Third-rate Martial Family Becomes the Best Under Heaven - Chapter 253

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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 253
Nang Hon remained serene.
He didn’t resort to the clichéd display of suddenly unleashing demonic energy in chaotic bursts.
And yet.
Something unmistakably had shifted from before.
‘My heart is fluttering.’
I was confident that at least in terms of perception, I possessed unparalleled mastery under heaven.
The keen sensitivity to read the aura of even Salsoo, who had ascended to the realm of ascension.
Thanks to such acute perception, my intuition had naturally sharpened.
Yet my intuition had never once triggered against Nang Hon.
From some point onward, I only felt a chilling sensation as if it weren’t my own.
‘Now I understand. Seon-gi was sensing danger. I failed to notice, and even Seon-gi was half-deceived. That subtle difference manifested as this chilling feeling.’
The amusing fact was that I still couldn’t fathom why Seon-gi had reacted.
Nang Hon harbored not a single trace of demonic energy.
But I didn’t dwell on the mystery now.
Unlike before, my intuition was now sounding alarms directed at Nang Hon, allowing me to trust myself and move forward.
“So what’s your answer? You bastard, you’re the Demon Sect Leader, aren’t you?”
Nang Hon responded without any concern.
“This Nang Hon has never volunteered to be anyone’s sect leader.”
Revealing his true nature and still making excuses.
What an irritating bastard.
“You may not have volunteered, but it sounds like there are those who regard you as their leader.”
Nang Hon smiled gently and shifted the conversation.
“I have a question, Yang Hwi. Why did the terminology change from Blood Sect Leader to Demon Sect Leader?”
There was no reason I couldn’t answer.
After all, I needed to buy time anyway.
Besides, it made no difference whether I spoke or not.
“Blood Sect Leader or Demon Sect Leader—it’s all the same thing. Does the reason even matter? You seemed to enjoy wordplay, so I decided to try it myself.”
“So you weren’t aware of anything. Then why did you suddenly include surrender as an option?”
“Yeah. I just threw it out to see how you’d react. I didn’t expect you to fall for it though.”
That was truly all there was to it.
If I had to be precise, it was an intuition telling me to doubt my own quiet intuition.
“So this Nang Hon fell for mere wordplay. I’m curious about the basis for such behavior from the meticulous Yang Hwi.”
The basis. After receiving Neung-o’s counsel, the reason I resolved to see this through even if I abandoned the Dragon-Phoenix Struggle.
“Lately, there’s been much I couldn’t understand. Then a few characters from an old saying came to mind.”
“What was it?”
“Do your utmost and await heaven’s will.”
Do your utmost and await heaven’s will.
Exhaust all that humans can do, then await the will of heaven.
“I wondered if the frustration I’ve been feeling stems from becoming a pawn on someone else’s board.”
I’d frequently set up schemes and use various tactics as pawns in my games.
Because of such habits, I unconsciously felt as though there was something suffocating and blocked up inside me.
My body rejected the sensation before my mind could even comprehend that I had become a piece on someone else’s board.
“Is that so? Haha. Whose board do you think it is?”
“That’s still something I’m pondering. For now, it seems I won’t be able to know.”
Whether it’s Geom-ong, the leader of the Three Great Demonic Sects, or perhaps something else entirely.
“In any case, when Geom-ong staked the Sword Selection Decree as the reward for Jeil-ryong, that’s when this thought occurred to me.”
The Taeguk Sword Master would have had no reason not to recognize it.
That Yang Hwi himself was a formidable favorite to win.
If the reason the reward changed wasn’t because the flow of past and present lives had diverged.
Then either he saw some possibility, or he staked the Sword Selection Decree to obtain some inexplicable certainty.
“I’m curious what would happen if I, Baek Yang-hwi, were to forfeit the Sword Selection Decree.”
It was truly a thought with no basis whatsoever.
It had no connection to my suspicions about Nang Hon from the start.
“Nang Hon. Want me to guess why you avoided a duel with me?”
“That would be interesting. Please, go ahead.”
“Because you couldn’t afford to lose?”
“Oh? Why would you think that?”
I shrugged and replied.
“You said it yourself—you value entertainment. No matter how I think about it, a match with me would be the most entertaining.”
“I cannot deny that.”
Until the moment he pointed to Baek Heon-so, Nang Hon had genuinely desired the duel.
But then, at some point, that changed.
‘When he showed interest in Seolha. Or perhaps when he met my father.’
I don’t know which of the two was the reason for the change.
So let me find out now.
“Seolha.”
After something in Nang Hon had shifted, Jegal Seol-ha was gripped with terror.
I pulled her into my embrace.
“It’s alright. I’m here.”
“Older brother….”
I examined Nang Hon with all my senses.
There was indeed a change, subtle though it was.
“Phew… Young Master Yang Hwi. It is not her. While she is certainly an important reason, the entertainment I came to feel stems from your father, Young Master Yang Hwi.”
“My father? What does my father have to do with this?”
Nang Hon’s answer was extremely simple.
“He was the one who gave you the name Yang Hwi.”
So what about that?
“My, it seems you still don’t understand. Perhaps the Taeguk Sword Master hasn’t yet confirmed or acknowledged it.”
“I see. As expected, it seems he still doesn’t know. It appears that the Taegeuk Sword Master either hasn’t become certain or is unable to acknowledge it yet.”
From that cryptic response, I gleaned fragments of information.
‘My suspicion seems correct—Geom-ong wanted to create the possibility for me to obtain the Geom Seon Records.’
Rather than handing it over directly, he set it as a reward from Jeil-ryong because he wanted to see where this flow would lead.
After all, the direction of such a flow could be called the mandate of heaven in the saying “man proposes, heaven disposes.”
“Do you also wish for me to obtain the Geom Seon Records?”
Nang Hon fell into brief contemplation.
“It’s fifty-fifty. It seems like it would be interesting, but also troublesome.”
“You avoided the confrontation because you didn’t want to lose.”
“That’s correct.”
A clear answer. The moment I heard it, something flashed through my mind.
“No, you can’t lose. You cannot be defeated by me.”
“….”
Nang Hon fell silent, his expression resembling that of someone whose true feelings had been exposed.
Satisfaction surged through me. Simultaneously, curiosity swelled.
‘Why? What reason is there that you cannot lose to me?’
“Are you curious?”
“Desperately so.”
“It’s simple. The roles have been reversed. Before it didn’t matter, but the situation differs from what we knew.”
One thing was certain.
This bastard loves his Zen riddles.
“Since I’ve answered your question, I too shall ask one more. Did you truly intend to abandon the Dragon-Phoenix Struggle? The board that Yang Hwi and Namgung Cheon-yeong arranged would have been completely destroyed.”
It didn’t matter. My plans would be disrupted, but I’d decided that severing the source of my frustration took priority.
‘Instead of becoming Jeil-ryong myself, I can make Adu the champion and use him.’
“I was thinking of using him indirectly through some scheme or another. It’s my specialty to wreck a carefully laid board and turn it into complete chaos.”
“You were planning to manipulate things from behind the scenes and make Adu the Jeil-ryong.”
A new interest appeared on Nang Hon’s face.
“Adu. Truly a fascinating existence. Is he not? Someone whose mind isn’t even whole, yet superior to anyone under heaven.”
That was certainly true.
By nature, the higher one’s martial cultivation reaches, the more important comprehension becomes—the intelligence to accept enlightenment.
“What of it? The world is full of bastards who can’t even comprehend the basics. Adu is practically a gentleman compared to them.”
“Surely you’re not saying that I’m one of those bastards who can’t comprehend?”
“You understand your own position well enough.”
“Hahaha!”
Hearty laughter rang out.
“Why? Why does Yang Hwi Namgung Cheon-yeong call this Nang Hon one of those incomprehensible bastards?”
“Just look at what you’re doing. Amusements, diversions, playing children’s games—what’s a grown man doing in such a place?”
“My long-cherished aspiration was thwarted, so I merely took time to recharge before walking the path anew.”
A long-cherished aspiration. Right, there was one more thing I wanted to ask.
“Not long after you came seeking your father, the Mukman Blood Sect launched a surprise attack.”
“Was there such an incident?”
“Did you show your hand so openly?”
“The evidence is too trivial to warrant suspicion. Surely I’m entitled to feel wronged?”
Entitled, you bastard.
“There’s more evidence anyway. First, Namgung couldn’t possibly be the mastermind.”
Through Chu Dal’s investigation, I confirmed that Namgung was indeed the one who commissioned the job.
Chu Dal discovered that Namgung was secretly trying to contact the Mukman Blood Sect to sweep the assassination attempt under the rug.
“But the Mukman Blood Sect is an offshoot spawned by the Blood Sect. Isn’t that far too contrived?”
“Any scheme orchestrated by someone is bound to be contrived by nature.”
“I also learned something from torturing those Salsoo men. They were told that if they couldn’t endure the torture, they should confess that the Namgung Family was the client.”
As if deliberately trying to make it seem like the Namgung Family was the mastermind.
“Just as you said, it’s far too contrived. Anyone else would have had more than enough reason to suspect.”
But if it were someone who already harbored resentment toward Namgung.
For example, someone from the Baek Family.
Wouldn’t they have accepted the notion that Namgung was the culprit more readily?
“Then it occurred to me. What matters isn’t making Namgung the villain—it’s what decision our Baek Family makes.”
In other words, the mastermind lurking in the shadows wants to see how the Baek Family moves.
A strong intuition struck me then.
“It’s exactly what you do.”
“That’s a leap in logic and mere speculation.”
“Right. But you’ve revealed your true colors like this?”
“Hehe, you’re quite right.”
That’s what frustrated me.
I couldn’t fathom the purpose at all.
‘I never imagined you’d go to such lengths just to see how we’d move.’
“Now tell me plainly. What’s your true identity?”
Nang Hon laughed. The same gentle smile as always.
“I’ve already told you.”
“What? When?”
“Think back to when we first met. Do you remember this Nang Hon’s name?”
Of course I remember.
Mineum. The character for exertion paired with the character for shadow.
“The Baek Family Head, once merely a third-rate martial arts family. The patriarch took in a foundling orphan as his son and gave him the name Yang Hwi, meaning to shine brightly in the light. From that moment, all my plans went awry.”
The same words came again.
As Yang Hwi, I couldn’t comprehend it.
‘Just because a name was given to an orphan as he said—why would that matter?’
It seemed Nang Hon had no intention of resolving my confusion.
“Originally, I planned to leave Mu-han around the semifinals or finals, just before facing Yang Hwi Namgung Cheon-yeong. By then, I would have enjoyed myself sufficiently.”
The ordinary appearance of an assassin began to transform.
A pitch-black radiance enveloped Nang Hon’s entire body, changing everything.
[Alas, what a shame. The entertainment ends here.]
A sense of crisis stimulated my entire body. I immediately drew my sword and took my stance.
No, I didn’t wait—I unleashed my blade energy at once.
“Die, you bastard!”
-KIIIIIIIIIII!
A strike that flew forth with the hawk’s cry.
The pure white sword energy melted away into the darkness as if washed clean.
In that moment, Nang Hon’s transformation was complete.
There were two colors that symbolized death.
Black, and white.
Dark as pitch-black ink, pale as burnt ash.
[You asked if I belonged to the Blood Sect. I cannot belong to anywhere.]
[You asked if I was the Blood Sect Leader. I merely received their faith, but I was never their shepherd or guide.]
[You asked if I was the Demonic Sect Leader. To that question… I must answer.]
I felt Jegal Seol-ha’s hand grasping my collar.
“Oh, brother….”
Jegal Seol-ha’s pupils trembled violently.
The image reflected in her eyes—a pale white flower bud as if bleached—
had bloomed.
Within it lay pitch-black darkness.
A shadow that sought to dye the entire world.
[Yang Hwi, I ask you this. If you were oppressed despite doing no wrong, would you simply remain still?]
I couldn’t say I would.
By nature, I would have crushed them.
Just as I was now dealing with those Namgung bastards who tried to kill me for being dangerous when I had done them no harm.
[I am the same. The world hates and oppresses me, so I too have chosen to hate the world.]
Nang Hon—no, Mineum—gazed upward at the sky.
A gaze that pierced through some point beyond the clouds.
[Thus I am a rebel against the will of heaven.]
[Since heaven does not permit it, I am merely a wanderer walking my own path.]
At last, Nang Hon’s lips parted.
For a moment, the world seemed to stop.
[Therefore, I am the Heavenly Demon.]

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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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