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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Teottry
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Late in the evening, the stars scattered across the night sky.
Wang Meiyang, sitting on the wooden floor, swinging her legs like a pendulum and staring blankly at the stars, turned to her disciple and said,
“Why don’t we stop for today and rest?”
“Haah… haah… Just a little longer.”
But Mancheon shook his head and assumed a stance, preparing to practice Tai Chi Chuan again.
“Master, you can go in and sleep first.”
“Then I’ll go in and sleep. I’m sleepy.”
Whether it was a side effect of her forced age regression or simply because her younger body needed more sleep, Wang Meiyang rubbed her eyes, feeling drowsy as the night wore on.
“It’s good that you’re working hard, but you’re getting impatient. Clear your head.”
She pointed out Mancheon’s impatience with drowsy eyes and walked towards their lodgings.
“Impatient.”
Her words hit a homer, and he sighed. He must have been unconsciously putting too much force into his movements again.
It was understandable. The Dragon-Phoenix Gathering had already begun.
He was stuck training, contrary to his original plans, so he was naturally getting impatient.
He knew that such emotions were detrimental to mastering Daoist martial arts, but he couldn’t calm his mind.
He felt increasingly anxious, trapped by a wall.
To be honest, he knew. He wasn’t untalented, but when it came to learning martial arts… he wasn’t… a genius.
He straightened his back and looked up at the vast night sky.
A true genius was someone like Gwahae.
He recalled the blue-eyed girl with an innocent face who wielded power beyond her years.
Surprised by her unexpected talent, he had given her the absurd task of performing the Emptiness Illumination Fist ten thousand times and run away.
Thinking back, it was one of his most pathetic moments.
He could picture Gwahae practicing diligently under the moonlight.
Because he had told her to.
Without any doubt, believing she could do it, she practiced with a pure heart.
“……”
He found himself practicing Tai Chi Chuan again.
‘Calm your mind, forget emotions, strengthen your body, gather your qi.’
He regulated his breathing, circulating his inner energy, and moved his tired body.
‘When the mind dies, the spirit lives. When yang flourishes, yin vanishes.’
He moved his feet, drawing circles, dispelling his anxieties with faith.
‘Heehee~ Aren’t you the genius who can deceive even the heavens? I believe you can easily achieve this.’
His master’s words had probably been a joke, but he had been happy to be acknowledged.
‘Mancheon~ you’re amazing! I want to do that too! Teach me!!’
He had been pleased by Gwahae’s excitement, her beautiful blue eyes shining as she admired his insignificant skill.
A self-deprecating laugh escaped his lips.
He had been tired, truly tired, to even entertain the absurd thought that he wasn’t a genius.
It didn’t matter if he was stuck or if his body couldn’t keep up.
He was the disciple of a genius, the master of a genius.
He had to become a genius who surpassed geniuses, a genius who could deceive even the heavens.
So he cleared his mind and continued to move forward, one step at a time.
‘Carry Tai Chi above your head.’
Tai Chi was the balance of yin and yang, of heaven and earth, of the world.
Carrying Tai Chi above his head meant placing himself at the center of the world.
Standing tall and firm between heaven and earth.
‘Embrace the Eight Trigrams in your chest.’
The Eight Trigrams were qian (heaven), dui (lake), kan (water), li (fire), zhen (thunder), xun (wind), gen (mountain), and kun (earth).
The eight principles that formed all things. Embracing the Eight Trigrams meant accepting their power.
This part had been the most confusing. Even though they were both Daoist martial arts, the Emptiness Illumination Fist and Tai Chi Chuan were different.
While the Emptiness Illumination Fist redirected the opponent’s force, Tai Chi Chuan absorbed and redirected it.
‘Tread the Five Elements with your feet.’
The Five Elements were wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, the cycle of life.
This part was simple. There was no need to overthink it.
He just had to let his body flow naturally with the cycle.
He finished the movements, caught his breath, and looked down at his feet.
The circle he had drawn was the most perfect one yet.
He smiled.
“Just… one more time.”
He assumed the stance again, exhaled, and performed Tai Chi Chuan.
His journey of ten thousand Tai Chi Chuan punches had begun.
Whether he succeeded on the first try, the tenth, the hundredth, or the thousandth…
“I’ll keep going until I succeed.”
Success was success. The result was the same as a genius.
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The next morning,
“Chirp~ Tweet-tweet~!!”
Worried about Mancheon, who hadn’t returned to their lodgings, Wang Meiyang walked towards the training grounds, guided by the chirping of birds.
‘That brat is probably overtraining again…’
And he hadn’t eaten breakfast. She would scold him when she saw him.
As she entered the training grounds,
Wang Meiyang’s eyes widened in surprise.
“……?!”
Countless circles, which hadn’t been there last night, were drawn on the ground.
And in the center,
a perfect circle, a Tai Chi symbol, was drawn, a feat impossible for a cripple.
Wang Meiyang cautiously approached Mancheon, who was standing tall and straight in the center of the Tai Chi symbol, like a pillar connecting heaven and earth.
His face was partially obscured by the shadow cast by the rising sun, but his aura was different.
It felt like she was looking at something immense.
“Teehee~ I’m tired from practicing all night.”
But… she was mistaken.
The imposing aura from moments ago was gone. He wasn’t embarrassed at all.
“W-what?! Get off!”
“Wah! Baby Mancheon wants a piggyback ride!”
He clung to his little master’s small back, practically hanging off of her.
It was almost like a back hug.
“?!?!?!?”
Wang Meiyang’s face flushed crimson at the unexpected physical contact, a contact that transcended the student-teacher relationship.
Just as she was about to throw the impudent disciple off her back,
a low, serious voice whispered in her ear.
“Master, how is the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering progressing?”
“It’s not over yet. The quarterfinals start tomorrow.”
The quarterfinals. It was later than he had planned, but not too late.
He closed his eyes, leaning against Wang Meiyang’s shoulder and back to conserve energy.
The sweet scent of her beautiful blond hair was pleasant.
Mancheon, exhausted from practicing all night, fell asleep, and…
“Just this once.”
Wang Meiyang reluctantly indulged her disciple’s childish request, carrying him on her small back as she walked back to their lodgings.
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As the yin energy from the Hanbingyao subsided, Xiaoshao’s condition began to improve. She sat up in bed, smiling sadly, and comforted Yuehua, who had come to visit.
“I’m feeling better now, so don’t worry. More importantly, Yuehua, the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering…”
“That doesn’t matter now that Sister Xiaoshao is awake!”
Yuehua had skipped the quarterfinals of the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering to visit Xiaoshao as soon as she heard she was awake.
“You must be bored lying in bed all day. I brought a fun game for you.”
She pulled out a beautiful jade die from her pocket.
“Let’s call Sima Mancheon and play together!”
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. There was a knock on Xiaoshao’s door.
“Brother Nangong, it’s Mancheon. I’m coming in.”
“Ah… Y-Young Master Sima… wait…!”
Xiaoshao didn’t want him to see her looking pale and haggard from being bedridden, so she tried to stall him while she tidied herself up, but the door opened without her permission.
“I apologize, but there’s something urgent I need to tell you.”
Looking at Mancheon’s unusually calm face, Xiaoshao realized.
“You’re going to fight… Mudan…”
“Yes, I’m going to settle the score from the inn.”
He walked towards her, leaning on his staff, just like when they had first met.
“I came to tell you that before I go.”
His resolute tone, devoid of hesitation, made Xiaoshao’s slender fingers clench the bedsheets tightly.
“You’ll lose.”
She had to hold on to something, or she would collapse.
She knew Mancheon was strong, but he was weaker than Mudan. He couldn’t win.
Her breath hitched.
The image of her parents’ brutal murder flashed through her mind.
She didn’t want to see another person she cared about get hurt because of her weakness.
Yuehua fidgeted nervously, but Mancheon remained calm.
“Why are you so sure I’ll lose?”
“It’s like dice.”
It was like her own cursed fate, destined to become king.
“There seem to be variables, but the only possible outcomes are one through six. No other number can appear.”
There was no escape. She couldn’t win. She couldn’t run away.
“It’s predetermined.”
Perhaps it was because she was unwell, but her emotions were running high, and she lashed out at Mancheon, bringing up her own unrelated fate.
But… Mancheon didn’t flinch.
“Then how about a wager?”
“Excuse me?”
He calmly proposed a gamble in response to her irrational logic.
“I’ll roll the die now.”
He reached out and picked up the jade die from the table.
“If the number is less than six, I lose. If it’s any other number, I win.”
‘That’s absurd…’
Before Xiaoshao could react, Mancheon rolled the die.
“……?!”
The result was one and six, adding up to seven.
He had used his strength to split the die in half just before rolling it.
“That’s… that’s… just wordplay…”
“Yes, it’s sophistry.”
He dropped the honorifics, no longer wanting to call her “Brother.”
He took a step closer to Xiaoshao, their eyes meeting.
“And that’s what fate is, something that can be broken by simple sophistry.”
He declared war against the girl trapped by her heavy fate.
“Wait for me. I’ll show you how insignificant your so-called fate is.”
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The hero came with the new technique under his sleeves huh?😏
