Chapter 53
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Victory Over Evil Sword
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“Thousand years, thousand years, thousand thousand years. This subordinate humbly pays respects to the Leader.”
After performing six deep bows, tears streamed endlessly from the old man’s eyes as he raised his head.
“Uhahat! Uhuhuhu… Uhhe….”
Kneeling on his knees, Maenghwak wailed for a while in sounds that could have been sobbing or laughter. At last, he stood up.
Standing straight, his height was not short, and the muscles of his upper body still curved beautifully.
“Have you come to retrieve what you entrusted to me long ago?”
At Maenghwak’s question, Seonwoyong slowly nodded.
“Now, I intend never to let it leave my hand until the day I die.”
Maenghwak trembled at those words from Seonwoyong.
The old man stood speechless for a time, deeply moved, then slapped his forehead.
“This old subordinate must be losing his mind with age. To keep my lord waiting like this. Please, come this way.”
He picked up the Heaven-Defying Blood Rod and headed to the small yard behind the smithy.
Three trees stood there.
Maenghwak gathered his inner energy for a moment, then swung the Heaven-Defying Blood Rod at the paulownia tree on the left.
Boom! Ziiing….
Striking the tree with the iron rod caused both the rod and the tree to vibrate fiercely.
And after a short while, the leaves of the tree, swollen with midsummer moisture, slowly withered.
Just like on a late autumn day, the yellowed, dried leaves fell away in the passing breeze, and the tree quickly lost its vitality.
Seonwoyong nodded and offered a word of praise.
“Indeed, you’ve kept it well.”
“I followed the precedent set long ago by Gan Jiang and his son Chi. There seems to be no better way to preserve a famed sword.”
Mumbling to himself, Maenghwak swung the Heaven-Defying Blood Rod again, striking the middle of the paulownia tree.
The tree, already drained of life, crumbled to dust from the point of impact.
The section was pulverized, and the upper part of the tree toppled and fell.
A wondrous sight unfolded before their eyes.
Inside the crumbling stump, the hilt of a sword was revealed, thrust straight downward.
Seonwoyong gazed at it for a moment with a complex expression, then finally grasped it with his hand and drew it out.
The entire length of the sword, rippling with a sword-blue light, was just over three chi.
Of that, the hilt was a full chi long, leaving the blade at barely two chi. There was no guard separating the blade and hilt, and the blade’s width was less than one cun.
Yet as soon as it touched Seonwoyong’s hand, the sword suddenly began to hum.
Ziiing… Ziiing… Wooong….
“Yes. Have you been well? I’ve been well, too.”
Seonwoyong smiled as if speaking to a living child, responding to the sword’s cry.
It appeared simple and plain at first glance, but its sword-blue energy was divine. The blade gleamed an intense azure.
Maenghwak watched in rapture for a moment, then hurried into the smithy and emerged carrying an iron rod just over two chi in length.
It was coated in verdigris, revealing it to be made of copper.
Maenghwak respectfully offered it up to Seonwoyong with both hands.
Seonwoyong took it, examined it this way and that, then thrust the sword in his hand through the top of the iron rod.
The copper rod was the sword’s scabbard.
Once the sword was sheathed inside the copper rod, no sword was visible—it was simply a copper staff.
The handle portion was sword-blue, while the bottom remained bronze.
“This subordinate has kept Victory Over Evil as commanded and now returns it. May you triumph endlessly alongside Victory Over Evil for a thousand thousand years.”
That sword’s name was Victory Over Evil.
In ancient times, over two thousand years ago in the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, the legendary master smith Ou Yezi had forged five famed swords.
Pure Dew, Giant Breach, Victory Over Evil, Fish Guts, Pure Hook.
Among those five famed swords, the whereabouts of Victory Over Evil had been a complete mystery—and its owner was none other than Seonwoyong, the man who had once been known as U Cheonso.
As Maenghwak greeted him with a relaxed face, as if his duty were complete, Seonwoyong slowly nodded.
“Now, let’s talk. I have much to say, and much to hear, so let’s go. We can’t do it without a drink or two, can we?”
A short while later, Maenghwak, having draped clothes over his bare upper body, closed the smithy’s makeshift door at the entrance and followed behind Seonwoyong.
Seonwoyong lightly carried the copper staff, but the heavy iron rod was nowhere to be seen in Maenghwak’s hands.
Instead, he began shuffling along, leaning on a five-chi wooden staff wrapped tightly in rattan bark.
Unexpectedly, the two arrived at Lanzhou’s most famous pleasure house.
This place, called Moonlit Tower, was the highest-class establishment that only the wealthiest elite of Lanzhou would dare enter.
“Of all places, here… This place is quite pricey, you know? Do you have some money on you?”
“Heh heh… Do you think I’d walk around without even enough for a drink? It’s been sixty years since I last reunited with you like this.”
“Heh heh… Then I won’t hold back today. I’ll drink and play to my heart’s content.”
“Exactly. Have at least two courtesans sit on either side of you.”
“It’s a fine treat in your old age, but my lord, what incredible fortune have you come across to….”
“It just happened that way. Let’s have a round first, then talk slowly.”
As the two approached Moonlit Tower chatting amiably, two gatekeepers standing before the firmly shut main gate stepped forward.
“What brings you two? If you have business, go around the wall there—there’s a small door.”
The gatekeepers hadn’t even dreamed that a plainly dressed scholar and a shabby old man in tattered clothes could be patrons here.
Without a word of reply, Seonwoyong tossed a silver tael to each of them.
Then, as if it were the most natural thing, he issued an order.
“Prepare the Room of Ten Thousand Joys here at Moonlit Tower. Last time, the ambiance there was quite fitting. I don’t know if it’s still the same.”
The two gatekeepers blinked at Seonwoyong’s words.
The Room of Ten Thousand Joys was Moonlit Tower’s most luxurious guest chamber, reserved for only the highest VIPs, with a base cost of at least fifty gold taels for a day of food, drink, and entertainment.
The gatekeeper belatedly came to his senses and bowed at the waist.
“We failed to recognize you, young master, and greatly offended you. It’s still morning, so preparations might not be complete, but please, come in.”
He flung open the large gate, which had been tightly shut.
The woman rose from her bed and hurriedly washed her face, applied makeup, and dressed.
At her side, the maid who had brought word of guests in the Room of Ten Thousand Joys fidgeted impatiently as she attended her.
“They don’t seem like martial artists.”
“Yes. The steward said there are no traces of wagering or signs of training in martial arts. However….”
“However, what?”
As the woman asked while biting a crimson rouge paper with her lips, the maid tilted her head.
“Of the two, one old man is covered head to toe in scars, and they’re all visible because his clothes are so ragged. Strangest of all, that hunched old man was politely kowtowing to the fresh-faced young master.”
“Hmph. Martial artists, then. Masters of great skill. Go ahead and tell them to serve with utmost caution. I’ll be there shortly.”
The maid hurried from the room at her command. The woman gazed at her reflection in the mirror before her and muttered.
“Who could they be? Lately, masters have been streaming toward Dunhuang, so they’re probably headed there too. In any case, I’m quite looking forward to this. If they’ve reserved the Room of Ten Thousand Joys, they’re no ignoramuses.”
Finally, the woman shook a silk pouch filled with musk against her body here and there.
Then she called out toward the outside.
“Tell them I’m coming.”
Ha Wolhyang, the owner of Moonlit Tower, stepped out of her room.
The room’s walls were adorned not with windows but with four massive paintings.
Curiously, there was one from Dai Viet, one from Tianzhu, one from Arabia, and even one from distant Joseon—each representing the nations of east, west, south, and north, hung according to their directions.
And in the center of the room sat a massive table depicting the Central Plains.
The rivers and mountains of the Central Plains were vividly rendered in inlaid woods of various colors, while major cities representing each region were marked with ivory, gold, silver, bronze, and more.
The great table was already laden with splendid dishes, and sparkling glass goblets brimmed with amber-hued spirits.
“Heh heh… I can’t even remember the last time. Fate is such a coincidence, it seems.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Seonwoyong and Maenghwak sat facing each other across the table, tilting their cups.
“Last night as I lay down to sleep, I was smacking my lips. Wouldn’t you know, I was thinking of this very liquor? I figured I’d never taste it again before I die… And then today, this happens.”
“Yes. It brings back those nights when we two sat across from each other and drained a dozen or so bottles.”
“That was probably at some seaside port overlooking Hainan Island, right? After wiping out those red-haired, blond barbarian pirates and hauling the booze off their ship….”
“That’s right. Their cannons were quite fearsome.”
The two began with tales from their distant past.
They spoke of what they had lived through since then, of what lay ahead—endless conversation.
She stood right outside that Room of Ten Thousand Joys.
Her face, full of fury, twisted with a mix of irritation and bewilderment.
The corridor where she stood stretched to a distant glass window, through which sunlight streamed lazily.
But it was not morning sunlight—it was evening.
The young man and the old man had arrived in the morning, ordered a few dishes and ten bottles of potent liquor imported from the Frankish lands at the western edge of the continent where pale foreigners dwelled.
They had told the courtesans, of course, and even the servants not to enter until called—and now the sun was setting, and they were still at it.
‘Fine, let’s see if you repel me this time, too.’