The World’s Greatest Martial Arts Instructor - Chapter 222
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 222. What Do We Do?
The middle-aged one-armed man leaped over the Great Wall before his eyes.
His destination.
Hefei in Anhui Province.
The fastest route there was to cross through Sanwol Demon Forest.
It was an action that could be called insane, but The Man was confident.
Thanks to developing an eye for paths through years of coming and going from this place.
He had fought the jiangshi of Sanwol Demon Forest even before the Great Wall was built, and continued to travel these paths even after the Great Wall was erected.
Though it was a filthy land where demons existed, strangely it was rich with precious medicinal herbs.
He slung a leather pouch on his back and wore his sword at his side.
Ready to draw at any moment.
‘I just need to avoid the territories of those troublesome to deal with.’
The Man had the eye to read those territories.
As he passed through the center heading toward the northwestern Great Wall that was his destination.
“Get away!!”
“It’s dangerous!!”
Urgent shouts pierced through the dense forest and reached The Man’s ears.
The Man stopped walking.
The people who would be in this cursed land were obvious.
Either herb gatherers who had risked their lives to collect medicinal plants.
‘Warriors of the Jeongcheon Alliance.’
He was well aware of those who claimed to manage Sanwol Great Wall.
They were the ones who constantly patrolled around the vast Great Wall.
The Man moved his steps toward where the shouts had come from.
Though they weren’t a group he particularly liked, he thought about what sin the powerless warriors stationed in this harsh land could have committed.
***
Swish!
With a sharp yet heavy air-rending sound, Gwan Ha-gyeong’s blade split through space.
Single Heaven Blade Technique.
A blade technique that disciples of Dorim could learn without much difficulty.
However, the movement was completely different from what other Dorim figures displayed.
It was questionable whether it was even the same technique.
Of course, it wasn’t an appropriate thought for the current situation.
They had taken a wrong path and disturbed the territory of a troublesome creature.
Clang!
The blade that flew in with the momentum to sever a neck in one strike bounced off with a loud noise.
The jiangshi that blocked Gwan Ha-gyeong’s blade with its raised arm looked at them with pitch-black eyes.
Skin with a subtle dark hue.
It was a Dark Iron Jiangshi.
“Th-thank you.”
One Maengryong Corps member with a cracked shield struggled to bow toward Gwan Ha-gyeong.
If she hadn’t urgently swung her blade just now, he would have surely lost his life to the Dark Iron Jiangshi’s hands.
Gwan Ha-gyeong nodded slightly.
‘I couldn’t even leave a scratch…’
Despite delivering a fairly powerful blade strike, Gwan Ha-gyeong was slightly shocked at the jiangshi’s unharmed appearance.
This was her first encounter with a Dark Iron Jiangshi.
“Damn it. We can’t take down that bastard by ourselves…”
Pung Geon, the squad leader of the Black Wolf Second Squad of the Demon Sealing Corps, spat out curses in an irritated voice.
His face was filled with a sense of crisis.
And for good reason.
To face a Dark Iron Jiangshi, at least three squads were needed.
Five squads if they wanted to capture it without casualties.
Fighting it with just themselves like now meant certain defeat.
To survive.
The Demon Sealing Corps squad leader glanced at the ten Maengryong Corps members.
Nine with tense faces holding shields. And one with a shattered shield.
They might be able to survive if they abandoned those people.
Since Dark Iron Jiangshi had their individual territories, if they threw adequate sacrifices and escaped the territory during that gap, it wouldn’t pursue them further.
The squad leader’s gaze turned to another squad member.
As if he had committed some sin, the man hung his head low.
He had deviated from the patrol route claiming he urgently needed to relieve himself.
Who would have known that where he deviated would have a territorial change of a Dark Iron Jiangshi.
Around last autumn.
For unknown reasons, there had been a major change in the territory south of Sanwol Great Wall that had been quiet.
The aftermath had reached even this northwestern area.
Thanks to that, the Dark Iron Jiangshi territory they had painstakingly mapped out became tangled.
If the Dark Iron Jiangshi territory was tangled, then the Dark Blood Jiangshi and even more monstrous creatures would also have changes.
‘This is driving me crazy. Even if we survive here, what comes next is the problem. How much time and sacrifice went into confirming territories…’
It had only been a few years since they learned that jiangshi had something called territories.
And now the territories they had painstakingly mapped out were all twisted.
Squad Leader Pung Geon tightened his grip on his sword.
He had to make a good judgment.
Whether to sacrifice the Maengryong Corps and escape, or join forces with them to face that creature.
For ordinary squad leaders, there was only one choice in this case.
Abandon the Maengryong Corps and escape.
But the current situation was ambiguous.
Having entered the changed territory, there was no telling what might happen while escaping and returning from here.
Pung Geon’s gaze turned to the Maengryong Corps squad leader.
A five-year veteran of the Maengryong Corps. Someone who could escape this detestable Sanwol Demon Forest if he just endured this year.
And someone who had shared life and death with him over the past five years.
Yu Gwi-gwang.
They had been assigned to the Black Wolf Second Squad together during their naive rookie days.
Though there was a deep gap between the Demon Sealing Corps and Maengryong Corps, the years had made their friendship deeper than that gap.
Yu Gwi-gwang happened to be looking at Pung Geon.
The two men’s gazes met.
A smile appeared on Yu Gwi-gwang’s lips.
The meaning was obvious.
They would hold it off, so he should leave.
He remembered the night before last, when he had shared drinks with that guy.
The guy who had smiled saying he could go see his family with the money he’d saved if he just endured ten more months.
“Damn it.”
Pung Geon gritted his teeth.
A faint energy emanated from his sword.
It was sword qi infused with all the internal energy he possessed.
“Cover me!”
He shouted this and leaped toward the Black Iron Jiangshi.
Clang!
His sword was blocked by the Black Iron Jiangshi’s arm.
The difference from Gwan Ha-gyeong’s strike was that it left a small wound.
At minimum, sword qi was needed to deal effective damage to this monster.
“Graaaah!”
When the Black Iron Jiangshi swung its arm toward Pung Geon.
Bang!
Yu Gwi-gwang, who had intervened at some point, blocked the attack with his shield.
“Crazy bastard.”
Yu Gwi-gwang glanced at Pung Geon and muttered quietly.
“I have to see my family.”
Pung Geon replied thus and charged at the Black Iron Jiangshi again.
Following their squad leader’s decision, the other four also charged at the Black Iron Jiangshi with all their might.
The five members of the Demon Suppression Corps naturally deployed the Flowing Dragon Sword Formation.
Though they each wielded different weapons, such variations didn’t matter.
It was a formation they wouldn’t have even glanced at during their time at Gyoryong Hall.
But after being assigned to the Demon Suppression Corps, they had learned it with desperate determination.
Because the Flowing Dragon Sword Formation was essential when facing strong individuals, whether Black Iron Jiangshi or even Blood Jiangshi.
Clang! Crash! Clash! Bang!
The Flowing Dragon Sword Formation and Maengryong Corps’ shield techniques harmonized appropriately as they faced the Black Iron Jiangshi.
They weren’t easily pushed back.
However, they couldn’t deal significant damage to that monster either.
‘It’s a monster. Really.’
Gwan Ha-gyeong thought this as he swung his blade with all his might.
Like Pung Geon had done, he drew up his internal energy to its maximum and generated blade qi.
Only then did the Black Iron Jiangshi begin to sustain small wounds.
This was the limit of Gwan Ha-gyeong’s abilities.
Despite constantly cultivating the Single Heaven Blade Technique and thinking he had achieved some success.
It had been arrogance.
Without being able to generate blade energy, even the highest level blade techniques were useless against these monsters.
Nevertheless, Gwan Ha-gyeong gritted his teeth and swung his blade.
It was natural.
Stop and you die. Retreat and you die.
He could only give his all.
Since they couldn’t use energy projection.
Five was too few a number to damage that thing with only sword qi and blade qi.
Crash!
A loud sound rang out.
Yu Gwi-gwang’s shield split apart.
This had been their limit.
Through the split gap, the jiangshi’s claws thrust forward.
A Demon Suppression Corps member’s sword flew in, but the jiangshi ignored it.
It had changed strategy.
A strategy to eliminate them one by one with certainty.
“Urgh.”
Yu Gwi-gwang widened both eyes and glared at the dark, ominous hand tinged with black light that was stabbing toward him.
Slash.
Then suddenly a flying sword cut off that wrist.
A sword overlaid with blue sword energy.
The foot of a one-armed man holding a sword in his left hand struck the jiangshi’s face.
The jiangshi staggered back from the single blow.
The middle-aged man looked at the Black Iron Jiangshi with a calm expression.
‘Not bad.’
It was unexpected.
He had thought only the Maengryong Corps guys would be barely holding on with their shields, but there were Demon Suppression Corps members too.
It was an extremely rare case.
Considering what those bastards had been doing inside Marim.
He had come to save the pitiful Maengryong Corps members.
Was it because he had seen an unexpected sight?
The energy in the middle-aged man’s sword grew even denser.
His sword moved gracefully as he kicked off the ground.
“Ah!”
The Demon Suppression Corps members watched in admiration.
It was a sword technique they seemed to have seen somewhere, but they had no memory of seeing such magnificent swordsmanship.
The man’s sword split the Black Iron Jiangshi into four pieces in just three seconds.
“Whew.”
The man lowered his sword and let out a deep sigh, grimacing.
It was due to the pain transmitted from his dantian.
Because of his dantian’s injury and the limits of his internal energy, he could only use sword energy for about five forms at most.
“Th-thank you, great hero.”
Pung Geon was the first to regain his senses and offered a cupped fist salute.
“The domain seems to have changed, so leave this place quickly.”
He conveyed what he had felt while crossing through the center.
The man had cultivated an eye for reading domains and could sense those small changes, but these people wouldn’t know yet.
“Th-thank you.”
Soon the other individuals offered cupped fist salutes and bowed their waists in gratitude.
“It’s fine. I was pleased to see you covering for each other even in danger, so I lent a hand.”
“Please tell us your honored name, great hero.”
Pung Geon stepped forward and spoke.
He hadn’t even thought that there could be someone other than the Demon Suppression Corps inside Marim.
Was it because he had helped them overcome the crisis?
“First, leave this place.”
The man urged them, but Pung Geon didn’t move.
“Sigh.”
The man let out a sigh.
“Nam… I’m called Nam Hwi.”
The man said this and began walking.
“Follow me. I’ll show you to a safe place.”
After guiding the Demon Suppression Corps to safety, the middle-aged man Nam Hwi crossed over the northwestern wall of Sanwol Great Wall and ran straight toward Anhui Province.
***
“Stop.”
At the supervising instructor’s sudden words, doubt appeared on the faces of the Waryong Corps 20th Group cadets.
While he had given occasional advice, this was the first time he had made them stop their training like this.
Muk Hae-jin came to the center of the training ground.
“It seems you’ve gotten the form down quite well, so now you need to experience real combat.”
Currently, the Waryong Corps 20th Group cadets were training in the Dragon Flow Sword Formation.
“Pardon?”
“Among your opponents, there was also someone from Cheolgi Workshop, right?”
The cadets didn’t know what to do at Muk Hae-jin’s question.
It was because they knew Muk Hae-jin’s origin was Cheolgi Workshop.
“Those Maengryong Corps guys must have advised you to defeat them one by one.”
The 20th Group cadets were startled by his following words.
At their reaction, Muk Hae-jin chuckled.
Wasn’t he the judge who had witnessed the individual defeats firsthand during the last Hatuje?
“For that, you’ll need a quick decisive battle, so you should at least know your enemy and yourself.”
The cadets were bewildered by his favorable words.
They had no choice but to be.
These cadets had never received such favor from disciples of the main sect.
“Why are you making such expressions? As the supervising instructor, teaching cadets is only natural. Come on in.”
Muk Hae-jin spoke as he took up his long spear and assumed a stance.
Cheolgi Workshop was a sect whose main force was iron cavalry.
Thanks to this, spear techniques using cavalry spears had developed.
When not mounted, they used long spears of about six feet three inches, somewhat shorter than cavalry spears.
“I’ll go first.”
Muk Hae-jin swung his spear first toward the cadets who were still bewildered.
If they couldn’t understand with their heads, they could just move their bodies.
At Muk Hae-jin’s first attack, the Waryong Corps 20th Group cadets moved hastily.
Iron Soul Spear Technique.
It was Muk Hae-jin’s specialty, and also the specialty of Waryong Corps 1st Group Iron Commander.
Domineering spear techniques that seemed to sweep away enemies in one stroke continuously flew toward the cadets.
Ha Mu-baek was watching this scene from the academy rooftop.
‘Hmm. Do those guys perhaps have good fortune with people?’
First Han Seol-bing, and now even Muk Hae-jin.
Ha Mu-baek quietly observed the sight of instructors personally trying to help.
Wasn’t he himself also paying attention to those guys like this?
Though it was the cadets under his charge who had started this affair.
‘What should I do?’
Ha Mu-baek pondered.
Watching like this, their chances of winning seemed slim.
Last year’s case was possible because he had personally stepped in.
The current Waryong Corps 1st Group members were being even more careless than last year’s Jamryong Corps 1st Group members.
However, the 20th Group’s preparations were also lacking compared to last year.
Most importantly.
‘Internal energy is the problem.’
This was an absolutely insurmountable wall.
The difference had to be within a certain range to be overcome with forms and sword formations.
Last year, Ha Mu-baek had overcome this wall by personally planting seeds of internal energy.
But for him to step forward like that for those children now would be ridiculous.
Most importantly, the mind technique they had learned wasn’t the Three Talents Heart Method.
‘What should I do?’
It was a concern he originally wouldn’t have had.
But the image of Ha Seol-ran occasionally coming to seek his advice kept bothering him.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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