Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: The Killing Soul Brigade
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“...nim! Together...”
“Where...”
Cheonhwi withdrew from his meditation at the commotion outside and frowned.
“What’s with all this racket?”
His face full of irritation, he started to untuck his legs to stand.
“Martial Uncle!”
Jeokgeom's voice rang out right on cue.
“Elder Hyeondo has just arrived...”
Bang!
Before Jeokgeom could finish, the door flew open roughly, casting a long, massive shadow across the room.
Speak of the tiger, and it appears, as they say.
Hyeondo's eyes met Cheonhwi's as he entered.
“Cheonhwi!”
He bellowed at the top of his lungs and charged forward.
“Martial Granduncle?”
As Cheonhwi moved to get up from the bed amid the thumping footsteps.
Grip!
Hyeondo, now close, seized his shoulders and quickly scanned his entire body.
“Anywhere hurt?”
Cheonhwi narrowed his brow at the sudden concern.
“I'm perfectly fine.”
“Phew, that's a relief.”
Hyeondo patted his chest and smiled.
But only for a moment. He schooled his expression and asked cautiously in a low voice.
“Is what you wrote in the letter to headquarters true?”
“Letter?”
He tilted his head at the word.
Then he suddenly recalled something he'd buried deep in his mind and forgotten.
“Ah! That one?”
He remembered Go Goyeun mentioning sending a letter to Mount Hua Sect before.
“Probably, yeah.”
The moment he heard it.
“White Ghost Castle...! Grit, those bastards have finally bared their fangs again!”
Hyeondo glared and roared.
Growing angrier, he stomped his foot, his already fierce face twisting even more menacingly.
‘Hm?’
Beyond Hyeondo's back, someone caught Cheonhwi's eye, standing awkwardly at the threshold.
A middle-aged man in neat blue-and-white daoist robes, topped with a daoist cap.
He looked exactly like someone with “I am a Daoist” plastered across his forehead.
As Cheonhwi stared, reason returned to Hyeondo's furious eyes.
He then asked Cheonhwi, who was looking past him.
“What's wrong?”
“Who's that?”
Hyeondo made an “oh no” face and introduced the man behind him.
“Ah, I forgot the introductions. This is Ha Woojin, known in the martial world as the Flying Swallow Sword Gentleman.”
“Flying Swallow Sword Gentleman?”
As Cheonhwi tilted his head, Hyeondo hurriedly added.
“A renowned sword expert and Daoist of Mount Zhongnan Sect.”
Hyeondo's gaze softened.
Soon, he shifted from looking at Ha Woojin to Cheonhwi and worked his mouth.
“And your master's one and only sworn brother.”
Hyeondo stared at Cheonhwi.
Very few in the martial world knew Ha Woojin and Hyeon-gang had been close friends.
Pleasure? Surprise? Or doubt?
As he waited for a reaction.
“Ah, okay?”
A completely unexpected response emerged.
And why wouldn't it? Whether he was his master's friend or whatever, what did it matter?
He'd never even met his master.
‘So what am I supposed to do about it?’
As Cheonhwi stared with a look that said, “Anything else?”, Hyeondo panicked.
“You knew he was a sworn brother?”
“No.”
“Then you're not curious...”
“Senior Hyeondo.”
Ha Woojin cut in.
He shook his head at Hyeondo and said softly.
“How about we sit down and talk slowly?”
A moment later, Cheonhwi, Hyeondo, and Ha Woojin sat around the central table.
“I am Ha Woojin of Mount Zhongnan Sect.”
Cheonhwi eyed him as he stated his sect and name once more.
He immediately grasped the hidden intent.
‘Why beat around the bush?’
From observing the daoists while staying at Mount Hua Sect, that greeting was code for “introduce yourself.”
Slightly annoyed, he said.
“I'm Cheonhwi.”
Ha Woojin's expression softened.
He then gazed warmly at Cheonhwi and moved his lips.
“Yes. So you're Hyeon-gang's disciple.”
His voice carried complex emotions.
Not widely known in the martial world, but he and Hyeon-gang had been longtime friends who transcended the barriers between Mount Hua and Mount Zhongnan.
Benevolent rivals and inseparable sworn brothers.
Yet on the day Hyeon-gang died, Ha Woojin couldn't carry out vengeance for his friend.
The elders of Mount Zhongnan Sect, who had fed and raised him, had blocked him from pursuing White Ghost Castle.
His friend was important, but so was his family.
Thus, he abandoned revenge and returned to his sect, but the guilt still weighed heavily on him.
He hadn't even visited Mount Hua again, deliberately avoiding it.
‘I never imagined I'd get to see the child you took in like this.’
His bitter smile faded as his eyes grew misty.
In the past, Hyeon-gang had told him he'd brought an orphan from some village.
‘Heard he was six when you took him as disciple, and he's already grown this much.’
Time flies mercilessly, they say.
No trace of the six-year-old boy; only a fine young man sat before him.
‘I should have come to meet him sooner...’
As he sank into unique sentiment.
‘He's staring weirdly.’
Cheonhwi disliked the gaze meeting his.
That was when.
Thud.
Hyeondo drained his tea in one go, his face grave as he spoke.
“Is it true that White Ghost Castle is behind Overlord Sect?”
“Yes.”
Ha Woojin's eyes widened in an instant.
“White Ghost Castle behind Overlord Sect...?”
But Hyeondo paid him no mind and pressed on.
“I want to hear the details.”
“Details?”
Hyeondo nodded up and down.
“Sigh, what a pain... Fine.”
He'd been about to refuse, but Hyeondo's earnest expression made him sigh and recount the ambush right after arriving at North Wind Merchant Company.
“The day I arrived at North Wind Merchant Company...”
Hyeondo and Ha Woojin perked up their ears, committing Cheonhwi's tale to memory.
About thirty minutes passed like that.
The story was nearing its end.
“...And that's how it happened.”
As he wrapped up by saying he'd killed them.
“Those bastards dare touch our sect again.”
Hyeondo's fists trembled.
“They're dead set on dying!”
Uttering words unbecoming a daoist, he snorted heavily.
Likewise, Ha Woojin, who had listened, frowned.
“So Overlord Sect was a faction White Ghost Castle established to carry out their vile scheme.”
His face subtly hardened.
White Ghost Castle had been quiet lately, so not just him, but even Mount Zhongnan Sect's wariness had slackened.
It had all been a smokescreen.
‘Hiding such a despicable plot right under our noses.’
He shuddered at their viciousness.
For thirteen years, they'd kept low, while Overlord Sect pretended to be unrelated.
Thoroughly so—no one, not even him, had ever suspected a connection.
Proof came recently.
The Silver Slaughter he'd met just days ago hadn't even feigned no ties to Overlord Sect.
“Even acting the part in that situation...!”
Ha Woojin's eyes suddenly bulged.
The nagging doubt in his chest from days prior finally cleared.
“So that's why Silver Slaughter showed up right after Overlord Sect fell!”
“Silver Slaughter?”
Hyeondo grimaced at the name.
Silver Slaughter was one of White Ghost Castle's four commanders, infamous in the martial world—a man whose appearance always brought a bloody storm.
Hyeondo asked Ha Woojin.
“He came here?”
Ha Woojin nodded.
“I ran into him while searching for the culprits who wiped out Overlord Sect.”
“Sending even Silver Slaughter! They're hell-bent on finishing us off!”
As Hyeondo ground his teeth.
“Senior Hyeondo.”
Ha Woojin said with a stiff face.
“North Wind Merchant Company is in danger.”
“Danger? What do you mean?”
“If White Ghost Castle's lord knows his plan failed and Overlord Sect was destroyed, after sending even Silver Slaughter...”
He swallowed hard mid-sentence.
“He'll send even stronger foes.”
“Even stronger...”
“White Ghost Three Brigades might head to North Wind Merchant Company.”
“White Ghost Three Brigades...”
Hyeondo let out a groan.
That changed everything.
In the past, hadn't one of them caused his youngest martial brothers and the Plum Blossom Sword Guards to perish together?
“Brigade...?”
Cheonhwi cut in then.
“If you mean those guys calling themselves some brigade, they did show up the day before.”
“What?”
“Is that true?”
Hyeondo and Ha Woojin reflexively thrust their faces toward Cheonhwi.
“You know who they are?”
“Do you know what sort they were?”
“Killing-something... What was it?”
Cheonhwi frowned in thought.
The longer it dragged, the more urgent Hyeondo and Ha Woojin grew.
“Think carefully.”
“Take your time.”
“Give me a sec?”
As Cheonhwi spoke with clear annoyance and they sheepishly pulled back their faces.
“Ah!”
At Cheonhwi's reaction, as if something clicked, they immediately perked up their ears.
“Killing Soul Brigade? No, Killing Fierce Brigade? Don't quite remember, but something like that.”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than both shot to their feet.
“K-Killing Soul Brigade!”
“The Killing Soul Brigade came?!”
As Cheonhwi frowned at their ear-shattering shouts.
“The Killing Soul Brigade isn't known to the masses, but wherever they go, at least one sect gets wiped out...”
Ha Woojin muttered dazedly.
The Killing Soul Brigade was a force even Mount Zhongnan Sect couldn't dismiss lightly.
‘And they came to North Wind Merchant Company?’
A sudden doubt arose.
North Wind Merchant Company seemed far too intact for a visit from the sect-destroying Killing Soul Brigade.
“Fortunately, they only scouted...”
He sensed a disconnect mid-sentence.
There was a contradiction in his words.
‘No, that can't be. No one's ever survived seeing the Killing Soul Brigade...’
His gaze turned back to Cheonhwi.
The impassive expression didn't seem like a lie.
‘Then what happened?’
His thoughts deepened.
But rather than resolving, the questions only tangled his mind further.
Finally giving up, he asked Cheonhwi point-blank.
“...You met the Killing Soul Brigade?”
“Yeah, I met them.”
“Then they...”
“I took care of them.”
“Took care?”
Ha Woojin looked puzzled, not understanding, so Cheonhwi added bluntly for clarity.
“I killed them.”