Martial Arts Ain't Anything Special-Chapter 83: Green Forest Bandits Subjugation (1)

For martial artists at the Transcendent Realm and above, the most crucial element in the execution of martial arts is image.

The power of a martial art is influenced not only by the mental image in one’s mind, but also by the intrinsic imagery inherent within the art itself.

Qi is something that both exists and doesn’t exist, a contradiction. In a way, it’s like quantum particles that exist probabilistically, and mental image is what gives certainty to its existence.

Crackle!

A finger bullet rotated at Seojun’s fingertips. The surrounding air was swept up by the rotating bullet’s force, adding to its power.

Materialized inner qi experiences some air resistance, but if one wills it not to, it hardly does.

Bang!

The fired bullet pierced through a tree, fierce wind blasting the surroundings and carving out a massive hole.

Crack!

The sourc𝗲 of this content is frёeωebɳovel.com.

The tree with its middle blown out toppled over.

Seojun fired a few more finger bullets and confirmed his thoughts.

The speed is about the same.

The speed didn’t change whether he rotated it or not. The accuracy didn’t differ much either, only consuming a bit more mental energy in exchange for increased power.

The increased speed of the finger bullet compared to before was simply due to the image of a gun in Seojun’s mind.

It benefited from the principles he had taken from the arrow-shooting idiot’s martial art.

Next was the Azure Sky Step. Its efficiency was garbage, so he’d immediately discarded it during the demonic creature flood, but he hadn’t given up on its potential entirely.

Rumble!

As Seojun stomped his foot, the ground in the distance compressed, raising a cloud of dust.

The efficiency was still poor. It felt like holding the end of a very long stick and pressing down on a faraway place.

Probably only usable at the Unrestrained Realm.

The power would likely be considerably more if he reached the Unrestrained Realm, where one could manipulate nature qi.

The basic foundation of the Azure Sky Step came from the image of the Heavenly Demon’s Reigning Step he’d read in a novel in the modern world.

At the Unrestrained Realm, a single step could make thousands of troops kneel.

Next was the Ten Cycles Yin-Yang Reversal.

Papapapak!

Yin and yang rapidly alternated at Seojun’s fingertips.

He nodded, pondering deeply while watching it.

Not bad.

The drawback was that it consumed a lot of mental energy, but that was only for other martial artists.

It was questionable if others could even use it in fact. He’d have to try teaching it to Chunbong later.

In Seojun’s case, while he needed to pay a bit more attention, it didn’t consume much mental energy.

He could embed his fist in an opponent’s body and use the Ten Cycles Yin-Yang Reversal in that narrow range, or use it as a wide-area attack like during the demonic creature flood.

As an area-of-effect technique, it wouldn’t mean much against opponents of equal strength, but it seemed capable of sweeping away moderately strong enemies in one go.

After loosely checking over his martial arts, Seojun stood in the middle of the wrecked training ground and looked up at the sky.

His martial arts were improving day by day, but the sky still seemed so far away.

A technique to bring down the heavens.

While pondering this, demonic qi rippled throughout his body.

The technique with the strongest single-strike power is probably still the Heaven-Defying Sun-Moon Art.

The taiji expands. Taiji gives birth to two forms, two forms give birth to four images, four images give birth to eight trigrams, and the sixty-four hexagrams derived from the eight trigrams ultimately form all things.

Conversely, the reverse taiji converges. All things converge into taiji and ultimately transform into primordial chaos.

For reasons unknown, the Heaven-Defying Sun-Moon Art’s power doubled when using demonic qi compared to other qis.

Whoosh──────────

The Heaven-Defying Sun-Moon Art created a black hole in the sky. As Seojun watched the slowly dispersing point, a strange heat filled his eyes.

I need a martial art capable of dealing with martial artists above my level.

A martial art that could defeat opponents stronger than himself, even at the cost of destroying his own body. To put it bluntly, a killing move.

Seojun’s eyes flashed as he conceptualized the martial art in his mind.

The blueprint was drawn; all that remained was experimentation.

No doubt the price would be steep, but there was no point in testing it here. Real combat would tell him everything he needed to know.

Some might call it insane, but Seojun was confident.

He wouldn’t fail. Not when it came to qi-manipulating martial arts.

And so another day passed.

*“Oh...”

He became rich in an instant. His wallet was about to burst from the rewards received for completing the Commander-in-chief’s requests.

But there was nowhere to spend the money. With Chunbong in cultivated seclusion, the Chunbong-cheek-maintenance expenses disappeared, reducing his expenditures to zero.

He thought about buying a new sword since he’d been a bit rough with his current one, but the Namgung Clan handed him one as if it were natural.

It was good even. At a degree compared to a renowned sword. Incomparable to the cheap iron sword he had been using, and even better than the sword he had received as a prize from the martial arts competition held at Mount Hua.

“Ah man, there’s nothing to do.”

As he wandered aimlessly around the clan, Seojun naturally headed towards the Hall of Temperance. The building where the Commander-in-chief was.

He entered without thinking, but indoors was busier than expected.

While observing the busy people moving about, he casually approached the Commander-in-chief.

“Did something happen?”

“Ah, Great Expert! It’s nothing major, just that the Green Forest bandits seem to be moving north, destroying minor and medium sects along the way.”

“Isn’t that a big deal...?”

“While there are many Peak Realm martial artists, there’s only one Transcendent Realm martial artist, their leader, so it’s not a huge issue. The bigger problem is the Black Serpent forces moving south towards Hebei.”

“Aha, I see.”

Seojun scratched his head as he examined the large map on the wall.

The map showed the movement routes of the Green Forest bandits and the Black Serpent forces. Looking at the predicted routes, it seemed the Green Forest bandits were heading towards Hebei after crossing the Yellow River in Shandong.

They probably intended to join up with the Black Serpent...

“Who’s going to stop them? Are there any large sects nearby?”

“The Hwangbo Clan is there, but they’re also short on manpower, so it seems they are hoping for support from the Namgung Clan.”

“Ah. So one Transcendent Realm martial artist from there and one from Namgung will go?”

“Yes. It seems that’s how it will be.”

Wars in the martial world are a bit different from modern wars.

Two main factors determine victory or defeat: the number of experts and the defense of strongholds.

Experts can be considered an overpowered unit type that moves quickly, has low maintenance costs, but can unleash tremendous firepower.

Even if they push forward and form a front line, they can’t cover the entire vast Central Plains, and there’s nothing that can be done if a small number of experts break through the front line and cause havoc.

In the end, the war itself takes the form of capturing pieces, like chess, rather than territorial conquest.

And needless to say, the strongholds where these high-level pieces belong are important. Before talking about orthodox or unorthodox factions, one’s own home is naturally the most important, right?

Anyway. The cutoff line for experts who can be considered pieces at this time is the Peak Realm.

Martial artists below the Peak Realm are essentially worthless for combat in a large-scale war.

In the end, the main forces can be said to be Peak and Transcendent Realm martial artists, with the outcome of battles usually determined by the victory or defeat of Transcendent Realm martial artists.

The Unrestrained Realm? That’s a different story altogether.

Their appearance can reverse the tides of battle in an instant. Their hands were tied from the beginning, focused on keeping the enemy’s Unrestrained Realm martial artists at bay.

This is why faction strategists first focus on positioning their Unrestrained Realm masters in key locations, before deploying their Transcendent and Peak Realm warriors to execute their battle plans.

When the Unrestrained Realm forces on both sides are evenly matched, the tide of war depends on how effectively each side wields their Transcendent Realm forces.

Didn’t father-in-law say we don’t need to worry about the Profound Realm?

He said they can’t move for various reasons.

Once martial artists attain the Unrestrained Realm, and particularly the Profound Realm, they rarely concern themselves with worldly matters.

Even the previous generation of experts from the Namgung Clan had disappeared somewhere and were in seclusion, hadn’t they?

It seems they might not budge even if their faction is destroyed.

“Looks like a real war might actually break out.”

“It’s already correct to say it has broken out. This clash will mark the beginning of a full-scale war.”

“Oh boy.”

Seojun slapped his forehead and asked.

“Then, should I take care of this one?”

“Oh Great...! Hmm...”

The Commander-in-chief, who was about to rejoice out of habit at Seojun’s words, groaned.

“However... this time could truly be dangerous. Though the leader is said to be at the early stage of the Transcendent Realm, his actual combat power seems quite formidable...”

Early stage of the Transcendent Realm. It’s a simple distinction of realm, not martial strength.

At the early stage, one can only use reinforced qi.

The middle stage allows control over the reinforced qi’s form.

By late stage, reinforced qi can be projected without disturbance.

At the pinnacle, reinforced qi becomes as natural as one’s own body.

Of course, the average level of combat power increases as you go up, but it’s not impossible for an early stage Transcendent Realm martial artist to defeat a peak stage one.

Didn’t he just hear from Chunbong before about the Fist King? Though only Second Rate in terms of realm, he’s counted among the top powerhouses even among Transcendent Realm martial artists.

Strictly speaking, Seojun would place himself between the middle and late stage of the Transcendent Realm, but thiswas merely his realm being inflated due to his ridiculous talent. In other words, his realm was a fraud.

So it was uncertain how he would fare against a proper Transcendent Realm martial artist in their prime, not like Elder Jongin or the Soul-Stealing Demon who were long past their peak.

Of course, he wasn’t lacking in confidence. His endurance was at an insane level, so while the opponent might be throwing normal attacks, he could spam ultimates.

The bigger issue was that the higher the realm, the more important the principles of martial arts became rather than raw power, but that was trivial.

“On the contrary, this is the perfect opportunity. Since a Transcendent Realm martial artist from the Hwangbo Clan will come too, it’s a chance for me to gain practical experience relatively safely. I can’t stay cooped up in my room forever anyway.”

Practical experience is essential to become stronger. Seojun’s resolve hardened.

“Hmm... But the Young Lady...”

“Hey now! Don’t worry about it! I’ll assume I’m going. It’s decided!”

Bang bang, as Seojun made his decision, the Commander-in-chief made a strange expression.

Unable to be happy or sad, his face crumpled oddly.

Eventually, he bowed deeply.

“You are providing great help once again. Thank you.”

“Ah, well. Family’s family, you know?”

At this point, calling him Namgung Seojun wouldn’t be much of a problem, would it?

Seojun chuckled as he left the Hall of Temperance.

The Green Forest bandits, huh.

I wonder what kind of person the leader of the Green Forest bandits is.

This might be a chance to determine whose Giant Spirit Divine Art is the true one.