Chapter 99
Chapter 99
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: To Hubei
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Chunil flinched at that and came to a halt.
Everyone began murmuring at his reaction.
‘Maybe he doesn’t even have a destination and was just wandering?’
‘No way. Even a chief couldn’t be that clueless… could he?’
The bandits’ distrust of their chief had reached its peak.
Chunil’s face twisted like a wrathful demon as he overheard their whispers.
He glared at his subordinates, who were suddenly pretending not to notice, for a long while before letting out a small sigh and announcing their destination.
“…We’re heading to Yungjung Mountain.”
His men began murmuring again.
‘Where’s Yungjung Mountain?’
‘Tch, sounds kinda familiar?’
‘Yungjung Mountain… Yungjung Mountain…’
One of the bandits, tilting his head as if it was on the tip of his tongue, suddenly looked up.
“Yangyang! It’s the mountain near Yangyang County!”
“…Yangyang? No way!”
Everyone’s eyes turned back to Chunil.
Feeling dozens of gazes piercing him at once, he answered softly.
“Yeah. We’re going to the Zhuge Clan.”
At Chunil’s firm confirmation, everyone’s expressions cooled.
Murmurs arose once more, as expected.
‘He’s planning to leech off his baby brother, isn’t he?’
‘How embarrassing.’
Going to the Zhuge Clan? So why was the baby brother suddenly coming up?
The answer lay in the bandits’ past, back when they were still disciples of the Wall Mountain Sect.
The Wall Mountain Sect had been a middling small-to-medium sect, notable only for its unusual focus on external martial arts.
And what it was truly famous for was the immense strength of its sect leader’s three sons, including the youngest, Chunil.
Their raw power—lifting boulders as big as themselves barehanded—had spread far beyond Henan Province.
That rumor even reached the Zhuge Clan in Yangyang County, Hubei.
The Zhuge Clan, which had long sought to bolster their frail bloodline by intermarrying with those of exceptional physique, wasted no time sending a marriage proposal to the Wall Mountain Sect upon hearing of the brothers.
In the end, the youngest, Im Chunsam, married the clan head’s own daughter and became their son-in-law.
Now Chunil was saying he was going to that very baby brother.
‘Isn’t that a bit much…?’
His men stared at him with pitiful expressions.
Some even showed open contempt.
And realizing the true culprit of this mess (in his personal opinion) was the Fan Master, Chunil finally exploded.
“It’s all your fault, you damn bastard—!”
“Oh no, the chief’s going after the Fan Master!”
“Hey, hey! Stop him!”
The bandits rushed in to pry apart their wrestling chief and Fan Master.
After a long tussle, Chunil finally calmed down and sighed in lament.
“…You think I want to go crawling to my little brother? But we have no choice. We don’t know when those Paecheon Fortress bastards will catch up. We need to flee as far as possible, but we don’t have a single coin right now.”
At his words, the other bandits also faced the harsh reality and fell into gloom.
But amid it all, the Fan Master’s expression turned somewhat serious as he suddenly threw out an unrelated comment.
“How about going to the second young master?”
“The second young master? You mean Chuni, right?”
“Who else? Is there another second young master we know?”
The bandits buzzed at the unexpected name.
Im Chuni, the sect leader’s second son.
After the Wall Mountain Sect was destroyed by Paecheon Fortress’s schemes, he rebelled against his older brother Chunil and vanished with a few loyal disciples, his whereabouts unknown ever since.
“No, Fan Master. Do you actually know where the second young master is?”
“By chance. A burly axe-wielder named Chuni isn’t exactly common, is he?”
“You bastard…!”
Chunil clenched his fist at the Fan Master’s sly dig at his own rustic name, but soon sighed and relaxed.
Then, in a stubborn tone, he declared.
“I’m absolutely not going to that guy!”
“Why not? Because he called your plan to hole up in the mountains playing bandit and harassing Paecheon Fortress idiotic?”
“You, you bastard! You got me today? Why do you keep poking?!”
Their scuffle broke out again.
Only after some time had passed did the Fan Master relay Chuni’s current situation to the now-calmed Chunil.
“…A ronin band?”
“Yeah. Apparently, he’s a squad leader in an organization called the Ronin Band.”
“Ha! After mocking us and leaving, he joined some no-name third-rate group?”
“We’re bandits worse than third-rate ourselves.”
“…….”
Chunil’s forehead vein bulged once more.
But he lacked the energy to flare up a third time.
With yet another sigh—he’d lost count—he asked the Fan Master.
“Do you think that makes sense? What are we supposed to do, go to them? I said we need to run as far away as possible.”
“How far? All the way past Qinghai to Xinjiang? Or up to the northern steppes, or across the sea to Wa?”
“Hey, what do you mean all the way there…!”
“Unless we go that far, we can’t escape Paecheon Fortress’s pursuit. We did something that big.”
The Fan Master was right.
They’d wiped out the Blood Light Squad, one of Paecheon Fortress’s fifteen elite combat units. Pride alone would drive Paecheon to hunt them to the ends of the earth.
“Plus, the Zhuge Clan is one of the Five Great Clans representing the murim world. Paecheon’s definitely watching them. Going there might just expose our location.”
“…….”
Each point was an irrefutable truth.
Chunil groaned for a long while before asking.
“So what do we do? How’s finding Chuni any different?”
“At least Paecheon won’t waste as much effort on a worthless ronin band as they would on a Great Clan. Joining them and laying low for a few years might be our best shot at survival.”
As the Fan Master continued, the other bandits began leaning toward his suggestion.
But one person—Chunil—refused to budge easily.
Because he knew better than anyone how Chuni always screwed up at crucial moments.
“So, do you even know where this ronin band is right now? They probably don’t have a fixed base or anything.”
“…Ah.”
A short exclamation, as if he’d just remembered.
It was obvious he didn’t know.
“…….”
“Ugh….”
The looks toward the Fan Master naturally cooled.
Some even clicked their tongues, as if to say they knew it.
“…Let’s go, men.”
“Yesss….”
In the end, the Gwang Mountain Stronghold bandits turned south once more.
As originally planned, toward the Zhuge Clan.
*
Five days after leaving Hefei.
With the Zhuge Clan as our next target, we were heading southwest.
We occasionally rested comfortably in villages, but this vast Central Plains had wide gaps between settlements.
Naturally, we camped outdoors often, and today was no different.
“Hah! Hup!”
“Hup, haa!”
After a simple dinner, the clearing we’d claimed echoed with shouts and the swish of swords slicing air.
Naturally, the source was Hwaryeon, Seol, and Master pushing their training harder.
Ever since that life-or-death battle during the Nangong Clan raid, where they seemed to have gained some enlightenment, all three had improved dramatically.
Not only had their qi emission become more natural, but the aura from their swords felt distinctly sharper than before.
The work of switching circulation methods and retooling their swordsmanship to match was progressing much faster than I’d expected.
And I’d changed too.
More precisely, while teaching Nangong Hyun the Spearless Infinite Sword, I’d found the right direction for advising the three.
“There, go softer—like following a gentle breeze. Try lowering your qi emission intensity a bit.”
“L-like this?”
“Yeah, much better.”
By including vivid imagery in my advice, they grasped it far easier than before, just like Nangong Hyun had.
I still didn’t understand why it worked so well for me.
But what could I do?
Reality was reality.
In any case, their martial arts were improving by leaps and bounds daily.
At this rate, they’d soon be true warriors soaring through the skies and unleashing sword qi.
Nodding in satisfaction, I began my own training, unwilling to fall behind.
I had something urgent to tackle right away, after all.
I sat cross-legged quietly by the campfire and closed my eyes.
What I was attempting now was expanding and honing my qi sense—refining my perceptual field.
The reason was, of course, what happened in Hefei.
Both Ye So-ha and Chilji.
I had no idea what trick they’d used, but they’d snuck right up behind me without a trace.
Especially Chilji—if Hwaryeon hadn’t given me that talisman, it could’ve been disastrous.
So I needed a way to detect or block approaches that fooled the senses.
My awareness expanded across the entire clearing.
The trees in the woods, the underbrush, even the nameless insects crawling between.
The training I’d kept up for five days was already yielding decent results.
Then a sudden thought made me open my eyes.
“…Is this the right way?”
I had a gut feeling that my training direction was off.
I’d replayed those moments countless times, but my senses themselves hadn’t failed.
Which meant the opponents had some special technique to deceive perception.
Could I really counter that just by sharpening my own senses?