I Obtained Guan Yu's Martial Arts - Chapter 55

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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 55
Ak Jin-sung (5)
Guan Hui and Ak Jin-sung stood facing each other in the Training Grounds behind the manor, waiting for the Family Head.
Ak Jin-sung swung his spear gently, standing bathed in the soft light of a half-hidden moon.
“Do you know? The Martial World is called by another name—Blade Mountain Sword Forest.”
“Yes, senior.”
“In this Martial World, when you speak a word, you must have the strength to back it.”
Since it was not a question expecting an answer, Guan Hui listened to him in silence.
“Aside from those pathetic mustached fools who bluster about it, the Central Plains ultimately runs on the logic of power alone.”
“That is so.”
It was a truth felt bone-deep in those days scrambling at the bottom to repay debts.
The Martial World was a place where the logic of power held sway above all else.
And for that very reason, it was a place that could become endlessly ruthless.
“You declared that you would walk a different path from others in this Martial World. Moreover, you called the path that countless others have walked before you an Evil Path.”
“That is so.”
“Then you must have the strength to take responsibility for those words. Even if what you say is true, if your power is weak, your words become false. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
What Ak Jin-sung was saying was simple.
Eventually, a moment would come when you had to prove it through strength.
“But at your current level, is that even possible?”
……
This time, even Guan Hui could not answer easily.
Did he possess the military strength to take responsibility for his own words right now?
‘No.’
It had been roughly half a year since he began learning Martial Arts in earnest.
He could confidently say that his rate of growth was among the most remarkable not just in the Central Plains, but throughout all of history.
Yet still, Guan Hui had not yet risen to a rank that could be called a master in this Central Plains.
Let alone the Four Venerables, the masters of the Flower Realm of which only four existed in this Central Plains.
The Ten Heroes of Heaven, who had reached the Absolute Peak rank.
He had not even come close to the realm of Absolute Peak Masters, whom they called the Hundred Masters of All Under Heaven.
“Of course, for your age, your skill is extraordinary. For a youth of twenty to reach a first-class Ultimate Form means you are the finest among current Late Stage Experts.”
Not the greatest under heaven.
Yet there was no shortage in calling you the greatest Late Stage Expert under heaven.
That was what Ak Jin-sung saw in Guan Hui at this very moment.
“But the path you wish to walk is not merely a Late Stage Expert’s level. Is it not?”
“That is so.”
He was a martial master and at the same time a Family Head.
Therefore he was both a Late Stage Expert and not a Late Stage Expert.
“Then ascend to the Absolute Peak. At the very least, you should not have more than a hundred rivals in all under heaven.”
“The Absolute Peak realm……”
“Of course, it is not true that there are only a hundred Absolute Peak masters. I merely grouped them together as a round number. In reality, there are probably more.”
One cannot count all the masters under heaven one by one.
Besides the ones called the Hundred Masters of All Under Heaven, Absolute Peak experts exist throughout the world.
Yet it is also true that once you reach the Absolute Peak rank, your rivals under heaven number fewer than two hundred.
“As a Family Head, the minimum power you must possess is the Absolute Peak. I apologize, but I do not even regard a clan with a Family Head of lesser standing as a true family.”
A Family Head and a Sect Leader or Patriarch.
Since these occupy the highest positions in families and sects, their power is likewise the most superior.
In other words, their strength represents the level of their family.
“Do you know why you have not yet reached the Absolute Peak?”
Ak Jin-sung asked sharply.
To know one’s shortcomings—that is where learning begins, and so he asked.
“Yes. It is inner power.”
“Both right and wrong.”
“……?”
“There are two ways to reach the Absolute Peak realm. First Awakening Then Mastery and First Mastery Then Awakening.”
First Awakening Then Mastery means first understanding the principle and awakening.
First Mastery Then Awakening, meanwhile, refers to raising one’s realm through Spiritual Pills first, then later awakening to the principle.
“Most rely on the First Mastery Then Awakening method.”
To reach the Absolute Peak realm, one must be able to see the Qi that constitutes the world as threads.
In other words, the Upper Dantian must open.
“Generally speaking, opening the Upper Dantian through insight alone is terribly difficult. It’s no exaggeration to call it impossible. That’s why most people open the Spirit Meridian first with a Spiritual Pill.”
They use the Spiritual Pill to open the Spirit Meridian and thereby unblock the Upper Dantian.
In doing so, enlightenment comes through the threads that become visible, and one accepts the underlying principles.
“But you won’t need that. In fact, you must not do it that way.”
Ak Jin-sung took a spear stance and broke into a thin smile.
“If you’re to walk a path different from others, you must naturally surpass them, wouldn’t you say?”
“True words, senior.”
Guan Hui likewise took a spear stance, wearing the same smile at the corner of his mouth.
“Then try awakening through First Mastery Then Awakening.”
“Is there a method to it?”
“Why, yes. Keep taking hits until your skull cracks open, and enlightenment will follow.”
“A refreshingly direct approach. I rather like it.”
The two Family Heads, spear and Crescent Moon Blade in hand, glared at each other as if bound by covenant before hurling themselves forward.
Their silhouettes stretched long and serpentine.
The smiles curling both warriors’ lips grew deeper still.

* * *
Whoosh!—
The spear blade that cleaved the sky in a vertical line became blurred in an instant, as though reflected in water.
“……!”
Guan Hui, attempting to block the spear with the flat of his blade, could not hide his bewilderment.
“The keener a warrior’s senses, the more they rely on intuition rather than sight.”
A spear blade suddenly erupted from beneath his legs, streaking toward Guan Hui’s heart.
It was the technique of Move Form Exchange Position—using inner force to create a phantom spear that deceived the opponent’s senses.
“Ghk!”
Guan Hui dropped to one knee and urgently arched his back.
Slice—
The spear blade grazed Guan Hui’s chest and passed through.
Had he not bent his back far enough to touch the ground with his shoulders, it would have been his heart, not his chest, that was cut.
“Too bad. If you could see the threads, you’d have seen through it easily.”
Ak Jin-sung drew the spear back in an arc and swung it anew.
“Why didn’t you see the threads from the start?”
Crack!—
Struck by the shaft of the spear, Guan Hui tumbled across the Training Grounds floor.
Because inner force had been woven into the blow, his ribs throbbed as though shattered.
But what rankled more than the pain was that glib tongue.
The way of teaching with one hand while scratching with the other sent fury boiling up.
“Still can’t see? How peculiar. Why can’t you manage something so simple? I see it just fine.”
“…….”
“Well then. Let me teach you something else. With weapons like the spear and blade, distance is paramount. You understand that much, at least?”
“……I do.”
Guan Hui’s jaw tightened as he answered.
“The essence lies in maintaining the proper distance where swords and blades cannot reach. Though I doubt you’ll grasp it, blind to the threads as you are.”
Ak Jin-sung spoke while delivering a kick to Guan Hui’s abdomen.
Forced into the air, Guan Hui pushed off the ground with the tip of his Crescent Moon Blade and returned to his stance.
“Even a snail has the gift of rolling. Your rolling is quite excellent.”
“…….”
“Closing the distance is the foundation of facing spear technique. But when an opponent closes distance on you, how will you respond?”
“When an opponent closes distance…….”
Snap!—
Ak Jin-sung closed the distance in an instant.
He now gripped the spear short, as though it were a dagger, and moved to thrust sharply at Guan Hui’s shoulder.
“……I must block with repulsive force.”
Guan Hui’s feet moved swiftly into a precise stepping pattern.
A small whirlwind erupted from his toes, pushing back everything in its path.
“Ho.”
A glimmer of interest flickered in Ak Jin-sung’s eyes as he was forced back two steps.
“The technique of a spell-user, I see. Clever.”
“Thank you, senior.”
“Hold your thanks! You fool!”
Ak Jin-sung closed the distance with the subtlety of Human Strength, feinting a spear thrust while driving his left fist straight at Guan Hui’s face.
Crack!—
Guan Hui’s head snapped backward, and he staggered.
Blood streamed from both nostrils where the punch had landed square on his nose.
“Heh heh. Charming look you’ve got there. Suits you, dripping blood like that. What should I call you—Runny Nose? Runny Nose?”
Throb—
The taunt that followed the strike sent a vein bulging across Guan Hui’s forehead.
“This mad bastard—!”
He’d held back as long as he could.
The provocation ignited him from head to toe, and Guan Hui exploded forward, whirling his Crescent Moon Blade in a fierce arc.
Whoosh!—
The blade cut through the air with a sharp wail, tracing a beautiful crescent.
“Heh heh. Slow. Too slow. Think you could catch a fly moving like that?”
Ak Jin-sung deftly sidestepped the spear and continued his barrage of taunts.
“Grrr!”
Grinding his teeth against the provocation, Guan Hui unleashed his full Blade Technique—
“Missed me.”
“Not even close.”
“Your patterns are transparent. Dull enough to bore me.”
“That form’s so slow a tortoise would think you’re family!”
“Is that your full power? Full power, you say? Or not quite full power?”
Throughout the exchange, Ak Jin-sung wove provocation and evasion together seamlessly.
“Arrrgh!”
At last, rage boiled over the top and erupted from Guan Hui in a roar.
Piercing—
A shrill ringing flooded his ears.
In that instant, his ears seemed to pop wide open, and his vision blurred.
The world swam before him, hazed and murky.
Yet what he saw now was nothing like before.
‘…What?’
Above the cloud-filled night sky, threads of black and white wove together like brushstrokes on silk.
As if some master painter had rendered heaven itself in black and white upon the void.
“Ah….”
Guan Hui understood now—the threads he saw were the very principle Ak Jin-sung had spoken of.
“Heh heh. You see it now?”
“Yes. Senior. Now I see.”
Guan Hui’s jaw fell open as he beheld the world through this new sight.
The sensation on his skin, the world before his eyes, the sounds that reached his ears—
everything was transformed.
Sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch.
Every sense had sharpened beyond all previous measure, and—
Tingle—
his Sixth Sense awakened, rendering all those senses even clearer and more acute.
Now he understood why they said the Absolute Peak transcended human limitation.
“So this is what it means….”
“Everyone preaches Clear Mirror Still Water, but truth is—emotion’s what opens the Upper Dantian.”
The Way teaches to abandon the Five Desires and Seven Emotions.
Yet those emotions lodge in the mind itself.
To open the Upper Dantian, you had to embrace them more honestly.
That’s why Ak Jin-sung had provoked him so relentlessly.
“Of course, you can use other emotions too. But brutes like me and you—anger’s the only one that truly bites.”
“I understand now…. Truly.”
Guan Hui’s eyes gleamed as he looked out at the world.
A beauty he had never glimpsed in all his life now lay before him.
The moon above the night sky, the clouds, the pines growing quiet beside the Training Grounds—
all of it thrummed with life force; all of it was life force itself.
As though the entire world were woven from threads of black and white alone.
“The world is made of threads of so many different colors.”
“…What? Y-you’re already seeing that far?”
When one takes that first step into the Absolute Peak, what opens to sight is only the threads within a radius of perhaps a few paces around oneself.
Once I understood the lines of black and white around me, the more I pursued the principles and gained enlightenment, the wider the realm I could perceive became.
The depth of the Upper Dantian becomes the breadth of my vision, and I can see the lines that encircle the world.
‘Perceiving the lines around me is the threshold of the Absolute Peak. Seeing the lines that encircle the world is Perfect Completion. Embracing those lines in my blade—that is the Ultimate Form…’
At truly astonishing realization, Ak Jin-sung’s jaw fell slack.
A boy who had just stepped foot into the Absolute Peak realm—and already through enlightenment alone, he was drawing near to the realm of Perfect Completion.
This was nothing short of a monster.
‘Surely not…’
Ak Jin-sung’s eyes wavered with unease.
It had been six years since he himself ascended to the Absolute Peak.
His current state was at the Perfect Completion level of the Absolute Peak—capable of perceiving the lines within a radius of roughly ten zhang.
In other words, in terms of enlightenment alone, there was scarcely any difference between him and Guan Hui now.
If Guan Hui were to perceive the lines with a wider field of vision than his own… his dignity as a senior would be utterly ruined.
The very one who had taught him would be revealed as standing on a lower level.’
‘No, surely not.’
That couldn’t be.
He had only just set foot in the Absolute Peak.
And he was a junior who, lacking in internal energy, had only managed to ascend halfway at that.
“How far, exactly, can you see the lines?”
To perceive all the world’s lines on the first attempt was surely beyond reason…
“Everywhere my sight reaches, I can see them. Black and white lines—they comprise the entire world.”
……
Ak Jin-sung’s eyes grew hazy as words failed him.
Even in his gaze alone, one could feel the weight of deflation.
“……?”
Guan Hui, seeing Ak Jin-sung suddenly downcast, tilted his head in confusion.
“What’s wrong, senior?”
“You’re just lucky, that’s all. Why else.”
“……??”
“Sigh.”
Ak Jin-sung exhaled deeply, his melancholy gaze turning upward to the night sky.
“Listen, junior. Would you do me one favor?”
Guan Hui nodded respectfully.
This was the senior who had given him enlightenment without asking anything in return.
In a way, he was like a master.
Having received such a great kindness, he meant to grant this senior’s request, whatever it might be.
“Yes, senior. Of course.”
“Then get out for a while, would you? I’d like to be alone.”
“……But this is my house, isn’t it?”

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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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