Chapter 53: Those Wicked Orthodox Bastards (3)
Chapter 53: Those Wicked Orthodox Bastards (3)
When she followed Peng Hyeon-hwi into the bottom of the cargo hold, Murong Cheong clutched her mouth at the sight of a man’s silhouette amidst the thick stench of blood.
In the flickering light of a small torch, a man knelt, chained and nailed to the wall. He looked agonizingly familiar.
His stature and aura screamed that he was the man she knew.
Uncle. Cheon Ju-eun. On a small scale, he was the head of the Western Liaoning Cheon Family; on a large scale, he was a Guest Elder of the Murong Family—a man who had reached the heights of the Super Peak Realm and was challenging the Upper Dantian.
She could vividly remember him always smiling warmly, holding his son every time she visited.
Because of his gentle nature, he was often called a "good-natured fool," but even then, he would only respond with a hearty laugh.
Since her early childhood, he had cherished her like his own daughter. Every time they crossed paths in the estate, he would secretly press a sugar-coated pill into her hand with a smile.
"Uncle...!!"
That same uncle now lay there, a battered wreck.
The wounds covering his body were severe. If he wasn't treated immediately, it was unlikely he would survive the day.
The most fatal injury was a sword scar carved into his Lower Dantian.
They... extracted his Dantian...!!
This wasn't a case of shattering a captive's Dantian to destroy their martial arts. These were delicate, precise marks. She could read the intent behind them: to extract the Dantian whole without damaging the core itself.
As if they were harvesting the internal dan of a spirit beast.
"Cheong-ah...? Is that you, Cheong...?"
"Uncle... Uncle! How... how did this happen... What is this... just what...!"
Murong Cheong sobbed as she unfastened the chains around her uncle’s wrists. Ignoring the bloodstains and the filth on the floor, she knelt before him, trembling with grief.
Before her, the family traitor managed a faint smile. He spoke in the familiar northern dialect she had always heard.
"Did you come from the family? I don't know if I should be glad you were the first to find me... or ashamed to show you such a pathetic sight."
"I came alone. I was tracking you, Uncle..."
"What...? Why? Without any retainers, alone in a place like this!! Go back, go back at once... Cough! Hack!!"
Cheon Ju-eun spat out clumps of dark, dead blood for a long moment before slumping weakly. His faint voice scattered thinly amidst the muffled sound of the waves.
"Go back. It's dangerous here."
"If you were... if you were going to betray us, then you should have lived a better life than this!!"
Murong Cheong wasn't listening. She gripped her uncle’s trembling shoulders with shaking hands.
"If you were going to steal the family's secret techniques, you should have lived well! If you intended to abandon even Yeong-i and run away, you should have at least lived in luxury...!!"
"I'm sorry."
When Cheon Ju-eun smiled, Murong Cheong glared at him with burning eyes.
"Who was it?"
"Cheong-ah."
"I asked who it was. I am asking as the eldest daughter of the Murong Clan. I must know who dared... who dared lay a hand on our kin."
"Promise me one thing."
"No."
Murong Cheong shook her head.
"Stay alive and ask me for more promises then. You are going back to Yeong-i, Uncle. You are going back to Liaoning with me."
"I'm already beyond saving. You know this."
"...I don't want to hear it. I won't listen."
"Escape safely. I beg of you. You must survive and escape so that I can face the Family Head in the afterlife."
"A man like you...!! Why would a man like you do such a thing? Joining hands with the Jongri Family? Have you lost your mind?"
"Yeong-i is sick."
At those words, Murong Cheong’s hands froze.
He was a three-year-old boy. In the Cheon family, where sons were rare, he was the child her uncle had been blessed with late in life.
He cherished the boy so much that even before the child could walk, Cheon Ju-eun would carry him everywhere, boasting to the entire village.
"I will mobilize all the family's resources to find medicine. There must be a physician in the Central Plains who can treat Yeong-i..."
"No, that child wouldn't have lasted the year. Yeong-i's condition required a secret art, not medicine."
"So you joined hands with the Jongri Family for that? You should have sought out the Kunlun Sect or the Zhuge Family instead...!"
"Yeong-i wouldn't have lasted that long. The Jongri Family said they would wait for me with a Black Ship."
"And the price was our clan's secret techniques."
"I'm sorry."
The cloth covering Cheon Ju-eun’s eyes began to soak through.
"I'm sorry. Truly, truly sorry. There was no other way for this pathetic uncle of yours."
"Then why did you end up like this? The Jongri Family... they are supposed to be meticulous when it comes to business."
"The secret art they prepared for Yeong-i... it wasn't a technique to save him."
"What?"
"It was a technique to make the dead Yeong-i move."
"Jiangshi Technique...!! That's a forbidden art even in the Mount Mao Sect..."
"Yes, they said they would bring him back that way. And they said they would hand the secret manuals I gave them to the Jinju Eon Family."
"Just what is the Jinju Eon Family plotting with the Jongri Family? How deep does this go?"
"Everything."
Cheon Ju-eun explained with a hollow laugh.
Everything. From the head of the Jinju Eon Family, Fist King Eon Do-cheon, down to every surviving martial artist of the Eon family.
They were a family that had been ruined, losing most of their kin and secret techniques during the last Righteous-Demonic War. Having once been a great sect representing an entire province, their sense of loss must have been immense.
They had no way to recover their lost arts.
The Fist King was a freak of nature who had broken through his realm solely through his own talent and constitution. His descendants could not inherit the martial arts of the Heavenly Roar Fist, and most of the family's secret techniques, including the core principles, had vanished along with the masters who died during the war.
So, they turned their eyes elsewhere.
They gathered forbidden arts that could revive dead kinsmen and other martial arts to replace their lost ones. They prided themselves on this being the best way to restore their past glory.
They would learn the Jongri Family's Jiangshi techniques, and in exchange, they would provide the sacrifices needed for the Jongri Family to research their spells.
They handed over the lives and corpses of countless commoners. They provided protection for the Jongri Family's external activities.
And the pawn named Cheon Ju-eun, who happened to fall into their laps at just the right time, was far too perfect to pass up.
"When I resisted, they turned me into this. They didn't kill me, though. They needed a Murong martial artist to annotate the secret manuals. They extracted my Dantian and tortured me, trying to squeeze the Murong Family's martial arts out of me."
He hadn't spoken. He had tried to take his own life, but failed. They had laughed, telling him that if he died, it would be even easier to extract information by reanimating his corpse.
They told him that if he handed over the techniques completely before he withered away, they wouldn't desecrate his body after death.
After finishing his story, Cheon Ju-eun let his head hang low.
"Kill me. You must cut my throat and crush my brainstem. I'm sorry to ask this of you, so that they cannot pull information from my corpse. But if it's to protect the Murong Clan's secrets..."
"Revenge."
Murong Cheong gripped her sword hilt with trembling hands.
Shring. With a dry metallic sound, her blade shone brilliant white. She would strike so that if she cut him now, it would end in an instant, without pain.
"I will have revenge."
"It's dangerous here. You must prioritize escaping first."
"You are no longer an elder of the family. I will no longer listen to the requests of the traitor Cheon Ju-eun. Therefore, I... I..."
Murong Cheong spoke in a low voice, her blood boiling.
"Instead, I will avenge my uncle, Cheon Ju-eun."
"Cheong-ah."
"I will tell my aunt that you passed away peacefully. I will tell the family that my uncle did not betray them."
"Thank you..."
Cheon Ju-eun reached out a trembling hand and placed it on Murong Cheong’s cheek.
"How did you grow up to be so virtuous?"
"Rest... please rest in peace..."
"Thank you. My dear Cheong-ah."
The sword caught the torchlight and flashed.
The sensation of the blade parting skin and bone was barely felt. The Murong Family's swordsmanship pursued a sharp and agile path.
Since it was that swift, she hoped he had closed his eyes without pain.
Murong Cheong turned around unsteadily. She saw the broad back of Peng Hyeon-hwi, who was still standing silently with his back turned.
Her hand moved before she knew it. She grabbed his clothes, trying desperately to steady her trembling hands.
After muttering a few times in the northern dialect unconsciously, she forced herself to remember the Han language and whispered in a clumsy, clinging tone.
"Revenge... I want revenge. I want to take revenge."
She had no expectations. This man was of the Black Path's Ten Great Sects, the direct lineage of the Hebei Peng Family, and had no reason to intervene in the private affairs of the Murong Family.
She just needed someone to support her collapsing body right now.
It was fine even if he left. In fact, she seemed to sincerely wish for it. At the very least, she didn't want him to face danger by getting caught up in her unrelated business.
She felt those ambivalent emotions simultaneously—the desire for him to stay and the wish for him to flee this dangerous place.
"Sure, why not."
At the sound of his voice answering, she spoke without thinking.
"It's too dangerous. You won't survive."
"Then I'll just die."
When she reflexively asked back at his nonchalant tone, he started saying something strange about "Confucius" or whatever.
How should she put it? She couldn't help but think it was just like him.
"Let's give it a shot."
To this man who stood straight in this hideous, filthy, and terrible Martial World... a man like a blade forged from cold iron.
"Thank... thank you... thank you..."
She collapsed against him and wept for a long time.
*
Let’s summarize.
The Jinju Eon Family has sided with the Jongri Family.
It’s not just a casual transaction; they’ve stuck themselves to them completely, to the point where it’s difficult to even consider them an Orthodox Martial Sect anymore.
The question "Why on earth?" bubbled up, but I suppressed it. Because I knew why.
My family had smashed theirs into smithereens, so they probably felt they had no choice but to rely on Left-Path sorcery. Yeah, that happens.
And that dead man, Cheon Ju-eun, had made a deal with the Jongri Family to save his three-year-old son who was given a terminal diagnosis.
But after making the deal, he found out it wasn't a secret art to heal his son, but a technique to revive the dead boy as a Jiangshi.
Is this a Monkey's Paw situation?
The genre-breaking is getting out of hand. Is he making a contract with a demon or something?
Anyway, we’ve currently intruded on the Jongri Family’s fun Jiangshi research hour. And it seems the martial artists of the Jinju Eon Family are stationed here.
"Can you guess who from the Jinju Eon Family might be here?"
"Fist Dragon Eon Hyeong-shin. My uncle said he was the one who personally took him down."
"Fist Dragon, huh..."
Man, that's a cool nickname. Why do the Orthodox guys have a monopoly on nicknames with 'Dragon' and 'Phoenix' in them? I wanted a nickname like 'Literary Dragon' or 'Shining Dragon' too.
"He's a master who made a name for himself in our generation's Dragon-Phoenix Gathering. He's ten years older than me."
"Same age as our Peng Hyeon-ryang, then. What's his realm?"
"I heard he reached the Peak Realm not long ago. He's a master of the Eon Family Star-Moon Fist and was famous as a genius who had few rivals among his peers."
"What's the scope of your revenge?"
"Pardon?"
"If you're talking about sinking this entire Black Ship into the sea off the coast of Qinghe County, we'll need to look at the long term."
In that case, we’d have to follow the old saying that ten years is not too late for a gentleman's revenge. Logically, it’s impossible for the two of us to kill every master on this ship and destroy the vessel.
The best bet would be to use the Hao Clan's information network and sell the info to the Murong Family at a discount. This has exceeded the scale of what the two of us can handle.
"But if it's just that Fist Dragon guy, we might be able to try something."
"How? He won't be alone. Even if he were, he's a master the two of us can't handle."
"In times like this, it's easier to think simply."
Admittedly, the odds of the two of us facing a Peak Realm master are slim. Generally speaking, it would be safe to say we have no chance.
The difference between a master who has opened their Middle Dantian and an inferior who hasn't is as vast as the gap between a first-rate martial artist and a commoner.
The subjective time they live in is fundamentally different. Both the speed of thought and the speed of execution are on another level.
The Peak Realm means the maximum limit allowed to a human body. It is a supreme realm that only geniuses of martial arts can step into.
On top of that, the opponent has mastered the martial arts of a great family that once belonged to the Five Great Clans. Even if they lost most of their secrets, if he broke through to the Peak Realm with just what remained, he’d be at least stronger than Yang Jeok-yo.
That’s just based on martial arts alone, but if he’s a martial artist in his prime, there’s no need for further explanation. Reaching the Peak Realm by thirty means he’s of a caliber generally expected to aim for the next generation's Fifteen Lords of the World.
So, facing him head-on would be extremely troublesome.
"First, let's hide."
I pointed to a coffin-like crate in the corner of the cargo hold.
The Jinju Eon Family had put in the work to extract the Murong Family's martial arts, but what if they found out that the Murong martial artist had died the moment their guard was down?
If I were in that situation, I’d flip out and scour the entire ship. I’d even send a pursuit team to the village to retrace his steps.
But would I personally step out to do that? No, absolutely not.
A master of that level, especially a direct descendant of a great family, rarely moves personally unless necessary. Since he can't use the Jongri Family's lackeys, he’ll send out the martial artists he brought with him to search.
That’s when we strike. Right near where Cheon Ju-eun was killed.
Since everyone will assume the culprit has already fled, this place is actually the safest.
The foot of the lamp is the darkest.
I grabbed Murong Cheong’s hesitating hand and stuffed our bodies into the crate.
[Hold, hold your breath!! Your breath is touching me!]
But I'll die if I do.
[If I smell you, I'll kill you!]
I wanted to tell her that given the environment, our sense of smell had probably gone numb a long time ago. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to use Sound Transmission, and since Murong Cheong wouldn't let go of my hand, I had no way to convey that.
When I nodded, Murong Cheong fidgeted in front of me for a while. I thought we were a bit too close, so I tried to push her away slightly, but she blocked my hand with surprising skill. It was a high-level grappling technique.
As expected of a great sect...!
[It's cramped! It's cramped, so it can't be helped! Are you having strange thoughts? I consider it unavoidable since you're pressed against the chastity of a daughter from a prestigious family, but you must consider the situation! I advise you to stop your lewd Han thoughts!]
Why is she getting wordier?
I suppose I should be glad she seems to have regained some energy.
At that thought, I let out a small chuckle, and Murong Cheong gripped my hand tightly and pinched it.
That hurts...