54. Heavenly Wolf Sect (5)
Heavenly Wolf Sect (5)
54. Heavenly Wolf Sect (5)
Son Yeong lost consciousness before she could savor her first victory as a martial artist. Lee Eun-ha quickly laid her down with her upper body slightly raised so she could breathe more easily. Fortunately, it wasn't an internal injury. She had simply collapsed from exhaustion after everything she'd endured, followed by the life-or-death duel.
—An amusing child. What do you think allowed that child to win, despite being so clearly inferior in martial prowess and stamina?—
—Isn't it talent?—
—Talent. Yes. But it's not that simple. Until the moment she collapsed, the child staked everything she had and maintained absolute concentration. That is easy to say, but in a duel where one's life is at stake, only a handful of people—or veterans tempered by a hundred battles—can focus so completely. What a waste of such talent.—
—What? Regrettable?—
—I would have liked someone so gifted by heaven to inherit my martial arts, but the Extreme Flame Art doesn't suit a woman. Since she already has a foundation in Daoist practice, Heosan's martial arts could make her formidable. But the Moon Immortal's sword—swift and light, yet tenacious—would suit that child best.—
The Flame Emperor murmured regretfully.
The Moon Immortal? That crazy bitch's martial arts? One thing had become perfectly clear: I couldn't be the only one growing stronger. Once this crisis passed and I had time to breathe, I intended to teach the entire sect the arts of these masters so everyone could grow together. The Flame Emperor's martial arts did not suit women, however. As expected, I'd need to climb Dong-o Peak again—if only to vent some frustration.
The Flame Emperor cut through the air with a swish, approached Cheon Myeong-hwa, and crudely cauterized her bleeding arm.
"Guaaagh!!!"
Cheon Myeong-hwa's eyes rolled back as she foamed at the mouth and nearly lost consciousness. This bitch was probably the best person to explain what had truly happened behind Heuk Cheon-gyeon's incomprehensible invasion. I kicked her where she lay and demanded an answer.
"Why are you here?"
"You... you said you wouldn't lay a hand on me!!!"
"I said I wouldn't touch you if Senior Sister Son lost. Answer the question properly."
It wasn't even a particular threat, but Cheon Myeong-hwa had gone deathly pale at the sight of the Flame Emperor's brilliant scarlet sword aura blazing behind me. This time I kicked her hard in the stomach.
"Not answering?"
She vomited and wet herself, her face displaying every kind of misery. It didn't look like resistance. She genuinely seemed unable to speak.
"I know the general situation."
Ban Ho-jeong spoke quietly to me.
"Heuk Cheon-gyeon left the Black Heaven Association and established himself here. He was powerful, but he didn't want the burden of leading a huge organization like the Association. Rather than become entangled in struggles with the Orthodox Faction's great powers, he wanted to enjoy women and an easy life through his own martial prowess. At first, he probably intended to buy a few courtesans and live quietly without clashing with the Murong Clan.
"And then that woman appeared before him, together with the Seven Fingers Sect Leader."
Ban Ho-jeong spoke calmly. She laid out the tale as naturally as a professional storyteller.
"That woman is more vicious than you can imagine. As Seven Fingers Sect's only female disciple, with a reasonably pretty face, she was probably raised like a princess by her master and Senior Brothers. Then, at the Seven Fingers Sect Leader's celebratory banquet, she met Beautiful Madness Murong Rin and learned her true place in the martial world.
"Ordinarily, she should have reflected and lived quietly. Instead, after meeting Heuk Cheon-gyeon, she followed her ambitions into the Heavenly Wolf Sect. During the very first visit she made with the Seven Fingers Sect Leader, she slipped into Heuk Cheon-gyeon's bedchamber and slept with him."
Wow... she really was completely insane.
"Heuk Cheon-gyeon, who lusts after women, would naturally have been pleased, but she wouldn't have been satisfied with the reclusive life Heuk Cheon-gyeon had chosen. So, little by little, she must have whispered into his ear in the bedchamber that he should become the new master of Liaoning.
"Despite his reputation, Heuk Cheon-gyeon had a naive side. He'd spent his life training in the Black Heaven Association and occasionally fighting orthodox martial artists. If he had cared about ruling Liaoning, he would never have left the Association. He probably refused at first, but then the Murong Clan scattered its forces for the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering. Even at half strength, the Heavenly Wolf Sect's fifty-odd Black Swordsmen couldn't rival the Murong Clan. Still, she must have thought that expanding their influence in Liaoxi during the Clan's absence would redraw the balance of power in Liaoning."
Damn. As I thought, the timing really was a fucking mess. The Murong Clan's hundred escorts weren't just to protect the three siblings. They themselves were considerable masters, and even without escorts, no one in the martial world could have easily touched those three. In the end, the hundred or so escorts were a kind of honor guard, meant to show off Murong Clan's majesty in Henan, where the Orthodox faction had gathered.
"Up to that point, it had nothing to do with us. White Tiger Fortress was also an unorthodox faction, so we might even have celebrated if Liaoning's ruler changed from the Murong Clan to the Heavenly Wolf Sect. The problem was that this dog-fucking bitch... no, this woman chose White Tiger Fortress and my benefactor's sect as sacrifices to stoke Heuk Cheon-gyeon's ambition.
"Heuk Cheon-gyeon might not have possessed much ambition, but he certainly possessed lust. She probably spouted some bullshit about how a hero deserved to embrace beautiful women and how becoming Liaoning's hegemon would let him have even more of them, then tried to kidnap us and offer us to him. To do that, she borrowed twenty Black Swordsmen from him and attacked White Tiger Fortress first. I was no great beauty, but my name was fairly well known among Liaoning's unorthodox factions.
"After that, she became a complete madwoman. On the way to Liaodong, she raided villages and kidnapped women. Then she attacked her own Seven Fingers Sect, killed her master—the Seven Fingers Sect Leader—and looted its treasures and martial manuals. Finally, she attacked Yeongsan Sect and burned it all down."
My mind was reeling. Why had Heuk Cheon-gyeon, ranked among the Top Hundred Masters, sought out a tiny, insignificant fifth-rate sect like our Yeongsan Sect and invaded all the way into Liaodong, Murong territory, to attack it? So all of it had been orchestrated not by Heuk Cheon-gyeon, but by this crazy bitch?
Fuck. Heuk Cheon-gyeon would actually have been better. To think all of this had come from nothing more than that lunatic bitch's deranged ambition... Futility washed over me, eclipsing even my rage. Ban Ho-jeong explained it all calmly. I had grown up around bandits—Baek Clan Estate was famous for suppressing them—but she was unlike any bandit I knew. She had the air of an orthodox sect's chief steward or strategist: an intelligent, calculating woman. White Tiger Fortress lay in Liaoxi, so she had been the first victim and had witnessed most of what followed. That made the latter half of her account firsthand; the beginning was probably an inference drawn from Cheon Myeong-hwa's words and behavior. The way she kept thinking clearly through such fear and hardship marked her as exceptionally sharp, despite the tiger-patterned hide she wore like a bandit's badge.
"Perhaps it's a blessing in disguise? That doglike bitch took one look at this lady here and was utterly stunned. I too was astonished—I'd never seen such a beauty in my entire life."
She spoke, glancing at Jeong-hyang.
"She must have been scared shitless. She'd gone to all the trouble of seducing Heuk Cheon-gyeon, but if she presented a beauty like that to him, a man so weak to women would be drawn to that beautiful lady instead, leaving her as nothing. So the moment she kidnapped us, she threw us into the underground prison while entering Heuk Cheon-gyeon's bedchamber herself every day. She probably meant to delay his sleeping with the captives for as long as possible while buying enough time to bewitch him completely. Thanks to that, we preserved our chastity, but if you'd arrived any later, Benefactor, we would probably have been dragged into that bastard's bedchamber today or tomorrow.
"Benefactor. I have a request. It's shameless of me to ask, but may I also relieve some of my resentment, like your senior sister did? I won't kill her."
Ban Ho-jeong's eyes blazed as she asked my permission. I nodded my consent, and she picked up a sword from a nearby Black Swordsman's corpse. Without even drawing the blade, she began beating Cheon Myeong-hwa with the sheathed sword.
"You fucking dog of a bitch! Because a cunt like you didn't know her place, so many brothers of White Tiger Fortress died. Fuck. If you wanted to seduce that dog bastard, you should have done it with your own fucking cunt. Why did you have to drag us into it when we were minding our own business?"
In stark contrast to her dignified demeanor moments ago, Ban Ho-jeong now transformed into a genuine bandit, laying in with a club-like beating. True to a bandit's fashion, she beat her expertly without killing her.
Ptui. Ban Ho-jeong even spat on her face and screamed at the top of her lungs. When her eyes suddenly met mine, her face flushed slightly; she spoke to me, now looking a bit embarrassed.
"Benefactor. I'm ashamed. Being born a bandit, I don't know any other way to relieve my anger besides such methods. Would you kindly avert your gaze for a moment? First, I need to vent what's been building up, in the proper manner of someone from White Tiger Fortress."
"What are you planning to do?"
"I'm going to piss on her face."
She spoke these insane words with total nonchalance. This woman... despite her courteous tone, she truly was a bandit through and through.
—Yeongmok. Around thirty armed men are converging on us. Their aura belongs to the Unorthodox Faction.—
Right then, the Flame Emperor's warning rang out. At this moment, I possessed means for immensely powerful attacks, but I had no means to defend my body or the women. I was a fake who borrowed the Flame Emperor's power, not a true master, so if a chaotic battle broke out, the women could get caught up in it. I hurriedly kicked off from the spot and sprinted toward the main gate, so they wouldn't be drawn onto the battlefield.
"Heuk Cheon-gyeon! You bastard!! Byeok-geum of White Tiger Fortress has come calling. Hand over our Banmae at once!"
Men who smashed through the main gate with a great roar and stormed in. The members of White Tiger Fortress, one of the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds, armed in the classic bandit fashion with animal pelts and massive Wolf Fang Blades. Individually, one Green Forest stronghold's strength was comparable to the Baek Clan Estate, but when all eighteen strongholds moved in unison under the command of the Green Forest Chief, they formed a gigantic power that could rival the Ten Great Evil Factions.
That also meant all eighteen Green Forest strongholds had to gather just to equal the Black Heaven Association, one of the Ten Great Evil Factions. The man at the front and the thirty-odd men following him... Their eyes were probably the same as mine had been on the way to the Heavenly Wolf Sect. They held no hope of defeating Heuk Cheon-gyeon, only the resolve to die together with the women if necessary.
Unlike me, who was regarding them calmly, bafflement was written across the faces of the White Tiger Fortress bandits. They had charged spiritedly through the gate and entered the Heavenly Wolf Sect compound, but what greeted them was neither Heuk Cheon-gyeon nor the Black Swordsmen—just some strange Daoist.
"You... who the hell are you?"
The bandit pointed his Wolf Fang Blade at me and shouted. He must have been their leader.
"Me? Yeongmok of Yeongsan Sect—you wouldn't know that one, would you? How about Baek Eun-hyeok of the Baek Clan Estate? Would you know that?"
At those words, the chief flinched slightly. Unlike a few of his men who looked utterly confused, he at least knew of the Baek Clan Estate.
"What business does a bastard from Jilin have here? Don't tell me you came all this way wagging your tail trying to cozy up to Heuk Cheon-gyeon?"
We had never clashed directly, but Baek Clan Estate was truly infamous among unorthodox factions—especially bandits who had washed out of the Central Plains or temporarily hidden beyond its borders. We did not merely subjugate them. We behaved like bandits ourselves, killing the men, violating the women, and seizing every scrap of loot. White Tiger Fortress had tried several times to send bandits into Jilin, but the Murong Clan controlled the crucial routes and thwarted them each time.
"You son of a bitch. You put on such airs calling yourself Orthodox faction scum, and then the moment Heuk Cheon-gyeon settles in Liaoning, you come wagging your tail? Sure, Heuk Cheon-gyeon's authority is shaking up the Liaoning martial world right now, but once the Murong Clan, your masters, return from the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering, the Baek Clan Estate won't stay safe either, you know?"
The bandit bastard glared at me with blazing eyes, provoking me.
"Wow. I'm surprised. Even a self-proclaimed unorthodox bastard like you trusts that the Murong Clan is far stronger than Heuk Cheon-gyeon?"
"Ch... Chief!"
While the chief and I were wrangling, his underling finally spotted the charred corpses of the Black Swordsmen around them. At the underling's words, the chief bastard also looked around and was visibly startled. It was under a pitch-black night sky. It wasn't unreasonable that they'd only just noticed.
"Wh... what is this? Did the Martial Alliance or someone pass through here?"
"How could they? You think those bastards would come all the way out here just because they've caught a small-time Liaoning sect and a few bandit shits? They're not the Murong Clan. They're busy running around blind over the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering right now.
"Whether it was called the Heavenly Wolf Sect or the Heavenly Dog Sect, it had already been annihilated. Heuk Cheon-gyeon and every Black Swordsman were dead."
"Wh... who did it?"
"Me."
"Don't be ridiculous! A whelp like you who has barely taken his first steps took down Heuk Cheon-gyeon, not merely one of the Black Swordsmen? You're completely insane. Fine. As the saying goes, the cure for a madman is a club. I'm short on time, so I'll only give you a light beating. You can thank me afterward."
The chief spat on his hands with a ptui and hefted his crude Wolf Fang Blade as he advanced on me.
But in that instant, an enormous hole exploded through the compound wall beside them. A fiery sword aura that lit up the dark night sky. At that sight, the bandit horde simply froze, unable to speak a single word.
"You said you were short on time? I've put out the immediate fire on my side, so I have a little leisure. I can entertain you sufficiently... but no need for thanks."