I Prayed for a Murim Reincarnation, But I Was Born as the Youngest Imperial Prince - Chapter 69

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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 69
“Even if our main house is weak in Martial Arts, we must show them this level of skill in Formations so that they will utilize us more heavily in the future.”
“…….”
In the first place, that fellow probably didn’t even have any particular intention of using our family.
He just said he looked forward to it because it’s a good thing since Father offered to help.
Of course, if the Zhuge Clan achieves some merit, that guy wouldn’t just ignore it with empty hands, so it can’t be called a wasted effort.
‘Ah, whatever.’
“And when it comes to Martial Arts, though the main house’s arts are lacking, shouldn’t we show him the Heavenly Secret Rippling Step and the Xinfeng Baibaxian? It would be best if I demonstrated them myself….”
“Is there any need for you to do it yourself, Father? Just set a secret place and time where it’s fitting to show him, and I’ll demonstrate it.”
“Uh-huh, how dare you try to blur his eyes with your immature skills!”
“But Father, even I am capable of sufficiently showing the characteristics of our main house’s Martial Arts….”
“Where does a bastard who hasn’t even reached the Peak Realm dare to speak? He grew up watching even the Realm of Creation, so even if I do it myself, it won’t satisfy his eyes.”
‘Ah, I messed up.’
I should have just wiped my mouth and secretly shown him the Martial Arts myself, and only talked to Father about the Formations, which are hard to manage alone.
‘Sigh, whenever I get involved with that guy, I feel like my intelligence drops along with it.’
If I had thought about it coolly, I could have easily predicted Father’s reaction right now.
But when I hang out with Seonwu, even my standards of thinking return to the old days.
King Wuryong, the Fifth Imperial Prince.
I keep overlooking how heavy such a status is to others.
Of course, I haven’t completely forgotten it either, so I don’t call Seonwu a bastard or a jerk where others can see, but still, I guess I’ve relaxed a bit.
“Understood, Father.”
But I have a secret technique that Father doesn’t know about.
* * *
Lee Jun returned to Seonwu.
“Hey, Father says he’s willing to show it, but it seems he intends to do it himself.”
“Really?”
“Even if you are a King, should Father really have to demonstrate his Martial Arts himself in his old age? I’ll just do it, so let’s call it even at that level. Heavenly Secret Rippling Step and Xinfeng Baibaxian, I can use them well enough for it to be worth watching.”
Seonwu pondered for a moment.
‘Honestly, I want to see someone who is at least in the Peak Realm do it….’
Even if he isn’t like the Zhuge Clan Head who is in the Transcendence Realm, isn’t Lee Jun a bit lacking?
However, only the two of them in the clan knew his identity.
He didn’t want the secret to leak out any further, and if someone other than the two of them performed it, the Clan Head would worry out of anxiety.
‘Hmm, I can’t let Jun’s father be filled with worry.’
With a heart of showing respect to his friend’s family elder, Seonwu agreed.
“Fine, but show me a good performance instead.”
“Of course.”
* * *
Zhuge Jun returned and informed his father of Seonwu’s intent.
“Did His Highness truly say that it suffices for you to show it?”
“Yes.”
“An agreement made reluctantly….”
But Zhuge Ganyun could not finish his sentence.
In the current Great Long Empire where imperial power had reached its peak, the combination of King Wuryong and ‘reluctantly’ did not fit.
If it were a time when imperial power was weak, it wouldn’t be rare for a powerful minister to play with Imperial Royalty, but that was absolutely not the case now.
‘Then, my son’s words alone were enough to change His Highness’s mind?’
For a major policy of state affairs, if it seems the King is misgoverning, a subject can certainly remonstrate.
And according to that remonstrance, the King may change his mind.
A proper monarch, not a tyrant, should do so.
However, checking to see what kind of military force a faction possesses after bestowing great wealth upon them was a natural demand by anyone’s standards.
That was why he, who was at least the greatest Master in the family, had decided to do it himself.
Substituting it with Jun’s Martial Arts demonstration was no different from disloyalty by failing to properly respond to the Martial Arts inspection.
Yet, just because Jun went and said a few words, he would only inspect the Formation?
‘Is this not a relationship like fish and water, but a treacherous official playing with the King?’
The Zhuge Clan Head looked at his son with a serious face.
“My son, clouding His Highness’s sagacity is not the way of a subject.”
“Of course it isn’t. Father, what are you suddenly worried about?”
“…….”
‘I have known this fellow too little all this time.’
Looking only at his appearance, I considered him a filial son to his parents, one who studied diligently to revive the family in the future, and the most prominent candidate for Clan Head.
If a guy like this succeeds, wouldn’t he end up causing something like the Tumu Crisis later on?
Noticing that the atmosphere was quite suspicious, Lee Jun quickly added.
“I only asked to let me do it instead, questioning how we could let our elderly Father go through such trouble directly, and he merely accepted it.”
When filial piety was brought out as a reason, the Zhuge Clan Head softened somewhat.
‘Hmm, I went too far by thinking of the Tumu Crisis.’
“His Highness cherishes you deeply, but if you rely on that and become arrogant, your end will not be good. Since he has already given his jade voice regarding this matter, I will not speak further… but be careful and behave with discretion.”
“Yes.”
“And as for the Formation, I plan to order a trial activation for inspection purposes. Tell His Highness that I will arrange things so he can sneak a peek at that time.”
On the surface, he would tell him to stay in his room since he was a guest, but he could secretly come out and watch.
* * *
The next day.
The Zhuge Clan Head suddenly declared.
“It has already been forty years since our main house actually activated the Divine Wind Eight Trigrams Grand Formation.”
Since it had never been activated once since the Great Long Empire was founded.
“That is true, but?”
The Elder-level members and the lower-ranking executive Martial Artists were puzzled.
Isn’t it best to be peaceful enough that there is no need to activate it?
If it’s to the point of activating the Zhuge Clan’s greatest formation to go into a siege, that would mean a serious situation?
“We have inspected it steadily all this time, but I am concerned that there might be deficiencies we don’t know about, causing it to fail to activate properly when it is actually needed later.”
“Haha, Clan Head. We have inspected it thoroughly so that such a thing will not happen.”
“Could there not be something flimsy without our knowledge?”
“Could such a thing happen?”
“It is said that even a wise man cannot escape a single error in a thousand thoughts, so how can you be so confident?”
When the Clan Head questioned sharply, even the Elders couldn’t answer.
However, only the First Elder, who was a Transcendental Expert equal to the Clan Head, spoke up.
“Then are you saying we should conduct a large-scale inspection? Clan Head?”
“I intend to activate it altogether.”
“Clan Head? If you activate that, the inside and outside will be cut off immediately.”
“It’s not like we lack the resources to get by for a few days.”
“But the Sangdan that was supposed to come….”
“Would they lack even that much leeway to wait a few days?”
Work in this era wasn’t exactly like the prompt early morning delivery of modern Korea.
Still, a nuisance was a nuisance.
“Even so, you should give us time to prepare….”
“No. I intend to activate it right now.”
Lee Jun urgently sent a Sound Transmission to his father.
[Father, you should at least give us a few days to prepare before activating it so that the loss will be less, right?]
[Do you think I don’t know that? If we’re going to activate it anyway, I’m doing this to truly double-check if it operates properly. It is true that we haven’t used it once in forty years.]
[Ah….]
Certainly, to do a surprise inspection, it had to be activated suddenly.
If it were announced and activated in advance, the subordinates might frantically scramble to cover up anything that hadn’t been managed in the meantime.
“Clan Head, no matter what, that is….”
“This is my decision as the Clan Head.”
The First Elder smacked his lips.
‘Hmm, I think he’s pushing it too hard, but then again, if we’re utilizing the subtlety of a surprise inspection, the Clan Head’s words are not entirely wrong.’
Of course, if it turns out to be a wasted effort as a result and causes quite a loss to the family’s finances, he could use that as an excuse to trim the Clan Head’s prestige and increase his own share.
Thinking of the entire family’s finances, it was a loss, but since it was also a gain for his own faction, let’s just accept it.
“If the Clan Head insists so strongly….”
Since the family’s two Transcendental Experts had agreed, there was nothing more.
The Zhuge Clan immediately entered the phase of activating the Formation.
And Lee Jun went to inform Seonwu of that fact.
[Hey, because you said you wanted to see it, Father was startled and is activating the Divine Wind Eight Trigrams Grand Formation right now.]
[Oh, he’s showing it. That is the Zhuge Clan’s own treasured defensive formation, which you have never installed for any other family no matter how much they begged, right?]
[Yeah, it’s also the formation that protected our main house during the extremely chaotic times at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.]
[Hehe, I’m getting a good show.]
[Just realize how much of a loss our family suffers by activating it so suddenly like this.]
[Well, I’ll pay the price after watching it all.]
[If you put it that way, customer, I will escort you to a good seat.]
Lee Jun now spoke aloud to Seonwu.
“You said you wanted to see our family’s Formation, right? Coincidentally, the Clan Head said today that he would actually activate and inspect the formation. However, originally, it’s not something to be shown to outsiders.”
“Can’t you figure something out?”
“I’ll show you secretly, so you must absolutely never go anywhere and brag about it, okay?”
“Got it.”
Lee Jun moved, taking Seonwu and Absolute Shadow with him.
Under normal circumstances, it was a plan without any problems.
Because even in the midst of that busyness, the Clan Head had pulled strings to cover people’s eyes along the movement route where Lee Jun was taking them to get a good view of the formation.
However, the problem was that Zhuge Jun-ye, who was Lee Jun’s rival and older brother, was already paying attention to the two suspicious guests.
Originally, there shouldn’t have been any eyes watching, but Zhuge Jun-ye had secretly taken measures early on to hide an observation formation so he could check their movements in secret.
Naturally, the Clan Head was a cut above in both Formations and Martial Arts, but why is there a saying that it’s hard for ten guards to catch one thief?
Moreover, the measure Jun-ye had taken wasn’t something like closely monitoring and wiretapping Seonwu.
If it had approached that close, Seonwu would have noticed long ago.
It was merely a formation at the level of grasping the whereabouts, such as who enters and leaves the residence where Seonwu stays, or conversely, whether Seonwu comes out and goes somewhere secretly.
In short, it wasn’t a grand formation.
In addition, this was inside the Zhuge Clan.
There was nothing strange about Jun-ye installing a small formation in a building managed by his own person.
Since it wasn’t the lodging where they were staying, Seonwu or Absolute Shadow couldn’t argue about why there was a formation in another nearby building.
Therefore, they were told not to come out, but Zhuge Jun-ye noticed the two who came out.
In addition, he also found out that the one guiding the two was his younger brother and rival, Lee Jun.
‘Look at this?’
There are several formations that the Zhuge Clan boasts of, but among them, there are three that are the most top-secret, and the largest in scale is the Divine Wind Eight Trigrams Grand Formation.
‘He told the guests to stay inside because they are doing a trial activation for inspection, yet they leave their room?’
If they came out secretly, I would think they are spies, but then his younger brother is guiding them.
How should this be interpreted?
“Young Master, if we deliver this fact to the Clan Head, wouldn’t we be able to completely push out the Seventh Young Master from the competition for succession?”
“No, no. My intuition is telling me that we must be cautious about this.”
“But for him to privately show the main house’s treasured formation just because he’s his friend would be a huge flaw?”
“Would even my younger brother not know that? Would a guy who doesn’t even know that be my rival?”
Jun-ye disliked his rival brother Lee Jun, but at the same time, he held him in high regard.
In fact, if he wasn’t worth holding in high regard, how could he be a rival?
‘There is something.’
In the first place, why is Father suddenly activating the Divine Wind Eight Trigrams Grand Formation for an inspection?
If it’s just an inspection, that’s one thing.
He could just inspect the condition of the artifacts that form the axes of various formations.
But to actually go as far as a trial activation?
How great is the labor while activating and withdrawing the formation, and how many resources are consumed?
Besides, what about the loss suffered while communication inside and outside is cut off in the meantime?
Also, no matter how great a formation is, if experts keep looking at it, they are bound to find clues to unravel it in their own way.
By any chance, what if the spies infiltrated around the family watch and gain even a little clue?
Of course, what could they dig out from an activation done so suddenly like this….
Still, the benefit of inspecting it is too small, and the effort going into it is too much.
There is something to this.
‘Since when did we actually activate the Divine Wind Eight Trigrams Grand Formation to inspect it….’
Somehow it’s unnatural.
Which means there is a real reason beneath the surface.
Then…?
‘Was it to show the formation to those two from the very beginning?’
If so, it makes sense.
But why on earth?
And what did he receive?
‘What if those two are greater figures than what appears on the surface?’
And what if they decided to grant some reward to the family in exchange for seeing the formation?
What if his younger brother is merely a mediator between the family and those two?
Come to think of it, it was said that Father secretly had a long private meeting with the Senior Disciple side among them.
‘This feels like I lightly tapped the bushes and a tiger came out instead of a snake.’
Still, if some important matter was taking place, he had to know as well.
‘I can’t let only my younger brother build merit.’
Even so, approaching rashly would also be a reckless move.
‘I must dig it out carefully.’

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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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