Chapter 17
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: The Sword of Completion's Baptism (2)
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“It’s been a while, Senior Brother.”
The one who had landed before Je Yung-geon was, as expected, his youngest junior brother, Jin Je-yong.
It had been a long time, but his face was as plain as ever. Small eyes, a flat nose, slightly thick lips, and sun-darkened skin.
He had the face of a country bumpkin who might spend his days tilling a field.
If there was anything noteworthy, it was that despite being in his mid-twenties, he still looked as if he hadn't yet come of age.
“Ah, uh, ye-yes, it has.”
“Ten years, isn’t it, Senior Brother?”
Je Yung-geon stammered in reply. His face was already pale with terror.
The Jin Je-yong he knew possessed not only outstanding martial skill but also an unwavering reverence for their master.
And he was unforgiving.
“You’ve done well gathering the people of the Tang Clan Village. I thought you would do just that, Senior Brother.”
“Wh-what did you say?”
He smiled faintly as he looked at the villagers gathered around them.
He hadn’t gathered the people of the Tang Clan Village himself. They had simply flocked here naturally after the massive explosion.
“Come to think of it, you gave me quite a hard time when we were young. Pitting me against the other senior brothers, spreading false rumors among the disciples. Not the most pleasant of memories, I must admit.”
Contrary to his words, Jin Je-yong still spoke with a smile and a gentle voice.
But hearing that voice, Je Yung-geon’s body began to tremble, and a sharp pain flared in his right eye.
‘Why was he so angry back then?’
Racking his brain, Je Yung-geon belatedly recalled why Jin Je-yong had been so furious.
At the time, after his respected eldest senior brother had left, Je Yung-geon had grown to resent Jin Je-yong for monopolizing their master’s secret techniques. So, he had cursed their master, not the young Jin Je-yong.
Back then, he had hated Jin Sang-ho, who favored one disciple over the others, more than the ten-year-old boy.
“Senior Brother, you have sullied our master’s name with your schemes in the Tang Clan.”
“What are you talking about? The Tang Clan was already in ruins. Long before I arrived!”
The Tang Clan’s main family had few heirs, and due to the nature of their martial arts, which involved poison and hidden weapons, it was not uncommon for them to meet an early demise.
Instead, it was the branch families, who had failed to properly inherit the main family’s ultimate techniques, that steadily grew in number. Twenty-five years ago, during the War of Righteousness and Evil, their positions had been completely reversed.
All Je Yung-geon had done was pressure the main family to lend more power to the branch family in the Tang Clan Village.
“Our master taught us that we learn martial arts to protect the weak.”
“Don’t make me laugh! He never once taught martial arts for the sake of the weak!”
The moment Jin Sang-ho was mentioned, Je Yung-geon erupted in anger.
The Sinnae Sword School was the only place in the village where one could learn martial arts.
Je Yung-geon, the son of a simple farmer, had only been able to dream of the martial world after Jin Sang-ho opened the school.
“Master! He only taught *you* the secret techniques! He taught *you* the true Three Talents Sword Art!”
But because he had favored only his youngest disciple, Je Yung-geon and the other senior brothers had only been able to learn a version of the Three Talents Sword Art one might see in the streets.
Even though a warrior from the Righteous Alliance should have known far grander martial arts and factions.
“Our master taught everyone martial arts with fairness.”
“Don’t make me laugh!”
Je Yung-geon could no longer hold back his shout.
“Only you! You were the only one who could become so strong because Master favored you! Huh?! Among all of us brothers!”
Je Yung-geon’s voice was almost a scream.
Because Jin Sang-ho had doted on his youngest disciple, Je Yung-geon had faced Jin Je-yong’s sword one more time, and trained with his own sword one more time.
Yet, Je Yung-geon’s sword could never reach Jin Je-yong.
In the end, he only found the answer after breaking his sword. No, he wasn’t the only one who had broken. Before long, all the disciples in the school who were said to have talent no longer wielded a sword.
‘No matter how hard we try, we can never surpass the youngest disciple who monopolized the secret arts.’
That was the realization they had all finally come to.
“Haa… You haven’t changed, Senior Brother.”
Jin Je-yong let out a long sigh.
Instinctively, Je Yung-geon pulled a Thunderclap Bomb from his robes and threw it. Since leaving the school, his skills had improved, and he was called an elder in the Tang Clan Village on his martial prowess alone.
But before his youngest junior brother, Jin Je-yong, he had no confidence, and had thrown the Thunderclap Bomb without thinking.
“How much further will you tarnish our master’s reputation?”
The Thunderclap Bomb exploded right in front of Jin Je-yong’s face.
A flash of light was followed by a deafening roar.
But Jin Je-yong stood as if nothing had happened.
“What kind of sorcery did you use?!”
“Sorcery? This is the sword art our master taught me. The Three Talents Sword Art.”
Jin Je-yong gave a bitter smile and swung his sword.
Je Yung-geon felt a wind slice across his entire body. Then, a searing heat, as if his chest had been branded with a hot iron.
“Keuk!”
“I will clean up the disgrace you have created, Senior Brother. So please, go and apologize to our master.”
“You, you, you… Did you just strike your senior brother?”
Blood gushed from Je Yung-geon’s mouth.
Jin Je-yong nodded.
“I did not wish to strike you, Senior Brother.”
Even as he said this, Jin Je-yong’s sword tore through Je Yung-geon’s lungs.
Amidst the excruciating pain, Je Yung-geon ground his teeth.
“But not only did you insult our master, you also tried to defile his honor.”
“Ha, ha, ha… What honor did Master have to insult? When I entered the martial world, he was just a nameless nobody that no one knew.”
“Then I will make them know. How great our master was! The name of the Divine Sword!”
At Jin Je-yong’s cry, Je Yung-geon’s eyes widened.
Then he laughed weakly.
Their master had turned the madman before him into a human being.
Je Yung-geon realized it too late. The sword of the Divine Sword was not some technique, but Jin Je-yong himself.
“Did Master… Did our master pass peacefully?”
Looking back, aside from his favoritism toward the youngest disciple, Jin Sang-ho had been a good master.
Je Yung-geon only felt this as he faced death.
“…Yes, he passed peacefully.”
“Good, that’s good.”
Je Yung-geon’s vision began to blur.
His youngest junior brother’s face became a white smear, making it impossible to tell what expression he wore.
Was he pained or saddened by killing his senior brother? Or was he happy that the senior brother who had tormented him was gone?
But his voice remained as serene as ever.
“I’m… sorry for everything.”
With that apology, Je Yung-geon breathed his last.
Jin Je-yong took a deep breath and closed the man’s eyes.
This was the senior brother who had tormented him so much in the past, who had even tried to kill him several times.
Still, he was one of the few senior brothers Jin Je-yong had, and one of the few legacies their master had left behind.
“Now, then. I should get to work.”
Quickly composing himself, he laid Je Yung-geon down and caught his breath.
Looking around, he saw the village chief and residents of the Tang Clan Village staring at him with blank faces.
Jin Je-yong grinned and drew his sword.
And his blade erupted in a brilliant light.
***
“Father, it seems there really was something in the underground escape route.”
Dang Jin-seong carried Dang Ju-seong on his back as he descended from the building. After Jin Je-yong had entered the escape route, a massive explosion had shaken the ground.
The escape route he had shown Jin Je-yong was one known only to the main family members. The path he was taking now, however, was a secret passage known only to the clan head.
Dang Jin-seong pushed aside a scroll hanging on the wall, revealing a door barely large enough for one person to squeeze through.
“Five Great Clans, my foot… The Sichuan Tang Clan is completely ruined, Father. Let’s just abandon everything, the clan and all, and run away.”
“…”
Dang Jin-seong pushed the unresponsive Dang Ju-seong into the secret passage and followed him inside.
“Young Master Jin… I’m sorry, but you’ll have to pay the price for killing a member of the Tang Clan.”
Dang Jin-seong smiled cruelly and hoisted the fallen Dang Ju-seong onto his back.
The solidly built secret passage had fortunately survived the underground explosion.
‘The Tang Clan is finished. I’ll just run away to a place where no one knows me.’
Just then, a cool breeze blew through the sealed, windowless passage.
“Wind? But I’m not even close to the exit yet.”
As Dang Jin-seong wondered, a fine crack appeared on the wall.
The crack, which ran across the wall and ceiling, slowly widened, and soon the entire passage collapsed.
“Huh? The passage? Huh?”
Bewildered, he squeezed his eyes shut and stopped walking as the passage, along with the entire building, came crashing down.
Just then, a person leaped nimbly onto the rubble of the collapsed passage.
He was a man with a somewhat destitute appearance. A closer look revealed patches on his clothes and a sunburnt face that made him look even more shabby.
Recognizing the man, Dang Jin-seong’s face turned deathly pale.
“Dang Jin-seong, Young Lord of the Tang Clan. You have to keep your promises, don’t you?”
Standing there was Jin Je-yong, wearing a gentle smile.
***
Dang Jin-seong’s face turned white as he saw me.
I didn’t know the location of his escape route, but by tracking the energy of the incapacitated Dang Ju-seong, I could easily find his whereabouts.
‘It seems he’s not the type to abandon his family.’
Conversely, it also meant he was someone who could abandon anyone but his family without hesitation.
If he hadn’t tried to use me as a decoy to escape the Tang Clan Village, I might have helped him without any ulterior motives.
“Young Master Jin, don’t tell me you didn’t leave through the escape route?”
“No, I couldn’t. It collapsed as soon as you went in, Young Lord. It seems someone was watching me.”
“Watching you?”
“Why did you never consider that a servant of the main family might have formed a connection with the Tang Clan Village?”
The people who managed the vast interior of the main family estate were all either deaf or mute.
They were individuals who served the Tang Clan like slaves for their entire lives.
“They are—they are loyal servants of our family. They would never open their mouths.”
“Are there loyal servants who would abandon their Young Lord? Their tongues may be cut, but that doesn’t mean they lack a will of their own.”
It was rare for all the servants to have been born with disabilities. Given the tendency to hide such conditions, finding people who fit that criteria would not have been easy.
The poisons concocted by the Tang Clan had blinded their eyes, deafened their ears, and sealed their mouths. And they harbored a grudge against the Tang Clan that had done this to them.
And Je Yung-geon had shrewdly won them over.
“At this rate, can the Tang Clan truly be called one of the Five Great Clans of the righteous faction?”
“…That’s a thing of the past now.”
Dang Jin-seong answered weakly.
I turned my gaze to Dang Ju-seong. Carried on Dang Jin-seong’s back, he was drooling.
“So, what do you plan to do with me? Are you going to help the Tang Clan Village and torture me to extract the family’s secret arts? Unfortunately for you, my father never told me the oral secrets.”
“I have no interest in the Tang Clan’s martial arts. However, I am curious to see how much my master’s name will spread if I rebuild the fallen Tang Clan.”
“What?”
At my words, Dang Jin-seong wore a bewildered expression.
The Tang Clan’s problem arose because the main family, which should have controlled the branch families, had lost its power.
‘In that case, the solution is simple.’
All I needed to do was lend strength to the main family.
And for that, it didn’t necessarily have to be Dang Jin-seong.