Chapter 119
Chapter 119
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: The Elder's Objection
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'As expected, it couldn't end that easily?'
Hae-jin thought as he heard the Palace Lord announce his victory.
They had nurtured those Palace Captains with their sponsorships, yet he had killed ten of them. Would the elders really accept this victory announcement?
Sure enough, one of the elders stood up in opposition to Hae-jin's win.
Hae-jin glanced at the Palace Lord.
'This must be awkward for him.'
And just like that.
The Palace Lord looked at the elder he'd just mentioned, his face troubled.
Hae-jin turned his gaze back to the elder.
'Elder Ho.'
Elder Ho.
He was the First Elder of the Southern Wild Beast Palace's elder council.
The second-most skilled after Palace Lord Meng So-cheon himself, and the one who commanded the second-most spirit beasts.
In truth, even Palace Lord Meng So-cheon might not have been able to defeat him without the secret arts passed down solely to the Palace Lord. In that sense, Elder Ho could be considered the palace's true strongest.
After all, if Meng So-cheon didn't use those secret arts, Elder Ho would win.
Anyway, with someone like that opposing, even Meng So-cheon seemed hesitant to step in recklessly.
Hae-jin thought to himself.
'I guess I'll have to step up.'
It was Hae-jin himself who had first proposed the unprecedented format for the Southern Wild Duel Grounds.
But it was Palace Lord Meng So-cheon who had pushed it through the elder council.
Of course, the other elders had approved the duel format as well, so it passed...
From the elders' perspective, though, it had resulted in massive losses.
No wonder Meng So-cheon felt burdened.
Ten Palace Captains were dead, and among the competitors in the Southern Wild Duel Grounds were many whom the elders had personally invested in.
Yet Hae-jin had killed even them.
With a single sword strike, no less.
Naturally, they couldn't view Hae-jin—who had wiped out their invested Palace Captains and candidates in one go—favorably.
Hae-jin, however, thought:
'So what?'
From his standpoint, there was no need to care.
Why?
To Hae-jin, the Southern Wild Beast Palace was just one stop on his way into the thirteenth Trials' Arena.
All he needed was to claim the winner's title from the Southern Wild Duel Grounds and clear any hidden trials.
But Elder Ho was trying to block his victory.
In response, Hae-jin raised his voice so everyone could hear.
"Why can't you acknowledge my victory? I'm the only one left alive in the Southern Wild Duel Grounds. With no other opponents, isn't it obvious that I'm the winner?"
"You only won the preliminaries, didn't you?"
Elder Ho claimed that since Hae-jin had only won the preliminaries, he couldn't be the champion.
Hae-jin nodded in agreement.
"You're right, it wasn't the main round. Shall we move to the main round, then?"
Right—he had passed the preliminaries.
Since he hadn't done the main round, he'd enter it now to become the champion.
Elder Ho stared at him in disbelief.
"How do you propose to advance to the main round? There are no survivors left?"
To advance from preliminaries to main round, there needed to be survivors for Hae-jin to face, but with none, it was impossible, Elder Ho argued.
Hae-jin looked at him, puzzled.
"Why not?"
"Hm?"
"I'm right here, aren't I?"
Hae-jin pointed to himself.
Elder Ho gaped at him in absurdity.
"You're the sole survivor, aren't you?"
"That's right. I survived alone. So I should advance alone to the main round. If I'm the only one left there, that makes me the winner, doesn't it?"
"What kind of nonsense..."
As Elder Ho called it absurd, Hae-jin countered.
"From where I'm standing, Elder Ho, you're the one being unreasonable."
"What? Palace Captain Park Hae-jin, are you daring to contradict an elder?"
"It's not contradicting—it's just facts."
"Facts? What are those?"
As martial artists, they didn't know the word 'facts.'
Seeing his reaction, Hae-jin admitted his slip.
"Ah, right. You wouldn't know that here. I meant the truth."
"So you're saying it's not contradicting—you're just stating the truth?"
Hae-jin shrugged casually at the obvious question.
"Exactly. I'm not saying anything wrong, am I?"
"This is unacceptable."
"What's so unacceptable?"
"How can a man who slaughtered so many Palace Disciples become the champion of the Southern Wild Duel Grounds?"
Elder Ho accused Hae-jin of being a murderer who killed all the competing Palace Captains and disciples.
But that was ridiculous.
There had never been a rule prohibiting killing in the Southern Wild Duel Grounds.
To fight properly, one had to stake their life, naturally.
However, in Hae-jin's case, Elder Ho's wordplay could put him at a slight disadvantage.
The Southern Wild folk recognized deaths in the duel grounds as "lost but fought well."
They saw dying in a fierce, all-out battle as an honorable end.
But everyone Hae-jin faced had died in one strike.
No matter how you spun it, that was closer to a dog's death than an honorable one.
From Elder Ho's position, he had to paint Hae-jin's situation as utterly unjustifiable.
Hae-jin was well aware of this stance.
So he had to strike first.
If he let Elder Ho keep talking, the entire Southern Wild Beast Palace would side with him, and Hae-jin could even lose his recognized Palace Captain status.
That would derail not just his status as the hidden winner of the Southern Wild Duel Grounds, but his survival conditions for this Trials' Arena from the start.
The survival condition for the thirteenth Trials' Arena was for the number of recognized Players in the Southern Wild Beast Palace to reach 1,250.
But if Hae-jin lost his Palace Captain title to Elder Ho and his recognition was invalidated, survival would be impossible.
Of course, it wasn't entirely without options.
'I do have a last resort.'
But Hae-jin didn't want to use it if he could help it.
It would feel unnecessarily messy.
For now, he'd set the last resort aside and interrupt Elder Ho's momentum by calling out to the Palace Lord first.
"Isn't this sophistry, Palace Lord?"
"Hm? Speak, Palace Captain Park Hae-jin."
The Palace Lord, who had been silently watching the exchange, responded.
Hae-jin asked the responding Palace Lord:
"Doesn't the Southern Wild Duel Grounds permit killing?"
"Well..."
If he had to answer Hae-jin's question directly.
'Yes, it does.'
Death or incapacity in the Southern Wild Duel Grounds counted as defeat.
But the situation Hae-jin had created was too bewildering.
Moreover, Elder Ho—the most powerful among the elders—was openly hostile toward him.
The Palace Lord was truly in a bind.
Siding with Hae-jin here would mean clashing with Elder Ho, but siding with Elder Ho would make an absolute peak expert like Hae-jin—on par with him and the top elders—an enemy.
From the Palace Lord's view, neither side was easy to take.
Elder Ho interjected then.
"That's only for unavoidable accidents. You deliberately massacred them all, didn't you?!"
"Sigh, you're awfully loud."
"What did you say?!"
Elder Ho glared daggers at being called loud.
Hae-jin thought:
'The Palace Lord must find it awkward to intervene.'
From the vibes, the Palace Lord seemed hesitant to get involved.
Hae-jin's last resort came to mind.
'Show overwhelming power.'
Of course, even then, there were two possibilities.
Overwhelming power might silence even Elder Ho's objections.
But even with that, Elder Ho might still brand Hae-jin an enemy of the palace and charge.
If it resolved peacefully with the former, great.
But if it turned to the latter...
'No choice. I have to survive.'
With that thought, Hae-jin drew his twin swords.
*Sching!*
As Hae-jin drew his twin swords, Elder Ho pointed accusingly.
"Th-that man's drawing his twin swords to kill us."
He was saying to treat him as an attacker.
Hae-jin shouted in response.
"Freeze!"
Everyone, stop—Hae-jin yelled.
Then he continued.
"I've got something to show you, so everyone stay put."
Stay still because he had something to demonstrate.
Elder Ho yelled back at him.
"You're not planning to slice us down in one stroke like those Palace Captains and disciples you killed?!"
"If that were the case, couldn't the Palace Lord—whom you consider an equal absolute peak—and your side stop me? Watch what I show you next and see if you still think that."
"What do you..."
Ignoring Elder Ho completely now, Hae-jin tossed his drawn twin swords into the air.
The reason was simple.
The Palace Lord and elders were absolute peak experts.
He needed to show them overwhelming power.
In the martial world, there was only one way to demonstrate overwhelming power to absolute peak experts.
Proving his realm was at least the Fire Realm.
Hae-jin's twin swords flew through the air.
He sent his qi toward them.
Sending qi to swords floating in the air. The swords, infused with qi, then sliced through the air and flew at Hae-jin's will.
The swords moved freely without hands.
Everyone in the Southern Wild Beast Palace who saw it paled.
They had no choice.
The feat Hae-jin was displaying.
No one there didn't know what it was called.
The onlookers all thought the same word in unison.
Flying Sword Arts.
The swordsmanship that freely manipulates swords.
Only those who surpassed absolute peak—the Fire Realm experts—could achieve it.
In other words, to everyone in the Southern Wild Beast Palace right now, Hae-jin had been judged a Fire Realm expert.
'A Fire Realm expert...'
Elder Ho's plans to paint Hae-jin as the palace's enemy, by force if needed, crumbled to nothing.
It had to.
The Fire Realm was a level that even he and the Palace Lord together couldn't hope to face.
Hae-jin was at that Fire Realm? How could he twist that?
Of course, Elder Ho considered it.
'Even so, if all the gathered disciples charged together, couldn't they take down one Fire Realm expert?'
That was when it happened.
A sound transmission came from the Palace Lord.
It meant there was no gain in provoking Hae-jin now that he was confirmed Fire Realm.
Elder Ho surely knew that too.
But the Palace Lord had sensed it in his eyes.
Elder Ho intended to use every gathered disciple to avenge the dead Palace Captains.
The Palace Lord thought even that might not be impossible to capture Hae-jin.
But it was a choice he, as Palace Lord, could not make.
The first request and order of his life.
In truth, Palace Lord Meng So-cheon had never once begged or commanded the elders.
Yet now, he made his first request and order to Elder Ho.
[Cease antagonizing Palace Captain Park Hae-jin any further.]