Chapter 20

Ch. 20

King of Fist, Raising the Standard

After listening to his brother's request to the end, Lee Ja-eon replied.

"......A Jianghu-style messenger pigeon, something like this should have been done long ago."

At Lee Ja-eon's muttering which somehow contained reproach, Lee Hwa-eon nodded his head.

"Exactly."

Lee Ja-eon nodded as if accepting his request.

"I'll look into it."

Lee Hwa-eon gazed steadily at his younger brother. Honestly speaking, this was the first time in his life that his younger brother seemed reliable.

Lee Hwa-eon cleared his throat and said.

"Thank you. Please take care of this for me."

The brothers briefly made eye contact, then simultaneously turned their heads away.

'Ah, damn......'

'Tch.'

It was a moment when they almost fell into narrow escape from cultivation due to awkwardness.

"I'm going."

"Go ahead."

As Lee Hwa-eon disappeared as if he was busy, Lee Ja-eon, left alone, muttered with a serious expression while resting his chin on his hand.

"The situation is becoming increasingly urgent."

Actually, it wasn't that urgent. In any case, Lee Ja-eon was thinking of directly looking into Jianghu-style messenger pigeons and applying them to the merchant group. He thought it was somewhat difficult work to entrust to merchants who only knew how to sell goods.

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Dan Wooseong was performing qi cultivation without moving a muscle in his room where moonlight seeped in. His clothes became damp from the waste products expelled from his entire body, and a musty smell spread throughout the room.

This smell had a story.

The alcohol he had drunk at some point, the toxins from food his body couldn't detoxify, and the blood that had become turbid as a result - all of these were part of that story.

In the process of advancing from the fourth stage to the fifth stage, his body had properly completed bone and marrow cleansing. It was the moment when all the negative remnants that the Great Young Master had accumulated day by day completely disappeared.

So what problem could there be with the place he stayed becoming dirty?

Dan Wooseong opened his eyes and looked at the world that had become clearer than before. As if his body's grade had risen, his five senses' capabilities had also increased.

Dan Wooseong looked at his own fist and injected lightning qi.

The lightning qi starting from his palm flowed out in a white color that was clearer than before, then wrapped around the back of his hand and extended to his fingers. When he spread his fingers, the lightning qi that rose like a heat haze made a mysterious sound and spun round and round according to Dan Wooseong's will.

It was the fifth stage of the White Lightning Ten-Stage Art.

Dan Wooseong grinned.

"Done."

The sixth stage meant the level where one could perfectly wrap body parts, not just hands, with lightning qi, and the seventh stage was commonly expressed as having a different aura. This was because one could wrap the entire body with lightning qi.

The eighth stage and ninth stage referred to the level when lightning qi was manifested outside the body, and the ultimate tenth stage was a kind of symbolic stage meaning the realm of enlightenment where one could handle lightning qi freely.

This was precisely why it was difficult to achieve great success in sects that handled lightning qi. Each time one ascended a stage, it took a long time to accumulate inner qi, or the elixirs needed for this were endlessly required.

However, Dan Wooseong had walked this path in his previous life. His utilization of elixirs was more efficient than anyone else's.

Now even his facial impression had subtly changed.

Due to the gradually accumulating extreme yang inner qi, his pretty face was gradually changing to a domineering atmosphere. As the feeling of prettiness disappeared, the energy his body possessed also affected his facial impression. It would be appropriate to say that anyone could see he had changed to a hearty impression. A person's face was bound to change according to their mindset and what they experienced.

Dan Wooseong got up and opened the door.

Even though it had become deep night, the Twin Treasure Brothers were arm wrestling to chase away sleepiness.

The Twin Treasure Brothers relaxed their postures and said.

"Are you finished?"

"You worked hard. What about a late-night snack?"

"We haven't eaten."

"I'll wash up briefly, so let's go to the communal dining hall and eat together."

"Yes."

As Dan Wooseong went to wash up, the Twin Treasure Brothers sniffed their noses, then went into the room and began organizing the bedding themselves. These were men who weren't accustomed to ordering anyone around at all. They stripped off the bedding covers and opened the windows while beginning to clean the room. Then the two men stopped their movements and looked at each other.

Rumbling sounds like thunder in their stomachs rang out simultaneously.

Then they continued cleaning as if nothing had happened.

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The three men ate while occasionally smiling.

The fact that they were eating delicious food without any particular worries was itself happiness. Yuk Jinbo looked at Dan Wooseong and said.

"Elder brother, your atmosphere has changed. Have you become stronger?"

Dan Wooseong nodded. Now Dan Wooseong was also accustomed to the Twin Treasure Brothers' way of speaking. It was an honest tone like throwing a punch. Dan Wooseong also replied like Yuk Jinbo.

"I've become stronger."

Yuk Myeongbo said.

"Congratulations. And thank you anew. Our sleeping quarters are more comfortable than before, and the food is too excellent. Everything is thanks to you, elder brother. Above all, we brothers have also become much stronger than before."

Dan Wooseong smiled.

"There's still far to go. We'll become stronger to a degree that's unimaginable now. Both you and I."

The Twin Treasure Brothers spoke words with a slightly different atmosphere from what they usually said.

"Because we become stronger day by day, the food seems to taste better."

Yuk Myeongbo said.

"Now training is also fun."

Dan Wooseong nodded. This was the point he considered more important than a person's comprehension. The brothers were now enjoying the process of learning martial arts.

Dan Wooseong deliberately saved his words. The two men were good material. He planned to teach them as well as possible and provide support, but leave the rest as it was. How strong the two men would become was unpredictable.

Dan Wooseong said as if making a resolution.

"Let's become strong. I want to become strong. Madly so."

The Twin Treasure Brothers were learning Dan Wooseong's words, gaze, and even expression as if engraving them in their hearts.

As their stomachs became full, Yuk Jinbo asked as if motivation was welling up.

"Elder brother, shall we train until dawn today?"

Dan Wooseong shook his head.

"No, we'll sleep."

As the Twin Treasure Brothers blinked their eyes, Dan Wooseong said.

"You should also sleep after just digesting your food. We do the training, but we must leave recovery to our bodies. Since you're learning the Black Dog Rebound Technique, you need rest time even more. Training until dawn is too excessive."

"Yes, understood."

Dan Wooseong sent the two men back to the separate quarters and sighed. He felt that there was one more man in the household who needed to be trained harshly.

The youngest, Lee Ja-eon.

Judging by his tendencies and personality so far, it was certain he wouldn't jump into the upper world. In fact, he didn't have the ability to do so either. The upper world wasn't an easy place either.

Dan Wooseong pondered while briefly holding his forehead.

His physical conditions weren't better than the Twin Treasure Brothers, nor was he more patient than the two men. If one had to search and search again for something outstanding, there was nothing but being a Jianghu Hero. He was lacking in many ways. At this time, the words Lee Ja-eon often chattered about when he was young suddenly flashed through his mind.

'The sword is truly the king of all weapons! Wahaha!'

Dan Wooseong muttered as he entered his quarters.

"Crazy bastard."

A passing servant was startled and replied.

"Pardon?"

"Ah, no. I was talking to myself. Go in and rest."

"Yes, Young Master, please also sleep comfortably."

Dan Wooseong's training method was something only the Twin Treasure Brothers could handle; in Lee Ja-eon's case, he was the type who would run away from home saying he felt like dying after following the training for a few days.

'How do I make this useless bastard into a person?'

Dan Wooseong, who had been pondering after entering his room, looked at the moon floating outside the window and thought.

'If I give up easily, I'm not the King of Fist.'

He was someone who only imitated sword techniques and didn't have a prepared body like the children of great families, but he planned to somehow connect with the characteristic of being a Jianghu Hero and engage in psychological warfare. Dan Wooseong briefly drew his rough plan in his head. After a moment, he added this name to his plan:

'Inevitable fortuitous encounter disguised as coincidence.'

Suddenly Dan Wooseong felt self-loathing wondering if he had to go this far, but since he planned to take good care of his family, brothers, and friends, he erased the negative thoughts.

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The next day, three young martial artists were steadily gazing at the main gate of the Galaxy Merchant Group. The three men had disapproving expressions or were making reluctant faces.

'It really just looks like a merchant group with lots of money, doesn't it?'

The three were Gu Yangming, the second young master of the Gu Family and a swordsman, Gu Yangyun, the third young master who was a blade artist, and a man called Shin So-baek who was considered the best from an external family.

Along with Gu Yanghe, the great young master of the Gu Family who didn't come here, they were called the Four Outstanding Gu Yang.

The common point of the three men was that they were of similar age to the Great Young Master of the Galaxy Merchant Group.

Since they weren't even facing a Jianghu sect but merely the great young master of a merchant group, if the Gu Family sent their top masters or even the great young master, it would be nothing but adults bullying a child. It was the stubbornness unique to the righteous path that considered appearances first regardless of what happened.

Gu Yangming, who was the oldest, said this.

"What father requested is for all three of us to defeat the Great Young Master of the Galaxy Merchant Group once each. We need to give him three consecutive defeats. So we must not kill him outright. It's not self-respect that can be recovered that way. Do you understand?"

Gu Yangyun nodded lightly.

"Yes, elder brother."

Gu Yangming looked at Shin So-baek who hadn't answered. Shin So-baek spat the grass he had been holding in his mouth onto the ground and replied briefly.

"Understood. But are you two planning to use weapons? I don't have much to worry about since I use palm techniques from the start."

They knew that the Great Young Master of the Galaxy Merchant Group used 'fist'. Since the young masters of the Gu Family had naturally also learned palm techniques and fist arts, it was a problem they could consider.

Gu Yangming said.

"Wouldn't using bare hands have more satisfaction in beating him?"

Gu Yangyun tilted his head.

"I'm not confident, so I'll just use a sword."

Gu Yangming frowned.

"Not confident?"

"Yes. Isn't he the man who defeated Uncle Gu Yanghu? Even though he was a branch family member who was far behind in the main house, he was someone with much experience in Jianghu."

Gu Yangming chuckled.

"That experience nonsense...... He just lost because he lacked skill. What use are age and experience in Jianghu? In any case, the strong one wins. Since we've also been training from when we learned to walk, our training period isn't less than Gu Yanghu's."

Gu Yangyun smiled.

"Yes, let's go in."

As the Gu brothers entered the Galaxy Merchant Group first, Shin So-baek looked around the long-stretching wall.

"They live well."

It was impressive enough for even someone from a great family to admire. Unlike the two brothers from the main house, Shin So-baek warmed up in front of the Galaxy Merchant Group's gate. He neither looked down on his opponent nor deliberately held them in high regard. Shin So-baek thought this would be the last time he handled work assigned by the great family. He planned to jump into the Murim Alliance to escape the main house's interference.

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