The Undefeatable Swordsman

Chapter 90. The Entire World is My Home (11)

“Okay, okay. Then, let’s all be casual. But none of you can complain about this later, okay?” Woo-Moon said, laughing with the others.

“Understood!”

“Yes, sirrrrrr~~~”

Listening to their playful answers, Woo-Moon wholeheartedly smiled.

To be honest, when he had first come to the Baek Family, and even as time went by, Woo-Moon had considered himself an outsider.

Even though he was very much part of the Baek Family blood-wise, his feelings of being an outcast had never changed. However, now, it was starting to feel more like a family. It was an incredible change.

“Hmpf!”

However, there was still someone among the Distinguished Swords who wasn’t so relaxed.

The only fourteen-year-old Baek Ryeong puffed out her cheeks and pouted.

‘Hmpf! I don’t like him!’

“Ma-Ra, what do you think about taking a break now?”

At Woo-Moon’s words, Ma-Ra suddenly fell from the ceiling and stood behind him.

“Okay.”

The Distinguished Swords suddenly took a step back. Although they were the talents of the Baek Family, not a single one of them had sensed Ma-Ra’s presence.

“Wow! L-lady Ma-Ra was here, too!” Jeong-Woo looked at Ma-Ra with an infatuated smile.

“Lady Smileless Flower! I’m glad you’re coming with us.”

“Well, if Uncle is leaving, there’s no reason for Lady Ma-Ra not to follow along. They are lovers, after all.”

One of the girls made a timely remark for the other boys, politely hinting at them to nip any feelings for Ma-Ra in the but. However, another girl then spoke up.

“Wait, no. It’s not a relationship. It’s a love triangle. I heard that the new guild master of the Leebi Guild is Uncle’s junior sister. Their relationship isn’t simple, either.”

“Wow!! A love triangle! How fun.”

While Ma-Ra seemed unaffected by the conversation, Woo-Moon’s face turned red.

“What do you mean love triangle?! Don’t just sit here writing some nonsensical novels in your heads. Go to your rooms and rest! All of you were complaining about being tired just a moment ago.”

“Uncle, your face is red!”

“So cuuute.”

The girls giggled as the boys couldn’t help laughing.

“Ma-Ra, lets go.”

“Okay.”

“Woo-Moon went up to his room as if to run away.

Jin-Jin had personally gotten involved and explained the misunderstanding some time ago. Thus, the Distinguished Swords didn’t react in the same manner as before, knowing that they weren’t in an illicit relationship even if they were sleeping in the same room.

The young talents just looked at the backs of Woo-Moon and Ma-Ra with envious gazes.

Ma-Ra asked Woo-Moon a question as they entered the room.

“Woo-Moon. Smileless Flower, who?”

Woo-Moon couldn’t help but smile at her words.

“Who do you think would be called a flower that doesn’t smile?”

Ma-Ra frowned slightly.

“Don’t know.”

“It’s you, Ma-Ra.”

"Me?"

“Yes.”

“I see.”

Of course, while Woo-Moon didn’t expect any special reaction from her, he was still a little disappointed to see her nod so indifferently.

***

They set off the next day and continued to travel for a few days.

Arriving at Linying County within Luohe, the party was having dinner when Woo-Moon suddenly received a qi transmission from Jeong-Woo.

—Uncle!

Woo-Moon answered right away, thinking that there had to be a good reason Jeong-Woo felt the need to use qi transmission rather than just talking to him.

—Yes?

—I have a favor to ask. Do you mind?

—What is it?

—It’s nothing serious. I just wanted to ask if you wanted to go somewhere with me.

Reading the room, Woo-Moon got a rough idea of what Jeong-Woo was talking about.

—By “somewhere” you mean a brothel?

-–Ah. Hahaha, you catch on quickly. Yes, a brothel! But don’t worry, it’s a Red House, not a Blue House.

They were both categorized as brothels, but while a Blue House was a place where people sold their flesh, a Red House was a place where men gathered to chat, drink, laugh, and appreciate classical arts, such as poetry, calligraphy, and painting.

It was a bit counterintuitive to associate the colors red and blue like that, but that was how things were.

Woo-Moon had some curiosity as to what sort of place a brothel was. However, he didn’t feel the need to sate his curiosity at the moment as he had already decided to explore the mysteries of the Gentle Celestial Sword and the Forbidden Divine Art by training the Western Nihility’s Three Absolutes.

‘It’s always more fun to learn new martial arts than to drink and talk to women I don’t know, anyway.’

—I can’t today. But I won’t tell the girls, so you all can go secretly on your own. Though, we’ll be leaving early tomorrow morning, so don’t stay up too late.

Woo-Moon realized as he ate that the other young men of the Distinguished Swords had already agreed to go to the brothel from how excited they were. Although it was a pity that Woo-Moon couldn’t go with them, Jeong-Woo still had a slight smile, as he was glad that they were granted permission.

—Understood, Uncle!

—Yeah, yeah. Have fun. But don’t get caught, because the girls will be mad if they find out.

—Understood! This isn’t our first time, you see. Haha.

The young men of the Distinguished Swords, led by Jeong-Woo, said some flowery words to the others before excusing themselves and heading toward the brothel.

Woo-Moon also excused himself, heading up to his room for a moment before immediately heading toward a nearby mountain. This time, Ma-Ra also came with him to train.

Swoosh!

Flames blazed from Woo-Moon’s sword. He cut a falling leaf mid-air and the leaf disappeared, crumbling into ashes. On the other side, Ma-Ra eagerly practiced combining the Silver Moon Discs and wrist crossbows, creating a more powerful attack method by combining the strengths of the two weapons while mitigating their weaknesses.

Suddenly, Woo-Moon stopped.

“Something happened.”

The moment Ma-Ra nodded, the two of them disappeared, flying down the mountain like the win. Eun-Ah, who had been trying her best to catch a mole nearby, pricked her ears before hurriedly running after the two people.

“Uncle!”

Baek Yo, the eldest of the girls of the Distinguished Swords, called out to Woo-Moon. She explained everything she knew.

“There was a big incident. A fight broke out, and the big brothers...”

“Where are they?”

“Follow me!”

Baek Yo took the lead and led the way.

‘But...how does Baek Yo know what happened?’

Although he had many questions, he decided to resolve the situation first before asking them.

***

“Ugh!”

“Y-you bastard...!”

It seemed that the battle had already ended, and all of the young men of the Distinguished Swords were on the ground, clutching an arm or a leg. Standing in front of them was a tall man in his early twenties with his hair down.

Even though the man was drunk, he had a handsome face that wasn’t inferior at all to Woo-Moon’s.

He strolled among them casually, tapping his thigh with his weirdly-shaped long saber.

“That’s why you should at least be able to sense the opponent’s skills before you attack them, you know? Moreover, Hong Mae is fated to be my wife. Who are you to flirt with her?”

“You bastard! Hong Mae said she doesn’t even know you. How can she be fated to be your wife?”

“Do you really think we’d lose to a scoundrel like you?!”

Jeong-Woo stood back up, stabbing his iron sword into the ground. He roused his qi before rushing at the man with the saber.

“Hmm... You know, I have a lot of patience, but you people really need to be taught a lesson.”

There was only a single step between Jeong-Woo and the man. The man dashed forward and, after easily dodging Jeong-Woo’s attack, kneed him violently in the stomach.

Thud!

Jeong-Woo bent over like a shrimp and almost vomited on the spot.

“Ugh!”

Sheathing his saber, the man swung down at Jeong-Woo’s back.

Clack!

“Enough. Let’s stop this here.”

The man looked over at Woo-Moon, whose well-timed rock had stopped the saber in its tracks.

“And who the hell are you now?”

“Uncle!”

The fallen Distinguished Swords looked at Woo-Moon before dropping their heads in shame.

“I’m sorry, but they are my nephews. I can’t let them get beaten up anymore.”

“Really? Well, I’m sorry, but I feel that I have to hit this brat a little more,” the man responded before swinging at Jeong-Woo again.

Just before the man’s blow landed, Woo-Moon grabbed the long curtain draped over the entrance of the brothel and tore it, flicking it like a whip in one smooth motion.

Woosh!

The man’s blow missed again as the cloth wrapped around Jeong-Woo and dragged him toward Woo-Moon.

Jeong-Woo bowed his head.

“I have no excuses, Uncle.”

With a stern expression on his face, Woo-Moon asked him what had happened.

However, Jeong-Woo found himself unable to answer, as he felt that he would be admitting he lacked the skill to solve the issue on his own and trying to get Woo-Moon to do it for him.

“It’s fine, just tell me what happened. Who's at fault?”

If Woo-Moon had been any other member of the Baek Family, he might well have just exploded in a fiery rage at the brothel, raging at the Distinguished Swords for getting beaten by some random person as the best talents of the family.

Then, rather than figuring out who was right or wrong, he most likely would have tried to intimidate his opponent to preserve the honor of the Baek Family.

However, Woo-Moon wasn’t interested in such things in the first place, and even now, he was just trying to find out who was in the right. If the Distinguished Swords had been the one to make a mistake, he planned to apologize and end things here.

“While we were drinking and enjoying our time with the courtesans, that man just suddenly barged in and drew his saber. He was screaming about how one of the courtesans, Hong Mae, was to be his wife. However, Hong Mae insisted that she didn’t even know the man.”

Woo-Moon turned to look at a courtesan standing in the corner, watching the entire situation go down. From the looks of it, she was Hong Mae.

If he was being honest, she didn’t have a pretty face for a courtesan—no, in truth, she was mediocre in terms of appearance, but that was besides the point.

“Is what my nephew just said true?”

As Woo-Moon expected, the girl was indeed Hong Mae.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“You really don’t know that man?”

“Not at all,” Hong Mae said coldly. However, Woo-Moon could see that there was a slight waver in her gaze and voice.

‘Is there some sort of story? Well, either way...’

The situation had been unfair from the beginning for his nephews.

A strange man suddenly broke in while they were enjoying themselves. Not only was their enjoyment interrupted, but that man even started a fight and beat them.

No matter what was going on between the man and Hong Mae, at the very least, it was unfair to his nephews.

The man seemed angered by Hong Mae's words. He pointed at Woo-Moon with the weirdly-shaped long saber in his hand.

“How noisy. You’re a man; why do you talk so much? If you came running all this way to save your worthless nephews who got beaten up while playing at a brothel, wouldn’t things just get solved if you just fought me like a man?”

Jeong-Woo and the other Distinguished Swords clenched their fists in shame, while Woo-Moon was even more enraged at the man disrespecting his nephews.

“You really talk disrespectfully, as expected of a bastard who chases around a girl who doesn’t like you back. Fine, if you want to fight, let’s fight.”

So Geom-Rak, the man with the abnormally long sword, also grew angry at Woo-Moon’s dismissive insults.

“I’ll make you regret saying something like that.”

“How noisy. You’re a man; why do you talk so much?”

So Geom-Rak exploded when Woo-Moon grinned and imitated his earlier words.

“I’ll kill you, you bastard!” he shouted as he punched Woo-Moon.

Swish!

Woo-Moon dodged his attack easily. At that moment, So Geom-Rak’s eyebrows twitched.

“Oh, it looks like you picked up a few moves somewhere!”

He attacked Woo-Moon using a completely different technique and footwork from before. His hand seemed to split into three, striking at Woo-Moon’s face and both shoulders at the same time.

Swoosh!

Woo-Moon’s figure blurred and dissipated as So Geom-Rak’s hand simply struck the air—it was the Divine Phantasm Steps.