I Obtained Guan Yu's Martial Arts - Chapter 31

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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 Gwan Hui’s martial arts
The Gwan Clan Training Hall (1)
“Hrraaaah!”
“Haaaaugh!”
The Gwan Clan training hall began each day as it always did—with the thunderous shouts of martial artists.
The warriors gathered at the Yeonmujang were conditioning their bodies by striking Iron Rods as massive as the pillars of the Imperial Palace with their bare fists.
Bang!—Bang!—Bang!—
Each time their fists, stained a deep red, struck the Iron Rod, the floor of the training hall trembled faintly beneath them.
“Kraaaaaah!”
Even as their skin split and blood flowed, even as cracks formed in their bones, they did not stop.
They stared at the Iron Rod as if it were their deadliest enemy, driving their fists into it without pause, like madmen possessed.
“Um, Brother. Aren’t they going to get seriously hurt doing that?”
Ju Ho, watching from the corner of the training hall, wore an expression of exasperation.
How many hours had they been continuing this method of cultivation, which was practically self-harm?
The clan lord was like that, and the clan members were like that. He couldn’t understand how a single person among them still had their wits about them.
“They need to be hurt badly.”
“Pardon?”
“That’s how they’ll grow stronger as they recover.”
The reason the clan members’ skin had taken on that deep red hue was the Red Fire Luminous Martial Art learned from Gwan Hui.
The Red Fire Luminous Martial Art accelerated the flow of blood through the body, increasing physical capabilities by several times over.
The accelerated blood flow affected both recovery and growth.
In other words, through injury and recovery, they would become stronger.
‘Only this way will they all survive.’
Whenever he looked at the clan members, memories of what his father and grandfather had endured came flooding back.
To ensure that the same thing never happened again, they had to become stronger.
Even if that strength were never needed.
“Since you’re now a member of our clan, I’ll tell you. This is precisely the method for creating a Cheonseong-gol constitution.”
“A Cheonseong-gol? You mean like your Brother—a monster?”
“……Something like that.”
Gwan Hui’s expression became distinctly odd.
He had the distinct impression that the man was subtly throwing in an insult.
“You do remember what a Cheonseong-gol is, right?”
“Come on, Brother. I’m Ju Ho. Once I hear something, I don’t forget it.”
“Then explain it.”
Receiving a look of suspicion, Ju Ho puffed out his chest confidently.
“It’s a constitution blessed by martial arts—one that possesses all the forces of extreme yin, extreme yang, the Three Luminaries, the Five Elements, and the Supreme Polarity, allowing one to cultivate all martial techniques in harmony, and the body also gains incredible strength, speed, recovery, and so on, right?!”
“…….”
“Ha. As expected, my memory never fails me…….”
Smack!—
Gwan Hui’s hand-edge came down hard on Ju Ho’s crown.
“That’s the Cheonmu-jiche, you fool.”
“Oh right.”
A Cheonseong-gol was different from the Cheonmu-jiche.
No human could replicate the blessing that Heaven had granted.
An artificially created Cheonseong-gol possessed only the external qualities of the Cheonmu-jiche.
In other words, it meant a constitution with only physical abilities.
“Still, is that really possible? It seems like their bodies will just fall apart.”
“That’s why we’re doing everything we can to prevent that.”
Though the General said the Red Fire Luminous Martial Art alone would suffice, Gwan Hui had made other preparations.
Through Gwan Yuhwa, the clan’s sole herbalist known as the Hundred Grasses Lady, he combined various medicinal preparations daily to create the finest recovery medicines.
Unlike Gwan Hui himself or the General, these men could break down easily.
“Even so, it seems like it’ll be difficult…….”
Ju Ho could not bring himself to believe in Gwan Hui’s method of cultivation.
A Cheonseong-gol was undoubtedly a form of Martial Talent.
To artificially grant Martial Talent to an ordinary person born without it—how could such a thing be possible?
If such a method existed, why would the Five Great Houses of Heaven pour vast capital into adopting talented youths from across the realm as adopted sons?
“Brother, perhaps you should reconsider…….”
Kraaang!—
Before Ju Ho could finish his sentence, one of the massive Iron Rods shattered in half and fell to the floor of the training hall.
“……!?”
“……!!”
Everyone within earshot stopped their training at once, heads snapping up.
Until now, only one person had ever broken an Iron Rod—Gwan Hui, the patriarch of the Gwan Clan.
In other words, someone had just become the first member of the family to obtain Cheonseong-gol.
“Ha ha! Patriarch! I did it!”
Gwan Seok, the youngest of the clan’s warriors, bounded forward with his fists raised above his head, stained crimson with blood.
“I finally broke that cursed Iron Rod!”
Gwan Seok hurled a shout into the air, his fists clenched tight.
All those hours of battering the rod seemed to have channeled his fury into it.
“Well done. Come here—let me verify whether you’ve truly obtained Cheonseong-gol.”
“Yes, Patriarch!”
Gwan Seok hopped toward him on one leg.
The other knee hadn’t healed enough for him to walk on both feet.
“Hmm.”
Gwan Hui adopted a grave expression as he began reading Gwan Seok’s pulse.
Of course, discerning Martial Talent through Pulse Reading remained beyond his current ability.
But Gwan Hui possessed something equivalent to an all-knowing encyclopedia.
‘What is your assessment?’
-Excellent. He has obtained Cheonseong-gol. His youth grants him excellent recovery—faster than most, it seems.
‘I see.’
Gwan Hui nodded solemnly, suppressing his delight.
“You have obtained Cheonseong-gol. You have endured much, Gwan Seok.”
“……! Kyaaaaaaa!”
Gwan Seok’s cry of joy erupted through the training ground.
His grin stretched from ear to ear as he turned his gaze toward the other clan warriors.
‘He means to encourage them.’
The encouragement of one who has succeeded always lifts others.
And the youngest member’s success could ignite powerful motivation in the entire clan.
Snap—
Gwan Seok raised his clenched fist and covered his elbow with his opposite palm.
It was a vulgar street gesture, a dismissive taunt.
“……?”
Gwan Hui’s philtrum lengthened in bewilderment.
“Ha ha ha. Go on and choke on it, all of you. Always dismissing me for being young—well, I did it first! You old fossils still can’t break your rods, can you? Hopeless, the lot of you!”
“…….”
Neither Gwan Hui nor Ju Ho had anticipated such provocation. They simply blinked, stupefied.
“Hee hee hee. Now that I have Cheonseong-gol, I’m off to rest. You can keep groaning through your training!”
“You…….”
“Ah—Patriarch, thank you. I owe it all to you. I shall resume my training after I’ve recovered!”
Gwan Seok bowed respectfully and departed the training ground at a leisurely pace.
“…….”
Gwan Hui stood entranced, staring after him in a daze.
-…….
Even the General had fallen silent, lost for words.
“Arrrrrgh!”
“Gwan Seok, you little bastard! Old?! Did you call me old?!”
“Right then. I’ll break that rod by tomorrow and crack that brat’s skull to boot!”
Fired by this tremendous surge of motivation, the clan warriors threw themselves at the Iron Rods with ferocious intensity.
Crack!-Crack!-Boom!-
The blows fell so brutally that one could feel the tremors in one’s bones.
“Well…… it worked, didn’t it?”
Ju Ho shrugged, a slight smile crossing his face.
“Indeed.”
Gwan Hui nodded emphatically.
He could not dispute the result this time.

* * *
“Have some tea, Patriarch.”
Gwan Nam-cheon, the steward, sat across a low table and poured freshly brewed tea into a cup.
Pale wisps of steam rose as the cup filled with a delicate pink infusion.
She had a graceful bearing, but Gwan Hui felt nothing in particular as he regarded it.
“Plum Blossom Tea, then.”
“Yes, that is correct, Master. It came from Shaanxi, a gift from my lord.”
Shaanxi, situated beside Shanxi Province, had been renowned since ancient times for its tea made from dried plum leaves.
“I imagine the Huashan Sect is involved?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
The Huashan Sect was a Taoist Sect, but unlike other orders, they did not withdraw from the world to live sheltered in the mountains.
Much like practical swordplay itself, they kept one foot planted firmly in reality.
“Come to think of it, my father once went to request aid from the Huashan Sect.”
In his lifetime, Gwan Hui’s father had sought the Huashan Sect’s assistance in suppressing the Black Path forces that plagued Anseong.
“Yes. He was refused.”
But Huashan chose to turn away rather than ease the people’s suffering.
Their excuse was that merely protecting Shaanxi taxed them to their limits.
“Do you hold any resentment over this matter?”
“How could I? It is ancient history, and I bear it no mind. But tell me, Chamberlain—how do our circumstances stand?”
Gwan Hui’s gaze drifted toward the account ledger resting at one corner of the table.
“Are we in stable condition at present?”
It was a question he had never asked before.
He had always known the answer—bitter though it was.
But things were different now.
Gwan Hui had become, in truth and title alike, the foremost martial master of Anseong, and the Gwan Clan’s name carried a weight it had never borne before.
“Hmm…….”
Gwan Nam-cheon stroked his beard thoughtfully.
Sensing something amiss, Gwan Hui swallowed dryly.
“If matters proceed as they stand now…… we should face no difficulties in sustenance for the next hundred years or so.”
“……! To that extent?”
“Yes. The destruction of the Black Path forces in Anseong and the acquisition of their accumulated wealth and commercial rights proved invaluable.”
“I believed you distributed that wealth among the people of Anseong.”
Ever since he had toppled the Honnyak Society, Gwan Hui had returned the money extorted from the common people.
No matter how poor the clan might become, he would not spend coin stained with the people’s blood.
“Yes, we did so for the commoners. However, not all of what those villains accumulated came from them—some was seized from other Black Path and White Path martial artists as well.”
“Ah, there is no need to return that.”
When a man carries a sword, losing his money is his own fault.
This was no charity. There was no reason to hunt down every coin and return it.
“Ha. A hundred years with no trouble—our ancestors must be pleased.”
“Perhaps so. Yet I suspect we shall find ourselves less at ease than the numbers suggest.”
Gwan Hui read the truth in the chamberlain’s eyes in an instant.
“Expansion.”
“Precisely. Both the former master and you yourself desire for the clan to become an Influential Noble Family—and such a transformation demands greater wealth and power.”
An Influential Noble Family.
Every clan desires it, yet for that very reason, no clan can ever truly possess it.
Gwan Hui’s ambition had always been to transform the Gwan Clan into a Renowned House of the Gwan name.
He cared nothing for petty lordship over some village the size of a flea bite.
A man of true mettle must wield his sword in service of great aims.
“How far does the Master envision this design extending?”
Gwan Hui opened his mouth without a moment’s hesitation.
“The Five Great Houses of Heaven.”
“……!”
The Five Great Houses of Heaven.
The five families before whom even the Imperial House itself must bow.
Among all the clans and sects that existed in Jungwon, they alone possessed a might that none could rival—and they were his target.
‘So the Master is…… truly extraordinary.’
Gwan Nam-cheon felt his breath catch in his chest.
Not merely an Influential Noble Family, but the Five Great Houses of Heaven—a power feared under heaven itself.
He marveled at how one so young could harbor so vast an ambition, and he felt genuine reverence stir within him.
‘I have never conceived of such a thing.’
Even as the Gwan Clan had slowly broken free from its shell and begun to spread its wings to the world, such thoughts had never crossed his mind.
The goal was too lofty, and he had lowered his gaze from the start.
‘Yet it is possible.’
In Gwan Nam-cheon’s eyes, cooled by the long years, a spark of fervent purpose began to kindle.
Others would call it a childish fantasy, a fanciful dream unworthy of serious attention.
In truth, if anyone else in the household had spoken such words, Gwan Nam-cheon himself would have dismissed them the same way.
‘But because it comes from the patriarch himself, it becomes possible.’
Yet Gwan Hui was different.
He had recovered the lost martial teachings of Gwan Yun-jang, and he had exterminated the three generations of Black Path forces in Anseong without spilling a single drop of blood.
He cut down the Black Path men without yielding once, and through his own strength alone, he had earned the epithet Martial Dragon.
‘Yes. With the patriarch at our side, we too can achieve this.’
In Gwan Nam-cheon’s blazing eyes burned the reflection of Gwan Hui’s broad shoulders.
Seeing those shoulders squared with such presence, the wall that was the Five Great Houses of Heaven no longer seemed so impossibly high.
The Luoyang Jo Clan, the Nanjing Son Clan, the Gansu Dong Clan, the Hunan Won Clan, the Gongsun Clan.
Among them all, was there even one person who had single-handedly annihilated the Black Path forces while barely into adulthood?
No. Such prowess had been shown by only one man—Gwan Hui, patriarch of the Gwan Clan.
Which meant that even what others declared impossible, he could surely accomplish.
“Patriarch, I shall marshal every resource at my command to serve your purpose. With you leading, I am certain we shall succeed.”
“Mm.”
The steward’s endorsement—sometimes coldly pragmatic, yet unmistakably sincere.
Something burned hot in Gwan Hui’s chest.
Such fervor could not simply be left to smolder.
Gwan Hui raised his cup—or rather, his tea cup.
“Excellent. Now that we two have found common purpose, let us toast to it.”
“Yes! A splendid idea, Patriarch!”
Clink—
The two men, their spirits now in perfect accord, brought their cups together and drank deeply in one breath.
“…….”
“…….”
Their faces subtly contorted in unison.
“Shall I fetch wine instead?”
“Mm. That would be preferable.”
Indeed, such refined tastes were not to their liking.

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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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