I Prayed for a Murim Reincarnation, But I Was Born as the Youngest Imperial Prince - Chapter 34

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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 34
Jeolyeong stepped between the old man and Seonwu, blocking the path as if it were only natural.
“It’s fine. Let’s hear what he has to say first.”
Seonwu was a man who possessed Confucian values yet didn’t, and didn’t possess them yet did.
Because of that, he chose to act a bit more leniently toward the old man.
Of course, strictly speaking by Confucian standards, respect for the elderly meant absolutely nothing before a prince like him…
Still, Seonwu felt inclined to at least give the old man a chance to explain himself.
Naturally, if that explanation proved invalid and revealed him to be an unrepentant accomplice, this small consideration would vanish in an instant.
The old man who appeared as the master of the trio was an Unorthodox Faction master named Zhang Youji.
Having grown old, he had semi-retired from the Wulin and was spending his remaining years in leisure, living off the offerings presented by the disciples he had raised over the years.
However, stepping in to help when his disciples encountered an affair they couldn’t handle was also part of his duties.
Zhang Youji took in the state of his three disciples and the five Team Leaders, then noted the terrified expressions of the remaining men.
He also observed Jeolyeong, who stood blocking the path between himself and Seonwu.
‘As expected from what I heard, he possesses the countenance of a ferocious wolf.’
And astonishingly, the youth was not beneath him.
‘To reach the Peak Realm at that age, he must come from no ordinary prestigious sect.’
The first that came to mind was the Namgung Clan.
But no, that wasn’t it.
Then where?
‘He doesn’t seem to belong to the Nine Great Sects either.’
His martial arts were far too sharp and sinister to be considered part of a Buddhist or Daoist Sect.
It didn’t even feel like one of the Five Great Clans.
He couldn’t tell.
Yet, not knowing meant he had to proceed with caution.
Still, if it was just the martial prowess of that wolf-like brat, he could manage to deal with him somehow.
Once he showed they were evenly matched, the subordinates of his terrified disciples would join the fray, so things would work out one way or another.
The problem was the senior disciple’s side, who was smiling leisurely and offering him a chance to speak.
The subordinate who brought the report had mentioned that the senior disciple’s martial arts didn’t seem to be in the Peak Realm, and it appeared that way to him as well.
He seemed to be around the High-Ascending Realm.
However, that only made Zhang Youji more wary of the senior disciple.
Why?
Because it was blatantly bizarre.
‘Even between fellow disciples, it would be one thing if it were just a slight difference in capability within the same realm.’
Their actual realms were entirely different.
Furthermore, the junior disciple wasn’t just any ordinary Peak Realm master; he was a genuine Peak Realm master even when viewed by someone with Zhang Youji’s level of experience.
‘Though the Orthodox Factions fuss a bit more over junior and senior relationships than an Unorthodox Faction like us.’
Even so, it was only a slight difference.
With such a massive gap in talent, the junior disciple, who was definitively in the Peak Realm, should unconditionally hold the upper hand.
In fact, he should have been treated with the utmost respect as the next line for Sect Leader.
‘Yet, no matter how I look at it, the junior disciple is standing there as if guarding that senior disciple.’
Of course, a powerful junior disciple could simply share a close bond with a weaker senior disciple.
Thus, he might try to protect his senior disciple in this situation.
However, a close bond and treating someone entirely as a superior carried completely different atmospheres.
Possessing vast experience, he sensed that jarring dissonance.
This wasn’t a mindset of ‘I will protect my senior disciple.’
It was ‘I will not tolerate anyone who dares harm my senior disciple.’
The difference between the two was immense.
Why?
While there could be several possibilities, the first that came to mind was that the senior disciple possessed an extraordinary status.
Perhaps he was the son of the current Sect Leader of their organization, or came from a magnificent family.
The second possibility was that, contrary to appearances, he actually possessed martial arts superior to the junior disciple and truly deserved to be treated as a superior.
Occasionally, there were wicked individuals whose apparent level of martial arts seemed lower than their actual strength.
He had heard rumors that techniques like Shaolin’s Peerless Prajna Divine Art or Wudang’s Taegeuk Yangui Shingong were like that…
He had never actually encountered either, but he had heard of such rumors.
If that senior disciple brat had mastered a specific Buddhist or Daoist martial art similar to those, it would be a different story entirely.
‘Whichever it is…’
If he underestimated them, the misfortune would far outweigh any benefit.
“Ahem. It seems my disciples have committed some wrong against you, Great Hero. I see that is why they have been disciplined like this.”
[Master?]
At the incoming Sound Transmission, he barked back immediately.
[Keep quiet! If you want to keep your lives right now, this isn’t the time to fight with strength!]
The three disciples scrambled to think upon hearing their master’s transmission.
They thought they stood a chance now that their master had arrived, but their master’s thoughts differed?
‘Does that mean the senior disciple brat is more than what meets our eyes, according to Master?’
If so, they had to remain obedient.
“Ho, so you admit the wrongdoing?”
“Ahem. Seeing your grand aura, Great Hero, you wouldn’t have acted like this without reason. However, this old man has only just arrived and does not know the full story. The people seem to have suffered enough damage, so why don’t we resolve this dispute through words now?”
Seonwu smacked his lips.
‘What’s with this?’
How boring.
Normally, an Unorthodox Faction’s backer master would step forward, threatening with lines like, “If I were to state my name, I am so-and-so whose sinister reputation shakes the Jianghu. Brat, today is your grave!” and then unleash an attack, shouldn’t he?
Then Seonwu would strike back splendidly and make a name for himself.
‘Since Jeolyeong cleaned up the small fry, I intended to face the real core myself.’
It was a bit ambiguous to mindlessly thrash the backer when he wasn’t the actual leadership of the Black Snake Sect who tried to steal the tavern.
Since he himself didn’t know exactly how deeply the old man was involved.
‘Ah, whatever. It’s not like this will be the only time I’ll have to use martial arts while traveling the Jianghu.’
Even so, he had no intention of letting this matter slide half-heartedly.
He needed to test whether the old man was just talking or genuinely reflecting.
And if it turned out he was merely trying to smooth over the situation with words as expected…
‘That’s exactly when I can just use force.’
“Words, you say. Well, if you reflect and make amends through words, I won’t have to use force any further either.”
“Ahem. Then let me introduce myself first. This old man is called Zhang Youji. I have earned the empty title of Black Snake Old Master in the Jianghu.”
‘Only his alias is grand.’
“I am Seonyeong, and my junior disciple is Jeolyeong. Both of us are Jianghu novices, so we don’t have aliases.”
“If it is not rude to ask, what is your sect?”
“We cannot reveal that. Let’s just settle the dispute.”
Zhang Youji smacked his lips.
If he could at least find out which prestigious sect these two came from, it would be a bit easier to devise a plan.
[Did you fail to recognize which sect his martial arts belong to?]
[I have absolutely no idea. The senior disciple didn’t use martial arts at all, and though the junior disciple was incredibly fierce, he didn’t use an ultimate technique with distinct characteristics that would give it away.]
[In short, you couldn’t even hold out long enough for him to display a real ultimate technique?]
[I am ashamed, Master. However, his momentum was so sinister that he didn’t seem to belong to the Nine Great Sects.]
He had heard that techniques like the Fumo Jianfa of the Kongtong Sect among the Nine Great Sects were somewhat fierce, but even that had its limits.
[Difficult, truly difficult.]
“Sigh. First, could you tell me what has enraged you so, Great Hero?”
“The Black Snake Sect used dirty tricks to ruin Myeongwolru, intending to seize it at a dirt-cheap price. The Black Snake Munju tried to play innocent and dodge the blame, lying that he intended to buy it at a fair price but his subordinates went overboard out of excessive loyalty. Will you deny it?”
If he denied it, Seonwu could give him another beating until the truth came out.
At Seonwu’s question, Zhang Youji asked his three disciples.
[Did you really use dirty tricks on Myeongwolru?]
[That… to be honest, yes. Of course, we spoke vaguely to our subordinates, telling them to handle it well on their own, but…]
[Such an excuse wouldn’t work against a guy like that.]
[Yes. The moment he heard those words, that senior disciple brat suddenly ordered his junior disciple to beat us up as he saw fit, and…]
“Ahem. Though I am semi-retired and do not supervise every single action of my disciples, it seems these boys made a mistake because they were temporarily swayed by material greed. However, no one from Myeongwolru lost their life, so haven’t they been punished enough by now?”
“I don’t know about that. I’ve been thinking about this carefully. From the Black Snake Sect’s perspective, that small tavern is just a fraction of your wealth, so you might think you’ve been punished enough. But the owner of Myeongwolru poured all the money he painstakingly gathered from a lifetime of peddling just to settle down there.”
Seonwu was currently speaking not as a prince, but as the Seonwu of his past life.
One hundred million won.
To someone, it was money that could be earned in a single minute with a few clever clicks.
To someone else, it was money that flowed in effortlessly like breathing while doing nothing.
To Jun, who had somehow become his closest friend, it was money he could lend interest-free with no deadline when Seonwu went bankrupt.
Yet, to another friend, it was an amount that drove them to commit suicide right after being scammed.
If the tavern owner’s fabricated past had been real, what would have happened to that family after losing the tavern like that?
At best, the household would be shattered.
At worst, someone would die, and someone would be sold off somewhere…
And was Myeongwolru really the first time the Black Snake Sect had pulled such a stunt?
If it were the first time, one could argue it stopped at an attempted crime.
However, he heard the Black Snake Sect had been established here for quite some time.
Furthermore, according to what the Branch Leader found out, they didn’t touch the locals this way, but it wasn’t the first time they targeted outsiders who ignorantly set up shop.
They did it again because they had tasted success a few times.
“If I hadn’t happened to find out about this beforehand, that family would have been ruined, and they would have died or been sold off. What does the old master think about that?”
Zhang Youji squeezed his eyes shut.
Of course, he could argue back and forth as much as he wanted with words.
The problem was power.
If a powerless brat had said such things, he would have beaten him up and thrown him out immediately.
In fact, the brat wouldn’t have even made it in front of him.
But when someone stronger than him spoke like that, what would happen if he raised an objection, claiming his thoughts differed?
“Seeing that the old master isn’t answering, it seems we won’t reach an agreement through words. Fine. Then let’s solve this the Wulin way.”
“How do you mean?”
“What else? A martial duel.”
Seonwu grinned.
A martial duel to settle a dispute!
A martial duel with Myeongwolru or whatever else on the line!
‘This is it.’
Rather than a mindless beating, a martial duel with conditions set under mutual agreement.
Punishing the Black Snake Sect through that carried a much better appearance and felt better, didn’t it?
Above all, it was very ‘Wulin-like.’
When you think of the Wulin, you think of martial duels!
“Let’s see. A two-on-one is a bit much… so only one person will step up from our side as well. Will the old master step up on behalf of your disciples? If we lose, we will leave quietly. Instead, if we win…”
[Master, isn’t this an opportunity?]
[If it’s a one-on-one, you can easily handle that wolf-like brat, Master…]
[Everyone, quiet! When an opponent steps forward first with such confidence, you must first worry about what hidden trump card they might have! Furthermore, we don’t know their sect, we don’t know their actual martial arts, we don’t know anything, so how can we know how strong that brat actually is!]
[We apologize. Our thoughts were shallow.]
“You’re going to duel, right?”
Zhang Youji steeled his resolve.
‘It can’t be helped. I didn’t want to resort to this, but…’
[My disciples, this master of yours told you, did I not? A crafty hare has three burrows. We too must have three paths if we want to live without issues.]
[Yes, Master.]
[I told you the first path was to not eat just anything so you wouldn’t get sick, but that has already failed.]
[We are sorry. But for a Peak Realm master passing by to suddenly intervene…]
[Therefore, we must use our second hidden move.]
The time had come to draw upon the greatest secret technique of the Black Snake Old Master, which could easily subdue even a Peak Realm master.
His inner energy surged majestically, his blood vessels writhed, and his chest muscles expanded.
Seonwu’s sensory perception caught that movement.
‘Is he trying to launch a surprise attack by deploying Sound Cultivation?’
But a level of Sound Cultivation like that was something even Jeolyeong could ignore, let alone himself.
The moment he deployed the Sound Cultivation, Seonwu could counterattack, and in a single second…
“County! Magistrate! Your! Excellency!”
However, Seonwu froze at the four characters shouted by the old master.
Who?
“My sect has become involved in a dispute, so we appeal to the state law! Please grace us with your presence, look into the twists and turns of this matter, and deliver a rightful judgment!”
This was the second form of Black Snake Old Master’s life-saving ultimate technique.
The Invocation of the County Magistrate.
“Huh?”
Seonwu could only blink his eyes.
No, for an old master of the Unorthodox Faction to call for the County Magistrate instead of engaging in a martial duel, what on earth did that mean!
Why are you calling the official who governs the county!

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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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