Third-rate Martial Family Becomes the Best Under Heaven - Chapter 346
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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 346
Adu liked Yang Hwi. I didn’t know why.
From the moment I first saw him, I simply liked him without reason.
I had never even questioned why I liked him.
Because I had never been troubled enough by self-reflection to ask such questions.
Still, it was strange.
“Adu, you rascal. When someone becomes dear to you without reason, follow them and grow close. Whoever it may be.”
Those were the words my Master Yeoilrakbul once spoke.
At first, or even now, I didn’t understand what he meant.
Yet in the end, a good person had appeared, and I remained at Yang Hwi’s side.
Or rather, I wanted to be at his side.
‘It’s dangerous. I need to help.’
I thought Seon, trapped within the Yeop-sal-su-ryong-jin, would be helpless, but the Five Dragons began to rampage.
Ssang-do Ssang-a-rang, the kind uncle who always gave me rice cakes, was torn to shreds by the formation.
Neung-o, merely at the peak stage, stood before Seon.
‘No, he can’t die. What do I do?’
I wanted to rush forward and help.
Yet I hesitated and could not move.
Because Yang Hwi had asked me earnestly.
“Adu. I trust only you. Protect my father and the senior members.”
The Yeop-sal-su-ryong-jin was founded on the Six Harmonies, requiring six formation anchors, but not all Transcendent Masters serving as anchors needed to defend the Six Harmonies positions.
Had it been so difficult, I could never have taken on the role of anchor.
My role as an anchor was to continuously emit spiritual qi through specific incantations.
Simultaneously, I was to protect everyone from the closest position to the senior members of Il-ik Maeng.
But…
“Monk, what troubles your mind so?”
It was Chu Dal, who had been bustling about constructing the Yeop-sal-su-ryong-jin moments before.
Having finished his role, he had returned to a safe position.
“Chu Dal, may I go help?”
Chu Dal answered immediately.
“No. You must hold this position.”
Though Chu Dal’s face was drained of color by fear and tension.
“In times like these, we must follow the plan.”
“What if Yang Hwi dies?”
“Then we all die. But he won’t die.”
Between the fear and tension existed an unwavering faith.
“Elder Brother will not die. Yes, I believe this with all my heart.”
It was at that moment.
Neung-o’s arm was severed.
“…!”
“Chu Dal! Let me step forward!”
“You cannot!”
Chu Dal seized Adu’s forearm.
“You cannot. In times like these, we must hold our positions.”
Yet Chu Dal himself trembled visibly as he spoke.
Still, he did not release Adu.
“We will win. We will win. We will win.”
Was he whispering to himself?
Chu Dal continued repeating the same words.
Adu bit his lip and gazed at Neung-o.
He wanted to go and help.
‘If I had been there just now, my arm wouldn’t have been severed.’
He wanted to take the blows instead. He hated seeing others suffer.
He despised death even more.
Then… perhaps…
“Ah, Monk!”
Chu Dal’s cry severed Adu’s torment.
Neung-o was radiating light.
He was ascending.
“The Nong-o Daoist is!”
Adu could fully witness and feel Neung-o’s ascension.
Light itself, yet a single point.
An arrow aimed at pierce the point embedded in heaven—Jeomchang.
Slow, yet reaching higher.
“Adu, you can walk faster than anyone. But remember this well. One who walked slowest may yet ascend highest.”
My Master Yeoilrakbul’s words suddenly surfaced and echoed in Adu’s ears.
“Monk, steel yourself! My brother has given the command!”
One blocked by walls collided with heaven and finally rose.
Any warrior would have fallen into admiration at such a moment, yet Yang Hwi judged faster than anyone and issued his command.
It was time for counterattack.
* * *
My chest felt as though it might burst from the surging torrent of emotions.
Yet I moved without the slightest hesitation.
I could not afford to waste the precious opportunity Neung-o had created for me.
-Yeop Salsoo Dragon Formation! Prepare this stage!
-Understood!
Neung-o’s severed arm. I would have my vengeance for it.
-Seolha! Lend me your strength!
-Yes!
In the instant Neung-o’s ultimate technique struck directly at Seon.
I too aimed my blade.
Neung-o had achieved enlightenment.
He must have touched upon ascension itself.
I trusted Neung-o and waited for the optimal moment.
And Neung-o lived up to that faith.
Shrieeeeek!
The blade became an arrow—something that would pierce through all it struck.
An absolute being entwining the Five Dragons.
Seon’s dragon was pierced through.
A blade from one who had only just reached the Transcendent Realm had torn through the defense of a Cheonmu-sip-jon.
I did not miss the opportunity.
-Kiiiiieeeee!
The hawk’s cry pierced the air.
Ilcheon-eung-myeong-sin—as the sound continued unbroken, my form fractured and extended in a long chain.
A single point, yet a hole had been torn open.
‘So my role is to widen that hole into a passage.’
I did not think beyond that.
Even if I reached Seon and landed a blow, my body might be torn to shreds in the aftermath.
‘But that’s fine. I think only of reaching him.’
Those who cling to life will perish. Only by refusing to contemplate death could I accomplish this.
If I succeeded, my chances of victory would increase by thirty percent.
Thirty percent.
That was my calculation after hearing Baek Heon-nang-wang reveal Seon’s weakness.
The second stage of the Yeop Salsoo Dragon Formation.
This phase designed to exploit the weakness of Seon that Baek Heon-nang-wang had taught me.
For this, I needed a passage.
The conditions had to be met.
‘I will kill you for certain, Seon!’
The single point Neung-o had pierced through. The Five Dragons now possessed a reverse scale where none had existed before.
My blade’s tip touched that reverse scale, and the blade itself began to tremble.
-Kiiiiiaaaaaa!
The hawk’s cry.
Sound is vibration.
And vibration is force.
‘Hwa-hwa Dae-so!’
Hwa-hwa Dae-so transforms all force into vibration, absorbs it, and makes it one’s own.
A supreme technique containing the mysteries of Hwa-cheon Seon-gi grafting.
In other words, like other Hwa-cheon Seon-gi methods, using it against a being of higher rank was difficult.
But this was an experiment.
‘If what Nang-wang taught me is true…!’
-Kiiiiiaaaaaa!
The hawk’s cry grew more intense.
The blade pierces deeper. It advanced bit by bit, and the point had widened enough to be called a hole.
‘It’s working!’
Nang-wang’s advice flashed through my mind.
“That bastard Seon’s true martial art is the O-hwang Jae-seon technique. And O-hwang Jae-seon is a Qi-force art. What I mean is, you can’t use it without Qi-force.”
That’s why all Qi-force arts are called divine techniques.
The very condition for entry was at least the pinnacle of mastery.
“No matter how skilled a master is, there’s no way they didn’t have a period of weakness. But how did that bastard climb to become one of the ten greatest under heaven? The only martial art he’s mastered is O-hwang Jae-seon.”
Of course, Seon must know many martial arts.
But according to Nang-wang, who had fought Seon to the death over several days, the only martial art worthy of being called his true technique was O-hwang Jae-seon.
“Isn’t it strange? It’s as if his period of weakness simply vanished.”
At the time, I had countered with this question.
“Didn’t he abandon all the martial arts he learned before reaching transcendent mastery?”
Nang-wang laughed as if he’d expected my objection and answered thus.
“Abandon a martial art he devoted himself to so intensely he broke through human limits? How could a human do that? At minimum, traces like habits must remain.”
Yet I felt no such traces from Seon.
As if he could use Qi-force from the moment he first learned martial arts.
“Absurd reasoning. But there is evidence. I felt it. The fissure that bastard harbors.”
Seon’s inner landscape is six fragmented dragons.
If his learned martial arts are based on the Five Elements, why are there six fragments?
-Kiiiiiaaaaaa!
-Kiiiiiaaaaaa!
It felt like considerable time had passed, but it was merely an instant.
Seon’s expression—that of one caught in carelessness and arrogance.
My blade pierced through the reverse scale of the second dragon.
“What is Qi-force? You’ve ascended too, so you know well. Qi-force is the energy of unity.”
Only when a warrior’s inner force and will merge into one does true Qi-force come into being.
Because one can freely accomplish what one desires, Qi-force is destructive and a universal panacea of power.
-Kiiiiiaaaaaaaaa!
My sword pierced through the third dragon.
Without a physical body of Kangqi, a dragon made of natural elements was far too easy to penetrate.
“If we had become one, there should be no cracks. Yet I felt them. It was unstable. Coming from someone of O-hwang Jae-seon’s caliber, no less.”
Kangqi is unified energy.
Therefore, there should be no cracks whatsoever.
The Kangqi of one who rose above the Cheonmu-sip-jon is unstable?
What that fact signified was clear.
‘Seon, who seemed to have only wielded Kangqi techniques from the start. Kangqi containing inherent cracks.’
One conclusion emerged.
Seon’s Kangqi was not his own.
I pierced through the fourth dragon, creating a passage.
Wrapped in Hwa-cheon Seon-gi—no, Seon-ju Hwa-cheon Kangqi—my blade was dismantling Seon’s dragons with absurd ease.
Now only one remained.
The azure water dragon alone.
“Seon does not wield Kangqi derived from the Five Elements. Everyone was deceived by both the name and appearance of the O-hwang Cheon-sa Divine Art. That bastard has built nothing on his own.”
The reason I was not particularly shocked upon hearing that Susa Jaeseol, one called Cheonmu-sip-jon, abandoned everything to devour the Taeguk Sword Master.
Understanding his weakness explained everything.
Seon, this absolute being called Cheonmu-sip-jon.
Has never built anything through his own effort even once.
He either received it from the beginning or stole it.
‘Seon. I care not what secrets you hide.’
But listen here, you bastard.
A Warrior becomes a Warrior only by building themselves up and refining themselves through their own hands.
-Kiiiiiiiii!
The water dragon’s body began to split apart.
Having passed through even the final dragon, I could now see Seon’s entire form clearly.
“You….”
“Shut your mouth.”
Gae-cheon-bak-pal-geom technique, Second Secret—Feathered Rain Severing Heart.
Combined with Technique Transformation, Hawk’s Sweep Shattering Heaven.
-Kiiiiiiiii!
My blade pierced into Seon’s chest.
“Ugh, gasp!”
‘Damn it, I missed slightly.’
I had aimed for the heart, but Seon was still Seon.
Despite the thread-thin opportunity Neung-o had created, I could not kill him in one strike.
Yet I could not say I had missed the opportunity.
It was a critical wound beyond expectations.
“Die, you bastard!”
Through the embedded blade, I poured Seon-ju Hwa-cheon Kangqi at full force.
I drew out the full potential of Spiritual Qi’s characteristic of devouring demonic energy.
“Krrrraaaaaaagh!”
The Hwa-cheon Seon-gi began destroying Seon from within.
It would have been impossible under normal circumstances, but now it was possible.
A singular opportunity created by countless converging possibilities—and now, with that opportunity within my grasp.
“Die! Just die already!”
“Ugh, ugghhhhh, hehehehehehe!”
“Stop laughing! Die gracefully, damn it!”
That was the moment.
Seon’s blood-soaked face flickered with consciousness in his eyes.
“Master.”
Master? If Seon’s master was… could it be Jang Cheon-sa?
“You abandoned your disciple. But this disciple has not abandoned you.”
A chill of danger rang through me like a warning bell.
Though it was a golden opportunity, I immediately drew my blade.
Yang Hwi, who had widened the distance, cried out.
“Everyone, get back!”
At that same instant, black energy erupted from Seon.
It spread outward, but its sole target—the one it had chosen as prey—was Yang Hwi.
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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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