The Reformed Genius of the Sichuan Tang Clan - Chapter 51

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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 51
As Won So brushed dust from his sleeves, Peng Jingmin’s face twisted like a Yaksha’s.
“Did you leave your manners behind in Beijing? Manners are only extended to people worth extending them to.”
……
“Do you think your reputation came easily? Just because you’re strong and talented?”
“Of course.”
For all the boldness of his answer, his voice carried no conviction.
“Then would you have earned the name ‘Thunder Blade’ and made a reputation for yourself without the backing of the Hebei Peng Family and the support of the Family Head?”
……
Peng Jingmin didn’t answer.
He should have denied it, but the arrow had struck true, and his mouth wouldn’t move.
Within the Peng Family, he was indeed a genius with the blade—none could match him.
But how vast was the Central Plains?
What strength existed on the Grasslands would not hold true beneath heaven itself.
Search the length and breadth of the Central Plains, and more than a dozen geniuses equaled or surpassed him.
That he stood here as a Promising Talent was due to efforts to make him the next Family Head.
Without them, he would have been cast out before he ever entered the Jianghu.
In the brief silence, Won So read the thoughts plainly written across Peng Jingmin’s face and clicked his tongue.
“How pathetic.”
Peng Jingmin’s lips pressed thin, stung by the words.
Yet his eyes kept drifting to those watching, more conscious of their gaze than of his own shame.
‘Walking blindly down a shameful path of his own making.’
A certain scholar once said this:
Both body and spirit possess good and evil, and those who remain in a corrupted spirit without seeking escape live no better than the worst of lives.
This was Peng Jingmin precisely.
Using what he had learned not for its rightful purpose, but for injustice.
Allowing a healthy spirit to wither while dwelling with the corrupt.
Knowing what he must escape and how, yet choosing to ignore it.
The choice of such men was almost always the same.
“……Yes.”
Peng Jingmin smiled suddenly, as though struck by a pleasant thought, baring his teeth.
“A wound or two in combat is only to be expected.”
“Ha.”
Won So exhaled sharply.
‘How do you never change?’
Those who harmed others to enforce their opinions and felt superiority in the process—
he was tired of facing such men.
“So you mean to cripple me?”
“Cripple? That’s too far. We’re of the same sect, after all—I plan to leave you incapacitated for merely a few days.”
……
“Of course, it depends on how things unfold. If you wish to leave the Tournament Stage unscathed, now is your last chance.”
His tone held the magnanimity of one offering mercy, and Won So felt laughter rise in his chest.
‘How can you grant mercy when you don’t even understand your opponent?’
Won So grasped the Sword Qi gently and drew his blade.
“You seem to imagine combat as some grand affair with blood spraying and countless wounds, but I’m afraid this match will not spill a single drop.”
“How can you be so certain?”
Thud!
Won So answered by stomping the ground instead of speaking.
The distance closed in an instant, and Peng Jingmin pulled back, assessing Won So’s movements.
‘A horizontal slash. Proper form, but crude. Push it aside and counter—it’ll be over.’
Peng Jingmin tilted the Crescent Moon Blade diagonally to deflect Won So’s attack.
But Won So didn’t extend his arm—he raised his leg instead.
‘What—! Was the sword just bait from the start?’
Peng Jingmin panicked and released an X-shaped Blade Qi.
Shwaaaack! Shwaaaack!
The same Blade Qi, but when infused with such heavy force, its power transformed.
Yet Won So simply turned his body and dodged it lightly.
‘Fast……!’
Won So assumed the same stance as before the moment he evaded the Blade Qi.
‘His attack wasn’t deflected at all?’
Peng Jingmin gripped the Crescent Moon Blade with both hands to channel his full strength into the next strike, his mind racing.
A loaded statement.
Even under his assault, Dang Youxuan held the same stance.
So what was Dang Youxuan aiming for?
The thought pulled Peng Jingmin’s gaze downward.
“No, it can’t be…….”
With his upper body defended by the Crescent Moon Blade, what remained was his lower half—and the most vulnerable part of that was his abdomen.
‘No! I have to block——!’
The moment Peng Jingmin recognized Dang Youxuan’s stratagem, he dropped his arms.
But before he could cross them, a foot hanging in midair struck his stomach.
“Ugh!”
Before Peng Jingmin, driven back by the impact, could even swing the Crescent Moon Blade, Dang Youxuan’s sword extended forward.
Whoosh!
The blade, coiled with wind, halted just short of Peng Jingmin’s throat.
Death’s chill breath hung at his neck.
Peng Jingmin froze, unable even to think of a counterattack.
His trembling eyes traced the blade’s edge and found Dang Youxuan’s face.
His mouth had fallen slack, making his parched voice all the more cutting.
“What I’ve endured makes this nothing but a drop in the ocean.”
A duel where not a single drop of blood was spilled.
Only after realizing this did Dang Youxuan offer his delayed response.
Boy who has never left your blue sky—do you know what a crimson sky looks like?
Do you know the Asura, where cunning and honesty, envy and admiration all gather as one?
Even now, darkness dons the robes of crimson and pushes out the blue.
And yet you believe your blue sky will endure forever?
Your sky is but a hole atop a stone tower surrounded on all sides, a frog’s view of a well.
If you cling to your error despite knowing this, how is it different from reinforcing the walls of your well?
A frog in a well can never defeat a kite in the sky above.
“So defeating you alone is nothing.”
Dang Youxuan spoke the truth without expectation.
What could one who dwells in an ideal made for him, a fabricated paradise, ever truly understand?
In this case, it was crueler to demand that one who had never fallen from a cliff comprehend pain.
“What did you just say——!”
“Dang Youxuan of the Sichuan Dang Family emerges victorious!”
Won So, who had been observing the duel, cut off Peng Jingmin’s words.
If Peng Jingmin, stung by such a crushing defeat, were to unleash vulgar language, it would damage the Peng Family’s reputation and sour relations with the Dang Clan.
Ultimately, that would shatter the harmony of the Orthodox Faction.
‘How I wish I’d heard what Dang Youxuan provoked him to say.’
Then he could simply reprimand him and move on.
Won So swallowed his regret and shook his head.
Peng Jingmin only clicked his tongue but said nothing more.
‘Quick to calculate.’
The moment Won So declared Dang Youxuan’s victory, cheers erupted from the silence.
The crowd’s reaction had been delayed by shock.
Dang Youxuan watched it all with detachment.
For commoners without high station, it mattered little who won or lost unless substantial coin was riding on it.
Then what did capture their interest?
Mostly entertainment.
Fierce contests, overwhelming victories, dramatic comebacks from the brink of defeat, the emergence of a new Rising Star.
Like the match Dang Youxuan had just displayed.
“Waaaaaaaa!”
“I’ve never seen a duel like that in my entire life!”
“Of course it’s Dang Youxuan! True mastery never shows itself on the surface!”
“From his first duel, such a performance! His future is brimming with promise!”
“What a letdown! We expected a fierce contest since it was the Blade Thunder’s duel, only to see him lose to some fifteen-year-old.”
“Hold on. Just a fifteen-year-old? Don’t you think that assessment is too harsh for a Dormant Dragon rising in prominence these days?”
“Even monkeys slip from trees sometimes. Don’t be petty about your lost coin—focus on the next match.”
Dang Youxuan turned to Peng Jingmin, using the crowd’s cheers as cover for his words.
“Nothing is eternal. All things rise and fall, appear and vanish—a ceaseless cycle.”
“What are you……”
“Don’t try to understand yet. Instead, keep your eyes open and look straight ahead.”
“……!”
Peng Jingmin’s face contorted.
But it was no longer pure anger alone.
A confusion without clear reason tangled beneath it.
‘Too early still.’
What could be done? He had planted the seed of change. That was enough.
He never expected Peng Jingmin to understand, no matter what he said.
Whether because of the fight just now or because of ignorance, Dang Youxuan’s words would not reach him.
Yet in this world, there are things one comes to know even when one wishes not to, and things one must know.
The only reason he persisted despite knowing the act was futile was precisely this.
“Much obliged.”
As Dang Youxuan offered a respectful fist salute, Peng Jingmin returned it a beat too late.
“Much obliged.”
Dang Youxuan descended from the Tournament Stage, running through Peng Jingmin’s movements in his mind.
‘……They’re not here.’
The person who held the key to self-realization was nowhere to be seen.
When the Patriarch said there was someone Won So would meet, it must have meant that person also knew of the connection between self-realization and Dang Youxuan, and would reveal themselves.
Yet among the leaders of the Orthodox Faction and throughout the spectators, he detected no such sign.
‘Perhaps I’m still not ready.’
He admitted it.
He had only just climbed one rung of the ladder.
To such a person, simply handing over a precious object would be reckless.
‘Then I must prove it.’
That he possessed the worth to receive the key.
Sichuan Dang Family Prodigy Reformed
Author |
Yi Il-young
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(주) Samyang C&C
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Editorial Department
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G720:N+A063-20260615052
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No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of (주) Samyang C&C – Dream Books.

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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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