Chapter 570: To Henan. (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 570: To Henan. (4)
Snow fell, cold and silent.
He remembered the young man cradling a woman as pale as the drifts upon a canvas of white that had begun to blanket the earth.
He remembered the scattered pools of blood and the young man breathing quietly amidst the carnage.
It was a memory belonging to the old man who had been watching him.
[My boy.]
The old man called out to the youth.
At the sound of his voice, the young man slowly raised his head. His crimson hair swayed, revealing eyes of a deep, dark red—so red they mirrored the blood staining the frozen ground.
Looking into those eyes, the old man felt an involuntary, chilling shiver run down his spine. He suppressed the sensation and spoke again.
[Isn't this enough…?]
His voice was tinged with a hint of desperation.
[Stop now….]
[…What do you mean…]
The young man cut him off, his voice low.
[What do you mean, "enough"…?]
As he spoke, the young man tightened his grip on the woman in his arms.
[Nothing is enough.]
[My boy!]
Fwoosh!
[…!]
The moment the old man tried to take a step forward, an intense pillar of flame erupted toward him.
However, the fire never reached its mark. Someone had grabbed the old man by the shoulder and yanked him back.
[Are you trying to get yourself killed? Get a grip!]
[…Lord of the Hwangbo Clan.]
The man was the head of the Hwangbo Clan, the Lord of the Fist of that generation. He pulled Drunken Beggar Woo Bong back and roared at the red-haired youth.
[Heavenly Dragon…! You audacious whelp. How dare you hide such power…!]
His voice boomed with authority, yet the young man didn't even flinch. He remained silent, his cold, sunken gaze merely scanning his surroundings.
An intense heat, utterly unbefitting of winter, radiated from the youth. In stark contrast, his gaze remained as frigid as the season itself.
[How utterly laughable.]
[What?]
The Lord of the Hwangbo Clan narrowed his eyes. [What did you just say…?]
[The sight of you all, gathered here just to take away a single woman. It is truly laughable.]
His voice was devoid of emotion, which only made it feel more like a sharpened blade.
[And you still dare to call yourselves the Orthodox Faction?]
[You bastard…!!]
The Hwangbo Lord’s face contorted with rage. [You know better than anyone that she is no ordinary woman!]
He pointed a thick, trembling finger at the woman in the youth's arms.
[I can understand being bewitched by a beautiful face and losing your mind. But to protect that monster…!]
[Monster?]
[…!]
Shudder!
A primal chill raced down the Hwangbo Lord’s spine. He instinctively recoiled, taking a step back. By the time he realized he had been intimidated by the young man's sheer presence, the veins on his neck were bulging with humiliation.
[You… you damned brat…!]
His pride was wounded. The fact that he, a master, had been startled—even for a second—by such a whelp was unacceptable. Just as the Hwangbo Lord was about to unleash his Combat Qi, Drunken Beggar Woo Bong stepped in.
[That’s enough.]
[Drunken Beggar Woo Bong!]
[You were the one who told me to get a grip, yet here you are, losing yours to rage.]
[…Grit.]
At the warning, the Hwangbo Lord ground his teeth, barely managing to restrain his temper. Seeing this, Drunken Beggar Woo Bong turned his attention back to the young man.
[Do you truly have no intention of letting her go?]
All he had to do was let go of the woman. If he did, this cruel confrontation would end, and peace would return. Everyone present knew this truth, including the young man.
But his answer remained unchanged.
[That was never an option for me to begin with.]
[My boy….]
[I have heard that the Alliance's creed is built upon righteousness and chivalry.]
Unlike his battered, exhausted body, the young man's voice was firm. It had been steady from the start, and it did not waver now.
[I do not know what those things are. Therefore, I cannot presume to know the Alliance's creed.]
The young man, a member of the Orthodox Faction, claimed ignorance of its core values. Drunken Beggar Woo Bong didn't react; he simply waited for the youth to finish.
[However,] the young man continued, [I may not know your creed, but to me, protecting what must be protected is righteousness. That is my chivalry. That is my justice.]
The wind howled, swirling with snow, but the flakes melted and vanished before they could even touch him.
[To be unable to protect the woman in my arms is to lose my conviction. To me, that is no different from death.]
The air began to distort—an illusion born of the scorching heat radiating from his body.
[If you wish to strip me of my conviction, then by all means… try.]
He stood before a sea of troops, a gathering of legends whose names echoed throughout the Central Plains. The aura emanating from this man, who had barely reached his thirties, was utterly alien.
[I…]
It would have been natural to be terrified. It would have been understandable to collapse from exhaustion. But the young man did not falter.
[…will not let you take anything from me.]
He chose to stand against the entire world.
* * *
The memory remained vivid in the old man's mind, perhaps because the shock of it had been so profound.
‘He was an audacious one.’
Few remembered the events of that day. Of the many who were present, most were dead, and the survivors had likely buried the memory.
[I hope you will all forget what happened here and live on.]
At the end of that brutal melee, the young man, drenched in blood, had made that declaration. Drunken Beggar Woo Bong was one of the few who remembered, and he was one of the few who remained indebted to him.
If one were to ask why it was a debt, the logic was simple.
‘Because no one died.’
Despite the chaos, everyone present that day had kept their lives. Even if the Sword Venerable had intervened on the young man's behalf later, that truth remained.
Furthermore, the young man had taken full responsibility. As per their contract, he diligently carried out the Alliance's orders. When his service ended, he returned to his clan, assumed the duties of the Lord, and vanished from the public eye. He never set foot in the Central Plains again.
The young man became a middle-aged man, and before long, the world forgot his name. If one wondered how such a legend was so easily erased, it was because he had wished for it—and Drunken Beggar Woo Bong had spent years pulling strings to ensure it stayed that way.
A long time had passed, leading to the present.
“Hohol….”
Stepping out of the residence, Drunken Beggar Woo Bong let out a soft laugh.
“He really is his father's son.”
The conversation he’d just had was quite amusing. The boy was the spitting image of the young man from his memories. It was an unfortunate resemblance in many ways, but a resemblance nonetheless.
“Though the daughter doesn't seem to take after him much.”
The girl said to be the Sword Queen's disciple didn't resemble the father. If she looked like anyone…
‘She takes after her mother.’
The woman who had been held in those arms all those years ago.
Swoosh.
Drunken Beggar Woo Bong stroked his stomach. He could feel a powerful lock fastened within his dantian—the seal he had placed upon himself inside the room.
‘Hmm.’
He wondered if he had overdone the dramatics, but he didn't truly mind. His life was nearing its end anyway; he had nothing left to hoard or save. He was simply entertained.
‘His looks are a carbon copy, and he clearly inherited the talent. But he possesses a cunning his father lacked.’
Unlike his father, who would smash through any obstacle with brute force, the son seemed to know how to navigate around a wall instead of breaking it.
‘It’s a frightening thought.’
Overwhelming talent was already a handful. How much more fearsome would he become if he paired that power with strategy?
Drunken Beggar Woo Bong smiled, recalling the boy's expression. While playing dumb, the boy had unhesitatingly revealed a hidden "awl" when pressed—a blade sharp enough to pierce at a moment's notice.
‘I don't know what that boy is hiding.’
But he hoped this encounter would make the youth more vigilant. That was the old man's true wish.
‘Because I don't think I can manage it much longer.’
It was becoming impossible to hide the boy's story. It had grown beyond a scale that Drunken Beggar Woo Bong could conceal, no matter how hard he tried.
‘Especially if there are unknown factors involved….’
With the mission entrusted to him by the Alliance Leader and this recent incident overlapping, the Drunken Beggar no longer had the luxury of time. He had been hiding Gu Yangcheon's existence at the request of the Lord of the Gu Clan, but he could see the end of that deception approaching.
That was why he had given Gu Yangcheon a warning. To be vigilant. To act cautiously.
‘The Heavenly Demon, was it?’
The mysterious figure who had attacked Wudang.
Remembering the report, Drunken Beggar Woo Bong looked back at the residence where Gu Yangcheon remained. After a moment, he shook his head.
‘No, it can't be.’
Since Gu Yangcheon had been involved in an incident involving Dawn, the thought had crossed his mind that the boy might be connected to the Heavenly Demon. But he dismissed it immediately.
Hadn't the Sword Queen said it herself? The being known as the Heavenly Demon had surely reached the Transcendent Realm.
‘And the physique doesn't match.’
She had described a tall man, nearly seven cheok. Although the situation was unfolding strangely, the Drunken Beggar concluded that Gu Yangcheon had no connection to him.
And if, by some miracle, he was connected?
‘It will be revealed eventually. Hohol….’
The Beggar’s Sect's information network was absolute. He would find the truth during the investigation. For now, he could only hope that the boy and that monster were unrelated.
* * *
The moment Drunken Beggar Woo Bong left, I stood there staring blankly, completely dumbfounded. In my hand was the snack he had given me.
“…Haa.”
I looked at the treat for a moment before carefully setting it on the table.
“What was that all about?”
Seriously, what was his angle?
Drunken Beggar Woo Bong had been speaking as if he were interrogating me, only to hand me a snack and vanish. I thought he was going to drop a bombshell, but he just… left.
What on earth did he want? I had no idea.
“…Should I consider this a win?”
Not really. It wasn't that I had outsmarted him.
‘It's more likely he chose to let me off the hook.’
It was more accurate to say he had let it slide. Or perhaps…
‘Was it a warning?’
That was a distinct possibility. I know you’re up to something. So, stay quiet. That could have been the subtext.
‘Then what the hell was the rest of it?’
No matter how much I racked my brain, I couldn't decipher his intentions. Did he really let me off just because he owed my father a debt?
‘Considering he showed me the seal he placed on himself, it might be true.’
Whatever the case, this was no time for complacency. This was the Leader of the Beggar’s Sect, not some random elder. The bottom line was that I was now on his radar, and that was going to make acting in the shadows much more difficult.
‘He doesn't seem to have noticed anything else, though.’
It seemed he didn't realize I was the one who attacked Wudang, which was a massive relief.
‘…Though I can't be 100% certain.’
He could very well know and be playing a long game. I needed to make preparations.
‘I managed to slip in the Demonic Qi.’
The amount was small and subtle since I had to do it right under his nose, but I should be able to make use of it. As for the rest…
‘I'll have to get those guys moving.’
I needed to utilize people who were far more specialized in this kind of information warfare than I was. My head was starting to ache as the web grew more tangled. But then again, using my brain wasn't supposed to be my primary job.
‘Since that bastard is here too.’
With that thought, I stood up. There was no point in overthinking it further.
“…Hoo.”
For now, I had to move fast.