The World’s Greatest Martial Arts Instructor - Chapter 242

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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 242. I Became a Beast

 

 

Namgung Hwi traced through his memories.

He traveled back to that day he didn’t want to remember.

Naturally, he couldn’t help but grimace.

“Have you ever heard of a man who cannot produce seed?”

Namgung Hwi’s question.

Ha Mu-baek tilted his head.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what I said. A man whose body is perfectly fine but cannot produce seed. Unable to have descendants.”

“Ah…”

Ha Mu-baek let out a low exclamation.

“Namgung Hwa-hyeon. That bastard is like that. Now there are three people in all under heaven who know this fact.”

“Three?”

Ha Mu-baek’s question.

“Namgung Hwa-hyeon himself, me, and a mystic arts practitioner named Chu Dong. Naturally, I thought Namgung Hwa-hyeon would have found Chu Dong and killed him like he did to me, but he’s still alive. I heard rumors that he entered Muchang.”

“A mystic arts practitioner?”

Hearing those words, someone suddenly came to mind.

The fortune teller who had grabbed him on the street, calling him a noble person.

“He was the one who told us that Namgung Hwa-hyeon couldn’t have descendants. Said such things could be known through mystical arts.”

Namgung Hwi let out a bitter laugh.

“Namgung Hwa-hyeon tried every method to have children. He visited renowned physicians, but even the physicians of Seonyu Valley failed. They couldn’t find the cause of why he couldn’t have children.”

“So that mystic arts practitioner named Chu Dong found it for him.”

“That bastard is also human scum. He was a promising junior disciple of the Mosan Sect, but got addicted to gambling and was expelled. They destroyed his dantian and took out one of his eyes.”

At those words, Ha Mu-baek tilted his head.

The Mosan Sect had orthodox tendencies but was classified as an unorthodox sect if one had to categorize it.

The punishment carried out by such a sect seemed too light.

“The place where Chu Dong met Namgung Hwa-hyeon was also a gambling den. I don’t know what sweet words he used to entice Namgung Hwa-hyeon, but… anyway, Namgung Hwa-hyeon accepted that he was seedless. Then he plotted his scheme and I became the sacrifice.”

“You mean the journey, right.”

At Ha Mu-baek’s words, Namgung Hwi nodded.

The story of Namgung Hwa-hyeon’s journey was widely rumored among gossipmongers.

“I was from a very distant branch family and was an outer courtyard warrior of the noble family estate. While cultivating the Great Flame Sword Technique, I happened to catch Namgung Hwa-hyeon’s eye. He said I had talent and brought me close. At first, I was happy to be recognized by the Young Family Head.”

A bitter smile crossed Namgung Hwi’s lips.

“Even when he said he would take only me as his escort warrior on the journey, I was proud. I felt like I had become the Young Family Head’s right-hand man. And he even promised to teach me the Great Flame Thirteen Thunder Strikes, which was beyond my wildest dreams…”

Namgung Hwi paused for a moment.

He seemed to be organizing the emotions that had welled up.

Ha Mu-baek simply remained silent.

“At first, it really was just a journey. Until that day came. Then one night, there was an aphrodisiac mixed in the dinner we ate at the inn annex. And it was an extremely potent one.”

The rest of the story seemed predictable without hearing it.

Those poisoned by the aphrodisiac would have been Namgung Hwi and Namgung Hwa-hyeon’s wife and concubine.

“It was an aphrodisiac called Soul-Captivating Paradise Powder… The moment I was poisoned, I couldn’t control my body. It was the same for the two ladies. That day… I became a beast.”

His voice was thick with moisture.

His expression looked unbearably tormented.

It was still a memory he didn’t want to recall.

“The next day, I confronted Namgung Hwa-hyeon. Only then did he tell me. That he had a body incapable of making children. If he had to borrow another’s seed, he had decided to use mine, as I possessed brilliant talent.”

Ha Mu-baek silently brought his wine cup to his lips.

Meanwhile, the innkeeper brought roasted duck.

The conversation paused briefly.

After the innkeeper disappeared, Ha Mu-baek tore off a duck leg and brought it to his mouth.

Crunch, crunch.

Only the sound of Ha Mu-baek eating duck meat echoed.

“The first time is difficult, but the second time was easy.”

Namgung Hwi barely managed to speak after a moment.

“Saying there were good days for conceiving children, whenever that bastard Chu Dong set a date, I would unfailingly take the aphrodisiac. It wasn’t something I could do with a clear mind. Those beautiful ladies…”

His voice carried complex emotions.

“And Lady Baek became pregnant.”

Lady Baek was said to be Namgung Hwa-hyeon’s legitimate wife.

For the next three months, they simply traveled around all under heaven.

Then Chu Dong came.

That bastard said he could even determine the gender of the unborn child through mystical arts.

The judgment came down that the child Lady Baek was carrying was a girl.

Namgung Hwi had to take the aphrodisiac again.

To spend the night with Lady Ju, Namgung Hwa-hyeon’s concubine.

And six months after Lady Baek became pregnant.

Lady Ju became pregnant.

Three months later.

When Lady Baek’s due date was approaching.

Initially, Chu Dong said Lady Ju’s child was a girl.

But later, he sent word by messenger that it was a boy.

“That was when we were heading to Zhejiang Province, saying we wanted to see the ocean.”

“Sanwol Demon Forest.”

At Ha Mu-baek’s murmur, Namgung Hwi nodded.

“Yes. That place was where I was meant to die.”

Namgung Hwi drained a cup of wine.

“The Emperor Sword Form was terrifying. The Great Flame Sword Technique learned by a lowly warrior of the noble family was absolutely no match for it. Losing one arm, receiving countless sword wounds on my face, and with even my dantian injured… I barely escaped. What happened after that is.”

Ha Mu-baek silently refilled Namgung Hwi’s wine cup.

Namgung Hwi immediately poured it into his mouth.

The fiery liquor seemed to only fuel the resentment in his heart.

Nevertheless, Namgung Hwi drank again, trying to cool his anger.

“The two children born that way are.”

“Namgung Ji-yu and Namgung Ji-hu. Those two children.”

It was an answer filled with deep emotion.

Though he hadn’t even seen their birth, his voice was full of a father’s love for his children.

Ha Mu-baek nodded.

He had guessed from his behavior, but now he had confirmed it directly from the man’s own mouth.

‘Set right the natural order…’

Ha Mu-baek recalled the words of the fortune teller he had called a quack.

That bastard must be this Chu Dong fellow.

‘Not a complete quack, it seems.’

That thought occurred to him.

Because now, having heard all of Namgung Hwi’s story.

Rage was rising from deep within Ha Mu-baek’s chest.

The bond between parent and child.

A precious connection that even the word “natural order” couldn’t fully describe.

Why does Ha Mu-baek hate the Blood Cult and Demon Cult?

Ha Seol-ran was too young to remember.

But Ha Mu-baek saw it clearly with his own two eyes.

The sight of his parents being brutally slaughtered.

From that small space where his parents had hidden them.

With one hand covering his own mouth, and the other covering tiny Ha Seol-ran’s mouth.

He shed tears of blood at the sight visible through a very small gap.

The hand covering his mouth pressed so hard that he almost completely cut off Ha Seol-ran’s breathing.

They were merely low-ranking warriors of the Demon Cult and Blood Cult.

Those bastards destroyed a small village.

The ones who had been fighting to expand their respective forces joined hands to turn one village into ruins.

No, they did fight.

Saying they would kill each other.

Saying they would violate each other.

Mother rushed at the sword-wielding bastards and died before being dishonored.

Father, enraged by that sight, charged at them and was brutally stabbed to death.

Now he seemed to understand why they had done that back then.

To prevent those bastards from searching the house.

They did it to save him and his younger sibling.

What must his parents’ feelings have been like at that time?

But Namgung Hwa-hyeon.

The Namgung Family Head, for the sake of his position as Family Head.

Had violated such natural bonds.

He used aphrodisiacs to force relations and create children.

And killed their father.

Though he survived by a narrow margin.

“The two wives were…”

Ha Mu-baek asked cautiously.

From the fact that only Namgung Hwa-hyeon, Namgung Ji-yu, and Namgung Ji-hu had returned to the Namgung Family Estate, he could guess what had happened.

“He abandoned them in Sanwol Demon Forest…”

Anger slowly rose from Namgung Hwi’s body as he spoke those words.

“Then…”

“I met them in Sanwol Demon Forest. I gave them peace and laid them to rest in a good place.”

From those words, he could guess the entire story.

Though they weren’t his children, they had been his two wives nonetheless.

To throw them into such a place to keep secrets after achieving his purpose.

Truly a human face with a beast’s heart.

Should such a human be called worse than a beast, or more than a beast?

“What do you plan to do now?”

At Ha Mu-baek’s question, Namgung Hwi’s hotly burning anger cooled and organized itself.

“I must go. I must go and sever this evil karma and bad deeds. For the sake of those children too.”

Namgung Hwi’s gaze was directed far toward Hefei in Anhui Province.

“That bastard will absolutely never make Ji-hu the Young Family Head.”

Since these were the words of someone who had experienced Namgung Hwa-hyeon’s viciousness, they must be correct.

Namgung Ji-yu and Namgung Ji-hu were, in a way, Namgung Hwa-hyeon’s huge shame.

He had already become Family Head, and since they weren’t his children, there was no reason to make that child Young Family Head and pass on the position.

“Would it be possible?”

Ha Mu-baek asked again.

Namgung Hwi pressed his lips tightly shut.

He didn’t know.

Namgung Hwa-hyeon.

If he faced that bastard one-on-one, he was confident.

But that bastard was the Family Head of the Namgung Family Estate.

Would such a thing be possible?

No, would he even be able to face that bastard’s face?

Namgung Hwi clenched and unclenched his left hand.

“I can only give my all.”

Ha Mu-baek emptied his wine cup.

Thud.

And after setting the wine cup down on the dining table with a sound.

“Let’s go together.”

“What?”

Namgung Hwi was startled by Ha Mu-baek’s words.

Because words he never imagined flowed from his mouth.

“Why on earth…”

For Namgung Hwi, these were words whose reason he couldn’t understand.

It had to be so.

Weren’t he and Ha Mu-baek complete strangers?

That’s why Namgung Hwi might have opened up about that day’s events, which he had never told anyone.

But to go together?

“Chu Dong. That bastard told me so. That I’m a noble person who will set right the twisted natural order.”

“Did you meet him?”

“I encountered a one-eyed, small-statured fortune teller on the road.”

“Even if such a bastard spouted such nonsense…”

Namgung Hwi muttered with a bewildered face.

“Ji-hu. There’s a connection with that boy. And I owe a debt too. Let’s go together.”

“A debt?”

Namgung Hwi asked with a face that showed he didn’t understand.

At that question, Ha Mu-baek only made a strange expression.

 

Ha Mu-baek recalled a moment ago.

The moment when the two people’s Emperor Sword Form reached its peak.

He had intended just to watch, but their sword form affected Ha Mu-baek as well.

This was because Ha Mu-baek had seen the secret manual for the first half of the Emperor Sword Form and knew all its traditional formulas.

Thus, Ha Mu-baek gained an enlightenment just by watching the Emperor Sword Form.

But. That was.

Amazing.

The Dan Mok Family Estate’s Void Vast Heart Formula.

The presence of the hidden immense power he felt when he saw that secret manual.

He felt it in the Emperor Sword Form as well.

It wasn’t from the Emperor Sword Form that the two people displayed.

The Emperor Sword Form that sprouted in Ha Mu-baek’s mind.

He felt it from that.

Namgung Ji-hu was heaven and sea.

Namgung Hwi was sea.

It seemed they had interpreted the Emperor Sword Form that way.

But the Emperor Sword Form in Ha Mu-baek’s mind was different.

‘Light.’

It was a single ray of light.

Wi Ji-gun seemed not to have felt it.

The difference was that Ha Mu-baek had seen the secret manual, while Wi Ji-gun had not.

It was because of that difference.

Ha Mu-baek wouldn’t have known either if he had only seen those two’s sword techniques.

Because he had seen the secret manual and memorized the incantation formula.

The two people’s sword techniques and incantation formulas intertwined in complex ways, sprouting in Ha Mu-baek’s mind.

A sword form is literally a sword form.

What Namgung Ji-hu displayed was the Emperor Sword Form, and what Namgung Hwi displayed was also the Emperor Sword Form.

And what existed in Ha Mu-baek’s mind was also the Emperor Sword Form.

Though all three had different shapes, they were all the same Emperor Sword Form.

‘How fascinating.’

From the Emperor Sword Form that had sprouted like that, he felt a familiar energy.

It was similar to yet different from the profound mysteries of the Infinite Wishful Sword Technique.

It was also similar to yet different from the Void Vast Heart Formula.

‘What could it be?’

Ha Mu-baek felt that he could still become stronger.

This was the debt Ha Mu-baek had spoken of.

Namgung Hwi wouldn’t know.

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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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