The Lightning I Harbor Is Too Strong - Chapter 31

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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 31
The Jianghu Code of Conduct.
When you have nothing to say or the mood turns awkward, keep your mouth shut.
Silence leaves room for imagination.
There’s no need to speak unnecessarily. A lie might land you in worse trouble.
Let them misunderstand on their own, and things will unfold without effort.
‘Indeed, following that old master’s wisdom — money falls into your lap without lifting a finger.’
Jeong Isin picked up the silver coin from the ground, marveling inwardly at his fortune.
One silver coin, he’d been told — enough to buy over sixty bowls of rice soup, the standard measure of all prices in these parts.
Lost in thought about this windfall, he was walking when a roar erupted behind him.
“Hey, where the hell are you going, you bastard!!!”
Jeong Isin turned to see the man who’d given him the coin thrashing about in fury.
“What?”
“What? What? Did you just ask me ‘what’?!”
Jeong Isin’s head tilted to one side, and Oseо perched on his shoulder struck his cheek with a sharp chirp.
He scratched the creature’s belly to soothe it, but the man’s voice rose again.
“Give back the money, you son of a bitch!! And while you’re at it, hand over that rat too!!!”
“……Why would I?”
“Now I get it. You shameless bastard — you’re nothing but a vagrant beggar!”
Jeong Isin finally understood the man’s rage.
“Wasn’t this payment for listening quietly to your nonsense?”
“What…… did you say?”
“Song Howon, wasn’t it? I think I misunderstood. You’re right — sixty bowls for a bit of rambling was a bit much.”
He offered a matter-of-fact apology and drew out another silver coin from his pocket.
Then his hand moved.
Thunk—!
Light flashed, and a small hole punched clean through the ground at Song Howon’s feet, striking hard.
The silver coin drove so deep it gleamed white within the stone.
Any observer should have sensed something was gravely wrong, but Song Howon’s fury had risen so high that he saw nothing.
“Chief!”
“……Yes, squad leader.”
“Make that bastard kneel in front of me right now. Now……!”
Hwa Haesang couldn’t tear his eyes from the hole at Song Howon’s feet as he swallowed hard and summoned his subordinates.
He felt unease creeping up his spine, but he couldn’t refuse his master’s command.
At his signal, two members of the Fen-Cheon Sword Squad kicked off the ground and rushed forward from both sides.
Jeong Isin nodded slowly.
‘Better than Mug-ho-chae’s bandits.’
Back then they’d all charged headlong and crashed into each other — complete chaos.
This systematic(?) coordinated attack was new to him.
But was it a threat?
‘Slow.’
The observation was obvious.
Where he’d been before was none other than Shaolin.
No one there compared to these second-rate martial artists wandering the provinces.
‘Still, provoking them was worth it. There’s definitely…… Lightning Qi.’
Over the Ten Thousand Lightning Tracking Array he’d already spread, the approaching warriors became crystal clear.
It was like the sensation a spider feels watching prey thrashing on its web.
Every step they took caught in the net of Qi perception, feeding him information.
Faint as a single drop of Lightning Qi falling into water, but there — he could sense it clearly in their internal strength.
“Hyuaaah!”
“Hup!”
The two warriors who’d split left and right drew their blades simultaneously.
Evidently well-trained, they moved at nearly identical speed as they unsheathed.
Swish—!
But the sound of their blades cutting through empty air was mournful.
Jeong Isin stepped back a single pace, removing himself from the range of the strike.
As if contemptuous, they launched no follow-up attack — but their wide eyes betrayed their shock.
The openings they left were painfully obvious.
Jeong Isin caught both their wrists lightly.
“Gasp!”
“Ahhhhhhh!”
The swordsmen cried out and released their weapons.
For a swordsman, there was no room for pride or honor—only the instinctive terror of shattered wrists, their hands falling open of their own accord.
As the screams echoed through the hall, Jeong Isin yanked the wrist he’d caught downward.
The two men, dragged limp and helpless, crashed their foreheads together in a head-on collision.
A dull thud rang out, and they crumpled to the ground.
In that instant, silence fell over the entire hall.
“Oh my goodness!”
“The Thunder Sword Sect warriors?”
“What is happening? What is all this?”
Only whispered murmurs of astonishment drifted through Yuharu.
Jeong Isin, his gaze still fixed on the scene before him, turned without a word.
His true target lay elsewhere—but this was the fastest path to reach it.
“ROOOAARRR!”
As expected, a fierce aura erupted from behind.
The roar grew louder in an instant—close enough to gauge his approaching speed.
Jeong Isin turned with a faint smile.
Song Howon’s face came into view, his jaw clenched, his hand already reaching for Jeong Isin’s throat.
He was indeed far faster than the two warriors before him—but that was all.
Jeong Isin extended his hand casually, catching Song Howon’s wrist with the same effortless technique he’d used on his subordinates, yet a bitter smile played at Song Howon’s lips.
“Fool! Burn and die—!”
A pale yellow light rippled across his arm. At the same moment, an unfamiliar Internal Qi surged through the wrist Jeong Isin held.
“Mm.”
“Too late for regrets! You dare make contact unguarded with a master of Lightning Qi? Without even a Self-Protection Technique! Idiot!”
“Hmm.”
“Die, burn and die! I’ll wrap your corpse up nicely and present it to the young lady—ahahaha!”
As Song Howon threw his head back in laughter, his throat exposed, Jeong Isin’s eyes narrowed to slits.
‘So Oseо had a reason to point toward Yuharu. This is certainly Lightning Qi.’
Oseо had sensed the aura these Thunder Sword Sect warriors carried.
But the level was disappointingly low.
Even Jeong Isin needed direct contact to be certain.
The two earlier warriors were beneath mention, and the Internal Qi Song Howon was currently unleashing crumbled before even reaching Jeong Isin’s grip.
Compared to the Heavenly Lightning Qi he himself possessed—it was barely static electricity.
That was about when Song Howon’s laughter stopped.
His eyes, blazing with fury, trembled harshly.
“You!”
Song Howon roared again and threw himself forward, driving his knee up in a vicious strike.
The moment Jeong Isin released the wrist and stepped back, a sharp metallic ring split the air.
Ching!
Song Howon’s face, now pointed at Jeong Isin with his blade, had hardened into stone.
“Dare you employ sorcery against me?”
“What?”
“You wretched heterodox spawn! Do not mock the Lightning Qi of the Thunder Sword Sect!”
Thwack!
With this senseless insult, Song Howon charged again.
The distance was perfect for a sword strike, and his blade came down in a flash toward Jeong Isin’s head.
‘Sorcery?’
The word struck him as almost absurd.
Jeong Isin smiled crookedly and extended his hand.
The sword, cutting through the air with ferocious speed, was caught in his grip as if by nothing at all.
Click—
Against the distant pulse of his heart’s thunder wheel, he lowered the hand holding the blade ever so slightly.
Beyond it, Song Howon’s eyes and mouth had widened to twice their size.
“Does this look like sorcery to you?”
“H-how?”
The Lightning Qi flowing along the sword’s edge wavered, lost and directionless.
The fact that Jeong Isin’s hand remained unmarred seemed to escape Song Howon’s understanding entirely.
“How are you bending my Lightning Qi to your will?!”
And far more easily than that!
The sound that emerged from him was almost like a beast’s cry of anguish.
“Heh heh. Why is this your Lightning Qi?”
Unable to suppress his laughter any longer, Jeong Isin gripped the sword blade tightly.
At the same moment, Song Howon’s Internal Qi began to be drawn into the blade.
Crackle—crackle-crackle!
“W-what is this! What on earth—! Cough!”
“Your Lightning Qi is inferior to mine, wouldn’t you say?”
Jeong Isin studied Song Howon with curious eyes.
The crude Lightning Qi that Song Howon possessed moved according to Jeong Isin’s will—as though he had seized complete control of the man’s Internal Qi.
‘So this is possible too.’
Watching the Lightning Qi ripple across the blade, he whispered to Song Howon.
“Truth be told… it is a heterodox art.”
“What!!!”
Song Howon gasped in shock, his Internal Qi surging wildly, yet the Lightning Qi remained entirely under Jeong Isin’s command.
Leaving the panicked man to his thoughts, Jeong Isin extended a finger toward Oseо on his shoulder.
He had just scraped the blade clean, drawing away a wisp of Song Howon’s Lightning Qi.
“Oseо, would you like to try some?”
Whiiiiine!
“Sorry, sorry.”
He was just dodging Oseо’s frantically spinning tail in outrage.
“…You should stop.”
One of the martial artists who had been following Song Howon stepped forward slowly.
He was the one among the group who possessed the most extraordinary presence.
True to form, he clasped his fists in salute before introducing himself.
“I am Hwa Haesang, Commander of the Fen-Cheon Sword Squad of the Thunder Sword Sect.”
Aaahhh!
“I’m Jeong Isin.”
He replied as Song Howon’s shriek faded behind them.
‘I thought he wouldn’t interfere, since he only brooded all day even when provoked deliberately.’
Still, watching Hwa Haesang’s face darken in real time, it seemed Song Howon’s assessment of him as a subordinate was accurate.
“I… I believe it would be better for both of us if we ceased here. I apologize.”
“Hmm.”
“Young master, the Thunder Sword Sect is the foremost faction in Muggang County.”
“Huh! A threat?”
“That… is not what I intended.”
“Cough…!”
Just then, Song Howon staggered, spitting up thin blood. It seemed he had suffered an internal injury from having his Internal Qi forcibly manipulated.
“If you persist further, I’m afraid… I shall have no choice.”
Hwa Haesang placed his hand on his sword hilt with obvious reluctance.
Even as he exhaled deeply, fine Qi Waves rippled outward from his entire body as he gathered his Internal Qi. His control was far more fluid than Song Howon’s.
“Your talent is… hardly ambiguous. Peak condition before thirty, and all that. Damn it—a monster who plays with others’ Internal Qi like this.”
Hwa Haesang muttered words Jeong Isin couldn’t quite catch, then drove his heel into the ground.
Despite the melancholy in his tone, the arc traced by his sword was remarkably sharp.
Hwa Haesang’s blade flew toward Jeong Isin’s arm—the one still gripping Song Howon’s sword blade.
The moment a screech rang out, Jeong Isin found himself lost in thought.
‘So the Thunder Sword Sect wields Lightning Qi. But then… what do I do about it?’
From what he had learned in Muzeo-gapung, there was no faction within the Orthodox Martial Arts World save Namgung that dealt in Lightning Qi.
The very nature of ‘Lightning’ was such.
It was inherently powerful and destructive, difficult to control safely. This also meant it was hard to incorporate into Orthodox Martial Arts teachings.
Most of the few sects he could recall that wielded Lightning Qi were subordinate to Heterodox Sects or the Demonic Sect—and for good reason.
Yet he couldn’t very well demand of these people why they possessed such power.
‘Suppress them… no, that would be going too far.’
Continuing to ponder, he yanked the sword blade toward him. As Song Howon’s arm jerked upward, Hwa Haesang gasped and twisted his blade’s trajectory.
Whoosh—!
By a hair’s breadth, Hwa Haesang’s sword scraped past Song Howon’s arm.
“Hrgh…! Such… cowardly tactics!”
“I’m thinking it over. What should I do?”
“Just let us go, please! I’ll treat today’s incident as if it never happened…!”
That was the moment he thought that might actually be better.
Hwa Haesang’s eyes flicked past Jeong Isin for an instant, then returned.
Seeing through that shallow ploy, Jeong Isin let out a soft chuckle.
‘Trying to trick me into thinking someone’s behind you? That’s laughable. The Jianghu Code of Conduct doesn’t even recognize such tactics.’
It was the moment he’d decided to end it here, just as Hwa Haesang said, and sort things out later.
“Help us! We’re here, here! Members of the Orthodox Heaven Alliance’s rear contingent! Please, help us!”
“What?”
Hwa Haesang’s cry tore through the air. The sound, thick with Internal Qi, reverberated across the distance with a resonant hum.
One had to be wary of deception always, but this level of performance was convincing enough.
When he spun to look, five young martial artists filled his gaze.
All of them were staring at Jeong Isin and Hwa Haesang with bewildered expressions.
‘…So it was real?’
In the brief moment their eyes met, a heavy Qi Wave erupted from the five warriors, kicking up dust.
The five rushed forward with furious momentum.
“Help us— Ugh!”
As Hwa Haesang continued his desperate cries, Jeong Isin hurled Song Howon at him and pivoted away.
He had no intention of fighting. He wasn’t the victim here, after all.
He raised both hands with a pleasant smile, but the warriors didn’t slow their pace.
Jeong Isin didn’t think about what scene lay behind him.
The Thunder Sword Sect’s master lying sprawled with his eyes rolled back, caught by Hwa Haesang. And beyond them, Hwa Haesang’s subordinates scattered on the ground.
The Orthodox Heaven Alliance warriors had no reason to stop.
“This is a misunderstanding—”
“We don’t want excuses!”
The first to arrive was a woman of indeterminate age.
Her Lightness Skill was exceptional; she’d drawn considerable distance ahead of the other warriors behind her.
For a woman, she was quite tall, and her short hair was rare to see. But what drew the eye most was the long, thin scar running two finger-widths across her left cheek.
Still, what captured his attention more was her Internal Qi.
‘Why is it so transparent?’
This wasn’t merely a matter of purity. All Internal Qi gathered in the Dantian bears a distinct character according to one’s Mental Cultivation Method.
Even the pathetic third-rate techniques from the streets had some intention woven into them, hollow though they might be.
Yet the Internal Qi of this woman rushing straight toward him carried no discernible character at all.
“Surrender—!”
She drove forward without losing momentum, stamping the ground hard once more.
Thump!
Her footwork was quite linear and fast.
But whether that made her threatening…
‘Predictable.’
If she’d approached Shaolin this way, she’d already be eating dirt.
Boom—
Setting that judgment aside, he rang the inner temple bell within himself.
Warm amber Internal Qi swelled with Great Strength, gathering in his palm.
Using Heavenly Lightning Qi to suppress her would be pointless—her Qi channels were too clean.
Jeong Isin modulated the power of the Great Strength Vajra Hand and swept his arm forward.
The woman’s hand came for his forearm, twisting through several arcs in midair as if she had considerable faith in her Gold Claw Hand.
But most mediocre technique crumbles before overwhelming speed.
Tap.
Jeong Isin’s hand, which had come far ahead, touched her wrist as if by accident.
“…!?”
The woman’s eyes flew wide—she hadn’t expected her own speed to be matched.
But before she could open her mouth, force bloomed at the point of contact.
Boom!
The Great Strength Vajra Hand flicked her hand away.
He hadn’t struck with force—merely touched lightly—yet it happened.
“What is this—!”
The woman retreated a step, her face alight with shock as she studied her hand and Jeong Isin in turn.
A single exchange between masters reveals far more than one might think.
While the woman was no extraordinary expert, Jeong Isin’s technique was clearly far from ordinary—she could feel that much.
‘I didn’t even see the movement until contact. The speed alone is one thing, but… his technique is refined. The mechanics of his force are strange and unfamiliar. And the resonance of his Qi lingers enough for me to perceive it…’
It felt auspicious.
Unmistakably Orthodox Martial Arts.
‘Not so much soft as hard and fierce. Not Daoist cultivation then… so…!’
The woman, lost in thought, suddenly snapped alert.
A familiar Qi Wave had brushed past her.
“You fool!”
“Wait, hold on—!”
There was no time to stop him.
Crash—!
“Cough!!”
The man who had rushed forward was hurled backward at that velocity.
The lightning I carried was far too strong.
Author |
Woo San-yu
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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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