Chapter 542
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 542
Chapter Title: Don't Trust the Righteous Faction Guys
Sa Hoon swallowed hard.
His face stung from the unpleasant aura rising alongside their hostile demeanor.
'Th-this is the presence of a first-class master...'
It was his first time experiencing such an aura.
Gwan Po, the vice master of the Black Face Hall, was also a master of profound skill, but he had never unleashed such a sharp pressure on Sa Hoon.
This was the first time he had directly felt the presence of a martial artist who had reached the first-class realm.
"Y-you gentlemen are far too upright. Anyone can see you're masters of the righteous faction. The Yunwoon Martial Hall will surely suspect you."
It was a reasonable point, so they withdrew their sharp aura.
He could simply kill them all and be done with it, but he didn't wish to go that far.
After all, they were righteous faction martial artists.
He was lending them aid on the sect leader's orders to utilize the third-rate riffraff of the unorthodox paths, but that didn't mean he intended to fight as dirtily as the unorthodox themselves.
"Of course, if we slaughtered them all without mercy, there'd be no issue, but I know full well that esteemed heroes of the righteous faction would never stoop to that."
Sa Hoon's words seemed to read their hearts perfectly.
"So?"
In the end, the martial artist who had shown his displeasure turned to Sa Hoon and asked.
"If I may be so bold... you gentlemen need to roughen up a bit. You need to look like unorthodox folk to anyone who sees you."
At Sa Hoon's words, embarrassment flickered across the faces of the Maehyang Sect martial artists.
They had already thought themselves plenty roguish in appearance.
Sa Hoon shook his head, guessing their thoughts from the way they glanced at one another.
"Rough clothing isn't nearly enough. As you are now, there's not a shred of crookedness about you. Anyone would see you as properly trained disciples of a famed house."
Just looking at how they stood in formation proved it.
There was discipline, uniformity.
The Black Face Hall underlings would never stand like that.
Even before their own master, they slouched—that was the ingrained nature of unorthodox scum.
That's why such folk gathered in the unorthodox paths to begin with.
No matter how hard they tried to glare menacingly, anyone who trained in martial arts would spot the pure inner light deep in their eyes and guess they hailed from the Maehyang Sect.
"Then what do you expect us to do? Think you can take down the Yunwoon Martial Hall without us?"
There was a hint of irritation in his voice.
Being told that their very righteousness was the problem—what nonsense.
"I know it's presumptuous, but over the next three days here with me... you'll need to undergo some training to toughen up that image."
Sa Hoon spoke with utmost caution, but the Maehyang Sect warriors' faces twisted in fury.
Deep skepticism colored their expressions—what could justify going that far for this job?
Yet this was a matter the Maehyang Sect leader Ban Yun had taken a personal interest in, with Chief Steward Seo Hon overseeing it directly.
In the end, they had no choice but to go this far.
"Hoo. Fine. What do we do?"
Their leader sighed in resignation and asked Sa Hoon.
In truth, Sa Hoon was desperate too.
Success here meant handing over five parts out of eight of the eastern region's profits to the Maehyang Sect.
It was a venture with no gain to speak of, driven solely by Master Seon Gyu's greed.
Of course, to offset the losses, Seon Gyu had expanded another gambling den through Gwan Po.
The Maehyang Sect had agreed to turn a blind eye to that.
It had been a nonstop string of cold-sweat negotiations over the past day or two.
They'd even settled on a one-time tribute in exchange for overlooking the new den.
The Maehyang Sect, having some face as a righteous faction, hadn't demanded ongoing tribute for the new gambling den.
Regular payoffs for ignoring a gambling den was the sort of thing only true unorthodox scum pulled.
The righteous getting involved with gambling dens at all was already crossing the line.
And so Sa Hoon began desperately drilling roguishness into the Maehyang Sect warriors.
They had three days left.
"What in the world is going on...?"
Yu Hyun-gwang was flustered.
It was truly a trivial quarrel.
Nothing at all, and yet the Black Face Hall kept escalating it.
The whole matter stemmed from one young Yunwoon Martial Hall apprentice bumping shoulders with a Black Face Hall thug on the street.
They should have just apologized and moved on.
But the young disciple had made a face like he was ignoring the thug, giving them their excuse.
A kid not even twenty, puffed up with his own pride, looking down on third-rate unorthodox street trash.
Trash who sucked the common folk dry.
But that thug claimed it was an insult and was ranting about a deathmatch.
Yu Hyun-gwang had kept the disciple inside the hall for now.
To shield him from the Black Face Hall's absurd demands—fight a deathmatch or hack off a limb.
The boy was terrified.
First time facing the vicious intent and killing aura of unorthodox scum.
A deathmatch would likely end with him dead before landing a single blow.
And chopping off a limb? Absurd.
It was just unorthodox nitpicking and bullying.
"They're after our hall."
Yu Gwi-gwang said coolly.
Didn't Elder Kang from the Qiang Battleground say as much?
The Black Face Hall had forged a debt note to target the Yunwoon Martial Hall.
When that failed, now they were picking fights directly to flex their power.
"If we fight them, what are our odds?"
Yu Gwi-gwang asked as if conflict was inevitable.
"The Black Face Hall... they have solid forces. Decent numbers, and they're a venomous bunch."
Yu Gwi-gwang nodded.
Their leader, the hall master, wasn't all that impressive.
But whether the hall's trainees and apprentices could withstand the unorthodox killers' ferocity was doubtful.
A straight fight meant certain defeat.
Yu Gwi-gwang stared steadily at his younger brother Hyun-gwang.
This one was the same.
Dutifully, uprightly practicing the family arts, nothing more.
'In the end, do I have to handle it alone?'
But he couldn't block all the enemies by himself.
Even barricading the doors, how could one man stop them scaling the walls?
"Send the trainees home for now."
The trainees were kids aged ten to fifteen.
No matter how scummy the Black Face Hall, they wouldn't touch children in broad daylight.
After all, the strongest force in Sangnam was the righteous Maehyang Sect—they wouldn't stand for such behavior.
"Hall Lord. Vice Hall Lord."
At that moment,
the apprentice they'd sent to the Maehyang Sect returned.
He was the Yunwoon Martial Hall's senior disciple.
With Black Face Hall thugs possibly showing up any moment to start trouble, Yu Gwi-gwang and Yu Hyun-gwang couldn't leave the hall, so they'd had no choice but to send the senior disciple.
"What'd they say?"
At Yu Hyun-gwang's question, the disciple answered with a dark expression.
"The Black Face Hall was indeed insulted and lost face, so the Maehyang Sect says they have no grounds to intervene in the dispute."
"Bullshit."
Yu Gwi-gwang spat coarsely in disbelief.
The Black Face Hall had planned the provocation from the start.
The thug had deliberately approached and bumped into their disciple walking down an empty street.
It was premeditated.
Yet the Maehyang Sect claiming no grounds to intervene and stepping back...
"Looks like they've cut a backroom deal with the Black Face Hall."
At Yu Gwi-gwang's words, Yu Hyun-gwang's face lit up in shock.
"Brother, even so... the Maehyang Sect isn't just any righteous group. It's a branch of the Huashan Sect."
One of the famed Nine Great Sects, with Huashan boasting great prosperity.
For their branch to stoop to that?
"Don't trust righteous faction scum. Especially not the Nine Great Sects or Five Great Clans."
Yu Hyun-gwang paled at his brother's words.
Fear of what might happen if this reached Huashan ears.
His Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest experience had shown Yu Gwi-gwang the true faces of the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Clans.
"We'll need to make our own preparations. If they've pulled in the Maehyang Sect, they could strike anytime. Gather the disciples. How many shields in the armory?"
Yu Gwi-gwang said, rising to his feet.
His Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest experience would prove invaluable here.
He'd seen the power of shields in group battles countless times over five years.
Against those ferocious jiangshi bastards.
'A day? Two? Will we even have that much time?'
For now, he'd have to drill them in basic formations at least.
"Shields? Hmm. Not many, I think."
Yu Hyun-gwang tilted his head as he replied.
And small wonder—the Yunwoon Martial Hall taught swordsmanship that didn't involve shields.
Just a few on hand for teaching the basic forms of the military's Eighteen Martial Arts.
"Then we'll make some."
Yu Gwi-gwang sprang into action.
It was a long, grueling journey.
The western edge of Henan Province was finally in sight.
"Twelve days to get here?"
Gwan Ha-kyung said, his face haggard with exhaustion.
The horses were spent too, plodding along wearily.
It had been a full day since passing the last city.
No towns until they crossed into Shaanxi and entered Sangnam, so they were stuck with these horses.
"Two more days? That should get us there."
Gwan Ha-kyung replied wearily to Pung Geon's words.
"I hate camping two more nights."
"Then push harder. We might spend the second night in Sangnam."
"Then hang around Sangnam a day or two before heading straight back."
"Exactly."
Pung Geon replied calmly.
For a moment, Gwan Ha-kyung regretted his decision.
He hadn't imagined such a tight schedule.
But he shook his head fiercely.
'No. Get it together. And I want to see Squad Leader Yu's daughter too.'
The one he'd cherished so dearly in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
The entire Fierce Dragon Corps and Demon-Sealing Corps knew his drive to survive stemmed from his daughter back home.
"She's doing well, right?"
Pung Geon smiled faintly at Gwan Ha-kyung's question.
"She must be. Back with her family, just like she wanted."
Pung Geon continued, his face bright with anticipation.
"Wonder what face she'll make when we show up."
Gwan Ha-kyung nodded.
The time she'd spent with Yu Gwi-gwang amounted to a little over a year, but that was plenty.
On the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest battlefield, they'd entrusted their backs to each other for a full year.
The two men cast their gazes down the road stretching ahead.
A full day of travel, camp, then more travel tomorrow—but the end was in sight.
Exhausted to their limits, but with the goal visible, they could squeeze out the last of their strength.
Gripping the reins tight, they gave their horses a light kick.
These beasts were tired too, but just a bit farther and they'd arrive.
"Hang in there just a little longer."
Gwan Ha-kyung murmured softly, stroking his horse's neck.
Words for the horse, but a vow to himself as well.
