Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Part 23 Value
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The courtyard held the steward claiming to serve Elder Yeom, along with his four escorting warriors, and everyone from the Won-gak Pavilion.
“Say it again.”
Yeon So-hyeon, who had kicked open the door and appeared, made the steward swallow dryly without thinking.
“I said say it again.”
Yeon So-hyeon’s low, pressing voice was utterly unlike the Swordless One he had heard rumors about.
But he trusted the reputation of the elder he served.
An elder held one of the highest positions in the Sword Clan.
“Elder Yeom has commanded us to bring the Medicine King.”
At those words, the Triplet Maids snorted, and Jeong-a burst into laughter.
Yeon So-hyeon tilted his head askew and asked,
“Who commanded whom?”
The steward hurriedly cleared his throat.
“Ahem. Of course, the command was given to this steward.”
Yeon So-hyeon asked again.
“This steward?”
The steward floundered.
“No, not this steward...”
“Not this steward?”
“It’s not this steward... That is...”
His stumbling words were so ridiculous that all the maids burst into laughter.
That laughter seemed to thoroughly provoke the steward.
Or perhaps he simply couldn’t accept being mocked by the Swordless One.
“Insolent! How dare mere maids...!”
Yeon So-hyeon cut him off and raised his hand.
“The insolent one is you.”
He was about to slap the man’s cheek.
“Eldest Young Master, stop!”
The four escort warriors all gripped their sword hilts in unison.
“How dare you...!”
Led by Jeong-a, the maids too gripped their sword hilts in unison.
That was the moment.
The wrists of the escorts who had gripped their sword hilts all fell to the ground at once.
It was such precise swordsmanship that even they, having lost their wrists, realized what happened from the sound of them hitting the floor.
“Argh, aaaagh!”
The steward leaped back in horror at the sight.
The escorts, true to Sword Clan warriors, calmly pressed their pressure points to staunch the bleeding and retreated.
“You mad bastards...”
A man in guard uniform stood there, holding a single sword in his hand.
Surprisingly, the blade that had severed the escorts’ wrists was spotless, without a drop of blood.
Moreover, it was a training sword without a proper edge.
“How dare you grip your sword hilts toward the Eldest Young Master of the main house...?”
The sword in the hands of the Life-Seizing Ghost Sword flashed once more.
This time too, the blade made no sound.
No shadow either.
The forearms of the escorts, who had retreated warily in different directions, were sliced off all at once.
There were no blind spots in his sword.
“What are you waiting for? You insane traitorous scum.”
At the word “traitors,” the warriors realized what they had done.
Having always scorned the Swordless One, they had committed an outrageous act.
The Life-Seizing Ghost Sword bared his teeth, exuding a terrifying killing intent.
It was a killing intent so intense that even the serene air of the Won-gak Pavilion felt frozen.
“Had you any honor as warriors, die gripping your swords.”
As his sword moved to strike again, Yeon So-hyeon’s low voice rang out.
“Enough.”
The Life-Seizing Ghost Sword halted his blade but did not withdraw it from them.
Seeing this, Yeon So-hyeon spoke again.
“No one takes a life in this Won-gak Pavilion. That is the inviolable law set by my mother, the Great Lady of this house.”
The Life-Seizing Ghost Sword immediately sheathed his sword.
The steward foamed at the mouth.
“E-Eldest Young Master! Do you think you can harm Elder Yeom’s warriors and get away with it?!”
“Yes.”
Yeon So-hyeon grabbed the steward by the collar and slapped his cheek.
Even without channeling inner energy, he was a practitioner of the Extreme Rock Pure Heaven Scripture.
By the Medicine King’s words, not quite human.
He could tear and rip people apart with raw strength alone.
The steward’s cheek burst open, and teeth scattered through the air.
Yeon So-hyeon looked down indifferently at the steward, dangling by his collar, and opened his mouth.
“My mother said not to kill.”
His palm struck the steward once more.
The few remaining teeth flew through the air amid a mist of blood.
“And I’m certain Elder Yeom won’t say a word even if I turn not just the warriors, but ignorant scum like this steward, into cripples.”
His palm struck the steward again.
Now half the steward’s face was a bloody mess, his cheekbone collapsed, and one eyeball ruptured and dangled down.
“Do you know why?”
He was clearly asking the steward, but the man had already passed out.
“I-I don’t know, sir.”
A warrior, clutching his severed forearm and staunching the blood, answered in his place.
Yeon So-hyeon smiled at him.
“Elder Yeom knows his own worth. No matter how lacking I may seem, he’s wise enough to calculate that his own reputation pales compared to mine.”
Yeon So-hyeon bared his teeth at the warriors.
“So what’s the conclusion?”
The warriors could offer no reply.
Then Yeon So-hyeon’s palm struck the steward yet again.
An ear tore off and flew away, flesh peeled back to reveal the already fractured cheekbone.
“This bastard lied, that’s what.”
Yeon So-hyeon shook the hand gripping the steward’s collar at the speechless warriors.
“And even if it wasn’t a lie, it doesn’t matter.”
As his killing intent leaked out, a chill far surpassing the Life-Seizing Ghost Sword’s swept over them.
“I’ll reduce the elder and this scum to the same state.”
As everyone froze in place, Jeong-a stepped forward.
“...Master.”
Yeon So-hyeon sighed and withdrew his killing intent.
But he did not release the steward, and said to the warriors,
“Worried I might break Mother’s command? Don’t worry.”
Yeon So-hyeon chuckled.
“Because this place has the Central Plains’ top two physicians.”
Then the Medicine King stepped forward.
“It seems Elder Yeom’s subordinate acted out of excessive loyalty in his eagerness for merit.”
He approached Yeon So-hyeon and continued,
“Elder Yeom’s daughter suffers from an incurable illness, so whenever I passed through Luoyang, I would examine her.”
The Medicine King frowned at the blood-soaked courtyard.
“Eldest Young Master. For the sake of my friendship with Elder Yeom, or for the sake of the ancestral hall where we tended this courtyard, wouldn’t it be best to let them go now?”
He tried to act composed, but Yeon So-hyeon could easily guess the turmoil in his heart at seeing his grandson’s mangled state.
Yeon So-hyeon tossed the half-dead steward at the warriors’ feet.
The Medicine King said to them,
“With this unfortunate incident, inform them I can no longer tend to his daughter.”
To those who knew Elder Yeom’s temperament, it was tantamount to a death sentence.
But they could say nothing, bowed deeply, hoisted the steward, and left the Won-gak Pavilion.
The Life-Seizing Ghost Sword followed them to the gate, confirming they had fully departed.
The courtyard fell silent.
A moment later, without turning, Yeon So-hyeon said to the Medicine King,
“This is my responsibility too.”
The Medicine King said nothing, waiting for Yeon So-hyeon to continue.
“Because of my foolishness and inaction, despite being scorned, four promising main house warriors have paid the price.”
Their wrists and forearms still lay scattered in the courtyard.
The Medicine King sighed and approached Yeon So-hyeon.
“...No. They merely paid for their own stupidity.”
He placed an arm around Yeon So-hyeon’s shoulders.
“Come, let’s run through the night until dawn with this old man today.”
Yeon So-hyeon smirked.
“No, at your age, ‘run’? Lacks dignity.”
“You brat? Come to think of it, you said earlier the Central Plains has two top physicians? I must’ve misheard. Isn’t the top just this Medicine King?”
“You heard right. The Medicine King is the Central Plains’ top, and I’m this continent’s top.”
As the two bantered and returned to the room, Jeong-a breathed a sigh of relief.
She had worried that her master’s agitated emotions might bring out “that.”
It had only been recently that her master’s spirit, eroding after the mass slaughter, had stabilized.
She clapped her hands.
“What are you all doing? Hurry and clean up this mess, and prepare more drinking snacks.”
The Triplet Maids, still chilled by the lingering aftermath of Yeon So-hyeon’s killing intent, sprang into bustling action.
* * *
“What?”
A massive greatsword repeatedly smashed into the ground.
“Say it again.”
Each clash shook the earth like an earthquake, booming like thunder.
“I said say it again?!”
The building trembled, and dust piled in unseen corners scattered into the air.
“Why no answer?!”
The ground cratered deeply.
Those around paled.
“Elder.”
“What?”
Unable to stand it, his aide stepped forward and said,
“As you see, he’s been dead for a while.”
Elder Yeom ground his teeth.
What he had been relentlessly pounding with his giant sword was his steward, returned in a half-dead state.
The corpse was so brutally pulverized that it was impossible to tell if it had been man or beast.
Elder Yeom sighed, gazing at the blood-soaked lump of meat jammed into the cratered ground.
He flung his giant sword over his shoulder, and it arced gracefully into its fixed sheath.
Sword control technique.
He slumped to the floor.
“...Damn it, I killed him in a fit of rage. Gonna get an earful again.”
He looked at the four warriors prostrated before him, heads to the ground.
“You lot, go confess your crimes to the Law-Enforcing Maiden and accept punishment. If you feel wronged, demand a duel trial.”
“...Our thanks for your grace!”
The warriors shouted loudly, yet they trembled more than when Elder Yeom had raged.
None among them seemed bold enough to request a duel trial.
Elder Yeom waved them off.
“Now get out, all except the staff.”
Once the group had left, only the handful he called his staff remained.
“The Medicine King says he won’t visit anymore?”
“From what I confirmed, he said, ‘Due to this unfortunate incident, I can no longer examine the young lady.’”
Elder Yeom didn’t say it was all the same.
At his level, he knew full well how much a single phrasing could differ.
“My head’s already splitting from the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly...”
Elder Yeom clutched his head with a hand like a bear’s paw.
“...Swordless One, Swordless One, that damned Swordless One!”
He slammed the floor with his bare hand, cracking the stone tiles like a spiderweb.
In a low voice, he said,
“The underlings are gravely mistaken about something...”
His chief of staff followed up.
“What is that?”
Elder Yeom answered,
“The Eldest Young Master wasn’t called Swordless One because he was ignored for being swordless. He was called Swordless One because he stayed silent despite being ignored.”
He looked up at the ceiling.
“If he doesn’t stay silent, he’s not the Swordless One. Then what is he?”
“Then he would be the Eldest Young Master.”
Elder Yeom bellowed,
“Right! The Eldest Young Master! The Eldest Young Master of the Great Luoyang Sword Clan! Does any bastard here not know his place in the main house law’s precedence ranking?! Does any not know how heavy his name carries?!”
“...We are ashamed.”
The staff bowed deeply in unison.
“But how the hell do you educate the underlings?!”
He shouted at his staff.
“Re-educate every single one under me on precedence! Especially double—no, triple it for those muscle-headed warriors with nothing but swordsmanship in their skulls!”
His staff replied in loud unison.
“And find a way to bring the Medicine King back!”
He growled like a mountain lord.
“And anyone who brings a plan dragging in someone they can’t take responsibility for...”
He pointed a finger.
All eyes turned to the lump of meat in the pit.