Chapter 388: Exploration (3)
At the young man’s shout, Cheongsu’s expression went blank.
It was because he could not understand the young man’s words.
“Shameless? Wh-what do you mean by that?”
“You are harassing a woman right now, are you not! How can you try to forcefully hold her back when she is saying she is uncomfortable?”
Only then did Daoist Cheongsu belatedly grasp the situation and scratch his head.
“Hahaha. It seems there has been a misunderstanding. I was not harassing her. I was requesting a sparring match.”
Of course, it was an excuse that did not work.
“This is the first time in my life I have seen anyone request a sparring match in such a manner. Also, even if it was a request for a sparring match, the other person refused, did she not?”
While Cheongsu was at a loss before the young man’s logically pointed-out attitude.
Zhuge Jinxi, who let out a sigh, opened her mouth.
“As that person said, he was requesting a sparring match.”
Surprisingly, she took Daoist Cheongsu’s side.
However, it was not because she wanted to help that sword-mad lunatic.
Because Zhuge Jinxi, too, had experience roaming the martial world in her days as a rising talent, she was familiar with situations like this.
She had experienced similar things herself, and it had also been one of the topics young martial women of her age, who liked to chatter, often talked about.
'It must be a trick to look good in front of me.'
Zhuge Jinxi was exactly the type to be utterly disgusted by such a man.
She disliked that frivolous attitude of trying tricks when they knew nothing about each other, and above all else.
“Let me give you one piece of advice. If you are someone who has placed yourself in the martial world, before stepping forward, it seems you first need to cultivate the eye to recognize your opponent’s level.”
The young man’s martial level was far too low for him to interfere in the matter between Daoist Cheongsu and herself.
To the point that she could estimate it just by roughly looking at ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) the way he stood.
The sight of a man who could not even gauge his opponent’s level stepping forward to look good in front of a woman was so pathetic that Zhuge Jinxi could not bring herself to take his side.
“Then, I shall be going.”
As though she had said everything she needed to say with that advice, she left the tea house with a cold attitude.
“Miss Jin! What will you do about the sparring match!”
And the tactless Daoist Cheongsu chased after her.
***
How long had she been sightseeing around Hangzhou while ignoring the madman who kept chasing her?
“Miss Jin!”
Before she knew it, the sky had begun to dye itself a reddish orange.
“Let us go together!”
And as much as the sky darkened, strangely enough, the streets only became brighter.
“Hahaha. Since we have walked quite a lot by now, how about stopping briefly to rest and having a sparring match......”
It was because Hangzhou’s night market had opened.
Since the matter of a live-in son-in-law candidate was merely an excuse anyway, Zhuge Jinxi, who was enjoying her runaway, headed toward the night market as though her soul were being drawn there.
While she was looking around the night market for a while with the Daoist mad about swords and sparring, who kept chattering beside her.
At a somewhat noisy sound, Zhuge Jinxi became curious in a way unlike herself.
As she was enjoying her deviation, she had become interested in a commotion that she would normally have considered bothersome.
When she went to the place where the noise was coming from like that.
“You bastards!!”
Absurdly enough, that same young man who had interfered in the matter between her and Daoist Cheongsu during the day was rampaging again.
She had frowned behind her veil and thought that perhaps that fellow still had not come to his senses and was still chasing after women, but.
“Hmm?”
When she looked behind him, she was able to realize there had been a slight misunderstanding.
That young man was blocking some old person, and he was facing off against four fellows who looked like back-alley thugs swaggering about.
Beside the old person, a collapsed wooden table and foods that had likely been placed on top of it were rolling across the ground.
Even with only a rough look, it was not difficult to infer how the situation had unfolded.
“To think you dare interfere in the affairs of our Great Hero Room.”
“You must be mad enough to want to die!”
At the shouts of the back-alley thugs, the young man answered boldly.
“Since when did this Jianggan District become your land! I have lived here for over twenty years, yet I have never heard your names!”
Of course, what returned was ridicule.
“It became our land a month ago!”
“You are slow with news, fellow! Hahaha!”
“If you understand now, then get lost. Unless you want to die.”
As though unable to endure that provocation, the young man abruptly drew the sword he wore at his side.
“To think you dare torment elders here in Jianggan District! I, Jang Hun of the Iron Flash Sect, will not forgive you!”
When the young man bravely drew his sword while revealing his own identity, the atmosphere changed completely.
The expressions of the men who had been laughing in mockery turned cruel, and they likewise each drew their weapons and surrounded the young man.
And just as the fight was about to begin.
“Haaaam.”
A dragging yawn was heard from behind Zhuge Jinxi.
It was Daoist Cheongsu’s yawn.
And although Zhuge Jinxi did not yawn openly, she felt much the same.
Starting from the righteous faction’s civil war, then the war with the Evil Alliance. On top of that, even the final war against Shincheon.
From her position, having experienced endless real battles with experts, it was a fight at a speed like crawling grubs.
Clang!
Thud!
“Kuweeek!”
Even so, the one who seized victory in that pathetic fight was the young man.
He was merely lacking in skill compared to Zhuge Jinxi or Cheongsu. It seemed he had learned martial arts of an orthodox lineage in his own way, and his fundamentals were solid enough.
He was on a different level from thugs who had only tormented the weak in back alleys.
Around the time the young man named Jang Hun had knocked down all four thugs like that.
“What is this disturbance!”
A middle-aged man dressed in black suddenly appeared at the scene of the fight.
“C-captain!”
“Th-that fellow interfered with our collections!”
And when the men who had been beaten by Jang Hun began tattling to that man.
Shrrng.
As though he did not need to hear any more, the man drew his sword and rushed at Jang Hun.
Clang!
“Kh......”
Unlike when he had easily dealt with the four thugs, Jang Hun blocked the middle-aged man’s single sword strike and exhaled a choked breath.
It was because his internal power fell short due to the difference in how long they had trained in martial arts.
On top of that.
Slash.
“Kh.”
He was also overwhelmingly inferior in real-combat experience.
The more exchanges they shared, the more wounds accumulated on Jang Hun’s body.
Clang!
And the moment he blocked the middle-aged man’s sword once again.
Thump!
Unable to withstand the force, Jang Hun was eventually flung backward and rolled across the ground.
Even in the midst of that, Jang Hun immediately tried to raise himself, but the middle-aged man was faster than him.
Just before the man, who had quickly approached Jang Hun, swung his sword.
“Don’t bully my big brother!!”
A young boy who looked to be in his early teens cut in between the two of them.
“Bad mister! Don’t bully my big brother!!”
At the sight of the child clinging to the middle-aged man as though throwing a tantrum, Jang Hun’s face turned deathly pale.
“Jang Hwan! Step back!”
And after confirming the tearful brotherly affection of the two brothers, a fishy smile hung on the middle-aged man’s lips.
As though he had thought of an amusing prank, just as that man was about to swing his sword at the little child.
“Stop there.”
Daoist Cheongsu, who had been watching the fight with an expression as though he were dying of sleepiness until now, cut in.
“To think tormenting an old woman was not enough, and now you even bear killing intent toward a child. I cannot bring myself to pretend not to have seen this and pass by.”
“It seems today really is the day. Seeing how fellows mad enough to want to die keep popping out one after another.”
The middle-aged man, who could not feel any kind of presence from Cheongsu, smiled fishily, then rushed toward Cheongsu while giving off killing intent.
While the man’s sword, filled with internal power, flew toward Cheongsu’s neck.
For some reason, Daoist Cheongsu did not draw the sword tucked at his side.
The middle-aged man thought that this young fellow had been frightened stiff before a real sword.
And the moment the middle-aged man’s sword struck Cheongsu’s neck.
Slash.
“Kuaaaaaak!!”
A terrible scream burst from the middle-aged man’s mouth.
“H-how......?”
He had clearly thought he had cut the neck of the fellow blocking him, and yet, for some reason, his own sword was lodged in his own thigh.
He had not even been able to follow it with his eyes, but Cheongsu had used Taiji Fist to alter the path of the sword.
The reason Cheongsu had not drawn his sword was simple.
Because it was such a pathetic attack that it was not even worth drawing his sword.
And Cheongsu, who had personally planted the man’s sword into the man’s thigh, answered with a soft smile.
“That leg. If you do not hurry to a clinic, you may have to cut it off.”
The man seemed to agonize over it briefly, but in the end, he left the area while being supported by his subordinates.
“You bastards! Just you wait!”
While spitting out a commonplace line.
“Thank you for helping us!!”
Immediately after they left, the little boy named Jang Hwan, who had stepped forward earlier to protect his brother, bowed his head deeply to Daoist Cheongsu in greeting.
“But how did you do that just now~? Shook-shook?”
And the little boy awkwardly imitated the movement of Taiji Fist that Daoist Cheongsu had used to turn the middle-aged man’s sword.
“Hwan! What kind of way is that to speak to a benefactor?”
Jang Hun, who had belatedly raised himself, scolded his younger brother and then performed a cupped-fist salute to Cheongsu.
“Truly, thank you. Young hero. I do not know how to repay this kindness.”
“Hahaha. I merely did what naturally had to be done.”
When Cheongsu showed humility, for some reason Jang Hun held onto Cheongsu with a serious expression and began leading him away.
“I am grateful that you saved us, but this is not the time to be doing this. Please come with us.”
“Hahaha.”
In the middle of that, for some reason, Daoist Cheongsu was being dragged along wherever Jang Hun led him.
“Miss Jin, please come with us as well! Hahaha!”
As a bonus, he clung to Zhuge Jinxi like a leech.
“Haa.”
After hesitating briefly, she eventually let out a sigh and followed them.
***
A short while later.
They arrived at a quiet manor where a small signboard reading [Iron Flash Sect] was hanging.
The young man, who led Daoist Cheongsu and Zhuge Jinxi into an empty hall, served the two of them tea and opened his mouth.
“I apologize for suddenly dragging you here like this.”
“Hahaha. It is all right.”
“Let us hear why you went out of your way to drag us all the way here.”
Toward the man and woman who showed completely opposite reactions, Jang Hun bowed his head deeply.
“I apologize for stepping forward so presumptuously during the day. I did not know you were together, and it seems I interfered needlessly out of nosiness.”
At the sight of him apologizing first for what had happened during the day, Zhuge Jinxi inwardly thought it was unexpected.
'Was it truly my misunderstanding?'
She had thought he was merely an idiot trying to look good in front of a woman, yet both his attitude now and the way he had tried to help the old person earlier.
In truth, she began to think he might be quite a sound young man.
But unlike those inner thoughts, she asked back in her characteristic cold tone.
“I do not believe that was what I pointed out.”
“Hahaha. Do you mean your words that I should gauge my opponent’s level before attacking?”
When Zhuge Jinxi nodded, Jang Hun answered with an awkward smile.
“I know that is safer, but I do not particularly wish to live that way.”
“......It sounds to me like you are saying you want to die early.”
“Hahaha. Well, it is not exactly that, but if I am going to turn away from such things, then is there any meaning to having learned martial arts?”
At Jang Hun’s answer, Daoist Cheongsu, who had seemed to be lost in some other thought, showed an interested reaction.
Zhuge Jinxi also looked at Jang Hun with her eyes shining beyond the veil.
“As you said, Miss, my skill is lacking. I do think I have done my best in my own way, but it seems I am still insufficient. Of course, if I keep striving as I am now, perhaps someday I may become an expert, but I believe saying, ‘I will avenge them after I become an expert,’ is an excuse.”
“.......”
“To speak of justice while turning away from the wickedness right before one’s eyes and valuing only one’s own life—is that not hypocrisy?”
When Jang Hun’s words ended, Zhuge Jinxi, her expression hidden by the veil, asked in an icy tone.
“Conversely, do you not think it is a foolish act? If you became an expert, you might be able to help a hundred people, but if you die a dog’s death right now, it will be difficult to help even one person properly, will it not?”
“Hahaha. If looking only at me as an individual, that would be so. However, I believe in people. When someone suffers something unjust, if even a lacking fellow like me steps forward first and fights against it, would not someone else who is stirred by me also step forward? The world is not changed by one person. It changes only when everyone joins strength together, does it not?”
At Jang Hun’s answer, the corners of Zhuge Jinxi’s mouth rose beyond the veil.
It was not the cold smile she often wore.
'He is a man with upright convictions.'
It was not a bad feeling.
But contrary to such inner thoughts, she spoke coldly.
“You make it sound as though you are criticizing us, who have only trained until becoming experts.”
Jang Hun waved his hands with a startled face.
“Oh, dear. How could that be?”
As though she found his flustered reaction amusing, Zhuge Jinxi raised the corners of her mouth behind the veil and continued to move her tongue.
“Then you must resent the great families, sects, and the Zhengmu League, who possess great power yet fail to properly help the people.”
“Wh-what do you mean? How could I dare? Those people who possess great power must also be exerting themselves in their own way, must they not? We simply have no strength, so we are trying to accomplish things even if we must put our lives on the line. As you said, Miss, those people already have strength, so they must surely be helping thousands, tens of thousands of people. Since there are no such great sects, great families, or places like the Zhengmu League here in Zhejiang, is it not unavoidable?”
Zhuge Jinxi looked at Jang Hun, who was answering at length, as though she found him cute.
His face was also, in its own way, manly, and he was a young man with firm convictions.
Of course, perhaps because he was still only in his early twenties, there were immature parts about him, but strangely, that immaturity felt cute rather than pathetic.