Third-rate Martial Family Becomes the Best Under Heaven - Chapter 329

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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 329
“Everyone! Submerge!”
“Submerge!”
At the command of Baek Heon-so, the leader of the Baek Family disciples, all the members plunged their heads beneath the lake’s surface.
The Baek Family’s main estate was situated on the shore of a lake. Because of this, underwater training was convenient, and since their rival was the Water Demon Cult, more than half of their training took place in water.
“Don’t pull your heads out!”
“Endure! Better to suffocate and lose consciousness! I’ll pull you up myself!”
Baek Heon-so walked across the water’s surface, forcefully pushing back down any disciples who couldn’t help but surface.
I felt a surge of pride inwardly, though I didn’t let it show on my face.
‘I’ve already mastered water-treading.’
Walking across the water’s surface? This meant my inner energy’s control and refinement had reached the level of a master.
Considering Baek Heon-so had only just passed his twenties, this was an achievement worthy of being counted among the greatest talents even in a major sect.
Though admittedly, my feet did sink through occasionally.
“Train with the resolve that death means nothing! In the space between life and death, use desperation as a bridge to unite your mind and energy!”
In the past, the Baek Family disciples were organized as a group to nurture the seedlings of the Baek Family’s future.
Now, after more than a decade, the Baek Family disciples had become one of the sharpest blades the Baek Family could boast of.
It couldn’t have been otherwise.
Baek Heon-so, the leader of the disciples, was simply copying the methods Yang Hwi had displayed when he served as an instructor.
In other words, he was putting them through hellish training.
“Before the next battle, everyone will master the Breath of Living Energy! If you think you can’t do it, then die!”
“Cough, Master! I really think I’m going to die!”
“Then actually die!”
Incidentally, all the Baek Family disciples had their inner energy sealed.
In other words, if they couldn’t breathe, they could actually die.
But Baek Heon-so believed that all hellish training in this world was conducted with life as collateral.
That’s how he had been taught.
“If you want to live, strengthen your willpower! Break the seal with your will!”
“Cough, glug glug glug….”
Baek Heon-so strode forward and grabbed the hair of a disciple who had lost consciousness and was sinking, pulling him out.
“You endured well. Next time, try to last half a quarter longer. That’s the leader’s command.”
“….”
“…Even after I pressed the vital point, he’s still unconscious. Should I slap him awake?”
“I’m awake! I’m awake!”
“Then submerge again!”
“Cough cough cough…!”
After training with the disciples all day, I had personal training time.
“Yeon-a. Tighter.”
“Brother, are you really sure about this?”
“Yes, Yeon-a. Bind it tighter and use more bindings.”
Baek Yeon-yeon looked at her brother Baek Heon-so with worried eyes.
Bound across his entire body with iron chains, a boulder weighing roughly a hundred pounds made him look like some sort of monster.
“Brother, I think you’re pushing yourself too hard these days.”
Baek Heon-so’s expression was filled with unwavering resolve.
“If I’m to follow Elder Brother, this much is necessary.”
Baek Yeon-yeon wanted to say that a sparrow could never follow a stork, but she realized such words weren’t appropriate to speak to her brother, so she held her tongue.
Yet Baek Heon-so had already sensed his sister’s thoughts.
“Yeon-a, I’m willing to die trying to follow him.”
“…Brother, I would cry if you died.”
“Is that so? Then I’ll follow him and I won’t die either.”
What mattered was effort.
The most important value that Yang Hwi had passed down to me in childhood.
“Yeon-a, I will protect the Baek Family. Elder Brother is busy leading all of us. So at the very least, I want to do my part by protecting what I can.”
There was a time in my foolish youth when I envied Yang Hwi.
I resented how a beggar had rolled in and claimed to be my brother.
But Yang Hwi taught me many things and gave me much.
Look at where I am now—without Yang Hwi, I would never have been honored as the Young Master of the Baek Family.
Watching my brother’s back, I harbored a dream.
“If I cannot run alongside him, then I must follow earnestly from behind. Yeon-a, so bind me tighter.”
“Brother really is stubborn. How is it that our family is filled with nothing but stubborn people?”
Martial prowess is the sum of enlightenment and inner force.
The common saying in the martial world that one becomes dramatically stronger by consuming elixirs usually stems from having lower enlightenment than inner force.
When one’s martial understanding is higher, merely supplementing inner force causes martial prowess to surge dramatically.
‘My situation is the opposite.’
Thanks to the elixir field discovered in Sichuan, all the warriors of the Baek Family had overcome their inner force deficiency.
Even now, Heon-so possessed the maximum inner force his dantian could hold.
In other words, to grow stronger from here, I must elevate my martial understanding.
Even through hellish training that torments myself, I must achieve enlightenment.
“Yeon-a, if I stop feeling vibrations through the chains, you need to pull me out, right?”
“Yes, just trust me.”
Baek Heon-so leaped into the lake with the boulder attached.
Unlike the other disciples, Baek Heon-so descended to the lake bottom and wielded his sword.
Suspended by the boulder, enduring the water pressure and resistance of the currents.
‘Elder Brother taught me so generously and departed. Before he returns, I will absorb everything he gave me.’
Yang Hwi left as a wanderer. Father Baek Moo-ryang is consumed with endless busyness and serves as Family Head.
In other words, the warrior who must represent the Baek Family bloodline right now is myself.
‘I must grow stronger. I can grow stronger. I will protect them.’
Though I have not yet attained all three enlightenments of the supreme realm, I was already envisioning my own spiritual image.
The Pillar of Heaven—a steadfast column erected for all who walk the path of heaven and earth.
If Baek Heon-so were to step into the transcendent supreme realm, it would be the image to be inscribed upon heaven and earth.

* * *
“Brother, I’m hungry—why don’t I go hunt us some game? Hehe, let me treat you to some delicious meat.”
It was a decent idea, but Yang Hwi gave Chu Dal an oddly uncertain look.
“Chu Dal, Chu Dal—the one written with the character for ‘ugly’ and the character for ‘beaver.'”
“What? I’m offering to cook something tasty, so why are you picking a fight?”
“I’m not picking a fight. It’s just suspicious when you do something you normally wouldn’t.”
“I’m just excited, brother.”
“Excited?”
Suddenly, Chu Dal’s face filled with indignation.
“Because I’m free! I’ve escaped that bureaucratic hell where I couldn’t even rest for a moment, constantly running back and forth!”
“A man should find fulfillment in diligent work, yet here you are—tsk.”
When Yang Hwi clicked his tongue, Chu Dal exploded.
“Whose fault is that! Who made me so busy! It’s all your fault! Always running around causing nothing but trouble!”
Chu Dal normally accompanied Yang Hwi and handled communications with the Baek Family, but they’d been separated for quite some time after the great battle on the Yangtze.
During that period, Chu Dal managed information work from the rear while Yang Hwi primarily operated on the front lines—it was unavoidable.
“Chu Dal.”
“What!”
“Choose your words carefully. It wasn’t trouble—it was merit.”
“….”
Chu Dal felt a melancholy sadness at his own inability to deny it.
That was the moment.
-Screech!
A black furry mass burst from Chu Dal’s chest.
I reflexively extended my hand, and the furry creature clung to it, gnawing at my fingers.
-Screech! Screech screech!
“A rat?”
I could sense considerable spiritual energy from it.
This creature is a spirit beast.
“Hehe. While I was separated from you, brother, I wasn’t just idling about. I obtained this friend through Yeon from the main narrative. His name is Heuk-seo.”
A black rat? This fellow’s naming sense is terrible.
Regardless, the way it gnaws at my fingers suggests it’s angry that I troubled its master.
“Hehe, if you mistreat me from now on, Heuk-seo will torment you, brother. Just so you know, this creature never forgets a beating.”
Oh my, how frightening.
Well then, I simply won’t hit him.
“Won-woo!”
-Kiiiiaaaaaah!
Won-woo, who had been flying through the sky, descended in response to my call.
I threw Heuk-seo instead of jerky.
“Here, eat.”
“Ugh! Brother! What are you doing!”
I hadn’t actually ordered him to eat the rat. Though I’d said so aloud, through our connected spiritual link, I’d commanded him to torment it a bit before releasing it.
But then, something unbelievable happened.
-Squeak!
-Screech!
My jaw dropped.
“Wh-Won-woo…?”
“Huh? Ahahaha! That’s our Heuk-seo for you!”
Won-woo, struck by Heuk-seo’s headbutt, tumbled to the ground like a kite with a severed string.
Wait, what? A rat is prey for a hawk, so what is this?
-Squeak! Squeak squeak!
-Screeeech, screech!
Heuk-seo hurled himself forward like a projectile, while Won-woo fled in panic—a ridiculous spectacle unfolded.
Ah, Won-woo was caught.
-Squeal!
-Screeeech!
A rat catching a hawk.
A rat catching a hawk.
“Hehehehe, did you see? The guardian spirit of our Shin-tu bloodline is none other than Heuk-seo.”
And Won-woo is Geom Seon’s companion spirit, isn’t he?
The one with the impressive title of Eung-hyo Je-il, no less?
Smack!
“Ow! Why’d you hit me!”
“Just felt annoyed.”
Chu Dal, who’d been grinning, commanded Heuk-seo.
“Heuk-seo! You hit him too!”
-Squeak!
-Screech!
“So from now on, whenever my brother hits me, our Heuk-seo will hit Won-woo. Understood?”
“….”
I fell silent, at a loss for words. I wanted to retort that I didn’t care whether Won-woo got hit or not.
But Won-woo was staring at me with pitiful eyes.
“Sigh. This is just absurd.”
“What’s so absurd about it?”
“Ah, Seolha.”
With the wind, Seolha descended gracefully from the high sky.
Four rabbits hung from her hands.
“You went hunting while taking a stroll?”
“Killing two birds with one stone.”
The three of us—myself, Seolha, and Chu Dal—were traveling toward Nangsi.
Namgung Cheon-yeong had returned to the Namgung Family, while Dang-gun and Neung-o stayed behind at the Baek Family’s main estate, wanting to handle various matters and focus on their training.
There was no need for everyone to move together since I was just going to act as a messenger anyway.
“Chu Dal, prepare it.”
“Yes, sister.”
Seolha, who had passed over the meat, poked her head out from where she lay sprawled on the carriage roof.
“Elder brother, what kind of place is Nangshi?”
“Hm? Why would you think I’d know?”
“Well, it just seems like you’d know something about it.”
I suppose I’m not entirely ignorant on the matter.
“Nangshi is literally the city and marketplace of assassins. It was originally a small village, but after the Nang King established himself there, it became a city.”
I had stayed in Nangshi in my past life as well. In terms of this life, it would be roughly a year or two from now.
A smile leaked out at the thought.
Once I reached Nangshi, I would be able to meet many of the assassins I had been close to in my past life.
“There’s one thing you should be careful about. In Nangshi, you must address everyone as brothers and sisters.”
“Really? Why?”
“There’s a saying that all under heaven are brothers. In Nangshi, it’s even more pronounced. Everyone living on the streets feels like family.”
Of course, Seolha was a direct descendant of a prestigious family, but even so, it was better to follow Nangshi’s rules when in Nangshi.
There was no benefit in openly declaring that we weren’t on the same level as them.
“Brother, I see someone over there.”
We were still about half a day’s journey from Nangshi.
A man leading a group appeared on the main road.
Yang Hwi’s expression brightened as he enhanced his vision.
‘To think I’d meet a connection from my past life so soon.’
The man who quickly closed the distance shouted at me.
“Are you Eung-hyo Je-il Baek Yang-hwi!”
“That I am, So Chu-rang!”
In an instant, the man’s face contorted like a demon’s visage.
“You must have a death wish!”
His actions were as swift as his words.
Watching So Tae-rang charge at me with his energy fully mobilized, I felt a moment of confusion.
‘Ah. I made a mistake.’
So Tae-rang—a nickname meaning a small but formidable wolf.
So Chu-rang was an affectionate name that only those closest to him could use.
Because the origin of the nickname was rather unmanly.
“Die, Eung-hyo Je-il!”
‘This has become troublesome.’
For reference, So Tae-rang was the one and only disciple of Cheonmu Sip-jon Baek-heun Nang-wang.

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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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