novelraw Chapter 180 : I Will Never Forgive Again (1)
Chapter 180 : I Will Never Forgive Again (1)
Chapter 180: I Will Never Forgive Again (1)
A single message carried from Gansu instantly changed the atmosphere of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Voices disappeared from the clan grounds.
Not only the Clan Head, but the blacksmiths, the physicians, even the servants and maidservants shut their mouths.
Within that razor-sharp silence, only their gazes remained—keen like drawn blades.
In that situation, countless martial artists left the Tang Family Slopes each day and returned to the main estate of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Blood relatives who had sensed the clan’s crisis were returning one after another, prepared to face death.
All night long, the endless sound of hammering echoed from the Ten Thousand Iron Hall.
And throughout the day, weapons and hidden weapons poured out without pause.
The Sichuan Tang Clan was now moving with heavy yet measured resolve toward the arrogant enemy who had dared bare their fangs at them.
A debt of grace would always be repaid.
An enemy would be etched in blood.
To prove to their foes the creed they had upheld for centuries.
Clack.
The door opened, and Gu Yongyeon, the Hall Lord of the Ten Thousand Iron Hall, entered the room.
His hair was white with age, yet his body was solid and muscular, scorched by blazing flames and blackened ash.
Added to that was a clear, steadfast gaze now directed at the room’s owner, Tang Muyeol.
He observed proper etiquette.
“This Gu Yongyeon, Hall Lord of the Ten Thousand Iron Hall, greets the Supreme Clan Head.”
“You have come, Hall Lord Gu.”
Gu Yongyeon bowed deeply, then soon stated his purpose.
“The preparations for war are complete.”
As his words implied, the sounds of quenching that had echoed from the Ten Thousand Iron Hall’s forges had finally ceased.
He had at last completed the task Sewoon entrusted to him when he departed for Guizhou.
Treasure weapons of tremendous power—utterly incomparable to the ones falsely sent to the Namgung Clan—had been distributed to every martial artist of the Tang Clan.
At the welcome news that their warriors were now fully armed, Tang Muyeol slowly nodded.
“You have worked hard.”
“With the opening of war just around the corner, it was only what had to be done.”
Gu Yongyeon straightened his back and shook his head.
But to those words, Tang Muyeol quietly added,
“And truly, thank you.”
“…!”
A flicker of surprise appeared in Gu Yongyeon’s eyes.
He realized that the emotion contained in Tang Muyeol’s gaze was not simple gratitude for the Ten Thousand Iron Hall’s work.
Just as expected, Tang Muyeol slowly opened his mouth.
“This is not spoken as the Supreme Clan Head of the Sichuan Tang Clan, but as Sewoon’s father. For lending your strength to my son… I sincerely thank you.”
Gu Yongyeon looked at him in silence for a moment, then soon formed a faint smile.
“Supreme Clan Head. It is not that I lent my strength. The Clan Head merely honored me by choosing me.”
“…!”
Tang Muyeol looked taken aback by Gu Yongyeon’s words.
Thus the two men faced each other, exchanging many unspoken thoughts without uttering a word.
At last, Tang Muyeol quietly spoke.
“Heh, Supreme Clan Head… I never imagined I would be addressed so. Especially by Hall Lord Gu, an old retainer who once followed my father.”
“Even after the Poison Commander passed away, the rivers and mountains changed many times over.”
Poison Commander Tang Eui-tae.
He was Tang Muyeol’s father and Gu Yongyeon’s close friend.
A glimmer of longing surfaced in both their eyes, then faded.
“But now that I look at you, the Supreme Clan Head’s aura has completely changed from before.”
“Trying to run again so late in life only leaves my old bones aching.”
“My, you truly hold nothing back before me.”
“Haha, is that so?”
After Sewoon became the Clan Head of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Outsiders who knew nothing often spoke of Supreme Clan Head Tang Muyeol.
They said he had handed over all burdens to his son, withdrawn, and now merely enjoyed idle pleasures in the back quarters.
But the moment those words were heard, all who belonged to the Tang Clan scoffed.
Because they knew how much blood and sweat Tang Muyeol shed in relentless training after delegating the Clan Head’s authority.
Within the Tang Clan, the one who spent the longest hours discussing and debating martial theory and martial learning with Chief Instructor Yeo Seon was none other than Tang Muyeol.
Once a man who immersed himself only in chivalrous ideals without true skill, he grit his teeth and trained again and again to become of help to his son.
And now, in Gu Yongyeon’s eyes, Tang Muyeol had clearly crossed beyond the wall of the Transformation Realm.
As admiration rose in Gu Yongyeon’s gaze while looking upon Tang Muyeol, who had surpassed a barrier that had blocked him for decades—
“Hall Lord Gu.”
“Yes, Supreme Clan Head.”
“I still remember it vividly. The day I trained under you by my father’s order, back when I barely even knew how to properly hold a sword.”
“It was the day we first met. I remember the Young Master running away after seeing my blade.”
“I had hoped you had forgotten that. How unfortunate.”
Gu Yongyeon smiled and nodded.
“It wasn’t the blade I feared, but the Hall Lord’s eyes. They were the eyes of a true martial artist, brimming with killing intent—something I was facing for the first time.”
It was shortly after he had taken on the new name Gu Yongyeon.
In other words, it was during the time when the afterimage of Flame King Jin Mubek still lingered.
“I spent more than ten years feeling uneasy and avoiding you, when suddenly my father passed away.”
“……”
The incident that became the beginning of the Tang Clan’s decline.
Yet setting aside its repercussions, the death of Poison Commander Tang Eui-tae left both men with immense wounds and pain.
“When I could not accept it, stopped eating and drinking, and became a ruined man, you silently warmed porridge with your own hands and gave it to me.”
As Gu Yongyeon fell silent, Tang Muyeol smiled and continued.
“I don’t remember what garnish was in that porridge. But the warmth of it—I still cannot forget.”
“And it was then that I realized. One does not discern a person’s true nature with mere eyes.”
Gu Yongyeon slowly nodded.
Tang Muyeol then went on.
“And yet, that boy Sewoon seemed to grasp this truth without his father ever telling him. He recognized you far earlier than I did.”
“Yes. He is different from us.”
“…!”
Tang Muyeol was startled at Gu Yongyeon’s reply, given without a moment’s hesitation.
He could feel that the other man truly held Sewoon—his child’s child—in the highest regard.
As quiet silence settled beneath the lamplight of the Supreme Clan Head’s inner chamber, Gu Yongyeon politely opened his mouth, and the atmosphere began to shift entirely.
“In truth, I sought you out today because there is one more thing I wish to request.”
“What is it?”
Then Gu Yongyeon spoke words that Tang Muyeol had never anticipated.
“Long ago, on the day I abandoned my name and entered the Tang Clan.
I entrusted my blade to the Poison Commander.”
“……!!”
Tang Muyeol was shocked.
That was because the meaning contained within the ‘blade’ the other spoke of was not merely a blade.
“Now that the time has come, I wish to retrieve the blade I entrusted.”
“……Clan Head, surely you don’t mean—?”
Tang Muyeol asked cautiously, but Gu Yongyeon’s gaze did not waver in the slightest.
There was an unmistakably resolute will standing firm within it.
‘Did he truly set his resolve through Sewoon……!’
Having realized that determination, Tang Muyeol slowly rose from his seat.
Then he headed toward a spot concealed behind a hanging scroll spread across the rear of the Supreme Clan Head’s chamber.
When the scroll was drawn aside, a dust-covered case (函) was revealed within.
The Supreme Clan Head’s chamber had originally been the residence of Poison Commander Tang Eui-tae.
An item hidden within the innermost heart of the Tang Clan could not possibly be something ordinary.
Tang Muyeol lifted the case with both hands and slowly approached Gu Yongyeon once more.
“……I never imagined the day would come when this blade would be needed again.”
Swoosh.
He handed over the case.
Uuuung!
At that very moment, a massive surge of qi erupted from the case, accompanied by a resonant hum.
The demonic blade, reunited with its master after countless years of waiting, was crying out.
Gu Yongyeon slowly opened the case and grasped the blade.
Shrring!
A heavy blade, wrapped in black leather.
The weight conveyed through his hand, the traces of time seeped between the layers of steel, and the lingering heat of the blade itself—
Without realizing it, Gu Yongyeon muttered softly.
“Flame Heaven Blade.”
Fwoosh!
At the same instant, the black leather wrapped around the Flame Heaven Blade burned away without leaving a trace.
It was the moment the demonic blade that had accompanied his path of vengeance—when he burned the Guiyeom Society to the ground for murdering his wife—revealed itself once more.
Yet despite the demonic blade exuding a dreadful aura, unlike in the past, Gu Yongyeon was not consumed by killing intent.
Remarkably, the aura emanating from his body was infinitely close to the threshold of the Manifestation Realm.
Sss.
At last, with perfect control over his qi, Gu Yongyeon returned the blade to the scabbard at his waist.
Tang Muyeol then spoke slowly.
“Clan Head, are you truly all right?”
The implication contained within Tang Muyeol’s question was singular.
To take up the Flame Heaven Blade once more meant reclaiming the name he had discarded upon entering the Tang Clan.
In other words, it meant returning as Flame King Jin Mubek.
Yet Jin Mubek answered without the slightest hesitation.
“If reclaiming an abandoned name helps my lord, then that is all that matters.”
“……!”
At Jin Mubek’s words, Tang Muyeol let out a small gasp.
The might of the Flame King’s martial prowess had once been judged to surpass even that of his own father, Poison Commander Tang Eui-tae.
If he were to unleash the true martial arts he had sealed away, it was evident he would be an immense asset in the coming war.
At that moment, Jin Mubek spoke again.
“The Demon-Suppressing Charcoal Sword, the Golden Wave Dignitary, and Lee Jamyeong.”
“……!”
“The ignorant jackals who dared bare killing intent toward the Tang Clan will be reduced to nothing but pitch-black ash.”
Those names belonged to the enemies who had dared draw their blades against the Tang Clan.
Disgusting trash cloaked in the guise of the orthodox sects and the White Path.
According to intelligence reports, their forces numbered twice that of the Tang Clan’s total strength.
Yet neither man felt even a shred of concern or threat.
“No matter how many husks one gathers, how could they ever pose a threat?”
“One strong gust of wind, and they’ll all scatter without a trace.”
The two spoke in perfect accord.
One intended to wield the blade he had reclaimed against the enemy.
The other meant to cut them down with a newly honed sword.
“Sewoon—astonishingly, it seems the child anticipated even this and departed after preparing every countermeasure.”
“Yes. Just as he predicted, all enemy movements are being fully tracked.”
The entire plan to win the war had been laid out by Sewoon before he left.
They only needed to follow it.
Then Tang Muyeol spoke softly.
“Even if it is belated, I wish to become a son not ashamed before my departed father, and a father not ashamed before his son.”
At that declaration, Jin Mubek responded.
“Then I, too, must become a subordinate who will not bring shame before the young lord.”
“……!”
Their gazes crossed.
Step.
Then, without another word, the two rose from their seats.
Though their movements were light,
Within those footsteps was resolve heavier than a thousand pieces of gold.
With eyes blazing fiercely like the Yang Fire Qi he held within his Dantian, Jin Mubek spoke to Tang Muyeol.
“Supreme Clan Head, let us go to war.”
At his declaration, signaling the beginning of war—
“Yes. Let us go together.”
At last, Tang Muyeol answered.