The Reformed Genius of the Sichuan Tang Clan - Chapter 68

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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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Episode 68
“Creepy bastard.”
Hwangbo Taegang asked without lifting the corners of his mouth, a chill running through him.
“Do your brothers know you’re like this?”
“They don’t. Why show them something so dark when it’s already enough to let them see only the good?”
Dang San lifted his head.
With his hair pulled back, all anyone could see was the smile he wore like something drawn on.
Jealousy wilted before dread.
“The victor is Dang San, prodigy of the Sichuan Dang Family!”
“Roooooar!”
“What did I tell you? The Muyeong Jiamsa can’t lose!”
“Heh. Truly magnificent martial prowess! Is there another of his generation with such skill?”
“He’s unparalleled when it comes to dark arts.”
Hwangbo Taegang cupped his fists in acknowledgment, his expression stiff and grudging.
Even his earlier languid face had gone rigid.
“Well fought.”
“Well fought.”
Dang San descended from the Arena without so much as a backward glance.
From a distance, he saw Dang Eunho and Dang Young with their eyes shining bright.
“Brother! That was magnificent!”
“You’re the best, older brother! I’m so moved!”
“Haha. Don’t be so moved—I’m embarrassed.”
‘Like master, like disciples. That smile is exactly the same.’
Dang Youxuan smiled with quiet satisfaction.
But he quickly wiped it away.
Next came his own match with Hyedo.
Dang Youxuan lowered his voice and asked.
“Does anyone know anything about Hyedo?”
“His martial prowess?”
“His character, sir.”
“He’s quite pure-hearted. He’s even said to be a second-generation disciple who best embodies Buddhist principles.”
“I’ve also heard that Hyedo understands the Eightfold Path better than anyone!”
“But being too pure has its own problems.”
“Indeed.”
He had a rough sense of what kind of man this was.
The rest, he would learn by meeting him directly.
“The third match is between Hyedo of Shaolin and Dang Youxuan of the Sichuan Dang Family!”
“At last—a clash of two worthies!”
“You saw yesterday’s fight, right? The Gaesim Dokrang will obviously win.”
“What are you talking about! Poison and dark arts still need to reach the body to matter! The Golden Arhat, who has reached the height of Vajra Indestructibility, can’t possibly lose!”
“No matter how well you master Vajra Indestructibility, if someone strikes faster, that’s all there is to it!”
Dang Youxuan climbed onto the Arena, leaving the endless speculation and prediction behind.
Hyedo, who had already ascended, faced him squarely.
‘The Sichuan Dang Family is a house of poison and dark arts. My preparations are complete.’
He was a man who had reached the height of Vajra Indestructibility at the age of twenty-three.
There was nothing he could not block—no matter how fast or overwhelming the torrent of dark techniques.
After all, he would not permit wounds in the first place.
As for poison, even that posed no significant problem.
‘The abbot has already given me a Spirit Pill.’
Last night, Beopgye had sought out Hyedo and handed him a Sanching Pill.
The Sanching Pill was a mid-grade Spirit Pill made by combining medicinal ingredients that expel toxins from the body.
While Hyedo’s poison resistance was already ten times greater than an ordinary person’s, there was no harm in preparing against the cunning schemes of the Dang Clan—who knew what they might attempt.
Both Beopgye and Hyedo saw it this way, so it was natural that the pill was offered and accepted without question.
‘Besides, I’ve long since studied the methods of the Gaesim Dokrang.’
No matter what dark technique was hurled, no matter where it sought to penetrate—Dang Youxuan held it all in the palm of his hand.
Dang Youxuan cupped his fists, his expression unusually stripped of its usual levity.
“I shall learn from you.”
Hyedo cupped his fists immediately after.
“I shall learn from you.”
“Let the match begin!”
At Wonso’s call, Hyedo planted his feet shoulder-width apart.
His spine straight, he drew his left fist tight against his side while raising his right hand flat-palmed before his chest.
It was an impeccable Half-Palm Stance.
“Haaaagh!”
Hyedo drove his fist forward in a straight line from his waist.
Dozens of times. Hundreds. Perhaps thousands. The fist he had thrown countless times cut through the air with practiced ease.
A pale golden Fist Energy blazed from the tip of his knuckles.
‘The Arhat Fist,’ Dang Youxuan thought.
Without taking his eyes off Hyedo, he flicked the Hidden Blade between his fingertips.
Then, as the incoming energy surged toward him, he cast the blade to meet it.
Shring—!
The Fist Energy scattered, breaking apart with a sound like shattering glass.
A rough gale of force grazed his skin, but Dang Youxuan didn’t flinch.
“You won’t manage a second defense so easily!”
Hyedo drove his fist forward again.
One punch.
Then another.
The force behind each blow accelerated, building momentum.
The Internal Energy he had accumulated quietly and steadily over long years—feeble but certain—now poured into every strike.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
A chain of clear golden Fist Energy, utterly unlike the murky red dampness that emanated from Gwak Hwaran—it wove a net that swiftly ensnared Dang Youxuan.
There was no room to dodge head-on; the energy enclosed him on all sides.
Screech! Screech!
Dang Youxuan hurled the Hidden Blade left and right, painting a lattice through the energy.
Crash!
The two forces collided without yielding, throwing up a cloud of dust.
The dust settled.
As expected, neither man fell or bore a wound.
Dang Youxuan flicked his wrist, recalling the Hidden Blade.
Yet his gaze remained fixed on Hyedo.
“It’s as I’ve heard.”
At his quiet words, Hyedo tilted his head.
“Heard what?”
“The character of a young prodigy.”
“Not martial prowess?”
“Quite so.”
“I’m curious what you’ve been told. Would you share it?”
“Nothing difficult about it. That you understand and practice the Buddha’s teachings well, and that you are pure of heart.”
“Ahem. Hmm.”
Hyedo cleared his throat, embarrassed.
He regretted his sharp retort—feeling slighted that only praise had come, with no mention of martial prowess.
“I think the young master himself possesses considerable purity as well.”
“Me?”
A faint sneer played at the corner of Dang Youxuan’s mouth.
“Ha. Well, I’ve never much cared for the word ‘pure,’ if I’m honest.”
“Young Master! Are you mocking me now?”
“Not mocking. Simply stating fact.”
Dang Youxuan kept his smile even as he released a surge of killing intent.
“If not knowing how the place where you were raised came to be—if that’s purity—then I’d sooner die and be reborn with different sensibilities.”
Whoosh!
Dozens of Feather Needles erupted forth at once.
“How dare you insult me—insult Shaolin!”
Hyedo drove his feet deep into the earth.
“I will show you no more mercy!”
Boom!
A massive golden fist-form hurtled toward Dang Youxuan with terrifying speed.
A wall-like fist, incomparably larger than his earlier technique.
Hyedo’s Fist Power bore down on Dang Youxuan like a landslide, swift and crushing.
“Mercy? Who showed whom any?”
It was the lowest tone Dang Youxuan had ever let slip in another’s presence.
Boom!
The explosive impact sent a shockwave that engulfed them both.
‘How is he using the Guandong Fist…!?’
The Guandong Fist was a martial art centered on overwhelming an opponent through powerful strikes.
Simple yet devastating, it was effective at neutralizing an enemy’s defense.
To deploy it without giving the opponent time to react—most would simply be pushed back by the fist energy.
“It’s the Palm Technique Defense! He’s using the Palm Technique Defense!”
Without someone crying it aloud, he might never have understood what happened.
No—even after the dust cleared and he saw Dang Youxuan with palm extended toward him, he could scarcely believe it.
‘But the Dang Clan aren’t proficient with palm techniques!’
The Expedient Way rather than the Righteous Way.
A clan that preferred ambush to orthodoxy could hardly be expected to master the subtleties of weight distribution.
“There’s that look again.”
Dang Youxuan withdrew his hand, the flickering green aura dissipating.
“Do you truly think I cannot read your thoughts?”
‘His tone has changed.’
No—it wasn’t only that.
The atmosphere itself had shifted entirely.
Until now, he had faced what felt like a young warrior; now he stood before an impenetrable wall he dared not cross.
Was such a thing possible?
Against a mere child of fifteen?
‘It cannot be. I am a second-generation disciple of Shaolin, senior brother to many, Hyedo of the Vajra Fist.’
One whom none could match in internal energy or martial prowess should never shrink before Dang Youxuan’s presence.
“I must focus.”
Crash!
Dang Youxuan stomped his foot.
The force driven into the ground was so tremendous it produced a near-deafening boom.
Whoosh—!
Hidden Blades shot from left and right, aimed at Hyedo’s throat.
Crash! Crash!
Hyedo hastily parried with Energy Release, but he could not match Dang Youxuan’s speed.
“You thought the Dang Clan excel only in toxins and concealed weapons. That we rush to strength and see no further ahead, so our internal energy lags. That we rely only on underhanded schemes and are weak against direct assault. Isn’t that what you believed?”
Dang Youxuan unleashed the Hidden Blade, pouring both his inner force and his emotions into each strike.
“But who created the circumstances for such thinking?”
The answer was simple.
It was Shaolin itself—the place where he was born and raised—that had instilled such ideas in him.
Growing up in such an environment, exposed to nothing else, it was natural enough that his perspective had narrowed accordingly.
But such limitation must not become ignorance.
“I admire your purity. And yet, at the same time, I find it contemptible.”
Shiiing.
When Dang Youxuan abruptly halted his assault and drew back the Hidden Blade, Hyedo tensed in bewilderment, raising his guard to its peak.
“Prepare yourself.”
Dang Youxuan spun the Hidden Blade deftly in his palm, his voice grown cold.
“I shall shatter that purity of yours with the very martial arts you have scorned.”
Sichuan Dang Family Prodigy’s Reform and Ascension
Author |
Yi Il-yeong
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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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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