I Obtained Guan Yu's Martial Arts - Chapter 8

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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 prowess | Episode 8
The Victor (3)
“Is that… an elixir?”
What had been hidden carefully inside Mak Pyeong’s sleeve.
It was none other than a spiritual elixir called the Tai Qing Pill.
“How does this bastard even possess an elixir?”
Guan Hui tilted his head in bewilderment.
An elixir was to a martial artist what a priceless treasure from heaven was—something that enhanced one’s Inner Energy.
Ordinarily, Inner Energy was cultivated day by day through patient practice, accumulating Qi in the Dantian through steady discipline.
An elixir that could compress years of such cultivation into mere moments was so rare and precious that its value defied imagination.
To put it plainly, it was not the sort of thing a disciple of the Shadow Horse ought to possess.
“And if it’s a Tai Qing Pill at that… it’s actually quite a respectable grade of elixir.”
The Tai Qing Pill was not a supreme elixir like the Purple Glow Divine Pill of the Huashan School or the Great Return Pill of the Shaolin Temple.
At best, it would enhance the Inner Energy in one’s Dantian by roughly five years’ worth of cultivation.
Yet because elixirs themselves were so extraordinarily rare, even such efficacy carried an astronomical price.
“If he’d kept this, it would have been a disaster.”
Even at his current level, the man already cut a notorious figure across multiple cities.
Had the elixir elevated his cultivation, it was difficult even to imagine how many more women would fall victim.
Impossible to calculate.
“Thank you for the gift.”
Guan Hui tucked the wooden box containing the Tai Qing Pill into his breast.
-Good timing. Consume it now and sit in lotus position.
“…? Here, now?”
At the martial lord’s voice—silent until that moment—Guan Hui’s expression turned hesitant.
Most martial artists were extraordinarily careful in selecting a place to perform Qi Circulation and Breathing.
For in the moment a warrior sat in lotus position to conduct such practice, he became most vulnerable, and therefore had to choose a location as sheltered from outside interference as possible.
“This place seems… less than ideal.”
No matter how deserted the Shadow Horse’s hideout was, performing Qi Circulation and Breathing here felt precarious.
With all sides wide open, anyone could wander by and disturb him at any moment.
Besides, the corpse of Mak Pyeong lay right beside him.
“One careless touch and I could fall into Demonic Fire Deviation.”
Should someone grow curious upon seeing the body and give Guan Hui’s shoulder even the slightest nudge, his Qi could reverse course and plunge him into Demonic Fire Deviation.
Once caught in Demonic Fire Deviation, one’s Inner Energy would either reverse or go haywire—becoming crippled was merely a matter of time.
-There is no time. Every one of your Meridians is on the verge of tearing apart.
“…!?”
Guan Hui’s eyes widened in shock.
‘So that’s why it hurt?’
During his fight with Mak Pyeong, his whole body ached each time he swung the Crescent Moon Blade.
He’d assumed it was merely exhaustion from lacking rest after the Hyunyak Bang battle.
He’d never imagined his Meridians could be torn to shreds like that.
-Dull creature. Surely you felt unbearable pain, yet you simply endured it and moved on. You are not ordinary after all.
The agony of tearing Meridians was as painful as feeling your living flesh burn in fire.
To have conducted such a magnificent battle while bearing that suffering.
Watching this young one reminded him of his former self.
-Now take the elixir.
“Understood.”
Guan Hui removed the lid from the wooden box and swallowed the Tai Qing Pill whole.
Then.
“Hack—guck!?”
A dark crimson flood of blood poured from his mouth, turning his vision milky white.
“Wh-what is this…!?”

* * *
“Ngh…!”
His face twisted at a pain unlike anything he’d felt before.
As if he’d accidentally swallowed something scorching, a searing sensation raced down his throat and into his stomach.
‘Is it supposed to hurt this much? It shouldn’t be…!?’
This was his first time consuming an elixir, though he’d heard accounts of them before.
A spiritual elixir suffused with pure Qi should only grant benefits of increased Inner Energy or improved health—it carried no side effects that caused pain or made one spit blood.
-It is because of your body’s condition. The pure Qi of the elixir is battling the poison inside you.
Over the past year, the Hyunyak Bang’s extreme poison had accumulated relentlessly, layer upon layer.
Most of it had faded, but some remained, still gnawing away at Guan Hui’s body.
The excruciating pain Guan Hui felt came from the process of the Tai Qing Pill’s power working to purge that poison clinging to his flesh.
—Endure it. Guide the medicine’s essence down into your Dantian.
From his pale, clouded mind came a familiar voice.
Even as his body convulsed in agony, Guan Hui followed that voice, guiding the medicine’s power into his Dantian.
Alone, he could not have done it.
But with that person’s voice steadying him like a ship’s rudder, he could.
—I will recite the incantation for you.
High-level mantras, profound with subtle mysteries, began to flow from his mind.
“Ugh…….”
Even as Guan Hui strained against the pain, he began the Great Heavenly Circulation according to the incantation.
‘I have to see this through.’
Guan Hui was a warrior in his own right.
He knew well enough that if he missed this chance, there would be no other.
‘I’ll do it, even if it kills me.’
Guan Hui had already crossed the line between life and death once.
He had tasted death itself, however indirectly—what was this pain?
It was far too slight to hold him back.
“Krkrkr.”
Guan Hui twisted his lips into a grimace of a smile, and within his body, the Tai Qing Pill’s power surged.
The Ren Meridian begins at the lips, descends along the chest and abdomen to the Huiyin Point, while the Du Meridian rises from the Huiyin Point along the tailbone and spine, passes through the Baihui Point, and circles back to the lips.
The pure True Energy circulating in endless cycles pushed out the turbid Qi and waste matter, reconstructing the body.
—You are doing well. Now pour all the medicine’s power into reconstructing your body.
Most warriors consume a medicinal pill and focus on absorbing its power entirely into their Dantian, making it their own.
But Guan Yu intended the opposite—to channel every scrap of the pill’s power toward his body’s restoration.
Building a house on a foundation already half-ruined would only result in a ruined structure.
So instead, he would use this pristine Inner Energy to repair the foundation, to create new ground upon which to build.
To become a master who could shake the world, one’s foundation had to be solid from the very bedrock.
“Haah…… haah…….”
Following the incantation, Guan Hui finished guiding the True Energy and exhaled roughly.
—Now you are acceptable.
‘This body…… doesn’t feel like mine anymore.’
It was a strange sensation.
His body felt impossibly light, overflowing with strength.
How to describe it? As if he were experiencing only half the weight of gravity?
‘I’ve never felt this before.’
Power flowed through his flesh so abundantly that it seemed anything would be possible.
Experiencing such a sensation for the first time, he could not yet control his expression.
Whoosh!—
Testing it, he threw a punch, and with a clear cutting sound, his fist split the air as cleanly as a lightning flash.
The speed was such that even Guan Hui himself could not follow his own fist with his eyes.
How to put it.
Until now his Divine Power had scattered wildly, but now it felt honed to a razor’s edge.
—Already at the height of Second-rate. Your growth is swift. Well done.
Guan Yu’s pleased voice sounded in his mind.
—Had you not spent so much essence reconstructing your body, you would have crossed the barrier into First-rate.
“I see. Still, it feels like a waste.”
—There is no need to regret it. With your talent, the barrier of First-rate will fall soon enough.
A Heavenly Martial Physique such as Guan Hui’s—or so it seemed—meant that First-rate was nothing at all.
Those blessed with heavenly talent need only apply effort to reach the heights of heaven itself.
—From now on, direct your True Energy according to this heart-method.
“Is what I just learned your heart-method, General?”
—Yes. It is called the Dragon Flight Morning Technique.
“……!”
The heart-method of Guan Yu, which no one in the Guan Family had ever inherited.
Guan Hui’s pupils trembled as he received this teaching for the first time.
‘At last…….’
A martial art that no one in the Guan Family had inherited for centuries was now being passed to him in this very moment.
‘I am receiving true martial arts…….’
Guan Hui’s life’s purpose, the restoration of the Guan Family that every patriarch before him had yearned for.
Today, for the first time, he had taken a step toward that goal.
The moment he took his first step toward the light, emerging from darkness where he could not see even an inch ahead.
That elation could not be captured by any words whatsoever.
“Thank you, General.”
Guan Hui gazed at the radiant moon hanging in the sky and broke into a bright smile.
That smile, brighter even than moonlight, held a happiness he had never known before.

* * *
Unsung City. Ichup Inn.
The Ichup Inn, which offered two small side dishes free with every order of white liquor, drew crowds day after day.
Today, as always, the inn was packed with people.
“Have you heard the news?!”
“What news?”
“The Hyunyak Bang, I mean. They say the subordinates and the master are all dead!?”
“What!?”
The faces of those who heard the words went pale with shock.
Even those who had only caught wind of the story wore expressions of alarm.
“What, the Hyunyak Bang!?”
“How could anyone possibly touch the Hyunyak Bang!?”
The Hyunyak Bang was not like ordinary Dark Path organizations.
One might say they were mere lawless brigands who cared nothing for law and order.
But among such men, the Hyunyak Bang possessed power and influence of an entirely different order.
“Gwang Sa-hun with the Soul-Poison Blade was a First-rate master, wasn’t he!? Who on earth killed him?”
In Unsung City, which had a smaller scale and population than other places, there were only two First-rate masters.
Gwang Sa-hun with the Soul-Poison Blade and Ro Hae-sang, the Dark Phantom.
In other words, within Unsung City, only the Dark Phantom Ro Hae-sang could have killed Gwang Sa-hun.
“But aren’t both of them on the Dark Path? And they said the two are closely connected.”
Birds of a feather flock together, as they say.
The relationship between Gwang Sa-hun and Ro Hae-sang was very close, and the organizations they led also got along quite well.
“No. It couldn’t be Ro Hae-sang. That man would never commit such madness as killing his own people.”
“Then… could it be Yang Mu-won with the Cloud Valley Spear?!”
At those words, the people all sighed as if by prior agreement and shook their heads.
“Are you out of your mind?”
“Could it really be him?”
Yang Mu-won, the Cloud Valley Spear, was the patriarch of the Yang Family, which held the greatest prestige in Taewon, situated beside Unsung City.
A martial master whose skill had reached the very Peak of Mastery.
His spear technique was so remarkably keen that he was also called the Foremost Spearsman of Taewon.
But.
“That man cares for nothing beyond his own livelihood.”
“That’s right. He’s too busy feathering his own nest. Truly.”
Despite being the patriarch of a proper White Path family, Yang Mu-won took no interest whatsoever in such matters as righteousness or cooperation.
Too busy filling his own pockets, turning a blind eye to the common people’s lives—Yang Mu-won was the very embodiment of a false White Path master.
“Bah! Then who on earth was it?!”
“Who killed Gwang Sa-hun?”
The crowd began to stir.
It was only natural they were curious—Gwang Sa-hun, a martial prodigy with only two rivals, had been found as a mangled corpse along with his men.
“I… I heard something about this, you see.”
A man with shaggy hair obscuring half his eyes hesitantly opened his mouth.
“The young patriarch of the Guan Family supposedly did it?”
“……?!”
“……??”
The Ichup Inn fell into a deathly silence in an instant.
At that shocking name, everyone froze, breath catching in their throats.
“That’s a… joke, right?”
No one believed it.
Rather, they could not believe it.
Because they didn’t know who the patriarch of the Guan Family was?
No. It was precisely because they knew all too well that they could not believe it.
There was not a soul in Unsung City who did not know of the young man who had struggled since childhood to save his family from ruin.
And the fact that the young man was Third-rate.
And that his family had been teetering on the brink of ruin for quite some time now.
“Listen here. That fellow’s Third-rate. He’s been too busy scraping together coin to ever properly swing a sword.”
“True. And for the past year, he’s been summoned to Hyunyak Bang every time, hasn’t he? Never done any real work.”
“He can’t even handle a single disciple of Hyunyak Bang. What does the Master even—”
The crowd laughed dryly.
Every eye blazed with disbelief, insisting such a thing was impossible, patently absurd.
“……But it’s true. I saw it myself. That young man walking out of Hyunyak Bang alone. And I heard the talk from the courtesans too. About a handsome youth who sent all the disciples of Hyunyak Bang packing.”
“……!!”
“Wait, you’re saying that’s really him?!”
“What—he’s been building his strength in secret?!”
“If that’s true, then really…… how remarkable!”
Everyone in the inn erupted into excited murmurs.
“Guan Hui……! I always believed that lad would amount to something!”
“Ha ha ha! Finally showing his worth!”
“Extraordinary. Simply extraordinary!”
The patrons’ faces flushed with unbridled excitement.
The most pitiable young man in all of Unsung City had slain the most vicious Dark Path demon.
Could fortune smile any brighter than this?!
“Ha ha ha! That diligent fellow finally steps into the light. I’m overjoyed for him.”
“I always knew it would come to pass. Toiling so relentlessly—surely Heaven lends a hand at last?!”
As everyone lavished praise upon Guan Hui,
a massive shadow fell across Ichup Inn.
A shadow so immense that its mere presence silenced every tongue.
The patrons fell silent at once, lips sealed.
“……Who says Hyunyak Bang was extinguished?”
A burly man of considerable frame and solid build stepped into the inn.
Each footfall he planted made the floorboards creak in protest, as if groaning under unbearable weight.
“…….”
The dense, oppressive aura emanating from him rendered everyone in the inn speechless in an instant.
Even these people, who had never in their lives studied martial arts, could sense at a glance that the man before them was no ordinary master.
“Compose yourselves. I am no enemy of Sama Oedo.”
The broad-shouldered man turned his waist, displaying the black blade sheathed at his hip.
White characters reading “Shadowless Blade” were carved into his scabbard.
“S-Shadowless Blade Jang Ryu?!”
“Y-You mean the foremost heir of the Anmun Jang Family?!”
A martial master of distinguished bearing now stood in Ichup Inn.
With his bold visage and towering frame, he was Jang Ryu, the second son of the Anmun Jang Family, spoken of as the foremost house in Anmun.
“Now then, I ask again. Who extinguished Hyunyak Bang?”

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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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