Chapter 350
Chapter 350
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 359
Chapter Title: Arrival at the Iron God Sect
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Creak! Crreeeak! Grriiind!
“Grrruuh! Guuuh!”
Huangbo Chung gritted his teeth and took one laborious step forward after another.
His face flushed beet red, veins bulging like they might burst, each heavy footfall echoing his strain.
Grriiind!
The cartwheel he was dragging let out a shriek as it began to roll.
Rumble! Rumble!
The mountain of cargo piled on the cart shook, adding even more weight.
‘Damn it! Goddamn it!’
His eyes locked on the back of Namgung Hyeok’s head far ahead.
And he glared at the back of Geum Cheomsang’s head, stuck right beside him.
What the hell was this?!
The great young master of the Huangbo Clan, reduced to pulling a baggage cart like some servant!
No, not even a servant—hauling a cart that should be pulled by oxen or horses all the way to Hubei!
Fuck, thinking about it, it was ridiculous.
Why were these rich bastards making him move the cart without any oxen or horses?
‘I’ll kill them. I’ll kill both of them! I’ll do it myself!’
It was all because of those two.
One had pushed for it, the other had agreed.
A thousand boils of rage surged within him.
‘These fucking pricks! It’s just the next province over—why pack so goddamn much baggage!’
Crunch! Crunch!
Tremble! Tremble!
Hubei was right next door, so why pack the cart like they were heading to Sichuan Province and make him drag it?!
A few changes of clothes would’ve sufficed—why...!
Clatter, clank clank!
‘What the hell did they stuff in here?!’
Just then, he spotted something poking out from under the cart’s cloth cover.
A sword?
Swaaay?
There were even markings on them.
Geon Cheon-hwi, Tak Hyeok-dong, Jang Ung....
Those Thunder Dragon Squad bastards...!
Since they couldn’t go themselves, they’d crammed their weapons into the cart in bulk!
Huangbo Chung made a miserable face, then glanced back and locked eyes with Geum Cheomsang.
Geum Cheomsang smirked, twisting his lips.
“Pull it a little more carefully, won’t you?”
“W-what?”
“Jeez, with a build like an ox, can’t you handle one cart? Should’ve brought the Thunder Dragon Squad if I knew it’d be like this!”
That fucker he could chew up and it still wouldn’t satisfy....
“There’s medicine for the young master loaded on there too, you know?”
“......”
“Be careful, I said.”
Huangbo Chung’s mouth twitched.
Geum Cheomsang grinned.
‘Huangbo Clan, you rotten bastards!’
Geum Cheomsang still smarted from the beating he’d taken from the Huangbo Clan bastards back in Hangzhou’s Five Flags Village.
And if not for now, how else could he make the Huangbo Clan’s young master work like this?
‘Heh heh, suffer a bit. Only when you roll do I get it easy.’
Geum Cheomsang was plotting to turn the road to Hubei into another paradise like Hangzhou had been.
For that, Huangbo Chung needed to diligently handle his share of the work too.
Namgung Hyeok cocked his head to the side.
“Hey, you crawling? When do you plan to reach Hubei like this?”
Huangbo Chung, grinding his teeth, trembled at the mouth.
“I-I’m going!”
Namgung Hyeok clicked his tongue at the sight of Huangbo Chung channeling his Heavenly King Divine Art to pull the cart.
“What a waste of a build. Is Tak Hyeok-dong strong, or is this guy weak?”
Paeng Jung-hyeok chimed in.
“Huangbo Clan kids are soft to begin with.”
“True, they’ve always been a bit frail.”
“Divine power belongs to the Paeng Clan, after all.”
“Then you pull it?”
“......The weaker you are, the more training you need, haha. Pull it, you bastard.”
That fucking bear bastard?
‘I’ll kill you too. I’ll kill you as well!’
Huangbo Chung swallowed tears of blood at Paeng Jung-hyeok’s swift shift from brotherly camaraderie.
Not a single sane person from one to ten.
Shing! Shing!
Thud! Thud!
Ever since leaving Anhui Province, Namgung Ryong had been repeatedly drawing and sheathing his sword.
What the hell was wrong with that mute bastard, doing that over and over?
He did it at meals, even in his sleep for fuck’s sake—it was driving him mad.
Scribble scribble scribble!
Right beside him, Dang Myeong-ok monitored Namgung Hyeok’s every move, jotting notes in her notebook.
Fine, those two were at least understandable on a basic level.
But what was that?
Thud thud thud!
......Paeng Yeon-hwa, called the Peach Blossom of the North for her delicate beauty like a single flower petal, was carrying baggage three or four times her size.
Just pick up the damn cart and carry it.
With that monstrous strength, pull my cart for me, damn it.
‘But is all that iron?’
Carrying iron?
At least three hundred catties of iron, wrapped up tight like a sacred relic, yet she walked lightly—was that even possible?
Where the hell did that freakish strength come from?
‘How the hell did these lunatics end up as one of the Five Great Clans? This is how a Great Clan acts?’
Grrriiind!
He’d definitely dig up their weaknesses... no, somehow escape and never tangle with these maniacs again.
Definitely...!
‘Why the hell did they hold that gathering!’
Huangbo Chung regretted it once more.
He never should’ve gone to Hangzhou.
Rumble rumble.
Namgung Hyeok stretched with a yawn, shrugging his shoulders.
“How far we gotta go?”
Paeng Jung-hyeok answered.
“Yungzhong Mountain.”
“That’s fucking far.”
“We’ll get there soon.”
Paeng Jung-hyeok nodded, then his eyes gleamed.
‘How the hell does he plan to commission that Iron God Sect?’
Namgung Hyeok had just said he was getting his demon sword fixed, but it was still Namgung Hyeok on the move.
‘Not an ordinary matter.’
Namgung Hyeok had even represented three clans at the Five Great Clans’ gathering.
‘Probably trying to open trade?’
Maybe using the iron mine they’d gained from the Huangbo Clan.
Supplying raw iron brought profit, but smelting it into weapons could bolster a clan’s power and fetch even higher prices.
Swords from the Iron God Sect would command a premium, no doubt.
‘What move will he make?’
Paeng Jung-hyeok’s curiosity grew.
He was dying to know how the Namgung Clan... how Namgung Hyeok would handle things with the Iron God Sect.
Even placing a commission there took months.
Even the Hubei Paeng Clan had waited over a year for their swords.
Just then, Paeng Yeon-hwa, lugging her iron ingots, smiled brightly at Namgung Hyeok.
“It was amazing when you visited our clan, but how do you keep commissioning the Iron God Sect? That sword back then wasn’t ordinary either!”
Namgung Hyeok shrugged.
“I didn’t procure it.”
“Then the Namgung Clan...”
“My brother got it for me.”
Who?
“N-Namgung Ryong, young master?”
“......The young master?”
Namgung Hyeok clapped Namgung Ryong on the shoulder with a grin.
“There’s still five left in my room, I bet.”
Paeng Yeon-hwa and Paeng Jung-hyeok’s eyes went wide.
Namgung Ryong had procured swords from the Iron God Sect?
That Namgung Ryong?
Five of them?
No way a near-mute like Namgung Ryong could haul a bundle of Iron God Sect swords!
By what means?
“N-No wayyy!”
Paeng Yeon-hwa cried out, but Namgung Hyeok just shrugged.
“Guess my brother’s got skills.”
The Paeng siblings’ faces filled with intense doubt as they watched Namgung Hyeok brush it off casually.
They stared at Namgung Ryong as if demanding an explanation.
But Namgung Ryong merely curved his lips faintly, offering no answer.
Geum Cheomsang muttered from the side.
“He says, ‘Couldn’t you guys procure any?’”
W-what?!
The Paeng siblings stared blankly at the back of Namgung Ryong’s head as he walked after Namgung Hyeok.
Was that a victor’s smile just now?
‘H-how the hell did he do it?!’
‘What’s the secret?’
It was the moment their siblings’ questions deepened.
* * *
Iron God Sect Leader Ban Ho-jung and the sect’s supporting forge masters had gathered in the grand hall.
“You’re taking the Namgung Clan’s commission?”
“Didn’t the second young master send the letter himself?”
“Hah, second young master or whoever—the Namgung Clan just shows up? They’re short on weapons after that recent war with the unorthodox sects anyway.”
“Hmm......”
No one in the world was unaware that the Namgung Clan had crushed the unorthodox alliance.
The event where the Namgung Clan dismantled thousands of unorthodox fighters had left people in awe of their prowess.
Some called the Battle of Hefei a “Hefei Bloodbath,” the greatest war among orthodox sects since the Demonic Blood Tribulation.
The Iron God Sect’s forge masters, with their feet in the martial world, couldn’t possibly be ignorant of it.
“Rumors say the Namgung Clan’s expanding their influence—same goes for weapons, right?”
“Hmm! They’ve already absorbed the unorthodox territories.”
“The Five Great Clans’ movements aren’t normal either, are they?”
“With the alliance not helping the Namgung Clan, there must be some resentment building among them.”
The forge masters looked uneasy as they turned to Iron God Sect Leader Ban Ho-jung.
“What do you plan to do, Sect Leader?”
The words carried layers of meaning.
“The Nine Great Sects won’t take kindly to it.”
Clear factions existed within the Justice Heaven Alliance.
In truth, the Nine Great Sects sat at its core.
Superior weapons bolstered a sect’s power.
The Nine Great Sects wouldn’t welcome the Namgung Clan growing stronger.
The Iron God Sect, located in Hubei alongside the Justice Heaven Alliance and Wudang Sect, had no choice but to tread carefully.
No matter how elevated the Namgung Clan’s position, it hadn’t reached the prestige of the Nine Great Sects.
Ban Ho-jung chuckled dryly, staring at the letter.
“Shouldn’t ironsmiths just work iron?”
“You mean do the deal?!”
“We’ll see once we meet them, won’t we?”
The forge masters’ eyes widened.
The sect leader meeting the Namgung Clan reps personally?
“N-No, who’s coming that you’re meeting them yourself?”
Was it the Namgung Clan head?
Ban Ho-jung showed them the letter.
“The Namgung Clan says the second young master is coming personally.”
“Hmm? That Radiant Dragon young master?”
“That’s right.”
“W-we can handle th......”
Even if Namgung Clan’s Radiant Dragon was hailed as the world’s top younger expert and had shone again in the Hefei Bloodbath, for the sect leader to step out personally was astonishing.
They hadn’t reacted this way to the Hubei Paeng Clan’s letter.
Ban Ho-jung waved it off.
“I’m just curious.”
“About the Radiant Dragon? Hmm!”
“With a letter like this, how could I not be?”
He held up the letter for the forge masters to see.
Their eyes bulged.
Could you dull the sharpness of this sword a bit?
“......They’re commissioning to dull a sword’s edge?”
“Yeah.”
“A sword clan’s heir dulling a sword’s edge—what...? How sharp must it be......”
It was absurd, words failed them.
Wasn’t it like asking a shipbuilder to remove the sails?
And zero formality to boot.
Polite enough, but lacking even the bare minimum protocol for a commission letter.
“Martial artists are a curious breed. They look down on smiths, yet revere the swords we make. But this letter has none of that.”
“......”
“And it doesn’t seem expectant either—just genuine curiosity.”
“Y-yes, it does.”
Still, even so......
Ban Ho-jung stroked his chin beard, watching the flustered forge masters.
“They’ll arrive soon enough; we’ll see for ourselves. Aren’t you curious? I’ve met the young master once, but this is my first time with the second.”
“Hmm! Well, back then there was all that chaos......”
“Ha ha ha!”
As Ban Ho-jung let out a hearty laugh, a commotion erupted outside.
“Sect Leader! Th-the Namgung Clan people are here!”
“Al-already?!"
“But it’s only been a day since the reply arrived?!"
Did they set out before even getting a response?
Ban Ho-jung rose leisurely.
“Let’s go greet them.”
“Y-yes!”
The forge masters followed Ban Ho-jung to the Iron God Sect’s main gate.