Chapter 4: The Best Under Heaven
The Chief Administrator of the Martial Alliance was Zhuge Don of the Zhuge Family.
Originally, the Zhuge Family was renowned for its high level of scholarship and military strategy, so Zhuge Don also excelled in scholarship and military strategy and was also a good judge of character.
Generally, those who excelled in scholarship and military strategy were skilled at persuading others without revealing their own emotions.
However, Zhuge Don was a little different.
“So…… are you saying that Elder Jang has lost his Hundred Martial Arts Plaque again?”
Elder Jang Seung-il seemed to have no face to meet the Chief Administrator and subtly averted his gaze.
Ahem……
“It’s…… truly strange. I clearly had the Hundred Martial Arts Plaque in my possession, but it disappeared at some point.”
Zhuge Don stared intently at Elder Jang, who was avoiding his gaze with an embarrassed expression, and then began to rummage through the documents on the table.
“Let’s see. Two years ago, Elder, you lost plaque number thirty-seven. Which plaque number did you lose this time?”
“That……”
Once again, Elder Jang couldn’t answer right away.
At this, Zhuge Don’s voice rose slightly.
“Don’t tell me you don’t even know which plaque number it was?”
Elder Jang shook his head in a flustered manner.
“No, no, it’s not that. It’s…… this time it’s also plaque number thirty-seven……”
As his dying voice trailed off, his face became blank and dazed.
“What number did you just say?”
Elder Jang hung his head low.
“Th, thirty-seven, I said.”
His dazed face contorted, and his voice rose.
“No, do you have some sort of grudge against plaque number thirty-seven? Why would you lose that specific plaque again?”
Ahem……
“I’m sorry. This old man has no excuse.”
As the elderly man blushed and bowed his head, the Chief Administrator couldn’t press him any further.
Sigh……
“I understand. We can make another plaque, so please go in and rest. You’ve worked hard.”
Elder Jang, who had been uncomfortable in his seat as if it were a bed of nails, quickly got up and left the room.
“Make yourself comfortable.”
As he left the room, the Chief Administrator covered his face with both hands in agony.
Ugh……
In eighteen years, the Hundred Martial Arts Plaque had been lost nine times.
Seven out of the nine times, there were valid reasons.
There was a case where it was lost when it fell into a river while being shown off, and there was also an incident where a young master carrying the plaque lost his life to Evil Perpetrators, resulting in the loss of the plaque.
However, there was no justifiable reason for the two plaques lost by Elder Jang.
‘Oh dear…… He’s a man who loves his alcohol, so he must have thrown it away somewhere while drunk or given it to someone he shouldn’t have.’
The Chief Administrator attributed all the blame to Elder Jang’s love for alcohol.
“D*mn it. I’ll have to make plaque number thirty-seven again.”
Since the plaques from number one to one hundred were made at the same time, the style and thickness of the numbers engraved on the plaques were almost identical.
However, the nine lost plaques would have a slightly different style and thickness of the numbers compared to the others, and in reality, they were different.
The Chief Administrator took out one of the plaques he had kept.
He intended to take it to the blacksmith’s workshop within the Martial Alliance and have plaque number thirty-seven remade.
“By the way, I wonder what kind of guys will come in this time. I hope at least one of them is comparable to the Seven Colors（七彩）.”
After setting the table with a generous amount of food and lighting incense, Uncle sat cross-legged in front of the table.
I knelt before Uncle and bowed my head in respect.
After bowing twice like that and filling the wine cup with alcohol, Uncle seemed greatly satisfied and lifted the cup to empty it.
I emptied the wine cup into the empty bowl several times and refilled the cup with alcohol.
“Let’s eat together.”
“Yes.”
Without any hesitation, I sat facing Uncle and ate the food from the ancestral rite table.
They say you shouldn’t eat the food from the ancestral rite table in other houses, but Uncle and I didn’t mind at all.
“Uncle.”
“What?”
“Are you really the best under heaven?”
“Why? Don’t I look like it?”
I shook my head as I put the meat in my mouth.
In fact, Uncle, who was sitting across from me and eating, was called the best under heaven in the martial world.
Uncle had a good physique, like the reincarnation of Guan Yu, and his beard wasn’t that long, but it was very soft and full.
When Uncle emptied his wine cup and put it down, I took the cup, poured the remaining alcohol into the empty bowl, refilled the cup, and placed it on the table.
After receiving the refilled cup, Uncle looked down at it with a gaze that seemed lost in thought for a moment before speaking.
“The best under heaven…… wasn’t me, it was the third brother. That guy, he could have been called a Martial G*d（武神） instead of a Blade Emperor（刀帝）, and it wouldn’t have been an exaggeration.”
About twenty-one years ago, masters poured out from Mount Daecheon into the martial world.
It was unknown who the leader of the masters was, but those who poured out from Mount Daecheon called themselves members of the Divine Cult.
The martial arts of the cult members were so powerful that renowned martial arts schools and families were destroyed, and countless martial artists lost their lives.
When the martial world was in a precarious situation, four absolute masters appeared from somewhere and blocked the Divine Cult members.
With their unparalleled martial arts, they repelled the Divine Cult members and drove them back to Mount Daecheon.
Due to the war that lasted for three years, the four absolute masters were given nicknames.
Northern Heavenly Martial Emperor（北天武皇） Jo Yang-seung.
Western Heavenly Spear Master（西天槍主） Ak Mu-il.
Southern Heavenly Blade Emperor（南天刀帝） Dokgo Un.
Eastern Heavenly Sword King（東天劍王） Yeon Cheon-yu.
They, who were called the Four Martial Heavenly Kings（四武天）, eventually drove the cult members back to Mount Daecheon and fought a fierce battle there.
As a result of that battle, the three absolute masters, except for Eastern Heavenly Sword King Yeon Cheon-yu, lost their lives.
“I was the eldest, the second was Mu-il, the third was Un, and the youngest was Cheon-yu. The martial artists who didn’t know the circumstances praised me, the eldest, as the best under heaven with the nickname Martial Emperor, but in reality, it was the third, Un, who was the best under heaven.”
“How did the four of you meet?”
Uncle, who had been lost in regret, suddenly laughed heartily.
Ha ha ha……
“Un came to me first. We hit it off and traveled around the martial world, enjoying the beautiful scenery and discussing martial arts. Then we met Mu-il and the youngest, Cheon-yu. We were born in different places and raised differently, but we got along like brothers. The youngest excelled in swordsmanship, and the second excelled in spear techniques. I was good at archery and fist techniques, but the third, Un, was proficient in all martial arts. Especially, his martial art, which was either a sword technique or a blade technique, was unmatched in the world. The sword technique you learned is actually his martial art.”
I learned archery and fist techniques from Uncle.
I honed my archery and fist techniques to a level that satisfied Uncle, but not swordsmanship.
While teaching me swordsmanship, Uncle said that he didn’t know the entirety of it.
“Shall I tell you something surprising?”
“What is it?”
“The third brother isn’t dead like the rumors in the martial world say. He’s still alive.”
I couldn’t help but be surprised.
This was because the martial world believed that three of the Four Martial Heavenly Kings had died, and only Eastern Heavenly Sword King Yeon Cheon-yu had survived.
Moreover, Eastern Heavenly Sword King himself had declared to the martial world that he was the only survivor.
“Really?”
“Of course. How could the best under heaven d*e so easily?”
“Have you actually met him?”
Uncle’s face, which had been filled with a pleased expression, suddenly darkened.
“I’ve…… met him.”
And his tone became hesitant.
“Why? Did he not recognize you, Uncle?”
“No…… It’s not that. Even if others didn’t, he immediately sensed my presence.”
“But why?”
Uncle gave a wry smile and emptied his wine cup in one go.
“I almost died…… No, I almost got obliterated. He seemed to think I was a Miscellaneous Ghost.”
A tall, handsome middle-aged man who looked to be in his late forties or early fifties placed a wine cup in front of a pair of graves.
“Have you been well, brothers?”
He sat in front of the graves and emptied the wine cup.
Tears welled up in the man’s eyes as he emptied the cup, and a trembling voice escaped his lips.
“Why did you…… leave first? Why didn’t you take me with you?”
The grave on the left was where his eldest brother, Jo Yang-seung, was buried, and the one on the right was the grave of his second brother, Ak Mu-il.
‘Un, please take good care of our youngest brother.’
Until their last breath, his eldest and second brothers had worried about him, the youngest.
The man wiped away his tears and picked up the wine cup in front of the graves, scattering the alcohol over them.
Then he refilled the empty cup.
Ha ha ha……
Ha ha ha……
It felt as if his eldest and second brothers would jump out of their graves at any moment, looking down at him shedding tears and laughing heartily.
What was so funny?
When the four of them were together, laughter never ceased.
Sometimes they would raise their voices while discussing martial arts, but in the end, it always ended with them tilting their wine cups and humming songs.
Like affectionate lovers longing for each other, they would return home, only to gather again, travel the martial world, indulge in alcohol, and sing about the world.
Knowing that those nostalgic days would never return, a smile formed on his lips and tears welled up in his eyes just by recalling those times.
“You seem to be struggling a lot.”
While the man was immersed in old memories, a deep voice, somehow warm, emerged from the darkness.
“Brother!”
The startled man quickly stood up.
“Have you been well?”
The man who walked out of the darkness was also tall, broad-shouldered, and handsome.
If there was a difference from the man in front of the graves, it was that the man who appeared later had strong, well-defined features.
“Why…… Why did you come so late, brother?”
The man’s voice was tinged with a hint of resentment and sorrow.
But the man with strong features, unconcerned, took the wine cup placed in front of the graves and scattered the alcohol over them.
“Have you been well?”
After scattering the alcohol, he held out an empty cup.
Immediately, the cup was filled with alcohol and emptied in one gulp.
“Good. Take this.”
The man with strong features emptied the cup and held out the empty cup again.
Until then, the man across from him had been staring at the man with strong features without saying a word.
The man snatched the alcohol bottle, filled the cup, looked at him with gentle eyes for a moment, and then turned around.
“A, are you leaving already, brother?”
At the urgent voice trying to hold him back, the man with strong features turned around again.
“I’m glad you’re here. I’ll come see you again.”
Leaving those words behind, he disappeared into the darkness.
Even though the man he called brother had completely disappeared before his eyes, the remaining man didn’t move an inch, as if he had turned into a statue.
But tears streamed endlessly from his eyes.
Caw! Caw……!
Amidst the noisy cawing of a flock of crows, the village elders and I entered the village with a coffin loaded on a cart.
The small village, with about thirty houses scattered here and there, was filled with the shadows of martial artists.
Ptooey!
“The crow bastards are already swarming.”
One of the young martial artists watching the procession of carts spat on the ground.
I was used to hearing such insults every time I went out to work, so I just shrugged it off, but the village elders seemed a bit offended to be greeted with insults as soon as they were seen.
“That’s too much. We’re just trying to make a living.”
The young martial artist’s face crumpled as if he had heard the village elder grumbling.
“What did you just say?”
