Third-rate Martial Family Becomes the Best Under Heaven - Chapter 102

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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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Third-rate Martial Arts Family, Greatest Under Heaven – Episode 102
Hyeolanra.
A heretical cult leader from my past life—among the mad cultists I’d fought back then, he ranked among the strongest and left an intensely vivid impression.
‘Blood Cult, definitely one of the sixth branch bastards.’
My head began spinning with thoughts.
From what I vaguely recalled, he was over one hundred and fifty years old during that previous era.
In other words, by this point in time, he was a monster well over a hundred years old.
‘In terms of martial prowess… there’s no way I could win.’
One-on-one, I had no chance whatsoever.
Had I possessed even five more years, things might have been different, but as it stands now, victory is impossible.
Only if Seon-gi became a variable would the situation change.
But I couldn’t afford to rely on that and invite danger needlessly.
“Elder Brother, the Mara bastards have appeared—what do we do now?”
Chu Dal asked on behalf of the group, though everyone’s eyes betrayed their curiosity.
“What else? We observe for now.”
…
“Why that expression?”
“I thought a peerless prodigy and strategist of the age like you would have devised some brilliant scheme.”
…
After all my boasting, I found myself at a loss for words.
“Still, it’s not as though I have no ideas whatsoever.”
Whether I could employ them would depend entirely on how the situation unfolded.
That was when it happened.
Despite being over a hundred paces away, a malevolent aura rippled forth and struck us like a foul wind.
Ugh.
“A most revolting energy wave.”
“Ugh, Mara!”
As the entire group frowned in unison, Hyeolanra began to move.
“Pitiful creatures, lacking in enlightenment.”
Every word from Hyeolanra carried an oppressively thick and sinister demonic energy.
What the Blood Cult revered as blood qi—a heretical force extracted by force from living humans, saturated with a virulent primal poison.
“I grant you an opportunity: to become one with the sacred and holy will of the Blood God.”
In other words, surrender your bodies.
“I doubt anyone would fall for such nonsense, you Mara creature.”
It was Mu-dang’s Manifestation who stepped forward with raised voice.
His martial talent was exceptional enough to become the greatest swordsman of the Shamans in time, yet he was equally insufferable.
‘But that fool, at this point in time, should be roughly on par with me. What’s he thinking, stepping forward like that?’
As expected, Hyeon-hyeon couldn’t even handle a single finger from Hyeolanra.
He barely deflected the demonic wind-blade shot from the creature’s fingernail, and even that wasn’t enough—pushed back six or seven steps, Hyeon-hyeon’s face was filled with panic.
This fool had no sense whatsoever at his age.
If you charge forward confidently only to be defeated in a single move, morale will plummet, boy.
“All meetings are the beginning of karmic bonds. Even if our end is each other’s death, surely we can at least exchange names, can we not?”
It was Cheong-so, an elder of the Shaman sect, who stepped forward instead of Hyeon-hyeon.
“I am called Cheong-so, a humble monk of the Shaman sect. And who might you be?”
Hyeolanra’s lips curled upward, revealing teeth so unnaturally sharp they seemed impossible for any human to possess.
At a glance, it was clear they had been deliberately filed and honed to razor edges.
“Hyeolanra. The crimson net of blood that will devour you all.”
“I see. I hail from the Shaman sect, but from whence do you come, Hyeolanra?”
“Would you understand if I told you, ignorant creature?”
Cheong-so’s face hardened visibly at the blatant contempt.
Regardless, Hyeolanra continued speaking.
“They show no fatigue, no hunger. The sacrifices have not been properly prepared.”
“I shall atone with my life, Bishop!”
Ignoring the Hogyodaejoo who prostrated himself on the ground, Hyeolanra spread crimson claws in all directions.
“But no matter. Raw flesh tastes best when fresh, after all. Ignorant wretches, become blood and meat for a greater purpose.”
Hyeolanra’s index fingernail extended with a sickening stretch, piercing through the nearest warrior’s heart.
After savoring the frantic pulsing for a moment, Hyeolanra skillfully controlled the claw energy that clung to the nail, dragging the warrior’s body close.
Then.
Crack!
The warrior’s corpse trembled violently as the throat was torn open after the heart, and Hyeolanra, lower jaw drenched in blood, released a moan saturated with ecstasy.
“Ahhh. This taste. This exquisite taste.”
In that moment, my keen sense of qi detected the blood energy—the spiritual essence—woven into Hyeolanra’s words.
“Now it begins.”
The half-human, half-corpse creatures standing around Hyeolanra responded to the spiritual essence and began attacking indiscriminately.
Even in my past life, these creatures were the main force of the Blood Cult’s sixth branch.
‘They wouldn’t fall unless their necks were severed—terribly troublesome indeed.’
“Grraaaah!”
“These… these things won’t fall!”
“Target their vital points!”
“Ugh, cough!”
“Jiangshi! They’re jiangshi!”
After a period of chaos, the warriors finally discovered how to deal with the half-corpses.
“Cut off their heads!”
“Once the head is severed, they stop moving!”
But did they understand?
The Bishop alone was the true strength of this branch.
At this rate, there was no chance of victory.
Should I descend now and join them, actively employing my immortal energy?
No. Even that would be impossible.
As I am now, all I could do was remain hidden and observe.
‘Damn it. I don’t want to just flee and leave that bastard behind.’
He came all this way because he wanted to die.
I wanted to deliver to him with my own hands the same fate he suffered in his previous life.
It was at that moment.
Thump!
A pulse resonated through me.
Yet its location was not my heart, but my dantian.
‘The dantian… it’s calling to me.’
Ordinarily, Yang Hwi relied little on intuition, given how sharp his intellect was.
But now, just as when he’d experienced it years ago, an uncannily vivid intuition hammered at his consciousness.
‘No, this is the second time I’ve felt it. It’s less intuition than… a pull.’
“We need to move.”
“Where are you thinking of going, younger brother Hwi?”
“I think we need to split up.”
“Little brother, what’s your reasoning?”
“We need to excavate the passage blocked by earth and stone so the martial artists can escape. And we must also complete our exploration of the Geom Wang Tomb.”
I turned my gaze toward Adu.
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“You want to kill that Mara bastard, don’t you?”
“Yeah. I’ll teach him a lesson!”
“Right. Then let’s dig through the earth first. Chu Dal, take him with you.”
I sent Chu Dal and Adu westward along the passage to where the iron-winged bat corpses lay.
It would take some time to clear away the earth and stone blocking the gate, but it had to be done.
‘Whoever wins, they’ll eventually need to break through the passage to escape the cave.’
What if the martial artists got lucky and killed all the Blood Sect members?
Then all our problems would be solved.
Though we’d need to hurry and gather the treasures from the Geom Wang Tomb.
But that possibility was slim.
Most likely, the Blood Sect disciples would slaughter all the martial artists in the cave.
Yet even in that case, we’d still need the passage.
‘Even if the Bishop could manage it, the others couldn’t scale the cliff while carrying all the corpses of the martial artists.’
So the Bishop would try to break through the passage and reach the end of the Geom Wang Tomb.
Because the map of Jang Bo-do, which had been distributed through Ha O-mun, specified not only the location of the entrance but also the existence of an exit.
‘I don’t know the exact location, but it was marked as a water passage, so probably…’
The exit likely lay near Baek Su, the white waters that flowed down through the harshest ravines of Baek Su-san and formed a river at the mountain’s base.
In other words, if things proceeded according to the plan I’d formulated based on this pull…
I could create chaos once more.
And it would be chaos where I held all the initiative.
“Elder Dang. Give me the antidote.”
“Through the poison passage?”
“Yes. I’ll go alone.”
Gu Ak stepped forward.
“Little brother. It’s dangerous. If someone must go alone, it should be me.”
“That won’t do. If something goes wrong, what will I say to Sister Arang? Elder Brother, you and Elder Dang and Sister Dang-yeon watch over the cave’s condition and find us another passage.”
Yang Hwi snorted and launched his body forward.
Gu Ak watched him for a moment.
The boy seemed to dump all the reckless and tedious tasks on others, yet he personally undertook the truly dangerous ones.
This was why Gu Ak could never truly hate Yang Hwi.
“Let’s move as well, Soga-joonim.”
“We’ve already found another hole leading downward earlier, so let’s see if it can serve as an escape route for the warriors.”
“Let’s hurry. We need to save as many as we can.”
They assigned Dang-yeon the role of observing the situation.
She poked her head out just enough to engrave the battle below into her eyes without missing a detail.
‘Fortunately, with the Shaman here, it hasn’t turned into a one-sided slaughter.’
Apart from the Shaman’s most secular tendencies among the Tao sect, her energy was pure and righteous, infused with dark mystery that manifested Taoist power.
In short, she possessed the function of a demon-suppressing master.
Thanks to this, the cave’s warriors were holding out better than expected.
At least the Baek Do warriors were.
“Kraaaagh!”
“P-please! Spare me!”
“Why are you doing this to your own sect members! Please, p-kraaagh!”
Hogyodaejoo, who had snatched a sect member’s head with his mantis-like long arm and severed it with a sickening crunch, let out a cold laugh.
“Fellow sect members, you say. You insult us. Since I’ve heard such filthy words, I must wash my ears with blood.”
That was the moment.
Kwaaaang!
Dang-yeon’s eyes widened as she saw the golden light erupting from the south of the cave.
“A-already cleared all the rubble?”
Rather, “blasted away” seemed more accurate.
Rubble was still scattering through the air.
At the same time, she discovered one crucial fact.
Every demonic cultivator in the cave turned to gaze at the golden light, their expressions radiating an intense, visceral disgust.
‘As expected of Shaolin. The caliber is different from the Shaman.’
All of Shaolin’s techniques carried the function of demon-suppression and demon-destruction.
This characteristic seemed to provoke the demonic cultivators.
“A-a passage!”
“Everyone, flee that way!”
The cave’s warriors surged forward, and the blood cult members shouted behind them.
“Chase them!”
“Perfect timing with the passage open! We won’t rest until we reach a dead end—we’ll pursue them to the very end and devour them all!”
“Find the one radiating golden energy and bring me his severed limbs.”
“As you command!”
High above in that vast chamber, Dang-yeon’s expression grew troubled without her realizing it.
“Monk, this is happening far too quickly…”
It was certainly much sooner than Yang Hwi had anticipated.
Dang-yeon stiffened slightly and swallowed hard.
Then, with her hands clasped together, she offered a prayer.
That everything would unfold according to her clever younger brother Baek’s plan.

* * *
“Exhale.”
I released my breath and relaxed my body.
Simultaneously, I lifted my gaze forward and saw a corridor teeming with all manner of creatures.
“Tsk. No matter how fast I run, I’ll probably take dozens of bites.”
No matter how much I blocked the poison, there were limits.
To defend against the invasion of toxins, I would need to circulate my energy, and using that energy meant I’d need time to replenish it.
‘That won’t do.’
I had taken and applied the antidote, but it was merely insurance.
I possessed one stratagem to traverse the poison corridor in a single burst.
Thump!
My heart pounded again. I placed my hand on my dantian, my eyes hardening with resolve.
“I’ll be there soon, so stop trembling.”
With those words, I launched my body forward.
Gi-cheon Step—Swift! Swift! Swift! Swift!
I channeled the power of eight realms into my lower body, unleashing the Gi-cheon Step at maximum velocity.
My form pierced through the poison corridor with breathtaking speed.
Though there were so many poison creatures that it was like charging into their very nest…
‘If I don’t give them a chance to bite, then it doesn’t matter.’
My instincts were revealing a single truth.
The iron poison chamber corresponding to the first gate.
The corridor teeming with poison creatures corresponding to the second gate.
‘It was always strange that Geom Wang’s tomb contained only poison creatures.’
For an arrangement by the greatest under heaven seeking Yeon-yeon, this was far too aggressive.
Logically, if this were meant to transmit martial arts, he would have wanted a young and vigorous Dongnyang-jijae.
Then the structure of Geom Wang’s tomb and its gates should be the type that tested a disciple’s abilities.
Neither the first nor second gate matched the design of someone seeking a disciple.
Rather.
‘The purpose is likely to confine and prevent entry—except for someone in particular.’
Sting!
“Damn!”
While lost in thought, a poison creature bit my ankle.
It seemed I would need to drive away the insects and snakes first, after all.
Bzzzzzzzz!
My sword began to vibrate gently.
That was the moment.

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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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