Chapter 197

Too handsome a face.

A presence so distinct it was like someone had lit a fire behind his back, even with night having come.

Bang Cheonho, with a look like he lived alone in the world, smiled and approached the Sword Emperor.

“Have you been well—”

SHRAAAK—!

A single line was drawn beneath Bang Cheonho’s feet. Looking at it, Bang Cheonho smiled awkwardly.

“Ah, I see. Looks like you’re not in a great mood.”

“Don’t come any closer.”

At the chilly tone, Bang Cheonho raised both hands.

“Oh, of course.”

As if showing respect, Bang Cheonho took a step back.

When the distance opened, the Sword Emperor’s hand moved by the tiniest margin.

Just enough to pull slightly away from the sword. Even that much was enough for Bang Cheonho to accept it, and he nodded.

“Even after so long, you’re the same as ever.”

“And you’re one to talk.”

“Me? Well. I’m always the same. I have to be, don’t I?”

The smile deepened. Watching that smile, the Sword Emperor had to lock his movement down. He felt like he might cut him down out of irritation.

“Then.”

With his hand holding the hilt in check, Bang Cheonho spoke to the Sword Emperor.

“What did you call me for. A man as busy as you, no less.”

The reason Bang Cheonho had come all the way to Henan was because of the Sword Emperor.

A single letter he had sent. Because of that, he came this far.

“There’s something I want to ask.”

The Sword Emperor stared at Bang Cheonho with cold eyes.

The black night sky spread behind Bang Cheonho, and even the moon floating at its center.

All those rays of light poured down onto Bang Cheonho, creating a mysterious impression.

Seeing the moon makes me want to cut it.

Enduring the impulse he had felt all his life, the Sword Emperor said to Bang Cheonho.

“Do you know about Heaven-Breaking Palace?”

“.......”

Heaven-Breaking Palace.

At those words, the corner of Bang Cheonho’s eyes moved. It was infinitesimal, but not to a degree the Sword Emperor couldn’t catch.

“How much would I need to know for you to say I ‘know’?”

At Bang Cheonho’s words, the Sword Emperor’s hand moved again.

He clenched the hilt.

“Tell me how far you know.”

“Haha. Why are you doing this.”

At that, Bang Cheonho’s smile faded slightly.

“You’re someone who already knows what you know—”

SHHK.

A leaf falling beside Bang Cheonho split in half.

And a thin red line was drawn across his skin.

TRICKLE—.

A drop of blood ran down.

“Bang Cheonho.”

“Yes.”

“Does it look like I’m trying to joke around with you right now.”

“No, you aren’t. And because I know that, I’m here, aren’t I.”

“Then fix your attitude.”

The Sword Emperor spat it out like a warning, but Bang Cheonho’s expression didn’t change.

“Attitude...... attitude, huh.”

STEP.

Bang Cheonho took a step.

It was the line the Sword Emperor had drawn just before.

Bang Cheonho crossed it as if it were nothing.

“Elder, I don’t know what attitude you want me to fix.”

His voice stayed the same.

His expression didn’t change.

But the Sword Emperor felt that something had changed.

“I came all this way. At least you should make a position where we can do business, shouldn’t you.”

“.......”

“And if you won’t, are you going to cut off my head.”

As if telling him to do it if he wanted, he bared his neck.

Skin so pale and fine for a man made the Sword Emperor crease his brow.

I want to cut him.

The Sword Emperor had cut everything he wanted to cut since birth, but in his later years, there were a few things he couldn’t cut.

Among them, the most representative was the moon floating in the sky.

And the insolent bastard in front of him.

Should I cut him? He went mad thinking about it, but—

“What do you mean by business.”

What the Sword Emperor chose was not a fight.

You can’t fight this one. It wasn’t a problem of combat, but a problem of the very existence called the Bang Clan.

When the Sword Emperor took a step back, Bang Cheonho’s smile returned.

“It’s nothing much....... If you like what you hear, I was hoping you’d grant me one request.”

“.......”

It was a nasty story, but not bad.

Because the condition, if you like what you hear, was attached.

Hearing that, the Sword Emperor stared at Bang Cheonho and asked.

“Bang Cheonho.”

“Yes, go on.”

“Your son became the Sword Saint’s successor.”

“.......”

The moment talk of his son came up, Bang Cheonho’s expression changed sharply.

That handsome set of eyes twisted.

“Was it something you did, knowing something.”

Bang Cheonho’s son.

The Sword Emperor knew him well, too. The reason he was at Moon-Thread Sword’s side as a coachman was because of that brat.

“A decent one, unlike his father.”

That was the Sword Emperor’s evaluation of Bang Cheonho’s son, Bang Sungyeon.

Unlike that snake-like, worthless father, he was a decent one.

He respected elders, of course, and didn’t show any jagged behavior anywhere.

He was sharp, too, and unlike that bastard, he didn’t act using his own handsome face as a companion.

To the point the Sword Emperor wondered how such a child could be born from a bastard like that.

Along with that—

It also didn’t make sense that such a kid had become the successor of the Sword Saint, that Yoo bastard’s violent one.

That was why.

“Was it your doing.”

What if this, too, was something that bastard had done.

The Sword Emperor knew.

If that bastard only wanted it, he was a bastard who could do it as much as he liked.

If you think of the evil of the Central Plains, a hundred out of a hundred would think of the Heavenly Demon.

But if someone truly knew Bang Cheonho, they couldn’t help but know that he was no less than that.

“Haha.”

At the Sword Emperor’s words, Bang Cheonho laughed.

“As if.”

Shaking his head, he denied it. The Sword Emperor didn’t believe even that easily, but—

“......Getting tangled up in things like that is enough for a worthless father, isn’t it.”

“.......”

At the continued words, he didn’t spit anything else out.

The expression that had briefly wavered returned to normal again just as quickly.

“So, please. I’d like you to take good care of my son, too.”

“.......”

At Bang Cheonho’s words, the Sword Emperor clicked his tongue inside.

It seemed like the bastard already knew the Sword Emperor was acting as his son’s coachman.

“And this attitude anyway.”

He was in a position where he could kill his son at any time.

Even knowing that plainly, that shameless attitude.

It wasn’t that his son wasn’t precious.

It was because he was sure the Sword Emperor couldn’t do it.

“Whew.......”

Because of that, the Sword Emperor let out a sigh, steadied his breathing, then said to Bang Cheonho.

“Speak. Everything you know.”

Whether he’d grant the request or not would be decided after hearing it.

At those words, Bang Cheonho’s smile deepened beyond measure.

And he began to speak to the Sword Emperor.

*****

After the talk ended, the Sword Emperor stared at Bang Cheonho and creased his face.

It was because he didn’t like the bastard, but the information he’d spat out was the problem.

“......Is what you said true?”

“Whether you believe it or not, that’s your choice, Elder.”

The possibility that the information was false.

It wasn’t nonexistent. Words that came out of that bastard’s mouth were nine out of ten lies.

Even knowing that, the reason the Sword Emperor couldn’t judge this easily was because of the remaining one.

The one part of truth that bastard spat out.

How powerful its impact was, no one knew better than the Sword Emperor himself.

Having thought that far, the Sword Emperor closed his eyes and said.

“What’s the request?”

The request he said he’d grant if he liked what he heard.

Regarding that, he agreed.

Because it was information that wasn’t bad.

“Oh, you must like it?”

“If it’s a filthy request, I won’t grant it.”

“Ah, don’t worry. When have I ever made a request like that. Hahaha.”

“Do you really think there was never a time.”

“So, the request I’m going to make is this.”

“.......”

An attitude that he wouldn’t answer.

What should he do with that rotten snake of a bastard. The Sword Emperor didn’t know a method.

If he had, Bang Cheonho wouldn’t be able to walk alive in front of him.

“Nothing else, it’s about my son, you know?”

“First. Second.”

“The second. I have one request regarding that child.”

“Say it.”

“It’s nothing else.......”

Just as Bang Cheonho was about to say something.

“.......”

“.......”

Both the Sword Emperor and Bang Cheonho suddenly shut their mouths. As if ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ they had agreed on it in advance.

At the point where subtle silence flowed.

“Should I do it?”

“No. The younger me should go.”

As if they knew something, they traded incomprehensible words.

“Let’s talk tomorrow. I’ll come find you.”

“.......”

The Sword Emperor didn’t answer and simply moved his body. Then the Sword Emperor’s body scattered like fog.

Right after the Sword Emperor vanished like that—

“Hm.”

Left alone, Bang Cheonho looked beyond the moonlight.

“Is it time for a walk?”

He was still smiling.

But the smile had long since vanished from the corners of his mouth.

*****

SMACK! SMACK SMACK!

A man moved quickly as he ran through the forest.

Fast footwork. Judging by the speed cutting past like an arrow, it looked like he could get out of the forest before long.

“Fast.”

Even as he sprinted at speed, the man’s expression was full of urgency.

“How?”

Along with that, it was full of questions.

What in the world happened.

“It was the Sword Emperor.”

That old man.

The old man he had just seen was none other than the Sword Emperor.

How could an old man who had long since vanished without a trace be here.

“......If I hadn’t seen the sword, I wouldn’t have noticed.”

The sword the old man carried.

It was a divine weapon the Sword Emperor was said to carry.

It looked somewhat ordinary, but if you were a martial artist who had reached a certain level, you could measure it well enough.

Is that one-armed man truly the Sword Emperor.

A thought like that flickered, but—

“I have to go and report the information.”

Whether it was true or not, if it was information, it was right to pass it along. He had to go a little faster and speak to his master.

The man was cutting through the forest as fast as he could.

As he stepped on branches and gained speed, one figure surfaced in the man’s mind.

“......Then who was that man.”

The Sword Emperor aside, who was the man beside him.

A ridiculously handsome man.

Seeing him talking with the Sword Emperor, he had to be someone with something.

“I’ll report this too.”

He could just pass the information along and look into it.

The man gritted his teeth and ran.

Just as he was moving quickly, thinking he hadn’t been discovered—

“Isn’t the night nice?”

“......!!”

A voice came from right beside him.

The moment the man turned his eyes wide and looked to the side—

GRAB—!

“GACK!”

A hand shot out and struck the man’s throat.

At the rough grip, the man’s body was fixed as his throat was seized.

And on top of that—

“I can’t move......?”

Even though it was his throat that was caught, the other parts wouldn’t move either.

“What is this.”

With the sudden situation, the man filled with panic, but—

“It’s weather perfect for a walk, but by nature, night walks require caution.”

The one holding the man’s throat only smiled.

“This is—?”

He gasped in shock. The one who attacked the man was, unbelievably, that handsome figure who had been with the Sword Emperor.

“How.”

He hadn’t felt anything. There wasn’t even inner power to be felt, so he had thought he was an ordinary person.

Then.

THRUST—!

“GACK....”

Something plunged into his chest.

It was a hand.

As easily as punching through tofu, the hand pierced straight through his chest.

“Seeing what you shouldn’t see, hearing what you shouldn’t hear—you end up seeing and hearing it all.”

He clenched and tore out the heart inside.

FWOOSH—!!

Blood cut through the air.

The body with its heart ripped out fell straight to the ground.

THUD!

“.......”

Looking down at the body collapsed on the ground, Bang Cheonho tossed the heart he was holding.

TUK TUK—!!

The heart rolled across the ground.

Bang Cheonho roughly wiped the blood off his hand.

Even then, there was still a smile on his face.

“Alright, then...... should I go see my son, for the first time in a while?”

A smile that would never be erased.