Wanderer of the Martial World - Chapter 23

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Satori

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◈ Wanderer of the Martial World ◈

Chapter 23

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When I woke in the morning and opened the door to leave, a neatly folded sheet of paper fell to the floor.

Someone must have slipped it through the gap in the door.

I picked it up and opened it. Familiar handwriting caught my eye.

Yi So-gang.

I had seen it often because he had taught me to write.

[There is a boat, so I am leaving first.]

There was only one sentence on the paper.

A large dot beneath it suggested he had started to write something else, then erased it.

What had he wanted to write?

Resentment? Regret? Encouragement?

I did not know.

I folded the paper and carried it downstairs.

I intended to toss it into the brazier on the first floor of the inn.

"You're up?"

As I was having a simple breakfast downstairs, Baek So-ok came down.

"One bowl of thin noodles, please!"

"Coming right up!"

After ordering, Baek So-ok sat across from me.

"Brother So-gang left."

"...Ah!"

Surprise crossed her face.

It soon became regret, mixed with a kind of guilt.

"I see."

"Here you are!"

Thunk.

The noodles were placed on the table, and Baek So-ok began eating without another word.

I glanced at her before returning to my meal.

Honestly, Yi So-gang leaving was not entirely a bad thing.

No, it might even have been fortunate.

I did not have to go through an uncomfortable goodbye.

Besides, now that I had chosen Hefei as my destination, we might have had to travel in the same direction together for some time.

That would have made things even more uncomfortable, so it was not such a bad outcome that he had left without saying anything.

I had no intention of improving my relationship with him, but I still felt a little regret.

Human emotions could not be severed as cleanly as something cut with a blade.

It was a contradictory feeling, perhaps, but was anyone any different?

After we finished eating, Baek So-ok and I went upstairs to my room.

"You can speak more casually to me."

As soon as we entered, Baek So-ok said this.

"It's fine. Perhaps later."

Informal speech made people comfortable.

And the more comfortable they became, the closer they grew.

That was why I only spoke casually to Gyeong, Seoryeong's son, and Gu Deok, both much younger than I was, but not to anyone else.

If a time came when I had to harden my heart, I might hesitate even a little.

Baek So-ok nodded at my reply. Once she had sat down, I told her where I intended to go next.

"I want to go to Hefei."

"Hefei?"

Baek So-ok reacted as though it was unexpected.

I usually said little, so she seemed surprised that I had expressed a desire to go somewhere at all.

"Is there a reason?"

"There isn't. I simply want to see it."

There was no need to reveal the truth.

"...Well, the Namgung Clan is in Hefei, so it would be a good place to broaden one's horizons."

She seemed to understand, since it was home to one of the foremost clans of the orthodox martial world.

"There's something I need to confirm before we leave. I'm still second-rate. Do you have internal energy now, Miss Baek?"

I asked about her realm.

Though asking about the particulars of someone's martial arts was taboo, simply asking their realm was not.

Especially between companions, it was only right to know each other's level.

Of course, I did not know whether the answer would be truthful.

"...Yes."

Baek So-ok hesitated slightly, then answered with resolute eyes.

So she had internal energy.

Only a few days had passed, and she had probably only learned a basic inner-energy method, yet she had already developed internal energy.

Or perhaps she had known martial arts from the beginning.

Still, if she had accumulated internal energy already through only what she learned at Azure Balance Gate, she possessed considerable talent.

Some people could learn peerless martial arts and still lack the talent to grasp qi sense itself.

Naturally, without grasping qi sense, they could not practice Qi Accumulation.

A way to make that happen, however forcibly, was by consuming spiritual medicine.

That was likely why Jo Man-sik had wanted to obtain spiritual medicine badly enough to attack Yi So-gang.

"Then you're second-rate."

"...That's right."

If one had internal energy, one was second-rate.

Internal energy enhanced one's physical abilities across the board.

Even without circulating energy, it gave a person greater strength and faster reflexes than an ordinary person.

Of course, that did not mean one was invincible.

Anyone could die if they failed to guard against dirty tricks.

That was why, when facing humans, especially experienced wandering martial artists, she might still be worse than a third-rate martial artist due to her lack of experience.

Still, once she gained experience, she would likely grow enough to pull her weight as a second-class wandering martial artist.

"All right. Let's get ready and leave."

"Okay."

I sent her off, then roughly organized my own things.

There was not much to organize.

I had never unpacked in the first place.

Still, readjusting my clothes and checking my belongings again was a necessary process.

I absolutely could not leave anything behind, especially something important.

Once I had checked all my belongings, I went outside and waited for Baek So-ok.

When she came down, I planned to buy provisions and look for a boat.

Should I buy some alcohol too?

I had never traveled by boat before, but we would probably be living aboard for quite a while. A little entertainment would not be a bad thing.

With the danger of being pursued fading, I found myself thinking of a little diversion.

As I waited for Baek So-ok, someone entered the inn.

A massive build. A gleaming head without a single strand of hair.

He was not merely large. Fat hung from every part of his body.

His narrow, slit-like eyes, buried beneath flesh, seemed to speak for his personality.

The sight of him made goosebumps rise across my body.

It was not just because of his appearance.

The distinctive qi waves I had felt a few times before now radiated from his body.

Peak Realm.

A master strong enough to build a massive force in a county as sizable as Yeongheung County.

And the two martial artists following behind him did not feel weak in the slightest.

Right. At the very least, they were not inferior to me.

I avoided his gaze as he swept his eyes over the inn.

Once more, I felt an inexplicable sense of helplessness.

"What's good here?"

"Hehe. Everything is good, but since this is Yueyang, sweetfish dishes are the best."

"Is that so? Then bring stir-fried pork, grilled and steamed sweetfish, soup, and what beef dishes do you have?"

"We have spicy sliced beef, sir. Thinly sliced beef stir-fried with spices."

"Fine. Bring that and several more dishes. Bring a few bottles of liquor too."

"Yes, sir!"

One of the martial artists following the bald giant placed the order and sat down.

Meanwhile, the bald giant continued looking around the inn.

More precisely, he was watching the people inside.

Fortunately, there were more people than when Baek So-ok and I had eaten breakfast, so his attention did not focus on me.

Where had he come from?

Judging by the aura he gave off, he was likely from an unorthodox faction, but one could not be certain.

It was not as though orthodox factions only gave off pure auras.

"I'm here."

Baek So-ok came down, and we left the inn together.

In the corner of my vision, I saw the giant watching us and licking his tongue as though savoring a taste.

Baek So-ok and I bought provisions and looked into boats.

We were told we could sail upstream for a little over ten days to Jiujiang, then continue by land to reach Hefei.

A few days ago, we had committed banditry and killed a Changbu, gaining extra income, so we had enough silver taels.

We boarded a ship and unpacked in our cabin.

A room for two.

Passenger cabins on merchant ships like this rarely came as single rooms.

Still, booking a single room that cost several times more seemed wasteful, so we had taken a room for two.

We did not lack silver taels, but we could hardly call ourselves wealthy.

It was a little awkward for training, but there was no helping it.

In truth, a room for two was not bad.

At least we had avoided a room for four with strangers, or a larger room crammed full of people.

After unpacking and sitting down, an awkward atmosphere settled over us.

It was not the uncomfortable awkwardness I had shared with Yi So-gang. It was the awkwardness that arose when an unfamiliar man and woman were alone together in one space.

The cabin was very narrow, and our beds were close together.

"By the way, you know that yokai we saw before?"

"Hm?"

As though trying to break the awkwardness, Baek So-ok spoke first.

"What name do you think it'll be recorded under this time? Hehe."

For a moment, her resolute appearance became that of an innocent young woman.

Baek So-ok's true nature was likely closer to her resolute side, but people had many facets. This was Baek So-ok too.

"It will probably be recorded under a difficult name."

"Probably, right? I don't know why they're always like that. I had such a hard time memorizing the yokai names at first."

Baek So-ok spoke as though whining.

Being with a woman rather than a man, naturally, a woman in her right mind, certainly seemed to make the atmosphere gentler.

It did not have the same ease as being with a man, but this was not bad either.

"Probably because the strategists of the Martial Alliance and the civil officials write them together."

"Exactly."

The Complete Compendium of Yokai from the Mountains and Seas.

That book, usually shortened to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, was fairly accessible.

One could simply go to a government office to read it, and copies were also kept in wandering martial artist inns.

Neither the government nor martial sects hid information about yokai, humanity's enemies, from the public.

The problem was that the people who compiled and distributed it were ink-stained scholars, so the names were often not very intuitive.

Like how the Gersu evolved into the Sanhwi.

Ordinarily, if it was a Goe-grade yokai descended from a Gersu, they could have called it a Gersu King or Great Gersu. Yet they had gone out of their way to name it Sanhwi.

Well, there was nothing I could do about it, so I could only accept it.

As Baek So-ok and I passed the time talking about pointless things, I felt the ship begin to move.

The two of us left the cabin together.

Leaning against the railing, I watched Yueyang gradually recede into the distance.

Since coming to this world, this was the first time I had left Hunan.

A strange feeling wrapped around me.

It was not my hometown, yet it felt as though I were leaving one.

"Isn't that the person we saw earlier?"

Then Baek So-ok spoke as quietly as possible.

Her eyes turned toward something.

I turned naturally, trying not to make it obvious, and looked that way.

The bald giant, along with four men and women.

Three men and one woman.

Behind them, around ten martial artists formed a semicircular wall, as though escorting them.

They seemed to have concealed their qi. Even the bald giant no longer gave off the same chilling feeling as before, yet that only made my skin crawl more.

Four people? Could they be... four Peak Realm masters?

Four Peak Realm masters could destroy a martial sect like Azure Balance Gate in an instant.

Of course, even among Peak Realm masters, martial strength varied wildly by realm. Still, they were Peak Realm masters.

Where had they come from?

A dangerous suspicion lingered in my mind.

The wisest course was to show no interest, but my curiosity would not leave me.

An organization capable of moving four masters of that caliber.

The prestigious great sects called the Nine Sects and One Gang, the Five Great Families and Eight Evil Families, and the Martial Alliance.

Ah... there was one more.

The Demonic Cult.

"Let's go inside."

I shut off my thoughts and spoke to Baek So-ok.