NOVPUB
Chapter 116: Chunbong's Puberty (3)
Puberty-stricken Chunbong. That fearsome title...
Seojun had no idea how to navigate through this dreadful situation.
“Starting today, we’re sleeping separately.”
“What...! No, Miss Geum! Why all of a sudden?!”
“It was strange to begin with... an unmarried man and woman sharing a bed.”
“Siblings sleep together all the time!”
“That’s only when they’re kids.”
Hmph. With a cold snort, Chunbong gathered her things and moved to the next room.
Since the annex that the Namgung Clan had given to Seojun had several rooms, Chunbong’s was about five steps away from Seojun’s.
He stuck his head through her doorway and grumbled.
“I can’t sleep without my Chunbubbie...”
“You slept perfectly fine while I was away—and did all sorts of nonsense too. What are you whining about?”
“Well... that was then...”
“Just deal with it.”
With that, Chunbong shut the door firmly.
“I’m changing, so don’t come in.”
“...My Chunbong has grown up... So big bro doesn’t have to help you dress anymore...?”
“Just try it, I dare you! You’re gonna regret it.”
Swish. She poked her head through the door’s crack and stuck out her tongue.
Then she quickly closed the door again and tried to calm her pounding heart.
Yes, this is right.
We’ve been too close until now. If this continues, I’ll never break free from the frame of being his ‘little sister.’
So this is one step back for ten steps forward...
It was something she had to endure.
“Hehe.”
Nothing held her back now. Sure, this menstruation thing was annoying with its pain and bleeding, but it was also proof she could bear children.
Truly adult Chunbong...!
Having already named about a dozen imaginary grandchildren one by one in advance, she grinned broadly as she spread out her bedding.
The revival of the Divine Sword Geum Clan wasn’t far off. 𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑝𝘶𝘣.𝑐𝘰𝘮
*“Mmm...”
Opening her eyes, Chunbong barely managed to sit up, her head nodding sleepily.
“Yawn... Water...”
“Aww, little Chunbong. Here you go.”
As she tilted her head back, water met her lips. She swallowed automatically, then yawned again and stretched both arms high.
“There you go, good girl.”
Her body moved on autopilot. With practiced hands, someone dressed her in clean clothes.
Still half-asleep, Chunbong swayed on her feet as gentle fingers combed through her hair.
The soft touch made her even more sleepy. As she yawned again, she tried to remember the date.
Today is...
What day of the week was it again?
After about five minutes of mental struggle, she finally remembered.
She giggled at the tiny victory. Then her eyes flew open.
“W-What!”
“What do you mean what?”
Seojun stood right in front of her, tilting his head.
Startled, Chunbong looked around. It was Seojun’s room, which had become emptier than usual. Why was she here?
Her eyes widened.
“Hey! You kidnapped me while I was sleeping!”
“No I didn’t?”
Seojun raised both hands innocently, his expression looking genuinely innocent. Chunbong blinked in confusion.
“Then why am I here...?”
“Because you came in and laid down in the middle of the night?”
“But I definitely fell asleep in my room?”
“Wouldn’t know.”
Seojun shrugged.
Chunbong tried to trace her memory. What on earth had happened last night...?
After a long mental struggle, a hazy fragment surfaced.
Yawn... What is this...
The cool air. The particularly empty space beside her.
Where did that bastard Lee Seojun go...
She vaguely remembered getting up from bed groggily, staggering to her brother’s room, and flinging the door open...!
“No way...”
Had she become someone who couldn’t even maintain her own boundaries?
Shocked, Chunbong clutched her head.
“Hey, Miss Geum. We should get going soon.”
“Huh? Oh, right. Yeah. Let’s go.”
“Go wash your face first.”
“Oh, wash my face. Yes. Right.”
Seojun watched Chunbong move in a daze and tilted his head.
What’s with her?
Geum Chunbong...! You’re this cute even in puberty...!?
- Hey! I told you not to wash my clothes with yours!
- Get away from me, you stink!
- Sleep together? You pervert. Just die already?
- I can’t live with someone like you anymore. I’m leaving, so don’t come looking for me.
Seojun, who had secretly run simulations for every worst-case puberty scenario, was greatly relieved.
Just keep growing like this...
He embraced this small hope.
*“It goes without saying that qi is essential for forming and developing qi muscle, but for the Supreme Force Monstrous Divine Art, it’s better to abandon the idea of increasing your inner qi.”
Another day, another session with the Fist King.
Seojun followed his guidance faithfully, but also wasn’t afraid to toss out anything he found useless.
“Can’t I do both?”
“...Do whatever you want, brat.”
From the Transcendent Realm onward, one must walk their own path.
If their disciple had reached the Transcendent Realm, a master could only offer scattered advice at that stage.
For two people who practiced the same martial art, once they found their own path, each would inevitably walk a different road.
In Seojun’s unique case with none who seemed to walk an even remotely similar path, it was best to simply let him do as he pleased.
And in truth, he handled things well on his own.
“Fist techniques aren’t that different from sword techniques. It’s just about linking the parts properly, right?”
“Aren’t most weapons just extensions of the body? Hands are shorter in reach but more versatile.”
“Aha, I see.”
Seojun molded fist techniques to fit the natural flow of his qi rather than pouring inner qi into the path of the fist.
It was similar to when he first used sword qi and slowly grasped fragments of the unity between the body and sword.
Seojun unleashed the Supreme Force Monstrous Divine Art with fist force wrapped around his hands.
Smashing space with each strike and enduring incoming attacks.
He reshaped the Fist King’s brutish style into something that suited him, patching up gaps in technique by incorporating other martial arts.
Then, he suddenly realized.
“Shouldn’t this be called the Supreme Force Monstrous God Style instead of the Supreme Force Monstrous Divine Art?”
“If that’s what you want to call it, go ahead. Wasn’t my name to begin with.”
“Good.”
From now on, it’s the Supreme Force Monstrous God Style.
As training continued, proper muscles began to take root in Seojun’s body.
While not quite on Pae Jingwang’s level, his physique was now hard and tough enough to transcend human limits. His body size had also increased slightly, and he had gained weight.
Now he felt he might even stand a chance in arm wrestling Namgung Suah.
However, he was patient.
What he wanted was an overwhelming victory. He trained diligently, enduring present hardships for the day when he could crush Namgung Suah with ease.
Pae Jingwang, who’d been observing Seojun’s progress with pride, was shocked the next day.
“What...! Where the hell did your muscles go, you bastard!”
“Oh, the muscles.”
Seojun, now considerably slimmer than the day before, flashed a grin.
“This is what’s called compression muscles.”
Qi muscles? It was supposed to be qi transformed into physical tissue, but nonetheless qi at its core.
He roughly compressed it, reducing volume while increasing density.
Literally, compressed muscles.
“Why the hell would you do such a thing...!”
“But this is more efficient, isn’t it?”
“You are not a man! Leave the mountain immediately!”
“This isn’t even a mountain, though.”
“Fine! Let’s see who dies today!”
That day, the Clan Head’s personal training ground was half-destroyed.
The Namgung clan members rushed over in alarm, but Namgung Jincheon only chuckled and said one thing:
“The training ground can always be rebuilt. Focus on your cultivation...”
The mighty Namgung Clan...
Seojun had to squeeze his eyes shut against the halo shining above Namgung Jincheon’s head.
Pae Jingwang grumbled about it for quite a while.
“Ugh... No matter how hard I try, I can’t beat you. So damn frustrating.”
“You could still get stronger than me, you know.”
“Fine, want to go another round?”
“What? So we can destroy the training ground again? You really want to do this?”
Now, the martial prowess between Seojun and Pae Jingwang was nearly equal. For one of them to win, they’d have to go all out—prepared to die on the spot.
And that someone would probably be Seojun.
If he took a clean hit from one of Pae Jingwang’s fists, his body would be pulverized.
And if his body was pulverized... wouldn’t he die?
Seojun gave it serious thought.
Or maybe not? Would I die?
Despite his curiosity, he didn’t dare test it.
If he actually died, it would go down as the dumbest death in the entire Central Plains.
When he asked Pae Jingwang, the big guy also thought about it seriously.
“I’m not sure. If you keep running while we’re fighting, I might not be able to catch you.”
“But if I did get caught, I’d die, right?”
“About that technique you used before. The Heaven-Defying Sun-Moon Reinforced Qi was it? The one you used when fighting the Qilian Sect Leader. Even I would get cut quite deeply if I were hit by that. So I can’t say for sure.”
“I don’t think it’d even cut halfway through your neck.”
“Normal people die when their neck’s cut halfway.”
“I don’t think you would, old man.”
“Well... I’ve never been cut before.”
Chunbong, overhearing all this, had a strange expression on her face.
Why on earth were these lunatics fighting when they both thought they would lose...?
She edged closer to Namgung Suah, who at least seemed relatively normal. Until she spoke.
“Sister Geum.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t Seojun’s arms look... really firm?”
“Oh, uh... yeah, they do.”
“Wouldn’t it feel nice to be choked by them?”
Chunbong immediately retreated. Big sis has officially lost it too.
Maybe we’d grown too close...?
Before, used to keep up some air of dignity... now there was none.
A sudden realization hit Chunbong.
Are there any sane martial artists who’ve reached the higher realms?
That makes me think, reaching such heights was probably impossible without being a little crazy.
What about me...?
Chunbong took time for self-reflection.
She was definitely the most normal person here no matter how she sliced it.
“Sigh... I guess I have to be the sane one.”
That’s when Namgung Jincheon descended from the sky.
“Son-in-law...”
“Oh, Father-in-law!”
“Great Uncle has set a date... One week from now...”
“A date? You mean for the trial?”
“That’s right...”
According to Namgung Jincheon, Namgung Hyeok’s test had three parts:
Loyalty.
Swordsmanship.
Martial arts.
“He said if you pass two out of the three, he’ll acknowledge you... If that happens, he will likely support you, and we won’t need to worry about any further opposition...”
“What if I fail?”
At Seojun’s question, Namgung Jincheon simply smiled and said nothing.
“That’s not something you need to concern yourself with...”
Though he’d planned to intervene if Namgung Hyeok truly intended to destroy Seojun’s dantian and cut off his tongue and wrists, it didn’t seem like that would happen.
Even if Seojun failed, it was clear that Great Uncle had no intention of harming his son-in-law.
Without elaborating further, Namgung Jincheon left behind one final encouragement.
“Use this chance to firmly secure your place...”
For his son-in-law, it wouldn’t be a difficult task.
