Chapter 350
Chapter 350
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 350
>Chapter Title: Confusion (4)
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From Il-mok's perspective, the scene felt strangely familiar in many ways.
Even during their first encounter, the Martial Alliance Leader had launched a surprise attack nearly upon him.
Back then, merely blocking that single exchange had caused internal injuries, with blood surging up from his gut.
But not this time.
Ching!
In an instant, Il-mok drew his Soaring Heaven Sword and effortlessly parried Cheok Pae-myeong's opening strike.
The draw and swing flowed together as one seamless motion, and unlike before, Il-mok wasn't pushed back a single step.
Even though Cheok Pae-myeong's blade carried far more ferocious energy than it had then.
At that time, Cheok Pae-myeong hadn't swung his blade to kill Il-mok.
With so many commoners around, it had merely been a probe to gauge his level. Yet even that modest attack had sent Il-mok reeling helplessly.
‘I've grown quite a bit myself.’
As Il-mok briefly reflected on his own progress, Cheok Pae-myeong's blade traced countless arcs, pressing in from all directions.
Ching!
Ching!
Il-mok's expression grew deadly serious as he blocked the relentless onslaught.
‘If this keeps up, it'll be dangerous.’
Not because he couldn't withstand Cheok Pae-myeong's assault.
While he dueled this one man, nearly a hundred Martial Alliance warriors were charging toward his comrades.
—Lady Jin, escape with the others. I'll buy a little more time and follow.
Some bore minor wounds from the clash with Emei Sect, and the enemy numbers were greater now than then.
Back there, Il-mok had faced dozens alone, but now he was tied down by the Alliance Leader.
As Il-mok sent a transmission to Jin Ha-yeon,
“How dare you take your eyes off me!!”
In that brief instant, Cheok Pae-myeong formed a blade aura and swung toward Il-mok's vital points.
With no time to form his own sword aura, Il-mok channeled qi while unleashing the Flow of Infinity to its limit and stepped back with footwork.
The blade's immense force made his Soaring Heaven Sword scream, and the shock he couldn't fully deflect with the Flow battered his muscles and bones.
“Urk.”
Realizing this foe wasn't one he could fight while scanning the battlefield, Il-mok entrusted the rest to Jin Ha-yeon and focused solely on Cheok Pae-myeong.
The same went for Cheok Pae-myeong.
‘Unbelievable. To catch up to me in just a few short years.’
When he first heard that Emei Sect had suffered a crushing defeat to the Maitreya Divine Cult, Cheok Pae-myeong had thought,
‘How incompetently must they have fought to lose so pathetically?’
He never imagined this man could close the gap in a mere five years or so.
Ching!
Last time they'd clashed, the fool couldn't even last three exchanges.
Yet now, he'd become a formidable adversary whose victory couldn't be easily predicted.
Ching!
Amid the ceaseless footwork, leaps, and explosive clashes of sword and blade,
Cheok Pae-myeong inwardly sighed in relief.
‘Regrettable that Emei fell so soon, but better this way. I can nip it in the bud now.’
Even against a foe where a single mistake could decide victory or defeat, Cheok Pae-myeong harbored no thoughts of loss.
Just as Il-mok had ordered his allies to flee, Cheok Pae-myeong knew it too.
As long as he pinned this man down, victory would ultimately be theirs.
With Cheok Pae-myeong exuding a hint of leisure and Il-mok radiating subtle discomfort, their duel intensified.
Meanwhile, the Maitreya Divine Cult warriors and Hwangbo Yeon scanned for escape routes amid encirclement by Martial Alliance fighters.
“Hold!!”
A powerful shout rang out from afar.
Though distant, the shout carried such potent inner strength that everyone on the battlefield heard it clearly.
And it wasn't coming from just one side.
“Martial Alliance Leader!! Calm yourself!!”
Shouts alternated from left and right.
Recognizing a familiar voice among them, Il-mok swung his sword in a sudden counter.
Ching!!
Using the rebound, he widened the gap with the Leader.
“Tch.”
The Leader, also recognizing the voice, clicked his tongue in displeasure and halted.
Only then did Il-mok have a moment to turn and look. Straw-mat-clad beggars approached with lightness skill from the left, and Daoist-robed figures from the right.
The Beggars' Sect and Qingcheng Sect.
Cheok Pae-myeong frowned toward the Beggars' Sect and spoke.
“Qingcheng may be based in Sichuan, but what brings the Beggars' Sect Leader all the way out here?”
The Leader addressed the elderly beggar at the center of the straw-mat rabble.
The Dragon Head Sect Leader of the Beggars' Sect, known as the Beggar King.
“Hohoho. Beggars have no fixed turf. We drift with the wind—that's a beggar's life.”
“And yet you drift here to obstruct the punishment of public enemies?”
“The wind carried word of innocent blood about to flow again in Sichuan. Hohoho.”
“Innocent blood, you say. You mean Emei Sect.”
The Beggar King shook his head at the Leader's words.
“I mean the Maitreya Divine Cult.”
“Hah. Are you defending public enemies of the martial world now?”
“They've committed no crime—how can they be public enemies, Leader? Even as Alliance head, what authority lets you brand the innocent as such?”
Before the Leader could reply to the Beggar King,
“What do you mean by that!! Are you saying our Emei Sect is guilty!!”
It was an Emei elder, subdued and traveling with the Maitreya group.
At her cry, the Leader straightened as if granted a heavenly host.
“Over a hundred Emei lives were lost to that Maitreya Divine Cult. While our righteous sects warred with the Blood Cult, they vilely stirred commoners from the shadows, amassed power, and now bully Emei with it!”
Il-mok snorted at the Leader's shout.
“Absurd. When exactly did we deceive commoners and build power? We merely helped them.”
As if affirming Il-mok's words, Qing-mok Daoist from Qingcheng spoke, and the Beggar King backed him.
“What the Maitreya Incarnate says is true. Our Qingcheng suspected them like Emei at first, but investigation showed they didn't rob commoners—instead, they shared sustenance and teachings. Infinite Buddhas.”
“Our Beggars' Sect intel matches. They took nothing from the commoners.”
“You go too far!! Are you saying our innocent Emei oppressed them!!”
The Emei elder shrieked right after their declarations. Cheok Pae-myeong scowled and bellowed.
“You're all being deceived!! Think of their vile actions! While we risked our lives fighting Blood Cult atrocities, they hid in the shadows!”
The Beggar King chuckled hollowly at the Leader's cry.
“Then proclaim them enemies and execute when they bare their fangs, Leader. Punishing the innocent for potential crimes is nonsense.”
“They attacked Emei, an Alliance sect—how are they innocent, Sect Leader?”
“Hoho. Word is Emei struck first. And the Maitreya Cult spares the weakened Emei from annihilation, proposing seclusion instead—why else bring them along?”
“…….”
Stumped by the Beggar King's point, Cheok Pae-myeong fell silent for a moment.
Watching the Beggar King and Qing-mok Daoist argue in his stead, Il-mok felt a strange sensation.
‘…Turning disaster to fortune.’
Had he ignored Hwangbo Yeon's advice and massacred Emei, the Beggars' Sect and Qingcheng might not have sided with him.
As that thought crossed his mind, Cheok Pae-myeong sheathed his blade, stared steadily at the Beggar King, and spoke.
“When their true vile nature shows, I trust the Beggars' Sect will stand with our Alliance.”
“Hohoho. Naturally.”
Hearing the Beggar King's reply, Cheok Pae-myeong glared once at Il-mok, then turned and departed.
“Return to the Alliance!”
“Yes, sir!”
* * *
After Cheok Pae-myeong and the Martial Alliance warriors left,
Il-mok conversed with the Beggars' Sect Leader, his trailing Little Beggar, and Qing-mok Daoist from Qingcheng.
“Thank you for trusting and supporting our Cult.”
Il-mok expressed gratitude with a fist salute, and they lightly returned it.
“Hohoho. Not trust in the Maitreya Divine Cult, mind you. As I told the Leader, we aid because you've yet to commit crimes.”
“Our Qingcheng is the same. We pledged no part in the Emei war, deeming it their affair. But with the Alliance involved, that's different, isn't it?”
Il-mok smiled faintly at the Beggar King and Qing-mok Daoist's words.
The three talked a while longer.
Perhaps because his master the Beggar King was present, the usually taciturn Little Beggar—who'd been quiet unlike before—finally spoke up.
“But in the time apart, your skills have advanced by leaps and bounds. I never dreamed you'd match the Alliance Leader, hailed as the world's greatest blade master.”
“And you've grown greatly yourself, Little Beggar. Seems the Blood Cult war brought much enlightenment.”
“Hahaha. All thanks to Master's teachings.”
“Hmph. The brat who calls my lessons nonsense flatters me before others?”
Unlike with the Alliance Leader or Il-mok, the Beggar King teased the Little Beggar with a playful grin.
“No, Master—what do you mean? When have I ever dismissed your words as nonsense?”
Qing-mok Daoist and Il-mok chuckled lightly at the Little Beggar's flustered response.
Then Qing-mok Daoist brought up how the Maitreya Incarnate had traversed the West, surpassing borders.
“Huh. Our Beggars' Sect knew the Maitreya Divine Cult traded with the West to aid commoners, but we never imagined such ordeals.”
Il-mok thought, *As expected of the Beggars' Sect.*
Even amid the Blood Cult war, they'd somehow gleaned the Maitreya's Western travels.
Fortunately, no link to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult seemed uncovered.
“Hoho. Overcoming such perils to help commoners—impressive. We, neglecting them for the Blood Cult war, feel ashamed.”
Wary of Beggars' Sect interest in Western trade, Il-mok deftly shifted topic.
“Is it only Beggars' Sect efforts? You didn't just slay the brutal Blood Cult—you handled those fearsome jiangshi too.”
“Hohoho. We did crush the Blood Cult, but the jiangshi were unrelated. The Leader and Buddha Venerable handled it alone.”
Il-mok sensed something off at the Sect Leader's words.
‘That jiangshi, taken down by just the two of them?’
The aura from the one in Sacheon Cave Mansion had been utterly horrifying.
From clashing with Cheok Pae-myeong moments ago, its total energy dwarfed even his.
Excluding his late master the Heavenly Demon, it held the mightiest aura Il-mok had witnessed.
And that was pre-completion.
Yet those two from the Twelve Heavenly Lords had slain such a beast.
If the Buddha Venerable, So-rim's top, were overwhelmingly supreme, maybe—but his known level matched Cheok Pae-myeong's.
‘I heard the Leader slew it, but assumed the full Twelve Heavenly Lords fought.’
To dispel the unease, Il-mok cautiously asked,
“By chance, do you recall the jiangshi's face?”
“Its face?”
The Beggar King looked puzzled at the odd question, so Il-mok pressed.
“As you know, during the Sacheon Blood Massacre, this Incarnate saw it firsthand. Just checking, in case.”
Realizing the implication, the three wore mixes of doubt and surprise for a moment.
Having fought in the final Blood Cult battle, they pooled memories to sketch the jiangshi's features.
They scratched and erased on the ground with sticks for a long while.
“If our memories align, it looked like this.”
Il-mok's face twisted upon seeing the completed portrait.