Chapter 156
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 156
Chapter Title: Didn't You Say You Didn't Care?
A figure plummeted lightly downward.
It was an old man with white hair and a kindly, white-bearded face.
Song Ho-shin was startled upon seeing him.
It was a familiar face.
And someone who had no business being in Chang'an.
"Y-Yeom-sa Elder..."
Yeom-sa Hwa Yu-gun.
One of the top ten unorthodox masters and currently a protector elder of the Unorthodox Alliance.
"What brings you here, old timer?"
Ha Mu-baek spoke as if it were nothing.
"I've been tending to the sects under the Unorthodox Alliance around here. But they urgently told me to come since you were here. That strategist was nagging so much. I only just arrived in Chang'an a few days ago."
"Didn't you say you didn't care? But you brought a whole bunch of kids. Well, I figured there'd be some followers since that guy was leaving marks everywhere."
Song Ho-shin flinched. He had left marks while trailing Ha Mu-baek, and sure enough, the man had known all along but played dumb.
Hwa Yu-gun was also the sect leader of the Blazing Flower Sect.
"I'm getting old—hard to travel alone, so I've got the kids with me. When they said I was going to meet you, I had to tag along. Heh heh."
Ha Mu-baek smirked at Hwa Yu-gun's banter.
"You sure can talk."
"That's how it is. You're no ordinary unpredictable fellow. We said we didn't care, but if you take offense and come charging in, it's a problem for us too."
"Treating me like some lunatic."
Ha Mu-baek said in disbelief.
Song Ho-shin and the Hao Gate's Second Protector stared at him with even greater incredulity.
'It kinda fits, though...'
'He is a lunatic!'
Those were the thoughts they dared not voice aloud.
"Anyway, since you're here, want to get some work done?"
Hwa Yu-gun replied to Ha Mu-baek's words with his usual smiling face.
"You mean handling the Hao Gate?"
"It's your affiliate. Dealing with Demonic Cultists is your job too."
He had a point.
It was the agreement between the Righteous Heaven Alliance and the Unorthodox Alliance.
When Demonic Cult incidents arose in righteous or unorthodox territories, each side took responsibility and cleaned up their own mess.
That was why the Righteous Heaven Alliance had been frantic handling the recent Pang Clan affair.
Now it was the Unorthodox Alliance's turn.
"True enough, but that's not why I came..."
"Then should I just kill them all?"
Ha Mu-baek asked.
"Honestly, I wouldn't mind either way."
Hwa Yu-gun said nonchalantly with a sly grin.
Even as he smiled with that kindly face, his true nature was unorthodox.
A cruel temperament lurked within.
Ha Mu-baek's gaze shifted to Ye Cho-ah and the Second Protector.
"Hear that? I don't want to, but the Unorthodox Alliance is washing their hands of you."
Ha Mu-baek looked away from Hwa Yu-gun as if there was no more business with him.
He then stood facing Ye Cho-ah and the Second Protector.
"Today, the Hao Gate will be erased from the martial world."
His words rang like a declaration.
The two were stunned.
Just moments ago, he had clearly said only those who had seen the Demonic Arts would die—and even then, he wouldn't since they hadn't defied his warning.
Yet here he was, flipping his stance in an instant.
And from a righteous sect member, no less.
The man really was a lunatic.
"W-Wait!"
Hwa Yu-gun cut in at that moment.
Because that guy was the type to follow through if he said he would.
"Why? Didn't you tell me to handle it my way?"
Ha Mu-baek shot Hwa Yu-gun an annoyed glance.
"No, that's not the same thing, is it? From what I heard, you were only going to kill those who saw or touched the Demonic Arts..."
Ha Mu-baek smirked at Hwa Yu-gun's words.
"Is it such a big deal for a madman to change his mind?"
"No, why the hell are you a madman!"
Hwa Yu-gun cried out in shock.
But Ha Mu-baek just kept smiling.
"You just called me one."
Hwa Yu-gun recalled Ha Mu-baek's words from moments before.
"So I have to become one."
Ha Mu-baek's eyes gleamed with madness.
This was trouble.
Serious trouble.
Hwa Yu-gun hadn't come here for this.
The Unorthodox Alliance Leader had given him a different task.
Once Ha Mu-baek eliminated the Hao Gate Leader, appoint a suitable successor and hand over an appropriate martial arts manual.
But if that guy wiped out the entire Hao Gate?
It would throw a massive wrench into his scheme of using Ha Mu-baek's hand to tidy up a pesky problem.
The man followed through on his word.
No matter what it was.
He'd seen it countless times in the last war.
He'd accomplished the impossible and pulled off the insane.
That was why he was a madman.
"Ah, fine. We'll handle the cleanup."
In the end, Hwa Yu-gun conceded.
Song Ho-shin watched the scene with a face that said nothing could surprise him anymore.
Who was Hwa Yu-gun?
As his moniker Flame Fiend suggested, he had a temper as fiery as flames.
He might feign kindly chuckles, but that wasn't his true nature.
Yet before Ha Mu-baek, he looked like nothing more than a harmless old geezer.
By his temperament, he should have exploded in rage—instead, he just floundered helplessly.
What was that madman, anyway?
"You should've said that from the start. Don't go turning normal folks into lunatics."
Ha Mu-baek said as he stepped aside. He gave a glance.
The signal to handle it.
"Hoo."
Hwa Yu-gun let out a deep sigh.
'Getting tangled up with that lunatic is always exhausting.'
His irritated gaze turned to Ye Cho-ah and the Second Protector.
"Ye Cho-ah, you'll be escorted back to headquarters. Your crimes are grave—no sunlight for you from here on."
"What's wrong with just wanting to get stronger!"
Ye Cho-ah shouted, her face full of disbelief.
"Sure, that might not be wrong. But you shouldn't have gotten caught. Especially not by that guy. That's your sin."
Her words revealed the Unorthodox Alliance's stance on the Demonic Arts.
Ha Mu-baek frowned but didn't interfere. Once handed over, he was done meddling.
"Come down."
At Hwa Yu-gun's command, his subordinates descended one after another.
The space that had held only five people was soon packed with over a dozen.
"Did you look into it?"
"Right here."
One of the Blazing Flower Sect subordinates handed Hwa Yu-gun a slim booklet.
"This from the Black Martial Corps branch here?"
"Yes."
Hwa Yu-gun flipped through it. Being small and thin, he finished quickly.
Then he eyed the Second Protector with a dissatisfied look.
"Tsk."
A light click of the tongue from Hwa Yu-gun.
"No suitable candidates. You."
"Yes? Y-Yes."
The Second Protector, still reeling from the sudden shift, startled at the call and replied.
"From now on, you're the Hao Gate Leader."
"What?"
The Second Protector was stunned anew.
Ye Cho-ah was just as shocked.
"Why the surprise? The Hao Gate Leader's going to rot in the Unorthodox Alliance prison for life. You planning to just leave the sect leaderless?"
"Eek! Why appoint a leader from the Unorthodox Alliance...!"
Ye Cho-ah cried out, her face refusing to accept it.
Even if she were gone, her successor remained.
Her eldest daughter, who had fled beyond Chang'an.
"Th-the Eldest Young Lady is..."
As the Second Protector started to speak, Hwa Yu-gun waved him off.
"That guy's chasing her. Who knows what'll happen. If she learned the Demonic Arts too, she'll end up the same—rotting in prison."
Ye Cho-ah trembled all over at those words.
"She might be safe..."
Hwa Yu-gun shook his head at the Second Protector's words.
"Even if she is, she's the daughter of a Demonic Arts criminal. The Unorthodox Alliance won't recognize her as leader. You dense fool. Everyone else would be fighting for the position. Why are you kicking up a fuss refusing? Just take it."
"This is interference in internal affairs! Even for the Unorthodox Alliance, that's going too far!"
Ye Cho-ah screamed.
Having lost all her inner power, it was just a hoarse shout.
Her voice was already spent.
"Ye Cho-ah possessed and practiced the Demonic Arts—that's why she's being punished. Not internal interference."
Hwa Yu-gun's argument was pure sophistry.
Even if they punished the leader, the next one should be chosen by the Hao Gate.
Not the Unorthodox Alliance.
"Don't give me that look. The Alliance has no bandwidth to meddle in Hao Gate operations. We're just finding a suitable candidate. Our intel says this guy's the best fit. That's it."
With that, Hwa Yu-gun tossed the booklet he'd been reading to Ye Cho-ah.
"See for yourself."
Ye Cho-ah picked it up.
As she flipped through it rapidly, her expressions shifted through a rainbow of emotions.
She never imagined the Unorthodox Alliance had infiltrated the Hao Gate's secrets this deeply.
Their pride in being the unorthodox factions' top information brokers rang hollow now.
With a resigned face, she set the booklet down.
"Well? See what I mean?"
Ye Cho-ah gave no reply to Hwa Yu-gun's question.
Nor did she argue.
Nodding at her reaction, Hwa Yu-gun pulled another booklet from his bosom.
He handed it to the Second Protector.
"What's this?"
"A congratulatory gift for becoming leader."
The Second Protector accepted it in a daze.
Then, upon seeing the title on the cover, his hand trembled holding the book.
"B-Blood Sea Ghost Death Palm..."
Ye Cho-ah's head snapped around at the voice. Even the silent Ha Mu-baek reacted.
It was unavoidable.
The Blood Sea Ghost Death Palm.
One of the Unorthodox Five Great Palm Techniques—an ultimate among ultimates.
It was the Blood Sea Sect's signature art, but it was believed lost when the sect was wiped out during the last war against the Demonic Cult.
The Blood Sea Sect had been a major unorthodox powerhouse, ranked fifteenth.
That such a manual still existed was shocking enough—but handing it straight to the Hao Gate was even more so.
"So that's why you came. Trying to dump your headache on someone else."
Ha Mu-baek muttered in disbelief.
In the end, Hwa Yu-gun's purpose here was to install a new Hao Gate Leader and pass on that martial art.
The idea had likely come from the White Pine Scholar, the strategist.
The Hao Gate had craved strength and, resentful of their weakness, foolishly touched the Demonic Arts.
This was a warning not to repeat it.
Satisfy with the Blood Sea Ghost Death Palm.
If they couldn't even be content with one of the Unorthodox Five Great Palm Techniques and pulled the same stunt again?
The Unorthodox Alliance Leader might wipe them out personally.
The Alliance had used the Hao Gate to gather worldwide intelligence, so they were giving one more chance.
Collecting broad intel directly was far too costly and laborious.
Far better to keep a close watch on the Hao Gate and exploit the information they brought in.
"Fox-like bastard. But if word gets out and swarms come after Demonic Arts from you or me? I won't hold back."
Ha Mu-baek warned, but Hwa Yu-gun just chuckled away.
"Forgot where we are? This is the Hao Gate. They're the best at gathering intel and spreading rumors—they'll manage it just fine. Right? Eh? But what's that in your hand? Heh. Blood Sea Ghost Death Palm, huh? Thought it vanished when the Blood Sea Sect fell in the war... Where'd you snag such a treasure?"
Ha Mu-baek shook his head in disbelief at Hwa Yu-gun's shameless act.
Ye Cho-ah glared at Hwa Yu-gun with eyes full of resentment.
"Why... why only now... If you'd done this sooner..."
"It's thanks to your anguish and struggles that we got this now. If touching the Demonic Arts was truly for the Hao Gate and not personal greed, you should rejoice that they've grown stronger this way. It took your sacrifice."
Ye Cho-ah's face twisted in complex emotions, but she said nothing.
"Then I'm off."
Ha Mu-baek turned to leave.
Those words snapped Ye Cho-ah to attention.
She knew exactly where he was headed.
"Th-that child knows nothing! P-Please..."
"I'll judge once I see."
Ha Mu-baek said as he leaped away.
His figure vanished in an instant.