Chapter 106
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 106
Chapter Title: Was It This?
What could it be?
Though it was the time when autumn was ending and winter was approaching.
Shwaaaah.
A fierce rain poured down.
The thick raindrops felt chilling even just to look at.
The cadets of Squad Seven from the Fierce Dragon Corps hurriedly entered an empty room in the Dragon Training Pavilion's schoolhouse to escape the downpour.
They had tried blocking the rain with their internal energy as best they could, but they were still soaked in places.
Only Ha Mu-baek remained perfectly dry and unruffled.
"I didn't know there was a place like this."
Ha Mu-baek said as he looked around.
"We've never used it before... but it's for classes on martial arts theory and such."
Dang Jin-san explained.
It was close to Squad Seven's training ground, so Dang Jin-san had taken the lead in bringing the cadets here. He already knew about the place.
"Martial arts theory... Hah."
Ha Mu-baek chuckled as he surveyed the room, which was large enough to hold about ten people.
"There's a library on the eighth floor, too."
Dang Jin-san shot back, as if irked by Ha Mu-baek's laugh.
The Dragon Training Pavilion's main library was a massive structure called the Library Pavilion behind the Pavilion Lord's quarters.
This place's library was about the size of an annex to that one.
Ha Mu-baek glanced up at the ceiling. All he could see was wooden beams blocking the view; there was no way to spot the eighth floor.
"Manuals. Hm. Good, manuals. But are there any worthwhile ones here?"
Ha Mu-baek stared straight at Dang Jin-san.
Dang Jin-san was the type who would occasionally visit the schoolhouse library whenever he had free time to browse the manuals.
He was the only one among Squad Seven's cadets who did so.
The main Library Pavilion had restrictions on entry, but the schoolhouse library had none. Any Dragon Training Pavilion cadet, even from the Fierce Dragon Corps, could freely read the manuals and books inside without limits.
"O-Of course there are!"
Ha Mu-baek smiled faintly at Dang Jin-san's response and asked again.
"So, it seems you've been diligently reading manuals here in your spare time. Did they help?"
"H-How did you..."
Dang Jin-san was startled by the question.
No one knew about that.
Not even Dan Mok Un-roe, who shared a room with him.
For Ha Mu-baek, it was simple.
He had occasionally sensed Dang Jin-san's energy here. He just hadn't cared enough to figure out what place it was.
Now that he'd come, he knew.
This was the eighth-floor library where Dang Jin-san usually went.
"You've got an unexpectedly scholarly side. But at your current level, you'd be better off using that time to sleep more."
"Even so..."
As Dang Jin-san started to protest, Ha Mu-baek cut in.
"You can barely digest what I'm teaching you. At your level, that is. Manuals are useless. Besides, I doubt there are any exceptional ones here. And even if there were, they'd be beyond your level."
"..."
Dang Jin-san fell silent.
"Besides, it's better to see it once than read it a hundred times. And better to try it once than see it a hundred times. So focus on training."
"Just doing self-study all the time..."
Dang Jin-san's quiet mutter followed.
"...Hm."
Ha Mu-baek paused for a moment.
That much, he couldn't refute.
"There are times when the theoretical parts get stuck or I have questions."
Baek Ri-pyeong, who had been silent until then, chimed in.
"Then ask. I'll answer."
Ha Mu-baek replied a bit awkwardly, averting his gaze slightly.
He had his own actions to consider from earlier.
"Anyway, the manuals here won't be much help to you all..."
As he spoke, Ha Mu-baek's gaze shifted to Dan Mok Un-roe, Yeon Ha-min, and Nak Woo-jin.
"No, wait. They won't help you two, Dang Jin-san and Baek Ri-pyeong. But for you three... they might actually mean something."
These three had essentially just begun learning martial arts this year.
And Ha Mu-baek had been preaching self-study nonstop.
"Instructor, you did kind of rush through teaching us."
Dang Jin-san nodded eagerly, seizing the moment.
Baek Ri-pyeong gave a small nod as well.
Dang Jin-san and Baek Ri-pyeong were disciples from prestigious clans.
They had systematically learned the basics there.
"Fine. Since we're already here and it's raining... self-study in the library. If you don't know something, ask Dang Jin-san or Baek Ri-pyeong."
At Ha Mu-baek's declaration, the five cadets' expressions turned subtly strange.
In the end, it was self-study again.
Whether they minded or not, Ha Mu-baek left the five cadets behind and exited the schoolhouse.
The rain showed no sign of stopping.
The downpour thickened, making it hard to see ahead.
It was a true late-autumn deluge.
Ha Mu-baek climbed onto the schoolhouse roof and gazed toward Lake Dongting.
His eyes darkened deeply.
"Is it fortunate... or unfortunate..."
A middle-aged man muttered as he peered out the inn's window.
A fairly large inn by Lake Dongting.
Filled to the brim with people due to the untimely torrential rain.
Lake Dongting, like Wuchang, was shrouded in rain so thick visibility was near zero.
The masked man called the Third Spirit Lord, Hyuk Ryeon-pyo.
His eyes were filled with complexity.
His subordinates had already assembled around Wuchang.
Two hundred in number.
In the current point organization structure, it was every subordinate he could personally mobilize.
In his bosom was the Mancheon Gold Chain Thunderbolt.
He had distributed the Mancheon Blood Thunder to his ten most elite subordinates.
They planned to unleash all eleven fire weapons on that bastard at once.
But then this sudden rain.
Such weather was the worst for fire weapons.
The Mancheon Gold Chain Thunderbolt might be fine, but some of the Mancheon Blood Thunders could misfire.
So they were just waiting endlessly for the rain to stop.
"Is this rain extending his life... or mine?"
Hyuk Ryeon-pyo murmured in the tiniest voice.
The Great Spirit Lord's words lingered in his mind.
Strike while the iron is hot.
But that bastard wasn't some mere snake.
He was a dragon.
His actions now might just provoke the dragon.
And the outcome could be the worst possible.
Hyuk Ryeon-pyo's gaze turned not toward Wuchang, but to some distant place.
'Cult Leader. Please...'
He thought it only in his mind, without voicing it.
May the Cult Leader's seclusion succeed.
After staring out the window for a long while, Hyuk Ryeon-pyo stood.
He judged this wasn't a rain that would stop in a day or two, so he headed to an upstairs room.
He needed rest.
In this state of heightened tension, he'd only botch the important task.
Three days later.
The sky cleared brilliantly, as if mocking the recent rains.
Yet Hyuk Ryeon-pyo did not move.
The rain had stopped, but the air was still humid.
He needed to be thorough.
Wait for the optimal conditions to use the fire weapons.
At that moment.
Ha Mu-baek was atop the schoolhouse roof.
The highest point in the Dragon Training Pavilion, so he'd been coming here often since dodging the rain last time.
The view was far better than from the Pavilion Lord's quarters roof.
"Hmm."
His contemplative gaze swept toward Lake Dongting, then around the surroundings.
"Something's definitely there..."
An inexplicable premonition.
The rain had stopped, but the air still felt ominous.
That ominous air enveloped the east side of Wuchang.
A sense that something was about to happen any moment.
And it felt directed at him.
But no matter how much he extended his energy sense, he caught nothing.
His master had said there were signs of crossing a wall, but he couldn't detect it.
Even through two wars, he'd never felt an enemy like this.
Sticky and viscous, yet vague and elusive.
Frustrated, he came here often, but nothing changed.
Ha Mu-baek sat cross-legged.
Closing his eyes, he entered meditation and expanded his energy sense to the maximum.
As far as it could go.
To his limits.
Ha Mu-baek's face gradually twisted.
His dantian screamed with pain like it might burst.
It was only natural. He wasn't just extending his sense—he had infused part of the Infinite Bright Wheel Eye's profundity into it.
Yet Ha Mu-baek remained steadfast.
His sense crept ever so slightly beyond the limit.
One step, one step.
"Ugh."
After five steps beyond the limit.
Ha Mu-baek groaned and curled up.
The agony resounding from his dantian forced him to stop.
"Hoo."
After the pain subsided, he let out a deep sigh.
No change.
Nothing different.
Still, Ha Mu-baek sat cross-legged again.
Keep hammering away like this, and something would change.
He believed that.
That was how Ha Mu-baek had grown strong so far.
Silently, steadily, straightforwardly advancing in one direction.
A cold wind blew.
Seven days had passed since the rain stopped.
The weather had turned chilly, as if questioning when it had rained so hard.
And with the cold came drier air.
Thoroughly parched atmosphere.
Hyuk Ryeon-pyo made his decision.
"Today."
As dusk fell and darkness settled.
At the words of the masked Hyuk Ryeon-pyo—no, the Third Spirit Lord—a subordinate beside him fired a signal flare.
To an outsider, it looked like fireworks launched for fun by a Lake Dongting traveler.
But his subordinates knew.
Assemble at Wuchang.
Eliminate Gong Mu-hyeok and Gong So-yu.
Annihilate any interference.
The Third Spirit Lord's two hundred subordinates spurred their horses toward Wuchang at breakneck speed.
Ha Mu-baek, deep in meditation, snapped his eyes open.
"Was it this?"
He finally grasped the identity of that sticky sensation.
Demonic energy.
Numerous strands of demonic energy racing toward Wuchang at high speed.
That was why he'd felt it around Wuchang.
As his master had said, there were indeed many signs of crossing a wall.
It was a sensation his past self wouldn't have noticed.
The moment they entered Ha Mu-baek's energy sense range, he immediately knew they were Demonic Cult remnants.
Having infused the Infinite Bright Wheel Eye's profundity, he felt their reeking demonic energy.
No matter how they tried to hide it, it was futile.
"And they don't even seem to be trying to hide it."
He didn't even need the Infinite Bright Wheel Eye's profundity.
They were going all out, brazenly emanating demonic energy as they approached.
"Did you sense it?"
His master arrived then.
"Yes."
"Demonic Cult bastards."
His master had faced off against Demonic Cult and Blood Cult vermin before.
He had wandered the world during the wars.
Before settling on Qinglan Island in Lake Dongting with him and his little sister, the number of Demonic Cult and Blood Cult scum who met their end at his master's hands was countless.
"You're definitely surpassing me."
Wi Ji-gun said, looking at Ha Mu-baek.
Even though Ha Mu-baek had extended his sense to the max, he had detected the Demonic Cult scum noticeably faster than Wi Ji-gun.
Sensing wasn't exactly realm, but at their level, it meant a lot.
"Think they're after you?"
Ha Mu-baek shook his head at Wi Ji-gun's question.
"I don't know."
He truly didn't.
Why were these bastards suddenly swarming Wuchang like this?
He'd caught and eliminated four sneaky rats last time, but that didn't mean they'd target him.
Blood Cult and Demonic Cult vermin would fear him more than the grim reaper.
And they'd know.
That a mere two hundred couldn't touch him.
Yet here they came, charging recklessly.
There had to be a purpose.
The reason those rats had infiltrated Wuchang before.
Surveillance on Gong Mu-hyeok and Gong So-yu.
"Maybe their target isn't me, but League Leader Gong."
That would explain their reckless charge.
A desperate assault where lives didn't matter, as long as they achieved their goal.
A suicidal advance toward the target they had to eliminate.
"I need to go to League Leader Gong."
"I'll grab Ran-ah and head there too."
The two figures vanished from the schoolhouse roof.