Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Demolish (2)
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Time rewound once more, and the Ghost Sword Manor group, led by the First Heavenly Demon and Yang Hui-gun, headed toward the oblivious Moyong Clan with their carriage in tow.
The closer they got to the Moyong Clan, the more raucous the sounds of the feast and music grew, leaving the Heavenly Demon utterly dumbfounded.
"They've got it good. After pulling off something like that, they don't even fear heaven's wrath, huh?"
The Heavenly Demon simply couldn't comprehend it.
Instead of repenting or apologizing for their conscienceless deeds, they were brushing it all under the rug and reveling in a feast. It was laughable.
At least he and the Demonic Cult members had acted purely on conviction, without such hypocrisy.
They fought when there was reason to fight and killed when there was reason to kill.
Between the Demonic Cult's people and the current Moyong Clan folk, who were the righteous and who the demonic?
'The distinctions of righteous, evil, and demonic are just divisions started by the orthodox sects.'
The Heavenly Demon rejected and refused to believe in such classifications.
He believed only he himself embodied true justice.
As these thoughts ran through his mind, the Ghost Sword Manor group arrived at the Moyong Clan's entrance.
"Hm? Who might you be?"
The Moyong Clan interior was in full swing with the clan head's sixtieth birthday feast, so a guard on duty at this inopportune hour grumbled and asked.
"We heard today is Clan Head Moyong's birthday. We've come to celebrate his sixtieth."
Stepping forward to address them was Yang Dae-un, rather than the Heavenly Demon himself.
The Heavenly Demon wanted nothing more than to smash the entrance to bits right then and there, but with Shaolin and various other sects present in the Moyong Clan today, he didn't want to give them the pretext of a preemptive strike to pin blame on him.
So instead, he opted for a formal visit and announcement.
"What? Right now?"
The guard warrior asked incredulously.
And rightly so—the feast had already been underway for half a shichen, with all the key figures seated at the head table.
For guests to show up so late claiming to join the celebration was bewildering.
"Yes. We were unavoidably delayed by circumstances."
Yang Dae-un's bearing and demeanor didn't scream small-time sect or nameless warrior, so the guard probed cautiously.
"Pardon my rudeness, but what sect are you from, and what are your nicknames?"
"Ah, we're from Ghost Sword Manor, and I am Yang Dae-un, the Shadowless Sword and manor lord."
"Gh-Ghost Sword Manor?!"
The guards' faces lit up in shock at the mention of Ghost Sword Manor of all places, their eyes bulging wide.
They hadn't anticipated visitors from there.
"Do you have an invitation?"
The guard asked.
As far as he recalled, Ghost Sword Manor hadn't been invited.
And sure enough...
"Hahaha. Do we really need an invitation to celebrate together on the soil of Yoneung? We've come with sincere well-wishes—please make an exception."
Just last year, Ghost Sword Manor and its lord had been laughable nobodies, but now they were no laughing matter.
It was public knowledge that they'd absorbed the rising new sect Fine Sword Sect in Yoneung Province and were growing stronger by the day.
With the Ghost Sword Manor lord making a polite request, the guard hesitated.
"Even so..."
"Can't it be done somehow?"
"No means no."
As the guards sternly refused...
"Is it really impossible?"
Yang Hui-gun, who had been riding in the carriage, finally peeked out.
"Heavens!"
"Y-You!"
The Moyong Clan warriors' faces twisted upon seeing Yang Hui-gun.
It jogged their memory of Clan Head Moyong Gui's old directive.
—If the Ghost Shadow Sword Yang Hui-gun ever comes looking for me, switch to confidential mission status and report to me immediately!
But months had passed without sight of Yang Hui-gun or even any Ghost Sword Manor folk, so Moyong Gui and the rest had naturally let it slip their minds.
They hadn't expected him to show up precisely on the birthday feast day.
"Wait... just a moment."
The guards realized this wasn't something they could handle themselves.
They contacted Moyong Yo, the steward overseeing the clan's major and minor affairs—the Curved Blade Whirling Sword—and he, paling at the news of Yang Hui-gun and Ghost Sword Manor's visit, relayed it straight to Clan Head Moyong Gui.
"Steward Moyong. Block them."
"Pardon?"
"Block them! Block them at all costs! My birthday feast must conclude peacefully, and these honored guests must leave safely—hold them off no matter what!"
Realizing Yang Hui-gun and Ghost Sword Manor had targeted his birthday feast, the One Sword Myriad Changes Moyong Gui bellowed in fury.
Moyong Yo panicked and signaled the Moyong Clan warriors deploying defenses to drive them away immediately.
"Charge!"
"Don't let them in, whatever it takes!"
"It's a direct order from the clan head!"
For the entrance guards, it had been ages since a direct order from the clan head, so they straightened up with discipline and moved to repel the Ghost Sword Manor group.
Deep down, they also figured they'd show off Moyong Clan martial arts before the various visitors.
After all, to them, Ghost Sword Manor was just a flash-in-the-pan nobody sect.
At that very moment.
"Yes. That's more like it. I've been itching to smash the entrance from the start."
The Heavenly Demon Gunryong, who had been saving his rage for this very day.
He began rampaging in earnest.
Heaven and Earth Cataclysm Palm
A supreme technique of the Heaven Earth Winds Clouds Palm Arts—overturning the world with a single palm strike
The Heavenly Demon unleashed the ultimate move of the Heaven Earth Winds Clouds Palm Arts with gleeful anticipation.
A single palm that could upend the world.
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-ga-gang!
From the Heavenly Demon's seemingly ordinary palm erupted an immense inner energy and palm wind capable of flipping riverbanks, engulfing the Moyong Clan's entrance and guards.
To the Moyong Clan warriors, who were merely first-rate at best, the Heavenly Demon's attack was an inescapable prophecy even if they saw it coming.
No matter how they raised their swords, they couldn't block it, and the entrance barricade crumbled outright.
"Th-This isn't just some warrior."
"A divine immortal! An immortal has descended to punish the Moyong Clan!"
The well-trained Moyong Clan warriors, brimming with pride as Yoneung's strongest, scattered and fled in the face of this unimaginable martial feat.
'As expected of the Heavenly Demon!'
'What a refreshing sight.'
Yang Dae-un, Yang Yeon-hwa, Yang Hui-gun, and even Sogang.
As the Heavenly Demon stepped up and demolished the entrance of the massive Moyong Clan—comparable to the Five Great Clans—they all felt a decade's worth of pent-up frustration melt away.
But satisfaction was premature.
"Where is Clan Head Moyong Gui, who coveted Ghost Sword Manor's martial arts, kidnapped their precious heir Yang Hui-gun, tortured him, and committed an act that incites heaven and earth's shared fury—a righteous clan that should uphold justice and propriety?!"
Lion's Roar
An endless inner energy propelled the roar, shaking heaven and earth
The Heavenly Demon's Lion's Roar boomed with such ferocity it seemed to rattle the heavens themselves.
Riding boundless inner energy, the roar spread not only to Moyong Gui and the Moyong Clan but to all the sects and masters gathered from afar to celebrate the birthday feast.
"Wh-Who dares spout such... such rumors?!"
Moyong Gui jolted to his feet in shock at the bombshell from this unfamiliar voice.
'A young man's voice. Definitely not Yang Dae-un's, and not Yang Hui-gun either.'
Even in the chaos, Moyong Gui was desperate to identify the young warrior leading Ghost Sword Manor's charge.
"Rumors? You're trying to cover the sky with the palm of your hand."
With that, the Heavenly Demon called forth Yang Hui-gun and paraded him before the sects and warriors who had rushed from Yoneung, Hapbuk, and Hanam Provinces for the feast.
"Even after seeing Hui-gun here, you say that?"
No sooner had the Heavenly Demon spoken than the assembly erupted.
"It's Yang Hui-gun! The Ghost Shadow Sword Yang Hui-gun!"
"No mistaking it. How could we not recognize Yoneung's top prodigy?"
"I heard he vanished suddenly over a year ago... No way?"
"Did the Moyong Clan really kidnap Yang Hui-gun?"
The Heavenly Demon's words were persuasive, and Yang Hui-gun's presence was irrefutable proof.
Naturally, suspicious gazes turned to Moyong Clan Head Moyong Gui.
"No! Absolutely not! How can you take Ghost Sword Manor's claims at face value? Yang Hui-gun's return from disappearance is wonderful news, but his mere presence proves nothing. For all we know... this could be Ghost Sword Manor's staged drama to draw attention in Yoneung, couldn't it?"
Even as the crime surfaced more and more, Moyong Gui brazenly tried to cover it up.
"What? Staged drama? Clan Head Moyong! Are you serious?!"
Yang Dae-un was seeing red, ready to draw his sword on the spot.
"Ghost Sword Manor comes here without solid proof—what rudeness is this?! Young Master Yang Hui-gun cannot serve as evidence of any wrongdoing by my Moyong Clan."
Moyong Gui believed playing dumb was his only way out.
'I absolutely cannot let this be exposed.'
He'd even reached the point of deceiving himself.
He also subtly signaled Curved Blade Whirling Sword Moyong Yo and Moyong Jin-hui—key players in the kidnapping—to stay silent.
And that was hardly all.
"All you honored guests who came from afar to celebrate this Moyong Gui—think carefully. What would my Moyong Clan possibly lack to kidnap Ghost Sword Manor's heir? Isn't that right?"
At the same time, Moyong Gui tried to manipulate and sway public opinion.
Most sects gathered here were closer to the Moyong Clan than Ghost Sword Manor, and siding with the Moyong Clan—unlike the unremarkable Ghost Sword Manor—would surely bring benefits.
"Ahem. Well, Clan Head Moyong isn't the type to commit such injustice."
"Sorry to Ghost Sword Manor, but what would they possibly gain by kidnapping Young Master Yang Hui-gun?"
"Quite right. The staged drama theory carries more weight."
In truth, most sensed the Moyong Clan was up to something shady.
Even knowing full well, they feigned ignorance out of friendship with the Moyong Clan, fear of them, or greed for gains, burying the truth.
Coincidentally, those blinded by self-interest were mostly the so-called prestigious orthodox sects and clans.
"Dae-un. Hui-gun. Yeon-hwa. See that? That's the true face of those who claim to be orthodox. In the end, their own gains and connections come first."
The Heavenly Demon had anticipated this.
Back in his bloodthirsty days conquering the Central Plains, he'd have smashed through evidence, verification, and all else without a second thought.
Most deeds branded as his villainy were like this, backed by the orthodox sects' one-sided claims.
"Hmph! You seem to be the new young warrior at Ghost Sword Manor... For sowing massive chaos in my Moyong Clan with baseless rumors and gossip, you'll pay dearly!"
Sneer.
Moyong Gui inwardly sighed in relief as events unfolded to his schemes, letting a sly smile slip.
'In the end, the truth will stay buried.'
Just as Moyong Gui fully relaxed and Moyong Yo and Moyong Jin-hui thought the crisis averted...
"I figured as much, so I prepared something."
The Heavenly Demon revealed his perfect trump card to overturn the board.
"Dae-un!"
"Yes, Gunryong-nim."
At the Heavenly Demon's command, Dae-un presented the results of the mission assigned when the Heavenly Demon and Yang Hui-gun entered closed-door training.
The preparatory work, that is.
And those results were four entirely different individuals.