Third-rate Martial Family Becomes the Best Under Heaven - Chapter 59
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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 059
Everyone in the arena heard Seo Bang-ju I Myeong-chu publicly declare that he would yield ten seconds.
No matter how unexpectedly fierce my single second had proven to be, it meant the Seo Bang-ju could not take back his words.
“Your face is full of bewilderment. What, you didn’t expect an eight-year-old brat to be this strong?”
Instead of wasting this second, I twirled my sword and flicked my tongue mockingly.
The Seo Bang-ju’s face, rigid as stone, trembled uncontrollably.
Veins bulged across his neck and a deep frown carved itself into his forehead.
“Are you angry? Kid, what will you do if you’re angry? Why, should we fight fairly from now on? Huh?”
“…This brat seems to have consumed some elixir, but let me teach you that there is always a heaven above heaven.”
Oh, kid. You won’t fall for this level of provocation, will you?
For a Heuk-do-pa brat, you’ve still cultivated some restraint.
Very well then.
I walked forward lightly and tapped the Seo Bang-ju’s broadsword gently with my blade.
“Yup!”
“…What are you doing?”
“What do you mean? That was my attack for this second.”
“…You damned brat.”
“Yup! Third second!”
The Seo Bang-ju’s already crimson face darkened further.
My goodness, how much blood rushed to his head for it to turn such a deep shade?
Perhaps it’s time to add some variation.
“Yup!”
I added the exclamation lightly, but simultaneously channeled my internal energy into the blade and swung with full force.
Whoooosh, crash!
My sword struck the side of his broadsword. Perhaps he had grown careless from the two previous pranks, for the Seo Bang-ju loosened his grip, and naturally his broadsword swung in the opposite direction.
Straight toward his own face.
Smack!
“Ugh!”
The Seo Bang-ju’s face met his own broadsword.
As the blade dropped, a face streaming with blood from both nostrils was revealed.
“Oh my, are you alright! You’re bleeding from both nostrils!”
“….”
“Hahahaha! Hahahaha! To think you couldn’t even block a brat’s single second and got a nosebleed!”
“….”
“And yet, what? You yield ten seconds? Did you think age was a rank? Hahahaha!”
Following my words, laughter and whispers erupted among the spectators.
“Hmm, the young master of Baek Manor is truly skilled.”
“More than that, the Seo Bang-ju of Gyojin-bang seems completely toyed with by this young master.”
“Kuhaha, a nosebleed from carelessness. He hasn’t even mastered the basics of a martial artist!”
“Well then, six seconds remain? Shall I release you from your ten-second concession even now?”
I continued speaking while watching Seo Bang-ju tremble uncontrollably.
“Ah, of course, one cannot speak with an empty mouth. If a man wishes to say two things with one breath, he must first settle what needs settling. Is that not so, brothers of the Eastern Island!”
“Puhahahaha!”
“Well spoken, young friend!”
“This young fellow certainly has a sharp tongue!”
Yang Hwi’s lips curled into a sinister smile as I swung my sword once more.
“Oh, the fourth strike!”
Whoosh, crash!
Unlike before, Seo Bang-ju managed to block the sword strike properly, but his wrists trembled visibly.
Well, the internal force channeled into that strike was certainly not insignificant.
‘Though you’re young, my inner energy surpasses yours, you whelp.’
As the Seo Bang-ju of Gyojin-bang, he must have consumed countless treasures since childhood.
Yet he was merely the heir to a minor sect that dominated a single county.
Since elixirs did not come cheap, there were limits to what even the finest resources could achieve.
By contrast, what I had consumed was the legacy left behind by the Heavenly First Master who had ascended to immortality.
‘I haven’t even fully refined it all yet, and my inner energy already surpasses yours by half a decade, you whelp. What arrogance for someone twenty years your senior.’
“Getting scared now? At this rate, you’ll collapse before the ten strikes are even finished, won’t you?”
“…Shut your mouth.”
“Regretting it? Be honest. You regret it, don’t you? It’s written all over your face, you whelp.”
“Shut up and come at me!”
Yang Hwi, who had the habit of becoming stubborn whenever provoked, circled around Seo Bang-ju repeatedly instead of unleashing the sixth strike.
“A twenty-year-old fool stammering before a mere child! Though I must commend you for at least understanding the weight of a man’s word worth a thousand gold—even for a fool like yourself!”
“I will surely kill you, you bas—”
The moment Seo Bang-ju erupted in rage, he stepped on the Gicheon-bo.
A single step containing swiftness and speed, then swiftness again.
Though Seo Bang-ju was a master of the second-rate level like Yang Hwi, his delayed response due to his burst of anger proved fatal.
Having successfully positioned myself behind Seo Bang-ju, I thrust my sword directly forward.
More precisely, between his buttocks.
“Kryaaaagh!”
The center of Seo Bang-ju’s buttocks began to turn crimson.
“Kryaagh! Kryaaaagh!”
“You whelp, it only went in an inch.”
“You bastard! You damned brat! I will surely kill you!”
“Oh my, Seo Bang-ju. The veins on your face are bulging like a spider’s web. Could it be that your mother was a beast-woman? I never knew the Gyojin-bang Master harbored such tastes?”
“Shut your filthy mouth! Once these final three strikes are done, you will surely die!”
“Before that happens, I fear Seo Bang-ju will bleed to death. Blood is pouring from that hole in your buttocks. Could it be you’ve contracted hemorrhoids at such a young age?”
The crowd, unable to contain themselves any longer, burst into raucous laughter.
“Krahahahaha!”
“Puhahahaha! A beast-woman and… doing that… puhaha!”
“Hemorrhoids at such a young age… how unfortunate…”
“Your age is more than double mine, yet judging by appearance alone, I couldn’t tell which of us is younger!”
“A complete mockery! So Gyojin-bang’s standards amount to nothing more than this? Ha!”
I glanced at the blood smeared on my blade and deliberately made a disgusted expression.
I dragged the sword across the ground to wipe away the blood as I spoke.
“Ugh, the stench! No wonder he’s a Heuk-do-pa bastard—the reek is absolutely foul!”
Skin darkened from crimson to black. Thick veins bulged grotesquely across his entire body, pulsing violently.
His entire frame trembled like a seizure victim.
Seo Bang-ju’s eyes widened.
‘The brat. He’s reached his limit.’
Snap!
Wait—something just broke. Something definitely snapped just now.
I braced myself for the follow-up attack.
But then.
“Kugh, ack, cough!”
Seo Bang-ju vomited a mouthful of congealed blood.
It seemed what broke was somewhat different from what I’d anticipated.
‘Qi deviation?’
Qi deviation—when one receives a severe shock during breathing exercises or allows demonic influence to settle in the heart, losing control of one’s vital energy, causing internal force to reverse or run wild.
The collapsed Seo Bang-ju began spitting blood like a madman.
This was undoubtedly qi deviation.
“Hey. You alright?”
“Kugh, ack, cough! Cough! Kaaaagh…!”
Seeing his son’s condition, Hong Gyo-bang-ju rushed forward desperately.
“Chu! Are you alright!”
I quickly spoke before Hong Gyo-bang-ju could intervene.
“If you help him now, Seo Bang-ju loses this life-or-death duel!”
“…”
“How could you burden your son with the disgrace of losing to an eight-year-old child in a formal duel?”
“…I will kill you.”
Hong Gyo-bang-ju clenched his teeth so hard blood dripped, then silently pressed acupoints along his son’s meridians.
But Seo Bang-ju I Myeong-chu’s qi deviation wouldn’t subside.
“Cough! Cough! F-Father, ack…!”
“Chu! Snap out of it! Chu!”
Finally, Seo Bang-ju lost consciousness.
‘Tsk. Even if he recovers later, he’s finished as a martial artist.’
Perhaps due to my keen sense of qi, I could feel it clearly.
He would become a cripple no matter how well he was treated.
“You little bastard… I will kill you. I’ll sever all four limbs and make you watch the severed ends yourself.”
“Whew, Hong Gyo-bang-ju. Isn’t that too cruel a thing to say to a young child like me?”
“Whew, Mr. Gyojinbangju. Isn’t that too cruel a thing to say to a young child like me?”
“Silence. I have no interest in entertaining your tongue-wagging. Remember this well—you will surely die.”
“Tsk, truly befitting the leader of Heuk-do-pa.”
I deliberately wiped my blood-stained sword against the ground once more, as if to make a point.
“Hmm. I can’t sheathe it like this. The scabbard will get dirty.”
Upon hearing my words, Hong Gyo-bang-ju, who had been trembling violently, finally managed to suppress his agitation.
“I acknowledge defeat in this first match. Let the one who will decide the second round step forward.”
So this is what it means to be the leader of a faction.
I had deliberately provoked and inflamed him while employing the Gyeok-jang-ji-gye technique, but the result was slightly disappointing.
‘Well, this much is sufficient.’
I stepped back with the corners of my mouth raised in a smile.
The servants of Baek Manor immediately rushed forward and showered me with praise.
“Truly magnificent, Young Master!”
“Young Master Hwi, when did you become this formidable!”
“A peerless prodigy! A heaven-defying talent!”
I bowed my head modestly.
“When I say such things myself, it feels nothing, but hearing it from others’ mouths is embarrassing. Please, everyone, let us stop. Haha. Now then, who will go next?”
Baek Moo-ryang and Gu Ak. Depending on which of the two stepped forward second, the outcome of the match could change.
Baek Moo-ryang stepped forward and posed a question to Hong Gyo-bang-ju.
“Who does Gyojin-bang intend to send?”
Hong Gyo-bang-ju, after deliberating, answered briefly.
“Hyeol-ya Nang-do. We request his participation.”
The middle-aged man who stepped forward silently wielded a sharply curved saber.
A ronin notorious for his peculiar love of bloodshed with each commission, one who stains the fields crimson whenever his curved blade finds his hand.
He was Hyeol-ya Nang-do himself.
“I shall take the second match. Who will you send? Ah, it matters not. I shall bestow death impartially upon all.”
Gu Ak, his face hardening as he contemplated something, was about to step forward.
But Baek Moo-ryang moved faster, taking the first step.
“Family Head?”
“Baek Ik-gak-ju. I shall settle this match with Hyeol-ya Nang-do myself!”
“But that—”
“Elder Brother. It is fine.”
Gu Ak, who had turned to stop Baek Moo-ryang, looked back upon hearing my words.
“What exactly are you thinking, younger brother?”
“I have no particular thoughts.”
“If you do not have a strategy, then I must step forward. You understand, do you not?”
His words held considerable merit.
Since Gu Ak had become a first-rate master earlier, his stepping forward would provide better odds of victory.
‘Well, though it was a month ago.’
A month before today, the day of the life-or-death duel, when we first received the letter from Gyojin-bang.
During that time, Baek Moo-ryang and I had undergone closed-door cultivation together.
“Elder Brother, you’ll understand once you observe.”
As we spoke, I stepped before Hyeol-ya Nang-do.
The Gyojin-bang Master watching from behind furrowed his brow.
“Baek Family Head. It would look better if a master faced another master, would it not?”
It seemed the Gyojin-bang Master believed he could secure this victory more certainly by facing me directly.
I replied quietly.
“I am merely a master, so I shall face Hyeol-ya Nang-do.”
A jab at the Gyojin-bang Master for hiring Hyeol-ya Nang-do, whose cultivation surpassed my own.
As expected, the Gyojin-bang Master’s face darkened and he bared his fangs.
“Hyeol-ya Nang-do. Kill him without fail.”
“No need to ask. That was my intention.”
Hyeol-ya Nang-do, brimming with confidence, spun his curved blade once.
“Baek Family Head. Word has it your martial prowess is merely second-rate. It seems you’ve made progress?”
“I have simply swung my sword with diligence.”
“Ha ha, then your head shall fall to the ground this day.”
Brilliant light began to emanate from Hyeol-ya Nang-do’s curved blade.
The mark of a supreme master.
The fruit of unified will and energy.
Sword qi itself.
“I shall end this in one strike, ha ha ha ha!”
Just as Hyeol-ya Nang-do burst into boisterous laughter and launched himself forward—
Bzzzzzzzz!
The sound of countless bee wings filling all directions.
Hyeol-ya Nang-do’s eyes bulged from their sockets.
“This… this cannot be.”
My blade, now resonating with the fullest vibration of the Bee Wing Realm’s pinnacle.
Above the sword, sword qi rose forth.
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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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