Chapter 418
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 418
Chapter Title: That Jiangshi Seems to Have Emerged
East outskirts of Muchang.
Dozens of pigeons flew in and out here every day.
It was because of the Messenger Pigeon Shop.
Shopkeeper Hyeong Wook was, as always today, opening the tiny scrolls from the pigeons' legs and sorting them without a moment's rest.
The scrolls were tightly sealed in small envelopes.
Due to size limits, they were probably mostly crammed full of tiny, dense writing on scraps of paper.
But since they were sealed letters, their contents remained unknown.
Once sorted by recipient, the scrolls were handed off to the shop clerks and scattered to all corners of Muchang.
One of them stood before the Dragon Training Pavilion.
Three letters had been sent to the Dragon Training Pavilion today.
The pavilion usually kept its own direct-line pigeons on site, so letters coming through the shop were rare.
Most went to the laborers or low-rank warriors working there.
'Fierce Dragon Corps Chief Instructor Ha Mu-baek...'
The clerk knew what the Fierce Dragon Corps was, but the title of Chief Instructor made him shrink back for some reason.
"Hey, how many today?"
The gate guard spotted the pigeon shop clerk and called out.
"Ah, hello, sir. Three today."
"Yeah? For who?"
The clerk named the first two recipients.
People who received letters now and then.
The guard nodded as if it were just another day.
And finally.
"Fierce Dragon Corps Chief Instructor Ha Mu-baek as well."
The guard flinched at the clerk's words.
"Who'd you say?"
He double-checked, wondering if he'd misheard.
"Fierce Dragon Corps Chief Instructor Ha Mu-baek, sir."
Ha Mu-baek.
By now, that name was well-known throughout the Dragon Training Pavilion.
An instructor who dragged a jiangshi to the main training ground for practice—what a story that was. It'd be weirder if he wasn't famous.
"R-right? Hm. First one for him?"
"First for our shop."
The clerk answered cautiously, gauging the guard's reaction.
It was the first time he'd seen the man respond like that.
"Got it. He'll be at the main training ground—head there. Not a scary guy, anyway."
The guard handed over a pass as he spoke.
Ha Mu-baek's martial arts were fearsome, but his temperament wasn't.
That was why the guard had given the heads-up.
Still, the clerk felt his insides twist with dread.
'How terrifying is the guy...?'
Tense as could be, he delivered the first two letters.
Then he headed for the main training ground.
The laborers were scattered all over the pavilion, so he had a rough sense of the layout.
He'd even timed his visit for when passage was freer.
No one blocked his way.
And if they had, flashing the pass would've settled it.
As he drew near the main training ground.
Clang!Clang!Clang!Clang! Clang!
The sharp crashes of weapons clashing rang out deafeningly.
The clerk who stepped into the main training ground froze solid.
Over two hundred warriors swinging swords—it was a spectacle, alright.
But just as much a bloodthirsty one.
"Harder! Focus on the sword! Qi isn't something you force up! Do that, and all you dull the tip!"
A young instructor was ruthlessly drilling one student, barking orders fiercely.
The hulking man gritted his teeth and swung his sword, but he kept staggering back.
Yet his eyes burned with indomitable will.
It was plain as day, even to a martial-arts illiterate like the clerk.
Ung-cheol, the bulkiest student in the entire Fierce Dragon Corps.
With his natural brute strength, training had been easier for him than most so far.
Not anymore.
Swing the sword while circulating qi.
Just moving that qi was no small feat for Ung-cheol.
Focus solely on the sword as instructed, and the qi wouldn't budge an inch.
'What the hell am I supposed to do...?'
His face was a mask of confusion.
'This one's going to be trouble.'
Talent and qi reserves were plenty.
But his instincts fell short.
Probably that god-given strength dulling his senses.
Ha Mu-baek's swordwork shifted once more.
Just like yesterday with Jeok Ga-ye.
The Three Talents Heart Method's guiding strikes.
Only slower this time—much more forceful.
"Focus on the sword! Forget the qi!"
Ung-cheol let go of his qi awareness completely, as ordered.
His mind locked entirely on the blade.
Boom!
The big man's frame rocked unsteadily.
It was one hell of a strike.
But he couldn't falter.
The next was already incoming.
He swung desperately.
Boom!
Another thunderous clash.
Ung-cheol's world narrowed to the overwhelming sword power bearing down on him.
He had no attention left for anything else.
So he never noticed.
With every block against Ha Mu-baek's sword.
His dantian qi began to twitch faintly, seeping slowly into his limbs and torso.
And with it, the faintest breathing room in his defenses.
He was fixated solely on survival.
"Good. Lock in that feeling. Next."
After a solid round of sparring, the opponent switched.
A student who'd been facing off against another instructor stepped up.
Those without an instructor paired off against each other.
No shields.
Wooden swords only.
The clerk stood there, slack-jawed, staring at the brutal training scene.
How long had he watched?
"What is it?"
The young instructor who'd been whirling through the center moments ago was suddenly right in front of him.
"Y-yes?"
The startled clerk jumped.
He quickly gathered himself and stated his business.
He needed to deliver fast and get back to the shop.
Couldn't linger here forever.
"I'm from the east Messenger Pigeon Shop. Looking for Chief Instructor Ha Mu-baek."
"Me?"
The reply shocked the clerk.
He'd figured a Chief Instructor would be some grizzled veteran.
Not this young.
Truth be told, no one that age had been in sight, so he'd gotten lost in the training spectacle.
The guard had sworn he was here.
"Y-yes! A letter for Dragon Training Pavilion Fierce Dragon Corps Chief Instructor Ha Mu-baek, the great hero."
Ha Mu-baek cocked his head at the clerk's words.
He had no reason to expect mail through that channel.
"Got it. Hand it over and head out. Appreciate it."
Ha Mu-baek held out his hand.
The clerk pulled the sealed scroll from his robe and passed it over.
Ha Mu-baek tossed him a small iron coin in return.
The name on the envelope's exterior.
Chu Liang.
Not unknown.
Definitely.
'That Demon-Sealing Corps kid, the maknae?'
The ones he'd met going into Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest for a jiangshi.
The self-proclaimed youngest among them.
What business did he have sending a letter?
Ha Mu-baek hopped onto his usual rock-perch and cracked the seal.
He scanned the contents.
His expression twisted.
"Something up?"
It was Han Seol-bing.
She'd been sparring students but caught his sour look and approached.
"From Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest. Demon-Sealing Corps member."
"You knew one?"
"Ran into them by chance recently. That's not the point."
Ha Mu-baek's face grew grave.
"Huh?"
"That jiangshi's busted loose."
Han Seol-bing tilted her head at his words.
Too vague on its own.
"The bastard who called himself Heaven-Destroyer."
Her face lit up in shock.
How could it not?
Those two words from Ha Mu-baek's mouth carried real weight.
"Th-that monster's still out there? And the Demon-Sealing Corps knows about it too?"
She was so rattled she even stammered—a rarity for her.
"No chance. Not many know it even exists."
Ha Mu-baek handed her the letter as he spoke.
She read it through and nodded.
"...Unknown new-model jiangshi, they say. But if it's assaulting the Great Wall's ramparts... then yeah, probably that monster...?"
"Exactly. Only that freak. Strong enough to shrug off the spells and formations they laid into the wall."
Ha Mu-baek's eyes gleamed.
"Knew there were more."
Han Seol-bing murmured, lost in memories of that day.
Ha Mu-baek lost to fury, eyes rolling back in rage.
Stormed the Blood Cult headquarters and turned it to rubble.
One monster leaped out amid the chaos.
A Blood Cult guardian jiangshi calling itself Heaven-Destroyer.
It had a shred of reason left—how shocking was that?
Enough for a brief exchange, even.
Almost no one had followed the rampaging Ha Mu-baek.
She was just about the only one with the skill and guts.
'Ah, that damn Dam Mu-hyeon saw it too.'
Han Seol-bing recalled one irritating face.
"Asked it back then if there were more like you. Got nothing. That's why I pushed back twice as hard."
The reason Ha Mu-baek had snapped.
The plan to erect Mountain-Crossing Great Wall, quarantine part of the Demonic Forest, and manage the jiangshi and demon-beasts there.
Not wipe them out clean.
Manage them.
Absurd bullshit—he'd exploded.
And in the process, uncovered one monster the Blood Cult had hidden.
Smashed it flat.
Then confronted the Alliance Leader and Strategist head-on.
Who knew what other horrors the remnants hid? Finish them now.
But they'd refused.
'Now that I think about it...'
A fresh realization struck Han Seol-bing amid her recollections.
From some point on, Ha Mu-baek stopped caring much about Alliance business.
Focused solely on Blood Cult and Demonic Cult.
It had started right around then.
"What're you gonna do?"
"Told the Heavenly Eye Pavilion too. Gong Son the old codger'll handle it."
Ha Mu-baek shrugged it off like it was nothing.
But Han Seol-bing didn't miss the glint deep in his eyes.
Her gaze drifted to the students training hard.
'Those kids are heading there soon. You won't just sit this out.'
Her eyes locked on one spot.
Ha Seol-ran, drenched in sweat.
'Seol-ran's there too.'
"L-Lord Pavilion. Dragon Hall Leader Yong is here."
Heavenly Eye Pavilion Lord Gong Son Dan-gyeong's attendant approached and spoke carefully.
"Hm? What's he want? Send him in."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong looked up from the stack of documents he was poring over.
Dragon Hall Leader Yong stood before him.
Leader of the Pre-Bird Hall in the Heavenly Eye Pavilion—the group that compiled official external intelligence.
"A pigeon came in from a civilian shop."
"Civilian outfit?"
Not unheard of for them to send to the Righteous Heaven Alliance.
Nothing surprising.
"Just process per protocol, no?"
A mild rebuke for coming to him directly.
"It's coded, sure—but the cipher..."
"Cipher? What's the issue?"
"It's the Fierce Dragon Corps'."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong instantly thought of Ha Mu-baek.
But he shook it off.
The pavilion's Fierce Dragon Corps was a training unit under direct command.
No Heavenly Eye ciphers assigned there.
Had to be the one in Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
It had a cipher, but it'd never been used.
Demon-Sealing Corps handled all reports.
So the Leader must've come looking distressed, worried about a leak.
From an unexpected source.
"You inspect the scroll?"
"Yes. No poisons or knockout drugs detected."
"Contents?"
"They're... too outlandish..."
Yong hesitated before pulling a transcribed copy from his robe and handing it over.
Gong Son Dan-gyeong skimmed it swiftly.
His face hardened into grim lines.
Yong swallowed dryly at the sight.
"Who else has seen this?"
"The handling agent and me. Just us."
"Keep both gagged for now."
Yong blinked in surprise.
He'd dismissed it as nonsense.
But if the Pavilion Lord reacted this way, something was up.
He knew a bit about the Great Wall's spells and formations—couldn't buy it.
A jiangshi assaulting the ramparts?
"Gonna have to see the Alliance Leader."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong shot up and hurried toward the Alliance Leader's hall.
'Should've listened to Corps Leader Ha back then...'
Late regret.
But even if he could turn back time, he'd make the same call.
The situation demanded it.
Hocheon Corps clung to barely thirty percent of peak strength.
Even with Corps Leader Ha Mu-baek intact.
Not enough to brawl the Orthodox Faction Assembly's hordes.
Not with full war against the Demonic Cult looming.
Thoughts in turmoil, Gong Son Dan-gyeong quickened his pace.