The World’s Strongest Is from a Third-Rate Martial Clan [Novel] Chapter 74

After it was revealed that the secret backer of the Vanguard Gang was the Black Wolf Escort Agency.

And after his train of thought reached all the way from the Black Wolf Escort Agency to Hwanyaja Baek Cheol.

Yanghwi formed a plan.

‘I established a ten-year grand plan with the Tang Family, but the truth is, our main family falls severely behind.’

The Sichuan Tang Family. Even if they were not part of the Five Great Noble Martial Families, they were a martial clan ranked just below them.

It went without saying, but looking solely at the difference in family prestige and power, the gap was several tens of times over.

‘Brother Tang seemed to view our family favorably, but the stance of the Tang Family’s core elders will be a different story.’

It was only natural for the core elders of a clan to constantly obsess over maximizing their family’s profits.

Even if the Tang Family accepted the blueprint of the ten-year grand plan, the distribution of profits within it was another matter entirely.

‘Thinking about the future… I need to make sure the Tang Family, at the very least, recognizes our family’s potential and excellence. Even if I have to exaggerate it to the point of pure bluffing.’

One of the methods he decided to use for this was Baek Cheol, and right after bringing him in as a member of the household, Yanghwi peppered him with questions.

“Brother Baek. What kind of work did you do while you were at the Black Wolf Escort Agency?”

“U-Um, Eldest Young Master. You can speak comfortably…”

“Hush. The way I speak isn’t important.”

He said that, but Baek Cheol looked so uncomfortable that Yanghwi simply decided to speak casually.

“Brother Baek. Is that really true? The Black Wolf Escort Agency only made you forge farming tools at best?”

“Y-Yes. Because I was the best at making them…”

‘Looks like they just told him to keep making what he was already making.’

What absolute idiots. They didn’t have an eye for talent at all.

Any martial clan worthy of joining the ranks of the noble families maintained its own internal smithy.

Naturally, there was an annex on the Baek Family’s estate that had been used as a smithy long ago.

The result of having Baek Cheol forge a single sword as a test.

‘He’s clumsy, but his talent is undeniable.’

Baek Cheol lived up to his future name.

To put it simply, his skill at handling iron was incredible.

It wasn’t a skill born from experience and mastery, but an innate talent.

From that day forward, Yanghwi imparted an Internal Energy Cultivation Art to Baek Cheol.

“U-Um, Eldest Young Master. Why do I have to learn martial arts…?”

“Because you have to forge a Divine Sword for me, Brother Baek.”

“D-Divine Sword…? Me…? But what does that have to do with martial arts…?”

“Brother Baek. Among martial arts, internal energy cultivation has many widespread uses outside of just combat.”

Since ancient times, artifacts hailed as Divine Weapons had all shared one common trait.

Namely, the fact that they inherently harbored energy.

This meant that a Divine Weapon could only be born if special materials were used, or if the artisan infused it with their own qi.

“Just do as I say. If you listen to me well, good fortune will fall into your lap even in your sleep.”

He shouted to Chief Manager Han, who was walking by.

“Isn’t that right, Chief Manager?”

“Haha! Young Master Hwi’s words are always right!”

Chief Manager Han secretly formed a circle with his thumb and index finger behind Baek Cheol’s back, making the shape of a gold coin.

It seemed he thought Yanghwi was scheming up something profitable again.

Well, once Baek Cheol’s skills improved, making a fortune would be child’s play, so it really was a profitable venture.

“Now. You’ve memorized all the oral chants, right? From now on, you need to circulate your qi and regulate your breathing every day. In about ten days, if I judge that you’ve grasped the basics, I’ll even give you an elixir pill.”

“Hiiik, an elixir pill…?!”

Yanghwi actually gave him one.

He fed one of the remaining elixir pills to Baek Cheol and even guided the energy for him, instantly planting ten years’ worth of internal energy into him.

If he had taken a few years, he could have drawn out all twenty years’ worth of the pill’s medicinal efficacy.

But time was money right now, so he simply had to accept this much of a loss.

“For the next fortnight! We will turn the inside of this smithy into a Mountain of Blades and a Forest of Swords! Execute!”

Didn’t they say the place filled with sword blades among the Eight Great Hells of Buddhism was called the Hell of Sword Trees?

Under Yanghwi’s strict instruction and supervision, Baek Cheol was ruthlessly overworked… ahem, he had to burn with passion as he forged dozens of swords.

Considering that forging a blade worthy of being called a prized sword typically took years, this was an astonishing speed.

‘If it wasn’t for Brother Baek’s innate talent, he would never have achieved this speed.’

Regardless, Baek Cheol pulled it off.

After practicing on dozens of swords, he created a masterpiece that Baek Muryang, a swordsman at the peak realm, acknowledged as a prized sword.

As expected, people and stones were the same; they both had to be polished and ground down to look beautiful.

“Blacksmith Baek. How long have you been working with iron?”

“Judging by the reflection on the blade, the forging method itself seems simple, but its sharpness is extraordinary. Do you have your own unique method, Blacksmith Baek?”

Baek Cheol received countless requests for handshakes from the Tang Family’s martial artists and blacksmiths.

The gathering, which was supposed to lead into a welcoming banquet for the Tang Family members, suddenly turned into a discussion forum for blacksmithing techniques.

“Now, now. Let’s not stand around here; why don’t we head inside and talk?”

“I agree with the Family Head’s words. Let us head inside first.”

Following the orders of Tang Gun and Baek Muryang, the people began to move.

Surrounded by blacksmiths, Baek Cheol wore a bewildered expression.

‘Brother Baek. Make sure you learn as much as you can while talking to them.’

While Baek Cheol’s innate talent was transcendent, his actual blacksmithing techniques still had many unrefined areas.

The members of the Tang Family would be able to quickly fill in Baek Cheol’s shortcomings.

‘We save face and build up his skills. It’s killing two birds with one stone.’

A few days passed.

After the Tang Family members had recovered from the fatigue of their journey, the two families held a joint meeting.

It was a gathering to discuss how the Tang Family branch would operate going forward.

“The Tang Family branch plans to operate a medical clinic and a smithy centered around Agan County to expand our influence.”

“The Baek Family will actively support you.”

Was it thanks to leaving such a strong impression by putting Baek Cheol forward?

Yanghwi had braced himself for sharp disagreements while sharing opinions, but they reached an agreement surprisingly smoothly.

More accurately, both families yielded to one another, making it easy to find a compromise.

And just like that, the Tang Family branch opened its doors.

‘It seems the Tang Family branch is well-established by now.’

“Then it’s only fitting that our Baek Family also steps further forward.”

Currently, the areas that could be considered the Baek Family’s sphere of influence were Agan County and Gyeun County, where the Black Wolf Escort Agency had been located.

From a pitiful state where their monthly earnings were a mere few dozen silver taels, they had now become the overlords of two counties.

However.

Even so, Muju only made up about one-tenth of Jiangxi Province, and their territory was a mere one-seventh of that Muju region.

“I, as the Family Head, shall declare this. Three years. Within three years, I intend to extend our family’s influence over the entirety of Muju!”

Baek Muryang’s disposition had changed slightly since reaching the peak realm.

To be precise, one could say he had harbored grander ambitions.

In his past life, Baek Muryang was the one who would sit Yanghwi down and whisper like a secret that his dream was to elevate the Baek Family to the ranks of the noble martial families.

Seeing such a father openly declare his dream in front of the entire household filled Yanghwi with deep emotion.

‘Father. It will absolutely happen.’

To make that a reality, the most important thing was, as always, the roots.

To become an ancient, towering tree, one must spread their roots deep and wide.

Only then could it withstand the weight of its branches growing thick and lush.

In that sense.

“Siblings, assemble.”

Baek Heonso, Baek Yeonyeon, and Chu Dal stood in front of Yanghwi.

Now that his outside affairs had settled down, he realized he had been somewhat neglectful of his younger siblings.

To be exact, in the eyes of the other household members, he was an eldest brother who sincerely took care of his siblings, but by Yanghwi’s own standards, it was woefully insufficient.

“Listen up, troops. From this moment on, under the guidance and supervision of this instructor, your indefinite hellish training begins.”

“Brother. I already have a Master, so– Gah!”

Thwacked on the head, Chu Dal collapsed while clutching his crown.

“Excuses make a martial artist weak. Any complaints will be disciplined with the rod.”

“Brother, are you going to hit Yeon too?”

“Of course! But the problem is our Yeon is too flawless to find a reason to hit.”

“Hehe.”

It was right around the time Baek Heonso and Chu Dal were feeling a deep sense of injustice.

“Now then. Let’s get started.”

Among the many elements required for martial arts, let’s look solely at the physical body.

Namely, the Body.

The Body was divided into two aspects.

The literal robustness of the physical flesh.

And the method of properly utilizing that tempered body.

‘Starting from the Body and connecting it to Technique.’

The current Baek Family was equipped with the connecting links to bridge this flow.

Through the Six Harmonies Physical Art, they could build the foundation of the Body, and taking it a step further with the Six Harmonies Body Conditioning Art, they could master the very method of using their bodies correctly.

Since both arts harbored the profound principles of active cultivation, the fact that qi cultivation was also possible during the process was an added bonus.

‘Heonso and Yeon. And even that punk Chu Dal. In this life, I will make sure all three of you are hailed as dragons and phoenixes.’

Well, to achieve that, things would be a little… no, extremely difficult for a while.

“B-Brother. This is too hard.”

“Aaargh! My Master’s training is already killing me, so why are you tormenting me too, Brother?!”

“Brother… can’t we rest just a little bit?”

Complaints? He ignored them completely.

He overhauled his siblings’ physical bodies from the ground up.

Martial talent was broadly divided into physical foundation and comprehension.

His goal was to reconstruct them so that, at the very least in terms of their physical foundation, they would be hailed as heavenly martial geniuses.

“Is it hard? Then do you want to do the same training as me?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

The three siblings became completely mute, as if they had coordinated it beforehand.

They had no choice.

Although he was doing the same training for the same amount of time, Yanghwi had imposed a brutally severe level of intensity upon himself.

“Sssss, hooooo…”

Sweat poured from his entire body like rain.

Every time he moved his body in accordance with the profound principles of the Six Harmonies Physical Art and the Six Harmonies Body Conditioning Art, the iron rings hanging from his entire body clanked with a metallic sound.

Yanghwi’s current body weight was roughly seventy geun (42 kilograms).

And the total combined weight of the iron rings hanging from his body was also seventy geun.

“Brother, aren’t you pushing yourself too far?”

“You’re going to end up shitting blood at this rate, Brother.”

Tempering the body and outright abuse were two distinctly different things.

Why was a limit called a limit?

Because the moment one crossed it, it turned into poison.

However.

‘Even though it’s an intensity where it wouldn’t be strange for my bones to give out, I have immortal qi.’

Immortal qi possessed the efficacy to make the physical body stronger.

This was a fact he had discovered earlier when utilizing it to treat his mother, Jung Inhwa.

‘They say if one masters the Shaolin Temple’s Muscle Tendon Change Classic, they can reach the state of an Indestructible Diamond Body.’

Even though he didn’t know the secret arts related to physical conditioning, he felt he could achieve the same effect by actively utilizing the immortal qi.

No, he was absolutely certain he could attain a physical body on a completely different dimension from his past life.

‘The fastest path would be to simply retrace the exact steps I took in my past life. But I can’t do that.’

Too many things had already changed.

Not only had he realized profound principles he failed to grasp in his previous life, but he had even received teachings from the Sound Empress.

It meant he was capable of extending a far greater number of roots; walking the exact same path would be a waste.

‘Even if it’s a little slower, I will dig deeper and wider. Yes, just like the teachings of the Heaven-Covering Art. Resolutely.’

In his past life, he had been forced to live with permanent physical discomfort as a side effect of qi deviation.

He didn’t want to suffer through that again in this life.

Therefore, he would perfect his physical foundation and his acupoints entirely.

Slowly, and resolutely.

He intended to build a Seamless Body.

‘Considering the harmony of mind, qi, and body, I will have to elevate my mind and qi just as much as I elevate my body, but…’

It didn’t matter.

As long as he possessed the enlightenment from before his regression, achieving the harmony of mind, qi, and body was inevitably going to be more difficult than in his past life anyway.

‘The more sweat I shed now, the higher I can climb. In this life, I will absolutely set foot in a realm beyond the ultra-peak.’

The existence that an absolute number one martial family under the heavens must possess.

The Number One Under the Heavens.

He intended to step foot onto that lofty summit.

At the very least, he would undoubtedly seize the glory of the Ten Sovereigns of the Heavenly Martial Realm.

And so, a year passed.

It was when yet another year had passed after that.

“Little Brother! Bwahahahaha!”

A blessing arrived at the Baek Family estate.

“Rang-rang! Rang-rang!”

It had already been three years since Gu Ak entrusted himself to the Baek Family.

Except for the times he occasionally went on outside excursions, Gu Ak was always affectionately doting on Yeo A-rang.

Yet, because there had been no news of a child, Gu Ak had lived bearing the stigma of being a ‘seedless watermelon’.

Finally, Gu Ak had done it.

“Our Rang-rang is having a baby! Bwahahahaha!”