Chapter 191
Chapter 191
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 191
Chapter Title: Proof
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The declaration of defeat from the Master of the Muryeon Pavilion.
This meant that Geun-yeong had proven his qualifications in front of everyone.
“Phew….”
Geun-yeong let out a weary sigh as he lowered his sword and sheathed it.
“Geun-yeong!”
“Brother!”
Seo-ryeong came rushing toward him the moment she confirmed the duel was over.
Chun-sam followed behind her, and Mu-yeong approached his brother with Seo-hee’s support.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Let me see.”
“Ah, no. I’m fine. Not a scratch on me.”
Geun-yeong gave an awkward response to Seo-ryeong, who was turning his body this way and that to check him.
Only after thoroughly inspecting her brother’s body did Seo-ryeong finally relax and pat her chest in relief.
Then, in an instant, her eyes sharpened, and she glared at Geun-yeong fiercely.
Fresh anger welled up toward her brother for starting something like this without a word of consultation.
“We have a lot to talk about, don’t we?”
“Huh? No, I don’t really…”
“I have plenty. So, we’ll talk later?”
“…Yes.”
Geun-yeong flinched under his sister’s piercing gaze.
The Master of the Muryeon Pavilion approached him then, picking up his sword for him.
“Even with such remarkable martial arts, you wilt at a single word from your sister?”
“Master of the Muryeon Pavilion.”
Though his heart was still complicated because of his son, the Master had cleanly accepted the outcome of the match. He politely cupped his hands toward Geun-yeong.
“Truly astonishing martial arts. The perfect harmony between your footwork and swordsmanship was especially impressive.”
“Thank you.”
Geun-yeong returned the salute.
He gave a small smile at the Master’s next words.
“The chain of seven forms was incredible too. I never dreamed the Small Star Swordsmanship could evolve like that. It seems it needs a new name.”
“I was just thinking it could use a fresh name.”
“If you’ll allow it, may I suggest one?”
An unexpected proposal.
Geun-yeong’s surprised gaze turned to Ja-seong, who had approached late.
Ja-seong shrugged with a sly smile.
With his silent permission, Geun-yeong nodded.
“Yes, please. What name did you have in mind?”
“First, that footwork of yours, Young Master Il. What is it called?”
“It’s called Heaven’s Veil Step.”
The Master mulled over Geun-yeong’s answer for a moment.
“Heaven’s Veil Step. A step that disrupts the heavens’ mechanisms… Hmm…”
Stroking his chin beard in thought, his eyes suddenly lit up as if struck by inspiration.
“The improved Small Star Swordsmanship seems rebuilt around the Heaven’s Veil Step. Am I right?”
“Yes. It’s designed to maximize the sword’s power through the footwork.”
“Then how about inserting ‘Heaven’ between ‘Small’ and ‘Star,’ making it the Small Heaven Star Swordsmanship?”
Ja-seong, who had been listening from behind, widened his eyes in surprise.
*
Wow… I couldn’t believe it, but it really happened?
I couldn’t hide my shock as I stared at the Master of the Muryeon Pavilion.
The Small Heaven Star Swordsmanship was the signature sword art of the Zhuge Clan.
Of course, the Zhuge Clan itself didn’t have much prominence in most wuxia novels, but whenever Zhuge swordsmanship was mentioned, it was usually this one.
I had actually been about to suggest renaming it the Small Heaven Star Swordsmanship myself, but who knew things would turn out like this?
Was this fate? Destiny?
“The Small Heaven Star Swordsmanship…! What a great name.”
Amazed by the coincidence, Geun-yeong was admiring it for entirely different reasons.
He seemed to love the new name.
Thanks to his reaction, the atmosphere in the front courtyard of the Great Heavenly Pavilion had warmed up considerably.
It might have ended on a positive note right there, but Geun-yeong’s very next words turned the mood ice-cold.
“Later, I’ll teach these arts to Ho-chan as well.”
“…….”
The Master of the Muryeon Pavilion’s face stiffened in an instant.
Everyone around froze as well.
At first, I wondered why, but the murmurs reaching my ears explained it.
-How could he say that…! He knows the Master’s son is trapped in that cave…
…I see. So Ho-chan was the name of the Master’s son.
It wasn’t just inappropriate to say that in front of a father whose son had become a blood-maddened beast.
To any ear, it sounded like a blatant provocation—as if telling him to just kill the boy.
“Why would he say something like that…?”
Hwa-ryeon muttered beside me, unable to comprehend.
But I wasn’t particularly shaken.
I knew exactly why Geun-yeong had said it.
“Young Master Il. Surely…?”
Even the Master, who had first shown anger, seemed to catch on from Geun-yeong’s calm expression. His face went blank.
Geun-yeong met his gaze with a small smile and walked forward, crossing through the crowd.
His steps led toward the Chief Steward Jegal Sun and the elders.
“Khk…!”
“Hup….”
Still bound, they saw Geun-yeong approaching and weakly dropped to their knees.
Their wrinkled old faces were filled with regret, and hot tears streamed nonstop from their dull eyes.
Geun-yeong stood before them.
The new clan head was about to decide the punishment for the sinners.
Realizing this, everyone’s eyes fixed on Geun-yeong’s back.
*
“…Chief Steward, Elders.”
“Y-Young Master Il. Khuk…!”
The sinners couldn’t lift their heads and bowed them deeply.
Seeing their tears dripping onto the stone floor, Geun-yeong asked in a low voice.
“Did you see it?”
“…Yes. We saw. We were wrong…!”
Yes, they had seen it clearly.
What they truly should have pursued, without relying on any demonic arts.
‘What in the world were we doing…!’
Turning so many blood kin—our own children—into wretched states.
What were we trying to achieve with such acts?
Too-late regret poured onto the ground with their tears.
Regret that could never be picked up again, even if tried, utterly useless.
Looking down at their sobbing forms, Geun-yeong declared coldly.
“Then, I will pronounce your punishment.”
Jegal Sun and the elders, hearing the declaration, steadied their breaths and raised their heads.
Resignation settled on their tear-soaked faces.
Fully aware of their sins, they willingly accepted the death approaching them.
Feeling a sliver of relief that Geun-yeong would raise the Zhuge Clan high.
But what met them was not a final life-flashing vision of death, but a powerful strike shattering their lower dantians.
“Kuhak?!”
The sinners vomited blood by the bowlful.
Even as they trembled with the powerlessness from their shattered dantians, they looked up at Geun-yeong in confusion.
“Wh-why…?”
Wasn’t he going to kill us?
Geun-yeong answered their questioning gazes coldly.
“Did you think you could escape into death and find ease that way?”
“…!”
“You cannot die. Not until you take responsibility for what you’ve done.”
Turning away from the now-impotent old men with ruined dantians, Geun-yeong looked back at the clan’s heavyweights.
They were just as confused as the sinners.
Geun-yeong raised his voice so all could hear.
“As you all already know, these are sinners who deserve death a hundred times over for using the clan’s blood kin as test subjects for demonic arts. But we cannot kill them yet.”
“What do you mean we can’t kill them?”
Someone stepped forward.
It was Jegal Cheong, the commander of the Protection Squad, who had fought Geun-yeong first and lost.
His face openly showed dissatisfaction at the decision not to execute the sinners.
Geun-yeong met his gaze squarely and continued.
“Because these sinners still have work to do.”
“…And what work is that?”
The Master of the Muryeon Pavilion stepped forward next.
Having already guessed Geun-yeong’s intent, he looked at him with an indescribable expression.
And Geun-yeong’s answer to the Master’s question shocked everyone.
“I intend to entrust the treatment of the Blood Explosion Art cultivators to them.”
-Treatment…!?
-What does that…?
Treatment for Blood Explosion Art cultivators?
What on earth did that mean?
Eyes filled with shock, bewilderment, and confusion.
But amid dozens of gazes, Geun-yeong’s face showed not a hint of wavering.
Speaking for the speechless crowd, the Master opened his mouth again.
“Young Master Il. Do you realize what you’re saying?”
“…Yes. I understand fully.”
Now that Jegal Cheon-sang’s rampage and rebellion had ended, and the aftermath was being handled.
The Blood Explosion Art cultivators were still trapped in the cave, howling monstrously.
Until now, everyone had deliberately ignored their fate, but deep down, they had reached the same conclusion.
-We must kill them.
The Blood Explosion Art cultivators were living proof of demonic art research.
As long as they lived, the Zhuge Clan would bear the risk of annihilation.
For the clan’s safety, they had to be killed to erase the evidence.
Yet Geun-yeong was now saying he would save them.
“…That won’t do. If things go wrong, the clan could truly be exterminated. How can we take such a risk?”
The Master’s face was filled with anguish as he objected to Geun-yeong’s declaration.
And understandably so—he was rejecting the choice to save his own son.
How could it not torment him?
But he couldn’t sacrifice hundreds of blood kin to the jaws of death for dozens of Blood Explosion Art cultivators…
“Are you just going to give up like that?”
“…!”
Geun-yeong’s words shattered his thoughts.
The words felt like a rebuke, and the Master finally exploded.
“Do you think I want to abandon my son!? If I could bring him back, I’d give my own life!”
But his own life was useless for saving his son.
“After the Demonic Cult’s resurgence, countless people stepped up to save the hundreds of thousands afflicted with the Blood Explosion Art. But no one could purge the demonic nature from it.”
Afterward, the imperial court concluded it was impossible to reverse and mobilized the Imperial Guards to capture and execute them all.
And the Master of the Muryeon Pavilion was the only one in the Zhuge Clan who had witnessed that scene firsthand.
“Countless experts and eccentrics of the Central Plains tried, but all failed. In the end, hundreds of thousands lay cold as corpses upon the earth.”
“…….”
“Do you think these people can succeed where they failed?”