I Obtained Guan Yu's Martial Arts - Chapter 35

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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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Martial Arts of Gwan Yu Obtained — Episode 35
Yang Family (5)
Gulp.
The sound of the guests swallowing hard came through with startling clarity.
It was Yang Mu-won’s opening of his mouth that had ushered in this sudden silence, making even the smallest sounds ring sharp and distinct.
In that quiet, the guests thought to themselves.
‘The fool. He was strutting about like a thundering brute, and now he’s caught it.’
‘The Family Head will teach him a lesson.’
‘How dare he—a provincial bumpkin from Anseong, speaking out of turn!’
The guests were certain that Yang Mu-won, the Family Head of the Yang Family, would show this cocky young man exactly where his place was.
“Does the Gwan Family have the strength to speak such words?”
And the moment the Yang Family Head uttered those words, the guests trembled inwardly with exultation.
The sharp, electric thrill of putting that silver-tongued fool in his place.
The pleasure that ran down their spines was almost unbearable.
‘The fool. He won’t be able to say another word now.’
‘Heh. Go ahead and presume further, if you dare.’
The guests sneered, certain that Gwan Hui would have nothing left to say.
For compared to the Yang Family, the wealth and authority the Gwan Family possessed was no more than a sandcastle.
There was no way the boy would be mad enough to actually refute the Family Head’s blunt words.
‘It’s over.’
‘It’s finished.’
The guests were certain that once the young fool from the Gwan Family apologized, this matter would be done.
But reality proved otherwise.
“Strength, you say?”
Gwan Hui smiled faintly, holding Yang Mu-won’s gaze.
“Seems I have more than someone who can’t even lift a chicken’s leg.”
“……!”
“……!!”
The guests’ faces drained of color in shock.
Such insolence, directed at Yang Mu-won, the Family Head of the great Yang Family and the Greatest Spearman of Shanxi.
Did the boy have nine lives?!
“You’re brimming with confidence,” Yang Mu-won said, his expression unmoved by the provocation.
“Let me offer you some counsel. The line between confidence and arrogance is no thicker than a sheet of paper.”
“There’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?”
Gwan Hui set down the chicken leg and rose smoothly from his seat.
“Why waste time with words? Let’s settle it with a match.”
“…….”
“…….”
At those shocking words, everyone sat frozen in stunned silence, mouths agape.
“……He’s done it. He’s actually done it.”
Ju Ho slapped his forehead and muttered under his breath.
All his boasting about restraint, and yet here he was.
How could he say such a foolish thing—challenging the man to combat at a banquet, no less!
‘I won’t live to see my natural span.’
Ju Ho exhaled heavily once more.
In the span of two sighs, his face seemed to have aged by years.
“It’s not a bad thought. Though we ought to consider our guests here. Why don’t you sit back down for now? We can continue this later.”
Instead of accepting the challenge, Yang Mu-won took a step back.
It was not because he feared Gwan Hui, but a calculatedly measured response.
He meant to make the Gwan Family Head’s rash behavior stand out even more sharply through his own composure.
“Gwan Family Head. Please stop. What kind of conduct is this at a banquet?”
“Everyone’s here to enjoy themselves in peace. Please, let it go.”
“Tch. Don’t sour the mood. Let’s end this.”
As the atmosphere shifted in that direction, Gwan Hui gave a slight shrug and settled back into his seat.
He saw no profit in pressing further in such circumstances.
It would only damage the reputation of the Gwan Family from here on.
-A cunning man, indeed. Words alone won’t be enough to suppress him.
‘Quite so. He won’t be baited, no matter the provocation.’
Gwan Hui glanced sideways at the Yang Family Head and took up his cup.

It was then, as he was about to wet his throat with cheap liquor.
“How dare you commit such rudeness at your father’s banquet.”
Yang Yun-sang, who had been silent until then, overturned the drinking table and rushed forward.
Tap-tap!
He closed the distance in an instant and thrust the Silver Spear horizontally.
It was a strike aimed precisely at the tendons of Gwan Hui’s right arm.
“As punishment, you won’t be using that right arm for a good while.”
Whoosh!
The silver strike shot forth with the sound of air tearing.
Yet the spear never touched Gwan Hui’s robes.
Clang!
A large Long Saber had moved to occupy the space, blocking the spear’s path.
……!
Yang Yun-sang’s gaze, surprised that it would actually be stopped, turned toward the owner of that saber.
Jang Seong, wielder of the Jeol-yeong Saber, looked down at him with an arrogant expression and spoke.
“When Family Heads are speaking, what business does a Junior Family Head have intruding?”

* * *
The banquet hall was empty, all the guests having vanished.
Left alone, Yang Mu-won lifted his cup.
-Don’t bother with words. Come at me if you’ve got the spine.
The last words Gwan Hui had spat were still ringing in his ears.
Words of unparalleled audacity.
Words so shocking he wanted to wash his ears clean.
‘An amusing fellow.’
At first, he’d thought him nothing more than a provincial brat full of youthful recklessness.
But now things were different.
A cold smile formed at the corners of Yang Mu-won’s lips as he raised his cup.
‘I’ll have to kill him.’

* * *
A blessed place with a lake behind it and lush green pines spreading out to the side.
Gwan Hui and Jang Seong gazed out at the lake’s edge, where moonlight pooled.
“To be honest with you—I thought you were insane.”
“……? You called me out here for that?”
After the banquet, its atmosphere grown heavy, had ended without resolution, Gwan Hui had tried to retire to the An Moon Jang Family quarters and sleep.
But Jang Seong had called him to this place, saying he had something to discuss privately.
Yet here he was, opening with an insult.
“I don’t mean it harshly. Honestly, as wretched as that situation was, no one without a screw loose would openly provoke the Family Head like that.”
Jang Seong laughed hollowly as he looked at Gwan Hui.
No matter how angry you are, you don’t challenge the Yang Family Head.
Even most truly mad men wouldn’t utter such words.
“Though it seems Jang the Younger isn’t exactly sane yourself.”
Gwan Hui was at a loss for words.
“I only spoke. Jang the Younger didn’t cut down the Yang Family’s Junior Family Head’s spear.”
Jang Seong, who had positioned himself between Yang Yun-sang and Gwan Hui, had split Yang Yun-sang’s spear in half.
In a sense, the reason the banquet had ended early was Jang Seong himself.
The enraged Yang Yun-sang had rushed at Jang Seong to kill him, bringing the banquet to an end.
“Cutting the spear is neither here nor there. He struck first, and I merely responded.”
Jang Seong raised one corner of his mouth and smiled faintly.
“Remember? Something similar happened this morning, didn’t it?”
Now that he thought about it, there had been the matter with the gatekeeper that morning.
Back then, with Jang Seong’s help, Gwan Hui had been able to resolve the situation cleanly.
“But what’s this about?”
Gwan Hui stroked his chin and glanced around the surroundings.
“It does seem like the perfect place for a confidential conversation.”
“Precisely. A confidential matter.”
“Hmm.”
“You must have felt it too—just how utterly shameless Yang Mu-won is.”
“Indeed.”
Gwan Hui had heard rumors about Yang Mu-won long before—he knew them well.
A false man of the White Path: despite his allegiance, he took no interest in cooperation, only in lining his own pockets.
Yang Mu-won bore some responsibility for Shanxi becoming a haven for the Black Path.
Rather than killing the Black Path members in Shanxi and exterminating their clans, he merely drove them beyond Taiyuan’s borders.
That was why most of Shanxi, save Taiyuan itself, had become infested with the Black Path.
“Originally, I meant to obey my father’s orders and simply enjoy the festivities before departing. But coming here in person, I found I couldn’t let it pass.”
“It seems you’ve never let anything pass, by the look of it.”
Jang Seong was hardly one to lecture—not after proposing a bout with the Family Head himself.
He’d punched the Yang Family’s Junior Family Head squarely in the face, after all.
“Well, you’re not wrong. We’ve crossed a river from which there’s no turning back. So I mean to wade in deeper still.”
Jang Seong gazed at the full moon reflected in the lake, his expression breaking into a thin smile.
“Will you join me in teaching the Yang Family a proper lesson?”
“The two of us alone?”
“Precisely. The Yang Family Head despises both our houses above all else. Put another way—we have no one to turn to but each other.”
Gwan Hui fell silent.
He stroked his beard thoughtfully, his gaze drifting to the side.
Ju Ho, who had been listening intently from a short distance away, was nodding vigorously.
As if pleading with Gwan Hui to accept.
“It doesn’t appeal to me much.”
“Why not?”
“I’ve no particular entanglement with your family that would make this easy.”
Jang Ryu—the An Moon Jang Family’s second son, wielder of the Wu-yeong Saber—had come knocking after the Covenant’s annihilation.
His relationship with Jang Ryu had been one of bitter enmity.
That man had openly mocked and derided the Gwan Family, only to meet his end at Gwan Hui’s hands; the Descendant of Hwang Chung that he’d sought to claim had become a guest of the Gwan house instead.
“You must be aware, as a man of the Jang Family, that I thwarted your brother’s scheme and he died because of it.”
“……A boldly honest man, I see.”
Jang Seong’s lips curved into an amused smile.
He hadn’t expected this man to broach the matter first.
There was something magnanimous about such directness that won his favor.
“Well, since you’ve been forthright, I’ll return the favor.”
Jang Seong’s gaze grew heavy and grave.
A faint, cold killing intent emanated from his eyes.
“I once ordered a subordinate to kill you.”
Gwan Hui’s breath caught.
Jang Seong laid out the truth of what had transpired.
How he’d journeyed to Yunseong under his family’s orders; how Ho U had overstepped; and how he’d dealt with him.
A long breath escaped him.
Jang Seong’s expression grew lighter after unburdening himself completely.
It was as though he’d set down a heavy weight.
“My family gave the order, yes—but I stepped forward of my own will for the family’s honor. Such is a blood debt. Listen well.”
Jang Seong’s eyes met Gwan Hui’s with newfound clarity.
“I apologize. Though unintended, I nearly brought harm to your family. I’m sorry.”
“That was it?”
Gwan Hui had imagined something far worse—poison in the rice, assassins in the shadows, that sort of thing.
It proved to be far less consequential than he’d feared.
In truth, he felt no particular sting from it.
There had been no real threat to his life.
‘It turned out fine. What of it?’
No one had been injured, and the Gwan Family had even gained the Azure Dragon Peak—a treasure beyond measure.
Moreover, all Jang Seong had ordered was Gwan Hui’s death.
Wasn’t it the subordinate who had committed the deed?
And that subordinate had received his punishment in death as well.
“A trifling matter, it seems.”
Jang Seong’s laughter rang out—a hearty, resonant sound.
Gwan Hui’s magnanimous bearing had won him over completely.
Here was a magnanimous man, unlike his petty and foolish younger brother.
This was a man worthy of Jang Seong’s esteem.
“It’s truly a pity. Had it not been for that brother of yours, we might have become good friends.”
This was no jest—genuine regret glistened at the corners of Jang Seong’s eyes.
Gwan Hui had made quite the impression on him.
These days, it’s hard to find a man with such magnanimous bearing.
“The Family Head killed my brother, and I sought to kill him. Why don’t we call it even—both scores settled at once?”
“Done.”
Gwan Hui accepted the proposal without hesitation.
There was no reason to refuse from the start.
There was no point in making another enemy for the White Path—especially not a needless one.
“I hear that’s how they settle things down in Gangnam these days.”
Jang Seong extended his fist, held loosely before him.
Gwan Hui mirrored the gesture, extending his own fist forward.
Tap—
The two men’s fists met lightly in the empty air.
“Haha. Well then, shall we now draw up a plan to bring the Yang Family to heel?”
A smile played at the corners of Jang Seong’s mouth.
Beneath the moonlight, his expression seemed more joyful than anything he’d worn in the past several years.
His newly-won, bold companion had lifted, however briefly, the shadow that had hung over his heart.

* * *
“……That concludes my plan. Forgive its rough edges—I assembled it in haste.”
“Hmm.”
Gwan Hui’s expression shifted subtly as he listened to Jang Seong’s plan.
‘It’s vague.’
It wasn’t a bad plan.
But he couldn’t quite call it good either.
Though he couldn’t pinpoint any single flaw, something felt lacking.
“Tell me what’s missing. We need to shore it up together.”
“Well…….”
Gwan Hui was scratching his chin, unsure how to articulate that subtle inadequacy, when—
“Hyung-nim. May I add something?”
Ju Ho, who had been listening quietly beside him, spoke for the first time.
“Ah, the Gwan Family’s strategist. Very well. Speak freely.”
“Are you sure I can speak freely?”
Ju Ho fixed Jang Seong with a steady gaze as he asked.
Something in that look stirred an inexplicable unease in Gwan Hui.
“Speak freely. We’re in the same boat now.”
“Really? No… consequences?”
“None. I stake my very name on it.”
“Excellent!”
Only after receiving that assurance did Ju Ho smile.
‘…….’
Gwan Hui’s inexplicable unease deepened.
There was something about this.
Something he felt he’d seen before.
“Truth be told, I think it’s a decent plan.”
“Thank you.”
“Except for the part where it’s complete garbage.”
“……?”
Jang Seong’s mouth hung open, his expression blank.
To say he liked the plan except for it being terrible was simply another way of saying the plan was terrible, wasn’t it?
“So let’s go with my plan instead. I happen to have a rather extraordinary one.”
“Extr…… ordinary?”
“Yes. Far superior to that garbage plan of yours.”
Ju Ho puffed out his chest with confidence while Jang Seong stood frozen, mouth agape.
“…….”
Gwan Hui stared at the two of them, then slapped his forehead with his palm.
The sight of it recalled the evening banquet—Ju Ho wearing that same expression.

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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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