Chapter 423
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 423
Chapter Title: Then It's Possible
"Next."
Ha Mu-baek left Woong-cheol behind and moved on to another disciple.
And with that, the day's training came to an end.
Woong-cheol remained alone in his squad's training ground, swinging his sword.
With all his might.
But without tensing his body.
The final strike he had unleashed at Ha Mu-baek.
He was trying to recreate that sensation.
That immense power.
It felt like a fateful path he was destined to follow.
"Tsk. This isn't it..."
Woong-cheol tilted his head.
There were clear limits to training alone.
Was it because it lacked the thrill of sparring with an instructor?
He just couldn't replicate the feeling from the day's session.
"Need a hand, Senior Brother?"
A sudden voice broke through.
Woong-cheol's gaze turned that way.
A man stood there, sword in hand.
A familiar face.
"Cho Mu-ha, was it?"
A disciple from a prestigious orthodox sect who had oddly chosen to join the Fierce Dragon Corps.
"Yes. I was training alone on the next ground over, but it just doesn't feel the same as sparring with the instructor. Seems like you're feeling it too, Senior Brother."
Cho Mu-ha was a first-year veteran from the old squad.
He used the training ground right next to Woong-cheol's.
So he must have overheard the practice swings.
Woong-cheol thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Sure."
Better than practicing alone, at least.
The two switched to wooden swords.
Two inexperienced disciples clashing with real blades could lead to accidents.
They had blunted training swords, but wooden ones were safer still.
A dull thud echoed as wooden sword met wooden sword.
It definitely felt more alive than swinging solo.
'Good.'
Woong-cheol recalled that daytime sensation and swung.
Determined not to show the sloppy lack of control from before.
He kept his body relaxed but didn't hold back on the swing itself.
Just a touch lighter than full power.
Whoosh!
But the force packed into it was ferocious, so Cho Mu-ha dodged instead of blocking.
Woong-cheol's sword cleaved fiercely through the air.
No satisfying clash—his face soured.
"Something that brutal is better dodged than blocked."
Reading Woong-cheol's expression, Cho Mu-ha countered with a swing of his own.
A named technique.
He knew the form well, yet he could only scramble to defend.
Cho Mu-ha's version boasted far flashier variations than what Woong-cheol knew.
Thud! Thud!
The dull sounds rang out again.
The pair sank deep into their own interpretations of the named sword forms.
Ha Mu-baek watched from afar.
"Not bad..."
He chuckled softly.
With his Infinite Bright Wheel Eye activated, the flow of their internal energy was crystal clear.
Their qi churned and surged, on the verge of breaking through a wall.
Won Pyeong-sam had frequented the Ye Ga-ru brothel for several more days.
At last, he made his decision.
'The Shadow Gate. It's mine.'
He had scouted every detail.
Especially the influence of that man diligently cultivating martial arts in the brothel's basement.
After days of observation, he had identified the technique he was practicing.
'Blood Sea Ghost Killing Palm... Too coincidental to be chance. Is this fate? No, a karmic encounter?'
He mulled it over while knocking back a shot, using the courtesan's pipa melody as accompaniment.
Those who hid in the Tianshan Mountains had never abandoned their ambitions for the Central Plains.
They ceaselessly stirred chaos there, all to seize control the moment every beacon in the Ten Thousand Wastes flared to life.
A groundwork laid centuries ago, when the Eight Demons of the Shi Clan ventured into the Central Plains.
With not a single beacon lit in the Ten Thousand Wastes, that was the limit of their reach.
The last report from the Shi Clan spoke of founding a cult to dominate the Central Plains.
They had also smuggled in no small number of demonic and evil arts.
In hopes that those who learned them would sow disorder.
The Blood Sea Ghost Killing Palm was one such technique.
Based on the Won Clan's arts, where Won Pyeong-sam served as clan head.
He could identify it through qi sense.
Though the original form was corrupted, and the practitioner's attainment low, which had made him doubt at first.
Won Pyeong-sam slammed his empty glass down hard enough to startle the courtesan into halting her tune.
"Fetch the pavilion mistress."
For days, this silent patron had only drunk and listened—no words until now.
And the request was beyond what she could grant.
As a low-ranking courtesan, she didn't even know this was the Shadow Gate's headquarters.
Won Pyeong-sam read as much in her eyes.
"Tch. Bring the highest-ranking person you can."
He revised his order.
When she still hesitated, he pulled a silver ingot from his pouch and set it on the table.
Her eyes changed in an instant.
"The higher up they are, the more you'll get."
Her gaze darted between the ingot and his pouch.
How much more was in there?
Greed lit her eyes.
"I'll be right back, sir."
Having decided, she left the gold, bowed demurely, and slipped out the door.
It wasn't long before she returned.
Less than a quarter-hour, with a middle-aged man in tow.
"This is Chief Steward Yi of Ye Ga-ru. He heard you wanted him."
The middle-aged man bowed politely.
"Chief Steward Yi—does that mean second-in-command here?"
"Yes, sir."
Chief Steward Yi nodded at Won Pyeong-sam's question.
The courtesan's eyes sparkled as she looked at Won Pyeong-sam.
He chuckled at her gleam and fished out another silver ingot.
Tossed both to her.
"Here. Now get out."
Chief Steward Yi frowned at the display.
Acting like it was life or death, only to haggle over two ingots?
'That girl's no good anymore.'
Cold light filled his eyes.
Her fate was sealed.
"Heh. Should've staffed it solely with Shadow Gate girls if you wanted to pass as a brothel. Keeping ordinary courtesans around leads to messes like this."
Chief Steward Yi's eyes sharpened at Won Pyeong-sam's words.
"What do you mean by that?"
"No beating around the bush. Bring the pavilion mistress—no, the Shadow Gate Lord."
A fierce aura began to emanate from Chief Steward Yi.
Those who come uninvited bring ill intent, as the saying goes.
And this man hadn't approached through proper channels.
Buying info from the Shadow Gate wasn't impossible.
"Choose wisely."
Won Pyeong-sam spoke calmly, sensing the rising pressure.
He refilled his glass from the bottle as he did.
Chief Steward Yi shifted a step sideways.
Click.
In that instant, his right foot triggered a hidden mechanism in the floor.
Won Pyeong-sam heard it too.
He only chuckled.
"I warned you. Tsk tsk."
As Won Pyeong-sam clucked his tongue, the room began to shift around the table.
"What do you think?"
Alone in the office after Dok Do-gun's departure.
So Hwi-woong eyed Gong Son Dan-gyeong.
"They struck right at our weak spot."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong grimaced.
"Hm."
So Hwi-woong let out a low hum.
"We got properly burned by Mun In-baek Song."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong shook his head.
"So we just sit back and watch them march into Jiangxi Province?"
"To block the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest's Heaven-Destroying Iron Corpses, we truly lack the spare forces for Jiangxi. That's a fact."
"And you're saying we should deploy troops there out of worry we'll get pierced?"
"It's an excuse. A ploy to extend the Sapa Coalition's influence into Jiangxi."
So Hwi-woong nodded at Gong Son Dan-gyeong's words.
"They've always coveted Jiangxi anyway."
In the last two Martial World Wars, their alliance with the Sapa Coalition.
Territory had been the price.
The Coalition's original domain: half of Hunan Province south of Mount Heng, plus Guangxi and Guangdong Provinces.
Vast by Central Plains standards, but tiny for the union of the realm's unorthodox sects.
Blame the Demonic Cult and Blood Cult.
The Coalition had shrunk its lands to concentrate power against them.
The Righteous Heaven Alliance couldn't do the same, tied to its factions' locations.
Anhui Province bordered the Blood Cult's Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest and housed the Namgung Clan's main estate.
Kunlun Sect in distant Qinghai; Qingcheng and Emei in Sichuan, Tang Clan too; Kongtong in Gansu; Dian Cang in Yunnan.
Huashan and Zhongnan in Shaanxi; Shaolin in Henan; Peng Clan in Hebei.
Wudang, Jegal Clan, and Yeon Clan in Hubei.
Add the Eight New Sects' bases.
The Central Plains teemed with the Nine Great Sects, Five Great Clans, and other prestigious powers.
Territory couldn't be lightly abandoned.
Thus, spread thin and weakened—that was their plight.
The Sapa Coalition, by contrast, abandoned bases to focus on a compact domain.
With that strength, they faced the Blood and Demonic Cults.
In allying with the Alliance, they eyed post-war gains: Guizhou and Jiangxi Provinces.
The Alliance chose Guizhou.
Jiangxi remained Alliance territory, but quasi-neutral.
In truth, no corner of the realm lacked unorthodox or orthodox presence.
"Territory" meant dominant influence, not direct rule.
Yet it held great weight, so the Coalition now sought to claim Jiangxi.
"How do we stop them?"
Truth be told, handing it over mattered little.
No major sects there.
But symbolism forbade yielding Alliance land to the Coalition.
"Abandon the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest."
So Hwi-woong scowled at Gong Son Dan-gyeong.
"Not the answer I want."
He knew.
Yet the strategist always assumed the worst.
Optimism alone wouldn't suffice.
Gong Son Dan-gyeong knew the ideal his lord craved.
Thus, he had to deny it.
Blind hope without backups could doom them if things went awry.
"If you're counting on Instructor Ha, he might just grab his little sister from the Demonic Forest and slip away."
"Mu-baek? Leaving the Blood Cult behind?"
So Hwi-woong scoffed at the notion.
"Instructor Ha hates the Blood and Demonic Cults because they're the murderers of his parents and family. His sister's the only blood kin left. Her safety trumps smashing the cult."
Reasonable point—So Hwi-woong stroked his chin.
"That's just it. During the war, when the realm was in utter chaos, where did Mu-baek stash his sister to rampage like a madman?"
Scarce safe havens from the cults' demonic hordes back then.
A true mystery.
No one knew he even had family before bringing her to the Dragon Training Pavilion.
"Fine. Exclude Mu-baek as unreliable. How do we hold both the Demonic Forest and Jiangxi?"
So Hwi-woong posed it with specifics.
"The Alliance Lord handles the Heaven-Destroying Iron Corpses himself. Can you?"
So Hwi-woong's face twisted at the provocative query.
Fearsome energy coiled from him.
"Strategist. Even you can't cross that line."
His voice dripped fury.
Gong Son Dan-gyeong didn't flinch.
He knew why they had won that final battle.
"To quote Instructor Ha, the Iron Corpses rival the Blood Cult Leader in strength. Can the current Alliance Lord handle one?"
Asking if he could solo the old cult leader.
He couldn't back then.
So Hwi-woong ground his teeth.
Answered slowly.
"Now, yes."
'Not then.'
Today's So Hwi-woong was no longer that man.
Recent breakthroughs.
A new realm attained.
"Then it's possible."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong nodded faintly.
"Dispatch the Dragon Fang and Dragon Child Squads to Jiangxi right away, and have the Alliance Lord head to the Demonic Forest."
He spoke as if it were simple.
A total shift from moments before.