Chapter 151
Chapter 151
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 151
Chapter Title: Welcoming the Dawn
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“Mu-yeong!”
After subduing the Leader of the Elders' Hall and using some slightly violent persuasion(?) to uncover the passage leading to the deepest chamber, we finally found the younger brother that Jegal Geun-yeong had been desperately searching for.
“Uh, ugh…? B-Brother?”
“Yeah, it’s me! Are you okay?”
Jegal Geun-yeong’s younger brother, Jegal Mu-yeong, had been imprisoned in a small room at the deepest part.
Fortunately, there were no visible external injuries, but he looked extremely gaunt, as if he hadn’t eaten anything for quite a while.
“W-Water… please….”
“…We should give him some water first.”
We searched the deepest chamber and found drinkable water, but the only food was some hard rations.
We also discovered some rather intriguing items, but those could wait—I’d interrogate the Leader of the Elders' Hall about them later.
*Gulp, gulp*
With Geun-yeong’s help, Mu-yeong managed to swallow some water bit by bit, but his condition still looked terrible at a glance.
“We should take him out and have a physician look at him.”
“We can’t go to the main house. There are eyes everywhere, and Father would find out right away.”
As I racked my brain for a solution upon hearing Geun-yeong’s words, a creepy laugh echoed through the air.
“Ke, keheuk…!”
When I turned my head, there was the Leader of the Elders' Hall, bound hand and foot and shoved into a corner, grinning like a madman.
I walked over to him and stomped on his face.
*Crunch!*
“Kek!”
Thanks to that, his nose bone shattered, turning his face into a bloody mess.
Hm, the dirtied beard wasn’t quite enough, but now it’s perfect.
As I nodded appreciatively at my handiwork(?), another laugh bubbled up.
“Keheukuk…!”
“Don’t you ever learn? Begging for another stomp?”
“Keheuk, aren’t you afraid of the consequences? You’re trying to ruin the Jegal Clan’s twenty-year-old wish.”
“Wish? More like twenty years of bullshit.”
The Leader of the Elders' Hall’s face hardened at my sharp retort.
“What did you say?”
“Fine, let’s say feelings of inferiority about your weak constitutions led you to breed your bloodline like animals with experts. But demonic arts? On your own kin? That crosses the line way too far.”
It was the gravest sin of exterminating one’s own kin and a betrayal of human decency.
No matter what fancy words you dress it up in, what they’d done was a horrific atrocity.
They’d just rationalized it all as being for the clan.
“What do you know to spout such nonsense! If you knew how we’ve been treated in the martial world all this time, you wouldn’t…!”
“I don’t care about your thoughts or circumstances. While we’re on the topic, let me ask one thing. Why use your own bloodline as test subjects?”
This had been nagging at the back of my mind ever since I learned about the demonic arts experiments.
In typical martial arts novels, human experimentation usually involves kidnapping innocent children, right? (Of course, it’s mostly evil sects or demonic cults that do it.)
“Don’t people usually kidnap orphans with no ties to avoid backlash?”
“Heh, there were indeed elders who argued for that.”
The Leader of the Elders' Hall acknowledged my question as if it were no big deal.
And the answer he gave was truly ridiculous.
“It was to prepare for any potential mishaps. My research is solely for the Jegal Clan. Only those of the Jegal bloodline should reap its benefits. We can’t have random rootless bastards enjoying that grace.”
“…Ah, I see.”
In short, they’d only used their own bloodline as test subjects to prevent anyone outside the Jegal family from being reborn as powerful warriors.
I shook my head at the absurd response and pulled two items from my bosom.
His eyes widened enormously upon seeing them.
“Th-That’s…!”
“You hid them so carefully—must be pretty important, huh?”
The two items I’d pulled out were a blood-red orb and a book recording all the experiments.
I’d found them earlier in a secret compartment detected by my energy network while searching for water to give Mu-yeong.
“H-How…?”
His expression made it clear he couldn’t fathom how I’d found them.
I had no intention of explaining the principles of my energy network to this old fool step by step, so I flipped open the book and got straight to the point.
“This mentions the word ‘Blood Jade’ quite frequently. Is this it?”
“…….”
The Leader of the Elders' Hall suddenly clammed up.
But his trembling gaze fixed on the orb was answer enough.
“You documented everything in such detail. Thanks to that, I figured out how this was made.”
The Blood Jade in my hand right now.
Surprisingly, it was created inside the bodies of those who cultivated the Blood Explosion Art.
According to the records, once you recite the incantation for the Blood Explosion Art, you master it immediately.
From then on, an inexplicable craving for blood arises, and the more blood you drink, the higher your achievement grows.
Just drinking blood raises your martial arts realm.
Honestly, I had to question if it even qualified as a martial art.
Anyway, as you keep drinking blood and your realm rises, a tiny pellet-like thing forms inside the cultivator’s body—around the lower dantian where the sea of qi is located.
“And extracting those and fusing them together creates this Blood Jade.”
“…….”
The Leader of the Elders' Hall kept his mouth shut, clearly determined not to reveal a thing about the Blood Jade.
Not gonna talk, huh?
I wonder if you’ll stay quiet after this.
I let the Blood Jade drop right in front of his eyes.
Bloodshot veins burst in his wrinkled eyes as he watched the blood-red orb roll across the floor, and when I ground it under my heel, a scream of horror finally erupted from him.
“What are you doing—!?”
“What? It’s made from demonic arts—did you think I’d just leave it be?”
“A-Aaah…!”
The Leader of the Elders' Hall trembled violently at the sight of the pitifully crushed Blood Jade and finally exploded.
“You mad bastard! Do you know what that is!? It’s a treasure of treasures—consuming it grants infinite inner energy!”
Gotcha.
I grinned and asked,
“…Infinite inner energy, you say?”
He realized his slip the moment I spoke and clamped his mouth shut, but it was too late.
From what he said, the Blood Jade was apparently a kind of spirit pill created through the Blood Explosion Art.
It probably wouldn’t grant truly infinite inner energy, but something comparable in quantity.
“Sigh….”
That damn obsession with inner energy—it’s so tiresome.
I bitterly shook my head and turned away.
Geun-yeong had already hoisted his brother onto his back, and Mu-yeong seemed to have lost consciousness from relaxed tension, limply draped over his brother’s shoulder.
He needs a physician right away, but we can’t go to the main house….
Looks like there’s only one option.
“My master and your brother-in-law are waiting outside the formation. Let’s grab a room at an inn first and get him to a physician right away.”
“Yes? Brother-in-law and Lady Yeo?”
A question of why they were there appeared on Geun-yeong’s face.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t heard how you young master got here yet….”
“I’ll explain slowly on the way. You go first. I’ll finish up the cleanup and follow.”
Geun-yeong seemed to grasp what I meant by “cleanup” as he glanced at the Leader of the Elders' Hall for a moment before silently turning and heading into the dark passage without a word.
Feeling Geun-yeong’s presence fade away, I drew my sword.
The Leader of the Elders' Hall calmly gazed at the gleaming blade.
“Pretty composed, huh? I figured you’d whine about how I promised to spare you or something.”
“…Don’t mock me. I knew from the start you had no intention of letting me live.”
Had he given up after I destroyed the Blood Jade?
I aimed my sword tip at his throat and posed the final question that had piqued my curiosity most.
“Sword Qi Projection. You spoke as if sword qi truly existed in the past. What’s your basis for that?”
“…What a strange question. Isn’t your very existence proof enough…?”
He looked puzzled by my question at first, but then his expression shifted through various shades as realization dawned.
“N-No way… You didn’t inherit Sword Qi Projection? You invented it yourself?”
Suspicion and doubt turned to shock and denial.
Then, as I silently confirmed it, emptiness settled on his wrinkled face.
“Heh, heheheh…. Incredible. To create Sword Qi Projection from nothing. Truly the makings of a grandmaster. How could someone like you not be born into our Jegal Clan?”
After lamenting, the Leader of the Elders' Hall readily answered my question.
“There’s a forbidden text passed down from long ago. It’s a book recording the old martial world—not the current one.”
“Forbidden text?”
“Yes. It contains tales of an age like a dream, where warriors flew through the skies and unleashed sword qi.”
My heart pounded wildly the moment I heard his words.
The old martial world? The old martial world?
Did this world once have an era where warriors projected sword qi?
“Ask Young Master Il about the details. He knows about the forbidden text too.”
Jegal Geun-yeong?
I was quite shocked to learn that Geun-yeong knew about sword qi.
On the other hand, a thread of suspicion brushed my mind.
The Leader of the Elders' Hall was answering far too readily.
“You must be wondering why I’m being so cooperative.”
He’d keenly read the surprise on my face.
With a smirk, he soon glared at me with wild eyes, spewing curses.
“Because you’ll meet the same ruin.”
“Delusional nonsense as death approaches….”
“Does it sound like mere ravings or a dying curse? No, you’re wrong. It’s insight born from understanding human nature all too well.”
He continued speaking without a care, even with a blade at his throat.
“Just as they did with me, countless others will covet Sword Qi Projection. Some will try to coax you, others threaten you—all to seize that power.”
“And they’ll end up smashed like you are now.”
“What do you think will happen when that repeats and they realize they can’t obtain it?”
“…….”
“They’ll try to destroy you. If they can’t have it, no one else will. No matter how strong you are, you can’t fend off thousands or tens of thousands.”
He declared it with a voice full of conviction, as if stating an immutable truth.
“Because you are strong, you will ultimately perish.”
As if awaiting that moment, the Leader of the Elders' Hall smiled brightly.
I listened quietly but couldn’t hold back, grimacing before bursting into laughter.
“Puhahaha—!”
My laughter echoed through the cave.
His face twisted grotesquely upon hearing it.
“…Are you insane? How can you laugh at this?”
“Hahaha, ha…! Sorry. You’re so completely off-base that I couldn’t help it.”
“Off-base? What exactly am I wrong about?”
His face showed utter incomprehension.
Suppressing my laughter, I looked down at the Leader of the Elders' Hall and explained step by step.
“First off, I have no intention of monopolizing Sword Qi Projection. Quite the opposite—I want it to spread across the Central Plains.”
“…What?”
To make it clearer for him, I put it simply.
“In terms you might understand: what I desire is the revival of the old martial world.”
“…!”
“Yes, a return to the era where warriors cleaved the skies and unleashed sword qi.”
I flashed a grin at the Leader of the Elders' Hall, who couldn’t hide his shock.