Chapter 568
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 568
Chapter Title: A Pack of Mongrels
Gyu Hwi and Wi Su-yeon's steps quickened without them even realizing it.
They couldn't very well use lightness skills in a crowded city, so they simply walked faster.
In their haste, they soon arrived at the main gate of the Flowing Cloud Martial Hall.
Unlike their first visit, the gate was firmly shut.
"Hello?"
Gyu Hwi knocked on the door and called out.
He could sense about thirty people inside the hall.
After a short wait, the door opened.
And the one who appeared was Gwan Ha-kyung.
She was a woman they already knew.
A peak-level master, no less.
"We pay our respects to the Plum Blossom Sword Sage."
"Good to see you again. I heard the Flowing Cloud Martial Hall folks made it back."
They had returned just last night.
How could an outsider like the Plum Blossom Sword Sage know rumors circulating only among the city guards and locals?
It wasn't the sort of news one would hear early in the morning.
"Please, come in."
Gwan Ha-kyung led them to a small annex in the Flowing Cloud Martial Hall.
It was a place used for receiving guests.
"Corps Leader Ha mentioned it. Said your people returned last night."
"Ah."
On the way to the annex, Gyu Hwi's calm remark resolved the question Gwan Ha-kyung had been pondering.
The Corps Leader? Yeah, that made sense—he'd know without needing rumors.
"Please wait here a moment. They're still having breakfast."
"Oh dear. We've imposed so early in the morning. Please convey our apologies to the Hall Lord. We were just too eager."
Gyu Hwi spoke with proper courtesy.
Gwan Ha-kyung returned his cupped-fist salute, then headed to where the Flowing Cloud Martial Hall members were eating.
"It's the Plum Blossom Sword Sage."
As Gwan Ha-kyung appeared, all eyes turned to her.
Everyone was curious about this early morning visitor.
Some held their breath in tension.
Her words eased the mood.
She sat at the table with Yoo Gwi-gwang, Yoo Hyeon-gwang, and Pung Geon.
To resume their interrupted meal.
"Cloud?"
Yoo Gwi-gwang asked.
That day.
Gwan Ha-kyung had just finished recounting her conversation with them to Yoo Gwi-gwang, Yoo Hyeon-gwang, and Pung Geon.
The Plum Blossom Sword Sage had come seeking something in the Flowing Cloud Martial Hall's techniques.
Something called "Cloud."
It sounded like grasping at clouds.
What could their martial hall possibly have to draw Huashan Sect's greatest master?
Neither Yoo Gwi-gwang nor Yoo Hyeon-gwang had known the secrets of their ancestors from a century ago.
They'd been stunned to learn the Flowing Cloud Martial Hall was tied to Huashan Sect.
"That's what the Corps Leader said, and the Sword Sage confirmed it."
At Gwan Ha-kyung's reply, Yoo Gwi-gwang's gaze shifted to Yoo Hyeon-gwang.
"Maybe that's what you found."
The lost martial techniques of the hall.
Yoo Hyeon-gwang had discovered them while repairing the hall.
He'd kept them close even when leaving Sangnam.
"To think it's connected to Huashan Sect techniques... I can't believe it."
Yoo Hyeon-gwang said, his face dazed.
"We'll know once we meet. Keeping guests waiting is rude—let's finish eating quickly."
Yoo Gwi-gwang picked up his chopsticks again as he spoke.
"Oh, and she asked me to relay her apologies for interrupting breakfast in her haste."
Gwan Ha-kyung passed on Gyu Hwi's message, and Yoo Gwi-gwang nodded slightly.
They were clearly nothing like the Maehyangmun branch of Huashan.
And the Plum Blossom Sword Sage's reputation was well-earned.
The four finished their meal hastily and headed to the annex.
"I am Yoo Gwi-gwang, Lord of the Flowing Cloud Martial Hall. We pay our respects to the Plum Blossom Sword Sage of Huashan."
Yoo Gwi-gwang cupped his fists and bowed.
"Deputy Lord Yoo Hyeon-gwang."
"Disciple of Huashan, Gyu Hwi. The martial world calls me the Plum Blossom Sword Sage."
"Disciple of Huashan, Wi Su-yeon."
Gyu Hwi and Wi Su-yeon also cupped their fists, bowed, and greeted them.
The six sat in the annex.
Before long, tea prepared by Yoo Gwi-gwang's wife sent fragrant steam rising.
Gyu Hwi and Wi Su-yeon's gazes lingered briefly on Pung Geon and Gwan Ha-kyung.
This was about Huashan techniques—outsiders made them wary.
Though Gwan Ha-kyung had been present last time too.
Corps Leader Ha had vouched for her as one of his own.
"These two saved our Flowing Cloud Martial Hall from destruction. They're no different from our own."
Noticing the looks, Yoo Gwi-gwang spoke in a gentle but firm tone.
He rose again, cupping his fists and bowing.
"Ah, we heard you helped our hall in its hour of need. Truly, thank you."
"We merely did what any righteous warrior should. Rather, I apologize for the hardships caused by our sect's branch."
Gyu Hwi returned the salute as he spoke.
He dropped any further issue with Pung Geon and Gwan Ha-kyung.
More important matters awaited.
If the Hall Lord's will was thus, they had to respect it.
They were guests, after all.
"We heard you came seeking our hall's techniques."
Gwan Ha-kyung must have relayed his talk with Corps Leader Ha.
"Indeed. I suspect a missing piece of our Plum Blossom Sword Technique lies in your hall's arts."
At Gyu Hwi's answer, Yoo Gwi-gwang tilted his head, voicing his honest doubt.
"Our hall has stood in Sangnam for a century, but it's no grand place. How could our humble techniques hold a piece of Huashan Sect's arts?"
From Yoo Gwi-gwang's question, Gyu Hwi realized they knew nothing of their ancestors' secrets.
He hadn't known either.
He might never have, without Mo Yeong-un's tale from the Plum Blossom Library.
"The Flowing Cloud Martial Hall began with a Huashan disciple. An expelled one, to be precise."
Yoo Gwi-gwang and Yoo Hyeon-gwang were startled by Gyu Hwi's calm words.
A Huashan expelled disciple.
That meant their founder was one.
But expulsion stripped one of all sect techniques.
No way to establish a hall intact.
Seeing their confusion, Gyu Hwi slowly, calmly explained the circumstances.
The four listeners couldn't hide their shock at the century-old secret from his lips.
And also.
On the annex roof.
Ha Mu-baek, having finished burning the official documents, lay there with a surprised look.
'What a pack of mongrels.'
That was his honest thought.
Huashan Sect, a famed orthodox sect, pulling something like that? It was inevitable.
He'd come on a whim because Gwan Ha-kyung was here, and learned something unexpected.
"Then... our Flowing Cloud Sword Method is a technique lost to Huashan?"
Gyu Hwi nodded at Yoo Gwi-gwang's question.
"I thought there was no way to recover a technique lost from Huashan... but learning Martial Uncle Yu Ji-woong took it when he left brought me here."
Expelled, so not truly his martial uncle.
Yet Gyu Hwi called him that.
Partly out of respect before his descendants, but mostly because he deemed the expulsion unjust.
Yoo Gwi-gwang matched Gyu Hwi's courtesy.
"Our great-grandfather founded this hall. His style name was Woong-ja, yes."
Confirming Gyu Hwi had come straightaway.
He continued.
"But my grandfather lost the manual for the Flowing Cloud Sword Method. Father's skill barely reached second-rate because of it. That's why our hall declined."
Calm words, but disappointment flashed across Gyu Hwi's face.
Natural, of course.
The manual he'd sought so desperately—lost.
"But while I was away, my younger brother found a hidden copy deep in the hall while repairing it."
Like heaven and hell in one breath?
Gyu Hwi forgot decorum and snapped his head up.
"I-is that true?"
His voice trembled.
Yoo Gwi-gwang looked to his brother Yoo Hyeon-gwang.
Yoo Hyeon-gwang took the Flowing Cloud Sword Method manual from his bosom and placed it on the table.
Gyu Hwi and Wi Su-yeon stared intently at the copy.
"Hearing great-grandfather's secret from you, Sword Sage, I suspect he made this copy just in case. Grandfather lacked even a fraction of great-grandfather's talent and couldn't master it properly. He lost the original, nearly severing the lineage in father's generation."
Regret filled Yoo Gwi-gwang's face as he spoke.
"That I learned it at all is thanks to father. He inherited some of great-grandfather's talent and somehow restored the technique despite everything, reaching second-rate."
Yoo Gwi-gwang didn't specify his grandfather's level.
But from his father's tale, it fell short of second-rate.
Third-rate warriors.
They knew a single form, a line of breathing method—enough to call themselves warriors, but useless in a real fight.
Commoners might see them as mighty martial artists, but true experts knew they were barely above civilians.
Yet Ha Mu-baek wondered why Yu Ji-woong, once a Huashan prodigy, left his son at third-rate.
Proper guidance could have made him second-rate at least.
'Wait...'
Ha Mu-baek's thoughts turned to Yoo Gwi-gwang's internal art.
Come to think of it, he wielded a sword style with traces of a famed house, but his internal method was the commonplace Three Talents Heart Method, easily bought in any bookstore.
Expelled, so no Huashan internals left behind.
Yet true to his talent, he'd refined the Three Talents Heart Method masterfully—far beyond the average hack's version.
'Not about proving it right... just preserving what wasn't wrong.'
That mindset explained not pushing his son's level.
He'd even hidden a copy deep in the hall, fearing the sword method might vanish.
Gyu Hwi shared a similar view.
"Martial Uncle likely founded the hall in penance, thinking only to preserve the Flowing Cloud Sword Method."
His voice brimmed with pity for the hall's fate.
A hall founded by a Huashan disciple, yet unable to fully teach Huashan arts.
Thus, he'd accepted his son's lacking talent.
"I don't know great-grandfather's thoughts... but father said he and grandmother lived happily. Though great-grandfather sometimes seemed darkly troubled."
They taught hall students but cared little for their own advancement.
The hall's finances suffered, sending Yoo Gwi-gwang to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest—but who could judge it right or wrong?
"That's a relief."
For Gyu Hwi at least, knowing his unfortunate martial uncle had found happiness here lifted a weight from his heart.
"Please, take a look."
At Yoo Gwi-gwang's words, Gyu Hwi reached out and opened the manual.
Yoo Hyeon-gwang had only found it, not examined it.
His elder brother, the Hall Lord, should see it first.
Yoo Gwi-gwang hadn't had the chance amid the crisis upon return.
In the end, Gyu Hwi became the first to open it.
'Happiness...'
Ha Mu-baek pondered Yoo Gwi-gwang's words instead.
A disciple who'd crippled his own dantian, begged expulsion after losing to Wudang, and retired to the countryside.
Yet he'd opened a hall and lived happily with a talentless son.
What emotions? How happiness? Ha Mu-baek couldn't fathom it, dwelling on those words.