CLS-Chapter 425

Chapter 425:

What is the most important saying for a strategist?

Finding the answer to that question was an extremely arduous task. It was a problem that no one could answer immediately, no matter who you asked. Even if you asked the strategists of the Zhuge Family, they wouldn’t be able to give an immediate answer.

However, there could be a saying that one personally considers most important.

For Zhuge Wu, there was only one such saying.

Mosa jaein seongsajae cheon

Humans plan affairs, but whether they succeed depends on Heaven.

Zhuge Wu thought this saying offered many insights for strategists.

No matter how outstanding a person might be, they couldn’t fit everything in the world inside their head or account for it all. In the end, even if one considered everything and planned a situation, variables would always exist.

These variables were beyond human control.

That’s why strategists should never trust their own minds completely. Even affairs planned with perfect precision could go awry at any time through small variables, so one must plan with that awareness.

Zhuge Wu had always lived without forgetting that fact.

But in this particular case, there was something a bit unfair about it.

While it was true that Zhuge Wu had acted impulsively, his calculations were definitely solid regarding this matter.

Wei Yan-ho was a member of the Righteous Martial Alliance.

And what he was doing now was clearly being carried out on orders from the Righteous Martial Alliance. If that was the case, Wei Yan-ho absolutely couldn’t do anything that would harm the Righteous Martial Alliance.

If casualties occurred from this incident and relations between the Zhuge Family and the Righteous Martial Alliance became hostile, Wei Yan-ho would inevitably be held responsible. That’s why Wei Yan-ho couldn’t use lethal force against the Zhuge Family.

If neither side used lethal force, the situation wouldn’t escalate. That was Zhuge Wu’s calculation. Moreover… when you thought about it, there wasn’t really anything to lose.

If they captured Wei Yan-ho without him using lethal force, the Zhuge Family’s morale would rise; even if they failed to capture him, it would still serve as a lesson in how vast the martial world was.

Either way, he had started this thinking it would benefit the Zhuge Family, but…

‘How could I have known it would turn out like this?’

However, the scene unfolding before his eyes was far beyond Zhuge Wu’s calculations.

“Gyaaaaaah!”

“Graaaaaaah!”

“S-save me!”

It was like a tiger, not even a wolf, leaping into a flock of sheep. The sheep with nowhere to flee tried somehow to resist, but… it wasn’t even a wolf, so how could sheep possibly face a tiger?

It was truly helpless.

‘Was he this strong?’

Zhuge Wu began pondering where his calculations had gone wrong.

He needed to determine whether Wei Yan-ho was stronger than he had thought, or whether the Zhuge Family’s martial arts were more lacking than he had imagined. But with just the phenomena visible before his eyes, he couldn’t reach a perfect conclusion.

“From behind!”

Kuwung!

A Zhuge Family martial artist who took a punch to the face from Wei Yan-ho soared up into the sky.

“You just use your head!”

Kwang!

This time, a kicked martial artist rolled across the ground. The kick had been so fierce that it carved a deep furrow in the ground.

“Have you lost touch with reality?”

Wei Yan-ho grabbed the collar of a martial artist in front of him and hurled him into the air.

“Gyaaaaaaaah!”

The scream echoed like an echo. Everyone’s faces filled with terror as they watched the martial artist become a distant star.

“What, what kind of bastard is that?”

“Fall back! Fall back! Don’t engage him directly!”

“Ptui!“

Wei Yan-ho spat on the ground with a thwack.

“What? Quan Ji? Quan grrrrrr?”

Veins bulged on Wei Yan-ho’s forehead.

“Are these gentlemen joking around? What? Even Quan Ji couldn’t handle it? Have you guys seen Grandpa Quan Ji? If you take one punch from that gentleman, your perfectly fine spine will cry ‘save me,’ and if you take two punches, you’ll regret being a picky eater all your life. What? Quan grrrrrr? How dare you casually mention that name!”

To anyone watching, it might look like someone writhing with respect for Quan Ji, but of course, Wei Yan-ho had no respect for Quan Ji whatsoever. If you searched deep into his inner self, you might find respect about the size of a pinky nail, but even that much respect wouldn’t change anything.

So the reason Wei Yan-ho was making this fuss now wasn’t because Quan Ji was being disrespected — it was because Wei Yan-ho was pissed off.

Who was Quan Ji?

Wasn’t he the first person to give Wei Yan-ho proper discipline since entering the martial world? The memory of nearly going to the afterlife from the Fist Energy that Quan Ji unleashed back then was still vivid, so what was all this nonsense?

When Quan Ji was actually in front of them, they would cower, but with their mouths they acted like they could even catch the Great Demon Emperor—how could that not be irritating?

“Fine. Let’s see you catch Quan Ji just once.”

Wei Yan-ho twisted his waist backward.

Crack, crackle!

Along with dull sounds like bones grinding, a gale began to rise from Wei Yan-ho’s right hand.

“Graaaaaaah!”

Though a loud battle cry burst from his mouth, Wei Yan-ho’s fist was by no means fast. Rather, it was so slow you’d think a fly might land on it.

That slow fist extended forward.

At the same time, the wind began to blow.

“Huh?”

The eyes of those who initially thought it was just wind began to slowly widen.

It wasn’t just wind.

As Wei Yan-ho extended his fist, the wind grew progressively stronger.

Fist pressure was summoning fist wind.

“Th-this?”

The pressure unleashed by Wei Yan-ho’s fist created wind. Then, that wind soon became a storm and began to rage.

Though the momentum was different, it was a technique that Quan Ji had once shown Wei Yan-ho in the past. The difference was that Quan Ji’s fist was a bit more majestic, while Wei Yan-ho’s fist fell short compared to Quan Ji’s.

But completeness wasn’t important. What mattered was showing these people what Quan Ji’s fist was like.

And the Zhuge Family could definitely understand how terrifying Quan Ji’s fist was.

“I-I’m flying away!”

Humans were inevitably powerless before the forces of nature. No matter how great a martial artist might be, they couldn’t block an incoming typhoon or continuously push back surging waves.

Faced with Wei Yan-ho’s supernatural single punch, the Zhuge Family martial artists couldn’t find a way to cope.

How could human strength block a storm?

“P-perform Thousand Pound Drop!”

When someone’s shout was heard, the Zhuge Family martial artists gathered both hands to their lower dantian and performed Thousand Pound Drop.

Their feet sank deep into the ground with thud thud sounds.

But not being blown away didn’t mean it was over.

Crack crack! Crack!

Humans could resist storms, but buildings couldn’t. The pavilions behind them couldn’t withstand the surging storm and began to be torn away.

Then…

“D-dodge!”

“How!”

In their hearts, they had dodged a hundred times over.

Walls and roof tiles torn from the pavilions flew toward the martial artists. Under normal circumstances, they could have easily dodged, but what could they do when their bodies were fixed with Thousand Pound Drop?

They had no choice but to take the hits directly.

Screams and the sounds of breaking bones echoed everywhere.

“That…”

Zhuge Wu could no longer maintain a calm expression.

“B-but we can’t destroy the buildings…”

The situation was escalating.

‘Can I get through this without being held responsible?’

If it had ended at an appropriate level, he might have been able to laugh it off, saying he gave the family’s children a good lesson. But…

‘They’re all collapsing, they’re all collapsing.’

The Zhuge Family pavilions that had been protected for hundreds of years were crumbling like sand castles.

What would the Family Head say when he returned and saw this scene?

He would ask if even the Demonic Cult had attacked.

If he said in front of the furious Family Head that he was giving the children a lesson?

‘The Family Head would give me a lesson.’

With his fists.

That day, he’d probably have to chant the funeral rites of his dignity as an Elder, never mind anything else.

He was realizing that the situation was getting worse and worse, but even so, Zhuge Wu couldn’t step forward. If he stepped forward, he would inevitably have to stop Wei Yan-ho, but…

“Gyahahahahaha!”

Stop that?

Zhuge Wu looked at Wei Yan-ho, who was half-mad and throwing punches around, and shook his head. He’d rather bite a blade and fall over.

‘But I never thought it would be to this extent.’

He had hoped that the family’s young people would see Wei Yan-ho’s strength with their own eyes and awaken. But Zhuge Wu realized that he too had been underestimating the Righteous Martial Alliance and the Central Plains.

As far as he knew, Wei Yan-ho was a swordsman. But that swordsman was unilaterally overwhelming the Zhuge Family without even using his sword.

‘I too was utterly naive.’

Though they had experienced war, the Zhuge Family inevitably had to focus more on predicting enemy movements and devising strategies from the rear rather than taking the front lines.

As a result, they had underestimated the abilities of martial artists.

If Wei Yan-ho was this strong, how strong would the martial world’s old masters, who were rated even higher than Wei Yan-ho, be?

And how strong would the Demonic Cult’s bishops, whom even they wouldn’t dare face directly, be?

Zhuge Wu was realizing what a great crisis they were facing.

Even that Wei Yan-ho had been defeated by a Demonic Cult bishop.

If the Demonic Cult were to attack in earnest, how could they possibly stop them?

“The world will be stained with blood.”

Zhuge Wu sighed as he looked at Wei Yan-ho.

‘And perhaps…’

The key to saving a world stained with blood might be right in front of him now.

“Kahahahahaha! This is Quan Ji’s fist!”

“…”

Of course, it was a slightly unhinged key.

Slightly.

***

“…It’s quite far, isn’t it.”

The donkey snorted and shook its head. The old man sighed and patted the donkey’s back.

“Hey, you beast. I don’t want to go either. But what can I do when big brother tells me to go?”

When the donkey kept braying, the old man clicked his tongue and looked up at the sky.

“Big brother is too much. Telling this old body to go to such a place and come back.”

The taste in his mouth was bitter, but it couldn’t be helped.

In fact, the current situation was essentially all caused by the old man. If he had acted when he first encountered him, things wouldn’t have gone wrong like this.

So he had to solve it with his own hands.

The old man, having reached a crossroads, pulled the reins of his donkey.

“Hmm.”

Looking at the crossroads and pondering, the old man spoke to a group approaching him.

“I say there.”

“Yes?”

“Which way should I go to reach Sichuan?”

“…Sichuan? Are you going to Sichuan with that cart right now?”

“Hehehe, that’s right.”

The people looked at the old man with suspicious eyes, seeing the worn-out cart and the old donkey pulling it. No matter how they looked at it, he didn’t seem to be in his right mind.

“You should go this way. But old man… it would be too long a journey.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. If there’s work to be done, you have to go even on a long journey. Well, thank you. Let’s go! You beast!”

When the old man smacked the donkey’s rump, the donkey brayed and moved its feet.

The group who had given directions watched the slowly advancing cart and all sighed in unison.

“No, old…”

The people who were about to dissuade the old man suddenly had their eyes go wide.

“Wh-where did he go?”

“…Did we see a ghost?”

The cart had disappeared in the blink of an eye.

This happened on the main road leading to Sichuan.