The Occult World’s Coveted Blacksmith - Chapter 62

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Occult World’s Coveted Blacksmith ◈

Chapter 62: I Heard He’s Not from the Tianshan Sect?

──────

“So? So?”

Yu-jin, now changed into a fresh martial arts uniform, hurried over and whispered.

As if she could not let her father find out about her secret weapon.

“What exactly does it mean to link our senses? Does it speed up Imprinted Intent Transmission?”

“No, it is a little more... direct than that.”

“More direct...?”

“You will see through Wukong’s eyes and experience Wukong’s senses exactly as Wukong does. Your Imprinted Intent will also be conveyed the instant you think of it.”

“...What? W-Wait. We are sharing senses? In real time? How?”

I grinned.

It would not be any fun if I explained it.

“Well, it will be faster for you to experience it yourself.”

I untied the cloth bundle and placed a bracelet and a golden headband on the table.

“Here. This one is yours, Yu-jin. And this one is...”

“Do not tell me.”

“Yes. It is the Golden Headband.”

“Pfft! Why that of all things...!”

Yu-jin burst out laughing, then quickly covered her mouth with both hands.

“I love it. Everyone is going to lose their minds when we compete wearing this.”

“First, focus on beating your father. What do you think your chances are?”

“Hmm... Without one of your Ritual Implements.”

Yu-jin made a circle with her thumb and index finger.

“Zero percent?”

‘Figures.’

I thought there might be some chance since landing one effective hit would count as a win.

Of course not.

From the movements I saw as soon as I arrived, it did not look possible.

‘Not that I know much about martial arts.’

They said the gap between Grade-1 and Grade-2 sorcerers was like heaven and earth.

There were differences even within the same grade, of course.

Still, supposedly even five Grade-2 sorcerers attacking together could not handle one Grade-1 sorcerer.

In game terms, it was simple.

A fight between people whose levels had different first digits.

And since the grades were not divided all that finely, the gap in skill within the same grade could be huge.

“Um... but will we not manage somehow? I trust your Ritual Implements.”

She trusted the equipment I made.

“Good to hear.”

Was there anything a blacksmith liked hearing more?

“Wukong. Come here.”

[Ooki?]

I placed the Golden Headband on Wukong’s head as Wukong ambled over.

‘Hmm. Wukong really does look exactly like the Monkey King.’

I was satisfied.

Maybe I should make a Ruyi Jingu Bang next time.

Anyway.

“Using it is simple. Just pour Spiritual Power into the bracelet to activate it.”

“Like this?”

Yu-jin poured Spiritual Power into the bracelet.

Hummm-

“...!!!”

* * *

The world doubled in size.

‘What is this?’

Another field of vision overlapped with Yu-jin’s own.

The world as seen through Wukong’s eyes beside her.

Even her own profile, reflected in those eyes.

Thump. Thump.

A heartbeat slightly faster than hers, and the sensation of soles gripping the floor.

Wukong’s senses were flowing into her.

‘Land an effective hit on Dad?’

Honestly, it was impossible. Her father was a monster who had supposedly ranked among the finest Grade-1 martial sorcerers in his prime.

He had been retired for a long time, but even when she and Wukong attacked together, they had never come close to touching him.

‘But...’

For some reason, with the artisan’s Ritual Implements...

‘We might be able to do it.’

That was what she thought.

‘Wukong.’

[Ooki!]

Wukong turned toward Yu-jin and grinned.

Wukong seemed to feel something too.

She knew without needing to ask.

‘...Let’s go.’

[Kieek!]

“Are you ready?”

Her father readjusted his grip on the staff across from them.

Swish-

Yu-jin extended her telescopic baton and lowered her stance.

‘One effective hit.’

Here we go.

Tap-!

Wukong moved first.

Crackle-

The lightning-wreathed Three-Section Staff lashed toward her father’s upper body.

The exact moment her father shifted his staff half a handspan and deflected it.

‘I can see it.’

Yu-jin was already moving.

Wukong’s eyes gave her a clear view of her father’s blind spot behind him.

Whoosh-!

Yu-jin’s telescopic baton drove into his side.

For the first time, her father took two steps back.

Pak! Papak!

Staff struck staff, and Wukong slipped through the opening.

Whenever Wukong was blocked, Yu-jin sprang out from the blind spot.

They did not need to think.

Yu-jin saw what Wukong saw, and Wukong felt what Yu-jin thought.

There were no blind spots.

‘This is insane... This is completely insane!’

A thrill slowly rose with every exchange that clicked into place.

An overwhelming sense of immersion.

A pleasure so sharp it nearly stopped her breath.

At that moment, Yu-jin and Wukong were one person sharing two bodies.

* * *

Choi Mu-chan.

In his youth, he had traveled the world learning martial arts. After returning home, he had gone around beating Cursed spirits to death with his bare hands.

Geumgang Arhat. That was the name people in this world had once called him.

‘Ho.’

He knew Yu-jin and Wukong’s skills had improved markedly lately.

It was probably thanks to the artisan’s item they had supposedly bought for a large sum.

That Ritual Implement in particular, the one that shifted from a Three-Section Staff to a staff and back again, was something he had never even seen in his prime.

Honestly, he wanted it for himself.

Still, his sparring matches with his daughter had always remained lessons.

He deflected the flood of attacks with minimal movements, half a step or half a handspan.

He deliberately created openings, showing them their next move.

That gap had never once narrowed.

Yet the pair’s movements now were different from moments ago.

Whenever he blocked one, the other was already in his blind spot. Without a glance or a signal.

It had to be because of the objects on his daughter’s wrist and Wukong’s forehead.

He did not know what they were, but...

‘...Yes. This is...’

The foothills of Kunlun.

The twin brothers he had encountered in that remote wilderness after crossing a desert in pursuit of a fortuitous encounter.

He never learned what Spell Formula they used, but the two had moved as if they were one person.

When the left one saw, the right one struck.

That chilling feeling he had experienced then.

Tak! Pababak! Teong!

As the exchanges continued, Mu-chan’s staff began to move wider and wider.

Half a handspan became a full handspan.

A full handspan became a semicircle.

‘Yes. Yes...!’

Since retiring, all his training had been in mental imagery.

He would place powerful opponents from his memories before him and fight them countless times.

But mental imagery was only mental imagery. The opponents from his memories moved only as much as he remembered them moving.

‘Perhaps.’

Even through those tedious years, he might have continued to grow little by little.

He simply had no opponent to test himself against.

Thump. Thump.

His heart began to race.

More... More!

Fwoosh-!

Wukong kicked off the floor and shot forward.

The Three-Section Staff, joined into a straight staff, came flying at him while scattering blue lightning.

“Not a chance!”

Mu-chan thrust out his wooden staff, about to strike down the trajectory he had read.

Swish.

Wukong, suspended in midair, twisted a wrist.

The end section came loose, its tip wrapping around the wooden staff and blocking Mu-chan’s view.

Tah!

At that exact moment, Yu-jin’s telescopic baton thrust toward his side through the obscured blind spot.

‘Kehah.’

This was fun. So fun.

In the end, Yu-jin and Wukong were the ones sprawled on the floor.

“Haa... Haa...”

Yu-jin lay spread-eagled on the training hall floor, staring at the ceiling.

Wukong groaned beside her.

[Kieek... Kieek...]

At the end, they had been taken down so thoroughly that she could not even tell what had happened.

Her father was still her father.

But.

‘...I feel absolutely amazing.’

For some reason, she could not stop herself from smiling.

* * *

Choi Mu-chan stood silently, looking down at his daughter.

How long had it been since he had felt such exhilaration?

That final move just now.

The Spell Formula containing the essence of a lifetime, one every martial artist who had reached Grade-1 possessed.

Ultimate Art.

He had used it against his daughter, something he had not even had reason to draw upon since retiring.

‘...And she does not even know it, lying there like that.’

What a sight, grinning to herself.

Mu-chan’s gaze shifted to the bracelet gleaming on his daughter’s wrist.

They saw through one set of eyes and moved with one breath.

A state reached only when spirit beast taming had been perfected.

It was a form of spirit beast taming he had practiced after being captivated by those twins long ago.

Perhaps he had lacked the talent, because he had never reached that state.

Yet his daughter had just crossed its threshold.

If she continued building synergy with that item, perhaps one day she might reach an even higher realm.

“...Yu-jin.”

“H-Huh?!”

“I will speak to Cheongsong.”

“...”

Yu-jin shot upright.

“Does that mean you will allow it?!”

“Kyahhh! Wukong!!”

[Ookii!]

Yu-jin and Wukong hugged each other and jumped up and down.

That was when it happened.

“Um, Director.”

Seo Ji-an had somehow approached, smiling sweetly with a tablet tucked against her chest.

“Now, the product demonstration is over.”

She grinned.

“Shall we begin negotiations?”

“...?”

* * *

House Hyeonmu, main hall conference room.

“...So, the Weapon Lord will not be attending again today?”

“The Hall Master remains in the research building.”

Han Ye-rin answered as she always did.

‘It’s already been half a year.’

The Weapon Lord’s seat was empty again today.

The Hall Master of Cheonhwa Hall and the Weapon Lord who oversaw every weapon in the family.

A Gap-tier artisan as well, that person would remain secluded for years whenever absorbed in research. An utterly unpredictable figure.

‘What has caught their interest this time?’

As a result, every major and minor affair in Cheonhwa Hall fell to Ye-rin, its deputy head.

Today’s meeting was no exception.

“So, what became of the letter sent to the Tianshan Sect?”

One elder asked.

“...There has been no reply.”

Not long ago, House Hyeonmu had sent an official letter bearing its family seal to the Tianshan Sect’s main headquarters.

It was an unprecedented act.

One of the Four Great Houses sending an official letter to a foreign sect because of a single artisan.

The contents of the letter could be summarized as follows.

- A member of your sect has entered a foreign country and disrupted the existing order. Your sect must restrain them.

- If you cannot do so, we will have no choice but to take action ourselves.

It was effectively an ultimatum.

If the Tianshan Sect continued feigning ignorance, House Hyeonmu would consider it an act of hostility.

Yet the only reply they had received was.

[Under Review]

Just three characters.

They had sent two more letters after that, but no response had arrived.

“Hah! Are they trying to insult us?”

Bang!

Unable to hold back any longer, another elder slammed the table.

“What letter? What nonsense! How many times have we gathered here over a single artisan already? Send someone quietly, and it will be over in a day!”

Send someone.

In other words, deal with him in secret without anyone being the wiser.

How would the Tianshan Sect know which family had done it, even if they came to investigate? The Korean families only had to keep their stories straight.

But.

“...Would that end anything? That man is only a figurehead.”

That was right.

They had not remained still because they were fools.

‘The Tianshan Sect is using him as its signboard to sell its own Ritual Implements.’

That was the prevailing opinion.

Think about it.

Could a green youth, barely twenty years old, produce three Eul-tier Ritual Implements in only half a year, seal a divine beast in a gourd bottle when even Grade-1 sealing masters had failed, and continue churning out unprecedented Ritual Implements like a factory?

Was that something one person, especially someone so young, could accomplish alone?

The only explanation was that hidden artisans of the Tianshan Sect created the Ritual Implements, then used his name to distribute them throughout the Korean market.

“Tch. I suppose so. What exactly are those Tianshan Sect bastards plotting?”

The elders shared the same suspicion. That was why, despite their words, they had only clicked their tongues instead of recklessly sending assassins.

There was no guarantee that removing one pawn while leaving the force behind it untouched would not produce a second or third Master Do.

Whatever they were plotting, though.

“Is not the lack of a reply an answer in itself? If they continue to ignore us, we will have no choice but to call a Four Great Houses alliance and take action.”

Under normal circumstances, it would have been unthinkable.

There was too much to lose by setting the families against each other over one or two artisans.

This time, however, there was clearly intent behind it.

For whatever reason, the Tianshan Sect was using the name Master Do to distribute and spread its Ritual Implements throughout this land.

Those damned sealing key rings that had been filling the rankings lately were the prime example.

They were certainly up to something.

House Hyeonmu had already sent an official letter of concern to the Occult Management Bureau as well.

So they intended to ally with the other families and cut the problem off at the root.

“Deputy Head.”

One of the aides who had been standing at the side of the conference room had somehow approached without a sound.

They held a letter sealed with black wax.

“This is...?”