Ultimate Martial Venerable - Chapter 58

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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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Episode 58. Martial Arts Star River
Roar!
A gale poured down the staircase leading to the 6th Floor.
Yuk Beom leaned on his Weaponless Heavy Sword

and steadied himself. His robes and hair whipped violently behind him, but the foot he’d planted on the first step did not budge.
Geum Bi Wu laughed mockingly from behind.

“Quite the stubborn streak. Let’s see how many steps you manage.”

Yuk Beom did not turn around.
The moment his foot touched the second step.
A barrier of light erupted from beneath his feet like a blade.
Yuk Beom immediately concentrated Fusion Strong Energy

into the soles of his feet and stamped downward.
Crack!
The barrier of light shattered into fragments. Yet the scattered light did not vanish. It transformed into wind swirled with red, blue, and yellow, joining the existing gale.
The wind grew fiercer still.
Yuk Beom’s eyes narrowed.
With each step climbed, a barrier formed; with each barrier broken, the wind intensified. If he kept ascending while thinking only of withstanding the force before him, in the end he would be swept back by the very power he’d shattered.
Yet he had no intention of stopping.
Yuk Beom angled his Weaponless Heavy Sword to cut through the wind and stepped onto the next stair.
Light burst forth from beneath his feet again.
Crack! Crack!
With each step he took, the barrier erupted. The five-colored wind coiled around the staircase, and the tempest roared like an ever-growing beast.
Han Pung, who remained on the 5th Floor, watched the display with arms folded.

“Indeed, my disciple. He doesn’t even blink at winds of that magnitude.”

Geum Bi Wu let out a scoff.

“Still only the beginning.”
“And why aren’t you climbing?”
“Do I look incapable?”
“Your mouth’s already made it to the seventh floor.”

Geum Bi Wu’s face hardened.
He strode forward to the first step where Yuk Beom had stood. After casting a glare at Han Pung, he lifted his foot with great momentum.
Roar!
The gale erupted directly in his face.
Geum Bi Wu couldn’t even plant his foot properly on the step and was driven backward. He stumbled three paces before finally stopping, but his hair hung in disarray and his sleeves were turned inside out.
Han Pung fell momentarily silent.
Geum Bi Wu hurriedly adjusted his clothes.

“That’s… just because Yuk Beom shattered the barrier, the wind got stronger.”
“Bahahaha!”

Han Pung clutched his belly and burst into laughter.

“Of course! How unfortunate that the wind chose to act up precisely when you stepped. Dreadful staircase indeed!”
“Shut up!”
“What did I do to deserve your anger? I cursed the stairs. Surely you didn’t think I meant you were worse than a staircase?”

Geum Bi Wu’s face flushed red and purple in turn.
The moment his grip tightened on the hilt, the White Silver Marionette

standing at the center turned its head.

“Training Tower
(Training Tower)
Fighting is forbidden inside. The first to strike is expelled immediately and handed over to their master.”

Geum Bi Wu’s hand froze.
Han Pung stepped forward as if he’d been waiting for this moment.

“You heard that?”

He tapped his own cheek with his finger, once, twice.

“If you’re angry, hit me here. With your good hand, not the one that got burned earlier.”
“Han Pung, your junior seems stronger than you.”

Geum Bi Wu removed his hand from the sword hilt with a sneer.

“Your junior climbed to the 6th Floor while you sit here flapping your mouth. Soon enough, the Academy will strip you of your position altogether.”

Han Pung’s laughter died.
Geum Bi Wu’s mouth curved upward. He seemed to think he’d finally found a weak point.
But in the next instant, Han Pung crouched straight down on the floor and clutched his belly.

“Oh, my gut.”
“What’s so funny?”
“Do they make you snatch positions from your own brothers at your Branch?”

Han Pung wiped tears from the corners of his eyes.

“The whole of Ilwon Academy is just five of us. When my junior gets stronger, he doesn’t steal my position—he takes one extra piece of meat at dinner instead.”

Han Pung patted his trousers.

“There was a time when we’d rip apart the eldest’s pants and mend them so that I, Cho Cheon, Cho Haeng, and all of us could share them in turn. Since our youngest keeps tearing up his clothes too, he’ll probably get his own pair eventually. While we’re still passing around the same trousers, what rank are we fighting over?”
“You call that something to brag about?”
“That’s what real brotherhood is. A hundred times better than how you people shove your weak aside and forget them.”
“It’s only natural the strong stand at the top.”
“What rank are five people supposed to fight over? Should we each pick a chair and sit in it?”

Han Pung ticked off his fingers as he spoke.

“The eldest is the eldest—that’s his role. Cho Cheon handles the lectures. Cho Haeng keeps us in line. I manage the mood. No matter how strong the youngest becomes, he can’t steal my job.”
“If your role is just running your mouth, then sure.”
“There you go—now you’re starting to understand Ilwon Academy.”

Geum Bi Wu clenched his teeth.
In other Branches, strength was rank. If you were weak, even those who’d entered before you would look down on you, and the strong would claim that respect instead. For Geum Bi Wu, that was the natural order.
Yet Han Pung watched Yuk Beom climb higher than himself without a trace of jealousy. Rather, he carried himself with pride, as if it were his own achievement.
That sight scratched at Geum Bi Wu’s nerves even more.

“When we meet outside, I’ll wipe that smile off your face.”
“Bring it on.”

Han Pung sprang up.

“If you can’t best me, from that day forward you’re my grandson. Go on, grandson—give your grandfather a smile.”
“I’ll kill you!”

Geum Bi Wu finally lost his patience and lunged forward.
Strong Energy wrapped around his fist, blazing like fire. The force of his punch, charged with the power of the External Force Realm,

poured toward Han Pung’s face.
Han Pung cried out as though he’d been waiting for his moment.

“He’s killing someone! Big fellow, are you just going to stand there and watch?”

Even as his voice pleaded for mercy, his hand was already drawing the Jade Water Long Sky Sword

from its sheath.
But before Han Pung’s blade could move, the White Silver Marionette’s massive hand cleaved through the air.
Thwack!
Geum Bi Wu’s Gangjing scattered before it could even touch the creature’s palm. The follow-up blow sent his body flying like a swatted insect.

“Ugh!”

Geum Bi Wu coughed blood.
A white light enveloped him, and in the blink of an eye his form vanished entirely. Where a man had stood moments before, only a few droplets of blood remained.
The White Silver Marionette spoke in an emotionless voice.

“Geum Bi Wu, who violated the rules, is forbidden entry to the Training Tower for three years.”

Its crimson eyes turned toward Han Pung.

“You too. Sheathe your blade.”

Han Pung quickly slid the Jade Water Long Sky Sword back into its scabbard.

“I am a man who treasures the rules as much as life itself. The sword just came out on its own in fear, I assure you.”

The White Silver Marionette closed its eyes and paid him no further attention.
Han Pung clicked his tongue, staring at the spot where Geum Bi Wu had disappeared.

“If you’re going to make an enemy of me and Ilwon Academy, I can’t let you walk away with powerful martial arts intact. Three more words from him and I could have struck from outside the tower. Impatient fellow, more so than I expected.”

He hummed a tune as he headed downward.

“I should explore the 4th Floor. A Movement Technique for escape would be nice. The more enemies you’ve made, the better you need to run—that’s a skill too.”

Unlike on the way up, the descending stairs offered no resistance. Han Pung vanished onto the 4th Floor with a cheerful stride.
In the meantime, Yuk Beom had no time to even glance at the commotion unfolding below.
Past the halfway point of the staircase, even Gangjing amplified twenty times over could no longer shatter the barrier in a single strike. Yuk Beom wrapped Divine Soul Force

around the Weaponless Heavy Sword.
A crystalline light spread across the blade’s surface.

“Break.”

The sword sliced through the barrier of light.
The barrier shattered, but its scattered force swirled back into the tempest. A howling gale pushed and pulled at him from all sides—fierce enough that without driving the Weaponless Heavy Sword into the ground like a staff, his body would have been swept into the void.
One step.
Then another.
Yuk Beom did not rush. With each step, he waited for the moment a new barrier rose, then shattered it with the shortest motion possible. The heavy blade anchored his body against the tempest, while Divine Soul Force vibrated through the light’s structure, fracturing it from within.
At last, only three steps remained.
As Yuk Beom lifted his foot, light erupted from the final three steps all at once.
White, silver, and red.
Three barriers merged into one in the air, then transformed in an instant into a colossal sword spanning over a dozen spans, suspended above his head.
The sword fell.
Space itself compressed under its weight.
Yuk Beom did not convert his Fusion Strong Energy into twenty times amplified Gangjing. What he needed now was not an instantaneous explosion, but the gathering of every ounce of strength remaining in his body and blade into a single point.
He gripped the Weaponless Heavy Sword with both hands.
The Cheonji Jiryeok surrounding him was expelled outward, and the storm halted for a single breath.

“Rotating Dragon Slash
!”

The Weaponless Heavy Sword shot upward like lightning.
It was hard to believe such a massive blade could move with such speed. The moment the two swords collided, the entire stairwell shuddered.
Crash!
Yuk Beom’s arms and shoulders trembled violently. He clenched his teeth and twisted his blade. The Weaponless Heavy Sword split the luminous giant sword clean down the middle.
But the severed half came down on Yuk Beom just the same.
Clang!
Silver scales covered his entire body. The sword of light left a massive white mark on the scale armor and drove Yuk Beom back half a step.
That was all.
Yuk Beom swung his blade again toward the remaining half of the giant sword.

“Heavy Sword Formula
, Burst.”

Power accumulated along the blade erupted at a single point.
The three-colored giant sword shattered into thousands of fragments. As light scattered like stardust in all directions, Yuk Beom stamped through the final three steps in succession.
The moment he crossed the threshold into the 6th Floor, the tempest vanished as if it had never been.

“Haah…….”

Yuk Beom leaned against the Weaponless Heavy Sword and caught his breath. That last strike had drawn out nearly every resource he possessed.
As he raised his head, Yuk Beom’s eyes widened slowly.
There were no flames on the 6th Floor.
A river of stars flowed across the entire space from the ceiling. Countless stars hung suspended in waves of light, close enough to touch with an outstretched hand.
Merely gazing up at that sight felt as though his spirit might be pulled inward.
Each star carried a different essence. Some were sharp as a blade’s edge, others heavy as Mount Tai. As a nearby star brushed past overhead, the momentum of a martial art not yet deployed grazed his Divine Soul Force.
This was utterly different from the flames below. Here, it did not feel as though he was choosing which martial arts to learn—instead, it felt as though the martial arts themselves were testing him.
The scales that had covered Yuk Beom’s body slowly faded away.
Then a familiar voice reached his ears.

“Yuk Beom?”

Yuk Beom turned his head.
In the center of the 6th Floor sat a golden throne, and upon it perched a golden marionette. And draped across the marionette’s smooth crown was a woman, legs dangling freely.

Richly bound hair and playful eyes.

“Hwan Wol?”
“Is that really you?”

Hwan Wol sprang lightly down from the marionette’s head. Landing with the grace of a falling leaf, she circled Yuk Beom once before patting his shoulder firmly.

“Not bad at all. Already made it to the 6th Floor.”

Her eyes gleamed.

“What was that armor covering your body? It looked rather impressive.”
“A particular martial art.”
“Teach me it too.”
“I cannot.”

The answer came so quickly that Hwan Wol’s eyebrows rose.

“Aren’t you supposed to at least pretend to think about it?”
“Even if I did, the answer would be the same.”

“How petty.”

Hwan Wol pouted briefly, then as if she’d forgotten about it, grabbed Yuk Beom’s wrist and pulled.

“Never mind. Now that you’re here, help me out.”

It was phrased as a request, but her face already had it decided—that Yuk Beom would help.
She pointed upward at the river of stars above her head.

The Martial Arts Star River, she said, and each and every one of those stars is a martial technique. But even after half a day of searching, I haven’t pulled down a single one. It’s absolutely infuriating.

“You’ve been searching for half a day?”
“Does that matter?”

Hwan Wol waved her hand dismissively.

“We pick the biggest star. The big one has to be the best.”
“How should I assist you?”

Two small fangs appeared at the corners of Hwan Wol’s mouth.

“Watch carefully.”

She swept her hand, and a beam of white light streaked toward the river of stars.
The moment the light touched one of the stars, the entire river rippled.
Flash!
An enormous blade of light fell from the void.
Yuk Beom moved on instinct, raising the Weaponless Heavy Sword to block the strike.
Crash!
Hwan Wol laughed with satisfaction.

“That’s how you help.”

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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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