Chapter 111
Chapter 111
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 111
Chapter Title: Mount Tai Sword Gate (3)
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However, Ouyang Jue didn't know what kind of past the old man shared with Cheol Geum-san.
Besides, to him, Cheol Geum-san was nothing more than a turncoat, a black-hearted traitor.
It was impossible to feel even a shred of warmth for such a person. He couldn't even pretend to say he was a good man for the old man's sake.
To do so would be to shame the disciples who died back then.
No matter how many questions he had for the old man, he didn't want to tarnish the honor of the dead to get answers.
So, Ouyang Jue simply waited for the old man to compose himself and rise.
Fortunately, it didn't take long.
"...That friend of yours, how long has he been dead?"
"Less than half a year."
"Was incense burned for him?"
"The Sect Leader did not permit it."
At those words, the old man's expression turned grim.
"The unfortunate bastard. How on earth did he come to make such a choice?"
"..."
"I just can't believe that friend became so vile. Then why haven't rumors spread throughout the martial world?"
"As you know, elder, the Asura Demonic Scripture is a remnant of the old Demonic Cult."
Ouyang Jue answered honestly, hoping for some kind of reaction from the old man.
"I heard it was kept quiet out of fear that the Mount Hua Sect might decline, just like the Mount Tai Sword Gate here."
The old man flared up at his words, shouting.
"Decline! The Mount Tai Sword Gate is still standing perfectly fine! Once the embers are rekindled, it will rise again!"
"For that to happen, haven't the martial arts of the Mount Tai Sword Gate been scattered to the four winds?"
With a calm voice, Ouyang Jue pierced straight through the old man's pretense.
"I didn't say anything for fear of offending you, elder, but as I looked around the halls, I wondered. Why is a sect with a history as deep as the Mount Tai Sword Gate so empty, with so few secret manuals? A sect with nothing left but tombstones."
"..."
"Can the Mount Tai Sword Gate of today truly be considered alive?"
Ouyang Jue pointed down the mountain.
He gestured toward the Taoist temple right below Mount Tai, as well as Huaiyin County in Jiangsu where he had met Bai Chuan, and spoke.
He deliberately laced his words with scorn.
"Before coming up Mount Tai, I looked around the area. Some insignificant minor sect was calling itself the greatest in the vicinity, despite the Mount Tai Sword Gate being right here."
"What are you trying to say?"
The old man's lip twitched in displeasure, and Ouyang Jue asked in a cold voice.
"What exactly happened during the war with the old Demonic Cult?"
The old man's expression hardened instantly.
"That is none of your concern."
"Wasn't there something that happened within the Orthodox Faction, besides the Demonic Cult? That's why the Mount Tai Sword Gate and the Mount Hua Sect..."
"Enough, enough!"
The old man shouted, cutting him off, and spun around.
But Ouyang Jue had already noticed the old man's eyes had turned red.
*'To find out the old man's identity, I'll have to borrow the power of the Iron Wind Dog...'*
There couldn't be any carrier pigeons here, and it was highly likely that other factions were watching the Mount Tai Sword Gate.
No matter how much it had declined, the Mount Tai Sword Gate was still the Mount Tai Sword Gate.
It was once a prestigious sect that had surpassed all others to become the hegemon of the northern plains. There was no way such a sect would be left completely unattended.
So, it was best to gather information as quickly as possible and descend the mountain.
Ouyang Jue's eyes slowly closed.
*'In that case, I have no choice but to break through this on my own.'*
Did he really have a way?
Ouyang Jue recalled and mulled over everything his memory allowed, from the most trivial encounters to single lines of conversation.
Then, a particular phrase suddenly came to mind.
*'Come to think of it, when the Zhenzhou Yan Clan invaded the Mount Hua Sect... didn't Yan Yang-gun say this?'*
"The sword arts of the Mount Hua Sect will finally flow into the Zhenzhou Yan Clan. If mixed with the Three Severing Swords, a peerless technique will be born."
At the time, watching them from hiding, he had scoffed at the nonsensical words... but thinking back now, it was a strange thing to say.
Martial arts weren't some kind of fried rice; does mixing them ever produce a proper result?
Absolutely not. If anything, they usually became ambiguous or their weaknesses grew larger.
Furthermore, the Zhenzhou Yan Clan primarily used the Yan Clan Fist.
From Ouyang Jue's perspective, the Three Severing Swords was a technique he hadn't heard much about, so it was odd for the head of the Zhenzhou Yan Clan to mention it himself.
*'What if the birth of the Three Severing Swords was actually related to the Mount Tai Sword Gate? Is that why he spoke so freely about mixing them?'*
It was like lightning striking inside his head.
Ouyang Jue recalled the old man's movements and the sword arts used by the Zhenzhou Yan Clan's warriors and began to compare them.
*'They're similar...!'*
The difference in skill between the old man and the Yan Clan was so vast that they felt completely different.
But the fundamental sword path was similar.
If so, all that was left was to drive the final nail in.
Ouyang Jue looked at the old man's back and shouted.
"The Zhenzhou Yan Clan!"
Flinch. The old man's shoulders trembled.
That reaction alone was enough for Ouyang Jue to smile triumphantly. Now, even if the old man refused to speak, he had more ways to find out.
He could descend the mountain right now and ask the Iron Wind Dog to investigate...
Clang!
As the old man suddenly drew his sword and charged, Ouyang Jue let out a short breath.
His Plum Blossom Sword, now unfolding naturally, enveloped and dispersed the old man's surprise attack.
The old man asked in a heavy voice.
"...You bastard, were you sent by the Zhenzhou Yan Clan?"
"It's a misunderstanding."
"Then why did you shout the name of the Zhenzhou Yan Clan? Are you trying to mock me?"
"Mock you?"
Ouyang Jue wore a relaxed smile.
"I think things are about to get interesting."
***
As Ouyang Jue's story grew longer, the old man began to focus intently.
He clenched his fists upon hearing that the Three Evils of Shaanxi had tried to harm Ha Jin-ak with cowardly tactics, and he tilted his head, saying he'd never heard of an underworld group called the Black Dragon Gang.
But at the name Bai Wun-hwan, his face hardened.
They must have known each other.
Ouyang Jue carefully observed the old man's reactions as he continued his story.
"Also, the Martial Alliance..."
"Skip that part. I have no interest in hearing about it."
When the old man flatly refused to listen, a strange light glinted in Ouyang Jue's eyes.
Sensing this, the old man realized his slip and quickly added.
"It's just my personal dislike for the Martial Alliance. Don't misunderstand and connect it to the Mount Tai Sword Gate."
"I may not know your name, elder, but I assume you hold a high position in the Mount Tai Sword Gate."
"..."
"Well, let's move on to the next part. Perhaps this is the story you've been waiting for the most, elder."
The Zhenzhou Yan Clan.
From the moment that name was spoken, the old man had exuded a hostility so palpable it could suffocate.
Ouyang Jue decided to cut to the chase and start with the conclusion.
Of course, carefully concealing what needed to be hidden, Ouyang Jue's lips parted slightly.
"The Zhenzhou Yan Clan has been annihilated."
"...?! What did you say?"
"I hear that their elite members, including the clan head Yan Yang-gun, have all gone missing."
At those words, the old man shook his head as if he couldn't possibly believe it.
"How is that even possible? Aren't they just away for a few days?"
"It's been over a month since they disappeared without a word, and all the commercial rights the Zhenzhou Yan Clan once held have been absorbed by others."
"At this point, you can't just dismiss it as an act," Ouyang Jue added with a nonchalant shrug.
"Hah..."
As someone who knew of Yan Yang-gun's greed and the ambitions of the Zhenzhou Yan Clan, the old man couldn't help but let out a deep sigh.
No matter what scheme they were plotting, they would never abandon their commercial interests in Anping, which were centered on the Shi Clan.
Only then did the old man begin to open up to Ouyang Jue, taking the initiative to ask a question.
"What about the Hebei Peng Clan?"
Ouyang Jue was startled by the mention of the Hebei Peng Clan and repeated the name.
"The Hebei Peng Clan?"
"...Seeing you ask like that, I suppose the Hebei Peng Clan hasn't made any significant moves. Well, it must be a real headache trying to convert the Mount Tai Sword Gate's sword arts into saber arts."
The old man let out a dry, satisfied chuckle.
"By the way, you Mount Hua brat. That technique you just used was the Purple Mist Divine Arts, wasn't it?"
"Yes, it was. I don't know if you're aware, but the current Sect Leader of Mount Hua is Bai Duanxian, and I am his disciple."
He worried the old man might persecute him for being the disciple of Bai Duanxian, the one who killed Cheol Geum-san, but the old man no longer seemed to care.
"Bai Duanxian, you say? So that bastard became the Sect Leader. Tsk tsk... he's come a long way."
"Please do not refer to the Sect Leader as 'that bastard'."
"You look like the type to live as you please, yet you're so damn picky about titles."
Ouyang Jue felt a pang of guilt at those words but didn't let it show.
"...Ahem. So, why did you ask about the Hebei Peng Clan?"
"If you're bringing up the Zhenzhou Yan Clan, don't you already know?"
The old man gritted his teeth, his eyes filled with deep hatred.
His expression was as cold as ice, as if he were about to spit out a curse at any moment.
Seeing that, Ouyang Jue inwardly guessed what had been done to the Mount Tai Sword Gate.
"Could it be... the empty secret manual library... that the sword arts were leaked to the Zhenzhou Yan Clan and the Hebei Peng Clan?"
"Leaked! It was no different than them stealing it by force, like a band of thieves!"
Watching the old man's internal energy surge to the heavens in a fit of rage, Ouyang Jue fell into even greater confusion.
He had prided himself on having experienced so much in his past life, yet the more he learned, the deeper he seemed to fall into a complex labyrinth.
*'There are the Eight Evils who have lived for hundreds of years, and the talisman the Omniscient One drew for me had nothing to do with my return to this life. And now there's a secret behind the war with the old Demonic Cult that changed the landscape of the martial world into what it is today...?'*
Ouyang Jue thought of the Heaven-Bearing Asura, the last opponent he had faced.
*'Was I, in my past life, nothing more than someone's puppet?'*
A hollow laugh escaped him.
It was laughable that he, who thought he had experienced everything in his past life, had in fact only seen the moonlight reflected on the surface of a deep well.
*'From now on, I have no choice but to find out the truth.'*
Ouyang Jue cleared his chaotic thoughts.
"May I ask your name now, elder?"
At his question, the old man glanced once at the half-decayed Mount Tai Sword Gate before speaking.
"Jeok Sang. In my younger days, I was called the Iron Blood Sword."
"...I see."
Ouyang Jue quickly racked his brain, trying to recall the name Jeok Sang.
But this was his first time ever making contact with the Mount Tai Sword Gate, and the title 'Iron Blood Sword' was also completely new to him.
As if sensing this,
Jeok Sang scoffed at Ouyang Jue.
"There's no way a young brat like you would know me. Bai Duanxian might, though."
"Then, does the Sect Leader also know what happened to the Mount Tai Sword Gate?"
A flash of shame washed over Jeok Sang's face, turning it red.
"This is hardly something to boast about. When I think of the seniors who passed on, I feel like I could just shove my face in a gutter and die."
Ouyang Jue nodded deeply in understanding.
After he had driven the Mount Hua Sect to ruin with his own hands, how had he acted?
He had literally gone on a killing spree, hunting down the members of the group he belonged to in reverse order, all to find a place to die.
If he hadn't regressed while facing the Heaven-Bearing Asura at the end, he would have surely died right then and there.
"I know of the Hebei Peng Clan."
"...?"
As Jeok Sang tilted his head in confusion, Ouyang Jue recalled his past life.
"We were acquainted."
The group where the Bloodhound, Ouyang Jue, a wanderer of battlefields, had belonged until he was on the verge of death from debt. The very place that had sought to unify the martial world by swallowing up all the declining sects, including Mount Hua.
That place was the Hebei Peng Clan.
Ouyang Jue looked at Jeok Sang with serious eyes.
*'Finally, I can solve the mysteries I held from my past life.'*
Why the Hebei Peng Clan attacked the Mount Hua Sect, and why the surrounding sects silently condoned their growth.
He had never known the reason in his past life.
He had just been an exceptional warrior, not an important figure within the Hebei Peng Clan.
If he could resolve the questions from his past life now, it would surely be a great help in his current one.
Ouyang Jue clasped his hands together and bowed to Jeok Sang.
"Could you please tell me the story in detail?"
"Well, it's not difficult. But if you run your mouth about this elsewhere, you'll be in for a world of trouble."
"I'll be fine."
"Is that so? Then..."
Recalling the various incidents, from the war with the old Demonic Cult to the present day, Jeok Sang's expression naturally soured.
"So... it must have started about twenty years ago."
Jeok Sang began to recount the long, secret history.