Third-rate Martial Family Becomes the Best Under Heaven - Chapter 255

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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 255
Unlike Seolha, whose spiritual essence had only recently recovered, I had been preparing a strike throughout our entire conversation.
In a state of perfect mental focus, ready to unleash my most devastating technique at any moment and create an opening to escape.
“Brother!”
As Seolha cried out while being sent flying into the distance, I swung my blade.
Gae-cheon-bak-pal-geom’s Second Secret, Supreme Technique.
White Feathers Fill the Sky!
Luminous white feathers materialized. Following the principle of capturing essence from emptiness, the feathers under the dominion of my will simultaneously tore through the Cheonma’s darkness.
‘Damn it, nothing’s working.’
Still, thanks to the rebound, I succeeded in evading the ambush.
“A mere beast dares to resort to sneak attacks?”
[Hehehehe, the magnanimity of the strong can only be expected when the weak offer their reverence and admiration, can it not?]
Well, I was certainly running my mouth trying to create some opening.
That bastard, despite the pretense, must have taken quite a bit of damage.
[Yang Hwi, it was you who desired this confrontation in the first place.]
“True enough. Though that was when you were Nang Hon. But looking at you, you’re like some ancient monster centuries old—aren’t you going to yield the first move to your junior?”
[If you wish it, I shall yield the first move even now. Display yourself freely.]
Good, I’ve bought some time at least.
I’ll drag this out as long as possible, pretending to prepare my technique.
“Seolha. Get ready.”
“Yes, brother.”
I fixed my gaze on the Cheonma.
The current situation was a desperate crisis, yet also an opportunity.
A miracle of regression granted when I faced death without achieving my lifelong ambition.
That very beast before me.
The reason I was given a second chance.
‘Whether it’s Yeo Dong-bin or someone else, they wanted me to defeat that monster.’
Damn it, if that were the case, they should have given me far more than just a Seon-gi seed.
How am I supposed to overcome such a monstrosity?
“Brother. That darkness—it’s definitely Robust Qi.”
“Yes. Hard to believe, but it seems so.”
Robust Qi.
Swordsmen wield sword essence, martial artists wield fist essence—masters at the peak handle tangible energy.
Called the peak because it is the limit humans can reach, the summit beyond which one cannot climb.
But what can one grasp upon entering the realm beyond the peak, called the transcendent stage?
The answer is simple.
‘Energy refined and purified to such a degree it achieves spirituality through unity with tangible intent.’
But here, the standard of purity is not the world.
It means what aligns perfectly and harmonizes with the martial way I walk as a warrior—with my very self.
In other words, a means to impose ‘myself’ as a person upon all of heaven and earth.
The world calls this technique Qi Armor.
‘That’s right, with him being the Cheonma himself, he’d naturally be beyond the pinnacle realm. But no matter what, to wield Qi Armor like that….’
The darkness enveloping the Cheonma’s surroundings.
Its scale and magnitude evoked the image of a mountain.
To manipulate Qi Armor of that magnitude, just how much inner qi and will would one need to possess?
I heightened my senses to their maximum.
Threads of energy unraveled as I examined the Cheonma’s darkness.
‘The realm is… at minimum, far beyond the pinnacle.’
In other words, the Cheonma was at the very least a powerhouse equal to the Cheonmu-sip-jon.
And if I were to predict his true maximum, which I couldn’t even fathom….
‘He might be a powerhouse who even looks down upon the Cheonmu-sip-jon.’
[What are you doing? I gave you the opening move, yet you’ve been suppressed and rendered unable to move?]
“Silence.”
-Seolha. I’m going all out.
-Yes, brother.
The blade vibrated wildly. The hawk’s cry erupted forth.
-Keeeeeeee!
Then, it transformed.
-Chara-rang, chara-rang, chara-rang!
The transformation of sound that symbolized the pinnacle of the Sound Master’s art.
The sound shifted and became Jegal Seol-ha’s weapon.
That wasn’t all.
Every sound filling the mountain—the chirping of birds, the blowing wind, the rustling of branches.
All sounds born from these things vanished.
They converged into one, transforming into martial technique.
The contemporary successor of the mysterious sect that pursues the Immortal Way through the harmony of sound, the Holy Sound Jade Bell Gate.
The sole disciple of the Cheonmu-sip-jon, called the Sound Queen of Wave Heaven for making even the heavens ripple.
Her name: Jegal Seol-ha.
“I’m coming, brother!”
Jegal Seol-ha plucked the strings of her pipa with all her might.
Flying Immortal Jade Sound Single Path Method, Ten Thousand Sounds as One!
The beautiful melody spilled by an immortal soaring through the heavens creates a single path.
A path that makes even ten thousand sounds converge into only one.
‘Hah, this girl Seolha. She’s grown tremendously.’
Marveling anew, I swung my blade.
It was a swift sword strike, yet it contained immense force beyond imagination.
Gae-cheon-bak-pal-geom Second Secret, Profound Meaning.
White Feathers Fill the Heaven!
It was a perfect combination.
If I were to judge fairly, even a pinnacle master couldn’t afford to overlook it.
But.
As the dust settled, the Cheonma’s darkness revealed itself.
[Won’t you try to satisfy me a bit more?]
I hadn’t even managed to wound the Cheonma, let alone scratch the darkness enveloping it.
Only the scattering dust proved my attack had landed; the Cheonma’s form remained utterly unchanged.
‘How hollow.’
Just how much of a monster was this creature?
-Brother, I think today might be our memorial day? That bastard won’t even give us a chance to escape.
It was overwhelming. Even facing the Cheonmu-sip-jon, I could harbor ambitions of eventually surpassing them.
But this—a sense of distance no one had ever shown me before.
Still.
‘You only give up when you’re dead.’
Having already died once, it would be pathetic to cower before an opponent I couldn’t resist.
Even if I died, I had to send Seolha away alive.
“Hey. Just one more round.”
[It’s not difficult. But do you have confidence you can entertain me?]
“Yeah. It’ll be fun.”
[Then so be it.]
-This time, I’m going all out. I’ll take the main offense, so you support me, Seolha.
I stimulated my middle dantian and awakened it.
The Primordial Qi sleeping within surged forth, and my power exploded outward.
The fundamental energy that allows all living beings to sustain life—the source that every creature possesses.
Yet for warriors who had transcended the peak realm, Primordial Qi held another meaning entirely.
‘The most vibrant energy of all.’
It was natural, being the very essence of life itself.
Primordial Qi was the perfect crystallization of the enlightenment of living vitality.
-Seolha. I hate to ask, but it seems you’ll need to use Primordial Qi as well.
-I’ve already awakened it. Even if we die, we need to land at least one strike on that bastard.
Whoever taught her certainly gave her nerves of steel.
Right—even unto death, I had to land one blade strike.
My opponent was the Cheonma. Perhaps the greatest under heaven of this age—a true monster.
‘If I lose my nerve now, how could I ever face anyone and claim to pursue supremacy under heaven?’
To reach the ultimate transcendent realm, a warrior must satisfy two conditions.
First: the enlightenment of living vitality, the seizing of emptiness, and the unity of warrior and body.
The convergence of three enlightenments.
And second.
Inner Qi at the lower dantian, True Qi at the middle dantian, and Spiritual Qi at the upper dantian.
The convergence of the three dantians.
‘I awaken the upper dantian.’
Blood vessels bulged in my eyes. I clenched my teeth and endured the pressure.
The Baihui point—a passage connecting to the heavens.
The upper dantian in the forehead, where Spiritual Qi poured through the Baihui comes to rest.
Those who open their upper dantian gain abilities to perceive the unseen or comprehend the unreadable.
But for a Warrior, the upper dantian is….
‘A nest where materialized intent must coil and settle.’
“Hey, Nang Hon. Remember?”
I continued without waiting for a response.
“You must have seen it too. How I toyed with Namgung Cheon-yeong using my left hand.”
[It was quite impressive.]
“Here’s the thing—it wasn’t purely for amusement.”
Any skilled practitioner must embed two benefits within a single action.
My left hand’s use was part of my cultivation.
To reach heights even greater than my past life.
The foundation must be broad and firmly laid.
The larger and thicker the vessel, the more water it can hold.
The Warrior’s martial essence. The Swordsman’s blade.
Both were the same principle.
-Kiiiiiiiii!
The hawk’s cry pierced the air.
Unlike before, it was not a single hawk that shrieked.
-Kiiiiiiiii!
-Kiiiiiiiii!
I extended my left hand downward.
Qi flowed along the Jianjing point in my shoulder.
At the Quchi point in my elbow, qi and intent gathered to form a shape.
Reaching the Yangxi point in my wrist, the form was refined and sharpened.
Centered on the Zhongzhu point at my middle finger’s tip, it began to emit Primordial Qi.
-Brother, that’s…!
Hand-Sword. My left hand had transformed into a blade.
I spread both arms wide to the sides.
The sword gripped in my right hand. My left hand, now a blade itself.
The sight resembled a hawk with wings spread wide.
[Ho. Haha, how amusing.]
The Cheonma seemed to have recognized it.
That I hadn’t merely shaped qi into a sword form in my left hand.
[Dual Intent. No, calling it two wouldn’t be right. Then it should be called Paired Intent—Dual Intent.]
[What is its name?]
“Gaecheon Swordsmanship, Dual Hundred-Eight Transformations of Heaven.”
[You’re no fool regarding the limitations of dual-sword techniques. I’m curious what these two blades are meant to demonstrate.]
The Cheonma was right. Having one sword become two doesn’t inherently grant additional advantages.
One could only wield multiple blades as a single sword after reaching the pinnacle of ascension.
Yet the reason I held a Spiritual Qi Sword in my left hand.
“A single blade couldn’t contain it all.”
-Come, Seolha. I’m counting on you. Play with all your heart.
Though the sound transmission was brief, Jegal Seol-ha grasped my intention perfectly.
The time we had spent together was long and deep enough to render words unnecessary.
Ting-ting-ting-ting-ting! Ting-ting-ting-ting-ting! Ting-ting-ting-ting-ting!
Jegal Seol-ha’s fingers danced frantically across the strings.
Rhythm flowed. Melody poured forth.
Our purpose was singular.
I too danced the sword form in harmony with the sound.
I surrendered my body to the rhythm and matched my movements to the melody.
Our purpose was singular.
‘Gae-cheon-bak-pal-geom Second Secret, Feathered Transformation Great and Small.’
Feathered Transformation—a technique that utilized the mysteries of the Sound Master’s art to produce the effect of grafting two into one.
I accepted Jegal Seol-ha’s sound. I channeled it directly through my blade, amplifying its power to the maximum.
Simultaneously, I drew forth a fragment of memory from my mind.
‘Geom Seon’s Heaven Concealment Sword Method. The first technique: Heavenly Pressure.’
A technique imbued with the imagery of a vast, boundless sky pressing down upon all things.
From this, I had created and demonstrated two techniques.
The variation of the fourth technique of the first secret, White Feather Pressing Peak.
The secret-level technique of the second secret, Heavenly Wings Pressing All Under Heaven.
‘The more I deconstructed and recreated, the more I felt my limits.’
At my current level, I couldn’t even properly digest a single technique from Geom Seon.
To master the Heaven Concealment Sword Method completely, I would need to reach a realm where I could internalize the sword intent it contained.
But.
I shifted my perspective.
‘If one blade cannot contain it… what of two?’
Of course, simply holding two swords wouldn’t solve what couldn’t be solved before.
The blades had to truly become two in the genuine sense.
To the point where I could harbor the intent myself and call them swords through will alone.
‘Now, it’s time to test this.’
“Here I come, you bastard.”
I gripped a sword in my right hand and a sword in my left.
Once gripped, they must be wielded—that was the way.
Nothing more, nothing less was needed.
So I simply wielded them.
“Gae-cheon Sword Method, Twin Hundred-Eight Transformation Heaven.”
One technique’s variation, Twin Wings Dominating All Under Heaven!

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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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