I Obtained Guan Yu's Martial Arts - Chapter 11

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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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Guan Yu’s Martial Arts Obtained — Episode 011
Rootless Training (1)
Crack!—Thud!—
For days on end, the sound of breaking bone echoed through the Training Ground at Guan Family Estate.
The relentless impact of small fists against a massive cylindrical iron staff—a column of such girth it recalled the pillars of the Dragon King’s palace.
That bone-chilling sound, which made listeners’ skin crawl, continued without respite, night and day, showing no sign of cessation.
Under the command of the family head Guan Hui, all the retainers of the Guan Family were undergoing high-intensity training.
“Hnnnngh…….”
“I’m… going to die.”
After four Double Hours of training—or rather, torture—the family’s martial artists lay sprawled across the ground.
Their faces, wrapped in bandages soaked with blood around fists, elbows, and knees, had never looked more utterly spent.
“I’m dying……. I really think I’m going to die.”
“My… my arms…….”
“My knees are shattered.”
This brutal training method, the likes of which they had never witnessed before, reached pain levels beyond measure.
It was far too demanding, far too agonizing.
“And now we have to do the Horse Stance again.”
Eight Double Hours of pounding the colossal iron staff like madmen did not mark the end of a day’s training.
This training was merely the beginning.
Next came three Double Hours in the Horse Stance while bearing a boulder the size of a human head, followed by two Double Hours of Combat until their muscles threatened to tear. After that, they had to fight hand-to-hand.
Out of twelve Double Hours in a day, all but two had to be filled with suffering.
“Is this right?”
“Isn’t this far too severe!?”
It had been two months since they began this hellish training, pouring nearly every waking hour into it.
It was only natural that the retainers’ discontent grew deeper with each passing day.
They were maintaining, without exception, a training intensity so severe that even men of considerable mental fortitude would collapse after just two days.
“Damn it. I really think I’m going to die. I haven’t slept properly in seven weeks because of the pain.”
“Cursed……. Why in heaven’s name is the family head conducting such training!?”
The retainers’ discontent had risen to pierce the heavens.
The Guan Family Estate was not a household where the family head’s authority was particularly strong, so they could in fact abandon the training at any moment and voice their complaints freely.
In truth, they often felt the urge to do precisely that.
But.
“The family head is working the hardest of all. How could we not do the same?”
“Cursed……. At least we get to sleep. The family head doesn’t sleep at all.”
The one who had initiated this training was driving himself harder than anyone else.
Guan Hui was not satisfied with the iron staff alone; he pounded an expensive one mixed with Cold Iron, held the Horse Stance while bearing a boulder the size of a house, and pushed himself until his body could no longer move and he collapsed unconscious.
The family retainers at least slept in their own chambers. Guan Hui, collapsing unconscious in the Training Ground each time, even took his sleep there.
This was why the retainers did not dare voice the discontent that had accumulated to the brim of their throats.
The very man who had imposed this harsh training was driving himself forward in an even harsher manner.
“Sigh……. What else can we do? We must work harder for the sake of the family.”
Guan Yushang rose to his feet, clenching his teeth through his exhaustion-laden face.
“The family head is struggling desperately for our family’s sake. We cannot simply idle about like this.”
“Blast it. You’re right.”
“When I think of the family head, we should be working many times harder.”
The retainers’ feelings toward Guan Hui had always been exceptional.
Not one of them had failed to shed tears upon watching that young boy wander about outside, desperate to repay the family debt with his small, fern-like hands.
When Guan Hui volunteered as a test subject for the Black Sword, the retainers had to endure despair and hopelessness that erupted like coughing up blood.
Watching their young family head cut away at his own life because of their own inadequacy, they had thought that death itself would be preferable.
For the retainers of the Guan Family, their family head Guan Hui had always held profound meaning since the old days.
But after this recent series of events, the light in the retainers’ eyes when they looked upon Guan Hui had changed greatly.
“Now when I look at the family head, pity no longer arises in me.”
“Nor does sympathy stir within me.”
Pity, compassion, and sorrow—such emotions had now vanished into the distant past alongside his tragic history.
“To be honest, he commands my respect.”
“The same is true for me. And I am proud of the family head. Where else in this world could such a person exist?”
“He set himself ablaze to save the family and saved himself in turn. Throughout all of history, there is no one like him.”
“Indeed, that is so.”
Now in the retainers’ eyes, Guan Hui was the object of respect, admiration, yearning, and trust.
From the most tragic circumstances imaginable, he had accomplished what no one else could achieve.
Such a man deserved, without question, the highest place in everyone’s heart.
Because no one in this world could do what Guan Hui does.
“So we ought to… work all the harder ourselves.”
“Right! You’re absolutely correct, Yushang!”
“Let’s run with even greater determination.”
The household servants, their bodies streaked with blood, hurled themselves against the iron staffs once more.
This mere bodily anguish.
It was nothing compared to what their young lord had endured.

* * *
“Hm. This martial technique… it’s truly astounding.”
After finishing his training, Guan Hui gazed at his surroundings with an almost dazed expression.
The special Training Ground behind the Guan Family Estate, reserved only for the family head.
Surrounded by gnarled trees over a century old, the Training Ground with its worn blue stone bore no trace of its former serene beauty.
Trees centuries old stood as mere pillars, their trunks severed in half, while massive trees lay scattered in all directions.
That was far from all.
The blue stone floor was scarred with hundreds of deep, jagged gouges, as though some colossal beast had clawed through it.
Any onlooker might have believed that hundreds of wild beasts had waged war in this very place—such was the devastation.
“What raw power…”
-You speak the obvious. The Heavenly Extreme Cloud Extinguishing Blade is the supreme martial art of all ages.
“I never imagined such destructive force could come from my own Second Rank technique.”
Guan Hui stared down at the Silver Crescent Blade as though he couldn’t believe it.
That a warrior of merely Second Rank—and one who had trained in proper martial arts for scarcely two months—could unleash such power seemed impossible.
It defied all reason.
If he were to gather the Second Rank warriors of Yunchen City and command them to fell a tree of such immense girth, not a single one would succeed.
‘When my cultivation deepens further, how much stronger will my power become?’
If merely two months’ training yielded this much, later he might even be able to cut through Cold Iron aged ten thousand years.
That legendary metal, said to possess the greatest hardness in all the world.
-Cold Iron itself? Before my technique, it is merely tofu.
“Indeed. You are truly formidable, General.”
-You state the obvious.
The voice of Guan Yu in his mind carried a faint note of satisfaction.
It was clear that praise for his martial art had lifted his spirits slightly.
‘He’s rather easy to please, isn’t he.’
The saying that praise makes even whales dance seemed to be true after all.
To see even the stalwart Guan Yu grow pleased—it proved the point.
“Thanks to that technique, my growth rate has been remarkable.”
Though it felt strange to say it of himself, Guan Hui’s rate of advancement struck even him as extraordinary.
In merely two months, from Third Rank to the cusp of Second Rank—which meant First Rank lay just within reach.
“It seems to be thanks to your martial art, General. With such an excellent technique, swift growth follows naturally.”
-No, that is not so.
“Pardon?”
-A fine martial art does not cause growth. Growth depends solely upon the warrior’s own innate talent.
Even in Guan Yu’s eyes, Guan Hui’s rate of advancement was extraordinary.
Setting aside the slack standards of this degenerate age and measuring him instead against his own era, such growth was rare indeed.
Among those said to possess the bearing of a great general, he would be among the few to count on one’s fingers.
-It is because you possess the Heavenly Martial Physique that you differ from all others.
“The Heavenly Martial Physique… In truth, I still cannot quite grasp it.”
It was not Guan Hui alone who would feel this way.
For anyone suddenly told, ‘You are a genius born once in a thousand years,’ the reaction would be bewilderment rather than amazement.
-There is nothing special in being called the Heavenly Martial Physique. No tree can grow upon barren earth, no matter its nature. You need only focus on your training as you do now.
“Yes. I understand. Without effort, nothing has meaning.”
-Indeed. Do not rely upon your physique as you do now, but place your trust in effort.
“Yes, General.”
-Then now attempt to fell the thickest tree using only raw strength, without drawing upon your Internal Energy.
The stern tone in Yun Zhang’s voice softened somewhat.
Most of those born with great talent across the ages fell victim to that very gift, undoing themselves through pride.
It was so in the age of the Three Kingdoms, and so it would be in this era.
Yet the successor before him did not trust in his talent; instead, he steadily accumulated through effort.
How could any predecessor not be moved by such resolve?
“Ah, but General—won’t felling that massive tree be beyond my strength alone?”
-…….
Guan Yu reflected on the matter.
Being too humble about one’s own talent was itself a problem.
Here was someone who could already tear through steel plates with his bare fists—what was he worried about not being able to fell a tree?!
-Enough noise. Just do it quickly.
Guan Yu mentally corrected what he’d just said.
Perhaps he needed to have a bit more confidence in the talents he was born with.

* * *
Yunchen City, in that hour when the sun hung upon the ridge and a crimson twilight began to consume the world.
While everyone else hurried toward home, a weasel-faced man led five subordinates in another direction entirely.
“Kehehehe. See? These bastards are complete fools.”
“That much, you say?”
“That much, yes! Have you ever seen the training instructor take a vacation?”
“Of course not.”
“But I can make it happen. These stupid idiots’ll do whatever I ask of them.”
The weasel-faced man pulled his lips back in a smile that stretched nearly to his ears.
With his low, flat nose paired with yellowed teeth, the man bore the look of a schemer—he was Im Ildo, the martial arts instructor at the Guan Family Estate.
“But Im, the ones at the Guan Family Estate aren’t complete idiots either. Would they really permit such a thing?”
“What will they do if they don’t permit it?”
Im Ildo let out a scornful laugh.
“There’s no other instructor who’d teach martial arts to such a pitiful little house but me.”
Not just anyone can be a martial arts instructor.
One must have exceptional skill in martial arts oneself, and deep knowledge across many branches of the discipline.
Only by combining both erudition and experience can one truly be called an instructor anywhere.
Of course, Im Ildo barely scraped by on both counts—his mastery was at best ambiguous, a marginal level.
“The Guan Family Estate has no choice but to accept it. What else can they do? No other instructor would even consider such a place.”
“Huh. Our friend Im here’s caught himself one real prize fool.”
“Kehehehe. Exactly, I’m telling you? The family head is so busy he hardly knows how the household runs. There’s no better place to squeeze money from.”
“But I heard the place is pretty poor. Will there be enough for us to extract?”
To his younger brothers’ worried question, Im Ildo thumped his chest heartily.
“Trust your older brother! Even dried squid yields water if you wring it hard enough. You fools. Mark my words—there’s still plenty more to squeeze out of those bastards at the Guan Family Estate!”
Im Ildo had spent the summer break enjoying time with close younger brothers.
His return to the Guan Family Estate with five of these brothers had its purpose.
It was to extract a substantial sum under the guise that proper training required additional instructors.
“We’ll make one clean haul and then abandon this godforsaken town. How’s that sound?!”
“Excellent, brother!”
“Im, I like it very much.”
“Ahahaha. This one’s going to be easy!”
Im Ildo and his five younger brothers approached the Guan Family Estate, their mouths full of hearty smiles.
Preoccupied with thoughts of fleecing others, they had no way of knowing.
What terrible fate awaited them in the days to come.

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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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