Chapter 11
Chapter 11
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: The Namgung Martial Hall
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There's a saying: "Officials and the martial world do not interfere."
The government and the jianghu keep their distance from each other.
The jianghu was filled with masters whose power was too immense for the state to control.
But openly defying the nation would be tantamount to treason.
Thus, it was a social compact: the state preserved its dignity, and the jianghu gained its freedom.
It also helped fill in the gaps where the government's administrative power fell short in regulating the jianghu.
This was the context in which martial halls came into being.
Any family clan of decent size maintained a martial hall on their estate.
Essentially, they were training grounds for private soldiers.
But in a monarchical state, raising private troops outright?
It was the perfect way to get branded a rebel.
Hence, martial halls.
They taught the family's martial arts to cultivate proper warriors.
They were merely venues for sharing knowledge widely—definitely not training camps for private soldiers.
Of course, those who received the family's grace often volunteered to serve it in return...
It's a world where we all help each other out. Perfectly natural.
That was the definition of a martial hall.
A smokescreen to claim, "These aren't private soldiers! (They totally are.)"
Ridiculous, but in a world that prized justification and face, the officials turned a blind eye.
The Namgung Family was the largest among the Seven Great Families.
With roots as a martial house, their martial hall was naturally the grandest under heaven.
Namgoong Hyeok, the Central Plains' supreme master.
Just learning fragments of the martial arts he wielded drew crowds to the gates every day.
I'd heard people even treated graduation from the Namgung Martial Hall as a qualification in its own right.
Thus, selecting instructors was an extremely rigorous process.
They were the face of the Namgung Family, after all.
I wasn't one of them, though.
Among school ties, regional ties, and blood ties, blood was the strongest.
A prospective son-in-law got a free pass, naturally.
'The caliber is certainly high.'
My first day on the job as an instructor.
I was surveying the disciples training in the practice yard.
True enough, getting into the Namgung Martial Hall was like threading a needle. Even the newest initiates had an extraordinary aura about them.
'Flickering Thunder Sword Art and Flickering Thunder Heart Method.'
Faint lightning.
What the martial hall taught was a diluted version of the Namgung Family's martial arts, true to its name.
A mix of the street-vendor staples—Three Disasters Sword Method and Three Disasters Heart Method—with a dash of Namgung secrets.
Traces of Namgoong Hyeok's personal touch could be seen here and there.
Diluted or not, mastering this to perfection was enough to earn the title of master.
'Worlds apart from that damned Pay-to-Win Sect.'
That place that popped into my head whenever I tried to forget it.
The Pay-to-Win Sect, where getting stronger required shelling out real money.
The teaching quality differed from those money-grubbers whose goal was profit.
Ah, thinking about it pisses me off again.
'Not absorbing lightning energy—they're generating it?'
Anyway, the Namgung martial arts were quite intriguing.
Forming lightning energy within the human body.
Practically turning yourself into a living generator.
If this were my past life, it'd contribute to human progress, but born in the wrong era, it was only used to beat people down.
'The generated lightning energy only affects the senses of pain.'
No devastating power like Namgoong Hyeok's Heaven-Shaking Thunderbolt Sword, no direct destructive force—but that was plenty.
In the jianghu, a moment's hesitation or a split-second mistake could cost your life.
The Flickering Thunder Sword Art, which directly stimulated the senses, was undoubtedly powerful.
'That's enough.'
I'd already gleaned some inspiration.
The attempt to embody natural principles within the human body.
An interesting concept.
But I couldn't afford to get too curious, lest I start wondering about the Namgung Family's true secrets.
I skimmed only what was needed for teaching and closed the martial arts manual.
"Your stance is collapsing too much. Lower the sword a bit more."
"Yes! Understood!"
Teaching others was a first for me.
The spar with Yeonhui had been close to instructional sparring, but that was learning in real combat, after all.
Pointing out mistakes and watching them get corrected was more fun than I'd expected.
"This time the sword's too high!"
"Sorry!"
"Why are your legs spread like that? Shoulder-width, shoulder-width!"
"Got it!"
Truth be told, plenty of disciples resented the parachute instructor who dropped in out of nowhere.
A few were just going through the motions.
But one alone.
One disciple doggedly followed my every instruction.
Gwak Il.
The guy was military-stiff.
His eyes burned with zeal for learning.
Talent was a bit lacking, though.
"Your sword's so slow, a fly would mistake it for a tree branch and lay eggs on it!"
"Sorry!"
"Was that strike meant to chop tomorrow's sparring partner?"
"Sorry!"
His earnest effort was satisfying to watch, so I unwittingly pushed him with rapid-fire corrections.
His tenacity in keeping up to the end was praiseworthy.
"Why does the lightning energy keep clumping and then scattering?"
"Yes! Please teach me!"
"Your internal energy is insufficient."
"Pardon?"
"Sounds like bullshit, right? You need to clump the lightning energy to build internal energy?"
"No, sir!"
"It is bullshit. But it's true. However..."
He'd been a street urchin like me, he said.
This was his one shot to change his life, so he'd never give up.
Having memories of cold back alleys myself, I couldn't help but care a little more.
"...Do it that way, and it'll be resolved."
"It's different from the manual. Is that okay?"
"As long as it's our little secret."
"Yes! Understood!"
So I got a bit nosy.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Brother-in-law! Why's it so hard to see your face these days!"
"Haha, I've been paying respects to the family elders."
"I get it! Gotta blend into the family naturally, right?"
Namgoong Hyu slung his arm over my shoulder with a hearty laugh.
The sweat from his grueling training wafted strongly.
His muscles, now free of flab, were unnecessarily rock-hard and intimidating.
'Ah, shoulda slacked off and headed back.'
The sudden surge of teaching passion was the problem.
So immersed in drilling Gwak Il—who executed every instruction somehow—that I missed Namgoong Hyu approaching.
-Let's grab a meal together after so long.
An unexpected dinner invite.
Can't spit in a smiling face, so I couldn't bluntly refuse.
I had my sins to atone for, too.
And so, I ended up at Namgoong Hyu's for dinner...
'Should've seen this coming.'
Sanggwan Yeong's lovingly prepared dishes.
The issue? My "advice" had been too effective, so the couple had stuck religiously to that diet ever since.
"Eat up, everyone~."
"Put in some extra effort since my brother-in-law's coming."
"Ha, haha. Thank you, sister-in-law."
"Sis, looks delicious!"
Yeonhui naturally joined, making four in total.
The table overflowed with portions way too much for us—a mountain of food even more overwhelming than last time.
Rules of Transformation, Gungbo Style, Three Cups Method, etc.
A familiar lineup.
Yes.
I was facing the karmic seeds I'd sown, now bearing fruit.
A table blanketed entirely in chicken—tough-as-nails chicken breast, no less.
'Am I trash?'
The thought hit with the first bite.
It was undoubtedly well-made.
Sanggwan Yeong had become an authority on chicken breast cuisine.
The seasoning ratios and cooking process were flawless.
'But the fundamentals don't change.'
Why had I emphasized minimizing seasonings for health? Not wrong, of course.
Overdoing salt and sugar harms the body. But even accounting for that, the ratios I'd recommended to Sanggwan Yeong were inhumanely brutal. Shouldn't I at least have pretended to mask the off-flavors? Even if it was to find my own path to survival, how could I feed this to people? All I could do now was curse my past self.
You trash bastard!
"Sister-in-law, is the food not to your taste?"
"Oh, I already ate. Waiting for the master, who's training late."
Sanggwan Yeong's innocent smile had never looked so hateful.
Escaping this chicken breast hell alone.
"Kuhh, this is it! The scent of muscles swelling up!"
Namgoong Hyu, why the hell did you turn into a muscle freak?
He'd conquered this abusive diet with the power of love, becoming a monster.
Reaching the realm of savoring chicken breast's gaminess.
'All my karma.'
Should've at least left the gaminess.
Instead of making it tough enough to drive you mad.
Chicken breast's muscle fibers shrink with heat, moisture evaporates, amplifying the chewiness.
Plenty of ways to avoid it, but I hadn't shared a single one with Sanggwan Yeong.
On the contrary, I'd stressed maximum cooking.
'This... is rubber.'
Pretend it's a calorie bar, and it's easier.
Disgustingly chewy and flavorless.
"No, brother-in-law. What the hell is all this?"
"What do you mean?"
The moment Sanggwan Yeong stepped out for a bit, Yeonhui confronted Namgoong Hyu.
"The gaminess is so bad I can't eat it. The meat's chewy like tree bark. Is this what you always eat?"
"Hey now. It's all good for your health! How could you grasp the deeper meaning!"
"If sis hadn't made it, I'd have flipped the table already!"
Namgoong Hyu winked at me with his right eye—our little secret.
Yeonhui shook her head, unable to endure.
"Uncle. Say something. This can't be right, right?"
"Yeonhui."
"Yes?"
"I'm disappointed."
Was this how Zhuge Liang felt beheading Ma Su?
"Does it make sense for someone our age to be picky with food?"
"Brother-in-law?"
"I've always thought your hearty eating was beautiful. But this..."
"?"
"And food the sister-in-law put her heart into! That's no way to respect her! I didn't know you were like this!"
"Brother-in-law, that's not—"
"It's delicious! If you won't eat it, I will!"
Sorry, Yeonhui.
To survive, I have no choice.
Apologizing inwardly, I shoveled food into my mouth indiscriminately.
My heart grew as heavy as the chicken's chewiness.
Namgoong Hyu watched contentedly, his face seeming to say, "How's it feel to get yours?"
Nah, must be my imagination.