I Shouldn't Have Joined the Martial Arts Alliance - Chapter 107

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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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Joining the Murim Alliance for no reason — Episode 107
“Damn it.”
“Hell.”
“Blast.”
“I’m running out of blood.”
“I should just drink that bastard’s blood instead.”
A member of the Baekri Family standing nearby, already dying and bleeding profusely, pointed at one of their warriors.
“…Have you lost your mind?”
“Then why do you make it sound like only you’re bleeding?”
“I can’t say I’m running low on blood when I’m running low?”
“So only you’re short on blood, is that it, you idiot?”
“…Fine.”
Sa U-rin, Jang Hye-in, and their members were neither the greatest under heaven nor Supreme Masters of the orthodox sects.
Even as they pressed the Baekri Family warriors hard, small wounds accumulated one after another.
That was why they were bleeding.
And so their martial robes were turning steadily crimson.
And with each passing moment, their exhaustion deepened. The only consolation was that the Baekri Family’s numbers had been cut in half.
Which meant, looked at another way, that half still remained.
Jang Hye-in gasped for breath, his face twisted with frustration, and shot a question at Sa U-rin.
“Are you seriously doing this? You’re deliberately acting like this, aren’t you?”
Sa U-rin was not his usual self. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say he wasn’t using his full strength at all.
That was it.
Sa U-rin was trying to suppress his opponents with only the Feng Yun Sword from the Jang Family Manor, and nothing was going as planned.
He’d trained with the Feng Yun Sword, but he’d never faced real combat with it before, had he?
That was why Sa U-rin’s mother, the witch Jang Ryeo, had orchestrated this entire affair — though there were greater reasons behind it, this too was part of her plan.
Still, as time passed, Sa U-rin found a shred of comfort in the fact that the sword was gradually becoming more familiar in his hands.
“…Just wait a little longer.”
“Wait for what? What are we waiting for?! I’m about to die!”
“You heard what the Deputy Commander said.”
He had heard it.
The Supreme Master’s absolute command to face the Baekri Family with only the Feng Yun Sword of the Jang Family Manor.
But even so!
“If you keep this up, we’re all going to die!”
They really were going to die!
Half the Baekri Family warriors still remained, while Jang Hye-in and his members looked as though they’d already collapsed.
They were so battered that calling them corpses would have been believable.
“I feel like I’m dying too.”
It was frustrating — facing opponents with an unfamiliar blade technique. But now, he was growing accustomed to it.
And if he could get through this crisis, then according to his mother’s design, Sa U-rin might truly have the confidence to win the Blue Dragon Martial Arts Tournament with the Jang Family sword once his hand was fully steady.
“What are you talking about? You look fine. Are you really doing this? Huh?”
It was true. Outwardly.
Unlike Jang Hye-in and the members, Sa U-rin appeared unscathed. Not a drop of blood seemed to be spilling from him, and he was still flitting about with undiminished vigor, wasn’t he?
Of course, the problem was that he was only dodging the Baekri Family warriors’ blades. Of course, that too was because his Feng Yun Sword was still clumsy.
“Understood. I said I understood.”
And there was yet another barrier.
He hadn’t noticed it during training, but in actual combat, Sa U-rin felt as though the mental cultivation of Honwon-gong and the swordplay of the Jang Family Manor were operating separately.
It was something he only realized through facing real combat.
And hadn’t he already gained the realization that this was precisely why real combat was necessary?
Now he had identified that awkwardness, and he was beginning to fill those gaps.
“Get it together.”
“I said I understood. You’re being unusually fussy today.”
“Because you’re being unusually clumsy today.”
This had never happened before.
It was something even Sa U-rin himself admitted.
“…Understood.”
So Sa U-rin steeled himself.
“From now on, I’ll do this properly, so everyone shift to a defensive stance.”
“Really?”
“When have I ever talked nonsense?”
“Never.”
“That’s right.”
“Good. You really trust me this time?”
“When did you not trust me for real before?”
“This bastard…….”
Jang Hye-in’s eyes flew wide open, his gaze darting wildly in all directions.
“Fine, fine. I understand. Are you going to devour me with those eyes?”
“……You willing to be devoured?”
“Enough.”
A low chuckle escaped him.
As if to repay such faith, Sa U-rin’s shoulders rolled back, broader and looser. In the next breath, his eyes blazed with sudden ferocity.
Meanwhile, the warriors of the Baekri Family found their own eyes dulling, their breathing growing shallow and labored.
“Huff, huff. Sickening creatures.”
“Huff, huff. Their vitality is disgustingly stubborn.”
“Damn it.”
“Not much longer. Everyone, push harder!”
“His death is within sight!”
Words carry power—true or false, they carry power all the same.
So they shouted, believing what was not true, wanting to make it so, crying out as if it were already done.
Hoping—desperately hoping—that it would come to pass.
They cried out to themselves.
Making their voices heard by their comrades.
Letting those words melt into fevered chests.
But.
It was a lie, nevertheless. Fact it was not.
And lies, in the end, breed vanity.
Vanity distorts truth and reality alike.
So the warriors of the Baekri Family dreamed on—dreams divorced from the facts, from the world as it truly was.
And.
Sa U-rin was only beginning.
Whoosh!
Now he rose into the air in earnest.
The Baekri Family’s warriors cried out again.
“Just kill him!”
“Slay him!”
“Kill the witch’s son!”
The exhausted warriors of the Baekri Family dug deep once more, drawing strength from the power of their own words.
But.
“Ugh.”
“Argh.”
“Ahhh!”
Screams and groans rippled through the air with each gust that Sa U-rin sent forth.
His blade had become something utterly different from moments before.
A bitter, piercing wind—cold enough to freeze everything in its path—swept across the Baekri Family’s ranks.
Then, as gently as soothing a child, a warm breeze caressed their hearts. But those hearts melted into dying flesh.
The bitter wind returned.
The warm breeze came again.
Just as the Baekri warriors lost all sense of direction, a hurricane descended from Sa U-rin.
Ferocious.
It tore forward, wild enough to sweep away all in its path.
The Baekri Family’s warriors met it with desperate resistance born of hatred, but they were no more than skeletal branches snapping and splintering before such savage winds.
“Impossible!”
“He must die!”
“Die!”
“Damn him!”
Still they cried out.
Had they not come here to achieve this?
Had they not longed for it with all their hearts until now?
But.
They snapped, they broke, they were severed.
Their dreams, too.
Desperation.
Hope.
Resentment.
Not a shred of bitterness.
Sa U-rin was drawing on his reserves.
So Jang Hye-in seized the moment without hesitation.
“Now! Sweep them away!”
Jang Hye-in and his subordinates, shifting into a defensive stance, systematically dismantled the gap Sa U-rin had carved through their enemies.
Their movements locked together seamlessly—flawless enough to trust with your life.
There was no knowing exactly when it had started. But at some point, it had.
Mutual trust.
Mutual friendship.
Mutual faith.
Now we had become one—transcended comrades to become family.
No longer you and I, but we.
And so we could trust more deeply.
And so we could believe more completely.
And so we threw ourselves forward without reservation.
Even if that place were hell itself.
Even if flames roared and devoured everything.
Was that why?
Everyone watching gasped in disbelief.
“……Incredible.”
“It’s actually… working.”
“I thought it was impossible…….”
“They’re actually overpowering them.”
Even seeing it, they struggled to believe their eyes.
Yes, by any measure, it amounted to suppression.
By numbers, by momentum—the outcome had seemed predetermined.
Yet they had turned everyone’s expectations upside down.
And before long, Sa U-rin’s body too was drenched in blood. He had cut through his enemies with ruthless efficiency, but to do so, he could not afford to protect himself.
Had he fought while defending his own flesh, he could not have dispatched the Baekri Family’s warriors so quickly.
Had he done so, exhaustion would have claimed him.
So Sa U-rin surrendered his own flesh to steal his enemies’ lives.
And thus the Baekri Family’s scheme crumbled to nothing once more—undone by Sa U-rin alone.
* * *
The plan of the Witch Jang Ryeo had been a spectacular success.
Sa U-rin had risen to Championship Candidate status in a single day. More than that, he had become the central figure of the Blue Dragon Martial Arts Tournament itself.
Now everyone had no choice but to regard Sa U-rin with caution—exactly as the Witch Jang Ryeo had intended.
The incident involving the Baekri Family became the talk of everyone. Wherever two or more gathered, that story blossomed from their lips.
Sa U-rin, thrust into the center of all conversation.
But…….
The Witch Jang Ryeo was in a thoroughly foul mood.
“You lot. Do you have a death wish? Hm?”
Jang Hye-in and his subordinates bowed their heads deeply before the Witch Jang Ryeo as if they had committed some grave transgression.
Though they had done nothing wrong whatsoever.
“……We beg your forgiveness.”
There was nothing to apologize for, yet somehow they had arrived at this moment—Jang Hye-in felt he was losing his mind.
“……We have committed a capital offense.”
“……We swear such a thing shall never happen again.”
His subordinates too were driven to the brink of exasperation by the injustice of it.
The story was this:
Just as the Witch Jang Ryeo had planned, Sa U-rin had indeed earned his place as a Championship Candidate for the Blue Dragon Martial Arts Tournament, which would soon commence.
Truly, it had gone well.
Yet from this incident with the Baekri Family, the ones who had gained genuine fame were not Sa U-rin, but Jang Hye-in and his men.
Sa U-rin had risen to Championship Candidate, but as the Witch Jang Ryeo’s son, his strength was dismissed as merely natural and unremarkable.
Truly, it was lamentable.
The Murim Alliance was ablaze with talk: how could mere foot soldiers of the Alliance be so terrifyingly strong?
So the Witch Jang Ryeo’s displeasure had ignited.
“How dare you gain more fame than our U-rin!”
“…….”
There was nothing to say.
Why would anyone choose to do such a thing?
And besides.
Who was the one who pushed him off the cliff in the first place?
It was none other than the Witch Jang Ryeo, wasn’t it?
So he’d fought the Baekri Family’s men while nearly dying in the process, hadn’t he?
That was true.
That was all it had been…….
So what.
What fault could Jang Hye-in and his men possibly have…….
Yet he couldn’t very well voice these grievances point-blank before the Witch Jang Ryeo.
If he pressed the matter.
What would happen?
There was no need to imagine. It was far too predictable.
So Jang Hye-in and his men had reason to be absolutely frantic. Completely unraveling.
“Why won’t you speak! Want to die? Huh?”
“……I beg your pardon.”
“That’s all you can say? Huh?”
“……I have committed an unforgivable sin.”
“Really, should I kill you? Huh?”
“……No.”
“……Please, spare my life.”
At that, Dang Mo-jun, who had been watching from the sidelines, stepped forward with a word.
“I think that might be enough now?”
Whereupon the Witch Jang Ryeo fixed Dang Mo-jun with a stare that could kill.
“Why are you butting in, old man?!”
“……No, I’m just saying, you don’t need to drive those children further into a corner. They’re just…….”
“Why shouldn’t I drive them into a corner! My entire plan crumbled to dust because of these fools!”
Sensing that another word would bring divine retribution down upon his head, Dang Mo-jun let out a hollow cough and turned his gaze away from the Witch’s burning stare.
“……Ahem.”
Then he shook his head from side to side. So did Cheol-gae, the Director of Gaebang who stood nearby. So did Hyeon-wi, the former Murim Alliance Leader.
And so they all harbored a single wish.
That Sa U-rin would not win the Blue Dragon Martial Arts Tournament.
From the very depths of their hearts.

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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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