CLS-Chapter 256

Chapter 256

Everyone lamented that the brother’s fight had ended so anticlimactically, but surprisingly, many people had expected it.

Wei Yan-ho pretends to be indifferent to everything in the world on the surface, but he’s actually a guy overflowing with affection for his family. Those who had been around Wei Yan-ho all knew this.

Moreover, considering that the person he was weakest against wasn’t even his mother but his older brother, you couldn’t help but think—would that guy really try to beat his brother in earnest?

Huh?

He probably didn’t intend to from the beginning. If he had, he wouldn’t have stepped onto the martial stage in the first place.

Maybe he was just in a twisted mood?

What could Wei Yan-ho possibly gain from the two of them fighting?

The six months of rest promised to the winner?

That could be it. Of course, that would be enjoyable, but Wei Yan-ho seemed to have already had a premonition. That by then, there would be no such thing as rest for Wei Yan-ho.

So maybe he didn’t want to fight his brother in front of others just to do someone else a favor?

Who could know what was in Wei Yan-ho’s heart anyway?

In any case, because of that…

Huh? What happened after that, you ask?

Well, what do you expect—the expected thing happened.

A father’s iron hammer is bound to fall on a son who commits transgressions.

***

“How dare you!”

Wei Yan-ho sighed as he watched Wei Jeong-han lecturing with frost-like intensity.

He never gets tired.

Wei Jeong-han showed no signs of wanting to rest. As if lecturing Wei Yan-ho was his mission in life, he was unleashing an endless stream of nagging. The lecture that began with ‘I have no face to show your deceased grandfather’ had now escalated to the point of bringing up their founding ancestor.

“If you’re also a child of a martial family! If you’re a martial artist! You should know that there must be no personal feelings when it comes to competition!”

“…Do I have to be a martial family’s child?”

“Kaaaack!”

“Yes, I’m sorry.”

Wei Jeong-han seemed determined to corner Wei Yan-ho today.

But Wei Yan-ho was listening to Wei Jeong-han’s words in one ear and letting them out the other while covered with his blanket.

Regardless.

“Are you listening to me?”

“Yes.”

“I mean, are you listening with your head, not just your ears!”

“If I answer honestly, you’ll get angry, right?”

“No, I’ll get angry even if you don’t answer honestly.”

“Then why are you asking?”

“To find fault and nag some more.”

“…I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone more honest and straightforward than father in my entire life. I feel respect.”

“This damned brat!”

Wei Jeong-han looked ready to breathe fire from his mouth.

“I would have lost even if I had fought anyway.”

“Then you should have at least fought and lost! How much will people look down on the Wei Family? Won’t they think you forfeited because you didn’t have the confidence to have a real sword match with your brother!”

“…Huh? But that’s true.”

“Aaaahhh!”

Finally, Wei Jeong-han lost his reason and charged, but Wei Yan-ho rolled his body to dodge Wei Jeong-han’s feet. Wei Jeong-han’s kick hit the blanket and sent the bed bouncing up.

“This damned kid!”

“Sheesh.”

Wei Yan-ho, exhausted by the nagging, threw himself out the window. He had tried to endure it on the bed somehow, but if he held out any longer, his ears would start bleeding.

“What kind of Righteous Hero Sword is that! What kind of martial artist nags so much! You say men should be taciturn!”

“You stop right there!”

“I won’t stop, I won’t!”

Wei Yan-ho jumped out the window and trudged away.

Watching Wei Yan-ho walking away, Wei Jeong-han let out a hollow laugh.

“Damned brat.”

He nagged endlessly, but he couldn’t really be angry.

I’m not in a position to call myself a martial artist either.

When Wei Yan-ho gave up the match so futilely, he was both dumbfounded and absurd. But at the same time, he had to discover himself feeling relieved.

Wei Jeong-han’s honest feeling was that he didn’t want to see those two crossing swords.

Tsk.

Wei Jeong-han ended up shaking his head vigorously.

It happened because the brotherly affection was exceptionally good. But praising that honestly wasn’t something he could do given his position.

Good kid.

It might be better for Wei Yan-ho’s future to become a martial artist who would step on even his own brother to climb up, but Wei Jeong-han was more fond of Wei Yan-ho who gave up the match because he didn’t want to fight his brother. Though he couldn’t say it out loud.

“Being honest isn’t an easy thing.”

There was bitterness mixed in Wei Jeong-han’s voice.

“Sheesh, how annoying.”

Wei Yan-ho grabbed some grass next to him, tore it up, and threw it forward. The grass fluttered in the gently blowing wind.

“Bunch of fighting maniacs.”

Wei Yan-ho simply couldn’t understand. What the hell was this thing called being a martial artist that you had to fight even between brothers, and you had to brawl in front of others saying you’re stronger?

Being stronger than others doesn’t produce rice or bring out grain.

When Baek Mu-han heard such words from Wei Yan-ho, he would say ‘If you fight well, rice comes out, grain comes out, and pretty women come out too, you idiot!’ and smack him on the head, but that was Baek Mu-han’s case.

Wei Yan-ho, who never left his room, had no chance to meet women, and no opportunity to earn meals using martial arts…

Ah, he is earning them.

Anyway, now that he had earned enough, there was no need to show off his martial arts prowess in front of others.

“I just can’t understand it at all.”

Wei Yan-ho flopped down on the spot.

It’s not like I don’t know how to fight.

He had heard countless times that you must fight when you need to fight. Baek Mu-han always nagged that his competitive spirit was lacking.

Effort is hard to sustain without compensation, and the compensation of martial arts improvement is just self-satisfaction. In the end, the only ones who can sustain it are the half-crazy guys who can whip themselves endlessly while repeating ‘I won’t lose to that person even if I die’—that was Baek Mu-han’s theory.

He did get beaten up like crazy after saying ‘Then Master is a properly crazy person,’ though.

He was told that the biggest obstacle in Wei Yan-ho’s path toward higher realms was his competitive spirit, but Wei Yan-ho couldn’t accept that fact.

If I become stronger, I’ll just have more enemies. And people will expect more from me. Even if I’m not in that position, someone else will do that job instead, so why should I deliberately take a high position and invite trouble?

Life is best with contentment in poverty and joy in the Way.

His brother will lead the family, and Su-ryeon will take care of management. Wei Yan-ho’s perfect life would be getting a back room somewhere and living off his savings while eating rice.

“If it weren’t for the prohibition Master placed, I’d already be living like that.”

And Wei Yan-ho tilted his head at a suddenly obvious fact.

Come to think of it… isn’t it about time this prohibition becomes a problem?

Master said that for Wei Yan-ho to survive, he had to continue gaining enlightenment and expanding himself. To avoid dying like a dried corpse by having his energy sucked by the internal core of his teacher that had been assimilated in his belly.

But exactly how long without gaining enlightenment does it activate?

Wei Yan-ho had no choice but to fall into serious contemplation.

He hadn’t gained any enlightenment recently. Since he hadn’t heard about any warning signs, it meant that after a certain point, it would automatically suck in energy, but wasn’t this like living with a bomb in his belly that could explode at any moment?

He had tried several times to separate the internal core, but all attempts had ended in failure. Though it was just an internal core, handling something imbued with Baek Mu-han’s will was still beyond Wei Yan-ho’s capabilities.

“Everyone just torments me.”

His master put an internal core in his belly and said he’d shrivel up and die if he didn’t gain enlightenment quickly, and his father nags because he didn’t fight his brother properly.

There were too many people making life difficult for him who just wanted to live ordinarily, and the fact that these people were his close relatives made Wei Yan-ho sigh.

“Sheesh, what could possibly happen?”

That was the moment.

Throb.

Wei Yan-ho’s eyes widened at the pain he felt in his belly.

Never say never—now?

“No, no, surely not…”

Wei Yan-ho was horrified and looked at his belly. It was pain similar to what he had experienced before.

Before…

“Oh, no.”

Wei Yan-ho clutched his belly.

“This damned master really intends to suck his disciple’s energy to death! Aaaahhhhh!”

Just as Wei Yan-ho was about to have a fit, a low laughter was heard.

“Huh?”

Wei Yan-ho turned his head. Then he saw a man slowly walking toward him from behind.

In the current situation, he had no leisure to pay attention to someone approaching. When his energy was being sucked out and he was about to become a dried corpse, what did it matter who was coming?

But Wei Yan-ho couldn’t take his eyes off the approaching person.

Because the person approaching was wearing green clothes. Very familiar dark green clothes at that.

“…Huh?”

If Wei Yan-ho’s memory was correct, those clothes belonged to the Sichuan Tang Family.

The suddenly aching belly, this needle-pricking pain that felt familiar from somewhere.

And the approaching martial artist from the Tang Family.

Wei Yan-ho’s mind began to race rapidly. His belly felt like it was being stabbed with red-hot iron skewers, but the pain wasn’t important right now. The cause of this pain was important.

“You young brat dared to insult the Tang Family.”

“…Who are you?”

“I am called Tang Cheon-gun. You should have at least heard my name, right?”

Wei Yan-ho’s head tilted slightly to the side.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know me?”

Tang Cheon-gun was about to open his mouth but shook his head.

“Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter. If you don’t know, you’ll find out, and soon everything will become meaningless anyway.”

“Why will it become meaningless?”

“What meaning could there be in what a handful of bloody water knows? You’ll soon learn what the pain of your entire body melting feels like. That’s the fate of those who oppose the Sichuan Tang Family.”

Wei Yan-ho’s head tilted more and more.

“Um… I’m asking just in case?”

“By all means.”

“Did you perhaps poison me?”

“Huhuhuhu.“

Tang Cheon-gun began to laugh lowly.

“What a dull fellow. Don’t you feel the pain? By now you should be feeling a burning pain in your belly?”

“So these are poison symptoms?”

“That’s right. I specially used Soul-Severing Boil Poison. Turning you into a handful of bloody water without you even noticing would be simple, but then you wouldn’t be able to reflect sufficiently. How reckless it was to dare oppose the Sichuan Tang Family…”

“Oh, damn it!”

Wei Yan-ho spat on the ground.

“This bastard!”

At that moment, Wei Yan-ho’s body stretched like a ray of light and appeared right in front of Tang Cheon-gun.

“Huh?”

Then Wei Yan-ho’s fist struck directly into Tang Cheon-gun’s jaw!

BOOM!

Looking at Tang Cheon-gun shooting away like a cannonball, Wei Yan-ho shouted at the top of his lungs.

“I really thought I was going to die, you old geezer!”

Of course, Tang Cheon-gun’s ears couldn’t possibly hear those words.