Genius Martial Arts Trainer

A training ground located in a secluded corner of the Zhengmu League.

Inside that secretive training ground, used only when the Leader of the Zhengmu League trained alone, terrifying explosions had been bursting out one after another for a long while.

The warriors of the Zhengmu League wanted to enter that training ground at once and see the source of the noise for themselves, but because of the League Leader’s solemn order, no one could look at the situation inside the training ground.

And at some point. Around the time the noise had died down.

Looking at Daoist Cheongsu, whose clothes had become rags as he rolled across the floor, Mujin let out a sigh.

'Damn it. Cardio when I did not even get to lift iron.'

Mujin’s mood was extremely unpleasant after his daily workout plan had gone awry.

Naturally, a blunt voice popped out of Mujin’s mouth.

“So, why exactly did you come here?”

Daoist Cheongsu, who had been struck cleanly at the very end and was lying collapsed on the floor, burst into cheerful laughter and raised himself.

“Hahaha. Why, naturally, for a sparring match.”

“......Haa. How about you start thinking about your position now?”

This was the reason Mujin had deliberately stopped anyone from entering the training ground.

Daoist Cheongsu was the current First Sword of Wudang.

He was someone who would tarnish Wudang’s name if he went around getting beaten somewhere.

Of course, Mujin was currently treated, even if unofficially, as the strongest under heaven, so if Mujin and Daoist Cheongsu held a sparring match, most people would predict Mujin’s victory.

But predicting that Mujin would win if the two fought, and Cheongsu actually fighting and losing, were different matters.

At Mujin’s point, Daoist Cheongsu answered, as expected, with a bright smile.

“But can it be helped? Hahaha. The only one worthy of testing my realization is you, League Leader. In truth, I lost today, but there were gains in many ways, so I am satisfied. Hahaha.”

Daoist Cheongsu’s Taiji Wisdom Sword, unlike the existing Taiji Wisdom Sword, had a killing sword mixed into it. But even if a killing sword had been mixed in, taiji was still taiji. Fundamentally, it was a martial art rooted in softness overcoming hardness.

And to test softness overcoming hardness, the stronger the opponent’s force was, the more meaning it had.

In that sense, the “strongest” person Cheongsu knew was Mujin.

However, that was only Cheongsu’s perspective.

“Haa.”

Mujin pressed his forehead as though his head hurt.

'He talks exactly like that Mukyeong bastard.'

Mujin found himself thinking of the lunatic Shaolin peer who launched surprise attacks day after day, saying he was practicing assassination.

Was it that the more outstanding one’s talent in martial arts was, the higher the chance one became insane?

Perhaps because Mukyeong had come to mind, a decent idea soon occurred to Mujin.

“It is good to test your martial arts on me directly, but should you not also begin accepting disciples around now, Daoist Cheongsu?”

“My sword is not yet perfect enough for me to accept and teach someone as a disciple.”

“Who in the world masters martial arts perfectly before teaching disciples? And you know it as well, do you not, Daoist Cheongsu? That the soul of a sect is carried on through people.”

“That... is true.”

As Daoist Cheongsu, who had inherited Yunhe’s soul and defeated the Pillar Lord, he could never answer that this was not true.

To that Daoist Cheongsu, Mujin drove in the wedge.

“If there is no child you like in Wudang, how about setting out on a journey? Was the reason Daoist Cheongsu began learning the killing sword not also to save the people? While you are at it, would it not be good to catch some bad men and, if you discover a child who seems talented, take that child as your disciple?”

“Mm. Now that I hear it, that truly sounds like a good idea. League Leader. Hahaha.”

Cheongsu, who accepted Mujin’s suggestion, laughed heartily and left the training ground.

Watching Daoist Cheongsu’s departing back, Mujin nodded with a satisfied expression.

'He will not come looking for me for a while.'

Whether Daoist Cheongsu actually gained a disciple or not, Mujin had no interest whatsoever.

***

“Abuuh~!”

The baby in the nursemaid’s arms. Choi Seonhui welcomed Mujin while flailing about.

After leaving Shaolin, Mujin had been using two names. Mujin, the Dharma name he had used, and Choi Kanghyuk, which had been his original name in the modern era.

Since he had continued using only the name Mujin in this world, most people still used the name Mujin, but he could not give his child the surname Mu taken from a Dharma name.

In the end, Mujin had passed the surname Choi down to his child.

At the sight of his daughter, who would not hurt even if she entered his eye—no, for whom he wanted to gladly gouge out both his eyes to make space if she said she wanted to enter them—Mujin’s mouth split wide.

She was still at an age where she could not even speak, but to Mujin’s ears, it sounded exactly as though she was saying, “Daddy~!”

“Oh, my daughter. Were you waiting for Daddy~?”

After receiving his daughter from the nursemaid, Mujin shook her here and there, held her, and played with her in various postures.

'Hehehe. This is exercise in its own way, if you call it exercise.'

Seeing that he was thinking about exercise even in the middle of that, he was not in his right mind.

Like that, around the time he was exercising with his daughter in the yard of the house.

“My dear.”

His wife, Liu Xuehua, opened the door and came out into the garden.

“My wife. You worked hard today as well.”

Though she had married Mujin, the Leader of the Zhengmu League, and even had a child, Liu Xuehua was still working for the Tianliu Merchant Association.

To be precise, the business she had been in charge of since long ago, the [Tianliu Muscle and Bone Treatment Clinic], was still her responsibility.

Well, since she was the head in her own way, she was in a situation where she managed only the important matters.

On top of that, because they were a wealthy household, most basic cleaning and chores were handled by servants and maidservants, so it was possible for her to handle both child-rearing and business at the same time.

“You have worked hard as well, my dear. Did you loosen your body a little?”

“I was holding back so I could do it together with you, my wife. Hahaha.”

At Mujin’s answer, Liu Xuehua smiled softly and approached him.

And the two began doing Pilates, using the various equipment placed throughout the garden.

That did not mean they were exercising completely at the same time. They had an infant with them, after all.

They took turns using the equipment, while the one resting played with the child.

For Mujin, since he had tormented his muscles with lifting iron, he needed to loosen his body with Pilates and muscle-extension art.

And Liu Xuehua, too, as someone leading the business known as the Muscle and Bone Treatment Clinic, could not neglect Pilates even for a single day.

Thanks to that steady effort, she had been able to return to her original body and stamina in a little over a year after giving birth.

And recently, Liu Xuehua had been using that point for promotion.

Sprinkling advertising phrases such as, “Postpartum recovery! Do it together with the Muscle and Bone Treatment Clinic!” among successful households.

Thanks to that, the business, which had already been popular among the daughters and wives of high officials and regional powerful families, was flourishing even more.

One of them had spread the poison called lifting iron through Shaolin and the righteous martial world, while the other was spreading the poison called Pilates among the women living in the Central Plains.

They could truly be called an excellent exercise-addicted couple.

“Abuuh! Abuuh!”

That poison was now even spreading to the child.

At the sight of his daughter, held in his arms, flailing her arms toward her mother, who was in the middle of doing Pilates, Mujin’s mouth stretched all the way to his ears.

“Hahaha. Do you want to try it too, Seonhui?”

Of course, they were not lunatics enough to make a child who had only just passed one year of age do Pilates.

The person not using the equipment simply played with the child appropriately. Just like Mujin had played with her by lifting her up and lowering her a moment ago.

Well, once the child grew enough to control her own body, they were the kind of people who would more than make her do it.

In any case, after the two finished the enjoyable exercise they did together with their child, they enjoyed dinner with a nutritionally balanced diet centered on protein.

Of course, they did not force even that diet on the child.

“Abuabu!!”

But children naturally wanted to copy what their parents did.

The child, who had been eating baby food, showed interest in the food her parents were eating, her eyes sparkling brightly.

Having been born into this household, the child’s future as an exercise addict was all but decided.

And after a little more time passed, around when the baby, who still slept a lot, had fallen soundly asleep.

“My wife.”

When Mujin approached Liu Xuehua with heated eyes, Liu Xuehua lowered her head slightly as though embarrassed and moved her body toward the bed.

Because they had already touched bodies several times while exercising together in harmony, a fire had been blazing between the two for quite some time already.

They had merely been holding back because the child was awake.

And starting from the moment the child fell asleep, the married couple’s fire play began.

Because they were husband and wife with both excellent bodies and stamina from steady exercise, it was a fire play that did not go out easily.

***

Around the time hot acts of affection were taking place somewhere near Dongting Lake.

Somewhere inside a huge manor located on Mount Longzhong in Hubei Province, a place not very far from Dongting Lake by the standards of the Central Plains.

A cold wind was blowing through a hall on which [Young Family Head Hall] was written.

“Haa.”

A woman who was beautiful yet gave off a cold atmosphere men could not easily approach let out a sigh that seemed to scatter chill into the air.

The woman who was the young family head of the Zhuge Family and was called the Cold Flower was living day by day chewing on solitude.

“If only it had not been for that fox-like wench Liu Xuehua.”

Zhuge Jinxi had not imagined even in her dreams that Mujin and Liu Xuehua would hold a wedding as soon as the war against Shincheon ended.

When she heard the news of their marriage while she was busy with postwar handling as the young family head, she felt as though someone had struck her head with a hammer.

Of course, that did not mean there was any reason for Zhuge Jinxi to give up on Mujin. It was an era where people said a hero having three wives and four concubines was only natural.

The only problem was that she was the young family head of the Zhuge Family.

In other words, for her to continue the position of young family head, and to become family head in the future, she had no choice but to bring Mujin in as a live-in son-in-law.

Not for her to become Mujin’s second wife.

A live-in son-in-law having yet another wife was a custom that existed nowhere in the world.

In the end, from her perspective, as someone who could not give up her dream of becoming the family head of the Zhuge Family, becoming connected to Mujin, who was already married, was an impossible matter.

That was why Zhuge Jinxi had no choice but to direct all the arrows of that anger toward Liu Xuehua.

Because Liu Xuehua had snatched away Mujin, whom she had been aiming to bring in as a live-in son-in-law, first.

Like that, as she spent her time in longing for the departed beloved(?) and anger toward the fox-like woman.

“Young Family Head. A letter sent by the Nangong Family Head has arrived.”

The voice of the guard warrior guarding the Young Family Head Hall outside was heard.

“Bring it.”

She, who had somehow arranged her expression, had returned to her usual emotionless appearance.

And after receiving the letter, no sooner had the guard warrior who delivered it left than she simply tore the letter apart.

Without even reading it.

No, from her perspective, it was a letter that had no value in reading.

'I am already burning with rage after losing Monk Mujin, and of all things, the man approaching me is a lunatic.'

After the war against Shincheon. For some reason, Nangong Jincheon, who had been the young family head of the Nangong Family, had begun approaching her.

And even a year later, Nangong Changhui, who had been the family head, handed the position of family head over to him, so now Nangong Jincheon had become the Nangong Family Head.

In other words, this fellow, likewise, was impossible to bring in as a live-in son-in-law.

By what means could she bring the family head of the Nangong Family into the Zhuge Family as a live-in son-in-law?

Well, leaving that issue aside from the beginning, Nangong Jincheon was not Zhuge Jinxi’s taste.

But because this lunatic kept sending love letters and approaching her, Zhuge Jinxi had gone to the Nangong Family to settle things directly. About a month ago.

And in that place, the thing she brought up as a suitable pretext was that matter.

She said that she had to become the family head of the Zhuge Family, so unless he would enter the Zhuge Family as a live-in son-in-law, she asked him to give up now.

It would have been truly fortunate if Nangong Jincheon had let himself be persuaded by that much explanation.

No, if it had only been to the extent that he had not simply given up, she would not now be tearing up his letters without even reading them.

But Nangong Jincheon was a lunatic who far surpassed her expectations.

- Since the name of Nangong is far more exalted than the name of Zhuge, would becoming the mistress of the Nangong Family not be better than becoming the family head of the Zhuge Family?

Nangong Jincheon had truly said that without changing even a single syllable.

To none other than the young family head of the Zhuge Family.

Zhuge Jinxi was normally famous for being rational and cold, but at that moment, she could not hold on to her reason.

In other words.

Slaaaap!

It meant she had ended up immediately striking Nangong Jincheon across the face.