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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: TushChen
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Midnight.
It was a time when there should be no signs of activity.
As I had requested, Tang Do-gyeong arrived at midnight, and Yu Sa-yeon greeted him.
“So, you mean you’re giving me a few days to experience if I can live as a Sacheon outcast?”
“That’s right. I don’t think you want to become a Sacheon outcast for money. Let’s start by having you stay with the outcasts for a few days before we discuss further.”
“Hmm… Alright.”
Considering Tang Do-gyeong’s transcendent status, his quarters were now assigned on the 3rd floor.
The Outcast Inn had a 4-floor structure, with the 1st floor the living space, the 2nd floor for outcasts’ rooms, the 3rd floor for special rooms, and the 4th floor for Yu Sa-yeon’s living quarters.
Around the hour of In (3 AM), I got up and went out for morning training.
“Ho brother is training?”
“Will the sun rise in the west today?”
“Tsk.”
I knew I couldn’t develop any further.
Still, in the outcasts’ eyes, I was probably just a lazy guy who didn’t train and only gambled.
I came down this morning to swing my sword to observe Tang Do-gyeong so the outcasts’ words weren’t entirely wrong.
As I practiced sword techniques for the first time, outcasts started coming down, and Tang Do-gyeong came down, too.
Since Tang Do-gyeong’s joining had already been announced during the former colleagues’ duel yesterday, outcasts who wanted to train with Tang Do-gyeong in the morning flocked in.
“Today, I’ll explain this move of the Fierce Tiger Fist technique for about half a shichen.”
Was the Fierce Tiger Fist technique the one Tang Do-gyeong had created?
All the outcasts stopped their training and focused on Tang Do-gyeong, and I, too, learned the second move of the Fierce Tiger Fist, [Twin Tiger Fist].
“Tch.”
Most martial arts performed with the body start from the first-rate realm.
Filling energy is essential to withstand collisions with blades using just the body.
Those mainly using fists sometimes use brass knuckles or leg guards.
Still, it’s generally expected to protect hands and feet with just a layer of leather.
The reason for fighting using only the bare body, which is inferior in range, strength, and hardness, is because it’s advantageous in handling energy, so it can be said that bare-handed martial arts start from the first-rate realm where energy can be handled appropriately.
I came out swinging my sword from dawn today because I wanted to confirm if Tang Do-gyeong was teaching the outcasts genuine martial arts.
I, Ho Cheon-an. A man who prided himself on knowing everything about Murim Cheonha.
I didn’t know everything, but I was an old-timer who could pride myself on learning everything about the game [Murim Cheonha] I had seen through the monitor.
If I met Tang Do-gyeong in Murim Cheonha, I only had to choose one of three options: fight, ignore, or recruit.
I needed to know Tang Do-gyeong’s realm, martial arts, and characteristics to do that. The key to recruiting Tang Do-gyeong was fist techniques.
While gifts are the basics of recruitment, if you gift fist techniques, Tang Do-gyeong can easily be an ally.
If you meet Tang Do-gyeong as an enemy, surprisingly, the easiest way to catch him is to detonate poison bombs.
Tang Do-gyeong’s pattern is not to retreat even in the face of poison, so if you just endure until the effect of the antidote he carries wears off, you can win surprisingly easily.
I knew everything else about Tang Do-gyeong’s limited realm, characteristics, and the martial arts he possessed.
However, the human Tang Do-gyeong I’m living within this Murim Cheonha now is someone I don’t know.
No matter how much of a Murim Cheonha old-timer I am, how could I know every character’s history?
I could only learn things related to the scenarios that unfolded in Murim Cheonha. And even if I knew one or two such fragmentary facts, could I say I knew Tang Do-gyeong?
Just look at Yeo Il-ye.
Because she was Yeo Il-ye, who lost her parents to outcasts, I never expected her to regard me as a benefactor even if I gave her enlightenment.
Apart from the fact that ‘she lost her parents to outcasts’, numerous other things that make up Yeo Il-ye’s inner self must have worked to produce the current result.
I couldn’t even guess Tang Do-gyeong’s inner thoughts about why he was releasing the energy techniques he had pondered over and sweated to create to complete strangers who were outcasts.
Curiosity reared its head as to why Tang Do-gyeong was doing this, but resolving the situation took priority over satisfying curiosity.
“Since I can’t keep calling you without a name, I’d like to call you ‘Ya brother’ temporarily, if that’s alright?”
“Do as you please.”
“Thank you, Ya brother.”
I hope it’s not the ‘Ya’ from the Shell game.
Anyway, we started the shell game match.
As I watched Tang Do-gyeong concentrating with wide eyes, the faint conscience cells in my heart pricked my chest.
The plan to confine Tang Do-gyeong to the Outcast Inn was good for both Tang Do-gyeong and the Outcast Inn.
Because if Tang Do-gyeong became a Sacheon outcast, they would both end up unhappy.
Instead, being captured and locked up in a brain prison to cool his head would be a better choice, even for Tang Do-gyeong’s life.
Even if he was from the Tang family, if rumors spread that he was part of the same gang as Sacheon outcasts in Sacheon, his life wouldn’t be easy.
Still, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt for deceiving Tang Do-gyeong, who had come in for a fair match, trapping him in the Outcast Inn, and planning to backstab him.
In a gambling match, I wanted to lose the Blood Jade Plaque fair and square.
The reason why Tang Do-gyeong could never win this match against me:
It’s because this match is [gambling].
Martial arts masters are not gods.
They’re just masters of martial arts.
Masters who possess many mysterious resources called energy might find everything in this world easy, but just having a lot of energy doesn’t mean they can challenge any field.
Well, maybe if you’re a Heavenly Demon or Sword God.
At that level, they might be able to snatch a single game from me with their overwhelming abilities.
But if I was having this match with Do-gwi right now?
Since it would be over if he had just won one game, he might have lost the Blood Jade Plaque in less than an hour, even if he used all his skills in hand techniques and psychology.
Tang Do-gyeong is a martial arts master at the transcendent level, but he’s below third-rate as a gambler.
At the same time, Do-gwi is ordinary, but the best gambling master Ho Cheon-an has met.
If there were realms in gambling, he would probably be at least transcendent level.
Martial artists believe they’re the best at anything physical because their bodies are trained in martial arts and their martial arts skills, but that’s nonsense from non-professionals.
Is life over just because you learned some martial arts?
If you want to beat a gambler in gambling, you should learn gambling techniques.
If Tang Do-gyeong’s pure goal was to beat me and win back the Blood Jade Plaque, he had already lost.
There are at most 4 cups, and if you keep mindlessly guessing, you’ll eventually choose the correct answer, whether you miss it in between or not.
Just watching gambling techniques with your eyes increases gambling skill proficiency little by little.
However, that only increases if you have the intention to learn gambling techniques.
Can you figure out magic tricks just by watching magic videos on YouTube if you intend to enjoy them?
You have to watch with the intention of learning, staring with your eyes wide open, repeatedly watching at 0.25x speed, trying to figure out the trick, and only then do you gradually understand.
In the current situation where Tang Do-gyeong is just trying to break my techniques with his eyes alone, focusing only on vision, he cannot win.
In a hostile relationship, even advice can be seen as provocation, but it wouldn’t be bad to tell him now.
Seeing Tang Do-gyeong barking up the wrong tree again and again today, I stopped the cups.
“Brother Tang.”
“Speak.”
“What’s your purpose in playing this shell game with me?”
“To get back the Blood Jade Plaque, of course.”
“I see. So you’re purely focusing on the match with me, right?”
“Isn’t that obvious? That’s why I’m staring so intently.”
“But somehow, I feel like I’m fighting a fist master with both arms tied.”
Tang Do-gyeong frowned.
His expression was half bewildered and half angry.
“If you want to win at shell games, you should break down the shell game technique itself. Why are you only thinking about following the dice with your eyes?”
“…!”
“I’m not here to help you train your vision. If you truly want to get the Blood Jade Plaque back, watch my hands, not the dice.”
Tang Do-gyeong didn’t answer.
I, too, just moved my hands.
Until the agreed hour passed, there was no conversation between Tang Do-gyeong and me.
We just silently pointed at cups and shuffled them repeatedly until the time was up, and we stood.
What choice Tang Do-gyeong would make would only be known tomorrow.
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“Hero Tang! I am Jeong Sam of the Half-Moon Blade! Welcome to becoming a Sacheon outcast!”
“Haha, aren’t outcasts’ real names supposed to be secret? Since I’m in the middle of a test, please withdraw that.”
“You’re already half a Sacheon outcast. I should at least let you know my name, if nothing else!”
Jeong Sam, that sly bastard, I thought he had the face of a sycophant from the first time I saw him 7 years ago, and he’s finally causing trouble.
The Outcast Inn, which had barely maintained anonymity, burst open like a floodgate as soon as Jeong Sam revealed his name.
Regardless of whether they’re Comrade Faction or Flower Path Faction, in the end, they’re all groups that look at Tang Do-gyeong with favorable eyes.
Even the Flower Path Faction would want to tell Tang Do-gyeong their names.
Once the flow burst open, it turned into a scene where outcasts who liked Tang Do-gyeong competed to reveal their names.
In the end, the Comrade Faction guys, given what they advocate and how desperate they are, were in a position where they had no choice but to cause trouble first.
As the greetings were mainly over and the two factions kept each other in check, I raised my hand to signal two people.
“Ohohohoho!”
“Huhuhuhu!”
As the two laughed, attention was briefly drawn to them.
Black Cat. Charming despite operating the Black Shadow Qi technique.
Yu Sa-yeon. Just the innkeeper.
Her age would make her extremely angry if mentioned, but she takes good care of herself.
She’s not at a level where she’d be treated as an ugly woman anywhere.
Well, it’s not like the outcasts of the Outcast Inn would harbor romantic feelings for Yu Sa-yeon anyway.
Anyway, with these two women laughing in an inn that reeked of bachelors, it felt like the scene was naturally being purified.
“So, what’s your ideal type of man?”
Ears perked up.
Black Cat’s ideal type?
As an outcast of the Outcast Inn, it was news one couldn’t help but listen to.
“Well, let’s see. I don’t like men who cause trouble recklessly without any plan. Just watching them charge in as if showing enthusiasm alone solves all problems makes me lose all affection. How could I trust and hold hands with such a person?”
“Hmm. Being passionate isn’t bad, is it?”
“That’s different from being passionate. Even if there’s a flame inside, one should know how to hold it in their heart and endure. What’s attractive about someone who just says nice things with their mouth but wants to do things only as they please? How can it make sense to put people in difficult situations and then expect them to like you?”
“That’s true. Boldness and recklessness are completely different. It’s hard to like someone who just burns themselves with passion alone for something that has no chance of success.”
“Right, right. Even for a martial artist, someone who just draws their weapon and wants to fight without thinking is a bit off-putting.”
It seems the plan was set into motion.
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