Chapter 253: Identity of the White Wolf Swordmaster
Chapter 253: Identity of the White Wolf Swordmaster
Guangdong Province, Joju.
Seonwoo Jin and Jin So-eun ran like the wind and were able to arrive at Bonghwang Mountain in Joju, located northeast of Shantou Port.
Jin So-eun had been stealing glances at Seonwoo Jin, who seemed lost in thought the entire way here, and carefully broached the subject.
"Jin Tae-do won't be able to pursue us, right? And what do you plan to do from now on?"
Seonwoo Jin gave her a gentle smile and answered.
"Realistically, pursuit should be impossible. We fled before they could even disembark from their ships. We didn't leave any particular traces behind, so unless they've marked us with tracking incense, they'll have no way to follow. And we'll be heading toward Unso Port in Fujian Province. If we go there, perhaps...."
Seonwoo Jin stopped mid-sentence and abruptly looked toward the south.
It was a short while after Jin So-eun sensed someone approaching from that direction.
Shhhhiik!
A moment later, someone came racing through the forest like the wind.
A face covered in unkempt hair and a wild beard, the age indeterminable, with a pure white Snow Wolf Sword that clashed with his ragged clothes — it was none other than the White Wolf Sword.
He landed lightly in front of the two, carrying the limp Myo A-ran on his back.
Seonwoo Jin watched him with a complicated gaze.
Then the man avoided Seonwoo Jin's eyes and set Myo A-ran down on the ground as he spoke.
"Fortunately, her heart wasn't pierced, but it's still a fairly serious wound. Her abdominal organs were injured. She'll need careful treatment over time."
Just as he said, Myo A-ran's condition didn't look good. She didn't seem to have lost consciousness, but her face was pale as a sheet of white paper, and she was drenched in cold sweat.
But Seonwoo Jin, after glancing at her briefly, asked the White Wolf Sword.
"What happened, Squad Leader Ma Yu-gyeom?"
That was it.
He was Ma Yu-gyeom.
Ma Yu-gyeom, the son of Ma Won-ung, the former sect leader of the Jeomchang Sect, and the maternal grandson of the Blood Demon Jeon Mu-gwang.
The very Squad Leader Ma Yu-gyeom of the Fourth Squad who had cast a suggestion on Dang Yeo-eun, attempted to violate her, failed, and fled from the Flying Dragon Thirteen Squads.
He had appeared here in a beggar's disguise, holding the Snow Wolf Sword.
Hearing this, Ma Yu-gyeom smiled bitterly and answered.
"Squad Leader, huh... It's a title I haven't heard in a long time. To think I'd meet you, Seonwoo Jin, of all people, and hear that title again."
***
A short while later, the four of them entered a remote, abandoned temple located on the midslope of Bonghwang Mountain.
Even setting aside Myo A-ran's condition, they needed a place to rest comfortably.
Only after they lit a small campfire inside to raise the temperature and administered emergency first aid to Myo A-ran's wounds was Seonwoo Jin able to hear the past story from Ma Yu-gyeom.
Ma Yu-gyeom began his story, staring into the campfire with hollow eyes.
"After I fled from you and her, I suddenly realized that I had done something insane and that I was no longer in my right mind. Probably because of the Blood Cult's secret techniques that I'd been learning, too...."
Seonwoo Jin listened quietly to his story.
Even back then, he had already guessed that Ma Yu-gyeom's mind would have been broken from learning the Blood Cult's techniques.
Because before all that, though arrogant, he had been a fine squad leader of the Flying Dragon Corps who knew how to uphold a certain degree of chivalry.
Perhaps after the great shocks—the fact that the Blood Demon was his maternal grandfather, and the heinous acts his own sect, the Jeomchang Sect, had committed against his mother—he had been unable to help himself and had fallen apart.
"At that moment... I realized that I could never go back to how I was before. Not as a member of the Flying Dragon Corps, nor as a disciple of the Jeomchang Sect."
After that, he said he had walked east without any destination.
Because he wanted to go somewhere far from the frontlines, no matter where.
He smiled emptily and said.
"I wanted to die. But... ridiculously, I couldn't bring myself to end it. So I just kept walking. After walking for a long time like that, the place I came upon was a small seaside village in Guangxi Province."
And that village, as was common for Southern Sea villages those days, was being plundered by the pirates of the Hainan Sect.
The moment he saw that sight, Ma Yu-gyeom was able to realize why he hadn't been able to take his own life....
"I... wanted to die as someone useful, at least in my final moments. At least at the moment of death. Seems I felt my life was too unfair to die as such a piece of trash."
Ma Yu-gyeom smiled emptily again after saying that.
Back then, Ma Yu-gyeom had fought truly desperately to protect the villagers.
At that time, the naval force plundering the village included many warriors, including peak-level masters, while Ma Yu-gyeom's body was completely covered in grievous wounds, yet he did not retreat in the slightest.
As if he didn't value his life at all, he fought like a crazed demon and was ultimately able to defeat the pirates and save the village.
Ma Yu-gyeom, having gotten to that point in his tale, abruptly looked at the pure white Snow Wolf Sword and continued.
"At that time, I received this Snow Wolf Sword from one of the villagers. They gave it to me as repayment for saving them, saying it was a sword they'd fished out of the sea a few years back."
Hearing that, Seonwoo Jin could roughly deduce the situation.
It seemed that the White Tiger Sword, which had vanished when Jin Tae-do assaulted the family head of the Hainan In Clan, In Gye-un, over ten years ago, had—for whatever reason—been discovered by a fishing village resident in its original Snow Wolf Sword form, stripped of its broken and dismantled White Tiger ornaments.
And after a long time, the Snow Wolf Sword that the villager had kept had ultimately ended up with Ma Yu-gyeom, who had saved him.
It was a truly strange twist of fate.
Ma Yu-gyeom closed his mouth after saying that much.
But Seonwoo Jin felt he could guess what happened afterward.
Seonwoo Jin asked him.
"You've been learning the Snow Wolf Sword Technique?"
Then Ma Yu-gyeom abruptly looked at the White Tiger Sword Seonwoo Jin was holding, then again at the long object wrapped in cloth protruding from his pack and said.
"That must be the Mukrang Sword? Didn't they say the Mukrang Heart Method was created by imitating the Heavenly Demon Divine Art?"
It was a counter-question that was no different from an answer.
Knowing the existence of the Mukrang Heart Method was no different from saying he had broken the seal of the Snow Wolf Sword.
Seonwoo Jin felt he could infer what kind of life Ma Yu-gyeom had lived after obtaining the Snow Wolf Sword.
Hadn't Seonwoo Jin himself risked his life three times for the sake of others before solving the secret of the Mukrang Sword?
The fact that Ma Yu-gyeom had already broken the seal and was learning the Snow Wolf Sword Technique and the Snow Wolf Heart Method, despite having obtained the Snow Wolf Sword later than Seonwoo Jin, could only mean that he had risked his own life countless times for others.
'Perhaps his wish to die as a useful person is what made him able to do so.'
The two men said nothing for a long time.
And Jin So-eun, seated next to Seonwoo Jin, could only watch the heavy atmosphere between the two.
After a long silence passed, Seonwoo Jin abruptly asked Ma Yu-gyeom.
"What will you do now?"
At that question, Ma Yu-gyeom chuckled and muttered.
"Do... you ask. Wrong question. Well, first I intend to fight the Hainan Sect. If, after killing Jin Tae-do, I happen to still be alive... then I'll have to think about it again."
Seonwoo Jin understood what he meant by saying the question was wrong.
Because it seemed his goal was not to live.
His goal was probably just to die as a useful person.
Understanding this, Seonwoo Jin couldn't think of what to say to him.
Then, for the first time, Ma Yu-gyeom asked Seonwoo Jin a question first.
It was a question he spat out with great difficulty after a long hesitation.
"Is she... is Yeo Eun... doing well?"
From the moment he used the term 'she' without mentioning a name, Seonwoo Jin could tell exactly who he was asking about.
And for that very reason, a surge of rage flared up within him.
Seonwoo Jin looked at him with sharp eyes and said.
"I never imagined you'd have the nerve to ask about her."
Hearing that, Ma Yu-gyeom smiled bitterly and avoided Seonwoo Jin's eyes.
"I was just curious."
Seonwoo Jin spoke firmly to him.
"Yeo Eun and I have pledged to marry."
Ku-kung!
Those words brought a great shock to everyone present.
Not only Ma Yu-gyeom, but Jin So-eun, and even the weakly lying Myo A-ran, looked at him with startled eyes.
But Seonwoo Jin, paying no heed whatsoever to the gazes of others, looked straight at Ma Yu-gyeom with furious eyes and continued speaking.
"So no matter what kind of life you have lived all this time, Ma Yu-gyeom-dangshin, and no matter how much you have repented for your wrongdoings, I cannot forgive you. And above all, I absolutely cannot permit you to even speak her name."
Ma Yu-gyeom then asked in a trembling voice.
"You... were promised in marriage to her?"
His pupils shook restlessly as he asked this, like a small boat caught in a typhoon.
***
Ma Yu-gyeom trudged aimlessly along the forest path.
His head felt as if it would burst from the chaos.
'That bastard... was promised in marriage to Yeo Eun?'
Ma Yu-gyeom had long lived a life akin to that of an ascetic monk performing arduous penance.
He had always left his physical body in states of cold and hunger, never once pursuing comfort.
It was hard, but he could endure it.
Because living that way at least put his heart at ease.
But the moment he heard those words from Seonwoo Jin, for the first time since leaving the Flying Dragon Corps, countless emotions filled and disordered his mind.
Longing for her, regret and revulsion at what he himself had done, and even murderous intent toward Seonwoo Jin...
Ma Yu-gyeom could not possibly remain seated there.
So he had simply answered Seonwoo Jin that he understood and rushed out of the hall.
But even with that face no longer visible, the chaos in his head did not subside.
'Her? Dang Yeo-eun, promised in marriage to someone? Is that even possible?'
He simply could not understand.
The her he knew was an ice goddess, a haughty flower atop a cliff who never gave her heart to anyone.
That she would whisper love to someone was something Ma Yu-gyeom could never imagine.
No — perhaps he simply did not want to imagine it.
A thought suddenly occurred to him.
'Could it be... because of me? Because I tried to place the suggestion on her back then?'
The suggestion art had definitely succeeded at that time.
It was only that Seonwoo Jin had ended it — she had certainly fallen under the suggestion.
'Did that bastard Seonwoo Jin do something to her while she was under the suggestion? Something she couldn't escape from?'
In truth, that was exactly what Ma Yu-gyeom himself had been trying to do to her at that time.
But precisely because of that, the thought occurred to him that another might have done the same.
Suddenly, fury and murderous intent surged up.
'He dared do such a thing to her... and then he's with another woman?'
The short-haired woman who had been with Seonwoo Jin earlier and the face of Myo A-ran, said to be Inparang's betrothed, flashed through his mind.
Neither was quite Dang Yeo-eun's equal, but both were considerably beautiful women.
The bastard dared claim he was promised in marriage to Dang Yeo-eun while amusing himself with other women.
But Ma Yu-gyeom, having thought that far, shook his head fiercely.
'No, no. The bastard, Seonwoo Jin, is different from me. Didn't he always fight for others at the risk of his life even back when his skills were nothing special? He wouldn't have done such a thing.'
Ma Yu-gyeom tried to control the uncontrollably surging killing intent and fury.
Then he stopped in his tracks and let out a deep sigh.
'And... even if the bastard did such a thing, what right do I have to punish him? What right does someone like me...'
A deep sense of emptiness once again assailed his body and mind.
Ma Yu-gyeom could realize that this last thought was the correct answer.
He did not know what Seonwoo Jin had done to her, but whatever he had done, he himself had no right to speak of it.
'Heh heh heh.'
A hollow laugh suddenly escaped him.
It had been an instinctive act, but leaving that bastard seemed to have been the right thing.
Because he himself was nothing more than a wild beast wandering, seeking a place to die.
But even as he thought this, Ma Yu-gyeom could no longer take a step forward.
For some reason, not a single step would move.
That was when it happened.
Whiiiish! Tak!
Suddenly, six swordsmen landed before him.
Their movements were as unified as though they were a single person.
"!"
Startled, Ma Yu-gyeom belatedly assumed a defensive stance.
No matter how disordered his mind had been, he could not believe that he had failed to notice six people approaching right before his eyes.
Ma Yu-gyeom quickly scanned those who had landed before him.
They were six elderly Taoists, all appearing to be past middle age.
Every single one was a formidable master who seemed to be at minimum transcendent peak level, and Ma Yu-gyeom also realized that their attire was all uniform — white martial robes with blue hero headbands.
'Hengshan Sect?!'
That was it.
They were martial artists of the Hengshan Sect. Ma Yu-gyeom could not have known this much, but they were precisely the Pa Cheon-jo the Six Harmony Swordsman, the Hengshan Sect's mightiest force.
Among the Six Harmony Swordsmen dispatched by the Hengshan Sect leader, Honam First Sword Wi Jeong-guk, to capture Inparang, Pa Cheon-jo had been the first to arrive at this location.
Ja Seong-jin-in, the squad leader of the Pacheon Third Squad, gazed briefly at Ma Yu-gyeom's White Wolf Sword before opening his mouth.
"A wolf ornament. I was told the bastard carried a white sword adorned with a white tiger. It seems I was mistaken."
He asked Ma Yu-gyeom with an arrogant expression.
"Have you seen a man called Inparang around here? He is said to carry a pure white sword adorned with a white tiger and to travel with a woman with short hair like a man's."
"...Inparang?"
Ma Yu-gyeom instinctively realized that the person they were looking for was Seonwoo Jin.
He had already heard rumors that he was antagonizing the Hengshan Sect, after all.
Ma Yu-gyeom surveyed the six Taoists, one by one.
All of them were masters who appeared to be at the transcendent peak level, and seeing how the expressions of everyone except the one who had spoken to him were frozen rigid like dolls, he could instinctively sense that they possessed something beyond mere martial skill.
'And these types are targeting Seonwoo Jin, you say?'
A bloody smile suddenly spread across Ma Yu-gyeom's face.
***
At the same moment.
Jin Tae-do, the Hainan Demon Sword and sect leader of the Hainan Sect, was pursuing Seonwoo Jin with only twenty of the strongest warriors among the Naval Force's martial artists.
"This way, sect leader!"
They were now running along a mountain path, following a white fluffy cat.
The cat, which because of its excessively thick fur looked like nothing more than a ball of fluff from the outside, paused briefly to sniff, then bolted forward without hesitation.
Jin Tae-do, frowning for a moment, asked his subordinate.
"Can we not go a little faster?"
His subordinate answered with an apologetic expression.
"I-I'm sorry. Baek Ah's speed is limited to about this much. She is usually so fond of eating..."
Jin Tae-do let out a sigh at his answer and nodded.
"Understood. Instead, let us minimize our presence as much as possible and proceed."
It was nowhere near the speed he wanted, but Jin Tae-do decided to be satisfied with the fact that he would absolutely not lose those bastards.
The cat called 'Baek Ah' tracking the scent ahead was a cloud cat, a spirit creature living on Hainan Island.
The people of the Haenam Sul Family knew how to capture and tame cloud cats, which were as intelligent as humans and never lost a scent once picked up.
Moreover, the scent the cloud cat was now tracking was the Thousand Li Tracking Incense that had been administered to Myo A-ran.
Thinking just in case that a situation might arise where he would have to hand her over to Inparang, Jin Tae-do had already secretly mixed the Thousand Li Tracking Incense into her food beforehand.
'I thought it was just a precaution, but I never imagined it would actually be useful.'
When the White Wolf Sword had tried to rescue Myo A-ran, it had not been a mistake that Jin Tae-do's subordinate had failed to kill her.
It had been prearranged that if a situation arose where she had to be let go, she was to be wounded.
It was to slow down Inparang, who would have to carry her while she was injured.
Jin Tae-do ground his teeth as he recalled the bastard's face.
'Inparang, this time I will finish you for good.'
Completely unnoticed by Seonwoo Jin, the Hainan Demon Sword Jin Tae-do and his subordinates were closing in on him moment by moment.