novelraw Chapter 40 : Chapter 40
Chapter 40 : Chapter 40
Chapter 40: Effective immediately, the tanning begins.
Kang!
Kaang!
Every time the swords clashed, all the senses in her body prickled, and goosebumps rose.
Even though flesh was being torn and blood was splattering ceaselessly, the Shadowless Terrace leader did not stop getting up.
Her older brother, Jaegal Hwi, was the same.
Even as a person was dying before his eyes, he showed no agitation whatsoever.
Like the cold stars in the winter sky, his two eyes were just transparently chilling.
How could people go to such lengths?
In that moment, Jaegal Yujeong recalled a phrase she had learned.
A true gentleman, when hardships overlap and his life is at stake, explores a single sentence, the philosophy of the ancient sages.
But that was a teaching that only existed in books.
Could there really be people who could carry out that simple phrase, ‘to risk one’s life,’ so sincerely, so desperately?
Martial artist.
Until now, she had thought them foolish.
She had sneered at them, thinking them childish for liking to show off their individual skills.
And yet.
She couldn't laugh.
If that was what martial arts were.
If those who risked their lives to protect their family were those very martial artists…….
“……Brother Hwi.”
Jaegal Yujeong's small voice, uttered in a hushed breath.
Jaegal Hwi spoke firmly without even turning around.
“I believe I said to just watch without any interference.”
“……I’ll just accept the marriage.”
In that instant, Jaegal Hwi’s head snapped as if it would break.
His face, as he looked at Jaegal Yujeong, was contorted like a demon.
“Little sister, what are you suddenly talking about?”
“That is…… the Namgung Clan also sent a marriage proposal letter.”
The goose character, an.
“These bastards……”
An unimaginable killing intent filled Jaegal Hwi’s eyes.
“So, if you want to avoid this duel, send your daughter to be married…… is that what it means?”
Flinch.
“W-Well, yes.”
“Why was I the only one who didn't know? Don’t tell me this was Father’s doing?”
“B-Brother……?”
In Jaegal Yujeong’s eyes, her older brother was clearly on the verge of losing his mind.
“Hey, Leader. Recover your exhausted body. I’ll be right back.”
“Honored command……”
The Shadowless Terrace leader had a face that showed he himself did not understand why he was repeating ‘Honored command’.
Grind.
“Sejin-ah, Sejin-ah. You damn Namgung Sejin.”
A great Flame of War named the Martial Emperor was bearing down on the Namgung Clan.
***
No wonder there was a strange resentment in her eyes.
I hadn't understood Jaegal Yujeong's gaze until now, but I finally felt as if all the fog was lifting.
The culprit of this whole incident.
She had thought it was because of me, for needlessly provoking the Namgung Clan.
But was that really what came first?
No.
The fact that Namgung Sejin was a son of a bitch came first.
Even if I hadn’t provoked him, that bastard would try to swallow up everything south of the Yangtze River as long as he lived.
In the eyes of that shameless Namgung bastard, this Jaegal Clan was probably just an obstacle.
It was called a marriage alliance, but sending a marriage proposal letter to a daughter of the Jaegal Clan was, in effect, telling them to come under him.
Because he knew that, my father hadn’t mentioned it to me.
The reason why that man, who hated probabilities so much, could not turn a blind eye to my gamble of transforming the Shadowless Terrace.
It must mean he hated the thought of sending his daughter away that much.
“Hmm?”
When I arrived in front of the clan head’s hall, a warrior I had never seen before was standing there.
But he was a low-level warrior, embarrassingly so compared to Dark Phantom.
He seemed to be at most a second-rate warrior, but what I disliked most was his gaze.
“I greet the Third Young Master.”
Even while performing the sword salute, his eyes were strangely defiant, like those of a snake.
“Who are you?”
“I am Jaegal Hyeon.”
Ah, I had heard of him.
The Yizhou Lineage, which had produced clan heads alternately with the Martial Marquis Line.
This Jaegal Hyeon was the prodigy they prided themselves on.
If this guy’s father had been the clan head of this era, their positions would have been completely reversed.
Only then did I understand the defiant gaze of the boy and let out a smirk.
“If you’ve got a problem with it, you should have been born to a better father.”
“……”
The Yizhou Lineage was also a bloodline of the Jaegal Clan that possessed a considerable force.
Seeing the successor of such a Yizhou Lineage struggling as the clan head’s doorkeeper, I thought his fate was quite tragic.
However, if this guy considered this much to be the bottom, his future probably wasn't too bright either.
“Well, keep up the good work.”
Click.
As I opened the door to the clan head’s hall, my father was looking at me.
He seemed to be having a private meeting with the steward, but it looked like he had sensed my presence early on.
My father, who had been looking at me indifferently for a long time, finally opened his mouth.
“Seeing as you, with your impatient nature, are not asking first, it seems you already know about Dark Phantom's disappearance.”
I did not bother to hide it.
“Well. I killed him.”
A fierce ripple broke the surface of my father's lake-like calm eyes.
It was a completely unexpected answer, and his voice was also trembling.
“W-What do you mean by that?”
“He was a Secret Sword of the Alliance. He wasn't protecting you all this time, he was spying on you.”
“Why! Why did you kill him!”
A smirk.
“He dared to draw his sword. To kill me.”
Would a martial artist like me, who made a name for himself as one of the Seven Revered of Jianghu, not have a single principle that I have upheld my entire life?
Although I was not one to enjoy blood, I did not spare those who tried to kill me.
If I had lived so softly, I wouldn't have even become a low-ranking warrior of the Great Murim Alliance, let alone its leader.
“To provoke the Alliance Leader so needlessly! You! You……!”
Contrary to my expectations, my father’s reaction was strange.
He was focusing more on the result that I had killed Dark Phantom than the fact that he was a Secret Sword.
The meaning was singular.
“You already knew that Dark Phantom was a Secret Sword, didn't you?”
To know Dark Phantom’s identity meant he also knew of the existence of the Guardian Secret Sword Sect.
Which meant, he had endured the Alliance Leader’s surveillance while knowing about it.
What was this?
Was this sort of thing commonplace in the orthodox faction?
If this were the Great Murim Alliance, it would be like me attaching my subordinates to the masters of the Eight Gates of Hegemony to spy on them.
That was something that even I could not easily decide to do.
An alliance cannot be formed without a foundation of trust.
Due to the structural nature of an alliance, if they start to antagonize and suspect each other, that crack will deepen without limit.
It could no longer be called an Alliance or a Union.
“What will you do now! We have to stake the family’s survival just to deal with the Namgung Clan, and now you’ve blinded the Alliance Leader’s eyes as well!”
I smiled.
“Are you saying that the Sword Saint would think that we killed Dark Phantom?”
“You, you bastard!”
“How much do you know about Dark Phantom?”
That night.
I had painfully experienced the true martial might that Dark Phantom had hidden for a long time.
If I hadn't had the experience of my past life, and if I hadn't had the three years of training, the one who would have died that day would surely have been me.
“He was, at the very least, a close aide cherished by the Secret Sword Sect’s leader or a monster raised by the Alliance Leader himself. And you’re saying the Jaegal Clan killed such a tremendous martial artist? A martial artist that even all the members of the Shadowless Terrace combined would not dare to handle?”
“……Did you say all the members of the Shadowless Terrace?”
My father’s expression hardened in shock.
He had perfectly understood the meaning of my words that even if all the members of the Shadowless Terrace were mobilized, victory could not be guaranteed.
“I guarantee it. If he had lived just a few more years, he would have become a martial artist on par with the Blood Demon. His body did not reach that level, but his spirit was clearly on the verge of the Transformation Realm.”
“Transformation Realm……?”
Although the level of masters in the Transformation Realm varies greatly depending on their stage, on the surface, it was still the level of one of the top hundred masters.
It meant that the sword of such a martial artist had been pointed at him all this time.
Only then did my father’s face slowly regain a sense of reality.
Of course, that sense of reality in my father quickly turned into a question.
“Are you truly saying your martial might is at that level?”
“Well, I was lucky.”
What was important right now was not my martial might.
“But why is the Sword Saint going to such lengths?”
My father was silent for a moment.
Then, my father confessed a surprising fact to me.
“It’s not just our family.”
“Yes?”
“The Five Great Clans and the Nine Sects One Gang. In all of those places, the Alliance Leader’s close aides are serving as personal guards.”
I was momentarily dazed.
I could somehow understand the Alliance Leader’s aides spying on the Five Great Clans.
But the Nine Sects One Gang?
Wasn’t the Alliance established on the foundation of the Nine Sects One Gang?
This was like spying on oneself.
‘That Sword Saint bastard, he’s been having quite a bit of fun, hasn’t he?’
The Ghost Spirit of the Great Murim Alliance, who had tenaciously delved into the sharp power struggles and interests of the orthodox faction bastards.
There was surely some key link that ran through the Murim Alliance, and he had lamented his ultimate failure to grasp that link.
I instinctively felt that what I saw today was a part of that key link that the Ghost Spirit had been looking for.
I could strongly feel the smell of an unpleasant conspiracy.
“Anyway, as long as we keep our mouths shut, no matter how powerful the Alliance is, they won’t be able to react carelessly. More importantly, were you thinking of marrying Yujeong off if I failed?”
“How did you know about that……?”
The lords of the Five Great Clans all felt like horned monsters, but now that I was facing him, he was just a father with powerlessly slumped shoulders.
Looking again, the Buddhist phrase of ‘the other shore’ resonated with me today like never before.
With the heart of such a Buddhist monk, I looked at my father.
“Well, it’s not a bad decision. We can avoid the rain for a while. But if you give Yujeong away like that, they might want the eldest young master next. And the end of that is always having your territory encroached upon. The conflicts of martial families are ultimately fights over their livelihoods.”
“……”
“The moment our Phoenix flag, not the Azure Dragon flag, flutters here in Wuhan, we will be reduced to the status of a mere manor, not a clan. Then we will be forgotten. Even the rise and fall of a nation cannot be predicted, so who would care about the rise and fall of a single family?”
My father was silent for a while at my direct words.
There were many ways to awaken a person, but I always preferred the method of stabbing where it hurts first.
“Taking this opportunity to bring that young kid in as your personal guard and humiliate him is a warning to the Yizhou Lineage. After all, they did oppose the clan head’s will.”
The father of that Jaegal Hyeon was Jaegal Myeong-u.
He was the scholarly middle-aged Jaegal who had vehemently opposed, citing public duty, when the Old Man of Heavenly Wisdom tried to give me the Great Cycle Pill.
“Because you are also a man, Father, there is a beast in your heart. But don’t be so petty. Show your ferocity to the strong rather than the weak. I want to admire a father like that.”
“You little……!”
Before my father could say anything, I opened my mouth again.
“When beasts bite each other’s bellies with their ferocious fangs, which one will win?”
My father was frozen and silent.
I smiled whitely.
“The one with the tougher belly hide wins.”
I stood up.
And then, as if declaring to my father, I said.
“Effective immediately, the tanning begins.”
From now on, my hammering would reach every corner of the Jaegal Clan.
I.
This Martial Emperor.
Had never shown mercy to a beast that showed its fangs first.