Chapter 275
Chapter 275
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 275
Chapter Title: The Secret of Strength: Filial Impiety
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Dang Myeong-ok and Dang Myeong-jin blinked as they watched the events unfolding in the training grounds.
Having left the Sacheon Dang family and entered the Nangong family, they had lived quietly like mice, but during their time there, they hadn't missed a single one of Nangong Hyeok's and the Thunder Dragon Squad's misdeeds(?).
This time, though, it was on another level.
Dang Myeong-jin gulped and gaped at what was happening in the training grounds.
"...Aren't the Nangong family guys total lunatics?"
That was Dang Myeong-jin's conclusion after observing Nangong Hyeok and the Thunder Dragon Squad's antics.
"Are they really in their right minds?"
"Their right minds?"
"They've gone and started beating the elders too! In the world, that's filial impiety—filial impiety!"
Fine, rolling the regular warriors was part of training.
Fine, the Thunder Dragon Squad giggling while watching was because they'd taken after their master's personality.
But from some point on, Nangong Hyeok had started beating the elders too—who would think that was sane after seeing it?
On top of that, no one was stopping him; they were just saying things like "You're weak."
Weak, my ass!
If anyone's weak, it's you!
They're the family elders—elders.
He's beating elders!
Under the guise of training.
Not just beating them, but pounding them like dogs on the hottest day of summer—it was to the point where you couldn't tell if it was training or outright violence.
"Even our Dang family doesn't go that far!"
The Sacheon Dang were called vicious, but these guys were the truly vicious ones.
'Right, no wonder they shrug off poison like it's nothing!'
These were the real poison freaks.
Scribble, scribble.
Dang Myeong-ok muttered as she jotted something down in her notebook.
"That's why the Nangong family is so strong."
"What?"
"That viciousness in beating even the elders—that's exactly what our Dang family needs to learn."
...Was his sister in her right mind?
"What crazy talk! That's just straight-up filial impiety!"
"And that filial impiety is probably the secret to the Nangong family's strength!"
Dang Myeong-jin gaped at Dang Myeong-ok.
His gaze involuntarily drifted to the notebook she was writing in.
It was packed full of writing.
It was a notebook where she'd been recording everything like a diary every single day since arriving at the Nangong family.
It detailed past training sessions and routines in minute, dense detail.
And the final sentence that capped it off.
The secret to strength: filial impiety.
'Fucking hell, why's the conclusion like that?'
Dang Myeong-jin stared blankly at Dang Myeong-ok.
He wondered if they were really blood-related.
"Sis, snap out of it."
"My mind's perfectly fine. You should open your eyes wide and take a good look."
"Watching that is gonna drive me insane too."
Dang Myeong-jin huffed and pointed dramatically at the training grounds.
Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack!
"Arghhh!"
"Gently, gently!"
"Aaah! You bastard! I'm dying, ow ow ow!"
"Ugh! Th-this is nothing to me, not even a hair's brea—aaah!"
Dang Myeong-jin shuddered as he watched the Nangong family elders writhing in agony.
Their screams still echoed in his ears.
He was afraid they'd haunt his dreams.
Standing in front of the elders rolling on the ground was Nangong Hyeok, holding a wooden sword and chuckling away—that guy was the scariest of all.
'That's it! That's why I've been so uneasy!'
Seeing Nangong Hyeok, whose madness bordered on demonic fury, he finally grasped the source of the anxiety he'd felt when leaving the Sacheon Dang.
Sticking around here any longer would drive him mad too.
'This young master has been mad from the start, sure.'
Nangong Hyeok had never been right in the head to begin with, so filial impiety or whatever—fine.
'But why are these guys suddenly going wild too?'
Dang Myeong-jin's eyes rolled sideways.
In one corner of the training grounds, the Thunder Dragon Squad stood in formation, catching his eye.
Led by Geon Cheon-hwi, Tak Hyeok-dong, and Jang Woong, the squad had split into two groups and were beating each other with clubs.
Thud! Thwack! Bam!
"Harder!"
"Hit harder!"
"Faster, faster!"
Smack! Smack! Crack-crack-crack!
"Grraaah!"
"Ughhh!"
"Hngh!"
The Thunder Dragon Squad had split into hitters and those being hit, attacking each other.
Dang Myeong-jin gaped wide again at the sight.
Now they were even self-harming!
And the weapons the beaters were using were no joke.
Iron balls, iron clubs, wooden swords...
Their intent to pulverize each other was crystal clear.
The Thunder Dragon Squad ramped up their intensity even more.
"Harder! You think you'll endure with that?!"
"Graaah! That doesn't even tickle, you punks!"
"Ah, damn it! If you can't take that, what are you gonna do?!"
Dang Myeong-jin could only gawk in horror at the Thunder Dragon Squad self-training in the Iron Soul Thirteen Paths.
Geon Cheon-hwi regulated his breathing and recited the incantation for the Iron Soul Thirteen Paths.
The Iron Soul Thirteen Paths was a peerless technique that hammered the body to forge it like iron and, in the end, tempered the mind like steel.
Like steel growing harder with every strike, it mercilessly pounded the flesh, increasing the force and frequency to progressively strengthen the body.
Following the incantation, it stimulated acupoints to boost inner energy while simultaneously building external strength.
It was such a brutish method that it had nearly been lost to history once, but Nangong Hyeok had kindly beaten it into the Thunder Dragon Squad—and now, having reached the third stage, it granted them bodies that could withstand wooden clubs without a scratch.
It was a training method that reached the pinnacle of external arts, one that ordinary folk couldn't help but gape at in shock.
For Dang Myeong-jin, the shock came hand-in-hand with a question.
Nangong Hyeok was working the elders, so why were the Thunder Dragon Squad going even harder?
"Uh, hey. Why the hell are those guys doing that?"
He suddenly turned to So Geol-gae.
So Geol-gae had been closely observing the Nangong family—especially the Thunder Dragon Squad's training methods.
It was his Beggar Clan habit of gathering information kicking in.
So Geol-gae scratched his head vigorously.
"It's training, as you can see."
"...That looks like training in your eyes as division leader?"
"That's just how they are. If they call it training, what can you do?"
"Ah...."
True.
"...Then why are they suddenly going wild after being so quiet? Isn't it even more intense than when they were teaching the regular warriors?"
Scratch, scratch.
So Geol-gae scratched his head again.
"Young Master Dang."
"Yes."
"How long has it been since the Mad Dragon showed up?"
"Counting from Sacheon, it's well over a month...."
"Tsk tsk! No wonder you don't get it. Why do you think he's called the Mad Dragon?"
Because that's his nickname....
But what?
Why the smug look?
"You think the Mad Dragon's just beating the elders for fun? Does it look like real beatings to you?"
"...Yes."
"It's all training—Mad Dragon-style training."
"Ah... uh, yes."
"So, once that training ends, who do you think is next?"
"Well...."
"It's those guys, that's who."
At So Geol-gae's words, Dang Myeong-jin went slack-jawed.
"What happened to the ones slacking off before the Mad Dragon started training them? They got worked to death, right? That's why they're like this. Tsk tsk!"
Dang Myeong-jin felt like he'd been smacked in the back of the head.
Ah, so they were training voluntarily to avoid getting worked to death?
'Ah....'
Dang Myeong-jin's mind felt like it was twisting and about to explode.
Scribble scribble!
His head was already spinning, but beside him, Dang Myeong-ok's eyes sparkled like stars as she kept writing nonstop.
A vein bulged on Dang Myeong-jin's forehead.
"Hey, you crazy sister! What the hell are you writing?! And why are you stealing their training methods in the first place!"
"She said it's okay because it's not stealing from outsiders!"
"...."
"You dumb little brother. This turns into flesh and blood—that's why we came all the way from Sacheon, isn't it?"
Uh, no, it's not?
Dang Myeong-jin let out a groan and slunk off to a corner, deflated.
Nangong Hyeok pounding the elders in the distance and the Thunder Dragon Squad going wild alongside him were overwhelming enough, but seeing Dang Myeong-ok gleefully scribbling it all down in her notebook made him sigh deeply.
'Fucking hell, I'm losing my mind....'
Ah, I wanna go home.
As Dang Myeong-jin turned his head, his gaze met Paeng Jung-hyeok's—his eyelids bruised black and blue, plastered against the wall.
'...You too?'
The two shared an inexplicable sense of camaraderie in suffering.
Paeng Jung-hyeok let out a heavy sigh, hefted his massive sword, and crawled toward the Thunder Dragon Squad.
He looked just like an ox or pig being dragged to the slaughterhouse.
* * *
Crack!
Nangong Hyeok scratched his head as he looked at the wooden sword that had snapped clean in two.
"Ah, guess that's it for today."
Ten wooden swords scattered on the ground.
Twelve elders collapsed.
He nodded at the groaning elders.
'They are elders, after all.'
Once they understood the flaws in the Soaring Palace Invincible Sword, it hadn't taken long to pick it up.
The saying that a warrior's prime comes after forty wasn't wrong—the elders' learning speed was terrifyingly fast.
With solid inner energy backing them up and deep understanding of swordsmanship, mastering the Soaring Palace Invincible Sword came quickly.
Of course, it was also thanks to Nangong Hyeok's devoted personal guidance(?).
"Ah, good work, everyone. Must be all that experience— you picked it up faster than I expected."
"Ugh...."
"Yes, it was great feeling the elders' love for the Nangong family."
"Urk!"
"See you tomorrow at the same time, then."
Flick.
Nangong Hyeok turned away with a grin.
The elders shuddered in fear, but that wasn't his problem.
"Once they've had a taste, they won't stop halfway."
Pain?
Agony?
That stuff was irrelevant if it meant getting stronger.
For a warrior, strength was more addictive than anything.
They were the type to gladly lose a hand if it made them stronger than before.
'Looks like the elders' issue is mostly sorted....'
It was only a matter of time before the elders took another step forward.
With the world's Poison Overlord teaching and drilling them, he was confident he could turn a ten-year-old kid into a first-rate master.
Nangong Hyeok returned to his quarters and sat cross-legged on the bed.
"So far, the plan's proceeding steadily."
With the elders and regular warriors in training, the basics were covered.
The Nangong family's roots and pillars wouldn't crumble easily, but the era of the Sword King had faded, and they needed to recover their atrophied muscles and power.
No—they had to make them tougher and stronger than before.
'That's how they'll endure.'
That was the pressure from the shadow of the demonic path.
Its presence weighed heavily on Nangong Hyeok's shoulders.
"I'm not alone."
It was different from the past.
He stood on a completely different path from before.
Not as the Poison Overlord, but as the Nangong family's second young master.
His body, mind, and goals had all changed.
And above all, what had changed Nangong Hyeok the most was that he was no longer alone.
Not being alone meant there were more people to protect, more things to worry about.
In truth, it was like he'd gained more weaknesses.
He couldn't deny that.
With the massive enemy that was the demonic path looming, it would be a fatal vulnerability.
Full of gaps, far weaker than the Poison Overlord of old.
That was the current Nangong Hyeok.
But the people by his side now were different from those who'd followed him when he walked alone.
They were in his shadow.
'I just need to reduce the things I have to worry about.'
Let's get stronger together, grow together.
Make the fence sturdier, turn it into an iron fortress.
Unlike in the past....
Nangong Hyeok, who had been staring silently into empty space, chuckled softly.
"If not, I'll just beat 'em all—that's what the righteous sects do best, right?"
Nangong Hyeok chuckled and closed his eyes.
The energy of the Heavenly King Supreme Art sent a pleasant tremor through him.
Now it was time for his own training.