novelraw Chapter 161 : Declaration (RAW)
Chapter 161 : Declaration (RAW)
Chapter 161: Declaration
Sichuan Province, Chengdu.
It was not even a festival day, yet today countless people had gathered in the marketplace.
But for some reason, every one of their faces carried the same look of worry and concern.
Still, there was nothing they could do.
It was because shocking news, something no one had ever expected, had been delivered.
“Hey, what on earth is going on?”
“I heard the Qingcheng Sect attacked the Sichuan Tang Clan?”
“No, why would they attack a fellow member of the Murim Alliance??”
It had become known that the Qingcheng Sect, led by Jeok Seongja, had marched out to bring down the Sichuan Tang Clan.
And it was not even a mere struggle for power.
When word spread that they intended to fight a life-and-death battle with their sects’ and families’ destiny on the line, the commoners of Chengdu could only sigh in despair.
“Good heavens! What are we going to do about our Divine Physician!”
“No, just what kind of deep-seated grudge does the Qingcheng Sect have against the Divine Physician…….”
“Tsks, what else could it be! The Tang Clan has been making a fortune even through the Iron Guild these days—of course they must have gotten greedy!”
“Shh, shhh! Be silent, man! The fighters of Qingcheng will arrive soon—what will you do then.”
“No, did I say something wrong! I’m saying what they’re doing is dog-brained madness!”
Tang Sewoon had treated the poor without taking any money.
To the commoners of Sichuan, the Tang Clan and Tang Sewoon had been light and hope; to see the Qingcheng Sect attack them made Qingcheng their enemy in every sense of the word.
Among the commoners gathered here, not a single one supported the Qingcheng Sect, yet at the same time, no one predicted victory for the Sichuan Tang Clan either.
No matter how explosively the Tang Clan’s power had risen recently, and even if Clan Head Tang Sewoon was gaining the world’s attention.
How could they possibly defeat Jeok Seongja, first among the Five Swords of the Martial World and said to have reached complete mastery of the Manifestation Realm.
Moreover, they said the Elders had come along, and even the Songpung Swordmasters as well.
People expected that as of today, the Sichuan Tang Clan would not merely decline like before, but be exterminated entirely.
But then, it happened.
“Huh, h-huh!”
“Look, look over there!!”
“……!!”
Everyone’s gaze turned to a single point.
Now, instead of sighs, cries of wonder burst out.
Step, step, step!
A procession was marching toward them with dignified, confident strides.
Martial artists wearing green long robes, full of marks from fierce battles, and regular commoners showing clear signs of illness.
And then—
“Divine Physician!!”
“Blood Silk Divine Smith!!”
“H-how is it that the Tang Clan, not Qingcheng……!!”
Tang Sewoon, the master of the Sichuan Tang Clan, was walking toward them.
Holding in one hand the Qingcheng Sect’s banner—cut cleanly in half.
Waaahhh!!
The commoners, who only now realized that the Sichuan Tang Clan had achieved victory in the war between the two forces, erupted into cheers loud enough to shake the marketplace.
“Brothers of Sichuan!!”
At Sewoon’s voice, the entire area was swallowed in silence in an instant.
Using the power of the sound arts, the Soul-Returning Melody of the Pointing Finger, Sewoon’s voice rang thunderously to the far end of the street.
“I stand here today to expose Qingcheng’s atrocious villainy committed to bring down our Tang Clan!”
Sewoon then began explaining Qingcheng’s misdeeds clearly and concisely.
Jeok Seongja’s attack on the Tang Clan’s escort agency, Ma Geollyun’s ambush, and lastly the release of spell poison in Shuangliu County.
The more they heard, the wider the commoners’ mouths fell open in shock.
No matter how much affection they had for Tang Sewoon, the Divine Physician, at first they could not believe it easily.
The events were simply too shocking.
But when they learned that the commoners who had come with Sewoon were the witnesses from Shuangliu County, and when evidence such as Buyo-ok—the material for the spell poison—was displayed, they could no longer deny it.
And then the commoners’ anger erupted even more fiercely.
“The plague that spread through Shuangliu—that was their doing?!”
“Have you ever seen such filthy rat-spawn!!”
“Qingcheng Sect, Murim Alliance—none of that matters! This is something we absolutely cannot overlook!!”
“What orthodox sect, what righteous path! People who do such things are neither!!”
As the crowd’s outrage surged—
Sewoon spoke again.
“No matter how much they coveted our clan’s wealth, to create a justification they inflicted a terrible plague upon innocent people, and to erase the evidence they even tried to steal their lives! Such tyranny we could not endure! Thus I have—”
Sewoon stopped speaking mid-sentence and suddenly threw a sword to the ground.
Whoosh.
Thunk!
The sword Sewoon threw sank into the earth.
T-that sword!
The commoners looked puzzled, but the martial artists of Sichuan recognized it instantly and let out cries of shock.
And there was good reason.
That sword was none other than the cherished blade of Jeok Seongja himself.
A sword was a martial artist’s very soul.
Which meant—if that sword was in Sewoon’s possession!
“I have executed the one responsible for all these acts—Jeok Seongja!”
The Sect Leader of Qingcheng.
The Lone-Flying Sword, Jeok Seongja, had lost his life.
Everyone’s eyes widened like lanterns.
But Sewoon was not finished speaking.
“The Qingcheng Sect is erased from the history of the jianghu as of today.”
“!!”
At that moment, everyone realized where the halved Qingcheng banner Sewoon held had come from.
They had burned Qingcheng’s mountain gate and annihilated the sect before coming here.
A pitiful end for a member of the Nine Sects and One Gang that formed the Murim Alliance.
“Furthermore, this was not an act Qingcheng committed of their own accord!”
“……!”
“We found traces of unorthodox sect forces within Qingcheng who cooperated with them!”
“H-hiik!!”
“U-unorthodox sects!!”
To increase confusion among their enemies, Sewoon deliberately avoided mentioning the Heaven-Piercing Sect.
He intended to force the Heaven-Piercing Sect Leader into anxiety over whether their involvement had been exposed, while also causing the Five Evils to suspect one another.
Thus, Sewoon’s declaration raced toward its conclusion.
“The Murim Alliance, to which the Qingcheng Sect belonged, has lost our trust!”
The next target was the Murim Alliance itself.
이제 정파에서 벗어나 새로운 첫걸음을 내딛을 때였다.
“It was time for the Sichuan Tang Clan to withdraw from the Murim Alliance as of today!”
“……!!”
“And furthermore, the Sichuan Tang Clan would become a sect that belonged neither to the orthodox nor the unorthodox, but stood between the Righteous and the Unorthodox!”
Like blazing flames, Sewoon’s eyes burned fiercely.
The pressure Sewoon emitted made the commoners watching him unconsciously hold their breaths.
“We shall repay grace without fail, and carve enemies into our blood!”
The sole creed of the Sichuan Tang Clan burst from Sewoon’s lips.
Sewoon’s chilling gaze, cold as a frigid winter, swept across the surroundings.
“The mastermind behind this dreadful affair would definitely pay the proper price for provoking the Sichuan Tang Clan!!”
The Heaven-Piercing Sect Leader.
Namgung Myeong.
And even the Blood Demon.
Thus Sewoon declared war upon his enemies.
Blood Demon Mountain (血魔山).
Gui Yeongja, who had returned to the Blood Cult’s main altar, hurried his steps.
His expression, which had always carried a creepy, frivolous smile, was today stiffly frozen.
‘As expected, it failed.’
When he checked the carrier pigeon sent by the subordinate he had left beside the Successor and the Qingcheng Sect, the message stated that Tang Sewoon had indeed slain the Successor and even annihilated the Qingcheng Sect.
His instincts continued to warn him of danger.
Tang Sewoon—that bastard must not be left alone.
“Inform the Great Protector that I have arrived.”
“Yes.”
The Blood Cult’s servant girl announced inside the room that he had come.
The person Gui Yeongja sought was the Great Protector Blood Wheel Asura’s residence.
Blood Wheel Asura was currently overseeing the entire progress of the Blood Cult’s grand plan in place of the Blood Demon, who was completing his final Great Art.
“What is it.”
“The grand plan has failed.”
“……You say it failed?”
Even Blood Wheel Asura showed a startled reaction.
Gui Yeongja had never once failed a plan until now, and this scheme had been considered the most likely to succeed among all plans currently progressing in the Outer Regions.
“You mean the Qingcheng Sect lost to the Sichuan Tang Clan?”
“Yes.”
“How could a mere Tang Clan overcome Qingcheng…….”
“That is the reason I came here, Great Protector.”
Gui Yeongja’s voice as he began to speak was thoroughly serious.
“Speak.”
“Tang Sewoon. That bastard hid his claws, and we also confirmed that he had even detected traces of us.”
From that point, Gui Yeongja spent a long while stressing to the Great Protector the danger Tang Sewoon posed.
Gui Yeongja, in truth, wished the Blood Cult’s best assassination unit and Blood Wheel Asura himself would immediately be sent to kill Tang Sewoon at once.
That was how severe the threat he felt from Tang Sewoon truly was.
But the longer Gui Yeongja spoke, a completely different light surfaced on Blood Wheel Asura’s face.
“In conclusion, Elder Yi is saying that the Sichuan Tang Clan—no, Tang Sewoon—is now the foremost target our cult must eliminate.”
“That is correct.”
Blood Wheel Asura spoke as though puzzled.
“But that is a difficult conclusion to accept.”
“……Pardon?”
For the first time, Gui Yeongja revealed confusion.
What nonsense was he hearing?
Blood Wheel Asura continued in a blank tone.
“Think about it, Elder Yi. You alone failed, but all other plans our cult carried out simultaneously in the Outer Regions succeeded.”
“……!!”
“And as you reported, if the Sichuan Tang Clan truly declared its shift into a force between the Righteous and the Unorthodox, then even without our cult exposing itself, the Murim Alliance and the Five Evils would naturally target them.”
“Great Protector, how could you have listened to anything I said! Tang Sewoon is absolutely not someone who can be left alone!! If another force attacks the Tang Clan, that bastard will instead devour the enemies and……!!”
“What matters now is not a mere Sichuan Tang Clan, but the Murim Alliance that is soon to split in half and the extinction of the Sword Emperor. I understand that you find the Tang Clan difficult to handle, so that is enough.”
“……What?!”
This fool!
Gui Yeongja felt his insides boil.
Only now did he realize what the other thought of him.
Blood Wheel Asura believed he was exaggerating Sewoon’s abilities to avoid being blamed for his own failure.
“The matter of that man will be left to someone else.”
“Great Protector!!”
“Do you have more to say.”
Even though Gui Yeongja raised his voice in fury, Blood Wheel Asura firmly issued an expulsion order.
Gui Yeongja, trembling all over, had no choice but to leave the Great Protector’s residence.
Creak!
The moment the servant girl opened the door—
“Kihihi, thank you. Truly, thank you.”
“……!”
“Thanks to you, I can go meet my disciple.”
The one Blood Wheel Asura had mentioned—the one entrusted with dealing with Tang Sewoon—revealed himself before Gui Yeongja’s eyes.
From the entire body of the Poison Demon Yelü Seung, whose eyes glimmered with madness, surged horrifying poisonous qi.
Gui Yeongja originally never trusted the Poison Demon.
‘Yes, if it’s this creature in his current state…….’
Yet now he actually felt somewhat relieved.
For one reason only.
“Kikil, I want to see you again soon, my dear disciple.”
Because Yelü Seung’s martial prowess, enhanced by the Blood Demon’s “favor,” had risen to such an absurd level that even he had no choice but to acknowledge it.