Chapter 211
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 211
Chapter Title: Song Stronger Than the Brush (2)
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Originally, secret operations were supposed to be more effective when conducted slyly from the shadows, but Geum Sihyeon's cyber sabotage was brazenly overt.
From the galleries in the first place, to Mutube as well.
Any martial artist at First-Rate level or above could go 24 hours on a single charge.
Even those below First-Rate could use them, accounting for the slower rate at which internal energy built up in their lower dantian.
Some martial artists in big cities even survived on smartphone-exclusive charging stations.
The rumors spread like wildfire.
There was only one type of person in the world.
"I hate smartphones—this isn't wuxia!"
"Make the martial world great again!"
—That was the slogan of the group, and they were the very ones being sniped.
Everyone except the Azure Heaven Society.
But just as you can't cover the sky with the palm of your hand, eternal secrets didn't exist.
"...Is there something on my face?"
A elder of the Martial Alliance.
Nangong Kyung could sense the strange suspicion laced deeply into the gazes directed at him today.
While everyone hesitated to speak first...
"Pfft, Elder Nangong. There's this hilarious song going around."
The bastard Nangong Kyung always found utterly distasteful—a fellow elder of the Martial Alliance.
Zhuge Chang approached him with a grin, looking like he'd struck gold.
Nangong Kyung frowned at the item he held out.
"How old are you that you still can't let go of that bizarre contraption?"
Just when would this smartphone finally escape his notice?
Would he have to wipe out the entire Zhuge Family scum right in front of him to stop this poison from spreading across the Central Plains?
Such brutal thoughts flashed briefly through Nangong Kyung's mind.
"Come on, just take a look."
What Nangong Kyung saw was a man in a gray changpao, wearing a mask emblazoned with the character "Cheong," dancing in an indescribably grotesque manner.
And matching that dance, a violent cacophony of tones from tongso flutes, pipas, and gayageums blended in harmony, assaulting his eardrums.
"Selfish bastard, you don't care if the mar! tial world crumbles? Dying devoured by the Azure Heaven Society—that's true righteous faction?"
"Th-this...?"
A melody that tugged at the heartstrings with desperate pathos.
Yet the impure lyrics, dripping with intent to mock the Azure Heaven Society, were delivered in a near-perfect voice that grated on him terribly.
Even as his mind spun in a daze...
Nangong Kyung unwittingly tapped the "related playback list" and moved on to the next video.
"I'm wronged, so wronged, utterly wronged— I normalized the righteous faction slackers who skip training!"
"..."
Again, he was sucked into the next video as if entranced.
"Smartphones argh! Fu! Ck! ing! Normalize the Martial Alliance right now!"
"Heh, hehehe..."
A laugh escaped his lips unbidden.
Only then.
"Hmph."
He finally realized his disgraceful behavior.
As Nangong Kyung's gaze finally pulled free from the smartphone...
"See, isn't the martial world scary? There's this secret group called the Azure Heaven Society scheming in the shadows! They say this is Cheong-Pop exposing it! They even call smartphone users 'Sseon Clan' and plot to normalize them all! Even feeding them poison! Oh, and normalization means—"
Zhuge Chang's beaming explanation continued, but it no longer reached Nangong Kyung's ears.
To Zhuge Chang, it was mere jest, but to Nangong Kyung, it was anything but funny.
Because.
To him, who knew the true nature of the Azure Heaven Society, these songs were tantamount to massive whistleblowing exposés.
The name Cheong-Pop alone was as transparently obvious as azure skies.
His mind raced.
Did the Azure Heaven Society's leadership know about this?
How was his main family, the Nangong Family, responding?
Even more.
"The legendary famous sword, Changgungmuae! The blade of the Azure Heavens, drawable only by the chosen king of kings— that shining sword still active after ten years dormant!"
Among those songs was one blatantly implying the Nangong Family's deep involvement with the Azure Heaven Society.
If left alone like this.
Conspiracy theories would boil over that the Nangong Family was secretly manipulating the entire martial world from the shadows.
"Excuse me first...!"
Nangong Kyung bolted toward the messenger pigeons in his quarters.
Today of all days.
The directive to relay major matters only through messenger pigeons in meetings, and his family's guidelines, felt utterly loathsome.
"Wow, Young Master. You sing so well! With such deep knowledge of music and rites, truly the future of the Ten Thousand Gold Treasury Fortress!"
"This much is basic."
There was a saying that if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes back into you.
Now, at last, he understood it.
In other words, I and the Azure are one.
He didn't know when it started, but the aura of the Azure had already been writhing within him.
So he unleashed it.
Was there anything the greatest genius of all time, Geum Sihyeon, couldn't do?
It was a shame he couldn't layer modern sounds on top, but using primitive ancient Central Plains instruments, he managed a similar melody.
No one to handle vocals, so he recorded himself.
Dancing... no one else to do it, and no one else possessed the artistic sense to capture the rice aesthetic in those moves.
Masked, he danced it himself.
If he was going to possess someone, couldn't they have thrown in an AI-loaded super-assistant sidekick as a bonus mode byproduct?
And so.
He released into the Central Plains the unparalleled music mocking and exposing the Azure Heaven Society's misdeeds with humor: Cheong-Pop.
Novels, regular Mutube videos, gallery posts.
Suitable for conveying truth, but somewhat lacking for incitement.
But music?
Leveraging the power of music?
He guaranteed it.
In a month from now.
The martial world's music scene would be dominated by Cheong-Pop.
"Kukuku, kuhehe..."
"Oh my! Even Young Master's laugh is so handsome!"
Suzhou branch manager.
You're promoted.
.
.
.
- Tap, tap, tap.
...Luri, popping up in the corner of his vision again today, seemed to really like the song.
Pretending not to notice as best he could.
After wrapping up the opinion campaign in Suzhou, he headed straight for Mount Pota.
The spark had taken properly; now he just waited for it to leap beyond Suzhou, engulfing the Nangong Family, the Azure Heaven Society, and ultimately the entire Central Plains in raging flames.
Buried under the noise?
With all the silver he'd scattered to the unorthodox scum near Suzhou to prevent that.
Besides, from the unorthodox perspective, it was perfect fodder for bellowing "Puahaha, you filthy hypocrite righteous faction bastards!" without him even needing to prompt.
Of course, no matter that Dongtanwoong had taken the Evil Dragon Squad, he wasn't idiot enough to declare an orthodox-unorthodox war over a mere crack like this.
From that one encounter.
He seemed like a madman on the surface, but moved with considerable cool-headed intellect.
For now.
Get Dokgo Gugeom in hand.
Next was the Nangong Family.
"Haha, a masterpiece!"
Cheon Siuu couldn't hold back the surging mirth and burst into belly laughs.
Mocking the enemy with song and dance.
How humorous and splendid!
He didn't know who the man dancing and singing in the video was, but if chance allowed, he'd love to share a drink with him.
"Grrrk..."
"Hm? Still alive, eh."
Thwack—!
The man crawling, foaming at the mouth, clutching his ankle at last.
Sima Family Patriarch Sima Hak's head was indifferently kicked up, then his pineal gland ripped out.
Cheon Siuu surveyed the scene he'd wrought.
The Sima Family—or what had been the Sima Family.
The estates and halls built over ages on the people's hard-earned blood were all engulfed in flames, reduced to ash heaps, and the people twisted, consumed by demonic energy.
"Right now, this world is endlessly amusing."
Savoring the sensation of being the only one under heaven, Cheon Siuu slowly walked the blood-soaked floor.
Where to next?
Closest would be Shaolin Temple, but even for him, facing Shaolin alone felt a tad burdensome.
And.
Shaolin didn't need touching anyway.
What he'd left at the Sima Family were traces of all sorts of demonic arts.
Who in the world would see that mess and not think "Demonic Cult rampage"?
Thus, the first place for mutual destruction between the Demonic Cult hunkered in Ningxia and Shaanxi would be Shaolin—no need for his hands.
In that case.
"They shared fine music, so a fitting reward is due."
Cheon Siuu decided his next destination.
"That shining sword still active after ten years dormant. Wonder if it remains unrusting and keen-edged."
His footsteps.
turned toward the Nangong Family.