Chapter 62
—Oh my, our pretty and lovely great disciple!
—Oh, my love!
—Senior Brother is the best!
—How did such a lucky charm roll into our family?
It was impossible to define the fuss the Moyong family members made over the returned So-ah in one word.
His uncle, Moyong Baek, and Yeon So-so almost had tears in their eyes, and his junior brother, Moyong Su, was bombarding So-ah with questions with a beaming smile.
Even the few elders of the family started to set up a drinking table with a hearty laugh (the Moyong Family, from the elders to the chief steward, the junior steward, and the servants, all did housework together, because there were remarkably few workers and maids), so there was no need to say how well So-ah was being treated.
“Haha. So, you see. I almost died back then. I was hungry from the endemic disease, and to make matters worse, I was sleepy, but the Great Desert Annihilation Formation of the Mad Wind Sand was terrifying. But if I had exploded my Gang Qi to break it, I couldn’t guarantee the safety of the young lady of the North Sea, so it was a dilemma.”
It had begun.
So-ah’s chatter divine art.
Since he was young, So-ah had loved to tell so-called heroic tales like this.
Currently, he was in the middle of unfolding the adventures of the past few months as a great epic.
Not only his eloquence, but also his gestures, voice, and expressions were almost like watching a perfect play, so it was only a matter of time before people were immersed.
“So? So what happened? Huh?”
Moyong Hwa urged So-ah with eyes full of curiosity.
At that,
“Now! Listen carefully from now on. I’m going to tell you an unbelievable fortuitous encounter.”
Gulp!
Saliva began to pool in people’s throats.
“Have you heard of the <Map of the Ghost Valley Mountain Manor>?”
***
After that, So-ah’s story continued for nearly an hour.
When he was telling the final chapter of his adventure, the ‘Marriage Commotion in the North Sea,’ people burst into laughter to the point where their eyes almost rolled back. Moyong Baek,
“Hoho! The lord of the North Sea Ice Palace is also too greedy. How dare he covet our So-ah? So-ah is more than enough to become the emperor’s son-in-law.”
He was full of pleasantries.
At that, Moyong Hwa scolded her father.
“Father! Is Senior Brother an object? Calculating a person’s once-in-a-lifetime event as if it were a business is what snobs do.”
Her words were right, so Moyong Baek couldn’t answer at first.
Then, as if to save face, he cleared his throat and scolded her.
“Ahem! You brat. I was just saying. Who said I would force your senior brother to get married? And since it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event, it’s only natural to consider the other person’s background, education, and wealth. The reason why marriage is given great meaning is not just about the love between a man and a woman, but about the bond between families…”
“Honey!”
‘Ugh… I can’t say anything!’
This time, his wife, Yeon So-so, cut off Moyong Baek’s long-winded speech.
She was annoyed because his nonsense was getting long while she was listening to So-ah’s fun adventure story.
Watching such a Moyong Baek, So-ah thought that his uncle was a very understanding and non-authoritarian family head.
Therefore, he liked the Moyong Family.
Generally, the families of the martial world had a clear vertical hierarchy, and the lower ones could not even disobey the upper ones, but the Moyong Family was different.
A mere servant would rebuke the chief steward, a daughter would scold her father, and a senior brother would bully his junior brother and junior sister under the pretext of ‘training’.
This Moyong Family, which had a somewhat crazy family tradition.
‘I like it.’
It had become a comfortable ‘my home’ for So-ah.
“Marriage? I have no thoughts of it.”
“…”
“I will only run, thinking of the Moyong Family’s reign over the world.”
At So-ah’s solemn voice, the atmosphere seemed to become heavy.
But no one felt uncomfortable with the weight of that silence.
‘The Moyong Family’s reign over the world.’
Those words had caused a gentle ripple in people’s hearts.
Just then,
“For that reason.”
So-ah’s gaze and voice changed subtly.
‘Huh?’
‘That gaze?!’
Moyong Hwa and Moyong Su instinctively sensed that sharp change.
Why?
Because it wasn’t the first or second time they had been through it.
“From now on, we will begin the hellish training for the reign over the world. Junior Sister and Junior Brother, you will follow me.”
As soon as his words ended, So-ah turned his body and headed to the training ground.
Moyong Hwa and Moyong Su, who felt that his back looked even more vicious today, wanted to hit their senior brother in the back of the head, but they had to endure it, fearing the aftereffects…
***
“Two thousand five hundred and eighty-four.”
“Two thousand five hundred and eighty-six.”
“Two thousand five hundred and eighty-seven!”
A loud spirited shout echoed throughout the training ground.
Today’s training was a form-oriented physical training.
In fact, So-ah also wanted to relieve his travel fatigue, so he had thought about taking a break from today’s training.
But he was curious about how much his junior sister and junior brother had improved, so he had stepped forward.
But the result was unexpected.
—Hwiiiik!
—Hwiiiiik!
Not only was the posture of his junior sister and junior brother, who were performing the Heaven-Shattering Consecutive Cannon without raising their internal energy, quite neat, but it was also extremely sharp.
‘You brats, you must have suffered a lot. You’ve improved this much?’
He didn’t have high expectations.
Because neither Moyong Hwa nor Moyong Su was as persistent as he was (this was purely So-ah’s subjective opinion, but the two also had great endurance), he had just hoped that their stamina would not drop.
“Two thousand five hundred and eighty-eight!”
“Two thousand five hundred and eighty-nine!”
“Two thousand six hundred!”
Even while throwing thousands of punches, his junior sister and junior brother did not lose their posture.
“Where does strong martial arts come from?”
“Stamina!”
“Stamina, Senior Brother!”
“Where does a perfect attack come from?”
“From a perfect posture!”
“It comes from a correct posture!”
For the first time, So-ah was proud of his junior sister and junior brother.
But he did not praise them.
Because he was planning to start a more advanced and systematic training from tomorrow, he needed to tighten their minds even more.
“Alright. That’s it for today. From tomorrow, we will start a new training.”
“Phew…”
“A new training?”
“Yeah. Since the posture of the Heaven-Shattering Consecutive Cannon is well-established, we will learn the forms of the other Ten-Second Invincible Arts in separate sections, and in the evening, we will enter the practical application part.”
At So-ah’s words, Moyong Su asked.
“Practical application part? What is that, Senior Brother?”
“Yeah. The two of you will try your best to at least brush against my clothes.”
“That’s the ‘threshing’ training. What’s new about it…”
“No. It’s different.”
“Yes?”
“Threshing is literally just beating you up to develop your senses and evasion skills, but the practical application part will be accompanied by a dizzying pain.”
‘I knew it.’
‘Senior Brother… what is it now!’
Moyong Hwa and Moyong Su’s insides were burning black.
They had worked so hard for months to be praised, but instead of praise, their senior brother was just thinking of tormenting them with strange words they had never heard before.
“Hey, Senior Brother! Does such a training really exist? You just made it up on the spot, right? Huh? To tease us. Right?”
Moyong Hwa asked as if she was interrogating him with glaring eyes.
At that,
‘That’s a complete ghost. How did she know?!’
So-ah was startled and inwardly astonished, but he soon displayed his shameless divine art.
“What do you take me for! This is an essential training method of the Ten-Second Invincible Arts. If you just listen to me, you’ll become a master in no time, so don’t doubt it. That’s all for today’s training.”
‘Ugh… really. I’ll be fooled one more time.’
‘Senior Brother, you’re too much!’
The powerless junior sister and junior brother had no choice but to be fooled one more time.
The two, who couldn’t even dream of any more resistance, fearing that they would shit blood if they ran their mouths, were like that.
***
Late at night.
The lights in the Moyong Family Head’s office were still on.
“Hmm…”
“Hmm…”
“Hmm…”
The three people were putting their heads together without sleeping.
“It’s definitely a good thing…”
Moyong Baek’s murmur.
“It’s not just a good thing. This is a golden opportunity to reorganize the finances of the declining family.”
The chief steward’s voice, filled with spirit.
And,
“I’ve been thinking about it carefully. But today, I’ve become certain.”
So-ah said with shining eyes.
“What should we do?”
“The internal dan. Let’s have them take it. Hwa-ah and Su-ya.”
It was the moment when the three people were agonizing over the problem of the disposal of the internal dan of the Sun Fire Carp.
“Uncle. Chief Steward. Listen carefully. If we sell the internal dan, we will definitely be able to get a huge amount of money. But our family is still in the Jianghu, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Of course.”
“So, there’s no reason to hesitate in the first place. To be honest, I was wondering how much of the internal dan of the Sun Fire Carp my junior sister and junior brother could absorb, but seeing them today, their martial arts have improved tremendously. If I push them harder and squeeze them tight, they might be able to surpass the first-rate soon.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Yes, Uncle. If it doesn’t work, I’ll just grab them by the scruff of the neck and force them up.”
‘That’s a bit…’
That sounded like he was going to half-kill his own daughter.
Moyong Baek felt that way and was uncomfortable, but since he knew So-ah’s loyalty well, he couldn’t bring himself to find fault.
Just then.
“But it’s certainly a waste. At this rate, it will be difficult to even pay the monthly salaries of the workers and maids.”
The chief steward’s thoughts were a little different.
Usually, the chief stewards of prestigious martial arts families did not get involved in trivial matters, but in the Moyong Family, where there was no separate administrative official, the chief steward was in charge of everything from housekeeping to budget and settlement, so he couldn’t help but calculate in his head.
“Chief Steward. Who am I?”
“The great disciple, Young Master Jin?”
“That’s right. Am I not the great disciple of the Moyong family? So I’ve made all the arrangements.”
“Yes?!”
The chief steward asked in surprise, and Moyong Baek, in the moment when he was watching with expectant eyes, wondering what kind of bait his lovely great disciple would throw out next,
“Ta-da!”
Thud!
A pile of something heavy fell onto the round table where the three people were sitting.
“Th-This is?”
“Isn’t this a gold ingot, Young Master Jin!”
The faces of the two were colored with astonishment.
So-ah, as if he had expected it, smiled broadly.
“It’s the additional request fee I received. I didn’t mention it on purpose earlier. In addition, I’ll get more when I meet the Liaoning Escort Agency’s Chief Jang tomorrow. With this amount, we won’t have to worry about money for a while.”
“So-ah! Oh my, our pretty So-ah! Well done, you’re amazing, you’re the best! Kekeke!”
“Hah… really. Young Master Jin is someone I can’t figure out. How on earth did you get so much money!”
As the faces of his uncle and the chief steward brightened up, So-ah’s mood also became as light as if he could fly.
“You don’t have to be so happy. Although it’s a lot of money, since there are not just one or two dependents, and if we want to raise my junior sister and junior brother as masters, we’ll have to make medicinal water for a considerable period of time. Until now, I made medicinal water with the medicinal herbs I ‘sneaked’ from the White Martial Academy, but when I went to the warehouse during the day, even that was gone. There are a thousand places where money needs to go, but few places where money comes from. Phew…”
“So… So-ah, you, you stole…”
“Shh! Uncle. What do you mean, stole? I just borrowed a little, haha.”
So-ah laughed awkwardly.
Not only Moyong Baek, but also the chief steward was at a loss for words, and they just shook their heads without saying anything.
What’s the use of talking?
He had already sneaked it.
But it was too early to be surprised.
Because So-ah’s following remarks were getting more and more out of hand.
“As the saying goes, you can’t put spilled water back in the cup, and you can’t put back sneaked wealth. Absolutely! Strictly forbidden. You know?”
Hey! You brat.
Where in the world is there such a proverb?
When this brat was young, he was so kind that I was worried that he would be scammed later, but what is this…
He’s a guy who would look for the Primordial Heavenly Venerable in a Buddhist temple!
Just as a laugh was about to leak from the dumbfounded Moyong Baek’s mouth.
“Family Head. Young Master Jin! I have a good idea.”
“What is it?”
“What is it?!”
“The reason why our family’s finances are not good is because there is no source of income. The Namgung Family, the Sichuan Tang Clan, the Zhuge Family, etc., all the well-to-do prestigious martial arts families are all in business, aren’t they?”
“That’s right.”
“That’s right.”
“We should also start a business.”
“What kind?”
“To generate a lot of profit with little money, no matter what, it’s about ‘dominating the night streets’!”
“Night…”
“Streets?”