Chapter 504
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 504
Chapter Title: These Bastards Really...
East outskirts of the Jegal Clan.
Ha Mu-baek started here first.
The moment he leaped over the wall and entered the Jegal Clan grounds, he spread out his senses.
The range covered the entire Jegal Clan.
The movements of everyone in the Jegal Clan were instantly felt by Ha Mu-baek's senses.
Ha Mu-baek immediately frowned.
'What's this? What is this place?'
There were far too many people hidden everywhere.
Their positions made it seem like they were surveilling the clan members.
It wasn't just one or two spots.
Rather than targeting specific individuals, it felt like they were monitoring the entire clan.
Some areas had even more people deployed, as if certain key figures were under special watch.
Yet the Jegal Clan members went about their daily routines as usual.
It was impossible to tell if they were unaware of the surveillance or simply didn't care despite knowing.
From Ha Mu-baek's perspective, the environment was utterly incomprehensible.
'It wasn't like this before...'
During the previous war, he had stayed at the Jegal Clan for about a day after the fierce battle at Yungzhong Mountain.
There had been eyes watching him back then, but nothing like this widespread surveillance of the clan's own people across the entire grounds.
What on earth had happened to the Jegal Clan in the meantime?
The only place free of surveillance eyes was the northern section of the clan.
The clan lord's residence.
Instead of watchful gazes, it brimmed with protective energy.
These were the elite guards the clan lord had stationed for his own safety.
Naturally, their vigilance was directed outward, not inward.
And the western side of the clan.
There were an unusually high number of surveilling figures there.
More than anywhere else.
'Who could it be?'
His curiosity was piqued.
In a place choked with suffocating surveillance over the entire clan, this spot had an especially dense concentration of watchful eyes.
Who exactly were they scrutinizing so thoroughly?
Swoosh.
Ha Mu-baek's figure moved stealthily.
Despite the countless surveilling eyes scattered throughout the Jegal Clan, not a single one detected his movements.
He arrived at a small annex building.
'A woman?'
The presence inside the annex came from just one person—a young woman.
The presences surrounding the area were thick and plentiful.
At this level, even she had to know she was under surveillance.
Flip.
A faint sound of turning pages reached Ha Mu-baek's ears.
'She's reading a book.'
Swoosh.
He knew sneaking into a woman's private chambers while she was alone was a grave breach of etiquette, but the bizarre situation in the Jegal Clan had intensely sparked his curiosity.
Inside the annex room.
Jegal So-rin sat at her desk, absorbed in a book she had brought from the clan library.
Ha Mu-baek was slightly taken aback by the sight.
He had never seen her during his previous visit to the Jegal Clan.
Her beauty was stunning.
It was on par with Yeon Ha-min or Namgung Ji-yu, the famed Five Flowers of the Martial World—absolutely no less.
Yet her eyes burned with sharp intellect.
She clearly looked like a direct descendant of the Jegal Clan.
Ha Mu-baek's gaze shifted to the book she was reading, drawn by her utter immersion, as if she wouldn't notice even if the annex caught fire.
What kind of book could it be?
-Thus, the Primordial was divided into six, but those six were not all equal.
It was only natural.
Just as fragments of a shattered teacup on the floor are not all the same size, the six fragments of the Primordial each possessed unique traits and powers.
Ha Mu-baek's eyes widened.
He nearly leaked his presence in shock.
The book this nameless Jegal Clan woman was intently reading contained writings about the Primordial.
Moreover, they were details Ha Mu-baek had never heard from Mu-geuk.
More precisely, another secret of the Primordial that Mu-geuk had not revealed.
'The six Primordials were not all equal...'
That passage lodged firmly in Ha Mu-baek's mind.
Perhaps the reason Mu-geuk and Ye-ui shared the same goal wasn't just aligned purposes, but also a lack of sufficient power?
The doubt suddenly crept in.
Considering the abyssal might of Mu-geuk that Ha Mu-baek had witnessed firsthand, it seemed unlikely—but that passage was profoundly suggestive.
-I sifted through countless ancient texts and records. In pursuing the Primordial records and perfecting the Void Art, I discovered it was not a fragment of Void, but of Chaos.
Chaos.
A bizarre existence.
Perhaps even the rending of the Primordial was due to this Chaos?
The reason I'm capriciously leaving this book in secret and sending it covertly to the clan might also be Chaos's prank.
Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
The place that allowed me to unfold my ideals, yet ultimately bounded by invisible walls.
The Jegal Clan and the Demonic Cult are the same.
If the Jegal Clan has walls of direct lineage, the Demonic Cult has the walls of the Four Elders.
Though I ascended to cult leader, it's a puppet position no different. I only realized it after becoming leader.
The Demonic Cult is not a true cult.
Merely subordinates of the Four Elders.
The disorganized contents spilled out in all directions.
Mixed in were laments and complaints.
It hardly seemed like something written by a Jegal Clan member.
That was Ha Mu-baek's judgment.
'A Jegal Clan member became the Demonic Cult's leader?'
This was information even Ha Mu-baek didn't know.
It was possible because the Jegal Clan had erased all traces before he was even born.
It lingered in the memories of martial world veterans, but no one spoke of it anymore.
'Chaos is a bizarre existence...'
Come to think of it, hadn't Mu-geuk said he couldn't fathom Chaos's thoughts either?
Flip.
The last page turned, and Jegal So-rin closed the book.
"Haa."
A sigh escaped her.
"What did I just read?"
It was filled with utterly unbelievable content.
The origin of the Demonic Cult's leader from a century ago, unknown to the martial world—known as Ma Mu-gun but truly Jegal Mu-gun. The hidden book he secretly left for the Jegal Clan in his later years brimmed with incredulity.
What had prompted him to leave this book?
Though it seemed full of Primordial lore, half was laments about his own circumstances.
'He seemed out of his mind.'
The writing style revealed it.
It felt like multiple people had written it.
A coldly rational scholar expounded on the Primordial, only for a despairing, regretful scholar to ramble incoherently.
What was the true reason for leaving this book?
Lost in thought with her eyes closed, Jegal So-rin failed to notice.
A faint glow emanated briefly from the book she had read and closed, as a tiny energy flowed out and seeped into her dantian.
But Ha Mu-baek, who had watched the entire scene in the room, did not miss the phenomenon.
'That’s...'
It was unmistakable.
The power felt from fragments of the Primordial.
Very small and subtle, but Ha Mu-baek could not mistake it.
It wasn’t just a book describing the Primordial written by a Jegal Clan member.
He had thought no energy from the Primordial fragments was present.
The power had simply been too faint to detect.
Whoosh.
Ha Mu-baek snatched the book.
He needed to examine it properly from the start, in detail.
Soon, Jegal So-rin opened her eyes.
Her mind still a tangled mess, unsorted.
"Hm?"
What she discovered was an empty desk.
"These people..."
Jegal So-rin muttered in an anger-laced voice.
'Even they never entered when I was alone before.'
Her watchers had at least respected basic boundaries.
Not entering a woman's private chambers when she was alone was one such line.
Yet the book she had just been reading was gone.
In the Jegal Clan, only one group would pull something like this.
The clan lord's eyes.
She already knew countless eyes watched her, but she hadn't expected them to invade even her private chambers.
'I need to be even more careful from now on.'
Now, even bathing or changing clothes would keep her on edge.
A life under such surveillance.
'I'm jealous of Brother.'
She thought of her older brother, living freely at the Dragon Training Pavilion after leaving the clan.
Envy welled up endlessly.
The recent incident only amplified those feelings.
'Should I leave too?'
The impulse suddenly struck her.
But the clan lord would never allow it, so she quickly gave up.
Especially not while under such heavy surveillance.
Ha Mu-baek, who had stealthily taken Jegal So-rin's book, left her room as is.
Then he observed her watchers.
He needed information on the woman.
Some among the watchers were quickly jotting notes.
They meticulously recorded her status and actions.
Thanks to that, uncovering the identity of the woman Ha Mu-baek had just seen was simple.
He glanced at their neatly organized report.
'Jegal So-rin... Jegal Myeong's younger sister.'
The report even mentioned she had sent a letter to her brother Jegal Myeong, but no reply had come yet.
'Tch.'
Ha Mu-baek clicked his tongue inwardly.
No matter how he thought about it, the Jegal Clan was far from normal.
He slipped out of the clan covertly.
It didn't matter where, but the clan's grounds, choked with eyes watching every clan member, felt suffocating—he couldn't stay.
He left the Jegal Clan and settled on a thick branch of a towering tree in the dense forest beyond, leaning back against the trunk.
Ha Mu-baek opened the book from Jegal So-rin's room and immediately frowned.
Only the title "Primordial" remained; from the next page onward, it was all blank.
He had clearly hidden in her room and glimpsed parts as she read, yet all the text had vanished.
"The energy of a fragment's piece. Written with it directly, arranged so that it seeps into whoever reads the entire content?"
He pondered deeply and arrived at the most likely explanation.
That also explained why Ha Mu-baek hadn't sensed any energy from the book.
The energy dispersed in each character was too minute for him to detect.
Only when it coalesced and seeped into Jegal So-rin did it become a detectable size—still small, but enough for his senses.
'Jegal Mu-gun...'
One more person from the past to investigate.
Someone capable of such an arrangement, and who had even become Demonic Cult leader, warranted a thorough look.
Repeating the name Jegal Mu-gun brought another to mind.
'Ma Mu-gun, no doubt.'
The name of the Demonic Cult leader from a century ago.
Ha Mu-baek knew that much.
With the same name as Jegal Mu-gun, it had to be him.
Gong Son, the old man, would know the details—he'd need to visit him again.
Ha Mu-baek slipped back into the Jegal Clan.
He went to Jegal So-rin's study, placed the book back on her desk, and left immediately.
It was now utterly useless.
Jegal So-rin, who had briefly stepped out and returned, frowned again.
"These bastards really..."
The vanished book had returned to its place.
It happened while she had gone to the garden for some air.
Truthfully, she had wanted to bathe to ease her frustration, but the earlier incident made her opt for a walk instead.
Yet the book was back.
What if she had bathed?
Jegal So-rin's face flushed red.
She picked up the book from the desk, and her face reddened even more.
All the content had disappeared.
What on earth had they done to the book in that short time?
"I can't just let this slide."
Jegal So-rin steeled her resolve.
Even if it was her grandfather, even if he was the clan lord—this was too much.
She immediately left the annex and headed for the clan lord's residence.
She had to confront them.
