Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 14
>Chapter Title: Heaven and Earth Society (2)
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“You... saw that?”
Mok Kyung-un sensed something odd in the expression of the Illustrious Sword King Son Yun.
He was well aware of just how important secret manuals were in the martial world.
Yet this man’s reaction was far from the rage one would expect upon learning that someone had laid eyes on what was essentially their clan’s treasure.
It was more like he couldn’t believe it.
‘What’s this about?’
He was wondering about it when—
*Swish!*
Before he knew it, the sharp blade of Son Yun’s massive sword was pressed against his throat.
Mok Kyung-un’s eyes narrowed.
He had clearly seen every movement with his own eyes, yet he hadn’t noticed it until the blade was right up against his skin, as if he hadn’t registered it at all.
“...So this is a true master?”
Incredible.
He could now understand why the Timber Sword Manor’s Clan Head, Mok In-dan, was so tense and deferential.
But his admiration ended there.
In this world, let your guard down and even a five-year-old child could stab you to death in your sleep.
Vigilance was key in everything.
Son Yun stared straight into Mok Kyung-un’s eyes and spoke.
“You saw that and still lived...”
“Pardon?”
“Then it’s one of two things.”
What on earth was he talking about?
As Mok Kyung-un puzzled over it, Son Yun continued in a cold voice.
“Either a lie... or heaven’s luck.”
“A lie... or heaven’s luck?”
“No one who has seen its contents has emerged unscathed and still drawing breath.”
“...What do you mean by that?”
No one drawing breath?
Wasn’t he right here?
Son Yun snorted and pressed the blade slightly against his throat.
“Exactly what I said. That’s why I can’t believe you’re standing here alive and well.”
“I’m alive, as you can see.”
Mok Kyung-un shrugged his shoulders.
Son Yun clicked his tongue at the boy’s attitude.
A blade at his throat, and yet there wasn’t the slightest change in his demeanor.
Had he lost all fear? Or was he just that bold?
“Looking at you, I can’t tell if your guts are swollen with lies or if you’re just gambling with your life.”
“Why gamble when lying would just get me killed anyway?”
“...”
Son Yun peered intently into Mok Kyung-un’s eyes.
Even a flicker of tension should have made them waver, but they didn’t.
[Retrieve it at all costs.]
He couldn’t disobey that command.
Which left only one option.
“Fine. Then recite the verse or demonstrate a form. That way, I’ll know for sure.”
At this proposal, Clan Head Mok In-dan and everyone else from Timber Sword Manor watched with tense gazes.
At first, when Mok Kyung-un had revealed he possessed it, they had felt a profound sense of betrayal.
But in this situation, he was the only one who could save them.
‘Please.’
They prayed it wasn’t a lie.
“Nothing to it.”
With those words, Mok Kyung-un prepared to recite the verse.
He considered reciting only part of it, like when he’d fooled Mok Yu-cheon with an imperfect version, but these people were the true owners of the manual.
Trying to deceive them might cost him his head.
As he opened his mouth—
*Zhong-saeng.*
A familiar voice echoed in his mind.
It was Cheongryeong.
Mok Kyung-un flicked his eyes around, scanning the surroundings.
But she wasn’t visible.
He had been wondering about that already—she hadn’t appeared even when he’d called her earlier.
-Look at the rooftop across from you.
‘Rooftop?’
He glanced up at it.
There she stood.
Why wasn’t she coming closer?
Was she keeping her distance because of this monster and that sorcerer?
It seemed likely.
But...
‘What’s this?’
Cheongryeong’s aura was different from usual.
The blood-red glow in her eyes, reflected from her perch on the rooftop, was unnaturally intense.
No—it felt like roaring flames blazing fiercely.
Connected as they were, he could sense it.
‘Anger?’
The emotion radiating from her was overwhelming rage.
Fierce enough to drown the entire area in blood, yet she was suppressing it with tremendous endurance.
Why?
As he puzzled over it, Cheongryeong spoke.
-The moment you recite that verse, you die.
Huh?
Was she stopping him out of concern for that?
Of course, reciting the whole thing might prompt a blow to the back of his head.
Better to do half and negotiate the rest somehow...
-Zhong-saeng. Mimic exactly the verse and stance I recite.
Mok Kyung-un furrowed his brow slightly.
Mimic the verse and stance? What did she mean?
These people knew what was written inside—if he recited something else, they’d know it was wrong.
But...
-Don’t overthink it. Trust me right now.
‘Hmm.’
-Zhong-saeng, if you die, I die too.
At those words, Mok Kyung-un wrestled with countless thoughts in an instant.
The moment the verse was wrong, his head would roll—and if he recited what she told him...
As he agonized, the Illustrious Sword King Son Yun spoke.
“Why aren’t you doing it?”
“...”
After a moment’s deliberation, Mok Kyung-un reached a decision.
He gripped the manual tightly.
Then, he mimicked Cheongryeong on the rooftop, who stood with her back to the moonlight in a ready stance.
From that distance, their postures matched perfectly.
Cheongryeong opened her mouth.
-Mu Won Ji Hyun, Pa Sun Yu Un, Yeong Gyeol Hae Ji, Jo Ha Sik Yu, Ji Pa Gyeong Sal.
With that, she thrust the manual forward and slowly executed the first form.
Her movements were like a beautiful woman dancing with a sword.
The phrase “beauty under the moon” came to mind.
Her fluttering red robes swayed with the form, resembling scattered petals.
“...”
It was mesmerizing, drawing the eye inevitably.
If not for the circumstances, he’d want to watch leisurely.
Soon, Mok Kyung-un spoke.
“Mu Won Ji Hyun, Pa Sun Yu Un, Yeong Gyeol Hae Ji, Jo Ha Sik Yu, Ji Pa Gyeong Sal!”
He followed her movements exactly.
Replicating them to the letter.
*Ugh! Agh!*
His untrained muscles screamed in pain, but he ignored them, focusing on every fingertip.
*Pop! Pa-pa-pa-pop!*
“!!!!!!!”
At Mok Kyung-un’s sword form, the Illustrious Sword King Son Yun’s eyes trembled.
And it wasn’t just him.
Timber Sword Manor’s Clan Head Mok In-dan couldn’t tear his eyes away from the first form either.
“How... could this...”
He couldn’t help but be astonished.
It was a transcendent sword art.
Not a single superfluous motion in any technique, no flaws to pick at.
He’d anticipated something impressive since it was the manual the Heaven and Earth Society guarded, but this was beyond expectation.
Yet what astonished him more was...
‘This child... how is he moving like that?’
Mok Kyung-un’s movements were beyond what a third-rate warrior could produce.
No internal energy infused them, and though slow, from fingertip to core, it resembled a transcendent swordmaster demonstrating a form.
A true sword expert could tell at a glance.
‘Ha.’
If he was like this, what about Son Yun?
Son Yun too was awestruck by the display.
He recognized the form, but the execution was impossible at the boy’s level.
‘A prodigy?’
Incomprehensible talent.
His qi sense pegged him at barely second-rate from third-rate.
Yet he performed the form like a transcendent swordmaster showing off?
As he puzzled—
*Murmur murmur!*
He heard stirring among the masked figures.
Son Yun knew why they reacted that way.
“Cheon Ak Yeong Myeong, Mu So Bul Hang, Jeo Seon Geoma...”
Mok Kyung-un recited another verse and prepared the second form.
‘No!’
He had to stop him.
No one else could hear more of the forms and verses.
Son Yun hurriedly shouted.
“Stop!”
*Swish!*
Mok Kyung-un halted, his manual extended diagonally.
He then checked Son Yun’s reaction.
So focused on mimicking Cheongryeong’s rooftop demonstration, he hadn’t noticed before.
‘Huh?’
Seeing the Illustrious Sword King Son Yun’s expression, Mok Kyung-un was puzzled inwardly.
This had truly been a gamble.
It wasn’t the verse from the manual, after all.
Yet Son Yun’s face showed no sign he’d gotten it wrong.
Mok Kyung-un asked.
“Convinced?”
“...”
Son Yun clamped his mouth shut and stared at Mok Kyung-un.
In his mind, an image formed of another performing the same form—domineering beyond measure.
Yet Mok Kyung-un’s swordplay was entirely different in feel.
Which meant...
‘No doubt.’
It was definitely the manual.
No room for suspicion.
He tried not to show it, but Son Yun’s heart raced.
He hadn’t expected this, but to witness the Moon Meridian sword verse, thought lost a hundred years ago...
His excitement was hard to quell.
But soon, he suppressed it.
[Retrieve it at all costs.]
Securing the original manual was best.
But if the boy was telling the truth, the original was gone from the world.
The boy’s mind was the only copy left.
“Illustrious Sword King.”
Then came the voice of Jo the Sorcerer, the middle-aged man in the robe.
He said nothing more, but the subtle shake of his head conveyed the message.
Don’t kill him.
‘Greedy, eh?’
He found it intriguing too.
This whelp had accomplished what no one in the Society could.
Most who saw it died.
Which meant the cursed manual had chosen the boy—or he had something special.
‘But the manual can’t be learned by the unpermitted.’
The right course was to extract what was in his head and kill him.
Yet it felt like a waste somehow.
As he seemed to deliberate, Mok Kyung-un’s eyes narrowed.
‘Something’s up.’
They didn’t know the manual’s true contents.
Yet from their reactions, they were convinced the form and verse Cheongryeong gave him were authentic.
Otherwise, his head would already be rolling.
And that contemplative look while eyeing him...
‘Having second thoughts.’
Only one guess fit.
A treasure precious enough to call their own probably couldn’t be learned by outsiders.
So, having confirmed it real, extract from his head then kill?
Mok Kyung-un glanced at Jo the Sorcerer.
The man clearly took great interest in him.
In that case...
“You went to all this trouble to find the manual, so it must be quite valuable, right?”
“What?”
*Whoosh!*
Mok Kyung-un launched himself at a nearby Timber Sword Manor warrior.
He snatched the man’s sword outright.
“Borrowing this for a sec.”
“W-What?”
Mok Kyung-un pressed the stolen sword to his own throat and said.
“If I die, all your efforts to retrieve it go to waste.”
At these words, one of Son Yun’s eyebrows arched up.
Was this whelp bargaining with his own life?
Son Yun sneered.
“Have the guts to end your own life and say that?”
Mok Kyung-un smiled faintly.
“Nothing to it.”
*Stab!*
The blade dug into Mok Kyung-un’s throat.
‘!?’
Son Yun was dumbfounded for a moment.
He’d assumed the boy was negotiating to save his skin.
Yet the fool was slashing his own throat without hesitation.
“Enough!”
Son Yun bellowed with internal energy.
“Urk!”
“Ugh!”
The lion’s roar reverberated, making everyone clutch their ears.
Mok Kyung-un grimaced and staggered but didn’t release the sword piercing his throat.
Despite the pain and dizziness from the energy-infused shout, he endured.
‘This punk?’
Son Yun yelled again.
“Stop!”
*Swish!*
At the command, Mok Kyung-un relaxed, halting the blade’s push into his throat.
Blood trickled down, staining his collar red.
Son Yun spoke in disbelief.
“You’re insane, you brat.”
Normally, he’d mock a whelp for such foolishness.
But this one was different.
His eyes, his demeanor—he acted with no attachment to his own life.
“In a world this harsh, you’d have to be insane to survive.”
“Little punk talks like he’s seen it all. What do you want?”
*Tap tap!*
Mok Kyung-un tapped his forehead with a finger, grinning as he said.
“Now that you know how valuable what’s in my head is, I’m not keen on spilling it easily. So quit hemming and hawing and just take the manual nicely.”
“What?”
“The sorcerer over there wants that too, doesn’t he?”
Son Yun’s expression grew peculiar.
‘Take it nicely?’
The brat wasn’t begging for his life after spilling the manual—he was offering to walk into headquarters himself?
Dumbfounded, intrigue flickered in Son Yun’s eyes.
‘Ha. Look at this guy.’
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