Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 119

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#119

Hyeolpung Saja called out to Hang Ju-sa-ung.
“Don’t be so nervous about a formal sparring match. Just do what you normally do.”
Seo Seok-san spoke, and Yeon Geum-hong picked up his thread.
“Right. You’re all at about the same level, so there’s no need to strain yourselves trying to win. Just approach it with the mind of checking your own martial arts.”
Do Pyeong-su also said something to Gal Ma-pyeong.
“Lose, and you die.”
“Yes? M-Master, everyone else is just telling me to keep it light, so why are you saying that only to me?”
“Those fools are just saying that on the surface. Look at Jang Man-dok over there. Does he look like someone who thinks it’s okay to lose? He’s threatening him with at least five days of physical conditioning.”
Jang Man-dok pressed his lips together and nodded. But Yeon Geum-hong spoke up.
“Why are you getting worked up over a sparring match between kids?”
“That’s exactly it. No matter how old he gets, he stays childish. But since we’re doing it anyway, it would be nice to win. Don’t you agree, my friend?”
At Seo Seok-san’s subtle question, Go Seo-bang nodded with a tense expression.
“Se-hwa, just do your best. Your absolute best! You brought your hidden blade, didn’t you?”
Do Pyeong-su shouted suddenly.
“Why are you bringing up a hidden blade all of a sudden! Se-hwa uses fists and palms!”
“A child who’s only been training martial arts for five years deserves that much of a weapon!”
“Is it a crime to have trained martial arts for a long time? Then we’re all worthy of death!”
In the end, it was only when Geom U-bin stepped in that Hyeolpung Saja stopped bickering. Had he left them alone, they would have demolished several more halls.
Hyeolpung Saja took each of his disciples aside and coached them earnestly through telepathic communication.
“Chaotic, isn’t it?”
At Geom U-bin’s question, Jeon Mi-ryeo startled and nodded.
“Y-yes, it is. Do you think everything will be all right?”
“It has to be.”
Geom U-bin’s face was clouded with worry too.
“But are the managers really disciples of the masters? To look at them, the managers seem much older.”
Hyeolpung Saja still appeared to be in his mid-forties because of his cultivated martial arts, and as for Yeon Geum-hong, who had undergone the Half-Old Return Youth Technique, there was no question.
“It’s only a matter of appearance. Only appearance.”
“Then is the great master also only appearing to be a child?”
“No. I’m really fourteen years old.”
“But how did you come to be the senior brother of these masters?”
“It’s not a great secret, but you’ll understand in time.”
It would be a matter of time before trust accumulated. While they were speaking, the sparring pairings were decided.
The first match was between Gal Ma-pyeong and Se-hwa.
“No using hidden blades!”
“And you better control your internal energy! Use Seven Stars or higher and I’ll send you flying across the courtyard!”
Somehow, Gal Ma-pyeong and Se-hwa had the atmosphere of people who were about to fight for their very lives.
“But is it all right for an outsider like me to watch such a sparring match?”
“Why would you be an outsider? You’re an excellent cook of Oseong Jang-won.”
……
At the word “cook,” Jeon Mi-ryeo was a little taken aback.
Geom U-bin said this and shouted at Gal Ma-pyeong and Se-hwa.
“It’s just a sparring match! Understood?”
With Geom U-bin as a reliable backing, the two answered with smiles, “Yes!”
At last, the sparring began.
In terms of absolute martial prowess, Se-hwa was not yet a match for Gang Seo Samak.
The greatest disparity lay in internal energy.
Even if Gang Seo Samak and Se-hwa possessed the same amount of internal energy across three cycles, the power they could actually manifest was not equivalent.
Gang Seo Samak’s internal energy, built through years of cultivation, was like tightly packed sand—dense and solid—while Se-hwa’s internal energy was still like loose cotton, riddled with gaps.
Unless one possessed special enlightenment like Geom U-bin, that was a problem only time could solve.
Therefore, Gang Seo Samak had set the rule that he could not use internal energy above the Seven Stars level when facing Se-hwa.
Even so, Se-hwa had no advantage. In combat, experience was as important as internal energy.
Se-hwa’s one advantage was that her first master was Yeon Geum-hong.
From the beginning, she had learned the finest technique forms in the world from heaven’s greatest martial artist. Beyond that, though Se-hwa herself did not realize it, she possessed rather remarkable natural talent.
It was talent remarkable enough that even Hyeolpung Saja would have been quite astonished, had Geom U-bin not existed.
In those five years—a span that seemed brief—they’d elevated Se-hwa to the rank of master, and so her sparring with Gal Ma-pyeong proceeded with surprising balance.
Gal Ma-pyeong’s fist and kick techniques were fierce; Se-hwa’s soft palm technique flowed with grace and constant variation.
When she deflected his powerful strikes and kicks to the side, launching counterattacks, her movements carried a sharpness like a blade.
But Gal Ma-pyeong, seasoned as a master of the Gangho, refused to be drawn into the chaotic brawl Se-hwa sought.
He maintained the ideal distance to maximize his fist and kick techniques, pressing her backward steadily.
Se-hwa worked to close the gap with feints and retreats; her softer martial form required proximity to be truly effective.
Their sparring—a battle for distance—grew fierce.
Though Gal Ma-pyeong drew only on the power of the Seven Stars, dust whirled around them in a column more than a zhang high.
Jeon Mi-ryeo watched their exchange, gasping with admiration again and again.
They hadn’t reached the level of Geom U-bin or Gong Seong-tak, yet both were far beyond her own standing.
When that quarter-hour had passed, Geom U-bin shook the bell set beside her.
Ting! Ting!
At once, Gal Ma-pyeong and Se-hwa leapt back. Both breathed heavily—the fierceness of their sparring had tested them well.
“Ma-pyeong had the upper hand, clearly.”
“What are you talking about? Se-hwa was pressing the attack.”
Geom U-bin announced her judgment quickly.
“A draw.”
Yeon Geum-hong and Do Pyeong-su registered their displeasure, but Gal Ma-pyeong and Se-hwa exhaled in relief. To hold their own against the Bloodwind Four Lions—even without victory—was enough.
The match that followed, between O Tong-su and Go Seo-bang, proved equally matched. Their duel was fiercer and more destructive not only because they deployed their full Internal Energy but because they fought with drawn blades.
“Unless your neck’s severed or your heart’s pierced, Jang Man-dok will mend you, so don’t fret!”
That assurance alone hardly eased the mind. Yet if one didn’t give everything, one might suffer something even worse than a severed neck or a split heart.
“The disciples’ martial arts have improved considerably.”
Geom U-bin smiled with satisfaction; Jeon Mi-ryeo could hardly close her mouth.
‘Are there only supreme masters here?’
Had she possessed even a fraction of O Tong-su and Go Seo-bang’s skill, she would never have fallen so helplessly to the Murim League.
Fortunately, no one would face punishment from the Bloodwind Four Lions at the end of this sparring either.
“How is it you all perform your martial arts identically?”
At Do Pyeong-su’s rebuke, Seo Seok-san joined in.
“Exactly. If you only execute what you’re taught, what good is that? Where would you ever use improvisation?”
“Seok-san speaks sense for once. Just now when Go Seo-bang deployed the Poison-Snake Emerges Dragon technique—you should have blocked it while simultaneously projecting Internal Force. Just because you carry a blade doesn’t mean you fight only with it.”
“But couldn’t breaking the flow of the technique forms cause problems?”
Gal Ma-pyeong asked with some boldness.
“The flow of technique forms is not merely something smooth. Like a mountain stream that curves around stones and shatters against cliffs—it bends and breaks as it must.”
Do Pyeong-su gripped a blade in his hand.
“Block the Poison-Snake Emerges Dragon like this, and in that same moment, project Internal Force like so!”
Internal Force burst from Do Pyeong-su’s palm.
He’d aimed at an empty space away from the group, but caught up in teaching, he’d lost control of his strength.
Crash!
The force struck a massive old tree on the far side of the courtyard; it shuddered, then toppled.
Crack! Bang!
As the tree fell, it brought down the wall beside it, shattering it entirely.
“Ah!”
Yeon Geum-hong let out a shriek.
“You fool! Now where are the disciples supposed to rest in the shade during training!”
“How long has that tree been there?”
“Ten thousand years! You blockhead!”
At the word “blockhead,” Do Pyeong-su bristled as well, and only after Geom U-bin intervened once more did the matter settle.
Watching them, Jeon Mi-ryeo felt her mind slip away. Then, without warning, a quiet laugh escaped her.
These people—the senior martial brother, the master, the disciples—bickered among themselves, yet she could sense a deep affection woven through it all.
‘With people like that beside you, you’d never worry about your back, would you?’
Her own martial brothers had never been close, and she’d even lost what few relationships she’d had. To Jeon Mi-ryeo, this sight was the most enviable thing in the world.
“Hurry up and clear away that tree! Rebuild the wall too!”
Such a casual projection of force had felled that ancient tree—
She felt shame at her own anxious self, standing beside such people and fretting that her martial learning might be stolen.
“Um… Lord.”
“Yes?”
“Could I… practice here instead? Not in the Underground Cultivation Chamber?”
“Why? Does the Underground Cultivation Chamber feel confining? It’s fine—the disciples built it well. No dampness, good ventilation.”
“No. If it’s no trouble, I’d like to practice here too.”
“No trouble at all. Without a teacher, even the finest Secret Manual becomes difficult to train with. If you hit a wall, ask the disciples. As they say, All Paths Return to One—your martial forms may differ, but the disciples can still guide you.”
“Thank you. Really, thank you…….”
Jeon Mi-ryeo’s eyes suddenly flooded with tears.
A warmth she had never felt even in the presence of her master and senior brothers swept over her, and her emotions overflowed.
Geom U-bin nodded as if he understood everything in her heart.
“Why are you sniffling in front of your senior? If you want to grow stronger, you need to shed sweat, not tears.”
At Yeon Geum-hong’s words, Seo Seok-san helped wipe away Jeon Mi-ryeo’s tears.
“There’s nothing wrong with rich emotion. Why fault her for it?”
Jeon Mi-ryeo hastily wiped her eyes.
“No, you’re right. What you said is correct. I must grow stronger. I will grow stronger and repay my master’s vengeance without fail.”
“Exactly. I don’t understand it at all. You’ve learned Sae-oe O-wang’s Martial Arts—how could you end up defeated by small fry from the Murim League?”
To the Bloodwind Saja they might be small fry, but the Murim League was the largest force in all of Murim.
“Sae-oe O-wang’s Martial Arts are too difficult for someone with ordinary talent to master. Besides, we had no teacher to guide us—we could only rely on the Secret Manual. My master’s talent was merely a step beyond ordinary. She recognized early on that she could never reach perfection, so she quickly took on four disciples. But their talent wasn’t exceptional either. Still, my master did her utmost to teach us. She spent countless nights studying the martial techniques in that Secret Manual.”
At the memory, a faint smile appeared at the corner of Jeon Mi-ryeo’s mouth.
“Though her martial talent wasn’t remarkable, she was the greatest master in the world when it came to effort. The Secret Manual she left behind is the only keepsake she gave us. I could not allow hypocrites to steal from me something left by a person more precious to me than my own parents. Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to complain about my circumstances.”
Yeon Geum-hong spoke.
“It was self-deprecation, calling yourself dull.”
Do Pyeong-su shot back sharply.
“It’s because you’re so cold that you earned the epithet ‘Demon Woman.’ How poorly must someone be regarded to be called a demon? And why is the character for ‘Woman’ appended to it?”
“Ah, the Shadowless Ghost Path—now that’s a fine name. A fool with no head casts no shadow either. So naturally she becomes a ghost.”
Demon Woman and Shadowless Ghost Path!
“Eeeek!”
At Jeon Mi-ryeo’s shriek, Geom U-bin and Hyeolpung Saja startled.
“Why are you screaming like that!”
“Y-you, you’re… the B-bloodwind Saja?”
“What’s there to be so shocked about? As if you didn’t know… Wait? You really didn’t know? Nobody told you?”
The three of them shook their heads at Yeon Geum-hong’s question.
“I should have mentioned it. Though there’s hardly anyone we could gossip to about it.”
“Why say such a thing at all? You would’ve learned naturally enough in time.”
Jeon Mi-ryeo was so startled her heart felt as though it would stop.
If Sae-oe had Jeok Un-ja and Sae-oe O-wang, then Zhongyuan had Ma Gun-ja and Hyeolpung Saja.
Because they had been active in different eras, enthusiasts of the martial world could only compare their martial prowess through rumor and hearsay.
Endless debate had raged back and forth, but the conclusion always came down to: “You’d have to fight to know.”
The disciples of Sae-oe O-wang each harbored their own doubts about this verdict, as did Hyeolpung Saja, but with no way to prove it, the matter was simply left alone.
Still, the disciples of Sae-oe O-wang carried greater pride over Hyeolpung Saja, if only because they were righteous.
Ma Gun-ja was called the supreme master of the world, yet he still walked the Dark Path; Hyeolpung Saja was synonymous with cruelty and malice incarnate.
Moral superiority belonged to them.
But the Hyeolpung Saja whom Jeon Mi-ryeo now beheld was not the figure she had heard about in rumor.
The Hyeolpung Saja she had experienced so far was closer to a knight-errant.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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