novelraw Chapter 84 : Chapter 84
Chapter 84 : Chapter 84
Chapter 84 - What Is This Urgent Matter
Revenge.
To Jeokseo, it was a word sweeter than sugar, and far more longed for than his beloved liquor.
So much so that he could cast aside the rest of his life without any lingering attachment for that word.
However, even after hearing the word he had dreamed of, Jeokseo did not easily show his feelings.
“Can you do it?”
“Ha! You don't know me? I'm Biyoung. A man who does what he says!”
As Biyoung huffed, Jeokseo’s serious face returned to its usual expression.
“Holhol. I am not doubting your skills. It is because finding traces of the past will not be easy.”
“Lady Mihwa told me a story. If we dig into that, a clue will emerge.”
“You seem quite confident.”
“Of course!”
“What if, that is the tail of a whale?”
“……!”
This time, Biyoung wore a look of having been struck.
“Senior Grand Uncle, you think so too?”
“Holholhol. This brat. Did you think I was just an old man in the back room who drinks all day?”
“………….”
“…………Really?”
Isn't it common to say that silence is a form of silent affirmation?
Reading Jeokseo’s expression, Biyoung quickly revised his opinion.
“Hehe. Of course not. It's just surprising that you had the same thought as me.”
“Holhol. Age is not eaten for free.”
The ‘tail of a whale’ that Jeokseo mentioned.
It was a passage that exactly coincided with what Biyoung had in mind.
“When I first heard the story of the sect’s destruction, I was so angry I was out of my mind. But the more I thought about it, the stranger it became.”
“What was?”
Biyoung’s eyes, holding the night sky, shone like stars.
“When one commits an act, it is normal to consider the consequences of that act. You buy sweets to taste sweetness, and you drink liquor because you want to get drunk.”
“That's right.”
“But there was nothing of the sort with them. They are clean, to the point where it makes you wonder if it’s okay.”
“Clean?”
Although he was asking a question, Jeokseo was not unaware.
These were thoughts he had repeated countless times during his long years in Simao.
“After destroying our sect, they gained nothing. They didn't plunder the sect's wealth, nor did they steal the secret manuals. Far from stealing, they burned most of the secret manuals. It's as if their only goal was for the Diancang Sect to disappear from this world.”
“The possibility that they are simple murder-hobos?”
“That is also unlikely. No matter how much they enjoy killing, would they have had to climb this rugged Diancang Mountain and face those who had practiced martial arts? Frankly, with that level of skill, it would have been much easier to just grab anyone in the marketplace and kill them.”
Jeokseo felt two emotions.
A sense of relief that his reasoning so far had not been wrong.
And the other was a sense of awe for the young man before him.
‘What on earth happened to this child to make him so deep in thought?’
Eung Gajin, the Sect Leader's grandson, was also hell-bent on revenge, but he hadn't thought that far ahead.
Yet a fellow who was at least three or four years younger was already looking several steps ahead.
The more Jeokseo looked at the handsome man before him, the more he thought he was a strange being.
“The conclusion I came to is this. The attackers had nothing to gain from the Diancang Sect from the start. Someone else benefits from our sect's destruction.”
Why would they carry out an act that had no particular benefit?
Jeokseo knew the answer to that reason.
“You mean they were hired by someone.”
“Yes. The reason you mentioned the tail of a whale, Senior Grand Uncle, must be for that reason.”
“You saw correctly.”
“I don't know who, but those who benefit from our sect’s demise hired the attackers. I see it that way too.”
There was nothing to gain from the Diancang Sect.
However, if they could receive payment for attacking the Diancang Sect, that itself could be the goal.
Biyoung and Jeokseo’s reasoning was thus heading in the same direction.
“That doesn't mean those bastards are innocent. After I crush them from head to toe, I'll find out who the main body is.”
“What if that main body is bigger than you think? For example……”
“If it's a prestigious orthodox sect?”
A chilling smile appeared on Biyoung’s lips.
“Yes. It's a ridiculous assumption, but what if it was the work of one of the Nine Sects One Union? Do you intend to throw an egg at a rock?”
It was a main mountain that they had barely reclaimed after surviving for over ten years in a foreign land.
But if they were to start a fight with a giant sect in the name of revenge, there was a high probability that they would burn down the very straw-thatched house they had.
That was the point Jeokseo really wanted to ask.
“What are you talking about?”
And yet, it seemed that the opinions of the two, who had been on the same page all along, were different this time.
“Huh?”
“Who's the egg and who's the rock? Prestigious orthodox sect, Nine Sects One Union, whatever the hell it is, if they turn out to be the culprits, I'll crush them all.”
“…………!”
“Throwing an egg at a rock? Not a chance. I'll show them clearly that this side isn't an egg but a great mountain! No, a meteor falling from the sky!”
Jeokseo blinked with a blank face.
Was he really being serious?
The Diancang Sect had just reclaimed its main mountain.
Even if they managed to build up their power here, comparing it to the giant sects that were established like massive trees was absurd.
“Holhol. Holholhol.”
However.
Jeokseo just laughed.
Even though he knew Biyoung’s words were absurd, he somehow wanted to place his hopes in them.
Ever since the day he first saw him in Simao, all of this young man’s actions had been literally ‘miracles.’
‘You probably can’t believe it now.’
This time, Biyoung smirked.
Right now, not just Jeokseo, but no one would be able to fully believe Biyoung’s words.
This was a conviction that only Biyoung himself possessed.
As long as he had acquired qualities superior to his past body, surpassing the World's Fastest Sword was only a matter of time.
If that happened, it would not be easy for even a single sect to stop him with all its might.
‘Let's just wait and see. Who is the egg and who is the rock.’
Jeokseo asked Biyoung, who was sharpening a blade in his heart.
“Just hearing it makes me feel reassured. Then, when do you plan to leave for Jade Dragon Snow Mountain?”
“As I said earlier, I have something urgent to do. I plan to go after that schedule.”
“What is this urgent matter?”
“Senior Grand Uncle's inauguration ceremony as the Sect Leader.”
“?”
The words came out so naturally and obviously that he almost nodded without thinking.
A moment later, Jeokseo’s jaw dropped to the floor.
“Wh-what? Sect Leader what?”
“The inauguration ceremony. Why are you so surprised?”
Biyoung, on the contrary, tilted his head as if Jeokseo’s reaction was strange.
“Then who do you think should be the Sect Leader among this group? Surely you're not going to seat Grandpa Jinbae or Grandpa Hyeokri Chong in the Sect Leader's position just because they're old?”
“Th…… that’s not…….”
It was not possible.
It was a ridiculous story.
Jinbae had been a member of the sect but had long since given up martial arts to run an inn, and Hyeokri Chong had never even entered the sect.
Legitimacy was of the utmost importance for a Sect Leader, so no one other than Jeokseo would be able to accept it.
“Or should we make the previous Sect Leader’s grandson the new Sect Leader? He’s a bit young.”
……Not just a bit, but very young.
Eung Gajin was in his twenties now.
‘Is there truly no suitable candidate?’
Reclaiming the main mountain.
And revenge.
He had lived his entire life thinking only of those things.
He had never thought about who would be suitable as a Sect Leader.
To the point where he felt like a fool himself.
“Tell me one person more suitable for Sect Leader than you, Senior Grand Uncle. Then I'll think about it too.”
Wasn't the answer already there?
Biyoung’s deep smile was brimming with that intention.
‘This brat……?’
It was a moment that made him want to give him a knock on the head, making his good thoughts until now seem pointless.
‘Is it really going to be like that.’
This was the moment to announce the revival of the Diancang Sect to the world.
But for that sect to have a vacant Sect Leader position was something a passing dog would laugh at.
Someone had to take the position of Sect Leader.
Jeokseo searched for candidates in his mind, but as Biyoung had said, there was no one who could be called a suitable candidate.
If there was one suitable candidate, it was the person who had brought people to a distant foreign land and led them for a long time.
As a price for that, he had to lose his upright heart and youth entirely, but on the other hand, thanks to that, he was able to maintain the spirit of the Diancang Sect.
Jeokseo.
That was a story about himself.
“……Do you truly think this position suits this drunkard?”
“What's wrong with drinking? Appearances are useless. The previous Sect Leader didn't exactly have a heroic appearance either, did he?”
“……!”
If the previous Sect Leader, Eung Jinsan, had been here, he would have done an angry somersault.
It was an utterly disrespectful remark, but Biyoung continued to state his opinion without a break.
“Senior Grand Uncle is the greatest elder who has dedicated himself to the Diancang Sect more than anyone. Well, even if it's not me, the talk will come up soon anyway. It could even be tomorrow.”
“Holhol. That is too difficult a position for this old man.”
Jeokseo said so and once again drank from the liquor bottle.
It was an answer filled with difficulty, neither affirmative nor negative.
***
In the end, Biyoung’s prediction came true.
The very next day after the feast, the opinion that Jeokseo should be appointed as the Sect Leader began to be publicly discussed.
Now that the foundation of the sect was being re-established, it was a task that had to be done someday and that someone had to take on.
“Of course, it should be Elder Jeokseo. Who else is there to take the position of Sect Leader besides him?”
“The sooner the better. We've found the main mountain and the framework is taking shape, so we can't leave the Sect Leader's position vacant any longer, can we?”
“If it weren't for Elder Jeokseo, the people who fled to Simao would have scattered. It's safe to say he's been acting as the Sect Leader since then.”
Everyone in the sect unanimously thought of Jeokseo as the prospective Sect Leader.
“What do you think?”
At a temporary shelter set up in front of the mountain gate, Eung Gajin asked Biyoung.
Biyoung smirked before answering.
“A lot of people have been asking for my opinion lately.”
“Don't change the subject and get to the point.”
“There’s nothing to think about. Let's just do it among ourselves.”
“That is my thought as well.”
Eung Gajin nodded with a satisfied expression.
He seemed relieved to have the same thought as Biyoung.
Eung Gajin asked Biyoung about the Sect Leader’s inauguration ceremony.
The question was not whether Jeokseo was suitable as a Sect Leader, but whether they should announce the event to the public.
“They are the ones who turned a blind eye and ignored us when the sect was in difficulty. Now that the Diancang Sect has reclaimed its main mountain, will they welcome us warmly? We'd be lucky not to be turned away at the door.”
“You are right. Rather than suffer humiliation once more, it would be better to build our strength and make them come to us on their own.”
Like the grandson of the previous Sect Leader, Eung Gajin was not one to easily bend his pride when it came to the affairs of the sect.
“The pavilions haven't all been repaired yet, so it's not like we can receive guests, right? And above all……”
Biyoung sent a meaningful look towards Eung Gajin.
“The ones who attacked us might come to spy.”
“!”
As if he hadn't thought that far, Eung Gajin’s face hardened.
“……Then we must proceed even more cautiously.”
“Right. While we build the sect’s power, we must always be suspicious and vigilant of our surroundings. That way, when I or the Senior Brothers are away……”
Biyoung, who was talking as if making a promise to himself, suddenly stopped.
“What's wrong?”
At Eung Gajin’s question, Biyoung smiled a slightly dangerous smile.
“See. Even at this very moment, there's a rat hiding.”
“!”
As soon as Biyoung’s words ended, a figure shot out from outside the mountain gate like lightning.