Chronicles of the Martial God’s Return - Chapter 41

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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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“Good heavens…….”
Hong Wonchan had returned to Honam from Beijing and was now seated at his desk in the office, attending to the mountain of work that had accumulated during his absence.
The first thing that caught his eye was a stack of wanted notices for criminals notorious throughout the Honam region.
“Murder, rape, smuggling……. Where are all these bandits crawling out of?”
Hong Wonchan scratched his head in frustration.
With the collapse of the massive Jangbaek Mountain faction, the Honam region had become nothing short of an Asura Field.
The criminals and bandits who had kept their heads down out of fear of Jangbaek Mountain were beginning to raise them once more.
He had thought that after resolving so many matters, the security situation would improve, but now, with these jackals showing their faces one by one, he couldn’t shake the worry that Honam would soon become a lawless zone.
“Hm?”
At that moment, Hong Wonchan fixed his gaze intently on one of the wanted notices.
This criminal’s charges were remarkably serious.
Murder, opium trafficking, human trafficking.
Murder alone was enough to warrant severe punishment, yet this man had also involved himself in human trafficking and opium smuggling—crimes that should never be committed.
It was almost miraculous that he hadn’t been caught by now.
Moreover, his primary area of activity was right here in the Honam region.
“It seems this wretch was hidden in Jangbaek Mountain’s shadow all this time.”
Hong Wonchan let out a long sigh. Men of this caliber must have had backing from someone powerful, which was why they had remained concealed until now.
Apprehending him was one problem, but what came after was another.
He would have preferred to avoid such thorny complications altogether.
“Now, where is this man’s name……. Jang Samtae?”
Hong Wonchan rubbed his eyes and looked down at the wanted notice again. But the name did not disappear—it remained there, written clearly.
“Jang Samtae?!”
He had not misread it.
The wanted notice truly bore the name Jang Samtae.
Hong Wonchan stared at the notice with an expression like that of a man struck by a sledgehammer.

***

“You’re really going to do this?”
“Yes.”
Gwon Mujin and Jang Samtae stood side by side, surveying the area around them.
Not far from the Estate, the ground was crowded with untended trees, brush, and rocks.
Four people stood gazing at it.
Dan Wuhyeon and Dan Somi, Gwon Mujin and Jang Samtae.
Around them lay axes and other farming implements, and a massive hammer prepared for breaking rocks.
“We’ll clear this land and till a field.”
Gwon Mujin and Jang Samtae’s faces went pale. He was not joking.
Dan Wuhyeon truly seemed intent on cultivating a field in this place.
‘Is he serious?’
Trees crowded every direction, and rocks were deeply embedded in patches throughout.
Clearing the trees, breaking the rocks, and flattening the earth would require enormous effort. It would have been far better to hire laborers for such work.
Though he had the means for it, Dan Wuhyeon smiled and said this:
“You’ll do it.”
Gwon Mujin and Jang Samtae stared at each other blankly.
‘Should we run?’
Both men thought the same thing at once.
“What about Somi?”
“Hm……. Here, take this.”
Dan Wuhyeon handed her a small sickle lying on the ground. It was just the right size for her small hands, as if it had been made for Dan Somi from the start.
“This?”
“Yes. And come over here.”
Dan Wuhyeon headed toward some nearby small brush. The mature weeds were quite tough.
Given how thick they were, it seemed impossible to cut them without knowing the proper technique with a sickle.
“The technique is very simple. Don’t put strength in your wrist—only in your fingertips. If you apply force indiscriminately out of fear of not cutting, you won’t cut anything.”
“Eh? So you’re saying the strength should…….”
Dan Somi picked up the sickle and fell into thought.
She turned over the words she’d just heard again and again, but no matter how hard she puzzled over them, their meaning eluded her entirely.
Well then, she would simply try.
Dan Somi crouched down and began cutting at the undergrowth.
But even after several attempts, the grass wouldn’t cut cleanly.
In truth, it was a task far too difficult for a seven-year-old child.
“Like this? Nngh!”
“Yes, keep at it and you’ll develop the feel for it.”
Watching Dan Somi labor earnestly at the stubborn undergrowth, Dan Wuhyeon smiled. Though it would be difficult at first, once she grew accustomed to the motion, cutting small branches would become second nature.
“Jang Samtae, you chop the wood. Gwon Mujin, you break the rocks.”
Gwon Mujin hefted an enormous hammer. With Internal Qi, shattering rock was hardly a challenge.
He strode boldly up to a large boulder, summoned his Internal Qi, and brought the hammer down with all his might.
Wait—?
Thud!
Just before the hammer reached the rock, Dan Wuhyeon’s hand flicked out and struck a pressure point on Gwon Mujin’s arm.
In that instant, Gwon Mujin felt his Internal Qi drain away in a rush and his eyes flew wide.
Crack!
“Aaaahhh!”
Gwon Mujin’s entire body trembled.
A tingling sensation that shot through his palm spread like fire across his whole frame.
His hands shook violently.
“What—what are you doing?”
“I didn’t tell you to use Internal Qi.”
“But how am I supposed to shatter that boulder with just a hammer and no Internal Qi?”
He rubbed his hands together, his face dark with frustration.
There was a faster way to do this, and he couldn’t fathom why they had to take the long road.
Seeing his complaint, Dan Wuhyeon let out a low chuckle and took the hammer from him.
He gripped it in one hand and swung it in a wide arc toward the boulder.
Boom!
Shatter-crack!
“Huh?!”
“Gasp!”
“Wow…”
The enormous rock shattered in an instant.
It was a display of such tremendous strength that it seemed impossible it came from someone using no Internal Qi at all.
“External… External Strength?”
“These days there’s a tendency to prioritize Internal Qi, and many have come to despise External Strength. But the truth is, only through a proper balance of both can one hope to survive a real fight.”
“…”
“Your weakness is that when you wield the Twin Blades, you rely too heavily on Internal Qi. Your speed is fast, but the blades lack true penetrating power.”
Gwon Mujin swallowed hard.
Dan Wuhyeon was right—most martial artists did tend to neglect External Strength.
But if one could accomplish what he’d just demonstrated, it would be like gaining a whole new weapon.
‘This… this is training!’
Gwon Mujin glanced at Dan Somi.
The way she gripped and moved the sickle, straining as she worked, resembled the technique Dan Wuhyeon had shown when he’d faced Ma Dokjin and his men before.
Dan Wuhyeon was not simply tilling a field.
This was training disguised as farmwork.
Gwon Mujin’s eyes blazed with renewed determination.
“I’ll work hard!”
“…Yes.”
Watching the impassioned Gwon Mujin, Dan Wuhyeon wiped sweat from his brow.
Turning his head away from Gwon Mujin, he spotted Jang Samtae, whose eyes gleamed brightly as he held the axe in both hands.
“How should I do this?”
“Hmm?”
“How should I chop the wood?”
“…Just chop it.”
“Sir?”
“Chop the wood, I said.”
“You’re… not going to teach me a technique or anything?”
“What technique do you need to fell a tree? Just swing the axe.”
Jang Samtae’s face darkened considerably.
This man had taught Dan Somi one technique after another, displayed overwhelming strength to Gwon Mujin—yet to Jang Samtae himself, he offered nothing but curt commands to chop wood.
“Couldn’t you teach me some tricks, the way you showed that man earlier? Methods for chopping wood without tiring, or breathing techniques to make the work faster—surely you have something like that?”
“Chop faster.”
“…Yes.”
Dan Wuhyeon stepped back, ignoring Jang Samtae’s quiet grumbling, barely audible.
With Dan Somi laboring on one side, Gwon Mujin on the other, and Jang Samtae working earnestly as well, the sight brought him genuine peace.
‘I’ll grow corn over there, and watermelons on this side.’
In truth, there was no need for them to till the fields themselves.
If he made up his mind and moved, Dan Wuhyeon possessed the ability to conjure a handful of fields without breaking a sweat—effortlessly, as easily as breathing.
Yet there was purpose in deliberately burdening them with work.
By rescuing Namgung Sohye and saving Gwon Mujin’s life, Dan Wuhyeon had all but become an enemy of Sapha.
For now, there was quiet, but their blades could turn toward him at any moment—he could not know when.
He needed to harden these three for what was coming.
Gwon Mujin’s work was to add weight and substance to his blade, which had been devoted only to speed along with developing external strength—exactly as he’d explained before. Dan Somi’s was to lay the foundation for the martial arts she would soon begin to learn.
As for Jang Samtae…
‘Hmm.’
Dan Wuhyeon scratched his head, studying the man.
Quick feet and nimble hands—those were genuinely useful traits. Well, given that he’d lived his life as a thief, such basics were hardly surprising.
But beyond that?
‘Utterly worthless.’
Jang Samtae was learning the Taiji Fist that Dan Wuhyeon had refined for him, but his training time was far too short, and his talent so meager that his progress lagged desperately behind.
If Dan Somi were a few years older, and they were to spar, Jang Samtae wouldn’t last even a single round.
This was the special remedy Dan Wuhyeon had devised for the problem.
Chopping through a large tree was no trivial matter.
Strength and stamina would naturally follow.
Then his capacity for learning martial arts would expand, and executing techniques would become somewhat easier.
While entertaining these thoughts, satisfied with his own logic, he smiled—
“Mister Dan! Mister Dan!”
A familiar voice rang out from somewhere.
He turned toward the sound and saw Hong Wonchan approaching slowly, someone he hadn’t seen in quite some time.
“Mister Hong? Is that you?”
Jang Samtae’s face lit up at the sight of Hong Wonchan drawing near from afar. Since he’d supposedly gone to Beijing, surely he’d brought back some fine gift.
But the urgency written across him was strange. His face had gone a sickly pale, as if calamity itself had struck.
By the time he reached them, Hong Wonchan was breathing heavily, gasping for air. Then he fixed his glare on Jang Samtae and bellowed.
“You wretch! Hiding behind Mister Dan while committing every atrocity under the sun!”
“…What?”
Shiiing!
Hong Wonchan’s face hardened as he drew his blade, pointing it at Jang Samtae with a shout.
“Surrender yourself to the law immediately!”

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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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