I Prayed for a Murim Reincarnation, But I Was Born as the Youngest Imperial Prince - Chapter 31

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 31
Rather than deciding anything based purely on my own thoughts, let’s get an accurate grasp of the situation on the ground first.
“Junior Disciple, let’s at least seal their acupoints for now to hold them.”
“Yes.”
Habit is a scary thing; having been born into this world and living as a prince for twenty years, Seonwu was extremely accustomed to ordering people around.
Naturally, instead of sealing the acupoints himself, he made Dan Suyeong do it.
Dan Suyeong immediately accepted Seonwu’s command and neutralized the four by sealing their acupoints.
Tossing them inside the establishment, Seonwu stepped indoors.
“Is anyone here?”
“Oh, welcome! Honored guests.”
The master of the house had also heard all the commotion outside.
He hurriedly welcomed the two as if they were long-awaited guests.
‘Did the higher-ups send them?’
Or were they truly just masters passing by by sheer coincidence?
But to cultivate a master of the Peak Realm at such a young age, they would have to belong to a renowned great sect.
“Bring us three of this house’s most confident dishes and a recommended liquor.”
“I will serve them at once.”
Several staff members had left, but since there wasn’t a single other customer, it was still manageable to handle.
Meanwhile, the Heuksa Sect disciples, paralyzed with their acupoints sealed, could only roll their eyes.
‘What’s going to happen to us?’
‘If the Sect Leader comes, we’ll be freed, right?’
‘But what if those bastards draw their swords before the Sect Leader arrives?’
‘If they were going to draw them, wouldn’t they have skipped sealing our acupoints?’
Half hope, half fear.
After a short while, three dishes and liquor were placed on the table.
As a matter of course, Dan Suyeong checked for poison first.
Watching this idly, Seonwu suddenly had another thought.
‘Wait, but thanks to the Treasure of Shennong given by Imperial Father, aren’t I actually the one with Immunity to All Poisons?’
It felt like it would be safer if I checked for poison and then let Dan Suyeong eat.
But then again, if he, the prince and king, said he would test the food so his secret guard should eat later, Dan Suyeong would probably faint from shock.
‘That would probably be worse for Dan Suyeong’s mental health.’
Besides, this was their own secret branch office, so what kind of poison would they lace it with?
Dan Suyeong was also a Peak Realm master in his own right, and a fellow who had learned many things to serve as a guard.
He must be well-prepared against poisons.
At any rate, the liquor and dishes that came out were not bad.
‘I guess eating outside is always like this.’
Twenty years of Imperial Palace life.
Seonwu admitted that his tongue had been far too spoiled by gourmet delicacies.
Dishes he would have never considered lacking in his past life felt a bit disappointing now.
Even so, humans are creatures of adaptation.
When he first left the palace, he felt quite a lot of regret, but by the time he crossed Henan Province and reached Anhui Province, he had more or less adapted.
A compromise had already been reached in his heart that he had no choice but to give up this much as the price for a free journey.
And right now, food was not what was important.
[Neither Flying Nor Crying.]
When Seonwu spoke the password through Sound Transmission, the branch manager replied in the same manner.
[The Flying Dragon appears in the world. The realm is shaken.]
‘To be honest, it feels like a bit of a childish password. Who on earth decided this? Was it the Admiral?’
Still, changing it and retraining everyone would be a chore, so Seonwu just used it.
[Did you come from the higher-ups?]
[Yes, I hear the fellows from the Heuksa Sect or whatever they’re called are pulling tricks to snatch this shop where you set up the branch office?]
[Yes, since it is a secret branch office, we tried to pay the same level of protection fee as others to avoid conflict. However, they tried to seize the shop entirely.]
[Have you figured out the reason?]
[I do not have enough information to be certain.]
[Give me your best guess.]
Exchanging Sound Transmission, Seonwu grew excited.
‘Wow, this makes it feel like I’m really doing something.’
A secret branch office.
Sound Transmission.
Information briefing.
Well, it was a pity the conversation felt less like a chivalrous xia and more like a squad leader dispatched by an organization plotting in secret to overthrow the Jianghu, but…
‘Next time, I’ll surely get to go on a real chivalrous journey against someone who knows absolutely nothing about me.’
You try this, and you try that.
Seonwu simply thought about it lightheartedly.
To him, the report of the branch leader continued.
[First of all, I believe the primary reason is that I have no ties to this place.]
[Hmm, certainly, it’s not like you have any visible connections with the local Xiangzu or the authorities here…]
[Yes, and since it’s not a branch of some massive power either, the problem seems to be that they judged it as nothing more than a traveling merchant who gathered some money, scraped everything together, and bought a shop.]
[In a word, you looked easy and like there would be no backlash, so they decided to swallow you whole.]
[Yes.]
It wasn’t a grand reason.
Just an easy target who happened to have a decent amount of money, so they were playing tricks.
‘Greed.’
It was an incredibly simple yet powerful reason.
Even so, turning into outright highway robbers would actually be less profitable.
A petty thief like that can’t touch big money.
Fundamentally, the city is where money keeps circulating.
Collecting protection taxes within it, and occasionally extorting a nice property like this on the cheap.
Making money that way would be much more stable and lucrative.
It’s just that these fellows lacked prior research this time and touched what belonged to him.
[Haven’t these guys done things this way before?]
[From what I have looked into in my own way, it seems they have done this occasionally in the case of drifters like me.]
[I see…]
Indiscriminately extorting even the locals would, no matter what, provoke other local influential figures or even the authorities.
Against them, they satisfy themselves with a reasonable protection tax.
Instead, they run a massive operation against someone with no backing and nothing to lose like this time.
[I roughly understand. After finishing the meal, I should probably have these guys lead the way and pay a visit to the Heuksa Sect.]
[I am textually sorry to trouble you.]
[No. I came out precisely to punish fellows like this.]
Seonwu smiled faintly.
Looking at the situation, it was obvious the authorities weren’t supervising this kind of thing properly.
Non-Interference Between Court and Wulin?
‘In the palace, they jumped up and down claiming it was absolutely not non-interference.’
Considering that the Nine Great Sects, the Unorthodox Factions, and even the Five Great Noble Families brought gifts and bowed down flat on his birthday, it was actually ambiguous to call it non-interference.
At the same time, however, the story seemed different on the ground here.
‘Well, it’s too early to discuss the nation after looking at just one place…’
For now, shall we go teach the Heuksa Sect a lesson?
Seonwu deactivated the Sound Transmission and spoke aloud.
“Those four fellows were blocking the front of this shop and harassing you so you couldn’t do business, so what on earth is going to happen here?”
“Oh, Great Xia. Please listen to the grievance of our master.”
Thus the branch manager pleaded, and Seonwu, a passing chivalrous xia, secured his justification.
After finishing his meal, Seonwu released the acupoint seals and placed the four in front.
“Guide us to your sect.”
“Yes…”
They worried whether it was alright to bring these two masters along like this, but at the same time, unless the Sect Leader stepped forward, there was no way they could handle it themselves.
The four led the way, praying only that they wouldn’t be scolded too harshly by the Sect Leader.
* * *
At that time.
The Heuksa Sect already knew that the four had been subdued by Seonwu’s group.
There were many who saw the four getting taken down in an instant.
Among them, some who anticipated even a small reward hurriedly ran to the Heuksa Sect to deliver the news.
“Our boys were subdued by two warriors we’ve never seen before?”
“Yes, Vice Sect Leader.”
“And you don’t know what kind of fellows they are?”
“Would an ignorant peasant like me know just by looking?”
“Hmm, still, tell me whatever comes to mind.”
Saying so, Vice Sect Leader Sa Oh-pyeong pulled a few more coins out of his pouch.
To endure long in the county, it was not good to simply extort.
He had to teach them that making useful cooperation like this would result in even a tiny reward.
As the sharpest mind in the Heuksa Sect, he knew such principles of governance.
In a giant sect, they might ask what’s so grand about enduring in a mere single county, but in reality, surviving in just one county was no simple matter.
Though it was a mere single county, its population reached ninety thousand.
About twenty thousand lived in the city, and the remaining seventy thousand or so were scattered throughout various villages, but either way, it was a territory with ninety thousand people attached to it.
There were the authorities, there was a branch office of a giant sect, and there were also the Xiangzu who had lived there for a long time.
To proudly occupy a seat among them and protect their vested interests, the Heuksa Sect could not do it through force alone.
Therefore, he did not take this information lightly either.
‘Of course, no matter how much these ignorant peasants look, how much could they really find out?’
He wasn’t expecting them to recognize the opponent’s martial arts or anything like that.
Since trivial clues sometimes prove to be a great help, he questioned them for now.
“Yes, well, both of them were wearing simple blue martial robes, but they didn’t look like terribly expensive clothes.”
“And? In what manner did they subdue the four?”
“This small one couldn’t see properly either, but when the one with sharp eyes like a wolf among the two glared at the four gentlemen, those four gentlemen actually trembled, and one of them even spilled blood from his mouth!”
‘Could it be that he harmed a person purely through the killing intent of his glare?’
Even if those four fellows looked like loafers, they had sent a mix of First-Class and Second-Class martial artists.
His subordinates had also settled down and rolled around here quite a bit, so they had all escaped the Third-Class realm.
Yet they couldn’t even move just from a glare?
Unless he secretly used poison, if he truly subdued them with killing intent alone…
“Then the younger and handsomer side said, ‘Junior Disciple, that’s enough,’ and subsequently told him to seal their acupoints.”
“Understood. This was helpful.”
He tossed the money, and the resident who reported to him left through the door in a hurry.
‘This doesn’t feel good.’
One First-Class and three Second-Class.
While he wouldn’t call them masters, they weren’t a composition to be taken down so easily by those who knew nothing.
If it were himself, he could of course win.
However, could he make those four like that purely with a glare?
‘Since they are subordinates who usually submit to me and fear my majesty, they would naturally be frightened if I got angry and glared at them.’
That was a learned fear toward a superior as a subordinate.
To be completely helpless against an opponent met for the first time?
To the point where one person suffered internal injuries and spat blood?
Even if he used a stealthy attack, it was a problem, and if he did so with just unleashed killing intent, it was an even greater problem.
There was a substantial possibility that this was a master of a higher realm than himself.
On top of that, the opponent’s confidence bothered him.
They didn’t care in the slightest about them, a sect that dominated a county in its own right?
They subdued them and leisurely went inside to have a meal.
It meant they did not fear whether they took time to respond or not.
Beware of the elderly, children, and women in the Jianghu?
Of course one must be careful.
But what one truly had to be careful of were those guys who openly showed they were young masters who came out of some renowned sect.
‘Though he’s an ignorant peasant, seeing as he didn’t recognize them, it doesn’t seem to be the Namgung Clan…’
In the first place, the Namgung Clan wore fine clothes.
If he were truly a young Peak Realm master, he would be at the successor level even within the Namgung Clan, and it also made no sense for such a person to travel with only two people total.
‘Still, since I don’t know who they are from where… this won’t do. This is not a matter to be taken lightly.’
If it turned out to be excessive caution, it would be something to laugh off, but if he got hit while letting his guard down, it would become a source of eternal regret.
“You, go fetch my two older brothers right this instant.”
“Yes sir.”
The Sect Leader and the other Vice Sect Leader, his two older brothers, had to be present.
But even so, they were merely three High-Ascending Realm masters.
While the eldest brother was at least at the late stage of the High-Ascending Realm, he and his second brother were merely at the entry level.
Even considering all their subordinates, it was insufficient to face a Peak Realm master.
“And you.”
“Yes.”
“Fetch Master.”
“Are you speaking of the Elder?”
The subordinate was startled.
That was because the master of the three was advanced in age, lived in seclusion, and did not easily appear on the surface.
Because he didn’t want to receive attention for being here, the majority of people thought the masters of the Heuksa Sect consisted only of the three brothers.
The three also knew their master’s wishes, so they did not request their master’s help for ordinary matters.
But this time, even if he were to be scolded later for making a fuss over nothing, his intuition whispered that it was right to call him.
“Yes, tell him that a fellow who might be a Peak Realm master, whom we might find difficult to handle, has appeared.”
“Understood.”
Sa Oh-pyeong looked up at the sky.
Fortunately, the sun was high in the middle of the sky.
“What a relief. Even if the fellow is a Peak Realm master, surely he won’t go around spraying blood in broad daylight.”
The authorities do not intervene in every single fight between Wulin individuals, but that is also strictly when it is carried out secretly.
This was strictly a county seat where the county office was located.
It was not one of those far-off villages over there.
Wielding swords from broad daylight in a place like this?
‘Even if the fellow is a member of the Namgung Clan, running amok to that extent is not easy.’
They say that during the late Yuan Dynasty, which was the preceding dynasty, the entire world was in such chaos that one could act in that manner.
But now, forty years had passed since the Great Long Empire was established.
Forty years since the current Emperor opened the nation.
Although the invasions of the demonic monsters beyond the border were endless.
And in the rear, there were times when demonic practitioners opened the Ghost Gate to call forth demonic monsters, creating crises, but even so, how could it compare to such a chaotic world where official governance crumbled and laws vanished?
Since the majesty of the authorities was alive, he could at least buy time.
And if he could buy time, his master would come for them.
In the worst-case scenario, he would have to brace himself for getting hit a few times with fists, but…
“For now, tell the rest to assemble entirely as well.”
“Understood.”
Seonwu was approaching, but Sa Oh-pyeong did his best.
Even considering the case where they might be the Blue Sky Swordsmen of the Namgung Clan.
It’s just that he could not imagine anything beyond that.
To be honest, for anything greater than that to come to a mere unorthodox sect that was merely successful in a single county, wasn’t that too wild an imagination?
If one had to worry about all such things, one would have to fear that the sky might fall and the earth might sink.

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