Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 153 - Talent (3)
Chapter 153 – Talent (3)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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‘Flying Exchange Ghost Blade Method, third stance, Reflected Calamity Blade Suppression!’
The Flying Exchange Ghost Blade Method, the Shadow Sect Master’s unique supreme art.
Among its stances, the most tyrannical one, Reflected Calamity Blade Suppression, had slashed diagonally from the shoulder down across the chest of Wu Ho-rang, trusted subordinate of Wi So-yeon, the Society Leader’s third disciple.
-Chwaak!
“Kuh!”
A scream burst from Wu Ho-rang’s mouth as the saber cut him.
Then, unable to regain his posture, he staggered backward and collapsed straight to the ground.
Was he going to die like this?
At that moment, Wu Ho-rang’s closed eyes opened and,
“Cough……! Cough….”
Wu Ho-rang coughed up blood repeatedly.
Fortunately, he had not lost his life.
“Haa… haa….”
How long had it been since someone had cut him head-on like this?
No, this was the first time he had ever been handled in this manner.
‘I… lost?’
Mok Gyeong-un was not a superior master to him; if anything, in terms of internal power he was beneath him.
And yet Wu Ho-rang had never once predicted that he would lose in a contest of exchanged stances.
What was the cause of his defeat?
It seemed to lie in Mok Gyeong-un’s irregularity and his varied use of many martial arts.
If he had grasped even a little about him from the beginning, he might not have been caught off guard like this.
But what use was there in dwelling on that now?
Defeat was defeat, with no room left for excuses.
A shadow fell over his face.
It was Mok Gyeong-un, who had approached and was looking down at him from above.
Wu Ho-rang said to him,
“Cough cough…. Why… did you not… cut properly?”
There had been considerable bleeding, but Mok Gyeong-un’s sword had not cut deep enough to be fatal.
If it had gone even one inch deeper, he might have died.
At those words, Mok Gyeong-un let out a short laugh, then bent down and struck the acupoints on Wu Ho-rang’s chest.
-Tatatatatatak!
‘The hemostasis points.’
The places Mok Gyeong-un struck were acupoints meant to stop bleeding.
To the Wu Ho-rang who looked at him with puzzled eyes, Mok Gyeong-un shrugged and said,
“If I kill you, then your mistress, Miss Wi So-yeon, and even Elder Fate Blade King would both come trying to kill me, so that would be overreaching.”
“……”
-Clench!
At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, Wu Ho-rang bit down hard on his lower lip.
It was humiliating beyond words.
Put another way, his words meant that if not for his mistress and his master, Mok Gyeong-un would not have shown mercy.
But what could the loser say here?
“Go.”
Wu Ho-rang said only that to Mok Gyeong-un.
At this, Mok Gyeong-un asked,
“Go where? Did you not come to fetch me? You said the young lady called for me, so I thought I would go see her face and let you bring me….”
“Are you trying to make me more miserable?”
“Miserable? Ahhh. Is it because of your injuries?”
He could have just let it pass, yet this fellow insistently hit the sore point.
Wu Ho-rang forced strength into his voice and said,
“I will tell the young lady that I proposed a duel first because I wished to repay a debt concerning my junior fellow disciple, so just leave.”
This was the greatest concession he could make.
After losing the duel, he had no desire to show this pitiful state to the young lady and watch this bastard gloat.
“Ahhh. So you are asking me not to meet the young lady.”
“Who said that….”
“Yes, yes. If that is what you want, I should grant it.”
“……Then just leave quietly. No more with you….”
“Are you perhaps forgetting something?”
“What?”
“Do you not have something you are meant to give me?”
“Something to give?”
For an instant, Wu Ho-rang’s eyes shook.
In the bitterness of defeat, he had forgotten all about it.
He himself had been the one to propose, before the duel, that they wager the young lady’s token in each of their possession.
‘Damn it.’
At the time, he had been absolutely convinced he would win.
But the result had turned out the complete opposite.
Grinding his teeth, Wu Ho-rang gestured with his eyes to his lower side and said,
“It is in the pouch at my right hip.”
“Is that so?”
Without hesitation, Mok Gyeong-un took the token out of the pouch hanging at Wu Ho-rang’s right hip.
Since this token had not been given to him directly by Wi So-yeon, taking it would only arouse pointless suspicion and have no real effect.
Still,
“That is unfortunate. To make a wager like this for nothing.”
-Crack!
The token was crushed and pulverized in Mok Gyeong-un’s hand, rendering the token Wu Ho-rang had received from his mistress unusable.
Watching the shattered fragments of the token, Wu Ho-rang could not hide his desolation.
Someday, at the moment when he became the person most precious to her, he had wanted to use that token as his pretext to reveal his feelings.
But all of it had turned to nothing.
“Then take care of your injuries, and later… Ah! I almost forgot.”
Just as he was about to straighten up, Mok Gyeong-un bent at the waist again and whispered beside Wu Ho-rang’s ear.
“Just in case, let me say this. I do not care in the slightest whom you like. So there is no need for you to be sick with worry that I might tell her.”
“……”
At those words, Wu Ho-rang frowned.
Could he really trust what this fellow was saying?
He had indeed been worried that this fellow might perhaps tell the young lady the true feelings he had hidden all this time.
As he was thinking that, Mok Gyeong-un smiled faintly and said,
“More importantly, thanks to you, making my choice has become much easier. Thank you.”
“What?”
At those words, Wu Ho-rang’s expression hardened.
What in the world did he mean by that?
That making his choice had become easier?
‘Could it be?’
Realizing the true meaning of those words, his face flushed red, but Mok Gyeong-un simply left him there and rose calmly to his feet.
Mok Gyeong-un looked down at the blade of the Evil-Answering Sword.
“It is impressive.”
Quite apart from being a demon sword, it truly was a precious blade made by the legendary master smith Ou Yezi.
Not a trace of blood stained the blade.
Blades cast or made poorly, after cutting something, would usually have blood cling to the body of the blade and leave it sticky or make it rust, but strangely, this sword remained clean.
As though it had washed itself.
-So you are not going to choose that sentient-being woman.
Blue Spirit’s voice sounded by Mok Gyeong-un’s ear as he looked at the sword with satisfaction.
Mok Gyeong-un did not deny it.
-It seems not.
After dealing first with Yeop Wi-seon and now with his senior Wu Ho-rang, it seemed to him that there was no one particularly worth using around Wi So-yeon, the Society Leader’s third disciple.
The so-called trusted subordinates around her were looking at her as a woman before they looked at her as their mistress.
So Mok Gyeong-un had decided to exclude her.
-I reach the same conclusion as you.
Blue Spirit also agreed with Mok Gyeong-un’s decision.
Wu Ho-rang, who had fought Mok Gyeong-un, was one of the Five Tigers called the finest younger talents of the Heaven and Earth Society, and he was practically her right arm.
And that man was acting against his mistress’s will because he harbored romantic feelings?
If so, then there was no further need to look at that organization.
-A leader lacking luck with subordinates can also be said to lack the qualities of a leader.
No matter how outstanding Wi So-yeon herself might be, if the people around her did not measure up and harbored their own schemes, then the seat of successor would be far off indeed.
-Still, what now? The second one does not seem all that good a choice either.
From Blue Spirit’s point of view, it was not only Wi So-yeon, the third disciple, who had problems.
The second disciple, Jang Neung-ak, seemed to have many capable people under him, but he himself did not seem to possess a very good temperament as a leader.
-It will not be easy for you to choose between the two.
-That is true.
What Mok Gyeong-un wanted right now was the person most fitting and closest to becoming the successor.
Only by getting close to such a person could he somehow increase the chance of making contact with the Society Leader.
-If neither of them satisfies you, there is another option.
-……By another option, you mean?
-Why ask when you already know?
-You mean the original plan?
-Yes.
-That is one method too, but the situation has changed.
-……This is still a time when you must gather strength, sentient being. The situation has not changed.
-Focusing only on gathering strength seems a little inefficient.
-Inefficient? Are you not merely becoming too impatient because you learned that the Society Leader is connected to the target of your revenge?
-I do not know. I simply want to know.
-Do not hurry. If you want to shake the inside, it is still time first to grow stronger and create allies from within.
At those words from Blue Spirit, Mok Gyeong-un smiled faintly.
Mok Gyeong-un’s purpose was to find the one who had killed his grandfather, but her purpose was to settle her own grudge.
So their thoughts could not help but differ here.
Mok Gyeong-un answered her advice somewhat perfunctorily.
-Yes, yes.
-……At least listen with one ear.
Blue Spirit clicked her tongue inwardly.
In any case, once this fellow made up his mind, he never properly listened to anyone else’s advice.
Just then Mok Gyeong-un said,
-I do not think we need to limit ourselves only to the second and third disciples.
-What? You do not mean…?
-I would like to meet the Great Young Master once.
-……You mean that one who is currently said to stand closest to the Society Leader’s seat?
-Yes. I believe that was how it was.
Yi Ji-yeom, the Master of Corpse Blood Valley, and even the Shadow Sect Master had both said that the one who currently held the most support within the Heaven and Earth Society and who was also closest to being the successor by sheer strength was the Great Young Master, Na Yul-ryang.
Viewed from that angle, entering under his banner might rather raise the chance of making contact with the Society Leader.
At that, Blue Spirit clicked her tongue and said,
-Tsk tsk. It does not seem like such a good choice.
-Why not?
-The second and third disciples are at least in the position of having to follow, but that sentient-being Great Young Master has nothing to lack. Do you think you can make that sort of man move according to your will?
-That is a fair point. Still, there is no harm in trying.
-In any case, sentient being, you truly seem to need to try with your own hands whether something is shit or bean paste before you are satisfied. Either way, I have warned you. It is still too early.
-Yes, yes. Underst….
-Start!
Suddenly Mok Gyeong-un frowned.
-What is it?
-A presence……
-A presence?
Mok Gyeong-un turned his head and looked toward the corner of the southwest wall.
In truth, he had already known that someone else was hiding there and watching him.
Mok Gyeong-un had guessed that this presence had probably been sent by Jang Neung-ak, the Society Leader’s second disciple.
So he had assumed that if he moved away from this spot, the person would reveal himself.
But then that person’s aura suddenly shook and then subsided.
‘What?’
A presence suddenly weakening happened only when some mishap occurred, such as the consumption of qi or being injured.
It was while he was wondering.
-Thud!
‘!?’
At the sound of someone collapsing, he turned his head and saw that Guard Seok-jung was already lying facedown on the ground.
Mok Gyeong-un quickly looked around, but no one was visible.
He frowned, then approached Seok-jung and checked his pulse. It seemed that his acupoints had been seized and he had fainted.
‘Who is it?’
“Hup.”
At that moment he heard something again, turned his head, and saw that Wu Ho-rang, who had been lying wounded on the ground, had closed his eyes and let his head fall to the side.
It seemed he too had lost consciousness.
At this, Mok Gyeong-un let out a faint sigh and said,
“Who is it?”
There was clearly someone here.
Then a voice came from behind him.
“You are a peculiar fellow.”
‘When did he…’
Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes narrowed.
Without his even perceiving it, some unknown person had already approached from behind.
Ever since obtaining a fortuitous encounter in the treasure vault of Corpse Blood Valley, his qi sense had become even sharper, and with Ghost Eyes he could find other people’s auras quickly.
Yet even so, he had not sensed this person’s aura.
That meant,
‘Can he hide his aura the way I hide death aura?’
That seemed likely.
There was no other way he could have so completely escaped his qi sense.
Then the voice continued.
“Judging from the way you fight, you seem to have reached the level of a Great Unit Leader, and yet the aura you show is only at the threshold of the peak realm.”
The unidentified person was evaluating him.
One strange thing was that this person seemed to be hiding his identity deliberately, because he was disguising his voice into a deeper tone.
So Mok Gyeong-un opened his mouth.
“……Forgive me, but may I ask who you are?”
At that question, he heard a short amused laugh.
Then the unidentified man said,
“Try and guess.”
At those words, Mok Gyeong-un scratched his head as though troubled.
“This is rather difficult. I have never met you before, judging by your voice, yet you ask me to guess.”
“Then all you need do is confirm my face directly.”
“Is that so? Since you put it that way….”
-Pah!
Mok Gyeong-un quickly turned his head.
But no one was behind him.
There had been almost no sound of movement, yet in an instant the person had slipped out of his line of sight.
From that alone, Mok Gyeong-un could tell for certain.
‘……He is fast.’
For his movement to be faster than the speed at which Mok Gyeong-un could turn his head meant that the other party had definitely reached a realm higher than his own.
He seemed far stronger than Wu Ho-rang, one of the Five Tigers called the finest younger talents within the Heaven and Earth Society.
That meant he was at least an expert of valley-master rank or above.
“At this rate, will we ever see each other’s faces?”
The unidentified person lightly provoked Mok Gyeong-un.
It seemed he was testing him.
‘Hmm.’
Did he have to play along?
As he wondered that, Blue Spirit’s voice sounded by his ear.
-That sentient-being boy behind you. His pupils are different colors. The right one is a white eye.
‘!?’
Unlike Mok Gyeong-un, Blue Spirit could clearly see the area immediately around him.
At her words, Mok Gyeong-un realized who the person behind him was.
That was because he had also heard from the Shadow Sect Master about the appearance of several important figures.
So,
-Ssk!
Mok Gyeong-un brought his hands together, dipped his head slightly, and gave a cupped-fist salute as he said,
“Mok Gyeong-un, disciple of the Shadow Sect Master, greets the Great Young Master.”
‘!?’
At that greeting from Mok Gyeong-un, silence flowed behind him for a moment.
Then,
-Ssk!
Someone suddenly thrust his face out beside Mok Gyeong-un’s right side.
Just as Blue Spirit had said, one pupil was black while the other was white, or more precisely ash-gray. He was a broad-shouldered, tall, handsome man.
The instant their eyes met, Mok Gyeong-un felt a strange sensation.
That feeling was none other than one of kinship.
‘What is this?’
As he was thinking that, the handsome man asked in an interested tone,
“How did you know?”