I Obtained Guan Yu's Martial Arts - Chapter 4

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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 Guan Yu’s Martial Arts — Episode 4
Guan Hui (4)
“Kekeke! Pour it out!”
“Drink your fill! It’s a fine day for it!”
The sect members of the Honkyak Pavilion tipped wine cups to their lips, their faces split wide with grins.
Sweet and bitter Bamboo Leaf Green Wine slid down their throats, and a warm, buzzing pleasure soaked through their bodies.
“Kaha! Excellent. Excellent indeed!”
“Master. You seem in quite the spirits today. Has something happened?”
At the courtesan’s question, Yo Sam, the deputy master of the Honkyak Pavilion, broke into a weasel-like grin across his narrow face.
“Of course something has! The debt’s been written off permanently. Kekeke.”
“The debt?”
“The money I was supposed to give that cripple Guan Hui. Kekek.”
Yo Sam drained his cup in one go, a sordid smile playing at his lips.
“I meant to pay him, truth be told. But then I thought—if I kill him, I don’t have to pay anything, do I? So I coaxed Garam into it. Told him he had to kill the bastard for your sake.”
“Brilliant!”
“They’re just third-rate martial artists anyway, so there’s no blowback to worry about. Better to dispose of him outright. Kekekeke.”
The Honkyak Pavilion walked the Dark Path.
Stabbing a promised ally in the back was nothing to them.
Wasn’t betrayal the very heart of the Dark Path’s existence?
“My, how impressive of you, Master. You see the larger picture, don’t you?”
“Kekeke. I know how to see the forest, not just the trees.”
Pleased by the courtesan’s flattery, Yo Sam sprang to his feet and shouted to his underlings.
“Come now! On such a fine day, let’s all raise a cup together!”
“Hail the Deputy Master!”
“Hail the Honkyak Pavilion!”
“Kekeke! Splendid. Splendid!”
Yo Sam’s expression twisted just as he was about to drain another bottle at the cheers.
“Damn it. We’re out of wine. Bring some more, you fools!”
“Right here, brother!”
A sect member with an unfamiliar face, vaguely toad-like in appearance, hauled over an entire crate of wine bottles and set them down in the center of the Training Grounds.
“Hm? Who are you? Haven’t seen you before.”
“Brother! I’m Gapdo, just joined up.”
“Gapdo?”
“Yes! I’m the nephew of the friend of Garam’s cousin.”
“Ah, I see. Well, I think I’ve heard mention of you.”
Yo Sam gave a lazy nod, his face already flushed with drink.
That arrogant fool Garam was always foisting his acquaintances onto the Honkyak Pavilion—nothing new about that.
“But what’s this wine? The aroma is quite distinctive.”
“This is premium stock I quietly procured from the Master’s personal stores. On a day like this, shouldn’t we be drinking something finer than ordinary Bamboo Leaf Green?”
Yo Sam’s and the sect members’ eyes gleamed at those words.
“Oho! This one knows his way around! Shows promise, this boy?”
“Kekeke. Raiding the Master’s stores, no less? You’ll go far!”
“Most excellent. Splendid!”
Yo Sam and his sect members each grabbed hold of the wine bottles Gapdo had brought, clutching them greedily.
It was premium stock, after all—not a drop for the courtesans.
“Well then! Let’s have another round!”
“Gladly!”
“With pleasure, brother!”
Yo Sam and the sect members of the Honkyak Pavilion drained the wine Gapdo had brought, their faces bright with contentment.
“Ahhh. Damn fine wine.”
Yo Sam, now thoroughly drunk, wiped his lips roughly with his sleeve and gestured to Gapdo.
“Oi! You’re Garam’s nephew, right? Have a drink yourself! I, Deputy Master Yo Sam, will pour you one special!”
“Ah, that’s not necessary.”
“On a day like this, a little drinking won’t hurt. Come here.”
“It’s truly fine. I don’t drink.”
Gapdo, his toad-like face unmoved, retreated and refused again, causing Yo Sam’s brow to darken.
“Listen here. I’m telling you to come. Don’t you hear the deputy master calling?”
‘I must decline, Deputy Master.’
“It’s fine. Don’t be stubborn, boy.”
…
A sudden silence fell over the Training Grounds.
“……Damn.”
Guan Hui smacked his forehead with a gasp.
He’d done it again—let his true thoughts slip out instead of what he meant to say.
“Hell. This keeps happening lately. Some kind of side effect?”
“……You. What did you just say?”
Yo Sam’s expression turned incredulous.
“You just called me a mutt? Did you actually just call me that?”
A hollow laugh escaped Yo Sam as he stalked toward Guan Hui.
“This cocky bastard’s lost his mind. Let’s have it out today.”
Yo Sam rolled up his sleeves, took another long pull from the wine bottle, and drained it to the last drop before gripping the neck in his hand.
“These days the young punks need a proper beating before they remember themselves.”
The instant Yo Sam raised the bottle to bring it down on Guan Hui’s head—
Crack!
A sound like splitting leather rang out, and Yo Sam’s head wrenched backward.
His body still faced forward, but his head twisted to look behind him.
Guan Hui’s fist had caught him square on the jaw, and in that grotesque posture, Yo Sam’s life had simply ended.
“……!”
“……!”
Everyone froze at the shocking sight, unable to speak.
As though silence itself had descended and forcibly sealed their mouths, the Training Grounds fell deathly still.
“Gack!”
“Cough!”
As if on cue, the courtesans of Hongyak Pavilion began to collapse one by one, coughing up dark blood.
“Cough! Keh—hachk!”
“Gahhh!”
Terrible agony seized their bodies.
Their organs felt as though they were being torn apart, their blood vessels shredded—the pain was so vicious they couldn’t even scream properly.
The agony was so severe their minds went white, and no sound would come.
“Ugh…….”
Thud!
In the time it took to drink a single cup of tea, a dozen courtesans had all lost their lives and collapsed to the floor.
What remained in the Training Grounds now was one mysterious courtesan and ten women paralyzed with fear.
“How does it taste? I poured a whole year’s worth of feeling into it.”
“…….”
“Who am I talking to right now?”
The sole remaining courtesan’s question went unanswered by the others.
“You bastards. If it tastes that good, answer me.”
Guan Hui clicked his tongue, then turned his gaze toward the pale courtesans.
“……You ladies should leave quietly. You are blameless, so I will not harm you. But if you make a sound, I’ll have no choice but to act.”
The eyes of the terrified courtesans fixed upon the man they now knew was called Guan Hui.
Where had the toad-faced youth from moments ago gone? Standing before them now was a young man of sculpted beauty.
“Y-yes……. Great Hero.”
As though bewitched, the courtesans had been staring at his face; now they nodded frantically and rose unsteadily to their feet.
Moving with the practiced silence of dancers, their footsteps made not a sound.
-Ah! You’ve learned the Appearance-Changing Technique as well.
Guan Yu’s voice, filled with admiration, echoed in the mind of Guan Hui.
“When you live as the head of a poor household, you learn all manner of miscellaneous skills.”
The Appearance-Changing Technique was a discipline that used Internal Energy to temporarily alter the structure of one’s face, making one appear as someone else entirely.
“I learned it years ago while doing debt collection work for Hao Wen—following clients around to verify their circumstances.”
-A White Path household head learning such esoteric tricks. How amusing.
Guan Yu clicked his tongue in disapproval.
-This time the circumstances couldn’t be helped, so I’ll let it pass. But from now on, fight with integrity.
“Hmm. I don’t quite see why one should walk a difficult road when an easier one lies before you.
-That is what pride means.
“I’ve always found efficiency more appealing.”
Nature differs from person to person, after all.
Guan Hui believed that stubbornly insisting on an honest path was itself inefficient.
Why take a hard way when a quick one was available?
-……One day will come when you must walk a thorny path, whether you will it or not.
“Then I’ll take it easy until that moment comes.”
Guan Yu, who had lived his entire life as a general of a nation with pride, and Guan Hui, who as the head of an impoverished family had clawed his way through existence with ruthless desperation, could not have been more different.
The view of the world from above and the view from below were bound to diverge.
“Then now…….”
Guan Hui’s gaze turned toward the third floor of the Hongyak Pavilion.
That was where Gwang Sa-heun, the pavilion master and a damned First-class Expert, now rested.
“One left.”
“Time is short. Let’s go in at once.”
Guan Hui suddenly halted his steps toward the master’s quarters.
“Before we do, I have a question.”
“What is it?”
“Why are you helping me?”
“It is to aid the generations that follow…….”
“Ancestor. That cannot be the reason.”
Guan Yu was undoubtedly a great man.
His martial prowess ranked among the finest in all of history, his strategy was keen, and he possessed the dignity that commanded the reverence of ten thousand.
Yet even Guan Yu had his shortcomings.
“You have always devoted yourself to my brothers and to the nation rather than to your own bloodline.”
“That is…….”
“I do not mean to say it was wrong. That was the age, and it had to be so. But now, to help me and my family—I simply cannot believe the reason is merely for the sake of posterity.”
When you live at the bottom, you come to feel in your bones that there is no such thing as a free gift in this world.
Everything has a reason, and everything carries hidden meaning.
Guan Hui believed this fortuitous meeting was no exception.
“Please tell me. What is it that you want from me, Ancestor?”
……
Guan Yu, pierced to the heart, fell silent for a long moment.
“I had planned to tell you once you had grown. Your perception is sharp.”
“I’ve lived too long eating scraps of awareness to know better.”
“The details heaven has not yet permitted me to speak of. You must grow to a level where you can bear the Heavenly Secret.”
“……!?”
Guan Hui’s mouth fell slightly open in shock.
He had to grow to a level where he could bear the Heavenly Secret?
What in the world could this secret be!?
“I will tell you in terms your present self can understand—to defeat ‘that one’ and achieve Ascension.”
“Mm.”
Guan Hui nodded heavily.
To defeat ‘that one’ and achieve Ascension.
He could not yet fathom what it meant.
But one thing was certain.
‘This is no light burden.’

* * *
“Phew.”
Guan Hui exhaled deeply as he reached the third floor without any obstruction, the guards all dead.
“Are you nervous?”
‘It’s hard not to be. He is a First-class Expert after all.’
First-class Experts and above could compress their Qi into the sharp form of a blade, a technique called Sword Energy.
So few First-class Experts capable of wielding this elevated martial art could be counted throughout all of Shanxi Province that they numbered fewer than ten fingers.
In Yuncheng, a small city even within Shanxi, there were but two.
Which meant Guan Hui was about to face one of the two greatest masters in Yuncheng!
‘I think I’m going to piss myself.’
“Do not worry. You will win with ease.”
Guan Yu had no doubt whatsoever that Guan Hui, a Third-class Martial Artist, would prevail.
“The talent you possess is far from ordinary.”
‘Are you speaking of my natural gift for physical strength?’
“It is more than that.”
In Guan Yu’s eyes, what Guan Hui possessed was far more than mere inborn Physical Talent.
Guan Yu had said half an hour would suffice, but in truth the Red Flame Radiant Martial Art required at least seven days of practice to master properly as an External Martial Art.
Guan Yu himself had taken four days to fully comprehend this art, and another four days to deploy it completely.
Yet Guan Hui had grasped the art in merely half an hour and had even deployed it fully in his battle against the Dark Path forces.
He had calculated that successfully deploying it even partially within a quarter hour would be exceptional, yet he had managed to unfold it completely in just a single hour.
“Phew. Excellent. He’s marked for death anyway. Might as well finish this quickly and be on our way.”
Guan Hui thrust open the door to the third floor and stepped inside.
“……!”
The moment Guan Hui’s feet touched the third floor—where the pavilion master kept his quarters—he felt something cold brush his sole, and his gaze dropped.
There lay a single silver crescent blade, wrought entirely of steel from edge to shaft, sitting alone upon the floor.
“Come now. Little pup of the Guan clan. Shall we have some fun?”

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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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