Chapter 243: Assessing the Situation (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 243: Assessing the Situation (2)
"Surely... you don't mean what we talked about this morning?"
Sun-woo asked back, his expression turning grave.
"I do."
"What kind of problem could that possibly have caused?"
Sun-woo pressed him, genuinely confused.
It was true that he and Seol-hyang had slipped away in the middle of the night for a martial duel. But hadn't he explained the situation clearly? How could that be an issue? He couldn't wrap his head around it.
"Cheongsu twisted the story and spread it to the entire search party."
Cheongsong began to recount the facts, his face a mask of misery.
"Twisted it how?"
A sudden surge of anxiety hit Sun-woo, and he followed up quickly. Just how much had the story been distorted for things to end up in this mess?
"A scandalous rumor... that Young Master Jang and Lady Seol could not contain their mutual affection and slipped away in the dead of night to share a tryst."
"What!?"
Sun-woo’s eyes widened in shock. What kind of nonsense was this? A scandalous rumor? And with Seol-hyang, of all people?
His expression shifted from confusion to absolute gravity.
"I am truly sorry. I should have kept a tighter lid on things... No, I should never have brought it up in the first place..."
Seeing Sun-woo’s reaction, Cheongsong bowed his head deeply and offered a sincere apology. No matter how he looked at it, he felt the fault lay with him.
"Ha... Haha."
A hollow laugh escaped Sun-woo’s lips. It was so absurd that laughter was the only possible response.
Who was he supposed to be? Even if it was a facade, he was officially the disciple of the Poison King and the son-in-law of the Tang Clan. And someone had dared to spread such a rumor about him?
It was beyond ridiculous.
How lowly must they think of the Tang Clan? How much of a joke did they think he was to pull such a stunt?
Furthermore, it was public knowledge that he already had a fiancée. A scandal involving him would undoubtedly drag the Tang Clan’s reputation through the mud.
He couldn't help but chuckle dryly. He finally understood why Cheongsong was bowing so low. After such a deranged stunt, bowing was the least he could do.
"I understand now why you're bowing your head."
Sun-woo’s voice was laced with a thick, murderous aura. He dropped the polite formalities he had maintained until now. These people had made themselves his enemies. To him, honorifics were now a luxury they didn't deserve.
Shiver.
Cheongsong felt a chill run down his spine as he sensed Sun-woo’s killing intent. His skin broke out in goosebumps, and his teeth began to chatter uncontrollably.
"Where is Cheongsu?" Sun-woo asked, his eyes gleaming with a predatory light.
In response, Cheongsong managed to lift a trembling hand and point toward a corner. Sun-woo slowly shifted his gaze in that direction.
There, he saw him.
Cheongsu was a complete wreck. His cheeks were torn open to the point where raw red flesh was visible, and both his arms were twisted at unnatural angles.
"What happened to him?" Sun-woo asked, staring at the mangled Cheongsu.
"L-Lady Seol... she did that to him..." Cheongsong stammered.
"Lady Seol is quite kind, then," Sun-woo remarked with a cold smile.
Looking at Cheongsu, Sun-woo genuinely thought Seol-hyang had been incredibly merciful. If it had been him, he wouldn't have stopped there.
In the Murim, honor was directly tied to wealth and influence. It was because of their reputation that clans and sects gained trust, and that trust translated into financial power. That wealth, in turn, became the means to elevate the family's prestige even further—using the money to train numerous experts, which further enhanced their honor. The prestigious sects were the result of this cycle repeating countless times.
In essence, honor was their very foundation.
And yet, that honor had been dragged through the dirt because of the loose tongue of a mere third-generation disciple. From a martial artist's perspective, this was a crime deserving of death. No, even death was too light; it was an offense that warranted desecrating the offender's grave.
The fact that she had left a criminal who committed such a grave sin in that state was a testament to her benevolence.
"But why are Un-jeok-ja and Seol-hyang fighting?"
Sun-woo turned his gaze back to Cheongsong. His face still held a look of genuine incomprehension. Instead of groveling for forgiveness, they had drawn a sword against the victim, Seol-hyang? What kind of madness was this?
"After Lady Seol left Cheongsu in that state, she wanted to make the matter public and demand a formal apology from the Qingcheng Sect," Cheongsong explained, his expression turning somber.
"And?" Sun-woo nodded. It seemed like a perfectly reasonable decision. She had the power, she wasn't in the wrong, and she was the victim. Even after thrashing Cheongsu, she was well within her rights to demand an apology.
"But I didn't want the matter to escalate. I wanted to resolve it among ourselves without the Elders finding out." Cheongsong lowered his head further. "So, I begged her for forgiveness. If this became public, my junior brother might have had his Dantian destroyed and his tendons and meridians severed. In the worst-case scenario, it could have sparked a war between the Emei and Qingcheng sects. I wanted to prevent that at all costs."
"What did Lady Seol say?"
"She said she would forgive us."
"Really?" Sun-woo’s eyes widened. It wasn't something that could be forgiven so easily. It wasn't just her personal honor at stake. She was the disciple of Guwol Shin-ni, the Sect Leader of the Emei Sect. Insulting her was an insult to her master, and insulting the leader of the Emei Sect was an insult to the entire sect—one of the pillars of the Nine Sects.
How could she decide to forgive such a slight on her own? It made no sense.
"There was a condition," Cheongsong continued heavily. "She demanded that all the Qingcheng disciples, including myself, press our heads into the dirt and beg for forgiveness."
Cheongsong trembled as he spoke, the memory of the humiliation and shame flooding back.
"......Hah."
Sun-woo let out a short laugh, impressed by her resolve. If they had offered that level of apology, it would indeed be enough to let the matter slide.
The disciples gathered in this search party were the future leaders of their respective sects. It was no exaggeration to say they were the cream of the crop. For all of them to bow their heads in the dirt meant they would carry that shame for the rest of their lives. For Emei, it was a way to reclaim their lost honor.
Sun-woo was impressed. In that brief moment, she had devised a way to settle the score without escalating the conflict.
"So, what happened next?" Sun-woo asked, curious about the rest of the story.
"At first, everyone resisted, but I managed to persuade them to apologize."
"Every single Qingcheng disciple here?"
"Yes." Cheongsong bit his lower lip, the disgrace clearly still stinging.
"Wow."
Sun-woo was genuinely amazed. He couldn't believe the arrogant, prideful disciples of the Qingcheng Sect had actually put their heads in the dirt.
By nature, disciples of prestigious sects were arrogant. And they had reason to be; having studied at such a place was a badge of honor. They felt their own status rose with the sect's prestige, making them fiercely protective of its reputation. Yet, those arrogant men had bowed before a woman barely twenty years old. It was a sight to behold.
Then, a thought occurred to him. If all the disciples had already bowed, shouldn't the matter be settled? Why was Un-jeok-ja currently clashing swords with her?
"Then isn't the matter resolved? Why is Un-jeok-ja fighting Lady Seol?"
"Martial Uncle Un-jeok-ja arrived just as we were all bowing. He was consumed by grief and indignation and drew his sword."
"Did you not explain the situation properly?" Sun-woo asked skeptically.
Even if Un-jeok-ja was a stubborn old traditionalist, he was known for his sense of right and wrong. Sun-woo didn't think he would draw his sword if he knew the full story.
"Of course, I explained everything. Martial Uncle even apologized to Lady Seol for the incident. He said he would report the matter to the sect and offer a formal apology to Emei."
"Then why is it like this?" Sun-woo pointed toward the center of the clearing, where Seol-hyang and Un-jeok-ja were fighting, their Astral Qi clashing.
"It's... he said he couldn't accept the way Lady Seol handled things on her own. He argued that regardless of the provocation, the crime of injuring a Qingcheng disciple and inflicting indelible shame upon the others required an apology of its own."
Cheongsong recounted Un-jeok-ja’s words in detail.
"An apology? What kind of apology?" Sun-woo asked, curious as to what demand could have led to drawn swords.
It was true that Seol-hyang taking it upon herself to punish Cheongsu and force the disciples to bow was technically an overstep. The right to punish a disciple of a prestigious sect usually belonged to that sect alone. So, Sun-woo could understand Un-jeok-ja demanding an apology for that.
But the key was what kind of apology he demanded. If it were just words, Seol-hyang wouldn't be locked in a duel with him.
"He demanded that she bow her head to the dirt before the Qingcheng disciples in the same manner."
Cheongsong’s expression was grim. Even he thought the demand was absurd.
"......Hah."
Sun-woo sighed in spite of himself. It was pure stubbornness.
The two situations were not comparable. Cheongsu’s crime of insulting the honor of the Sect Leader’s disciple with a foul rumor was not the same as Seol-hyang’s "crime" of punishing him herself. A simple bow of the head should have been more than enough.
But Un-jeok-ja’s demand had crossed the line—by a mile. It was clearly a desperate attempt to salvage his sect's bruised ego. He claimed to be a man of principle, but apparently, that didn't apply when his own sect was involved.
"Is he serious?" Sun-woo asked, looking at Cheongsong in disbelief.
"......He is." Cheongsong hung his head. He knew it was an unreasonable demand.
Sun-woo shook his head. The situation was a tangled mess. All the efforts of the Qingcheng disciples to keep things from escalating had been rendered moot by Un-jeok-ja’s arrival.
Sun-woo actually felt a flicker of pity for the Qingcheng disciples. They had swallowed their pride and endured humiliation to atone for Cheongsu’s sin, only for their efforts to be thrown away.
"Whew."
Sun-woo took a deep breath. After hearing the whole story, it was clear the Qingcheng Sect was largely at fault—specifically Un-jeok-ja for pressuring Seol-hyang with such an absurd demand.
Of course, he could understand the man's perspective to an extent. The future leaders of his sect had been forced to grovel before an Emei disciple. That memory would haunt them forever. He likely wanted to erase that stain so they could hold their heads high again.
But his method was wrong. Instead of trying to erase the shame through force, he should have encouraged them to remember it and use it as fuel to seek greater glory. Instead, he was obsessed with wiping away the humiliation here and now, even if it meant being unreasonable.
How foolish and selfish.
Screee.
Sun-woo slowly drew his sword from the scabbard at his waist.
It seemed a lesson was in order.