Third-rate Martial Family Becomes the Best Under Heaven - Chapter 30
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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 030
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
“This madness!”
A fierce wind roared past my ears with a whooshing sound.
‘Damn it all!’
Truth be told, I possessed the confidence to handle a cliff of this magnitude without difficulty.
No matter how my current martial prowess remained merely third-rate, I carried within me the martial mastery achieved in my previous life—hardly an insurmountable challenge.
The problem was.
“Kyaaaah! Kyaaaaaaah!”
Each time Jegal Seol-ha screamed, the sound waves rippled outward like disturbances in water, destabilizing my control.
“Seolha, stay quiet!”
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
Asking a delicate child who had lived confined within herself to remain silent while plummeting from a cliff was perhaps too much to expect.
I immediately shifted to my backup strategy.
With Jegal Seol-ha’s consciousness sealed away, her eyes gently closing, I desperately channeled the Hwa-cheon-i-won-gong.
The Hwa-cheon qi, possessing a nature that embraced all things, harmonized seamlessly with the destabilizing sound waves invading my body.
‘Perfect!’
Next, I needed to drive something into the cliff face to create friction and slow our descent—damn it, I had no sword.
Left with no choice, I prepared to drive my bare hand into the stone.
Whoosh!
Something fell from above, descending faster than we were.
I quickly extended my hand and caught the falling object.
‘At least there’s a shred of conscience.’
It was a wooden sword rather than a steel blade, but at least I could avoid having my hands torn to shreds—I’d take what I could get.
Cradling Jegal Seol-ha, I drove the wooden sword into the cliff face, reducing our velocity.
Screeeeeech!
Yet the ground still rushed toward us with terrifying speed.
A proper falling technique could minimize injury, but that would require releasing Jegal Seol-ha.
Landing as we were would certainly fracture my legs at minimum, so I rapidly drew upon my Hwa-cheon qi and channeled it into my legs.
‘Seolha, this will be a bit rough.’
Ten zhang from the ground. Five zhang. Three zhang.
Finally, one zhang.
“Hah!”
My feet struck the ground squarely. In that instant, the impact reverberated through my soles.
My body began to undulate from my ankles upward.
A wave of force surged rapidly upward. I thrust both arms overhead.
At the precise moment the wave reached my fingertips, I gave Jegal Seol-ha’s body a gentle push.
Her body rocketed upward more than ten zhang into the air. By channeling the impact force through qi, even a gentle push sent her soaring to considerable height.
‘The impact is dispersed now—catching her will be simple.’
I safely caught the descending Jegal Seol-ha, finally allowing myself to exhale.
“Wow, I almost died there.”
Literally—I thought I was about to leave this world behind.
Cold sweat drenched my face during those brief moments of falling.
“….”
‘She won’t hear it, right? She won’t. Even if she does, she can’t say anything.’
“Just because you’re a master doesn’t mean… doesn’t….”
‘You’re just an old geezer wearing a young face!’
I couldn’t bring myself to finish the thought. No matter how I reasoned it, she’d definitely hear me.
‘Damn it. At least I’ll be grateful she threw me the wooden sword.’
I carefully set Jegal Seol-ha down from my arms and settled into a cross-legged position.
I’d burned through all my inner energy absorbing the impact of the fall, leaving my dantian completely drained.
Even though my dantian was now as small as a millet seed compared to my past life, I needed to refill it to feel even remotely secure.
“Haaah, whoooosh.”
I was concentrating intently on my cultivation, taking deliberate deep breaths, when I suddenly noticed something.
The air around us was growing colder by the moment.
“Mmm….”
Jegal Seol-ha began to let out soft groans as her consciousness started returning.
Considering the amount of energy I’d pushed into her meridian, there was still plenty left, but the cold seemed to be awakening her body faster.
‘Well, at this rate the energy should be recovered enough.’
My control over energy was excellent, and with such a small dantian, this was actually advantageous.
The efficiency of my cultivation was so good that I could refill my dantian quickly.
The real problem was that once Jegal Seol-ha regained consciousness, I’d have to worry about the Flame Poison invading her body.
“….”
I recalled the thought I’d had when I first discovered her constitution.
‘Perhaps… if it’s the Hwa-cheon-i-won-gong, it might be able to neutralize the side effects of the Flame Poison constitution.’
The fundamental martial art of the Baek Family Estate was the Harmony of Six Unions technique—a method that unified internal and external cultivation and accepted energy according to the principles of the six unions.
In my past life, I created a heart method that advanced from the Harmony of Six Unions to the realm of divine techniques.
That was the Hwa-cheon-i-won-gong.
An inner energy cultivation method based on the principle of embracing all energy beneath heaven and benefiting the source.
‘All energy possesses its own qualities and nature. And the nature of Hwa-cheon energy is embracement.’
To embrace and harmonize. To make everything one and claim it as your own.
If I utilized this nature well, I could neutralize the Flame Poison.
However.
Teaching Jegal Seol-ha the Hwa-cheon-i-won-gong would be meaningless.
The Hwa-cheon-i-won-gong didn’t include the mysteries of handling the upper dantian.
Unless she reached the pinnacle and opened all three dantians herself, there was no way to handle the Flame Poison in her upper dantian right now.
‘But I can do it by infusing it myself.’
Interfering with another person’s upper dantian was essentially the same as killing them.
Yet I was confident.
After all, I had reached the pinnacle in my past life and opened my upper dantian myself.
The inner energy I possess has the nature of the Hwa-cheon-i-won-gong, which embraces and harmonizes all things, so the danger is relatively low.
“Shhh, breathe out.”
Taking a deep breath, I placed my hand on Jegal Seol-ha’s brow, precisely at the Yintang acupoint.
The Baihui acupoint at the crown of the head serves as the gateway to commune with heaven, but the Sang-dan-jeon—the vessel that holds the divine energy flowing from it—centers on the Yintang acupoint.
From the Laogong acupoint at the center of my palm, the Hwa-cheon-i-won-gong flowed into Jegal Seol-ha’s brow.
‘Directly invading the Sang-dan-jeon is dangerous, no matter how harmonious the energy is.’
However, if I form a thin membrane encircling the exterior of the Sang-dan-jeon, I can proceed safely.
Of course, this requires extremely precise control of true energy, but….
That was the moment it happened.
‘Hm? The immortal seed…?’
From the immortal seed, the Seon-dan rooted at the center of the dantian, a clear and profound energy flows forth.
Along the connected flow of true energy between Jegal Seol-ha’s brow and the center of my palm, the immortal energy mingles and intertwines.
‘The responsiveness of energy… at my current level, this should be impossible. How is this happening?’
Heart gives rise, energy follows. When the mind stirs, the energy obeys.
The Hwa-cheon-i-won-gong, unified with the immortal energy, moved precisely according to my will and enveloped Jegal Seol-ha’s Sang-dan-jeon.
I had perfectly demonstrated the subtlety of heart giving rise to energy following—one of the fundamental conditions of the will-manifested technique that only martial masters at the pinnacle can unfold.
“Breathe out slowly….”
Having completed all measures, I exhaled deeply and withdrew my hand.
‘This is an unexpected gain.’
I never thought I could grasp the principles of heart giving rise to energy following at the third-rate level.
It’s like succeeding in mimicking the calligraphy of a master without even knowing how to hold a brush.
From the moment of its initial formation, I sensed something extraordinary about the immortal seed and immortal energy.
Growing more convinced that it must be connected to reversing time, I awakened Jegal Seol-ha.
“Seolha. Jegal Seol-ha. Will you wake up?”
“Mm….”
With a soft moan, Jegal Seol-ha opened her eyes.
“…Where am I—oh.”
Jegal Seol-ha, who had unconsciously spoken, covered her mouth with wide rabbit eyes.
I chuckled at the sight.
“Good news. It worked. You can speak freely now, so lower your hand.”
“Mm, mm.”
Seeming unconvinced, I scratched my head as if casually, then suddenly let out a loud “Wah!”
“Eek! Mm! Huh?”
Startled by the sudden noise, Jegal Seol-ha screamed, then quickly covered her mouth, but her eyes widened.
“You feel it too, right? The poison energy isn’t spreading.”
She nodded eagerly.
“It’ll stay that way for a while, so you can speak freely.”
“…Really? Mm.”
Jegal Seol-ha, who had habitually covered her mouth, carefully lowered her hand and opened it again.
“Really… mm. It’s true….”
Jegal Seol-ha trailed off, her voice growing smaller before shifting into quiet sobs.
“Sob… it’s really true, hic, it’s really true…”
The quiet sobs soon transformed into heaving cries that made her shoulders shake.
“Waaaaah, hic, Father, waaah, Mother…!”
Yang Hwi gazed at Jegal Seol-ha with sympathetic eyes.
‘I was about to suggest we leave immediately, but I suppose that’s not possible now.’
“You’ve had a difficult time, haven’t you? Cry all you need. Let it all out.”
I patted Jegal Seol-ha’s shoulder gently.
If she had been my younger sister Yeon-ah, I would have embraced her, but the propriety of maintaining distance between men and women prevented me from doing more than patting her shoulder.
After about an hour had passed, Jegal Seol-ha’s crying subsided.
“Young Master Baek. What’s the matter?”
Yang Hwi scratched his head in genuine confusion this time.
“Didn’t we agree to be friends of the same age? When you speak so formally, it makes me uncomfortable and puts me in an awkward position.”
“But you blocked the Dowhwa Technique for me. It would be improper to speak casually to my benefactor.”
“It’s not a permanent solution anyway—just a temporary measure.”
“Still.”
Hmm. My uncle certainly raised his children with excellent discipline.
Truly befitting a prestigious family.
“Still, calling me ‘Young Master’ feels awkward. Since we’ve become fellow disciples, why don’t you call me Senior Brother instead?”
“That wouldn’t be right.”
“Hmm?”
Jegal Seol-ha stared directly at Yang Hwi.
“If I may ask, could you tell me your birth date?”
“…Why would you ask that?”
“When fellow disciples have the same age and entry time, seniority is determined by birth date. I could be the senior one, after all?”
“…Seol-ha, when were you born?”
“The second month of the year.”
The second month out of twelve. It seemed unlikely I could win on birth date alone.
It’s a bit of a cheat, but there’s no helping it.
“I was born in the first month, so you should call me Senior Brother.”
“…Really?”
“Why would I lie about something like this?”
“On the honor of the Baek Family?”
“…”
Instead of answering immediately, Yang Hwi fixed her with an intense stare.
Jegal Seol-ha wore an innocent expression yet didn’t avoid his gaze, meeting his eyes directly.
She didn’t seem like this type originally—why was she suddenly being so bold?
“I’m an orphan from a beggar’s background, so I chose my own birthday. It just happened to be New Year’s Day, so my birthday is the first day of the first month.”
“…”
Having rendered Jegal Seol-ha speechless, Yang Hwi continued with a slight smirk.
“So, I’m calling you senior, right?”
“…Yes, I shall address you as senior. Thank you once more for your kindness, senior.”
“Fine.”
Regardless, I need to get a better sense of what kind of place this is.
Even as we spoke, the temperature continued its relentless descent.
‘Well, well. Now it’s snowing too.’
That was the moment—a landscape shimmering before my eyes like a mirage.
Though we stood beneath a cliff where verdant foliage had flourished moments before, now the entire world had transformed into a snowy expanse.
In other words, the location had shifted to the Snow Mountain.
“Senior, I believe this is a formation array.”
“I concur.”
A formation array—a technique that distorts the natural energies through the strategic placement of special artifacts, conjuring phenomena as illusory as mirages themselves.
“When it comes to formation arrays, the Jegal Family monopolizes them. Do you happen to see a method to break it, junior?”
“I apologize. My studies in this area are not sufficiently deep.”
“It’s fine. I wasn’t expecting much anyway, to be honest.”
“…”
Jegal Seol-ha tried her best to appear composed, but she couldn’t entirely conceal the pout that rose to her face.
‘Now she’s acting her age—quite adorable, actually.’
Yang Hwi chuckled softly, gazing toward the snow-covered mountain path stretching into the distant horizon.
“I understand well enough. It seems I simply need to endure the cold and reach the summit.”
No matter how far I walked, the mountain peak would never draw closer.
This was undoubtedly a test of perseverance—walking an endless path while braving the cold, refusing to surrender.
Ah, moments like these remind me that Eum Hu truly is an old woman over a hundred years old.
‘Such an antiquated method. This approach isn’t even mentioned in modern texts as outdated.’
Yang Hwi raised his wooden sword.
“Senior, what are you doing?”
“You’ll see soon enough, junior.”
Unfortunately, Yang Hwi had no intention of following Eum Hu’s method for this initiation ceremony.
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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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