Chapter 106
Chapter 106
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 106
Chapter Title: We Should Start Too
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A secluded manor not far from Nine Dragons County.
On the roof of that place, abandoned for over a decade and overgrown with weeds, the North Sea Sect Leader sat.
“Hey, Ghost Valley Leader.”
“Yes. What are your orders, Sect Leader?”
Behind the North Sea Sect Leader, who was silently gazing at the sky, the air rippled as a man appeared.
Gaunt build. Corpse-pale complexion. A face difficult to distinguish as male or female.
It was the Black Bone Death King, leader of the Black Bone Ghost Valley and known as the North Sea Sect Leader’s right-hand man.
“Do I seem like a cold-blooded man who’d casually discard even his own child and family to achieve his goals?”
A glint appeared in the Black Bone Death King’s eyes.
It was the first emotion the North Sea Sect Leader had revealed since descending from the Heavenly Mountains.
Cold-blooded.
In truth, no word fit the North Sea Sect Leader better.
His path thus far had proven exactly that.
Forty years ago, he betrayed his blood brothers to claim the throne. Six years ago, he betrayed his lord to seize power.
Today, he abandoned his son to escape a looming crisis.
Every step he took for power reeked of blood.
Were the Black Bone Death King not an ice spirit, he would have fled his side long ago.
For he too could be discarded at any moment.
Yet the North Sea Sect Leader, who had never once shown a hint of wavering, now did so—and it felt strangely unfamiliar.
Gu Min-chae’s funeral rites had just concluded.
Could even a man whose emotions seemed utterly severed still falter before his child’s death?
The Black Bone Death King pondered his response for a moment.
Then he nodded.
“I’ve heard that the path of cold blood is the true way of the North Sea Ice Palace.”
“Correct. In the barren North Sea, devoid of all else, the logic of power is the only banner one can raise to survive.”
The North Sea Sect Leader let out a light chuckle.
It was an eerie laugh.
“I am no different. To survive, one must seize power above all. And to do that, one must tread only the selfish path.”
The Black Bone Death King breathed a quiet sigh of relief inwardly.
He had given the right answer.
Had he rashly feigned empathy...
He couldn’t even imagine the consequences.
‘Damn it.’
The Black Bone Death King clenched his teeth.
In this way, the North Sea Sect Leader always tested lives.
“I have never once regretted the path I chose. For at its end lay only victory and glory.”
Crack.
His grip tightened fiercely on the wine cup in his hand.
The very cup used at Gu Min-chae’s funeral.
“This time will be no different. Min-chae—that child’s death will serve as fine fertilizer for me! Fertilizer to rebirth me as an Apostle... and then as Cult Leader!!”
The Assembly currently had a vacancy in the Seventh Apostle position.
The previous Seventh Apostle had vanished for unknown reasons while pursuing the Divine Sword Heavenly Demon.
With ties to the Blood God severed, the Assembly deemed him dead.
Some speculated the Divine Sword Heavenly Demon had regained consciousness and slain him, but the poison that felled the Heavenly Demon was potent enough to threaten even Apostles, so the theory was swiftly dismissed.
Yet the Seventh Apostle’s death remained irrefutable reality.
Fierce competition now raged for the seat.
The leaders of the five sects aligned with the Assembly coveted it most intensely.
Becoming the Seventh Apostle meant supremacy over the other sect leaders.
It was tantamount to claiming the throne of the new Heavenly Demon Cult Leader...!
The Assembly’s members might scoff at such talk.
With the Demonic Cult fully under the Assembly’s control, what need was there for its leader’s seat?
But not for the five sect leaders.
They—and their ancestors before them—had devoted their lives to the Demonic Cult.
Claiming the Cult Leader’s seat would fulfill their sects’ lifelong aspirations.
That was precisely why the North Sea Sect Leader had declared himself the vanguard of the Central Plains invasion.
None could object if he presented the Dark Lord’s head.
And should he further receive the Blood God’s blessing, his realm might transcend even the saintly bounds.
Ascension to the pinnacle all martial artists coveted would be within reach!
“Thus, we must prove it. That our Blade Demon North Sea Sect—no, the North Sea Ice Palace—truly possesses the right to rule as masters of true evil.”
The North Sea Sect Leader slowly rose to his feet.
Powder...
The wine cup crumbled to dust and scattered.
At the same moment, all emotion drained from his face once more.
Expressionless.
He resembled a corpse frozen solid.
“The Demonic Cult’s history is one of persecution, and we of the North Sea have endured a pitiable legacy of surviving endless blizzards and biting cold. That grudge shall now resound across the martial world.”
Thud!
The North Sea Sect Leader leaped down from the manor.
The Black Bone Death King trailed him like a specter.
“Chant the sorrow of those who starved to death in hunger.”
Woooo...
From behind the Black Bone Death King emerged the Yellow Bone Dirge, intoning a mournful song.
A funeral dirge.
“Pour the liquor. That the limbs of those who perished frozen beneath snowdrifts might thaw, even slightly.”
Next came the Green Bone Unreturning of the Twelve Black Ghosts, spilling sacrificial wine across the ground.
“Erect the altar. Offer tribute to the Central Plains filth who banished us to that frozen wasteland of hunger long ago.”
As expected, the Blue Bone Mourning Priest appeared and recited the sacrificial ode.
Its mumbling deepened the dirge’s pathos.
Sss...
The remaining Twelve Black Ghosts followed, along with the Flying Ghosts and Minor Earth Ghosts, advancing in step.
The procession resembled one bearing a coffin to its grave.
Spirit lanterns, soul banners, coffins of dread.
A roadside rite unfolded amid the march.
Kieee!
Grooo, grooo...!
“Soothe our ancestors’ grudges. Proclaim our return to this land.”
The North Sea Sect Leader’s pupils gleamed with chilling light.
* * *
「...The North Sea Roadside Rite? It’s eerie every time I see it. Even a dead soul like me gets chills.」
Onma shuddered, watching the North Sea Sect’s rite from afar.
Among the Nine Great Sects, the Blade Demon North Sea Sect boasted the most alien traits.
Its pre-departure ceremony was notoriously unique; demonic artists who witnessed it felt as if they’d attended their own funeral, coming to dread the North Sea Sect.
「Still, what’s your take on witnessing your own funeral? Something no ordinary soul ever beholds.」
Onma’s gaze then shifted rearward.
There stood Gu Min-chae.
His hollowed eyes remained locked on the North Sea Rite, unmoving.
‘He’s deeply shocked, it seems. Well, who could blame him? He sacrificed himself willingly, only to return scorned entirely.’
To Unhwi’s persuasion to betray the North Sea Sect Leader, Gu Min-chae had offered one condition.
‘Father... I want to hear the Sect Leader’s true heart.’
Unhwi could have tortured him but instead assented, attaching Onma separately.
Information wrung from torture paled against truths spilled from the heart.
Onma knew not what specific words Gu Min-chae sought from the North Sea Sect Leader.
But one thing was clear: he hadn’t heard them.
The resentment pooling in his eyes grew ever thicker.
Left as is, he might soon become a vengeful wraith.
‘To redirect such grudge with mere words. Truly, the Young Cult Leader is exceptional.’
Onma waited silently for Gu Min-chae to respond. Only after a long pause did he turn away.
Toward Unhwi’s position.
* * *
“...Hah, this is rich. Looks like I’ll have to retract what I told that rascal of a brother.”
Among the seats reserved for major figures sat the Dark Lord, Tang Ye-yuan, and representatives of the Green Claw Guard.
The Dark Lord let out a wry chuckle while observing Unhwi’s duel with the Lion Blade King.
Upon first hearing of their match, he’d thought it mere amusement.
He had confirmed Unhwi’s growth firsthand by granting him opportunities.
He also surmised why the Lion Blade King risked tarnishing his reputation for this duel.
‘The Sword Emperor—that busybody—must have given him an earful.’
Peak realm masters paradoxically often possessed ‘narrow’ vision.
One might expect lofty perspectives from their heights, yet obsession with martial pinnacles forced eyes upward, shrinking their field of view.
Overweening pride in their stations left no room to glance elsewhere.
The Lion Blade King was a textbook case.
His tunnel vision barred him from martial heights.
The Blue Sky Sword Emperor was the widest-hearted among the Ten Great Masters.
He could not have overlooked it.
Amusingly, the Lion Blade King had heeded the counsel.
Defeat and inferiority usually bred pointless stubbornness at that stage—yet here he acted decisively.
Even addressing Unhwi as brother bespoke a worthy vessel.
Thus, the Dark Lord had attended this duel as fleeting diversion before facing the North Sea Sect Leader and inaugurating the Western Alliance.
Yet contrary to expectations, it transcended mere entertainment.
Evidently, the Lion Blade King had grasped something from the traces he left on Unhwi.
And Unhwi—that boy—had shown astounding growth in mere days.
‘Not content to merely assimilate what I bestowed, he’s expanded it vastly beyond? Hah!’
Mastering high-grade yin energy at such youth was feat enough; now he unleashed yang qi too, unleashing overwhelming might.
Bolstering the flesh with yin while projecting yang outward to amplify destructive force—even in the Dark Lord’s eyes, the method seemed profound.
He balanced the precarious equilibrium exquisitely, wielding yin-yang dual qi with effortless freedom.
His qi manipulation and control surpassed what any youth should achieve.
‘Enlightenment alone keeps him from breaching Absolute Peak, but in raw combat power, he already stands shoulder-to-shoulder with them.’
Tang Chu-yong’s bold boasts from the banquet flitted through his mind.
‘Utterly fearsome.’
‘That boy will become a gale. He might even shatter the Alliance!’
‘The new Storm Wind Division Leader belongs to him alone.’
The Dark Lord chuckled wryly.
‘I should’ve realized it when that boy praised him so fervently.’
Tang Chu-yong, scarred from childhood, was notoriously stingy with praise.
To proclaim so assuredly meant utter conviction.
‘Your judgment of character outshines mine.’
This forced him to reassess from the outset.
Was excluding Unhwi from new Storm Wind Division Leader wise?
By current prowess alone, he still fell short of Sichuan’s top later-generation talent.
‘Yet his growth is unparalleled. He strengthens by the day—who knows his level next encounter? At this rate, matching shoulders with Cheol-san the Iron Mountain lies soon ahead.’
Skill alone, of course, did not suffice for Storm Wind Division Leader.
What the Dark Lord prized most in Unhwi was separate.
‘Indomitable fighting spirit.’
Unhwi’s radiant intensity now reached even here, fiercely palpable.
That fervor seemed to mirror his very soul.
“Hmm...”
The Dark Lord murmured softly, glancing aside.
Tang Ye-yuan’s gaze remained riveted on Unhwi, unyielding.
A thick emotion flickered in her eyes.
Rivalrous zeal.
He turned to another section of seats.
There was Lee Cheol-san.
The youth he had long marked as successor burned with equally fierce competitive fire.
The Dark Lord pressed his lips into a thin line.
Myriad thoughts swirled in his mind.
‘Moreover, that fighting style feels all too familiar. Don’t tell me...!’
The Dark Lord’s black pupils trembled sharply for a fleeting instant as he regarded Unhwi.