Episode 58. The Mindset of Doing Nothing

The day after I killed the Great Rakshasa.

I diligently and faithfully began my daily life as the leader of the Black Cat Gang. The good thing about being the leader is that on days when you do not want to do anything, you can simply do nothing.

Today, I had no intention of tormenting my subordinates, threatening them, or giving them any orders of this or that sort. As soon as I woke up, I washed, ate, and then did absolutely nothing.

With the active attitude that I would do nothing at all, I put on the black long robe of the gang leader and headed to the inner courtyard. From early morning, the subordinates who had finished their meal were training under So Gunpyeong’s sharp glare.

I ignored So Gunpyeong’s greeting, and I ignored the greetings of the other subordinates as well.

I merely stood with my hands clasped behind my back, silently watching my subordinates train.

It was a bright, clear day.

Each time a gentle breeze blew, nameless flower petals scattered through the air.

For a moment, I looked up at the few trees planted around the edge of the inner courtyard. They were pretty trees, blooming with flowers mixed in white and pink.

I did not know their name.

I knew quite a lot of martial arts names and technique names, but I was always forgetting the names of flowers and trees. I simply could not memorize them. When it was bad, even if I saw a flower today, I would forget its name if I saw it again a few days later.

The flowering trees planted in the Black Cat Gang’s inner courtyard were no different.

I was just looking at them because they were pretty.

When the subordinates kept glancing at me standing beneath the flowering tree, So Gunpyeong said,

“Focus.”

“Yes, sir.”

I also focused and looked up at the flowering tree.

Many petals had fallen on the ground as well.

For a while, I wandered here and there, avoiding the petals.

The subordinates began training again, and whenever the wind blew, I moved about here and there while being struck by the scattering petals.

Who had planted such beautiful flowers in the inner courtyard?

Whoever it was, they must have been a genius.

From the moment my subordinates began to sweat, I sat cross-legged in the place where the most petals had fallen and closed my eyes.

I began circulating my qi.

It had not been a very long time, but I was becoming stronger, and my subordinates were also growing stronger as they continued their external training.

I drew in the energy of the Heavenly Jade, opened a path for it with my cultivation method, circulated it through my body, then steadily accumulated it in my dantian.

A few fluttering petals came flying and fell on the crown of my head.

By the time So Gunpyeong had shouted a few times, there was depth even in the subordinates’ screams.

Life, when you think about it anew, is suffering.

How much time had passed?

As soon as circulating my qi began to feel tedious, I stopped at once and opened my eyes.

As it happened, the subordinates were also sprawled here and there on the ground, resting. It seemed quite a bit of time had passed.

I stood up and drew Black Cat Fang.

When I abruptly drew my blade, the subordinates’ eyes widened.

Holding Black Cat Fang, I wandered here and there among the scattering petals. Since the petals fell without any rule, I sometimes thrust my blade between one petal and another.

It was empty, meaningless blade work.

But that was fine.

At first, nothing has much meaning.

Before my subordinates’ eyes, I swung my blade and blended with the petals. Even when So Gunpyeong resumed training a little while later, I continued to swing my blade.

I thrust between petal and petal.

I chased after petals and caught them on the back of my blade. Then I tried cutting a petal that was falling all alone, especially lonely, with Black Cat Fang.

The petal laughed at me as it drifted away.

Life, when you think about it anew, is a series of failures.

And so I swung my blade again and again, cutting petals, brushing petals, striking petals, and placing petals on the back of my blade.

When a gust of wind blew and petals came showering down, I stirred up a saber wind beneath them, and the petals whirled about in a scattering flight.

I pulled the scattering petals back as if attaching them to my blade.

The method was simple.

While holding Black Cat Fang, I infused the Absorbing Star Great Art into it very faintly. The blade, possessing a suction force slightly stronger than the wind, became the commander of the petals and advanced.

A little while later, I heard So Gunpyeong’s voice, having judged that the subordinates’ concentration had grown too scattered.

“Pause for a moment. Rest.”

Now So Gunpyeong also sat with the subordinates and watched me.

I mixed the Absorbing Star Great Art into my saber art, then forgot the saber art and forgot the Absorbing Star Great Art as well.

Together with the fluttering petals, I simply moved joyfully and pleasantly.

When I felt I had grown somewhat accustomed to the petals’ weight, their movement, and the influence of the wind, I infused Wood Qi into my blade and began cutting the falling petals.

A pink petal was split in two with a single stroke.

A white petal was also split in two with a single stroke.

Within the floral pattern I had caught with saber wind and raised into the air, I carved characters.

一, 二, 三.

It was easy up to there, but I gave up on 四.

I succeeded again with 人 and 心, but 天 was difficult, so I gave up.

My saber art had not yet reached the heavens.

I swung my blade within the limits of what I could do.

After that, I repeated thrusts.

I thrust at the petals with the tip of Black Cat Fang, but every time, the petals survived and escaped.

‘So thrusting through flower petals is this difficult.’

The petals were exceedingly light, making it hard to decide the match.

And this kind of thrust did not suit a saber.

After failing at thrusting dozens of times, I put Black Cat Fang back into its sheath. Then So Gunpyeong, who had been watching, called out to me.

“Gang Leader, take this.”

When I looked back, So Gunpyeong threw me a sword.

As soon as I caught the sword So Gunpyeong had thrown, I drew it. It was an ordinary longsword that felt far lighter than the fairly heavy Black Cat Fang.

I swung the sword, then focused and began thrusting at the petals.

I used the Wood Element, then the Flame Element, then shifted to the insight of the Fighting Element. When three attempts in a row failed, I moved lightly without infusing any internal energy at all.

I moved like a petal.

I swung like the wind.

I moved with the feeling that I should play with the petals.

Then, as a petal tilted its head at me and fell, I pierced the exact center of it with the sword, and at the same time, I stopped every movement and every breath in an instant.

A single petal was stuck to the tip of the sword, pierced through.

When I suddenly lowered the sword and looked at my subordinates, every one of those bastards was smiling with their mouths shut.

I smiled with them.

When someone who has been failing succeeds, it is only natural to smile for them.

I looked at the flowering tree that had gone to the trouble of scattering petals for me.

“What kind of flowering tree is this?”

Perhaps because it was such an absurd question, voices answered in unison from all around.

“It’s a plum blossom tree.”

“Ah, is that so?”

To keep from forgetting the moment I pierced the plum blossom tree and its petals, I gave it a simple name.

“Then, let’s call it the Plum Blossom Sword Technique.”

So Gunpyeong asked as if curious.

“Did you just complete a new sword technique on the spot?”

I looked around at So Gunpyeong and the subordinates and answered.

“No, it’s only just begun. I simply blended with the flower petals and thought, ‘So this is how it feels,’ and moved on. Where is there completion in martial arts? You swing every day, over and over, and improve bit by bit. You should all practice when the petals are falling too. But a sword would be better for this.”

So Gunpyeong, who wielded a Yarae blade, asked.

“Would a dao be difficult?”

“It’ll be fine if you don’t thrust. But in the overall flow, the focal point of what I just unfolded was the thrust. Still, in the process, it doesn’t matter whether you swing a dao or a sword. What’s more important is swinging every day.”

Feeling hungry, I asked.

“I’m hungry. Is it mealtime?”

“Yes, it is already lunchtime.”

“Let’s eat.”

So Gunpyeong looked around and spoke to me.

“The meal should already be prepared inside. Please go ahead.”

I started toward the main hall but stopped in surprise. Hong Shin, seated on the platform, seemed to have been watching this whole time.

“Junior Sister Hong.”

“Yes, Eldest Martial Brother.”

“Peeking at my secret martial art. As expected, a thief……”

I couldn’t bring myself to say the word “wench.”

Hong Shin retorted.

“Plum Blossom Sword Technique? Isn’t that too weak for a sword technique name?”

“Shall I call it the Rakshasa Sword Technique?”

“Plum Blossom will last longer.”

“Let’s just eat.”

Hong Shin replied while looking at the falling petals.

“I’ll stay and watch a little longer. You go first.”

I glanced at Hong Shin, who looked ready to dash out between the fluttering petals at any moment, then entered the main hall.

The meal was already prepared.

However, Geum Hae, who had stayed as a guest for a day along with Hong Shin, was waiting for me before a table laden with delicacies.

“So busy eyeing the food that you couldn’t even spy on my secret martial art. As expected……”

The words “piglet” were about to leave my mouth but went back in. Looking at my pig of a junior brother eyeing nothing but the food, I couldn’t bring myself to say “pig.”

Geum Hae nodded.

“Please eat, Eldest Martial Brother. Today there is a full spread of entirely new side dishes.”

The man who had settled in the Black Cat Sect just to eat—that was Geum Hae.

Anyway, since today I had no intention of harassing my subordinates or bothering my junior brothers and sisters, I simply seated myself and began to eat.

Geum Hae asked me as he ate.

“Junior Sister Hong doesn’t seem to be eating?”

I replied with a bewildered expression.

“Are you the Eldest Martial Brother or something?”

Geum Hae nodded as if it were only natural.

“Yes.”

“Then why did you get slapped?”

“I too have thought deeply about that. Is this a normal situation? No. It couldn’t happen in the orthodox sects. A junior sister slapping her Eldest Martial Brother? She’d be expelled. But we aren’t exactly an orthodox sect, are we? We’re what you call the Black Path. In the Black Path, for a junior sister to actually slap her Eldest Martial Brother……? How dare you? I must teach her a lesson before long. I wasn’t without such thoughts, and yet, there is the fact that I had my inner strength absorbed by the Eldest Martial Brother. Junior Sister Hong’s inner strength is quite considerable as well. This is no simple matter.”

I dozed off for a moment while eating.

“…….”

If I had focused solely on eating, I wouldn’t have dozed off, but listening to Geum Hae made drowsiness wash over me. Faintly, I heard his voice.

“Eldest Martial Brother?”

“Uh, uh?”

“You must have been tired.”

“Uh, yeah. Let’s eat.”

As I ate, something Geum Hae had said drifted through my mind, so I asked.

“So in other words, you’re saying you like Hong Shin?”

Geum Hae replied with a bewildered expression.

“Were you dreaming?”

“No?”

“How could that be? How could a fat guy like me set his sights on anyone.”

“What bullshit.”

“Does Eldest Martial Brother know the heart of a fat person?”

“You’d have to be fat to know.”

“Then stop talking.”

A moment later, I suddenly looked at Geum Hae.

“Damn, you really shovel it down.”

Geum Hae moved his chopsticks even faster, scattering grains of rice.

“I had my inner strength taken by the Eldest Martial Brother, so I should at least eat my fill. Eating is the only gain left.”

“A fat man’s invincible logic is truly blade-proof. You mean to eat by any means necessary.”

“Invincible logic? I haven’t even started. The Geumsan Merchant Guild, inexhaustible funds, the youngest son of that house. Money if it’s money, martial arts if it’s martial arts. And if I were to lose weight on top of that. The men of the world couldn’t handle it. If you have everything, you become the target of envy and jealousy. One must act in moderation.”

“So you were the youngest son of a chaebol family.”

“Yes.”

“No wonder you seemed like the youngest. That’s why you got slapped.”

It hadn’t even been a day since I’d resolved to do nothing, yet here I was already hassling my junior brother.

After finishing the meal, I went back out to the platform in the inner courtyard. Geum Hae, perhaps embarking on another three-day resolution to lose weight, set down his chopsticks and followed me out.

I watched the activity in the inner courtyard for a moment, then folded my arms.

Geum Hae, who had come out after me, observed the people with a vacant expression.

“Why are the subordinates going nuts?”

The subordinates who had returned from eating were all swinging blades during their break, knocking away petals.

Among them were So Gunpyeong and Hong Shin……

So Gunpyeong sat in meditation with the most serious expression in the world at the spot where the most petals were falling.

Hong Shin was swinging a sword with a flower tucked in her hair.

Geum Hae let out a long sigh.

“They’ve all gone mad as a group.”

I seated myself on the platform and watched with a serious expression as my subordinates delightedly lost their minds.

“Good. You’re doing well.”

Geum Hae sat down beside me and said,

“This is the Mad Cat Sect.”

I gazed at my subordinates and junior sister, who were as pleasant a sight as could be, and hummed a tune cheerfully.

“Amid the swaying flowers, I could smell the fragrance of plum blossoms.”

With nothing to do, Geumhae listened from the side, nodded a few times, then clapped along to the beat.

My men danced with their blades among the flower petals.

I sang.

The plump junior brother livened the mood with his applause.

It was delightful.