Paradise's Shame (1)
Midnight had passed, and the hour of the Ox was well underway.
The once-lively streets had lost their vigor. Though the lanterns still blazed brightly, the number of people coming and going had dwindled to a tenth of what it had been.
Standing atop the tallest building on the street and looking down, Pae Yul's eyes were endlessly deep. If they're coming, they'll definitely pass through here. He idly fiddled with the short spear strapped to his back.
The cool touch of the spear shaft helped settle his mind.
"You seem troubled."
Pae Yul turned his head.
Kang Liang was slicing jerky into pieces with a dagger and chewing on it.
"Even though we come from different regions, to think someone like that would come out of a sect tied to the Nine Great Schools. Your mind must be complicated, Senior."
"Shut up."
"Ah, don't misunderstand. I wasn't saying it to upset you."
Kang Liang gave a bitter smile.
"Whenever a traitor emerges from a sect, no matter the form, it always leaves a sour feeling."
"……."
"At least the Emei Sect was fortunate. They learned of the traitor's existence before everything collapsed."
Pae Yul asked bluntly, "Are you still looking for the traitor from your sect?"
"I have to find him. But not right now."
"Wasn't it Yang Cheon who destroyed the Ghost Iron Sword Sect?"
"More precisely, it was the forces of the Black Dragon Department acting on Yang Cheon's orders."
"Same difference."
"You're right. It's the same thing. That's why I'm thinking about it. How far I should extend the scope of my revenge."
Suddenly, Pae Yul thought that Kang Liang was truly remarkable.
Despite his usual behavior, the kid was deep thinker. Kang Liang had lost his parents when his sect was destroyed, along with all the swordsmen who had been like brothers to him.
Pae Yul had never experienced such a bloody, painful ordeal. What would I have done if it had been me? If the Jeomchang Sect had been crushed by Yang Cheon's hand? And if he had been the only survivor?
There was no question. He would have charged straight into the Black Dragon Department without a care for his life and slaughtered every black faction bastard in sight.
Revenge was an act that made it difficult to consider efficiency. When people as close as family were killed by villains, how could anyone stay calm?
He wouldn't have even thought about building up his strength. He would have rushed forward and died before ever seeing Yang Cheon's face.
In that sense, Kang Liang was an incredible guy. Given this bastard's personality, he definitely hasn't been holding back all this time just because he values his life. He always gave him a hard time, but this kid was the real deal.
Suppressing extreme emotions at every moment was impressive enough, but what was even more so was that even after entering the arms of his enemy Yang Cheon, he hadn't made a single reckless move.
It was not the behavior of a hot-blooded young man who had yet to reach the middle of his twenties. Since it clearly wasn't in his nature, he must have constantly reflected on himself, suppressing and suppressing his urges over and over.
"The traitor from the Ghost Iron Sword Sect must have latched onto Yang Cheon. You can't take Yang Cheon's head right now, but couldn't you at least cut off that traitor's?"
"I can't do that."
"Why? Yang Cheon would probably understand that much, wouldn't he?"
"I doubt it. Even if he did, that traitor is no longer in Hunan."
"How do you know?"
"Yang Cheon told me."
Pae Yul shook his head.
"Seriously, I can't figure out the relationship between that man and you."
"It's not that complicated. We're simply enemies. The only difference is that I'm working to drive a blade into that enemy's heart, while he is pretending nothing bothers him to protect his lofty pride."
"How did the traitor disappear? Wasn't his betrayal motivated by some kind of reward?"
"That's a naive way of thinking."
"Hmm?"
"Before receiving any reward, he was already under threat of death. He didn't betray for gain. He betrayed simply to save his own skin."
"……."
For a moment, Pae Yul was at a loss for words.
He had plenty of experience in the gangho, but there were areas that remained difficult to understand no matter how often he saw or heard about them.
One of those was people who betrayed their sect simply because they didn't want to die.
If there had been some kind of profit involved, even if it was still despicable, he could have understood it rationally. Human greed knew no bounds, after all.
But betraying one's sect simply because one didn't want to die? That's horrifying. Even if such a life continued, what value could it possibly hold?
Could that traitor ever free himself from the heavy burden that came from his betrayal?
"He threw away the life of a human and chose the life of a beast."
"Well..."
"You don't think so?"
Kang Liang let out a small chuckle.
"Everyone lives differently. Some noble person might find such an act so vile it gives them goosebumps, but others might see it as a natural course of action for survival."
Pae Yul's eyes deepened.
"What about you?"
"It's a meaningless question."
"Why?"
"Regardless of how one views such actions, that bastard is someone I must kill. I'm neither a noble person nor someone who considers a beast's life natural. I'm simply a swordsman who lost his family and sect to the hands of his enemies."
"……."
"I don't want to attach any lofty values or excessive hatred to it. That would be an impurity."
Kang Liang sheathed his dagger.
"I will have my revenge. That's all there is to it."
Pae Yul thought to himself that this kid was already an adult.
In this regard, he seemed more mature than someone who had lived over forty years. Of course, Pae Yul had never experienced such a thing, and he hoped he never would.
After watching Kang Liang silently for a moment, Pae Yul tossed out a single line and turned his head away.
"Make sure you succeed."
"Of course. I won't die until then."
Kang Liang looked at Pae Yul's short spear.
"By the way, that spear of yours seems to be turning more and more into a demonic weapon."
"Hmm?"
"I can practically smell the blood dripping from the spear itself. It doesn't seem like something that should be in the hands of someone from the Nine Great Schools, the pinnacle of the righteous path."
Pae Yul tilted his head.
"It smells of blood?"
"That's just the feeling I get. You don't sense it, Senior?"
"I don't know. I'm a dull person, after all."
Kang Liang smiled.
Pae Yul was a rough but honest man. He wasn't the type to cling to excessive pride in his position or lie to protect his dignity.
Even in front of a junior, if he didn't know something, he said he didn't know. Because that was the truth.
He had thought this before, but now he understood why Yeon Hojeong, who was so particular about people, always treated Pae Yul with proper respect as a senior.
"Enough chatter. The time that Yeon Hojeong bastard mentioned is approaching."
"Tsk, no matter how good he is, isn't it hard to predict exactly when the enemy will move?"
"That's true. It's difficult. But isn't he the one who's been pulling off those difficult tasks one after another?"
"That's exactly why it's even scarier."
"He's the one who personally took down those high-level experts. He probably even controlled the time they would wake up."
Pae Yul looked up at the sky.
Clouds were gathering not far away.
"Soon, we'll detect unusual movement."
Pae Yul's words proved true.
One hour later.
"……?!"
Kang Liang's eyes, scanning both sides of the street, sharpened.
"Senior."
"I felt it."
"……
Fuck, these bastards look like they're going all out, don't they?"
"The elder-level figures of the Sichuan Three Powers were taken down. From their perspective, there's no way they would send half-hearted forces."
Pae Yul frowned.
"Still, even taking that into account, this is excessive."
In the distance, figures were secretly approaching from both sides of a large building, encircling the street.
They were suppressing their presence as they crossed the street, but since Pae Yul and Kang Liang had already known they were coming, they could clearly see how many there were and just how powerful their martial strength was.
"Around a hundred and fifty... about a hundred of them seem to be assassins..."
A look of disbelief crossed Kang Liang's face.
"This is insane. Does this even make sense? The remaining fifty... the martial strength I'm sensing from them is enormous. There are more than ten whose power is on par with yours, Senior. The rest could easily be considered elder-level."
While there was variation in their strength, anyone called an elder of the Nine Great Schools had to be close to the wall of the ultimate realm.
Out of the fifty experts excluding the hundred assassins, nearly forty of them were at that level. The rest were at least on Pae Yul's level.
At least, that was the impression their aura and presence gave off.
Kang Liang's eyes turned bloodshot.
"These bastards... they've rotted this much? The great leading sects of Sichuan acting all high and mighty, but they're completely..."
"No, it's not quite that bad."
"Huh?"
Pae Yul carefully observed the experts slowly advancing behind the assassins.
"All fifty of those experts are using martial arts from the Qingcheng, Emei, and Tang families."
"That's what I'm saying. If that many are traitors..."
"But there aren't many who actually belong to those three sects."
"What do you mean by that?"
"……."
"……
No way?"
"I can't be certain. The distance is too great. But..."
Pae Yul's face twisted.
"The unique color of their sects is faint. It seems most of them aren't officially affiliated with the sects, but have learned their martial arts."
The meaning of those words was clear.
It meant the traitors had been leaking their sect's martial arts for a long time and raising experts in secret.
"Crazy! Does that even make sense?"
"I don't know."
"It takes a long time to create even a single peak-level expert. Even if you select talented individuals and pour all kinds of support into them, it takes at least ten years."
"If those people's true identities aren't members of the sects, then it means the traitors have been dreaming of rebellion for at least ten years."
"……!!"
Pae Yul turned his body.
"This isn't the time to speculate about their past. Let's move."
"So that's how it is."
After hearing the report from Pae Yul and Kang Liang, Yeon Hojeong's face was particularly serious.
Hwang Seok-tae spoke bluntly.
"If that's true, then Sichuan has already rotted to the core."
It had festered to this degree without anyone knowing.
Yeon Hojeong nodded.
"What kind of past they had isn't important. What's important now is that the scale of the forces they urgently dispatched is this large."
"……."
"And the fact that such a force is coming for us."
Yeon Hojeong let out a sigh.
"Nakwonso... These people are truly no ordinary foes."
Kang Liang asked, "I've been wanting to ask since earlier—what exactly is Nakwonso?"
Hwang Seok-tae sighed.
Yeon Hojeong shook his head.
"I'll explain the details later. For now, we have to stop them first."
"Stop them? A force of that size? Wouldn't it be better to just pull out?"
"We have to uproot Nakwonso anyway. Rather than facing them all at once later, isn't it better to weaken them a bit now?"
"That's easy to say. You said there are more than ten supreme peak experts? And forty at that level. Plus a hundred assassins. Even if we win, we'll have casualties on our side."
"That's exactly why we chose this location."
Yeon Hojeong looked around.
It was the mid-slope of a wild mountain, a steep incline like a trench. It was perfect for temporarily engaging in a defensive battle.
Yeon Hojeong drew his Flood Dragon Chain.
*Chiririring!*
A terrifying energy flowed from the Flood Dragon Chain gripped firmly in both hands.
"Have confidence. Let's bury them all and move on."