Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 189 - Peak (3)

Chapter 189 – Peak (3)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Half a si-jin earlier.

Shadow Sect Master Hwan Ya-seon stood before the entrance to the Society Leader’s bedchamber with somewhat tense eyes.

‘How long has it been?’

It was the Society Leader, whose face he had not seen for quite a long time since his illness had deepened.

Even to him, the head of the Shadow Sect that handled confidential matters, the Society Leader had sent orders through the Vice Society Leader, to the point that he had not been able to see him.

And yet, unexpectedly, he had summoned him all of a sudden.

That naturally left him inwardly puzzled.

There was, however, one thing that came to mind.

‘…Could it be that the Vice Society Leader’s side found out?’

If that was it, things would become considerably troublesome.

How much care had he taken all this time so that that information would not reach the Society Leader?

He could only hope that the matter he feared was not the case.

Kiiiik.

At that moment, the door to the residence opened.

The one who opened it was none other than Vice Society Leader Mong Seo-cheon.

Tak.

Shadow Sect Master Hwan Ya-seon managed his expression, put on a smiling face, and performed a fist-and-palm salute with both hands.

“Ohoho. I offer my greetings to the Vice Society Leader.”

At his greeting, Vice Society Leader Mong Seo-cheon showed no particular reaction.

Rather, he looked at the Shadow Sect Master with a strangely unreadable expression.

Then,

“Why did you not bring your disciple as well?”

“My disciple stepped out briefly on an errand of mine, so I sent a subordinate to bring him…”

“Then come in.”

Before he could finish speaking, Vice Society Leader Mong Seo-cheon turned his body and beckoned with a hand.

At the sight of him seeming much colder than usual, the eyes of Shadow Sect Master Hwan Ya-seon narrowed.

It seemed this might truly become what he had been worried about.

‘This is troublesome.’

He had not yet secured the exact location and a perfect escape route, which was why he had not acted.

If, in the middle of all that, the Society Leader found out, the situation would become thoroughly tangled.

If that happened…

‘…’

Hwan Ya-seon lightly ground his teeth.

Then he once more covered his mouth with a smile and entered the residence.

The Society Leader’s residence, lit by several lamps, was a place he had visited more than once, but for some reason today the entire interior felt unbearably heavy and cold.

The air in the residence of someone sick could not possibly be cold, so it must have been because his tension had grown.

Step, step.

His steps were heavy.

He was maintaining a smiling face, but his insides were nearly churning with nausea.

The other party was the Society Leader of the Heaven and Earth Society, one of the Six Heavens said to stand at the peaks of the present martial world.

No matter who he was, facing such a man could not help but feel burdensome.

A large bed attached to the wall of the broad chamber.

Over that bed hung a screen made of thin cloth, so that the inside could be seen only faintly.

Swish.

The Vice Society Leader stood before it with both hands together and said,

“The Shadow Sect Master has arrived.”

“Cough, cough.”

The sound of coughing came from within.

At that, Shadow Sect Master Hwan Ya-seon, standing behind the Vice Society Leader, hurriedly clasped both hands and bowed his head.

“I pay my respects to the Society Leader.”

As Hwan Ya-seon bowed his head, his eyes narrowed even further.

He had already been curious how much the Society Leader’s condition had improved.

Yet hearing the coughing mixed with the sound of a scraping throat, it still felt as though the illness remained unchanged.

‘Strange.’

How could a master of internal energy at the Society Leader’s level remain ill for so long?

‘Did he truly suffer an internal injury from that man that he could not recover from?’

Only a very small number within the Society knew this.

The reason only so few knew was, naturally, that the Society Leader’s internal injury was worse than expected, and also because he had ultimately failed to gain the upper hand in that confrontation with that man.

Even so, however, it had gone on too long.

If he were a master of internal energy with the Society Leader’s depth of internal power, then by now he should have been more than capable of healing his internal injury himself.

It was just as he was finding this strange.

“Shadow Sect Master.”

It was the Society Leader’s voice, heard again after a long time.

“Yes, speak.”

“Do you perhaps have nothing to say to me?”

“…”

For an instant, the expression of Shadow Sect Master Hwan Ya-seon stiffened.

He had assumed there would first be some discussion of why he had been summoned, but he had not expected such a direct strike without warning.

Still, Hwan Ya-seon was not someone who easily revealed emotion in situations like this.

“Ahh. Has your illness improved some…”

“The imperial palace.”

It was before he could even finish speaking.

At those single words alone, Hwan Ya-seon felt his throat close up.

The thing he had feared had happened.

He had worked so hard to distort the information so that the Vice Society Leader’s side would not notice, but it seemed he had failed to stop it in the end.

‘So it was impossible.’

If only it had not been the imperial palace, he might have been able to buy more time.

But it seemed he had missed that opportunity.

As he was thinking rapidly about what to do,

the voice of Vice Society Leader Mong Seo-cheon, standing before him, was heard.

“You mean to say that the Shadow Sect, the information department of this Society, did not know what I myself found out?”

“…”

Damn it.

There was no room to evade.

They already knew.

The fact that they were testing him in this way itself was a kind of trial.

The Society Leader was precisely that kind of person.

At this point, there was only one method left.

Shadow Sect Master Hwan Ya-seon lifted his head, smiled, and said,

“Ohoho. How could that be? This subordinate also obtained the information that he had been detained in the imperial palace.”

No sooner had those words ended than the Vice Society Leader turned his head slightly, glared sharply, and said,

“Then why did you not report it?”

“You are putting me in a difficult position.”

“A difficult position?”

“The Vice Society Leader speaks as though I hid it on purpose.”

Hwan Ya-seon spoke in a tone of displeasure at being suspected.

Then the Vice Society Leader gave a snort and said,

“Then why, after knowing all this time that he was imprisoned in the imperial palace’s golden prison, did you fail to report it?”

‘Ahhh.’

So he was coming at him like this.

Judging from the way he was pressing him as though interrogating him, had he been summoned because of suspicion after all?

There was no helping it now.

Without losing his calm, Hwan Ya-seon said,

“Can you say with certainty that that is the truth?”

“What?”

The Vice Society Leader frowned.

“What if that information was deliberately released by the imperial palace in order to lure in the remaining remnants of the Fire Worship Sect?”

“…”

At those words from Shadow Sect Master Hwan Ya-seon, the Vice Society Leader was momentarily rendered speechless.

This was, for Hwan Ya-seon as well, something close to a gamble.

From the standpoint of one who was in truth a remnant of the Fire Worship Sect, it was better for him to avoid talking about the Fire Worship Sect as much as possible, but right now he had no choice.

If not, it was obvious the Vice Society Leader would press him even harder.

Fortunately,

‘He is not certain of the information yet.’

It seemed the Vice Society Leader had not acquired firm information.

Like himself, he had apparently obtained only the information that that person had been detained in the imperial palace’s golden prison.

If that was the case, then he could press a little harder.

“As the head of the information department, if I submit information that is not certain, I must also bear the responsibility for it. Naturally, I must carefully verify whether it is true or false…”

“There is no need to verify whether it is true or false.”

The one who cut him off was none other than the Society Leader.

At that, Hwan Ya-seon hurriedly bowed his head as though apologetic and said,

“However, Society Leader…”

“Cough, cough. There is not much time left.”

“Pardon?”

What had he just said?

What did he mean there was not much time left?

At that very moment,

“Look at me.”

Chwak.

The thin screen was swept aside, and the Society Leader revealed himself from the bed.

The eyes of Hwan Ya-seon, who had unconsciously raised his head to look at the Society Leader, went wide.

‘…What in the world is this?’

* * *

Half a si-jin later again,

the training ground within the main hall’s secret wall.

“If you’re slower than a pig, does that make you a worm?”

‘This bastard!’

His surprise lasted only an instant, and Mong Mu-yak’s eyes turned fierce at Mok Gyeong-un’s jeering insult.

Yet unlike the way he had started the quarrel, Mong Mu-yak by nature possessed a very cool-headed temperament.

Perhaps because of that, in that brief instant he analyzed Mok Gyeong-un.

‘The aura I felt through my senses was no more than peak level. But this movement just now, and even the force pressing down on the end of the hilt, are beyond that.’

Which meant he had concealed his energy.

Once he realized that, Mong Mu-yak clicked his tongue inwardly.

He had heard that he had come out top from the Corpse Blood Valley passage, but he was only seventeen, and given the level of the younger masters of Corpse Blood Valley until now, he had expected someone at the stage of mature peak level or at most the extreme of peak level.

But if he was at a level capable of deceiving even his martial senses,

‘Then I should take into account something beyond that.’

Papak.

Judging that Mok Gyeong-un might possess martial power higher than expected, Mong Mu-yak immediately shifted his feet backward with footwork and let his center tilt away.

Naturally, Mok Gyeong-un’s body, which had been pressing down on the end of the hilt, tilted forward as well.

At that moment,

Pak.

Mong Mu-yak swiftly launched a kick toward Mok Gyeong-un’s neck.

If he were a fool with narrow sight, he would be struck by this, and if he were above that, he would have no choice but to release the hilt in order to avoid the kick and stop his body from toppling over.

But then,

Kwak.

That expectation missed the mark.

Mok Gyeong-un, who had been pressing down on the end of the hilt with his palm, grasped it instead, then,

Paaak.

He simply yanked it and swung.

Because of that,

‘Tch.’

Mong Mu-yak, who had launched the kick while holding the hilt, had his body jerk violently to the side against his will.

And it did not end there.

Mong Mu-yak immediately drew up his power in order to resist this.

Paaaak.

‘Damn it!’

Even so, Mong Mu-yak’s body was flung around even more violently, and then,

Paaaaaaak.

Along with losing his grip on the hilt, he was sent flying nearly eight paces.

Though he stayed calm and twisted his body in midair to right his posture,

Chwareureureureu.

He still could not fully disperse Mok Gyeong-un’s force and was driven back nearly seven paces along the floor.

Watching this with eyes gone wide, Seop Chun, Third Guard Captain of the main hall, clapped his hands and cheered.

Clap clap clap.

“Uahahaha! Good! Very good!”

Inwardly, he had of course assumed that if trouble broke out, Mok Gyeong-un would be the one to suffer.

That was only natural, because Mong Mu-yak was the son of Vice Society Leader Mong Seo-cheon and the grandson of Mong Wu-jong, the Sea Sword King, who had retired and entered the council of elders.

To see such a man, taught by one of the absolute masters counted among the top five even among both the retired and current generations, and known to possess heaven-gifted sword talent, being pushed back by a newcomer not even twenty and not one of the Five Tigers was enough to make him giddy.

Grit.

Of course, Seop Chun’s cheering was more than enough to provoke Mong Mu-yak’s pride.

It was true that he had been the one to pick the fight first, but he had his own reason.

That was because he felt that Mok Gyeong-un was insulting the sword.

If he was the Shadow Sect Master’s disciple, then he was clearly not a swordsman but a saberman, and it truly displeased him that he walked around carrying that great sword made by the famous smith Ou Yezi like an ornament for display.

That was why he had called it pearls on a pig’s neck.

But now the situation had become ridiculous.

He had tried to teach him a lesson as a swordsman, yet instead he himself had been humiliated.

Mong Mu-yak glared at Mok Gyeong-un.

If he withdrew like this, this humiliation would truly be fixed in place.

So,

Swoosh.

Mong Mu-yak clenched the sword-finger mudra and raised sword force.

“Good. Then let us properly cont…”

“Before that, please take this back.”

‘!?’

At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un threw something as if hurling a spear.

It was none other than the sword he had taken from Mong Mu-yak.

Paaang. Chwaaaak.

The sword flew before him in an instant.

Just how much internal power did this bastard have for the sword to arrive right in front of him in the blink of an eye?

From the speed alone, one could imagine its power.

But then,

Pak.

The flying sword suddenly stopped in midair.

Dung dung.

Seop Chun could not hide his surprise as he looked at the sword that had stopped precariously right before him.

‘No. He blocked that with true qi alone?’

The internal force loaded into that sword seemed anything but ordinary, and he had thought he would have to dodge it, yet he had never imagined he would stop it with true qi alone.

It seemed that Mong Mu-yak’s level of internal power had grown much thicker than before.

At that, Seop Chun cried out in admiration toward Mong Mu-yak.

“Ha! Mong Mu-yak! Did you eat a hasuo aged several hundred years or something?”

But then,

“…It wasn’t me.”

Mong Mu-yak said that with a bewildered expression.

Seop Chun tilted his head.

What was he talking about now?

It was not him?

“What are you talking about?”

“I said I wasn’t the one who stopped the sword just now!”

“What?”

At that, Seop Chun turned to look at Mok Gyeong-un with a doubtful thought.

‘Hm?’

But Mok Gyeong-un, his smile gone and his face serious, was staring at Mong Mu-yak’s sword hanging in the air.

So it was not that fellow either?

Then what in the world was going on here?

It was just as he was puzzling over it.

Seureung.

‘Huh? The sword?’

At that moment, the sword that had been hanging in midair drew itself from Mong Mu-yak’s sheath and, at tremendous speed, slashed through the air and shot toward Mok Gyeong-un.

Chwaaaaaaaaa.

The eyes with which Mok Gyeong-un watched this turned sharp.

The energy loaded into that flying sword was something he had never experienced before.

It was moving the sword like a peerless swordsman alive and breathing.

What kind of mystery was this?

Just then, Blue Spirit’s cry of shock stabbed into his ears.

“It is a sword-riding technique!”