Chapter 79
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: What’s Your True Identity?
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The journey to Hyuncheon Gate proceeded smoothly overall, aside from the occasional tantrums from Mak Jinyul.
This was largely because Mak Jimong had gained some mental leeway, making him far less prickly.
No one in the Hyuncheon Asura Unit—neither Unit Leader Gwan Ryongjin nor his subordinates—could feel at ease traveling alongside the Little Palace Lord.
Where he had once been sharp-tongued and rude, putting everyone on edge, that side of him had now vanished.
"He's completely changed."
"Scholar Cheon must have really drilled some sense into him."
"No wonder the Sect Leader sought out the wastrel-training expert. It wasn't for nothing."
"And even Lady Mak Jinyul has changed."
"I never dreamed I'd live to see those two transform."
The warriors gossiped endlessly about the pair whenever they gathered.
It was proof of just how influential they were—and how much worry they'd caused.
"Looking back, if it hadn't been for Scholar Sword, we'd have suffered heavy losses fighting those Demonic Cult bastards too."
"Obviously. I was stunned seeing him lead the charge and cut down their elites in a single stroke."
"I got chills watching him hurl a rock that turned a Demonic Cult leader into jerky."
The Hyuncheon Asura Unit warriors often greeted Scholar Cheon with eyes full of awe.
Scholar Cheon felt an emotion he'd never experienced in the Murim Alliance or Nangong Family.
'Unorthodox folk really are straightforward and honest.'
The group leisurely ate lunch at an inn before traveling along the official road for about half a shichen.
"Halt!"
Gwan Ryongjin stopped and peered ahead. At the tail end of a merchant caravan in plain escort attire stood a single wagon.
With the wagon blocking the center, they couldn't pass unless it moved aside.
A Hyuncheon Asura scout returned with a report.
"The wagon carrying the goods has a broken wheel. They're replacing it now. We'll have to wait a bit."
Cheon Taesan spun his three streams of spirit energy, wondering if these might be the assassins who'd ambushed him earlier.
The blood flows of everyone nearby sharpened into focus.
'This is...!'
The men repairing the wagon wheel looked like porters, but their blood flows screamed trained warriors.
'Escorts without a single porter among them?'
Every blood flow he sensed bore the hallmarks of martial artists.
Cheon Taesan deployed his Phantom Spirit Movement Technique and leaped onto a nearby tree.
There were about ten wagons, twenty men in escort garb, and around ten in porter clothes.
Even at the front of the caravan, another wagon appeared damaged and under repair.
'Both the lead and tail wagons broken down at the same time?'
Something felt off. He scanned closer and spotted a lone carriage amid the caravan's middle, oddly detached from the rest.
It looked like it had simply been unlucky enough to get caught in the caravan's midst while traveling.
Sensing something amiss, Cheon Taesan expanded his field of vision.
A man and woman stepped out from the sandwiched carriage.
"Hm?"
Their faces rang familiar. Focusing, he remembered.
'They're the young folks I saw in Nanchang when they stopped at that inn after buying herbs.'
Four handsome youths dressed plainly, like righteous sect warriors sightseeing in Jiangxi's famous spots.
Their blood flows confirmed it.
'Are they the targets?'
Cheon Taesan watched, pondering. For them to fake a caravan ambush like this, the youths' identities likely weren't ordinary.
Just then, the carriage driver asked an escort about the holdup ahead.
The escort's sword burst through the driver's back.
"Kill them!"
At the command, escorts and porters swarmed.
Two men and a woman leaped from the carriage, flying off the road.
But the escorts had anticipated their escape, blocking the paths.
Cheon Taesan held back, not knowing the full story.
Living as a scholar in the jianghu had taught him plenty.
The weak weren't always virtuous or just, nor were numbers always evil when overwhelming the few.
In the murim's tangled web of grudges, meddling in others' fights was like diving into the muck yourself.
The four young warriors' skills were impressive, holding off the escorts and porters.
Thankfully, no overwhelming masters among the attackers stood out.
Then Cheon Taesan noticed the attackers' techniques.
'Well, well.'
Their sword and saber arts were all too familiar—ones every Hyuncheon Gate warrior knew.
Black Blood Sabre Technique.
Twelve Wheels Sword Method.
Mysterious Shadow Step.
These martial arts and movement techniques were supreme arts, simplified decades ago by Mak Yeoheun so any unorthodox fighter could learn them.
That's what had skyrocketed unorthodox prowess.
Before, their mismatched techniques hindered unity.
Standardizing them boosted overall power.
Cheon Taesan himself had marveled at Mak Yeoheun's genius upon seeing them during his Murim Alliance inspection.
Using just a hundred meridian points yet rivaling arts needing twice as many—peak cost-performance martial arts.
Easy to teach widely, they spread like wildfire among the unorthodox.
The escorts and porters attacking the four wielded Black Blood Sabre and Twelve Wheels Sword.
Even stranger: the youths' swordsmanship was Wudang's Supreme Clarity Sword.
'Non-Taoists wielding Supreme Clarity Sword?'
Cheon Taesan sent a transmission to Gwan Ryongjin.
Gwan Ryongjin climbed onto the branch beside him.
"Are those Hyuncheon Gate warriors?"
Gwan Ryongjin scrutinized the fierce roadside battle.
"Why are they using our sect's arts? I don't recognize a single face down there."
"Could they be from another branch unit?"
"I don't know every unit member, but not recognizing any of them? Impossible."
Gwan Ryongjin asked,
"But who are those youths to warrant such an attack?"
"That's why I'm asking you, Great Hero Gwan Ryong."
"Hmmm..."
A scream pierced the air then.
A woman, cornered, took a slash to her side.
"We need to find out first. Who's starting a brawl on the official road in broad daylight?"
Cheon Taesan leaped down onto the youths' carriage.
"Stop!"
He gathered spirit energy in his mouth and roared like a lion.
The fighters whirled toward him in unison.
They faltered briefly, then relaxed seeing he was alone.
"Scholar boy. Looks like you picked up some moves at home. Keep walking. Don't meddle and get yourself killed."
The cold reply dripped disdain, pegging him as just a scholar.
"Where are you from, using Black Blood Sabre and Twelve Wheels Sword?"
Calling out their techniques made the escorts and porters flinch.
Their true colors showed instantly.
"Out of the way!"
Two escorts charged from both sides.
Cheon Taesan unleashed Coiling Dragon Ascending Heaven toward them.
One spin sent them flying faster than they'd come.
One slammed into the ground, the other embedded in a tree trunk.
Two warriors downed in one move tensed the scene.
Gwan Ryongjin bellowed,
"Hyuncheon Asura Unit! Subdue the escorts and porters!"
He wanted them captured for their suspicious use of sect arts.
The Asura Unit's entry panicked the attackers.
"Retreat!"
They scattered every which way.
But with Asura warriors blocking escapes, fleeing proved tough.
Skilled runners broke through encirclements—only to take bolts through their thighs.
Bam!
Each time Cheon Taesan flicked a spirit beast core, a fugitive's thigh exploded.
"Kuh!"
"Agh!"
Those who kept running got their other thigh pierced too.
Gwan Ryongjin got goosebumps.
He knew the scholar's skill well—that he was a peak master beneath the facade.
But seeing first-rate experts felled by beads felt like getting skewered himself.
"Need a hand?"
Mak Jimong had sidled up beside Cheon Taesan.
"No need for Brother to step in."
"No. They're using our sect's arts. I can't stand by."
Mak Jimong recognized it too.
"Interrogation will reveal the truth."
With the Asura Unit's involvement, the fight ended one-sidedly.
Over half the attackers lay dead; the rest gravely wounded, with few unscathed.
They dragged the survivors to a secluded spot for Gwan Ryongjin to interrogate.
He emerged soon after, hands bloodied.
"Learn anything?"
"Tough bastards. Nothing. But they might be Demonic Cult."
"Demonic Cult?"
Mak Jimong stared in shock.
His gaze shifted to the four bloodied youths.
As Cheon Taesan's side turned to look, they averted their eyes.
Cheon Taesan approached them.
"Do you four know why they attacked you?"
"Aren't you unorthodox folk?"
One youth asked—the one who'd griped about the inn's food.
Cheon Taesan nodded.
"These warriors are unorthodox, yes. But I'm a Murim Alliance scholar."
The youth's eyes widened.
"What? Why's a Murim Alliance scholar hanging with unorthodox types?"
That question alone told Cheon Taesan they weren't true jianghu folk.
No real murim person would be so ignorant of righteous-unorthodox-demonic dynamics.
They knew martial arts but not the jianghu. Only one conclusion.
"From the imperial palace?"
Mak Jimong, Yuseong, Mak Jinyul, and Gwan Ryongjin perked up behind him at "imperial palace."
But the four shook their heads.
"Those attackers aren't unorthodox."
The youth with the ruby-studded hero's turban spoke after a pause.
"We can't reveal our identities lightly."
"I need to know to help you."
"And your name, sir?"
His gaze held subtle, instinctive disdain for a scholar.
'Highborn, then.'
It was obvious.
"I'm Cheon Taesan. Folks call me Scholar Cheon."
One woman gasped, hand to mouth.
"You? The famous Scholar Sword Cheon Taesan?"
"You know me?"
Her wariness eased a bit.
"Who doesn't? Storytellers at every inn rave about you. Are you really Scholar Sword?"
"That's what acquaintances call me."
Cheon Taesan shuddered admitting it aloud.
But revealing himself was key to learning theirs.
The hero's turban youth asked,
"How do we believe you're Scholar Sword Cheon Taesan?"
Mak Jinyul snapped midway through listening.
"What big shots are you to nitpick so much? Scholar Cheon, let's go. It's annoying."
The woman covered her mouth again at Mak Jinyul.
"That lady—the one Scholar Cheon rigorously reformed—is Viper Scorpion Evil Flower Mak Jinyul!"
Viper Scorpion Evil Flower.
A brutal moniker for an unorthodox beauty—like a serpent or scorpion bloom.
"What? You wanna die?!"
"Yes, that's it. Viper Scorpion. Not my words—the storytellers'."
If storytellers spread it, it was all over Jiangxi.
Mak Jinyul's face twisted.
"Jinyul, the more you act up, the truer that nickname gets. Restrain yourself."
Mak Jimong soothed her. She started yelling back but shut her mouth.
His glare had flashed like their father's for an instant.
"How to prove it... Tricky."
The hero's turban youth eyed Cheon Taesan.
"Scholar Sword's other alias is Dragon Scholar. They say he summons a dragon with sword qi. Summon it, and we'll believe you're Scholar Cheon."
Cheon Taesan sighed, pegging them as naive innocents.
"No helping it."
He fused spirit energy and internal force, unleashing Flying Dragon Piercing Sea toward the woods.
The technique traced a straight sword path like a soaring dragon.
Even in daylight, sword qi formed a blue dragon that shot forward, mimicking a true wyrm's flight.
Kr-r-rumble!
Trees toppled in its wake like felled timber.
The onlookers, seeing a dragon for the first time, gaped in awe.
Yuseong reacted strongest.
"Whoa! As expected of my brother. Guess I should research manifesting a thunder dragon with thunder qi."
Yuseong's eyes sparkled, inspired by Cheon Taesan's dragon.
The hero's turban youth bowed in apology.
"Forgive our doubt of Scholar Sword. We had to be cautious."
He politely apologized, then revealed his origins.
Everyone who heard fell silent in shock.