I Obtained Guan Yu's Martial Arts - Chapter 12

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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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Obtained Gwan Yun-jang’s martial art 012
Foundation-less Cultivation (2)
Unsung City. Ithop Inn.
The Ithop Inn, boasting an extreme value for money where one baijiu came with two complimentary side dishes.
Today too, the Ithop Inn was so packed with patrons that there barely seemed room to set foot.
“Wow… there are a lot of people here.”
“Looks like a real gem of a place, doesn’t it?”
The younger brothers who had come with Im Il-do were already licking their lips before they’d even sat down.
“That’s right. Today, I’ll treat everyone handsomely, so eat your fill.”
These counterfeit martial instructors, who had originally planned to head straight to the Gwan Family Estate, changed their minds and came to the inn instead.
Even in the midst of martial training, one must eat first.
The thought was to fill their bellies generously while they were here in Unsung.
“Hey, Jeom So-i!”
“Yes sir, coming right away!”
“Bring us four bottles of baijiu—or make it three large ones.”
Im Il-do placed his order with a casual jerk of his chin.
“Ah… yes, sir.”
Jeom So-i sensed the quality of a troublemaker in both the order’s content and tone, so he managed his expression as carefully as possible and withdrew.
Only after he turned away did his face sour.
“Brother, surely you don’t mean for us to drink baijiu on an empty stomach in broad daylight?”
“Don’t be such a cheapskate about it—order some food as well.”
“You lads, don’t worry. Here they serve generous side dishes with just the drink alone.”
Im Il-do spoke with utter confidence.
The other patrons seated nearby tilted their heads in confusion.
While it was true that one baijiu came with two side dishes, they came in small ceramic spoons in minimal quantities.
“Here you are, esteemed masters.”
Jeom So-i set three bottles of baijiu, six cups, and six small side dishes on the table.
“What?”
“That’s tiny!”
The younger brothers’ faces fell with disappointment.
Especially Dae-ryong, the second brother, whose face nearly crumpled—he had paid for a hearty meal the night before.
“Hey… brother.”
“This bastard really…”
“Settle down. Settle down.”
Im Il-do calmed his angry younger brothers and jabbed Jeom So-i in the ribs with his elbow.
“You there.”
“Ugh!”
The body of a martial artist standing at the peak of Second Class was itself a weapon no different than any blade to a commoner.
That sharpened, trained elbow left a red mark blooming instantly across Jeom So-i’s ribs.
“What, you playing games with me? Who am I supposed to feed this to? You bastard.”
“M-master, these are supposed to be small side dishes, so that’s why they come like this…”
“Hey. Do you want to die? Don’t you see my hungry younger brothers right in front of you? Should I scrape some flesh off your bones and have them eat that?!”
“M-m-master?!”
At the threat from a martial artist with a sword at his belt, Jeom So-i’s complexion turned deathly pale.
“If you don’t want to die, bring something good. Something we can eat our fill of. Understood?”
“Y-yes, understood, master.”
Tears welling at the corners of his eyes, Jeom So-i rushed frantically toward the kitchen.
For a boy of merely fifteen, it was a rather painful experience.
“Heh heh. So you had this in mind from the start?”
“Well, you have to give it to our Im here—his cunning is something else. He’s probably the most cunning martial instructor in all the Central Plains.”
“Hah hah. That’s what you call wisdom, brothers. Call him a wise instructor.”
Im Il-do and his younger brothers smiled with pride at their shameless act, lower even than begging.
“…”
“…”
The other patrons watched them with eyes full of displeasure, but none dared to challenge them.
Going against six armed martial artists was impossible unless one had seven lives instead of one.
“What are you staring at, you bastards!”
“You got a problem with us?!”
But even those glances displeased Im Il-do and his brothers, so they glared with eyes blazing in anger.
Truly, their conduct was no different from that of ruffians.
“If you’ve got a problem with me, spit it out. I’ll beat it right out of you.”
Dae-ryong, the largest of Im Il-do’s younger brothers, tensed his trapezius and barked the challenge.
“Well, well. You’re quite the troublemakers, aren’t you?”
“What?! Who the hell is that?”
Dae-ryong’s eyes flared with fury as they swung toward the southwest corner.
There sat a broad-shouldered youth, setting down his empty bowl of thin noodles.
“You?”
‘That’s right. Me.’
“Yeah. You mindless bastard.”
With witnesses watching, Gwan Hui’s plan to keep things civil evaporated in an instant.
His true thoughts had slipped out before he could stop them.
‘Damn it.’
But by now, such lapses were routine, and Gwan Hui answered without missing a beat.
“What are you staring at, you bastard?”
When you’ve seized momentum, the only way to win is to press the advantage.
Gaining momentum wasn’t just empty talk.
“Y-you little shit?”
Dae-ryong’s pupils trembled with shock.
He wasn’t unfamiliar with this kind of crude mouth.
It was bread and butter in the streets.
But he’d rarely seen someone sling curses this brazenly from the start.
There was an order to insults, wasn’t there?
“You dare call me a bastard—”
“A bastard, yes. A broke bastard who sponges off the inn for food. You thugs from the black sect or something? Word is you’re instructors, too. What kind of vermin excuse for instructors are you?”
“You want to die?”
Dae-ryong drew his sword partway from its scabbard.
Usually, showing even a glimpse of the blade was enough to cow most people.
But.
“Ha.”
Gwan Hui let out a scoff instead of flinching.
These men weren’t worth more than that scrawny kid and his shabby instructor.
And Gwan Hui was far stronger now than he’d been then.
At his current level, he could crush men like these one-handed while slurping noodles.
“You son of a bitch! Get outside right now. I’ll teach you a lesson you won’t forget—I’ll shut that mouth of yours for good.”
As Dae-ryong bellowed, Gwan Hui shot to his feet.
He’d been looking for an excuse to level these fools anyway.
If they threw the first punch, he could beat them senseless without hesitation.
“……!?”
Dae-ryong faltered when he saw Gwan Hui stand.
‘What—how massive is this guy?!’
The man’s frame was even larger than he’d realized.
He towered over Dae-ryong, who was already taller than most, by the length of a head.
‘And his build……’
Most tall men were lanky, gangly things.
But not this one.
He wasn’t just tall—he was thick with muscle, a living weapon of flesh and bone.
What was that old saying?
Lü Bu’s frame? Something like that—the kind of physique that made legends.
“……I’ll overlook it this once. Sit down. I’m in a good mood today, so I’m being merciful.”
“What are you talking about? If you’re not going to pay, get out right now. I’ll teach you some manners.”
“I’ll pay for my meal.”
“……What?”
“That was a joke. I’ll pay for everything and cover Jeom So-i’s expenses too. So sit down.”
“……?”
“Right then. I’m leaving. Finish your food.”
Realizing the fight wouldn’t be easily won, Dae-ryong pivoted hastily and returned to his seat.
“What? Why are you doing that?”
“Brother, what’s gotten into you? You’re not smashing him like usual?”
Watching his confused siblings, Dae-ryong smiled easily.
“Ha-ha. Isn’t today a good day? There’s no need to spill blood on a good day. Come now—let’s have a drink!”
Dae-ryong hastily offered an explanation, but before his younger brothers could voice their doubts, he lifted his cup to his lips.
Drinking the baijiu in gulps like a parched man, sweat soon began streaming down Dae-ryong’s back in rivulets.
“……What the hell. That idiot.”
Gwan Hui, whose enthusiasm had evaporated in an instant, shook his head in disbelief.
‘There really are all kinds of fools in the world. What kind of morons hire someone like that as an instructor?’
The answer to a question only Gwan Hui didn’t know.
That family was none other than the Gwan Family.

* * *
Having eaten his fill of thin noodles and meat side dishes, Gwan Hui stepped out of the inn muttering to himself.
“This is ridiculous.”
Thinking back on it, it truly was absurd.
He’d never met anyone so utterly bland in his life.
Even the temple rice the Shaolin monks ate would have more flavor than that man.
“Well, at least I got free meat dishes out of it.”
Moved by Gwan Hui’s comment, Jeom So-i had provided a generous pork dish without being asked.
“But seriously, what kind of fools are they?”
Having already reached Second Class Peak, Gwan Hui could now assess his opponent’s level to a decent degree through qi sensing.
Those instructors he’d sensed were somewhere at Second Class Peak to its tail end.
Which meant they were roughly on par with Gwan Hui, or slightly weaker.
For people of that caliber to be boasting about teaching martial arts marked them as utter buffoons.
“Looking at it any way, there aren’t many places foolish enough to hire such incompetent fools.”
While Unsung City’s martial arts standards did lag behind other cities, it wasn’t overrun with such worthless rabble.
Unable to figure out who might be desperate enough to hire them, Gwan Hui cast off his wandering thoughts and entered the family estate.
“Young master!”
“Welcome home!”
The moment Gwan Hui’s feet touched the estate grounds, everyone greeted him warmly with smiles.
Within that gentle atmosphere, a brightness that hadn’t been visible before now shone through.
It was the radiance of those who had recovered the family’s martial arts legacy, repaid all their debts, and shed the heavy burden that had weighed on their hearts.
“Mm. You’re all doing well.”
Watching the family’s martial artists ceaselessly striking the iron bars, Gwan Hui smiled with satisfaction.
‘The General said growth only comes when one learns through their own efforts.’
In truth, he’d wanted nothing more than to watch over all their training himself.
People ran faster when someone stood beside them with a whip, after all.
But Gwan Yun-jang had said that without enlightenment born of their own struggle, they could not advance, and gave them the chance to stand on their own feet.
He’d been somewhat worried at first, but it turned out to be the right call.
The family’s martial artists were training without a moment of laziness, even without Gwan Hui’s supervision.
‘The steward has already begun cultivating inner strength.’
According to reports, Gwan Nam-cheon, the steward of the Gwan Family, had already completed his training in the Red Fire Radiant Martial Art and begun practicing the Dragon Flight Divine Power.
Driving himself mercilessly without sleep, he’d already awakened the Red Fire Radiant Martial Art in full.
‘Everyone’s making good progress.’
The other martial artists were also nearing the end of their training in the Red Fire Radiant Martial Art.
This was four times faster than the one year Gwan Yun-jang had predicted.
The intense longing to become as strong as their family head had accelerated their pace.
“I can’t fall behind either.”
There would never come a day when he fell short of his family members.
Gwan Hui possessed the Heavenly Martial Physique that appeared once in a hundred years, and within him lived the spirit of Gwan Yun-jang, the progenitor of their martial arts.
But in order to set an even greater example, Gwan Hui wanted to grow stronger still.
And he wanted to grow strong as quickly as possible so he could proudly show the world the power of the Gwan Family.
To show them that our family possesses martial arts as refined as those of the Five Heavenly Families.
—The Five Heavenly Families?
“Ah, they refer to the five great clans that currently hold the most power in the Central Plains.”
Five families that support heaven itself.
Under the Emperor’s protection, they rule the Central Plains like kings—the Luoyang Zhao Family, the Nanking Sun Family, the Gansu Dong Family, the Hunan Yuan Family, and the Gongsun Family.
“It’s a name that didn’t exist in your time, General, so you wouldn’t know of it.”
—Hearing it for the first time. The Luoyang Zhao Family would be Cao Cao’s line, and the Nanking Sun Family would be Sun Ce’s.
“Yes. They are clans founded by the descendants of those men.”
A bitter sound came from Gwan Yun-jang’s voice in his mind.
—Gansu Dong Family is Dong Zhuo. Hunan Yuan Family is Yuan Shao. Gongsun Family is Gongsun Zan. But why…… do only they remain?
“Pardon?”
—Why aren’t your family and your brother’s among those five great families?
The Five Heavenly Families who serve the current Emperor include the families descended from Cao Cao and Sun Jian.
But why isn’t the Sichuan Liu Family, which traces its line back to Liu Xuan-deok, counted among them?
Gwan Yun-jang found himself unable to grasp this point.
—And Zhuge Liang has no family of his own, nor does Zhao Yun, nor Zhang Fei. What became of those lines?
“Hmm. I’m afraid I’m not certain, sir.”
Gwan Hui himself had no knowledge of how other families conducted their affairs.
When the very future of the Gwan Family Estate hung in the balance, what energy could he spare for such questions?
—It’s most peculiar. Why does this affliction fall only upon the descendants of Shu Han?
No matter how much he turned it over in his mind, Gwan Yun-jang could make no sense of it.
As he brooded in silence, a chilling question surfaced in his thoughts.
—Could it be that someone deliberately erased them?!

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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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