Chapter 8. A Nail In The Pocket Can Only Stick Out (2/2)
“…….I will take time to monitor the second child.”
Even though he didn’t like the situation, this was probably the best way to handle the situation for now.
As if he knew what Zhuge Sang Lin was thinking, Zhuge Yu Sung’s voice became a lot more gentle.
“There is a saying known as Nan Zhong Zhi Zhui (囊中之錐: A nail in the pocket can only stick out). The boy’s talent would be revealed anyways in this event. I’ll make it happen. So throw away your first impression of him, and look at his real self.”
Zhuge Sang Lin closed his mouth. He was a little pressured by the elder’s confident words. He felt that he did indeed need to watch Mu Hui a bit more.
* * *
Zhuge Mu Hui felt hectic today.
Starting from Zhuge Gi, his elder brother, all the elders of the clan came to visit him. The source of all this came late at night.
But since he already expected this visit to happen, he couldn’t give the biggest figure in the clan poor treatment.
“This is…. Longjin tea.”
“Yes.”
“Were you unable to sleep? No, you were waiting for me, weren’t you.”
“Yes.”
Mu Hui made a bitter smile while looking at the elder. He came without warning, and he didn’t even say why. But the elder wasn’t the only won who had to explain some things. He had to, too.
“I don’t why why you’re doing this.”
Zhuge Yu Sung.
He smirked, and asked him:
“Do you really not know?”
“Yes. I believe my brother is more suited to become the clan head.”
“That’s what you think, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Everyone’s going to think differently later. You will become the head. I will make it that way.”
Mu Hui made a troubled face, and scratched the back of his head.
He really wasn’t interested in becoming the clan head.
That was because he thought his personality didn’t match that sort of a thing at all.
And couldn’t you see the talent overflowing from his older brother already?
He just wanted to pass on the troublesome job to his older brother, and read some books in the library in a relaxed fashion.
“Don’t try to dodge the job you’ve been given as the member of the clan. I know what you’re like. You’re slothful, and lazy.”
“…….”
Zhuge Yu Sung opened his mouth again when Mu Hui made a difficult expression.
“But that’s not your real self. I don’t want to become a head. I don’t want to fight big brother. I don’t want to cause a feud. That’s probably what you’re thinking inside your head.”
Zhuge Mu Hui’s relaxed face trembled a bit. Noticing the change, Zhuge Yu Sung drank a bit more of his tea, and spoke.
“When it came to martial arts, we were always being pushed around by other clans. They rated us highly for our intelligence, but in martial arts, we were always one step behind.”
“…….”
“As you know, this is a very shameful thing to happen. In this world, strength is key, but our main house is always known as the weakest out of all the clans. I never did like the main house because of that.”
Zhuge Mu Hui was a little confused. What did this have anything to do with the matter at hand? He couldn’t figure out the motive of the elder.
“Because of that, I believed that only strength could give power to the clan, so I started training in martial arts since a young age. That’s why I gave up on being the head. Thanks to that, I did gain some rewards. That that’s it. The realm of harmonization is still far, and I’ll probably never reach it in my lifetime.”
“…….You’re underestimating yourself too much.”
The elder shook his head.
“No, I will not reach the realm of harmonization. I studied the martial techniques of the main house all my life, but didn’t reach it. No, I can’t do it. You know what that represents?”
“…….”
“The martial arts the main house possesses is weak. Compared to the martial arts of the other clans, our clan’s martial art itself got weak. It makes sense, seeing that none of our ancestors entered the harmonious stage.”
It did make sense.
While all the other clans took their traditional martial arts styles and expanded upon it for centuries, the Zhuge clan basically compiled all the good points of those martial arts into one.
Because of that, while they call their martial arts the “most perfect” style, it is actually just a random compilation of techniques. Zhuge Mu Hui carefully opened his mouth.
“Isn’t it just based on talent?”
“Indeed. It could be because of my talent that I am unable to reach the harmonious state. I am admitting that.”
Looking at the elder, who coolly admitted that fact, Zhuge Mu Hui smiled. Then, Zhuge Yu Sung erased his smile instantly, and spoke up.
“Do not fold your own wings. I understand you not wanting to cause a family feud. But if you do that, your talent will just be wasted.”
“…….”
Zhuge Mu Hui put on a face of innocence, as if he didn’t know what the other party was talking about.
But he couldn’t prevent his eyes from trembling.
“Do not hide your claws. No, it’s useless even if you hide it.”
“I…….”
“With our current arts, we cannot even think about becoming the best under the heavens. You know that already, yes?”
“…….”
Zhuge Mu Hui thought that it wasn’t necessarily impossible, but he didn’t dare say it out loud. That was because he agreed with the elder somewhat. The Zhuge clan’s martial art was flawed. There was something unusual about their martial art, something so small that only an expert on the harmonious stage would be able to detect it.
“I know your talents are about as same as mine. But that is it. You probably know that now.”
Zhuge Mu Hui had a really troubled look. Since the elder knew this much already, he couldn’t hide it anyways.
“When did you……. learn about it? I never realized grandfather was such a sly person.”
Zhuge Yu Sung grinned.
“I wasn’t sure about it even till now, actually. I don’t know how you did it, but you hid your talent well. But while you can hide your talent, you can’t hide your body, that reached peak condition already. The others probably couldn’t see it, but I could. That’s why I was paying attention to you.”
Zhuge Mu Hui learnt that he had been tricked, but he couldn’t do anything. The elder was sly, yet wise. Under his gaze, Mu Hui would’ve been discovered sooner or later.
While he had a regretful expression on his face, Zhuge Yu Sung grabbed onto Zhuge Mu Hui’s hands. Mu Hui could somehow feel the immense amount of passion from those hands, and therefore made an unpleasant face.
“There is no depth in the main house’s martial art. Because of that, the limits we can reach with this power is not high, either.”
“…….It would certainly be hard.”
But Zhuge Mu Hui thought if one did put his whole life into it, it might be possible. That was why he was thinking about dedicating his life to martial arts after giving up on the head position.
And then after somehow reaching the harmonious stage, he would fix the mistakes that appear in their martial arts. As if Zhuge Yu Sung read his thoughts, the elder shook his head violently.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to show strength without using martial arts? The clan never used martial arts to become famous, anyways.”
Zhuge Mu Hui put on a complicated face.
Use something other than martial arts to show power in the martial world?
Did that something even exist?
Zhuge Yu Sung pulled out something from his pocket.
“Mystical Door Formation. Our house’s roots come from here, and therefor we can use this to grow stronger. And when it comes to formations, no one has a better advantage than us.”
Zhuge Mu Hui looked at the old book in Zhuge Yu Sung’s hands.
“What is that?”
“The greatest of our ancestors created this book. I found it not long ago.”
『Moon Edge Flower Algorithm Magic (月刃森羅算法術解) (下)』 (TL: Volume 2. Obviously.)
Looking at the title of the book, Zhuge Mu Hui’s eyelashes were faintly trembling.
“…….Could it be?”
“Yes. You probably heard of this a few times in the clan. This is the greatest formations book given to us by the chancellor of the Shu Han, Zhuge Kongming. With this, our powers will increase indefinitely.”
It was something known to have disappeared a long time ago.
Since Zhuge Mu Hui didn’t know it would end up in his hands like this, his face started to twist into a complex expression.