NOVEL NEXT Chapter 39
Chapter 39: The Most Important 2cm
I quickly tried to calm the pillar of fire.
The national anthem won’t do.
I needed something more shocking than that.
‘There’s no choice, I have to think of something even more shocking······!’
I conjured forbidden thoughts in my mind.
Me, lying alone.
Drrr, the door opens.
And in walks my older brother. He whispers in my ear while hugging me from behind.
‘Disciple, I prefer men to women. The scholars of Beijing say that true love is not between a man and a woman, but between men. Will you accept my heart?’
The image of my older brother laughing and pouncing on me flashed before my eyes.
A confession of male love!
Could it be that I was haunted by such a horrific thought?
Cold sweat trickled down my back, and my face turned pale.
Truly, my walking mental illness of an older brother is bad for my mental health.
“Are you okay? You don’t look well, Confucius.”
Swish.
Seoharin approached me with a blank expression and placed her hand on my forehead.
Her cold touch made me feel slightly calmer.
A woman in the Gongdong Sect, which used to be filled with men.
Though she’s just a kid, her presence brightened up the atmosphere.
“I’m fine. Thank you for your concern, Miss Seo.”
“······Understood. Then, I’ll be washing myself······.”
She removed her hand at my words.
Why does she keep insisting on washing herself?
My body is a 14-year-old entering the tumultuous period of adolescence.
Her touch was at risk of sending my pillar of fire into an unexpected biological reaction.
That can’t happen.
Even if she’s a pretty girl, how embarrassing would that be in front of her?
“I’m fine, Miss Seo. I can wash myself. And according to Confucian teachings, men and women should not intermingle. So, it wouldn’t be right to have you wash my male body.”
I refused her offer with very Confucian-Taliban logic.
Honestly, bathing with a beauty and the subsequent Cloud and Rain Pleasure is on my bucket list, too.
But unless she were the grown-up future Baekdojeilhwa Seoharin, the current Seoharin is just a pretty child.
“Understood. Then I’ll step out while you wash, Confucius.”
Drrr, click.
Seoharin closed the door and left.
The basin of water and towel she brought remained.
“Phew.”
Once she left, I let out a sigh of relief and tossed aside the blanket.
Finally, my time alone had come.
I first took out the hidden list from my pants and placed it in the chest, then pulled out a bottle of oil.
It was time to do the Jerk Exercise I couldn’t do yesterday.
My oiled hands moved downward.
*
Outside, Seoharin’s clear but emotionless eyes scanned the surroundings of the Gongdong Sect.
‘Why… did he refuse?’
Her mind was filled with questions.
Though still young, Seoharin was very aware of her beauty.
She was well aware of the yearning gazes of the men around her.
Yet, Lee Cheol-soo had naturally rejected her offer to wash him.
Seoharin knew better than anyone that his refusal wasn’t false modesty.
There was no lust evident on his face.
‘······A rather peculiar person.’
Memories of that day replayed in Seoharin’s mind.
The way Lee Cheol-soo looked at her as he pushed against Heukryongbang was not the gaze of a man towards a woman.
If anything…
It resembled a father’s gaze looking at his daughter.
Even when she was wounded and wrapped by Baek Geon-ah, it was like that.
Lee Cheol-soo, who was the same age as her, looked at her as if she were a child.
‘······Ugh.’
A slight crack appeared on Seoharin’s emotionless face.
It happened again.
She wasn’t sure if it was due to that small favor, but her emotions rarely swayed just thinking about the inn.
‘······It wasn’t great to act cool after fighting with Heukdo, but·····.’
He truly was a strange person.
Just thinking about him stirred the origins of these feelings.
But she had no intention of neglecting Lee Cheol-soo’s care.
As her father advised, it was safer to be in Gongdong Mountain than in the inn.
To stay in Gongdong Sect, she had to pull her weight.
Thus, Seoharin was determined to do her best to care for Lee Cheol-soo.
‘No matter how I think about it, he isn’t in a state to wash himself yet.’
And she thought Lee Cheol-soo’s movements seemed uncomfortable.
However, having already been rejected due to the gender difference, she found no option.
‘If I am a woman and cannot do it, then I have no choice but to ask Yujinhwi.’
Though she wanted to assist, there was no help for it.
Thinking that, Seoharin made her way towards the kitchen where Yujinhwi was.
Gongdong Sect’s kitchen.
Yujinhwi was chopping up pork he had obtained for the disciple with a kitchen knife.
‘I didn’t know the disciple liked pork.’
During this time, Yujinhwi had figured out roughly what kind of foods the disciple liked.
He liked things like snake, eel, and dandelion.
So, when the disciple was bedridden with an injury, he initially thought of going to catch a snake in the mountains.
But what the disciple requested was surprisingly pork.
‘The disciple must have wanted meat. I need to make sure to give him meat with every meal from now on.’
Just then, while Yujinhwi was preparing to make boiled pork, he heard a voice from outside the door.
“Yujin, are you there?”
Seoharin’s voice rang out.
Yujinhwi’s expression stiffened slightly.
Though she had accepted in her mind that Seoharin was staying at the main temple to care for Lee Cheol-soo, her heart was still struggling to accept it.
Suppressing the strange discomfort rising in his chest, Yujinhwi turned to respond.
“What is it, Miss Seo?”
Into Yujinhwi’s sight came Seoharin with dead eyes.
She, locking eyes with Yujinhwi, spoke in a stiff voice.
“I’m sorry, but could you please wash the body of this gentleman? Originally, I intended to do it myself, but he rejected my offer saying that men and women should not intermingle······. However, he seems to be having difficulty moving, so I’m reluctantly asking you, as a fellow man.”
Her polite tone had no emotion behind it, and Yujinhwi’s eyes widened.
In the Central Martial World, where strict separations between men and women existed, it was incredibly shameful for a woman to wash a man’s bare body, even if it was to care for a sick person.
Yet, Seoharin had the kind of beauty that any boy around her age would admire and would eventually become a stunning beauty.
Because of that, there would be very few men who would refuse her request.
‘But the disciple refused······!’
Yet Lee Cheol-soo had refused.
That fact slightly relaxed Yujinhwi’s stiff expression.
A faint smile crept onto her lips.
As expected, my disciple. He is not swayed by beauty or desire. He doesn’t let just any woman by his side.
And······.
It was good to be a man. Then, since men and women should not intermingle, this should be done by men.
Only I, as his older brother, just a fellow man, can do this.
Seoharin, seeing Yujinhwi’s face unable to hide his emotions, felt her eyes deepen.
‘Really strange.’
Someone who is kind to everyone, Yujinhwi, was rattled to this extent by Lee Cheol-soo.
Lee Cheol-soo was truly an interesting person the more one gets to know him.
“Understood. As the lady says, since the work of a man should be handled by men, I’ll wash the disciple. While I’m doing that, Miss Seo, could you prepare a special meal for the disciple?”
“Understood.”
After hearing Seoharin’s response, Yujinhwi excitedly took off into the air.
Left alone in the kitchen, Seoharin looked at the prepared pork and boiling water, tilting her head.
‘Is this how it works?’
Unfortunately, Seoharin had no talent for cooking.
*
If I continue to perform the Jerk Exercise along with the Hanging Exercise, theoretically, by the time I become an adult, my pillar of fire would grow about 2cm.
2cm, some might say it’s just 2cm, but for me, that 2cm is crucial.
If I can just grow 2cm more, it would create an ideally sized pillar of fire, neither too big nor too small.
To me, 2cm represents the wall between the Transcendence stage and the Ultimate stage. Without the enlightenment of 2cm, I could never reach the absolute realm and would remain stuck at the Ultimate stage.
While I was continuing my training.
“Hoo. Hmph.”
A presence was detected approaching my room rapidly through the open armor.
Presence?!
How long has it been since I was alone?! Why is someone constantly approaching my room?
I was bubbling with frustration, but there was nothing I could do.
I didn’t want to get caught doing the Jerk Exercise and cause misunderstandings.
I quickly tried to calm my pillar of fire.
Just as the presence reached the door.
I naturally pulled up the blanket and lay down.
Drrr, click.
As I covered myself with the blanket, the sliding door opened.
Good, that was natural.
At that moment, just as I was lying there with my eyes closed.
“Disciple! I’ve come to wash your body!”
Whoosh.
The blanket was pulled off, along with my older brother’s voice ringing out.
Wait, my brother?!
My brother is going to wash my body?
As the horrendous nature of the situation washed over me, my face went pale.
“Disciple, you sent away Miss Seo, saying she was a woman, right? Good job. I’m a man like you, so you can safely entrust your body to me.”
Swish.
My brother half-raised my body and hugged me from behind, whispering enthusiastically in my ear.
Hearing his words, I truly felt like the sky was collapsing.
No, not this…!
*
Hwajeong County, Underworld.
Sayeonghoe Manor, Separate Wing.
In a separate wing that had been rather luxuriously set up for surveillance purposes by the Heukryongbang, the elite female fighter Hwa Myeon-ho-gyeom, or rather Jeoksawol, was staying.
‘Hoo.‘
Jeoksawol sighed inwardly while looking at the garden.
Though it was called a manor, in reality, it was remarkably smaller compared to real large estates, and the scenery of the garden that entered her view was crude at best.
However, the scenery of the garden did not catch Jeoksawol’s eyes at all.
‘That damn guy, he wouldn’t be seriously injured, right?’
The first man to pass the Hwa Myeon-ho-gyeom’s test.
The man who had showered her with indecent proposals.
A boy who audaciously toyed with the heart of the one and only Sado Ryeonju, even if only for a moment.
But mediocre in strength, he was a disciple of the Gongdong Sect who had been hurt because of her exerted power.
Dreaming of Lee Cheol-soo’s face sent Jeoksawol’s heart into confusion.
Thump.
Her heart raced.
Though she had just given him the list, she felt strangely concerned.
‘Concern?’
Me, Jeoksawol? The Supreme Leader of Hao Mun and an absolute master of Hyun-gyeong, one of the three great powers in the world?
The number one beauty in the world that all men admire and all women envy?
To worry about a mere Gongdong Sect boy disciple, especially one with a 40-year age gap?
“That’s impossible!”
Jeoksawol suddenly stood up from her chair, murmuring as if convincing herself.
Yes, that’s impossible.
This feeling is not concern. It’s a sense of responsibility for unconsciously hurting someone who passed the test.
The greatest beauty in the world, who captivates all men with her captivating looks, Jeoksawol bit her lip as she refuted her feelings.
Then—
“Did you call for me, Lady?”
Sayeonghoejoo walked into the separate wing respectfully.
Seeing him, Jeoksawol cleared her throat and spoke.
“I’m going to visit the main base of Heukryongbang for a bit.”
Jeoksawol was without her mask at that moment.
The terrible burn scar covered half of her face, given by the imprinted mask of Hwa Myeon-ho-gyeom.
“What business do you have at the main base······.”
As Sayeonghoejoo spoke, Jeoksawol discerned his disdain hidden in his eyes as he glanced at the scar from the mask.
Although the strict hierarchy prohibited him from showing it openly.
This is normal.
Regardless of gender, most humans would feel aversion toward ugly appearances.
Especially men tended to regard women’s appearances more seriously, hence it was even more so.
Yes.
That’s what I believed until I met that damn boy.
Recalling Lee Cheol-soo’s remark that one can do so without regard to appearance, Jeoksawol’s heart began to tremble again.
Desperately trying to dismiss Lee Cheol-soo’s image from her mind, she said.
“······Am I obliged to report to you about what I do? Don’t cause trouble while I’m away.”
“Understood, Lady.”
With Sayeonghoejoo’s words behind her, Jeoksawol soared outside the separate wing, holding onto the Martial Arts Competition Document.
Her feet were heading toward Sichuan, where Heukryongbang’s main base is located.