Chapter 74
Chapter 74
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 74
Chapter Title: Baek Cheol's Talent
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After it was revealed that the Advance Teaching Gang's backer was the Black Wolf Escort Agency.
And after the line of thought extended from the Black Wolf Escort Agency all the way to Baek Cheol.
Baek Yang-hui devised one particular plan.
'We laid out a ten-year grand strategy together with the Tang Clan, but honestly, our Baek Clan Manor is lagging far behind.'
The Sichuan Tang Clan. A martial family evaluated as being just below the Five Great Clans of the world.
Needless to say, purely in terms of family assets, the difference was dozens of times over.
'Brother Tang seemed to view our clan favorably, but the Tang Clan's elders likely hold a different stance.'
The heavyweights of a clan must, by nature, devote themselves to maximizing the clan's interests.
Even if the Tang Clan accepted the blueprint of the ten-year grand strategy, how the profits would be divided was another matter entirely.
'Thinking about the future... at the very least, the Tang Clan needs to recognize our Baek Clan Manor's potential and excellence. Even if it means exaggerating to the point of bluffing.'
One such measure he adopted was Baek Cheol. After bringing him in as a retainer, he immediately began probing him about this and that.
"Baek hyung. What did you do at the Black Wolf Escort Agency?"
"Uh, Young Master. Please speak comfortably..."
"Tsk. Speech patterns aren't important."
He said that, but since Baek Cheol seemed so uncomfortable, he decided to just speak casually.
"Baek hyung. Is it true? They only had you making farming tools at best in the Black Wolf Escort Agency?"
"Y-yes. Because I was the best at it..."
'They just had him keep making whatever he was making.'
Those idiots. They didn't even have an eye for talent.
Any martial family worthy of being called a clan would have its own forge within the estate.
Naturally, the Baek Clan Manor also had an outbuilding that had once been used as a smithy long ago.
As a test, he had Baek Cheol sharpen a single sword.
'Clumsy, but his talent is undeniable.'
Baek Cheol lived up to his reputation.
In other words, his skill in handling iron was exceptional.
Not a talent born from experience and mastery, but an innate gift.
From that day, he passed down the Internal Energy Circulation Art to Baek Cheol.
"Y-young Master. Why do I need to learn martial arts...?"
"Because Baek hyung needs to forge divine swords for me."
"D-divine swords...? Me...? But what does that have to do with martial arts...?"
"Baek hyung. Among martial arts, the Internal Energy Circulation Art has wide applications even for non-martial artists."
Divine weapons praised as such throughout history all shared one common trait.
They harbored their own internal energy.
That meant they were either forged from special materials or had energy infused by a master artisan.
"Just do as I say. Obey my words well, and fortune will fall into your lap even in your sleep."
He shouted to a passing chief steward.
"Right, Chief Steward?"
"Kehkeh! Young Master Hui's words are always correct!"
Han Seok-eon secretly made a money gesture with his thumb and forefinger to Baek Cheol.
He must have thought they were scheming something profitable again.
Well, once Baek Cheol's skills improved, making a fortune would be a piece of cake, so it was indeed profitable.
"Alright. You've memorized the incantation, right? From now on, meditate and circulate your energy every day. In about ten days, once I judge the basics are set, I'll give you a Spirit Pill."
"Eek, Spirit Pill...!?"
And he really gave it to him.
He fed Baek Cheol one of the remaining Spirit Pills and even helped him refine it, implanting ten years' worth of internal energy in one go.
If he'd taken a few years, he could have drawn out the full twenty years' effect.
But time was money now, so this would have to do.
"From this moment, for a fortnight! Transform the forge's interior into a Sword Mountain Hell—execute!"
One of Buddhism's eight great hells was called the Sword Leaf Hell, filled with blades.
Under Baek Yang-hui's strict guidance, Baek Cheol was driven mercilessly... burning with passion as he sharpened dozens of swords.
Typically, even swords called famed blades took years just for forging, so this was an astonishing speed.
'Without Baek hyung's innate talent, this pace would have been impossible.'
In any case, Baek Cheol succeeded.
After dozens of practice runs, he produced a masterpiece that even Baek Mu-ryang, a peak realm sword appraiser, acknowledged as a famed blade.
As the saying goes, both people and stones need polishing to shine.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Blacksmith Baek. How long have you been working with metal?"
"Judging by the sword's reflective gleam, the forging method seems straightforward, yet the sharpness is extraordinary. Do you have your own unique technique, Blacksmith Baek?"
Baek Cheol was bombarded with handshake requests from Tang Clan warriors and blacksmiths alike.
What should have been a welcoming banquet for the Tang clansmen turned into a blacksmithing symposium.
"Come now, let's not do this here. How about we continue inside?"
"I agree with the Clan Leader. Let's head in first."
At Dang Gun and Baek Mu-ryang's command, the group began to move.
Baek Cheol stood there dazed, surrounded by the blacksmiths.
'Baek hyung. Learn eagerly while you chat with them.'
Baek Cheol's innate talent was transcendent, but his blacksmithing skills still had many rough edges.
The Tang clansmen would quickly fill in those gaps.
'Sharpen the blades and build skills. Killing two birds with one stone.'
A few days later.
Once the Tang clansmen's fatigue had lifted, the two clans held a joint conference.
It was a discussion on how the Tang Clan branch would operate going forward.
"The Tang Clan branch plans to operate a clinic and smithy centered in Ak-an County to expand our influence."
"The Baek Clan Manor will provide full support."
Was it thanks to showcasing Baek Cheol and leaving a strong impression?
He had braced for sharp clashes in opinions, but surprisingly, they reached agreement smoothly.
More precisely, both clans yielded to each other and easily found a compromise.
And so, the Tang Clan branch opened its doors.
'This should mean the Tang Clan branch is well-established.'
"Then our Baek Clan Manor must advance further to match."
The Baek Clan Manor's current sphere of influence consisted of Ak-an County plus Ge-woon County, where the Black Wolf Escort Agency had been based.
From a pittance of a few dozen silver taels a month, they had become the overlords of two counties.
But.
Even so, it was merely a tenth of Gangseo Province—a seventh of that overlordship at best.
"This Clan Leader hereby decrees: Three years. In three years, extend our Baek Clan Manor's influence across the entirety of Wooju!"
Since reaching the peak realm, Baek Mu-ryang's temperament had shifted slightly.
More accurately, he had come to harbor grander ambitions.
In his previous life, he had whispered secretly to Baek Yang-hui that elevating the Baek Clan Manor to clan status was his dream.
Seeing his father proclaim that dream before all the retainers filled him with boundless emotion.
'Father. It will surely come to pass.'
To make it so, the key was roots, after all.
To become a great tree, one must spread deep and wide roots.
Only then could it withstand lush branches and leaves.
In that sense.
"Younger siblings, assemble."
Baek Heon-so, Baek Yeon-yeon, and Chui-dal stood before Baek Yang-hui.
He had been so busy outside lately that he had somewhat neglected his siblings.
More precisely, to the other retainers, he seemed like a devoted eldest brother caring for them sincerely, but by Baek Yang-hui's standards, it was woefully insufficient.
"You lot. From now on, under this instructor's guidance, you begin indefinite hellish training."
"Hyungnim. I already have a master—ack!"
Chui-dal clutched his head after a solid flick and collapsed.
"Excuses weaken a warrior. Dissatisfaction will be met with the rod."
"Oppa, you're going to hit Yeoni too?"
"Of course! But Yeoni has no spots worth hitting, that's the problem."
"Hehe."
As Baek Heon-so and Chui-dal inwardly felt aggrieved.
"Alright then. Let's begin."
Among the many elements for martial learning, considering only the body.
In other words, the physique (體).
The physique divides into two aspects.
The robustness of the flesh itself.
And the proper use of that trained body.
'Starting from physique (體), progressing to technique (技).'
The current Baek Clan Manor had the connecting links to follow this flow.
With the Principle Harmony Six Unions Art laying the foundation for physique, and advancing to the Flesh Refining Divine Body Art to master proper body usage.
Since both shared profound principles, internal energy cultivation came naturally in the process.
'Heon-so, Yeon-yeon, and even that Chui-dal punk. All three will earn titles like genius or prodigy in this life.'
Well, it would be a bit... quite a lot tough in the meantime.
"Hyu, hyungnim. This is too hard."
"Uwaaak! Master's training is already killing me, and now hyungnim torments me too!"
"Oppa... can't we rest a little?"
Complaints? Ignored.
He rebuilt his siblings' bodies from the ground up.
Martial talent broadly divides into skeletal structure and innate aptitude.
His goal was to at least make their skeletal structures worthy of heavenly martial genius acclaim.
"Tough? Want to train like me then?"
"......"
"......"
"......"
The three siblings went mute as if scripted.
They had no choice.
They trained for the same duration at the same intensity, but Baek Yang-hui imposed a brutally harsh level on himself.
"Suuuuuup, whooooo......"
Sweat poured from his entire body like rain.
Each movement according to the Principle Harmony Six Unions Art and Flesh Refining Divine Body Art's profundities made the iron weights dangling from his body clank metallically.
Baek Yang-hui's current body weight was about seventy geun.
And the total weight of the iron weights on his body was also seventy geun.
"Hyungnim, aren't you pushing too hard?"
"You'll shit blood at this rate, hyungnim."
Training and abuse are distinct.
Why call it a limit?
Because crossing it turns it into poison.
But.
'It's an intensity that could cause chronic illness without issue, but I have fairy energy.'
Fairy energy possessed the function of strengthening the body further.
A fact he had discovered while using it to treat his mother, Jeong In-hwa.
'They say mastering Shaolin's Muscle Tendon Changing Scripture leads to the indestructible diamond realm.'
Though he didn't know the scripture's secrets for physical training, actively using fairy energy should yield similar effects.
No, he was confident it would produce a physique on a whole other level from his previous life.
'The fastest path is retracing my previous life's road. But I can't do that.'
Many things had already changed.
Not only had he awakened insights unknown in his previous life, but he had also received Yin Hou's teachings.
With more branches of roots to extend, treading the same path would be a loss.
'Slower, but deeper and wider. Yes, per the Heaven-Defying teachings. Steadily.'
In his previous life, qi deviation's backlash left him with lifelong physical ailments.
He had no desire to repeat that suffering.
Thus, perfect skeletal structure and meridians.
Slowly, steadily.
He intended to build the physique (體) of Heaven's Limitless Peak.
'Considering harmony of mind, energy, and body, raising physique means elevating mind and energy accordingly...'
No matter.
With pre-regression enlightenment, achieving mind-energy-body harmony would inevitably be harder than before anyway.
'The sweat I shed now will let me climb higher. This life, I'll step into realms beyond peak.'
An existence indispensable to the world's greatest clan.
The world's greatest warrior.
He envisioned standing at that lofty pinnacle.
At minimum, he would claim glory among the Heavenly Martial Ten Lords.
Thus, one year passed.
It was when another year had gone by.
"Little brother! Uahahahaha!"
Blessings arrived at the Baek Clan Manor.
"Rang-rang! Rang-rangie!"
Blood Lord Gu-ak had entrusted himself to the Baek Clan Manor, and three years had already passed.
Aside from occasional outings, he spent his days sweetly with Yeo Rang-rang, grinding sesame seeds of love.
Yet, with no child in sight, he bore the stigma of a seedless watermelon.
Finally, Gu-ak had done it.
"Our Rang-rang is with child! Uahahahaha!"