Chapter 50
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: I Wonder Who It Is This Time
Pang Mu-ryang walked the paths within the Righteous Heaven Alliance with a grave expression on his face.
His destination was the Alliance Lord's residence.
He had come to have a direct confrontation with the Alliance Leader.
That was why he had raced from Hubei all the way to Luoyang here, giving it his all.
Every time he recalled his grandson's wretched state, he couldn't taste his food even after eating, and sleep brought him no rest.
"That bastard... I wouldn't even be satisfied grinding him up with salt and chewing him to bits... Crunch."
As he thought of the man in preparation for his meeting with the Alliance Leader, his teeth ground together involuntarily.
He arrived at the Alliance Lord's residence and entered immediately.
He had sent word via messenger pigeon when departing from the Pang family estate, and an appointment had been scheduled.
As the head of one of the Five Great Clans, he could secure a meeting on short notice.
"It's been a while, Pavilion Lord Pang."
Righteous Heaven Alliance Leader So Hwi-woong greeted him with a faint smile and guided him to the guest table.
This was the reception hall used for welcoming visitors to the Alliance Lord's residence.
Light refreshments and tea were already prepared on the table.
"I pay my respects to the Alliance Leader. Please understand that family matters have kept me so occupied that I haven't been able to visit the main alliance often."
"Haha, that's only natural. In exchange, Elder Pang devotes himself wholeheartedly to the alliance's affairs. What brings the busy family head all this way?"
If anyone was busy, it had to be the Righteous Heaven Alliance Leader.
He was probably the busiest person in the entire martial world.
"I explained briefly in the letter, but it's about my grandson."
"Hm. I sent investigators to the Dragon Training Pavilion right after receiving your message to verify the facts. I got the results yesterday."
"Then this will be straightforward. I want Ha Mu-baek's head. That bastard who deserves to be chewed up and spat out."
Pang Mu-ryang's voice was ice-cold.
At his words, a small smile played on So Hwi-woong's lips.
"Impossible."
"Alliance Leader!"
"Even if Instructor Ha did something wrong, his punishment is for the alliance and the Dragon Training Pavilion to decide. Demanding his head over a personal grudge? Absurd."
"It's not because he's the Alliance Leader's closest confidant, is it?"
Pang Mu-ryang provocatively challenged So Hwi-woong's words.
Since Ha Mu-baek was the leader of the Hocheon Corps, his personal guard unit, it was a pointed accusation of favoritism.
In response, So Hwi-woong merely smiled gently.
"Or maybe there's another motive."
As So Hwi-woong offered no answer and simply smiled, Pang Mu-ryang's face grew increasingly fierce.
"I'm asking if the Alliance Leader sent Ha Mu-baek to the Dragon Training Pavilion to bolster the New Eight Great Sects supporting you by weakening the Nine Great Sects, One School, and the Five Great Clans."
The smile on So Hwi-woong's lips deepened, and with it, his expression turned frigid.
Pang Mu-ryang sensed the sudden shift in atmosphere but held So Hwi-woong's gaze without backing down.
"Instructor Ha..."
So Hwi-woong spoke slowly.
"What a name that sticks in my throat. To me, he's always been my friend, Ha, the Hocheon Corps Leader."
A blizzard raged in So Hwi-woong's eyes as he faced Pang Mu-ryang.
"And the ones who demoted that friend of mine to instructor in the Fierce Dragon Corps at the Dragon Training Pavilion? That was the Elder Council."
Before he knew it, the smile had vanished from So Hwi-woong's lips.
He recalled the day the Elder Council head had informed him of Ha Mu-baek's punishment.
He still couldn't forget the rage and helplessness of that day. Even as Alliance Leader, he hadn't been able to protect one of his own from the Elder Council's frame-up.
It had been a negotiation.
To gain something else, he had no choice but to send Ha Mu-baek away.
If he had the power, such a negotiation never would have happened.
He was the Righteous Heaven Alliance Leader, but the Nine Great Sects, One School, and Five Great Clans still held sixty percent of the power that moved the alliance.
The Elder Council.
Dominated by the Nine Great Sects, One School, and Five Great Clans, it was the group that practically ran the Righteous Heaven Alliance.
Pang Mu-ryang clamped his mouth shut at the mention that the Elder Council had appointed Ha Mu-baek as Fierce Dragon Corps instructor at the Dragon Training Pavilion.
The Pang family was one of the Five Great Clans, after all.
"If you truly want Instructor Ha punished, then leave the investigation to the Dragon Claw Squad."
Pang Mu-ryang frowned at those words.
The Dragon Claw Squad was the armed investigative unit under the Discipline Hall, which enforced the Righteous Heaven Alliance's rules.
The problem was that the Discipline Hall answered to no faction's influence.
Not even the New Eight Great Sects, to which the Alliance Leader's own sect, the Dorim Sect, belonged—nor the Nine Great Sects, One School, or Five Great Clans had any sway there.
A fierce power struggle was underway between the White Path Society—the alliance of the Nine Great Sects, One School, and Five Great Clans—and the New Eight Great Sects' faction to bring the Discipline Hall under their control, but no one had succeeded yet.
The Alliance Leader was proposing to entrust the matter to them.
The investigators sent by the Alliance Leader would have been from the Alliance Lord's residence. This was on another level entirely.
Of course, if his grandson Pang Gun-ho was innocent, there would be no issue.
But it takes two hands to clap. There was no way such a thing had happened without reason.
"Involving the Discipline Hall in a matter between Ha Mu-baek and the Pang family seems a bit excessive."
"And coming to the Alliance Lord's residence demanding Instructor Ha's head isn't excessive?"
Pang Mu-ryang shut his mouth tight at the Alliance Leader's sharp retort.
His fists clenched under the table, trembling with fury.
"For now, I'll formally request it as an agenda item with the Elder Council."
"Request what?"
"Ha Mu-baek's punishment, naturally."
"Do as you please."
So Hwi-woong chuckled sardonically at the idea of leaving it to the Elder Council.
'Hocheon Corps Leader. They don't even know who feared him the most. What would an old monster cooped up in his family all his life know? Tsk.'
So Hwi-woong inwardly clicked his tongue at Pang Mu-ryang's futile struggles.
After leaving the Alliance Lord's residence, Pang Mu-ryang headed straight for the Elder Council.
There was his half-brother, Pang Mu-rin. Born of a concubine, he hadn't received the generational character 'Ryang' of their line.
Even so, his talents were exceptional, which was why he had been sent to the main alliance.
Moreover, though a half-brother, he was currently the most trustworthy person in the Pang family.
He had grown up as Pang Mu-ryang's loyal retainer since childhood.
"Brother. You've come."
Entering Pang Mu-rin's office in the Elder Council, he rose and bowed at the waist.
"You've heard the news, I assume?"
"Yes. That Gun-ho suffered terribly."
"Half his face is completely shattered."
"......"
Pang Mu-rin had no reply to Pang Mu-ryang's words.
"What did the Alliance Leader say?"
"That if I really want that bastard punished, he'll send the Dragon Claw Squad."
Pang Mu-rin frowned at that. It wouldn't do.
"Then you came to me to raise it as an agenda item with the Elder Council."
Pang Mu-rin nodded as he spoke.
"We must have that bastard's head."
Pang Mu-ryang's eyes blazed fiercely as he said it.
"For now, I'll do my utmost."
"Your utmost isn't enough. Bring results."
With that, Pang Mu-ryang rose to his feet.
Though the Elder Council's core was the White Path Society, there were members from other sects as well.
No matter that he was the Pang family head, Pang Mu-ryang—as not an official Elder of the Righteous Heaven Alliance—could not attend Elder Council meetings.
"Then take care."
After bowing to see Pang Mu-ryang off, Pang Mu-rin sat back at his desk and let out a sigh.
"Hoo. Brother, you've grown too old. Cooped up in the family estate, your eyes and ears have gone dull. Do you even know what kind of man he is before demanding his head?"
Pang Mu-rin.
He too had participated in the previous war. His contributions there had greatly aided his ascension to the Righteous Heaven Alliance's Elder Council.
Thus, he knew Ha Mu-baek well.
He had told Pang Mu-ryang countless times of his exploits.
Yet now, Pang Mu-ryang was charging ahead blindly.
The Elder Council deciding his death?
Absurd.
If it were that easy, why had they demoted him to the Dragon Training Pavilion?
They would have just killed him.
Sending away the Alliance Leader's greatest wing had already cost the Elder Council dearly.
How much must the Alliance Leader have been mocking his brother inwardly?
Pang Mu-rin felt suffocated.
The spirited brother he had admired in his youth seemed gone.
"You've been in that position too long."
He shook his head slightly and muttered under his breath.
***
Three days later.
The Elder Council's decision came swiftly.
The result was, predictably, denial.
There was an added note: if they sought revenge on Ha Mu-baek, the Pang family could pursue it independently without interference.
In other words, handle it yourselves.
"These damn bastards... And they call themselves the White Path Society?"
Pang Mu-ryang ground his teeth, his entire body trembling.
"Mu-rin, what the hell have you been doing all this time in the main alliance? Is this the result you bring?"
His arrow of rage turned toward Pang Mu-rin.
"Brother."
Pang Mu-rin spoke to his brother in a solemn tone.
"Ha Mu-baek is no ordinary man. His name alone makes my teeth chatter—that's why even in Elder Council and White Path Society meetings, I just call him 'that guy.'"
"What of it?"
"Do you know why he was sent to the Dragon Training Pavilion? The Elder Council racked their brains to pin a nonexistent crime on him and demote him. The price they paid wasn't small. If they could have killed him easily, why go to such lengths? He's the Alliance Leader's strongest wing and blade. Just his absence from the main alliance lets countless elders sleep soundly on both legs."
Pang Mu-rin's words came like a storm.
Only then did Pang Mu-ryang realize the true nature of the smile the Alliance Leader had given him at the end.
Sneer.
A blatant mockery.
As Pang Mu-ryang trembled in realization, Pang Mu-rin continued.
"Brother, that man is like a calamity or natural disaster. Think of it like your house getting wrecked in a typhoon."
"You call that an excuse? That bastard shattered the Pang family's future!"
"It's just his face that's ruined! His dantian is intact, his limbs are fine—there's no issue with cultivating or using martial arts!"
Pang Mu-rin countered his brother's rage-filled shout with a cry full of frustration.
"Gun-ho is the Pang family's eldest grandson and your great-grandson."
"More important to me than the Pang family's heir is the Pang family itself."
Pang Mu-ryang stared at his brother in disbelief.
"Are you saying the Pang family is at risk because of that bastard?"
"Meet with the other family heads yourself. Ask them directly what they think would happen if the Pang family fought him."
Pang Mu-ryang's face twisted viciously at Pang Mu-rin's advice.
"Enough. I am the head of the Pang family. And the Pang family's power is not weak. To say we're endangered by a single man? That's laughable nonsense. Don't come back to the main estate for a while. I don't want to see your face."
Pang Mu-ryang stormed to his feet.
And returned straight to the Pang family estate. Without achieving a single one of his goals.
His face on the journey back was terrifyingly fierce.
"So he's finally resolved to start something..."
Pang Mu-rin could read his brother's determination. Nothing was visible in his eyes anymore.
He would probably go after Ha Mu-baek. The outcome was all too clear.
"Hm?"
Ha Mu-baek was overseeing the training of his seven squads of disciples when he scratched his ear.
It had been a long time since his ear had itched like this.
It used to happen occasionally before.
But not much since the war ended.
The last time it had happened was probably...
"The day I got the notice to go to the Dragon Training Pavilion?"
He muttered softly, recalling that day.
He had no idea why, but whenever his ear itched like this, someone was always gunning for him.
Quite the curious phenomenon.
"I wonder who it is this time..."
Ha Mu-baek murmured softly as he gazed up at the clear blue sky.
He hoped nothing would happen, but based on past experience, something surely would.
He only prayed the fallout wouldn't reach his little brother.
Because if it did, he couldn't predict what he might become.