Reincarnation of the Martial Emperor

Chapter 11: Could that Jin Gang-cheon be a man who could die?

Time flew by quickly.

Moyong Baek had now begun to endure twenty breaths even with a large stone the size of his torso placed on his stomach, and I, too, was entering the next stage, Distant Pressure.

Pressure Pain, the pain of withstanding weight and pressure, was a torment comparable to Self-Knot Flow, the burning pain said to be the most extreme a human can feel.

Moreover, enduring it with the stomach, which could be called the most delicate part of the human body, was impossible with an ordinary level of mental fortitude.

However, in this stage of Distant Pressure, one did not simply endure but breathed slowly.

The boy was staring with wondrous eyes at the rock that slowly rose and fell with my inhalations and exhalations.

“How can a person….”

“It’s possible because we are human.”

As if breathing wasn’t enough, the boy's eyes widened even more when I began to speak calmly.

“Fear can be overcome and forgotten because we are human. It is a capacity never possible for beasts. That is why only humans can harbor martial arts.”

“Fear….”

To inhale in this state, one inevitably had to relax the muscles in the stomach.

But at that very moment, the weight of the stone would crush the internal organs horrifically.

Distant Pressure was a training that required overcoming that very fear to take the first step.

The boy’s expression hardened as he realized the true meaning of my words.

He had immediately understood what fear he had to overcome.

“But I don’t have the confidence to withstand the weight of the stone with my stomach relaxed….”

“Trusting my body, trusting oneself, is always a difficult thing.”

A smile bloomed on my face as I suddenly felt like I was looking at my younger self.

Martial Emperor.

If I had to express that long life in a single word, it would be ‘doubt’.

Can I truly endure any longer?

Can I advance any further?

The boundary between doubt and faith was but a hair's breadth, yet I always grew by the measure of that faith.

But unlike me, that young Moyong Baek had no history of building faith in his own body.

I released my Distant Pressure breathing and placed the large stone on the ground.

Then, rubbing my bruised stomach, I spoke.

“The self-discipline to overcome fear is a power that begins with faith in oneself. So I ask you. How much, and to what extent, can you trust yourself?”

This would surely sound like a pipe dream to the young Moyong Baek.

But this was a very important concept in the martial arts that a person could achieve.

I still believe that the answer to this question determines more than half of a martial artist’s life.

“…….”

A long silence.

As I waited wordlessly, a surprising answer flowed from Moyong Baek’s mouth.

“……I can’t believe in anything.”

“Hahaha!”

Only then could I understand why I felt an inexplicable interest in this boy, Moyong Baek.

This boy did not even have a hint of childish bravado.

He resembled me.

Very much so.

“You’re a troublemaker in the making.”

My fanatical, omnivorous appetite for martial arts stemmed from my endless doubt in myself.

Because the measure of my faith grew as the number of martial arts engraved on my body increased.

If such madness were to befall this boy, he would surely repeat a life similar to this Martial Emperor.

Of course, it was not a highly recommendable life.

‘…….’

Looking closely, teaching this boy the Pressure of the Cooking Tower and the like was not the issue.

The way to believe in oneself.

For this Moyong Baek, such an attitude and mindset had to come first.

But.

Had I ever taught such a thing?

“That’s all for today’s training.”

“What? But today, I haven’t done anything….”

“Recovery is also training. Recover your depleted body first.”

Watching Moyong Baek retreat with an awkward expression, I was swept up in a strange emotion.

They say a teacher grows more by teaching, and indeed, explaining the Martial Soul I had realized with my own mouth was no ordinary matter.

‘……So that was it.’

Unlike the magnates of the Unorthodox Factions, who withered with the trials of time, the old men of the Orthodox Faction grew bizarrely stronger with age.

I had frequently heard stories of nameless fellows attaining enlightenment in their later years and entering the Transformation Realm.

Of course, since the source of most of such news was the Nine Sects, I had thought it was a characteristic of Taoist martial arts.

But teaching Moyong Baek myself was enough to jolt my senses.

‘This might be it.’

The effort to convey a lifetime of enlightenment, the embodiment I had experienced, could itself become a part of the Martial Soul.

This was something I, who had never properly raised a disciple, had never experienced before.

“Damn it.”

It felt as if a lifelong question had been answered.

While the magnates of the Unorthodox Factions were obsessed with territorial disputes and playing the hermit, the Orthodox Faction fellows must have constantly reviewed their life’s studies to pass on their insights to their disciples.

Of course, the Unorthodox Factions also had institutions to train the next generation, but they were literally institutions for training combat weapons, far from the concept of a sect.

This was a kind of clue.

A small clue that could allow me to surpass the old man of the Yin Demon Sect.

Thus, in the rear garden, I began to organize my life’s studies.

It was around the time seven days had passed since I had forsaken food and drink and immersed myself in seated meditation that news of the Hegemon of the Fist, Gang Yeon-shin, arrived.

***

A great commotion erupted in the Jaegal Clan.

The infamous leader of the Great Tiger Gang had appeared without any guards, with only a single broadsword at his waist.

It was only natural. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novel·fire.net

Since I had blabbed about the Guanping incident, coming with his subordinates would be like carrying firewood and jumping into a pit of fire.

Laughter burst out of me at the sight of Hegemon of the Fist, Gang Yeon-shin, who was constantly snorting as he tried to calm his anger.

Following that, the warriors of the Jaegal Clan’s sole military organization, the Shadowless Terrace, surrounded him without a single gap.

“Who is the one who attached the letter to the Diamond Inn!”

“That would be me.”

As I raised my hand and answered, everyone’s gaze gathered on me.

The Clan Head, Jaegal Myeong-won, that is, my father, approached with hurried steps along with the clan’s elders.

“What in the world is going on right now!”

“I did tell you that you would find out if you watched.”

“He is none other than the leader of the Great Tiger Gang.”

Unlike his usual calm demeanor, my father’s face was visibly flushed.

Indeed, even as the head of the great Jaegal Clan, he would never have imagined that the Mr. Gang in the letter was the Hegemon of the Fist, Gang Yeon-shin.

I calmly walked towards him, waving my folding fan.

I knew from experience that there was no better prop than a fan for getting on an opponent’s nerves.

“Ah, it’s so bright I can’t possibly look. Isn’t it too shiny? First, let’s go over there in the shade.”

As I half-covered my face with the fan and grimaced, the few remaining strands of Gang Yeon-shin’s hair stood on end.

“Who are you.”

He was desperately holding back.

The reason Gang Yeon-shin wasn’t immediately brandishing that brutish Ghost Hegemon Saber was obvious.

He still had a sliver of reason left to recognize that this was a tiger’s den.

But could he really continue to endure?

“Is that Yeonju wench doing well?”

“What?”

“If you saved your younger sister by burying so many of your subordinates alive, you should take good care of her, shouldn’t you?”

Chwaaaaaaa!

The air tore in an instant as he lunged forward.

I grinned, my collar grabbed.

I gestured to the Shadowless Terrace warriors to stand down, then sneered at him.

“You’d better think carefully. Of course, taking my neck would be easy, but do you really think you can get out of here alive?”

My skin tingled from the fierce killing intent radiating from the Shadowless Terrace warriors.

Gang Yeon-shin must also be well aware of the anecdote where the Shadowless Terrace defeated the Ten Poisons of the Tang Clan.

As the sole military unit of the Jaegal Clan, the skills of the Shadowless Terrace were comparable to the first-class military units of the Murim Alliance.

Soon, I whispered into his ear.

“Do you think that Ja-wol fellow will stand by if he finds out you buried your subordinates alive in Guanping? What about those who support Ja-wol? The leader of the Great Tiger Gang will surely be replaced by the leader of the Twin Tiger Gang.”

It was not as if there was some great loyalty in the Underworld.

But for a lord to abandon his subordinates and still reign as the supreme leader of a faction was a completely different story.

Moreover, if the number sacrificed was three hundred, and if such a person became their Great Tiger while hiding that fact, the story changed completely.

“You, you bastard! Without any evidence!”

“Naturally, the survivors are the evidence.”

“What…?”

The reason this Martial Emperor could handle the Great Tiger Gang like a toy in his pocket was because I had secured the survivors of Guanping as hostages.

And I was the only one in this wide world who knew the safe house where those survivors were recuperating.

“How could you!”

“What’s there to say. It means this I have that kind of relationship with Jin Gang-cheon.”

“The, the Great Murim Alliance Leader?”

“Shall we say, a close uncle with whom I share the same secret?”

“Wh-what does that mean!”

All sorts of questions and confusion wriggled in his narrow, slanted eyes.

He couldn’t get his head straight, seeing a young Jaegal whelp from the family of strategists that had managed the Murim Alliance for so long, familiarly calling the Great Murim Alliance Leader ‘uncle’.

“That damn bastard is already dead! The Great Murim Alliance has also been completely dismantled…!”

“Do you really believe that?”

I stared at him transparently.

“That Jin Gang-cheon, the man who survived even the Heavenly Demon’s Heaven and Earth Net, is he really a man who can die?”

“W-wait!”

Hegemon of the Fist, Gang Yeon-shin’s expression was complicated.

He displayed a complex mix of emotions on his face, a crossroads of fear and relief, despair and hope.

“Is Jin Gang-cheon truly alive?”

“This bastard keeps being so presumptuous.”

When I raised my hand, his neck shrank back like a turtle’s.

Then, his expression crumpled.

He couldn’t understand why he was cowering before a greenhorn.

“And you, you bastard, are you going to keep trying to find the safe house? Do you think your situation will change just by murdering the survivors to silence them?”

I twisted my lips strangely towards the man who was frozen in a daze.

“If you send your subordinates one more time, it won’t end with just cutting out their tongues. Next time, it’s annihilation. No, I’ll just put an end to the Great Tiger Gang.”

“……Was it your doing, cutting out the tongues of the Ghost Tigers and sending them back?”

“Not me, you bastard, my uncle!”

Finally coming to his senses, Gang Yeon-shin put on a serious expression.

“There must be a message from him.”

“Of course. Do you think I would have left such a letter if I had nothing to say to you?”

“I will wash my ears and listen attentively.”

The speed at which he changed his stance was faster than the Ten Thousand Li Chasing Wind Gait of a fleeing Beggar’s Gang leader.

It meant that this bald Gang Yeon-shin’s survival in the Underworld for so long was by no means a coincidence.

“Gather the kids and head north towards Namgung.”

“What? Namgung?”

“Yeah. The Namgung Clan.”

I looked far to the north and opened my mouth again.

“Namgung has already decided to move south. The Murim Alliance’s Nanchang branch will also lend its strength. Naturally, the Alliance Leader will turn a blind eye.”

“In the end, it’s those damn Sword Clan bastards!”

The Anhui Sword Clan was a derogatory term used in the Underworld when looking down on the Namgung Clan.

However, this time, the Namgung Clan Head himself had made the move.

They would pour all of the clan’s resources into this advance, and naturally, they could not be taken lightly.

“The Great Tiger Gang, the World Under Heaven Society, and the Black Lords of the Yangtze River will all have to step up.”

“But whether they will step up together is…!”

I grinned at Gang Yeon-shin.

There was a reason I had specifically called for Gang Yeon-shin, the Hegemon of the Fist.

“Tell them you saw the Martial Emperor yourself.”

“……What?”

This Gang Yeon-shin had always thoroughly managed his reputation and prestige to hide his shame.

“Because if it comes from the mouth of the Hegemon of the Fist, everyone will believe it. Isn’t that right?”

With one last piece of advice, I turned away from him.

“Get rid of the saber arts quickly. Only then can your fists grow.”

Gang Yeon-shin was also making a similar kind of mistake as I had.