Chapter 52. Twin Swords of the Wind and Clouds (27)
“I–it’s nothing. Swelling? What swelling?”
Woo-Moon rushed over and pushed aside Dae-Woong’s hand from his face.
“Look at this! This looks like it’s from a hit. Father, who hit you?”
Sparks flew from Woo-Moon’s eyes. ‘Which bastard dares to touch my father!’
“Yes, it’s true that I was hit, but I don’t have the right to say anything. It was a fair spar,” Dae-Woong responded.
“A spar? It’s barely been any time since you started learning martial arts, Father. Just which bastard insisted on sparring with a novice like you? Who was it? You’re not the one who insisted on fighting, right father?”
“No, he was the one who wanted to spar,” Jin-Jin said quietly. She had been listening to them from inside a room, but now she intervened.
“You’re saying that Father was the one to ask for a spar?”
“Come inside, Woo-Moon.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Dae-Woong made it to follow Woo-Moon, but Jin-Jin stopped him. Although her voice was just as quiet as before, it was filled with terrifying strength.
“You stay outside a little longer, honey.”
“O-okay. I’ll do just that.”
Dae-Woong, who had already gotten halfway across the threshold, left without saying a word as Jin-Jin addressed Woo-Moon.
“Baek Ju-Ryeong visited our house yesterday.”
Baek Ju-Ryeong? Woo-Moon thought back to the day when that warrior had brought those useless people to be their guards. That warrior was the underling of Ju-Ryeong, a suspicious woman who used to bully Jin-Jin.
“Is this her doing?”
“No, her husband is the one who sparred with your father.”
“What?! Just where did Father get the gall to do something like that?”
Dae-Woong, who was listening outside, flinched as Jin-Jin sighed deeply.
“Don’t blame your father. This is all my fault...”
“Pardon? What do you mean, your fault, Mother?”
“Ever since I was young, that bitch has been a master at subtly insulting me. Of course, I expected her to insult me yesterday, but then she even started picking on your father. In the end, your father couldn’t bear it anymore, and... he insisted on a spar with Jeon Yoon-Seong.”
Jeon Yoon-Seong.
He had been a lay disciple of the Shaolin Temple and had married into the Iron Sword Baek Family as a live-in son-in-law.[1]
“And that was why father got worked over?”
“A-ahem!”
They could hear Dae-Woong clearing his throat from the outside.
With the fire in his belly raging, Woo-Moon came out as soon as he finished speaking with Jin-Jin and took his father into the deepest room of the main house. There, he took the bottle of Pure Stalactite Milk out of his pocket.
“Father! Come and drink this.”
“What is that?”
“Open your mouth first! I will help you, so don’t worry.”
“No, just what is that?!”
“Just listen to your son!”
Dae-Woong was already rather depressed because of what had happened. As his son insisted, he opened his mouth.
Carefully controlling the dose, Woo-Moon fed Dae-Woong just a single drop of the Pure Stalactite Milk.
“Tsk. I haven’t been able to consume it yet, but here I am, giving it to my father first.”
For a moment, Dae-Woong tilted his head in confusion at his son’s words, but then he suddenly felt a tremendous aura rising from within his body.
“Huh?”
“Don’t open your mouth! You’ll let all of the energy of the elixir dissipate. Now, circulate your qi like I show you.”
Woo-Moon moved behind Dae-Woong and put both hands on his back, helping his father circulate his qi.
Although it had only been a drop, the Pure Stalactite Milk was incredible, and Woo-Moon did his best to help Dae-Woong absorb it without missing a single bit.
After about an hour, Dae-Woong opened his eyes. Then, he looked down at his body in amazement.
“Oh!!!! I can’t believe how much more qi I have now! I feel like I can beat anyone right now!”
“Tsk, tsk. Come on, you’re not that much stronger yet. If you fight Jeon Yoon-Seong now, you’d be able to put up a fight, but don’t expect to beat him or anything. The qi you gain from consistent cultivation is not the same as the one you’ve gotten just now. Right now, you need to focus on absorbing the energy of the Pure Stalactite Milk and turning it into your own qi.”
“Ahem. I-is that so? So I can’t beat him yet?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Fine then, you just sit back and watch. I’ll train my ass off.”
“Good. Don’t be lazy and train hard. Don’t let anyone beat you ever again. Okay?”
“Okay, you little brat.”
Because it had already become late at night, Woo-Moon retired to his room. Well, it was right next door, anyway...
From what Rat had reported to him, the children were doing great. They were more and more amazed at the grandeur of the Baek Estate; at the same time, they had gotten used to one another and some of them were now fighting among themselves and thriving in their new space.
‘Hmpf. Let’s see what you say when you start training tomorrow!’
***
The next morning, the young boys—guards in name, bums in reality—were summoned by Woo-Moon.
“Hey! You! Come forward.”
Woo-Moon singled out the boy with particularly long and sturdy arms who seemed like he would be good at shooting a bow.
“Yes!” the boy answered bravely as he stepped forward. Perhaps because he was able to eat properly now, his face had filled out a little and was practically glowing.
‘All of them are small for their age, but it doesn’t matter. If they eat and train well, they should all be able to grow normally now.’
Woo-Moon himself had begun cultivating his qi before his body, and he was still doing the same now. However, back in Unhan, he had also put extensive effort into training his body and improving his physical abilities.
Because of that experience, he understood very well that the base of martial arts wasn’t qi cultivation, but actually, physical cultivation—in other words, physical training.
That fact was even written in the Martial Arts Fundamentals.
“Copy my stance,” Woo-Moon said before settling into the horse stance.
This stance was very awkward—like sitting on a chair with your arms stretched in front of you, except without a chair. It was an exceedingly difficult exercise, but it was also an excellent one for naturally improving balance, endurance, and strength.
After hearing from his grandfather that the horse stance was the best way to lay a foundation for martial arts, Woo-Moon had gotten into the habit of using only his physical strength to endure standing in that pose regularly, sweating profusely for hours at a time. His stance had improved to match the incredible amount of effort he had put in.
“Now, all you have to do is just maintain this posture. It’s easy, right? You have to hold it until lunch. Every time I see you fool around or fall, you will get one hit. If you get hit five times, you don’t get lunch. Do you understand?”
“Understood!”
The boys had not experienced the horse stance yet, so they all answered loudly without a single clue about the suffering that awaited them.
However, the pickpocket was different.
‘Y-you devil! You’re saying you want us to hold the horse stance for that entire time?!’
The effects of the horse stance made themselves felt quickly. The boys had seriously underestimated the difficulty of this exercise, and now their legs were shaking and sweat poured down like rain from their faces.
However, as they had all grown up in the slums or in the orphan village, they each had incredible patience and tenacity, which allowed them all to endure for quite a long time.
“You there! Are you not going to raise your arms properly?”
Although Woo-Moon was sitting on a chair in front of them and seemed to be thinking about something else, he noticed each and every mistake as if he were a hawk.
‘Y-you damn bastard. This is too difficult!’
Woo-Moon’s stick descended down upon them with each stumble.
Thwack!
“AGH!!”
“Fix your stance!”
"Understood!"
However, to them, Woo-Moon was the benefactor who had brought them to this place and hired them, even paying them a salary. Thus, none of them complained aloud.
After about an hour had passed, the physically weak but quick-footed boy collapsed and fainted.
Just then, Woo-Moon noticed that the Song residence had visitors.
“Oh dear. Are these kids those beggars I heard about?”
The new guest resembled Hye-Ryeong, but she looked somewhat fiercer.‘This must be Baek Ju-Ryeong.’
Behind her stood a young man whose spite-filled eyes resembled hers to a tee. He seemed to be about four to five years older than Woo-Moon.
‘You look just as shameless as your mother.’
Ju-Ryeong had come the day before with her husband, Yoon-Seong, and it seemed that today, she had brought her son, Heon-Won.
Either way, because Ju-Ryeong was the senior, Woo-Moon bowed his head first and greeted her.
“I hope you’re doing well, Cousin Ju-Ryeong.”
Ju-Ryeong, who had been ignoring Woo-Moon as if he was just some pebble in the way, smiled brightly, acting as if she had finally discovered him.
“Oh dear. So you were here, too, little cousin Woo-Moon. How lovely to finally meet you in person!”
Woo-Moon could feel all kinds of goosebumps forming on his skin.
“Haha. Yes, it’s nice to meet you.”
“Is your mother here?”[2]
"Yes. She is inside.”
Fortunately, Dae-Woong was absent; he was hungry, so he’d gone out to eat Woo-Moon took the lead and brought the guests to his mother’s room.
On the way, Heon-Won approached the Song Family’s new guards, most of whom were still in the horse stance, but Ju-Ryeong stopped him “Oh, dear! Don’t go near them! What if you catch a disease or something?”
‘Oh, so you mean that since we live with them, we’re all infected, huh? You damn bitch.’
Woo-Moon gritted his teeth as he looked at the boys. Even though they had heard such demeaning words, he noticed that they didn’t get angry whatsoever; they seemed to be able to read the room. Seeing that made his heart boil even more.
Heon-Won responded with a sneer on his lips.
“I understand, mother. I was just surprised that these vermin are being trained in the... esoteric horse stance. Not even the lowest of our guards do that anymore.”
Woo-Moon could feel even that her son was trying to stoke his rage.
‘I’m the one who told them to do it. Do you want to die? You bastard who's supposed to be my nephew. You bastard who doesn’t even know the importance of the horse stance. Just you wait. I’ll show you soon.’
In complete contrast with his true feelings, Woo-Moon displayed a bright smile as he opened the door for Ju-Ryeong.
“Oh, Aunt Jin-Jin!”
“Oh, you’ve come to visit me again, dear niece.”
Jin-Jin had already heard the noise outside and knew that Ju-Ryeong had come again today. She smiled warmly, hiding the rage in her heart.
Before she sat down, Ju-Ryeong first swept the chair a few times with the fan in her hand as if it were dirty, even though she knew that it was spotless.
‘Your ass is even dirtier! I’ll have to wipe that chair thoroughly once she leaves.’
As Woo-Moon was swearing in his mind again, Ju-Ryeong opened the conversation.
“Oh, is Uncle not here?”
Jin-Jin was imagining sharpening a sword on Ju-Ryeong’s teeth, but her face was nothing but smile.
“He said he was going out to eat something.”
“Ah! I just thought... I thought that he might have had to go to the clinic because of that accidental injury he suffered during yesterday’s enthusiastic spar. Hohoho.”
‘Enthusiastic...spar? Even though from what I heard, it was just my father being toyed with?’
Anger raged inside of Woo-Moon.
It was clear that Ju-Ryeong had deliberately brought up the story to upset his mother.
“But it seems that the elder is not here today, either?”
Even though Ju-Ryeong was also from the same family, the only person that she was careful to refer to as “the elder” was, of course, the Palm Martial Emperor Baek Sang-Woon.
Jin-Jin smiled softly.
“As you may know, my father is someone who flits around like the wind. It seems he’s been on an outing for the past few days.”
Of course, Jin-Jin was well aware that Sang-Woon had already left far away. However, she pretended not to know where he was because she was afraid that the Baek Family would look down upon their family if she told the truth.
Ju-Ryeong, who was trying to uncover Jin-Jin’s true thoughts with her steely gaze, immediately smiled brightly.
“Oh ho ho! The elder really is like that, that’s true. By the way, what did you say that Uncle used to do before?”
It was clear that Ju-Ryeong was asking this on purpose and already knew the answer. There was no way that she wouldn’t have already investigated the Song Family after they had arrived at the Baek Estate.
“We used to run an inn,” Jin-Jin answered.
Ju-Ryeong showed a blatantly dismissive expression.
“Ah! So he used to run a business, then. How impressive, truly. It must have been a very large place considering it was run by someone who qualified to be your husband, Aunt. Ho ho ho.”
“No, not at all. It was just a countryside inn, so it was pretty small.”
“Oh dear! To think it was in some shithole countryside... Pfft! Oh dear, I’m so sorry, I misspoke.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m not embarrassed by it at all. In fact, don’t you think that judging someone by their occupation is more embarrassing?”
1. Shaolin monks are not allowed to be married. However, as a lay disciple, Yoon-Seong may have learned the temple’s martial arts but hadn’t taken the vows and thus wasn’t a monk. ☜
2. This is an exceedingly rude way to refer to Jin-Jin, considering Ju-Ryeong is an entire generation under her. The correct way to refer to her would have been “Aunt Jin-Jin” ☜