Chapter 189
Translator: penny
Chapter: 189
Chapter Title: The Successors of Mount Tai Sect
"The Mount Tai Sect, destroyed in the past Great Righteous-Demonic War. We of the Ghost Command Sect are the ones carrying on their legacy."
As someone who knew the Sword Queen, this was hard to believe.
But his expression was so confident that I couldn't dismiss it as a lie.
'Let's hear him out first.'
"Mount Tai Sect?!"
I feigned surprise in response, and the Ghost Command Sect Leader burst into laughter.
"Haha, looks like you know of the Mount Tai Sect."
The way he addressed me had shifted from 'you' to 'my friend.'
A little more flattery, and I could probably snag the rest of the Ghost Command Pills too.
'Not that it matters right now.'
Well, the pills were important, sure... but I was getting them anyway.
For now, I wanted to hear what the sect leader had to say.
"I don't know the details, but I heard they were the sect that held back the Four Black Alliance during the Great Righteous-Demonic War. Back then, they called it the Nine Great Sects..."
I'd praised the Mount Tai Sect, hoping he'd hand over the pills right away, but the sect leader's mood had soured.
"Those damn Nine Great Sects bastards...!"
A tremendous aura erupted from the sect leader's body.
It was on a whole different level from the pressure he'd shown when testing me earlier—an intensely powerful energy wave.
'Crazy. He wasn't just at the late Peak Realm; he's right on the verge of the Transcendent Realm?'
This was on par with the current Murim Alliance Leader.
Of course, the Ghost Command Sect's martial arts were a bit lacking, so he couldn't beat the Alliance Leader in a fight, but this was still the aura of someone on the cusp of the Transcendent Realm.
I subtly released my own energy, and only then did the sect leader rein in his aura.
"Sorry about that. Thinking of those damn Nine Great Sects bastards... I just couldn't hold back for a moment."
"Did something happen with the Nine Great Sects?"
"Something? What do you mean, something?!"
He started to flare up with rage again but caught sight of my expression late and let out a deep sigh.
"Let me explain the Great Righteous-Demonic War from a hundred years ago in a bit more detail first."
What followed was a story I already knew the gist of.
Back then, the unorthodox world's top talents had gathered in Anhui Province and formed a massive organization called the Four Black Alliance.
They advanced without hesitation, and the righteous sects' sense of justice wasn't enough to stop their overwhelming power.
One of the Five Great Families, the Zhuge Clan, was wiped out, and even Shaolin Temple suffered damage close to sealing its gates—that alone showed the Four Black Alliance's might.
With the Central Plains martial world on the brink of becoming the unorthodox world's domain, it was the Mount Tai Sect that stood in their way.
"The Zhuge Clan argued for forming the Murim Alliance back then. But there wasn't time for that. Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, Hubei—most of those provinces had already fallen to the Four Black Alliance. That's when our Mount Tai Sect stepped up."
The Mount Tai Sect halted the Four Black Alliance's ferocious advance.
They accomplished what even Wudang and Shaolin couldn't.
But that was their limit.
In the end, the Mount Tai Sect paid a tremendous price in sacrifices.
"Most of the elders in our sect and my senior brothers, who were meant to lead our future, died back then. I..."
"Hold on, senior brothers?"
The Great Righteous-Demonic War was from a century ago.
Over a hundred years had passed.
Yet he was talking about senior brothers...?
Noticing my doubt, the sect leader smiled faintly.
"I'm 117 years old this year."
The Ghost Command Sect Leader was a living fossil.
'Crazy, 117? That old coot's lived a long time.'
No wonder he pulled weird stunts out of boredom.
Hell, it was impressive he wasn't senile.
He'd lived more than twice as long as I had in my previous life!
"Anyway, I was training in the Taoist lineage back then... Actually, I should explain the Mount Tai Sect's structure first. We had the Taoist branch studying rituals and the martial branch training in..."
"No need to go there. I'm not curious about the structure of a sect that's long gone."
The sect leader twitched his white eyebrows in displeasure but continued with the Great Righteous-Demonic War story anyway.
The rest was predictable.
Thanks to the time the Mount Tai Sect bought, the Murim Alliance was safely established, and they won the war, bringing peace back to the Central Plains martial world.
But the Mount Tai Sect had no place in it.
"Once the Four Black Alliance enemy was gone, those damn Nine Great Sects bastards—especially the filthy Mount Hua Sect scum—started pressuring our Mount Tai Sect."
"...Mount Hua Sect?"
"Back then, our Mount Tai Sect was the foremost Taoist sect in the Central Plains. Especially the blessing rituals we held—those were what the Mount Hua Sect and Wudang Sect bastards envied most. When we weakened blocking the Four Black Alliance, those vermin from Mount Hua didn't miss the chance..."
The other Taoist sect, Wudang, had also suffered massive losses from the Four Black Alliance and sealed their gates.
That's when Mount Hua struck.
Having lost most of their forces, the Mount Tai Sect couldn't withstand Mount Hua's pressure and was completely destroyed.
"The Murim Alliance bastards were a problem too. The ones we bought time for to create..."
The sect leader kept grumbling complaints as he continued.
Disillusioned with the righteous martial world, the remnants of Mount Tai eventually turned to the unorthodox path out of desperation.
Fortunately, they knew the formula for the Blessed Immortal Pills, which let them survive somehow.
'So the Ghost Command Pills were originally called Blessed Immortal Pills.'
That detail didn't matter much to me.
More importantly, two big questions were nagging at me.
"Mind if I ask a couple things?"
"Hm? What are you curious about?"
"First, I know someone who claims to be a descendant of Mount Tai Sect. They use a martial art called Blessed Immortal Sword..."
"What did you say?!"
The sect leader, who had been sitting, shot up and lunged at me, grabbing for my collar.
But I had no intention of letting some old coot grab me.
Thwack-!
I lightly smacked his hand away with the back of mine and spoke calmly.
"Calm down."
Whether it was my voice or knocking his hand away that worked, the sect leader's body froze in place just as I'd deflected him.
A moment later, a cracked voice came from him.
"Is that true? There's really someone using the Blessed Immortal Sword?"
"You didn't know?"
"Who is it? Tell me now!"
His eyes burned with the same fury as when he'd cursed the Nine Great Sects.
'From his reaction, the Sword Queen really is a Mount Tai descendant too. Does that mean she doesn't know the sect leader's identity either?'
My mind raced.
Numerous hypotheses formed and vanished, but the conclusion was one.
"I'll ask her when I see her later. If it's okay to tell you."
I needed to check the Sword Queen's intentions first.
If I blabbed carelessly and something bad happened to her, it could affect our second sister's future too.
Realizing something from my response, the sect leader's shoulders slumped.
"Still in the righteous sects... and even the Murim Alliance."
Pretty sharp.
But I shrugged like I knew nothing.
"Who knows? Anyway, can I ask something else?"
"Go ahead."
"You hold such a huge grudge against the Murim Alliance, so why are you staying quiet and hunkered down in the current situation?"
This had been itching at the back of my mind for a while.
'If I hear this, something might click...'
The grudge the sect leader held against the Nine Great Sects and Murim Alliance was real.
He'd even revealed his hidden cultivation level, so I couldn't even imagine its depth.
Yet according to Sa Hye-rin recently, the Ghost Command Sect planned to stay quiet for the time being.
'Why? Isn't now the perfect chance?'
In my previous life, they probably charged to the front lines as I'd expect.
So what had changed this time?
At my question, the sect leader gave a hollow laugh.
"Of course I want revenge too. With a perfect cause now, who could stop me if I took the field?"
He was admitting it.
No matter how lacking the Ghost Command Sect's martial arts were, the sect leader's realm was at the pinnacle of the Peak Realm.
Even I wouldn't bet on more than fifty percent odds against him head-on.
"True. So why hold back?"
"If I go through with revenge like that, what about those who are left?"
"Those who are left...?"
Still not quite there.
As if quenching my thirst, the sect leader tossed in the final piece.
"Of course I want revenge, but now I have something precious I must protect too."
'Something precious?'
The missing piece clicked into place.
The jumbled thoughts in my head started settling one by one.
Mount Tai Sect, Mount Hua Sect, Ghost Command Sect, grudge, revenge, reason for holding back, something precious...
And Red Summit Baek Iryeong.
'This... might just work.'
After learning Baek Iryeong's past through the Shadow Gate Sect Leader before, I'd given up on seducing her and decided on force.
But if possible, I preferred winning her heart first over coercion.
'Just couldn't find a way.'
The problem was I couldn't think of any way to override her thirst for revenge and slot her into Harmony Group.
But thinking it over...
Did Baek Iryeong absolutely have to join Harmony Group?
'No, just traveling together would do.'
Harmony Group was merely the excuse.
An excuse for me to travel with Baek Iryeong.
And from my conversation with the sect leader just now, another method had come to mind.
"Then let's do this."
I made a simple proposal to the Ghost Command Sect Leader.