That’s Not How You Use Martial Arts

Chapter 19
Dream (1)

『 Translator – Divinity 』

“Miss, what do we do?”

“Don’t worry too much. I’m sure the Young Master will be fine.”

Dae-un, anxiously questioning Hwa-ryeon, realized how unbecomingly frantic he was acting compared to her calmness, despite his age and experience.

“Uh, ahem…”

He finally stopped pacing and cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure, but it was too late.

Moreover, his legs were trembling, making him look quite pathetic.

‘Master…’

Seol-i, secretly watching from outside, looked at her master with a cold gaze, but Dae-un was too preoccupied to notice.

Time continued to flow amidst Hwa-ryeon’s composure, Dae-un’s worry, and Seol-i’s sighs.

One hour, two hours…

Ja-seong’s energy grew increasingly turbulent as time passed.

Seol-i, who had been peeking from outside, eventually came in and joined them, watching Ja-seong with concern.

When three hours had passed,

“…Hmm!”

Ja-seong’s energy gradually began to calm down.

It seemed he hadn’t lost his mind and absorbed more energy than he could handle.

“Whew…”

Dae-un finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Seeing her master’s reaction, Seol-i’s face brightened as she realized Ja-seong would be alright.

And soon, Ja-seong opened his eyes wide.

Seeing the sharp glint in his eyes, Hwa-ryeon smiled faintly.

“Congratulations. I had a feeling you would be fine, but it seems you didn’t get greedy.”

“I’m not that naive. I’ve been training in martial arts for ten years, after all.”

Hwa-ryeon smiled wryly as she watched Ja-seong answer with a grin.

If everyone could control themselves like that after ten years of martial arts training, Dae-un wouldn’t have been so anxious.

And the elder masters of each sect wouldn’t need to personally guide the flow of energy for those who consumed elixirs after reaching a certain level of cultivation.

“I’ve only absorbed about a third of it for now. I’ll slowly refine the rest later.”

At Ja-seong’s words, Hwa-ryeon recalled the energy she had felt from him earlier.

An intense energy that swirled like a ferocious wyrm.

The wyrm, which seemed to want to devour all the energy, had circulated through Ja-seong’s body endlessly, only to absorb a third of the energy before returning to its original place.

As she recalled this, an old story she had heard as a child came to mind.

It was an ancient tale passed down from the Dongyi tribe, about a greedy wyrm who possessed three wish-granting jewels needed to become a dragon. Thanks to the advice of a goddess, it finally gave up two of the jewels and was able to become a dragon.

Ja-seong’s ferocious energy felt like the wyrm in that story.

‘Then, will Young Master Gun come to possess a dragon in his dantian?’

While Hwa-ryeon chuckled inwardly at the amusing thought, Ja-seong clenched and unclenched his fists, examining his body.

Perhaps due to the remaining energy of the Golden Dragon Divine Elixir, he felt overflowing with power.

Finally, after checking the internal energy filling his dantian, Ja-seong couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from rising.

All he could do was try to hide it with his hand.

“…Are you that happy?”

I pondered Hwa-ryeon’s question. Was I happy?

Of course, I was. Was that even a question?

“I’m incredibly happy. After ten years of being an internal energy crip— ”

I instinctively covered my mouth.

No matter what, it didn’t seem right to say something like “crippled” in front of a girl.

But then Hwa-ryeon tilted her head and asked about the rest of my sentence.

“Crip— what?”

“Well, crip—”

Think, think of something other than crippled. Another natural word…! Something that wouldn’t earn me a look of disdain!

“Criiippled… that situation is finally over. Yeah, that’s right.”

“…Internal energy isn’t food, it can’t be ‘crippled.'”

Fortunately, Hwa-ryeon didn’t react much to my words and just moved on.

Good, that was natural.

“Hmm, so you managed to absorb the energy safely. I was worried you might waste such a precious elixir.”

After Hwa-ryeon, it was Master’s turn.

Master stroked his beard with an austere expression, while Hwa-ryeon and Seol-i looked at him with a slightly dumbfounded gaze.

What was that about?

For the two of them, who always treated Master with respect, unlike a delinquent disciple like me, to react like that…

Did something happen during my cultivation?

I tilted my head at their unfamiliar behavior and retorted to Master’s blunt remark.

“Of course I did. It’s a sixty-year elixir, after all. Even Master hasn’t tried something like this, have you?”

I could roughly gauge it through the energy he emitted, but I could sense that Master’s internal energy was a bit shy of sixty years’ worth.

“Wow, this Golden Dragon Divine Elixir is really something else. I can’t even describe it.”

“You little rascal…!”

Master’s face contorted into a scowl as I teased him with a playful smile.

I returned home, dodging Master who was charging at me with a wooden sword he had brought from the training ground.

Arriving home with a heart filled with excitement at the thought of consuming the elixir I had dreamed of, I was greeted by—

– Hunger Strike –

—a sign hung on the door of my eldest sister’s room.

“……”

“Su-ae, dear. Open the door.”

“Oh, for goodness sake…”

I stared blankly at the tightly closed door and my parents pacing anxiously in front of it.

After a moment, I shook my head, pulled myself together, and approached Father.

“Father, what’s going on?”

“W-well, you see…”

Father scratched his head with an embarrassed look and explained the whole story.

***

It all started right after breakfast this morning.

After Ja-seong, unable to contain his anticipation for the elixir, rushed off to the martial arts school as soon as the meal was over, Won-pyeong called his eldest daughter, Su-ae.

“Why did you call me? I told you, I’m not interested in getting married.”

Her expression and tone were filled with weariness.

She clearly assumed it was another nagging session about when she was going to get married.

He almost blurted out in frustration,

‘…So you’re saying you’re going to die an old maid?!’

But he barely managed to restrain himself and had Su-ae sit down in front of him.

Su-ae, finally noticing that her parents’ reactions were a bit different than usual, started to observe them cautiously.

“Su-ae, about Seong-ah…”

And as soon as Won-pyeong started speaking, her expression immediately soured.

“Absolutely not.”

“Now, now, listen to what I have to say…”

“I don’t need to hear it. You’re going to let Seong-ah venture into the Jianghu! Absolutely not. No way, no how. Have you already forgotten that Seong-ah’s nanny and Uncle Kang died?”

Won-pyeong closed his mouth at Su-ae’s rapid-fire barrage of words.

How could he forget? The sight of his servants, who had worked for the Gun family their entire lives, turning into cold corpses overnight.

As he stood there speechless, Il-ryeong, who was sitting next to him, spoke up instead.

“Su-ae.”

“Mother, you’re on my side, right? You’re not thinking of sending Seong-ah away like Father, are you?”

Unlike Won-pyeong, Su-ae believed that Il-ryeong would agree with her. So, she was taken aback when her mother shook her head.

Su-ae, completely caught off guard by this unexpected “betrayal,”(?) looked shocked.

“M-Mother…”

“Su-ae, Seong-ah is already twenty. He’s a grown man. We can’t keep him sheltered forever.”

Under normal circumstances, Il-ryeong would have agreed with Su-ae.

However, her perspective had changed due to the bloodshed that occurred a week ago.

To be precise, witnessing Seong-ah single-handedly kill all those villains who had mercilessly murdered their servants with just a sword was a significant shock to Il-ryeong.

Her youngest, who had always seemed like he would only act spoiled in her arms, had become a true man and protected his family.

Seeing that, she realized that keeping him confined any longer would be a form of imprisonment.

“Seong-ah will be fine. You saw it too, Su-ae. How he struck down ten men in an instant.”

“……”

This time, it was Su-ae who fell silent.

The image of Ja-seong, with an icy expression she had never seen before, mercilessly cutting down those men in black, was deeply ingrained in her mind.

Even though she had lived a life completely detached from the murim, she could sense that he was no ordinary individual.

Perhaps, as Mother said, there was no need to worry.

But understanding something intellectually and accepting it emotionally were two different matters.

“Oh, I don’t care! I absolutely won’t allow it, so you better remember that!”

In the end, she stormed out with a shout, stuck a “Hunger Strike” sign on her door, and didn’t step out of her room until dinner time.

***

In the end, my eldest sister didn’t come out for dinner either.

“Wait, Big Sister is refusing to eat? Did the sun rise in the west today…? No, it didn’t.”

My older brother, unaware of the details, made a lighthearted comment and received a glare from Mother. Sweating profusely, he finished his meal with difficulty and was tasked with bringing dinner to my eldest sister under Mother’s orders.

“Get out, you jinx!”

“Uh, u-ugh!?”

He returned with the dinner he had brought completely spilled on him, accompanied by my sister’s lion’s roar.

“What did you say to make her roar like that again?”

When I, who had been waiting in the kitchen, asked, my brother answered dejectedly,

“I told her that someone who’s almost thirty shouldn’t act like a child, and that’s why she can’t get married…”

“…Oh dear, serves you right.”

Clicking my tongue, I shoved my brother towards the bathroom and then asked the kitchen to prepare my sister’s favorite beef noodle soup, which I brought to her door.

“…Sister. I brought your favorite beef noodle soup.”

—……

I spoke while looking at the pitiful sight of the “Hunger Strike” sign barely hanging on one side of the door, but there was no response.

Wow, my eldest sister would wake up even from her sleep for beef noodle soup. She was enduring this?

Ha, I didn’t want to go this far, but I had no choice.

I carefully placed the beef noodle soup in front of her door.

It was freshly made, still steaming hot.

Holding my palm right above the beef noodle soup, I carefully released my energy, pushing the aroma into the room.

—…Gulp

Soon, I heard the sound of someone swallowing hard.

“Sister, the beef noodle soup is getting cold. Are you really not going to eat it?”

And how long did I wait?

Creak.

The tightly closed door cautiously opened.

Smiling silently, I picked up the bowl of beef noodle soup and entered my eldest sister’s room.