The Martial Arts Prodigy Who Grows Through Chapter 17 : Chapter 17

Chapter 017. Requiem (4)

― Seo-gwang, do you know how our main house obtained the na Iron Blood?

― Ever since the Martial Sovereign Castle settled in the land of Central Plains, our main house has always taken the lead and jumped into the battlefield. Holding swords forged with steel, we shed hot blood.

― Always rember that the na Iron Blood was obtained in exchange for dedicating that iron and blood.

Woo Seo-gwang recalled his father's voice and crumpled his expression fiercely.

It was painful.

The reality that he could not live up to his father's expectations.

The situation of being surrounded by real geniuses like the Eldest Senior Brother and Dam Jeok-san.

Woo Seo-gwang inherited Iron Blood from his father.

That blood was thick and noble.

The reputation and power of the Five Great Families of the Martial Sovereign Castle.

Steel-like muscles and bones, and divine martial arts passed down through generations of the family.

He could have all of that just for the reason of inheriting the blood.

But that wasn't all that flowed in the blood of Iron Blood. A very terrible poison was perated within it.

It is inferiority complex.

The day he lost to Dam Jeok-san in the spar held in front of the Martial Sovereign. His father not only slapped his cheek but also drew his sword and aid it at Woo Seo-gwang's neck.

He drove his own child as if he would kill him.

―Pathetic! To be defeated by a lowly thing rolling on the streets. The na of Iron Blood is wasted on you.

Woo Seo-gwang could do nothing at that ti.

The inferiority complex inherited from his ancestors followed him tenaciously like bloodstains stuck around his mouth at that mont.

Woo Seo-gwang knew where that inferiority complex originated.

His father, the Head of the Iron Blood Woo Clan, Heaven-Breaking One Sword Woo Gi-tae. He is a super peak master renowned throughout the Central Plains.

However, Heaven-Breaking One Sword considered himself a failure.

‘Because he has remained stagnant at the super peak stage and failed to advance to the next realm.’

The next realm after super peak, Entering Transformation Realm.

If a super peak master can change the flow of battle with their individual martial power, a master who reached the Entering Transformation Realm can overturn the tide of war.

Literally a superman who can match a thousand and is unmatched by ten thousand.

Those supern ford an organization to protect the Central Plains after monsters appeared.

It is the Monster Slaying Association.

From the Orthodox, Unorthodox, and Demonic factions to the Martial Sovereign Castle and the Imperial Palace. The Monster Slaying Association does not discriminate based on origin.

There is only one qualification for admission: be a master who has reached the Entering Transformation Realm.

Of course, now that the Central Plains has regained stability to so extent, it is extrely rare for the Monster Slaying Association to convene. At shortest, once every five years.

However, the masters who reached the Entering Transformation Realm are all leaders of giant forces or individuals with comparable weight.

Therefore, the power their decisions hold was sotis stronger than the Imperial Seal of the Son of Heaven.

For example, 30 years ago, the Murong Clan, which was the head of the Five Great Families, was exterminated by the decision of the Monster Slaying Association. The reason was that their secret agreent with a lord-class monster ruling the Northern Demonic Realm was discovered.

Whether a master belonging to an organization with such influence exists or not has a profound impact on the family's status.

Woo Gi-tae felt deep inferiority at the fact that he could not belong to the Monster Slaying Association.

And he hoped.

That his son Woo Seo-gwang would beco one of them.

But Woo Seo-gwang also reached his limit.

After judging that he was not a vessel capable of reaching the Entering Transformation Realm, his father's attitude beca truly cold.

Even amidst that, lingering attachnt and greed remained, so he raised monsters, increased the family's wealth with byproducts from them, and sought Woo Seo-gwang's growth.

Of course, Woo Seo-gwang also knew. That it was a spiritual elixir made by grinding human lives.

But so what.

They are lives of lowly things that would have lived like trash and died like trash anyway. He had no choice but to think so in order not to go crazy.

Still, Woo Seo-gwang was feeling quite encouraged now. Because his father praised him for the first ti in a truly long while.

A very faint hope sprouted in his heart.

Entering Transformation Realm, and the position of the Martial Sovereign's successor…….

Hope that he might be able to grasp again the things he had given up early on.

* * *

Training ground deep inside the Iron Blood Woo Clan.

Woo Seo-gwang, who gained hope, drew his sword without hesitation.

As he swung his sword, the blade wrapped in pitch-black Sword Fla cut across the empty air.

Destructive power terrifying even at a glance.

The cultivation thod he practiced is the Martial Sovereign's Extre Heaven Strange Sovereign Technique.

However, the swordsmanship is the Iron Blood Woo Clan's secret art, Iron Blood Golden Light Swordsmanship.

The combination of the two martial arts is extrely powerful as seen.

“Haaah, haaah…….”

Woo Seo-gwang, who unfolded the swordsmanship a few tis, breathed irregularly as if struggling.

It is not just a problem of breathing.

Undiluted demonic energy shimred in the burning Sword Fla.

His whites were full of bloodshot veins, and his fingertips trembled.

On of Entering Deviation.

But rather, the sword montum Woo Seo-gwang unfolded was becoming stronger as ti went by.

As if he would cross a certain line at any mont.

The Martial Sovereign's martial art, Extre Heaven Strange Sovereign Technique, is originally like that. The more desperate the practitioner is, the more drenched in madness, the stronger it becos.

Even if the end leads to a thousand-fathom cliff, it is the sa.

Despair fundantally parasitizes on hope like a shadow. Woo Seo-gwang did not stop even though he felt that ominousness. Swallowing poison was familiar to him. He just had to endure it.

Glimpses of his junior brother's face who fell into qi deviation seed to pass by.

However, Woo Seo-gwang snorted lightly and shook off the anxiety.

He also knows.

That the optimism that he will be different is sothing everyone harbors.

But this optimism was the only thing he could grasp.

The poison nad inferiority complex was destroying Woo Seo-gwang from the inside.

* * *

“It is here. It has been quite a while since I saw it in person.”

Dam Jeok-san muttered with his arms crossed.

A strange smile, half playful and half bleak, hung on his lips.

A gate huge like a castle gate.

A signboard hanging high enough that one has to bend their neck to finally capture it in their eyes.

There, the na Iron Blood Woo Clan written in vigorous calligraphy is visible.

Only a few days have passed since he regained his dantian―

‘I have co this far.’

If it was going to be like this, I don't know why I put off the fight with the Iron Blood Woo Clan before losing my dantian.

Sothing so simple if I set my mind to it.

Of course, everything done so far was just a prelude for now.

The real start is from now on.

Even if I put forward the authority of the Heavenly Martial Gentleman Token, it is unknown whether the Iron Blood Woo Clan will easily succumb. And even if they succumb, the fight with Woo Seo-gwang is a share he must fully endure.

“Is everyone ready?”

Dam Jeok-san looked back at Gyeong-won and Black Panther Spear and said.

“What is there to prepare? Since the one swinging the sword is the Young Master anyway.”

Gyeong-won said in a nonchalant voice.

But unlike his sly attitude, Gyeong-won had raised his tension tightly.

If there is anyone who tries to harm the Young Master even by one in ten thousand chance, he intended to block it even risking his life.

Because that is what a guard should do.

“I am ready, should I break the main gate so you can enter?”

However, Black Panther Spear Jang Woo-ryang's reaction was much more intense.

He was already raising his internal energy while gripping his spear.

An attitude confident as if he would really blow away the door if only the order fell.

“That is a good idea, but I want to do it myself.”

Dam Jeok-san muttered with sparkling eyes.

As soon as those words ended, Dam Jeok-san drew his sword without an inch of hesitation.

“Phew…….”

He exhaled lightly and drew up his internal energy.

WHOOOOM!!

His sword, Sky Thunder, burst out a magnificent sword cry as if responding to him.

The depth of resonance is different from before.

‘Tsk, insufficient.’

But Dam Jeok-san complained inwardly.

Sword Fla does not form even if he compresses genuine qi.

Just because one realized the path to advance, understanding (心得) is not completed at that mont.

To complete understanding, one must truly overco.

‘My past self.’

The monkey monster only showed the way. That terrible honesty and viciousness certainly beca a milestone for Dam Jeok-san to advance.

However, advancing is ultimately his own share.

He felt like sothing would be resolved if he settled the grudge with Woo Seo-gwang.

After all, ignoring his evil deeds is no different from a symbol symbolizing Dam Jeok-san's past life.

He cannot bury it and move forward.

He must dig it up, face it, and overco it.

This will be that monuntal first step.

Having shaken off his thoughts, he swung his sword with upright montum.

The sword cutting through the empty air flashes sword light drawing a huge half-moon trajectory.

Although power might be lacking, it is a very delicately calculated trajectory.

A calculation to smash the main gate bearing traces of long years most efficiently.

Making that calculation a reality was Dam Jeok-san's delicate sword technique (劍技).

The mont the Sky Thunder Sword finally touched the main gate of the Iron Blood Woo Clan.

KABOOOOOM!!

The main gate was smashed away with an explosion sound enough to tear eardrums.

A feast of scattering dust and fragnts with a CRACKLING sound.

It is a scene of disastrous destruction where the expression exploded is more appropriate than smashed.

“What is going on!!”

“Intruder, it is an intruder……!”

“Identity?”

“T-That is the Third Young Master……nim.”

“……? What nonsense is that! No, it doesn't matter who it is. Capture him imdiately!”

The warrior guarding the Iron Blood Woo Clan's manor shouted hysterically at the strange sound.

Third Young Master Dam Jeok-san.

A man who was once like a taboo one could not ntion within the Iron Blood Woo Clan as he defeated Young Master Woo Seo-gwang in a spar.

But that is all an old story.

Now, isn't he a living corpse waiting only for the day to die, having beco a has-been with a lost dantian?

Such Third Young Master suddenly smashed the main gate of the main house?

It would be a more pleasant joke to say that the Green Forest bandits invaded instead.

Thinking so, he ran to the gate―

“Oh, did you co out to greet ? But, you are not the one I am looking for. Call Senior Brother Woo for .”

The face of the Third Young Master smiling brightly with his sword hanging down was visible.

Even rubbing his eyes and looking again, it was Dam Jeok-san himself.

Perplexity was brief, his duty given to him was repelling intruders. Regardless of the circumstances, even if the intruder was the Martial Sovereign's disciple, he still had to be suppressed.

The warrior clenched his teeth and ran towards Dam Jeok-san.

“Third Young Master, have you gone completely mad!?”

“Probably not?”

Dam Jeok-san shrugged and said.

And before the Iron Blood Woo Clan's warrior could reach Dam Jeok-san, he was hit by Black Panther Spear's spear shaft and fainted.

“Second Senior Brother, co out―!”

Dam Jeok-san said, kicking away the warrior falling unconscious with a tap.

The voice carried by internal energy rang loudly throughout the entire main house of the Iron Blood Woo Clan before anyone knew. Then, he felt real experts incomparable to the warrior he just knocked down rushing here.

Experts whose odds of winning were hard for Dam Jeok-san to predict.

The best among them is, of course, the Family Head Heaven-Breaking One Sword Woo Gi-tae.

Before Dam Jeok-san could open his mouth again, Heaven-Breaking One Sword gripping a pitch-black sword appeared in front of him.

“Third Young Master, I heard you were exiled to the North……. I do not know what happened to you.”

Heaven-Breaking One Sword Woo Gi-tae spoke politely, suppressing his boiling anger.

“I do not know what the reason is, but it does not matter. Since you dared to trespass on the main house's territory without permission.”

Before anyone knew, the fluctuation disappeared from Woo Gi-tae's voice.

What remained was only killing intent.

He seed determined to kill Dam Jeok-san with his own hands.

WHOOOOM!!

Darkish energy waves shimred wildly from his sword and soon beca intensely burning flas.

Sword Fla with a density incomparable to that of a peak master. Even if it is the sa technique, it is not the sa level.

The flas wrapping Heaven-Breaking One Sword's sword looked like hellfire burning sinners of the underworld.

As a martial artist, he reflexively calculated moves.

Can I endure?

Honestly, I don't really know.

The cards the current him has are too few.

If I take it head-on…… I will definitely die.

‘If I utilize the Predator's Eye, I might be able to find gaps.’

Since things burning hugely have that many flaws.

If I deflect the force through those gaps, there is a possibility of survival.

Even so, running away would be the best.

But now the story is different.

Dam Jeok-san now had a divine weapon that could deal even with a super peak master grandfather.

He took out the Heavenly Martial Gentleman Token from his bosom.

Then he threw the token with a tap as if giving alms to a beggar in the market.

“Ha……. Can't communicate with words. Bring Senior Brother imdiately.”