I searched my memory for a moment. Why did this guy hate Zhuge Cheonwu?

Was it because he had gotten drunk at a gathering in the past and had poured alcohol on Namgung Minsu? Or was it a problem that he had teased him for being short in the midst of it?

Perhaps it was because of the sound of the surrounding people who were watching that scene with surprised eyes, trying to hold back their laughter.

‘He’s still a bit short.’

I finished my thoughts, looking at Namgung Minsu, who was about a hand and a half shorter than this side.

What was certain now was that Namgung Minsu was picking a fight with me.

“You’re welcoming me quite fiercely.”

“…Who’s welcoming a guy like you?”

“Otherwise, you wouldn’t have come right after the match.”

At my words, Namgung Minsu, who had frowned for a moment and then gotten angry.

“You’ve been talking nonsense since a while ago. You went to the Martial Academy and only improved your tongue!”

“Seeing as you’ve even investigated this much, it seems I’m right?”

“Shut up!”

It seemed he had a very angry personality.

“Don’t get too excited. I’m participating too, so we’ll see each other soon.”

“What? Are you completely out of your mind? Do you think you’ll be a match for me just because you got first place at the Martial Academy?”

The guy who was looking this way as if he were not just angry but also absurd.

“Because I haven’t lost to an opponent younger than me recently.”

“…I’m older than you.”

“It would be embarrassing to lose to your younger brother.”

At the rebuttal, the opponent who was grinding his teeth again.

“You arrogant bastard, I’ll definitely crush you.”

And then he turned around abruptly. Namgung Minsu, who had suddenly stopped his feet, asked.

“By the way, didn’t Miss Dang Surin come?”

Namgung Minsu, who was looking around with a strangely expectant gaze. At that, I grasped his intention based on the various big data that I had recalled from Zhuge Cheonwu’s memory.

‘Was that it?’

It seemed Namgung Minsu had a crush on Dang Surin. Come to think of it, although she had a dangerous side, if you only considered her face, she was a woman who suited the saying of a beauty that could topple a country.

“Are you curious?”

I deliberately put on a nasty smile and looked at him. Then Namgung Minsu clicked his tongue and muttered that he didn’t need it and turned around.

‘I have one more reason to win.’

This Dragon and Phoenix Assembly was co-hosted by the Martial Alliance and the Namgung family.

The location and the timing were exquisite in many ways. Behind it, there must have been a calculation to promote Namgung Minsu.

Namgung Minsu was originally the second son of the Namgung family and was being raised as a spare successor in case something happened to the eldest son. As such, this Dragon and Phoenix Assembly also had a high possibility of being a kind of career-building.

Someone is struggling like this to raise their credits one by one, but someone else is eating for free on a table that others have set up?

I had no intention of politely giving up the championship of the competition to such a weakling.

‘I have to get stronger.’

I headed to the inn. I even set up a stealth formation in the middle of the empty room and then entered a state of qi circulation.

As I entered my mind’s eye with a feeling of my mind becoming distant, I felt a red flow along with the feeling of my heart beating.

The true blood in my body was slowly melting into my whole body. No, it was different from that.

I instinctively tried to imbue mana into the blood, whose nature had begun to change. Then the blood slowly boiled and became thicker.

Surprisingly, the mana was seeping into the blood better than before. It was a feeling as if it had evolved into something with a different nature from true blood. Something that [Transcendent Growth], [Absolute Magic], and [Peerless Body] had created by fusing with each other.

It was a feeling as if the blood itself had been recreated to accept mana.

‘Should I call it mana blood?’

It was more efficient than mana enhancement. I clenched my fist with the mana blood activated. The feeling of being full of power was not bad.

‘I’ll have to test it once.’

And the opportunity came back soon.

“What?”

The next day, I muttered with my fist outstretched in the training ground.

The opponent, who had been knocked out by a single punch, was stretched out in a large shape, unconscious. It was something that had happened as soon as the second preliminary round match was held.

‘It’s more than I imagined.’

When I enhanced it by putting mana into the mana blood, my physical strength improved dramatically. My senses also became much clearer. And in the midst of that, I had struck the opponent’s opening and had thrown a punch instead of a sword, and that had just happened to hit.

I could feel that my overall physical ability had changed. It was enough to assist the relatively lacking body. Of course, after activating the mana blood, a slight feeling of exhaustion came over me, so it seemed it would be difficult to use it recklessly.

And so, as I was coming down from the training ground, something caught my eye in the crowd.

A subtle feeling. A peculiar scent that I didn’t know whether to call the smell of blood or a hot airflow was very faint.

‘Blood Cult!’

It was a trace that I would not have noticed if it weren’t for the mana blood.

I was sure that there was a Blood Cult here, and if I hadn’t been vigilant of my surroundings, it was an insignificant incongruity that I would have just passed by, but now that I knew the development of the original work, I was half-convinced.

I grabbed a man who was intently watching Yang Ha-eun’s match in the crowd.

“Wha, what is it?”

“You’re suspicious.”

The opponent’s eyes, which had met my gaze, wavered for a moment.

“What do you mean?”

The opponent who was subtly gathering his energy. He was probably planning to run away after attacking if things went south. I didn’t want to get the surrounding people involved and have them get hurt.

I deliberately shouted to scatter his vigilance.

“Aren’t you a thief?”

At the out-of-the-blue commotion, the nearby attention was drawn.

But as if he thought that such a suspicion was rather a relief, I could feel the man’s killing intent, which had been faintly rising, subsiding.

The opponent raised his two hands as if he were being wronged. It was a defenseless posture.

“What did I steal… keuk!”

Just as I had done to Seo Muk-ho, I put my internal energy into it and slammed the Great Blood Art into him. A certain pattern of energy penetrated the opponent’s body.

And soon, the penetrated energy met the peculiar energy of the blood art and accelerated the internal rampage.

“Keuk!”

In an instant, the man’s eyes turned red, and veins popped out from his whole body. At that, the surrounding people reacted.

“A blood demon!”

The ominous energy that had unfolded in broad daylight and the grotesquely popped-out veins were revealing the proof of the blood art.

“This… what?!”

The guy, who was flustered, drew his sword and struck.

But this was what I had been hoping for.

I avoided it and drew my sword in reverse and cut off his arm.

A sword strike that had been swung in an unstable state after suddenly going berserk was no threat.

“It’s a blood demon! The Blood Cult has interfered with the Dragon and Phoenix Assembly!”

I shouted with my internal energy so that everyone in the area could hear.

The martial artists under the Namgung family rushed in and subdued the blood demon, who had started to run wild.

In front of the combined attack of the sword formation that was rushing in from all directions, blood splattered high in an instant.

“Kyaaaak!”

The festival became a scene of carnage.

When I turned my head, I could see the martial artists of the Martial Alliance also rushing in from the distance.

The effect was more than I had expected. With this, the vigilance against the Blood Cult would increase.

I looked at the blood demon, who had collapsed, covered in blood, and then turned around.

It was as planned. Now, all that was left was to go through the competition.

* * *

Perhaps because of the blood demon’s attack incident, the security was much tighter on the day the main tournament was held. The martial artists of the Martial Alliance and the Namgung family were spread out everywhere.

‘At this rate, I don’t have to worry about the Blood Cult right away.’

In the first place, the Blood Cult had not attacked during the Dragon and Phoenix Assembly in the original work, but since you couldn’t say that the inn was completely safe, the more martial artists who were active in the city, the better.

‘Anyway, what’s important now is the competition.’

On the first day of the main tournament, the round of 16 and the quarterfinals were held on the same day. Although winning was important, you also needed to manage your stamina.

I moderately warmed up and then waited for the Dragon and Phoenix Assembly to begin. But before the main tournament began, a voice filled with internal energy echoed from the distance.

“Namgung Hon-pyeong, the head of the Namgung family and the ruler of Anhui Province, is personally gracing us with his presence!”

At that thunderous shout, people’s heads turned to one place. Soon, the crowd parted with a murmuring sound.

At the end of it was Namgung Hon-pyeong, who was heading to the prime spot of the Dragon and Phoenix Assembly in a high-quality carriage.

Slicked-back hair and straight eyes. He had a masculine and dignified appearance, and beyond his sturdy body, he exuded an aura of a distant realm that could not be fathomed.

‘Come to think of it, he often appeared in the Dragon and Phoenix Assembly event.’

Since the probability was not high, I hadn’t expected it, but to think that the head of the Namgung family would come in person.

‘In the original work, the Blood Cult couldn’t act until the end of the Dragon and Phoenix Assembly because they were wary of him.’

Namgung Hon-pyeong, a person who was considered the strongest in terms of martial arts level among the heads of the five great families.

There was a rumor that he had gone beyond the Transformation Realm and had reached the Profound Realm.

No matter how crazy a group of fanatics they were, there was no way they would do the crazy act of ruining the event when the head of the Namgung family had personally graced them with his presence.

A being who exerted an overwhelming deterrent force on a group, and even on an area, just by his existence.

‘It’s a realm I have to reach someday.’

It was theoretically possible. And I had to, in order to clear the original work.

And so, as I was looking at the opponent and gauging the realm that I might reach someday, my eyes met with Namgung Hon-pyeong’s for a moment.

A feeling as if I could not shake it off. Beyond the impression of just facing a predator, it was a feeling of being overwhelmed by a huge natural object itself.

And soon, as the carriage moved and his gaze was withdrawn, I let out a hot breath.

Although I had witnessed a distant gap, I didn’t think I was crushed. On the contrary, I felt that my goal had become a little clearer.

“First group of the main tournament! Where is the young hero, Zhuge Cheonwu?!”

Soon, I headed to the arena, following the guidance of the competition host who was calling me.

The opponent was a newcomer from the Wudang Sect, a person who had the skill of having just entered the extreme of the first-rate.

But he was no match for me, who had already reached the extreme a long time ago and could even use magic if necessary.

And so, after winning against the opponent with my stamina managed, as I was coming down, Yang Ha-eun, who was in the next order, approached.

At that sight, Namgung Minsu, who had been approaching with a flushed gaze, flinched. Then he glanced up at Yang Ha-eun, frowned, and then passed by.

‘So he also acts as a totem.’

“I’ll buy you a meal.”

“……?”

Yang Ha-eun blinked her eyes blankly and then nodded her head.

The morning matches were over. After eating and returning, the crowd was even larger than in the morning. Since I had gone out as the first group earlier, this time I was in the last order.

After watching Yang Ha-eun and Namgung Minsu each win, I soon went up to the training ground at the voice of the host who was calling this side.

Although I had come relatively comfortably until now, the quarterfinals were different.

The opponent who had introduced himself as Jong So-un of the Huashan Sect was a peak-level master.

‘But he’s only at the beginning of the peak level.’

The fact that he had reached that level at the young age of 19 was amazing in itself.

The opponent rushed in, scattering the forms of the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art.

Clang-!

The swords clashed with each other. A considerable shock was transmitted to my palm, but this side was not pushed back either.

‘It’s not enough.’

Compared to Baek Cheong, he was far from enough. The form, the power, the forms. It was different from the sword strike of that time, which was vividly engraved in my eyes.

Even though the opponent’s realm was one step higher, it was to the extent that I could face him.

I deflected the opponent’s sword, which was bent, and then dug in. The mana blood supplemented the lacking physical strength, and the sword qi that covered the sword secured the advantage in the battle of numbers.

And soon, the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art unfolded from my fingertips. As I took a step, I stretched my sword forward.

Freely and boldly, the sword path expanded. The path of the sword was pioneered along the grain of the forms.

Clang-!

And finally, the sword reached its intended end.

“…How?”

The newcomer from the Huashan Sect, who had dropped his sword, asked. How could he be more exquisite than himself, who had trained his whole life in the Huashan Sect?

But I did not answer. I had just seen and learned. It didn’t matter where or how I had learned it.

“Winner! Zhuge Cheonwu!”

In the midst of the cheers, the host’s declaration echoed. I left the training ground, leaving behind Jong So-un, who was looking up this way with a dazed expression.

The first day of the main tournament was over. Now, all that was left was the semifinals.

I looked at the tournament bracket, which was being newly updated by the workers. The next opponent was Yang Ha-eun.

(End of Chapter)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep