Chapter 388: It’s Nothing Special

After following Father into a restaurant, I found people already waiting for us.

It was the same people that were present for yesterday’s meal, but I couldn’t find the First Elder and Cheol Jiseon.

Cheol Jiseon probably ran away, and I had no idea where the First Elder went.

Upon entering the restaurant with Father, I felt people’s gazes turn towards us.

Slide-!

A few people that were seated, stood up.

It was Namgung Bi-ah and Wi Seol-Ah.

The emotion burning in their eyes as they stared at my purple and bruised eyes was palpable.

“Who…?”

Namgung Bi-ah asked.

Despite asking in her usual tone, Gu Yeonseo flinched, noticing Namgung Bi-ah’s emotion.

In response, I shook my hand and spoke.

“It’s nothing special.”

“Liar.”

Wi Seol-Ah nodded after Namgung Bi-ah’s firm response.

“You are indeed lying. Every time you say that, it’s always something big.”

“…”

I felt many emotions when the two girls nodded in agreement.

What kind of person did they see me as, for them to react like this? Do they think I only know how to cause trouble?

…

Sadly though, I couldn’t really argue with that.

“Who… did that to you?”

Namgung Bi-ah seemed like she was going to pull her sword out any second but what would she even do? She had only just barely recovered.

“What are you going to do if you find out?”

“I’ll scold them…”

“You’ll scold them?”

“Mhm.”

I smirked after hearing Namgung Bi-ah’s response.

Even I couldn’t scold the man responsible for my eye, so what could she do?

I was happy she showed such a reaction, but it was impossible for her to do anything.

When I continued to smile without giving a response, Namgung Bi-ah came towards me and carefully placed her hand on my eye.

Despite her cold hand, I could feel both warmth and concern from it.

Wi Seol-Ah came up to me too and started checking my body everywhere looking for additional injuries.  It soon became embarrassing as the people around us started to stare.

“I told you I’m fine, stop it! Others are watching.”

The two girls backed off after I raised my voice. Though of course, they still continued to worry.

Why were they overreacting when it was just a simple bruise on my eye?

After backing away slightly, Wi Seol-Ah spoke as if she was shocked.

“Considering you ended up in this state… it must have been an extremely powerful opponent.”

I nodded in response to Wi Seol-Ah.

“He was strong. Extremely strong at that.”

“…How ferocious could he have been for him to…”

“Oh he was ferocious alright.”

“Was he… a bad person…?”

“Uh, I don’t… think so?”

I felt Father’s presence behind me as I continued to toy with them. I felt like I was going to get in trouble if I teased them any further, so I told them the truth.

“It was my father.”

“…What?”

“…”

The two girls froze like a rock and their gazes moved as well.

It moved away from my blackeye and shifted towards my father, who they didn’t even greet yet.

Father didn’t show any reaction though. Instead, he merely stared at the two girls that were worried about me.

Huh, perhaps that might actually be scarier.

Shortly after, the girls’ gazes moved back to me.

Their eyes were filled with resentment as if they were complaining that I didn’t tell them the truth earlier.

…What happened to scolding him…

They immediately started resenting me instead of my father.

I felt rather hurt by that.

After I finished my meal, I headed to the same cave I have been training in recently.

As I missed a few days already, I had to catch up on my training. I also had business with the Dishonored Venerable.

“I’m here.”

The smell of alcohol filled my nose as soon as I entered the cave.

I frowned at the cave enveloped in a nasty smell and looking around, I saw a large number of liquor bottles.

How many were there? I couldn’t even count it with all my fingers.

“You came.”

The Dishonored Venerable stood in the center of the room, the liquor bottles all having been pushed to the corner.

“What are those?”

When I pointed at the bottles, the Dishonored Venerable smirked.

“I had a few drinks with my friends for the first time in a while.”

“I don’t think that’s just a few.”

“This could easily happen if you get drunk with an atmosphere filled with joy. You are simply too young to understand.”

“…”

I had to shake my head after hearing his response.

I didn’t really enjoy drinking in my past life either.

It’s not like I had anyone to enjoy it with. The very few times I drank was when the Demonic Sword used the moonlight to set the mood.

“Your friends? Does that mean the First Elder was here?”

“You are correct.”

These old men drank a shit ton, seriously.

Judging by the number of bottles, it appeared as if there had to have been more people. Were there more though? I didn’t know.

The Dishonored Venerable laughed out loud after checking my reaction and waved his hand.

Then, a strong gust exploded out from his body.

Swoosh-!

The gust swept through the whole cave and made its way out in an instant.

Shockingly, the nasty smell that previously filled the cave was no longer here.

I’m fascinated every time.

I stared at the Dishonored Venerable with a shocked expression. His control of his Qi surprised me every time I saw it.

I was also capable of generating wind with my Qi, but the Dishonored Venerable’s wind only blew away the stale air in the cave and nothing else.

It didn’t move the bottles in the corner, nor the small rocks that were scattered across the cave.

How was that even possible?

After noticing my gaze, the Dishonored Venerable asked me a question.

“Want me to teach you?”

“Is it even possible for me to learn such a thing?”

“I don’t know about others, but I’m sure you could.”

“…I’ll pass.”

“Really? It’s more useful than you think. Oh well.”

The Dishonored Venerable clicked his tongue as if he was disappointed. I knew that something like this could come in handy, but I had a reason to refuse his offer.

This man, he’s overestimating me a bit too much.

The Dishonored Venerable often said ‘You are capable’ when he trained me from time to time.

The meaning held behind those words was ‘You are just like me, so you can do it as well’.

Basically, the Dishonored Venerable thought that I had the same amount of talent as him.

But I don’t.

He was overestimating my capabilities.

I was able to realize one thing not long after I began spending my time with the Dishonored Venerable.

This man is the real deal.

One of the very few pinnacles of talent in the Central Plains, that was who the Dishonored Venerable was.

I would often make small talk to him during training, and he responded like this.

-Why can they not do this? Bastards nowadays have no persistence. They could all do it as long as they put enough effort in.

Whether it was one’s control of Qi or their ability to read their opponent’s movement, the Dishonored Venerable believed that anyone was capable of doing so.

However, this old man failed to realize that the world would be filled with masters if everyone was truly capable of achieving such a thing.

It’s easy my ass.

It only left me speechless.

He invented a new martial art on his own and sacrificed everything he built up at a late age to start anew, yet he still remained as one of the Three Venerables.

That’s who the Dishonored Venerable was.

This applied to all Three Venerables, but the Dishonored Venerable was a historical genius.

To me, his high hopes for me only made me feel more pressured.

Because no matter how much I looked at it, I was at most a prodigy, not a genius.

“But child.”

“Yes?”

“What happened to your eye? You seemed to have been beaten up by someone.”

“…”

“You aren’t at a level where you would be beaten up by anyone… How did you end up in such an embarrassing state? Oh, it’s totally fine though, since it’s pretty entertaining for me.”

It’s fine because it’s entertaining for him? What kind of dogshit nonsense is that?

“…It happened when I sparred with my father.”

The Dishonored Venerable showed an amused reaction.

“The Lord of Gu Clan?”

“Yes.”

“Hehe, then it makes sense. How was it? Your fight against your father.”

“…”

My fight against Father huh. I honestly didn’t have much to say about it.

“I couldn’t even touch his clothes.”

The Dishonored Venerable made a strange expression after hearing my answer.

“So your father is still the same huh.”

“Do you know a lot about my father?”

“I know a few things about him.”

“How?

“How you ask? I simply know it. It’s impossible not to be aware of a martial artist like him. But child, how much do you know about your father?”

“Um… I’m not sure?”

I honestly didn’t really know much about my father. I only knew that he was much stronger than the rumors said.

Now that I think about it…

I then became curious about one thing regarding the Dishonored Venerable.

“Elder.”

“Yes.”

“How come you didn’t ask my father to become your disciple? Did my father perhaps not meet your expectations?”

I didn’t know what level my father had reached, nor did I know how much potential he had, but I saw Father as the perfect candidate for the Dishonored Venerable’s ideal disciple rather than myself.

The Dishonored Venerable practically begged me to become his disciple, so why didn’t he do the same to my father?

The Dishonored Venerable brushed his nonexistent beard and responded to my question.

“How strange of you to be curious about such a thing. Why do you want to know?”

“I’m simply curious, there’s no special reason.”

“Hmm…”

The Dishonored Venerable fell in silence for a moment, then started speaking again shortly after.

“When I found your father, I hadn’t gone through Eternal Youth yet.”

Does that mean he simply wasn’t looking for a disciple at the time?

“Though of course, once I started looking for disciples, I thought about your father.”

“Naturally.”

“But I ruled him out.”

“May I ask why?”

“It was pointless.”

What did he mean by that?

Was father not satisfactory for him? As I was lost in my thoughts, the Dishonored Venerable continued to explain.

“Your father had already become one with his own martial art.”

“…Became one with his martial art?”

I had to ask again as I didn’t quite understand.

What did he mean by becoming one with one’s martial art…?

Because of my repeated questions, the Dishonored Venerable put on a tired face but continued to explain anyway.

“Have you heard about becoming one with the sword?”

“Yes, I’m aware of it.”Becoming one with the sword.

It was the level that swordsmen reached, when they, as the phrase suggested, became one with their sword.

They were their sword, and their sword was a part of them.

Swordsmen dreamt of reaching this level, even more than reaching higher levels as a martial artist.

Those who had reached this stage were often called masters, and it is said that they were capable of making invisible swords using their Qi.

The Demonic Sword had reached this level in my past life as well.

“Becoming one with one’s martial art means to progress further than the end.”

“To progress further than the end…”

“It means they have complete understanding of their martial art, and rather than their body serving as a vessel for their martial art, it instead becomes the martial art entirely.”

I couldn’t understand the Dishonored Venerable at all, but his words felt as if they were sticking to my chest.

“This is the so-called Transcendent Realm, but it’s not something you have to learn just yet.”

“Transcendent Realm…”

Why? I fell into my thoughts after hearing the Dishonored Venerable.

This isn’t something I’ve heard about in my past life.

It sounded very important, so why was I only hearing about it now?

“…Does that mean father has reached the Transcendent Realm?”

“It seemed that way, at least in my eyes. Because of that, I especially couldn’t ask your father to become my disciple.”

It requires someone like my father for the Dishonored Venerable to give up even if he sees potential huh.

Moreover, Father reached that high of a level?

I need to ask him about that later.

With that being said, I decided to ask the Dishonored Venerable another question.

“Have you reached the Transcendent Realm too?”

“…”

I immediately regretted asking that question.

The Dishonored Venerable’s expression worsened when he heard my question. Was he offended by it?
He soon responded with a sigh.

“…Do you know the minimum requirements for one to reach the Transcendent Realm?”

“I do not.”

“It is reaching the culmination of one’s martial art.”

“Oh.”

Now I understood why he made such an expression.

“I wasn’t able to reach it. But that only made me more curious. I started to wonder what the culmination of my martial art would look like.”

“And so, you are using me so that you can see it?”

“…You are becoming blunter with your words as the days pass by. What do you mean by ‘use’, you brat.”

No matter how I looked at it, I wasn’t wrong.

Which is probably why the Dishonored Venerable didn’t argue further.

The Transcendent Realm.

One could only achieve such a level by reaching the culmination of their martial art.

I had one more question, but I couldn’t afford to ask it in the end.

I wanted to ask if this meant that Father was stronger than him.

But obviously, it was hard to ask him that question right to his face.

The minimum requirement is to reach the culmination of one’s martial art huh.

It was an absurd requirement. Whether it was the Destructive Flame Arts or the Heaven Destruction Art, both were extremely difficult to master.

This meant that I would only be able to reach the Transcendent Realm after I reached the culmination of either of those martial arts. What kind of nonsense was that?

It’s not a level I could aim for yet.

Instead of focusing on the Transcendent Realm or whatever, I had to focus on reaching the 9th rank of the Destructive Flame Arts for now.

“Let us stop our talk here and start stretching our bodies.”

The Dishonored Venerable shook his hands and spoke to me.

When he said ‘stretch our bodies’, he was referring to a spar..

The rule was to not use our Qi during the fight.

I had been sparring him for the past few months every time we met, but never once have I actually won against him.

It probably won’t be different this time either.

As I clicked my tongue knowing I’d get beaten up again…

“Oh, right, Elder.”

“Hmm?”

I forgot to tell the Dishonored Venerable one thing.

“What’s the matter? Do you have something more to say?”

“It’s nothing special.”

“Let me hear it.”

“My father said he wanted to see you soon.”

“…Hmm?”

The Dishonored Venerable gave a shocked reaction to my words, which was rare to see from him.

“So suddenly? Why does your father want to see me?”

“Ah, it’s really not a big deal.”

I had to scratch my head awkwardly after seeing the Dishonored Venerable’s reaction.

“I’ve been caught, he knows that I’ve been training under you.”

“What…?”

“I tried using your martial art against my father. But he realized right away.”

Haha!

I basically told him that I caused a huge problem.

“So father said he wanted to see you soon. You will visit sometime, right?”

After hearing my response, the Dishonored Venerable’s face started to rot.