Chapter 162: Chunbong PTSD (2)
by Afuhfuihgs
Geum Chunbong vs Zhuge Hui
Today would be the day when all the time spent enduring and persevering through what that bastard brother called “training” but was really just toying with her would finally bear fruit.
Chunbong marched confidently toward the arena with firm resolve tucked in her small chest.
“You enjoyed it too…”
“When did I ever?”
Chunbong played completely innocent.
Honestly, it had been quite fun having him play with her normally after such a long time, but if she showed it too much, that bastard’s ego would shoot through the roof. She couldn’t stand seeing him like that.
— Geum Hee of the Divine Sword Geum Clan…!
Chunbong, who had been calming her mind in the waiting room, stepped onto the arena at the sound of her name being called.
Waaaah! The crowd’s cheers. When she sassily raised one hand, the sound grew even louder.
— Zhuge Hui of the Zhuge Clan…!
A pretty-looking man stood opposite of her. He had more of a scholar’s impression than a martial artist’s, but that was typical of Zhuge Clan people.
Chunbong cupped her fists toward him.
“Please take care of me.”
“I will learn from you.”
Zhuge Hui unfolded his iron fan to cover his mouth.
Seeing this, Chunbong felt memories from recent days rush in like a tsunami. Lee Seojun, that despicable bastard.
Facing someone who only uses techniques would make you understand the true meaning of the phrase “it makes your blood boil.” That’s why she held a grudge against techniques themselves.
Seeing anyone using them made her blood boil.
Just straight up…
As she was imagining frantically bonking Zhuge Hui on the head, the referee shouted.
— Begin!
Chunbong immediately reacted and charged forward.
You can’t give them time. If you carelessly give them time to stack up techniques, a very infuriating situation unfolds.
Sure enough, even though she charged straight at him, Zhuge Hui activated a technique.
Separation and Isolation.
A strange pressure came over her as she charged. She grinned wickedly. She’d break through something like this with spirit alone.
“Haap…!”
Boom! Chunbong exploded her inner qi and lunged forward, swinging her sword.
Swish!
The sword cut through empty air. She’d sliced the wrong spot entirely. When Chunbong’s eyes widened, Zhuge Hui, who had completed his formation, smiled mysteriously.
In that brief moment, he’d shot out the specially-made ribs of his iron fan to set up a simple formation. However, its power was by no means something that could be dismissed as a mere simple formation.
“Try wandering around lost.”
“What the hell?”
Look at that way of talking. People who mess with techniques definitely have twisted personalities.
Nine Palace World Formation.
Soon the formation unfolded.
The Nine Palace World Formation was based on the Nine Palaces as its fundamental principle. From the Nine Palaces, if you place yourself in the center, the remaining directions become the Eight Trigrams.
Adding the mystery of the Eight Gates to this, each trigram was assigned Gate of Healing, Gate of Life, Gate of Pain, Gate of Limit, Gate of View, Gate of Death, Gate of Wonder, and Gate of Opening respectively to complete the formation’s framework.
The Eight Trigrams are combinations of three lines, and each line can be expressed as yin or yang, so each element of the Eight Trigrams is a combination of three yin-yang pairs.
Based on this mysterious principle, techniques from the five elements corresponding to the Eight Trigrams were planted in each of the Eight Gates. Anyone trapped in the Nine Palace World Formation would meet their end the moment they entered any gate except the Gate of Life, buried under a barrage of techniques.
However, since even the location of that Life Gate could be adjusted at Zhuge Hui’s discretion, being trapped in the Nine Palace World Formation meant this match was as good as his victory.
Let me see what you can do.
Zhuge Hui’s eyes curved. There was nothing more enjoyable than watching people dance in the web he’d woven.
He didn’t doubt for a second that this woman called Geum Hee would also dance as he wished within his grasp.
The Daoist watching the match let out an exclamation.
“To think a Nine Palace Formation could be completed to that degree… As expected, the Zhuge Clan’s formations are unparalleled.”
Seojun also nodded.
“Yep, looks well-made.”
“Aren’t you worried?”
“No, not really.”
Rather than worry, he was dumbfounded. He could sense Zhuge Hui’s twisted personality from that formation itself.
In a word, you could say he “fights really dirty.”
And Chunbong had, over the past few days, endured the malice of Lee Seojun, the authority in the field of fighting really dirty.
The result was right there.
“You bastard…”
The world was filled entirely with white mist. Chunbong instinctively knew this was inside the formation.
Her eyes rolled back. In Western terms, you could call it PTSD. Pissed off by the overflowing bullshit, Chunbong gripped her sword tightly.
What she’d learned from sparring with Seojun was none other than,
How to deal with techniques or formations.
She immediately relied on her intuition and charged at Zhuge Hui.
“That is…”
Zhuge Hui’s mouth twisted. To think she’d voluntarily leap into the Gate of Death.
The Death Gate was the place symbolizing the seventh palace of the Nine Palaces, the Lake of the Eight Trigrams, and Metal of the Five Elements.
Clang!
All sorts of blades shot towards her, flying from every direction she could sense. She took a short breath.
“Huu!”
Soon her sword disappeared, leaving white afterimages.
Clang clang clang!
She swung it at an absurd speed, knocking away all the blades. However, their sheer number was endless. It was obvious that she would tire before him.
Her eyes lit up.
“Found you, you bastard…!”
Her sharp intuition had found his location.
What Chunbong learned from Seojun about dealing with formations was nothing special.
You find them? Then wreck them.
Be it techniques or formations, there was nothing that couldn’t be cut. She remembered the feeling of cutting through all the formations she had faced.
“Go die…!”
Slash! The Nine Palace World Formation itself was cut by Chunbong’s single slash.
“What…!?”
Zhuge Hui’s eyes widened. Cutting the formation itself? That was impossible.
Chunbong also originally thought it was impossible. She could only do it because that bastard brother had worked her to the bone.
Anyway, since she could do it, that’s all that mattered.
A wicked smile appeared on her lips.
“I’ll bonk your head!”
Chunbong charged forward. Zhuge Hui hastily swung his iron fan.
Clang!
Her sword traced a circle. Flowing Clouds over the Clear River. Zhuge Hui’s iron fan floated up into the sky from the Blue Cloud Divine Sword.
“Huh…?”
Zhuge Hui’s expression went blank. This wasn’t in his calculations. Chunbong’s eyes sparkled.
“Die, Lee Seojun…!”
Chunbong’s tiny fist left white afterimages.
Bam bam bam bam!
A thirty-two-story lump tower was built on Zhuge Hui’s head.
“Guhk…!”
Zhuge Hui’s eyes rolled back as he collapsed. This was the end.
Thunk!
Having finally made the lump tower thirty-three stories, Chunbong smiled with satisfaction.
“Huu…!”
Where the hell do these sorcerers get off?
These damn wicked technique users should be obliterated from this world.
— Winner…! Geum Hee of the Divine Sword Geum Clan…!
Chunbong raised both hands high, responding to the crowd’s cheers.
Seojun watched this with a pleased expression while trembling slightly.
She had a lot pent up, didn’t she…?
Those vicious head bonks… He could only pray for Zhuge Hui’s soul, who had been sacrificed to relieve Chunbong’s stress.
“Whoa…! No! How is such a thing possible? Cutting the formation itself?”
Next to Seojun, the Daoist was enthusiastically exclaiming his amazement. He was like a reaction vending machine.
Seojun nodded with a proud smile.
“A crappy formation like that doesn’t stand a chance against our Chunbong.”
“Did you teach her that?”
“Rather than teaching… she learned it herself. She just cut right through the formation’s axis.”
After her eyes became accustomed to Seojun’s techniques and formations, such things became possible. It was a collaboration between excellent insight and sword skills that had reached their peak.
Of course, after that, Seojun started hiding the axis, so it became meaningless…
“Hoho… This generation’s rising stars are all absurd. When the waves behind the Yangtze River push away the waves in front, there’ll be no place for us old folks to stand.”
“My Chunbong is kind, so she’ll probably guarantee a good retirement.”
“That’s not what I meant… Well, putting that aside.”
The Daoist asked with a puzzled look.
“What exactly does that ‘Chunbong’ mean?”
“Ah.”
“That reminds me of when the Geum Clan’s heir had that match with the Third Prince, she said something similar. The Bong among Bongs, Chunbong…”
The Daoist, who had been pondering something, nodded.
“Is that the title you created? Spring Phoenix (Chunbong). It’s certainly a nice title. I will support it in the upcoming meeting.”
Seojun paused. Chunbong’s title would become Spring Phoenix? People all over the world would call Chunbong “Spring Phoenix”…
That couldn’t happen. Only he could call Chunbong “Chunbong.”
“Ahaha! What Spring Phoenix? You know, there are good titles like Sword Phoenix or Sparrow Phoenix.”
“Sparrow Phoenix? Sparrow doesn’t seem like a good title…”
“Why not? Sparrows are cute.”
“Titles shouldn’t be cute.”
“That’s all prejudice. It’s boomer mentality.”
“What is boomer supposed to mean…?”
“Oh my, this won’t do.”
That day, the Daoist learned a whole bunch of new terms.
The quarterfinals were over. Only the semifinals and finals remained.
Between the quarterfinals and semifinals, there was quite a long period of one week. It was time to heal injuries sustained during the quarterfinals.
During that time, Seojun planned to look around the areas near Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia.
Wouldn’t it be nice to catch a demon practitioner and absorb a proper demonic art cultivation technique into his mental imagery?
Indeed. If he were a sprout of the Lord of All Demons, wouldn’t demonic arts be easier to learn than orthodox arts?
The demonic qi had been quite a decent friend too, so if he learned proper demonic arts, he might be able to reach Supreme Demonic in no time.
Even if not, since he was thinking of mixing orthodox and demonic arts someday, this opportunity was too precious to pass up.
“So I’ll give you all one homework assignment each.”
Facing the four rising stars—Chunbong, Namgung Suah, Namgung Myeong, and Hwangbo Hyeji—Seojun left each of them with their own homework.
Footnotes
Footnotes
Footnotes
- 1. Chunbong’s actually just a random name she came up with to hide her identity I’m pretty sure, but they’re misinterpreting it for Spring Phoenix because the characters can also represent that, as Bong means Phoenix.
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