Sichuan's Greatest Nangin: The Star Lecturer — History of the Sichuan Nangin, Part 3
The defeat of the Tangsu Sect Master.
The defeat of the Tangsu Sect Master left an indelible shock upon the people of Sichuan.
Defeated... by a Nangin?
Defeated... by that human scum?
Contrary to what the people of Sichuan expected, the sects within Sichuan Province were not particularly competitive when measured against the whole of the Central Plains Murim. Sichuan already boasted countless great trees — so many massive factions that they scooped up not only the talented and exceptional, but anyone even remotely useful.
Inevitably, the level of the mid- and small-sized sects lagged behind.
But how would the people of Sichuan know such circumstances? A pure land free of unorthodox sects. The strongest Murim, invincible Sichuan — that was what they believed. So the sight of Sichuan's martial artists falling to a mere Nangin struck them all the harder.
That the Tangsu Sect would proceed toward dissolution and vanish into the back alleys of history was only natural...
Yet separately, a strange rumor began to circulate through Sichuan.
Dok Yeong-chan had poisoned the Tangsu Sect Master. Or he had used sorcery.
With the Tangsu Sect Master gone and all the sect's core experts completely vanished without a trace, there was no way to verify the truth.
The Tangsu experts who had lived through the Yeongji Sect incident heard those rumors and still did not appear. They knew full well that the people of Sichuan would never forgive them.
It was a completely unproven claim, yet the people of Sichuan believed it with absolute certainty.
It was the only means they had of protecting the pride they held so dear.
The Sichuan devil who had toppled the Tangsu Sect hired another Nangin.
The challenge letter of the Wolyado Bandit flew to the Jajang Sect Master.
And the Jajang Sect Master won his duel against the Wolyado Bandit.
After a bloody struggle, having barely defeated the bandit, the Jajang Sect Master clenched his fist in the arena and rejoiced. He might not gain the enormous popularity of the Yeongji Sect, but he could now deliver a decisive blow in the power struggle against the Jambong Sect!
But the reaction of Sichuan's people was cold. Or rather, they deliberately did not react — that would be the accurate way to put it. Having endured the match-fixing of the Yeongji Sect and the defeat of the Tangsu Sect, the people of Sichuan no longer cheered for the Jajang Sect's victory over a Nangin.
They merely watched.
Even after that, Nangins from other regions would occasionally throw challenge letters at Sichuan's sects. Lose, and the sect was crushed as a disgrace to Sichuan; win, and Sichuan's people still did not cheer.
The victorious Nangins also found themselves saddled with mysterious scandals.
Someone earned the stigma of being a sodomite. Someone else was branded for lusting after a married woman.
Around the seats where Heukmyo and I sat, silence hung over the Wanderer Inn.
Heukmyo and I were the eye of the storm in this Wanderer Inn right now.
One side was a peerless beauty, and I was a pouch of enlightenment. Plenty of Nangins had been watching the two of us, and I hadn't particularly lowered my voice. Heukmyo, for her part, had made no effort to block our conversation.
Considering the average level of Sichuan Nangins, you could assume that just about every Nangin present had heard what we said.
From the way they were all looking at my face, they seemed focused on the story itself.
Something nagged at me, so I glanced over — Yu Sa-yeon's seat was already empty.
...Talking about matters related to Yu Sa-yeon would be improper, I suppose.
"Please continue."
"Right. The Nangins who won their duels each found themselves wearing a scandal."
I raised my voice, speaking less to Heukmyo than to the entire body of Nangins.
Think about it from the Nangins' perspective.
How infuriating must it have been? They had simply accepted a commission and fought a duel. And for that, they became pedophiles, married-woman killers, children who sold their parents for money — and if there was even the slightest suspicious corner in the duel, they became demonic masters who used sorcery.
But there was no one to prove the Nangins' innocence. The defeated sects had been annihilated, and the duelists had all hidden their identities and vanished — or even if they remained, they had no particular reason to defend the Nangins.
Then one day.
A Nangin arrived in Sichuan on a commission.
It was Jeong Cheol, now known as the Nangya Sword.
The false charge hung on Jeong Cheol was that he had murdered his master and stolen the sword art. Jeong Cheol was enraged, and he came to understand the current state of Sichuan.
And Jeong Cheol resolved to turn this Sichuan underworld upside down.
Jeong Cheol set out on a campaign of duels with the momentum of wiping out every sect in Sichuan Province. He mounted the arena day after day, wielding the Flying Dragon Twelve Swords, and always won.
At that time, among the sects of Sichuan Province, there was no expert who could stop Jeong Cheol.
Jeong Cheol was completely different from the other Nangins who fought for money. Jeong Cheol was a true seeker who wandered the world solely for the perfection of the sword, exchanging blades with others.
One sect closed its doors each day.
When a week had passed that way, every sect established in Sichuan Province trembled in fear that Jeong Cheol might visit them.
The sects banded together and offered Jeong Cheol a collection of wealth, but Jeong Cheol refused it with a single stroke of his blade.
When two weeks had flowed by, Jeong Cheol found himself ambushed several times a day. Accept a challenge letter and you had to take down your sect's signboard — so how could Sichuan's sects have drawn any line between fire and water?
Unable to watch any longer, some stepped forward.
Namely, the Nangins of Sichuan.
"The Nangins of Sichuan had been suffering terribly unjust treatment. If anything, it was worse than how Nangins are treated now, not better. Nangin-hatred was at its peak, after all. So more than anyone, the Nangins must have desperately wished for this deformed structure of Sichuan Province to be smashed to pieces. That is why they protected Jeong Cheol."
I pointed a finger at Heukmyo.
More precisely, at the black bamboo hat above her.
"Every Nangin in Sichuan put on the black bamboo hat Jeong Cheol used and wrapped themselves in wind cloaks to disguise their builds. Countless Jeong Cheols appeared across all of Sichuan, and the assassins were thrown into confusion."
"The moment the Sichuan Nangins donned the black bamboo hat and threw on the wind cloak, they became Evil."
Because they had taken the side of an outsider Nangin who was smashing Sichuan's sects to pieces.
"With the help of the Sichuan Nangins, Jeong Cheol continued smoothly smashing sects. The Sichuan Nangins provided him with hideouts, protected him from assassins' threats, and even delivered challenge letters to the sects."
The Nangya Sword steadily defeated the sects.
"But the Nangya Sword overlooked one fact."
"What did he overlook?"
"The great sects."
As always, when the Nangya Sword went out for a duel, he faced the Eight Fierce Tigers of the Hwangbo Clan — a collective of the Hwangbo Clan's representative experts, like the Ten Successors.
The pretext was simple. A younger brother of one of the Eight Fierce Tigers belonged to that sect, and that younger brother had been set to step forward for the duel — but he had suddenly fallen into qi deviation, so the elder had come in his place.
Even a three-year-old child would have cried bullshit, so flimsy was the excuse — but Jeong Cheol did not back down.
Due to potential dangers, the connecting links between the great factions and the mid- and small-sized sects had sunk below the surface. But that did not mean those links had disappeared.
He had been recklessly smashing the sects within Sichuan Province, so the Hwangbo Clan — one of the backers of those sects — had stepped forward.
Sichuan Province was a place of many words and many troubles, but unlike the incidents so far that ended once you passed through them, Jeong Cheol was a dangerous seed who could throw this entire Sichuan Province into complete chaos.
From Jeong Cheol's perspective, he must have wondered what was going on.
As an outsider, he would not have known Sichuan's deep circumstances. But he would have quickly realized that great factions stood behind the mid- and small-sized sects.
So he did not refuse that duel. The true ringleader had appeared before him.
First Seat of the Eight Fierce Tigers. Thunderbolt Single Blade Hwangbo Jin-cheon.
Successor of the Flying Dragon Twelve Swords. Nangya Sword Jeong Cheol.
No one predicted a victory for Nangya Sword Jeong Cheol.
Yet the victor was Jeong Cheol.
And so the Flying Dragon Twelve Swords became a sword art that no one in Sichuan did not know,
and the name Nangya Sword Jeong Cheol likewise became one that no one did not know.
"Jeong Cheol then changed his target to the Nine Great Sects established in Sichuan. And you know well what happened after that, don't you?"
"...He was defeated by the First Seat of the Ten Successors."
Jeong Cheol defeated Master Hyejeong of the Emei Sect.
And he was defeated by the previous First Seat of the Ten Successors to Okryong Sinhyeop Hyeok Gi-rin — Dragon-Slaying Sword Cheon Yeo.
Jeong Cheol and Cheon Yeo were roughly the same age, so there was no need for further talk.
Jeong Cheol was simply inferior to Cheon Yeo.
But the mere fact that a single Nangin who had wandered the world polishing his sword had built up the capacity to defeat several of the Nine Great Sects' flagship experts was enough for Jeong Cheol to become a legend.
"It is said that Jeong Cheol wept on the spot. Resenting that he could not punish those who had dishonored his master, he shed tears right there. And he swore."
That oath is surely the reason every martial artist in the Sichuan Murim recognizes the opening form of the Flying Dragon Twelve Swords.
Heukmyo had said her goal was to become the greatest Sichuan Nangin.
"You said you would become the greatest of the Sichuan Nangins."
"...I did."
"Then what exactly is this greatest Sichuan Nangin you have in mind? What kind of being is that? What does that being move for? What do you have to do to become that being?"
Heukmyo could not answer.
"A goal is not something decided overnight. But remember this. Having something in your head does not mean you know it. Only when that knowing saturates your soul and your life do we finally call it enlightenment, and say that we know."
I stood up from my seat. I had talked too much; my throat was rough.
"I will make you into a Sichuan Nangin. But the greatest Sichuan Nangin is a fellow I don't know. So someday, speak properly about that fellow. Then I will make it so."
I declared the end of the lecture.