Chapter 257
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 257
Chapter Title: There's Only One Way
The sudden appearance of the man drew all eyes from the Namgung Clan to him.
His right arm dangled limply, empty at the shoulder.
The one-armed man brought his left hand to his bamboo hat and slowly removed it.
Then his face was revealed.
It was the face of a middle-aged man covered in scars.
There were wounds that looked like sword cuts, but the scars were faint, making it hard to judge precisely.
Still, thanks to those faint scars, his features were somewhat recognizable.
And the verdict on that revealed face?
He was handsome.
Handsome like Namgung Ji-hu.
A few who had that thought flinched in surprise.
Why did this one-armed middle-aged man's face resemble Namgung Ji-hu's?
Unlike them,
the elderly warriors of the clan trembled in shock throughout their bodies.
Because it was a face etched in their memories.
Middle-aged now, with wrinkles and the marks of time, but unmistakably the face they remembered.
If the scars had been deeper, his fierce expression might have made him unrecognizable.
But no faint scars could hide that face.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon stared at the one-armed man with utter disbelief.
He didn't move a muscle.
He made no sound.
Only his eyes, filled with denial, fixed on the middle-aged man.
'H-how... He should have definitely died... How could he survive falling with wounds like that...'
Namgung Hwa-hyeon's thoughts refused to connect.
And understandably so.
If he'd fallen into an ordinary ravine, they would have moved to confirm the body.
But the gorge he'd plummeted into flowed fiercely toward the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
No one could survive being swept into that place.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon had assumed he'd become a jiangshi somewhere in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
That was his mistake, born of ignorance of the terrain.
The waterway beneath that gorge flowed into the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest, then through a village, and out to the sea.
Namgung Hwi had washed up in one of those villages.
And with the villagers' help, he'd survived by the skin of his teeth.
Unaware of this, Namgung Hwa-hyeon couldn't snap out of his shock.
[What is the meaning of this! Didn't you say he was dead!!]
Namgung Hyeon-cheol's transmission.
They'd been so certain of his death that they hadn't even deployed shadow agents.
For him to appear alive like this.
No matter how thoroughly the clan had erased his existence over the years,
no matter how they'd forbidden even mentioning his name,
they couldn't purge everyone connected to him.
Thus, after twenty years, there were still those who remembered him.
"H-Hwi... I-is that really... Hwi?!"
Like this man now.
An elder stumbling from afar, shoving through the crowd.
He'd been trembling violently from Chu-dong's revelations.
He looked well past sixty.
His achievement level must have been low; the furrows in his brow were deep.
Shaking uncontrollably, he staggered toward Namgung Hwi,
Ha Mu-baek, Namgung Hwa-u, Chu-dong, and Namgung Hwi.
Some warriors tried to block him,
but
zzzt.
Ha Mu-baek's killing intent pinned them in place each time.
Finally, the elder stood face-to-face with Namgung Hwi.
He reached out and caressed Namgung Hwi's face.
"Is it really you, Hwi...? Are you truly...?"
Namgung Hwi didn't twitch at the elder's touch.
Instead,
his eyes reddened.
Tears welled up.
His lips trembled, then parted slightly.
And a single phrase escaped.
"Yes, Uncle. It's me... Hwi."
"Kkhuh-huhk! Y-you're alive! Alive! If only your father, my brother, had known this before he passed... Kkhuh-huhk."
At Namgung Hwi's reply, the elder—no, Namgung Hwi's uncle—collapsed to his knees, sobbing, then wailing openly.
He was thinking of his brother, Namgung Hwi's father, who had passed just two years ago.
The return of his nephew, thought dead, and the brother now gone forever—those two losses tore the wail from his throat.
From the elder's reaction, everyone present now knew the one-armed middle-aged man was of the Namgung Clan.
The elder, Namgung Jin, was a collateral branch warrior responsible for the outer east sector.
Many knew him.
And hadn't he just called the man his nephew?
"Wait... Namgung Hwi...?"
A middle-aged man murmured, recalling what Namgung Hwa-u and Chu-dong had revealed.
Twenty years ago.
The escort warrior who had accompanied Namgung Hwa-hyeon.
His name had been Namgung Hwi.
Some still remembered.
According to Chu-dong, Namgung Hwi had died by Namgung Hwa-hyeon's hand.
And now he had returned alive.
"You wanted proof of what Chu-dong said? I am that proof. Clan Leader. No—Namgung Hwa-hyeon!"
A cold shout brimming with fury.
The chill made the rage feel all the more searing.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon, who had barely regained his composure.
Thanks to Namgung Hyeon-cheol's transmission.
"I don't know how you survived, but everything I said upon returning to the clan was true without a shred of lie. To save me and the two ladies, you lured those monstrous jiangshi into the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest, didn't you?"
Namgung Hwa-hyeon's face had already shifted to brazen impudence.
"I grieved deeply for your sacrifice. But now you've returned alive—what greater joy than this day! Yet I cannot fathom why you'd fabricate that day's events. Have you fallen for Hwa-u's sweet-talking schemes?"
The elders and shrewd clan members nodded at Namgung Hwa-hyeon's words.
They had been there that day, and at the ritual confirming the two children as Namgung blood.
"That never happened. Namgung Hwa-hyeon. Chu-dong spoke the truth, and so do I. Caught in your vile scheme, I committed the grave sin of violating the two ladies and impregnating them. I too am Namgung blood. Even if they were my children, the ritual would confirm them as such. So drop the mask now!"
This was a scene Namgung Hwi had imagined countless times since leaving the village for Hefei.
But it was utterly different from his imaginings.
In his visions, he was brutally beaten by the Namgung warriors, forced to kneel, and screaming curses at Namgung Hwa-hyeon.
How could he have dreamed of breaching the Namgung Clan's ironclad defenses alone and facing this bastard so boldly?
It was absurd, so he'd never even fantasized it.
Yet the monster who had made the impossible routine was guarding his side.
Ha Mu-baek.
He was truly a transcendent master.
"Clan Leader. I have a question too! Is Hwi's word truly the truth?!"
Had he calmed somewhat?
Namgung Jin staggered to his feet and demanded of Namgung Hwa-hyeon.
"Hah. Namgung Jin, East Sector Leader. Have you forgotten how I treated your brother, East Sector Leader Namgung Pyo? And why I gave you his position? It was all because of that man over there, Namgung Hwi, wasn't it?"
Namgung Hwa-hyeon's retort.
But Namgung Jin pressed on.
"Then why erase all traces of Hwi? Why forbid your grieving brother from even mentioning him? Wasn't the East Sector Leader post your compensation?"
Another hidden story unknown to the clan spilled from Namgung Jin's lips.
But at those words, Namgung Hwi breathed a sigh of relief.
He'd worried his surviving family had suffered because of him, but apparently not.
A silver lining in the tragedy.
But that didn't quench his hatred.
That was that.
This was this.
Namgung Hwi drew his sword.
And its tip pointed straight at Namgung Hwa-hyeon.
"If you're a warrior, quit the pathetic excuses and let your sword speak."
His gaze was like icicles.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon glanced between Namgung Jin and Namgung Hwi.
He shook his head slowly.
His eyes turned to Namgung Hwa-u.
"Hwa-u. Impressive. How long have you been preparing this? I suspected you coveted the clan leader's seat, but I never imagined you'd escalate it this far."
Namgung Hwa-hyeon tried to frame the entire affair as Namgung Hwa-u's fabricated rebellion and slander.
"Azure Heaven Sword Corps! Azure Palace Sword Corps! Azure Cloud Sword Corps! Activate the Imperial Spear-Palace Sword Formation and sweep away these heretics!"
Namgung Hwa-hyeon's command.
And at once,
ch'ang! Ch'ae-ch'ae-ch'ang! Ch'ang!
Nearly two hundred warriors drew their swords in unison.
And began to move slowly.
Namgung Hwi and Namgung Hwa-u gritted their teeth.
Ha Mu-baek watched impassively, then acted.
He gripped his sword hilt.
Reverse grip.
Srung.
He drew it effortlessly.
Dark energy rippled along his blade.
"I said this time you'd die, didn't I?"
With those words,
thunk.
The sword plunged into the ground.
Pababababa-bak!
Dark energy surged from the earth, spiderwebbing outward.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon paled in horror.
Hadn't he just witnessed what came next moments ago?
"D-dodge! Sc-scatter!"
Just as the formation was about to activate.
The warriors flung themselves away at their leader's frantic order,
avoiding the ominous black lines spidering across the ground.
But
"Explode!"
With that curt command,
kururururung!
Kwakwakwakwa-kwang!
Ku-kwakwakwa-kwang!
The earth erupted, split, and upheaved.
An earthquake struck.
A colossal storm of energy ravaged the surroundings.
"Keurgh!"
"Kuhk!"
"Aaaak!"
Screams exploded from all directions.
Those who had rushed in after the banquet hall collapsed
now saw clearly what that earlier blast had been.
They understood why the hall had vanished.
The Imperial Spear-Palace Sword Formation scattered like leaves in the wind, hurled by the explosion.
How could they fight when the very ground they stood on exploded beneath them?
What manner of being was that monster?
Moments later,
half of the two hundred warriors lay sprawled on the ground.
Bleeding, vomiting blood,
unable to even stand, groaning in agony.
"I've got one thing I'm curious about."
Ha Mu-baek looked at Namgung Hwa-hyeon and asked.
"How can you prove Ji-hu and Ji-yu are your biological children?"
"Wh-what are you talking about?"
Namgung Hwa-hyeon's question.
"Just as Chu-dong and Namgung Hwi lack evidence, so do you."
The bloodline ritual only confirmed Namgung lineage.
It couldn't prove they were Namgung Hwa-hyeon's own.
Ha Mu-baek's staggering display of power etched those words clearly into the ears of the shocked Namgung Clan members.
Gazes converged on Namgung Hwa-hyeon once more.
Perhaps because they'd witnessed godlike prowess from the heavens.
The clan members found themselves oddly convinced by his low words,
even though they came from attackers on the clan.
"Fools! Who would be swayed by the words of these vile assailants?!"
Namgung Hyeon-cheol roared from nearby.
"The elders of the Elder Council all saw and judged it! How could there be any falsehood?!"
Namgung Hyeon-cheol's qi-infused voice boomed across the clan grounds.
The retainers snapped to attention.
But it wasn't enough to fully erase the flicker of doubt in their eyes.
"You seem to have something to hide too..."
Ha Mu-baek murmured lowly.
Sweat beaded on Namgung Hyeon-cheol's back at those words.
'What does that damned bastard know...'
Ha Mu-baek's gaze shifted to Namgung Hwa-hyeon.
Facing it head-on, Namgung Hwa-hyeon's vision darkened.
It felt like being sucked into an endless abyss.
Ha Mu-baek.
That monster had casually unleashed the same absurd attack that demolished the banquet hall.
Yet he stood utterly composed.
As if it were nothing.
As if untired in the slightest.
As if his qi overflowed after unleashing such monstrous power twice.
That air of leisure
deflated Namgung Hwa-hyeon's former confidence.
The Imperial Spear-Palace Sword Formation had disintegrated before fully forming.
Half its members writhed on the ground.
He'd thought the Peng Clan was simply weak.
No.
This madman was insanely strong.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon bit his lip.
The madman had sided with Namgung Hwa-u and Namgung Hwi.
He'd assumed his own forces overwhelming in might, but reality proved otherwise.
'A way... I need to find a way.'
Even in the despair of the abyss pulling at him, Namgung Hwa-hyeon desperately sought a path to survival.
His eyes fell on Namgung Hwi, sword dangling loosely in his left hand.
And on Namgung Hwi before Ha Mu-baek intervened.
Hadn't he pointed his sword at him?
Wanting to settle things personally.
Yes.
The root of this disaster was ultimately Namgung Hwi, and the Namgung Ji-hu and Namgung Ji-yu siblings.
Deal with Namgung Hwi, and it ends.
No matter how Namgung Hwa-u clung on.
Without Namgung Hwi,
Why had he roared in panic despite his shock?
Because he'd ironcladly believed Namgung Hwi dead.
If he'd survived,
kill him again.
Yes.
That would do it.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon made his decision.
"Namgung Hwi. You said if you're a warrior, let your sword speak?"
Namgung Hwa-hyeon forced his head away from Ha Mu-baek's gaze.
And looked at Namgung Hwi as he spoke.
Namgung Hwi's eyes gleamed as he nodded.
At that,
Namgung Hwa-hyeon
step.
took one step forward.
"Fine. Let our swords speak."
Srung.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon drew his sword.
And turned to Ha Mu-baek.
"Will you interfere?"
Ha Mu-baek shrugged at the question.
A clear signal of non-involvement.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon nodded.
Just him and Namgung Hwi.
A duel between two.
Perfect.
His only worry had been Ha Mu-baek's intervention.
With such clear intent shown,
he wouldn't meddle.
Now, just take Namgung Hwi's head, and it's over.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon's sword tip pointed at Namgung Hwi.
At the same moment, a smile curved Namgung Hwi's lips.
A smile laced with complex emotions.
Silently, Namgung Hwi raised his sword again.
Its tip fixed on Namgung Hwa-hyeon.