Chapter 39
Chapter 39
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: Meeting Her Again
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The words Dang Yak-ran had spoken on the first night after coming ashore came back to him. At the time, she had asked if he knew that Mo Yong-ak had also taken part in the battle on the Shandong Peninsula.
Back then, he had thought it possible they had merely brushed past each other once without knowing it. But to meet like this here of all places.
"Long time no see."
Seop Dae-gang said.
"This isn't exactly a happy reunion."
Heuk Do-san said.
"Who do you think you're talking down to like that!"
A man with a pointed chin and sharp features burst forward in anger. The hostility pouring from his eyes was no joke.
And it wasn't just him. Everyone who had appeared with Seop Dae-gang was radiating intense killing intent. As if they would draw their swords and cut him down at the slightest provocation.
Seop Dae-gang quietly scolded the man.
"He's someone who studied under the same master as me, even if it was through paid tuition. By rights, he's like an elder martial brother to me. Watch your words and actions, Hong Foreman."
Paid tuition meant exactly that—paying money to learn. It was common for private academies to teach children the Thousand Character Classic and receive payment for it.
But for an adult to seek out a master and study was different. No money changed hands, and it formed a bond as deep and lifelong as that between king and subject, father and son.
In martial sects, it was even more so. Once you took someone as your master, you served them loyally until death.
There were cases where some taught martial arts for money.
But even then, they never passed on the true core techniques of the main sect. They distinguished between branch family disciples and lay disciples versus main sect disciples. The difference was significant, so lay disciples, no matter how senior their generation, couldn't act carelessly toward even junior main sect disciples.
Conversely, main sect disciples often looked down on lay disciples who had bought their skills with money, regardless of generation. The master-disciple bond forged with money could never equal one staked on one's life.
Seop Dae-gang seemed to acknowledge Heuk Do-san as an elder martial brother now, but in truth, he was clearly drawing a line that the relationship could be severed at any time. If he truly saw him as an elder brother, the martial world's custom would be to introduce him to his subordinates and have them pay formal respects.
The man called Hong Foreman looked puzzled. He hesitated for a moment before offering a perfunctory fist salute.
"My apologies."
Meanwhile, Hyeon-gak and Yeom Jin-sang's eyes went wide. Hyeon-gak especially. He knew the man leading the northern martial artists was Seop Dae-gang, the rising young expert rapidly gaining fearsome notoriety in the current martial world.
But how did Seop Dae-gang know Heuk Do-san? From the looks of it, Heuk Do-san knew Seop Dae-gang too. What on earth was going on?
"Thanks. You saved my life."
Heuk Do-san said.
"It's thanks to Lady Dang. She showed up at our camp looking like she was about to collapse any second. If we'd been even a little later, it would've been bad."
He turned his head to look at Dang Yak-ran.
Her face and neck were covered in scratches from tree branches. She must have run for her life without even noticing the blood.
"Are you alright?"
Dang Yak-ran asked belatedly.
"Look after Gong Cheon-ak."
Heuk Do-san turned and walked away.
To those being chased, a canyon was a dead end. But to those with power, it became a fortress protecting them from beasts.
The northern martial artists had built a campfire in the middle of the canyon. Over the roaring flames, a white wolf skewered on a log was roasting golden brown.
Bing-seol had propped Gong Cheon-ak against the cliff face and was tending to him carefully. It had been some time since she treated him with the golden wound salve obtained from Mo Yong-ak, but he still hadn't regained consciousness.
Heuk Do-san sat alone at a distance to treat his wounds. He washed them in the spring water bubbling up from below the cliff, then peeled the inner bark from a white sandalwood spear the northern martial artists had thrown and wrapped his injuries.
The claw wounds weren't deep. But since the bite was on his side, he couldn't afford to neglect it. If the fangs had even grazed his organs, it could lead to internal injuries.
He had seen Yeom Jin-sang suffer terribly from internal injuries after being bitten in the side by a blood wolf earlier.
But Yeom Jin-sang, after being treated by Dang Yak-ran, looked fine now and was mingling with the northern martial artists.
He tore into the wolf meat while animatedly recounting the events from riding the wrecked galley to get here.
"Anyway, so I dragged my weary body to the beach, and there it was—a king clam the size of a cauldron, just sitting there plump as you please!"
"Come on now, dearie. Where in the world is there a clam the size of a cauldron?"
"That's why I'm foaming at the mouth telling you this! Master Hyeon-gak and Lady Dang here saw it clear as day. Isn't that right?"
Yeom Jin-sang turned to Dang Yak-ran and Hyeon-gak at the end, seeking agreement. But Hyeon-gak, with his neck and face wrapped in white sandalwood inner bark, couldn't speak.
Dang Yak-ran gave a light nod in response.
"See? I told you it was cauldron-sized. But the real trouble started then. The damn thing wouldn't open its mouth no matter what. Master Hyeon-gak and Seventh Star Lord threw every ultimate technique they had at it, but it didn't budge an inch!"
Hyeon-gak quietly closed his eyes.
The crowd grew more engrossed at the tale of Hyeon-gak and the Demonic Cult's Seventh Star Lord unleashing a barrage of ultimate arts yet failing to pry open a clam.
'Persistent bastard, as expected.'
Having finished treating his wounds, Heuk Do-san washed his face in the spring. He was startled to see the clear water turn bloody in an instant. He hadn't realized his face was caked in blood.
'What a grueling day.'
As he washed, a human shadow fell over the water's surface. He quietly looked up to see Mo Yong-ak standing before him in her fluttering robes.
"Long time no see."
"Indeed."
Mo Yong-ak quietly sat down beside him.
"I always thought we'd meet again someday. But I never imagined it'd be in some remote wilderness like this. How have you been?"
"Managed somehow."
"I heard you took part in the Righteous-Demonic Great War."
"......?"
"There's a horse trading post run by the Moyong family in Bongrae Port. I often heard stories about White Deer Academy from the manager there. Such a shame about young master Baek."
Young master Baek referred to the second son, Baek Sang-ok, who had been stabbed to death trying to save a boy being violated by Demonic Cultists. Heuk Do-san's plunge into the Righteous-Demonic Great War had been entirely for that boy's revenge.
He was taken aback.
She had heard all about him? And yet she hadn't sent even a single letter. What a heartless woman. Though what use were such thoughts now.
"What can I do about my fate."
Heuk Do-san leaned back against the cliff with his arms as a pillow. A clear signal for her to leave.
Yet Mo Yong-ak didn't go.
"You've changed a lot."
"......?"
"Back then, you'd always address me properly as 'lady.' You could barely meet my eyes. You still won't look me in the eye now."
"Did I?"
"A lot of time has passed, hasn't it?"
"It's no short span."
"So, have you gotten your revenge?"
"Not yet."
"Do you know who the culprit is?"
"No."
"Any leads?"
"Not really."
"Don't you have any questions for me?"
"How'd you end up here?"
"That's what you want to know?"
"Is there anything more important right now?"
Mo Yong-ak seemed to have something else to say, her lips twitching several times before she finally spoke quietly.
"On the night of the final battle off Shandong's coast, I was assigned to young master Seop Dae-gang's special task force as reinforcements. Our mission was to clear a path for the Righteous Alliance's peak experts to find and assassinate the Heavenly Demon. We advanced alongside ten of the Alliance's pinnacle masters toward the ship carrying the Heavenly Demon."
So the northern martial artists who came with her were Seop Dae-gang's special task force. No wonder each one had such an extraordinary aura.
"We somehow managed to board the enemy ship. But for some reason, it was already empty. Then suddenly, a meteor shower poured from the sky. Lightning bolts from the heavens, the sea turning upside down... I've never been so terrified in my life."
Heuk Do-san knew the situation well. For ordinary people, witnessing a meteor shower was a once-in-a-lifetime rarity. How frightening must it have been with them raining down overhead.
"Then one meteor hit our galley. It exploded right there, and I and the others were flung away by the blast. Even the Righteous Alliance's handpicked pinnacle experts were helpless before heaven's wrath."
Mo Yong-ak apparently thought the meteor shower a random occurrence. Who in the world would believe a human could summon one?
"Struggling in the water, young master Seop came on a plank and saved me. His subordinates were with him. We pushed through house-sized waves toward a galley visible in the distance."
"A galley?"
"It was pitch black, like it stained the night. According to prior intel, it was the one carrying the Demonic Cult's treasures."
Heuk Do-san was startled.
That was the galley he and the old mercenary had seized. Everything had gone to hell when a meteor suddenly struck the stern.
"Then suddenly a meteor hit that galley's stern. The ship lurched as if it would capsize, an enormous wave crashed over us, and I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I was here."
"Here?"
"This bizarre forest full of white sandalwood everywhere. Fortunately, young master Seop spotted a snow-covered mountain range in the distance and was heading there. Maybe we could see something from the peak."
Putting it together, Seop Dae-gang's task force had also been brought here that night by some unknown force. And now, they were heading to the snowy mountains to figure out where "here" was.
In the end, they knew nothing either. Less than his own group, even.
'No gains at all.'
"What about your side?"
"Nothing different from you."
"Do you know where we are? The freezing weather, the vast white sandalwood forest that only grows in cold regions... it feels like the moon or farther north..."
"I'm tired."
Heuk Do-san quietly closed his eyes. This time, it was an unmistakable send-off order.
"Young master Seop wants to talk with you."
Heuk Do-san gave no reply. Mo Yong-ak stood with a helpless expression and said.
"I'll tell him you're already asleep."
"If you're curious..."
"......?"
"Ask Dang Yak-ran."
Mo Yong-ak stared at Heuk Do-san for a long while before turning and walking away.
The night deepened.
The northern martial artists posted two night watchmen and fell into deep sleep.
Around the third watch, Heuk Do-san quietly rose from his spot. He gathered the bow and axe he had recovered from Gong Cheon-ak.
The distance to the northern martial artists on watch was about twenty. Too far for conversation, but close enough to detect movement.
Looking up at the sky, it was a full moon of all things. Fortunately, clouds obscured it.
Heuk Do-san waited for the moon to vanish behind the clouds, then quietly moved.
'Should've at least grabbed some meat if I knew it'd come to this?'
He was leaving quietly.
Having met the northern martial artists, he was no longer needed. Seop Dae-gang was a rising expert shaking the martial world, with tiger- and dragon-like subordinates; he could protect the group just fine.
Reaching the mossy cliff side, he spotted two shadows sitting there.
'Those two...'
Even while injured, Hyeon-gak had slipped away from Seop Dae-gang and the northerners to share his qi with Bing-seol.
'Troublesome.'
Heuk Do-san hid behind a rock and waited for the transfer to end. The session dragged on unusually long today, and when it finished, Hyeon-gak's face looked more haggard than ever.
"It's done now."
"Sorry as always."
"No need to apologize. This is the last time. I've driven out all the chill from your bones and, while at it, opened your Ren and Du meridians too. No more suffering from cold every night."
"Already fully healed?"
Hyeon-gak dodged the question and scanned the surroundings. Confirming everyone asleep once more, he whispered in a mosquito-like voice.
"Leave this place right now."
"What... are you saying?"
"During the Righteous-Demonic Great War's climax, the Righteous Alliance formed a special task force to infiltrate deep into enemy lines and eliminate Demonic Cult experts, sparing no lives. A rising expert of the time took the mission. He selected only those with bone-deep grudges against the Demonic Cult for daily hellish training. And so the assassination squad that would become legend was born. The Soul-Chasing Ten Ghosts—that's them."
'Soul-Chasing Ten Ghosts?'
Heuk Do-san's eyes widened.
He had heard the name endlessly. The mysterious task force that roamed the Demonic Cult camps freely, slaying countless fiends. Especially their leader, called the Reaper because whenever he drew his sword, a life fell.
'Seop Dae-gang was the Reaper?'
"I've killed my share of Demonic Cultists, but compared to them, it's a drop in the bucket. They slaughter without distinction—women, children, anyone from the Cult. With Seventh Star Lord and the Divine Maiden in their grasp... you must flee now."
"But the Seventh Star Lord..."
"He's done for."
"I can't abandon Seventh Star Lord."
"Come this far just to die like a dog? No time. Soon, I'll seal the acupoints of the watchmen. Wake Yeom Jin-sang then and run."
"Yeom Jin-sang won't go."
The two jumped at the sudden voice. Heuk Do-san rose stealthily and approached. Hyeon-gak's expression turned icier than ever upon recognizing him.
"Uh, how much did you hear?"
"Everything."
"What do you... intend to do?"
Hyeon-gak even gripped a stone on the ground. Ready to smash his skull if needed.
"Yeom Jin-sang won't go."
"Why not?"
"He's not a Demonic Cultist."
Hyeon-gak and Bing-seol's eyes bulged. Hyeon-gak squeezed out his voice.
"Is that true?"
"He's from the black path in Shandong Port. He defected to the Righteous Alliance while fleeing his enemies. When he woke on the galley and saw the Demonic Cult side had more numbers, he joined them. Afterward, as you know, he kept pretending to be one."
"That son of a bitch. No wonder he was suspicious in so many ways. Mingling freely with the orthodox folk at dinner was all calculated. Should rip him apart."
Hyeon-gak vented his fury at being deceived. Then he sighed deeply, as if the ground would cave in.
"Sending Lady Bing into the forest alone is as good as killing her. What to do..."
Heuk Do-san turned to Bing-seol and said.
"If you're willing, come with me."
"......!"
"......!"