Chapter 132. The Black Flame Dragon Who Proves Himself (2)
“Well now, what a shame. Hahaha.”
At Jegal So-myeong’s words, which showed not even a speck of actual regret, even Hyeok Mu-gang, of all people, could not help furrowing his brow.
Perhaps it was because of this spiteful side of him that the Elder Hall disliked Jegal So-myeong so much.
In any case, as Jegal So-myeong had said, Hyeok Mu-gang could not hide his disappointment.
“Hmm…… Even so, considering Jin So-un’s schemes and ability, would it not be better for him to come to the Alliance Leader’s Hall?”
He had even handed over a Shadow Warrior to measure Jin So-un’s ability, and in return, he had received a chance for the Alliance Leader’s Hall to recruit him once, yet he had been rejected to his face.
“What are you saying? There was only one chance to recruit him.”
If it had been the Elder Hall, they would certainly have nitpicked that there must have been some scheme at work, considering Jegal So-myeong’s usual petty nature. However, Hyeok Mu-gang had heard Jegal So-myeong make the proposal solemnly from a hundred jang away, so there was no room for such suspicion.
Even so, Hyeok Mu-gang added a few more words out of regret.
“If you believe he is a talent who will one day lead the Murim Alliance……”
“Hoho, Alliance Leader, if the Elder Hall or the other Pavilion Masters heard that, they would have a fit. Please restrain yourself.”
“…….”
When had Jegal So-myeong ever cared about what they said?
After briefly questioning that to himself, Hyeok Mu-gang let out a small sigh.
There was plenty of time left anyway, and there was no guarantee that Jin So-un would continue working only in the Mantongbu.
He thought that if an opportunity arose at any time, he could bring it up again then.
Once his thoughts had been settled that way, he felt that he could now slowly discuss Jin So-un.
“What was your impression, Grand Strategist?”
“He is, quite simply, a talent perfectly suited to the Mantongbu.”
“I understand. I will not mention the Alliance Leader’s Hall, so please speak calmly.”
Though he was over sixty years old, Jegal So-myeong had been fidgeting like a child afraid that his precious toy might be taken away. Now, he also nodded calmly.
“It was no coincidence that he passed the Murim Regular Exam in first place.”
Some people said that Jin So-un had merely been lucky and used his crafty mind to steal the top position.
Moreover, that perception was also one of the main reasons why they currently could not acknowledge Jin So-un’s position as representative.
“He probably had that much martial power, so he was able to unfold his schemes freely.”
According to Jegal So-myeong’s calculations, if Jin So-un had wanted to, he would have been fully capable of passing the Murim Regular Exam alone without anyone’s help.
However, he had taken the Murim Regular Exam while leading all of his junior brothers and companions, and amid that, he had even taken the top position.
That was precisely the point Jegal So-myeong coveted about Jin So-un.
“Great martial power and deep schemes. He is a talent who will become a pillar that leads the Murim Alliance in the future.”
When it came to astonishing martial power, Yong So-ah already existed.
However, perhaps because of his innate background and talent, Yong So-ah had never felt the need to display deep schemes.
Of course, when it came to astonishing schemes, Maeng Ju-won already possessed them.
However, Maeng Ju-won’s schemes could not be properly unfolded because of his weak martial power.
The Murim Alliance, which had already become an enormous political arena, had turned into one vast battlefield.
One had to move those who possessed the tangible power known as martial arts by using all sorts of justifications.
If that could not be done properly, then only a future of fragmentation remained for the Murim Alliance.
“It may be fine for now because no enemy is visible right before our eyes, but if the Demonic Cult appears, the Murim Alliance in its current chaotic state will not be able to defend against it.”
There were many people who could devise strategies.
However, even within the Murim Alliance, one could count on one hand the number of people who possessed enough political power, background, schemes, and martial power to push those strategies through.
In particular, there was no talent like Jin So-un, who was not biased toward any one faction.
“For now, his lacking point should be considered his background.”
From only Jegal So-myeong’s fragmentary words, Hyeok Mu-gang had already seen through what Jegal So-myeong wanted from Jin So-un and what Jin So-un lacked.
“The Mantongbu and the Alliance Leader’s Hall alone will not be enough, will they?”
At Hyeok Mu-gang’s words, Jegal So-myeong nodded.
“If the strength of his sect is not substantial, Jin So-un’s range of action will be narrow.”
“It would be best to support the Taeul Sect, then.”
“Direct support would only arouse the suspicion of others. Moreover, if they learn that the Alliance Leader’s Hall and the Mantongbu are supporting Jin So-un, they are not people who will stay still.”
The Alliance Leader’s Hall and the Mantongbu were the direct organizations of the Alliance Leader and the Grand Strategist respectively, and they were the institutions with the greatest authority within the Murim Alliance.
Considering that the Righteous Path Association and the Orthodox Path Association were both trying to expand their influence over those two institutions at the same time, if the conversation between the two of them leaked out now, the vested-interest forces might try to eliminate Jin So-un by any means possible.
“I will think of a way to support the Taeul Sect through the Mantongbu.”
“And does he not need someone to look after his martial arts training?”
“…….”
The most important issue at present was precisely Jin So-un’s martial arts.
For some reason, even though he possessed a terrifying amount of inner arts reaching three cycles, he had not shown that he could properly respond to Sword Force.
“The Taeul Sect has never produced a master of Sword Force until now. It is likely because, after recovering the Taeul Sword Emperor’s secret art, he has trained alone all this time.”
“……Hmm.”
Even if one encountered a Fortuitous Encounter, if there was no one to set one straight, it would take far longer to walk the path of a master.
Considering that the only master of Sword Force currently at the Murim Academy was the Academy Head, it meant that Jin So-un would have to train alone, just as he had before.
“Roughly how should we view his level?”
Hyeok Mu-gang was even thinking about dispatching one of the Shadow Warriors to teach Jin So-un.
In truth, Hyeok Mu-gang did not need Shadow Warriors, and he thought that by the time Shadow Warriors were necessary, the Murim Alliance would already be as good as finished.
“Would it not be fair to see him as slightly below Yong So-ah or Il-myeong?”
“Hmm…….”
Jegal So-myeong was someone who focused more on letters than martial arts, and Hyeok Mu-gang had kept such a great distance that he had not been able to observe in detail how Jin So-un fought during those fleeting moments of the martial duel.
“Shadowless.”
Before Hyeok Mu-gang’s words had even finished, the man who had fought a martial duel with Jin So-un appeared between Hyeok Mu-gang and Jegal So-myeong.
“What do you think?”
“…….”
“You fought martial duels against Yong So-ah and Il-myeong as well, so you should be able to know his approximate level.”
“When I fought Yong So-ah, I was the one who brought out Sword Qi first, and when I fought Il-myeong, Il-myeong was the one who brought out Fist Qi first.”
“Oh……. Then he is at Yong So-ah’s level?”
“He seems to be on a slightly different track.”
“A different track?”
“Yes. Yong So-ah’s realization and attainment themselves are high, whereas Jin So-un felt as though his sense for battle was outstanding. He freely used the objects around him, and there were times when he used the words he tossed out casually to confuse my mind.”
Jegal So-myeong, who had been listening to Shadowless, asked,
“Then if you had to choose which of the two would be more difficult to spar with?”
“……Of course, it would be Yong So-ah.”
Jegal So-myeong nodded as if he understood.
However, at that moment.
“But if I had to choose the one I would not want to meet on a battlefield, I would choose Jin So-un.”
“……?”
“……!”
Shadowless continued speaking calmly.
“If Yong So-ah’s sword is a sword that proves his own strength, Jin So-un’s sword feels as though it has only one purpose: to kill the opponent.”
“……So he pursues efficiency over empty formalities or honor?”
Somehow, that felt very much like Jin So-un.
Hyeok Mu-gang asked Shadowless gently,
“Then which among you would be best to send as his martial arts teacher?”
“…….”
Shadowless did not answer for a long while.
Then, just as he was about to answer.
Suddenly, Shadowless’s face turned deathly pale.
“What is wrong?”
“I-I apologi……”
Shadowless, who had been about to launch himself away with those words, retched and vomited blood.
While Shadowless, startled that he had vomited blood in such an important place, wiped it away in a flustered manner, Jegal So-myeong and Hyeok Mu-gang also looked at him with shocked eyes.
“……Is that because of your spar with Jin So-un?”
After hesitating, Shadowless answered.
“……Yes. I was trying to manage my internal injury, but you suddenly summoned me……”
“……You foolish man.”
“…….”
Shadowless was the captain of the Shadow Warriors of the Alliance Leader’s Hall.
Hyeok Mu-gang and Jegal So-myeong could not begin to gauge who they should secretly attach to Jin So-un as his martial arts teacher.
Just when I thought I could finally get up, I ended up lying sick in bed for two more days because of the martial duel with the man from the Alliance Leader’s Hall.
I had no internal injuries, but because I had moved so violently, muscle pain had spread through my entire body for the first time in a long while, so even moving was a distant prospect.
I had moved so violently that even Qi Circulation and Breathing did not easily shake off the fatigue.
Still, it was not an absolute loss.
‘Should I take this to mean that I am at the level of the Shadow Warriors of the Alliance Leader’s Hall?’
According to Sim Hyeon-gak’s records, the Shadow Warriors of the Alliance Leader’s Hall could only act as Shadow Warriors after achieving at least the eighth star in the Tiger Spirit Divine Art, a secret heart method passed down only among them.
Moreover, considering that he had even used Sword Force, he was at least at the Peak realm.
I could think of myself as having reached roughly that point as well.
“Still, I never thought Ten Thousand Swords would be able to block Sword Force.”
The secret ultimate art of the Taeul True Scripture was clearly the Ten Thousand Seas Heaven-Earth Sword Formula, but the reason I had not used it properly until now was that my attainment in it had been sluggish, and its efficiency was extremely low.
While the Twin Heaven Sword Formula could toy with the opponent’s gaze through dozens of illusion swords, the Ten Thousand Seas Heaven-Earth Sword Formula had to face the opponent with fewer than five blades of Ten Thousand Swords.
Moreover, the amount of inner arts it used was immense, so if I used it carelessly, there was a risk that my Dantian would be emptied.
“Still, at this level, it is plenty worth using.”
From the standpoint of someone who did not know what he had to do to reach Sword Force, it was quite a difficult situation.
The members of the previous Dragon and Phoenix Assembly, including Yong So-ah, would all be able to use Sword Force, and even among the current academy students, people who could use Sword Force would appear.
If it truly did not work out, I had even considered visiting the Namgung Clan or the Murong Clan to receive separate instruction.
“I had no idea it had this kind of power.”
But now that I knew Ten Thousand Swords could respond to Sword Force at least to some extent, I could worry a little less about Sword Force.
After I had formed a plan to a certain degree, I looked toward one corner of the room.
There, a half-burned log as thick as my thigh stood by itself.
“I don’t know why he suddenly changed his mind.”
I had asked the Grand Strategist to give me the Demon-Subduing Divine Wood in exchange for taking part in the martial duel.
However, that should have been when I won the duel or, at the very least, when I drew.
It was not supposed to apply when I had been thoroughly defeated.
“Did something good happen to him all of a sudden?”
People said Jegal So-myeong was a man of perfect calculation who thoroughly kept his word, but perhaps that was not entirely true.
At the very least, instead of being made into the signboard of some nameless sect, it was now planned to be made into protective talismans, so would that not save at least several dozen more lives?
After resting for two more days like that, I resumed my academic schedule.
Namgung Seon-hwa, Seong Mo-ran, Hong Sa-ryeon, and on top of that, for some reason, even Eun Seol-ran joined in and poured out scolding about why I had pushed myself so hard, but at least it felt better than seeing Jegal So-myeong when I woke up.
The atmosphere at the academy had changed greatly.
Even though I entered the lecture as usual, for some reason, more eyes were watching me.
If before they had ignored me or looked at me as if I were a cow or a chicken, now there were more people looking at me with an indescribably strange gaze.
As I sat in a suitable empty seat and prepared for the lecture, I heard the conversation being shared beside me.
“They said we’re going to Sichuan for the external practicum.”
“Sichuan? If we’re going somewhere, we should go to Beijing or Nanjing. What is there to see in Sichuan?”
“Who knows? They said something happened in Sichuan during the Regular Exam…… Apparently, they’re sending us partly to investigate that.”
In the Murim Alliance of my previous life, they thought the incident that happened in Sichuan during this Regular Exam had been caused by remnants of the Unorthodox Path.
Thanks to that, while sending the academy students of the Murim Academy for an external practicum, they sent them as investigators as well, only for more than half of the academy students to meet gruesome deaths after encountering the Corpse-Mountain Blood Cult, which everyone thought had disappeared.
‘So it ends up like this after all?’
Even though I had changed a lot of the past, there were aspects where the larger currents did not change much.
In any case, if the encounter with the Corpse-Mountain Blood Cult would not change, I needed to move up the Mount Heng Sect’s invitation event a little.
As I listened to their conversation without realizing it, my eyes met theirs.
They were not people who usually looked at me with particularly displeased gazes, so I was about to avoid their eyes out of annoyance, but then something strange happened.
“Is your body all right?”
“……?”
For a moment, I thought there was someone else behind me and turned around.
However, their gazes were still fixed on me.
“We were quite worried.”
“You really did something incredible.”
Perhaps they felt awkward because I gave no answer at all, for they nodded somewhat stiffly and then returned to their own conversation.
What in the world had happened?
“Because of the Righteous Path Association incident, the evaluation of Young Master Jin has completely changed.”
At Seong Mo-ran’s words, I tilted my head.
“What do you mean?”
“Because you risked your life to step forward in a matter that not only the academy students belonging to the Righteous Path Association, but even the Elders did not rashly step into. When you came out looking like a ruined man, there were even academy students who burst into tears.”
“Ah…….”
It seemed pushing myself had produced a good effect.
“That does not mean you should do something like that again.”
“Ahem. Yes. But is the atmosphere not a bit strange for it to be merely that their favor toward me rose?”
“……The people from the Righteous Path Association who were expelled were not members of the Nine Sects and One Gang.”
“Hahahat.”
In the end, three academy students were expelled as the ringleaders of this incident, but among them, there had not been a single member of the Nine Sects and One Gang.
Something had probably been exchanged internally, and since they had accepted it, those people had taken the burden upon themselves and stepped back. However, outsiders did not view that sight very favorably.
“To begin with, claiming that the conspirators were not members of the Nine Sects and One Gang is like It is as transparent as covering one’s eyes and meowing.”
“There is that aspect to it.”
Moreover, because of the members of the Righteous Path Association, the time limit of the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation had run out. At the same time that the Soul-Destroying Formation, which had remained intact for a month, disappeared, the people who were originally supposed to enter the Soul-Destroying Formation ultimately never got to enter it.
In any case, because of that incident, it seemed the current turmoil within the Righteous Path Association was not settling easily.
Taking advantage of that gap, the Orthodox Path Association and the Twelve Peak Citadels continued trying to recruit members of the Righteous Path Association.
“Tsk, tsk. They really are working hard at things that will all be useless anyway.”
“Yes? What is?”
“Nothing. By the way, when are the others coming?”
Because I had worried them by entering the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation, they told me to treat them to a proper meal, and I obediently nodded.
During the Murim Regular Exam too, I had felt as though we had never really spent a comfortable time together among ourselves.
“They’re coming over there. But…….”
In the distance, Namgung Seon-hwa, Hong Sa-ryeon, Eun Seol-ran, the Gold-Silver-Copper Brothers, and even Murong Jae-hwa were all coming, but Seong Mo-ran slowly lowered the hand she had been waving.
“…….”
It was because a man with a shaved head was coming along behind them.
“I somehow feel as though I have become an uninvited guest.”
“…….”
Il-gak spoke with a gentle smile, but no one answered him.
“I cannot tell you how relieved I am that Benefactor Jin came out of the Soul-Destroying Formation safely.”
At Il-gak’s words, wrinkles began increasing one by one on the brows of the group.
Not wanting him to ruin the good mood, I cut off his words.
“I do not think we are in a situation where we can speak this warmly with one another. How about you get to the point?”
“…….”
Il-gak flinched, and just as his face was about to twist, he once again wore a benevolent smile.
“The Elders of the Righteous Path Association have formally invited Benefactor Jin.”
“……!”
“……!”
Everyone present looked at Il-gak with shocked eyes.
