Chapter 51
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: Guess I Have to Deal with Them
“In the end...”
Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul set down the letter in his hand and closed his eyes.
His head throbbed.
He couldn't understand his father, the head of House Pang.
How could he be so stubborn? What on earth was blinding his father and clouding his judgment? He simply couldn't fathom it.
At this point, he didn't even want to know.
His father had made the worst possible choice.
Pang Do-yul took the letter to the lamp and burned it. Having something like this in his office would only bring trouble.
It was a letter so worthless that even wasting a handful of his inner energy on the Flame Meditation Incineration would be too much.
“What should I do about this...”
Pang Do-yul sank deep into thought.
Considering the sight of Ha Mu-baek he'd witnessed last time and the divine prowess he'd displayed in the previous war, he was absolutely not a man to turn into an enemy.
Yet his father, the head of House Pang, had ultimately decided to execute Ha Mu-baek to avenge that mongrel Gun-ho.
Perhaps without even realizing the risk that House Pang itself could be annihilated.
“First, I need to meet with him.”
Letting Ha Mu-baek know of House Pang's decision in advance.
This could be seen as a betrayal of his father, the family head.
But Pang Do-yul saw it as not a betrayal of the house, but a desperate struggle to protect it.
Ha Mu-baek was the man who had single-handedly annihilated a hundred elite Blood Cult troops in the last war.
And at such a tender young age.
Of course, the one-against-a-hundred battle hadn't been a do-or-die gamble.
It had been a hit-and-run guerrilla fight, thoroughly exploiting the fact that he was alone.
Even so, his demeanor after wiping out the Blood Cult elites had been utterly serene.
He couldn't be certain that House Pang's current forces were stronger than that elite unit back then.
And yet, they were picking a fight by declaring they would execute him.
‘Has no one told him about that battle? Well... it wasn't recorded anywhere.’
There were no records of it.
It existed only in Pang Do-yul's memory.
The reason was simple: it was the Orthodox Alliance's scheme to downplay his achievements.
Pang Do-yul hurriedly rose and headed to the training ground of Fierce Dragon Corps Squad Seven.
It was the hour when training was in full swing.
“Hm? What brings you here, Pavilion Lord?”
Ha Mu-baek spotted Pang Do-yul approaching with a stern expression and asked.
“Let's step aside and talk quietly for a moment.”
At the weight in his voice, Ha Mu-baek nodded and walked alongside him.
The Squad Seven disciples, now accustomed to such occurrences, continued their training without a care.
“What is it?”
Ha Mu-baek asked once they reached a nearby empty training ground.
[House Pang's decision arrived by letter today.]
Even in this deserted spot, Pang Do-yul spoke via transmission.
And the content of it.
Ha Mu-baek tilted his head in momentary confusion.
House Pang's decision? What connection could it possibly have to him to make the Pavilion Lord speak so gravely with such a darkened face?
From Ha Mu-baek's reaction, Pang Do-yul confirmed that the matter of Pang Gun-ho meant nothing to him. No wonder he was tilting his head like that.
To Ha Mu-baek, House Pang was just that insignificant. Yet his father, the family head...
[It's about Gun-ho from last time.]
At the mention of Pang Gun-ho's name, Ha Mu-baek's expression chilled coldly.
“You've sealed the area, so speak freely, Pavilion Lord. Gun-ho? What about that bastard?”
His voice was utterly chilling.
With the sound barrier in place so no one else could hear them, Pang Do-yul ceased the transmission and spoke aloud.
“The family head says he will have his revenge.”
“Pfft.”
Ha Mu-baek let out a burst of laughter at that.
“Who on whom? I held back as much as I did out of respect for Rani and Geol-ryang's faces.”
There was a subtle undercurrent of boiling rage in his words.
“I have no face to show. It seems the family head's judgment has been clouded.”
“Hah. The man who didn't even show his nose in the dangerous spots...”
In the last war, Ha Mu-baek had held a somewhat favorable impression of House Pang.
They had fought the enemy so bravely. He'd even been impressed by Pang Geol-ryang in particular.
But among those valiant Pang warriors, the family head was absent. When asked, they said he was guarding the house.
He remembered how absurd that answer had seemed at the time.
“Well, if they're set on revenge, guess I have to deal with them.”
Ha Mu-baek muttered with a smirk.
Killing intent saturated his words.
“Instructor Ha—no, Hero Ha. Please, have mercy considering House Pang's circumstances. This is clearly the family head's solo decision. Not the house's. I'll hurry back to the main house and resolve it. In the meantime, please stay your hand. I beg you.”
Pang Do-yul's voice was desperate beyond measure.
“I see no reason why I should, Pavilion Lord.”
Leaving behind that ice-cold reply, Ha Mu-baek turned and left.
Pang Do-yul watched his retreating back. His own expression was calm, as if he'd expected such an answer.
His goal had been to let Ha Mu-baek know he was on his side, and that had been achieved.
“I'd better get moving.”
Pang Do-yul moved on to his next step. He needed to return to the main house quickly and meet with his brother and the elders of the Elder Council.
Pang Clan Secret Annex.
In its deepest chamber.
Pang Mu-ryang sat cross-legged in the room accessible only to the family head.
Before him lay a single book.
In an attempt to clear his frustrated mind, he'd wandered aimlessly into the annex's library of martial arts manuals and found it.
Exactly ten years ago.
Around the time the Blood Cult began its rampage.
The moment he'd discovered this book.
It was when they were forming the Righteous Heaven Alliance's support unit. He'd planned to lead it personally, but this book changed everything.
The world sneered at him as the cowardly head of House Pang who hid from the war, but he paid it no mind.
Its value was far too immense to worry about such things.
He wondered why his ancestors had buried this treasure-like book here and why no one had found it since.
Hunyuan Flowing River.
The martial art named in the book.
To be precise, an inner cultivation method.
It wasn't House Pang's inner method. All their hereditary martial arts were meticulously documented, and nothing like this was among them.
At first, he'd thought it a minor treatise.
But the two characters "Hunyuan" drew him in, and he read it. At the time, his Hunyuan Treading White Blade had hit a wall.
He, the Pang Clan's greatest swordsman and family head, felt inferior and self-loathing because it was his cousin Pang Geol-ryang instead.
This martial art he'd found then was a ray of light for Pang Mu-ryang.
The Hunyuan Treading White Blade had a complementary inner method called the Hunyuan Divine Art.
Instead, he briefly circulated the method described in the book: Hunyuan Flowing River.
He was astonished.
A fierce energy erupted from his blade in streams, far surpassing the Hunyuan Divine Art.
The ecstasy of that moment—he still couldn't forget it.
And so, Pang Mu-ryang secluded himself to master Hunyuan Flowing River, while people whispered that House Pang's non-participating head was a coward.
“It was definitely different. Heh.”
A savage laugh escaped Pang Mu-ryang's lips.
He'd known it when he met Pang Geol-ryang at the clan: that he was far stronger now.
All thanks to secretly mastering Hunyuan Flowing River.
And at this Righteous Heaven Alliance event, meeting Alliance Leader So Hwi-woong had confirmed it once more.
That he was in no way inferior.
Even as he withstood the man's aura, he never felt he'd lose.
He had no certainty of victory either.
But having confirmed that, after the Elder Council rejected his demands, he'd decided House Pang would strike alone.
No matter how strong the man was, Pang Mu-ryang was confident he could win.
“The Yungzhong Blood Battle. Just exaggerated hype getting people riled up... Tsk.”
Yungzhong Blood Battle.
The fight where Ha Mu-baek supposedly annihilated a hundred Blood Cult elites single-handedly. He had been only twenty-one at the time.
Those who knew began deifying him afterward.
Some even considered him stronger than Righteous Heaven Alliance Leader So Hwi-woong.
But it was a time of dire straits needing a reversal, a time desperate for a hero.
Thus, Pang Mu-ryang believed Ha Mu-baek was a hero fabricated by the Righteous Heaven Alliance.
Otherwise, there was no explaining his complete lack of activity after the Yungzhong Blood Battle, even after the alliance turned the tide.
Moreover, the Yungzhong Blood Battle was mere rumor, not recorded in any Righteous Heaven Alliance documents.
His grandson had suffered at the hands of such a fake hero.
That couldn't stand.
That child would inherit his perfected Hunyuan Flowing River and Hunyuan Treading White Blade, raising House Pang to the world's foremost clan.
“Soon, the tenth stage.”
Pang Mu-ryang murmured softly, still cross-legged.
The Hunyuan Flowing River that had lingered at the ninth stage until now. Even then, he'd felt he could match So Hwi-woong.
That had been at the ninth stage's peak.
Once he reached the tenth, he'd lead his men to the Dragon Training Pavilion himself.
To sever that detestable bastard's head.
The energy rising from his dantian swept through his body—like rapids at times, like a vast river's flow at others.
Truly a flowing river.
The inner energy moved like a river in current.
Eventually, the energy swirling through his body stretched toward the sea like an ocean, forming a massive flow through his limbs, and a vast sea of energy appeared before him.
At that instant.
Boom! A massive explosion rocked him, his whole body shuddering.
“Kaaack!”
Pang Mu-ryang vomited dark red blood.
His eyes gleamed with a faint crimson light.
He unfolded his legs and slowly rose.
He gazed down at his body.
“Kuhaha. Kuhahahaha! Uhahahahaha!”
Pang Mu-ryang burst into laughter toward the heavens.
“So this is the tenth stage. Kuhahaha. Time to test it.”
He left the secret annex and entered the family head's private seclusion training room.
He drew his sword and unleashed the Hunyuan Treading White Blade.
Each motion was ferociously powerful and lethally vicious.
As he circulated Hunyuan Flowing River, the aura he emitted carried a faint red glow.
“Excellent!”
Refreshing exclamations burst from him with every swing.
At this level, its power was comparable to the Hunyuan Treading White Blade at its pinnacle, without shame.
The pinnacle of Hunyuan Treading White Blade.
He'd never seen it, but tales passed down among family heads spoke of it.
Only three in House Pang's history had reached its pinnacle, and all had become among the top three experts in the martial world.
Across righteous and demonic sects alike.
Now, Pang Mu-ryang was confident he'd attained prowess comparable to those three supreme experts of the world.
“You bastard. Wait. I'll cut your head off myself.”
His eyes blazing murderously, Pang Mu-ryang left the training room.
With all verifications complete, all that remained was departing for the Dragon Training Pavilion.
Things proceeded swiftly.
With the family head personally leading, it was inevitable.
Three hundred of House Pang's elite warriors were mobilized.
Seventy percent of the clan's total forces.
The rest remained at the house to guard against any contingencies.
He entrusted the clan to his second son, Young Master Pang Do-won.
“Father...”
“Quiet. Just take good care of Gun-ho.”
Brushing off his son's desperate pleas, Pang Mu-ryang mounted his horse.
“Alright, everyone! Let's go! We'll sever the head of the bastard who sullied House Pang's honor!”
With Pang Mu-ryang's thunderous shout, the three hundred began their march.
And two days later, Pang Do-yul arrived at the main house.
“No... How could this...”
Having galloped full speed via backroads, he'd crossed paths without meeting his father's procession, which traveled the main roads.
“Brother. We have to stop them somehow...”
“I did my utmost... but he's unstoppable.”
Pang Do-won replied with a heavy face.
“The man who was once so wise and discerning... why has he become like this...”
Pang Do-yul murmured with regret. Then, as if resolved, he stood.
It was what he'd decided even before coming to the main house.
“Let's go to the Elder Council. The elders must act. Especially the Supreme Law Protector.”
“Do-yul...”
At the mention of the Supreme Law Protector, Pang Do-yun's eyes trembled faintly as he called to his younger brother.