Chapter 22
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: The Silent Orator (2)
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“I can’t just send a young hero off and stay here like this. Ugh!”
Pyo Il-bong tried to rise from the bed, but a pain in his chest made him groan.
Dang Jin-seong sighed.
“Stop struggling and just lie down, will you?”
“Huh?”
Pyo Il-bong frowned at the attitude of Dang Jin-seong, who looked at least ten years younger than him. His appearance, brewing medicine in a pot, suggested he was a physician, but even for a doctor treating him, his words were far too harsh.
He was about to offer a word of advice, but Dang Jin-seong's next words made him whimper and tuck his tail between his legs.
“When the young master of the Tang Clan offers to treat your poison, you should shut your mouth and just say ‘thank you.’”
“The... young master of the Tang Clan? Y-Young hero, are you perhaps Lord Dang Jin-seong?”
Although Dang Jin-seong rarely showed his face even at official gatherings, few martial artists in Sichuan were unfamiliar with his name.
Moreover, for the Ichi Sect of Haengbong County, which wasn't far from the Tang Clan, even a dismissive snort from them was hard to bear.
“Hmph!”
When the young master of the Tang Clan snorted, Pyo Il-bong swallowed hard.
The Sichuan Tang Clan might be a prestigious orthodox sect, but their inner workings were sinister and venomous beyond compare. Even without causing direct harm, they had countless ways to torment a small local sect like the Ichi Sect.
“I know what you're worried about, but worrying about that... person is like a sparrow worrying that a phoenix's leg will break.”
“For you to say that, Young Master... Just what is that young hero's identity?”
“He's the Sword of Completion, I told you.”
Dang Jin-seong replied in an annoyed tone.
Having witnessed Jin Je-yong carve only the poison out of Pyo Il-bong's body with his sword, he could no longer deny it.
A state where one cuts only what they intend to cut, and nothing else.
Dang Jin-seong had studied martial arts for twenty years, but he couldn't even comprehend what kind of state that was.
‘No, maybe he's a Sword Demon...’
Dang Jin-seong thought.
An utterly unbelievable level of skill, and that domineering stride were like the Heavenly Demon from the stories.
“You mean the Sword of Completion, the disciple of the Divine Sword?”
Pyo Il-bong muttered, recalling Jin Je-yong.
The image of Jin Je-yong that came to his mind was far too ordinary to be called the Sword of Completion—no, he looked like nothing more than a simple country bumpkin.
***
“You're from the Qingcheng Sect, aren't you? Why are you helping us?”
Ha Hyeol-ran, the leader of the Aro Sect, asked the man in the white martial arts uniform, Ham Jeong-eun. Perhaps due to the energy of the Soul Return Pill, her eyes also held a yellowish tint.
“What has the Qingcheng Sect ever done for me? Introduce me to the Yangcheong Sect and the Yangcheong Escort Agency? I trusted them as fellow disciples, but I was about to rot away there as a lifelong escort, at best a captain leading a dozen men.”
Was it the alcohol? Ham Jeong-eun's voice was rougher than usual.
Ha Hyeol-ran did not let her guard down in the slightest.
Because of the Soul Return Pill's effects, his eyes had a yellowish tint.
“So you gave the Soul Return Pills to us and those bastards from the Ichi Sect so we could all die together?”
“No, that was because of orders from above.”
Ham Jeong-eun raised a hand as if in apology.
“I had to send both of you off anyway, so I just gave the Soul Return Pills to the Aro Sect first, for whom I have a deeper affection.”
“Thanks to you, we do have victory within our grasp.”
The damage was considerable, but it couldn't be helped. To win, she had to humor this man and accept the Soul Return Pills.
A single dose of the Soul Return Pill could create a new dantian in one's chest. Furthermore, the energy flowing from this dantian made the skin tougher and harder.
‘I, and the Aro Sect, will probably go to hell.’
Even as her insides burned, Ha Hyeol-ran smiled. She couldn't imagine what would happen if she showed any weakness in front of Ham Jeong-eun.
She regretted swallowing the Soul Return Pill out of a moment's greed.
‘No, if I hadn't taken it, we would have been annihilated by the Ichi Sect.’
In the escalating war, Ha Hyeol-ran had few options.
As she poured alcohol into Ham Jeong-eun's cup, she let out a secret sigh.
Still, if they could crush the Ichi Sect, it seemed they could somehow establish themselves as the top sect in Haengbong County.
The losses were great, but if the Soul Return Pills were provided regularly, it seemed they could expand their influence beyond Haengbong County to other counties in the future.
‘To do that, I'll have to deepen my relationship with this man.’
Just as she was thinking this, Ha Hyeol-ran suddenly grabbed her sword.
She sensed a presence outside the door, and then a young man in his early twenties flung the door open and poked his head in.
“Looks like this is the place.”
A young man with tanned skin and a simple-looking face. He was so ordinary that if not for the sword at his waist, one might have mistaken him for a newly recruited servant.
The face of the young man who followed him in was so strikingly handsome that it made the first man's face seem even more plain.
“Who are you!”
“I am Jin Je-yong, a disciple of Master Jin Sang-ho, the Divine Sword.”
Jin Je-yong smiled and drew his sword.
Ha Hyeol-ran had also taken the Soul Return Pill, and her skills had risen several levels.
However, she couldn't even react to Jin Je-yong's sword before her own vanished from her hand. She felt a searing pain in her chest, followed by a splattering sound.
“And it just so happens that the man who appears to be Ham Jeong-eun is here as well.”
Ham Jeong-eun, mistaking Jin Je-yong for a member of the Aro Sect, reacted a moment later than Ha Hyeol-ran.
Of course, even if he had reacted a little faster, he didn't have the skill to block Jin Je-yong's sword.
“Kugh!”
Ham Jeong-eun, his chest slashed by Jin Je-yong's sword, let out a groan.
Then, on the opposite wall, a fist-sized poison creature was crushed, spewing black toxic energy.
“Now, since the affairs of both sects have been resolved, let's go to the inn. Warrior Lee Geum-yeong, could you please bring the master of the Ichi Sect?”
“Of course.”
Lee Geum-yeong promptly replied and left.
‘Resolved everything? What?’
Ha Hyeol-ran found it strange that this ordinary-looking young man had appeared here without any commotion, and she was also puzzled by what he claimed to have resolved.
The Aro Sect may have gained the upper hand, but the war with the Ichi Sect was still ongoing.
“Sect Leader, shall we move?”
“To where...?”
Jin Je-yong asked politely, but Ha Hyeol-ran couldn't muster any strength in her body.
The energy of the Soul Return Pill, which had been with her for several months, was completely gone. It was as if she had never taken it.
Only a faint trace of the Soul Return Pill's toxic energy remained in a corner of her chest.
“The master of the Ichi Sect is waiting. This meaningless war must end.”
“Meaningless... You say it's meaningless.”
As he said, both the Aro Sect and the Ichi Sect were sects that inherited the spirit of prestigious orthodox sects, so a war of mutual destruction could indeed be meaningless.
But several of their disciples had already lost their lives.
“It's not meaningless!”
“There is no meaning in a fight between your two sects. You're just being used for someone else's profit.”
Ha Hyeol-ran shouted sharply, but Jin Je-yong responded with a snort.
And when his sword accurately struck an acupoint on the frantic Ha Hyeol-ran, she immediately went limp.
“Can't be helped. I'll have to carry her.”
Just as Jin Je-yong was about to lift Ha Hyeol-ran into his arms, his eyes caught Ham Jeong-eun trying to sneak away.
Meeting his gaze, Ham Jeong-eun flinched.
“You carry her.”
“M-Me?”
Ham Jeong-eun swallowed hard.
He too was a swordsman who had learned the sword at the Qingcheng Sect. His skills were unbecoming of someone from a great sect, but he had an eye for swordsmanship.
And this man, who looked like a country bumpkin, was a master of the swift sword, so fast that one couldn't even properly see it.
It wasn't a matter of whether he could escape or not; his head could literally be separated from his body in the blink of an eye.
“Should I carry her then?”
“Aigoo! No, sir! Young Hero, no, Great Hero. No, Elder?”
Although Ham Jeong-eun's chest throbbed from the sudden disappearance of the Soul Return Pill's energy, he quickly ran over and hoisted Ha Hyeol-ran onto his back.
In the martial world, judging someone's skill by their appearance alone was a foolish thing to do.
Furthermore, for a second-rate warrior like Ham Jeong-eun, even the breath of a master was dangerous. With an orthodox master, it might end with just tears and a runny nose, but encountering a master from an unorthodox sect meant risking one's life.
‘This bastard is definitely from an unorthodox sect.’
The Aro Sect might be a small sect in Haengbong County, but it was a sect influenced by the Emei Sect.
A person who could trample into such a sect with muddy feet without a care was either an enemy of the Nine Great Sects, a follower of heretical paths, or a madman who couldn't care less about the Nine Great Sects and One Union.
‘Ah, damn it. Of all the people to run into, it had to be this bastard.’
Ham Jeong-eun's steps were heavy as he carried Ha Hyeol-ran on his back.
***
I brought Ha Hyeol-ran back to the inn. I asked Dang Jin-seong to lend me a room and gathered the leaders of the Aro Sect and the Ichi Sect in one place.
“Sister Ha, you look a wreck.”
“Oh my, aren't those my words for you, Pyo?”
The Aro Sect's leader, Ha Hyeol-ran, who had awoken after her acupoints were released, and the Ichi Sect's leader, Pyo Il-jeon, who had been summoned by Warrior Lee Geum-yeong, bared their teeth at each other.
Both had lost the energy of the Soul Return Pill, leaving them with only their original skills.
‘It won't be easy to resolve such a long-standing grudge overnight.’
Still, they wouldn't rashly draw their swords. Not only had I confiscated both their swords, but the aftereffects of having the Soul Return Pill removed meant they couldn't circulate their energy yet.
I turned my gaze toward Ham Jeong-eun.
‘The one connected to my senior brother and the Yangcheong Sect.’
“Where did you get the Soul Return Pills?”
“Th-That's...”
Ham Jeong-eun's eyes darted around. First, they went to Ha Hyeol-ran, then to Pyo Il-jeon.
But realizing that neither of them had the ability to protect him, he bit his lip hard.
“You bastard! Do you know who's behind me?!”
Ham Jeong-eun suddenly lowered his voice and glared.
It seemed he had made up his mind, trying to hide his fear.
And he sold out his backer.
It was a good story.
I had been curious about that myself.
“Yes, who is it?”
“Huh?”
“I asked who's behind you.”
I wanted to quickly deal with the Soul Return Pill issue involving Senior Brother Je Yung-geon and then go find the other people from the school.
I was grateful that he was about to quickly give me the name of his backer before things got more troublesome.
Ham Jeong-eun looked flustered, then started shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Hey, the Yangcheong Sect is behind me! And behind the Yangcheong Sect is the Qingcheng Sect!”
“Right, so the Yangcheong Sect told you to distribute the Soul Return Pills? Should I take you there and talk with the Yangcheong Sect Leader?”
“W-What?!”
“Or should I just find the Qingcheng Sect?”
Ham Jeong-eun looked greatly flustered.
At this rate, the conversation was going to drag on.
“Wh-Why are you drawing your sword? A-Aren't you afraid of the Yangcheong... the Qingcheng Sect behind me! You villain!”
“My sword speaks better than my tongue.”
“A-Are you trying to threaten me?”
“Threaten? How rude. We're just having a conversation. Don't martial artists have a wonderful means of conversation called martial arts, instead of a three-inch tongue?”
There was no need to resort to difficult words when the easy path of the sword was available from the start.
Ham Jeong-eun's face turned dark as he looked at me.
***
“Senior Brother.”
“What is it?”
“The instructor made it there safely, right? I'm worried.”
“The instructor went, so what's there to worry about?”
“Well, you know... the instructor is someone whose sword moves faster than his words.”
“Yeah, so what about it?”
“Well, uh, in the martial world, there are people you shouldn't mess with, right? Like the disciples of the great sects in Sichuan, like the Qingcheng Sect or the Emei Sect...”
“Sigh... Gyeong! Do you still not know our instructor?”
“N-No! What don't I know...”
Nam Gyeong grumbled quietly.
Jeok-sam pushed aside the documents piled high on the desk and peeked his head out.
“That for our instructor, speaking with his sword solves things much more easily than speaking with his mouth.”
A swordsman speaks with his sword.
Thanks to that one line Jin Sang-ho said to sound cool, it was Jin Je-yong's martial brothers and their disciples who had to suffer through hell.
And now, it was the martial world's turn to suffer at the hands of his sword.