I Obtained Guan Yu's Martial Arts - Chapter 13

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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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Obtaining Guan Yu’s Martial Arts Episode 13
Rootless Cultivation (3)
The three kingdoms of the Three Realms are called Wei, Shu, and Wu.
The kingdom of Wei founded by Cao Cao, the kingdom of Shu founded by Liu Bei, and the kingdom of Wu founded by Sun Quan.
These three kingdoms commanded countless generals and soldiers, striving with all their might to unify the world.
An era of warlords when heroes more outstanding than ever before rose to prominence.
Most noble families descended from the generals of that age still benefited from the virtue of having such illustrious ancestors.
All except the descendants of Shu.
It truly is a curious thing—that only the heirs of Shu have failed to maintain their family’s glory.
From Guan Yu’s lips came a weary sigh that filled his mind entirely.
How could this be… how could this have come to pass?
Along with the deep sigh came a sense of profound regret.
It was an emotion Guan Hui could scarcely imagine.
“I…”
Guan Hui opened his mouth to offer comfort, then closed it, repeating this cycle without finding words.
“Still, the Zhuge Clan remains, General.
Is that so? Truly?
“Yes. They are among those who have made a name for themselves in commerce.”
The Zhuge Clan, far more renowned in the Central Plains by the name of the Zhuge Trading Company, had gained considerable reputation through their business acumen born of their natural intellect.
They had even risen to be counted among the Five Major Trading Companies of the Central Plains.
The Zhuge bloodline turned to commerce?
That those blessed by heaven with such Five-Star Talent would devote themselves to mere trade seemed incomprehensible.
For Guan Yu, it was simply inexplicable.
Using a mind blessed by heaven for commerce was like taking a body of perfect martial prowess and using it to swing a pickaxe.
The Zhuge surely possessed respectable Martial Knowledge. How could they abandon their place as a Martial Family and become commoners?
“I’m not entirely certain of that either. Perhaps, like us, they experienced a loss of their Martial Lineage?”
The loss of a Martial Lineage occurred far more frequently than one might think.
To the uninformed, the loss of a Martial Lineage seems like something that happens once in a thousand years, if at all—but the reality is quite different.
What is a Secret Manual, after all, but mere paper?
It is fragile by nature, susceptible to complete destruction should it catch fire or become soaked with water.
But that is not all.
A Secret Manual cannot fully capture the enlightenment of a martial master.
Thus, even when a Secret Manual exists, the Martial Lineage is often lost because it cannot be properly inherited.
Without someone possessing the Five-Star Talent to comprehend such a manual, the lineage is severed entirely.
How truly strange.
Guan Yu could not shake his suspicion.
Even the house of Dong Zhuo saw its descendants maintain their glory—yet none of Shu’s generals achieved such continuity.
It was as though someone deliberately sought to destroy the legacy of Shu itself.
This cannot be dismissed as mere coincidence.
Guan Yu turned the matter over in his mind and became certain.
All of this was no accident—there was intent behind it.
There must be a reason. I must uncover it without fail.
“Now that you mention it, that does seem to be the case.”
Until now, he had never harbored such doubt.
Before, he had been too busy struggling for survival.
But looking at it this way, it certainly is strange.
How exactly did only Shu’s descendants come to ruin so miserably?
“Tell me once more—your ancestor, that is, my descendants—how did they lose their Martial Arts?”
“Well, that is to say…”

* * *
Yunseong City. Guan Clan Estate.
The estate of the Guan Clan Estate, marked by its worn main gate and crumbling wall on the verge of collapse.
Six men entered through the deteriorating gate, which creaked on rusted hinges.
These six men, whose faces bore expressions of barely concealed fury, were none other than Im Il-do, the Martial Arts instructor of the Guan Clan Estate, and his brothers.
“Hear me! I have arrived! Im Il-do, Martial Arts instructor of the Guan Clan, has come!”
Im Il-do, swinging the door open with boisterous energy, gestured to the Guan Clan’s servants upon catching sight of the Training Ground visible just beyond the entrance.
“You there! Guan Seok! The instructor has arrived—why aren’t you showing proper respect!”
“Ah, Instructor. Welcome back. I was in the midst of training and didn’t notice.”
“…?”
A sudden doubt flickered through Im Il-do’s mind.
The Guan Clan’s household members possessed aspirations that reached toward the heavens, but busy repaying debts, they had not begun their training until the Hour of the Dog at the earliest.
‘But it’s still the Hour of the Sheep?’
Normally he would have questioned this and examined his surroundings more carefully, but the alcohol rising in his throat clouded his judgment.
“Hmm. Yes. I see. What training were you doing? Stance work, perhaps?”
“No, sir. We were in the midst of External Martial Arts training.”
“……?!”
For a moment, Im Il-do felt the alcohol evaporate from his body.
“What are you…… saying?”
“External Martial Arts training, sir.”
“Where in your clan would you find something like that?”
The Guan Clan Estate possessed nothing but a shabby Spear Technique and a worthless Internal Cultivation Method.
The sort of street-level Secret Manual that even a second-rate warrior like Im Il-do could master in a single day.
“It was recently acquired.”
“Pah…….”
“Pfft!”
Im Il-do’s siblings could not suppress their laughter at his words.
A new Secret Manual had appeared.
Had someone merely picked it up at the market?
“Why are those gentlemen laughing, sir?”
“Because what you’re saying makes no sense. A new Martial Arts Secret Manual? Did you go shopping at some bazaar?”
“Well…… it is similar.”
“Similar?”
The boy had nodded his head so earnestly in response to what was meant as mockery that Im Il-do himself became flustered.
What in the name of the heavens was this supposed to mean?!
“No, wait. What is this?!”
Only then, as Im Il-do’s eyes surveyed the surroundings, did they widen to the point of splitting.
Towering above the worn slate Training Ground stood massive gray Iron Pillars.
Across these pillars—whose purpose was utterly incomprehensible—dried blood was smeared in places. Around the bloodstains, the metal was dented as though it had been struck repeatedly with a sledgehammer, and surrounding those marks lay the clan’s warriors, breathing heavily, sprawled flat on their backs in sprawling positions.
The sight was, how should one put it.
Like they had engaged in a life-and-death struggle against the Iron Pillars themselves before collapsing from exhaustion.
“What is this…… It’s not as though you were exchanging blows with iron pillars.”
“Oh!? As expected, Instructor, you have keen eyes. That is precisely it. We were training to shatter the Iron Pillars with our fists.”
“What, what…… shatter?”
“The Iron Pillars, sir! Training to shatter these columns using External Martial Arts alone, without Internal Energy.”
“…….”
Im Il-do stared at Guan Seok as one might regard a madman.
Was this fool insane?
“How in the name of the heavens could you shatter that with nothing but your fist and no Internal Energy? Are your hands forged from steel?!”
At Im Il-do’s bewildered reaction, Guan Seok merely cocked his head.
“Our Clan Leader has done so, sir.”
“……What?”
“The Clan Leader shattered one in only half an hour.”
“……Ha ha ha ha!”
Im Il-do and his five siblings burst into raucous laughter as though by agreement.
A human shattering a pillar of that thickness through External Martial Arts alone?
One’s bones would shatter before that was possible. It was nonsense.
“Guan Seok. I didn’t know you had a talent for jest.”
Having laughed so loudly that tears came to his eyes, Im Il-do placed a hand upon Guan Seok’s shoulder.
“While I was away, the Guan Clan Estate has gone quite mad. Calling such senseless foolishness training—it’s absurd.”
Im Il-do let out a long sigh and shook his head.
Pity was written plainly across his gaze.
“One does not grow stronger by engaging in such ignorant, witless nonsense as this.”
“But, yes—?!”
“Whichever fool suggested this form of training was mistaken. That is not the way.”
“However, this was ordered by our Clan Leader…….”
“Listen here! I am the Martial Arts Instructor of this clan! When I say something is wrong, it remains wrong even if the Late Clan Leader himself walked through that door!”
“That is…… to say…….”
Was it the alcohol speaking?
Im Il-do was angry.
If the instructor steps away, you should just quietly do what you’re told.
How dare you bring some other training method and use it without permission!?
‘These poor wretches simply never learned properly.’
This was nothing short of contempt for the established martial instructors of the clan.
It was a complete departure from proper conduct.
“Get this cursed Iron Pillar out of here right now!”
Im Il-do’s face flushed crimson as he thrust his finger forward and bellowed.
The Guan Clan martial artists, who had been holding their tongues, were just about to speak when—
“Who the hell told you to move it?”
A towering man over six feet tall with a powerfully built frame emerged into the Training Ground.
Broad shoulders, massive chest muscles visible even from the courtyard’s edge, and rippling muscles that seemed ready to burst through his clothes—he was none other than Guan Hui, the master of the Guan Clan Estate.
“What? You, you bastard……!”
Guan Hui’s face twisted into something demonic upon recognizing Im Il-do.
“This worthless son of a bitch was the one we hired as an instructor!?”

* * *
For a moment, Im Il-do’s mind went blank.
‘……What did he just say?’
He’d called him a worthless son of a bitch.
Not just worthless, not just a bastard.
A triple-layered compound curse combining dog, worthless, and bastard.
Though he’d heard various insults in his lifetime, this was the first time anyone had combined curses in such a creative manner on first meeting.
Normally an insult would make him angry, but this was so bewildering that he couldn’t even muster anger.
His mind simply couldn’t catch up.
“You…….”
“What kind of madman hired such trash as an instructor!?”
“…….”
He tried to respond, but the man cut him off and continued his tirade.
“This is ridiculous. A third-rate hoodlum like you as an instructor for our clan? Is this your doing, Guan Seok?”
“I—I apologize, sir.”
Guan Seok hurriedly lowered his head, exposing the crown of it.
This was the first time he’d seen Guan Hui this angry.
When a man two heads taller than himself lost his temper, it was far more terrifying than anyone else’s anger.
“Sigh. Fine. Why did you hire someone like that anyway? You knew well enough he wasn’t worth a damn.”
“Well…….”
Guan Seok glanced nervously at Im Il-do before speaking carefully.
“He was the cheapest.”
“……I see.”
An irrefutable reason.
Guan Hui nodded in understanding.
That explanation made perfect sense.
The clan was desperately poor, but they needed an instructor to maintain their identity as a martial family.
‘That’s true. No sane martial instructor would come to our clan.’
Who would accept a position with a family everyone was betting would collapse at any moment?
They probably wouldn’t even be certain about receiving payment.
“Moreover, Instructor Im trained under a martial instructor from a branch of the Gongsun Clan, so his lineage has some foundation.”
“What?”
This was like hearing about a friend’s mother’s son’s sister’s cousin—what kind of convoluted explanation was this?
‘By that logic, isn’t he just a bastard with no real lineage?’
The words rose to the tip of his tongue, but Guan Hui barely managed to restrain himself.
“By that logic, isn’t he just a bastard with no real lineage?”
Wait, he’d said it anyway.
Guan Hui had never been good at keeping his true thoughts to himself.
Rather, he had quite the talent for doing the opposite.
“……!”
“……!?”
Guan Hui’s blunt curse captured everyone’s attention.
Im Il-do and his younger brothers looked grave; the household servants who’d been training fell silent; even the shocked Guan Seok—all stared only at Guan Hui.
“Y…… Y…… Damn it all! How dare you insult the Emotionless Sword Im Il-do!”
At this trivial epithet, Guan Hui let out a derisive snort.
“The Emotionless Sword is nonsense. You mean the Emotionless Self, don’t you?”
“What, what?! I’ve never seen such an arrogant brute!”
Im Il-do’s face, flushed with fury that climbed to the roots of his hair, looked like that of a madman.
His eyes were bloodshot, his jaw hung slack and trembling, and his fists were clenched so hard they shook.
‘You damned bastard……!’
Part of him wanted nothing more than to drive his fist straight into that giant’s face right then and there.
But the man’s bulk was simply too imposing, and the aura radiating from him was far from ordinary.
With an air like that, he had to be at least a master of the same rank—or one level above.
‘I’ll teach him a lesson. This disrespectful fool.’
There were two ways to discipline a person.
One was through force, the other through authority.
Since Im Il-do judged that force would not suffice, he resolved to rely on power instead.
“Guan Seok! This is why the clan looks the way it does—with ruffians like this prowling about the Guan Clan Estate! Bring the patriarch out this instant! I need to speak with your patriarch face to face!”
“I…… Instructor.”
Guan Seok scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
“This person…… is the patriarch.”
“……What?!”
Im Il-do’s jaw dropped with an audible crack.
If he were asked to name the most shocking moment of his entire life, it would be this one.
‘That insanely disrespectful madman is the patriarch of the Guan Clan Estate?!’

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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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