Chapter 343
Chapter 343
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 343
>Chapter Title: The Lowest Fools Do Not Change (1)
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The matter with Qingmu Zhenren and the Qingcheng Sect needed to be observed slowly, so Il-mok decided to set it aside for now.
After soothing and sending back the startled residents of Wang Chang County, Il-mok returned to the branch hall and summoned one person separately to the main hall.
"It was quite dangerous just now, Quan Feng."
In response to Il-mok's call, Hwangbo Yeon spoke in a calm tone when the matter of her intervening in the fight with the Emei Sect was brought up.
"I know. However, I couldn't just let them be slaughtered."
"Hmm. It seems you think my decision was wrong."
"That's not the case. This incident was clearly the Emei Sect's fault."
"Then why did you step in, even though it was their wrongdoing?"
"...It didn't seem like wrongdoing severe enough to warrant the slaughter of dozens."
"Not that grave a sin..."
Il-mok trailed off, echoing Hwangbo Yeon's words, then fixed his gaze on her and calmly spoke again.
"Intimidating the common folk, trying to drive out an innocent sect, and not shying away from sneak attacks and murder just because they wouldn't listen—is that not a grave sin in your eyes?"
Hwangbo Yeon hesitated momentarily at Il-mok's point, then lowered her head slightly and replied.
"With your skills as a great hero, couldn't you have subdued them without killing? Yet you seemed intent on killing them, so I stepped in. If spared and sent back, wouldn't they have room to repent and reflect?"
This situation felt strangely familiar to Hwangbo Yeon.
Not because she was being scolded.
She had been scolded countless times by her father since childhood.
'Why can't I confidently defend my actions?'
Even when scolded by her father, she had never felt this lack of self-assurance.
A voice like that of the Maitreya Incarnation whispered in her ear as she hung her head.
"How peculiar. Then, Quan Feng, even if those weaker than you tried to kidnap and assault Young Lady Hwangbo Se-hee, would you simply subdue them, tell them to reflect, and let them go?"
"Great Hero! Your words go too far!!"
Enraged by the horrific scenario, Hwangbo Yeon snapped her head up and glared at the Maitreya Incarnation.
Her pupils reflected the Incarnation's eyes visible beyond the mask.
An endless darkness like the abyss lay there.
"What is too far about it? The common folk can be tormented endlessly, but your sister must be protected at all costs? Intimidation and torment of them is forgivable, but anything to do with your family is a heinous crime deserving death?"
No, it wasn't darkness. It was merely black flames.
Overwhelmed by that gaze, Hwangbo Yeon unwittingly swallowed dryly.
The Maitreya Incarnation continued in a stern tone.
"To this Incarnation, the common folk are lambs to be protected, and those who intimidate them are evils to be torn apart. I ask again. Why did you spare them? Do you truly think their sins are light?"
Il-mok posed the same question as before, then quietly added one more.
"Or is it because they, like you, are called an upright orthodox sect?"
"......"
Hwangbo Yeon belatedly realized why she lacked confidence.
Unknowingly, she had subconsciously regarded them as allies.
She thought they shouldn't be harmed recklessly, and matters involving them were best resolved amicably.
Even if they committed evil deeds.
Why had she shown favoritism to the Emei Sect? Even though she harbored resentment toward them.
Reflecting on herself, she soon found the answer.
'I've grown too accustomed to it all this time.'
The Nine Great Sects and Seven Great Families. And the Martial Alliance centered around them.
The Central Plains had enjoyed false peace for so long, and she had become far too familiar with that structure.
They were friendly allies, so even if they committed misdeeds, there was an atmosphere of mutually overlooking them appropriately, and she had dismissed it as unavoidable.
Unknowingly.
But the man before her was different.
'...Truly a man like flames.'
Flames that devoured all evil and purified the world.
One concern was that his ruthless tendency to indiscriminately slay villains would create too many enemies.
But she soon realized that was her needless worry.
'How foolish. To think such a thing after seeing what happened with Qingmu Zhenren.'
Despite moving with the Emei Sect, the Maitreya Incarnation had forgiven the Qingcheng Sect. He had even gone beyond forgiveness to provide guidance, allowing Qingmu Zhenren to gain enlightenment and surpass his wall.
Recalling that event, Hwangbo Yeon gained a certain conviction about the man before her.
"Unknowingly, I took their side. I can only apologize, Great Hero."
First, she conveyed her apology to Il-mok with a clasped fist salute and a bow, then lifted her head and added.
"If the Emei Sect fails to repent and dares to threaten the Maitreya Divine Cult and the common folk again, then I shall stake the name of the Hwangbo Family and stand with you against them."
Unlike her previous demeanor, her face now shone with self-assurance.
* * *
Having finished her conversation with the Maitreya Incarnation, Hwangbo Yeon headed to the hall assigned to her.
"What did you talk about?"
Her younger sister, Hwangbo Se-hee, was waiting there for her.
"Hahaha. I got quite the scolding."
Hwangbo Yeon laughed heartily in response, causing Hwangbo Se-hee to startle.
"That person scolded you, Sister?"
"Yes. Scarier than when Father does it. Hahaha."
"...Even so, he's not from our family or sect—how could he scold you like that?"
As Hwangbo Se-hee spoke with a perplexed expression, Hwangbo Yeon shook her head.
"It's fine. Listening to him, my fault was indeed great."
With that, Hwangbo Yeon recounted what had happened to her sister.
Hwangbo Se-hee, initially flustered, soon became engrossed in the tale with evident interest.
"As expected, what an intriguing person. He forgives those who repent and reflect, but slays those who don't. Just like the Young Master."
"Young Master?"
When Hwangbo Yeon asked in confusion, Hwangbo Se-hee explained.
"The idiom 'Ha-u-bul-i (The Lowest Fools Do Not Change).' You've heard of it, right, Sister?"
At her sister's words, Hwangbo Yeon let out a soft "Ah" of realization.
Ha-u-bul-i was a story from the Yanghwa Chapter of the Analects.
While walking with his disciples, Confucius encountered a man relieving himself in a corner by the roadside.
Confucius called the man over and scolded him severely, and the man fled in shame.
Later, while wandering various places with his disciples again, they one day came upon a man openly relieving himself in the middle of the road.
The disciples anticipated how Confucius would scold him this time, but Confucius simply avoided him and passed by.
Puzzled, the disciples asked why he didn't rebuke the man whose offense was even greater.
Confucius replied, 'The one who went aside by the road had at least some sense of shame and could be taught to improve, but that one has no shame at all and cannot be taught.'
Thus was born the phrase ha-u-bul-i, meaning the lowest of fools do not change.
Realizing the meaning behind her sister's analogy, Hwangbo Yeon smiled awkwardly and said.
"If likened so, doesn't that make the Emei Sect the ones relieving themselves in the middle of the road?"
"Given their disgraceful behavior today, is there much difference? That's why you even pledged to the Incarnation, staking our family's name."
"Hahaha. True enough."
"Hohohoho."
The two women faced each other and burst into laughter. As the laughter subsided a bit, Hwangbo Se-hee murmured.
"But it's truly wondrous. How did he foresee that the Qingcheng Sect would repent and reflect?"
Hwangbo Se-hee began to think that perhaps that man had the eye to distinguish those who could repent from the shameless who could not.
It was no small mystery.
Il-mok had originally intended to provoke and stimulate Qingmu Zhenren's inner demon, but things had twisted unexpectedly, leading him to help the man instead.
Thanks to that incident, both Hwangbo Yeon and Hwangbo Se-hee now saw the Maitreya Divine Cult as reliable allies worth trusting and joining.
To her sister's query, Hwangbo Yeon reflected on the Maitreya Incarnation and replied.
"I felt like that man can see it in his eyes. Who the true villains are that must be burned to death."
"...Burned to death?"
Wondering if the Maitreya Incarnation had mastered something like Flame Yang Finger, Hwangbo Se-hee asked back, and Hwangbo Yeon answered.
"To me, he seems like a man of flames. Flames that eradicate evil and purify the world."
Unbeknownst to Hwangbo Yeon, the story she spoke of touched upon the doctrines of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
The core doctrine of using greater evil to eradicate evil.
Il-mok, who had always cursed the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult as a cult, was now unknowingly acting most in line with its teachings.
* * *
The next day, early in the morning.
Hwangbo Yeon sent a letter she had written the night before to the Hwangbo Family.
It contained an account of the events here and her desire for the Hwangbo Family to ally with the Maitreya Divine Cult.
Going in person would be best, but her intuition told her something might happen here soon, so she sent the letter instead.
Meanwhile, Hwangbo Yeon, Hwangbo Se-hee, and Il-mok returned to Guangwon County.
Il-mok didn't expect the Emei Sect to stay quiet either, so rather than leaving Sichuan, he chose to wait in Guangwon County.
While they spent their time resting and training in Guangwon County.
The Emei Sect nuns, having recovered Extermination Nun's body from Wang Chang County and headed south, finally arrived at Mount Emei after several days of travel.
At the unexpected news of death, wails echoed endlessly throughout the Emei Sect.
To soothe the soul of Extermination Nun, who had been unjustly slain, the Emei Sect held a grand funeral.
For a funeral of a force claiming to be Buddhist and orthodox, it was remarkably lavish.
As the Emei Sect's nuns mourned Extermination Nun like family.
In the hall where the Emei Sect Leader resided, two elderly nuns were conversing.
"What are your plans, Sect Leader?"
"Why ask the obvious, Junior Sister? We must make it clear to them how grave and terrifying the sin of daring to kill an Emei Sect nun is."
Responding to the elder's question, the Emei Sect Leader, Forbidden Emotion Divine Nun, had eyes tinged red.
Whether from shedding too many tears or from rage was unclear, but her fierce gaze exuded an atmosphere more akin to a yaksha than a monk.
Cowed by the Sect Leader's aura, the elder cautiously spoke.
"Sect Leader, from the children's accounts, those people had the Hwangbo Family backing them. Since Quan Feng was with them, the children had no choice but to retrieve only Junior Sister's body and return."
She meant that if they went to war, the Hwangbo Family might intervene.
Furthermore, it pointed out the trouble if they ended up killing Hwangbo Yeon in the process.
Aware of the issue, Forbidden Emotion Divine Nun replied with a cold expression.
"Worry not. I've already written a letter to the Martial Alliance."