Chapter 178
Chapter 178
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 178
Chapter Title: Im Chun-sam
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“Hall Master, come to think of it, I’ve got a question.”
“Huh? What is it?”
In front of the cave where the Explosive Blood Art practitioners were imprisoned.
Chun-il, who had been waiting endlessly for someone who might approach the cave as per the original plan, turned his head at the voice coming from beside him.
“Why was it Young Master Chun-sam?”
“…Hey, if you cut out the front and back, how am I supposed to understand? What are you talking about?”
When he shot back crookedly at the Vice Hall Master sitting right beside him, the man let out an overt sigh and shook his head.
“Whew, can’t you catch on quick for once?”
“This bastard, starting up again?”
Just as he clenched his fist, wondering if he needed to sock him one to get him talking straight, the Vice Hall Master opened his mouth again right on time.
“I mean, why did Young Master Chun-sam end up going to the Zhuge Clan as a live-in son-in-law?”
‘Damn, sharp as ever.’
Clicking his tongue, Chun-il lowered the fist he’d raised to shoulder height and gave a casual reply.
“Why? Because that’s who they wanted.”
“Even so, you just accepted without any discussion? Without even consulting me, the chief steward?”
“For a mid-tier sect like Wall Mountain Sect, the Zhuge Clan themselves proposed a marriage. Father couldn’t pass up the opportunity and accepted on the spot.”
What would that father say if he saw the Zhuge Clan’s current state?
Chun-il shot a sidelong glance at the blood-stinking cave and irritably clicked his tongue.
But the Vice Hall Master’s doubts weren’t fully cleared yet.
“Why did the Zhuge Clan pick out Young Master Chun-sam specifically? Honestly, he’s not exactly prime husband material, is he?”
He was beating around the bush, but it boiled down to questioning what the Zhuge Clan saw in the stuttering, naive youngest son.
Chun-il bristled for a moment, ready to finally plant his fist in that infuriating face, but he froze.
It was because he suddenly recalled his own idiotic blunder of leaving his wife in cold celibacy for five years.
In the end, he lowered his fist again and let out a deep sigh.
“Haah….”
“What’s with the sighing? I’m asking you. Why was it Chun-sam?”
“Ah, why do you think! They wanted a guy with strength, so they snagged the strongest one!”
“Huh?”
The Vice Hall Master was startled by Chun-il’s response.
He blinked repeatedly before tilting his head.
“Was Young Master Chun-sam the strongest?”
“What, you didn’t know?”
“I’m hearing this for the first time. Compared to you, Hall Master—who were brawling every day—or Young Master Chun-i, Chun-sam always seemed so meek.”
Chun-il scratched the back of his head at the response, then recalled a perfect example and spoke up again.
“You remember Chun-sam’s axe, right?”
“…Oh, that thing.”
The Vice Hall Master’s face soured instantly.
For him, who had once served as Wall Mountain Sect’s chief steward, Chun-sam’s axe was a deeply painful and agonizing memory.
“That damned axe ate up a full year’s budget for Wall Mountain Sect… Ugh, it still pisses me off just thinking about it. Why the hell did the handle have to be forged from solid darksteel?”
Darksteel.
A black metal found in trace amounts in meteorites that fell from the sky.
Second to none in hardness, and notoriously difficult to work with, it commanded sky-high prices.
Several times the value of gold for the same weight.
Since the axe was made entirely from it, Chun-sam’s axe being small was unavoidable.
“If that cursed axe had been just a few inches longer, Wall Mountain Sect wouldn’t have been wiped out by Tyrant Heaven Fortress—we’d have gone bankrupt from the cost.”
Chun-il smacked his lips as he watched the Vice Hall Master slam the ground in earnest frustration, then explained the reason.
“Any other material couldn’t withstand the grip strength of that bastard Chun-sam.”
“…What?”
Chun-il shrugged at the Vice Hall Master’s bewildered reaction.
“Yeah, it’s absurd, right? That’s what I thought too. No matter how tough the handle material, the moment it got in his hands, it splintered. What choice was there?”
Wood shattered instantly, and even metal handles crumpled after a few swings.
Chun-sam’s strength was on a whole different level from his two older brothers.
“…That much?”
“Well, makes sense you wouldn’t know. He’s not the type to go around bragging.”
Chun-il cackled.
Then, an urgent voice rang in his ear.
“Ha-Hall Master! They’re here! Someone’s coming!”
“Whoa, looks like our awaited guest has arrived.”
Chun-il shot up from his seat at his subordinate’s shout, confirmed the identity of the arriving guest, and made a bizarre face.
“You—who the hell are you!? Where’s the formation?”
“…What’re these old fogeys?”
Standing before Chun-il and his bandit underlings were a few elders who had luckily survived Zhuge Cheon-sang’s assault and fled.
They had come all the way to the cave to consult the Elder Council Leader on how to handle Zhuge Cheon-sang, who refused to obey their control.
Oblivious that the Elder Council Leader was already dead, they couldn’t hide their panic at finding the concealing formation gone and nothing but bandits in its place.
“What are you lot!? What are you doing here!?”
One hot-tempered elder among them bellowed.
Chun-il frowned at the shout echoing through the forest, picked at his ear, and hefted his axe.
“Hey, you’re loud. Let’s wrap this up quick.”
“Yes, Hall Master!”
At the Hall Master’s command, every bandit—former Wall Mountain Sect disciples all—charged at the elders in unison.
*
“…This can’t be.”
Zhuge Ho’s eyes bulged at the unbelievable scene unfolding before him.
His gaze darted between the mountain of a man that was Chun-sam and Zhuge Cheong, pathetically sprawled into the ground before him.
Just one blow.
In a single strike, the leader of the Menacing Tiger Unit had been neutralized.
No twitch of movement—he was out cold.
And the most astonishing part: blood was oozing from a gash on Chun-sam’s right shoulder, the one he’d used to deliver the blow.
“He shattered the Protective Aura… in one strike…?”
Menacing Tiger Unit Leader Zhuge Myeong muttered with the look of a man trapped in a nightmare.
Who was Zhuge Cheong?
Irritating as he was, he was a man evaluated as Zhuge Myeong’s equal: the leader of the Menacing Tiger Unit.
He didn’t venture out much, but everyone agreed he had the chops to earn a prestigious moniker.
‘Yet that Zhuge Cheong… taken down in one strike…’
It was tantamount to saying that even Zhuge Myeong himself couldn’t withstand a blow from Chun-sam.
“Keuk…!”
Zhuge Myeong grimaced and ground his teeth at the sudden emergence of this formidable foe.
Zhuge Ho swallowed a groan inwardly as well.
‘…Monstrous strength, beyond reason.’
Having witnessed the unprecedented sight of a Protective Aura shattered in one hit, he heightened his wariness and pondered gravely what to do.
-KRAAAAAH-!
“…!?”
Right then, a spine-chilling roar echoed.
It sounded like the wail of a demon crawling out from some ancient tomb.
Hearing such an ill omen not from outside, but from within the clan compound itself, stripped away Zhuge Ho’s composure and cool-headedness.
“…Menacing Tiger Unit—all hands, deploy the Grand Star Sword Array.”
“H-Hyungnim?”
Zhuge Myeong was taken aback by Zhuge Ho’s order.
Murmurs rippled through the Tiger Heaven Unit ranks.
The Grand Star Sword Array was a formation in which the unit’s members moved as one seamless body.
Like any formation, it was designed to encircle, suppress, or slay a mighty foe.
In other words, it was an order to resolve themselves to kill Chun-sam.
“Zhuge Ho! Have you lost your mind!?”
The strongest backlash, predictably, came from Seo Ryeong.
Zhuge Ho countered her defiance with iron resolve.
“If you don’t want your husband hurt, then just step aside.”
“Th-that’s…”
Step aside, and the rebellion fails. Refuse, and Chun-sam gets hurt.
As conflict flickered across Seo Ryeong’s face amid the impossible choice, Chun-sam stepped forward.
“Seo Ryeong. Fall back.”
“You—what are you saying…? Hey, get over here!”
Ignoring her call, Chun-sam strode forward purposefully.
He casually turned his head and flashed a bright smile at the world.
“…That idiot.”
Seo Ryeong, seeing his smile, instinctively knew she couldn’t stop him. Her face twisted as if she might burst into tears any second.
Leaving her behind, Chun-sam advanced alone.
Reading the unyielding determination in his unusually resolute expression, Zhuge Ho let out a small sigh and raised his hand.
The signal to activate the array.
The Tiger Heaven Unit hesitated for a beat before complying with the order.
But one group seized the opening from their hesitation and moved first.
“What in the world….”
Zhuge Ho stared in bewilderment at the retainers who suddenly surged forward, encircling Chun-sam protectively.
Hyuk Ri-eum, at their fore, grinned savagely and sneered.
“Sorry about this. Can’t just pretend I don’t know this bear of a man.”
The retainers even drew their weapons.
Seeing this, Zhuge Ho nodded as realization dawned.
“…I see. You were all in on it from the start. The Tiger Comrades rumor was your fabrication too, wasn’t it—am I right?”
“…W-well?”
An awkward reply.
With that confirmation, Zhuge Ho realized something organized was afoot within the clan.
‘They even diverted our armed units outside to pull this off. Only one answer fits.’
Rebellion.
He didn’t know who was leading it, but a cabal of malcontents had lured them out, aiming to topple the patriarch.
‘They’re going this far to block us, so it must still be in progress.’
If he hurried, he could stop it.
Mind racing, Zhuge Ho issued orders to the full force.
“Rebellion! Tiger Heaven Unit—proceed with the Grand Star Sword Array as planned. Menacing Tiger and Claw Tiger Units—eliminate the retainers. Move!”
“…!?”
Stunned by the word “rebellion,” the units hardened their faces and sprang into action per orders.
As the Tiger Heaven Unit readied the array from behind, the Menacing Tiger and Claw Tiger Units took point against the retainers.
“YAAAAP-!”
“KRAANG!”
-KAANG!
The melee erupted with the metallic clash of Zhuge Myeong’s sword against Hyuk Ri-eum’s cleaver.
At first, the retainers’ fierce resistance held a tense stalemate, but it didn’t last.
“Keuk, you bastards…!”
Inferior in numbers to the coordinated assault of the Menacing Tiger and Claw Tiger Units, the retainers were quickly pushed back.
With the retainers pinned down by the two units, Chun-sam stood alone.
Seizing the gap, the Tiger Heaven Unit rapidly encircled him from behind.
“…Withdraw now, and I’ll call off the array.”
Zhuge Ho, positioned at the array’s vanguard axis, offered one last chance—but Chun-sam’s response was to readjust his grip on the small darksteel axe.
“Huu.”
Zhuge Ho sighed faintly, steeled his heart, and charged at Chun-sam.
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