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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
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Sanyeo’s foot flew towards me like a whip. When I barely dodged her kick by lowering my head, as if anticipating my counterattack, her second attack came flying towards the hand that was holding my ax. I pulled my ax back, turned my body around, and aimed for Sanyeo with the blunt end.
“Good aim.”
But Sanyeo dodged my attack by simply taking a step back, and as if playing a prank, she poked my shin with her toes.
Tap.
Unlike the small sound, a sharp pain shot through my body, and I screamed as I collapsed.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaack!”
“Not bad. You’ve improved a lot. But, your attacks are too simple.”
I massaged my leg and looked up at Sanyeo. Quite a bit of time had passed since I had started training with more intensity, and I was now having a decent spar with Sanyeo. She was no longer giving me fundamental advice like ‘you have to dodge it’, or ‘you can’t hesitate’.
“An ax itself is a simple weapon. Its trajectory is a straight line, and the areas it uses to attack are limited. The one attacking has to think carefully with each strike, but the one defending has fewer things to be wary of compared to other weapons.”
The advice she was giving lately was about my attack patterns.
“This might be a limitation of the Mount Tai Ax itself, but your attack trajectory especially leans toward the right. If someone has good observation skills, they can read your attacks easily. Even though it would be easy for you to overpower someone at a similar skill level, if there is a difference in skill, you won’t even be able to hope for a lucky win.”
I looked at my left hand. Other than the Seizing Hand, I didn’t have any other techniques that I could use with my left hand.
“I haven’t learned any other technique besides the Seizing Hand.”
Sanyeo, at the mention of the Seizing Hand, nodded and strongly recommended it.
“Then you should at least use that when fighting. It’s such a good technique. Even those who seem like they have properly learned martial arts are sometimes unable to deal with the Seizing Hand. Actual battles are mostly fought with weapons, and it’s rare for sects to teach their disciples how to defend against the Seizing Hand, which is a self-defense technique.”
“Sects don’t teach you how to defend against the Seizing Hand?”
“It’s a self-defense technique mostly used by women to defend themselves, but why would a normal martial artist attack a woman? It’s also rare for disciples who have learned martial arts to use the Seizing Hand in real fights. Therefore, there are cases where those who seem like they have learned martial arts can’t deal with it and lose, since they’re caught off guard.”
I had nothing to say. Because I had thought that the Seizing Hand was a secondary element I used when practicing bedroom techniques and had completely forgotten that it was a type of martial arts. Sanyeo added after seeing me staring at my left hand,
“Of course, ‘properly learned’ would refer to at least the second-rate level, at most the beginner level of first-rate. So, even if you’re using the Seizing Hand as a temporary measure now, you need to think more about how you’re going to fill in those gaps in the future.”
It seemed like it would take some time for me to use the Seizing Hand in a fight. Although I had never slacked off on my training with the Seizing Hand as part of the bedroom techniques, I had only been consciously following the techniques of the Mount Tai Ax in fights.
“Don’t you have a technique I can use that has no blind spots?”
Sanyeo shook her head and said,
“The martial arts I know will draw too much attention, so I can’t teach you. And, isn’t figuring out what kind of technique you need and progressing the correct posture of a true martial artist?”
“To be honest, I wish someone would just toss me the ultimate technique or something.”
“Me too. If that was the case, I wouldn’t even be dealing with disobedient disciples, I would have already taken over the world myself.”
I shook my head because her words were so absurd.
Sanyeo moved her head to loosen her stiff muscles, and then looked at the gates. Like an eagle eyeing its prey, she fixed her gaze, and then said to me,
“Someone has come. Go take a look. I’ll hide.”
“Someone came?”
A voice echoed from the gates before I could even finish asking,
“Leader Do-cheol of the Hongryun Sect. A letter has arrived from the Martial Alliance.”
I’d heard that voice somewhere before. A young man’s voice, and I felt a familiar energy from beyond the gates. There was only one person that I could recall amongst the young men who had come from the Martial Alliance.
“…It’s the lieutenant who came with the inspector.”
The lieutenant who had come with Im Seo-ryeon. This time, he had appeared alone with a letter. Although I was curious about his reason for returning, I had a strange feeling like I didn’t want to know. Because a letter from the Martial Alliance wouldn’t be good news for me.
“It has been a while, Leader. How have you been?”
The lieutenant showed his friendliness to me in a respectful tone. It was like calling in the prostitute had been an enjoyable experience for him. I looked at the letter in his hand and asked,
“What brings you here?”
Then, the lieutenant’s smiling expression disappeared, and he said in a low voice,
“First, could you read this letter?”
I received the letter.
[From the Martial Alliance to Do-cheol, the new leader of the Hongryun Sect.
The world is criticizing you, saying that you took your position as the sect leader,
by harming the leader through cowardly and despicable schemes.
How can one who walks the path of justice and preaches righteousness,
take his position with slander?
The new leader, Do-cheol, must participate in the duel competition that will be held at the date below,
and prove his innocence by displaying his martial prowess.]
“Prove my innocence?”
The lieutenant nodded and said,
“Of course, I know that you’re innocent, Leader. You’re not the type of person who would do such a thing.”
I briefly recalled how the leader had died.
“Ah, of course. I just poked him in his weak spot, and he collapsed while vomiting blood from every hole in his body. I didn’t use any cowardly schemes.”
“But the Martial Alliance is not interested in such things. Ordering you to prove yourself in the duel competition is just a scheme for you to die in an accident.
I knew what killing off in an accident meant. It meant that they would hire assassins who specialized in that kind of work to kill off people in the middle of duel competitions. I tilted my head and asked,
“Then, are you saying that I shouldn’t go?”
“No. If you say that you don’t want to participate, then the Martial Alliance will consider it as you confessing to using cowardly schemes to take over the sect, and they will use force. There’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
I looked at the lieutenant for a moment. There must have been a reason for him to take this long trip personally, other than to warn me. The lieutenant lowered his voice at my gaze, and said,
“The Martial Alliance has inserted two assassins into the competition this time.”
“Two?”
The lieutenant nodded.
“They said it was just in case. One of them is a second-rate master from the Demonic Sects who puts poison on his weapon. He’s an infamous man with the nickname Violet Night Sword (紫冥劍), and he has many enemies because his fighting style is so vicious and underhanded.”
“How is someone like that able to participate in the competition?”
“They coaxed him, saying that if he took care of you, then they would help him safely escape to Heilongjiang. Of course, if he was successful in killing you, then they’d be planning to dispose of him on the spot.”
“I have never fought a martial artist who uses poison.”
If it was a duel competition, Sanyeo wouldn’t be able to help either. It wasn’t like Sanyeo would be able to do something crazy like killing someone in front of so many people without anyone realizing, no matter how skilled she was.
The lieutenant said,
“But you don’t need to worry about this Violet Night Sword. It’s just in case, something for you to keep in mind.”
“I don’t need to worry? Why?”
“Senior Im Seo-ryeon said that she’ll take care of it.”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. That woman? Why? For what reason?
“…Are you referring to Im Seo-ryeon, Inspector, the Kirin of the Hengsan Sect?”
The lieutenant nodded.
“She’s resigned from her position as an inspector.”
It seemed that she had gone through a lot of mental change after her visit to our sect. Whatever it may be, it was a shocking change for her to abandon the Martial Alliance to help me.
I asked,
“Can I ask why?”
“She said that it’s something that a warrior who walks the righteous path should naturally do.”
I looked at the lieutenant. The lieutenant’s eyes were full of respect for Im Seo-ryeon. I asked the lieutenant,
“Are you also upholding that righteousness?”
The lieutenant smiled at my question, an embarrassed expression on his face as he scratched his head. And then he said,
“It’s too much to call it upholding righteousness. But, I don’t want to walk a path that is wrong.”
It was a bold decision for someone who seemed like he was still a newbie. I sincerely complimented him.
“That’s cool.”
The lieutenant bowed his head instead of giving a verbal thank you. We had urgent matters to discuss, to waste time exchanging pleasantries.
The lieutenant composed his expression and continued to speak,
“Anyway, so you don’t need to worry about him. But there’s another man who is a problem. A vicious man known as the Duel Assassin (比武殺手) will be targeting you in this competition, Leader.”
“Duel Assassin?”
Was he called that because he killed people in duel competitions? Did that even make sense, that no one tried to stop him even when he had reached that level? The lieutenant said,
“He’s not someone who operates openly. He’s a person used by the Martial Alliance when they have to take care of something quietly.
“Is it okay to use such a powerful person against someone like me?”
“There are three brothers, and each of them has a different skill level. I heard that it’s the youngest who will be participating. He’s a second-rate master who is almost first-rate.”
He seemed like a difficult opponent just by hearing about him.
A person who specialized in killing people by accident in duel competitions.
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Thanks vine!