Emperor Namgung Mu of the Thousand Years - Chapter 8

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#008

-Crack!

I feel my neck turning.

Before I could even realize my head was turning to the side, a deep front kick was driven into my abdomen.

“Kugh!”

I staggered backward, clutching my stomach along with thick saliva. Then a lightning-fast kick struck me.

-Thwack!

Two figures flew behind me at lightning speed and grabbed my arms.

They were members of the Sword Master’s direct unit, the Sword Master’s Unit.

-Slap! Smack smack!

Lightning-like strikes to my cheeks brought fiery impacts back and forth.

Each one’s skill was at first-rate level.

With my frail body, there was nothing I could do.

My arms wouldn’t move as if fixed to rock. I was held captive and couldn’t budge.

“Stop. If you touch him any more than that, traces will remain until sixty days later.”

At the frosty command, the Sword Master’s Unit members who were beating me hesitated.

“Escort him respectfully to the annex.”

“Yes, sir.”

I was thrown inside the gate.

“Why don’t you bark like you did in front of the Sword Master earlier?”

Cheon Eul-sik, the leader of the Sword Master’s direct unit, the Sword Master’s Unit, sneered.

“Are you crazy? Even if you’re both the family head’s children, do you think you’re the same bloodline as Lord Namgung Cheon? And you dare compare yourself to Lord Namgung Cheon, who is sponsored by the Sword Master himself?”

“…Huff. Huff…”

I panted on the floor and wiped the blood from my mouth.

The leader who met my eyes let out a hollow laugh.

“Your eyes still look like a wildcat’s? Ha… with this attitude.”

Cheon Eul-sik muttered.

“A servant’s bloodline mixing into the noble Namgung, this little brat-.”

“Leader. Orders completed.”

A Sword Master’s Unit member ran out from the annex and bowed with cupped fists.

“As of now, all members in the annex have agreed to the main house’s eviction order and will leave within half a hour.”

“We’ve also confirmed there’s nothing useful from the White Goose Library side.”

After that, all the annex personnel came out in a line, hurriedly packing minimal belongings.

Watching this, Cheon Eul-sik said.

“Now, youngest young master of the Namgung Family. Look behind you. This is your position.”

Everyone was looking at me as they filed out.

“We told anyone who wanted to stay here and help you to remain. But regarding that, everyone left without looking back. We didn’t force them with swords. Understand?”

“….”

All the annex servants and branch family members who met my eyes averted their gaze.

To them, I was like a kite with a broken string.

They seemed to be avoiding getting entangled with me unnecessarily and becoming troubled.

“Try dying alone in a place with no one for sixty days. By the way, here. Do you see this boundary line?”

He pointed to the wooden threshold between him and me, crossing the boundary between the outside and the annex territory.

“If you come out even a little, we’ll execute you immediately for disobeying the family head’s orders, so be prepared. We won’t interfere with whatever you do inside, but the moment you try to escape, we’ll make today’s events feel like a joke. Oh right, if I were you, I would have committed suicide.”

Cheon Eul-sik curled up the corners of his mouth.

“You know that all the other great families will come to the Ranking Competition, right? If your future of being beaten like a dog and humiliated in front of them is confirmed.”

-Bang!!

The gate closed.

Thus I was left alone in the chaotic annex.

And-.

“You’re completely beaten to a pulp.”

Behind me was a middle-aged, balding, haggard man.

“You are.”

“Well, nothing special, just one of the guests staying in the annex. We would have rarely encountered each other anyway.”

The middle-aged man helped me up.

He dusted off my body.

“Fortunately, your bones and muscles aren’t damaged.”

“You didn’t respond to the eviction order?”

“Well, I was thinking of responding in case I got messily entangled.”

The man scratched his cheek and took something out from his chest.

“I’m the type who usually finishes a deal once I start it.”

It was Namgung Cheon’s token.

“Being confined to the residence applies only to you, Young Master Hwi, but if you’re willing to accept the side effects, outsiders can enter.”

Then he said.

“I’m Wu Biaoyun. A wandering medicine merchant and quack doctor, also a peddler. Moreover.”

“Leave even now.”

I wiped the blood from my mouth.

“There’s no need to stay here.”

He quietly looked at me like that.

“…The humiliation of being beaten by that Namgung Cheon bastard wasn’t something only you experienced. Personally, it was satisfying.”

I looked at Wu Biaoyun.

“Did you also have some incident with Namgung Cheon?”

“Including Namgung Cheon, there are many people in this neighborhood who are fed up with the tyranny of the Sword Master and Namgung Cheon. For people like me who stay as guests hoping to ask for help with our children’s advancement, they really torment us a lot because they know we have needs.”

“….”

Whether he spoke or not, I stood up abruptly and walked forward without hesitation.

Toward my retreating figure, Wu Biaoyun said.

“I don’t know what you’ll do for sixty days, but I’ll help you.”

“Help me with what?”

“Anything. Even if you give up and go to the Ranking Competition to get beaten and collapse, how about we at least cook and eat meals together for sixty days?”

“Why would you go that far?”

“I have nowhere to go anyway.”

Wu Biaoyun trailed off.

“If I could just kick the Sword Master or Namgung Cheon’s ass, it would be refreshing. Plus, if money comes from here and there, why would I refuse?”

“Here and there? Besides the deal with me, is there another place money will come from?”

“Are you personally acquainted with Sword Master Hwirong? The Sword Master said he’d give money if I helped you.”

“This is the first I’m hearing of it.”

“Is that so? It doesn’t matter anyway. Sword Master Hwirong definitely said that.”

Wu Biaoyun said.

“I need money for my daughter to enter the academy. A large sum. So don’t feel burdened.”

“….”

The place I went to was the White Goose Library, located in the inner part of the annex.

The White Goose Library was in chaos.

Anyway, the White Goose Library was also a miscellaneous warehouse where martial arts treated as trivial matters in the Namgung Family were gathered, due to the nature of the annex.

But even there, the Sword Master’s Unit had completely removed all the Namgung martial arts books that might be helpful. The useful ones were stripped away, leaving only third-rate derivatives buried in dust.

But even so, I walked forward without hesitation.

“What are you looking for?”

“Constitution.”

“Constitution…?”

Ever since the White Goose Library was opened, there was only one thing I needed to confirm.

I flipped through the book carelessly.

I wanted to make sure of this one thing before I entered.

In a way, everything was returning to how it was, or rather in an even worse situation, this was the only difference I possessed.

And the only absolute trump card I had.

“Taeeum Constitution, Diamond Indestructible Body, Yin-Yang Twin Essence Constitution, Immunity to Ten Thousand Poisons, Heavenly Sword Qi Sensitivity… And-.”

My hand that was skimming through stopped.

“You, what are you? What exactly are you trying to do.”

“Shh.”

I looked down at the text.

[Talent of Heavenly Slaughter.]

It was a cheap old book anyway, moldy and torn here and there.

There might not be any detailed background information that I was thinking of.

In a way, this decrepit warehouse might be just like my life.

I briefly looked down at the book.

Still, I wondered if there was any information about my body that I didn’t know, something that could help me.

[Heavenly Martial Constitution]

A body for martial arts that accepts the destiny bestowed by heaven.

Below the description of the Heavenly Martial Constitution, which was the protagonist of everyone and what all martial artists desired, there was an explanation related to the Talent of Heavenly Slaughter that I was looking for.

But the old book was damaged. Only mold had grown on it, making it faint, and the smeared letters were only visible in patches.

It had no value whatsoever.

Rather than being text containing information, it was nothing more than an arrangement of letters, which I fumblingly read through like a blind person groping with their hands.

-…if there is, it is that one is born with a strange talent that is not bound by the quality of form.

-…this beast that has surpassed monsters is skilled in the gluttony of the path of death and has hell-like… regarding grudges and resentment.

-Before the Blood Eye blooms, before reaching the age of twenty, one must be killed…

“…”

It was a cheap book to begin with, a crumbling old text.

There was no way there would be any valuable information.

There was no such thing as coincidence.

It was a harsh reality.

No, the Talent of Heavenly Slaughter was also just something that started from what they muttered before my violent death in my previous life.

In a way, it might not be something as great as the Heavenly Martial Constitution.

To the extent that even the author treated it carelessly, it wasn’t such a noteworthy constitution either.

I was about to close the book.

“…This is.”

I calmly lowered my gaze.

It would be text of no value whatsoever.

Was it an explanation about the Talent of Heavenly Slaughter?

Or was it an explanation about some insignificant constitution?

At the very end, beneath the long-erased and smudged letters, there was text written at the very last.

Unbreakable.

It was a phrase at the edge of the half-torn paper.

Since it was behind a cluster of letters that had been scattered as if crushed by mold from the beginning, I couldn’t tell if this was an explanation about the Talent of Heavenly Slaughter, or the introduction or conclusion of some unrelated phrase.

Just sitting there alone,

I read the text left at the end, at the conclusion.

“…Destiny is not born.”

I read the remaining text below, the last words of the book.

“-It is merely created…”

I muttered as I closed the book.

“…They said there were sixty days left.”

“Hey, what have you been talking about since earlier?”

Leaving Wu Biaoyun asking questions, I quickly organized my thoughts.

That appearance was the utterly powerless figure from my previous life,

but at the same time, only the eyes of that body were also the eyes of an assassin who had survived through countless life-and-death situations.

Think.

The Sword Master’s Unit members who had escorted me here earlier and humiliated me were at the beginner level of first-rate.

I couldn’t even lift a finger against those Sword Master’s Unit members.

And if what I’m thinking is correct?

If I assume that the disaster I’m thinking of will strike during the Ranking Competition, what should I do?

What is the minimum level required of me to overcome that?

It’s simple. At minimum, I need to have the skill to handle first-rate level opponents without any problems.

If I don’t choose my means and methods, even beyond that level.

The remaining time is sixty days.

To reach that level in just sixty days, I need to catch up to at least 60% of my peak skills from my previous life.

Is it possible?

No. It’s impossible.

Conventionally, it’s impossible.

It doesn’t make sense from the start.

No matter how much I have memories from my previous life, the physical time is woefully insufficient.

No matter how much my past self lacked internal energy, the level of my body that I had built up was extraordinary, enough to have the same killing power, to catch up in such a short time.

Catching up to that in sixty days?

Does that make sense?

What a joke.

Then should I just die like this?

“…No.”

No.

Break the framework.

I am not a martial artist.

A frontal breakthrough is impossible,

and I have survived by succeeding in assassinations even against opponents I couldn’t kill in direct life-and-death battles.

Right.

Even in my ‘previous life,’ even on that terribly twisted path, I always sought to find answers.

Because I am an assassin.

Whether it’s orthodox or whatever, I just need to achieve the results.

Ultimately, I plan to walk the path of a martial artist to break through the limits of being an assassin, but that doesn’t mean my thinking should be trapped in the martial artist’s framework during the intermediate process, or I’ll achieve nothing.

There’s no answer through orthodox growth.

Then?

Then.

By any means necessary.

To win.

Without choosing means and methods-.

“…”

I looked around.

The vast annex.

It was a wide space where cold wind seeped through.

Since it was where a branch family centered around Namgung Cheon had resided, the scale is large.

The completely worn-down White Goose Library.

In the distance, I could see the Underground Light.

I could see the half-open, rusted Armory.

Next to it, the Apothecary Storage is visible.

A vast Garden can be seen.

A small Forge with its fire extinguished is visible.

Behind it, even the stream of water flowing down from Mount Cheonju and falling like a small waterfall.

“….”

Finally, I look down at my Danjeon.

Below that, beneath the fluttering old clothes, I can see my arm.

A scrawny arm.

It was shorter than others’, and the elbow joint was soft without any training.

My pelvis was like a withered tree, and my weight was so light that even maintaining balance was difficult.

This wasn’t the body of a martial artist.

Nor was it the body of an assassin.

Just a body from my nightmares, beaten by everyone, neglected, and emaciated from not eating properly.

If it were someone else’s body, I would want to discard it.

A damn pathetic body.

An inferior body that I’d want to throw away like an old shoe and replace with a better physique, like putting on new shoes.

And.

At the same time, it’s also my real physical body that I cannot turn away from.

And.

-Clench.

Assassins are inferior to begin with.

That’s why they were self-sufficient in everything, finding a way to live and a way to die somehow even in the desperate dead ends that even martial artists would give up on.

That is precisely the mindset of an assassin.

I turned my head like lightning toward Wu Biaoyun and said.

“Master Biaoyun, you’re a medicinal herb merchant, you have the freedom to move between the village and this place, and you said you know medicine to some extent. Is that correct?”

Wu Biaoyun was flustered by my sudden question.

“Uh, um… I do know it? I’m definitely not first-rate, but I should be able to understand what’s being said.”

“Lastly, are you the type to keep your mouth shut?”

At those words, Wu Biaoyun smiled wryly.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but I’m just a medicinal herb merchant and third-rate physician anyway. Even if I wanted to run my mouth, I’d need eyes to recognize things. And I don’t have any connections in the Martial Arts World to speak to anyway.”

“Let me change my words. Time is pressing, so I think I’ll definitely need your help.”

“What… what? What are you trying to do?”

“Improvement.”

I said.

“Improvement of everything. By any means necessary.”

Wu Biaoyun looked around bewildered at my words.

“…That, in this old Annex, here?”

“Here.”

“…Are you in your right mind? The Annex isn’t small, but from what I know, you can’t even leave here for sixty days?”

“That also means they can’t enter here for sixty days either.”

“….”

“It will be busy. I’ll procure what’s needed through you.”

“Me?”

Wu Biaoyun stroked his chin.

“Well… if house arrest doesn’t consider the aftermath, there are no restrictions on whether outsiders come and go…”

“I’ll give you double the promised payment. At the same time-.”

I raised my head.

“I’ll take responsibility for kicking the Sword Master’s ass. If Sword Master Hwirong doesn’t give your daughter tuition, I’ll take responsibility for confronting him about that too.”

“You mean you’ll break through the Ranking Competition head-on? Is that possible? I don’t know much about martial arts, but this doesn’t make sense-.”

“It’s not about whether it’s possible or not.”

I said.

“I have to do it.”

“….”

Wu Biaoyun looked at me.

He hesitated for a long time.

And finally, he opened his mouth.

“…What should I start with?”

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