Chapter 128
Chapter 128
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 128
Chapter Title: The Vanished Peak
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Nangong Hyeok spoke with eyes full of anticipation.
“I was wondering if you knew where the Last Stand Squad fought the Demonic Cultivators.”
The Hebei Peng Family had been part of that Last Stand Squad, so they might have other information.
Where the squad had fought, and where they’d hidden.
Maybe the info I knew was wrong somehow.
Peng Yeonhwa stared quietly at Nangong Hyeok.
Why was he suddenly asking about events from eighty years ago?
Her curiosity grew even stronger because it was Nangong Hyeok, who’d left such a shockingly intense impression at the gathering with the later-generation prodigies.
On top of that, he’d been utterly indifferent—bordering on bored—when they mentioned what the Peng Family Head and Young Master were scheming, but now he seemed almost proactive.
“Why are you curious about that?”
“Because I am.”
“Tell me why first, and I’ll let you know.”
Nangong Hyeok stared at Peng Yeonhwa for a moment before grinning.
She’s trying to make this complicated, huh?
“I’ve always loved tales of heroes, feats of valor, legends like that.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Right?”
Nangong Hyeok answered her, then turned to Nangong Ryong.
Crunch crunch.
Nangong Ryong, who’d been munching on snacks, widened his eyes a bit before sneaking a glance at Nangong Hyeok and giving a tiny nod.
“...That’s right.”
Nangong Hyeok continued with a satisfied look.
“Stories of heroes—not dog food. They’re fun to hear. Plus, I’m curious if it differs from what I know.”
“...”
“As an orthodox warrior, it’s only natural to wonder about the Last Stand Squad that gathered in Hebei Province. What’s so strange about that?”
Peng Yeonhwa eyed Nangong Hyeok suspiciously before speaking.
She didn’t seem to mind his casual speech slipping out naturally at some point.
“Alright. I’ll tell you what’s been passed down in our family. It’s what we heard from our ancestors. The Peng bloodline grew up hearing stories of this Last Stand Squad like lullabies.”
Man, they really didn’t have any real lullabies, huh.
Nangong Hyeok waited for her words with a faint smile on his lips.
Peng Yeonhwa began the tale anew.
“Eighty years ago, the Demonic Path rose like wildfire and chased the orthodox warriors all the way to Hebei Province. A bloody storm swept through back then, and the capital was filled with corpses and choking black smoke. You can’t even imagine the terror and despair the Last Stand Squad felt.”
“And?”
“They say even the Emperor hid in his palace, terrified of the Demonic Cultivators. Their momentum was world-shaking.”
This intro’s dragging on?
Just tell me about the mountain already!
“But the leader of the Last Stand Squad at the time, our ancestor known as the Blade King...”
“Who?”
“The great hero Blade King Peng Cheon.”
“...Blade King Peng Cheon?”
“Yes. You’ve heard of him, right? One of the Ten Great Masters of the world back then, and even now, he ranks among the Ten Great Blade Masters of all history—a near-mythical figure when it comes to blades.”
...This is bullshit from the start?
Talk about exaggeration and fabrication running wild.
Peng Cheon this, Peng Cheon that?
Ten Great Blade Masters of all time?
‘That guy was the Sword King’s lackey!’
How could some Blade King lead the Last Stand Squad in the Central Plains martial world back then?
And those rank-obsessed orthodox folks wouldn’t have put a Blade King—who was barely in his forties—in charge!
Nangong Hyeok desperately swallowed the words rising in his throat.
He still had more to hear from Peng Yeonhwa, after all.
She spoke with pride brimming on her face.
Peng Yeonhwa recounted it so vividly, as if she’d witnessed the scene herself.
“...So after a brutal chase, the Last Stand Squad entered Sky-Piercing Mountain.”
It took a while, but the name Sky-Piercing Mountain finally came up, perking Nangong Hyeok’s ears.
“Sky-Piercing Mountain? And?”
“Our ancestor held out on the mountain’s main peak for over a hundred days, fighting to the very bitter end. Until the peak itself collapsed.”
“Ah... your ancestor did?”
As if the Blade King had that kind of power.
Nangong Hyeok let out a hollow chuckle.
Stripping away the Hebei Peng Family’s hype and lies, it didn’t differ much from what he’d heard at Black Spot.
Nangong Hyeok breathed a sigh of relief.
‘I gotta keep digging like crazy. It’s definitely still not out.’
Just like he’d first planned—expand outward from the center...
“Huh?”
Then, Nangong Hyeok tilted his head, not understanding something.
“The main peak collapsed?”
“Yes.”
“...Can a collapsed main peak still be that sharp? It looked perfectly fine.”
At Nangong Hyeok’s words, Peng Yeonhwa tilted her head.
“You’ve been to Sky-Piercing Mountain?”
“Just passing by.”
“And you’re saying the main peak was steep?”
“Yeah.”
Peng Yeonhwa pondered briefly before smiling faintly as if she understood.
“The Sky-Piercing Mountain you went to probably wasn’t the real one.”
“...What’s that supposed to mean?”
“The name Sky-Piercing Mountain changed once right after that war.”
“...Changed?”
“Yes.”
Nangong Hyeok blinked at her for a long moment, staring intently.
Doubt began creeping into Peng Yeonhwa’s eyes.
Bam!
Nangong Hyeok slammed the table and shot to his feet, yelling.
“What the hell? Why would a mountain change?!”
“Because it was gone. The peak flew off, remember?”
“So the mountain really flew away? Not legend, joke, or bullshit?”
“What exactly have you heard?”
What had he heard...?
He thought it was bullshit, but it wasn’t.
No way!
A mountain changed?
“...Th-then where was that Sky-Piercing Mountain?”
“No idea.”
“Why?”
“It was eighty years ago. Battlefields shifted dozens of times, peaks got blown off left and right. We heard the fights were so massive they reshaped the terrain.”
...Reshaping terrain? Did the Demon Sovereign drop by or something?!
If the Demon Sovereign really came, everyone would’ve died, got it?!
Nangong Hyeok asked Peng Yeonhwa with a dazed look.
“Then what’s the current Sky-Piercing Mountain?”
“You’ll see, but around Beiping, there are barely any real mountains—just hills. The current one’s the closest thing to a proper mountain, so it inherited the name.”
“Ah, aah!”
A frustrated groan escaped Nangong Hyeok’s lips.
Whoa, this is...
What do you even call this?
Flailing at empty air?
It hit the back of his head like the rage and despair of a failed ascension.
‘No, wait. That means the real Sky-Piercing Mountain is still somewhere.’
Nangong Hyeok looked up at the sky with a blank expression.
...It exists, sure, but he’d still flailed at empty air.
‘It was wrong from the start. All wrong.’
“Then that bastard fed me bad info.”
Nangong Hyeok’s eyes flashed.
Peng Yeonhwa flinched at his suddenly changed aura.
Grit grind.
His teeth ground together, his face flushing red like it might explode.
Nangong Hyeok, veins bulging in his eyes, said to Nangong Ryong.
“I’ll be right back.”
“...”
“...No, come with me.”
“...?”
“Hurry!”
Nangong Ryong stood, snack still in his mouth.
Peng Yeonhwa stared blankly as the two left the room.
As they emerged outside, Geon Cheon-hwi—who’d just finished circulating his qi and had some strength back in his eyes—looked up.
“Young Master?”
“Follow me.”
“Pardon?”
“I said there’s somewhere to go—follow!”
Geon Cheon-hwi snapped to attention at Nangong Hyeok’s beet-red face.
Nangong Hyeok was already vaulting the wall.
“Up, get up!”
Geon Cheon-hwi grabbed the Thunder Dragon Squad, fresh from their qi circulation, and hurriedly chased after.
‘What’s going on? What happened all of a sudden?’
Thunder Dragon Squad leaped over the wall after Nangong Hyeok, deep questions in their minds.
* * *
A bolt from the blue struck the Black Spot Beiping branch.
Nangong Hyeok and Thunder Dragon Squad had stormed in and completely sealed off the branch.
The moment Nangong Hyeok saw the Black Spot branch chief’s face, he charged.
“You fucking bastard!”
Boom!
Nangong Hyeok’s fist smashed straight into the branch chief’s face.
“Gaaack!”
Screaming, the Black Spot branch chief flew into the wall.
“Yaaa! You fucker!”
Nangong Hyeok started pummeling the branch chief’s body wildly.
Thud! Thud! Boom! Boom!
The wall shook, dust scattering.
“Guh, guhuk! Sp-spare...”
“You made me flail at empty air?!”
Nangong Hyeok hammered the Black Spot chief relentlessly with rage.
He showed there were no limits to how brutally one person could beat another.
It hurt just to watch.
Nangong Hyeok grabbed the Black Spot chief’s collar and slammed him against the wall again and again.
“Guk, guk!”
“Sky-Piercing Mountain—where! Sky-Piercing!”
“Grrrk!”
“Hey, hey hey!”
Thunder Dragon Squad clung to Nangong Hyeok in panic.
“Y-Young Master!”
“You’ll really kill him!”
“What’s going on?!”
“I don’t...”
Crack!
Only after one more punch to the jaw did Nangong Hyeok step back, panting.
The Black Spot chief lay on the floor a bloody mess, trembling.
“You fuck, feeding me dogshit info? How can it be worse than oral legend? You call that Black Spot?”
Geon Cheon-hwi glanced at the pulped Black Spot chief, swallowing hard.
“Young Master, calm down.”
“Do I look calm?!”
“You’ll really kill someone.”
“That fucker can die. Sky-Piercing has empty spots, right? Bury him there.”
“Y-Young Master, but what the hell did he do?”
As Geon Cheon-hwi asked with bewildered eyes, Nangong Hyeok exhaled and looked at him.
“That bastard gave me the wrong location.”
“Pardon? What location?”
“Sky-Piercing Mountain.”
“Oh, Sky-Piercing... Pardon?”
“The one we’ve been digging isn’t the one we’re looking for.”
...You found it yourself.
But that wasn’t the point.
Geon Cheon-hwi stared at Nangong Hyeok in dismay.
“B-But then?”
“Everything we’ve dug so far was flailing at empty air.”
“We’re still digging...”
“That’s why we dug wrong and gotta dig again.”
“Dig... again? The ground?”
“Yeah. Aren’t you grateful?”
Geon Cheon-hwi’s head drooped with a crack at Nangong Hyeok’s chuckling words.
Digging the ground again?
That bullshit again?
“Huh, hahaha hahaha!”
Geon Cheon-hwi laughed like a madman before rolling his eyes back.
“You fucker!”
Geon Cheon-hwi jumped on the Black Spot chief and swung his fist.
Thunder Dragon Squad, having heard the full story, piled on.
Then the frenzied kicking began.
Thud thud thud thud!
“Die! Die!”
“Die, you bastard!”
“You fucking dog!”
Nangong Hyeok smiled warmly at Thunder Dragon Squad competing to stomp the Black Spot chief, then narrowed his eyes.
“...Hey. Youngest Master.”
“...”
“That’ll actually kill him.”
Nangong Ryong, who’d picked up an iron lump from the side, set it down.
He grabbed his sword sheath and quietly walked toward the Black Spot chief.
Boom! Booom! Booom!
Nangong Hyeok exhaled and said.
“Leave him breathing, at least. Fuck.”
Nangong Ryong and Thunder Dragon Squad paused briefly before resuming their beating of the Black Spot branch chief.
* * *
The Black Spot Beiping deputy chief trembled, his face black and blue.
Nangong Hyeok gripped his collar tight to prevent escape; just looking at that hand made his legs buckle.
The branch chief lay wrapped head to toe in bandages like a bloody mummy—impossible to tell if he was alive or dead.
Gulp.
“...F-Found it.”
“You sure?”
“Y-Yes. This time it’s really certain.”
“And if you’re wrong?”
“Pardon?”
“I’ll come for your head?”
“Eek! I-It’s certain! No way it’s wrong! I checked and double-checked!”
“Sure?”
The deputy chief nodded vigorously at Nangong Hyeok’s repeated question.
Who would dare lie to him?
Nangong Hyeok smacked the back of the deputy’s head.
“Guk!”
“These fuckers only do shit right after a beating!”
“S-Sorry...!”
“Shut up.”
Nangong Hyeok ground his teeth and turned to Thunder Dragon Squad, still fuming and panting on the side.
“Follow me! We’re heading north!”
The moment he spoke, Nangong Hyeok unleashed Blood Wind Divine and shot north.
Nangong Ryong and Thunder Dragon Squad hesitated a split second before following with their lightness skills.
The Nangong group vanished in an instant; the deputy chief collapsed to the floor.
“...Wh-where’s the upright orthodox sect in that?”
In ten years of Black Dao life, he’d never met Black Dao thugs as vicious as them.