Chapter 77: Natural Enemy (2)

“Do you truly think so?”

“Yes.”

“...”

“I’ll say this up front—it isn’t because he saved my life.”

“I know. You may be a thunder-naked brat, but you can judge matters for yourself.”

“...Is that a compliment?”

“In truth, if this were a usual matter I wouldn’t even ask. My children owe a debt of life. When a benefactor is put in a tight spot, helping is only human.”

“Then please help him, quickly.”

“If it were a usual matter.”

“That’s why I’m telling you—he is absolutely not that kind of person.”

“I trust your eye. But the matter has grown too large.”

“The Ming’s conduct is excessive. Even if he truly had done it, how can they send experts to escort him off without any proof?”

“Excessive. And he’s a scion of one of the Seven Great Clans besides. But the Ming have the power. If the rumors are true, their rashness deserves ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) censure, but you cannot do anything to the Ming.”

“Exactly! First we have to urge the Ming to refrain from violent action. Like you said—he’s a scion of the Seven Great Clans. This won’t do.”

“It won’t. But you know why this father cannot step out aggressively.”

“...”

“That young man named Yeon Hojeong... has gone too far. It would have been better to be seized by the Ming. But he inflicted injuries on the Ming’s experts.”

“When they drew blades to seize an innocent man, of course he had to fight!”

“At this point, the reason doesn’t matter. It’s blades bared to kill each other. It has become a war between the Yeon Clan and the Ming.”

“...!”

“For now, neither side has the pretext to pour in full force. It’s a knife’s-edge standoff on a perilously thin line. But the instant either side brings out a solid pretext that no one can deny, one of the two houses will not escape extermination.”

“Extermination...”

“And the side exterminated will, nine times out of ten, be the Yeon.”

“...!”

“I am a Clan Lord. As a father I ought to help our benefactor, but as head of a house I must not move rashly. Our main line has weakened as it is. We must be all the more cautious.”

“...”

“So you go.”

“Sir?!”

“Your younger brother is outstanding, but he doesn’t yet have your flexibility. I must also attend the Grand Assembly. So you go, and personally aid our benefactor.”

“C—can I really?!”

“You cannot.”

“Then why...?”

“As Clan Lord, and as your father, I want to stop you. But as one of the orthodox who follows righteousness and chivalry, I understand your heart.”

“...”

“Go. Do as your heart tells you. If you believe that is the right road, stake your life on that choice and show the spirit of an orthodox warrior.”

“...Thank you, Father.”

“Don’t say that. I am a wretched father who hasn’t secured even one measure of my daughter’s happiness.”

“...”

“You will see the Namgung Clan Lord at this Grand Assembly. I’ve put it off until now, but I don’t think I can any longer.”

“I understand you, Father.”

“I’m sorry. I... have nothing else to say.”

“It’s all right. I truly am all right.”

“I’ve notified Eun Hakrim. Go with him.”

“Yes! I’ll be back.”

****

Fwoooosh!

The wind was cold.

Though summer was nearly here, the weather was unusually chilly today. After a few days of this chill, the real heat would begin.

Walking along the official road, Ga Deoksang thought:

‘We sure ran here fast.’

His eyes took in the Azure Hawk Squad drawn up in a ring.

And, within it, a single large axe planted like a tower.

‘Truth is, I was a little uneasy. From the moment I took that request.’

Yeon Hojeong had asked him for three things.

First, the movements of the outer-river martial world.

Second, all information on Mo Yonggun’s youngest brother, Mo Yongwu.

Third, the existence of the Death Swords the Ming were raising.

When you handle information and dig into people, you eventually gain a certain ability—

The ability to sense the order of importance. Put simply, your eye for the big picture sharpens. It’s akin to quickening of intuition.

When he saw the list Yeon Hojeong asked him to investigate, Ga Deoksang knew at once.

‘The first and second requests matter, yes. But they can wait. The third is different.’

The Death Swords the Ming were secretly cultivating.

That was what Yeon Hojeong wanted to know immediately. And once he told him about that, Yeon Hojeong’s reaction was, as expected, ferociously intense.

‘That’s when it hit me. I’m probably going to be tangled up with this lunatic in something nasty.’

Ga Deoksang grinned.

He’d called him a madman and worse, but the truth was he’d enjoyed being with Yeon Hojeong.

It wasn’t a situation to enjoy, and yet he did. The reason was simple: it was the first time he’d rampaged like this together with someone.

And because it was for righteousness and chivalry, he liked it all the more.

For Yeon Hojeong it was probably not chivalry but revenge.

Shing.

“Who goes there.”

One of the Azure Hawk men asked, sword half-drawn.

There was no way he wouldn’t know who he was. And yet he asked as if facing someone suspicious—meaning the Azure Hawk were keyed to a razor’s edge.

“I am Ga Deoksang, the Rear Beggar of the Beggars’ Union. I’ve come to see your house’s Great Young Master.”

Just then—

“Make way.”

Tak!

The Azure Hawk swordsman sheathed at once and stepped aside. A path opened through a segment of the circle.

Ga Deoksang walked the opened path in silence.

‘Sharp.’

The gazes of the swordsmen watching him on both sides were nothing short of murderous. It felt as if hundreds of blades were slicing him all over.

Do not provoke them. In this state the Azure Hawk would cut even a high monk of Shaolin.

“You’re here?”

Ga Deoksang looked at the axe.

The axe, its haft sunk a full two feet into the earth, stood perfectly upright. A heavy battlefield weapon of eighty catties, yet its balance was so true it could be fixed in place.

Ga Deoksang looked at Yeon Hojeong.

His complexion was decent. For someone who had fought enemies from the same spot for over two days, he looked far too intact.

Ga Deoksang snorted.

“Look at the blood on that axe. Having the time of your life, aren’t you?”

“My body feels stiff.”

“Blow it out your nose. Why did you fight? Did you forget every part of the plan we made?”

“I didn’t forget.”

“If you were going to crack skulls, you could’ve sent word first. What is this? I’m the only one who looks like a fool.”

“Sorry. I had no time to send word.”

“Fine excuse.”

“Haha.”

In the end, Ga Deoksang couldn’t help but smirk. Seeing an uncharacteristically sheepish smile on Yeon Hojeong, his pent-up feelings blew away.

“Oof—let me sit too.”

Plopping down beside him, Ga Deoksang looked toward the Ming.

Three hundred experts had formed ranks just over fifty zhang away. It was the White Dragon Army.

“I’ve set the beggars on it. Told them to gather every scrap on the Ming.”

Yeon Hojeong smiled.

“I trusted you would.”

“Save it. Who knows what we’ll get tangled in next, but if you pull this again, I’m not giving you even a sip of soup. I’ll just turn tail and run.”

“Understood.”

“Anyway, I thought you’d be out there with blood flying, but it’s quiet.”

“They’ve no need to dispatch troops indefinitely.”

“When did the White Dragon Army get here?”

“The White Dragon Army?”

“The ones entrenched there. You didn’t know?”

“I didn’t. They’ve been arriving since the evening before last.”

“They haven’t charged?”

“They’ve kept sending certain experts. But those haven’t moved.”

A flash crossed Ga Deoksang’s eyes.

“Dangerous.”

Yeon Hojeong smiled.

Truly, Ga Deoksang’s eye was exceptional. With only a rough sketch of the situation, he could see the essence of this fight.

“With all eyes on us, it’s hard to move a battle unit like the White Dragon Army. One-on-one duels are fine; if those move, it becomes war.”

“Exactly.”

There was no world in which the Azure Hawk watched the White Dragon Army advance. Countless people would die; then both sides’ pretexts would evaporate.

“In other words, the instant they move is the moment it becomes all-out war.”

“Exactly so.”

“They won’t move easily. The current standoff is a sheet of black ice. Without a decisive reason—a pretext no one can deny—they absolutely cannot move.”

“True.”

“Nor will they dispatch a household elder.”

“A matter of prestige.”

“Exactly.”

Yeon Hojeong was the Yeon Clan’s eldest son. In a place under such scrutiny, an elder-tier master popping out would be beneath their prestige—behind the scenes, maybe, but not here.

“In short, they’ve played every card they can play.”

Ga Deoksang cast him a sidelong glance.

Every card short of sending a household elder? That meant Yeon Hojeong had single-handedly withstood all the experts just beneath the Ming’s senior core.

It was formidable. The admiration that rose was not as an orthodox man, but as a martial man.

“At your age, how did you turn into a monster?”

“I’ve a very long way yet.”

“Ugh, insufferable.”

“Haha.”

Ga Deoksang sprawled on his back.

“Since it’s come to this, let’s keep an eye on the currents and get some proper rest.”

“Why rest here, of all places?”

“We’re a community of fate, aren’t we? My showing up alone will make the Ming move more cautiously.”

“That’s true.”

Ga Deoksang said nothing about Lee Cheolgyung’s presence or the other presence coming up from Longzhong Mountain in Hubei. It wasn’t yet certain.

Beyond the White Dragon Army, Yeon Hojeong looked up at stalwart silhouettes rising like pillars.

‘I can see them.’

When he first arrived here, he couldn’t. But now he could.

His basic ocular power had risen. Even without drawing up inner force, his sight had sharpened.

‘I see them clearly.’

His Black Tortoise Qi and White Tiger Qi had been tempered far more than two days ago. That was why he could see.

Yeon Hojeong recalled the handful of battles he’d fought over the last two days.

‘They all trained fake Four Spirit Arts.’

Even for Yeon Hojeong, he could not use the Dark Emperor’s insight to handle them all at once.

The reason he could still defeat the Ming’s experts alone lay in the arts he himself had trained—and in the very nature of the arts his opponents had trained.

‘Did he call it the Pure-White Martial Corps?’

Ming Chisan.

The man he’d faced in the bamboo grove had not trained a fake Four Spirit Art. The Ming still had plenty of such experts.

However—

‘Now it’s fine.’

Experts on that level—any who came were fine.

His Black Tortoise Qi had grown explosively. And to match it, his White Tiger Qi was autonomously seeking its own growth.

He now was a completely different person from two days prior. If the opponent was someone whose art derived from the Four Spirit Arts, then even a super—peak expert, he could face.

That was Yeon Hojeong as he was now.

The Ming had dispatched experts to seize him, but those experts had instead become the detonator that advanced his martial arts.

He feared no one. At least, not anyone from the Ming.

Yeon Hojeong closed his eyes.

A cool wind tickled his ear.

“The wind is good.”

Three days later.

“Is today the day of the Grand Assembly?”

“Already?”

“Tell me about it. Time flies, flies.”

Thrum-thrum-thrum.

“Huh? What’s that?”

Ga Deoksang cocked his head.

“Why are they withdrawing?”

Yeon Hojeong, too, was puzzled. In the present state, the White Dragon Army had no reason to pull back.

Just then—

“Hm?”

Ga Deoksang pricked up his ears. He was listening to a transmitted voice.

Moments later, his face went steadily pale.

Yeon Hojeong frowned.

“What is it?”

Ga Deoksang looked back at him.

“Your Clan Lord just set off a bomb.”

“My father?!”

“He threatened the Ming Clan Lord! To protect you!”

Ga Deoksang relayed the content of the letter to Yeon Hojeong.

Anxiety colored his face.

“Damn it, the board just tilted! Now we can’t predict how the Ming will move!”

“I understand.”

“Huh? Understand what?!”

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes deepened.

“I understand. How the Ming—no, how the Ming Clan Lord—will move.”