The Reformed Genius of the Sichuan Tang Clan - Chapter 48

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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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Chapter 48
A massive boulder pressed against his back,
unable to recover the Bi Do, the only weapon left in the water was the Wol Yeong Geom.
What flashed through Dang Youxuan’s mind was the content of the letter he’d found at the Jap Wol Temple.
When the time comes, the blade will speak.
Dang Youxuan did not know when that time would be.
He had heard tales of swords that chose their own masters, but never of a sword that spoke of its own accord.
Moreover, even in the past when he wielded the Wol Yeong Geom most actively, he had never heard the blade’s voice.
And yet now, Dang Youxuan felt as though he were hearing a voice he should never have heard.
Use me, it seemed to say.
I will respond to your Nae Gong and help you unleash my full power.
So it was that Dang Youxuan drew the blade as if entranced.
From the moment the steel emerged smoothly from its sheath, he felt it.
It was different from usual.
As if to prove this, the blade gleamed faintly along its edge.
Shwoosh!
Dang Youxuan swept the blade upward with speed.
A slash wreathed in Dok Ki tore through the air.
Peng Tiegou swung his saber left and right, hurling waves of Do Ki outward.
Layers upon layers of Do Ki shattered against the slash.
“Gahhh! Where does this sudden power come from…!”
But this was far from the end.
Dang Youxuan immediately stepped back a pace, shifted his center, and drew the blade in a wide arc.
Craaaaaash!
The Yeom Wang Geom Su, one of the Dang Clan’s sword techniques.
A broad wave of Geom Ki swept over his enemies like a surging tide.
“What are you doing? Get out of the way!”
“Arrrgh!”
Peng Tiegou, sensing the attack, threw himself aside with several companions, but those whose reactions were too slow were caught directly in the blade wave and fell.
“So it wasn’t your limit after all? You monstrous creature.”
“Monster? Is that the only word you dogs know? It’s so predictable it bores me to tears.”
Dang Youxuan flicked his wrist to shake the blade clean and pushed off the ground.
This was not the body he’d had in the past.
But that did not mean he could not reclaim the martial prowess he once possessed.
Dang Youxuan had not been idle.
Day and night he trained; whenever he had time, he practiced not only the Bi Do but other Byeong Jang Gi as well; and in stolen moments, he reinforced his Nae Gong with spiritual elixirs.
And now, the result.
The blade answered his will.
Shwoosh!
Dang Youxuan extended the blade straight forward.
“Haha! Your attacks are getting simpler — looks like you’re running out of steam!”
Peng Tiegou swung his saber in a thrusting motion, intending to catch the blade on his edge.
A whisper of wind.
But all that reached his ears was the sound of air.
Two cutting sounds still rang in his ears.
‘Wait. Two?’
Screeeech!
The blade was clearly visible before his eyes.
Yet the cutting sound had come from his left.
Was such a thing even possible?
Slash!
A streak of light grazed across Peng Tiegou’s arm.
He had simply returned the attack that had just come his way.
“Ungh! Impudent whelp…!”
Yet unlike Dang Youxuan, who had moved immediately, Peng Tiegou clutched at his wound.
The cut was jagged and torn, anything but clean.
It was not from misaligned blades or depleted strength.
The intermingling of Geom Ki and Dok Ki had left a grievous mark.
“If you can evade, try. My blade won’t miss you again.”
Like a hidden projectile, the blade followed an unpredictable arc, bending as it flew.
I couldn’t predict their movement, couldn’t respond in time.
An ability that shattered every principle of swordsmanship itself.
This was the Gi Mun Geom Jin, the second power that made the Wol Yeong Geom a divine weapon.
“Noooooooh!”
A roar of evil intent tore through the air.
Peng Tiegou swung his blade wildly.
The Gwi Yeom Do Beop, the Yeol Pung Do!
Blade energy laden with flame crashed forward.
Dang Youxuan drew his sword lightly.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
With that alone, the blade bent its trajectory and shattered the incoming energy.
‘My senses are returning, piece by piece.’
With each swing, I felt the sword settling into my hands.
The sensation of the blade becoming part of my own body.
It was proof that I was reclaiming my lost martial prowess.
‘How could this be happening…!’
Meanwhile, Peng Tiegou was being forced back, strength draining with each exchange.
The Yeol Pung Do, which had secured his position of prominence in the Yeom Pa Bang, crumbled easily against this bizarre swordplay.
Formation attacks led by cunning, desperate straits closing from all sides—Dang Youxuan slipped through them all without effort.
‘Wasn’t Dang Youxuan just a fledgling who’d only recently appeared in the Gang Ho?’
Then where did this seasoned mastery come from?
“You have time for distraction, it seems?”
Thump!
The blade pierced straight through Peng Tiegou’s heart.
In the blink of an eye, Dang Youxuan closed the distance and wrenched the sword free, slashing left and right in one fluid motion.
Whoooosh!
The heads of those who’d been stalking him from either side flew through the air, spraying blood across the ground.
Thunk!
Dang Youxuan drove his blade into the earth and swept his gaze across the area, eyes sharp and cold.
When no one else rose, the sword’s gleam faded away.
Only then did Dang Youxuan lower his guard and draw ragged breath.
“Huff! Huff!”
But the respite was brief.
Rather than collapse from exhaustion, Dang Youxuan retrieved the Bi Do.
“A swordplay I haven’t seen in ages.”
Whoosh.
At the unfamiliar voice, Dang Youxuan’s eyes shifted.
An old man wrapped in a coarse robe sat beneath the shade of a tree.
‘How long has he been there?’
No matter how absorbed I was in battle, I couldn’t have missed someone approaching.
‘A master of considerable skill.’
Dang Youxuan’s eyes swept across the old man, taking him in.
White whiskers proving his age, seven sashes wrapped around his waist, and a long wooden staff.
Any eye could see—these were the sashes and the Ta Gu Bong of a Gae Bang elder.
‘Is he nursing a grudge from what happened before?’
Dang Youxuan’s eyes narrowed.
An elder of the Gae Bang would be a formidable opponent for him as he was now.
But retreating without even trying didn’t sit right with him.
If he threw the first blow, at least I’d leave some marks for him to remember.
‘I already have all the Bi Do in my possession.’
If it came to it, I could let them fly.
As Dang Youxuan released a subtle wave of killing intent, the old man spoke, his lips barely moving.
“No need for that. If I were one of theirs, I’d have moved already.”
His words weren’t wrong.
Still, there was no reason to drop his guard.
“Who are you?”
“I am O Cheon Bae, an elder of the Gae Bang, called the Vagrant Saint of the Wind.”
“What brings you here?”
“I heard you were coming to this place, so I waited.”
“Who told you that?”
“Clear skies, crisp wind, the breath of the earth…….”
‘Is he mad?’
Listening to such nonsense spoken without a shred of hesitation, his resolve crumbled.
O Cheon Bae noticed the thought written across his face and chuckled softly.
“How could I not come? I have to see the face of the one who claims he’ll kill me.”
“……!?”
“Wouldn’t you be curious as well?”
Dang Youxuan raised his eyebrows slightly, signaling he was listening.
Even though a mere young master of a secondary clan stood before the elder of the Gae Bang with disrespect, O Cheon Bae answered without complaint.
“A certain woman once told me, long ago, that I would die by your hand.”
He glanced around as he continued.
“I thought it was merely empty talk, but seeing you wield that blade, it seems it will come to pass.”
A reasonable response.
His salad days—when his name still rang through the Gang Ho.
It would be absurd to think that Dang Youxuan, who either hadn’t been born yet or was still an infant, could become a threat.
Even after growing up, rumors of him as a madman had spread for years, leaving no room for suspicion.
Yet if he truly believed those words empty, who was it that moved him all the way to this place?
“Who was this woman?”
“There is one—Cheon Dan Ya, in Yunnan.”
Why did that name appear here?
Faced with an unexpected connection, Dang Youxuan’s eyes widened.
Whether fortunate or not, O Cheon Bae was lost in reminiscence and this time failed to notice Dang Youxuan’s reaction.
“Don’t worry too much. You won’t die immediately—not unless you throw the Bi Do.”
O Cheon Bae’s martial prowess would have surpassed Dang Youxuan’s with ease.
Yet he carried himself as though death by Dang Youxuan’s hand was inevitable.
‘What makes him so certain?’
O Cheon Bae, interpreting Dang Youxuan’s narrowing brow differently, waved his hand dismissively.
“Well. I’ll become a madman starting tomorrow, so I’ll buy myself some time.”
“Why is that?”
“You know this as well, don’t you? Among the powerless, it is the mad who live longest.”
“…….”
Dang Youxuan assented through silence.
‘Whatever the cause, it seems he’s become deeply unpopular within the Gae Bang.’
Among the elders of the Gae Bang, the higher one’s station, the greater the number of belts around the waist.
A man bearing seven such belts choosing to become a madman was tantamount to making an enemy of the entire Gae Bang.
As Dang Youxuan pondered what O Cheon Bae had endured, O Cheon Bae caught sight of the Ja Gae Ham in his hand.
“So you never let go of that box.”
The way he spoke suggested he knew something of the Ja Gae Ham, and Dang Youxuan’s eyes narrowed to slits.
“Go to the Yong Bong Ji Hoe. You’ll meet someone there. That person will have the key.”
“You won’t tell me who?”
“That’s your affair.”
“Why are you telling me any of this?”
“……I won’t answer that.”
“How do you know all this?”
“That too.”
“Then why not tell me everything?”
“Because you must find it yourself to use it properly.”
O Cheon Bae rose with a slight smile.
“Don’t forget my words. If you reveal your true strength, that person will recognize you.”
He lowered his gaze briefly, then vanished like wind.
Dang Youxuan looked down at the Wol Yeong Geom, to the place where O Cheon Bae’s gaze had lingered.
“When the time comes, the blade will speak, they say…….”
Then he turned, studying the Ja Gae Ham and the blade in turn.
“Now it begins.”
Dang Clan Genius Redeemed Through Heaven
Author |
Lee Il Young
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(주) Samyang C&C
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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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