The Lightning I Harbor Is Too Strong - Chapter 56

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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 56
Squeak—!
“Listen here, you little beast—I wasn’t trying to harm your master! If it weren’t for me, this fellow’s right arm would’ve been out of commission for at least three months…… though his body’s far too robust for that. Yes, a fortnight without use of that arm—that’s what he’d be facing!”
Squeak-squeak!
“Tch! And here I thought you were some tiny, insignificant creature!”
The old man’s weathered voice dripped with exasperation as he clicked his tongue.
‘I’ve heard that voice before.’
As consciousness gradually returned, the memory surfaced: leaving the Training Hall and entering the Medicine Hall.
‘Hello, I’ve injured my arm a little.’
‘Welcome—fetch the hall master at once!’
Led by the startled Medicine Hall attendant’s hands, Jung I-sin had received treatment.
Perhaps it was the herbal scent that had eased his mind, or perhaps the weight of accumulated exhaustion had simply crashed down all at once—either way, his eyes had closed.
‘That voice I heard just before losing consciousness……’
It likely belonged to someone from the Medicine Hall who had treated him.
What greeted Jung I-sin as his eyes opened was the sunset spilling through the window, painting the sickroom in warm amber tones, and—
“That wretch certainly has a temperament!”
Squeak-squeak-squeak!
—an old man and a small, familiar creature locked in what could only be described as a quarrel, silhouetted against that dying light.
‘……’
The backlash from the Red Thunder Divine Art must have been severe; his head wasn’t functioning properly.
He lay there, blinking slowly.
Suddenly, O-seo’s ears perked up, and the creature scurried toward Jung I-sin.
Thump!
“Ugh!”
The small beast leaped directly onto his chest, and a sharp pain radiated across his entire body.
“Tsk, tsk. And who’s been tormenting their master like this?”
Squeak! Squeak!
Only after the old man had finished teasing O-seo did he turn his gaze toward Jung I-sin.
“I’m surprised you regained consciousness so quickly. Truly, you’re no ordinary specimen.”
“Greetings, elder. Was it you who treated my injuries?”
“That’s right, though there’s no need to worry about it—that’s simply my work.”
The old man’s eyes swept across Jung I-sin from head to toe, then fixed on his arm.
“What is it you do, boy?”
“Pardon?”
“The blade wound on your arm. There aren’t many swordsmen in this academy capable of leaving such a mark. Judging by your uniform, you appear to be a Novice Student—so what exactly have you been doing wandering about?”
His brow furrowed as he added that he’d never encountered a newcomer quite like this one.
It was less suspicion than genuine bewilderment.
But there was no way Jung I-sin could simply reveal what lay beneath the Manmujak.
He offered an awkward smile and answered.
“I was completing an assignment……”
“An assignment? That makes no sense. Even Noe-gyeop Sura wouldn’t assign something like that. Well, if you’d rather not speak of it, so be it.”
“……?”
At this unexpected name-drop, Jung I-sin tilted his head in confusion, and the old man rose from his seat.
“Looking at your eyes, your mind seems intact at least. I was simply curious about what sort of fellow you were, so I asked. Now rest.”
Though his entire body felt as heavy as a water-logged cloth, he managed to prop himself up slightly and offer his thanks.
“Thank you for your concern. May I ask your name?”
“My name? It’s just Cheon, the master of the Medicine Hall. There’s a crowd of people waiting for you outside. I’ll send them in.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Elder Cheon told him to refrain from using his right arm for the time being, then left the sickroom.
Jung I-sin leaned back against the pillows with a long sigh. As his mind cleared, it rendered its judgment on last night’s recklessness.
‘Insane.’
That was his own assessment. He hadn’t realized the underground of the Manmujak was so perilous.
Elder Baek’s reaction suggested something had gone awry, but there was no way to know for certain at the moment.
“If I attempt this assignment twice more, I really will die.”
Squeak!
O-seo scurried up to his pillow and rubbed against him.
The creature’s gesture of concern drew a hollow laugh from him.
“Not that I’m complaining, but that Silent Scale was incredibly tough.”
Squeak!
“And you’ve even kept watch over my things. ……Though I’m not entirely sure ‘kept watch’ is the right phrase for it.”
Chirp!
“Ah, now, being cute doesn’t solve everything—hmm.”
Chirp chirp—
“……This time I’ll let it slide.”
Truth be told, there was nothing to let slide or not.
O-seo wasn’t going to defeat an Absolute Expert.
Their bond had simply been this way since the Abyss, so he merely laughed it off as always.
For Jung I-sin, this moment alone held meaning.
Chirp—
O-seo chirped adorably and scrambled up his body.
At the soft touch brushing his neck, he smiled faintly and picked up his book.
“So that’s what all that suffering was for.”
Confronting the Absolute Expert’s sword strike this time had revealed much.
First, that a body refined through the Reverse Muscle Body Refinement Scripture had clear limits.
“Without Silent Scale, my arm might well have been severed. Perhaps the Medicine Hall’s medical arts developed precisely for such contingencies……”
Second, that he truly had no room to hide anything.
This connected to the task Yeon Baek-ha had set—how much to reveal, and to whom.
Facing an ‘enemy’ he could not defeat by any means sharpened his mind.
Most shocking of all was that the Heavenly Thunder Qi accomplished so little against Demonic Qi.
Qi affinity meant anything only between Martial Artists of roughly equal standing.
“I needed to grow stronger.”
He resolved to extract every last resource from Yeon Baek-ha—or rather, to accept his thorough aid.
* * *
Hearing a sound from beyond the door, he tucked the Secret History away and greeted his visitors.
“Young master Jung, what brings you here!”
“Ah, what a state everyone’s in……”
“……I-sin, not a strong one.”
He waved to Bang Si-jeong and Mu-jin, while ignoring Nam Tae-gang.
Behind that hulking frame, two women suddenly popped out—Eon So-ran and Gong-son Young.
Jung I-sin started and greeted them.
“Coming all the way to visit the sick—you’re closer than we thought. How moving.”
“Well, since Jung I-sin came to visit us too…… no, that’s not the important part! What on earth happened in just one day?”
“They said a bloodstain appeared in the Grand Plaza, and I scoffed—but it was you, wasn’t it?”
Eon So-ran’s concern was palpable, while Gong-son Young could only shake her head in disbelief.
It seemed all those he could call reasonably close had come to visit.
Bang Si-jeong gestured for everyone to sit as though it were his own home and opened his mouth.
“The Hyeonpung Dojo wanted to come along too, but they got held up by So Geom-hu, of all people.”
“Pardon? What do you mean by that?”
“Apparently So Geom-hu was scattering his Qi Aura all over the place during training. Someone went to have a word about it, and the next thing anyone knew, a duel had broken out?”
“……?”
He wondered if a quarrel had started, but the mood suggested nothing so grave.
Reassured, he found the expressions of those watching him had shifted to match.
Mu-jin shook his head with a relieved laugh.
“Surely no senior has ever caused his teachers such worry.”
“True. That’s not the dignity a strong one should show.”
“It just means you were that concerned about Jung I-sin.”
Soon, with the realization that Jung I-sin was far more sound than expected, the atmosphere in the ward grew considerably lighter.
Before long, conversation drifted toward a common theme.
“Seeing even you end up like this, Noe-gyeop Sura’s lessons must be quite formidable indeed.”
“Noe-gyeop Sura’s reputation is certainly fearsome. Though when you think about it, it’s funny—if anything, Sword and Wilderness’s classes would be harder, yet look how obsessed everyone is with those instead.”
At Gong-son Young’s lively remark, Bang Si-jeong tilted his head.
“Now that I think of it, Sword and Wilderness doesn’t seem to have any Academy Students…… wait, was there no mention of him teaching theory or practical combat classes either?”
It was indeed so.
When Seop Yeon was appointed as a professor, the entire Academy had been thrown into turmoil.
Academy Students who absolutely insisted on attending his classes were common, and there were even some who prayed daily that Sword and Wilderness would become their supervising instructor.
Yet at some point, there had been no sightings of him reported.
“The last we saw him was when he took Jung I-sin away that day…… do you perhaps know something about it, Jung I-sin?”
“No, that was the last time I saw him too…… be……”
Jung I-sin’s words trailed off.
Seop Yeon, who had promised to teach him everything he knew about Sword and Wilderness. The man had told him to come find him once the semester began.
But then he suddenly vanished?
‘…… Could it be?’
He’d fled?
The thought was audacious enough to startle him.
For Jung I-sin, this was more pressing than blocking an Absolute Expert’s sword strike.
The others quickly lost interest, but Bang Si-jeong alone wore the same grave expression, lost in thought alongside him.
“If even I couldn’t hear it…… Hmm. I’ll need to look into this separately.”
Bang Si-jeong, murmuring to himself, glanced around at the others before rising from his seat.
“Well then, since our young Lord Jung seems to be doing better than expected, shall we take our leave? The patient needs rest to recover properly!”
“Thank you all for coming.”
Once his fellow students had departed, the noisy sickroom fell silent in an instant.
Chirp—
Though that silence lasted only a moment, thanks to O-seo.
Jung I-sin stroked the O-seo draped across his shoulder and withdrew the Secret History.
“As for news of Professor Seop, I’m sure our young Lord Bang will look into that thoroughly…….”
So Jung I-sin decided to do what fell to him.
“Given the hardship endured to obtain this book, it must hold some extraordinary secrets.”
Curiosity bloomed within the ache in his chest as he turned the pages. And there, the first words of the Secret History:
—I was born under Heavenly Punishment.
* * *
Na Gun-cheon’s mother was a concubine of the Maroe Gold Family, one of the Six Great Demonic Families of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect.
Gifted with an unusual affinity for Lightning Qi, she caught the eye of the Maroe Gold Family master and bore Na Gun-cheon.
But what was the Demonic Sect but the Demonic Sect?
From the start, many carried the seeds of the Gold Family’s master within them, and they were nothing but experimental subjects.
The day a great forbidden technique brought lightning crashing down upon the Maroe Gold Family.
That was the very day Na Gun-cheon lost his mother and was born into this world.
In truth, he was not yet called Na Gun-cheon then.
Seventeen. That was the old name he would never forget.
“…… So it really is a Secret History?”
Secret History was indeed the proper term for hidden tales, but he’d never imagined content like this.
Na Gun-cheon’s Secret History was dizzying from the very start.
“Heavenly Punishment, I thought—but it meant being struck by lightning.”
Jung I-sin read quickly through what followed.
Through the forbidden technique and his mother’s sacrifice, Na Gun-cheon had gained a portion of the lightning’s power.
He was raised thoroughly as the Maroe Gold Family’s dog.
The Demonic Sect was a world where ‘isolation’ was daily habit, so betrayal seemed never even contemplated.
But Na Gun-cheon was an experimental subject who harbored even a fragment of the lightning’s force.
When some incident severed the isolation that controlled him, Na Gun-cheon ran wild.
—That night, his deepest regret was not killing the cursed family’s master.
The Six Great Demonic Families were a power that had maintained influence for ages, rivaling even the Nine Sects and One Faction.
Na Gun-cheon alone could not hope to contend with them.
He set his sights on the future and made for the Central Plains.
Ja-ya-myeol. Na Gun-cheon had taken a pen name swearing to annihilate the Maroe Gold Family, and the first place he turned to in the Central Plains was…….
“…… Where?”
The text ended abruptly there.
“What? Why does it end here?”
The next page was the same.
On the chance it continued elsewhere, he flipped rapidly through to the end, where the text resumed in the final section.
……
A sense of betrayal welled up, but his curiosity about what came next was stronger still.
—……Thus, I leave all my martial techniques in this place. I harbor no desire to serve the Central Plains martial realm. I only pray that someone—anyone—may achieve the Heavenly Thunder before those cursed ones do.
“What!?”
Heavenly Thunder—the familiar words seized his attention entirely.
—I understood it to be the ultimate revenge, yet as one born under Heavenly Punishment, it was never granted to me. I can only preserve this cursed body in eternal torment.
And so it ended.
At some point, O-seo had begun rubbing itself against his fingers, and he scratched its back in return while thinking.
“What am I supposed to make of this? Did they think I had demonic origins?”
Hardly.
He laughed softly and turned a page, where between the final sheet and the back cover lay another passage.
A postscript from one whose name was not revealed.
―The martial techniques left behind by Na Gun-cheon, the great hero, illuminated the Martial Realm of the Central Plains.
Na Gun-cheon is said to have left all his martial techniques and insights in this place, Cheonmu Academy.
Throughout his life, he slew Demonic Beings and researched the art of Lightning Qi.
After leaving behind this Secret History, he turned his steps once more toward the lands of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect, and no record of his final fate remained.
“This was not written by a disciple.”
It seemed to be a note added by someone among those who followed Na Gun-cheon, written with regret.
Na Gun-cheon’s signature technique, the Yeolcheonmanryeodo, was a supreme divine art of the highest caliber.
To have cast such a thing into the world without condition or restriction—the ripples must have been immense.
A martial artist who mastered the Yeolcheonmanryeodo at Cheonmu Academy founded their own sect after graduation, and another learned from them, and then another learned that, and so on……
Na Gun-cheon’s martial learning was exceptionally adaptable. Influenced by this, countless derivative martial techniques that used Lightning Qi as their foundation are said to have emerged.
Whether Na Gun-cheon’s wish came to pass is unclear, but at least the conditions for it had taken root.
“So that’s why Lightning Qi spread so widely.”
Jung I-sin finally could understand the current treatment of Lightning Qi in the Martial World and the existence of Nojeong Geommun.
His resolve to reveal his martial techniques to his instructor felt considerably lighter.
At last, he seemed to grasp what Yeon Baek-ha truly meant.
―Is your martial principle superior to that of Na Gun-cheon, who dyed all under heaven in Lightning Qi?
Click—!
The answer came instead from the Lightning Wheel in his heart.
The lightning I carry within is too powerful.
Author |
Woo San-yu
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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Editorial Department
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The contents of this book may not be used in any form or by any means without written permission from Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dreambooks.

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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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