Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 127 - Shadow Sect (3)
Chapter 127 – Shadow Sect (3)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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The young man with the sharp impression was named Hwan Yun-myeong.
Abandoned by his parents when he was young and living in the slums on the outskirts of the Heaven and Earth Society, he had been taken in by the Shadow Sect Master by chance at the age of ten.
[Ohoho. Not bad. You are the first child who ever tried to pick my pocket.]
Pleased by that bold audacity, the Shadow Sect Master took him in and personally taught him letters and martial arts.
The occasion had been nothing more than chance, but Hwan Yun-myeong’s martial talent was better than expected.
That was why the Shadow Sect Master had taken him in as well.
However, Hwan Yun-myeong could not become a formal disciple.
The reason was,
[Castration?]
[Yes. Only if you are castrated can you learn the Ghost Yin Skill of this school.]
[…Do I really have to do it?]
The young Hwan Yun-myeong, who had not wanted to train martial arts at the cost of cutting off his genitals, showed fierce resistance.
At this, the Shadow Sect Master did not force castration on him.
He merely said that, because he could not become a formal disciple, he would henceforth be called a provisional disciple.
Although he could not become a formal disciple because he had not been castrated, the Shadow Sect Master treated him no worse and gave him instruction all the same.
Therefore he had held no great dissatisfaction.
However, in the year Hwan Yun-myeong turned sixteen, he came to regret his choice.
That was because, though he had not understood it when he was young, he had learned that if he could not become a formal disciple, he could not become the Shadow Sect Master’s successor, nor could he learn the true core of his personal martial arts.
[I will warn you beforehand. If you are castrated, you lose many things. For example, you will no longer be a real man, and you will be unable to form a family.]
Hwan Yun-myeong, an orphan, had cherished one wish since childhood.
Because he did not know his parents and had been abandoned, he wanted to have a family that carried on his own blood.
That was why he had chosen not to be castrated.
But once he learned that he could never become the Shadow Sect Master’s successor, he regretted the choice of his youth.
‘Damn it!’
He should have been castrated before ever awakening to desire.
If he had, he would have become the Shadow Sect Master’s successor.
But it was already too late.
It would be difficult to throw away all the internal power he had accumulated so far, undergo castration, and then learn Ghost Yin Skill, and besides, he had already awakened to sexual desire.
Because he had grown up wandering the back alleys by origin, he had begun frequenting brothels and red-light districts from the young age of fourteen.
‘No. I can’t do it.’
Perhaps because of that, he could not bring himself to undergo castration all the more.
If he did it, there were things he would gain as well as things he would lose, but he still could not bring himself to do it.
Though the logic was so simple, he could not act on it.
With such worries, he wandered in turmoil for a long while, and in those few years two young junior disciples entered.
Myeong Tak and Yong Su.
They too were orphans.
The moment he met them, he knew at once that they were children with talent not inferior to his own.
But to Hwan Yun-myeong, they were never lovable junior disciples.
‘…I do not know when these bastards might overtake me.’
They were competitors instead.
If they underwent castration and became the Shadow Sect Master’s formal disciples, he might no longer even be treated properly.
No, that was a foregone conclusion.
‘No. That cannot happen.’
Once his thoughts reached that point, Hwan Yun-myeong worried over countless things.
And in the end, after much deliberation, he came up with one move.
He treated his junior disciples better than anyone and watched over them even more attentively than their master, the Shadow Sect Master.
Because of such kindness, the juniors too followed him well as their senior brother.
Having won their favor that way, Hwan Yun-myeong, in places beyond the eyes of their master, the Shadow Sect Master, caused them to awaken to desire early and also awakened in them fear of castration.
Those efforts of his soon bore fruit.
When the time came to choose,
[Castration… I cannot do it.]
[I, I cannot do it either.]
His junior disciples, tears even welling in their eyes, gave up on castration.
Since the choice had never been compulsory in the first place, the Shadow Sect Master respected their decision.
[If that is your choice, then there is no helping it.]
As he said those words, he looked at Hwan Yun-myeong with rather bitter eyes.
What in the world had that look been?
Had he perhaps known that Hwan Yun-myeong had misled them?
When his gaze met the Shadow Sect Master’s, Hwan Yun-myeong was seized by extreme fear that his move had been noticed.
‘I will be cast aside. I will be cast aside. I will be cast aside.’
But unlike such dreadful worry, the Shadow Sect Master’s attitude did not change.
He still treated him like a disciple.
He even asked him to look after the junior disciples well as eldest senior brother.
‘Ahh. It was needless worry.’
That was a relief.
But because of this, something occurred to Hwan Yun-myeong that he had never even considered before.
‘If no one undergoes castration?’
Then what would happen?
At first, he had merely regretted that he himself had failed to undergo castration.
But when he looked at it from another angle, the answer lay elsewhere.
If the Shadow Sect Master never forced the disciples he accepted to be castrated to the end, then perhaps everyone could be made to refuse, just like his two juniors had.
‘If that happens…’
Then would there not perhaps be a chance even for him?
The Shadow Sect Master, whom he had watched for so long, was not the sort of person to go back on his own words.
If that was so, it might be possible.
If no formal disciple appeared to the very end, then he himself might become the next Shadow Sect Master.
Once he conceived such ambition, Hwan Yun-myeong found fresh motivation.
He strove even harder than before, and his martial arts improved by leaps and bounds.
And then, several years later,
[You are attending the final selection ceremony of Corpse Blood Valley?]
[Yes. I happened to have business in Corpse Blood Valley as well, and I heard there is a decent little girl there, so I would like to take a look.]
[A little girl… you say?]
What in the world did that mean?
Was he perhaps planning to give up on forcing castration and take in from the beginning a little girl who possessed yin energy as his disciple?
At the Shadow Sect Master’s words, Hwan Yun-myeong felt unease for the first time in a long while.
Because the man had accepted no disciple for so long, he had grown certain that he himself would become the successor.
Thus he waited in anxiety.
And then,
“Has Master returned?”
“Ah, Young Master. The Sect Master arrived only a little while ago.”
“I see. Then perhaps… did he return together with that girl from Mo Hwa House?”
“Mo Hwa House? It does not seem so.”
“Not so?”
“Yes. It seems he brought a male trainee.”
At those words, all the anxiety Hwan Yun-myeong had harbored was washed away.
He had been deeply uneasy, thinking that if a girl from Mo Hwa House entered, his position might be shaken, but it seemed things had turned out well.
However,
“But there seems to be a slight problem.”
“A problem?”
“The trainee he brought appears to be a hostage from the orthodox path.”
A hostage from the orthodox path?
What in the world was that supposed to mean?
Corpse Blood Valley was a trial ground that only talents under the Heaven and Earth Society were allowed to enter.
How could a hostage of the orthodox path enter such a place?
To the puzzled Hwan Yun-myeong, the Inner General Chief Jo Yeom-hun explained,
“Only you must know this, Young Master. I hear the Society Leader personally sent two hostages he brought from the orthodox path into Corpse Blood Valley.”
“The Society Leader did?”
If it was such a thing, no one would find it easy to raise direct objection.
Still, why had the Society Leader sent hostages of the orthodox path to such a place?
No, that part did not matter.
Why had his master brought in such a troublesome person?
Had he pleased him that much, enough to bear such risk?
‘Orthodox path…’
Among the people of the Heaven and Earth Society, there was no one who liked those of the orthodox path.
No, hearing of them alone was enough for all to hate them.
Hwan Yun-myeong was no exception.
‘This cannot be allowed.’
It seemed he would have to report this to his master and tell him to reconsider taking a hostage of the orthodox path as a disciple.
No matter how he thought about it, the risk was too great.
So he asked the Inner General Chief and learned that the Shadow Sect Master and the newly accepted hostage of the orthodox path had gone to the Sect Master’s private indoor training room.
Thus he headed there.
But when he arrived, he found his junior disciples there before him.
“This is absurd!”
“How can this be!”
They were making a scene in front of the warriors guarding the indoor training room, grabbing at them and shouting in fury.
What in the world had happened?
As he approached them,
“Senior Brother! This is terrible.”
“Terrible? What do you mean?”
To his question, Yong Su, the youngest junior with the especially prominent chin, answered with a look of utter disbelief.
“They say Master has accepted that bastard he brought from Corpse Blood Valley as a formal disciple.”
‘!?’
At those words, Hwan Yun-myeong’s expression hardened stiffly.
What did that mean?
A formal disciple? Surely not?
“Are you saying that bastard said he would be castrated?”
To Hwan Yun-myeong’s question, the second junior disciple Myeong Tak shook his head and burst out in grievance.
“No, that is not it. He said he would not be castrated, but because he is a constitution born with yin energy, Master said he would accept him as a formal disciple.”
“A constitution born with yin energy?”
At those words, a groan escaped Hwan Yun-myeong’s lips.
What sort of thunderbolt from a clear sky was this?
He had felt relieved because it had not been a girl.
And on top of that, when he heard it was a hostage from the orthodox path, he had been planning to tell Master that it might be best to send him away.
But instead he had accepted such a troublesome thing as a formal disciple?
‘How…’
But that was not the end of it.
The news that shocked him even more than that was,
“No, how could Master do such a thing? It is not enough that he accepted him as a formal disciple without even making him undergo castration, they say he even gifted him the Evil-Answering Sword that Senior Brother risked his life to obtain.”
-Gnash.
The moment he heard those words, Hwan Yun-myeong’s face twisted like that of an evil ghost.
Ordinarily he maintained his composure before his junior disciples, but he could not possibly endure this.
Ignoring the warriors’ attempts to stop him, Hwan Yun-myeong entered the Shadow Sect Master’s private training room.
-Bang.
There, standing alone in the middle, was a beautiful boy reading a scroll.
He looked to be around the same age as the junior disciples.
But neither his age nor his outstanding looks entered Hwan Yun-myeong’s eyes.
His gaze went directly instead to the Evil-Answering Sword hanging at the waist of the boy, no, of the orthodox-path hostage named Mok Gyeong-un.
-Gnash.
It was true.
He had hoped it was a lie, but they had really given the Evil-Answering Sword to that bastard.
Because he himself had risked his life to retrieve it, he had believed that if only its demonic aura could be controlled, it would naturally be bestowed upon him, the eldest disciple.
That damned hostage from the orthodox path was stealing both his position and his sword?
That thing was his.
‘I will kill him.’
He had to kill that bastard and take everything that was his back…
“You are quite amusing. So if you kill me, you think you can get back what is yours…”
‘!?’
What?
At the voice ringing by his ear, Hwan Yun-myeong could not hide his bewilderment.
Though he was filled with rage, his junior disciples were watching, so he had not outwardly revealed his true thoughts.
Then how had this boy read them?
As he stood there in confusion,
‘Huh?’
Hwan Yun-myeong’s pupils shook.
At some point, his youngest junior disciple Yong Su was clutching a broken arm in agony, and the second junior disciple Myeong Tak was staring at him with incredulous eyes.
How in the world had that happened?
‘Why?’
Why was Myeong Tak looking at him with those eyes?
In that moment of bewilderment, forgotten memories flashed rapidly through his mind.
-Swaaaaaa.
[I cannot endure this. Senior Brothers, I will go and snatch it back at once!]
His youngest junior disciple Yong Su, unable to suppress his anger, charged at the hostage of the orthodox path.
Contrary to expectations that, though he was the weakest among them, he would at least be able to exchange a few moves, he was subdued in an instant and seized by the throat.
[You are risking your life upon a first meeting.]
[Keh… keh…]
[You were prepared for that, naturally, were you not?]
[What?]
-Crack.
Without even blinking, the bastard broke Yong Su’s right arm.
[Aaaaaaagh!]
‘How can this be?’
Seeing that, Hwan Yun-myeong judged that the bastard was no ordinary fighter.
Even he himself could not have subdued Yong Su, who had reached the entrance of peak mastery, in a single move like that.
Having grown cautious, he was wondering what to do when,
[You have not been able to take your eyes off this sword for a while now. Do you want it?]
[What are you saying now…]
[If you can take it, then take it.]
‘!?’
-Whirl.
With those words, Mok Gyeong-un drew the Evil-Answering Sword from his waist and threw it to him.
‘What in the world is this bastard…’
-Clack.
Almost by reflex, he caught it by the hilt, and from that moment on, he remembered nothing.
Hwan Yun-myeong staggered, clutching his forehead with his left hand, and muttered,
“W-what in the world did I do?”
To him, Mok Gyeong-un approached and said,
“You prattled on with your own mouth about your desire.”
“I… what did I say?”
“You said that if none of the disciples who entered underwent castration, then there would be no formal disciple, and so you yourself would become the successor. It is quite a cute line of thought.”
‘!!!!!!!!!’
At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, Hwan Yun-myeong’s eyes widened as if they would split.
He had said that with his own mouth?
It was hard to dismiss as a lie when he could feel the eyes with which Myeong Tak was staring at him.
Then,
-Drip drip.
“Ghk!”
At that moment, Hwan Yun-myeong looked at his right hand in sudden pain.
The veins on the back of the hand holding the Evil-Answering Sword bulged and burst, black blood flowing down.
Then it began to spread up through his entire arm.
Panicking, Hwan Yun-myeong hurriedly tried to drop the Evil-Answering Sword.
However,
“Aaaaugh!”
It would not come off, as though the hilt of the sword were joined to his palm.
Instead, it only grew more painful.
“Wh-what in the world is this…”
Hwan Yun-myeong raised his power with his free hand and tried by all means to tear the Evil-Answering Sword away.
But the more he did so, the greater the pain became, until he could not endure it.
“Guuuuh.”
To him, Mok Gyeong-un approached and said,
“Would you like me to remove the sword for you?”
Unable to endure the pain, Hwan Yun-myeong nodded frantically.
Then Mok Gyeong-un said something completely unexpected.
“You clearly asked with your own mouth for it to be removed.”
“What?”
Why was he saying it that way?
At that moment, Hwan Yun-myeong saw on Mok Gyeong-un’s face a smile full of malice.
‘Could it be?’
Alarmed, he hurriedly tried to say something.
“W-wait…”
-Slash.
His words had not even finished.
Sharp sword force brushed past the right wrist of Hwan Yun-myeong, who was holding the sword.