Genius Martial Arts Trainer

Because he could not read Zhuge Jinxi’s expression due to the veil, Jang Hun was tossed about here and there by Zhuge Jinxi’s teasing before belatedly coming to his senses.

“Oh no! I was talking about something else and completely forgot. The two of you must hurry and leave this place. I feared the Great Hero Room fellows would come to the night market, so we avoided them by coming here, but before long, they may come charging into this place.”

Unlike Jang Hun’s urgent attitude, Zhuge Jinxi and Daoist Cheongsu were nothing but composed.

“I was curious anyway. What kind of place is this Great Hero Room?”

When Daoist Cheongsu asked with a leisurely attitude, Jang Hun answered.

“It is a black-path faction that recently established itself around this Jianggan District of Hangzhou. The Room Master, along with several experts, began extorting money from the night market and marketplace under the pretext of protection fees, and they are growing their forces by absorbing the wastrels among the young men of Jianggan District.”

At Jang Hun’s explanation, Zhuge Jinxi wore an expression as though she had expected as much.

Zhejiang Province was a region where the territories of the Zhengmu League and the Southern Heavenly Society met, and if one had to define it, it was a place where the powers of the righteous faction and the evil faction were intertwined at similar levels.

However, even within Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou was treated a little differently.

Because it was so famous thanks to West Lake, imperial family members and high officials frequently came to visit, so it was problematic in many ways for great powers to approach.

In other words, if one had to define it, it was a place where the power of the authorities was stronger than that of any particular force or sect.

Also, the reason the black path could rampage like that in a place where the authorities held sway was obvious.

'They must be slipping them a suitable amount of bribe money. Just like the Dark Heaven Society did.'

She was recalling it as though it were an old story, but in the war between the Zhengmu League and the Evil Alliance, they had ultimately failed to root out only the Dark Heaven Society, the gathering of dark merchants that managed the black markets.

Because those fellows had delivered an enormous amount of the money they earned through the black markets, as well as illegal drugs, slaves, and the like, to corrupt officials, it had been difficult to poke the hornet’s nest by saying they would catch the ones holed up in Hangzhou.

Of course, that only meant they had failed to annihilate them. The Dark Heaven Society was half-collapsed.

Needless to say, the Zhengmu League was wiping them out, and the Southern Heavenly Society, the new sky of the evil faction, was also forbidding drugs and human trafficking, sweeping away black markets the moment they discovered them.

In the end, since the seeds of every black market except Hangzhou had dried up, those fellows’ source of funds had also been completely blocked.

Even if Hangzhou’s black market remained, business was possible only if they procured slaves, drugs, and various stolen goods from the outside.

If they had no such goods, it would be no different from an ordinary night market.

In the end, since they were fellows who had been favored by corrupt officials thanks to bribes, now that their money was drying up, there was nothing left for them but collapse.

Zhuge Jinxi, who had been thinking about the Dark Heaven Society, had a thought that perhaps this might be the case.

“Perhaps the Room Master of that Great Hero Room is connected to the Dark Heaven Society. He may have tried to hide from the eyes of the Zhengmu League and the Southern Heavenly Society, but once his funds ran out, he may have begun operating while suitably concealing his identity.”

At her point, Daoist Cheongsu’s expression turned cold in a way unlike himself.

The Dark Heaven Society was a group with which Daoist Cheongsu had a bad fate of his own.

In the past, during the process of attacking the black market of Guangxi Province, his memories from when he was young had returned.

And after that day, although he was a Daoist of Wudang, Daoist Cheongsu had begun cultivating the killing sword in order to punish those who walked inhuman paths such as human trafficking.

In contrast to that Cheongsu, Jang Hun was wearing a startled expression.

“Th-the Dark Heaven Society, you mean?”

At Jang Hun’s startled reaction, Zhuge Jinxi asked as though testing him.

“Are you perhaps afraid?”

“......It would be a lie to say I am not afraid. Though the Dark Heaven Society has recently hidden itself, until only a few years ago, rumors went around saying that the true master behind Hangzhou was the Dark Heaven Society. In truth, my father also passed away several years ago while fighting against those people. However.”

Jang Hun, who had collected his startled emotions, continued speaking with a resolute expression.

“That is precisely why I believe there is all the more reason to fight against them. Thanks to the Zhengmu League, now that those bastards are hiding like rats, Jianggan District has barely regained peace. We cannot let them rampage again. Even if I die.”

His words, which sounded as though he were making a vow to himself, had barely ended when.

“Come out this instant!!!”

A noisy shout came from the direction of the Iron Flash Sect’s entrance.

“Damn it! Just smash it down and go in!”

Having heard the noise outside, Jang Hun shouted to the two of them with a resolute expression.

“I am sorry. It seems they found this place faster than I expected. I am ashamed to say this, but please escape through the rear wall! I will step forward and buy time!”

Zhuge Jinxi felt a strange sensation.

Even though she had told him they might be connected to the Dark Heaven Society, and even though he knew they were greater experts than he was, instead of asking for help, he was telling them a path to flee.

And perhaps he truly intended to buy time in their place, because Jang Hun rose while taking up his sword.

But before he could leave the hall, Zhuge Jinxi, who had moved at some point, blocked Jang Hun’s path.

“It seems you still do not remember what I told you at first.”

“Miss. This is not the situation to discuss such things.”

Despite Jang Hun’s urgent words, Zhuge Jinxi answered in a leisurely tone.

“My words that you need to first cultivate the eye to gauge your opponent’s level. Please keep them in mind.”

In Jang Hun’s place, she opened the hall doors first and stepped forward.

“Miss!?”

Jang Hun hurriedly chased after her in order to stop Zhuge Jinxi, but.

“There they are!”

The black-path group, who had already smashed through the doors of the Iron Flash Sect and entered, had poured in all at once.

“To think you dared touch our Great Hero Room!”

“Kill the men, and capture that bitch to hand her over to a brothel!”

The moment the shout of the fellow who appeared to be the leader from the back ended, and the black-path bastards rushed in.

Countless white flowers bloomed within the small manor of the Iron Flash Sect.

White flowers containing a chilling cold that seemed as though it would slice through skin.

“!?”

For a brief moment, everyone in the manor froze with startled expressions at the unrealistic sight.

Crack.

Several black-path men who belatedly tried to move flinched at that bizarre sound.

Before they had even noticed it, their bodies had truly frozen.

Only after belatedly recognizing that fact did fierce pain surge through their entire bodies beyond the skin-slicing cold.

It was the pain of frostbite that came because their whole bodies had frozen.

At that moment, Zhuge Jinxi, who had subdued the black-path group all at once, shouted coldly.

As she tossed away the bamboo hat with the veil attached, which had been covering her face as though it were troublesome.

“The moment you move even one step, your bodies will be torn apart.”

Clack.

She spread the fan she had drawn at some point wide open and covered her mouth as she added,

“Until you drive out this woman’s cold energy with your internal power, you will be unable to move even a single step. However, I do not know whether that will be possible with your lowly internal power.”

The moment her arrogant words ended, a black-path man in the rear shouted with a horrified face.

“Th-the Moonlit Fan Fairy....... To think the r-rumor was t-true.......”

Around noon, a floating rumor had spread near West Lake that the young family head of the Zhuge Family and a Daoist of Wudang had appeared.

Naturally, they had treated it as a nonsense rumor, but to think they would actually encounter them here.

“Th-then could the Wudang Daoist also be?”

At one man’s question, Daoist Cheongsu, who had been watching from behind Zhuge Jinxi, spoke with an expression cold in a way unlike himself.

“Were you looking for me?”

Along with those words, the sword he drew began embroidering countless taiji in the air.

When everyone was staring blankly at that bizarre shape, Zhuge Jinxi’s cold voice awakened their senses.

“It would be troublesome to kill them now. Daoist Cheongsu.”

“......Why is that?”

“There is a child watching, is there not?”

“Ah.......”

At her point, Daoist Cheongsu confirmed Jang Hun’s younger brother, Jang Hwan, who had been secretly watching from a corner, clicked his tongue as though regretful, and put his sword back in.

Because they might be connected to the Dark Heaven Society, Daoist Cheongsu had intended to kill them all.

And the black-path group of the Great Hero Room, who were listening to the two’s conversation, had faces that turned even paler than they already were from being struck by ice arts.

“Ev-even the Wudang Sword Star.......”

Following the young family head of the Zhuge Family, even Wudang First Sword.

To think that two new stars famous enough to be counted among the ten fingers in the current martial world would happen to be here of all places.

From the position of the black-path group, it was as though they had walked into the maw of hell with their own feet.

Meanwhile.

Jang Hun, who had been watching the sight from behind, was only then able to fully understand what Zhuge Jinxi had said at the end.

The true meaning of the words that he should first cultivate the eye to recognize his opponent’s strength.

It had not meant that he should not attack someone strong.

It had meant that there was no need for him to step forward to protect those two.

No matter if the Dark Heaven Society was behind them, they were experts beyond heaven, whom a mere Great Hero Room would never dare aim at.

When Jang Hun, having realized that fact, wore a half-dazed expression.

Zhuge Jinxi’s cold voice awakened Jang Hun’s senses.

“Young Hero Jang.”

“Yes. Yes, Zh-Zhuge Young Family Head.”

Toward Jang Hun, who wore a startled expression, she threw out an unexpected question.

“That conviction you spoke of just now. Even after gaining power, are you confident you can continue protecting it?”

Jang Hun, who at first could not understand what she meant, belatedly recalled the conversation he had shared with her.

He recalled the things he had spouted as though he were something special in front of an expert who could not even be compared with him, and his face reddened.

Watching that sight, Zhuge Jinxi smiled faintly and added,

“Think on it once and then answer me.”

Was it because she was a woman whose tone and face had been cold to the extreme? The faintly revealed smile was strongly engraved in Jang Hun’s mind in that moment.

And she, whose expression had become the usual chilly one before anyone knew it, passed through the frozen black-path group and approached the man in the rear.

It was the man who had just been babbling about bitches and brothels.

“I will go visit the Great Hero Room for a while together with this man. There will likely be things I must look into in many ways.”

And she left the Iron Flash Sect’s manor while gripping the frozen man by the scruff of the neck and dragging him along.

“I, too, have business with the Dark Heaven Society, so I shall step out for a while.”

After even Daoist Cheongsu followed her. For a brief while, a chilly silence lingered in the Iron Flash Sect.

And naturally so.

“......Wh-what are we supposed to do with these men?”

There were about twenty snowmen, frozen cold and fighting against the cold energy Zhuge Jinxi had scattered, filling the manor.

***

Two quarters of an hour after Zhuge Jinxi and Daoist Cheongsu left.

Creak.

Surprisingly, the two of them returned to the Iron Flash Sect.

“Y-you have returned?”

Jang Hun, who had lit a fire in the middle of the manor, offered a greeting in a reluctant tone.

“What happened with the matter you went to handle?”

At his question, Zhuge Jinxi took out a bundle of letters from her robes and shook them.

They were letters she had brought from the Great Hero Room, items that might be related to the Dark Heaven Society.

Of course, what Jang Hun had asked about was something else.

“Th-the people who were there......”

But Jang Hun’s question could not continue to the end. Because of the faint smile she wore.

It was slightly different from the smile from earlier. That smile, which felt somewhat cold, contained many meanings.

'......It seems the Great Hero Room is already finished.'

Jang Hun, who ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) vaguely realized the truth, asked carefully.

“Then, what do you intend to do with these men?”

“Hmm. Well, they are men who would not be missed even if killed, but I do not particularly wish to see too much blood on a day like today.”

The moment her words ended, the twenty or so black-path men who had been enduring by relying on the fire Jang Hun had lit shed hot tears.

While their bodies were still frozen.

“They will probably be able to move soon. If they do not quickly treat their frostbite, their skin will rot away, but that will be a problem they must handle themselves.”

“You are merciful.”

Those frozen black-path men could not agree with those words in the slightest, but Jang Hun said it sincerely.

“Did you intentionally target only the executives of the Great Hero Room?”

He had told her.

That the Great Hero Room was growing its forces by absorbing the thugs of Jianggan District.

In other words, aside from the executives, the motley rabble were simply local thugs.

That meant the meaning of her words was that she would end the punishment for the thugs by giving them a suitable amount of injury and fear.

'She probably used a similar method at the Great Hero Room’s headquarters as well.'

When Jang Hun, having realized that she had not carried out a massacre, inwardly let out a sigh of relief, Zhuge Jinxi also realized that Jang Hun had understood her intent and smiled faintly.

“If one killed everyone indiscriminately, would that not be no different from a murderous fiend?”

And as though she was no longer interested in the affairs of street riffraff, she gazed steadily at Jang Hun and asked,

“So, have you thought of an answer to my question?”

“......They say the human heart is harder to know than the course of water, so how could I guarantee it? However, at least my heart at this moment remains unchanged.”

“Then whether you change or do not change when you gain power. We will know only when that time comes and we watch.”

After exchanging words like a Zen dialogue, Zhuge Jinxi nodded with a refreshed expression and said,

“Good. Then come with me to the Zhuge Family.”

“???”

Toward Jang Hun, whose expression said he could not understand, Zhuge Jinxi added,

“I will personally watch whether you remain unchanged even after becoming the live-in son-in-law of the great Zhuge Family.”

“!?”

While Jang Hun, unable to follow the flow of her thoughts, sat there blankly.

Daoist Cheongsu, who had been watching Jang Hwan playing alone while swinging a wooden sword in a corner of the manor, opened his mouth while keeping his gaze fixed on the little child.

“By the way, Fellow Daoist Jang Hun, how old are you this year?”

Jang Hun, who had been sitting there blankly, answered with a dazed expression.

“I am twenty-one.”

At his answer, only then did Daoist Cheongsu turn his gaze, look back and forth between Zhuge Jinxi and Jang Hun, and tilt his head.

“Then, the age difference is......”

Before his words could even finish, Zhuge Jinxi’s fan, drawn at some point, stopped in front of Cheongsu’s neck.

“That tongue of yours. Would it be all right if I froze it so you could never move it again?”

A chilling cold settled once more over the manor of the Iron Flash Sect.