The Genius Youngest Disciple of the Wudang Sect

Chapter 96

A week has already passed since we left the Wudang Sect.

First of all, I could immediately feel the growth of my senior brothers.

They came down the cliff, which they had trembled down before, as comfortably as if they were coming down stairs, and when it was mealtime, they each caught large and small animals on their own, and it didn't even take that long.

I took the opportunity to teach my senior brothers one more thing.

"Until now, when we caught an animal, we dug a hole and buried the bones and skin, right? But from now on, let's also process the skin and take it with us. It's all money."

Although we hadn't taken them separately until now, we began to process the skin as soon as we caught an animal and take it with us.

After cleanly removing the fat and flesh attached to the skin in running water and salting the inner side well, the simple processing is finished.

To do this, we stopped by a village and bought plenty of salt.

The biggest reason we had been throwing away the skins until now was not only because of the time, but also because we didn't have the money to buy a large amount of salt, but now we can easily buy salt.

At first, my senior brothers also had a hard time processing the skins, but now they do it skillfully.

"Now. It's all done. While it's drying by the fire, I'm thinking of doing some qi circulation, is that okay?"

"Of course. It's good to get rid of the turbid qi accumulated from meat and cooked food right away. I'll stand guard, so you all do qi circulation."

And so, we continued to move east, repeating the cycle of eating, processing, and training.

Our destination is Mount Longzhong.

It is the place where the Zhuge family, the number one family in Hubei, is located.

The Zhuge family is one of the five great families of the time.

The five great families is not an official title, but it refers to the five families that people evaluate as having the strongest power in the current martial world.

So the five great families change every time depending on the situation and the time, but the current five great families are the Nangong family of Anhui Province, the Zhuge family of Hubei Province, the Hebei Peng family of Hebei Province, the Sichuan Tang family of Sichuan Province, and the Murong family of Liaoning Province.

Some people also include families whose family power is not much different from the five families mentioned above and call them the eight great families or the nine great families, but the martial world generally recognizes the five great families.

'Usually, the guys from the martial world families are mostly unlucky.'

But the problem is that the guys from the martial world families are more unlucky and have stiffer necks than the guys from the Nine Factions and One Sect.

It's easier to think of the martial world families as a kind of local powerful family.

Those who have a base in a region and reign like kings of that region.

They think of themselves as nobles, and they also act that way.

So in my past life, most of the orthodox faction guys I hit were guys from the martial world families.

'At least the martial artists of the Nine Factions and One Sect had a tendency to value their face or honor as much as their lives.'

But, in the martial world families, there are many people who are arrogant and think that they are the highest people in the world, and there are quite a few personality-disordered people who have to have everything they want and have to get rid of anything they don't like by any means.

Of course, there are also families like the Nangong family, where the entire family values etiquette and is kind to others.

"Hwi-ya, I think we're almost there."

And then, we arrived at the entrance of Mount Longzhong.

At the entrance of the mountain, there are two large gates. And on both gates, the same plaque with the words [Zhuge Family] is hung.

'Zhuge family...'

In fact, the Zhuge family has a slightly special meaning to me.

It's not that it has any direct connection to me in my past life.

However, just looking at the Zhuge family reminds me of the war with the Demonic Cult.

When the Demonic Cult guys first invaded the Central Plains, their advance was sluggish.

Although their military power itself was strong, it was because it was the first time they had started a full-scale war in the Central Plains.

But, strangely, after they brought down the Zhuge family, their speed suddenly began to increase rapidly.

Thanks to that, the other sects and families were also unable to prepare properly and were destroyed as they were.

'There must be some secret in the Zhuge family.'

I thought so and looked at the side with the two gates.

The shabby and old gate on the left is guarded by a few people who look like martial artists of the Zhuge family, and the splendid gate on the right is not guarded by anyone.

"Why are there two gates? Where should we go?"

"The left gate is shabby and guarded by people, so maybe outsiders come and go through that gate, and the Zhuge family people go in and out through the right gate?"

My senior brothers naturally look at me.

It seems they think I will naturally know.

I let out a small laugh and then told my senior brothers, "It's the opposite. The left gate is the path that the Zhuge family people use. I don't know exactly how many hundreds of years ago it was, but it is said that the great-grandfather of the Zhuge family built that gate himself. The Zhuge family people go in and out through that gate, and when they leave the Zhuge family, they are filled with a humble heart, and when they return to the family, they leave behind the honor and power of the secular world and climb the mountain."

"Oh-ho... really? Then what about the right gate?"

"That's where the guests go in and out. If you think of yourself as a guest of the Zhuge family, you can open that gate and enter the family."

"Anyone? Then what... do they do a body search, or check your identity, or something like that?"

"No. They don't. The martial artists guarding that old gate are not standing there to stop people from coming in, but to check the people who are trying to go out from inside."

My senior brothers looked at the gate and the martial artists strangely.

Then Senior Brother Unmi asked, "Who knows if someone will invade the family, and they don't even check their identity?"

"Well. The Zhuge family people are confident. Even if someone invades, a person who comes in with a bad heart cannot leave the Zhuge family alive."

I raised one corner of my mouth and smiled, and then continued, "This is the Zhuge family, one of the five great families. The Zhuge family has outstanding martial arts, but it is also famous not only for its martial arts, but also for its formations and mechanisms."

"Ah...! You mean they've set up a lot of traps."

"Well. To put it simply, you could say that. Although it's a slightly different concept from a formation. Now, are all your questions answered? The martial artists over there are starting to look at us strangely. Let's go in quickly."

"Yes. Let's do that."

We slowly approached the gate.

The martial artists guarding the old gate looked us up and down to check who we were.

I gave them a slight nod and then immediately opened the splendid gate on the right.

"......!"

The martial artists looked a little surprised.

Because we, who looked like young Taoists, were trying to open the gate that guests go in and out of.

"Wait..."

One of the martial artists was about to call us, but the martial artist who seemed to be his superior stopped him.

He shook his head and said to him in a small voice.

Although it was a small voice, we could hear it clearly.

"Since they've already opened the gate, they'll have to bear the consequences."

"They might have opened that gate without knowing what it is. They look like Taoists from Wudang..."

"So we shouldn't step in even more. Are we going to trample on the face of the great Wudang?"

My senior brothers' eyes widened when they heard their conversation.

They probably have no idea what they are talking about.

But, I actually know what they are talking about.

Because the right gate has a hidden secret, and I know that secret.

'The path that goes up to the Zhuge family from this gate has numerous formations and mechanisms hidden in it.'

The formations range from lightly confusing the directions to making you meet a demon in your heart.

The mechanisms also have simple mechanisms that make you misstep, and if it's severe, there are also terrible things hidden that can cut a person in two.

If we had revealed our identity to the martial artists standing in front of the left gate and explained the reason we came, one of those martial artists would have guided us to the Zhuge family.

On a safe path without formations and mechanisms.

'But, then we can't be treated as guests at the Zhuge family, can we?'

But, if we enter the Zhuge family like that, we will be treated not as guests, but as mere visitors.

Even if the head of the Zhuge family came to see me in person.

If we are treated as visitors, we have to stay in the quarters that guests use and wait for his call until the family head calls us.

But what if we go through the right gate and become guests?

Then we can proactively make an appointment with the family head and ask him to meet us first.

"Hwi-ya. What on earth does that mean?"

"What do you mean, we have to bear the consequences?"

"There's something, right?"

My senior brothers asked me with anxious faces.

Thanks to spending a long time with me, my senior brothers have realized that I'm up to something again.

I went completely past the gate and pointed to the end of the path that stretched straight up the mountain and said, "The Zhuge family is at the very end over there."

"Yes. Although I can't see it, for some reason, I feel like it is."

"And the path in front of you looks simple, but it has a lot of formations and mechanisms hidden in it."

"What...?!"

"You have to break through that to be recognized as a guest."

"As you said before, isn't the Zhuge family a master of formations and mechanisms? Can we break through it? Let's go back now..."

I shook my head with a firm expression and said, "No. We can do it. With our skills, we can definitely do it. Think about how much progress you senior brothers have made in the past few months. What kind of training you have gone through."

My senior brothers suddenly started to break out in a cold sweat.

Perhaps because they remembered the hard and painful training process.

"Yes. Let's do it. If Hwi says we can do it, then we can do it."

"No way we'll die, right?"

"Yes. No matter what, it's a formation set up by the Zhuge family, which is one of the orthodox factions, so it probably won't be that dangerous."

My senior brothers said, clenching their fists, and I let out a small laugh and then looked at them and said, "Yes. So there are two ways to break through that. One is to just jump over it with footwork."

"With footwork? Is that possible, since we can't do the void-stepping technique?"

"Of course. But this requires a definite understanding of the formation. You have to step only on the life gates where the formation won't be activated, but you senior brothers... don't know much about formations."

"That's right. We haven't learned it properly yet."

"Then we have to use the second method. We just have to go up from the bottom, disarming the formations and mechanisms one by one."

"Disarm? How? Do you happen to know a lot about formations too? When did you learn it?"

At Senior Brother Unsik's question, which was more like an exclamation, I shook my head.

"No. I don't know much about formations either. Of course, since I understand them, I think I can solve them somehow if I'm asked to..."

"Then how do you disarm them?"

"We just have to activate them with our bodies and then break the formation."

"What...?"

"As for the mechanisms, we just have to activate them... and then we can just block the flying arrows or swords with our swords, and if the ground collapses, we can just climb up with our lightness skill."

"That sound you're making..."

"That's right. It means let's break through with force."

My senior brothers are all looking at me with dumbfounded eyes.

Although they don't have much experience in the martial world, they must have never heard of breaking through formations and mechanisms in such a foolish way.

"If we go up so noisily and slowly... won't someone come out to meet us?"

"Meet us?"

"Because it would be better to take us directly than to have all the formations and mechanisms they've worked so hard to install destroyed."

I smiled brightly and looked at the path leading up to the Zhuge family.

Although it was a path that seemed perilous just before, after changing my mind, I began to look forward to what kind of formations and mechanisms were hidden there.

(End of Chapter)