“So you really are going to become Lord of Heavenly Martial Castle in the end.”
Jeok Wiun said it with an expression that clearly said he had known this would happen. Jeok Wigang grinned.
“Not yet.”
“You might as well be. Anyone who refuses to acknowledge you will probably get blown away by Grandfather himself.”
“Why make Grandfather go through all that trouble? I’ll blow them away myself.”
Jeok Wiun snorted and nodded.
“That would be more reliable.”
“It was Father’s dream.”
“What was?”
“Becoming Lord of Heavenly Martial Castle.”
“Seriously? I thought Father had no interest in that kind of thing at all.”
“He said he knew from a young age that he didn’t have the talent for it, so he gave up. He asked me to fulfill his dream in his place.”
“Then you’ll definitely make it happen. I knew someone like you was never going to stop at just the True Martial Sect.”
“Anyway, now that things have turned out this way, you need to take good care of Mother and Father and protect the True Martial Sect.”
“Yeah! Don’t worry.”
“Have you gotten close to the promising young disciples?”
“Yeah!”
“Can you beat all of them?”
“Well, that’s...”
“What was that? Why did you suddenly lose all confidence?”
Jeok Wigang’s eyes narrowed, and Jeok Wiun hurriedly explained.
“N-No. It’s just that I haven’t actually fought them properly yet, so I can’t say for certain.”
“That’s all?”
“O-Of course. If we fought, I’d beat every last one of them.”
“Oh? Then should we check before I leave?”
“No, I mean, you’re busy. Do we really need to go that far?”
“I’m fine. I’ve got plenty of time.”
“Come on, you’ll have to compete against the other succession candidates once you get there.”
“What’s difficult about that? I’ll just blow them all away. Then they’ll lower their heads on their own.”
“R-Right. But if you’re that forceful, won’t people refuse to follow you?”
“Anyone who doesn’t like it can leave. But once they step out from under my protection, do you think wherever they go will really be safe?”
Jeok Wiun envied that confidence.
He wanted to become like that too.
“Work hard. Then you’ll become like me.”
“As if that’s possible. I’m not a monster like you.”
“What did you just call me? A monster? You’ve gotten awfully bold with your older brother, haven’t you? Fine! Let’s see just how much my little brother has grown today.”
“W-What do you mean, see?”
“Your skills.”
“Hahaha... You’re busy, remember?”
“I told you, I’m not busy. Come on.”
“W-Where?”
“The training ground.”
“There are tons of people there right now.”
“So what? Let’s go.”
“B-Brother! W-Wait!”
And so Jeok Wiun was dragged away.
The members of the Five Great Families watched the fight between Jeok Wigang and Jeok Wiun.
The sight of Jeok Wigang attacking his own younger brother without the slightest mercy came as a tremendous shock.
It looked brutal enough to make them wonder whether Jeok Wiun might actually die.
Then light flared from Jeok Wiun’s body, and he got back to his feet as though nothing had happened.
Everyone stared in confusion.
Had it only looked that vicious?
While they were still wondering, Jeok Wigang turned toward the heads of the Five Great Families.
“Have you all been training hard?”
“Thanks to you, the training has been going well. We are truly grateful.”
“I’d like to give you all a gift before I leave, but to do that, I need to examine the martial arts of everyone here.”
“Our martial arts?”
“Yes. How your qi flows, what properties it has, and how your bodies move when you execute your martial arts.”
“Do we simply demonstrate our martial arts in front of you?”
“That would take too long. Let’s do everyone at once.”
“You want all of us to demonstrate our martial arts at the same time?”
“No. Just spar with me.”
Every one of them swallowed hard.
Hadn’t they just watched him beat his own younger brother without mercy?
“Is that truly necessary?”
“Yes. Otherwise I won’t be able to examine everything properly.”
“May we ask... why?”
“Because the gifts I’m giving you are weapons.”
“Weapons... The ones we already possess are more than sufficient.”
“The saber I carry was forged by a master smith. There is no need to trouble yourself with another gift.”
When every family head assured him it was unnecessary, Jeok Wigang grinned.
“Really? Then let’s call it a test.”
“A test?”
“To see which is better—the weapons I was going to give you, or the ones you already own.”
The heads of the Five Great Families finally realized that no matter what they said, there was no escaping this.
“Very well. We will give it everything we have.”
“That’s exactly what I want. But you remember the condition, right? You have to attack me with the weapons over there.”
“Understood.”
The five family heads picked up the weapons Jeok Wigang had indicated.
The moment they did, strange expressions appeared on their faces.
“Huh?”
It was a comfort unlike anything they had ever felt.
The weapons fit so naturally that they almost seemed to have belonged to them from the beginning.
They were just beginning to explore the sensation when Jeok Wigang spoke.
“We’re a little short on time, so shall we begin?”
“Hmm...”
None of them felt comfortable attacking first.
“I’ll go first, then. Be careful.”
The moment the words left his mouth, Jeok Wigang shot forward.
And in that instant—
“Urgh!”
KWA-KWA-KWAAANG—
A sudden sense of mortal danger struck them, and all five family heads threw themselves aside.
WHOOOOM—
The blast of displaced air swept across their startled faces.
“Focus! He’s coming again!”
The shout snapped them back to their senses.
They hurriedly poured inner power into their weapons and prepared to respond.
“Whoa!”
The weapons were simply too good.
They felt even more like extensions of their own bodies than the weapons they had carried for a lifetime.
But this was no time to stand around marveling at them.
CLANG!
A crushing fist strike came at them, and the family heads hurriedly raised their weapons to block.
“Urgh!”
Even though they had stopped the blow, the force punched through their guard and drew groans from them.
“Use your full strength.”
Their pride stung.
Fine.
They would show him.
HUMMMMM—
The weapons in their hands resonated.
Reveling in how naturally the weapons responded, the five family heads began unleashing everything they had at Jeok Wigang.
CLANG!
Their attacks collided with Jeok Wigang’s fists. Shock waves erupted, and the ground trembled beneath them.
Only then did Jeok Wigang smile, as though things had finally become interesting.
The family heads looked utterly fed up.
They were attacking with everything they had, yet he was blocking them as though it were nothing.
He truly was an absurd monster.
They had each worked to make their own family the strongest in the Central Plains once the Heavenly Martial Emperor was gone.
Now all those ambitions seemed meaningless.
Heavenly Martial Castle would remain the supreme power ruling over the Central Plains for the foreseeable future.
But what shocked the family heads even more were the weapons in their hands.
They looked freshly forged and rather unimpressive.
Yet the moment they actually used them, it felt as though they had finally found the other half they had been searching for their entire lives.
They could no longer even imagine executing their martial arts without these weapons.
Had he really meant to give them these?
No.
He had clearly said he would adjust the weapons to suit their martial arts.
Which meant these weapons were not even complete yet.
They could become even more perfect than this?
Jeok Wigang saw their expressions and smiled as though he had expected exactly that reaction.
“Now, I need your full strength. You have to go all out so I can adjust the weapons to match you properly.”
“They can become even more perfect than this?”
“Curious? Then come at me with everything you have.”
The five family heads exchanged looks.
A moment later, determination hardened their expressions, and they drew upon every last bit of inner power they possessed.
“From this moment on, I’ll attack you as though you were my most hated enemy.”
“That’s exactly what I want. Come.”
“Good work.”
Jeok Wigang greeted them with a bright smile, not showing even the slightest trace of exhaustion.
The heads of the Five Great Families sat sprawled across the ground, staring at him in disbelief.
They had never stood a chance.
They had fought with everything they had.
Jeok Wigang had not.
Worse, he had even corrected their form during the fight, which had wounded their pride at the time.
Jeok Wigang had only seen their martial arts for the first time today, yet he understood them better than people who had spent their entire lives practicing them.
No matter how they thought about it, they simply could not understand how that was possible.
Even for a genius, this was ridiculous.
His very existence felt like cheating.
“Make sure you correct the postures I pointed out earlier. Fixing those alone will improve your martial arts by leaps and bounds.”
If anyone else had said such a thing, they would have torn that person apart for daring to speak as though they understood their family’s martial arts.
But these words came from Jeok Wigang.
Everyone accepted them.
If anything, they felt excited.
Just how much stronger could they become?
They wanted to jump up immediately and start correcting everything Jeok Wigang had pointed out, but their bodies refused to move.
Jeok Wigang held something out to the exhausted family heads.
“Take these and recover your strength. I’m going to refine your weapons.”
They were medicinal pills.
“There’s no chance these are ordinary either, is there?”
At someone’s mutter, everyone nodded and tossed the pills into their mouths.
A moment later, they all looked in the direction Jeok Wigang had disappeared with expressions that said exactly what they were thinking.
“I knew there was no way they would be ordinary... He just gave us something even better than our families’ secret spirit pills...”
“I’m afraid to ask whether he poured his heart and soul into making these too.”
Everyone nodded.
“Our enemy was White Horse Heaven, correct?”
“White Horse Heaven, Heavenly Demon Heaven—whatever. Let them come. We have Young Master Jeok.”
“Young Master? He’s about to become the Martial Supreme.”
“Is that so? Then I suppose we should call him Master Jeok.”
“He certainly deserves the title.”
Without realizing it, respect for Jeok Wigang had already taken root in their hearts, and even the way they spoke about him had become deferential.
“Those weapons were astonishing too.”
“Indeed. I can’t even imagine how extraordinary they’ll be once they’ve been fully adjusted to match our qi.”
Everyone fell into their own thoughts, faces filled with anticipation.
Then Zhuge Ho, the youngest of the five family heads, spoke.
“Come now. Our strength has recovered, so shall we go correct the flaws the Martial Supreme pointed out?”
They were already calling Jeok Wigang the Martial Supreme as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Right. He went to such lengths for our sake. We cannot simply sit around doing nothing.”
“Exactly. Come. Let us train twice—no, three times—as hard as before.”
Laughing, they headed toward the private training grounds the True Martial Sect had prepared for them.
The next day.
Jeok Wigang laid several weapons out before the heads of the Five Great Families.
“They’re already finished?”
“Yes. Try them.”
“Hahaha. Since the Supreme himself made them, I’m sure they will be flawless.”
They had spent the entire night talking about Jeok Wigang.
Somewhere along the way, the word Supreme had become so natural on their tongues that they had begun using it without even thinking.
“Supreme? Me?”
When Jeok Wigang pointed at himself in confusion, the family heads stiffened.
It was a title they had only been using among themselves, but it had slipped out far too naturally.
“Ah! W-Well...”
While the others floundered, Zhuge Ho stepped forward to smooth things over.
“We gathered last night and spoke at length. It was a title we settled on among ourselves, and after using it all night, I suppose it simply became a habit. Now that you have heard it anyway, we will call you Supreme from now on.”
“That title is far too grand.”
“Not at all. You are already moving to save the martial world from the shadow cast by White Horse Heaven. We must unite behind you and lend our strength with one heart and one purpose. For that, we need a proper title and a clearly defined relationship. Our Five Great Families will recognize Master Jeok as our Martial Supreme and serve under you. Whatever you require of us, do not ask. Command us.”
“Head of the Zhuge Family is correct. We already settled this among ourselves. All the Supreme needs to do is accept.”
“Please accept us, Supreme!”
Jeok Wigang had been taken aback by the sincerity of the five family heads.
Finally, he shook his head and answered with a helpless smile.
“It seems you’ve already made up your minds. Then I look forward to working with you.”
“Working with us? You need only give the order. Whatever it may be, we will obey, Supreme.”

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