Chapter 162
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 162
Chapter Title: Going Home?
"You, walk with me a bit."
Ha Mu-baek said, looking at Baek Ri-pyeong.
At those words, Dan Mok Un-roe and Yeon Ha-min's expressions shifted in a peculiar way.
They knew what those words meant.
They themselves had walked with Ha Mu-baek before, and thanks to that, they had overcome major obstacles in their lives.
They saw no such signs from Baek Ri-pyeong, so the two looked at him in surprise.
His complicated, subtle expression.
It was an expression he had never worn before.
Yet as soon as the instructor returned, emotions clearly surfaced on his face.
Something must have happened.
Something big has come up.
Dan Mok Un-roe and Yeon Ha-min realized it immediately.
That the instructor had good reason to ask Baek Ri-pyeong to walk with him.
"You lot, it's a break period, so take it easy and rest up."
Ha Mu-baek tossed out those simple words and started walking.
Baek Ri-pyeong silently followed behind.
The remaining cadets watched their retreating figures.
"Something's going on, right?"
Everyone nodded at Dang Jin-san's question.
"The instructor will handle it somehow."
Yeon Ha-min's quiet voice carried immense trust.
"Yeah."
Dan Mok Un-roe chimed in with a voice full of conviction.
As if it were a true break period, the Dragon Training Pavilion was quiet.
Even so, Ha Mu-baek headed down his usual path.
A familiar place.
His feet naturally carried him there.
"What's up?"
His gruff question sounded annoyed, almost irritated.
"I think I need to withdraw from the pavilion."
Baek Ri-pyeong's curt reply came back.
"Going home?"
A calm question.
"Yes."
A short answer.
Ha Mu-baek let out a smirk.
"Then just go. Why'd you wait around for me?"
"Pavilion regulations say so."
Ha Mu-baek racked his brains at the response, recalling the regulations.
"You were waiting for my approval, huh."
After getting the approval of the assigned instructor, one needed the pavilion lord's ratification to withdraw.
Of course, there was always the option of sneaking out without permission, but this guy, the epitome of rigid orthodox faction stubbornness, wouldn't do that.
"You wouldn't go when I told you to go home before. Back then, you didn't even need to wait for my approval."
At that time, since the instructor had told him to go, it was as good as approved already.
"I don't want to go now either."
Baek Ri-pyeong's honest words spilled out.
Ha Mu-baek could fully sense the sincerity in them.
Baek Ri-pyeong was asking him now to hold him back, to keep him from leaving.
"Then don't go. Just like you didn't when I told you to."
Baek Ri-pyeong gave a wry smile at Ha Mu-baek speaking as if solving a simple problem.
"I can't do that. It's an order from the sect leader of my home sect. As his disciple, I have no choice but to obey."
A voice thick with reluctance.
"Up until now, since the assigned instructor was absent and I couldn't get approval, the pavilion lord held off on ratifying it... but now that you're back..."
Ha Mu-baek listened quietly as he walked.
"Submit the withdrawal application with the assigned instructor's approval to the pavilion lord for ratification. Then the withdrawal is complete, right? That's the regulation?"
"In the case of Fierce Dragon Corps members, you have to return all the monthly stipends received so far."
"Didn't you use some?"
"The sect sent a bill along with it."
"They've got some shame at least."
"Said I'd pay it back later."
Ha Mu-baek frowned at the follow-up.
"No shame after all."
He flipped his words.
"Here it is."
Baek Ri-pyeong politely handed over the withdrawal application he had kept in his robes.
Ha Mu-baek took it.
He stared at the envelope containing the application for a moment.
Pulled out the paper inside, read it, and then...
Whoosh!
He set it ablaze with Samadhi True Fire.
"Wh-what..."
Baek Ri-pyeong jumped in shock.
"You said you don't wanna go?"
"...Yes."
"But you gotta go 'cause it's your sect's order?"
"Yes..."
"And for that, you need my approval?"
"Y-yes."
Their short back-and-forth.
Finally, Ha Mu-baek nodded and said,
"Simple fix then. I just won't approve it."
Baek Ri-pyeong's eyes went wide.
Such a method existed!
This was the instructor who always told them to go home.
The one who spoke of the horrors of the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest,
Who said they could go home anytime.
So when he said he had to return to Zhongnan Sect, he figured he'd be sent off without issue.
He thought if he handed over the withdrawal application now, it'd be approved on the spot.
That he'd grab brush and ink, scrawl his signature, or stamp his seal.
But instead, he burned it to ash with Samadhi True Fire and refused approval.
"Why on earth..."
"I'm not gonna shove out some punk who doesn't wanna go."
Baek Ri-pyeong nodded.
He'd said as much countless times before.
So he'd assumed it'd happen naturally.
"But no one else gets to do that. That's my privilege."
Ha Mu-baek's eyes blazed fiercely.
Baek Ri-pyeong stared at him in a daze.
"Th-the order from Zhongnan's sect leader."
"So what? Regulations say my approval comes first."
"But it's Zhongnan..."
"This ain't Zhongnan, it's the Dragon Training Pavilion. On a bigger scale, the Righteous Heaven Alliance."
It was true.
Perfectly logical, without a single flaw.
"The Righteous Heaven Alliance will come down hard."
Baek Ri-pyeong knew the sect leader's temperament well.
The next steps were clear.
There were Zhongnan Sect disciples among the alliance elders already.
One word from an elder, and even the Dragon Training Pavilion lord couldn't resist.
By alliance hierarchy alone, elders outranked him.
Ha Mu-baek smirked.
"Pressure? From who? On who?"
His expression dismissed it as laughable.
For some reason, Baek Ri-pyeong found that look utterly reliable.
"Zhongnan's in Shaanxi Province, right?"
"Yes. On Zhongnan Mountain in Shaanxi."
Ha Mu-baek scratched his head.
"What a hassle to go back."
"Pardon?"
"Ah, just came from handling some business around Chang'an."
Chang'an was right next door to Zhongnan Mountain.
He hadn't expected Ha Mu-baek to have been there.
"Anyway, no approval from me, so head back."
Ha Mu-baek waved him off dismissively, adding,
"Baek Ri the elder—your grandfather—wouldn't call that Zhongnan pride."
Baek Ri-pyeong, who had just turned to leave, froze in place.
It was unexpected.
He had once talked with Ha Mu-baek about his grandfather while agonizing over learning the Three Talents Heart Method.
"Zhongnan's pride..."
Baek Ri-pyeong murmured softly.
His grandfather's words to carry the name Zhongnan with pride.
Baek Ri-pyeong fell deep into thought.
Ha Mu-baek left him there and went ahead. To meet the middle-aged scholar who had annoyingly followed him all the way to the Dragon Training Pavilion.
He'd dumped him with Gi Yu-chan for now, but who knew what he was up to.
Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul was enjoying his tea when a sudden guest arrived.
Ha Mu-baek.
"Oh, you're back. Where've you been running off to in such a hurry?"
Pang Do-yul welcomed him.
"Some unfinished business from the Pang Clan issue. Took care of the rest."
A shadow crossed Pang Do-yul's face at Ha Mu-baek's words.
Things had just started settling down, and now it was brought up again.
"Looks like Scholar Gu Yang followed you because of that."
Reports on Gu Yang Myeong-won had already reached Pang Do-yul.
At least regarding internal Dragon Training Pavilion matters, he knew everything in detail.
Gi Yu-chan's handiwork, that guy.
Ha Mu-baek thought of the one who had worn down Deputy Pavilion Lord Yeon Baek-jin's face.
"So you moved alone then. If a Heavenly Eye Pavilion scholar's stuck to you."
Pang Do-yul knew well what the Heavenly Eye Pavilion was.
Among the Righteous Heaven Alliance members who came to the Pang Clan investigating the Demonic Cult incident were scholars and warriors from the Heavenly Eye Pavilion.
A Heavenly Eye Pavilion man attached to Ha Mu-baek meant he knew things they didn't.
"Old man Gong Son's got a knack for sending annoying tails."
Ha Mu-baek said irritably.
"So, what happened?"
"The Haomun bastards got greedy. Blood Ghost Shadow's scheme."
Ha Mu-baek said it like it was nothing.
Pang Do-yul's eyes widened at that.
He knew who Blood Ghost Shadow was.
One of the Blood Cult's Ten Shadows.
To think that guy's schemes had gone through Haomun to the Pang Clan.
"The pavilion lord learning Demonic Arts was his own choice. But tempting Pang Gun-ho—that's where the Haomun scum's plot began."
Pang Do-yul nodded silently.
"You sure it's okay telling me this?"
"Old Gong Son knows it all already."
That implied there was more, but Ha Mu-baek stopped there.
"Ah, you hear about Cadet Baek Ri-pyeong?"
Pang Do-yul changed the subject without prying further.
He figured that's why Ha Mu-baek came to him.
"Looked like he'd eaten shit, then spilled the details."
"I see. Then give me the approved application for my signature."
Ha Mu-baek smirked at Pang Do-yul's words.
"You don't know me?"
Then he posed the question.
Pang Do-yul chuckled.
"I do. Very well."
"And you're still asking for it?"
"Just in case."
"Burned it."
Pang Do-yul nodded at Ha Mu-baek's words.
As expected.
That's why he'd kept Baek Ri-pyeong tied to the pavilion under regulation pretense until Ha Mu-baek returned.
"Zhongnan won't stay quiet."
Ha Mu-baek bared his teeth in a grin at the question.
His signature feral smile.
"And if they don't?"
"Exactly."
Pang Do-yul agreed.
"The current Zhongnan sect leader didn't join the last war, just hunkered down in his sect."
Ha Mu-baek nodded slowly.
"Zhongnan's sect leader—Baek Ri-dan in my memory."
A comrade from the battlefield who had each other's backs.
"So the current leader doesn't know you. Ignorance breeds misjudgment."
Pang Do-yul advised.
"Whatever."
Ha Mu-baek smirked.
"A typhoon's brewing in Zhongnan."
Ha Mu-baek added to Pang Do-yul's words.
"You seem thrilled."
Pang Do-yul shook his head at that.
"Misunderstanding on your part. I just hate petty small-minded folk."
With that, Ha Mu-baek left the pavilion lord's quarters.
His next stop: his own lodgings.
Time to rest properly now.
He didn't seek out Seol-ran right away, as she seemed deep in training trance still.
Her senses had sharpened beyond recognition since the Summer Combat Festival, so even nearing her might disrupt her cultivation.
Heavenly Eye Pavilion Lord Gong Son Dan-gyeong frowned as he received an express pigeon message from the Dragon Training Pavilion.
It was from Gu Yang Myeong-won, whom he'd assigned to Ha Mu-baek.
"Couldn't find out what I told you to, and now you send this? What am I supposed to do, Scholar Gu Yang?"
A lament-like mutter.
No helping it.
The message said Ha Mu-baek seemed ready to turn Zhongnan upside down.
And crucially, it lacked something.
The reason.
Why Ha Mu-baek planned to upend Zhongnan was missing.
Finding that out fell to him.
The massive bookshelf occupying one wall of his office.
Files neatly organized there.
Gong Son Dan-gyeong reached for those on Zhongnan Sect.
He reviewed the recent documents.
"Probably because of Sect Leader Ju Jae-seung."
As Righteous Heaven Alliance strategist and Heavenly Eye Pavilion lord, he had detailed intel on the Nine Great Sects, Five Great Clans, and Eight New Sects' leaders.
If trouble brewed between Ha Mu-baek and Zhongnan, the cause likely lay with their sect leader.
But nothing unusual in recent reports.
He double-checked the files thinking his memory faulty, but it was accurate.
Then the issue must be in unreported matters.
Gong Son Dan-gyeong pulled one of the many cords by his desk to summon a subordinate.
"Latest intel on Zhongnan. Get it up here now."
An hour later, the documents arrived with his order.
And there lay the root of this mess.