Chapter 157
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 157
Chapter Title: What Are You Gonna Do?
Zhang Yi-geol.
A first-generation disciple of the Zhongnan Sect, one of the instructors dispatched from Zhongnan to the Dragon Training Pavilion as part of the Hidden Dragon Corps.
He had come seeking Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul.
Not of his own volition.
It was due to pressure from his home sect.
More precisely, pressure from his martial uncle, the sect leader Ju Jae-seung.
He found himself facing Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul in a place he had no desire to visit.
"Instructor Jang. What brings you here?"
"I've come at the request of my home sect."
"Hm? I haven't received any such request."
Zhang Yi-geol swallowed a sigh at Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul's question.
That had been the proper procedure.
If there was a request, the Zhongnan Sect should have sent it directly to the Dragon Training Pavilion.
Yet they had sent a mere instructor to relay the message.
This was a blatant disregard for the Dragon Training Pavilion and its lord.
"My apologies. I have no face left to show."
Zhang Yi-geol had no choice but to bow his head.
"No need for that. These things happen. So, what is the request?"
"...They ask that student Baek Ri-pyeong be expelled from the pavilion."
"I heard that student Baek Ri-pyeong already sent a detailed explanation of the circumstances to Zhongnan?"
There was nothing to say.
Yet the urging had come regardless.
His face burned with shame.
His cheeks flushed hot.
And well they should. A fellow disciple in the Discipline Hall had secretly informed him.
The sect leader had turned the Discipline Hall upside down, demanding Baek Ri-pyeong be brought back.
Of course, the Discipline Hall Lord had soothed and sent him away.
One had to wonder if this was truly the Zhongnan Sect, one of the Nine Great Sects representing the orthodox factions.
"Since the responsible instructor is absent, approval has been delayed. They request that you handle the expulsion using your authority as pavilion lord."
Zhang Yi-geol forced the words out.
Pang Do-yul offered no reply. He fell silent for a moment, lost in thought.
At last, he spoke.
"Instructor Jang."
"Yes."
"It's the off-season break, so you'll be returning to your home sect soon?"
"Yes. I'm scheduled to leave in three days. My home sect instructed me to bring student Baek Ri-pyeong back with me if possible."
He was subtly conveying his own difficult position to Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul.
"But suppose, while you're away at the Zhongnan Sect, your assigned student comes to me requesting expulsion. Since you're back at your home sect, approval couldn't come until the break ends. But if I approved it using my authority as pavilion lord, how would you feel?"
A perfectly reasonable question.
He himself oversaw students as an instructor.
If one of his charges up and requested expulsion without his approval...
He'd probably feel...
Terribly bitter about it.
After all the time they'd spent together through thick and thin.
"I understand what you're saying. I'll relay it well to my home sect."
"Thank you for understanding."
Zhang Yi-geol bowed deeply and left the pavilion lord's office.
As he headed toward his quarters, for some reason he found his feet carrying him elsewhere.
The Fierce Dragon Corps training ground.
It stood empty.
The break was for first-year students, and the second-years were about to head to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
They were likely receiving their final training from Instructor Jegal Myeong at the grand training hall.
It was quiet.
Or it should have been. A faint noise reached his ears.
He followed the sound, and it grew louder.
Group Seven's training ground.
There, six students sweated profusely, immersed in their training.
Zhang Yi-geol watched them with admiration.
The results of the Summer Combat Festival were no fluke or accident.
They were inevitable.
These might be all the students in the Dragon Training Pavilion training of their own accord.
Zhang Yi-geol's gaze naturally drifted to Baek Ri-pyeong.
A natural reaction.
As the home sect's second-generation disciple, the boy was like a martial nephew to him.
He watched quietly.
They were practicing the Three Talents Sword Method.
But their movements were anything but ordinary.
He already knew Group Seven of the Fierce Dragon Corps mainly used the Three Talents Sword Method from the Summer Combat Festival.
'Martial Uncle Baek Ri always said: The beginning of the sword is the basics, and the end is the basics.'
For some reason, that Three Talents Sword Method felt exactly like the sword basics his martial uncle had emphasized so fervently.
The six students were lost in training ecstasy, unaware of their observer.
Zhang Yi-geol quietly turned away.
He shook his head.
To drag back a child with such talent and snuff it out.
'Where is Zhongnan headed? I'm worried we're growing too complacent in the peace we've only just found.'
Zhang Yi-geol's face darkened.
"Huff... huff... huff... Tenth Protector. How much farther do we have to run?"
The woman in blue martial robes, her face covered with white cloth, panted heavily as she asked.
The old man called the Tenth Protector replied with a stern face.
"Eldest Young Lady. We must go as far as possible, as fast as possible."
"Why on earth is this happening?"
"A monster might be chasing us. The Gate Lord sent you to escape in preparation for what may come."
Incomprehensible words.
Chang'an was still peaceful. The martial world was the same.
Yet this talk of escaping in preparation for the future.
She wondered if she was truly living in the same martial world as her mother and the Tenth Protector.
"St-still, let's rest a moment. I can't run anymore."
The Tenth Protector nodded reluctantly at the Eldest Young Lady's plea.
"Very well. We'll rest for one incense stick's time."
They had fled Chang'an in such haste they hadn't even secured horses.
They simply unleashed their lightness skills to the utmost.
The Hao Gate Lord's ultimate technique, Fleeting Shadow Step, was both a movement art and lightness skill, incredibly swift, allowing them to cover great distances.
"If we go this way, are we heading to Gansu Province?"
The Hao Gate's Eldest Young Lady, Yeong So-hyang, gazed at the distant landscape and asked.
"Yes. We should flee beyond the border for now."
The Tenth Protector spoke with a grim expression.
He clutched his chest. It held their last hope.
Unknown even to the Gate Lord and Second Protector.
Known only to him.
That was why he had volunteered to escort the Eldest Young Lady.
"We'll only go as far as Goryeong. We'll procure horses there, so it'll be easier afterward."
Yeong So-hyang listened silently, her face pensive.
A moment later, she spoke.
"It's because of that divine art, isn't it?"
No matter how she thought about it, that was the only reason for this escape in preparation for the future.
They called it a divine art, but it wasn't yet.
She knew its foundation was the Extermination Merit.
She also knew exactly how her only sibling had died.
The thought made Yeong So-hyang startle.
A conclusion had formed.
Extermination Merit, her sibling, and the escape.
"Don't tell me he's come to Chang'an?"
Upon receiving word of his arrival, the first thing the Hao Gate did was send Yeong So-hyang to escape.
Thus, she hadn't heard the news of his arrival.
Afterward, she had simply followed the Tenth Protector's urgings, silently unleashing her lightness skill.
"Yes."
The Tenth Protector replied with a darkened face.
The Hao Gate's sworn enemy.
Yet an foe they still lacked the power to avenge themselves against: Ha Mu-baek.
In truth, Yeong So-hyang couldn't decide.
Ha Mu-baek was indeed the enemy who killed her sibling.
But before that, the Hao Gate had dabbled in the Extermination Merit.
They had touched the taboo unanimously forbidden across the entire martial world by the orthodox sects.
Did they lack the resolve for consequences when committing such an act?
Yeong So-hyang had opposed the Extermination Merit research from the start.
That was why her younger sister had taken the lead. The sibling had supported the ideal of building a stronger Hao Gate.
"Eldest Young Lady. We must return and exact vengeance."
The Tenth Protector's eyes reddened, his voice choked with emotion.
His feelings had surged during their conversation.
"What are you gonna do? Just the two of us?"
At the voice from behind, the two whipped around in shock.
There he was.
Ha Mu-baek.
How?
Was he really here now?
No, his presence here meant...
"Wh-what happened to Mother?"
Yeong So-hyang demanded urgently.
From the moment Ha Mu-baek became the Hao Gate's sworn enemy, she had memorized his portrait countless times, so she recognized him instantly.
"What do you think?"
Ha Mu-baek countered.
Yeong So-hyang's eyes trembled with anxiety at the question.
All sorts of grim imaginings flooded her mind.
Ha Mu-baek's gaze shifted to the Tenth Protector.
"More importantly, I'm curious about what you said earlier. 'We must return and exact vengeance.' Sounds like you've got something to rely on?"
Ferocious eyes.
A voice like a beast growling.
Even though it wasn't directed at her, Yeong So-hyang's legs went weak.
"From what I see, neither of you has cultivated the Extermination Merit."
No traces of the Extermination Merit in his Infinite Bright Wheel Eye.
"Well, better confirm it once more."
With those words, Ha Mu-baek's left and right fists shot toward them separately.
"Kuhk."
"Eek."
The two hastily dodged the fists.
But it didn't end there.
The relentless Shadow Homage Fist pursued them doggedly.
They drew their swords to counter Ha Mu-baek's fists.
Over ten exchanges passed in a flash.
The longer the clash dragged on, the harder it became to hold out.
Suddenly, Yeong So-hyang felt doubt creep in.
Why?
Ha Mu-baek was a powerhouse who could take their heads in a single exchange.
This back-and-forth was probably mere child's play to him.
And he hadn't even started strong.
He was gradually increasing the power from a level they could just barely dodge and counter.
To the point where it became unbearable.
Still, Yeong So-hyang gritted her teeth and resisted.
"Kyaaak!"
In the end, she failed to withstand a single fist and screamed as she tumbled away.
"Sixteen exchanges. Confirmed: you haven't cultivated it."
Ha Mu-baek muttered.
He had pushed her to her limit, but the only internal energy she used was the Fleeting Illusion Art.
With the Infinite Bright Wheel Eye, he would have spotted even a single stage of Extermination Merit.
His initial scan had shown no traces in either of them.
But this time, he didn't let it slide.
Because of Yeo Cho-ah's eyes glowing blue.
The Hao Gate had succeeded, however slightly, in altering the Extermination Merit.
They hadn't removed the curse.
So, he suspected they might be hiding it.
Thus, he pushed them to the brink.
To force the Extermination Merit to manifest if they had cultivated it.
Yeong So-hyang showed no traces to the end.
She was clean.
'But this one...'
The Tenth Protector endured Ha Mu-baek's attacks at a far higher realm than Yeong So-hyang.
He had already lasted twenty exchanges.
His clothes billowed wildly, his face flushed red.
After Yeong So-hyang fell, Ha Mu-baek pressed even harder.
Finally.
His eyes began to glow blue.
"So you have cultivated it."
A cold, chilling declaration.
"H-how?!"
Yeong So-hyang was just as shocked by the sight.
As far as she knew, the only one in the Hao Gate who had cultivated the divine art was her mother.
She knew the Tenth Protector oversaw the divine art research.
But those researching it never cultivated it themselves.
Falling to the curse would halt all further research.
Yet he had cultivated it.
And it seemed to be at a higher realm than her mother's.
Ha Mu-baek sensed it too.
"You're at a higher realm than Yeo Cho-ah."
Yeo Cho-ah's Extermination Merit was at the eleventh stage.
Right before becoming a Blood Corpse.
But the Hao Gate's researched variant of the Extermination Merit.
It wasn't at the eleventh stage.
Yeo Cho-ah had cultivated both simultaneously, causing them to mutate like hybrids.
The Tenth Protector was different.
He hadn't cultivated the Extermination Merit.
Instead, he had cultivated their new "divine" Extermination Merit.
At a far higher realm than Yeo Cho-ah's.
Ha Mu-baek furrowed his brow.
An Extermination Merit undetectable by the Infinite Bright Wheel Eye unless actively circulated.
'I underestimated the Hao Gate too much... No, wait.'
A thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
He hoped it wasn't true.