Chronicles of the Martial God’s Return - Chapter 43

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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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Ak-rok Mountain was also famous by another name: the Evil Mountain.
The terrain was so steep that climbing it was treacherous enough, but descending it was said to demand nothing less than wagering your life.
What made it worse was that to travel south from Ak-yang to Sang-tam, one had no choice but to pass through the narrow trail beside Ak-rok Mountain—a narrow passage that made one easy prey for bandits if luck ran short.
Two figures walked through that perilous stretch.
Jang Samtae’s face was marked by barely concealed unease, while Dan Woo-hyeon, following behind him, surveyed the scenery with the most serene expression he could muster.
“It’s a finer place than I imagined. It would have been better to build a house somewhere in these parts.”
“Indeed, with bandits swarming about. How delightful that would have been.”
“Hmm? Your tone seems rather pointed.”
“Pointed? How many times have I said it wasn’t me? You wouldn’t believe me, and on top of that, the place I’m supposed to go to prove my innocence is a bandit den? Why must it be like this?”
Jang Samtae was brimming with grievance.
His desire to prove his innocence burned bright as a chimney.
He was willing to do anything for it, but the prospect of trudging toward a bandit hideout—not a gambling house or even a Hao Mun branch—left him nothing but anxious.
“Are you frightened?”
“Of course I’m frightened! Innocence or not, I’m terrified my head’s going to roll off my shoulders!”
“What if Dan Soumi has been captured by bandits? What would you do then?”
“Then of course…….”
I would rush in without hesitation.
He had sworn—even if death came for him, he would protect that girl by any means necessary, and he would charge in and save her without a second thought for his own life.
But that was different from this, wasn’t it?
‘With this man around, there’s no way I’m actually going to die.’
With someone more formidable than any bandit standing right in front of him, his life would surely be spared—and yet the dread of facing those scoundrels didn’t fade one bit.
“And haven’t you been training all this while?”
“What good is Third-rate martial skill? You’ve been teaching Dan Soumi this and that, passing down instruction to some fellow named Gwon Mujin, and meanwhile I’m stuck eating cold rice, aren’t I?”
“Are you jealous?”
Jang Samtae, who had been walking ahead, stopped abruptly.
Jealous?
There was no point in denying it.
“Think about it! Who keeps you fed and satisfied? Me! Don’t I spend the whole day in the kitchen preparing delicious rice? Who washes the clothes you and Dan Soumi wear? I do! On top of that, I sweep the courtyard in my spare time, look after Dan Soumi, do every chore—everything! The Jang Estate wouldn’t run without me!”
“Ha ha ha.”
When Dan Woo-hyeon laughed aloud, Jang Samtae’s anger only deepened.
His face flushed crimson as he raised his voice further.
“And yet the way you treat me is worse than you’d treat a stray dog—so naturally I’m jealous and feel wronged!”
“Is that so. Then is there something you want?”
Jang Samtae, who had been drowning in grievance,’s eyes lit up.
Something he wanted?
Of course there was.
Why else would he stay despite such treatment instead of running away? Dan Soumi’s presence certainly played a part, but deeper than that lay a yearning he couldn’t shake.
He wanted to grow stronger.
He wanted to cultivate the power to protect those dear to him.
Standing beside Dan Woo-hyeon made it feel possible.
He couldn’t escape that conviction.
Besides, even if he tried to flee, debt would have dragged him back to Dan Woo-hyeon anyway.
“I want to become stronger!”
“Then grow stronger.”
“Pardon?”
Confused by the cryptic words, he cocked his head with a bewildered look.
A person couldn’t simply become strong on the spot, could he?
In that instant.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!
From somewhere, the sharp sound of something cutting through the air pierced the silence.
Thud!
In the next breath, Dan Woo-hyeon gave Jang Samtae’s back a light tap. The blow sent him staggering violently to the side, his footing lost, and he toppled forward.
Thunk-thunk-thunk!
Where he had been standing mere moments before, several arrows now protruded from the ground.
“What in the…?”
Someone had clearly fired an arrow at Dan Woo-hyeon and Jang Samtae. As Jang Samtae hastily lifted his head, a clicking sound of disapproval came from one side, followed by a dozen men emerging from the brush.
“Damn it all! I wish he’d just taken the arrow and died.”
The moment Jang Samtae saw the men pushing through the undergrowth, he understood why the arrows had suddenly come flying.
The bandits had finally shown themselves.
As he turned his head, wondering what to do—
Jang Samtae stared at Dan Woo-hyeon with an incredulous expression.
“What are you doing?”
“I got hit by an arrow.”
He sat crouched on the ground, three arrows clutched in his hand. For someone claiming to have been struck by arrows, not a single drop of blood stained him, nor did his face twist with pain.
‘What insane thing is this man thinking now?’
In that moment, catching Jang Samtae’s expression, Dan Woo-hyeon let out a short gasp and promptly rolled across the ground.
“Ah. This. Pain. Is. Im. Pos. Sib. Le.”
……
Listening to those words delivered without changing his expression once, Jang Samtae furrowed his brow.
He had no idea whatsoever why this man was acting like this.
Meanwhile, the bandits steadily closed the distance.
They formed an encircling net around Dan Woo-hyeon and Jang Samtae, and soon they raised their blades and laughed with triumph.
“Hand over everything you have!”
Jang Samtae stared blankly at the bandits, but as a blade drew near his throat, he jolted to his senses and swallowed hard.
“What do we do now?”
“Cough! What do you mean, what do we do?”
“Stop that ridiculous act and tell me what you’re planning to do!”
At Jang Samtae’s irritation, Dan Woo-hyeon shrugged his shoulders.
Perhaps because of the two men’s dismissive behavior, the bandits’ eyes narrowed.
They drew closer and closer, and soon their killing intent sharpened to the point where they seemed ready to swing their blades at any moment.
“You bastards! Can’t you hear what I’m saying! You dare disrespect Gok Jung!”
The man called Gok Jung wielded a Large Blade.
His Internal Power seemed to hover somewhere between Second-rate and Third-rate, but he had evidently trained his External Power well, his entire frame rippling with muscular definition.
Just as Jang Samtae faltered and began to retreat, Dan Woo-hyeon, still crouched on the ground, opened his mouth.
“You said you wanted to grow stronger, didn’t you? There’s no faster way to develop your skills than real combat. Do you remember?”
“Pardon?”
“Everything you’ve learned. Recall it all, piece by piece. And your swift feet—that will be a considerable advantage.”
With those words, Dan Woo-hyeon fell backward flat on his back. He clearly had no intention of helping.
Jang Samtae ground his teeth, cold sweat trickling down his temples.
“You damned—!”
The number of bandits before him was roughly a dozen.
For Jang Samtae, whose Light Footwork alone excelled while everything else languished at Third-rate level, that was a considerable force.
Yet realizing he couldn’t retreat, he clenched his fists and took a fighting stance.
The man called Gok Jung, seeing this, burst into a hollow laugh.
“One of them looks like he’s already dead—why not just give up?”
“Damn it all, does your eye look like he’s really dead to you?”
“Have you ever seen a crazier bastard?”
Gok Jung gripped his Large Blade anew. He had no idea where this fool had come from, but his attitude was thoroughly irritating.
Gnashing his teeth, he closed the distance in a single stride.
He swung the Large Blade wide and fierce.
Whoosh—!
The sound of the powerfully wielded blade sang sharply through the air.
‘Swift feet!’
Instead, Jang Samtae took Dan Woo-hyeon’s teaching to heart.
He had already won against martial artists above his own level thanks to his Light Footwork, just as Dan Woo-hyeon had described.
What stood before him now was merely a bandit!
‘If you want to grow stronger, don’t run.’
Steeling his resolve, he fixed his gaze forward.
The Large Blade moved with decent speed, but slower than the fists of Gwon Mujin or Dan Woo-hyeon.
Slash—!
Jang Samtae, regaining his confidence, lunged forward and threw his body into motion.
Bang—!
“Huh?!”
Gok Jung, having brought the Large Blade down on bare ground, was taken aback.
The Jang Samtae who’d been right before his eyes had vanished from sight in an instant.
It seemed his subordinates shared the same shock, their eyes wide as saucers as they swung their gazes frantically around them.
Then.
Thwack!
“Ugh!”
Jang Samtae suddenly materialized from behind and hurled a straight punch.
His fist drove deep into Gok Jung’s back, but the blow lacked sufficient force to truly overwhelm his opponent.
Still, in the moment Gok Jung staggered from the unexpected ambush—
“This bastard?!”
The other bandits rushed toward Jang Samtae.

‘A bandit through and through.’
Jang Samtae felt a surge of satisfaction as his blow landed, and he glanced around him.
They say even a dog can recite poetry if you keep it at a gate school for three years.
He’d been at the Jang Estate for half a year already.
One by one, he recalled the advice Dan Woo-hyeon had offered him piece by piece, the methods of overwhelming an opponent.
Whoosh!
‘Behind?!’
He sensed an arrow flying in from behind.
But he had two legs.
He thrust off the ground, hurling his body into the air, twisting like a swallow mid-flight, and before his feet even touched down, he charged ferociously toward the archer.
His movements bore no exotic or inscrutable Step Technique.
He simply ran fast and threw his fist.
Crack-thud!
“Gargh!”
Boom-crash-crash!
The man struck by his full-force punch flew backward through the air.
After rolling across the ground a few times and slamming into a tree, his limp form suggested he’d either lost consciousness or was dead.
“Hah… hah…”
Jang Samtae caught his breath.
He’d only dealt with a single bandit, but it gave him a measure of confidence.
But.
Whoosh!
Slice!
“Kgh!”
Gok Jung’s Large Blade came perilously close, grazing his waist.
As he retreated and tried to deploy Light Footwork again, the men converging from all sides didn’t even give him time to move his feet.
“So you thought a little agility would let you show off?”
Gok Jung broke into a savage, predatory grin.
The reason he’d survived all this time, running a mountain fortress near Ak-yang close to Ak-rok Mountain, was that among the bandits he was exceptionally cunning and possessed superior skill.
He had eyes sharp enough to see through Jang Samtae’s crude martial arts at a glance.
“This fool can only use Light Footwork—a worthless dog! Don’t give him a moment to move!”
“Yes, sir!”
A thunderous chorus struck his ears.
The danger had arrived in a flash, but he had no intention whatsoever of surrendering his life.
Then, a familiar voice reached him.
—Two steps to the right.
It was Dan Woo-hyeon’s voice.
The moment Jang Samtae moved two steps to the right like a puppet receiving commands, both Gok Jung and even Jang Samtae himself widened their eyes.
He’d evaded Gok Jung’s blade with the perfect timing, and in that same motion, slipped directly into his opponent’s guard.
“Raaargh!”
Seizing the opening for a counterattack, Jang Samtae threw his head forward in a headbutt. His hard skull crashed into Gok Jung’s face.
Crunch!
“Aaaaagh!”
Gok Jung’s nose bone shattered, and his vision blurred in an instant.
As strength drained from his entire body and he staggered backward, losing balance, Jang Samtae didn’t miss the opportunity—he pressed in and drove a vicious punch home.
Pow!

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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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