Chapter 98: Warning (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 98: Warning (2)
“If we provoke them without cause and stir up a hornet's nest, who will bear the responsibility for the fallout?”
At Jang Gu’s heavy words, the silence within the six-story pavilion deepened.
It was a valid point. The Qingcheng Sect was no third-rate clan of the Jianghu. They were a pillar of the Orthodox Faction, boasting a storied history, profound martial arts, and hundreds of elite swordsmen.
To declare war on such a sect—or even to provoke them carelessly—could ignite an all-out conflict between the Orthodox and Unorthodox factions.
“Lord of Red, you worry too much.”
A new voice broke the silence. It came from a man seated in the shadows at the edge of the round table, lazily spinning a jade teacup. It was Ma Seok, the Lord of the Yellow Faction.
“Worry too much? Have you forgotten the might of the Azure Cloud Taoist’s legacy? They may have been quiet lately, but Qingcheng’s swords have not grown dull!” Jang Gu snapped back.
“I haven’t forgotten,” Ma Seok chuckled, his eyes gleaming with a sinister light. “But ask yourself this, Lord of Red. Why did the Three Factions Under Heaven unite? Why did we submit to the Black Lord to form the Samu Alliance?”
Jang Gu remained silent, unable to offer an immediate rebuttal.
“It was for the Demonic Energy Absorption Art,” Hwang Il-guk interjected. His hunched back made him appear frail, yet his internal energy was terrifyingly dense. “If we can secure that manual, the entire martial world will bow to the Samu Alliance. A little friction with the Orthodox Faction is a cheap price to pay.”
“Exactly.” Ma Seok set his teacup down with a sharp click. “And now we have confirmation. The Black Lord’s daughter personally tested the boy.”
“Is it certain? Could it not have been a mistake?”
“A mistake?” Hwang Il-guk let out a dry, rasping laugh. “She forced him to his absolute limits by threatening him with Sword Force. When she placed her hand upon his chest, she resonated with his Dantian and felt the flow of his True Qi directly. The traces of the Demonic Energy Absorption Art were unmistakably etched into his foundation. He absorbed the Giant Demon’s energy to survive.”
Jang Gu closed his eyes, exhaling a long breath. The die had been cast.
“If the boy has it, it means the Qingcheng Sect has it. Or, at the very least, they are harboring the secrets of the Demonic Cult.”
“We do not need to launch a frontal assault,” Hwang Il-guk said softly, his voice like a snake slithering through dry grass. “We will deploy the Shadows. We will slowly encircle Qingcheng, isolate their communications, and capture the boy. Once he is in our hands, the manual will follow.”
“And the Beggar Sect? They were watching.”
“Let the beggars watch,” Ma Seok sneered. “They have numbers, but they lack Absolute Masters. By the time they gather enough evidence to convince the rest of the Orthodox Faction, the manual will already be in the Black Lord’s hands.”
The three elders exchanged glances. The decision was made. The gears of the Samu Alliance, the overlord of the Unorthodox Faction, had officially begun to turn.
Their target: a single young master of Qingcheng.
*
Meanwhile, in a quiet guest room within the Outer Court of the Cutting Sword Gate.
The sun had set, and darkness draped over the sparring grounds. Seok Myeong sat perfectly still on his bed, his eyes open, staring blankly at the far wall. He wasn't cultivating; he was lost in a deep, complicated web of thought.
He slowly raised his right hand and pressed it against his chest, right over his heart.
‘Reach out your hand.’
The woman’s voice echoed in his mind.
Su Su-rin. The supposed son of the Samu Alliance Leader had revealed herself to be a woman—and a master capable of manifesting Sword Force.
At the time, he had been flustered by the sheer absurdity of the situation. A noble lady placing his hand on her chest in front of hundreds of onlookers was a scenario that would leave any young martial artist red-faced and confused.
But Seok Myeong was no ordinary young man. As the initial embarrassment faded, logic and martial intuition took over.
Why did she do it?
She held absolute superiority. She could have crushed him with her Sword Force at any moment. Instead, she questioned him about the Giant Demon, created a situation where he had to circulate his True Qi to its maximum to prepare for death, and then… she pulled his hand to her chest.
Seok Myeong’s eyes narrowed.
It wasn't a jest. It was a resonance technique.
In the world of martial arts, when two high-level practitioners make physical contact while their Qi is fully mobilized, a sensitive master can feel the flow, nature, and origin of the other’s internal energy. By pulling his hand to her chest—near her middle Dantian—she had established a direct bridge between their Qi pathways.
She had peered into the abyss of his martial foundation.
And what she was looking for was obvious. She had literally asked him about the Giant Demon right before the act.
She was searching for the Demonic Energy Absorption Art.
A cold sweat broke out on Seok Myeong’s back. During his life-and-death struggle with the Giant Demon, he had been pushed to the absolute brink. To survive, he had subconsciously applied the principles of the forbidden text he had been analyzing in Qingcheng.
He had absorbed a fraction of the Giant Demon’s chaotic, demonic energy and neutralized it using his Qingcheng foundation. It was a miraculous feat—a theoretical gamble that had saved his life.
But it had left a trace.
It was a subtle, almost imperceptible change in the nature of his True Qi that only an Absolute Master actively looking for it could detect.
The Samu Alliance… they know.
Seok Myeong realized the terrifying scale of the situation. The Unorthodox Faction hadn't come to the Cutting Sword Gate just to cause trouble. They had tracked the rumors of the Giant Demon’s death, pinpointed him, and sent an Absolute Master to verify if the Demonic Cult’s lost legacy had surfaced.
Now that they knew he possessed it, they would never leave him alone. Worse, they would not leave the Qingcheng Sect alone.
Knock, knock!
A sharp rapping at the door broke his grim reverie. Before he could answer, the door swung open and Cheol So-yeon stepped in, her face a storm of frustration and curiosity.
“Are you just going to hide in your room all night?” she demanded, crossing her arms.
“I am not hiding. I am thinking,” Seok Myeong replied calmly, dropping his hand from his chest.
“Thinking? About what? About how the entire Samjunggwan is buzzing with gossip about you and that Unorthodox woman?” Cheol So-yeon scoffed, her eyes narrowing as she scrutinized him. “People are saying the rising star of Qingcheng has been bewitched. She threatened you with Sword Force, then suddenly held your hand and conceded? What kind of ridiculous play was that? If you know something, spit it out.”
Seok Myeong looked at her. Her fiery demeanor was typical, but beneath it, he knew she was a sharp martial artist. Furthermore, she had been there during the incident with the Black Snake Union and the Giant Demon. If the Samu Alliance started moving, anyone associated with him would be in danger. She deserved to know the truth, at least in part, so she could protect herself.
“It wasn’t a play,” Seok Myeong said, his voice dropping to a low, serious tone.
“Then what was it? Love at first sight?”
“She was measuring my Dantian. She used physical contact to read the exact flow of my internal energy while I was forced to manifest my Astral Energy to defend myself.”
Cheol So-yeon frowned, her teasing tone vanishing. “Measuring your Dantian? Why would someone from the Samu Alliance go to such lengths just to check a junior’s internal energy?”
“Because she suspected something. And she found it.”
“Found what?”
Seok Myeong stood up slowly. The shadows in the room seemed to elongate as he approached the window, ensuring no one was eavesdropping outside.
“You remember the Giant Demon. You saw how powerful it was. It was a monster that could not be defeated by ordinary means.”
“Of course I remember. You killed it. Everyone knows that.”
“But they do not know how I killed it,” Seok Myeong corrected her softly.
Cheol So-yeon blinked, the weight of the atmosphere shifting. “What are you saying?”
“During that fight, my conventional martial arts were useless. To break through the Giant Demon’s defense and survive its aura, I had to absorb its energy and reverse it. I used a method that does not belong to the Orthodox path.”
Cheol So-yeon’s eyes widened. She took a step back, her mind racing to comprehend the implications. “Wait… absorb its energy? But that’s impossible unless… unless…”
Her voice trembled as she arrived at the only logical conclusion.
“Unless it’s a demonic art,” Seok Myeong finished for her, his expression unreadable.
Silence hung heavily in the room. The Demonic Cult had been the eternal enemy of the Jianghu. Their arts were forbidden—deemed wicked and corrupting. For a disciple of the noble Qingcheng Sect to dabble in such things was unthinkable. It was a crime punishable by having one's martial arts crippled, or worse.
“The Demonic Energy Absorption Art,” Seok Myeong continued quietly. “That is what the woman from the Samu Alliance was looking for. She tracked the rumors of the Giant Demon, deduced that someone must have used that lost art to absorb its power, and she came to confirm it.”
Cheol So-yeon stared at him, her mouth agape. “And… and she confirmed it?”
“Yes. She felt its traces in my Qi. That is why she smiled, conceded the match, and left. She didn't need to fight me anymore. She got exactly what she came for.”
Seok Myeong turned to face her fully, his eyes resolute but shadowed by the gravity of the coming storm.
“I possess knowledge of a demonic art. And now, the Unorthodox Faction knows that this secret has entered Qingcheng.”
Cheol So-yeon’s face turned pale as a sheet. She understood the Jianghu well enough to know what this meant. It wasn't just a matter of a single martial artist's ruin; it was the kind of secret that could spark a bloodbath, dragging entire sects into a vortex of slaughter.