Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Resolve (Part 4)
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"Eldest Young Master, are you that Dark Heaven Venerable?"
There was no change in Yeon So-hyeon's expression.
Just like before, he simply held the steaming warm teacup in both hands, his face serene.
"...What is this Dark Heaven Venerable?"
Se-ah’s eyebrow twitched.
She had expected he wouldn’t answer straightforwardly.
"According to the survivors who escaped the Black Bone Sect's human flesh factory, the one who rescued them wore a white mask and scholar's white cotton robes."
Yeon So-hyeon, dressed in white cotton robes, nodded.
"It sounds like someone doing good deeds."
"You possess similar attire and a mask."
"Are you planning to inspect my belongings?"
Se-ah pulled her chair right up to the table.
"Why won't you tell me? What were those words you said to me back then?"
Yeon So-hyeon slowly savored a sip of tea and set the cup down on the table.
"...Are you resolved?"
Se-ah gripped her own cup tightly.
"As I told you before, I am resolved as much as needed."
Yeon So-hyeon smiled.
"Resolved enough to bear countless pure souls dying?"
It was the question he had posed that night.
"...Since that night, I have thought on your words again and again."
Blood enough to alter the flow of history's vast river.
If what Yeon So-hyeon meant by the sacrifice of the pure was that...
"Eldest Young Master, are you speaking of a 'Dynastic Revolution'?"
At the words "Dynastic Revolution," Se-ah’s guard, who had been pretending not to listen while gazing out the window, startled in alarm and scanned the outside vigilantly.
It was a term that could bring disaster to everyone nearby just for uttering it.
"Dynastic Revolution..."
Yeon So-hyeon chuckled.
"As Mencius said: 'One who harms benevolence is called a thief, and one who harms righteousness, a brute.'"
He rarely quoted classics first, but he knew them well.
"'Since a brute and thief is but a mere commoner, we hear of King Wu slaying Zhou the tyrant, but never of kings being assassinated.'"
The guard broke into a cold sweat at the conversation behind her.
She raised her inner energy to its limit, vigilantly guarding the surroundings.
Se-ah felt the cold sweat beading on her own hands as she asked,
"...Is that what you mean by your path, Eldest Young Master?"
A demonic realm beyond humanity, a hellscape of corpse mountains and blood seas.
Yeon So-hyeon gazed out the window at the warm afternoon sunlight streaming in.
"Do you think such a thing is possible in this era?"
"......."
It was far too heavy a question.
Not just because discussing the overthrow of the imperial house and founding a new dynasty was the gravest of crimes.
"...It feels like a question far beyond my station to even contemplate."
Yeon So-hyeon slowly nodded.
"Even if you gathered the wisest minds on this continent for debate, you'd get the same answer."
The empire called the Central Plains Kingdom was far too vast.
No one had even properly tallied how many people lived within it.
"Since civilization began on this land, has the wealth gap ever been this extreme? And yet, for the realm to remain so stable is truly bizarre."
Yeon So-hyeon continued.
"In such an era, revolution? Words fail."
Feeling the cold sweat trickling down her forehead, Se-ah asked,
"...Then what is your path, Eldest Young Master?"
Yeon So-hyeon rose and walked to the window.
His steps were as leisurely as ever.
But Se-ah’s guard recoiled as if from an onrushing fire, hastily retreating from the window to press against the opposite wall.
"......."
She didn't dare glance inside the room, standing rigid and staring at the wall.
"I wondered."
Yeon So-hyeon spoke while looking out the window.
"If that much blood must flow to change the course of history—making even ordinary lives impossible, forcing the pure to rise defiantly and die under the banner of great justice—is theirs the only blood that counts?"
Se-ah swallowed dryly.
A playful note entered Yeon So-hyeon's voice.
"Why not just kill that many bad guys?"
"...Pardon?"
"If enough villains' blood flows to match what those innocents would have shed?"
It was a mad idea.
Childish, even juvenile.
"...What kind of joke is this all of a sudden? The innocents' blood isn't meant literally."
Flustered, Se-ah forgot her formal speech.
It was a metaphor for the inevitable sacrifices in revolution, not a literal body count.
"That's why it's just a hypothesis. Something to consider."
Se-ah sighed at his light tone.
"Only a child would think like that..."
She shook her head.
"How could one easily divide the good from the evil?"
This convoluted world could never be simply split into black and white.
"And even if one could, by what standard?"
Law? Morality? They shifted with circumstances, and human systems were always flawed.
"Besides, arbitrarily labeling so-called villains and killing them all? There's no one with the power to slay enough to change history..."
Se-ah’s words trailed off as she spoke.
"Even if there were, judging and punishing sinners at whim would be..."
The white-masked reaper.
"...A far greater evil, a madman..."
Master of Dark Heaven.
Executor of heavenly punishment.
The being who unleashed black lightning in place of the indifferent sky and earth.
The name slipped from her lips unbidden.
"...Dark Heaven Venerable."
The boy of unknown identity, still showing his back, laughed.
"I don't know who came up with it, but it's a good name. That Dark Heaven Venerable would like it too."
He smiled brightly.
"I'm curious if that childish hypothesis—that this Dark Heaven Venerable's actions—could actually succeed, if it's truly possible."
Now Se-ah understood.
A realm beyond human comprehension and law.
Mountains of corpses, seas of blood.
A netherworld demonic path.
A way only demons who had abandoned humanity could tread.
Instead of the blood of all the good and innocent who should have been deluded into dying, and paying the debts of all the villains who should have faced judgment.
"Such a..."
Se-ah could say no more.
Was she prepared to hear his tale?
Did she have the recklessness to step deeper into this abyss?
Se-ah now knew why Yeon So-hyeon hadn't answered her question about his identity.
She recalled his words from that night.
'Your sisters' fates are not yet decided.'
Se-ah gathered her dazed mind and rose.
"...Thank you for your words. I have work to attend to, so I must take my leave."
Yeon So-hyeon nodded.
"Take care."
Se-ah turned to bow toward his back but spoke instead.
"Black Bone Sect is effectively down to its main base now."
"Is that so?"
She continued calmly.
"Today, my small elite combat team and our allies will head there."
"Isn't that dangerous? You have the Sword Clan Bronze Token. Even with the pretext of them striking first, the Sword Clan won't overlook it."
Se-ah shook her head.
"We won't breach the interior. Someone else will handle that anyway."
Her gaze turned to Yeon So-hyeon's back.
"But we won't sit idle either. No remnants will escape the main base today."
Se-ah quietly stated her resolve.
"If the Sword Clan gripes over that much, we'll have to clash."
Se-ah was no martial artist, but she possessed a spirit rivaling one.
"It's not the whole Sword Clan anyway—just the one who gave me the token."
Yeon So-hyeon shrugged, indicating agreement.
"...We are resolved to that extent."
Se-ah lifted her own teacup and downed the cold tea in one gulp.
She set the empty cup on the table and bowed deeply.
"...Then."
"Go."
Se-ah headed for the door her guard held open.
"......."
Yeon So-hyeon still stood with his back turned, gazing out the window.
For some reason, in Se-ah’s eyes, he looked like one thirsting for the sun's bright light and warmth, writhing in desperation.
* * *
A Black Bone Sect executive swung his blade, severing the neck of a man bound and kneeling.
They were attempted escapees.
He spat toward the corpse.
"Cowards...!"
Raising his blood-dripping sword high, he shouted,
"By the Gold Lord's command! All of you, prepare for jade shattering!"
* * *
Geumju asked the speechless chief steward,
"...Father refused help as well, didn't he?"
"...Yes."
She had anticipated the refusal even before asking.
The realm of that monstrous white-masked figure remained unassessed.
No one could carelessly deploy precious experts against an enemy of unknown strength.
Moreover, with their relationship being mere pretense, his foster 'daughters' were expendable to him.
Blood dripped from Geumju's clenched fist.
"And that message..."
The chief steward reluctantly relayed what Geumjil had ordered him to pass on.
Geumju's face flushed crimson upon hearing it all.
She hurled her cherished ebony table, letting out a guttural scream.
A flying inkstone struck a maid's head; she collapsed without a cry.
Other maids, trembling in terror from the corner, rushed to check the fallen one.
The maid twitched intermittently, blood and brains spilling from her shattered skull, pooling on the floor.
"...Useless trash."
Geumju asked the chief steward,
"How many slaves remain in the main base?"
He answered hastily.
"A-as you know, few transactions happen here, so the numbers aren't high."
Geumju eyed the maids dragging out a comrade's corpse with contempt and said,
"Gather all the slaves and useless noncombatants underground."
"Wh-what are you planning...?"
The chief steward stammered.
"I will perform the ritual Master taught me."
"Ritual, you say?"
A ritual? What nonsense in the dead of night.
A victory prayer? An exorcism?
Ignoring him, Geumju bit her nails.
'...I wanted to avoid that freakish secret art my monstrous master taught me to the end.'
But she had no alternatives now.
'Damn it.'
She was prepared to sacrifice everyone if needed to survive.