Monochrome Sovereign (Novel) - Chapter 51 - Toward Where the Wind Blows (1)
Chapter 51 – Toward Where the Wind Blows (1)
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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‘Did he get out?’
Even though he tapped on the wall several times, there was no answer. It seemed he had successfully escaped.
Na-il moved quickly yet naturally.
“Who goes there!”
“It’s me.”
“Oh! Man, you almost made my heart fall out!”
“Sorry.”
“By the way, why are you here? Aren’t you in charge of the east wall?”
“My shift ended. I’m going to change.”
“Tsk, as if they won’t come on their own.”
“I haven’t eaten anything all day. My belly skin is about to stick to my back.”
“Sometimes I wonder how big your heart is. In this situation where the Chief Steward was caught as a spy, aren’t you nervous?”
“He was already caught, wasn’t he? What is there to be nervous about.”
“Ugh, man. When have you ever seen a spy infiltrate alone? There will surely be an accomplice.”
“I don’t know about accomplices or whatever, I just need to eat.”
“What a guy. Give me the shoulder strap.”
“Here it is.”
“Be careful. On a day like this, that blunt personality of yours could be poison. Just eat quietly and go in to rest.”
“Is it that bad?”
“You’re such a clueless person. It’s not just anyone, it’s the Chief Steward, the Chief Steward! Didn’t you see the Master of the Hall of Judicial Blades earlier? His eyes were full of killing intent.”
“Hmm… I definitely should keep a low profile today.”
“Looking at you at times like this, you really are peculiar.”
“Anyway, thanks. I’m going now.”
“Yeah, go in and rest.”
Na-il ran off slowly, holding his stomach.
Looking at his back, the warrior tilted his head.
“He’s a strange fellow. How can someone have such little presence? Is it because his personality is so blunt?”
A moment later, Na-il entered the dining hall and put a couple of side dishes onto his cold rice. Then he headed toward the dormitory with quick steps.
Rattle.
Na-il opened the dormitory door.
At the same time, his body froze.
‘…?!’
The dormitory was shared by ten people.
However, the dormitory was empty. Even though it was the time when four out of the ten should have been sound asleep.
An unknown sense of anxiety made his hair stand on end.
It was then.
“The rice has all gone cold.”
Na-il felt goosebumps all over his body.
“I know a place that makes good food, shall we go together? Seeing you, it seems you’ll be worth the price of the meal.”
“…”
“If you don’t want to, there’s no help for it.”
Yeon Ho-jeong, who appeared from the shadows, smiled coldly.
“They say even a ghost that died after eating has a good complexion. Since there won’t be anyone to hold a funeral for you, eat that and croak.”
Whoosh!
The large rice bowl flew toward Yeon Ho-jeong’s face. Simultaneously, Na-il’s figure rose like lightning onto the roof of the dormitory.
“…!!”
Na-il’s eyes widened.
Rustle. Rustle, rustle.
Beyond the dormitory roof.
Numerous warriors revealed themselves from various places in the inner court buildings.
The surprising thing was the places where they stood. Every single one of those locations was a spot he had marked as an escape route in case of emergency.
Na-il’s eyes wavered.
‘How, how?!’
They were paths easy for retreat that could never be known unless one was a spy or an assassin. They were strategic points that even experienced veterans of the Jianghu would not know unless they specifically learned them.
All those strategic points were blocked. Na-il felt his vision go dark.
“I don’t want to bicker with a rat at such a late hour. So, I’ll tell you in advance.”
Na-il looked down.
Yeon Ho-jeong was standing with an axe resting on his shoulder. The thrown rice bowl and its contents were rolling on the ground.
“Your liaison who worked at the stables in the outer court had his head taken by the Goshawk Squad Leader’s sword.”
“…!!”
“Come down.”
Did he even know about the existence of the liaison?
Na-il was dumbfounded. Even in most organizations, there was no case where they used two spies and a liaison together.
Not only was raising a liaison itself usually a difficult task, but there were also countless cases where they were caught after a clumsy infiltration.
However, the liaison planted in the Yeon Clan was different.
He was a professional who was called first-class in this field. In the first place, the existence of a liaison itself had fewer risks to take, so it was harder to catch than a spy.
Knowing the existence of a liaison was surprising enough, but how on earth did he know that the fellow was working at the stables?
Slide. Whoosh.
Na-il descended to the ground.
With light footsteps, even when both feet touched the ground, there was no sound. It was an amazing movement technique.
“Who are you?”
“Yeon Ho-jeong.”
Killing intent appeared in Na-il’s eyes. He intuitively felt that there was no way out.
However, he wanted to know this one thing.
“Who told you about the existence of the liaison?”
“I did.”
“You?”
“As if that’s such a big deal.”
“Does a fellow like you who grew up like a flower in a greenhouse know about spy infiltration and assassin work?”
Yeon Ho-jeong chuckled.
“If you saw the greenhouse I grew up in, you wouldn’t be able to say such things.”
Spy infiltration? Assassination? Liaisons? Such things were commonplace in the Black Path.
The Black Path, which preferred meanness over justice and lies over truth, making deceptions was momentary and killing was a daily routine. Even if their martial arts were inferior to Na-il’s, there were plenty of people whose skills were several times superior to his.
The one who seized and unified such crazy battlefields of deception and betrayal was none other than Yeon Ho-jeong.
Once the existence was grasped, catching a spy or a liaison was as easy as swatting a fly.
Na-il’s eyes wavered.
“I can’t believe it. Could it be that you have become something like the Yin God?!”
“Is that some new type of insult popular these days? How can you compare me to that gloomy fellow?”
Thump!
The end of the axe handle struck the ground. It was an intense vibration that shook the entire area.
“Kneel.”
Sizzle.
An unusual current rose from Na-il’s body.
Yeon Ho-jeong nodded.
“I guess that won’t work, after all?”
Boom!
Na-il rushed forward.
Due to the nature of their occupation, most spies or assassins were masters of lightfoot techniques. They learned martial arts in a completely different way from ordinary martial artists.
Therefore, Na-il’s movements were fast. It was a speed faster than any masters he had seen after returning.
Thud!
A half-fist aimed at the chin missed.
He didn’t block it, but let it flow past. Na-il finally became certain through the opponent’s response.
‘This guy is an expert!’
One must never simply block the attack of a spy who has mastered physical arts. It was because they always applied poison qi, which did not emit a scent outside the body, to their fingernails.
Pang, pang, pang!
Na-il’s attacks continued.
It wasn’t a one-hit-kill martial art like Yeon Ho-jeong’s. Since the opponent would be rendered incapable of fighting once scratched by a fingernail anyway, there was no reason to waste stamina.
Na-il’s attacks continued incessantly. It was a continuous attack that required extreme endurance. It was a top-tier assassination martial art that was hard to reverse once it started pouring down.
Yeon Ho-jeong was parrying that top-tier martial art of the industry all too easily.
Pa, pa, pa!
‘How can this be.’
Fast and sharp, yet seamless hidden fist killing moves all missed.
‘How!!’
Yeon Ho-jeong’s response was so simple it even looked insincere.
All those sinister killing moves were twisted by those insincere hand gestures.
Because he was so well-versed in this type of martial art, he knew exactly how the opponent would attack. If he didn’t know, it would be one thing, but as long as he knew, it wouldn’t be the Dark Emperor if he couldn’t block it.
‘Damn it.’
Na-il felt a sense of despair creeping in.
After knocking down the opponent, he had intended to take him as a hostage and escape this place. However, far from knocking him down, he couldn’t even land a single blow.
‘I cannot win…’
A situation of being surrounded on all sides. Attacking a master who couldn’t even be taken as a hostage was the worst choice among them.
Yeon Ho-jeong’s eyes flashed.
A person whose heart is broken, the martial arts they wield also waver. Na-il’s hidden fist gradually lost its characteristic sharpness.
Whoosh!
Yeon Ho-jeong aimed at Na-il’s lower body with his long legs. Whether his heart was broken or not, it was a kicking technique that was hard to block.
Crack!
“Urgh!”
Na-il’s face turned pale. His right knee was driven deep inward. It was broken.
“As expected, you’re clumsy.”
Na-il looked up at Yeon Ho-jeong.
Yeon Ho-jeong raised the axe high with both hands.
“You’re leaving without even biting down on your poison pill? What kind of confidence is that?”
Boom!
“Aaaakh!”
His leg was sent flying by a single blow of the ridiculously large axe. Na-il, who screamed, trembled several times and then fainted.
Yeon Ho-jeong looked up at the sky with cool eyes.
The moonlight was clear.
“It is finished on this side, Father.”
* * *
“Huff, huff!”
Tae-gyeong’s body, running through the rough forest, was drenched in sweat.
Although he had mastered internal energy, he had rarely practiced martial arts. Nevertheless, his running was fast.
‘Faster, even faster!’
Since he had been locked in a solitary cell once, it would take time for it to be opened again.
But one never knew. The life he had lived was too rough to gamble on uncertainty. He could never be at ease until he at least left Jiangsu Province.
‘I must stop by at least the first safe house!’
Fortunately, he was well-versed in the local terrain. There was no spy in the world who was dispatched without memorizing the terrain.
How long had he run like that?
The summit of a low mountain was right in front of him. Once he crossed this mountain, a thicket next to the official road would appear. In that thicket, there was a safe house built with great care by the Murong Clan.
“Huff, huff!”
From now on, it was downhill. It would gain much more speed than uphill.
Just as Tae-gyeong, who was gasping for breath, was about to start running again.
“Is that all it is?”
Snap!
The sound of a branch breaking was heard exceptionally loud. It was the branch Tae-gyeong had stepped on.
Tae-gyeong’s sweat-drenched face gradually turned white.
“Was it to show such a pathetic sight that you stayed active for nearly ten years while deceiving me?”
Tae-gyeong’s hands trembled.
He slowly turned his head.
Step.
A middle-aged man revealed himself from beside a large tree.
A tall and slender build. On the left side of his waist, he wore an ordinary long sword without any special craftsmanship.
However, although the sword may have been ordinary, his eyes were definitely not ordinary.
The height of indifference. The peak of cold-heartedness.
“…Clan Leader.”
“Do you still call me Clan Leader, then?”
Tae-gyeong closed his eyes.
‘It’s over.’
Yeon Wi was the possessor of martial arts ranked among the top even among the leaders of the Seven Great Clans. There was absolutely no way for Tae-gyeong to escape from the hands of a Transcendent Master rare in the Jianghu.
Tae-gyeong looked at Yeon Wi.
Yeon Wi’s two eyes, shining under the chilly moonlight, were fear itself. Even a beast’s eyes wouldn’t be that terrifying.
“I… I just…”
“Just?”
“I just wanted to reach the top of the world.”
“With such a filthy act?”
Tae-gyeong shouted before he knew it.
“What does the method matter in reaching the top! Not everyone is like you! You, who were born and raised within the fence of the Yeon Clan, can never understand me!”
“I don’t think I need to understand you.”
Tae-gyeong bit his lip.
“Let me go.”
“I cannot do that.”
“I, I wasn’t the only one who entered as a spy! In the Yeon Clan, besides me…!”
“Na-il, the prison guard. Jang Hak of the stables.”
“…!!”
“Is there anyone else?”
“How did you…?!”
Yeon Wi’s eyes deepened.
“You looked down on my son too much.”
Only then did Tae-gyeong realize. That Yeon Ho-jeong had lied to him until the end.
He realized that he had been deceived until the last moment before heading to the prison.
“Do you have any last words?”
“This… that son of a bitch!!”
Slash!
Tae-gyeong’s head fell to the ground.
Yeon Wi stared at Tae-gyeong’s fallen head with cold eyes.
“I asked if you had any last words, I didn’t tell you to insult my son.”