Chapter 48
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: How Well Do You Know Him?
Ha Mu-baek's gaze shifted to Pang Gun-ho, sprawled out behind Han Seol-bing.
He was nothing more than a limp hunk of meat.
Feeling her brother's eyes on her, Ha Seol-ran shook her head desperately, her gaze pleading.
It was a look that begged him to stop here.
"Hmmm."
Ha Mu-baek let out a heavy sigh laced with contemplation.
Considering what the punk had said and done to his little sister, even if he spared his life, chopping off one arm seemed necessary to vent his rage.
He had to go that far to ensure the bastard never dared spout nonsense at her again.
But the sister in question was standing in the way.
[Since Seol-ran is asking, let it go at that. I'll keep a closer eye on things from now on.]
His master's telepathic message rang in his mind.
As expected of his master.
Even Han Seol-bing, who had deployed the formation, hadn't noticed him slipping into it to observe the situation.
Ha Mu-baek gave a small nod. Then he turned to Ha Seol-ran and asked,
"Are you really okay with this?"
"I'm fine."
Ha Seol-ran nodded vigorously and answered in a rush, afraid he might change his mind.
"Then we'll leave it at this."
At Ha Mu-baek's words, sighs of relief escaped from here and there.
Among them, the ones who sighed the loudest were Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul and Han Seol-bing.
No, just Han Seol-bing.
She was the only one here who had witnessed even a glimpse of Ha Mu-baek's true power.
That's why she had been so tense.
She had stepped forward boldly, but she knew that if Ha Mu-baek got serious, she wouldn't last three exchanges.
"Then I'll be off. With the mood today, afternoon class is out of the question..."
"Yes! We'll do self-study."
Dang Jin-san replied swiftly.
They did self-study so often that he had anticipated it this time too.
Ha Mu-baek chuckled at Dang Jin-san's response.
His gaze turned to Pang Do-woong.
Color had returned somewhat to his deathly pale face.
"You should stick to one path. The Pang Clan might not appreciate the true value of the Mystic Cloud Eight Shadows Sword."
Reluctantly offering advice for the sake of his connection with Pang Geo-ryang, he leaped away.
"W-Wait, the formation is still..."
Dan Mok Un-roe cried out in surprise at the sight.
He had been constantly monitoring the formation still enveloping the area.
Making Dan Mok Un-roe's worry unfounded, Ha Mu-baek vanished just like that.
Han Seol-bing scanned outside the formation before turning her gaze to Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul as well.
"Quite a crowd has gathered. It might be best if you, as Pavilion Lord, disperse them first."
She said this while glancing at Pang Gun-ho.
There was no way they could drag someone in that state out where everyone could see.
"Understood. Open a path for me."
Han Seol-bing pulled a small stick from her bosom and handed it to Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul.
"You have to return this. I'll be in big trouble if it goes missing. Just walk straight in one direction with it."
"I'll remember that. I'll return it today without fail."
Pang Do-yul did as Han Seol-bing instructed and quickly slipped out of the formation.
Using his authority as Pavilion Lord, he dispersed the curious onlookers.
And so, the commotion sparked by Pang Gun-ho's outburst seemed to draw to a close.
"Who brought whom?"
Hebei Province, Beiping.
Home to the Hebei Pang Clan's main residence.
In the clan lord's chamber, Clan Lord Pang Mu-ryang's voice boomed harshly.
His tone was thick with anger.
"D-Do-woong brought Gun-ho back."
"And Gun-ho was in bad shape, wasn't he?"
Facing his father's question, the young clan lord Pang Do-won could only bow his head.
His father already knew everything. That's why he was in such a fury.
"W-Well, fortunately... his dantian and limbs are intact."
"Hah. Is that what a father should say? The kid's face is ruined!"
Indeed.
Ha Mu-baek had swung his palm in earnest, shattering the bones in Pang Gun-ho's left face—upper jaw, lower jaw, cheekbone, temple—all pulverized.
It was beyond repair; no amount of realignment could restore his original looks.
As Pang Mu-ryang said, half of Pang Gun-ho's face was utterly ruined. His shattered lower jaw had wrecked the jaw joint too, leaving him unable to open his mouth properly on the left, forcing it to gape asymmetrically only on the right—a grotesque sight.
They said he looked like a monster now.
Pang Mu-ryang had only heard from his informants; he hadn't seen it himself.
He lacked the courage to look.
"Having incurred his wrath and returned with his limbs intact and his life spared—that alone is fortunate."
"Tch. Pathetic."
Pang Mu-ryang clicked his tongue at his son's feeble demeanor. Disappointment in his eyes had given way to outright contempt.
'Father doesn't know his true nature.'
During the recent war.
Despite being young clan lord, Pang Do-won had joined the fray and witnessed his fury from afar.
His father, defending the clan as lord, had only heard tales and thus failed to grasp the man's true face.
It frustrated him, but he couldn't show it.
After all, his father was the clan lord.
"Do-woong. What did that punk do?"
"Do-woong rushed in just in time, limiting the damage to that extent."
"That guy broke his sword, inflicted internal injuries, and came back? The so-called Pang Clan's Greatest Sword?"
Pang Gun-ho's severe injuries had numbed Pang Mu-ryang's reason.
The ruination of his cherished firstborn grandson had driven him to this.
If Pang Do-woong went all out, even his father the clan lord could barely handle him.
No, to be precise, Pang Do-woong was a cut above his father.
Even with the clan lord's signature Primeval Shedding White Sword.
'Even if Father had been there, the result would have been the same.'
Pang Do-won swallowed the shout rising in his throat, thinking it silently.
"Who was Do-woong's master again?"
"Uncle Ho-ryang and Uncle Geo-ryang."
Both now retired and in the council of elders.
Among those with "Ryang" as their generation name, only Clan Lord Pang Mu-ryang remained active.
His lingering greed for power kept him in the seat.
"Summon those two."
"Yes."
Pang Do-won answered curtly and left the chamber.
Pang Do-woong and Pang Gun-ho were currently receiving treatment in the medical quarters.
In their current state, they couldn't come to the clan lord's chamber, so they were getting emergency care.
Pang Do-woong aside, one wondered how much treatment Pang Gun-ho could even get.
In the meantime, he was to fetch the two elders.
They would arrive at the clan lord's chamber shortly, to face him together.
The reason was likely a reprimand.
Ignoring Pang Gun-ho's faults, blaming Pang Do-woong for failing to protect him, and holding his masters responsible for that failure.
'He's growing ever more tyrannical.'
What had turned his father this way?
Pang Do-won couldn't fathom it.
But one thing he sensed: his father, as clan lord, might lead the Pang Clan down a wrong path.
"Do-woong got thoroughly thrashed?"
When Pang Do-won arrived, the news had already reached the elders, and Pang Geo-ryang greeted him.
"Yes."
"So that's why your father summoned me?"
"Uncle Ho-ryang as well."
"Figured as much."
As if prepared since hearing the news, Pang Ho-ryang emerged too.
"You okay? They say Gun-ho's a mess."
"Returning with limbs intact and life spared is fortunate."
Surprise flickered in the two men's eyes at Pang Do-won's reply.
They didn't yet know who had bested Pang Do-woong and Pang Gun-ho.
"What happened? Didn't they go to the Dragon Training Pavilion?"
Retired as they were, they didn't meddle deeply in clan affairs and had limited information.
"Yes. And he was there."
"He?"
Pang Ho-ryang tilted his head.
"No way, him?"
Pang Geo-ryang, meanwhile, reacted with shock.
He had grasped it instantly.
"Yes."
Pang Do-won confirmed briefly.
"Why the hell was he at the Dragon Training Pavilion?"
Pang Geo-ryang demanded of Pang Do-won in disbelief.
"Let's head to the clan lord's chamber first. I'll explain on the way."
At Pang Do-won's words, the two set off. En route, he summarized the events concisely.
The explanation finished by the time they reached the chamber.
"You're here."
Pang Mu-ryang greeted them coldly.
"Greetings, Clan Lord."
The two bowed in unison.
But Pang Mu-ryang barely acknowledged it.
"Do-woong and Gun-ho will arrive soon."
"......"
To his icy words, the two had nothing to say. Pang Do-won stayed silent too.
Just then, Pang Do-woong and Pang Gun-ho arrived, guided by the chamber guards.
"Gun-ho!"
Pang Mu-ryang shot up from his seat and flew to Pang Gun-ho's side in an instant.
His condition was worse than described.
Half his face looked melted away.
Bandages wrapped tightly around it lessened the horror somewhat, but with Pang Mu-ryang's piercing insight, he saw through them.
"H-How did you end up like this... Ugh."
Confirming his beloved grandson's state with his own eyes, Pang Mu-ryang's filled with red.
Eyes brimming with sorrow and fury.
His head snapped toward Pang Do-woong.
Only rage remained in his gaze.
"I sent you to protect Gun-ho, and this is what you let happen?!"
A roar erupted.
Pang Do-woong merely kept his head bowed. There was no room for excuses.
By the time he arrived, Pang Gun-ho was already like that. And he had clashed with the fiend—and lost.
His sword was broken.
He had no defense, even with ten mouths.
No, he had words, but held them back. Speaking would only fuel Pang Mu-ryang's anger.
"Tch. People hype you as the Pang Clan's Greatest Sword, and now you don't know your place? I saw it when you learned those two sword styles. Iron Blood Thunderbolt Sword alone isn't enough. And you go learning that flimsy Mystic Cloud Eight Shadows Sword."
Now his glare turned to Pang Ho-ryang and Pang Geo-ryang.
"Geo-ryang. Speak if you have a mouth. Our clan's precious heir returns like this. Did you have to teach him that worthless sword art? And Ho-ryang. How did you teach him that the Pang Clan's Greatest Sword ends up like that?!"
Pang Mu-ryang's fury poured out in all directions.
Pang Do-woong's clenched fists trembled as he bowed his head.
He felt his own inadequacy had shamed his two masters.
And with that came a question.
Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul at the Dragon Training Pavilion clearly knew the man's identity.
He had feared him greatly and done everything to calm his wrath.
Yet the clan lord seemed ignorant of his true face.
"Clan Lord. No, brother."
Pang Geo-ryang spoke up.
"First, for the honor of my own master, I must clarify one thing. The Mystic Cloud Eight Shadows Sword is no flimsy art."
"What?"
"It was the sword art that earned me the title of Pang Clan's Greatest Sword."
"You...!"
Pang Mu-ryang's fists shook.
It was true.
And a thread of his inferiority complex.
Generation after generation, the Pang Clan's Greatest Sword had been the clan lord. Naturally so, as he wielded the strongest Pang sword art, Primeval Shedding White Sword.
But that tradition broke in Pang Mu-ryang's generation.
Someone had defeated Primeval Shedding White Sword with the unheard-of, paltry Mystic Cloud Eight Shadows Sword.
That someone was Pang Geo-ryang before him.
His disciple Pang Do-woong now held the title.
Not his own son, the young clan lord.
Pang Do-woong had earned it with Iron Blood Thunderbolt Sword alone, and then Geo-ryang taught him Mystic Cloud Eight Shadows Sword on top.
Everything grated on him.
And now, even his treasured firstborn grandson was unprotected.
"And brother, you don't know his true face. Just as Do-won said. For Gun-ho to survive intact after enraging him is a stroke of fortune you can't imagine."
"Uncle!"
Pang Gun-ho cried out bitterly. Even in that state, he hadn't mended his ways.
If anything, he had grown more narrow-minded and vicious.
"This isn't your place to speak."
Pang Do-won scolded Pang Gun-ho.
"That goes for you too. Stay quiet."
Pang Mu-ryang's rebuke followed to Pang Do-won.
Pang Do-won bowed his head silently, as if resigned.
Pang Mu-ryang's gaze returned to Pang Geo-ryang.
"Then tell me. How well do you know that bastard Ha Mu-baek?"
His murderous glare fixed on Pang Geo-ryang.