Chapter 63
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 63
Chapter Title: The Way of the Martial World
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Neung So-mil was dumbfounded by the sight of the men in black striding into the Divine Demon Valley as if they owned the place.
‘Then again.’
They were the same kind of fools who'd run into Beom Gye-wi.
The kind who had to be burned to know fire was hot, who had to see a coffin to shed tears. This was why ignorance was so terrifying.
“Are you from the Everjoy Sect?”
At Neung So-mil's words, Ak Yeong-gi, who was leading his subordinates at the front, flinched.
“You look curious as to how I knew, don't you?”
Neung So-mil let out a smirk.
“It's because I've already met another group of yours.”
Only then did Ak Yeong-gi spot the unconscious owner of the apothecary.
But that made even less sense. There was no way Ak Yeong-san would have let them go so easily.
Besides, the detestably grinning man before him was clearly far weaker than them at a single glance.
Ak Yeong-gi frowned.
“How did you get back?”
“Why don't you ask them yourself? You'll be meeting them soon enough anyway.”
Ak Yeong-gi looked around, puzzled. But he couldn't sense the presence of the other group anywhere.
Neung So-mil sneered at him.
“No matter how hard you look, they won't be coming. They're probably too busy having an audience with the King of Hell right now.”
“What?”
“Don't worry. You won't have to wait long. You'll all be standing right beside them soon.”
“Nonsense!”
Ak Yeong-gi was inwardly dumbfounded and incensed.
He was already on edge from wandering through the mountains, and hearing such absurd claims only fueled his anger.
Abducting the apothecary owner had been easy. But he hadn't known much to begin with.
All they had learned was that the Divine Physician's son lived somewhere in the mountains and always used the eastern gate when coming to the village.
So, he and his men began to search the eastern mountain thoroughly.
But the terrain here was so tricky that they couldn't find a thing.
It was a good thing they spotted Neung So-mil on the way; otherwise, they might still be wandering the mountains.
“If you want to leave your corpse in one piece, you'd best shut that mouth of yours.”
Neung So-mil scoffed at Ak Yeong-gi's threat.
“At least you have some conscience, unlike your younger brother who lies to your face about letting you live.”
Ak Yeong-gi flared up for a moment but quickly suppressed his anger.
He realized that prolonging the conversation would only be to his disadvantage. The man might be unskilled in martial arts, but he was a master of running his mouth.
Soon enough, he wouldn't be able to wag that tongue even if he wanted to.
Besides, the purpose of their visit came first.
Ak Yeong-gi's gaze turned to Dan Ak-seon.
“Are you the Divine Physician's son?”
Facing the chilling glare, Dan Ak-seon stared back defiantly.
“So it was you. The ones who did this to an innocent man just to find me.”
Staring at Dan Ak-seon's face, Ak Yeong-gi suddenly burst into laughter.
“Hahaha! Good! Very good!”
After laughing for a long while, Ak Yeong-gi wore a venomous smile.
“Bloodlines are truly a fearsome thing. The Divine Physician's face is clearly visible in yours.”
A murky glint flickered in Ak Yeong-gi's eyes.
“The time has come to settle an old debt.”
“I've never owed you a debt.”
Ak Yeong-gi chuckled at Dan Ak-seon's words.
“A child bears the father's sins. That is the karma passed down through blood. And that is the way of the martial world.”
Dan Ak-seon bit his lip in anger.
“Excellent. That face… I like it very much.”
Seeing the expression on Dan Ak-seon's face as he glared back, the killing intent on Ak Yeong-gi's face deepened.
“The Divine Physician… it's so similar to his expression.”
“…”
“I look forward to it. Seeing that face weep, scream, and beg…”
As he glared at Ak Yeong-gi, who was laughing like a demon, unconcealable fury raged in Dan Ak-seon's eyes.
At that moment, Han Seol-hwa stepped in front of Dan Ak-seon.
Then she spoke to Neung So-mil.
“Take them to the main hall.”
The words were brief, but their meaning was clear.
She didn't want Dan Ak-seon to witness the bloody spectacle that was about to unfold.
“Let's go, Valley Lord.”
“But…”
Neung So-mil persuaded Dan Ak-seon with a gentle smile.
“Shouldn't we treat him quickly?”
Dan Ak-seon sighed and nodded. But he didn't forget to glare at Ak Yeong-gi before leaving.
Neung So-mil led Dan Ak-seon and the apothecary owner toward the main hall.
Watching this, Ak Yeong-gi's gaze left Dan Ak-seon and fixed on Han Seol-hwa. The corner of his mouth twisted.
It was a clear sneer that anyone could recognize.
“So you're the rumored Ice Jade Fairy?”
The more he looked, the more absurd it seemed.
The woman before him was, at most, in her mid-twenties.
No matter how he looked at her, she didn't seem like a seasoned master.
He admitted she was beautiful enough to bewitch anyone, but he was a man of common sense. Humans couldn't live that long.
Especially not while maintaining their youth.
‘Unless she ate the legendary Youth-Preserving Fruit.’
But even that was just nonsense spun by storytellers who loved to gossip. Ak Yeong-gi wasn't foolish enough to seriously believe such a fantastic tale.
“Let's verify the truth of these rumors.”
*Shing.*
At a look from Ak Yeong-gi, a member of the Everjoy Sect drew his Golden Ring Saber and started walking toward Han Seol-hwa.
The blade aura emanating from the lowered saber scraped the ground, carving a long furrow.
Han Seol-hwa, on the other hand, made no move.
Seeing this, Ak Yeong-gi thought his prediction was correct. All this time, countless people had revered her, fooled by an impressive bluff. But it didn't take long for him to realize how foolish that thought was.
“…?”
A look of confusion appeared in Ak Yeong-gi's eyes.
The subordinate approaching Han Seol-hwa had suddenly stopped in his tracks.
He was only two steps away from her.
“What are you doing?”
At Ak Yeong-gi's rebuke, the Everjoy Sect member approaching Han Seol-hwa turned his head to look back. His face was filled with bewilderment.
“My feet…”
“What?”
“They won't move.”
“What nonsense is this!”
The subordinate couldn't answer.
He seemed to exhale a puff of white breath, then became as still as a stone statue.
It was then that Han Seol-hwa, who had remained silent, slowly raised her hand.
*Thud.*
Han Seol-hwa pushed the shoulder of the Everjoy Sect member standing there woodenly.
*Crack.*
As he lost his balance and toppled over, the man's ankles shattered. The area around his ankles was already covered in white ice.
But the truly shocking thing happened next.
*Clang.*
The body of the Everjoy Sect member who fell to the ground shattered like porcelain, scattering into pieces.
“What kind of sorcery is this!”
At Ak Yeong-gi's horrified shout, three Everjoy Sect members shot forward at once. They rushed toward Han Seol-hwa with terrifying speed.
Han Seol-hwa curled her lip in a cold sneer.
*Slice.*
The three men charging at Han Seol-hwa were sliced to pieces in mid-air without even a scream. Following Han Seol-hwa's gesture, invisible blades of energy had shot up from all directions, dicing their bodies.
“…!”
Faced with the gruesome deaths of his subordinates, whose bodies weren't even left intact, Ak Yeong-gi couldn't process what was happening.
Setting aside the overwhelming bewilderment, his mind simply couldn't accept the scene unfolding before his eyes.
It was that surreal a situation.
‘This is…’
Faced with a martial prowess that couldn't possibly be human, Ak Yeong-gi's face turned pale as he moved his lips wordlessly.
He had no choice but to admit it.
‘The Ice Jade Fairy!’
Rumors, as they often do, tend to be distorted and exaggerated.
He had thought the rumors about her circulating in the martial world must have been exaggerated to some degree, but what was this?
Experiencing it firsthand, the rumors actually felt like an understatement.
He just couldn't understand.
How could someone with martial arts skills enough to look down on the entire world live in seclusion for so long!
It was then that someone else spoke up.
“Tsk, tsk. Something you could have figured out with a little thought…”
It was Cho Ak-ryang.
Clicking his tongue as if finding the situation pathetic, Cho Ak-ryang continued slowly.
“Did you think the Martial Alliance Leader's judgment is worse than yours?”
Confused at first, Ak Yeong-gi soon realized the meaning behind those words.
‘Come to think of it…’
The first place Han Seol-hwa appeared after breaking her long seclusion was the Martial Alliance.
If she had been a fake, the Martial Alliance Leader, Namgung Baek, would have been the first to hold her accountable for such an insult.
“This is why confirmation bias is so dangerous. It makes you see and hear only what you want to believe, while completely ignoring all other facts.”
“…!”
Cho Ak-ryang's gaze turned cold.
“Those consumed by greed often fail to discern reason.”
“I, I…”
“Claimed you wanted to settle an old grudge?”
Cutting Ak Yeong-gi off, Cho Ak-ryang snorted.
“No. Even as you said those words, your eyes were filled with nothing but greed.”
Had he hit a nerve?
His face flushing then paling, Ak Yeong-gi was speechless. Unable to watch any longer, one of his subordinates drew his sword and shouted.
“Shut up—”
But he couldn't finish his sentence.
*Splat!*
A gruesome sound echoed as his head burst like a watermelon.
Brain matter and flesh scattered in all directions.
The image of his subordinate collapsing, spouting a fountain of blood, was seared into Ak Yeong-gi's retinas.
*Thud. Clatter.*
Belatedly, a small stone rolled across the ground.
‘This is!’
Ak Yeong-gi's face grew haggard.
The object that had burst his subordinate's head was undoubtedly one of the stones the old man, who had just been lecturing him, had been rolling in his hand like acupressure balls.
To burst a man's head with a single flick of a stone!
But it didn't end there. A killing intent as potent as the coppery scent of blood began to envelop the area.
“Your name was Ak Yeong-gi, wasn't it? One of the brothers of the former Everjoy Sect Leader, the Black Mountain Old Tiger, Ak Yeong-san, if I recall?”
“You are…?”
“I was quite acquainted with the deceased Everjoy Sect Leader. I've seen you a few times as well.”
Ak Yeong-gi struggled to recall the nightmarish figure from his memory.
“That's how narrow your perspective has become. To think you still don't recognize me.”
“Hah!”
Only then did the fog in his mind clear, and Ak Yeong-gi remembered someone.
“B-Blood Hand Honored One!”
His aura was so different from the past that he hadn't recognized him at first, but now the eyes and facial contours finally overlapped with the man he once knew.
‘Dammit!’
Ak Yeong-gi's vision went black.
Escaping alive from Han Seol-hwa alone was a distant hope, and now Cho Ak-ryang was here too!
But his despair didn't end there.
“You'd best not expect the other Everjoy Sect members to return alive. Mount Bukmang has already come for them.”
“…?”
“Ah, speak of the devil, there he is.”
Following Cho Ak-ryang's gaze, Ak Yeong-gi turned his head and saw a large man blocking the valley entrance.
Belatedly recalling Cho Ak-ryang's mention of Mount Bukmang, a certain person's title naturally popped into his head.
“Mang Mountain's Thistle!”
Ak Yeong-gi couldn't keep his wits about him.
There were three monsters here, any one of whom was impossible to handle alone.
“Heh…”
His hollow, unhinged laughter conveyed his agitation to his other subordinates.
The other Everjoy Sect members also couldn't hide their fear. Some of them were trembling like aspen leaves in the wind, as if they'd caught malaria.
As people of the martial world, they too had heard countless stories about those who reigned at the very pinnacle of Murim.
Monstrous beings who had far surpassed the limits of humanity.
At that moment, Han Seol-hwa moved.
As did Cho Ak-ryang and Beom Gye-wi.
They were not foolish enough to let those who harbored ill will toward Dan Ak-seon leave alive.
“The way of the martial world, you said?”
Cho Ak-ryang spoke as he approached the terror-stricken members of the Everjoy Sect.
“I'll return those words right back to you.”