Genius Martial Arts Trainer

Deep in the night.

Mukyeong carefully infiltrated the imperial army, which had established a fortified encampment and even posted sentries through the night in preparation for a possible surprise attack.

And around the time he quietly eliminated the three key generals he had failed to deal with during the daytime battle and began making his escape.

A commotion suddenly erupted throughout the encampment.

Only then had they realized that several people had been assassinated and begun searching for the culprit.

But regardless of the uproar behind him, Mukyeong left the enemy encampment without encountering the slightest obstruction, simply blending into the darkness.

'If I am to handle the next task, I will barely have any time to rest.'

His mission here was now complete.

Mukyeong looked up at the sky for a moment with a complicated expression, then launched himself toward somewhere in the distance.

***

Just as an army of fifty thousand had gathered in Henan to attack Mount Song and Dengfeng County, where Shaolin and the headquarters of the Tianliu Merchant Association were located, troops from across Shaanxi Province had gathered to form an army numbering seventy thousand.

Their destination was the Zhengmu League, which could be called the stronghold of the fugitive Mujin.

There were several reasons why the force tasked with attacking the Zhengmu League near Dongting Lake had gathered in Shaanxi Province.

One was the possibility that the martial artists might defeat the troops one by one while they assembled near Dongting Lake, where the Zhengmu League was based.

Once several thousand or more soldiers had gathered, there was no reason to fear martial artists, but it was not easy for a few hundred soldiers to confront martial experts.

Another reason was that most of the forces currently easiest to deploy were stationed in the north.

Thanks to the five-year northern expedition, there was no major problem even if only minimal forces were stationed in the northern regions.

In other words, the troops of Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia were gathered in Shaanxi Province, while forces were brought down from the north to fill the emptied military positions in Gansu and Ningxia.

The army of seventy thousand assembled in that manner began advancing from Shaanxi Province and was entering Hubei Province.

When around a hundred Daoists wearing Daoist crowns blocked their path.

Although they were all Daoists, their clothing was divided into two distinct styles.

And they belonged to groups so famous that anyone from the Central Plains would have recognized those two kinds of Daoist robes.

The Wudang Sect and the Zhongnan Sect.

They were Daoist swordsmen famous for defensive martial arts and were often grouped together among the Nine Great Sects and One Gang.

At someone’s shout, the hundred or so Daoists blocking the army of seventy thousand charged toward the imperial soldiers all at once.

PAP!

Perhaps because of their Daoist character, their movements seemed gentle in some way, but the speed of their lightness skills was astonishing.

However, the army of seventy thousand gathered here was also composed of elite soldiers, and the moment the Daoists charged, they began filling the sky with a rain of arrows.

The Daoists of Wudang and Zhongnan each swung their swords and fully displayed their specialties.

Some drew Taiji through continuous, flowing movements and diverted the arrows away.

Others performed sword arts said to defend every direction under heaven, easily striking aside the rain of arrows filling the air from all sides.

Meanwhile, the commander at the center of the army received word that Daoists were attacking and formed a savage smile.

He possessed a more violent temperament than the Henan Provincial Military Commander responsible for Shaolin, and above all, he had personally experienced years of warfare in the north.

“Prepare the cannons!”

“The enemy numbers barely a hundred, General!”

“What does that matter?”

“.......”

At his subordinate’s observation that using cannons against such a small number of enemies would be wasteful, the general smiled, the corner of his scarred mouth twitching.

“Should we not carve fear of the imperial family and the army into those fools who run rampant because they trust in their paltry martial arts? Only by overwhelming them from the beginning will what follows become easier!”

It was a truth he had learned while fighting barbarians in the north.

Half-hearted mercy or the thought that 'this should be enough' could never make them submit.

Only overwhelming violence and merciless slaughter could truly suppress them.

Under the general’s coercive command, orders were soon issued throughout the force, and the soldiers, having received the Daoists’ distance, lit the cannons.

BOOM!!!

With a tremendous explosion, more than ten cannons spat fire, launching massive iron balls that tore through the air at monstrous speed.

And the moment the thunderous roar unique to cannons resounded.

PAP!

One Daoist suddenly surged forward from among the group of around a hundred.

The man appeared to be around thirty years old and wore the distinctive Daoist robes of Wudang.

As though he had surpassed human limits, the Daoist charged at a speed comparable to the flying cannonballs.

PAP!

Upon reaching the immediate vicinity of an iron ball, the Wudang swordsman launched himself into the air and swung Wudang’s distinctive pine-patterned sword.

It was a bizarre sight.

The sight of someone trying to block an absurdly heavy iron ball launched by explosive force with nothing more than a single sword.

It brought to mind the four-character idiom of a mantis trying to stop a chariot, but sword aura had already condensed upon the Wudang swordsman’s pine-patterned sword.

Moreover, the Wudang swordsman did not even cut the iron ball apart with his aura-covered blade.

The iron ball flying at monstrous speed touched the Taiji drawn by his sword, and its path twisted as though it had struck something soft and bounced away.

BOOM!!!

Astonishingly, the iron ball whose trajectory had been altered collided with another ball flying behind it and exploded with a deafening crash.

The swordsman who displayed a Taiji Sword Art bordering on the divine, Daoist Cheongsu, known among martial artists as the Wudang Sword Star, did not stop after dealing with two iron balls in an instant. He launched himself again and swung his sword, rapidly dealing with the remaining cannonballs.

“.......”

The imperial soldiers and generals watching the sight all wore expressions as though their eyes might fall from their sockets.

Everyone who had experienced the northern battlefield knew how terrifying cannons were.

Yet a mere human had blocked them.

From the perspective of the general who had attempted to seize the initiative, he had only succeeded in sabotaging himself.

“Attack!”

While Daoist Cheongsu stood at the front and blocked the attacks, the Daoists rapidly closed the distance and arrived within striking range of the army of seventy thousand, where they began swinging their swords.

Still, as expected of a general who had spent years on battlefields, he quickly recovered and issued rapid instructions.

The formation of the army shifted at once, taking shape for close combat, and began surrounding the hundred Daoists in an encirclement.

And in time with that moment.

SWISHHH!

Countless hidden weapons suddenly poured toward the left and right wings of the army of seventy thousand.

Those who had suddenly appeared were all dressed in green, and merely from their clothing and the hidden weapons they threw, it was not difficult to infer their identity.

It was the appearance of the Sichuan Tang Clan, ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) who could be called a precious source of protein for Mujin.

“Send the cavalry to deal with them!”

Unlike the Daoists, the Tang Clan experts merely threw hidden weapons from a distance, so the general issued an additional order to eliminate them.

However, that decision was a mistake.

Some of the cavalry charging toward the Tang Clan experts were shot down by incoming hidden weapons and tumbled from their horses.

Those who somehow managed to reach close proximity suddenly collapsed for no apparent reason and began bleeding from all seven orifices.

It was the result of poison, another symbol of the Sichuan Tang Clan, having been scattered there in advance.

“Keep sending them!! Their poison cannot be limitless either!!”

While the furious general continued issuing orders.

“!?”

Something resembling a liquor bottle suddenly flew toward him from nearby.

CLANG!!

“Who goes there!”

The general, who had learned a fair amount of martial arts, easily cut the bottle apart with a swing of his sword and shouted.

Naturally, it was a conspicuous act, so the eyes of the key commanders and guards near the general also turned toward the man who had thrown the bottle.

And at their response, the man who had thrown it wore a strangely satisfied smile.

Like a man who had finally achieved his life’s purpose.

“Seize him! Cough.......”

As the enraged general pointed his sword at the man and shouted, he suddenly began vomiting blood.

Starting with the general who had struck the bottle aside, everyone nearby collapsed to the ground while spewing blood from all seven orifices.

It was the effect of an extremely lethal poison created by the Sichuan Tang Clan.

The Sichuan Tang Clan had suffered devastating losses during the previous civil war among the orthodox factions. However, through exchanges with the Southern Barbarians and analysis of the Five Poison Sect’s research, their poison arts had instead advanced to a level incomparable to ten years ago.

The lethal poison spilled from the bottle rapidly vaporized and spread in every direction, sweeping across the entire area.

“Cough.......”

And among those poisoned and vomiting blood was the man who had thrown the bottle himself.

The poison he had thrown was so potent that no antidote existed.

Even so, they had been forced to use it because Mukyeong was absent.

Others might be capable of approaching quietly and stealthily, but no one except Mukyeong could massacre the entire command group alone.

That was why they had no choice but to adopt a method little different from suicide.

Yet even as his life faded, the man willingly smiled, drew a dagger, and stabbed himself in the throat.

It was to end his life instantly rather than suffer for a long time from the lethal poison.

'League Leader. I am placing my faith in you.'

At the end of his final journey, the man did not resent the League Leader who had entrusted him with this task. Instead, he recalled the promises the League Leader had made.

The promise that no war like this would ever happen again.

And the promise that even after he was gone, his family would never have to worry about making a living for the rest of their lives.

***

Several days later. The Forbidden City in Beijing.

“What!!”

Upon hearing the report delivered from Henan, anger appeared on Emperor Taiping’s face for the first time in quite a while, unlike the emotionless expression he usually displayed.

“They dare resist the imperial army! This is no different from treason!”

“Indeed, Your Majesty!”

“We must immediately mobilize the northern armies and the forces of every province to eradicate every martial artist root and branch!”

“Issue the imperial decree at once and order additional forces to march!”

The enraged emperor shouted loudly enough to shake the grand hall as he issued his command.

The emperor had intended from the beginning to eradicate the martial artists.

He had merely planned to dispose of them gradually, beginning with Shaolin and the Zhengmu League, rather than eliminating them all at once.

That was why he had mobilized only armies of fifty thousand and seventy thousand.

'They are creating the justification for me on their own. What ignorant fools.'

Despite his outward anger, Emperor Taiping calmly entertained that thought in one corner of his mind.

The emperor also knew that public sentiment had hit rock bottom after the five-year northern expedition.

That was why, rather than mobilizing another enormous army and wasting military funds again, he had intended to deal with them little by little.

But now that they had committed an act no different from treason, there would be no problem even if he deployed another army numbering several hundred thousand.

The moment the emperor’s instructions were issued, men carrying imperial decrees for each province mounted horses and passed through the Meridian Gate, which could be called the main gate of the Forbidden City, heading toward Tiananmen, the entrance to the Imperial City.

And while passing through Tiananmen, they noticed a man in black strolling toward the front of the gate.

Of course, they currently bore the important mission of delivering imperial decrees across the vast Central Plains.

They intended to pass him by, believing that dealing with such a suspicious man was a trivial matter best left to those guarding the Imperial City.

Until the man removed his black bamboo hat.

“!?”

The moment they saw the face beneath the hat, they involuntarily wore startled expressions.

It was a face they could not possibly fail to recognize.

It belonged to the man who had incurred the emperor’s wrath, been branded a traitor, and had wanted posters bearing his likeness distributed throughout the Central Plains.

Whether the riders passing him were shocked or not.

The man who had removed the black bamboo hat, Mujin, rolled his shoulders with a crack and muttered.

“The beginning should be flamboyant after all, right?”

The instant his muttering ended, the flow of energy surrounding Mujin suddenly began to churn.

A tremendous amount of natural energy was drawn into Mujin’s body, and after an enormous force gathered within him, far beyond what any human should be capable of containing.

Golden radiance erupted from Mujin’s fist.

And by the time the radiance that had dyed the entire world gold faded away.

BOOM!!!!

A massive hole had been punched through Tiananmen, the entrance to the Imperial City.

A hole that looked as though a giant, dozens of times larger than a human, had smashed it with his fist.