Chapter 140
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 140
Chapter Title: Kunlun's Welcome
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Guided by Goengseongja, Dan Ak-seon entered the Kunlun Sect, his expression filled with surprise as he looked around.
The Kunlun Sect was situated in Samseongyo, a basin in the middle of the Kunlun Mountains.
The terrain itself was remarkably similar to the Divine Demon Valley.
Aside from the lack of waterfalls and lakes, it was as if the Divine Demon Valley had been stretched out and transplanted here.
High mountains surrounded it on all sides, blocking the cold winds from the outside.
Perhaps because of this, the air was so warm it was hard to believe this was the Kunlun Mountains.
The Taecheong Pavilion stood in the center of Samseongyo.
A large crowd had already gathered in front of it.
An old Taoist priest standing at the forefront stepped forward with a smile.
“Welcome.”
His sharp eyes, reminiscent of a fierce owl, and his firm jawline suggested a stubborn nature.
He was a Taoist priest with a unique, magnanimous air, like a general from the frontier.
This was Gwangjin, the Sect Leader of the Kunlun Sect.
“I have already heard the story from the disciples who arrived ahead of you.”
As Gwangjin's gaze fell upon the patient and the bodies being carried behind the group, a deep sorrow filled his eyes.
“I sent those children down because I heard a valued guest was visiting... The timing was unfortunate.”
Dan Ak-seon's expression darkened at Gwangjin's sigh.
It turned out they had met with disaster while on their way to greet them.
Gwangjin bowed his head respectfully to Dan Ak-seon's party.
“I heard you saved Neung-un. Thank you once again.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the Kunlun disciples lined up behind him shouted in unison.
“Kunlun will not forget! Kunlun will not forget the kindness of our benefactors!”
Dan Ak-seon was slightly taken aback by their reception.
Cho Ak-ryang whispered an explanation for Dan Ak-seon's benefit.
“Living in such a harsh land, they know the value of people better than anyone. They've always enjoyed making friends, regardless of whether they're from the Orthodox or Unorthodox Factions. Being so far from the Central Plains, they're rarely swayed by complex interests or grudges.”
As if he had heard, Gwangjin let out a hearty laugh.
“Haha. However, we don't welcome just anyone. We are at least selective about befriending villains.”
Beom Gye-wi looked flustered at those words.
“Huh? But we're the Ten Great Villains.”
Gwangjin smiled and retorted.
“I heard that during the Great War of Justice and Demons, the two of you took down more demons from the Qilian Mountains than anyone else. Is that correct?”
Beom Gye-wi nodded in a daze.
“I didn't keep count, but I did take down quite a few.”
Gwangjin smiled quietly.
“In that case, to Kunlun, you two are not villains.”
Dan Ak-seon looked at Cho Ak-ryang and asked.
“It seems Kunlun and the Demonic Cult are on very bad terms?”
“Bad terms is an understatement.”
Whenever the Demonic Cult rose to power, Kunlun was the first to face them.
Each time, they suffered damage so severe it nearly wiped them out.
And paradoxically, it was also Kunlun that pursued the retreating cultists to the very end, inflicting the greatest damage upon them.
As a result, they harbored a grudge against each other that could never be erased.
Just then, Gwangjin gave Dan Ak-seon a look of favor.
He was well aware of the reason for Dan Ak-seon's visit to Kunlun.
He had already been informed about it by the Beggar's Sect Leader.
So, he had immediately added his signature to the joint petition.
“Thank you.”
Gwangjin smiled and nodded at Dan Ak-seon's thanks.
“You've come a long way. Why not stay for a few days?”
“Ah, I was planning to do just that to monitor the patient's condition. He's past the critical stage, but he'll need treatment for quite some time.”
Gwangjin looked very pleased at his words. Then, he called out to the Kunlun disciples behind him.
“Show our guests to their quarters and bring them food and Prajna Soup.”
“Prajna Soup?”
Dan Ak-seon looked puzzled by the unfamiliar name, and Gwangjin winked.
“It's a beverage that even monks occasionally enjoy. I believe they call it 'grain tea'?”
“Ah!”
Dan Ak-seon exclaimed.
It was their own slang for alcohol, specifically a clear, distilled white liquor.
“There's nothing better for warming the body in a cold place.”
Cho Ak-ryang's face brightened at Gwangjin's words.
“You look that happy?”
At Beom Gye-wi's comment, Cho Ak-ryang feigned indifference.
“It would be rude to refuse their sincerity, wouldn't it?”
“Doesn't look like it. The liquor worms in your belly look thrilled.”
Dan Ak-seon, on the other hand, was pleased for a different reason.
“The patient's treatment will be much easier.”
For a patient with a stab wound, it was important to disinfect the affected area frequently.
Typically, a decoction of licorice and scallion roots was used, but finding such ingredients in this remote place was like plucking a star from the sky.
He had been worried, but if they had distilled liquor, there was no need to use the decoction.
Later, after finishing dinner amidst the Kunlun Sect's hospitality.
When Dan Ak-seon left to treat Neung-un, Cho Ak-ryang brought up a serious topic.
“It seems they're deliberately trying to frame us, don't you think?”
Recalling the murdered Kunlun disciples, Han Seol-hwa and Beom Gye-wi's eyes filled with displeasure.
Their innocence would be proven in time, anyway.
The gap between their martial arts and the culprits' was that significant.
However, the clumsy attempt to imitate them was quite insulting.
“It seems certain they're trying to interfere with the joint petition.”
It was presumed their intention was to create a rift with Kunlun and cause a setback.
“Then what about the ones who tried to harm Physician Dan?”
Beom Gye-wi snorted angrily.
“Just who the hell are they?”
“It's unlikely to be the Orthodox Faction. They have nothing to lose from the creation of a prohibition.”
“But it's not the Unorthodox Faction either. No, they have no reason to. If martial inaction is declared a prohibition, they'll no longer be pursued by the Orthodox Faction. Isn't that something they should welcome?”
Then, a memory flashed through Cho Ak-ryang's mind.
“Remember when those Three Sunken Twin Fiends said they were going to find their own way to survive?”
Beom Gye-wi nodded, and Cho Ak-ryang asked again.
“What if there's a place that's gathering figures from the Unorthodox Faction who have nowhere to go because they're being chased by the Martial Alliance?”
Beom Gye-wi's eyes widened at his words.
“Then they wouldn't be too happy with us, would they?”
They clearly had a purpose for gathering people from the Unorthodox Faction.
Whatever the reason, numbers would be important.
Once the petition was complete, it was obvious that some of the Unorthodox Faction members who would have gone to them would instead choose martial inaction.
Cho Ak-ryang's eyes gleamed coldly.
“It seems those fiends have joined them.”
“Fiends?”
“The ones who tried to sow discord with Kunlun by imitating us.”
“Do you have any suspects?”
“Most of the masters famous for ice arts in the martial world today belong to the North Sea Ice Palace.”
Han Seol-hwa paused at the mention of the North Sea Ice Palace.
“It's not the Ice Palace.”
Cho Ak-ryang nodded at her words.
“I know. They're not part of the Unorthodox Faction anyway, so I never suspected them.”
Cho Ak-ryang continued.
“But if we limit it to figures from the Unorthodox Faction, there is someone who comes to mind.”
“Who is it?”
“One-Eyed Rakshasa, Sa Yeong-ui.”
“That eyeball ghost?”
Cho Ak-ryang nodded at Beom Gye-wi's question.
She was a master of the Ice Heart Bone-Piercing Palm, notorious for the grotesque act of gouging out and swallowing her opponents' eyes after killing them.
Beom Gye-wi finally understood the reason.
“Is that old hag still doing that? It's not like her eye is going to grow back.”
Cho Ak-ryang chuckled and shook his head.
It wasn't something Beom Gye-wi, of all people, should be saying.
Her original title was Engraved Yin Rakshasa.
But she lost an eye right after fighting Beom Gye-wi, and her martial arts weakened as a result.
The youth-retaining effect maintained by her internal energy vanished, and her ebony hair turned white.
This was why she came to be called the One-Eyed Rakshasa.
Beom Gye-wi tilted his head.
“But the bodies of the Kunlun disciples were intact, weren't they?”
“She must have restrained herself. To link it to us, she couldn't reveal her identity.”
“What about the others? Any other suspects?”
“The one described as short is probably Hong Dan-yeop.”
“Hong Dan-yeop? That perverted hunchback whose three fingers you blew off?”
“Besides you, the only master in the Unorthodox Faction famous for Scorching Sun Arts is Seven-Fingered Strange Hunchback, him.”
“Then what about the last one? You said there were three ambushers.”
Cho Ak-ryang thought for a moment before shaking his head.
“That one, I'm not sure about.”
There were plenty of force projection techniques in the Central Plains based on the movements of a warrior, differing only in power.
The Wudang Sect's Ten Brocades was one, and the Wind and Thunder Palm, the signature art of the Unorthodox Faction master, Old Fiend Withered Tree, had a similar principle.
“It won't be Old Fiend Withered Tree.”
“...?”
Beom Gye-wi casually remarked to the puzzled Cho Ak-ryang.
“No matter how chaotic it was, they would have noticed a man with a missing hand.”
Cho Ak-ryang nodded.
He recalled that Beom Gye-wi had blown off one of his wrists in the past.
Just then, Dan Ak-seon, having finished his treatment, returned to the room.
“What were you all talking about?”
Dan Ak-seon asked, sensing the serious atmosphere in the room.
Cho Ak-ryang spoke, his eyes filled with concern.
“This matter might become very dangerous.”
Cho Ak-ryang explained the conversation they'd had to Dan Ak-seon.
But Dan Ak-seon replied nonchalantly.
“Still, I won't give up. People who harm innocents for their own goals wouldn't be gathering members of the Unorthodox Faction for any good purpose.”
As the group nodded, Dan Ak-seon's eyes showed firm resolve.
“I must complete the petition as quickly as possible. That way, the members of the Unorthodox Faction will have a choice.”
Knowing Dan Ak-seon's personality well, they knew better than anyone that he wouldn't give up easily.
Still, their worries didn't disappear.
“We'll need to increase the intensity of your martial arts training from now on. We don't know when an ambush like last time might happen again.”
Beom Gye-wi agreed with Cho Ak-ryang.
“Fortunately, there are plenty of suitable opponents here, so you can spar to your heart's content.”
“Is that really okay?”
Seeing Dan Ak-seon's eyes sparkle, Cho Ak-ryang curled his lips into a slight smile.
“The Kunlun disciples won't refuse either. Opportunities to cross hands with outsiders are rare in this remote, isolated place.”
The next morning.
As soon as the sun rose, Dan Ak-seon went to see Gwangjin.
He wanted to ask if he could spar with the Taoist priests of the Kunlun Sect while treating Neung-un.
Gwangjin readily agreed, and from that day on, Dan Ak-seon's busy schedule began.
Dan Ak-seon's first sparring partner was a young Taoist of his age.
He was a probationary disciple who hadn't yet received his formal Taoist name, but he had been taught the basic martial arts of the Kunlun Sect.
To watch the two spar, the Taoist priests of the Kunlun Sect gathered like a cloud, surrounding the training grounds.
“He's a physician, but he knows martial arts too?”
“As the saying goes, even a dog at a schoolhouse learns to recite poetry after three years. How much more so for a clever boy like him? And look at the three people he travels with. Are they ordinary masters?”
“But can he be a match? Hwigyeong may not be a formal disciple yet, but he's the most outstanding among the probationary disciples, isn't he?”
“Of course, it'll be difficult. They said the young physician has only been learning martial arts for a little over a year.”
And so, under the watchful eyes of many, his first duel in Kunlun began.
But the result was anticlimactic.
“Huh?”
“What!”
Exclamations of bewilderment escaped from the mouths of the Kunlun Taoists.
The match was decided in just five exchanges after it began.
The winner, unexpectedly, was Dan Ak-seon.
And by an overwhelming margin.
From his use of techniques and footwork to his internal energy.
The young Kunlun disciple was no match for Dan Ak-seon.
With things turning out this way, it was Dan Ak-seon who was flustered.
His only experience sparring with peers had been with Bang So-bang and Un Jung-san.
So he had assumed that this Taoist of his age, I Hwi-gyeong, would be at a similar level... but what was this?
He had never imagined he would be defeated so easily.