Chapter 450
Chapter 450
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 116
>Chapter Title: Arrangement (2)
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A pattern engraved on the thin side of the bamboo slip.
It appeared to represent the Five Elements: fire, water, wood, earth, and metal.
He had no idea why it was carved there, but it seemed related to the methodical arrangement of the Breaking Thoughts Eight Styles' incantations.
‘A methodical arrangement and the Five Elements...’
There was definitely a connection.
The Breaking Thoughts Eight Styles condensed its insights into just thirty characters, requiring a multifaceted visual approach to grasp new incantations.
Yet even staring at it intently yielded no clues to any incantation, despite the apparent regularity.
‘It doesn’t combine.’
The arrangement itself was off from the start.
It felt like it was deliberately designed to draw attention and disrupt, tangling the incantations.
‘Why?’
For the incantations to tangle like this suggested something odd about the intent.
An arrangement crafted on purpose, yet mismatched.
Why make it this way?
As he pondered, Jin Ye-rin called out to him.
“Young Master Mok?”
“...What is it?”
“Now that I think about it, how do you know about this?”
“This?”
“The Breaking Thoughts Eight Styles.”
“Ah...”
“Even if you heard the rumors, Young Master Mok, you couldn’t confirm it was the Breaking Thoughts Eight Styles without seeing the contents yourself.”
Cheol Su-ryeon nodded in agreement and chimed in.
“Indeed. Where exactly did you see the Breaking Thoughts Eight Styles? Knowing an incantation of just thirty characters means you must have memorized it...”
“What answer are you looking for?”
“What?”
“It happened to fall into my hands from somewhere. Are you questioning me now to claim ownership?”
Cheol Su-ryeon clicked his tongue in disbelief at Mok Kyung-un’s words and raised his voice.
“Ha? Ownership? What a joke. I don’t know how you got it, but that incantation you learned was condensed by that lord for his descendants. Don’t you understand what that means? The true owner of the incantation you’ve practiced is none other than Jin Ye-rin, the last blood kin of the Jin Clan.”
“Ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous? You...”
“The very person you call the owner only just learned of it, yet you interrogate me on how I know it...”
“Enough!”
Jin Ye-rin interrupted then, cutting off Mok Kyung-un mid-sentence.
She let out a deep sigh and spoke.
“I’m not interrogating you, and as you said, Young Master, I have no intention of quibbling over ownership now. I was just curious how far something left in the hidden underground vault of Peerless Star by that lord had circulated.”
That was truly what she wanted to ask.
Since it was the supreme secret manual compiling her ancestor’s insights—not to mention by no one else—she assumed Mok Kyung-un knowing it meant it had come to him through some channel.
She simply wanted to know where it had reached him from.
“It’s the third bamboo slip, the leader of the Secret Conclave.”
‘!?’
Her expression hardened at Mok Kyung-un’s abrupt statement.
Having shared information, she knew the catastrophe of the Great Calamity Day was orchestrated by an organization called the Secret Conclave and its leader, the third bamboo slip.
“Th-the leader of the Secret Conclave? What does that...”
“You asked how far it had spread, so I told you. I learned it recently when I clashed with a clone of the bamboo slip. It’s certain.”
“A clone of the bamboo slip? What do you mean?”
“That guy...”
-Tuk tuk!
Mok Kyung-un tapped his forehead with a finger and continued.
“The third pupil in the forehead... In other words, a being fused with the Eye Demon Net Radiance. It’s more accurate to see it as the Eye Demon Net Radiance itself.”
“Eye Demon Net Radiance...”
“He implants his mind and will into other bodies to control them as clones. You should know this. He has more than one clone—several, at least. And since each shares his will, they’re nearly equal to his main body.”
Mok Kyung-un shared what he knew, as it was information he’d planned to disclose anyway.
Jin Ye-rin stuck out her tongue in astonishment and asked.
“What happened to that clone? Did you let it escape?”
“I killed it.”
“Ah!”
She couldn’t hide her surprise at his answer.
She’d been tracking the traces of the one who annihilated her clan and caused the Great Calamity Day, finally nearing a vital clue—yet Mok Kyung-un had confronted and fought it.
Calming herself, she continued.
“...You always manage to surprise me.”
“Killing a clone instead of the main body isn’t that impressive.”
“Even indirectly, approaching a being that shares its will is significant.”
She clicked her tongue again before returning to the main topic.
“But mentioning the Secret Conclave’s leader in answer to where that lord’s manual spread means he possesses the Breaking Thoughts Eight Styles?”
“Yes.”
-Kkuk!
Jin Ye-rin bit her lip hard at Mok Kyung-un’s confirmation.
Even Vicious Heart Patriarch Cheol Su-ryeon’s face twisted in fury.
‘How could this happen...’
For him, it was that lord’s ultimate technique; for her, her ancestor’s provision.
Yet it had fallen into the hands of the very mastermind behind the Great Calamity Day and Peerless Star’s fall.
That fact was enough to enrage them.
“...Young Master Mok. Do you happen to know how it reached the Secret Conclave’s leader?”
“I do.”
Mok Kyung-un had learned the origins of the Breaking Thoughts Eight Styles from Cheong-ryeong, who knew the roots of the Heaven-Earth Moon Society.
He just hadn’t realized the fallen group was Peerless Star.
What an irony.
Fate wove together in such ways.
The secret manual of fallen Peerless Star sparked countless conflicts in the martial world, birthing the Heaven-Earth Moon Society and then the Heaven-Earth Society.
And now, the last legitimate heir of Peerless Star stood before him.
It felt like countless branching paths converging at the end.
“How... How did that monster end up with that lord’s insights?”
Jin Ye-rin asked, suppressing her anger.
It was deeply important to her.
Mok Kyung-un seemed about to answer when he turned to Vicious Heart Patriarch Cheol Su-ryeon instead.
“First, the alchemy manual.”
“What!”
Cheol Su-ryeon was dumbfounded by Mok Kyung-un’s words.
They’d already agreed to hand it over—what was the rush?
Jin Ye-rin, still holding back her fury, grew irritated as Mok Kyung-un prioritized his goal.
“Young Master Mok, Cheol Su-ryeon has already agreed to give it. Why insist...”
“There are enemies outside. Your subordinates are holding them off.”
“I know. I don’t plan to stay here long...”
“Variables can arise anytime. The alchemy manual first.”
Faced with Mok Kyung-un’s unwavering stance, Cheol Su-ryeon finally lost his temper.
“Don’t you know the meaning of moderation...”
“Cheol Su-ryeon.”
“Miss, no. Whether this outsider received Moon Peak Sword teachings isn’t the point. He disregards mutual respect and prioritizes only himself...”
“Cheol Su-ryeon... I’m begging you.”
“...Haa.”
Cheol Su-ryeon sighed at Jin Ye-rin’s earnest plea.
He could sense she’d already conceded.
Angry as he was, he understood her feelings and roughly pulled an old book from the shelf in the thatched hut’s study.
-Pak!
“If not for the miss, I’d never hand this to you.”
“...”
Mok Kyung-un silently took the book, flipped through it quickly, and skimmed the contents.
Watching him, Jin Ye-rin inwardly marveled.
With a common enemy, arguing over this was pointless, so she’d yielded—but she wondered why Mok Kyung-un coveted the alchemy manual so desperately, even as the Secret Conclave schemed for it from the shadows.
-Shuk!
Mok Kyung-un tucked the alchemy manual into his bosom and spoke.
“I’ll explain briefly since time is short. On the day of the Great Calamity when Peerless Star fell, by coincidence, the keeper of the hidden underground vault survived.”
“The vault keeper?”
“Yes. His name was Yang Bi-ryu. He survived underground by luck. The surviving Yang Bi-ryu spent years searching for Peerless Star’s heirs to pass on the Breaking Thoughts Eight Styles but died without finding them.”
“Haa. So that’s how the manual entered the world?”
“Effectively, yes. After Yang Bi-ryu’s death, his three adopted sons fought over it for a long time—enough to turn it into a factional war.”
“Ah...”
That was the war over the supreme manual whispered in legends.
Mok Kyung-un briefly explained how the three clans forged a pact to end the war, decide the manual’s owner, and form a new group.
He quickly covered how the Heaven-Earth Moon Society arose, only for the Secret Conclave’s leader—the third bamboo slip—to possess the Heaven Vein clan head’s body through scheme and madness, annihilating the Moon Vein clan and birthing the current Heaven-Earth Society.
Of course, he omitted details involving Cheong-ryeong.
Hearing it all, Jin Ye-rin was distraught.
‘How did it come to this?’
Her ancestor’s insightful manual never reached her father, Jin Yeong-in, the surviving clan heir—instead circulating through wars among Yang Bi-ryu’s heirs until falling to the third bamboo slip, destroyer of Peerless Star.
Intriguingly, the Heaven-Earth Society was, in a sense, composed of Peerless Star’s descendants too.
Cheol Su-ryeon voiced the same thought.
“Then the Heaven-Earth Society can be seen as derived from Peerless Star as well.”
“...Yes. But for that lord’s insights to end up in the hands of the one who toppled Peerless Star and drove the clan to death—it’s utter humiliation.”
-Kkuk! Parururu!
Jin Ye-rin clenched her fist so hard her nails dug into her flesh.
She truly wanted to capture that mastermind, the third bamboo slip, tear him limb from limb, burn every scrap of flesh, and kill him.
To her, Mok Kyung-un suddenly asked.
“But I don’t understand why it was split into two.”
“Pardon?”
“Didn’t you say earlier? That ancestor left the Breaking Thoughts Eight Styles in the hidden vault for his descendants. If he foresaw it might not reach them, there’d be no reason to leave it there from the start.”
“Ah...”
Jin Ye-rin grew puzzled at his words.
If he’d left the Breaking Thoughts Eight Styles here, why the underground vault of Peerless Star?
Conversely, why place the Heavenly Hidden Starlife Sword Technique manual there instead?
Cheol Su-ryeon said this manual was that lord’s key provision for a future heir.
Shouldn’t it have gone in the underground vault too?
‘It’s strange.’
Pieces didn’t fit.
Perhaps he left only that in the vault out of hope for his heirs—but it ended up with the Secret Conclave’s leader who destroyed Peerless Star.
If he could read heaven’s secrets, couldn’t he predict that?
Deliberately leaving a manual to fall into another’s hands...
‘Ah?’
Lost in thought, she suddenly stared at Mok Kyung-un holding the bamboo slip with the Breaking Thoughts Eight Styles incantations.
Come to think of it, he’d obtained them by chance too.
‘Wait... Could it be...’
-Kwaaaaang!
Then a massive explosion roared from outside, shaking the entire thatched hut.
-Kurururururu!
In the aftermath, not just part of the central pillar cracked—it split a third of the way through.
Seeing it, they instinctively realized something was wrong with the formation.
Cheol Su-ryeon shouted at Mok Kyung-un.
“Give that bamboo slip to the miss.”
Believing it part of that lord’s provision, she felt Jin Ye-rin must have it.
Mok Kyung-un, having memorized the incantations, side patterns, and arrangement, had no attachment and moved to roll it up and hand it over.
But as he began rolling the bamboo slip—
-Chwaruk!
Space twisted as he rolled it, sucking Mok Kyung-un’s body in.
-Tak!
The rolled bamboo slip dropped to the floor.
‘!?’
Stunned by the sudden event, Jin Ye-rin and Vicious Heart Patriarch Cheol Su-ryeon couldn’t hide their shock.
What had just happened?
Jin Ye-rin hurriedly pulled the bamboo slip with Void Grasp, trying to unroll it.
But right then—
-Kwang!
The wall of the thatched hut before them tore away entirely.
The outside was revealed, and—
‘!!!!!!’
A middle-aged man with a third pupil on his forehead stood there, hands behind his back.
* * *
Mok Kyung-un looked around.
In a blink, Jin Ye-rin and Cheol Su-ryeon vanished, and his surroundings transformed.
He’d clearly been inside the hut, but now he was atop some mountain peak.
To figure out where he was, he approached the cliff edge at the peak’s end.
‘This... What is it?’
Mok Kyung-un doubted his eyes.
The sky above was clear and blue, but below the peak, no ground was visible.
Only endless black void stretched out, like an infinite abyss.
What was this place?
He circled the peak’s edge, peering down, but even after a full lap, nothing appeared below.
As he puzzled over it—
-Even looking yields no path down.
Mok Kyung-un frowned at the voice from behind.
He was alone on the peak.
No presence had been felt behind him—why the voice?
After a moment’s thought, he gripped his sword hilt and turned naturally.
‘!?’
A waist-high rock sat there, and atop it perched an unknown figure wearing a demon ghost mask.
< 116화 안배 (2) > End