Chapter 66
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: What a Sly Fox
"……."
Yeon Ha-min said nothing. Ha Mu-baek waited patiently.
If it had been something easy to say, she wouldn't have kept it hidden all this time.
How much time passed?
Ha Mu-baek simply walked on in silence, and Yeon Ha-min followed behind.
They walked quite a distance.
By the time they reached a secluded spot where no one was within thirty paces—not even three—Yeon Ha-min finally spoke.
"My mother ran a small ferry house in Yichang. My real father died in an accident before I was even a hundred days old. Mother struggled alone to keep that ferry house he left behind going."
A woman running a ferry house alone with a daughter.
It couldn't have been easy.
And judging by Yeon Ha-min, her mother's beauty must have been...
'All sorts of scum must have swarmed around.'
Ha Mu-baek could picture it without even seeing.
"I heard those days were incredibly tough for her. I don't remember much from back then..."
Her voice carried a depth of regret that didn't match her age.
"My first memories start around age five. The day I met my stepfather. He said from that day on, he was my father, and we should go together. That from now on, I wasn't Joo Ha-min anymore—I was Yeon Ha-min."
Her eyes gazed at some distant point in the sky, filled with longing.
Ha Mu-baek listened quietly.
The second son of the Hubei Yeon Clan head.
The world had called him the clan's dragon. He'd met an unfortunate end in the last war.
"As a child, I was thrilled to finally have a dad... But I was too young to realize. That it was the beginning of hell. I learned after entering the Yeon Clan. That my mother had originally been a servant there, and left when she married my real father..."
Much must have been omitted from her tale.
The heartbreaking, tumultuous stories in between painted themselves in his mind without her needing to say them.
Ha Mu-baek said nothing. He simply waited for her to continue.
"The real hell began after Father died in the war. Mother wanted to leave the clan, but the clan head wouldn't allow it."
Her voice dripped with deep resentment at the mention of the clan head.
"The Yeon Clan without Father... was nothing but a den of beasts."
As she spoke, Yeon Ha-min shuddered.
She remembered those beasts' gazes.
"The lust—no, the bestial desire in their eyes when they looked at me... In that place, there were only three people."
'Three... One's the mother, so who were the other two?'
The question flickered in Ha Mu-baek's mind.
"Thanks to two of them, I escaped that hell."
Even saying it, her eyes brimmed with pain.
"Leaving Mother behind in that hell..."
Those following words were the source of her torment.
"For all that, isn't this place right next door to the Yeon Clan?"
Yichang, home of the Hubei Yeon Clan, was right across from Wuchang. Key points along the Yangtze River routes—mere moments by boat.
"Brother said it was dark under the lamp. And that the Hubei province was actually where the Yeon Clan had the least influence. On top of that, they have zero interest in the Dragon Training Pavilion. They haven't sent even a single disciple here all this time."
Ha Mu-baek nodded slowly at her words.
Impressive foresight.
The political landscape of Hubei was incredibly complex.
The Wudang Sect of Mount Wudang.
The Jegal Clan of the Yungzhong Mountains.
The Hubei Yeon Clan of Yichang.
Three of the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Clans were packed into Hubei.
Naturally, their rivalries burned fiercely.
And atop that, the Dragon Training Pavilion in Wuchang—a force of the Righteous Heaven Alliance.
Truly, among the thirteen provinces of the Central Plains, it was where factional competition raged hottest.
The Yeon Clan's indifference to the Dragon Training Pavilion stemmed from elsewhere.
They poured all their energy into checking the Wudang Sect and Jegal Clan.
The same went for those two.
The difference? They at least sent disciples from their own sects to serve as instructors here.
That was the extent of it.
Such dynamics had even influenced the pavilion's relocation to Wuchang.
'Strategist Gong Son. That sly fox's doing.'
So even if the Yeon Clan scoured the world for Yeon Ha-min, they couldn't properly search their own front yard, Hubei.
'And Pavilion Lord Pang must have turned a blind eye too.'
Others at the pavilion might not know, but Pang Do-yul had guessed her identity.
Yet he'd said nothing to anyone, quietly protecting her.
Even knowing it could sour relations with the Yeon Clan if discovered later.
'He must have known her story.'
Honestly, even so, it was too sloppy.
Using her real name outright.
The Fierce Dragon Corps sought meat shields. They didn't scrutinize backgrounds.
She could have hidden her identity further, but using her real name was recklessly careless—undermining her hard-won escape from the clan.
"Brother told me to change my name too. But I thought if I did, it might make it harder for him to find me later..."
"So he said he'd come looking for you."
"Yes. He promised he'd come once things quieted down."
But the situation was likely still dire.
"He's Father's son. Father remarried too. My brother is seven years older than me... He felt more like a real brother than any blood relative."
Yeon Ha-min bowed her head and murmured softly.
He could tell even without her saying.
Sending a non-blood sister out from the clan.
From what he'd heard from Dam Mu-hyeon, he could guess the peril the brother now faced.
"Then that's why you want to get stronger?"
"I have to bring Mother with me."
Yeon Ha-min lifted her head, eyes shining with resolve.
"Alone? Against the Yeon Clan?"
She nodded.
"You'll need to get ridiculously strong."
"I'm prepared for that."
Her eyes burned with determination.
"Hmm."
Ha Mu-baek crossed his arms and let out a long breath.
"So what's your point?"
Yeon Ha-min shook her head at his question.
"Who's this new vice pavilion lord I keep hearing about?"
She'd spun that long tale just to lead up to this question.
Her eyes trembled faintly as she awaited Ha Mu-baek's answer.
He tilted his head slightly.
The name must have spread far and wide by now.
"Haven't heard the name?"
"Only that he's from the Yeon Clan. Just that made chills run down my spine... I couldn't dig further."
"Yeon Baek-jin."
Ha Mu-baek said curtly.
"Ah..."
Yeon Ha-min collapsed to the ground. Her legs had given out.
"Th-that's a relief..."
Tears streamed down her face as she whispered.
Evidently, Yeon Baek-jin was the third of those three from the clan.
"Uncle Ho-ryang helped me escape the Yeon Clan too. If it's him... that's good."
But Ha Mu-baek saw it differently.
He might have helped her then, but now that he'd met her here, he couldn't hide it from the clan forever.
Not as a clan member.
He might have even spotted her name on the Fierce Dragon Corps roster already.
Going through that mountain of work Ki Yu-chan dumped on him, he'd see it whether he wanted to or not.
Spotting the name, he'd check Squad Seven's training ground, just in case.
And confirm her presence.
"The Yeon Clan will flip out."
"Pardon?"
Yeon Ha-min, rising at Ha Mu-baek's mutter, asked back.
"Remember you said you're my students?"
"Yes? Oh, yes."
Just moments ago.
"Then trust me."
"Yes."
Yeon Ha-min nodded.
"Go back and keep training. You're still miles from strong."
With that, Ha Mu-baek turned toward the training ground.
'What to do.'
His mind filled with thoughts of what lay ahead.
The Yeon Clan would act once they confirmed Yeon Ha-min's presence.
And whatever they did would harm his students—obvious as day.
He couldn't stand by.
'Tch. Old man Gong Son. What a sly fox.'
He'd foreseen all this and sent word through Dam Mu-hyeon.
Meaning the alliance wouldn't interfere much, even if he turned the Yeon Clan upside down.
'Why warn me? You knew I already figured it out.'
Ha Mu-baek grimaced, picturing the old strategist back at alliance headquarters.
It irked him a bit.
Having to dance to that old man's tune.
But thinking of Yeon Ha-min, he had no choice.
Old man Gong Son had pegged his temperament perfectly.
Even in the Hocheon Corps, Ha Mu-baek had fiercely protected his own.
He hadn't asked for these kids dumped on him, but Squad Seven's cadets were as good as his disciples now.
He'd come to think that way, somehow.
Even though it'd been barely half a year since they met.
'Wait...'
A sudden thought struck him.
Maybe.
'Old man Gong Son's the one who stuck me here?'
He vowed to confirm it next time he visited headquarters.
The Pang Clan business, and now this Yeon Clan mess.
The beneficiaries were the New Eight Great Sects.
Weakening the Orthodox Alliance's forces.
'New Eight Sects. Should I give those bastards a thrashing too?'
One thing Ha Mu-baek had realized since coming to the Dragon Training Pavilion:
Orthodox or New Eight—same breed.
Alliance Leader So Hwi-woong and Strategist Gong Son Dan-gyeong believed crushing the old ghosts of the Orthodox Alliance and bolstering the New Eight would establish a new justice in the martial world.
Balancing those powers to right the world's righteousness.
'Nonsense. They're all the same.'
From the Fierce Dragon Corps' view, looking at Hidden Dragon and Wa Dragon Corps:
Both were entrenched elites lording over them.
To Ha Mu-baek, the New Eight were already the privileged class.
'Old man Gong Son. Whether you planned to use me to trim Orthodox forces, if so—you messed up.'
Yes.
A clear mistake.
Back in the alliance, or in the Hocheon Corps, he'd somewhat sympathized with their ideals.
From the narrow well of alliance HQ—especially the tiny puddle of Hocheon Corps—that world had seemed right.
But out in the pond of the Dragon Training Pavilion, it looked different.
Not just Orthodox Alliance—the New Eight too.
They'd become another privileged layer.
Maybe not before the war, but that endless conflict had reshaped the martial world.
Birthing the New Eight as fresh elites.
'The justice of the martial world, of jianghu... isn't built by any faction...'
As his thoughts expanded that far, Ha Mu-baek reached the training ground.
And scowled.
He sensed a visitor.
Lost too deep in thought.
'Damn alliance leader and that strategist geezer.'
He'd let his guard slip briefly—all their fault.
Ha Mu-baek shifted slightly, shielding Yeon Ha-min behind him.
Because of the visitor.
"Ah, Instructor Ha. You've arrived."
Yeon Baek-jin, standing at the training ground's edge watching four cadets train, spotted Ha Mu-baek and brightened.
Yeon Ha-min froze at the sound of his voice.