I Obtained Guan Yu's Martial Arts - Chapter 19

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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 skill — Episode 19
The Bow Ghost (4)
To be honest, it wasn’t intentional.
He wasn’t some reincarnation of a strategist, after all.
How could he have sketched out every detail and predicted all of this in the chaos of battle?
‘I just wanted to keep them from fighting together.’
Guan Hui’s goal was only a minor division—not betrayal with a knife in the back.
‘Well, it worked out.’
All roads lead to Bei Jing, he’d always say.
Either way, the two most tiresome ones—Bai Shi and Zhang Liu—were dead, and that was what mattered.
Besides, the disciples of the Blood River Sect had been thoroughly frightened, all of them now believing this had been his plan all along.
“What are you doing, you dogs? Surrender right now, or should I kill every last one of you?”
“……Damn it.”
“Wh-what do we do?”
The Blood River Sect disciples’ pupils began to shake, and they started exchanging glances with one another.
The two martial masters with the greatest skill had become cold corpses.
With just that, victory was already impossible.
In front stood a giant with a vicious heart, and behind him was a ghost of an archer who pierced skulls with every arrow he loosed.
In other words, surrender now, or total annihilation.
There wasn’t a soul here with enough nerve to keep fighting.
To begin with, only those without such courage became Black Path thugs who preyed on the weak.
“D-damn it. I can’t.”
“Please…… just spare our lives!”
The Blood River Sect disciples who had been watching the mood dropped their weapons and knelt.
Though considerable numbers remained, they had been overwhelmed by the momentum and chose to surrender.
‘Fortunately, it ended quickly.’
“Idiots. You look like cowardly rats trembling in fear.”
“…….”
“Oops. Slip of the tongue.”
The true thoughts that had slipped from Guan Hui’s lips caused the faces of the Blood River Sect disciples to contort greatly.
They had already surrendered, yet they were cursed at, wounding their pride quite deeply.
‘Not my concern.’
The feelings of these worthless Black Path scum meant nothing to Guan Hui.
“Hey, Gu Man.”
“Yes, yes!”
“Destroy the Dantians of every last one of them.”
“……!”
The color drained from the faces of the Blood River Sect disciples.
Destroy their Dantians?
That was as much as saying they should surrender the life they had lived as martial masters.
From now on, they would have to live their entire lives as commoners, unable to cultivate Inner Power ever again.
“Understood, brother!”
Gu Man, overwhelmed by the martial prowess Guan Hui had just displayed, bowed his head respectfully as he answered.
“I’ll be gone for a moment.”
Guan Hui turned his gaze from Gu Man and walked toward the woman breathing heavily alone in the distance.
“I am Guan Hui.”
Guan Hui came to a stop at an appropriate distance and clasped his fist in salute.
“……I see my savior.”
She glanced at Guan Hui, then strapped the bow in her hand to her back and bowed respectfully.
“I am called the Bow Ghost, Huang Xiaoxiao.”
Looking at Guan Hui up close for the first time, Huang Xiaoxiao’s eyes widened in astonishment.
My goodness?
He was far too handsome!

* * *
Huang Xiaoxiao.
Born as the eldest daughter of the Huang Family Manor, a small clan in Xingzhou, Hubei Province, she had lived a fortunate yet unfortunate life.
Her family, which inherited the legacy of the legendary archer Huang Zhong, possessed a divine technique known as the White Elder Divine Bow Art.
However, within her family, this divine technique was passed down only through a single lineage per generation, and in her time, it was her younger brother Huang Zhaojun who inherited the family martial arts.
It was because of her father’s old-fashioned belief that women, upon marriage, became outsiders and belonged to another house.
Huang Xiaoxiao felt utterly wronged.
Her martial talent surpassed her brother’s, and her dedication far exceeded his as well.
Yet her father would pass on his divine arts to a younger brother who didn’t even know the proper grip for archery?
She spent nights without sleep, wrestling with the thought.
She tried to calm her resentment, to find understanding—but it simply wouldn’t come.
So she left the family.
She stole the secret manual of the White Elder Divine Bow Art and fled far to Shanxi Province, where she had no connections at all.
“Ah…….”
Huang Xiaoxiao’s face, watching Guan Hui’s up close, flushed crimson like a plum blossom.
‘He’s beautiful.’
She had left home at fifteen and spent four years alone, drifting through roadside inns across Shanxi Province with no family connections to her name.
In a life consumed by manual cultivation and sleep, the one joy that sustained her was martial adventure novels.
Tales of chivalrous heroes with sharp features and sturdy frames roaming Zhongyuan, striking down villains—she devoured them.
She had read every martial adventure novel that Shanxi Province had to offer; she was an avid fan.
And seeing Guan Hui through her eyes was nothing short of miraculous.
He looked as though he had stepped straight out of one of those novels—with sculpted features and an imposing, elegant bearing.
‘Is this a dream?’
Carefully, she pinched her own thigh.
The sharp pain that shot through her mind proved this was absolutely no dream.
‘He came to rescue me.’
She felt exactly like the heroine of a martial adventure novel.
‘Is this how Lü Bu felt when he saw Diaochan?’
Though truthfully, looking at their appearances, she was Diaochan and Guan Hui was more akin to Lü Bu.
In any case.
She could not tear her eyes from him.
His beautiful features—the kind a master painter might spend years perfecting—had left her speechless.
Beards usually made ordinary men look unkempt, yet even his beard was elegant.
“……? Is there something on my face?”
Guan Hui tilted his head and brushed his palm across his cheek.
There appeared to be nothing there.
“Oh, no. It’s just… you’re very handsome.”
“……? Thank… you.”
Corpses lay scattered around them, and behind them the surviving disciples of the Blood River Sect shrieked as their dantians shattered.
It was hardly the moment for exchanging pleasantries, so Guan Hui felt momentarily flustered.
“Might your honored name be Guan Hui?”
“It is.”
“The surname Guan and a great Crescent Moon Blade… then you must be a descendant of the renowned Yun Zhang, whose name is on everyone’s lips in Yunzhou these days.”
“Correct.”
“I am Huang Xiaoxiao, heir to Han Sheng. Forgive the impertinence, but might I ask my savior a question?”
“Please do.”
Huang Xiaoxiao stepped back slightly, wariness visible in her eyes.
Depending on his answer, she might have to fight.
“Did you perhaps… come here to seize my martial arts?”
Her fingers, which had been reaching toward the bow on her back, froze.
It suddenly occurred to her that this man had no reason to covet her skills.
‘Someone so handsome would never do such a thing.’
It wasn’t a particularly rational conclusion, but she made her judgment nonetheless.
“No.”
Huang Xiaoxiao released a sigh of relief.
‘Thank heavens.’
Whoever her opponent might be, she faced them with Never Retreat in Combat—yet she truly did not want to fight the young man before her.
She could not bear to harm that beautiful face with her own hands.
“Then… how did you come to be here?”
As she asked, Huang Xiaoxiao’s cheeks flushed pink once more.
‘Could it be… he came to rescue me?!’
She pictured Guan Hui, that chivalrous hero on his white horse.
“Hmm…….”
Guan Hui stroked his beard and opened his mouth with deliberate care.
“I have some old grievances with a man called Zhang Liu of the An Wenchang Family. I came to settle a score with him.”
“……? Would you explain that in more detail?”
“So here’s the thing…….”
Guan Hui explained herself and Zhang Liu plainly and directly.
She added that Zhang Liu had been targeting her, and that he’d come to help her.
There was some satisfaction in making Zhang Liu look foolish, certainly, but there was also a genuine desire to prevent such a worthless creature from toying with a woman.
“Truly……! You really did come to rescue me!”
Huang Xiaoxiao’s cheeks flushed an even deeper crimson.
He’d come to save her!
This was precisely like a scene from a martial adventure novel!
Gu Man watched as she cupped her flushed cheeks in her hands, dazed with wonder, and tilted his head thoughtfully.
“……Master, didn’t you say you came here to make a fool of Zhang Liu?”
“Hmm. I had the same impression.”
Gu Man and Guan Hui whispered quietly to each other.
At first glance, she seemed like more than just an ordinary lunatic.
It was a simple truth—a madman could recognize madness in another.
“I think it would be wise to keep our distance, Master.”
“Yes. That seems prudent.”
Just as Gu Man and Xiaoxiao finished their quiet conspiracy,
Huang Xiaoxiao, lost in her own sweet reverie, glanced at Guan Hui.
“Benefactor?”
“……! Well, n-nothing important. I was just thinking we should leave now that everything’s finished. Wasn’t that the idea?”
Guan Hui jabbed Gu Man in the ribs with his elbow.
But since Gu Man’s height was barely half his own, the elbow caught not his ribs but the side of his head instead.
“Oof!”
Gu Man rubbed his temple and nodded in agreement.
“Y-yes, that’s right. We should go. We still need to turn the Blood River Sect over to the authorities.”
Not all Black Path members had bounties on their heads, but notorious groups like the Blood River Sect certainly did.
In other words, these men were as good as walking money.
“I’ll come with you. Benefactor.”
“……What?”
Guan Hui blinked in bewilderment.
Come where……?
“Please take me with you. Benefactor.”
“To my house?”
“Yes.”
“…….”
Before Guan Hui could do anything but blink in shock, Gu Man stepped forward.
“Miss, how could a young woman possibly go to a man’s home? Have you never heard that men and women should not sit together after age seven?”
“Please take me in, Benefactor. I’m begging you.”
Huang Xiaoxiao paid no attention to Gu Man’s words, her gaze fixed entirely on Guan Hui.
She ignored him so completely that he might as well have been invisible.
‘Damn. No wonder those weaklings find life so unbearable.’
Gu Man swallowed his protest.
His eye had caught the body of a Blood River Sect member lying with an arrow hole through the forehead.
Survival instinct alone had elevated Gu Man’s martial prowess to the highest echelon.
“I’m a wanderer with no place to go. And in the past, my ancestor and your ancestor shared the same roof as brothers-in-arms. Couldn’t we do the same now, as they once did?”
“Hmm.”
It was, in fact, a compelling argument.
Huang Zhong and Guan Yu had been comrades-in-arms, fighting together as two of the Five Tiger Generals in Shu Han.
‘Besides, if she’s the heir of the Divine Bow Art, she’d be a tremendous asset to the Guan Family Manor.’
Many great families cultivated talented scholars and warriors from the Zhongyuan as guests, strengthening their houses through such alliances.
It was difficult to build a family’s power with only those who shared its name.
Since the Guan Family Manor was now walking the path to becoming a great house once more, Huang Xiaoxiao, inheritor of the Divine Bow Art legacy, would be a formidable asset.
It would have been too little to ask her to become a guest in the first place; that she should offer herself now was extraordinary fortune.
-Accept her. If she is the heir of a great lineage, she will surely prove invaluable to our house.
‘I think that would be most beneficial.’
Seeing no need for lengthy deliberation, Guan Hui nodded readily and clasped his fist in formal salute.
“Welcome to the Guan Family Manor, Miss Huang. As head of the Guan family, I pledge to treat you with the utmost respect as our guest.”
‘……! So he is the family head!’
Huang Xiaoxiao’s eyes widened with a brilliant gleam.
Such a young family head indeed.
Isn’t it rather extraordinary that one so young should command not only the true authority of the family, but also possess such exceptional martial prowess?!
‘Truly…… as if she’s stepped right out of a Martial Adventure Novel!’
Huang Xiaoxiao’s affection for Guan Hui deepened perceptibly.
She offered a graceful salute, her beautiful face lit by a gentle smile.
The sight was so painterly that Gu Man found himself momentarily spellbound.
“I too look forward to working together going forward. Elder brother. Or rather—Lord Guan.”
“……?”
Guan Hui, flustered, scratched at his philtrum once more.
What had she just said……?

* * *
In Shaanxi Province stands an unclaimed mountain called Taiping Mountain.
This peak, perpetually crowned with golden-leafed trees, bears wood of no medicinal or edible value, and so it sees no visitors—neither human nor beast.
“……Alas! The heavens have gone mad.”
A Daoist priest who had claimed this forsaken mountain and spent ten years in solitary cultivation sighed deeply.
Calling himself the Great Benevolent Master, he possessed a gaunt frame, a pallid countenance, and eyes that burned with an uncanny brilliance.
“How is it that two stars have descended from the heavens into the mortal realm!”
It was a truly ominous portent.
The stars of heaven should remain still in their appointed places.
Yet they appeared more restless than ever before.
Was it the doing of the Great Calamity Star that fell months ago?
Or the White Radiance Star that fell not long before?
Even the Great Benevolent Master, who had devoted a lifetime to the Dao, could not fathom the answer.
“Perhaps when those two stars meet, all under heaven shall be shaken.”
The Great Benevolent Master exhaled a heavy sigh.
“If the heavens themselves are so troubled, a Chaotic Era must surely descend. Many will perish.”
The Great Benevolent Master rose to his feet, his anxious gaze lifting from the sky.
“If heaven permits this turmoil, then I too must act to save those I can.”
He stepped among the golden leaves, taking up a long staff in his hands.
“I, Zhang Chaoshan, shall sacrifice myself wholly for Peace.”

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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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