I Obtained Guan Yu's Martial Arts - Chapter 54

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Obtaining Guan Yu’s Martial Arts 054
Ak Jin-sung (4)
After hearing the proposal, Guan Hui shook his head with firm resolve.
“I cannot do this.”
“…What did you say?”
“I said I cannot do this.”
“…Hmph!”
Ak Jin-sung’s brow furrowed as his expression darkened.
“Cannot? Why not?”
For him, Guan Hui’s reaction made no sense whatsoever.
“Why on earth would you refuse?”
“I simply will not pursue it in that manner.”
Ak Jin-sung crossed his arms with visible displeasure and spoke.
“…Then explain yourself.”
“What you’ve suggested is to form ties with the military administration, is it not?”
“That’s correct.”
The scheme Ak Jin-sung had proposed was precisely that: collusion with the military authorities.
Like other great families in the Central Plains, he’d advised forging alliances with the government to elevate their standing, driving out their rivals through official backing and power.
“By offering bribes, you mean.”
Ak Jin-sung nodded as if it were obvious.
“Those who hunger for wealth require tokens of sincerity. It is a natural necessity.”
That officials and the imperial court were obsessed with gold coins was something even a three-year-old child ignorant of learning could understand.
If one wished to win their favor, bribery was essential.
“But where would such bribes come from?”
Ak Jin-sung tilted his head in confusion.
“Surely you’re not concerned about funds? Such an investment is necessary. If you truly lack the money, levy it from the common people of Yun City. Since you and the Guan Clan maintain order there, you are certainly entitled to collect as much as needed, are you not?”
“That is precisely the issue. That is what I refuse to do.”
“…?”
Ak Jin-sung still could not comprehend it.
He refused?
He meant to say he would not collect a protection fee from the common people?
“Surely you cannot mean…?”
Ak Jin-sung’s mouth fell slightly open before closing again.
“You are not collecting protection fees?”
“Correct, senior.”
“Why in heaven’s name would you do such a thing?”
Incomprehension flickered across Ak Jin-sung’s face.
Protection fees were the rightful due of any Path of White sect or family that represented a province, city, or village.
Their presence maintained order and prevented the Demonic Faction from running rampant—receiving compensation for such labor was only just.
It was absolutely necessary to sustain the prosperity of any righteous sect or family.
Even the Celestial Dynasty Five Great Houses, the wealthiest and most powerful families in the Central Plains, collected it at the provincial level.
“Senior, even the Demonic Faction extorts money from people. Those dark cultivators who ruled Yun City coveted the common people’s wealth as well.”
Ak Jin-sung’s voice rose, stung by the comparison to the Demonic Faction.
“It is different! We provide protection—they merely plunder!”
“The difference is negligible. In the end, you are both taking money from the common people, are you not?”
“You truly see no difference between collecting what sustains your duty and simply robbing the defenseless?”
“It is merely a matter of degree. The wrongdoing itself remains unchanged.”
Ak Jin-sung was at a loss for words.
He shook his head slowly, bewildered.
“…I took you for a clever young man. But your foolishness is beyond measure. Do you truly believe these things are the same? Are you mad?”
Ak Jin-sung’s displeasure was written plainly across his face as he drummed his fingers on the table.
“Everyone does it. They all form alliances with the military and imperial authorities to gain benefits, and through such connections they maintain their family’s prosperity.”
It was a tradition passed down through generations, a longstanding custom.
“There is not a single family in this Central Plains that prospers without doing so.”
“Wudang and Shaolin do.”
“…Are you comparing sectarian traditions of Daoism and Buddhism to worldly families? They are those who have distanced themselves from secular affairs.”
The Shaolin, representing Buddhism on Mount Song.
The Wudang, representing Daoism in Hubei.
Both possessed martial artists of exceptional caliber and wielded considerable power in their own right.
The difference between these two sects and the great aristocratic families was precisely one thing.
They don’t accept protection fees from ordinary people.
“But they’re taking help from commoners regardless. It’s just the difference between voluntary and coerced. Taking money from ordinary people is the same thing either way.”
“To me, that difference feels immense, senior.”
During those years when Guan Hui fought desperately to save his clan.
He witnessed truly abhorrent things.
He saw clans that turned their backs on commoners, and martial artists who looked away as the weak were exploited by the Demonic Faction.
A martial artist practices righteousness as a warrior.
A martial clan is formed by those who walk that path.
Yet in the Central Plains today, such things could not be found.
“I have no intention of choosing that way.”
Ak Jin-sung sighed and shook his head.
“A Family Head must sometimes walk roads they’d rather not, roads they know to be wrong, all for the sake of their clan.”
A Family Head is one who leads a clan.
And to lead a clan, sometimes sacrifice must be made.
The lives of family members, even one’s own convictions.
Only by being willing to sacrifice all of that does one become a true Family Head.”
“Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, and Wisdom together form what we call the Path of Right. I too pursue the Path of Right, yet sometimes I cannot help but soil my hands. Because I am a Family Head. Because that is what a Family Head must do!”
Ak Jin-sung as a Family Head had done many things against his will.
He had unavoidably involved himself in corruption, offered bribes, colluded with officials to exploit commoners.
It ran counter to his convictions, but there was no choice.
To feed hundreds who belonged to his clan.
To protect what they possessed, there was no other way.
“You called what was right the Path of Right a moment ago, senior.”
Guan Hui drained his cup of Bamboo Leaf Blue in a single gulp and fixed his gaze upon Ak Jin-sung.
Even as his senior’s words came tinged with urgency and desperation, Guan Hui’s eyes remained utterly unmoved.
“Everything else is the Path of Wrong to me.”
What is pure and incorruptible is called White; what is filthy and wicked is called Black.
But Guan Hui, who had lived through the depths of depravity, could not see the difference between the two.
The world as Guan Hui saw it was divided not into Black and White, but into Right and Wrong.
Thus there was the Righteous Faction, and the Demonic Faction.
“I will walk the path of the Righteous Faction, senior.”
……
“That is the path the Guan Family Estate—no, the Guan Clan—will take.”
As Guan Hui spoke these words, his gaze held as steady as Mount Tai.
In that moment, a familiar voice brushed through Guan Hui’s mind.
-An excellent answer indeed.
Whether it was illusion or reality, he could not discern.
A faint smile.
There bloomed a thin smile at the corner of his mouth.

* * *
Tremor.
Ak Jin-sung’s eyelids quivered faintly.
‘Am I the one who errs.’
He had wanted to impart wisdom to a junior who still had much to learn.
Though he had only just met him, something about his conduct, the pristine aura he had cultivated, the weighty dignity of his beard—
All of it pleased him, so as a senior who had walked the path of Family Head for so long, he felt compelled to speak.
That this way was the only way.
That one must walk the path others walked to preserve one’s clan.
But as the conversation unfolded, his words faltered.
Not because the junior’s eloquence was particularly remarkable.
It was the righteousness of his words, the weighty conviction they carried.
‘How heavy.’
That weight pressed down upon Ak Jin-sung’s heart.
……
Ak Jin-sung lowered his head and gazed at his cup.
Ripples spread across the surface of the Bamboo Leaf Blue within.
His face wavered and trembled on the cup’s surface.
“The path you are moving toward—”
Ak Jin-sung waited for his own reflection in the cup to grow still.
“A path impossibly difficult to walk.”
Silence settled over the wine cup, and Ak Jin-sung drained it in one long pull.
“To deny the entire foundation the Celestial Dynasty Five Great Houses have built is to make enemies of them as well.”
One need not peer into the future to see what comes next.
Not long from now, the Five Great Houses will move to crush the Guan Family Estate.
For their foundation is their power itself.
“They won’t merely watch as you succeed by a different path than theirs. They’ll bring their full strength to bear and destroy you and your house.”
“I understand.”
“Will you walk that path regardless?”
“Yes.”
“I see.”
Ak Jin-sung nodded, as if he had expected nothing less.
Indeed, a path that required such resolve was never meant for those without it.
“The Righteous Faction… A term I’ve not heard before. Yet it pleases me greatly.”
Ak Jin-sung rose from his seat, turning the words over in his mind once more.
“Rise.”
Ak Jin-sung retrieved his spear from where it hung beside the pavilion.
“Sir?”
Guan Hui found himself echoing the question before he could think.
So suddenly…?
“I don’t take my junior for a man of mere words.”
“That much is true, but—”
“Then come. Prove it. Let me see if you possess the strength to back such bold claims.”
A martial master proves his convictions not through words, but through deeds.
Ak Jin-sung intended to verify through combat whether Guan Hui truly held such beliefs in his heart.
‘Should he not.’
If his resolve wavered beneath the surface, at odds with what his mouth proclaimed.
This junior would suffer greatly this day.
For he had dared call the Demonic Faction the very path that Ak Jin-sung and countless Family Heads had walked, and in doing so, had shown them contempt.
‘But should it be otherwise.’
Yet if his heart truly aligned with his words.
‘Then I shall become his ally.’
Ak Jin-sung would become a guide upon that solitary road.
For such a path was far too arduous to walk alone.
And so this was a test.
A test to see whether intention and action were one.

* * *
Shaanxi Province. Xi’an.
Within a crowded inn, two figures seated by the window drew every eye in the establishment.
A man and a woman seeming to inhabit a world apart from all others.
The young man in a pristine silk outer robe bore features so flawlessly sculpted that even a master craftsman could find no fault to improve.
“Oh my…”
“M-my heart… He’s far too handsome.”
As the young man lifted his cup, the flushed faces of the inn’s young women turned toward him in furtive glances.
“Heh.”
The man smiled subtly, savoring their attention.
“…Sigh.”
The woman seated across from him, dressed in a white long robe, exhaled heavily.
Her beauty was no less striking than the man’s, despite the contrast.
Her skin was as pale and luminous as the petals of a newly opened white magnolia, and her eyes shone with the clarity of an autumn lake.
“Ah…”
“A nation-toppling beauty indeed…”
“Truly, a heavenly peerless beauty!”
The men in the inn could not restrain their admiration at the sight of her face.
So breathtaking was her loveliness that each time she smiled gently, the very lamps of the inn seemed to burn brighter.
“A virtuous man and woman…”
“A pair wrought by heaven itself.”
The guests of the inn stole glances at them while pretending to drink their wine.
Even the innkeeper paused mid-order, momentarily lost in rapt admiration.
“Who on earth are they? Has an immortal maiden and celestial sage descended from heaven itself?”
“A foreigner? You don’t know Cho Ryang and Cho Seol?”
“I’ve only just arrived in Xi’an today, so I’m not well informed. Are they famous people?”
“Of course they are!”
The man erupted with passion, flecking spittle as he spoke.
“The finest martial sect in all of Xi’an! Two prodigies birthed by Hwajonmun! Brother and sister of the Cho name.”
A brother and sister bearing the Cho surname.
Twin siblings born from the same womb, both of whom had earned their place among the Five Dragons Three Phoenixes, they were the most celebrated paragons of talent in all of Shaanxi Province.
“Extraordinary! Both twins are counted among the Five Dragons Three Phoenixes!?”
“Indeed. One of only eight Future Pillars in the entire Central Plains! Look closely.”
The man gestured carefully toward the young man with an open palm.
“This is the elder brother, Cho Ryang.”
Now his palm turned toward the woman.
Perhaps it was her striking beauty.
The man’s fingertips trembled slightly.
“And this is the incomparable beauty of the North, Cho Seol, known as Flower Phoenix.”
“My goodness… truly, she is extraordinarily beautiful.”
“Indeed. I think so as well. Such breathtaking beauty. She is the pride of Shaanxi Province.”
The men of Xi’an gazed at Cho Seol with contented smiles.
Their eyes brimmed with admiration and reverence.
“These lowborn creatures speak of your beauty and mine,” Cho Ryang murmured, his mouth curling upward.
A faint smirk played at the corners of his lips.
Whenever they stepped outside, drawing the gaze of the masses was as natural as breathing, yet it never ceased to gratify him.
For that reason, he and his sister often lingered in crowded inns like this, basking in the attention.
Even the praise of lesser men had a way of lifting his spirits.
“Mm. I don’t much care,” Cho Seol replied.
“Yet your lips are curling.”
“Well. Compliments do feel rather nice.”
Cho Seol, who had denied it moments before, let slip a soft laugh.
At that flower-like smile, the patrons of the inn burst forth with cries of amazement once more.
“By the way, did you hear?”
“Hear what?”
“A dragon has appeared in Shaanxi Province.”
“A dragon? You don’t mean an actual dragon?”
Cho Seol, who had been raising her teacup, furrowed her brow.
“Have you lost your mind? Of course I mean a dragon among the Five Dragons Three Phoenixes. One called the Martial Dragon.”
“…What?”
Cho Ryang’s eyes turned cold and flat.
In that instant, the entire floor of the inn fell into a frigid silence.
“Calm yourself. For now, he’s only spoken of within Shaanxi Province.”
One cannot simply be called a Future Pillar merely because one’s martial skills are exceptional.
To earn a place among the Five Dragons Three Phoenixes requires far more than superior martial arts alone.
One must demonstrate extraordinary deeds worthy of the title, and one must also secure the endorsement of a prominent figure.
“How presumptuous. We earned our names among the Five Dragons Three Phoenixes, and this wretch, who has merely made a name for himself in a backwater province like Shaanxi, dares to claim the dragon epithet?”
Cho Ryang’s eyes narrowed with savage fury, and his killing intent seeped into the air.
“What is that insect’s name?”
“What was it… Guan Hui, I think?”
“Guan? I’ve never heard of such a clan. A pestilential name it is.”
Cho Ryang, who had never even laid eyes on Guan Hui, suddenly shot to his feet.
“Let’s go.”
“…Where?”
“To see this charlatan.”
“Just like that?”
Cho Ryang nodded with utter certainty as he watched Cho Seol’s bewildered expression.
“If insects like that go about wearing the dragon epithet, it diminishes our standing. I won’t abide such a sight.”
“This is tiresome.”
“It is for the sake of Hwajonmun. Or would you prefer we return to those days when we were held in contempt?”
“…Fine. Stop bringing up the past.”
Cho Seol’s expression turned cold, and she rose from her seat.
“You should have said that from the start.”
“But what are you planning to do once you get there? Just walk up and demand they change their epithet?”
“Exactly.”
“And if they refuse?”
Cho Ryang’s eyes narrowed sharply, and a cold gleam settled in his gaze.
“Then I’ll kill them.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————