Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Fifth Chapter - Dragon-Phoenix Tournament (21)
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“…I’m going to the Murim Alliance.”
Dang Hwa-seo tossed out those words.
She then went on to recount what had happened.
“That night, Young Hero Mok, you must have overheard the conversation between Dang Un-gyeong and me. Yes, I was fleeing from the Tang Clan.”
She didn’t delve deeply into the reasons behind it.
Her childhood was such a horrific memory that she didn’t want to recall it, and it was far too humiliating to share with others.
She didn’t want to tell Mok Ri-won about how she had sobbed and begged them to stop.
So Dang Hwa-seo glossed over her childhood and continued with the next part.
“The day I met Young Hero Mok and left Su-yang County, I made a resolution. I would no longer run from my clan. I wanted to live boldly, stepping forward with my head held high.”
“…I see.”
“To do that, there was something I needed.”
Dang Hwa-seo looked up to meet Mok Ri-won’s eyes.
He gazed at her with a gentle smile, as if ready to hear anything she had to say.
It was a smile that bolstered her courage.
“What do you need?”
“A position that even the Tang Clan couldn’t touch. That’s why I was heading to the Murim Alliance.”
“Does the Murim Alliance have that?”
“If I register with the Murim Alliance and become a division leader, it will come naturally. As the central hub of the orthodox martial world, anyone at the division leader level there changes their affiliation to the Murim Alliance from that moment, no matter their previous sect.”
“So you wanted to become a division leader in the Alliance, little sister.”
“That way, the Tang Clan wouldn’t be able to harm me.”
And by stacking up such status over time, one day she wanted to return to the Tang Clan with her head held high and hold them accountable for their crimes.
This Dragon-Phoenix Tournament was the first step toward that goal.
Her trip to Shaolin was part of that process as well.
The man who had been the Alliance Leader twenty years ago, during the bloody era of great strife.
She needed a letter of recommendation from Buddha Star Won Myeong.
“…After the Dragon-Phoenix Tournament ended, I planned to set off on my journey to become a division leader. It meant I would have to part ways with you, Young Hero Mok. But…”
Dang Hwa-seo hesitated, letting out her reluctance.
The moment to voice her request had finally come, but the words wouldn’t leave her lips.
No matter how she thought about it, it felt like stubbornness.
“But?”
Mok Ri-won gently urged her on.
Dang Hwa-seo fidgeted with his intertwined fingers.
And then she spoke.
“…I want to go to the Alliance with you, Young Hero Mok. I want to stay together longer.”
It was disjointed.
Only after blurting it out did Dang Hwa-seo realize it.
Her face flushed red.
Her eyes wavered with embarrassment.
Her head drooped down.
Her spinning mind screamed at her to quickly follow up and salvage the words.
But in her fluster, the words that came out couldn’t form properly.
They couldn’t be prettily packaged.
What emerged were her raw emotions as they were.
“…I need you.”
“What…?”
“I need you, Young Hero Mok.”
Dang Hwa-seo finally forced the words out.
Unaware of what she was even saying, she poured out her feelings as they surfaced.
“That’s why I want to go together. I want you, Young Hero Mok, to come to the Murim Alliance with me.”
Dang Hwa-seo squeezed her eyes shut.
Her heart pounded wildly at having made such an impertinent request.
The moment one registers with the Alliance, their affiliation changes to the Alliance.
It meant that if Mok Ri-won went with her, his life might become bound to the Alliance.
It surely wouldn’t please him.
‘Even if he refuses…’
It couldn’t be helped.
Such thoughts filled Dang Hwa-seo’s mind with predictions of Mok Ri-won turning her down.
But.
“Very well.”
“As expected…? What?”
It wasn’t so.
Mok Ri-won accepted far too easily.
Dang Hwa-seo doubted her ears.
She wondered if she was dreaming.
She scrutinized Mok Ri-won’s expression.
Concern rising, she asked if he truly understood and had thought it through properly.
“Do you fully understand what I just said? Young Hero Mok, joining the Alliance isn’t something to take lightly. Becoming affiliated with an organization is…”
“Didn’t I say it before? That I’m the kind of person who can do anything you ask.”
Mok Ri-won smiled softly, just as before.
“I said I could do it, as long as it doesn’t go against righteousness. And registering with the Murim Alliance doesn’t violate righteousness at all. No, it aligns with it perfectly. Why wouldn’t it? The Murim Alliance is the nest of heroes who tirelessly maintain order in the Central Plains martial world, day and night.”
“Such words…”
“And I don’t want to part from you either, little sister.”
Thump-.
Dang Hwa-seo’s heart leaped hugely.
This was a beat entirely different from the anxious pounding up until moments ago.
Her mind overloaded in an instant, grappling with what he had just said.
But oddly, Mok Ri-won didn’t let her dwell on it.
“I want to spend more time with you, little sister. Because there’s something I want to learn.”
“Learn…?”
“It’s about practical righteousness. I don’t know it. The righteousness I know is the illusory kind that only exists in stories. I don’t dislike it, but I know reality is crueler than tales. Chasing dreams alone won’t make one a true hero.”
It was something both Mok Seon-o and Ma Il-seok had told him.
Living in romance makes one a hero, but it doesn’t mean ignoring reality.
A true hero must ponder the righteousness that can be practiced amid the realities at hand.
“I want to know righteousness. And I believe you’re the only one who can teach it to me, little sister. Because among everyone I know, you’re the most righteous.”
Dang Hwa-seo was a practical woman.
Yet she was also selfless.
She was always one who pondered deeply, always pushing herself to improve.
That’s why Mok Ri-won liked Dang Hwa-seo.
He liked her humanity.
The reason he said such things wasn’t far from those feelings.
“I want to know you, little sister. I want to learn that righteousness by your side. And if possible, in that process, I hope someone as righteous as you can be happy. So I won’t part from you.”
Dang Hwa-seo let out a weak laugh at Mok Ri-won’s long string of words.
‘…Why do you have to phrase it so ambiguously?’
She thought his words came across in such a vague form.
He was clearly praising her righteousness, yet the way he said it was too sweet.
He phrased it in a way that practically invited misunderstanding.
“…You won’t regret it?”
“Meeting you is the second stroke of luck in my life. And that feeling won’t change. So I won’t regret it.”
“What was the first?”
“Being taken in by my master.”
Second to his master.
Not bad.
Only then did Dang Hwa-seo truly realize that Mok Ri-won would stay by her side.
Joy welled up within her.
So overwhelming that her voice trembled as she expressed her gratitude.
“…Thank you.”
“No need to thank me at all. It’s only natural.”
“Even so, thank you.”
Dang Hwa-seo released Mok Ri-won’s hand.
Then she stretched out her arms and pulled him into an embrace.
It was an act born of emotion, but Dang Hwa-seo didn’t regret it right away.
A cool, warm scent wafted from him—his natural body odor brought comfort before any embarrassment.
On the night the Dragon-Phoenix Tournament ended.
Even the brightly risen moon hid behind the clouds at this moment.
On the slightly darker ground, the shadows of the man and woman overlapped for a long time.
*
Three days passed quickly.
Contrary to Dang Hwa-seo’s worries, nothing happened at all.
Seo-hyeon wasn’t quiet.
After Mok Ri-won’s victory, it had been bustling nonstop, and interest in him—the one who displayed that miraculous swordsmanship—had soared sky-high.
The prestigious sects were even more aggressive.
Those who had merely waited in the alleys near where Mok Ri-won stayed were now heatedly coming directly to the manor housing the inns.
If this manor weren’t operated by the Namgung Clan, Mok Ri-won would likely have been hounded mercilessly by the swarming prestigious sect members already.
A situation where he couldn’t take even a single reckless step.
Yet Mok Ri-won had been unusually quiet for those three days, out of character for his lively nature.
Not for any other reason.
“Is he still inside?”
“Yes. Brother Mok is something else—how has he not stepped out of that room for three days?”
“He’s in training.”
“I heard he’s consolidating his insights.”
“We need to depart soon, but he’s taking too long…”
Dang Hwa-seo looked worriedly at the closed door of Mok Ri-won’s room.
But staring wouldn’t make it open.
Mok Ri-won had no time to spare for the two waiting outside.
Swoosh-.
The room was filled with a faint dark energy.
Mok Ri-won sat cross-legged in the center, eyes closed.
He was immersed in meditation, circulating his heart method.
Mok Ri-won had many insights to consolidate.
The offhand remark from Sword King Namgung Hyeok, various swordsmanship realizations from the matches, and technical insights gained from using his true nature for the first time in his life.
He was reviewing each unorganized insight one by one, layering them onto his mental image.
‘I am merely a sword master.’
Nothing more.
Fallen stars cannot define me, and the mind wielding the sword is wholly mine.
Even true nature is but a fragment that composes the ‘sword,’ so as a sword master, I must not be swayed by it.
‘And I truly achieved it.’
He had grasped that clue in his match against Namgung Jincheon.
The Heavenly Slaughter Star wasn’t an utterly uncontrollable star.
In other words, this killing intent was a barrier that could be overcome with sufficient will as a sword master.
‘Killing intent is part of the sword, and the star is part of the sword.’
As per Mok Seon-o’s long teachings and Namgung Hyeok’s words, the star was ultimately just a star.
It was merely a sword thrust into his grasp.
Though grotesquely shaped, even such a hideous sword’s nature would change depending on its wielder.
‘Merely a sword master.’
Mok Ri-won reaffirmed it and circulated the Star-Link Divine Art.
He recited the incantation in his mind.
Swoosh-.
A mental image evoking the pitch-black night sky, with three stars rising above it.
Mok Ri-won gazed at them, then reached out and touched behind the third star.
A faint cluster of light began to emerge there.
‘May it be the star of the sword.’
Mok Ri-won named the light cluster as such.
Fitting its name, the newly inscribed glow twisted and writhed before igniting into the form of a sword.
Once it fully settled, the stars orbited.
Sequentially from the first constellation, following a set path.
The stars completed their circuit.
The mental image, dimly lit by the three constellations until now, shone even more dazzlingly with the addition of the fourth.
Only after sensing the fourth star properly take root did Mok Ri-won open his eyes.
With a deep exhale, his energy gathered.
His shoulders relaxed comfortably.
Mok Ri-won grinned.
‘Four stars.’
His inner power wasn’t sufficient yet for a complete four stars, but that would resolve in a few hours.
Mok Ri-won didn’t suppress his surging joy and stretched languidly.
Then he rose from his spot.
Creak-.
He opened the door.
There waited Dang Hwa-seo and Jegal San, already prepared.
“Let’s go!”
Mok Ri-won shouted as he stepped forward.
His destination was the arena where the finals had been held.
Today, Mok Ri-won would become the dragon.