I Shouldn't Have Joined the Martial Arts Alliance - Chapter 94

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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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Foolishly stepping into the Murim Alliance — Episode 94
The training grounds were seized by shock.
‘……Is it, is it the Ultimate Master…….’
‘……Isn’t that going too far?’
‘……Is he trying to kill his own son?’
‘……Surely not…….’
‘Surely not kills the person, they say.’
‘……Even so, that would…….’
‘……He’s not actually dead, is he?’
‘Surely…….’
‘Stop saying surely not — it’s bad luck, will you.’
Jang Gaju and his two sons rushed toward Sa U-rin, half-buried in the crater.
“Blood…….”
Blood trickled from Sa U-rin’s mouth.
“Oh no.”
“……Gasp.”
He’d suffered an internal injury from the excessive impact.
Jang Gaju’s gaze turned toward his younger sister, Jang Ryeo.
“What on earth are you doing?! What is this?! He’s your son, for heaven’s sake!”
“I know.”
“You know? Good heavens, never mind. What are you all standing around for! Call a physician at once! And tell the physician to prepare internal injury medicine!”
“Yes, sir!”
Then the witch Jang Ryeo raised her hand and stopped them.
“No, never mind. There’s no need to go.”
Jang Gaju’s brow furrowed.
“Never mind? Your son could be seriously harmed at this rate! Don’t you see? He has an internal injury right now. At such a young age, a severe internal injury could damage his Dantian — surely you’re not unaware of that much! What could you possibly be thinking…….”
“Listen here. My son is my responsibility, as you say. By tomorrow he’ll be up and about as if nothing happened, so there’s no need to fuss over him like he’s a newborn.”
Had Jang Ryeo not known her son well, or had this been her first meeting with him, such a thing would never have happened.
Jang Ryeo knew.
Her son possessed something different.
She knew he carried something within him that heaven itself had granted. Sa U-rin claims it’s because of the Honyeon Gong, but she cannot be certain.
Or perhaps the Honyeon Gong itself was a martial art bestowed from heaven specifically for Sa U-rin.
And didn’t she see it when Sa U-rin returned from his fight with the Blood Sect?
Terrible wounds healing to normal in mere days.
Injuries that should have required months of bedridden recovery. And internal injuries were beyond question.
So this degree of injury would take Sa U-rin only a day. No—it was more than sufficient.
Jang Gaju could not fathom why his younger sister was acting this way.
She had never been so cold. Perhaps not to him, but she had seemed warm enough to those who meant her no harm.
How could such a sister treat her own son this way…….
“What…….”
“Come here.”
Jang Ryeo picked up her son in her arms.
“Ah yes. You two nephews.”
“……Yes, Aunt?”
“Tell me—are you training, or not?”
Jang Yu-jin, the lesser head of the Jang Family, and his younger brother Jang Yu-seok, stood bewildered.
This was hardly the moment for such a question.
“But right now…….”
“If you are, U-rin will put you down.”
“But how can we train when…….”
“Didn’t you just see?”
“……See what, Aunt?”
“Yes, just now.”
‘……’
All they had just witnessed was their aunt’s ruthless intent to kill her own son—or so it seemed.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying at all…….”
They could make no sense of it.
So the witch Jang Ryeo showed them Sa U-rin, whom she held, and spoke.
“This is the training I mean. Dying. Well, technically he doesn’t actually die, but still.”
“No…….”
One wrong move and I could actually die…….
And besides, what just happened clearly wasn’t training at all. How could I call what just occurred training?
Even torture wouldn’t be that bad. At least you need your wits about you for torture.
At that, Jang Gaju, visibly exasperated, spoke up.
“Was that supposed to be training just now?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Why? You just…….”
Trying to grab my two precious sons…….
“That’s enough. I don’t think you should do this.”
If that really were training.
“Fine. You said you wouldn’t, didn’t you?”
“……Yes.”
Damn it.
Calling that training, of all things!
If you don’t want to teach, then just say so!
And so the witch Jang Ryeo vanished with her son Sa U-rin in her arms, back to her quarters.
And the next day.
Sa U-rin, as the witch Jang Ryeo had promised, continued his training as if nothing had happened, beginning well before dawn broke.
All to make the Jang Family’s Pungyun Sword truly his own.
And the witch Jang Ryeo, Jang Gaju, and his two sons watched over Sa U-rin as he trained.
“……So it’s really true.”
No……. I could’ve sworn that wasn’t the kind of internal injury that healed this easily.
“……How is this…….”
Even possible…….
Ah. Perhaps…….
“You…… managed the dosage well, didn’t you?”
With a sister Jang Ryeo at her level of mastery, couldn’t she control the extent of internal injury? The absurd thought escaped his lips.
“You’ve lost your mind. Haven’t you?”
That was right.
No matter how much of a Zisun Sa U-rin was, he couldn’t control internal injuries. He could regulate his internal energy and adjust force, but he couldn’t control the internal injuries inflicted on another.
Even if it weren’t Sa U-rin but a Zisun’s grandfather who came, it would be impossible.
You could control whether someone died or lived. But an internal injury was an internal injury.
“……That’s right, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Then how is he so fine?”
“My son is simply special.”
“……I suppose so.”
So he’d suffered internal injuries yesterday and yet here he was, just one day later, training as if nothing were wrong?
But.
What Jang Gaju was asking wasn’t boasting about his son—he was asking how this was even possible.
“So, what’s today’s training?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Didn’t you say he’d train every day?”
“Same as yesterday.”
“……The same?”
“Do I speak poorly, or are your ears broken? I said clearly—the same training as yesterday.”
“……You mean to do that insane thing again?”
“Insane? It’s proper training to grow stronger.”
Grow stronger, my foot.
If he doesn’t die or become a cripple, that’ll be a blessing.
“……What if his body can’t endure it?”
“Then he fails.”
“Will he really grow stronger like this?”
“Yes. There’s one who did grow stronger.”
Chu Yeop, namely.
“……There is one?”
“That’s what I’m telling you.”
Whether I should truly believe this or not…….
“Why? Should I have my nephews trained the same way?”
“……No.”
“So that’s why you kept asking, isn’t it?”
Yes.
Yes, but…….
“I don’t think I should be training her.”
My younger sister Jang Ryeo’s cultivation.
“Then so be it. There’s no opportunity now anyway.”
“……I understand.”
He would never accept such an opportunity even if given.
And so Sa U-rin died every day, at the hands of his mother.
After the same death had passed perhaps thirty times, Sa U-rin began to evade one move from his mother Jang Ryeo.
But that was all. Against the second attack that followed in succession, he was utterly defenseless.
After another thirty deaths had passed, this time he could evade three moves, and after thirty more deaths, he could evade five moves and even endure one move.
Of course, it was more accurate to say he could withstand it than receive it cleanly.
He was hardly intact.
In fact, his internal injuries grew worse.
And so Sa U-rin tasted death a hundred times. And he had clearly grown.
And though he had forgotten that he died every day, at the same time Jang Hye-in and the other disciples were also growing as they died every day.
Cursing Sa U-rin constantly.
Cursing the witch Jang Ryeo without end.
Clenching their teeth every single day.
At each moment of death.
* * *
After spending a hundred days crossing back and forth across the Yellow Springs, Sa U-rin headed toward the most bustling quarter of the city with Jang Yu-jin, the minor head of the Jang Family, and his younger brother Jang Yu-seok.
Sa U-rin had already become a celebrated figure in Guizhou. He had acquired a certain epithet.
The Jisojungja.
Though the name carried the subtext of being the son of the Zisun of the Sa Pa, in practice the epithet had taken root because of his face—the Jisojungja, a face that was itself Ultimate.
Several months ago at the Guizhou Martial Arts Alliance banquet, many women could not forget Sa U-rin’s face.
He was also famous among the men. After all, he was the son of the Zisun of the Sa Pa.
They wanted to draw close to him.
And so new power was being formed in Guizhou.
Though Sa U-rin himself had no interest in any of it.
In any case.
Jang Yu-jin, Jang Yu-seok, and Sa U-rin found the most luxurious pavilion within the city of Guizhou.
Numerous late-stage practitioners of Guizhou had gathered there to catch sight of Sa U-rin’s face.
It was a gathering arranged by the various sects of Guizhou who wished to cultivate ties with Sa U-rin.
Sa U-rin despised such occasions. He had not wanted to come. But his mother’s stubbornness left him no choice.
She had said that people live in harmony with other people, and grow stronger through people.
Even though his mother herself did not mesh well with people at all.
Nearly a hundred late-stage practitioners had gathered in the pavilion. More than sixty percent of them were women. It was inevitable, given that this banquet had been created to see Sa U-rin.
Upon arriving at the pavilion, Sa U-rin was exchanging greetings with Jang Yu-jin, Jang Yu-seok, and many others.
Yet in one corner of the pavilion, there was a woman drawing almost as much attention from the men as Sa U-rin himself.
It was So Seol-ru, the adopted daughter of the Lord of the Dae-heuk-mun. Though she had come as the lord’s adopted daughter, So Seol-ru was the one destined to lead the Dae-heuk-mun in the future.
Moreover, she was a beauty. In Guizhou, she was known as the finest beauty without question.
And yet.
‘……Do I really have to go this far?’
Do I really have to do this much?
So Seol-ru drained a cup of wine and cast a fleeting glance toward Sa U-rin, surrounded as he was by people.
‘……He is well-favored, I’ll grant him that.’
But still…….
‘To seduce him by throwing my own body at him. Is he really that remarkable?’
Just because his face is handsome…….
‘……No, that’s not it.’
He is the son of no less than the witch Jang Ryeo, the Zisun of the Sa Pa.
Which meant that the center of power in Guizhou in years to come would rest in the hands of this well-favored man.
‘……But still, my body…….’
So Seol-ru herself wished to try something with this well-favored man. She wished to try—but not by debasing herself, not by forcing matters out of obligation.
‘I’m not even a courtesan…….’
And yet she had to see it through. Only then could she save her younger brother, who was otherwise no better than a hostage.
From those cursed men.
‘That’s right!’
What does this body matter?
If I could just win over that arrogant bastard, free my brother, and take revenge on those people…….
I’d do anything.
‘But why……did they want me to seduce him?’
Because he’s the son of the Sa Pa’s Zisun?
Is that all there is to it?
It does make me curious. That’s why I want to seduce that arrogant bastard even more. But look at all these women swarming around him.
“Excuse me, miss?”
“……Ah, yes?”
“What are your thoughts on the matter?”
“……I’m sorry. I was lost in thought for a moment and didn’t quite catch what you said. Could you repeat it?”
‘No. Please just disappear in front of me!’
This is driving me mad. My mind’s already in chaos without this racket.
These men fawning over So Seol-ru is absolutely unbearable to watch.
‘These idiots just follow women around like dogs. Go practice instead. Train!’
“I see. Haha. My story must have been tedious.”
‘It’s not tedious—I just can’t stand the sight of it!’
I want to curse them out and chase them away. But if I lose my temper, something unfortunate will happen.
The Dae-heuk-mun doesn’t hold that much sway in Guizhou, and So Seol-ru herself isn’t that formidable.
True, I’m stronger than these fools in front of me, but I’m only a late-stage practitioner, aren’t I?
And not even the strongest among them at that.
“Look here. Didn’t I tell you the lady isn’t interested in your stories?”
“But how…….”
“That’s enough. Let me tell the lady something entertaining instead.”
‘Oh please. I said I don’t want this, you idiots!’
I wish someone would just chase these morons away. If someone did that for me, I’d kiss them on the spot.
Whoever it was.
What’s a kiss, anyway? Close your eyes and it’s over in a second.
As if her wish had reached the heavens, a man appeared behind the idiots.
“Gentlemen, I apologize, but I’d like to speak with this young lady alone. Would you mind stepping aside?”
The morons’ faces twisted with rage. They looked ready to kill him on the spot.
Their heads turned backward.
“……I understand.”
“……Of course.”
The idiots had no choice but to swallow their murderous intent. The man who had suddenly appeared behind them was Sa U-rin, son of the Sa Pa’s Zisun.
Just like that, the morons she’d wished away vanished.
‘What do I do now……?’
Should I really kiss him?
Looking at Sa U-rin’s face this close, it really did seem like she should.
No—she was making a promise to herself: she would go through with 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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