Chapter 18
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Wait, That's Possible?! (1)
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Wails of agony erupted from the temporary training ground of the Tang Clan Villa.
Under the pretext of disciplining the Tang Clan warriors, Jin Je-yong had drawn his sword.
"Still the same as ever, beating up kids with a sword, our dear instructor."
From a corner of the temporary training ground, Jeok-sam leisurely watched Jin Je-yong's swordplay.
Jin Je-yong was a man who could fell a giant tree with a mere twig. Conversely, he was also a man who could wield a sharp blade like a club.
Though his sword was drawn, not a single person was cut. Instead, the sound of a drum beating was accompanied by cries of anguish.
‘That has to hurt like hell.’
Wasn't his first disciple, Jeok-sam, the one who had experienced the sting of Jin Je-yong's sword most painfully?
Having just become the dojo's sword instructor, Jin Je-yong, still a child himself, knew nothing of restraint. Whenever Jeok-sam left the dojo, his bones would ache, and later, it wasn't enough to just shed tears and snot; he'd even wet himself.
"It's not that I lack perseverance. Gyeong just doesn't know this pain."
Jeok-sam felt a pang of disappointment. When he was learning, it had been more painful, more difficult.
Now, knowing how to control his strength, Jin Je-yong only struck the Tang Clan members just enough to cause pain.
Over a hundred of them screamed and rolled on the ground, unable to even put up a proper resistance.
Then, Jin Je-yong would bring his sword down on the back of a fallen warrior's head. Whenever he did, the warrior struck by the sword would leap up like a carp.
"I'd better go get a glass of cold water."
While Jin Je-yong was on his rampage, Jeok-sam started to walk out of the training ground.
Just then, he heard a commotion at the entrance of the Tang Clan Villa.
"I'll kill every last one of you who insulted my instructor!"
A man covered in dust, his eyes like those of a fearsome demon, shouted.
The Tang Clan warriors who weren't part of the training were startled and threw their shurikens, but the projectiles bounced off right before the man's eyes.
"Gyeong! Perfect timing! Hurry up!"
"Senior Brother!"
Nam Gyeong leaped off his horse and ran over.
He rushed over in a single bound and tightly gripped Jeok-sam's hand.
"S-Senior Brother, are you alright? Did the Tang Clan bastards torture you or something?"
"Calm down, calm down. The instructor handled it."
"The... the instructor... did?"
Nam Gyeong stared blankly behind Jeok-sam. Just then, a scream came from the temporary training ground.
Nam Gyeong's body trembled, and his demonic face instantly turned as pitiful as a rain-soaked puppy.
"Is... is it a baptism?"
Jeok-sam nodded.
Among the disciples, Jin Je-yong's teachings were referred to as a baptism.
His sword was so divine that when it pierced the body, there was no wound, only the pain remained.
Thanks to this, those who received his sword instruction had their eyes opened and could see a new world.
No one knew if this was because Jin Je-yong struck their openings, or because they had experienced a brush with death a couple of times.
"I... I've been on a f-forced march, so I'll go wash up and rest. Senior Brother, please rest well..."
Nam Gyeong's mind cleared, and he began to plot his escape.
Jeok-sam, too, tried to slip away under the pretense of getting cold water, fearing he'd get caught in the crossfire.
"Where are you going?"
"Huh?"
Nam Gyeong, who had been backing away, froze in his tracks.
The screams that had been echoing from the temporary training ground had suddenly vanished, and Jeok-sam was pouring cold sweat like rain.
Jin Je-yong was standing silently behind him.
"Lately, Sam, Gyeong."
"Yes! Instructor!"
"Sir! Instructor!"
The two men's bodies stiffened as they answered loudly.
Both the usually sly Jeok-sam and the dispirited Nam Gyeong snapped to attention.
"Quite a few disciples have left the dojo for the martial world, so why do so few people know of our dojo, of our master? If my disciples had made a name for themselves, people would know, wouldn't they?"
"This disciple has lived his entire life as a merchant and is ignorant of the martial world."
Jeok-sam answered swiftly.
Jin Je-yong's gaze turned to Nam Gyeong, a warrior of the Righteous Alliance.
Nam Gyeong looked at Jin Je-yong, his face pale as a ghost, like a mouse before a cat.
Jin Je-yong's face was utterly ordinary. It fell short of being called handsome, yet it couldn't be called ugly either. It was the kind of face where you might find a handsome feature if you looked hard enough.
But to those who had witnessed his true nature, that ordinary face seemed more terrifying than any demon or fiend.
"I fear you have forgotten my teachings. It's been a while, let's have a training session."
"Thank you!"
Jeok-sam quickly bowed, striking his head against the stone floor. Not having properly learned martial arts, he fainted from the single blow.
Nam Gyeong belatedly followed his senior brother's lead.
"Thank...!"
"That's enough bowing. Get up and receive my sword."
Nam Gyeong, who was about to slam his head on the ground with all his might, was stopped by Jin Je-yong's sword.
Moreover, the flat of the blade, which should have been cold, was warm from striking people.
‘Ah, Senior Brother...’
It seemed the man known as the Eldest Senior Brother had a knack for cleverly avoiding Jin Je-yong's touch.
But it was no use. The sword that had stopped Nam Gyeong now plunged deep into Jeok-sam's side.
"Keuk!"
"Sam, get up and get ready."
"Kkeuheuk! I-Instructor..."
"Sam, Gyeong. Let's begin the lesson."
Jin Je-yong's sword turned towards his two disciples.
Nam Gyeong trembled as he drew his sword, while Jeok-sam turned and fled without a second glance.
* * *
Tang Jin-seong screamed internally as he got to his feet.
Looking around, he saw the members of the branch family still unconscious, foaming at the mouth.
‘Ugh, how can he beat people with the edge of a sword?’
He had wondered if Jin Je-yong's sword was dull, but seeing it slice through every hidden weapon the Tang Clan warriors threw, that didn't seem to be the case.
And his sword was at times as hard as ten-thousand-year-old cold iron, and at others as soft as cotton.
When it struck, the pain was bone-deep, but when it lifted a fallen man, it was as gentle as a cushion.
"He's a monster, a monster."
Tang Jin-seong trembled, witnessing Jin Je-yong's martial prowess once again.
The truly terrifying thing about him was that despite possessing such martial skill, common sense did not apply to him.
"But the places he struck were definitely places I hadn't seen."
Only after being beaten senseless by the sword, unable to lift a finger, did Tang Jin-seong realize that Jin Je-yong wasn't just overflowing with brute force.
He closed his eyes and replayed the path of his sword.
At first, he thought he could clearly see where to throw his poison needles, but now he saw holes everywhere. They were all in the directions from which Jin Je-yong's sword had flown.
"Openings, you mean?"
A moment later, Jin Je-yong vanished from his mind, leaving only his sword.
He once again threw his needles against the sword path. Those with insufficient force were deflected, and the rest were all cut down.
Just as he had in the temporary training ground, he threw his shurikens and unleashed his poison palm, but the sword destroyed all of Tang Jin-seong's attacks.
‘Where are my openings?’
A surge of poison energy welled up from his dantian.
The energy he had thought was black began to bloom with a blue light, radiating vitality.
The Life-Reaping Poison Art, which had long been stagnant, began to respond to his will.
The itch in his mind was satisfyingly scratched away by the imaginary sword of Jin Je-yong.
"Ah! So this is the Sword of Completion's baptism!"
As the five streams of poison energy roiling through his body gathered back into his dantian, a cry of awe escaped Tang Jin-seong's lips.
And when Tang Jin-seong opened his eyes again, they were overflowing with a deep blue energy.
After being beaten to near death by Jin Je-yong, Tang Jin-seong saw a new world.
* * *
"This disciple will remain with the Tang Clan."
The next morning, Jeok-sam appeared, dragging his legs stiffly as if the previous day's training had been arduous.
I observed Jeok-sam's condition and nodded.
"Will you be alright on your own?"
Since I had subdued the Tang Clan by force, I was worried about Jeok-sam, who lacked martial skill.
At that, Jeok-sam smiled and replied.
"I was thinking of staying with Gyeong. He's the perfect bodyguard."
Nam Gyeong was more than capable of protecting one Jeok-sam.
His soft heart was a flaw, but that was something Jeok-sam would take good care of.
‘Hmm, I really am blessed with good disciples.’
My eldest disciple, Jeok-sam, and my second disciple, Nam Gyeong, had completely different personalities.
Usually, when personalities clash like this, relationships tend to become strained, but Jeok-sam, as the eldest, led the other junior disciples well, and they always listened to his words.
"That was another reason I sought out Gyeong first. Though I didn't expect to rely on him so quickly."
"I could make it so you don't have to rely on him. It might take a little time, though."
"I'm grateful for the thought."
Jeok-sam seemed to follow all my words, yet he knew how to say no when something wasn't right.
He showed this reaction especially when I tried to teach him the sword again.
"Sam has talent, so it won't take as long as it did for Gyeong."
"It's not about talent, but the realization that my path does not involve martial arts. Please be lenient, Instructor."
When I playfully offered the sword again, Jeok-sam politely declined.
I had no intention of forcing a sword into the hands of a disciple who didn't want to learn. For Jeok-sam, there were places where he could display his talents even more brilliantly than with a sword.
"So, do you think the Tang Clan can serve as the trumpeters to spread our dojo's name?"
"They're still a little lacking, but I will make it so they can do so soon."
"What about Senior Brother's funeral?"
"I will handle it in your stead, ensuring nothing is lacking."
I wanted to stay and hold the funeral for my senior brother, Je Yung-geon, but I had a long way to go. I had to deliver the news of our master's passing to my other senior brothers, sisters, and disciples.
Besides, it would be uncomfortable for me, the one who killed him, to conduct the ceremony.
"Then there's no need for me to remain in the Tang Clan any longer."
"We should be serving you, but... with Senior Uncle's matter, there's much to sort out."
Je Yung-geon had left the dojo and stayed at the Tang Clan Villa for a long time.
After his death, Jeok-sam's investigation revealed that Je Yung-geon had been encroaching upon the Villa and manipulating the Tang Clan all this time.
I learned the full story through Jeok-sam's report.
"Senior Brother... So it was the Tang Clan that provided the Soul-Returning Pills in the end?"
"In Sichuan, only the Tang Clan possesses such pharmaceutical skills."
"What was Senior Brother trying to do?"
"His clients included the Greenwood Alliance and the Yangcheong Sect."
"Not the Jeungbyeok Sect?"
I asked, recalling the Mad Warrior who had been dealing with the Jeungbyeok Sect.
Come to think of it, what happened to the Mad Warrior? I hadn't been interested, so I never found out what happened to him afterward.
"The Jeungbyeok Sect and the Gyeongmun Sect were merely trading organizations. The only trace left is that they were trying to conduct some kind of experiment in our hometown through the Gyeongmun Sect."
Jeok-sam gritted his teeth, recalling the incident that had occurred in his homeland.
I nodded.
"And it seems he was trying to obtain information about our dojo through the Greenwood Alliance."
I remembered the bandits who had attacked the slash-and-burn farmers.
They had been lying low until our master passed away, then suddenly became active.
After the War of Righteousness and Evil, the Orthodox Faction gained dominance in the martial world, and the power of bandits was greatly diminished. Yet, the fortress master, Geum Se-hun, had still caused an incident.
"Was Senior Brother involved in all of this? To catch me?"
"When it came to you, Instructor, my Senior Uncle was incredibly persistent."
"For the honor of the dojo, we'll have to clean up the mess Senior Brother made, won't we?"
Unless he intended to bring infamy upon our master or the dojo, we had to deal with what Je Yung-geon had done while at the Tang Clan Villa.
Through the Villa, he had manufactured a new drug called the Soul-Returning Pill and planned financial support for various sects, including the Greenwood Alliance and the Yangcheong Sect.
"Senior Uncle really left a huge mess for us."
"Still, he was our family."
I chuckled and patted Jeok-sam on the back.
"After you wrap things up with the Yangcheong Sect, you'll be heading to the Jegal Clan where my fourth senior uncle is, right? I'll contact them in advance through the Tang Clan. There's a meeting of the Five Great Clans soon, so we can meet then."
"Would you do that?"
"Of course."
Jeok-sam answered confidently.