I Obtained Guan Yu's Martial Arts - Chapter 5

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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 Yun-zhang’s martial art 005
Guan Hui (5)
Gwang Sa-heum, master of the Hun Yak Bang. He was a first-class master known by the epithet “Soul-Poison Blade.”
His weapon of choice was a black Crescent Blade.
Because poison was smeared along the blade’s edge, which gleamed green when struck by light, it was also called the Green Crescent Blade.
‘Hmm.’
Gwang Sa-heum, gazing out through the wide-open window, dragged his hand across his short, bristling beard.
His eyes, flickering with interest, were fixed on a young man whose disguise was accomplished through clumsy use of the Yok-yong Technique.
“What’s he up to?”
He could see at once that the man was not among his subordinates. Yet the fellow’s true identity remained a mystery.
Part of it was the disguise wrought by the Yok-yong Technique, but there was no one among his men who possessed such innate physical strength.
“I was bored. This works out nicely.”
Even though an unknown intruder had breached the Hun Yak Bang’s inner courtyard, Gwang Sa-heum’s eyes showed not a flicker of alarm.
In the dark path, infiltration and invasion were as mundane as eating rice three times a day.
“While he’s here, it would be perfect if I could wipe out all those bastards too.”
A flash of murderous intent gleamed in Gwang Sa-heum’s eyes as he regarded his subordinates.
Though he had said nothing to them, the Hun Yak Bang—the establishment that manufactured narcotics and poisons—was approaching the end of its days.
The imperial army’s dragnet, pursuing the Hun Yak Bang for peddling narcotics and poisons without discrimination between commoners and martial artists, and for conducting human experiments without hesitation, had closed in to his doorstep.
‘If it’s all going to collapse soon anyway…… surviving alone would be the smart move.’
The Hun Yak Bang’s total assets came to roughly three hundred silver taels.
With one silver tael enough to feed a family of commoners for a month, it was a considerable sum.
‘But if I divide it, the share gets small.’
Gwang Sa-heum had no desire to split the Hun Yak Bang’s wealth with his subordinates.
He would have to flee Yun-seong City to escape the imperial army and begin a new life elsewhere.
Not knowing how much money it would cost or how long it would take, dividing the funds among his men felt like bleeding his own veins.
‘Damn it. But I can’t refuse either.’
Even if Gwang Sa-heum was among the top two or three masters in Yun-seong City, he couldn’t easily defeat dozens of subordinates in direct combat.
There’s no winning against numbers, or so they say.
Besides, even if he did win, he would certainly suffer considerable wounds, and his reputation would plummet, making life on the dark path difficult thereafter.
‘And if I flee without giving them money, those vicious bastards will hunt me for life.’
While he wasn’t frightened of dozens of dark path thugs foaming at the mouth in pursuit, it would certainly be irritating.
So there was no choice. Much as he hated it, he would have to distribute the money.
Unless someone did him the favor of slaughtering all of them in his stead.
“……!”
Then Gwang Sa-heum’s eyes flew wide open.
The young man, still maintaining his clumsy Yok-yong Technique disguise, had poisoned and killed every single one of his subordinates!
“Heh heh…… Hahahaha!”
Though the subordinates he had worked with for years lay dead, Gwang Sa-heum burst into laughter.
To die at such a perfectly timed moment!
It was as if the heavens themselves were aiding him.
“Hehehk. So this is what it feels like to get what you want without lifting a finger.”
They died of their own accord, the very men he had wished dead.
Could anything be more joyful than this?!
“Hahahaha!”
Even as the subordinates he had worked beside for more than a decade were brutally murdered, Gwang Sa-heum laughed and laughed.
“Now I just need to handle one more, and it’s finished.”
Sling—
Gwang Sa-heum gripped his beloved weapon tightly.
Never suspecting that this fight would be his last.
* * *
Clang!—
Steel struck steel, and golden sparks scattered in all directions.
The air was thick with the smell of metal as if in a blacksmith’s forge, and flashes of lightning sparked all around.
“Ho? You’ve got some skill.”
A bloody smile played at the corners of Gwang Sa-heum’s mouth.
Already twenty exchanges in.
The young man was barely managing to parry Gwang Sa-heum’s Green Crescent Blade with his clumsy technique.
‘Strangely resilient.’
Judging from the way he wielded the blade, his skill was awkward at best.
Solidly in the third-class range, bordering on second-class.
Yet somehow, the man parried every blow that came his way.
His technique with the blade was crude, but his reflexes were extraordinarily sharp.
‘And his strength is far from ordinary either.’
What he’d been given was an Eon-wol Blade forged entirely of metal from haft to edge.
Its weight alone was formidable—difficult enough to wield without considerable training.
Only someone like Gwang Sa-heum, who had studied the Eon-wol Blade extensively, could manage a weapon of such metal, yet this man handled it as effortlessly as a wooden chopstick.
In raw strength alone, he surpassed even Gwang Sa-heum.
‘If he’d been properly trained, he would have become a master of considerable skill.’
Gwang Sa-heum felt Guan Hui’s talent with each collision of their blades.
But talent was all it was.
A flower not yet in bloom.
“Your strength is impressive. But combat is not won by strength alone.”
Clang!
Gwang Sa-heum flicked away Guan Hui’s spear shaft, then gripped the haft short, wielding the Eon-wol Blade as a sword rather than a spear.
Slice!
In one fluid motion, he carved a diagonal line across Guan Hui’s chest.
“…Ugh!”
Guan Hui’s front garment split open as he staggered backward, widening the distance between them.
He had barely escaped a serious wound, but it had been perilously close.
Another moment and his body would have been split in two.
“Combat is won not by strength and talent, but by skill. Boy.”
Gwang Sa-heum smiled coldly and surged forward.
He pinned Guan Hui’s toes beneath his foot to restrict his movement, then brought the Eon-wol Blade down vertically.
“—!”
Guan Hui hastily raised his own blade horizontally to block.
Whoosh!
But Gwang Sa-heum had anticipated even this response; he bent the blade’s arc like a serpent and aimed not at Guan Hui’s head, but at his shoulder.
Slice!
The black Eon-wol Blade grazed Guan Hui’s shoulder, and blood spilled down his arm.
Crack!
Barely managing to lean his shoulder back and avoid a fatal wound, Guan Hui took a vicious kick to the abdomen and tumbled across the ground.
‘Damn it.’
Despite his considerable struggle, he could see no path to victory.
The barrier of first-class martial skill was simply too high.
‘What can I do?’
Just as it seemed he had no means to defeat his opponent—
-Raise it vertically.
“…?”
At Guan Yun-zhang’s sudden command, Guan Hui instinctively swung his Eon-wol Blade in a diagonal arc.
Crash!
Gwang Sa-heum’s black Eon-wol Blade collided with Guan Hui’s silver one, and yellow sparks scattered in all directions.
-Thrust at his chest, then pull back while rotating your body.
Guan Hui followed the voice in his mind, thrusting the blade and rotating his frame.
And then.
“What?!”
For the first time, Gwang Sa-heum—who had pressed Guan Hui relentlessly—took a step back.
Guan Hui’s Eon-wol Blade had found each opening with perfect precision, as if he knew his opponent’s technique inside and out.
-Let the momentum of your spin carry the blade in a horizontal sweep.
“Like this?”
Whoosh!
Using his right foot as a pivot, Guan Hui spun his entire body in a full circle, sweeping the Eon-wol Blade across in a wide horizontal arc.
“—!”
Gwang Sa-heum raised his Eon-wol Blade horizontally to meet the incoming strike with its accumulated rotational force.
Crack!
His black Eon-wol Blade, forged from solid metal as it was, crumpled and shattered in an instant.
And then.
Slice!
Guan Hui’s blade, carrying the weight of his full rotation, did not stop there—it cleaved straight through Gwang Sa-heum’s body.
Guan Hui’s innate physical strength combined with the power of the Crimson Light Martial Power accelerating his body.
All of it converged in a single, perfect strike, executed with no loss of force.
“Kagh…….”
Gwang Sa-heum crashed to the ground without even managing a proper scream.
Thud!—
His vision blurred as his head struck the pavement and his body rolled, yet he could still see his own two legs standing there, rigid with disbelief.
‘This can’t be real.’
How could that bastard, who’d been swinging the Eon-wol Blade like a third-class swordsman mere moments ago, have done this?!
It was a sight his eyes could see but his mind refused to accept.
Gwang Sa-heum’s face went slack with shock as his breathing stopped.
“…….”
Guan Hui’s eyes trembled violently.
‘I defeated Gwang Sa-heum.’
It felt impossible.
Gwang Sa-heum, wielder of the Hun-dok Sword, was a first-class master and counted among the finest martial artists in Yun-seong City.
Yet here he lay cold and lifeless, never having fully unleashed his martial prowess.
Felled by Guan Hui—a third-class martial artist and third-class patriarch of a minor household.
“Ha ha.”
His hands trembled uncontrollably, as though an earthquake were rippling through his palms.
Was it regret?
‘No. The opposite.’
What surged up from deep within Guan Hui’s chest was exhilaration.
The thrill of vengeance against the garbage who had turned a year’s worth of sacrifice into nothing.
It was like some weight he’d been carrying for decades finally lifting away.
‘One year.’
Guan Hui raised his foot.
“Let’s cut ties with this tiresome past here.”
Crunch!—
He brought his foot down and crushed Gwang Sa-heum’s skull.
Shattering a human skull with mere leg strength alone was normally an impossible feat, but for Guan Hui, who possessed Divine Physical Strength, it was effortless.
“Phew.”
The lingering emotion seemed to dissipate the moment his skull caved in.
Now his chest felt clear and unburdened.
Was this what they meant by cause and effect resolving itself?
—Heh. I didn’t expect you to win so easily. Impressive.
The General’s astonished voice echoed in his mind.
“Pardon?!”
Guan Hui’s eyes snapped wide open in shock.
You didn’t expect that?
I simply did as instructed and won—!?
—I thought the battle would last longer. It seems I misjudged the extent of your peculiar strength.
“Ah, is that so?”
Guan Hui stared at his own hands with an unsettled gaze.
The Divine Physical Strength that had grown ever stronger over this past year of cultivation still felt unreal to him.
—The technique form I just taught you is from the Wol-hwa Pa-cheon.
“Wol-hwa Pa-cheon……. Moonlight splitting the heavens, as the name suggests?”
The name suited perfectly what he’d just unleashed moments before.
Guan Hui found himself quite taken with this technique form.
“Without this technique, I would have died. Thank you.”
—Your innate talent helped greatly as well. From what I can see, you possess Heavenly Martial Talent…….
“What? Wait a moment!”
A sudden realization made Guan Hui cry out urgently.
“Then this is surely…….”
His pupils shook violently with surprise.
When one spoke of a technique form, wasn’t that the same as speaking of a crucial secret passage of martial arts?
Which meant…….
—Yes. It is the first technique form of my exclusive martial art, the Heavenly Extreme Cloud Destruction Blade.
“……!!”
A tremor unlike anything he’d ever felt shook Guan Hui down to his very marrow.
A hero of the age. A general without peer in his time.
Guan Yun-zhang.
Even the word “unparalleled” fell short of describing his martial mastery—and now, centuries later, its secrets were being passed to him.
It was the moment the legacy passed to his successor, Guan Hui.
* * *
“Hup.”
Guan Hui led a cart laden with goods as he departed the grand estate of Hun Yak Bang.
—Why bother taking those things from the Daoist’s lot?
A voice full of bewilderment echoed in his mind.
It was because of the medicines, poisons, money, and valuables that filled the cart—all plundered from Hun Yak Bang.
“It’s all coin, General. If we leave it behind, some other dogs will pick it up. Can’t stomach that sight.”
Those cursed Hun Yak Bang wretches had been sitting on over three hundred silver taels.
To have so much money and yet squabble over a mere hundred taels—what madness they’d wrought.
If any of them still drew breath, he’d have split their skulls open with the Eon-wol Blade without hesitation.
“With this money, we won’t merely clear our debts—we can rebuild the family from scratch.”
A family clan is like a delicate living thing.
It demands vast capital, the strength to endure external pressure, and the authority to sway those around it.
Beyond that, countless small necessities make up what a true clan requires.
But the Guan Family Estate possessed none of these now.
Calling it a family was generous—it would be more honest to call it the Guan household.
“With this money, I’ll establish enterprises and gather our kinfolk to restore the family to its proper standing.”
Currently, the Guan Family Estate counted only ten members, including Guan Hui himself.
Yet if one asked whether those who carried Guan Yun-zhang’s blood numbered a mere ten, the answer was no.
‘They’re simply scattered, lacking a central pillar to hold the family together.’
They’ve dispersed in search of livelihood, nothing more. Those who bear the Guan name and share the same blood remain scattered across the Central Plains.
Through the Guan Family Estate, he would gather them all and nurture his clan until it could never crumble again.
This was Guan Hui’s lifelong goal and his deepest regret.
Just as his father, grandfather, and countless ancestors before him had pursued the same.
—A fine plan indeed. Now then, what will you do first?
At those words, Guan Hui’s eyes gleamed.
What to do first had already been decided in that cursed basement of Hun Yak Bang.
“The first thing is simplicity itself, General.”
Sinews rose beneath the skin of his clenched fist.
—Indeed. A truly excellent family head.
Guan Yun-zhang spoke with satisfaction.
From their first meeting to the annihilation of Hun Yak Bang.
All of it had unfolded like waves crashing down.
Most would still be struggling to process what had happened, yet he was already laying out his next move.
Truly the mark of an exemplary and worthy family head.
—Come then. Tell me of this brilliant plan you’ve devised.
At that question, brimming with expectation, Guan Hui’s face filled with confidence as he thrust out his belly.
“First, we should get ourselves a proper meal!”
—…….
Yun-zhang squeezed his eyes shut.

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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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