Chapter 181: Running Rampant (15)

Knock, knock, knock.

Eunsong took hold of the door latch and knocked on the door of the Red Tile Pavilion.

A voice came from inside.

“Come in.”

Soyak entered first.

Normally, that would have been improper, but today was different.

She was the reason they had come to the Red Tile Pavilion in the first place.

“You came out the moment your three years were complete. Did you achieve anything?”

“I made some small gains.”

“How modest.”

Jeongbeop gave a very different impression from three years ago.

Back then, he had been filled with anger.

For all Jeongyang’s ambition, Jeongbeop had trusted and followed him.

After all, it was none other than Jeonggang who had yielded the position of Sect Leader to him.

And Jeongyang had, in his own way, been a Sect Leader who had built Mount Hua up well.

Of course, many had complained that his leadership had made the sect almost subordinate to the Alliance Leader.

But every Sect Leader had endured complaints of that degree.

The Demonic Cult was another matter entirely.

Its members were not merely people who practiced “somewhat unusual martial arts.”

They were bound together by religious fanaticism and wielded a sinister power that did not come from natural energy.

That was why righteous martial artists rejected the Demonic Cult even more fiercely than the unorthodox factions.

And so Jeongbeop had been consumed by anger back then.

Even after he had all but forced Jeongyang from power and taken the position of Sect Leader himself.

But that had been three years ago.

Jeongbeop had long since returned to his usual self.

Kind and compassionate, yet strict.

It was why his Daoist name contained the character for “law.”

“...I still have a long way to go.”

“So it wasn’t modesty after all.”

Jeongbeop chuckled.

Then he looked at Eunsong, who had entered behind her.

He truly was worthy of being Brother Jeonggang’s disciple.

When it came to judging people, there could hardly be anyone under heaven better than him.

“Things did not go quite as you intended, did they, Eunsong?”

“...No.”

Soyak looked up at Eunsong.

Her eyes asked what had happened during the past three years.

“I thought I had made sure the Gwak Household kept quiet, but apparently not well enough.”

“That was not your fault. Did you not say they use vicious methods that tamper with the mind? You did well regardless.”

“Thank you.”

The Gwak Household...

That was where Soyak had been sold as a servant girl before Eunsong found her.

Perhaps because of those memories, Soyak quietly lowered her gaze.

“...Why did you go there...?”

At the soft murmur, both Eunsong and Jeongbeop looked at her.

Then their expressions turned bitter.

There could be no good memories of that place for her.

And in truth, this was not something they should have been discussing in front of her.

“...I made you remember things best left in the past. Forgive me.”

“...It’s all right, Sect Leader.”

“Your Master... spent time deliberately erasing traces of your past to prevent something like what happened today.”

Soyak slowly looked up at Eunsong.

Eunsong merely shrugged.

“It was nothing. It needed to be done.”

“...Did you kill them all...?”

“Soyak. Your Master is a Daoist too. I do not commit unnecessary killing...”

Soyak blinked, then nodded.

She had just committed that very act of killing with her own hands, but...

That had been necessary.

“But if Ak Jupae managed to find this place... then there are two possibilities.”

“Two possibilities?”

“Either information leaked from the Gwak Household, or he found it some other way.”

Jeongbeop looked at Soyak with interest.

She had been fourteen before entering closed-door training and was only seventeen now.

Yet she was able to step outside herself, examine her own past, and assess the situation from a distance.

It was a rare disposition.

“What other way do you have in mind?”

Jeongbeop asked quietly.

He wanted to know what she was thinking.

“...The Flower-Halo Sect was fairly well known in the surrounding area. When I used to go outside... I remember the people in the market doting on me like an only daughter. So stories about the Flower-Halo Sect must have spread widely through the nearby towns. Perhaps word also spread that the Flower-Halo Sect Lord had received something from Mount Hua itself.”

Soyak explained herself slowly, breaking the story into several parts.

Eunsong and Jeongbeop listened without °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° interrupting.

“...And among those people, there must naturally have been some who held a grudge against the Flower-Halo Sect. It is possible.”

“...I suppose so.”

Eunsong agreed, yet he could not help feeling sorry for Soyak as she spoke about it herself.

Digging up a painful past was always painful.

Even when one chose to do it willingly.

“We will never be able to find them anyway. And punishing them would not be right. They... merely took what small revenge they could. They could never have imagined something like this would happen.”

It was a reasonable conclusion.

Everyone across the Central Plains knew that the Demonic Cult was a public enemy of the martial world.

Even those who merely came into contact with the cult were not left alone by the Martial Alliance.

Under such circumstances, very few people would knowingly cooperate with someone they understood to be a member of the Demonic Cult.

Even if it meant taking revenge on a sect they hated.

That required the kind of resolve possessed by people like Flame-Saber Lord Ak Jupae—people willing to throw away everything they had.

Ordinary people could not make such a choice.

“...I will not seek revenge against them.”

“A wise decision.”

Jeongbeop smiled at her with sympathy.

Then he turned to Eunsong.

“What happened to Flame-Saber Lord Ak Jupae?”

“As you saw, Soyak stopped him.”

“Yes... From what I could tell, she has reached the middle stage of the Transformation Realm.”

Jeongbeop had been watching the battle from the Red Tile Pavilion.

The distance had been considerable, but distance was no obstacle to a superhuman martial artist who had reached the early stage of the Transformation Realm.

He could channel internal energy into his eyes and sharpen his vision.

He had seen it clearly.

That brilliant Sword Force, solid and complete in form.

To reach the Transformation Realm while still in one’s teens...

Word of this would probably spread throughout the Central Plains.

Jeongbeop knew very well how loose the tongues of the Branch Family disciples were.

And there was no reason to conceal it.

A girl in the Transformation Realm had appeared.

Why would he stop her reputation from spreading?

Simply allowing matters to take their course would elevate Mount Hua’s name. ℯℯ𝑙.

There was not even any need to send her on another Roaming Pillar Journey.

By defeating Ak Jupae, who had become a Demonic Human, single-handedly, her martial prowess had already been proven beyond doubt.

“You must be tired. Go and rest.”

“Yes, Sect Leader.”

Eunsong offered a cupped-fist salute, then led Soyak outside.

*****

Cheonjeong and Eun Jeong were waiting outside.

They were chatting comfortably with one another.

They seemed to have grown remarkably close—enough that Soyak’s eyes widened when she stepped out of the Red Tile Pavilion.

“...You seem rather close to Master Eun Jeong.”

The moment Soyak casually said it, Eun Jeong slung an arm around Cheonjeong’s shoulders and yanked him close.

Cheonjeong’s eyes widened in surprise.

So did Eunsong’s.

“We trained hard together for three years. Of course we grew attached, wouldn’t you say?”

“Ahahaha...”

“Eldest Brother... Master Eun Jeong hit you quite a lot, didn’t he?”

Cheonjeong slowly nodded.

Though it was also true that he had improved because of it.

Eun Jeong, who had reached the early stage of the Transformation Realm, could have killed Cheonjeong with nothing more than a wooden sword.

Of course, he had never once used a killing move.

But at Cheonjeong’s level, even Eun Jeong’s feints looked lethal.

Training under the constant terror of staking his life on every exchange had sharpened Cheonjeong’s swordsmanship considerably.

“I nearly got beaten to death...”

“I tell you this all the time, disciple-nephew. I would never kill you.”

“You took me right up to the edge of it...”

Soyak blinked.

Then, with truly pure and innocent intentions, she asked Cheonjeong,

“Eldest Brother. Would you like to spar with me?”

Eunsong, Eun Jeong, and Cheonjeong all froze.

Middle-stage Transformation Realm.

Purely in terms of cultivation realm, Soyak had already reached a level that even Eun Jeong or Jeongbeop could not simply deal with.

By realm alone, she stood at the same level as Elder Jeonggang had.

Cheonjeong frantically waved both hands, while Eunsong shook his head.

Only Soyak had no idea why they were reacting that way.

“...But I want to spar with Eldest Brother too.”

“No, it’s just... I mean...”

Soyak remembered the spar they had fought before she entered closed-door training.

Back then, Cheonjeong had confidently declared that he would cross the wall of Apex within three years.

And now, Cheonjeong had indeed reached the middle stage of Apex.

Considering that this growth had taken only three years, it was remarkable enough to make anyone look at him in a new light, but...

A bear had no reason to distinguish between the size of a dragonfly and a beetle.

Cheonjeong was still growing confidently, having yet to encounter another wall, and had absolutely no desire to get brutally beaten again in the process.

Being pummeled by someone at the early stage of the Transformation Realm was already more than enough.

“...Later. When I need it, I’ll ask you, Soyak.”

“Then I’ll wait.”

Whether she understood how Cheonjeong felt or not, Soyak simply smiled.