I Obtained Guan Yu's Martial Arts - Chapter 65

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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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Guan Yu’s Martial Arts Obtained Episode 65
Law of Karma (5)
An ordinary breakfast, like any other morning.
The meal shared by Family Head Guan Hui and his contemporaries—Guest Retainers Huang Xiaozhe, Zhang Cheng, and Zhu Hu—was draped today in a peculiar tension.
……
Huang Xiaozhe, chopsticks in hand, wore an unmistakable air of discomfort.
Following her crisp gaze, the men’s eyes converged on a single point.
“Mm. This is delicious.”
The woman eating with such grace—a beauty that rivaled moonlight reflected in blossoms.
Cho Seol, the First Beauty of the North, savored her food and offered Guan Hui a gentle smile.
That smile was so radiant that Zhu Hu found himself dribbling tea down his chin as he stared.
“The food is well-prepared. Thank you for your hospitality, Family Head.”
“It is nothing. Please, eat freely.”
Guan Hui, observing courtesy befitting a Family Head, shot a sharp look at Zhang Cheng and Zhu Hu.
A rebuke for their blatantly obvious staring, which made their guest uncomfortable.
“Ahem.”
“Hmm.”
The two, belatedly realizing their rudeness, cleared their throats awkwardly.
It made no sense to clear one’s throat over a mistake that wasn’t spoken—but there they were.
Huang Xiaozhe, watching their pathetic display with disdain, spoke at last.
“How long does the young lady from Shenxi intend to remain here?”
Her first words since the meal began a moment ago.
Those barbed remarks caught even Guan Hui off guard for an instant.
There was a chill to them—like a blade slipping silently into place.
“I intend to stay until the matter is resolved. After all, it began because of me.”
“Is our help truly necessary? We seem capable enough among ourselves.”
“Well, it is necessary……”
“Zhu Hu. The ladies are speaking.”
“Right.”
Guan Hui hastily closed his mouth, though he’d been about to add something.
His heart lay with Zhu Hu, but he possessed enough sense not to voice it aloud.
“The Guan Clan is surely a formidable house that commands Shanxi Province,” Cho Seol said, setting down her chopsticks with deliberate care.
She answered with measured respect.
“Yet as a sister, I cannot stand idle while my brother commits such wrongs. That is why I have come.”
……
Huang Xiaozhe found herself without a response to the woman’s eloquent words.
Had Cho Seol merely dismissed the Guan Clan’s strength, it would have been simple.
But in acknowledging their power while invoking her duty as a sister, she left no opening to rebut.
“I am grateful once more to the Guan Clan and to you, Family Head, for your permission.”
Guan Hui smiled faintly as Cho Seol bowed her head respectfully.
“No. We are more grateful to you, young lady, for the forewarning.”
She meant the Black Shadow Gate.
Had assassins infiltrated the family unseen, the casualties would have been catastrophic.
Even if Guan Hui himself remained unharmed, his household members—those whose training was not yet complete—would have been slaughtered.
By warning them, she had become a lifesaver, a benefactor of the highest order.
“Thanks to you, many of our household members have been spared.”
“……So you don’t believe you will lose to the Black Shadow Gate?”
Cho Seol grasped the hidden meaning in his words at once.
He was grateful that his people would live.
That gratitude was another way of saying: if we simply changed the battlefield, we would win without question.
“Frankly, that is so.”
Guan Hui shrugged with indifference.
“They are nothing but assassins, after all.”
Sordid creatures who lurk in shadow, preying on the backs of their enemies.
Truthfully, he had never considered them worthy opposition.
‘I have reached the Peak Realm.’
Thanks to the Hundred-Year Fleece Flower Root that Ak Gaju had given him, Guan Hui’s mind and body were now in perfect harmony—he had achieved the complete Peak Realm.
Now that he had fully awakened to the Way of all things, assassins were beneath his regard.
“Rather, I look forward to it. It has been long since I had the chance to dance with my blade in earnest.”
The martial way of the Guan Clan had been forged on the battlefield, and perfected there.
That was why it was difficult for the Guan Clan’s martial arts to fully blossom in sparring or training.
With such practical combat application and killing intent woven through, their cultivation could only reach its peak through genuine, high-stakes confrontation.
“As it happens, I needed a worthy opponent.”
“You’re quite bold.”
A glimmer of intrigue flickered across Cho Seol’s eyes.
“Of course. A man with such striking looks who lacks boldness wouldn’t be a man at all.”
“……?”
The sudden compliment about his appearance left Guan Hui tilting his head in confusion.
It felt like a scene he’d witnessed before somewhere.
“A powerful frame paired with graceful features. And that unrestrained spirit besides. You’re every inch a Great Man.”
“Thanks… Xiaozhe?”
Caught off guard by the unexpected praise, Guan Hui scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
Huang Xiaozhe, watching from the side, felt her gaze growing darker by the second.
Gulp.
Zhu Hu and Zhang Cheng, who had been eating, swallowed hard enough to draw attention.
“While we’re on the subject, I’d like to ask you something.”
“What might that be?”
“If your betrothal hasn’t been settled yet, what do you think of me? My family background is solid, my martial arts aren’t lacking, and my appearance is hardly deficient.”
“……!”
“……!!”
Zhu Hu and Zhang Cheng’s eyes bulged wide.
With their eyes gleaming, they stuffed roasted peanuts into their gaping mouths.
“What in the—”
It was a remarkably bold question.
While fathers often asked about suitable matches for their daughters, it was nearly unheard of for a daughter to ask a man about betrothal directly.
Cho Seol was proving herself to be every bit as bold as she was skilled.
“Ha! I find this utterly absurd.”
Huang Xiaozhe fixed Cho Seol with an icy stare.
“Given the times we’re in, what game are you playing? Don’t you know how to read a room?”
“Is there a protocol for love? This is simply me expressing my feelings, separate from all else.”
“Lo… love?”
Xiaozhe’s arms began to tremble.
Love, no less?
She had fallen for him far earlier and far deeper.
Yet she still hadn’t managed to confess through shyness.
And this woman, whom she’d known barely a handful of days, dared speak of affection so boldly?!
“I’ve harbored these feelings far longer than you!”
“Can you measure the depth of a well by its age? Longevity doesn’t guarantee depth.”
“……!”
Huang Xiaozhe’s face flushed the color of bougainvillea as she lost the war of words once more.
She’d unintentionally revealed her own heart, only to be bested in rhetoric besides.
With her lips pressed tight, Xiaozhe deployed an Absolute Technique to land her blow.
“You… you tiny thing!”
“……!?”
Cho Seol’s eyes widened in bewilderment.
She and Huang Xiaozhe were nearly the same height.
So why would she mock her for—
“……!”
As Cho Seol’s gaze dropped below the neck, her face turned crimson as a ripe persimmon.
Now she understood where that attack had been aimed.
“Th… this you—!”
Cho Seol staggered under the overwhelming pressure of that Absolute Technique.
Indeed. The Gender Secret Technique.
A method that rendered an opponent helpless in an instant.
“Ha! A true dragon and tiger locked in combat.”
Zhu Hu, who had stuffed roasted peanuts into his mouth, nodded appreciatively.
“Yes. Dragons and tigers contending.”
“Equally formidable adversaries, wouldn’t you say?”
“Evenly matched……”
Just as Guan Hui, finding the scene entertaining, was about to add his thoughts, something happened.
“Can’t you two be quiet!?”
“Quiet!”
The two women struck the table sharply, glaring at Zhu Hu and Zhang Cheng.
“Oh, well. The Family Head himself also—”
“Be quiet!”
“You’re too loud, so get out!”
The two women, eyes blazing, issued their command with unmistakable force.
Zhu Hu and Zhang Cheng exchanged aggrieved looks, turning their eyes to Guan Hui.
They’d committed the transgression together—so why were only the two of them being scolded?
“Mm.”
Guan Hui calmly picked up his chopsticks.
He felt grateful, all things considered, to be the Family Head.
There was no one to strike him with the table after all.
* * *
“Brother. I’ve gathered information on the Black Shadow Gate.”
Zhu Hu, who now bore a lump on his head from his earlier remark, set a bundle of papers down on the table.
“Since reading would be troublesome for you, shall I explain it verbally?”
“You’re an excellent strategist.”
“……”
It was a compliment that felt somehow backhanded.
Zhu Hu, his expression wavering slightly, began his explanation.
“I remember what you said this morning, brother. The Black Shadow Gate is not an organization to be underestimated.”
“Hmm.”
“You should be afraid, brother. They are different from the Dark Path enemies we’ve faced thus far. They are frightening men.”
Zhu Hu’s expression grew increasingly grave.
“Among the Five Paths of Darkness, they are the organization with the most widely spread influence. They have a branch in every province.”
No one in the Central Plains knows where this assassination organization’s headquarters is located.
Even the branches in each province are hidden so thoroughly that they are masters of concealment.
“That doesn’t sound particularly frightening, actually.”
It mattered little where the branches hid themselves.
They would come rushing at him like moths to flame anyway—he would simply kill them when they arrived.
“That won’t work, brother. Simply killing them won’t solve it.”
“Why not?”
“Assassins don’t meekly withdraw after a single failure. And in the case of the Black Shadow Gate, which is considered to house only the greatest assassins among assassins, it’s all the more true.”
Assassination missions entrusted to such organizations rarely fail.
Why is that?
Because the assassins invariably kill their targets?
No, that’s not it.
There are often cases where the martial prowess of the target is unexpectedly greater, or where multiple misfortunes converge, causing the assassins to fail.
Yet the reason failures are rare is their relentless persistence.
If an assassination fails, they send a more skilled, larger group of assassins—and consequently, total failure becomes exceedingly rare.
“The more you kill, the stronger the assassins who will come. Eventually, you’ll face the Black Shadow Gate’s master himself.”
The Black Shadow Gate Master, the Assassination King, Bai Hun.
He is an assassin who has stepped into the realm of peak mastery through the Assassination Strike alone.
A monster capable of killing even Ak Gaju, one of the hundred greatest masters under heaven, with a single blade and a surprise strike.
Bai Hun is the one occupying a seat among the Top Ten Masters Under Heaven.
“To speak plainly, you might not even reach that point. But if he appears, everything ends.”
“Mm.”
For the first time, Guan Hui’s face went rigid as he listened to this account.
Arrogance and confidence are not the same thing.
Guan Hui himself knew that at his current level, he could not stand against one of the Top Ten Masters Under Heaven.
The reality was that he could not even promise victory against Ak Jin-seong, who was at the same peak realm.
“But saying ‘extremely rare’ means they do fail sometimes, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, brother. That’s true.”
“Go on.”
Zhu Hu let out a long, heavy sigh, worry etched across his face.
“Yes, rarely, they do fail. The assassins call it a mission cancellation, but the world calls it failure.”
An assassination contract begins when the client pays money; the assassins accept the first half of that fee.
“But what if the client disappears? And at the same time, the contract fails once?”
“They would give up. There’s no one to pay them even if they complete the task, and it would be wasteful to spend more resources.”
Zhu Hu nodded, looking pleased.
Guan Hui grasped things quickly, so explaining everything in detail was unnecessary—their conversations always had a satisfying directness to them.
“Precisely.”
“So the way for us to resolve this without facing Bai Hun is…….”
Guan Hui stroked his long beard that extended down to his Adam’s apple.
“We must kill both Cho Liang and all the assassins simultaneously.”
“Yes. The problem is that you’ll have to face the Black Shadow Gate alone.”
“By limiting the contract’s target to just me, we reduce the number of assassins.”
“Exactly. If the entire clan engages them, the Black Shadow Gate will increase their numbers as well. And then, without fail, our family members will die.”
To face dozens of assassins alone.
It was as difficult as it sounded.
It even had the cruel ring of being ordered to march toward death.
It would be a desperate struggle staked on one’s life.
‘But this is the only way.’
Zhu Hu knew well what concerned Guan Hui most.
He feared the deaths of his blood-bound family members above all else.
That was why he had excluded them from every battle until now.
He held the lives of those family members—those who had lived their whole lives in suffering—higher than his own.
‘It goes against my wishes, but I must follow.’
As a strategist serving Guan Hui, Zhu Hu’s role was to devise plans according to his lord’s desires.
Even if it was something Zhu Hu himself would not have chosen.
“……My lord. If that’s not possible, there is another way. We could all fight the Black Shadow Gate with total commitment…….”
“Enough.”
Guan Hui shook his head firmly.
“My lord. I understand your valor and courage. But that doesn’t mean it’s right for you to face death alone.”
“That’s not why.”
“My lord?”
Guan Hui rose calmly and grasped the Green Dragon Crescent Blade in his hand.
“It’s not because I’m brave. It’s because I fear death the least.”
……
Zhu Hu looked up at him in a daze.
From Guan Hui emanated the magnificent bearing of a great general who had defined an age.
It was so intense that a tremor ran down his spine.
And yet, at that same moment.
The pleased voice of Guan Yu echoed in his mind.
-Excellent.

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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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