Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 117 - Disciple Recruitment Battle (3)

Chapter 117 – Disciple Recruitment Battle (3)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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How could he smile and say it was fine if his own younger brother were killed, or crippled for life?

It was not the look of someone merely pretending to be calm while working his mind.

‘…….Is that bastard really insane?’

Hang Yeo-ryang, the Sound-Summoning Valley Master, was herself notorious for her eccentric, willful temperament, yet this was the first time she had encountered someone like this.

That was not bluster on purpose.

Then did it mean the bond between the two brothers was not especially deep?

There were cases, after all, where members of a family sought even one another’s lives while fighting over the succession, so it could have been so.

‘A threat of this sort will be meaningless.’

Her desire to drag him away by force immediately only grew stronger.

Then someone else’s voice rang beside her ear.

“Valley Master Hang. It seems to be against the rules to make contact with a trainee when the completion ceremony has not even been held yet.”

-Flinch!

Startled, she turned her head to the side.

The owner of the voice was the Shadow Sect Master.

The Shadow Sect Master had not taken his eyes off the place where the martial contest was unfolding.

At that, she frowned.

‘Impossible. Secret Voice Transmission is a method that sends sound only to a specific target, so he should not have been able to hear it.’

This was not a method that could be overheard simply because someone’s realm was high.

Then how had he noticed that she was trying to contact Mok Gyeong-un?

As she thought that, the Shadow Sect Master spoke as if he had read her mind.

“If you stare too obviously, it is bound to show.”

“…….What are you talking about?”

She feigned ignorance.

Then the Shadow Sect Master let out his characteristic laugh and said,

“Oh ho ho. I heard that the Air-rending Sound Sect, the school of the Sound-Summoning Valley Master, possesses many special methods connected to sound. Among them, I have heard there is one called Secret Voice Transmission, which allows one to convey one’s intent to a specific person. Is that not so?”

“……..”

At the Shadow Sect Master’s words, Hang Yeo-ryang’s expression turned cold.

She had known that the Shadow Sect Master mainly handled tightly guarded matters, but she had not expected him to know even Secret Voice Transmission, one of her sect’s methods.

That meant,

‘He has been keeping watch the entire time.’

She had thought she had slipped from the Society Leader’s eye, but it seemed that was not the case.

To her, standing there in bewilderment, the Shadow Sect Master continued speaking without even looking at her.

“It is quite a method one would like to learn. But there are laws and rules that must be observed even within the Society, so I hope the Valley Master will keep that in mind.”

“……..”

She gave no answer.

She felt displeased that he knew one of the methods of her sect, but there was nothing to be gained by causing friction with the Shadow Sect Master, who served as the Society Leader’s eyes and ears.

“Ohh!”

Just then, exclamations broke out from here and there.

When she looked to see why, it was because of the martial contest unfolding in the training ground in the square.

“Ho.”

Even the Shadow Sect Master’s eyes narrowed as though in surprise.

And that was only natural, for from the very beginning the contest had been almost perfectly even.

Yet most people had named Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley as the likely victor in this match.

That was because, if one watched the forms Yeom Ga displayed in the contest, he moved like a highly experienced master, seeking only the exact moments that mattered.

On the other hand, Mok Yu-cheon seemed lacking in experience in actual martial contests, but was making up for it with exceptional instinct.

‘But in the end, experience is what matters.’

That was why they thought Yeom Ga would grow more favorable as time passed.

The Shadow Sect Master felt the same.

But then,

“Cough…. cough……”

Black blood was spilling from the mouth of Yeom Ga, who had dropped to one knee in the training ground.

What in the world had happened?

Mok Gyeong-un narrowed his eyes and looked at Mok Yu-cheon, who was standing before Yeom Ga.

“Haah…. haah….”

Mok Yu-cheon was breathing roughly.

From his body rose a faint red haze, and his skin had turned completely brown.

Even the whites of his eyes had browned, making his appearance bizarre in the extreme.

‘What is that?’

Even the masters of the Heaven and Earth Society, whose thinking in martial arts was comparatively free, had never seen such a sight before, so murmurs spread among them.

Son Yun, the King of the Fate Blade, folded his arms and muttered,

“His power has surged to almost twice what it was.”

To him, who was more sensitive to qi sense than anyone within this place, it was unmistakable.

Until just now, Mok Yu-cheon had been no more than someone at the entrance to the peak realm, but after taking on that appearance his power rose abruptly.

It was almost surpassing the utmost limit of the peak realm.

Won Byeong-hak, the Thunderbolt Fist King, also frowned and spoke in an incomprehending tone.

“Surely that child has not learned a deviant technique?”

Deviant technique.

In martial arts, it meant something learned by means outside the existing proper path.

Among masters of the unorthodox path, there were occasionally those who learned deviant techniques and advanced their martial arts at terrifying speed.

But such methods, because they deviated from the proper path, came with grave side effects.

For example, because the growth was too rapid, it became difficult to progress beyond a certain point. Or their blood vessels might twist due to a flawed circulation method, or they might suffer qi deviation.

Looking at Mok Yu-cheon’s browned eyes, Son Yun, the King of the Fate Blade, said,

“…….If he has learned a deviant technique, we may need to subdue that child.”

One of the greatest problems with deviant techniques was that the sudden amplification of energy could affect the brain, causing one to lose reason and rampage, and such cases were common.

Judging by Mok Yu-cheon’s current appearance, he was absolutely not normal.

-Ha! Your work is only now showing its light, sentient one.

Blue Spirit’s voice rang in his ear.

At that, Mok Gyeong-un gave a small nod.

The Wood-Transforming Heart Cultivation Method, the Manor Lord’s exclusive heart method of Yeon Mok Sword Manor, was certainly a superior martial study, but it was by no means a deviant technique.

Rather, it properly followed the righteous path of nourishing life.

The only problem was that the version Mok Yu-cheon had learned was one whose verses Mok Gyeong-un had arbitrarily altered.

‘So it was that after all.’

It seemed the side effects had only now begun to appear.

In truth, since he had tampered with the Wood-Transforming Heart Cultivation Method, which was itself a superior martial study, it would not have been strange for something like this to happen at any time.

If anything, it could be said he was fortunate that it had only turned out this way now.

-Judging by his appearance, he is close to a berserk state. If he is unlucky, all his blood vessels may rupture and he may die on the spot.

At Blue Spirit’s words, the corner of Mok Gyeong-un’s mouth twitched.

‘Then perhaps this turned out well.’

Mok Gyeong-un had been planning to dispose of Mok Yu-cheon at a suitable point.

But if Mok Yu-cheon were to lose his life from the side effects of the heart method in front of everyone, then there would be no need for him to do anything personally, which would make things easier.

Yet the Demon Monk’s condition looked worse than expected.

“Cough…. cough……”

Just moments before, when Mok Yu-cheon’s power had surged abruptly, he had taken a blow to the chest and was now continuously coughing up blood.

That Demon Monk, with his head bowed, glanced sidelong toward Mok Gyeong-un.

It looked as though he were asking what he should do.

‘Hmm.’

If it were the Demon Monk, he should have been able to control the body he possessed and alleviate the injury to some extent, but from the way he looked, was it more serious than that?

Still, Mok Yu-cheon had to be made to continue using that flawed heart method a little longer if the side effects were to worsen further.

Mok Gyeong-un gave a faint smile and sent a voice transmission.

-Endure a little longer and deal with Mok Yu-cheon…

But right then,

-Thud!

At that moment, the Demon Monk’s eyes rolled back and he collapsed.

‘What is this…’

What in the world had happened?

Even while possessing a body he should have been influenced by it to some degree, but the body was, after all, no more than clothing, so he should have been able to control the pain.

Then why had he fainted?

-Srrrrk!

At that instant, Mok Gyeong-un’s brow tightened slightly.

The Demon Monk possessing Yeom Ga’s body had slipped out of it.

Why had he suddenly come out of the body?

As Mok Gyeong-un wondered, the Demon Monk said to him,

-……….

‘What? He is dead?’

Astonishingly, the reason the Demon Monk had come out of the body was that the body of Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley had stopped breathing.

Naturally, Mok Gyeong-un had assumed he would win with ease.

Yet that expectation had been wrong.

-……….

At what the Demon Monk said, Mok Gyeong-un stared at Mok Yu-cheon with narrowed eyes.

According to the Demon Monk, just as he had judged the match decided and had been about to finish it, he had been hit by a sudden surprise strike, and after that the blood vessels around his chest had begun to rupture all at once.

He had tried to restore the injured area at will, but the blood vessels burst so quickly that there had been no way to do anything about it.

-How truly fitting.

‘Pardon?’

-Is this what they call a blind fish taking the bait?

It was hard to understand what Blue Spirit meant.

Just then, Mok Yu-cheon, still in that strange state with his entire body browned, approached Yeom Ga’s fallen body and reached out a hand.

At that moment,

-Pat!

Someone blocked his path.

It was Gwak Mun-gi, the senior warrior assisting Yi Ji-yeom, the Corpse Blood Valley Master.

“The match is decided. Stop.”

With a somewhat tense expression, Gwak Mun-gi held out a hand and regarded Mok Yu-cheon warily.

And that was natural, because no matter who looked at him, Mok Yu-cheon’s current appearance was extremely dangerous.

He was in a state where it would not have been strange if he rampaged at any moment.

As Gwak Mun-gi kept his guard up, Mok Yu-cheon soon retreated two steps.

‘He still has his reason.’

At that, Senior Warrior Gwak Mun-gi felt inwardly relieved.

If Mok Yu-cheon had lost his reason and gone berserk, it might have become a dangerous situation in which he would have had to be subdued by any means.

-Slide.

Then Gwak Mun-gi placed his fingers against Yeom Ga’s neck as he lay fallen.

Soon after, he frowned and looked toward the platform.

At that sight, Yi Ji-yeom’s expression hardened.

‘This is bad…’

His posture had looked unsettling, so Yi Ji-yeom had sent him to check whether he was alive or dead.

But judging by that expression, it seemed his worry had become reality.

It was an exceedingly troublesome thing.

Deaths occurring within the gates of Corpse Blood Valley were not in themselves a great issue, but if a talent of the level of Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley had died here, then that was deeply regrettable.

And at the final gate of all places.

At that moment, seeing Gwak Mun-gi react that way, Mok Yu-cheon could not hide his shock.

‘W-what in the world…’

Mok Yu-cheon had absolutely had no intention of killing Yeom Ga in this martial contest.

But at the moment he circulated the Wood-Transforming Heart Cultivation Method, he had suddenly been seized by an enormous murderous urge without even realizing it.

He could not understand why in the slightest.

Even now, a violent impulse was boiling up from within him, and he felt as though he wanted to run wild at once.

Yet Mok Yu-cheon suppressed it with extreme patience.

‘Stop… stop, I said.’

-Sssssss.

Then Mok Yu-cheon’s skin color gradually began to lighten.

At that sight, the eyes of some of the executives gleamed with interest.

‘He is suppressing the impulse?’

To them, Mok Yu-cheon’s state was quite fresh and striking.

Judging by the abrupt rise in power and the bizarre browning of his skin, he had been extremely close to a pre-rampage state brought on by the side effects of a deviant technique.

Yet he had suppressed it himself and brought it under control.

‘Would you look at this.’

To several of them, that came across as quite novel.

Even someone with considerable mental strength would find it difficult to overcome such an impulse, but at his age, to display that degree of endurance.

Meanwhile, Mok Gyeong-un smacked his lips in regret.

‘What a pity.’

He had hoped Mok Yu-cheon would rampage and die here on the spot, but instead he had endured it.

One could say he was fortunate.

Blue Spirit seemed to feel the same, for she agreed.

-What a fortunate sentient one.

‘Indeed.’

-Yet it is rather amusing.

What was amusing about it?

As he wondered, she said,

-That the heart formula you changed as you pleased, with hardly any thought at all, produced an effect like that.

‘………’

He had nothing to say about that.

Who could have predicted that reciting those verses however he pleased would produce such a bizarre result, making one’s power explode while damaging one’s blood vessels?

Still, it did not change the fact that the altered heart method was dangerous.

* * *

Thus about half a shichen of time passed.

The situation took on an ironic turn.

The reason was that Mo Ha-rang of Mo Hwa House, who should have been Mok Gyeong-un’s next opponent, forfeited, saying she had no confidence in winning her martial contest.

And with that, the final fight for victory in the last gate became one between Mok Gyeong-un and Mok Yu-cheon.

At this, the executives who had come to observe could not hide their surprise inwardly.

Who could have imagined that two brothers of a single martial family would contend for first place?

It was also the first time in the history of the Corpse Blood Valley gate.

And,

‘The two brothers who were brought here as hostages are going to face each other.’

“Oh ho ho.”

Among the observers, the Shadow Sect Master, one of the few who knew the true identities of the Mok family brothers, found the situation quite interesting.

On the other hand, Son Yun, the King of the Fate Blade, who had personally brought the two here, clicked his tongue inwardly.

‘How did this happen…’

At first he had thought the two would lose their lives in Corpse Blood Valley, but he had never expected this result.

If this fact were to spread inside the Heaven and Earth Society, it would cause a major uproar.

The very fact that two righteous-path brats who were not even members of the Heaven and Earth Society, but hostages brought here, were contending for first place in the Corpse Blood Valley gate was, in one sense, a deeply humiliating thing.

No, it was also an unpleasant thing.

‘…The Society Leader’s move has become a misstep.’

If they had not been sent here from the beginning, nothing like this would have happened.

Yet the two of them had survived to the very end.

And by the laws of Corpse Blood Valley, the two had even gained the chance to become disciples of executives of the Heaven and Earth Society.

Even the Society Leader could not have expected this at all.

‘There is no helping it now.’

In a situation like this, it was better to make those two completely into people of the Heaven and Earth Society.

If that happened, they could instead be made into symbols.

Symbols of splendid betrayal, of righteous-path rising talents turning their backs on what could be called their roots, the righteous path, and growing into talents of the Heaven and Earth Society.

“Now then. You two, stand facing one another.”

At that moment, Yi Ji-yeom, the Corpse Blood Valley Master, called them onto the training ground and made them stand opposite each other.

Thus the two brothers came to stand face to face.

“Then begin the martial contest!”

Yi Ji-yeom lowered the hand he had raised and shouted.

As soon as the starting signal fell, Mok Yu-cheon took his opening stance and spoke with a face full of anger.

“It was you, wasn’t it?”

“What was?”

Mok Gyeong-un asked back without concern.

Then Mok Yu-cheon closed the distance one step at a time and demanded,

“You didn’t give me the heart method correctly!”

At first he had not suspected it.

That was because he had gone through the process of checking it several times.

But after encountering Mok Gyeong-un here and coming to know the bastard’s true face, he had become certain.

That bastard had definitely failed to tell him the verses of the Manor Lord’s exclusive Wood-Transforming Heart Cultivation Method correctly.

‘Because of you, I…’

He had been seized by murderous intent and killed someone in the middle of a martial contest.

And even now it was still not under control, and he was forcibly suppressing it.

Even if they were half-brothers, if they at least came from the same family, he had hoped Mok Gyeong-un would feel guilt, if not responsibility, for this side effect.

But then,

‘!?’

Mok Gyeong-un smiled and said,

“You only realized that now? That is impressively stupid.”

“You!!!!!”

With his anger surging to the top of his head, Mok Yu-cheon hurled himself at Mok Gyeong-un.

He was about to unfold the greatest ultimate move he could muster, when,

-Papak!

At that instant, Mok Gyeong-un flicked away his wrist with lightning speed, grabbed his neck, and slammed him down onto the ground.

-Bang!

“Ugh!”

Then he whispered in his ear.

“How are you supposed to do anything to me at this rate? Why not try using that heart method instead?”