Chapter 231
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 231
Chapter Title: Bring the Cymbals (2)
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All people are equal.
However, some people are more equal than others.
After entertaining a speechless Unhak by juggling steel rings right in front of him.
"You crazy bastard, really..."
"Senior, why do you insist on living like that?"
I paid no mind to the crude curses from Peak hanger-ons and Super-Peak lackeys alike, graciously pouring drinks into the glasses of these slightly less equal underlings with dignified poise.
"Don't use telekinesis to pour the drinks..."
"I'm jutht pouring the dwinkth with thkill. If you're jealouth... you know what?"
"Sigh. Junior Ri Yeon. How did you end up tangled with such lunatics?"
Unhak sighed but obediently accepted the glass and downed it in one gulp.
And as our drinking sessions always went.
One glass quickly evolved into a full bottle.
"Whoa, Junior. Your glass is brimming."
"You're so stingy with the booze, saving every drop—you'll be filthy rich in no time. Junior, wanna job at the Ten Thousand Gold Treasury Fortress?"
"..."
"Tch, chug it? Chug? Drink? Hey, Kim Unhak. How the hell did you train this junior? Chug in front of your senior?"
"Haa... Ri Yeon, this senior just grew a conscience."
"..."
The second-most delicious booze in the world is the kind you drink while roasting your dimwit friends.
The most delicious is the kind you drink while roasting your fun juniors.
Kyaah.
This booze tastes like pure honey.
Of course, even the cutest junior might explode and commit insubordination if you tease endlessly, so I kept it to just the right level to liven up the mood.
"Unhak. Don't we have something to talk about?"
Unhak shot me a look protesting what the hell I planned to say in front of the kid, so I flashed a bright smile and explained.
"Kid. Azure Heaven Society."
"Pffft—!"
True to form for a filthy beggar, he spewed his crude mouth-booze in a magnificent spray.
Of course, as a Transcendent Realm master, I blocked that poison with my Hong Soon-duk secret AT field.
"...Haa."
Unfortunately, my auto-defense system didn't extend to shielding Ri Yeon right beside me.
Unhak's knee swiftly became one with the tavern floor.
"...I'll go wash up."
Our bodhisattva-like junior Ri Yeon couldn't bring herself to get mad at his swift groveling apology and trudged off alone to the guest room.
And then.
"You did that on purpose, didn't you?"
"No, Geum Sihyeon. Are you insane? Ri Yeon being in the Azure Heaven Society—whether it's true or fake, it's a problem either way. Why bring it up so openly?"
I sighed, watching Unhak's tongue suddenly loosen up sharp and sober as if the alcohol had vanished.
"Even at your measly Super-Peak level, you can't sense this body's domain expansion? How tragic."
"...Since when?"
If I couldn't tell the beggar ears perking up all over the neighborhood, I'd have to shut down Geumhyeonmun's business.
Naturally, even in this tavern, there were a few well-dressed thugs sneaking glances at us.
But no need to fuss over that.
"Well, we can talk without Ri Yeon here anyway. Spill it. What's going on with the Beggars' Sect?"
To my question.
Unhak let out a deep sigh, grabbed the bottle, and poured it straight down his throat.
"The Dragon Head Chief is critically ill."
The Beggars' Sect's power dynamics can be summed up like this.
Beggars act like beggars. The Five Gates School.
Those who dress in rags like true beggars' daughters, embracing the lowest of the low and practicing true non-possession.
Beggars act like people. The Justice Gate.
Those who reject birthright hierarchies, shedding the beggar guise to live cleanly and properly.
The essence lay closer to the Five Gates, but the beggars looked up to the Justice Gate.
Since the sect's founding, the two sides had clashed endlessly.
Unhak stood at a terribly ambiguous position.
He'd been picked up and raised by a Five Gates beggar.
The Dragon Head Chief who took him as direct disciple was also Five Gates, a true beggar who'd attained enlightenment rolling in the mud.
But as his talents drew attention, voices within the sect eager to bolster the Next Chief name forced him to adopt Justice Gate mannerisms.
Thus, Unhak's attire was a mismatched mess even now.
His outer robes were neat and tidy, but his feet were wrapped in beggar rags—a contradictory state.
Of course, it hadn't been an issue while the Dragon Head Chief was healthy.
On the contrary.
- As wealth gathers more in the Central Plains with the times, does the sect really need to cling to the lowest rung?
The Dragon Head Chief wasn't some stubborn fool, so he'd been seeking a path where Five Gates and Justice could compromise and merge.
Of course, there was no shortage of noise.
- Heh heh... Does the Chief look like a dick to you now?
The noisy agitators were all blasted away by Dragon-Felling Eighteen Palms.
It was philosopher-king rule straight from inaction, worthy of Diogenes' standing ovation and Plato's tears.
But when the obvious philosopher-king falls.
What happened after Stalin?
Of course, this primitive ancient martial world was still far from that era— we'd need to wind the time machine's spring quite a bit.
But human nature was much the same everywhere.
In short.
The Beggars' Sect had gone to shit.
The Justice Gate leader.
The Vice Chief no longer hid his ambitions.
Next Chief? Still barely First-Rate... no, Peak... hmm, Super-Peak...? His cultivation speed was unnaturally fast, but I could still crush him.
He might surpass me in martial arts.
But the connections, power, and everything he'd built over the years overwhelmed Unhak.
It was only natural.
Even as Next Chief, Unhak's public appearances had been extremely limited.
Of course.
"...Of course, I have no desire to take the Dragon Head Chief seat myself. I know it's premature even for me."
"Then just yield to the Vice Chief. Plenty of chances later."
"...Even if the Vice Chief is with the Azure Heaven Society?"
"Fuck."
That was the problem.
Sure, this close friendship had given me a bit more bias against the Azure Heaven Society group, but that wasn't the only reason.
Even setting aside his friendship with Geum Sihyeon.
The Azure Heaven Society, and the Justice Gate now colluding with them.
In Unhak's judgment, they were heading down the wrong path.
Beggars acting like people? Fine.
But what beggar in the world loans at usurious rates to other people?
What beggar runs a tavern—no, a brothel—selling courtesans' springtime to buy men's money and power?
What beggar in the world.
Clings to power, clings to wealth, crushes others to hoard what they have?
Despises those who have nothing, kicks away the ladder for those who can't learn martial arts to solidify their own power?
At the very least, the Beggars' Sect.
The Beggars' Sect shouldn't be like that.
For the father who reached out to him long ago and named him Unhak, if nothing else.
"In summary, you think the current Beggars' Sect is shit."
"Can't argue with that."
Unhak glanced at his friend absently pouring him another drink.
And felt a chill.
"...What bullshit are you plotting now?"
That sinister expression flashed—the one he got right before a massive screw-up, brain churning on how to royally fuck someone over.
The moment he saw it.
Unhak recalled an old idiom.
—Trimming the Horns to Kill the Ox.
Trying to fix a flaw only makes things worse.
But Geum Sihyeon just grinned.
"Well, the Beggars' Sect higher-ups are acting like total dicks, right?"
"Yeah."
"In my hometown, they say: when shit happens, ring the cymbals."
"...?"
What the hell are cymbals?
Leaving the anxious Unhak to stew for a moment.
"Junior's pretending to be drunk and slacking off. I'll drag her back."
I headed off to fetch Baek Liyeon, who'd been no-showing this vital discussion on the martial world's future, organizing my thoughts as I went.
Hmm.
Been a while—should I unleash my main account and raze the Central Plains Martial World Gallery to the ground?
With massive like-farming power, I could at least properly bomb the Beggars' Sect, if not the Azure Heaven Society.
Just collect some ajaja posts to draw eyes, then dump the Vice Chief's atrocity collection everywhere.
Done.
It'd spread to every fringe gallery, straight-up flushing their social cred down the toilet.
But somehow, hmm.
Not exactly elegant or high-class.
Even if I topple the Vice Chief that way, who knows how much authority Unhak would carry as next Chief.
I needed a method that sent the enemy to ruin.
And elevated Unhak to paradise at the same time.
For now, that cheeky junior first.
"No, Junior! You're not some lady—what's taking so lo—"
Uh.
Hm.
Hmm.
Uhh...
Her pecs are unusually developed.
And, well.
I get why she didn't want to bathe together now.
The spot that should house majestic main guns was, upon second thought, oddly flat.
Still flat. Why? Is the Earth flat?
Uh.
Hmm.
I realized.
True to an efficiency nut.
The ultimate secret combo I'd only imagined.
Pure Child Skill topped with Jade Transformation Preservation—an extreme efficiency build—
"Get ooooout!!!"
"Ack!"