I Shouldn't Have Joined the Martial Arts Alliance - Chapter 71

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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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Entering the Murim Alliance for No Good Reason — Episode 71
Chu-yeop arrived at the Blood Clan Training Ground with his subordinates in tow. The Blood Clan warriors who had been cordoning off the training ground stepped aside, allowing them passage without incident.
And so Jang Hye-in, Sa U-rin, and their team members were able to stand unobstructed in the center of the training ground.
But then…….
Sa U-rin turned to Chu-yeop, the village simpleton, with a question.
“……Why only ten?”
Chu-yeop had brought twenty subordinates.
Chu-yeop scratched his head.
“There’ll definitely be some who try to run. So I’ve ordered ten to stay outside and deal with anyone who bolts. This whole thing can’t get out, you understand.”
Cleaning up after a job and erasing traces—that was standard work for Chu-yeop and his men.
Finishing the work neatly and leaving no evidence behind.
And as Chu-yeop predicted, once the fighting started and the Blood Clan Master fell, a good many of the Blood Clan members would throw down their swords and scatter like rats abandoning a sinking ship.
Perhaps nearly half of them would do exactly that.
“However, if the young master says we need them, I can summon them again.”
A sound decision, from Chu-yeop’s perspective.
In fact, from Sa U-rin’s perspective too—assuming they all lived to see it.
But against an opponent like this, wouldn’t even one extra hand make a difference?
“……Have five of them stand by out there. Once the fighting begins, have them come in here and support our people.”
“Understood.”
So Chu-yeop immediately sent a transmission to the five waiting outside.
Chu-yeop knew well enough.
No matter how weak a branch clan and its members might be, numbers are a force unto themselves. Unless your opponent is an Absolute Master, ordinary fighters will eventually tire, their internal reserves will drain dry.
Even so, with the current force, it would be hard but not impossible. After all, many of the clan members would throw down their blades and run anyway.
“But do we really need more people for this situation?”
Chu-yeop’s Ki Perception detected no master of exceptional skill. Nothing that couldn’t be handled easily even without him.
Of course, “easily” was from Chu-yeop’s standpoint.
That’s why Sa U-rin spoke.
“You see that middle-aged man on the platform?”
“Yes.”
“You’re going to have to face him. Alone, it’ll be difficult.”
So Chu-yeop looked over at the middle-aged man standing on the platform.
His Ki Perception caught nothing unusual. Yet studying him more carefully, Chu-yeop began to understand why Sa U-rin had said such a thing.
From the middle-aged man, Chu-yeop sensed the presence of a Master of Supreme Level—the same as himself.
Chu-yeop was not yet an Absolute Master, but he stood on the threshold, drawing ever closer to that realm.
Which made it possible for him to sense it.
“He’s got style, just like me.”
At Chu-yeop’s words, his subordinates didn’t dare lift their eyes.
“Master…….”
……Please, no.
Jang Hye-in and his team stood bewildered, uncertain where to look.
Even in a situation like this…….
“……What? Why? That middle-aged guy’s got style. Just like me.”
“……I understand. Just this once.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
And at that moment, they all realized: they were in grave danger.
“And be careful of that middle-aged man’s Internal Force. Your Internal Force probably won’t match his. So rather than meeting him head-on, use hit-and-run tactics with those five subordinates—drain his strength that way.”
“……Understood.”
Martial artists who reached Chu-yeop’s level typically didn’t listen to others, but Chu-yeop was different. Spending all that time with Jang Ryeo had played a part, but it was also simply how Chu-yeop’s nature inclined him.
“Then you’re handling those two young men on the platform alone?”
He gestured toward the two younger men standing on the raised dais.
“Yes.”
“……You need to be careful. If something happens to you…….”
Even if Chu-yeop survived this, he wouldn’t truly be alive. Jang Ryeo would never let it rest.
“Don’t worry.”
If Sa U-rin fell, everyone here would fall with him anyway.
So Chu-yeop’s concern was worry spent in vain.
“Then shall we begin?”
He directed this at Chu-yeop and the five subordinates.
“Let’s go.”
Just then, Jang Hye-in spoke, his face brightening with a smile.
“U-rin, don’t worry about us.”
“I won’t.”
The smile faded from Jang Hye-in’s face.
……So that was it, then.
Just as he’d suspected.
The warmth from moments before had vanished from Sa U-rin entirely. As it always did.
And yet.
Sa U-rin spoke again.
“Because I trust you and the seniors.”
He meant it.
And he had to mean it. In circumstances like these, there was no room for doubt.
Trust was all that could become hope.
“……Ah. Thank you.”
And so Jang Hye-in and his team steeled their resolve.
They would run to the end alongside their youngest, Sa U-rin. Even if that end meant death.
With that, Sa U-rin leaped lightly over the Blood Clan members encircling them—Chu-yeop, his five subordinates, and himself—and alighted gracefully before the platform.
Chu-yeop’s five subordinates moved forward first. Standing ahead were the Blood Clan Master and the four greatest masters in the Blood Clan.
So the middle-aged man spoke to the Blood Clan Master.
“Why aren’t you stepping in?”
“……Me?”
The middle-aged man and the two young warriors had come to settle this. It only made sense that they should be the ones to step forward.
“I need to face that man myself, don’t I? Can’t you feel it?”
The Blood Clan Master could feel it too. The man before them was a master of tremendous skill—far beyond anything he could contend with.
“……Understood.”
The Blood Clan Master had no choice but to draw his sword.
His subordinates, too, reluctantly drew their blades.
Then Chu-yeop’s five subordinates, as if they’d been waiting for this moment, unsheathed their swords and surged forward.
And so the real fight began. The Blood Clan members who had been facing off against Jang Hye-in and his team started swinging their weapons at them.
“They’re coming!”
“Kill them all!”
“Let’s go to the bitter end!”
“Yeah, bring it on!”
The team’s confidence blazed like fire. Numbers meant nothing, they declared.
And yet.
Clang!
Clang!
The sound of steel striking steel rang through the Training Ground.
“Damn!”
“Watch out!”
“Hell!”
Swords came thrusting in from every direction. If you dismissed them as anything less than masterful, your neck could be severed in the blink of an eye.
Yet still.
“Ungh!”
“Ahhh!”
“Damn it!”
The Blood Clan members shrieked in agony as flesh tore open, their cries announcing death itself.
The scarlet blood spraying from the Blood Clan members told Jang Hye-in, his team, and Chu-yeop’s subordinates all they needed to know: this fight had been brutal from the very start.
The duel between the Blood Clan Master and his four subordinates didn’t last long. The outcome was decided in merely five exchanges.
The Blood Clan Master and his four subordinates met their deaths in that short span of time.
And exactly as expected, the moment the Blood Clan members witnessed their Master’s death, they began to flee the training ground.
“Damn it!”
“You said it’d be simple—what is this!”
“Why should I die for this!”
They bolted rapidly from the Training Ground.
There was no reason to throw their lives away needlessly.
And so the middle-aged man’s lips curled upward.
“Like mayflies, all of them.”
The middle-aged man had already known it: those fleeing now would never escape alive.
Then he fixed his gaze on Chu-yeop.
“Are you my opponent?”
The moment Chu-yeop appeared, the middle-aged man knew. Here stood a martial artist who had ascended to the same level of supreme mastery as himself.
And yet, the middle-aged man was certain he would prevail. He always had.
Honwon-gong was more profound than any internal cultivation method in the Gangho, and its internal force far more solid and potent than that of any other being.
It was hardly by accident that it was called the power of origins.
Chu-yeop scratched his head as he answered the middle-aged man’s question.
“No, I mean—the five subordinates in front of me can handle you just fine. That cool with you?”
……What?
The middle-aged man was clearly of the same supreme mastery as Chu-yeop, and yet there was something about him so clumsy, so conspicuously lacking, so incomplete.
……Well, never mind that.
“You don’t hold your subordinates in high regard.”
“No, I do hold them in regard.”
At that, the middle-aged man pointed toward Sa U-rin.
“I meant pairing that one against my two subordinates—it sounds strange to hear you put it that way.”
From the middle-aged man’s perspective, it seemed as though Chu-yeop were attaching five subordinates to himself to ensure his own survival, while foisting his youngest subordinate onto the middle-aged man’s two.
“Ah. He’s not my subordinate—he’s the young master I serve.”
“……Then why…….”
“The young master must have thought I wouldn’t measure up against you. So he assigned five of my subordinates to me in addition.”
‘……Did that boy really perceive it that accurately?’
The middle-aged man had been confident of clear superiority in his confrontation with Chu-yeop.
The young master had seen through that and assigned five more men accordingly?
‘……How…….’
And now that he thought about it, he felt nothing emanating from this boy. Nothing at all—as though he were merely an ordinary passerby.
Much like himself, who had cultivated Honwon-gong.
Which made it all the stranger.
The middle-aged man had never experienced anything like this before.
Moreover, as he tried to peer more closely at the boy, sensing this strangeness, he felt as though he were striking against a wall.
‘……Why!’
He was genuinely flustered. It was a situation he had never encountered. And so he was confused.
So Sa U-rin opened his mouth.
“You seem not to know.”
It did seem as though he truly didn’t know. That Sa U-rin had cultivated Honwon-gong.
So this was the reaction he got.
And so Sa U-rin believed he might possess the advantage here.
The enemy knew nothing of Sa U-rin, while Sa U-rin knew the middle-aged man and his two subordinates well.
If he had cultivated Honwon-gong, and the same Sword Technique and Movement Technique…….
Then he could begin this fight with the upper hand.
Of course, once they realized that Sa U-rin had cultivated the same Honwon-gong and the same Sword Technique and Movement Technique, the situation would shift somewhat, but one thing was certain: beginning with an advantage was undoubtedly a clear benefit.
The middle-aged man’s brow furrowed.
Despite being in an inferior position, the young Sa U-rin showed no wavering, and the middle-aged man could not hide his bewilderment.
Just what…….
“……What are you saying?”
“You don’t know, so there’s no need for me to explain.”
The corners of the middle-aged man’s eyes twitched.
“A mere boy, fearless as…….”
“Ah. But I think I know.”
“I don’t want to know.”
“No, but I want to tell you.”
That way, the middle-aged man would be shaken. So would his two subordinates.
“You’ve all cultivated Honwon-gong, haven’t you?”
There was no need to speak it aloud, and perhaps he shouldn’t have, but he wanted to know.
He was curious.
They had cultivated the same martial discipline, after all.
If they had not become enemies trying to kill Sa U-rin himself, they would have been people he welcomed as brothers.
Unfortunately, that was not the situation.
So he had brought it out into the open.
……
The middle-aged man tried to maintain his composure, but his eyes betrayed him. They widened and filled with sharp focus.
His two subordinates beside him reacted no differently.
‘……How…….’
How had he known they had cultivated Honwon-gong?
No.
How do you know about Honwon-gong?
In Gangho, such a martial art should not exist. Only those who belong to the Cheonhun Sect can learn Honwon-gong and should know of it.
And yet……
This boy right before my eyes knows about it. A fact he absolutely should not know.
Scrape!
The middle-aged man draws his sword and points it at Sa U-rin.
“Who are you?!”
At that, Chu-yeop unsheathed his own blade and moved to block the middle-aged man’s strike.
“I told you I’m your opponent.”
“Get out of the way!”
“You’ll have to kill me first.”
The middle-aged man’s face crumpled with frustration. He had no intention of killing anyone. He merely meant to frighten them. So he barked an order to the subordinate beside him.
“You must capture this boy alive! Do you understand?!”
“Yes, sir!”
He had to find out. How, and through what means, the boy had learned of Honwon-gong.
And also how the boy knew that they themselves had mastered Honwon-gong.
Then he turned back to Chu-yeop.
“You’ll die here regardless!”
“My lord always says one thing: a barking dog never stops making noise.”
“What did you say, you brat!”
The middle-aged man, unable to contain his rage, finally swung his sword at Chu-yeop.
So Chu-yeop met the descending blade cleanly.
Met it, but……
‘……This can’t be.’
It was heavy.
So heavy it felt as though he were being crushed beneath an enormous boulder. He learned firsthand that his lord’s words had not been wrong.
And then.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
A deafening thunder split the sky. Just as Chu-yeop had anticipated, lightning poured down from above, followed at once by the sound of driving rain.

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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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