Chapter 74
Chapter 74
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 74
Chapter Title: A Moon Fallen to Earth
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It was as if a chunk of the moon had fallen to the ground.
Light emanates. Light.
The moment he saw it, his mouth gaped wide open.
Huayang, the concubine he'd left behind in Evil Hegemony Heaven? No comparison. Maybe like a firefly next to a full moon.
Even without rouge, her lips were redder than cherries, and without powder, her face seemed to glow with a pale luminescence.
Each step she took overflowed with elegance, like the women filling the imperial palace's pleasure quarters.
"Haha, you're still awake?"
"......?"
What? This voice?
What kind of dissonance is this?
How could a voice from such a beautiful woman be so husky?
Perhaps someone's Six Harmonies Voice Transmission?
Jinmu whipped his head around with a sharp expression.
"What are you looking for?"
"...."
It was clearly from her mouth. The lip movements matched the voice perfectly.
"Jinmu Taoist?"
She grinned again, her voice gravelly like a man's.
Despite that tremendous mismatch, her smile alone could stop a person's heart.
Come to think of it, those eyes looked familiar.
Round like a deer's, seductively enchanting...
"Zhuge... Seon?"
"Yes?"
"...What?"
She pursed her lovely lips in response, her face flushing faintly, causing Jinmu to blink and step back.
He'd clearly called for Zhuge Seon—why was she answering?
No way?
The form hidden beneath male disguise?
"...."
His shocked expression was so awkward that she halted her approach and furrowed her brows.
"I've been making sounds to suit the male disguise for so long that my real voice has become unfamiliar..."
"...."
This doesn't make sense.
"Ahem, is it better now?"
Does it make sense!
Jinmu couldn't close his gaping mouth.
No wonder—a few coughs, and her voice transformed into something as beautiful as her appearance.
Jade beads? Crystal clear? No such words could capture it.
It was like the gods had crammed every possible blessing into one being.
Utterly unbelievable.
Couldn't be human. How could anyone have that face and that voice?
It went beyond surprise into outright shock. Jinmu unconsciously retreated as Zhuge Sansan drew near.
"...."
As Jinmu kept backing away, Zhuge Sansan finally stopped.
"Tch, no need for that expression. Even if Taoists are ascetic, I didn't expect you'd look so disgusted. Should've kept the disguise on."
Even her pouting, puffed cheeks... were pretty.
Pretty enough to make him wonder if it was okay to think that at his age.
"Zhuge... Sansan, right? No, is it?"
Even speaking casually to her felt like a sin.
"Not Sansan—Zhuge Sansan from now on."
"Eh? What?"
"My name. Zhuge Sansan."
"Zhuge... Sansan?"
"Yes."
Ah, got it.
Jinmu nodded blankly.
"And Zhuge Seon went to the Righteous Alliance, then straight back to the Zhuge family. Everyone believes that, so pretend you don't know."
Jinmu nodded blankly again.
"And wipe that disgusted look off your face."
What expression? On me? Right now?
No, he was just shocked!
Shocked enough to fall over from her looks and voice.
"Yes, yes. I won't come closer, so stop retreating."
Not retreating—just afraid of soiling her somehow...
"I just returned from the Righteous Alliance. Great Hero Baekro is staying longer due to the Dragon-Phoenix Pavilion Master issue."
"Ah."
That old geezer can come or not for all he cared.
"And I looked into that ambush from before."
Zhuge Sansan's face hardened slightly.
"Top secret—they wouldn't tell me anything. Especially regarding that girl..."
Zhuge Sansan explained diligently.
He couldn't hear a word.
Pathetically, all Jinmu could see was her lips moving.
Red, pretty...
"...Will you come with me tomorrow?"
"Uh, what?"
"Tomorrow."
"Ah, sure."
"Understood. I'll relay to the Grand Strategist that you'll visit the Alliance Leader tomorrow."
"Do that... Huh? What?"
"Yes?"
He'd answered blankly on reflex.
Grand Strategist? Alliance Leader?
Dazed by this seductive... pretty vixen, he'd missed the whole conversation.
What had she said?
Zhuge Sansan gazed at him puzzled.
"...."
Ah, damn.
He should've snapped out of it.
Managed fine when mauled by a tiger, but this fox undid him?
"...."
In the end, he couldn't refuse.
A man in verdant scholar's robes sat before him.
His noble features flowed with refinement as he smiled with feather fan in hand; his neatly parted beard on either side screamed born scholar.
Beside him sat the demure Zhuge Sansan, who turned toward the blankly staring Jinmu.
"Jinmu Taoist... Ahem! Ah, sorry. This voice is still a habit."
"...."
"This is the Righteous Alliance's Grand Strategist."
Really couldn't get used to it.
It had switched to a jade-bead voice, but that face with the husky tone...
Introduced by Zhuge Sansan, the fan-wielding scholar lightly bowed.
"Righteous Alliance Grand Strategist Zhuge Hyopjin. Honored to meet the famed Wudang Earth Sword."
He knew him. All too well.
Countless battles lost to this damned scholar's schemes; the damages to Evil Hegemony Heaven defied estimation.
His martial arts wouldn't yield even to the Righteous Seven Stars, but in strategy? No match for the Righteous Alliance.
How often had he envied them, superior forces squandered time and again against that vile strategist Zhuge Hyopjin?
"Something on my face?"
Zhuge Hyopjin asked, puzzled by Jinmu's stare.
"Ah, sorry. Wudang's Jinmu."
Jinmu greeted awkwardly, and Zhuge Hyopjin smiled as he sat.
"The Alliance Leader should properly greet you, but he has a prior engagement. Please wait a moment."
"No, I don't particularly want to see him."
His instincts blurted the truth.
"...Pardon?"
"Ah, no."
Jinmu's awkward smile drew tilted heads from both Zhuges.
Ah, just wanna leave.
Eighty years down the drain. Dazed by a woman's beauty, waltzing into the enemy's core... well, not quite anymore, but the Alliance Leader's quarters on his own two feet.
"Anyway, what do you think? Of the Righteous Alliance?"
"...Hm, big."
"Pardon?"
"...."
Staring blankly at Jinmu, Zhuge Hyopjin suddenly burst into loud laughter.
"Haha! My apologies. Truly a Wudang Taoist. A foolish question met with sage simplicity? My mistake."
"...."
Jinmu felt embarrassed instead by the hearty laugh.
What foolish sage answer?
He'd said it was big because it was big.
Countless grand halls, towering and pristine. Far larger than Evil Hegemony Heaven's main fortress. Must've cost a fortune to build.
"Indeed, big. Excessively so."
"...."
"But flashy without substance. All size, no core."
Zhuge Hyopjin smiled bitterly.
Like flowers blooming bright but bearing no fruit—mere ostentation.
"You're exaggerating."
Jinmu smirked inwardly.
The current Righteous Alliance was the strongest in its storied history. That was the secular consensus.
And Jinmu knew from direct experience.
Alliance Leader Sword Saint Cheol Ji-ryang was an extraordinary figure.
Not just in martial prowess, but a true leader who knew how to wield power.
He'd rallied not only the ineffective old sects and Five Great Families that never coalesced, but even minor factions below them.
In just ten years under him, the Alliance had surged, shoving aside Moon Sun Demonic Cult and Evil Hegemony Heaven to claim one-third of the central plains as a titan.
Of course, it wasn't solely Cheol Ji-ryang's doing. Zhuge Hyopjin made it possible.
The Alliance as an empty shell? Just the ambitious one's whining.
"Haha, is that so? Yet with evil rampant everywhere, we fail to guide them all to the righteous path. How regrettable."
Jinmu couldn't help snickering.
Evil rampant everywhere.
Obviously Moon Sun Demonic Cult and Evil Hegemony Heaven.
The "righteous path" meant crushing them to seize central plains hegemony.
Righteous folk sure had a way with words.
Slippery as oiled lips, spouting such cringe-inducing platitudes.
"Why the laugh?"
"Nothing. Just struck me as ambitious under fancy packaging."
"...."
A glint flashed in Zhuge Hyopjin's eyes.
He'd grasped the subtext?
Moments ago, he'd seemed a blank slate of a Taoist, clueless to all.
A glance showed Zhuge Sansan already smiling knowingly, as if anticipated.
She'd shared rumors of him last night.
He'd spotted her male disguise at a glance, unknown to all.
Moreover, the men they'd encountered en route were confirmed 'Palace' warriors pursued by Yang Sobang.
Per her account, his prowess was firmly in the Sword Force realm.
Not mere containment, but emission—verging on Sword Orb.
Two hypotheses for his strength.
He'd always been at that level.
But no martial artist had reached Sword Force before thirty, past or present.
Yang Sobang would've recognized such attainment.
Yet reports said he'd been a clueless Taoist novice, ignorant even of martial arts, up until a year—or less—ago.
Impossible.
Unless he'd grown after encountering Yang Sobang in Dukkang Valley.
From Sword Aura to Sword Force.
Even more absurd.
Barely over a month.
A feat beyond even Sword Saint Cheol Ji-ryang, whose sword enlightenment outpaced and delved deeper than any in the central plains.
'What manner of man is this?'
Meeting him face-to-face only deepened the doubts about Jinmu.
"Why stare so?"
"Ah, no. Thought I'd misjudged you, Jinmu Taoist."
Misjudged? First time seeing him today.
"Haha, in any case, impressive. Sword Force at your age."
"Well..."
Jinmu's face soured bitterly. He wanted to conceal his strength, but it wouldn't stay hidden.
Then again, in a world where some boasted endlessly about unasked-for brothers...
"But why summon me? Still four days till the Dragon-Phoenix Conference."
Simple curiosity.
Yet Zhuge Hyopjin's gaze shifted once more.
Jinmu wouldn't miss it.
He masked his expression well, but the subtle pupil flicker and faint tremor betrayed him.
"If you have something to say, out with it. No pointless banter."
"Ah, well."
Of course there was purpose in calling him.
But Zhuge Hyopjin faltered, unable to segue smoothly.
Jinmu's speech was too alien.
Partly the fixed image of a Taoist, but brutally direct.
Every word stabbed straight to the core without deviation—far from typical Taoist subtlety.
"Hahaha! First time I've seen the Grand Strategist flustered mid-conversation."
Two figures entered through the open door.
Zhuge Hyopjin and Zhuge Sansan rose and bowed deeply.
Jinmu's face twisted sharply.
Damn. That voice alone told him who it was.