Chapter 5: Those who have mastered internal energy and those who have not

Danryang disliked Seo.

There wasn’t any specific conflict.

Seo hadn’t done anything particularly offensive.

To be more precise…

Danryang needed someone inferior, lacking, despised by all.

It wasn’t about anyone else—it was Danryang’s own issue.

Sometimes, in dreams, a vivid memory of his childhood surfaced.

– Can I become the cult’s sharp sword?

– Don’t worry, dear. You take after us, so you’ll be a fine warrior.

In dreams, young Danryang asked his revered true disciple parents.

But, unlike their words, he couldn’t become a fine warrior, let alone learn martial arts.

– Kids?

– A halfwit who can’t learn martial arts dares to…

Young Danryang looked desperately at the kids insulting him.

Sadly, they never warmed to him.

– Learning martial arts? You?

– Yeah! Am I cool or what, big sis?!

His innocent younger sibling, not even eight, boasted to him.

Instead of congratulations, he hid in his room, face pale.

His parents’ praise for his sibling, heard through the closed door, made him feel more wretched.

‘I didn’t ask for much…’

Just enough talent to not shame his parents.

Enough to not be abandoned by friends.

Enough to praise his sibling’s achievements without being crushed by inferiority.

Was that so hard to ask?

No.

Everyone around him, except him, had that talent.

Consumed by inferiority for years, clinging to stagnant martial arts, eating to ease the burden, he gained weight.

After a long time, Danryang thought, ‘This can’t go on.’

‘But what can I do now?’

His reflection in the mirror was a far cry from the past, too pathetic to catch a good man or help his family.

Having shunned academics, joining the Law Hall or Strategy Department was unthinkable.

What about the inner hall’s servants, managing the cult’s household?

Even talentless people like him could enter easily, and with connections, one could rise high with just their body.

The decision was quick.

‘There’s no other choice…’

Danryang adapted to servant duties faster than expected.

Though just a plain disciple, perhaps because he’d lived like a true disciple his whole life, he received favors from those who knew his family.

Fawning over senior plain disciples earned him more affection.

Most importantly, here, he wasn’t a halfwit.

For the first time, he could be the most outstanding.

Unlike him, with true disciple parents, his peers were lowly outsiders.

‘I need to… stand out more.’

He needed people inferior, lacking, despised.

To shine even brighter.

And so, the first faint crack appeared in Danryang’s world.

Watching Seo talk with the head servant.

‘You’re trying to ruin my world.’

Waking from sleep, Danryang saw Seo leaving the tent.

She couldn’t keep standing out.

A little warning… wouldn’t hurt, right?

Though he lacked inner energy, the forms he learned as a child remained.

He was much larger, too.

After brief hesitation, Danryang rushed after Seo.

In a small clearing away from the camp, Seo eyed him warily.

Her words were rather flippant.

“Here to pee too?”

Danryang silently took a stance.

It was his parents’ fist technique, long untouched.

Seo spoke.

“I don’t get it. I haven’t done anything to you, so why are you so eager to tear me down?”

“…”

“No answer? This is ridiculous. I endured your scolding in front of seniors. I took your absurd lies and false accusations.”

“Today… you caught the head servant’s eye.”

After that brief reply, Seo waited, but Danryang said nothing more.

Seo scoffed.

“Oh… that’s it? You want to rise but don’t want to work for it. You thought leaning on your parents’ status and putting others down would make you special?”

“What?”

“No? But you’re wrong. Talking to the head servant today, he barely remembered your complaint. You’re not special, Danryang. You know it, don’t you? Your face turns red whenever his name comes up.”

– I’ll tell everyone you didn’t trust the head servant!

Danryang recalled his past claims of false closeness with the head servant.

First, he felt flustered.

This wasn’t the Seo he knew, always smiling and letting things slide.

Then came anger.

She said he didn’t try?

Relied only on his parents’ status?

She knew nothing of his efforts!

How dare she speak to him like that?!

Danryang’s face flushed red with rage.

“How… how dare you!”

Seo mocked him.

“Don’t know. Do I need to know your pathetic past? You know nothing about me either. The moment you came to harm me, I stopped humoring a halfwit’s inferiority complex.”

“You! You…!”

Danryang didn’t want to hear her sharp words anymore.

Before he knew it, he was charging at Seo.

Seo stood her ground, not dodging.

She calmly raised her left hand and struck the charging Danryang’s face.

– Thwack!

Danryang’s hefty frame flew through the air.

Crashed to the ground, Danryang couldn’t grasp what happened.

Was I just countered?

By that lowly outsider?

No, that wasn’t important.

‘More importantly… she learned martial arts?’

Danryang stood, raising his voice.

“You! How—”

– Slap!

He was quickly silenced.

“You’ll wake people. Lower your voice.”

“You think you’ll get away—”

– Slap!

“How dare—”

– Slap!

“Think you’re the only one who can yell? The only one who can be mad? Ever think others are holding back?”

“…”

Danryang feared opening his mouth, lest Seo’s hand fly again.

“Yeah. It’d be bad if people came.”

“You… think you’ll get away?”

Danryang lowered his voice, threatening her.

Seo just smirked, unfazed.

“Yeah.”

“What?”

“I’ll be fine. Think anyone would believe I did this to you?”

She was right.

His past lies worked because they weren’t far-fetched.

But who would believe today’s events if he told?

A plain disciple outsider, untrained, beating him—a former martial arts student—one-sidedly?

Danryang soon realized this.

“Oh…”

“Know what, Danryang?”

“…”

“I’m not trying to take your place. No, your ‘place’ doesn’t even exist. How could I threaten it? You’ve built nothing.”

Danryang stayed silent.

Seo continued, unbothered.

“Let’s keep it like this. Don’t make things too hard for me, like today.”

Just… like now.

Lean on your parents’ status.

Fawn over seniors.

Take a modest place.

“Got it?”

Seo’s words stabbed Danryang’s heart like a dagger.

“Got it? Nod.”

Danryang nodded weakly, as if his soul had left him.

Seo, satisfied, gave a faint smile and turned away.

Despite her cool exit, Seo inwardly regretted.

‘I wanted to hit him a few more times.’

The reason was simple: she’d used all her meager inner energy striking Danryang.

Today showed her.

The gap between those with inner energy and those without was vast.

But that only applied when she had inner energy.

If she provoked him further and Danryang came at her recklessly, she’d be helpless.

Though, for all that caution, she’d provoked him quite a bit…

‘Well… I held back a lot until now.’

In the village, she didn’t need to endure such insults.

She’d lead kids, broom at her waist, and thrash them until dust flew, rain or not.

In the cult, she’d suppressed it until now.

She’d bottled up a lot.

Feeling lighter, Seo headed back to the tent.

– Rustle.

Until she heard a sound from nearby bushes.

‘Someone?’

If anyone saw this, it’d be dangerous.

Her ability to thrash Danryang relied on no one believing such a wild story.

But if even one witness existed…?

Seo approached the bushes and said.

“Who’s… there?”

Soso emerged, scratching her head.

“S-Soso didn’t see anything.”

“Soso?”

Why are you there?