Emperor Namgung Mu of the Thousand Years - Chapter 112

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#112

“I’ll clean this up.”

Guk grabbed the man’s arms like he was disposing of trash and dragged him away.

The man’s head scraped against the floor, leaving a trail of blood.

No one looked at him.

The door closed.

I slowly looked around at them.

“The rest of you, raise your heads.”

I lowered the mask that covered my lower face.

“And look at my face.”

“….”

Everyone stared at me in silence.

“I’ll ask you all something. Does this truly look like the noble, sheltered young master with fair skin who grew up receiving everyone’s love that bastard was talking about earlier?”

Someone swallowed hard.

No one could answer.

“I’ll ask again. Among you who claim to have lived rough lives, is there anyone who was called ‘mule’ instead of their real name, treated like air even by servants, and lived because they couldn’t die?”

Silence.

“I am the ruler of Anhui, the Fourth Young Master of the great Namgung Family, Namgung Hwi. At the same time, I was born as the son of a lowly concubine.”

Murmuring.

But it was different from before. Some looked at me with curiosity.

Some with wariness.

Others looked back and forth between me and the long trail of blood stretching from the floor to the exit with stunned expressions.

“I had nothing. Rather, whenever I tried something and failed, they would surround me as if they’d been waiting, mocking and pointing fingers at me, saying they knew it would happen.”

“….”

“But even though I’m like that. Even though I’m truly pathetic and worthless.”

I took a step forward.

“My dream is to become the Young Master of the Namgung Family. And eventually to devour the entire Namgung Family.”

“…!”

“And I declare that I cannot walk that path alone. I don’t have the qualities to be one of those heroic figures from popular tales who monopolize all the fortuitous encounters and walk the path of swift resolution as a genius. I’m just an ordinary ant kicked around on the roadside. If I walk alone, I’ll be trampled to death. But precisely because of that, I need you more than anyone.”

The murmuring grew louder.

Surprise. Bewilderment.

And confusion.

“The Fourth Young Master of the Namgung Family… needs us?”

“We’re just fighting dogs in the arena.”

“He must be mistaken about our abilities. Overestimating us.”

I looked around at them.

“I’m not focusing on your current abilities right now. What I value most above all else are those who share the same thirst as me.”

Pointing at them, I said.

“You have talent. Surviving for years in this life-or-death arena – that’s incomparable talent, more than any heavenly constitution or whatever. You just didn’t know where to channel it.”

I clenched my fist tightly.

“I’ll give you the chance to spread your wings. I’ll watch your backs. In return, become my blade. When I need it, become the one and only awl in this world that can precisely cut out exactly what I want. That’s the only thing I want from you.”

“….”

“Even if the end brings us the insignificant fate that those who mock us speak of, someone who will try to draw what I envision at least once before falling…!”

I shouted with all my strength.

Those words were meant for them.

But at the same time, they were words I was shouting to myself.

“I’ll make sure you don’t live a life without pride like now. Definitely! Even if you die, I’ll make sure you live a life where you can proudly say you lived without giving up on yourself! Those who have that resolve…!”

I pointed at the floor with my finger.

“Stay here.”

Then I said to Cheolwoong.

“Cheolwoong, release their chains. All of them.”

Cheolwoong blinked.

“All of them, sir?”

“All of them.”

Cheolwoong moved.

Clank. Clank. Clank.

The chains were released. One by one. One by one. Chains fell from the wrists and ankles of thirty-eight people.

I pointed to the exit on the opposite side of the waiting room.

“Open the door.”

The door opened.

Light from outside poured in, leading directly to the exterior.

I looked at them.

“Just one step beyond there lies sweet freedom. I’ll forgive the debts that bind you. There will be no retaliation. Those who want to leave, go. I’m not forcing anyone. Just leave if you want. So choose.”

I raised my voice.

“Will you stay with me and walk the unlimited path together?”

“….”

“Or will you leave and remain weak, living your whole life watching others’ reactions, withering away without ever drawing the picture you pursue?”

My voice echoed throughout the arena.

Silence spread like ink in all directions.

And.

-Thud.

One person knelt down.

Two people. Three people. Ten people.

Knees buckled in a chain reaction. Twenty people. Thirty people. It didn’t stop.

No one left.

They didn’t even look at each other.

Everyone was looking at me.

In everyone’s eyes was burning desire.

They were looking at me with eyes blazing with thirst.

“Good.”

I walked slowly.

I stood in their center.

Everyone prostrated themselves while looking at me.

I looked down at them.

“This insignificant, cobweb-covered, moldy little waiting room is our beginning. We’re climbing up from the bottom, so we have nothing to lose.”

“…!”

“Let’s show those bastards who do nothing but mock our failures what we’re made of. And for this, hellish training awaits us. Cheolwoong.”

“Please command me.”

“From now on, you represent these people. And.”

I looked at Cheolwoong again.

“You have your real name, but I’ll give you a new name that I think suits you better. At the same time, I’ll give you a new life.”

“…A name, sir?”

“From now on, you’re neither Cheolwoong nor Wi Soja.”

I said.

“Ranhyeok.”

Cheolwoong’s, no, Ranhyeok’s eyes widened.

“Ran from orchid and hyeok meaning to shine. An orchid that doesn’t lose its fragrance and shines even in deep valleys. Not a name that can only be left by writing in blood, but one that quietly spreads its subtle fragrance a hundred li, a thousand li away, revealing its existence. This is your true name.”

“….”

“You will become someone worthy of that name. I will help you. This is the path I’m presenting to you.”

Will my meaning reach him?

Did my sincerity reach him?

“…I will follow my lord’s command.”

I don’t know how he received my words.

I don’t know how my words might have stirred his resentment.

But he was crying silently.

“…I will obey.”

I shouted.

“The captain is Ranhyeok…! I have no intention of keeping bastards inferior to me as subordinates. With that money, it would be better for me to buy my own food and build my own body! At the very least, if I’ve invested in you all, prove to me that I can think I did well at least once!”

The remaining thirty-nine personnel looked at me.

“If I request combat, ambush, and elimination from you all, you must be at least equal to or superior to me in those aspects. A tool must be more capable than the human who wields it in certain specific situations to have utility as a tool.”

I looked at Ranhyeok.

I looked at everyone.

“Do you understand what I mean?! Do you all understand…! Judge wisely! All consequences that follow are the responsibility of those who choose!”

And until the very end, everyone in the waiting room, not a single person moved.

I nodded.

“If there are any who pass the training I present hereafter, I will give them names that represent your identity….”

I raised my voice.

“The group that will be responsible for my blade…! I will name them the Cheonsal Squad …! That is who you are, and this is the beginning of the Cheonsal Squad that all of the martial arts world will fear!”

Everyone prostrated themselves in unison.

“We will obey, my lord!!”

“Death to those who block our lord’s path!”

“We will eliminate them by any means necessary!”

That momentum was different from before.

It was a cry that seemed to shake heaven and earth.

Looking down at all of this, I gritted my teeth.

‘Namgung Taejin, you made a mistake.’

You probably thought you were just discarding troublemakers from Thousand Mile Manor.

You simply thought of them as disposable livestock that would just earn money.

I know because I crawled up from the bottom.

What’s essential for climbing to the peak is deprivation rather than talent.

Deprivation makes people extremely servile and desperate.

But at the same time, it also grants the obsession to somehow climb upward.

That pain is something Namgung Taejin, who lived a prosperous life, would never understand.

So he would have seen them only as livestock from the bottom.

But I saw possibility in their eyes. The same burning as mine.

“My lord.”

Guk called me.

In his hand was a letter.

“A message from Jisaldae Captain Sanyeong.”

“Sanyeong?”

“Captain Sanyeong really seems to handle work well.”

Guk said as he handed me the letter.

“He’s been incredibly busy constructing the Yaxiang Guild’s main residence and rebuilding the Jisaldae organizational structure, yet he managed to handle this too. Since I’m part of White Crow, I’m usually not easily surprised… but I seriously doubted my eyes.”

I unfolded the letter.

At the end of the letter were these words:

[This is a humble gift from your subordinate in response to the respect my lord has shown.]

Perhaps reading the pleased expression crossing my face, Guk said.

“It’s finally almost over with that disgusting Sanggongja bastard. It was revolting.”

“Don’t let your guard down until the very end.”

I handed the letter back to Guk and gave instructions.

“Tell Cheolwoong, I mean Ranhyeok, about where to move the Cheonsal Squad members and how to train them according to what I’ve already planned. Guk, you help Ranhyeok. I’ll go directly to Sanyeong and that location. Contact Sanyeong too. In a way, all victory and defeat depends on this.”

“Understood.”

I take a deep breath.

Looking at my subordinates, my hands and feet, who had grown into countless people before my eyes, I thought.

‘Sanggongja Namgung Taejin. You didn’t know how much potential the things you possessed had. I’ll show you as their master instead. How the use and sharpness of even the same blade changes depending on who wields it.’

From the very beginning when I first met Namgung Taejin and planned this entire scheme, I had resolved.

To use Sanggongja as a stepping stone to climb higher.

Originally I considered one more month, but thanks to Sanyeong’s achievements, it was moved up.

Two more days and it will be decided.

If this succeeds too, then there’s only one direction left for Sanggongja Namgung Taejin to go.

At that end, the predatory hunt will be finished.

And-.

‘I will rise not as a Sakongjja in name only, but as a leader of revenge that even the Ilgongjjas will be wary of.’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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