SWNOVELS Chapter 79
Chapter 79: Chapter Seventy-Five: Secrets
Translator: 549690339 |
“Hmph, do you think I’m just boasting? Today is the day to present our achievements, yet you come empty- handed, even if you
brought the improved martial skills, it’s still not enough.” Tang Guangyu pointed at Tang Luo’s chest and continued, “Maybe you
are indeed a remarkable talent, but to improve martial skills, spiritual light alone won’t suffice, you’d better start off studying Xu
Sheng’s two works.”
“That is to say, your weakness has limited your imagination,” Tang Luo stood up, stretching lazily.
“Have you ever thought that I came empty-handed because I had too many secret manuals to carry?” Tang Luo wore a smirk as
he looked at Tang Guangyu.
“Absurd!” Tang Guangyu scoffed and sat back, no longer interested in conversing with Tang Luo.
However, just because he didn’t want to chat anymore didn’t mean Tang Luo would stop.
‘ By the way, you’re a talent too, so why would you cause trouble for me on behalf of that fat man?” He took a couple of steps
forward to the table where Tang Guangyu was sitting, bracing his chin in query.
He had been baffled by this on his last trip and had specifically asked Uncle Fu to investigate.
Tang Guangyu was a branch family head of the second Tang Clan house, while the fat man named Tang Xiuyong was a master
from a branch of the first house. Not only was there a world of difference in their spiritual powers, but there was also a ten-year
gap in their ages. They should have nothing to do with each other.
This made Tang Luo very curious about his motive for seeking trouble with him.
Tang Guangyu frowned and replied impatiently, “Do you think Tang Xiuyong is hopeless, and it’s not worth it for me to make
things difficult for the son of the first head of the Martial Hall?”
“No, no, no,” Tang Luo waved his hand, feeling that the other party’s words were simply not accurate, “What do you mean by
hopeless?”
“I usually call this kind of thirty-something who only knows how to bully women in the Mortal Realm a waste,” Tang Luo shrugged
his shoulders, indicating that it was more appropriate to put it this way.
“Smack!” Tang Guangyu slapped the table in front of him, stood up, rage making it hard for him to control his breathing.
Heaving madly, his spiritual power erupted spontaneously, lifting his neatly combed hair at the back of his head, and he glared
furiously at Tang Luo, who was still propping his chin.
They stared at each other for a long time.
The rage in Tang Guangyu’s eyes gradually dissipated, replaced by a sense of desolation. His aura gradually calmed down and
he sat back down.
“Xiuyong is not a waste, he’s a youthful genius.”
“Hiss.” Tang Luo exaggeratedly sucked in a breath of cold air: “I have to say, I’m impressed you could utter that.”
“Did you know that he reached the peak of the Mortal Realm at the age of eleven?” Tang Guangyu ignored Tang Luo’s sarcasm,
his eyes were unfocused as he recalled a vivacious young man from twenty years ago.
“Oh?” Tang Luo raised an eyebrow, indicating that he didn’t particularly care.
“Tang Xiuyong, was once a renowned youthful genius in our Tang Clan. If he hadn’t lost his heart of martial arts, he would be the
backbone of our clan today.”
“There are no ’ifs’ in this world,” Tang Luo replied coldly.
If I could redo it, I would do this or that, if I had persisted back then, I could do this or that, these were the most useless words in
the world.
Tang Guangyu shook his head and began to recount a secret grief from twenty years ago. y
There was once a strong martial artist in the Martial Hall, named Tang Yushan, who was an extremely formidable peak Mortal
Realm powerhouse.
His unique “Wind Dispersion” technique marked him as a representative figure among the Mortal Realm in the Martial Hall at that
time.
During a simple task assigned by the sect, Tang Yushan took more than a dozen younger disciples to settle in the villages
around Xiling.
The mission aimed for the students to try managing the villages to gain experience after making some achievements in their
studies in the sect The Tang Clan controlled most of these villages, with many martial artists of the clan residing there. It was
enough to just send the students there.
At that time, Tang Yushan received such a simple task. He arranged for more than a dozen clan students in the mountains one
hundred miles north of Xiling.
Unfortunately, he bumped into bandits marauding the border of Xiling during this simple task.
The most despairing fact was that the trio leading the bandit gang were all at the pinnacle of the Mortal Realm.
If Tang Yushan were alone, such a crowd would be unable to detain him, even while riding fierce beasts.
Unfortunately, Tang Yushan was accompanied by more than a dozen students from his sect, the most powerful of whom was
merely Tang Guangyu, who was just about at the early stage of the Mortal Realm and didn’t possess any martial arts skills.
Tang Yushan could only lead these young men in a fighting retreat, eventually taking refuge within a valley.
The valley was a dead-end, they could enter but not exit. Or to be precise, only Tang Yushan had the capability to scale the
sheer cliffs, while everyone else was doomed.
At the time, Tang Yushan, being the patriarch of the Tang Clan, could have abandoned the students and escaped by himself.
After all, the highest-ranking among these students only bore the status of illegitimate offspring of the sub branch.
Thus, the students were filled with despair, believing that the moment they entered the valley, Tang Yushan would abandon them
and escape alone.
“Why the long faces? As long as I’m here, none of you will die,” Tang Yushan said, pulling Tang Guangyu over.
“I will teach you a skill called Wall Gecko, sneak out of the mountain and go to Xiling for help. I will stay here and protect the
others.”
At the time, Tang Guangyu was just a young man with cultivation but no martial arts skills, staggered by the sudden burden
thrust upon him.
However, he looked at his clan mates who were all, at best, at the pinnacle of the Mortal Realm and understood this was Tang
Yushan’s act of desperation.
The teaching of the Wall Gecko technique didn’t go smoothly, as the bandits kept a vigilant eye on this small group.
As if they had figured out that the students were Tang Yushan’s weakness, the bandits attacked sporadically, with the three
leaders keeping Tang Yushan engaged while the others continuously harassed the students, distracting Tang Yushan.
Under such tactics, the frequency of Tang Yushan’s hits started to increase, as he had to deal with the three strongest opponents
while watching over the vulnerable young ones.
Another chase ensued, with almost everyone injured. At last, they found a natural cave for defence, allowing everyone to catch
their breaths.
Tang Guangyu had never before despised his own incompetence this much – the Wall Gecko technique, a skill of Mortal Realm,
took him two full days to barely manage it.
“It will do. I will charge and draw their attention. When you see an opportunity slip away from the back of the cliff wall,” said an
excited Tang Yushan on a dark, cloud-covered midnight.
Despite the lack of rest over two continuous days, Tang Yushan was still valiant. His iron palm inflicted injuries upon touch, but
faced with the overwhelming opponent numbers, his charge was doomed to end in vain.
Luckily, Tang Guangyu successfully escaped from the valley and rushed towards Xiling.
After a day and a night, when he returned to the valley with a large force from
the Martial Hall, the bandits had already left.
The mountain collapsed and buried the cave entrance, which left the arrivals stunned and flustered.
They could only cooperate to dig open the entrance, wondering if they would only find the corpses of the sect’s students.
As they dug deeper, however, they heard the sound of breathing from within the cave. None of the students had died – Tang
Yushan had, against all odds, saved every one of them.
Afterwards, they found Tang Yushan’s severed head among the collapsed rocks.
It turned out, on the night he sent Tang Guangyu away, Tang Yushan was already near the end. Yet, he had still protected these
students and held off up to twenty waves of attacks.
In the final wave, Tang Yushan told them, “I can’t hold on any longer. You should all retreat into the cave. Guangyu will be back
soon. I will destroy the mountain to cover the entrance, which should buy you some time.”
Despite the deathly odds, the patriarch of the Clan never thought of escaping on his own.
Tang Yushan’s last battle involved enduring the bandits’ attacks while steadily destroying the mountain, burying most of the cave.
The bandits who were delayed for so long in the end, only managed to obtain a set of Tang Yushan’s full body spirit armor.
They dismembered Tang Yushan and piled up rocks into a small mound, placing his severed head on top..