novelraw Chapter 177 : The Yoke of Fate
Chapter 177 : The Yoke of Fate
Chapter 177: The Yoke of Fate
Late afternoon. A single lantern swayed faintly inside the one-room cabin of the Purple Mist Gate.
In the quiet mountains where few people ever came, master and disciple were finally able to spend time together again after so long.
For a while, this room had felt lonely and empty. Now that Cho Harang’s warmth filled it, Songryeong found herself immersed in a strange sense of emotion.
A proud disciple who had once left the sect as a first-rate martial artist and had now returned as a transcendent master.
Just as she was about to look at her with warm satisfaction—
“Master.”
The disciple spoke first.
At the sudden call, Songryeong snapped out of her reverie and quietly looked at Cho Harang.
“What is it, Wildcat of Mount Song?”
The corners of Songryeong’s lips lifted slightly. A trace of mischief sparkled in her eyes.
“Ugh… Master. Please stop calling me that.”
Cho Harang grimaced and waved both hands.
Since she usually roamed the mountains like it was her own home and often compared herself to the strongest beast—a tiger—the word wildcat seemed to scratch at her pride in particular.
Finding the sight incredibly cute, Songryeong covered her mouth with her hand and let out a small laugh.
“Then tell me how you ended up being called that.”
Her eyes curved like a crescent moon, and her voice was filled with amusement.
This was clearly teasing. Seeing the look in her master’s eyes, Cho Harang clenched her teeth.
“I failed to keep a promise once, and somehow it ended up like that… Anyway, Master, what did you think? After meeting Mujin yourself?”
Her attempt to change the subject was awkward since she was never good with words, but Songryeong decided to let it pass.
“He was an upright and spirited man. And there was a pure righteous energy flowing from his eyes, so it felt as though he had practiced some Daoist martial arts.”
“…Right? I’ve traveled the jianghu quite a bit, but I’ve never seen anyone who has accumulated that much good karma. He’s really an incredible guy, I’m telling you.”
The more they talked, the brighter Cho Harang’s eyes became. It was the expression of a child who wanted others to acknowledge something she liked.
Watching her like this with fond eyes, Songryeong quietly listened.
At that moment, it was obvious how much the disciple trusted and liked that man called Dan Mujin.
That girl who used to run around the mountain valleys every day with a massive broadsword at her waist had now grown up and even brought a man like that home.
Songryeong suddenly felt how quickly time had passed.
“So one day we even fought a jiangshi. Back then Mujin just cut it down in one strike… Master, are you listening?”
From what she heard, that man named Dan Mujin seemed to be just as much of a troublemaker as her disciple.
After the Blood Cult, now even fighting jiangshi. It seemed that extraordinary events followed him wherever he went.
But since all those events ultimately turned toward good outcomes… perhaps he really was a person suited to the Purple Star, whose destiny was to punish evil and pursue righteousness.
“Of course I’m listening. Since all his actions ultimately lead to good deeds, he seems perfect as your husband.”
As soon as Songryeong said that with a sly grin, Cho Harang’s face instantly turned bright red.
“…M-Master! What are you suddenly saying?!”
Seeing her reaction—jumping like a freshly caught fish—Songryeong looked extremely pleased.
Resting her chin on her hand, she wore an even more mischievous expression.
“A-A husband candidate? I didn’t bring him here for that! I just came because Master called me…”
Was it that she still couldn’t honestly accept her own feelings?
She had once fallen into inner demons because of that man, and thanks to that same man she overcame those inner demons and achieved a breakthrough in her martial realm.
Yet because she had spent her life doing nothing but eating and swinging a sword, she was astonishingly dull when it came to her own emotions.
Allowing her to leave the mountain had been partly meant to refine that aspect of her—but apparently that part hadn’t changed much.
“When you returned after a long time, when you went back down again, and even now that you’ve returned—you only talk about that man. And yet you say you have no feelings for him as the opposite sex?”
Faced with her master’s gentle questioning, Cho Harang opened her mouth with a flustered expression.
“We’re more like inseparable friends… We’ve gone through life-and-death situations together several times… Though sometimes he’s really annoying, and he’s a huge cheapskate, and he’s always teasing me…”
She awkwardly twisted her hair around her finger while explaining.
A cheapskate and occasionally annoying. To Songryeong, that sounded more like a young man who had earned great wealth but still lived with discipline instead of indulgence.
And as for teasing—he probably just found Harang’s reactions amusing.
“Ah, but he is trustworthy. You know, he kept my identity as the Purple Star secret until the end. And also… Ah.”
Mid-ramble, Cho Harang suddenly realized she had said something she shouldn’t and snapped her head up.
And what she saw was not her gentle master—but a woman wearing the expression of a furious demon.
“What did you just say…? Someone discovered that you are the Purple Star?”
Songryeong’s voice dropped low.
“W-Well, you see… It just happened somehow…”
Cho Harang’s eyes darted around as she tried to come up with an excuse.
But instinctively she realized.
There was no escape.
“You foolish girl!”
“Eek!”
Crash!
With the sound of the door shattering, Cho Harang shot out of the room like a startled swallow.
Watching that, Songryeong rolled up her sleeves and began circulating her qi.
Thus began a midnight chase.
“Ah! Master, wait! Ouch! That hurts!”
“How many times did I tell you! Never! Let anyone! Know!”
There were people born into this world carrying the destiny of lofty stars.
And in the Central Plains, there were also vicious forces lurking in the shadows who hunted those stars.
That was why she had warned her again and again.
“You disaster-causing idiot of a disciple!”
“Ow! Ah! Ouch!”
The sounds of blows striking someone’s back mixed with tearful cries of “Ah! Ah!”
The commotion created by the master and disciple of Mount Song echoed loudly throughout the mountains.
Meanwhile, in the guest room Songryeong had prepared for him, Dan Mujin lay in bed listening to the chaos and let out a quiet chuckle under his blanket.
“So she finally got caught.”
She had seemed so gentle during the day. Now she was beating her disciple like she was pounding grain.
It seemed that master-disciple relationships connected to ominous stars were the same everywhere.
Listening to Cho Harang’s wailing screams, Dan Mujin felt a strange sense of kinship.
“You grow up by getting beaten, Harang.”
Pulling the blanket up to his chin, he muttered to himself.
Still, there was no killing intent in the blows, and no sharp blades flying around.
Compared to some things—
this was practically merciful.
Thinking that, he closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep.
Morning in the mountains was always lively.
Dew sparkled at the tips of leaves, and the cries of mountain birds filled the air.
As dawn broke, Cho Harang’s face came into view.
Her face looked like it had been beaten into a swollen pumpkin.
“Pfft.”
Her eyelids were puffed up like she had poked a beehive, and her lips stuck out like a duck’s beak.
Before I knew it, I covered my mouth and burst out laughing.
“What are you laughing at, damn it…”
Cho Harang glared at me fiercely, but the sight of her trying to growl with that swollen face only made it more ridiculous.
“Pff—!”
Suddenly I remembered when I had once returned after being thoroughly beaten by Hwang Geolgae.
Back then, the office members had also snickered at me like this.
Maybe it had felt something like this.
“This is hilarious. What a spectacle.”
Who in the world could reduce a transcendent master to a state like that?
Resting my chin in my hand, I muttered as if admiring a work of art.
Cho Harang sighed deeply and lowered her head.
“Are you okay?”
“Of course not… My whole body aches.”
Her voice sounded like soaked cotton.
“That’s why you should’ve kept your mouth shut.”
“B-But…”
Apparently her master had shaken her up with strange questions.
So much that she started rambling.
“What nonsense.”
Was it some kind of leading question?
But from my perspective, it seemed more likely she had just talked too much and blurted it out.
That’s how I had learned she was the Purple Star too.
Just then—
“Oh? Young Master Dan Mujin, you’re awake as well.”
A gentle yet slightly unsettling voice came from behind me.
Songryeong approached slowly with smiling eyes.
The same person who had produced those screams from Harang last night.
Her eyes were smiling, but strangely the corners of her lips didn’t move at all.
“I heard you know Harang’s secret.”
There was a strange power in her voice. My body stiffened involuntarily.
“Haha, it just happened… She suddenly blurted it out first.”
Worried that last night’s beating might come my way too, I quickly sold Cho Harang out.
“Hey! You bastard!”
Cho Harang glared at me with swollen eyes.
I almost burst out laughing again but barely held it back under Songryeong’s gaze.
“Well, did I say anything wrong?”
“T-That’s not wrong but…”
Didn’t I almost spit out my drink in shock back then too?
As Cho Harang fidgeted, Songryeong stepped closer to me.
“I’ve heard that Young Master Dan has a very tight tongue. So you will continue to keep Harang’s secret from now on, correct?”
Her voice was soft, but an unmistakable pressure hid inside it.
I swallowed and quickly answered.
“Of course, Heroine Songryeong. I’ve never even hinted at it. I’m not like her.”
I casually pointed at the fuming Cho Harang.
Someone carrying such a dangerous star yet having such a loose tongue—no wonder her master worried so much.
“Hoho, hearing that puts my mind at ease, Young Master.”
Finally the corners of Songryeong’s lips rose to match her smiling eyes.
The strange atmosphere finally lifted.
“That was… a little scary…”
In front of me, the Killing Star trembled slightly.
She hadn’t said a single threatening word, yet she knew how to dominate people purely through presence and aura.
As expected of the master of the Purple Star, who had cut down evil men like bundles of straw.
“Phew.”
I wiped a drop of cold sweat from my forehead.
Songryeong stared at me for a moment, then suddenly clapped her hands.
“Ah, I just thought of an even better idea.”
“…Yes? What idea?”
I scratched my cheek.
Something about this felt ominous.
“I don’t doubt you, Young Master Dan, but I thought of a more certain way to keep the secret safe.”
A way to gather spilled water, so to speak.
Surely she wasn’t about to suggest silencing me permanently.
“…What is it?”
“You and Harang will board the same boat.”
I tilted my head at the solution offered by the Purple Star’s master.
We were already working in the same office though.
“…What exactly do you mean?”
“What do you think of our Harang?”
What did I think of Cho Harang?
A bold martial artist who swung a massive broadsword like a windmill, roaring fiercely as she charged into enemy lines—and who, perhaps because of the ominous star she carried, ate meals like a tiger devouring prey.
That was about what came to mind.
“As you can see, she has rather tomboyish qualities. She’s quite different from the quiet and gentle women men of the Central Plains usually prefer.”
She said this while patting Cho Harang’s back.
There really was a bit of a wild beast vibe to her.
“Do you think the same, Young Master?”
“No. I like that she’s lively. I find that appealing.”
People of this era preferred demure women, but even when I watched television back home, I always liked energetic celebrities.
Though admittedly Harang might be a bit too energetic.
“Oh ho…”
Songryeong’s eyes narrowed as if she had heard something interesting.
Then she dragged the dazed Cho Harang over and presented her in front of me.
“I see. Then please take good care of our Harang.”
“…Excuse me?”
Why did the conclusion jump there?
I shot Cho Harang a confused look.
She was staring into the distance with a red neck.
“…When Master gets like this, no one can stop her. You deal with it.”
Apparently even she couldn’t do anything in situations like this.
So now I had to clean up the mess she caused?
“Young Master Dan, since you know the secret, you must take responsibility.”
“Isn’t the assignment of responsibility somewhat mistaken?”
I thought she called me here because she suspected something, but it was starting to feel like some kind of marriage interview.
“You’re insane… Reject it immediately…”
The Killing Star screamed internally at the idea of being tied to a mortal enemy.
“Or do you perhaps already have someone you like?”
“…Hmm.”
What answer would let me escape this situation wisely?
I thought of one suitable person.
“You’re thinking of Juwol again, aren’t you…?”
“Harang, who is that?”
Songryeong, who seemed to have lived secluded in the mountains for some reason, asked her disciple.
“She’s a courtesan from Heavenly Flower Pavilion. She’s flashy on the outside and men go crazy over her. Like that guy.”
“Ahem. I never went crazy over her.”
But there was something strangely captivating about her speech and gestures.
Sometimes her face just popped into my mind like this.
“Young Master Dan, then are you currently in a relationship?”
“No. I’ve only been working like an ox all my life.”
The moment I stopped cultivating the Starlight Heart Method, it felt like living with a bomb in my head that could explode anytime.
Who knew when I might lose control and slash someone like I almost did with Moyong Cheonghye?
Talking about relationships or lovers felt irresponsible.
“Hmm… I see. Even rice needs time to cook into a meal. Waiting slowly might also be a method.”
Muttering something about both of us being dense in this area, Songryeong seemed to graciously step back.
What rice and what meal?
In a completely different way from Hwang Geolgae, she seemed like a troublesome person.
“Ugh.”
After the commotion ended, quiet noon air settled over the clearing on Mount Song.
Whoooom—!
Breaking that silence was Cho Harang’s domineering blade technique.
Each time the massive broadsword in her hand sliced through the air, a brilliant blade flux flashed and tore through the wind.
Whooosh—!
A violent gust followed the path of her blade, sending leaves spiraling skyward.
It felt as though the entire mountain held its breath beneath her momentum.
Cho Harang had returned to the Purple Mist Gate and was now showing her master the skills and achievements she had honed.
Songryeong watched her with proud eyes.
“What do you think, Young Master Dan? She’s incredible, isn’t she?”
Standing with arms crossed and a gentle smile, she looked exactly like a parent wanting to boast about their child’s accomplishments.
If only Hwang Geolgae showed warmth like this sometimes instead of just beating people.
“Yes. Every time I see it, I think it’s an extremely practical and threatening blade art.”
Not flashy—heavy.
A blade art that would overwhelm an opponent the moment a real fight began.
When I praised the martial arts of the Purple Mist Gate, Songryeong smiled faintly and spoke.
“The name of the blade art is Annihilating Slaughter Blade Soul.”
A somewhat brutal name, but perfectly suited to such a domineering blade art.
I commented that it was a great name and praised the insight of whoever created it.
“For your information, it was created to execute the Heavenly Killing Star.”
“….”
‘….’
Suddenly this place became extremely uncomfortable.