Chapter 575
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 575
Chapter Title: Do You Really Think So?
“We’ll head back to Huashan tomorrow.”
Kyeo Hwi said as he set down his cup.
His face was filled with regret as he spoke.
That regret was directed at the dishes and bottles of liquor laid out on the table.
“Looks like you’ve mostly sorted things out.”
Ha Mu-baek said calmly, chewing on a piece of food.
The purpose of their visit to Shangnam.
Even after obtaining the Flowing Cloud Sword Method manual, the reason they had stayed a few more days.
It was to organize the insights gained from the spar with Ha Mu-baek, on top of the manual.
Now that it was mostly organized, it was time to leave.
“I’m truly grateful for your hospitality.”
Still seated at the table, Kyeo Hwi clasped his hands in a formal salute to Ha Mu-baek once more.
Startled by her martial uncle’s gesture, Wi Su-yeon hurriedly did the same.
She had taken her meal to her room and eaten it all there when the meal began.
Both Ha Mu-baek and Kyeo Hwi had already finished eating.
They were now slowly sipping their drinks, enjoying the side dishes with them.
Ha Mu-baek nodded.
His gaze briefly flicked upstairs.
Where Gwan Po was.
“Then let’s meet again soon. I’ll have to visit Huashan myself before long.”
The two men looked at Ha Mu-baek in surprise at the unexpected words.
“I need to find out where that demonic art came from. A guy who’d been holed up in Huashan forever shows up wielding something like that.”
His voice was calm but chilling.
Only then did Kyeo Hwi’s thoughts turn to his martial uncle, Un Se-hyeok.
Recalling the matter he had set aside due to the Flowing Cloud Sword Method made his head throb.
“Hmmm...”
He let out a low groan and tossed back a cup of liquor.
To calm the sudden surge of anger.
“Since it’s a Huashan matter, couldn’t you leave it to Huashan?”
Ha Mu-baek coming to Huashan?
It was something he desperately wanted to prevent, if possible.
“A demonic art has surfaced. If I didn’t know about it, fine—but now that I do, I can’t just let it slide.”
Ha Mu-baek said after slowly savoring his drink.
“But it’s an internal Huashan affair...”
Kyeo Hwi wanted to dissuade him somehow.
“Wasn’t helping with the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword an internal Huashan matter?”
It had been about restoring the true form of Huashan’s Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword.
That was when Ha Mu-baek had sparred with him.
He hadn’t directly participated in the restoration process, so it could be called external.
But his spar had contributed to it, so it could also be seen as involvement in internal affairs.
It was a delicate issue.
“Hmmm.”
Kyeo Hwi’s expression grew complicated.
“And above all else. Sword Fragrance—that old monster—if another one like him pops up, can you handle it?”
Ha Mu-baek’s question.
Kyeo Hwi couldn’t help but flinch.
Back then.
He hadn’t been able to handle Un Se-hyeok.
He had been on the verge of death.
In that light, Ha Mu-baek was a lifesaver for him and Wi Su-yeon.
Obtaining the new Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword had elevated Kyeo Hwi’s realm several levels.
The spar with Ha Mu-baek had played a big role too.
Kyeo Hwi fell into thought for a moment.
Comparing his current realm to his martial uncle’s at the Cloud-Soaring Martial Hall.
“I think I could manage.”
It would be close, but possible.
Besides, he wouldn’t be alone at Huashan—there were other disciples too.
No matter how strong, one hand couldn’t block ten.
The moment that thought crossed his mind.
Ha Mu-baek smirked.
Seeing that, Kyeo Hwi revised his thinking.
That man could probably fend off not ten, but a hundred hands.
“Do you really think so?”
Ha Mu-baek’s question.
It carried a certainty that he couldn’t.
“You think the realm Sword Fragrance showed back then was all he had? Really?”
At the follow-up questions, Kyeo Hwi frowned.
A nagging unease crept in, like he was missing something.
Something hovering just out of reach.
“If the Blood Cult bastards used soul-destruction arts to turn innocent people into those demons...”
“Ah...!”
Kyeo Hwi finally let out an exclamation.
“Soul-Exterminating Demons!”
The entity he had just recalled.
The Demonic Cult’s Soul-Exterminating Demons, which had plagued the Righteous Heaven Alliance alongside the Blood Cult’s Dark Blood Corpses.
Demons who, upon reaching a profound level in demonic arts, exploded their latent power for several times the strength.
True to their name, they lost their reason.
Possessed only with the instinct to slaughter and destroy anything free of demonic energy.
Not everyone who cultivated demonic arts could achieve it.
Only those who reached the pinnacle, so their numbers were exceedingly few.
During the Great Martial War, about ten had appeared.
But each one’s impact was tremendous.
Four out of ten battles, where the Righteous Heaven Alliance thought victory certain, ended in defeat and retreat due to a Soul-Exterminating Demon.
Huashan’s Sword Fragrance, Un Se-hyeok, had fallen just short of that realm.
By a hair.
“The old Sword Fragrance monster couldn’t manifest as a Soul-Exterminating Demon due to that tiny shortfall. But if another one hiding in Huashan turns into one, can you handle it?”
“...”
Kyeo Hwi had no answer.
Soul-Exterminating Demons were fewer than Dark Blood Corpses, but their damage was greater when they appeared.
These instinct-driven slaughter machines wielded their pre-transformation martial arts even more powerfully and precisely.
In the end, Kyeo Hwi shook his head.
“No, I couldn’t.”
A demon at Un Se-hyeok’s level undergoing soul-extermination?
Half of Huashan would be blown away.
“But aren’t Soul-Exterminating Demons extremely rare? Even your martial uncle didn’t reach that realm.”
“Sword Fragrance got arrogant. He could’ve reached it, but I forced his hand early. Or maybe he had no intention of doing so and acted before then.”
Recalling his martial uncle Un Se-hyeok’s personality, Kyeo Hwi nodded.
Probably the latter.
“You can’t let your guard down just because it’s unlikely. What if one does? You’d have to level half of Huashan to suppress it?”
Ha Mu-baek came to a similar calculation as Kyeo Hwi.
Half of Huashan Sect.
“Isn’t the cost of ignoring even a slim possibility too high?”
Ha Mu-baek said, raising his cup.
Kyeo Hwi raised his own as well.
He had nothing to say.
Wi Su-yeon, who had been listening to their conversation, went pale.
It was a dialogue beyond her imagination.
Gong Hae-bin and Gong Hae-jun, bustling about the restaurant and glancing at Ha Mu-baek’s table, tilted their heads.
It seemed like a serious talk, but they heard nothing.
The two children couldn’t yet imagine that Ha Mu-baek had blocked the sound with his energy.
“So don’t act rashly. Investigate quietly until I get there. Once I deal with that guy, I’ll head to Huashan too.”
Ha Mu-baek’s gaze turned upstairs again.
Gwan Po.
He had to treat that kid’s dantian.
And he had made a promise.
“What about the disciples?”
Kyeo Hwi changed the subject.
“They’re not disciples yet. And I’ll teach them what to practice while I’m at Huashan.”
“Isn’t the initiation the most crucial time?”
“There’s no time unimportant for martial arts.”
Kyeo Hwi nodded at the response.
Ha Mu-baek was right.
People thought laying the foundational basics was most important, but in truth, every moment of learning and cultivating martial arts mattered.
“Still, it’s when they’re building their foundation...”
Kyeo Hwi muttered regretfully.
He had been rooting for those brilliantly talented children’s start.
“They have to handle at least that much to become my disciples.”
Ha Mu-baek said nonchalantly and took a bite of food.
“You’re a scary man.”
As the Plum Blossom Sword Sage, who had always nurtured disciples with care and encouragement, he couldn’t understand it.
Yet he said no more.
Just as he couldn’t refuse Ha Mu-baek’s visit to Huashan as a Huashan matter.
Teaching and evaluating prospective disciples was entirely Ha Mu-baek and his sect’s affair.
Interfering further would be rude.
“Then let’s meet at Huashan next time.”
Ha Mu-baek stood after draining his last cup.
Kyeo Hwi watched his back ascending the stairs, his eyes filled with complexity.
‘Will storms brew at Huashan... will tempests rage...?’
He couldn’t tell.
That monster had declared he was coming to Huashan.
The next day.
Early in the morning, the Plum Blossom Sword Sage and Wi Su-yeon left the inn.
They expressed their gratitude to innkeepers Gong Yeop-myeong and Eun Cheong-seon, even paying extra beyond the agreed amount.
The couple firmly refused anything beyond the set fee, but couldn’t keep refusing Kyeo Hwi’s persistent kindness and reluctantly accepted.
How could they resist when the old Sword Pinnacle Province man kept saying, “It’s my goodwill, so please don’t refuse”?
Now, the forest where the two from Huashan had trained became Ha Mu-baek and the children’s training ground.
Upon arriving at the forest, Ha Mu-baek was startled by the wooden sword movements the two children demonstrated.
He had shown it only once, yet they were mimicking it convincingly.
The sword movements themselves were simple.
The Three Talents Sword Method was inherently so.
But simplicity of movement didn’t mean the intent within was simple.
Yet the two children understood that intent to a degree.
From just one demonstration.
“Let me see your hands.”
At Ha Mu-baek’s words, Gong Hae-bin and Gong Hae-jun shyly extended theirs.
Hands that had swung swords without rest.
“Tsk.”
Ha Mu-baek clicked his tongue.
The children had swung their swords nonstop after the inn duties ended yesterday.
Of course, Ha Mu-baek knew.
He had sensed it with his energy perception.
Doing it in the inn’s small backyard—how could a master like him not notice?
He thought they’d stop at some point, but they hadn’t.
Their palms were full of blisters.
“Overdoing it is harmful. If your palms get too injured, you won’t be able to hold a sword.”
At Ha Mu-baek’s words.
“W-Well, it’s just... it was so much fun...”
“Me too...”
Ha Mu-baek’s face went blank for a moment at Gong Hae-bin and Gong Hae-jun’s responses.
It was an answer he hadn’t expected.
That the Three Talents Sword Method was so fun they hadn’t noticed their palms blistering and kept going.
Perhaps they were born to be martial artists.
Circulating energy—they had done it properly for half a shichen this morning as instructed.
Ha Mu-baek taught the Three Talents Sword Method meticulously once more.
Yesterday was just a demonstration; today, he included the intent behind it.
Thanks to the children already sensing it somewhat by practicing on their own, they absorbed his teachings like cotton soaking up water.
Another day passed.
The two children were deep in energy circulation.
Gwan Po sat tensely in the first-floor restaurant.
Ha Mu-baek had come down.
After breakfast.
“Let’s go.”
He said curtly to Gwan Po.
The two arrived at that small forest on the outskirts of Shangnam.
“Ready?”
At Ha Mu-baek’s question, Gwan Po, face taut with tension, swallowed hard.
He was tense for multiple reasons.
The hellish pain he’d endured so far was mere preparation.
And after today, his dantian would recover.
The two facts combined overwhelmed him.
Ha Mu-baek nodded lightly.
Understanding, Gwan Po immediately assumed a cross-legged position.
At that moment.
Tap. Tap.
Ha Mu-baek’s light flick sealed Gwan Po’s pressure points for demonic and mute acupoints.
Gwan Po’s eyes widened in shock, questioning silently.
Why?
“Move or make a sound, and it’s over. But that pain isn’t something you can endure with willpower.”
With his mute point sealed, he couldn’t even swallow, but Gwan Po’s eyes trembled finely.