Chapter 33
Chapter 33
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: Yidohyeon
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“Great hero! We've been waiting so anxiously for you all this time.”
The moment Baek Eunhwa spotted me at the Lower Five Gates branch in Yidohyeon, she ran straight over and threw herself into my arms.
“Sorry for making you worry.”
“Not at all. Seeing you're safe is the greatest relief.”
It was only natural she'd be concerned after half a year with no word. I'd gone and done something inexcusable to her.
After burying her face in my chest for a good while, Baek Eunhwa finally lifted her head to look at me. A strange expression crossed her face as she began feeling over my body.
“What happened during this past half year? Your build's changed, and even the contours of your face seem subtly different...”
“I've achieved a breakthrough.”
She didn't grasp the meaning at first, but realization soon dawned, and her mouth fell open in shock.
Unless one cultivated demonic arts, it was rare in the martial world for a breakthrough to alter even one's appearance.
It was impossible without undergoing Shedding Mortality.
“Congratulations on your great accomplishment!”
She grabbed my hand, her face beaming with joy greater than anyone's. She could have scolded me for vanishing without word for half a year, yet she accepted it as if it were only natural.
“I'm simply glad you've achieved what you set out to do, great hero.”
“I always appreciate it. That said, I'd like to hear a detailed report on the situation over the past half year first.”
“Of course. Let's go inside and talk it over slowly.”
The Lower Five Gates branch in Yidohyeon was unusually structured like a grand hall rather than an inn.
Branches overseeing small cities or villages typically doubled as inns—that was the norm.
If the Lower Five Gates had the power to erect grand halls in every corner of the jianghu, they'd long since stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Murim Alliance. Do you know how much that would cost?
So the fact that this place took the form of a hall rather than an inn or brothel for receiving guests was proof of its importance.
“Whew, now I can finally breathe a little.”
Once inside the branch, Baek Eunhwa removed her human-skin mask and caught her breath.
“To sum up the current situation briefly: there's still no sign of war between the Demonic Cult and the Murim Alliance. The Alliance has dispatched units to various regions in Qinghai to prepare for battle, but the Demonic Cult forces show no particular movements in response.”
“It's only been a short time since the Cult Leader changed, so they likely have internal matters to sort out. With winter coming, the Demonic Cult—short on food supplies—won't launch a preemptive strike. We should have until spring.”
“Exactly. And regarding the Demonic Cult spies you mentioned before, we've conducted our own investigation...”
Seeming hesitant to say it outright, the branch leader glanced around before steadying her breath.
“If my suspicions are correct, it seems not just the Covert Shadow Hall and Heavenly Mechanism Hall, but even unorthodox faction forces are involved.”
“By unorthodox, you mean the Four Black Union?”
The Four Black Union referred to the alliance of the four largest unorthodox powers.
They were the Green Forest Thirty-Six Strongholds, the Yangtze River Waterway Stronghold, the Blood Curtain, and the Black Beast Gang led by the Four Black Union Lord.
There was a time when it was called the Five Black Union, including the Lower Five Gates, but after their defeat in the Righteous-Demonic Great War, the Lower Five Gates shifted to a neutral stance between righteous and demonic, leaving the current Four Black Union.
“Yes. At every location where Demonic Cult intelligence cut off, we found suspicious circumstances. It seems someone is secretly maneuvering the Four Black Union to disrupt the flow of information.”
The Covert Shadow Hall was an organization that planted spies from the start. It wasn't impossible for a spy embedded in the Four Black Union to rise high and aid the Covert Shadow Hall Lord from the shadows.
“Have you uncovered their identity?”
“No, unfortunately. The deep grudge between our Lower Five Gates and the Four Black Union makes investigation difficult. But at the very least, it's someone at the unit leader level or higher.”
That meant a representative of each organization or someone close to them, but we couldn't just march in and demand they hand over the spy...
“When is the Black Dao Assembly, where the Four Black Union representatives gather?”
“The last one was a year ago, so probably soon. The location changes every time, so even we don't know exactly.”
“That's fine. I know someone who would.”
To be precise, someone who should know, by rights.
“You plan to storm the Black Dao Assembly alone?”
She frowned, her face full of disbelief.
“I don't want to put you in danger.”
Participating under the Lower Five Gates banner would make things much easier. But that would require Baek Eunhwa to reveal herself as branch leader.
I didn't want her exposed to such risks.
“Let's go together.”
But her eyes burned with unyielding resolve as she continued.
“I don't want to send you off alone.”
Her attitude made it clear no words would sway her. She was always a stubborn woman, and once decided, there was no turning her back.
“You know well what I'm afraid of. But you also know better than anyone that I can't hide in your shadow forever.”
Yes, I knew. In my previous life, you'd chased after me into the heart of enemy territory to save me, right to the end.
I'd thought countless times that if I hadn't left you behind then—if we'd faced it together under the Lower Five Gates banner from the start—the outcome might have been different.
Thinking that way, perhaps in this life, it was better to trust her and stand side by side from the beginning.
“Very well. I trust you, Branch Leader.”
“Just leave it to me.”
What was so exciting about it? With her decision made, a bright smile lit her lips.
“You've achieved a breakthrough.”
As the branch leader and I stepped out of the branch, the escort unit leader approached me as if he'd been waiting.
He had a duty to guard the branch leader's side, so he'd been watching closely all along.
“How did you know?”
Once the Governor and Conception Vessels are fully opened and qi can be drawn in through the Hundred Meetings point, the body's energy harmonizes with nature, making it hard to gauge one's realm through simple qi sense.
With almost no energy leaking outward, it should seem like no internal energy even existed at a glance.
“Detecting a grain of rice-sized internal energy is harder than sensing its absence. It might be better if you let a little qi leak out, Great Leader.”
So because it evaded qi sense entirely, it was easier to infer the realm.
Leak a tiny bit of qi to deceive others. I'd known the method, but in my previous life, the entire jianghu already knew of me, so there'd been no need.
“Thank you for the lesson.”
As the unit leader advised, I let a bit of my boundary-less qi seep outward.
To the level of the Sword Dragon Fujiki—neither too faint nor overpowering.
“Good. You've learned as swiftly as you've advanced, Great Leader. This old man has chosen his son-in-law well.”
Hm?
Son-in-law?
“Could it be... you're Baek Eunhwa's father?”
“Oh, you didn't know? Haha, with your memories of your past life, I assumed you'd know, but it seems my daughter never mentioned it.”
“You never even let me call you Father normally, but now you pull out the 'daughter' card.”
Baek Eunhwa shot the escort unit leader a sullen look. For the sake of the branch leader's dignity, he—as both father and unit leader—couldn't easily call her his daughter.
“I have to maintain some face in front of my son-in-law, don't I?”
The unit leader gave an awkward chuckle before turning to me.
“How about it, Great Leader? Shall we settle that unfinished bout once more?”
He wanted to decide the victor they'd failed to determine before.
“I've been waiting for this too.”
We drew our swords and assumed stances right there on the spot.
A perfect chance to test the new realm I'd stepped into.
“I'll yield the first move again.”
The unit leader took the basic stance of the Water Ripple Guarding Art. His flawless form was unchanged, but the aura was markedly different from before.
This time, he intended a serious match.
Just what I'd hoped for.
“Hoo.”
I compressed sword qi—crimson as blood—onto the blade to its limit. The qi, which had scattered like blood mist, suddenly gathered and condensed on the sword body.
Intention becomes qi, taking on color; lines form planes, threads weaving shape.
Sword threads—the condensed form of sword qi—wrapped around the entire blade could cleave steel with a mere branch. Nothing in the world could withstand it.
“Is that... sword force?”
The materialization of internal energy. Not qi dissipating like heat haze, but qi forged into a blade. We called such extremely compressed, formed qi 'force qi' in general.
And when that force qi enveloped a sword, turning it into an intangible blade in itself, it was sword force.
“Yes.”
“Impressive. Have you transcended time to reach the impossible?”
A blue qi like flowing river water rose around the unit leader. Like river streams converging into the sea, it gathered on his blade, taking sword form.
He'd drawn his sword force too.
“Here I come!”
Breaking the brief silence, I thrust my sword toward him.
Blood Heaven Asura Art: Heaven-Destroying Chaotic Slash.
Water Ripple Guarding Art: Water Flow Continuous Strikes.
Like fresh blood mixing into river water, dozens of attacks and defenses intertwined in an asura field of chaos.
The unit leader's blue sword force flowed past my indiscriminate barrage like a mighty river sweeping over a boulder.
Clang!
With a sharp metallic ring, we both leaped back simultaneously. Continuous strikes wouldn't decide the fight.
What was needed was a decisive blow to pierce that ironclad defense.
In that case.
Blood Heaven Asura Art: Asura Flash.
Asura Flash was a technique honed to the extreme from a simple swing. As a basic form, its power rose dramatically with one's realm.
The otherworldly internal energy and sword force enveloping my body lent a thousand catties of weight even to a mere swing.
Water Ripple Guarding Art: Falling Stream Sword.
The unit leader angled his blade to deflect the strike. This would decide it. Whether he could deflect or not would determine victory.
Slash.
The moment swords clashed, his blue sword force flowed like water, twisting my blade's trajectory.
Damn, is this it?
Crack!
Suddenly, a piercing chill erupted from me, freezing the unit leader's sword.
His motion, preparing a counter, halted for an instant, a gap opening in his ironclad defense.
Tap.
And my sword touched his body.
“Hah... hah...”
This chill—had it devoured the inner core of that serpent weapon, unconsciously releasing the qi amassed in my dantian?
I hadn't trained any ice arts, yet it froze the sword with absurd power.
“This old man's defeat.”
The unit leader cupped his fists, conceding.
In the past, facing a force qi master would have been unthinkable.
Now, I was simply glad for my own growth.
“Thank you for the lesson.”
Finally, I had the strength to protect those dear to me.
I'd never again suffer the loss of someone precious. Not in this life. Not ever.