The World’s Greatest Junior Martial Brother - Chapter 8

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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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Heavenly Ranked Disciple (8)
Don’t cry, don’t whimper, don’t bark.
Kkuuuuu―.
What in the world just happened?!
The eldest son of the Namgung Family, whose name shakes the heavens, and who leads the 3rd Mobile Squad—one of the eight mobile squads that form the Murim Alliance’s most formidable martial force!
He’s been beaten to the ground by some unidentified nobody!
And in a single blow, no less!
Stepping through the thick curtain of rising dust, the one who now looked down upon Namgung Ildo was…
“You! You there!”
“Who are you?!”
The 3rd Mobile Squad members, who had been floundering and unable to keep up, finally grasped the situation and shouted in outrage.
“You dare lay a hand on the Murim Alliance’s Squad Leader?!”
“Brat, are you itching to die?!”
Before their grand threats had even finished, Jin Muok spat out a single statute.
“Murim Law, Article Four, Clause One.”
Murim Law? Out of nowhere?
As the 3rd Mobile Squad members exchanged glances, Jin Muok added, his voice cold and clear as frost.
“Samun Chamjeok Bulgudaecheon—the betrayer of one’s teachers shall not share the same sky!”
Anyone who disgraces another person’s sect without just cause cannot live under the same heavens as the one they insulted!
“Therefore, one may attack the offender without ceremony, and any counterattack will be taken as acceptance of a Life-or-Death Duel.”
At Jin Muok’s invocation of Murim Law, the 3rd Mobile Squad members could not help but flinch.
Murim Law was, after all, a code as binding as any imperial statute. And since a Samun Chamjeok offender ranked just below the public enemies of the martial world as a rebel, anyone who aided or abetted him was treated as an accomplice.
Article Four, Clause One—a law rendered meaningless by the messy private dealings of their elders.
Who would have thought it would ever be revived?
“And this child?”
When one of the 3rd Mobile Squad members turned his head, Baekri Unhak spoke up.
“He is my junior disciple.”
Which meant he fell squarely under Article Four, Clause One!
But with the man they served sprawled on the ground, they had to do something, and so the 3rd Mobile Squad members began to bark at Jin Muok.
“Murim Law may be supreme, but if you lay hands on the eldest son of the Great Namgung Family without a second thought—”
“Move aside.”
As Jin Muok started to walk past them, the notion that a ten-year-old had brushed them off was too much to bear, and at last the 3rd Mobile Squad members reached out.
“You little—!”
Hwiri-rik―.
Catching the incoming hand, Jin Muok pulled its owner toward himself, then gave him a light shove.
“Whoa!”
The man who had been pushed off balance without much force was caught by his comrades.
“I’ll let that one go.”
Jin Muok murmured indifferently as he passed them.
“But there won’t be a second time.”
Ppeng―.
He was just a child—and worse, the junior disciple of Baekri Unhak, whom they had been looking down on all along. When a brat like this showed them such contempt, the 3rd Mobile Squad member finally exploded.
“You little bastard!”
“I’ll teach you some manners!”
They charged in, each thinking himself swift and clever. But to Jin Muok, their movements were slow enough to make him yawn.
Seuk―.
Slipping gracefully out of their attacks, Jin Muok had already produced a wooden club.
The very same club he had used to thrash the river pirates on the Yangtze.
Ppeoeok―.
“Kwek!”
He drove the club into the forehead of the man running out in front and sent him flying, then spun around on his heel.
Sasasak―.
The 3rd Mobile Squad members, having formed some sort of formation of their own, came at him. They were not from one of the Seven Great Families that dominated the martial world, but they were the sons of reasonably famous martial households, and their foundations were solid.
―Don’t underestimate him just because he’s young!
―He’s the one who humiliated our squad leader in a single blow!
Who had humiliated whom first? As always, humans see only what they wish to see and hear only what they wish to hear.
As they tightened their encirclement, Jin Muok muttered without even looking back.
“You’ve had a hard time of it, haven’t you?”
Moved by Jin Muok’s words of comfort, Baekri Unhak closed his eyes. He had resolved to endure any humiliation alone, yet here was his junior disciple stepping forward to take his place and even offering consolation.
“Junior brother…”
“From now on, you’re not alone.”
“You, you’re—!”
It’s Master!
If Master were to return from the Netherworld, this is what he would say!
You’re not alone!
“Hic!”
Baekri Unhak, catching a glimpse of his once-magnificent master through the back of little Jin Muok, finally let the tears he’d been holding back spill over.
“It’s fine.”
Jin Muok spoke in a voice so frigid it could have frozen the north wind itself.
“It’s those guys who should be bawling.”
To Baekri Unhak, it was the most reassuring thing in the world; to the 3rd Mobile Squad, it was the most infuriating.
Was that what set it off?
Shwaaang!
A Jingeom, drawn before anyone noticed!
As the 3rd Mobile Squad members leveled their razor-edged blades at Jin Muok, Baekri Unhak cried out in alarm.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
“What am I doing? Isn’t it obvious.”
Namgung Ildo, who had been sprawled on the ground, wiped the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and got to his feet.
“Your insolent junior brother challenged me to a Life-or-Death Duel, so we’re going to answer with everything we’ve got.”
“I see.”
Having finally broken every seal, Jin Muok leapt into the air.
“Jin Muok of the Bukcheon Sinmun accepts Namgung Ildo’s Life-or-Death Duel. From this point on, everything that follows falls under Murim Law Article 4 Clause 1.”
“Oh, you little brat!”
Gritting his teeth, Namgung Ildo barked orders at the 3rd Mobile Squad.
“Kill that bastard right now!”
He was too terrified of the blow he’d taken earlier to lead the charge himself and was sending his subordinates in his place—such cowardice deserved condemnation, though he was not the type to have considered anything else in the first place.
“It’s a Life-or-Death Duel, so don’t hold back—tear him apart!”
Paararak—.
At Namgung Ildo’s vicious shout, the 3rd Mobile Squad members kicked off the ground, took to the air, and moved to surround Jin Muok…
Chichichichi—.
A wooden club, moving a step ahead of the squad members.
Surely something moving that slowly couldn’t strike anything at all.
…That was what he thought, until—!
Flash!
The club, having changed direction in an instant, split the air in two like lightning.
Bbaek—gak!
The squad member on the left took a blow to the waist and gaped in shock, and Jin Muok, stepping on his head to leap once more, raised the wooden club high.
“Bukhae Mu…”
The club, lifted in lofty majesty.
Kwarrrung!
A bolt from a clear sky.
A single straight line tore through the pure air and cleaved the world in half; unable to withstand the aftershock, the squad members hurriedly touched down on the ground.
Was this the moment he’d been waiting for?
Jin Muok dropped from the air like a stone and, using the Taesan Apjeong technique, drove the club he’d been swinging straight into the ground.
“…Break.”
Time seemed to freeze in that instant.
In that same state, Jin Muok drew up all his strength; his hair bristled like a lion’s mane, and the wooden sword flared with a pale light.
“Go!”
Kkuwaaaaaang!
Cheonbung Jigoe!
The sky crumbled and the earth caved in; every member of the 3rd Mobile Squad was knocked flat, unable to bear the shock rising from the ground.
“Grr…”
Grinding his molars, Jin Muok weaved through the fallen 3rd Mobile Squad members, spotted his target, and hauled him up by the collar.
“Say it again.”
“Uuugh…”
“Say ‘Bukcheon Byeongmun’ one more time, you bastard!”
Ppak—.
Jin Muok’s fist cracked against Namgung Ildo’s jaw, and once again he went flying, crashing into a corner.
“Aaaaah!”
As he wept in agony, Jin Muok cut him off flatly.
“Don’t cry.”
Snap!
“I-I was wrong!”
As Namgung Ildo squirmed, trying to press his palms together in supplication, Jin Muok stomped down on the backs of his hands.
“Don’t beg.”
“F-forgive me!”
Thwack―.
Kicking Namgung Ildo in the side, Jin Muok let out a low growl like a tiger.
“Don’t yelp.”
Not even a scream. A blow to the side steals your breath, so no sound comes out at all.
Pain was the least of it. A terror far worse than death had swallowed Namgung Ildo whole, leaving him no room to feel anything else.
I have to live! Somehow I’ll survive and repay this humiliation!
“P-please! Pl-please!”
Jin Muok looked down at the thrashing Namgung Ildo and crouched beside him.
“Want to live?”
His head bobbed up and down frantically.
“We’re sworn enemies under heaven, remember?”
“P-please…”
“Good.”
Slowly rising to his feet, Jin Muok murmured softly.
“Then live.”
Crack―!
Jin Muok’s foot sent Namgung Ildo’s face flying without mercy, and then he turned his head.
“I know there are some of you who’re awake. Up, now.”
Flinch!
The 3rd Mobile Squad members who had been playing dead shot upright, and Jin Muok gave a short command.
“Haul that thing and get lost.”
Not “take him along,” but “haul him off like cargo.”
Under Jin Muok’s cold fury, the squad members scattered in a panic, hoisted Namgung Ildo onto their backs, and vanished like arrows.
Watching them shrink to specks on the horizon, Jin Muok let loose a terrifying glare.
‘I hope it isn’t true.’
If there really were men inside the Alliance scheming behind the scenes, my calculations are about to get very messy.
Go on, rack your brains.
“I’m sorry.”
Baekri Unhak bowed his head to Jin Muok.
“I knew about Murim Law Article 4 Clause 1 as well, but due to circumstances I couldn’t—”
Turn.
Jin Muok spun around and advanced on Baekri Unhak with a fearsome momentum.
“W-why are you—”
Snatch!
Jin Muok seized Baekri Unhak’s wrist and checked his pulse.
“How did it come to this?”
“Well, that’s…”
“Bukcheon Sinmun isn’t a place that falls to a nobody like Namgung Ildo, and you’re no ordinary senior brother. I suspected something was wrong with your body, but I never imagined it was this bad.”
Baekri Unhak’s condition was dreadful.
His Twelve Regular Meridians, which powered his strength, had narrowed as far as they could go, leaving him barely able to breathe. The Eight Extraordinary Meridians, the channels for his Inner Power that also protected his organs, had lost their function entirely.
“And the Ren and Du Meridians—”
Eyes closed as he examined Baekri Unhak’s body, Jin Muok suddenly startled.
“The Ren and Du Meridians that were once opened are sealed again? How could something like this even happen?”
Under Jin Muok’s diagnosis, as sharp as an awl, Baekri Unhak nodded on his own.
He had analyzed his own condition in a single breath.
Truly my junior brother.
“Truth be told, I’m little better than a ruined man.”
The lifeless pallor of his face, the lips faint as indigo, the occasional dry cough.
They were all signs from a body broken past all repair.
“It wasn’t like this from the start.”
Baekri Unhak began murmuring his story, almost as if whispering to himself.
“Up until I entered the Murim Alliance and was promoted to training instructor in record time, there wasn’t a problem.”
True to the talent Jin Muok had chosen, Baekri Unhak made a name for himself the moment he joined the Murim Alliance, proudly earning a place among the Four Heroes of Xinzhou, the standard-bearers of the next generation of Jianghu.
Skill, character, and on top of it all, the halo of being Jin Muok’s disciple.
With his three-pronged mastery, Baekri Unhak’s future seemed as smooth as a broad imperial road.
“But the more I dug into the bloody battle at Sipman Daesan, where Master and the Baekgwi Squad marched out, the more I realized it differs from what the world has been told…”
Baekri Unhak swallowed hard.
“My doubts only grew.”
A few documents and a single book, stumbled upon by chance in the Murim Alliance’s underground archive.
“Why did they send only the Baekgwi Squad? Why didn’t they prepare a reserve force to back them up? Why, why?”
Catching his breath, Baekri Unhak let out his final words almost casually.
“Were they trying to bury the records from that time?”
Baekri Unhak suddenly fixed his eyes with a hard glint.
“This is no small matter. Someone within the Alliance is moving systematically to cover up, or conceal, the bloody battle at Sipman Daesan. How could I let that slide?”
“Why do you think I’d have asked you to handle things for me so casually?”
Recalling Sima Yan’s mocking sneer, Jin Muok ground his molars together.
Just as I thought. It’s Baekri Unhak.
He, too, had been chasing the hidden face of the clash between the Baekgwi Squad and the Demonic Cult, only to be blocked by the men who controlled the Alliance from behind the scenes.
“I needed strength. Power was essential. To get near the Alliance’s upper ranks, I needed martial skill strong enough to back it up.”
After a moment’s breath, Baekri Unhak forced out the rest with difficulty.
“So I pushed myself recklessly, trying to reach the pinnacle of Byeonggi Cheonsang in a crash course…”
He had fallen into Qi Deviation!
“My meridians all twisted into knots, and the Inner Power I had built up with such effort scattered like grains of sand. But I couldn’t simply sit back and despair.”
Baekri Unhak clenched his gaunt knuckles.
“The spirit of Bukcheon Sinmun ran too high to bow before something as petty as Qi Deviation.”
From that point on, years of enduring in silence.
Swallowing Namgung Ildo’s persecution and humiliation, I stayed in the Murim Alliance by any means I could and tried every method available to overcome Qi Deviation, that notoriously incurable affliction.
But no ray of hope appeared, and his twisted meridians began to clog one by one, until Baekri Unhak’s life burned down toward its end like a wick sputtering to nothing.
Then…
“Junior brother, I’ve finally met you.”
Overcome with emotion, Baekri Unhak clasped Jin Muok’s hand.
His hand was skeletal and frail. The man who once instructed dozens of 3rd Mobile Squad members as the Murim Alliance’s 3rd training instructor could no longer lift even a millstone.
“You’re the one who can uncover the secrets buried in the bloody battle at Sipman Daesan in my place. You’re the one who can soothe the restless spirits of those who left their bones there.”
Baekri Unhak concluded his words in a voice that had changed completely.
“It wasn’t my time to die yet. Once I’ve passed everything on to you, only then…”
A heartfelt confession that could bring tears even to someone whose emotions had dried up completely.
But Jin Muok scoffed as if the whole thing were absurd.
“You’re going to die?”
“You, watch your tone with me, you brat!”
“Enough.”
Cutting off Baekri Unhak’s words, Jin Muok lifted his chin with arrogant indifference.
“Whether you uncover the hidden face of the Sipman Daesan bloodshed or dig into the Alliance’s schemes.”
Raising his right hand, Jin Muok declared as if issuing a decree.
“Senior Brother, you handle it.”
I’ll go do my own thing.
Bang!
“Gah!”

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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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