“Brother, you have internal qi?”
Yong-yong looked a bit shocked and was clearly in disbelief. It seemed like Song Yang-hwa hadn’t noticed.
Yong-yong still thought that my dantian was broken and had tried to protect me.
-Amazing
Right
I am ashamed to call myself her brother, I had never thought she would grow up this fast.
“Ugh!”
Phat!
At that time, Song Young-hyun who was on the ground got back up. I had restrained myself when I threw him down, so this was expected.
I didn’t want to end this easily either. He had almost made my sister cry, so he had to pay.
-What about his skills?
Short Sword was curious, since if one was paying careful attention he moved like a first-rate warrior.
He was definitely better than So Jang-yoon. Considering that his skills were good enough to be a representative, it seemed that he was at least above average.
So Young-hyun who thought he could take me down looked bewildered,
“No, your dantian was healed?”
“Well.”
I didn’t have to tell him that.
After all, it was easier for me when they were mistaken and rushed blindly at me. But he seemed to be a bit careful now.
-He seems to be putting up his guard.
His self-esteem must have taken a blow, seeing as how he had been thrown on his ass in front of everyone, especially when things ran counter to his expectations.
Rather, it seemed like he was back to his rational sense. It looked like he was trying to figure me out.
He had to at least feel out how much internal qi I possessed, and then make sure his skills were enough to close the gap.
-Try to lure him in a little
At Short Sword’s words, I decided to display only a little of my qi which any second-rate warrior would have.
And he smiled.
-It worked
As Short Sword said, his face was rather triumphant.
He was convinced he was stronger than me, and without another word he drew his sword. He was confident that I was weaker than him.
[Brother!]
Yong-yong sent me a transmission,
[He isn’t an opponent that can be defeated even if your dantian has healed.]
Ah
Even Yong-yong seemed to have also been fooled into thinking I was just a second-rate warrior. After all, who would think that a man who had just healed their dantian could rise to such a high position in just a year and a couple of months, compared to the kids who had been sheltered and fed pills their entire lives? Especially when they were kids nurtured by the So family.
Still, it was nice that my only blood was worried about me.
[It is fine, trust your brother.]
[What is fine? It will be horrible!]
Yong-yong didn’t believe me that easily. And it was then,
So Young-hyun, who saw that I was looking at Yong-yong, rushed at me. He was aiming for a surprise attack.
“Be careful!”
Yong-yong yelled at me and I pulled out my sword and moved to block his strike.
My movements were faster.
Sring! Chang!
I pulled out Southern Heavenly Iron Sword from its cloth sheath and raised it, causing my brother’s sword to simply bounce off mine.
And then I quickly slapped him on the cheek
Slap!
The guy’s eyes trembled as his head turned with the slap. It must feel horrible to be hit by someone lower than yourself.
“That is the price for aiming at my sister’s cheek.”
“You!”
He immediately spread out his feet and raised his sword within a distance of two steps.
It was the So Hyeon Sword technique, one of the three techniques that this family was so proud of.
I hadn’t seen it for a long time, but I leisurely swung my sword and blocked his strike.
Chachang!
There was no need to use a sword technique to block this. It was a foolish decision for him to use a sword technique on me too.
I couldn’t care less if he had used a technique I didn’t know, but this was a skill I had seen countless times.
After blocking it in three movements, I slashed the stabbing movement of his sword and slapped him again.
Slap!
One on the left side again,
“That is the price for insulting my sajae who saved my life.”
“You… you bastard!”
He cursed as he started to lose his composure. After being slapped twice, it now felt like he didn’t want to control himself anymore.
Right. That is what I want you to look like.
“Ha!”
On the other hand, my sister was in shock. She was worried that I would be hurt but when I was bullying him, she seemed surprised.
The same was true for the warriors of the family.
“Is this really the trash of Yulang County?”
“How is this possible?”
After So Jang-yoon, now even So Young-hyun was suffering humiliation at my hands so they were all shocked.
Jang-yoon didn’t get much spotlight as he was known to be weak, but I was holding my ground against this guy who was well known.
-Wonhwi!
Iron Sword called for me. At this moment, the sound of swords in rank rattled in my head.
-…
‘Huk.’
With so many swords coming, this much sound was bound to follow.
The headache from the sound went down after I used the innate qi for a bit.
It was hard to notice these things in the Ikyang So family, surrounded by so many swords, but thanks to these many swords, I came to an understanding.
-Wonhwi. They are?
Right, Iron Sword.
With this amount of people, the lord must have returned.
-I felt three swords that were strong.
-Very strong
Three strong swords?
There were standards for swords being evaluated as strong such as Short Sword and Iron Sword.
The strong ones were those who grew with their masters. The second type could be either old treasures or even divine swords.
No matter how carefully a new sword was crafted, it was still a newborn baby.
’Ah.
I could guess with certainty who one was, but could only guess the titles of the others.
One would be the lord, and the other two would have to be the First Sword and the Female Warrior of Mount Hyeong.
It was worth the time and they had arrived at the right moment.
Now it was time to harvest.
“Youu!!!”
So Young-hyun who felt ashamed at being slapped rushed at me again.
He had changed his grip on his sword. Once he realized that his previous technique wouldn’t work on me, he changed the technique he used.
Seeing that the sword technique appeared to be a bit heavy, and seemed to focus on pressuring the opponent down, it must be the Raging Sword Technique which only the successor could use.
Unlike before, he was confident in winning.
‘Let’s check how good he is.’
I wondered.
I mean, what level had he reached with this sword technique?
Sring!
I tried to block it.
Whenever our swords collided, an abnormally heavy flow was felt.
The secret to such a heavy sword technique was to use the sword properly and interrupt the flow of the opponent.
Chachang!
However, his grasp of the technique wasn’t too great, it was only average.
It may be effective on other people of his level, but not on me. I easily blocked all fourteen formations.
And in the end, just by swinging my sword lightly, I made him bounce back three steps.
Chang! Tak!
As he landed he mumbled,
“No way. How can you handle the Raging Sword…”
As expected, this was the Raging Sword technique. I, the supposed trash of the family, handled this technique so easily that he fell into shock.
And to him, like showing mercy I said,
“If you apologize to the two of them right now, and ask forgiveness for insulting my deceased mother, it will end here.”
“Forgiveness?”
Of course, he wasn’t going to be that nice.
Rather, it was to provoke him that I kept doing this.
Clench!
The sound of a hand clenching and teeth grinding.
As expected, he couldn’t hold his anger anymore,
“To whom are you saying that forgiveness should be asked?”
“You will regret it.”
At my words, he shouted as he remembered something,
“Now I know! How you learned your skills just fine! Even if your dantian was back due to some luck you should know that martial arts don’t improve in just one year! You must have learned some evil martial art!”
Ha.
Was he really trying to use his head like this? So typical.
In the first place, I was able to block his techniques with just plain skills and not internal qi or techniques. Meanwhile, the warriors of the house mumbled,
“Right?”
“How could he improve this much in just a year’s time?”
“Then you mean he learned Evil Arts?”
Among martial arts, there were Demonic Arts and Evil Arts.
They were literally what they were called, one of them came from the demonic sects, and the others came from the evil sects, the unorthodox ones whose evil arts were known to accelerate the growth of their user using insidious means.
“Even if you die, you must hate to accept that you are weak.”
“What?”
“It is pathetic that the skills of a successor are of this level.”
Sima Young was being sarcastic on purpose. This time, she was trying to stimulate his expression and emotion.
Whatever the excuse was, he was the successor of this family, a skilled being who symbolizes the house. And losing to me was a great shame for him.
“Someone like trash is pushing his luck. I tried to look after you considering the fact that you are blood to me but…”
Did I hear it wrong? He was watching over me?
-He is quite thick-skinned
Short Sword clicked her tongue.
This guy always wanted the top position. Seeing his rising anger at the tip of his sword I knew that if I used Short Sword he would die.
“If you are so confident then can you stop this?”
So Young-hyun said to me as if he was provoking me.
He was deliberately trying to make me use something but I shook my head,
“That will not change anything.”
“You are too arrogant!”
Pat!
At my words, he moved at me in anger.
He was ready to kill me, that was how he was moving with the heavy feeling sword which only wanted to kill his own blood.
“Be careful!”
Yong-yong shouted again but I had no reason to hide my skills.
Sring!
His sword collided with mine and as the sword touched, he tried to link another technique when I slapped him again.
Slap!
This time I used internal qi to give a good impact.
“T-this bastar…”
He tried to force the technique to unfold but I stood still as I raised my sword.
My hand went up seeing the gap again.
Slap!
This time it was on the other cheek. And blood came from his nose as I hit him a bit hard.
Grunt!
He was grinding his teeth and tried to strike me with the sword but before that, my fist collided with his chest.
Puak!
“Kuak!”
As he got hit on the chest, he tried to move back.
But I grabbed him by the neck and pulled him close as I kicked him in the shin.
Crack!
The shinbone broke and cracked.
“Kuak! Y…you! Bastard…”
The anger was greater than the pain so he tried to use the sword again and his blade was coming for my neck but it was already too late.
I slashed down his sword using my internal qi.
Chang!
“Euk!”
The blade trembled first in its attempt to resist, but as it couldn’t keep up, my qi kept digging into his palm, and soon the sword bounced back and twirled round and round.
It was the moment when the guy felt confused
[This is the price for insulting my mother you fucking dumbass.]
“…?!”
Puak!
“Ack!”
I hit him in the face with my fist.
His face twisted sideways and the sound of his teeth shattering could be heard. And he fell down with his teeth falling out.
His face was a mess now.
‘Ha.’
This feels good.
It felt like the ill feelings which I had accumulated over the past events got released. Just how much had these people tormented me and my siblings and insulted our mother?
[Lord!]
Cho Seong-won’s voice rang in my ear and I knew why he had called.
I could tell from the crowd around us going silent. When I turned my head, I looked to see a middle-aged man cloaked in a green robe, and a bitter face, along with two warriors on either side of him.
The lord of this family, So Ik-heon.
Beside him were two people, a man, and a woman in indigo uniforms.
These were faces I hadn’t seen in a long time. But they don’t know me.
Before coming back to life I never came into close contact with anyone else due to the shame I had caused my family.
As a spy, I saw them when I was in the Murim Alliance.
“W-what is this?”
Cho Il-hye asked with a frown as she saw my siblings lying on the ground.
And she looked at me and asked, “Who is that man?”
She certainly seemed to have noticed that I was the one who did this. The qi she was releasing to pressure me was so strong that it felt like she belonged to the strong warriors.
‘Strong.’
But the guy next to her was even stronger than her. There was no intimidation like Hae Ack-chun but it was clear that the base levels of the peak had been crossed.
On the other hand, So Ik-heon felt to be slightly on par with the woman.
Of course, one shouldn’t judge their strength by internal qi alone.
So Ik-heon had a complicated expression.
Cho Il-hye herself couldn’t understand what was going on.
-What is it?
I was not sure either.
Maybe because the child he threw away came back stronger than others? It was then–
“Ah, father! It is evil arts! He used evil martial arts!” shouted So Young-hyun, who had noticed the lord and the other two people of Mount Hyeong.
I thought he wouldn’t be able to speak as I had broken his jaw but he was still struggling to stay on top?
“Evil arts?”
But an unexpected person reacted.
He was the First Sword of Mount Hyeong, Cho Un-jong.
‘Ah!’
I remembered him
The person who was gentle and shy most of the time.
But he was someone who didn’t like injustice at all, especially the Forces of Evil.
“It isn’t Evil arts…”
Pat!
But before I could even explain the man moved.
In the blink of an eye, he reduced the distance to 15 steps.
‘Ah?’
I knew that Mount Hyeong is known to have quick swords and footwork but I didn’t think it would be this good.
He stopped right in front of me and asked,
“Disciple. Have you mastered the evil arts?”
“No.”
“Then why is the successor of the family saying that you did?”
Because the evil arts adversely affects the human body most people hated those who used such things. And Cho Un-jong was one of them.
“Hyung! That man in front of you is my brother!”
“Brother? So Wonhwi?”
Cho Un-jong frowned.
Judging from his reaction it seemed like he heard about me from the Yong-yong. I thought this would go well, but,
“I heard your dantian was damaged, is that incorrect?”
Sh!
He grabbed onto my wrist.
He seemed suspicious of me no matter how much he heard and he had to check it for himself.
I quickly stepped back.
“What is this?”
“The dantian which was damaged and in one year, yet you managed to get to this level.”
Tak.
Cho Un-jong was following my movement, well, he was known to be a genius.
“Give me a chance to explain.”
Srin!
At my words, he pulled out his sword.
“I checked you what more can be explained through words?”
“You want to do this?”
“If we fight then it will be clear if you used evil arts or not. Pick your sword up.”
Chachka!
As soon as he said that, his sword began to come for me.
It was the famous Clear Wind Sword. A technique that any warrior in their sect can learn, but what was unfolding now isn’t such a simple one but a higher level of it
‘Nothing could be done.’
If this was going to happen, then I had to prove it with my sword.
The Pure Wind Sword of his began to change like the wind. To counter this, I did the same.
‘Loach Shaped Sword technique!’
It was one of the three techniques I had learned.
Like a soft willow branch, it was a technique that could handle anything.
Chachahcang!
And our swords collided.
Mine like a willow branch and his like the wind met and our swords entangled. Each time the swords collided my palms hurt.
‘This is different.’
He was different from the people I had faced till now.
Cho Un-jong, who would become the master of this faction, made me wonder if I could win with just half my power.
How could such a soft technique hold so much power?
Then should I spread the distance… uh?
Pat!
Cho Un-jong, who was fighting me, widened the distance first and the others looked puzzled at his actions. But then he suddenly asked me with a trembling voice,
“You, what is your relationship with Warrior Ho Jong-dae?”
At his words, the quiet place turned noisy.
“Ho Jong-dae?”
“Did he just say that name?”
Warrior Ho Jong-dae.
Even after 15 years, there was no one in the world of Murim who didn’t know of that man.
It was the name of the man of Yunnan province, the Heavenly Southern Swordsman.
And he asked me again,
“Tell me clearly. Do you know that man?”
At his question, I bowed down and spoke confidently,
“He is my teacher.”
‘…!’
As soon as I said those words, my insides felt twisted.
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