go…’

In her body that had reached its limit, Gongsun Yeong’s consciousness slowly flickered.

***

While the Gong family was being turned upside down by Gongsun Yeong’s enlightenment, Jin Cheon-hee met Little Cheonma, Yeo Ha-ryoon.

Even though they met, they didn’t do anything special.

They spent time sharing delicious food and chatting like kids their age.

Yeo Ha-ryoon seemed eager to know Jin Cheon-hee’s secret method for blood congestion, but there was nothing he could do.

Even if he asked, Jin Cheon-hee would just smile slyly and say there’s no need to rush.

The two snuck out of the escort agency and headed to the marketplace.

There were grilled sparrow skewers being sold at a brazier.

They caught sparrows, removed the innards, and grilled them.

It seems they applied a soy sauce seasoning while grilling to add flavor, and not only was the meat texture chewy, but the taste was incomparable.

“It’s more delicious than the sparrows I ate when I was younger.”

“If you were younger than now, how young were you?”

At Jin Cheon-hee’s words, Yeo Ha-ryoon threw a question with an expression that said this was nonsense.

Jin Cheon-hee chuckled at that question.

“I wonder… How young was I… I thought I’d never eat this again.”

Jin Cheon-hee thought it was funny how unpredictable life is, eating something in death that he couldn’t eat while alive.

“You don’t have money, right? I’ll pay.”

At those words, Yeo Ha-ryoon’s young cheeks reddened with shame.

He had used all his silver to follow along on the escort agency trip.

Jin Cheon-hee casually handed a sparrow skewer to Yeo Ha-ryoon.

“I got a ton of pocket money. These days, the elders at the escort agency are desperate to give me something whenever they see me. Your hyung is treating, so the dongsaeng just needs to eat.”

It’s probably not just because he’s acting like a polite and cute boy.

The fact that thanks to Jin Cheon-hee, they were able to save people who would have died without him.

He saved someone that even the world-renowned Divine Doctor Baek Rin couldn’t save.

The grace of saving a life.

Jin Cheon-hee knew well that the grace of saving someone’s life was incredibly weighty to people in the martial arts world.

It’s only natural that the families of those who survived, the survivors themselves, and their friends and colleagues at the Cloud-Dragon Escort Agency would view Jin Cheon-hee favorably.

While thinking this, Jin Cheon-hee realized that Yeo Ha-ryoon’s expression was strange.

“Hyung…?”

Yeo Ha-ryoon answered as if he had heard something he shouldn’t have.

Looking at that face, still young but handsome with a promising future, Jin Cheon-hee felt somewhat mischievous.

“I said I’d be your hyung. And this is what hyungs do.”

“Urgh, but…”

It seems he still can’t fully accept it.

Yeo Ha-ryoon stared blankly at the sparrow skewer Jin Cheon-hee handed him, and finally took a bite.

His eyes widened, and he started taking one bite after another, munching away.

‘That’s right, being an orphan is really tough.’

Isn’t it something everyone has wished for at some point in their life?

To have a family like other kids.

He often thought how envious it was seeing older sisters or brothers buying delicious things for their younger siblings.

Jin Cheon-hee patted Yeo Ha-ryoon’s back.

“Live well, man. Don’t get discouraged. You have a hyung now.”

“Even though you don’t have internal energy?”

“Is that such a big deal? Hey, look at the people here. They all live well without internal energy. That’s the problem with martial arts people. They don’t treat you like a human if you don’t have internal energy. Can you live without eating if you have martial arts? Don’t you need a house? Do you walk around naked?”

Jin Cheon-hee answered shamelessly.

At first, it seemed like nonsense, but listening to Jin Cheon-hee’s words, there was something compelling about them.

“Ah, tanghulu. I’ll go buy some, so wait here for a moment.”

Jin Cheon-hee bought a few tanghulu to give to Yeo Ha-ryoon.

The hawthorn berries coated in malt syrup made his mouth water.

“Here’s the money.”

Although he hadn’t been in this world for long, Jin Cheon-hee was adept at calculations.

Was it thanks to his experience with overseas volunteer work? Jin Cheon-hee quickly handed over the coins before the stall owner could even state the price.

At that moment, there was a shout from behind.

“You little bastard!”

Hearing the sound of a fight, he ran over with the tanghulu, and sure enough, people had gathered.

In the center of the crowd, Yeo Ha-ryoon was grappling with some grown men. It was clear that some kind of dispute had broken out.

‘Getting into a fight with such a young kid, these guys are really messed up.’

There’s trash everywhere you go. It seems it’s the same here.

Still, they haven’t drawn their swords, so it seems they have some final conscience.

One of the men swung his fist at Yeo Ha-ryoon.

Yeo Ha-ryoon’s afterimage disappeared.

Whoosh-

Then he appeared right behind the guy.

Smack!

It was a light kick without internal energy, but the adult’s waist bent.

“What the…!”

Without needing to say anything, Yeo Ha-ryoon quickly took down all three men.

He won.

It was an easy fight that could hardly be called a battle.

The people were surprised and whispered among themselves.

“To take down those Three Dogs, could he be a young master from a famous family?”

Sure enough, their nickname had “dog” in it.

“They were already bastards who knocked over stalls and hit old ladies, it feels so satisfying.”

‘Hehehe, that’s my dongsaeng.’

Jin Cheon-hee’s shoulders rose with pride involuntarily.

Now they could just share the tanghulu and go back. Jin Cheon-hee thought.

That’s when it happened.

Yeo Ha-ryoon grabbed the arm of one of the fallen Three Dogs. Then he bent the arm backward.

Crack-

“Aaargh!”

A scream rang out terribly.

Yeo Ha-ryoon, unfazed, also broke the man’s other leg.

Crack-

“Aaagh! Aaaagh!”

Then he straddled the man and started pummeling his face with his fists.

The sound of a skull cracking echoed.

The passersby froze at the cruel actions that seemed obsessive.

Jin Cheon-hee ran over.