Chapter 372
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 372
Chapter Title: What is the Purpose?
A long time later.
Myo Gu-eung opened his eyes.
His eyes were deeply sunken.
Finally, his reason had properly returned.
He slowly replayed everything from his final clash with Ha Mu-baek up to the present.
"Who are you? Narak."
He barely managed to sit up using his remaining right leg and the stump of his left leg propped on his knee as he asked.
Somehow, the bleeding had stopped.
The excruciating pain, like being burned by fire, had lessened to a bearable level.
Both arms severed cleanly at the shoulders.
He was in no condition to even move properly.
[It is the will of Manhwang.]
"What the hell is that?"
Myo Gu-eung asked calmly.
Narak explained himself in considerable detail.
Myo Gu-eung's expression shifted through a wide range of emotions as he listened.
He was as shocked as when he had discovered the Myeondok Jeong.
He had thought he was completely dead, but a new power had awakened.
And it was energy hidden within the Manhwang Talbaek Myeongdok Gong.
[But your body has become complete trash.]
"......"
Myo Gu-eung shut his mouth.
[Do you want revenge?]
Myo Gu-eung's eyes flashed brightly at Narak's question.
"Obviously."
[If you do as I say, it will be entirely possible. Manhwang is the world itself soon enough.]
"With this body?"
Myo Gu-eung muttered in a self-deprecating tone.
It was only natural.
He couldn't even walk, let alone eat.
[It's because you were obsessed only with poison arts and neglected proper martial training. Once you gained power, you should have refined it properly. You were hasty and reckless.]
Narak, who had already heard Myo Gu-eung's circumstances.
"......"
Myo Gu-eung had no words.
Back when he absorbed the poison of the Myeondok Jeong.
He truly believed no one in the world could stand against him.
He couldn't imagine any human enduring the poison of the Myeondok Jeong.
He thought he could melt everyone into a puddle of toxic sludge in an instant.
Until he met that monster.
Clearly poisoned, yet resisting the toxic energy, enduring, and pushing him to this state.
That monster who had ultimately reduced him to this.
[I will give you power. Your arms and legs can be restored as well. So do as I say.]
At Narak's words, Myo Gu-eung wore an incredulous expression, but he had no other choice.
[For now, let's find a quiet place.]
As he circulated the energy within his body according to Narak's instructions, his body floated lightly into the air.
Using Air Grasping on his own body.
And so, Myo Gu-eung slowly made his way to a secluded, quiet spot like a small cave where no one would pass.
Tang Ja-cheong took the lead into Cheondok Valley.
The guard who had returned was stationed at the entrance.
Having already received word from Yeo Hong-gi, as soon as Tang Ja-cheong gave his name, he was escorted straight to the Valley Lord's Hall.
The hall where Ha Mu-baek had shattered the floor.
It had been roughly repaired.
As they ascended to the top floor, Yeo Hong-gi was waiting.
"You've arrived, elders."
Yeo Hong-gi greeted the three with a composed expression.
As if he had received a message, tea was prepared on the table.
Ha Mu-baek stared at Yeo Hong-gi with a sharp face.
Even feeling that gaze, Yeo Hong-gi maintained his calm demeanor.
"You've been waiting."
Tang Ja-cheong said as he sat.
"Yes. Since the Fourth Elder departed like that. What happened?"
Yeo Hong-gi's reply as he took the last seat.
Tang Ja-cheong looked at Ha Mu-baek.
Ha Mu-baek looked at Yeo Hong-gi.
He raised his hand and gathered internal energy at his fingertip.
Then he drew the pattern he had seen on the table.
A perfect circle. It seemed to represent the world.
And cracks. The world splitting apart.
The eight fragments were the number Manhwang had been divided into.
Even the intense light at the center.
He drew it all.
It was the pattern the three had seen in the cave.
And the pattern Tang Ji-yeon had once seen in the Cheondok Valley Lord's residence during a Sichuan Province meeting.
"How did you... This is a pattern we no longer use."
Yeo Hong-gi looked at Ha Mu-baek in surprise.
"What pattern is this?"
Ha Mu-baek asked.
"It's the symbol of the Valley Lord's Art. More precisely, it symbolizes the Manhwang Talbaek Myeongdok Gong. Since the Valley Lord's Art represents the Valley Lord himself, my master used it. But I haven't used it for long. It's a martial art that's now forbidden in the valley."
That was why.
The reason Tang Ji-yeon only vaguely remembered seeing it once.
Ha Mu-baek nodded lightly.
From Yeo Hong-gi's answer, he could guess the pattern's true nature.
This was not the symbol of Cheondok Valley.
It was Manhwang's symbol.
"How do you know of this?"
Yeo Hong-gi asked again, but Ha Mu-baek did not answer.
Since Ha Mu-baek did not answer, Tang Ja-cheong and Tang Ji-yeon also kept silent.
"Are you curious what happened to Myo Gu-eung?"
Ha Mu-baek's question.
Yeo Hong-gi had not received an answer to his own question.
But since Ha Mu-baek asked about something even more pressing to him, he had no choice but to nod.
He hoped that monster Ha Mu-baek had ended the Fourth Elder.
Even though he was his master's disciple.
Even though the Fourth Elder had been betrayed unjustly by the sect.
To Yeo Hong-gi, the current Cheondok Valley and its disciples and retainers were more important.
"I don't know."
"What do you mean...?"
Yeo Hong-gi reflexively asked back at Ha Mu-baek's curt reply.
"I severed both arms and his left leg... but before I could take his life, he fell off the cliff. There's a raging torrent below."
Yeo Hong-gi looked in the direction Ha Mu-baek had disappeared.
He knew the spot.
"Noryong Rapids..."
Yeo Hong-gi's mutter.
Only then did Ha Mu-baek learn the name and nodded slightly.
Raging Dragon Rapids.
A fitting name indeed.
The current was that ferocious and violent.
"I don't know if he survived or died."
Yeo Hong-gi had no choice but to accept Ha Mu-baek's words.
He was probably dead, nine times out of ten.
But the Fourth Elder had gained the power of the Myeondok Jeong.
There was a slim chance he could have survived.
His brows furrowed involuntarily.
If he lived, the Fourth Elder would return to Cheondok Valley. Unlike this time, no one would know when he might appear.
"Should I hope he has returned to the heavens..."
Yeo Hong-gi muttered softly.
"Harsh. He seemed to have a tragic backstory."
Ha Mu-baek interjected.
"Since it's an unresolved grudge, when I think of the lives of countless disciples in our valley, I have no choice but to wish for the Fourth Elder's death, harsh as it sounds. But is that something for the man who reduced him to that state to say?"
Yeo Hong-gi's sharp gaze turned to Ha Mu-baek.
Ha Mu-baek smirked.
"What was that, anyway?"
Yeo Hong-gi understood exactly what Ha Mu-baek meant.
That was why.
He did not answer immediately.
He picked up the teacup before him and moistened his mouth.
Yeo Hong-gi had expected that if Ha Mu-baek returned, he would surely ask about that existence.
It was as important to him as the Fourth Elder's fate.
So he had agonized over it repeatedly.
Ha Mu-baek would surely ask about the Jagwang Mountain Dissolving Poison.
What should he do?
He had reached his own conclusion.
He had already reported the outcome to Yeon Ja-kyeong.
In this incident, Yeon Ja-kyeong had used him as a discard or test piece of sorts.
So he just needed to act accordingly.
He trusted Ha Mu-baek's character to some extent, but if he flew into a rage, it would be useless.
He thought he needed to give the answer Ha Mu-baek wanted.
Ha Mu-baek silently watched Yeo Hong-gi.
Yeo Hong-gi, having swallowed the tea, stared back at Ha Mu-baek.
"Can you promise to keep a secret?"
"Do I have to?"
"It concerns my safety..."
"Your safety might be in jeopardy right now."
Yeo Hong-gi smirked at Ha Mu-baek's words.
"On what grounds?"
This was why he could face Ha Mu-baek so boldly.
Pretext.
Ha Mu-baek was like a reckless bomb, but.
He at least upheld pretext.
As a righteous faction warrior.
"Didn't you strike me in the back while I was fighting the enemy?"
Ha Mu-baek's question, claiming pretext.
"I was aiming for the Fourth Elder."
Yeo Hong-gi's response, calling it an accident.
"Was that really the case?"
"It was."
Yeo Hong-gi answered without yielding.
Unable to read his mind.
There was no way to discern his true intent.
If Yeo Hong-gi insisted to the end.
Then there would be no pretext.
Ha Mu-baek unleashed his killing intent and glared.
Yeo Hong-gi didn't flinch, even as cold sweat poured down.
In the end, Ha Mu-baek yielded a step.
"I promise."
"And promise my safety as well."
"Only for this incident."
Ha Mu-baek accepted while drawing a line.
Meaning he wouldn't spare any foolishness next time.
"Understood. Then, elders, could you step out for a moment?"
Yeo Hong-gi requested, looking at Tang Ja-cheong.
Tang Ja-cheong led Tang Ji-yeon out the door.
A waiting maid guided them to another room.
Only the two remained.
Ha Mu-baek spread a barrier of energy.
Having promised secrecy, he took the appropriate measures.
"It's called Jagwang Mountain Dissolving Poison."
As Ha Mu-baek watched, Yeo Hong-gi spoke.
"Jagwang Mountain Dissolving Poison..."
Ha Mu-baek murmured the name.
"It's the mountain dissolving poison I created with all my might."
"What was the purpose?"
Ha Mu-baek asked indifferently.
"It was at the request of Yeon Family Head."
"Yeon Ja-kyeong?"
"Yes."
It was a story Ha Mu-baek had already heard, but he confirmed once more.
"Why did he request it, and why support you?"
The most crucial question.
Yeo Hong-gi stared at Ha Mu-baek.
This was the answer for which he had secured a promise from Ha Mu-baek.
"To obtain a mountain dissolving poison that could poison you."
"......"
Ha Mu-baek fell silent.
Yeo Hong-gi tensed up completely.
If Ha Mu-baek lost it here and exploded in rage.
Promise or not, he was as good as dead.
However, Ha Mu-baek was serene, like the ripples on a calm lake.
The reason was simple.
He had already suspected it.
He knew what kind of man that old Yeon Ja-kyeong was.
He knew the old man's ambitions.
"How did you make it? A mountain dissolving poison that neutralizes Immunity to All Poisons. No, even Myo Gu-eung, who absorbed the Myeondok Jeong, was poisoned by it."
"White Glow Herb."
Ha Mu-baek flinched at the response.
A familiar name.
No way he wouldn't know it.
That name.
It was one the Hocheon Corps had given.
Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
Among them, a herb growing where corpse poison from jiangshi had pooled deeply.
The Hocheon Corps had ventured deepest into the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest and exterminated the most jiangshi.
Naturally.
They were the first to see it.
A pristine white flower that seemed impossible to bloom amid jiangshi corpse poison.
At night, it emitted a purple glow.
Hence the name White Glow Herb.
It was reported to the Righteous Heaven Alliance, and its uses were studied.
But compared to its bizarre ecology, it was judged an ordinary weed?
"That weed?"
That was why Ha Mu-baek had to ask.
"Do you know it?"
"That name. I gave it."
This time, Yeo Hong-gi flinched.
He hadn't known that fact.
"I didn't know that. Hm. It makes sense, now that I think about it..."
Former Hocheon Corps Leader Ha Mu-baek.
Yeo Hong-gi nodded, recalling the Hocheon Corps' exploits during the Great Martial War.
"It was definitely just a weed. But with a special method of mine, it produced mountain dissolving effects."
Yeo Hong-gi stopped there.
That was his secret technique.
"Anything left?"
Yeo Hong-gi shook his head at Ha Mu-baek's question.
At the time, he had been desperate too.
He had thrown everything he had without thinking ahead.
Not knowing if it would work on the Fourth Elder who absorbed the Myeondok Jeong.
Ha Mu-baek had heard all he needed.
A terrifying killing intent rose from his body.
Yeo Hong-gi broke out in cold sweat under the suffocating pressure gripping his entire body.
A profound terror like being thrown into the abyss choked his breath.
"Y-You promised..."
Yeo Hong-gi barely managed to speak.
Ha Mu-baek eyed him sharply.
"Promise... right, I promised. Clearly. That's why it ends here."
The moment he finished speaking.
The killing intent squeezing Yeo Hong-gi's body melted away like snow.
It happened in an instant.
"No next time. Then, I'll settle this and everything else twice over."
Ha Mu-baek rose, flung open the door, and vanished.
Yeo Hong-gi, pale as a ghost, could only stare blankly at the spot.