Chapter 259
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 259
Chapter Title: Why Did You Do It?
The clan head who had lost his right arm.
The clan head whose face was drenched in blood.
And the clan head whose dantian had been pierced.
All of these referred to one man.
Namgung Clan Head Namgung Hwa-hyeon.
This was his current state.
Gulp.
Someone swallowed dryly.
It was unavoidable.
The one who had dueled the clan head to the death was a distant branch family member, one of the lowest in status among those bearing the Namgung name.
It was said he had only mastered the Great Alliance Sword Method.
Yet the Namgung Clan Head had fallen to such a branch family warrior.
And that was not all.
What of that sword form he had displayed?
Was it not one that only the clan head could unleash?
The ultimate techniques of the Sovereign Sword's latter half.
A sword form usable only by the clan head, save for one sole exception.
And a branch family warrior who had mastered only the Great Alliance Sword Method had performed it.
How in the world could this be?
Chaos and confusion.
They descended in the form of silence.
Ugh...
Namgung Hwa-hyeon let out a groan filled with agony.
Namgung Hwi, who had already pulled his sword from the man's dantian, looked down at him with complex emotions.
He had thought making the man suffer the same fate would bring relief.
He had thought beheading him would erase the resentment and fury from that day.
But no.
It's still suffocating.
His chest remained tightly constricted, breathless.
It was inevitable.
Even if he reduced the bastard to this state.
His two wives would not return to life.
Even if he reduced the bastard to this state.
The time he and his children had lost would not come back.
Just like this.
Nothing changed.
The fact that he had judged the man's heinous crimes.
Apart from that one truth, nothing differed.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon looked up at Namgung Hwi with eyes of utter disbelief, his entire body trembling.
Their gazes met.
The eye level completely reversed from twenty years ago.
On that day.
"Why did you do it? Why on earth?"
Namgung Hwi murmured the question.
His voice brimmed with sorrow.
Sorrow for the past, a time that could never be undone.
Kuhuhu... Why? Because I had to become clan head. Kuhuhu. You damn bastard. I should have killed you completely back then...
Voices laden with different regrets.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon's answer.
It helped sort out a bit of Namgung Hwi's tangled heart.
Yes.
Even if nothing could be undone.
At least comfort the spirits of his two wronged wives.
At least make the man pay for the time he and his two children had lost.
The moment he resolved himself thus.
Strength entered the hand gripping the sword hilt.
Forgetting for a moment that Gong Son Mu-oe had said not to kill him, that he had pierced the dantian for that reason.
"You bastard!!!"
At that instant.
Namgung Hyeon-cheol moved.
Fearing Namgung Hwi's sword would move again to finish Namgung Hwa-hyeon.
He hurled his body forward with all his might.
As if the charge at Ha Mu-baek in the banquet hall had not shown his full power.
He too.
Drew the Sovereign Sword, launching toward Namgung Hwi.
A deep indigo Sovereign Sword.
The clan members were stunned at the sight.
Namgung Hwi, and now Namgung Hyeon-cheol as well?
For Namgung Hyeon-cheol was not among that sole exception.
How could he manifest the Sovereign Sword form?
Namgung Hyeon-cheol had no time to care for the stares of the clan members.
First, he had to save Namgung Hwa-hyeon.
And sweep away all those villains.
Only then would an opportunity come for his own grandson.
The chance to become clan head.
Thus, he unleashed the strongest sword technique he could wield.
Even raising the Sovereign Sword form.
His Sovereign Sword radiated a far more ferocious aura than Namgung Hwa-hyeon's had moments before.
It was only natural.
He was already a transcendent expert among experts.
Namgung Hyeon-cheol's sword fell between Namgung Hwi and Namgung Hwa-hyeon.
The situation was too sudden; Namgung Hwi hastily pulled back.
Then Namgung Hyeon-cheol's sword targeted Namgung Hwi's neck.
Clang!
But it was blocked by Ha Mu-baek's sword, which had appeared in an instant.
Tch.
Namgung Hyeon-cheol clicked his tongue in regret, scooped up Namgung Hwa-hyeon, and leaped away.
In Namgung Hwa-hyeon's left hand were clutched his own severed right arm and sword.
Thus, Namgung Hyeon-cheol snatched Namgung Hwa-hyeon from Ha Mu-baek's group.
"What are you doing?! Execute these villains who dared assassinate the clan head at once! Namgung Clan, strike down these villains!!!"
Namgung Hyeon-cheol's roar echoed thunderously.
Yet no warriors leaped forward immediately.
They had all witnessed the events just now.
They had seen the result of the life-and-death duel.
To oppress an individual through collective force while ignoring that outcome.
For the proud orthodox warriors of the Namgung Clan, it was no easy matter.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon staggered to his feet at the sight, looking wretched.
Blood still dripped from his right arm.
He had finally managed to staunch it.
His face was deathly pale, but with his face caked in blood from the wound, no one noticed.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon raised his sword with his left hand.
The reason he had bothered to grab his severed right arm and sword amid the chaos.
One of them.
As Namgung Hwa-hyeon raised the sword, all the Namgung Clan warriors knelt on one knee.
Namgung Hwa-u did the same.
Namgung Ji-hu and Namgung Ji-yu stood tall. With Namgung Hwi.
Namgung Hwi wore an expression that said it had finally come.
He even inwardly berated himself for not thinking to take the sword after severing the arm.
Namgung Hwi gazed at the scene calmly.
"Now the real fight begins."
He said, stepping to Ha Mu-baek's side.
He knew the meaning of that ritual Namgung Hwa-hyeon was performing.
Twenty years ago, on that day.
He had abandoned the Namgung Clan of his own accord.
Thus he could stand tall like this.
But for a Namgung clansman, kneeling on one knee was only natural.
Even Namgung Hyeon-cheol was now kneeling on one knee.
"By the authority of the Namgung Clan's sacred heirloom, the Sovereign Azure Heaven Sword, I command you! Sweep away these villains and drag Gong Son Mu-oe, who aided their plot, before me!"
Having lost his inner energy, even shouting with all his might made the command echo only nearby.
But Namgung Hyeon-cheol repeated the order verbatim, and it spread throughout the depths of the Namgung Clan.
The clan head's sacred heirloom, the Sovereign Azure Heaven Sword.
A command issued under its authority held absolute power over everything in the clan.
Only the clan head could invoke such an order.
The outcome of the life-and-death duel was irrelevant.
Nor was the justification Namgung Hwa-u had proclaimed.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon glared sharply at Gong Son Mu-oe as well.
That damn old man was in on it too.
And perhaps that damn old man could reattach his severed arm.
Thus, he had commanded them to seize Gong Son Mu-oe.
The Namgung Clan warriors rose and advanced with heavy steps.
Resolute light gleamed in their eyes.
Eyes thinking only of the Sovereign Azure Heaven Sword's command.
Otherwise, they could not bring themselves to attack those with rightful cause.
Whew. Filthy to the end.
Ha Mu-baek sighed in annoyance.
At that moment.
Namgung Hwa-u, rising to his feet, cried out desperately.
"I object to the command of the Sovereign Azure Heaven Sword!"
"How dare a villain like you utter the name of the Sovereign Azure Heaven Sword!!"
Namgung Hyeon-cheol bellowed.
"As has been revealed, Namgung Hwa-hyeon is unfit to be clan head. How can such a man wield the heirloom's authority?! For the man who personally murdered my wife to be clan head! How could such a thing happen in the great Namgung Clan!!"
Namgung Hwa-u's desperate cry.
Yet even so, the Namgung Clan warriors began to move, step by step.
They seemed shaken by his words.
But.
"I am the current Namgung Clan Head!"
Namgung Hwa-hyeon's desperate shout.
That was the reason.
Even if all Namgung Hwa-u said was true.
The current Namgung Clan Head was Namgung Hwa-hyeon.
They had to obey the sacred heirloom's command, which held absolute authority in the clan.
Ha Mu-baek sneered at the sight.
"Namgung Clan Head, huh... Well then, whatever. This is Ha Mu-baek speaking. That should do it, right?"
With that, Ha Mu-baek drew his sword.
"Attack!"
At Namgung Hwa-hyeon's shout, countless warriors hurled themselves at Ha Mu-baek's group.
Some charged toward Gong Son Mu-oe and Ma Jin-gi.
Rumble! Boom!
A massive sword gang plummeted from the sky to the ground.
Ha Mu-baek's sword strike.
A tremendous strike that even the warriors charging at Gong Son Mu-oe could not help but halt before, crashing down like lightning.
At that moment.
Gong Son Mu-oe and Ma Jin-gi swiftly moved to Ha Mu-baek's position.
"I'll show you exactly what kind of man Ha Mu-baek is."
And the moment the safety of his group was secured.
Ha Mu-baek plunged into the midst of the countless Namgung Clan warriors.
"Die!"
"Kill him!"
Swords brimming with murderous intent flew at Ha Mu-baek.
But their attacks could not even graze a single hair on his head.
Instead.
Urk!
Agh!
Kuaaagh!
Screams erupted from all directions.
Ha Mu-baek's sword had pierced their vital acupoints.
Precisely the acupoints and meridians that inflicted the greatest pain.
Those struck by Ha Mu-baek's attacks collapsed, their bodies shuddering in excruciating agony that pierced their entire forms.
With their meridians sealed as well, they could not move properly for the time being.
Trembling in pain was the best they could manage.
Ha Mu-baek moved like a bolt of lightning.
If any tried to approach where the Namgung siblings or Ha Mu-baek's group were.
Kaboom!!
With a deafening whoosh, Ha Mu-baek's sword flew out.
"F-Flying Sword!!"
The divine skill revealed once more.
"Now's our chance! Attack!"
Moths flinging themselves at Ha Mu-baek, who was without his sword.
They were brutally beaten down and collapsed.
Their faces swollen beyond recognition.
The Flying Sword was fearsome.
Unlike Ha Mu-baek's precise strikes to vital points, this sword swept through the air.
Blood burst from the bodies of those caught in its wake, here and there.
Kaaagh!
Ugh!
Intense agony.
Ha Mu-baek's sword returned to his hand.
Those who had witnessed the scene dared not even glance toward the Namgung siblings.
Instead, they madly charged at Ha Mu-baek.
They had clearly seen their comrades' states.
Comrades writhing in pain on the ground.
But.
No one's dead.
At least they won't die.
Because they had seen it clearly.
Thus, they chose Ha Mu-baek.
Ha Mu-baek.
Was like a tiger amid a horde of countless rabbits.
With a single kick, three or four rabbits tumbled.
With a single swing of Ha Mu-baek's sword, three or four warriors groaned and fell.
Namgung Hwa-u stared blankly at the sight.
Namgung Hwi, Namgung Ji-hu, and Namgung Ji-yu were no different.
Chudong was trembling all over.
Terror flooded him at the thought that he had schemed against such a frightening man.
Only Gong Son Mu-oe remained composed.
Having already witnessed Ha Mu-baek's monstrous prowess.
"To think such a thing was possible..."
Namgung Hwi murmured softly.
Today, he had truly seen there were heavens beyond heavens.
Even as so many warriors swarmed him.
He precisely neutralized only two acupoints.
No other wounds besides.
Except for those who had charged like moths toward them and fallen to the Flying Sword.
"Killing or slashing would be far easier..."
Namgung Hwa-u murmured.
Indeed, as he said.
For Ha Mu-baek, killing would have been much simpler.
The qi blast that had just shattered the ground.
If he used that properly.
Could he not sweep away the Namgung Clan warriors in an instant?
Yet he went to the trouble of subduing them one by one.
"Why on earth?"
Namgung Hwa-u tilted his head, unable to comprehend.
"Because they're being forced to charge, pushed from behind, no?"
Gong Son Mu-oe interjected.
The warriors attacking Ha Mu-baek now were not acting of their own will.
They were hurling themselves solely due to the sacred heirloom, the Sovereign Azure Heaven Sword's command.
Thus, Ha Mu-baek was showing mercy with his sword.
So spoke Gong Son Mu-oe.
At that moment.
Kaaaagh!
With a massive scream.
A man had lost an arm.
One of the Elder Council's protectors.
Ha Mu-baek showed him no mercy.
The second flying sword that followed ended his life.
"You bastard!!"
In the end, the Elder Council's protectors who had been guarding Namgung Hwa-hyeon leaped forward.
Now only Namgung Hyeon-cheol.
Remained to protect Namgung Hwa-hyeon.
The moment he saw the protectors charging at him.
A sinister smile curled on Ha Mu-baek's lips.
For they were all unleashing the Sovereign Sword forms from the latter half.