Chapter 134
Chapter 134
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 39
>Chapter Title: Erosion (1)
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“The Second Young Master of the Leader just left like that?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.”
Upon hearing the report from Seok Jung, who had escorted Mok Kyung-un, the Shadow Branch Master tapped his fingers on the desk in his office.
It seemed the results from the Blood Meridian Pass had spread faster than expected.
The Second Young Master, Jang Nung-ak, was already making his move.
‘He must have been planning to use that child, Mok Kyung-un, as a bridgehead.’
The Shadow Branch Master had already rejected several approaches for support, saying no one dared support anyone while the Leader was still hale and hearty.
But now that he had an official disciple, Jang Nung-ak was openly eyeing him.
What was unexpected, however,
‘He rejected the Second Young Master Jang Nung-ak’s offer...’
Was that Mok Kyung-un had refused Jang Nung-ak’s proposal without any hesitation.
And yet, nothing had happened afterward. It was astonishing.
The Second Young Master was the type who wouldn’t rest until he got what he wanted.
For such a person to leave without complaint after a single refusal was suspicious.
“Nothing else out of the ordinary happened?”
At the Shadow Branch Master’s question, Seok Jung hesitated for a moment.
He wanted to tell everything, but the fear lodged in his chest prevented him from speaking about what had happened earlier.
‘He’s hiding his martial prowess. He has strange abilities. He had some unheard conversation with the Second Young Master.’
There was so much to say.
Yet his lips wouldn’t move.
Even though the Shadow Branch Master’s room was perfectly soundproofed, he felt an illusion as if Mok Kyung-un were watching, making it impossible to speak.
“......Nothing happened.”
At his answer, the Shadow Branch Master’s eyes narrowed slightly.
But without showing it, he said,
“Good. You may go.”
“Yes.”
-Clack!
Seok Jung clasped his hands in a fist salute and promptly left the office.
As he left, a voice came from somewhere.
“Branch Master.”
“Yes.”
“Something feels missing from the report.”
“I agree.”
Seok Jung’s complexion was paler than usual, and the details of the incident outside the estate didn’t seem fully conveyed for some reason.
Considering Jang Nung-ak’s temperament, that was the case.
After all, he was the head of the Shadow Branch, commanding the Heaven-Earth Society’s intelligence, secrets, and spies.
There was no way he wouldn’t find it odd.
“Put someone on Seok Jung.”
“Yes.”
“And tell those stationed at the annex to record his every move and report it all.”
“Yes.”
-Thud!
A small sound came from the ceiling, and the presence vanished.
Once he was gone, the Shadow Branch Master unfurled an old scroll on his desk.
It was written in characters completely different from Hanja.
[اهریمن]
It didn’t even look like cipher.
* * *
Seven days passed like that.
Over those seven days, the Shadow Branch Master fell into various worries.
These were worries born from observing Mok Kyung-un, who had become his official disciple.
The first was Mok Kyung-un’s talent.
He experienced it starting the very next day.
He had called him to his private training chamber dedicated to the Branch Master to teach the Ghost Shadow Claw Technique from the manual he’d given him to memorize.
Before giving instructions, he told him to demonstrate the forms to the extent he understood them.
But,
‘......What is this?’
The Shadow Branch Master couldn’t hide his astonishment.
Mok Kyung-un had mastered the Ghost Shadow Claw Technique too perfectly.
Every form was precise, without the slightest disruption, as if he had practiced it for years and perfected it.
He wondered if Mok Kyung-un had previewed the Ghost Shadow Claw Technique all night.
But no.
[Young Master Mok just stayed quietly in his room.]
According to reports from the guards and servants monitoring the annex, he had done nothing.
It seemed he had only eaten dinner and rested that night.
To perfectly master the technique in just one day without doing anything—the Shadow Branch Master was full of admiration.
‘Is he really a genius?’
He knew he possessed innate martial talent.
Hadn’t he demonstrated the miraculous ability to replicate the Right Fist Elder’s subtleties right before his eyes?
So the Shadow Branch Master tested Mok Kyung-un.
This time, he gave him the Flying Swap Ghost Saber Art, his unique martial art and a transcendent blade technique, and allotted one hour: memorize and practice as much as he could.
After one hour, the Shadow Branch Master asked Mok Kyung-un.
[How much did you learn?]
The Flying Swap Ghost Saber Art was the Shadow Branch Master’s exclusive art, a transcendent martial technique.
He prided it as one of the top ten saber arts in the martial world.
Since it was more difficult to learn than the Ghost Shadow Claw Technique, he thought this one would be impossible in such a short time.
But,
‘......What am I seeing?’
What was going on?
Mok Kyung-un demonstrated the Flying Swap Ghost Saber Art with such proficiency.
He even executed the latter forms, which required grasping the saber intent, as well as the Shadow Branch Master himself could.
Seeing this, the Shadow Branch Master was truly shocked.
How could this be possible in just one hour?
‘It’s absurd.’
Beyond shock, he even felt fear at Mok Kyung-un’s talent.
Mok Kyung-un didn’t need instruction to begin with.
For new forms, a master usually corrects the precise posture and the meaning behind them, but he comprehended them perfectly from the manual alone.
To confirm, he taught him two more martial arts.
‘Hear one, know ten—no, see one martial art, know ten.’
There was hardly anything to teach.
In just one day, he had mastered all the major techniques in the manuals.
Since he had awakened the forms on his own, the key now was advancing to higher realms through heart methods and enlightenment.
[I need to change the teaching method.]
So the Shadow Branch Master shifted from teaching techniques to a question-and-answer format.
There were many studies in martial arts beyond forms, so he told Mok Kyung-un to ask about anything he didn’t know.
Yet over the seven days, he hardly asked anything.
No, there was one thing.
[Master, I heard that thing on your face is a human skin mask. How do you make it?]
Mok Kyung-un showed interest not in martial training, but in that.
However, still not fully trusting Mok Kyung-un, he hadn’t taught the final three forms of the Flying Swap Ghost Saber Art or about the human skin mask.
Thus, the first worry was his talent, which could truly be called genius without exaggeration.
The second worry was an extension of that.
[Is this true?]
[Yes. It’s information from the branch in northern Anhui Province.]
[......Hard to believe.]
Just three days ago, he had gathered information on Timber Sword Manor.
To clearly understand who Mok Kyung-un was, the Shadow Branch Master had ordered an investigation into his upbringing.
With this level of talent, he thought Timber Sword Manor must have invested heavily in him.
But contrary to expectations,
[Hmm.]
The Mok Kyung-un described in the report was utterly different from the one he knew now.
His martial talent was laughably poor, and his position in Timber Sword Manor was the worst.
Rather, the one known for innate talent was Mok Yu-cheon, who had been brought as a hostage alongside him from the orthodox faction.
‘Hard to understand.’
His reputation in the clan was terribly bad.
To this extent, he was practically ignored even in succession matters.
How was this possible?
‘Before being taken as a hostage, he was merely third-rate?’
If the report was accurate, he deserved to be called trash, not talented—impossible to imagine compared to now.
It was like reading about someone else.
He even wondered if Timber Sword Manor had muddled the information to hide their talent.
‘The only thing that matches is......’
His position in Timber Sword Manor was enough to breed resentment.
Since he wasn’t acknowledged by the clan at all.
But that wasn’t sufficient.
[Dig deeper.]
“Understood.”
In the end, more solid information was needed.
If he had been as the Shadow Branch Master knew, this would have sufficed, but the person in the report was different.
That was up to here, but the third worry was an immediate problem.
-Tap tap tap!
The Shadow Branch Master muttered while habitually tapping the floor with his fingers.
“What to do.”
The reports filling the desk were all records from observers noting Mok Kyung-un’s every action.
He thought seven days of observation would yield something.
But nothing.
Mok Kyung-un’s routine was as if premeditated: martial practice, meals, energy circulation and meditation, reading before bed—that was it.
No deviation from this cycle in seven days.
‘......Too regular.’
This suspicion reached its peak.
The records from the observers over two days showed no change, so he replaced them all just in case.
Yet they matched the previous ones.
Two days later, he swapped them again, and still the same.
At this point, one might think it was genuine, but the Shadow Branch Master felt dissonance in these records.
‘To show them?’
It felt too deliberate in avoiding standing out.
All actions seemed performative.
As if knowing he was watched, deliberately acting reassuring—or self-restraining to gain trust.
‘Hmm. What to do.’
From Seok Jung’s case, he suspected threats or coercion, so he changed them three times.
In total, eighteen observers had watched Mok Kyung-un.
For Mok Kyung-un, confined to the training hall and annex for just seven days, to persuade or threaten all eighteen was practically impossible.
‘Might have only heightened his vigilance.’
Mok Kyung-un wasn’t just talented in martial arts.
Being extremely cunning, he had likely noticed the surveillance.
Continuing to rotate observers was pointless.
‘No choice.’
A monitored subject won’t show what you want.
Better to change methods.
“Byok.”
At the Shadow Branch Master’s call, a voice came from the ceiling.
“Yes.”
Byok, so called, was the Shadow Branch Master’s guard and confidant.
His prowess had reached the peak of supreme mastery, and from one of the four great assassin sects, the Silent Sorrow Assassination Sect, he had attained the highest realm in stealth.
“Byok. Replace the servants with ordinary ones and withdraw all but two guards.”
“Yes. Understood.”
This was the Shadow Branch Master’s next move.
Reduce observers to lower Mok Kyung-un’s guard.
And,
“You’ll have to handle it personally for a while, Byok.”
“Understood.”
Not overt surveillance, but covert through Byok.
Though similar in prowess to Mok Kyung-un, as a special assassin from the Silent Sorrow Assassination Sect, Byok was a master at concealing presence—even supreme masters would struggle to detect him if he tried.
Of course, against fully mature supreme experts, it would be hard.
But fooling Mok Kyung-un’s senses should be easy.
* * *
Mok Kyung-un’s annex.
Byok, moving silently with the Silent Treading Step, cautiously slipped into the gap between ceiling tiles.
Once inside, he headed toward the room where light leaked out.
From there came a voice chanting something at length.
Byok quietly moved there and peered down into the lit room from the ceiling.
‘!?’
Byok frowned.
There, Mok Kyung-un was gripping a man’s head, chanting something eerie.
“Takhwado yo ogum siye gong yag ye seon gyeong jung il lip byeonsip man······.”
‘No?’
What was this?
Byok, watching gravely, quietly drew something from his bosom, waited for an opening, then dropped from the ceiling.
Landing behind the defenseless Mok Kyung-un, Byok promptly,
-Swish!
Held out an old scroll to Mok Kyung-un.
The spell-finished Mok Kyung-un turned his head and said nonchalantly,
“You’re quick.”
“Yes. Master.”
What was going on?
Surprisingly, Byok called Mok Kyung-un “Master.”
Mok Kyung-un took the scroll Byok offered and smiled faintly.
“How’s the new body? Demon Monk.”