I Shouldn't Have Joined the Martial Arts Alliance - Chapter 24

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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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Needlessly Entering the Murim Alliance 024
As the Dang Family patriarch Dang Won-hu unfolded his tale, the faces of Jang Hye-in, the members of the 11th Division, and Dang Mo-jun shifted moment by moment.
Absurdities were unfolding within his own Dang Family of Sichuan, after all. Yet Dang Mo-jun remained composed. Without a single raised voice, he sat unchanged, letting his son Dang Won-hu speak without interruption.
But Jang Hye-in and the 11th Division members were so dumbfounded they could barely blink.
“So you’re saying this boy saw the Yin-Yang Stones in Dang Yi-ryeong and Dang Yi-su’s minds, and even removed them?”
“Yes. This friend is our Dang Family’s benefactor.”
“A benefactor, is it……. Ha ha ha.”
The Dang Family of Sichuan repaid kindness twofold and vengeance tenfold. Sa U-rin was such a benefactor to the Dang Family.
But.
Dang Mo-jun, who had been laughing absurdly, suddenly fixed Sa U-rin with a gaze thick with murderous intent.
Whether he was truly a benefactor remained uncertain. He could be an accomplice to whoever had planted the Yin-Yang Stones in Dang Yi-su and Dang Yi-ryeong’s minds.
“Father…….”
“Grandfather…….”
It was the killing intent of one resolved to take a life.
Jang Hye-in, standing nearby, couldn’t even crack her mouth open. She felt certain that one careless word would be her death.
“Keep silent.”
Dang Mo-jun continued, turning toward Sa U-rin.
“Who is your father?”
Dang Mo-jun was thinking.
The only conceivable reason lay with this boy’s father, the man who had supposedly died at age thirteen.
If he could find no justification there, then this child standing before him would have to die.
Of course, there was one way for him to live, but Dang Mo-jun didn’t want to take it. It felt wrong.
“You wouldn’t understand even if I told you, sir.”
“You could die here and now.”
He had known it for some time.
‘But why?’
Why would they seek to kill him without cause?
No—there must be a reason. In fact, he was beginning to grasp at it, piece by piece.
The ability he had gained from mastering Hun-won Gong was what the people of the Martial World feared.
Hadn’t his father told him so?
That the Martial World was a place where one could die for the most trivial of reasons. That among those reasons was someone of insignificant station possessing something extraordinary.
That was why, in the Martial World, one must always be cautious, always prepared.
But he had not been prepared.
Instead, he had crossed the line out of a desire to grow stronger. He had thought nothing of it.
That thoughtlessness had created a small fissure, and now that tiny gap was demanding a terrible price.
Was not all of this calamity born from himself?
Sa U-rin exhaled quietly within.
‘Father…….’
Why did this dread visit him so often?
It wasn’t even the depths of winter when harsh winds raged.
Speaking his dead father’s name—three characters—was not difficult. But somehow it wounded his pride.
It felt like he was struggling desperately to avoid death, to avoid this creeping chill, and the shame of it burned.
What was this dread, after all…….
Yet hadn’t he crawled toward Jang Hye-in just days ago to escape it?
A man, at that.
Recalling it now filled him with mortification.
He was not afraid. Only…….
He was ashamed to die like this. Wasn’t he?
If he must die anyway, couldn’t he die gloriously?
For instance, by rebuilding the crumbling Murim Alliance before his end, or by facing the Heavenly Demon who would trample the Central Plains and dying in splendor.
But those were all excuses.
No matter how much he excused himself, he truly despised the thought of vanishing like this, meaninglessly, without having tried anything at all.
And he had sworn to himself that he would fulfill his father’s dreams.
What was this? To stand before his father in heaven having accomplished nothing—how pathetic and shameful.
And so he spoke.
Of course, speaking his father’s name—three characters—was unlikely to save his life.
“My father bore the name Sa Cheol-gang. Is that sufficient?”
A slight displeasure colored his tone as well. It might appear a meager act of rebellion.
Dang Mo-jun’s eyes, which had been still, suddenly twitched. And the savagery that had burned in them vanished as if it had never been.
“……Did you just say Sa Cheol-gang?”
“……Yes, that is so…….”
At the mere mention of his father’s name, Dang Mo-jun—the Poison King—visibly trembled. Did he know Father?
“……So your father really is someone named Sa Cheol-gang?”
“……Yes.”
He truly does know him. Dang Mo-jun’s eyes have gone wide.
“That Sa Cheol-gang—the one missing an arm, who served in the Murim Alliance’s Demon Slayer Division, stubborn as stone and impossible to reason with—that’s the one, isn’t it?”
Now it was certain.
“I cannot speak to his stubbornness……, but Father did say he served in the Demon Slayer Division, and it’s true that he is missing an arm.”
“Hah, well I’ll be. Is this……, is this really something that makes sense?”
Dang Mo-jun’s face tilted toward the heavens.
He appeared overcome with emotion.
The Poison King’s expression spoke volumes—his connection to Sa U-rin’s father ran deep. Otherwise, there was no conceivable way the man who moments ago looked ready to kill could transform like this.
‘……I live.’
Father in heaven, it seems, has not yet decided his time has come to meet his son.
Dang Mo-jun scrutinizes Sa U-rin’s face intently.
“Hah. How did I not see it sooner? Yet……, you bear little resemblance to Sa Cheol-gang. Tell me—your mother?”
“I’ve never seen her.”
“Hah, indeed. That Sa Cheol-gang and his ways……yes. That’s exactly the sort of man he was.”
What kind of man was Father, then?
What could he have been like?
Sa U-rin finds himself curious despite himself.
“But what connection did you have with my father?”
Honestly, their ages didn’t match.
“A connection……. Now that I think on it, it was no mere connection.”
No mere connection?
Could it be……, a blood feud?
“That meeting with Sa Cheol-gang was like a great blessing the heavens bestowed upon me and the Dang Family. Hah.”
Dang Mo-jun’s face had transformed, now wearing the warm and gentle expression of a kindly village elder.
“It’s a long tale. Come, let us go inside rather than stand here.”
“……Yes.”
What could this connection be?
Sa U-rin burns with curiosity.
So too do Sa U-rin, Dang Won-hu the family lord, Dang Yi-su, Dang Yi-ryeong, Jang Hye-in, and all the members of the 11th Division.
* * *
The Baek Ri Family, established in Shen Long County of Sichuan Province.
A thousand years ago and five hundred years ago, there were periods when the Baek Ri Family held prominence in Sichuan Province, their name ranking above that of the Dang Family of Sichuan.
In those days, the Martial World spoke often of how the Righteous Spirit of the Baek Ri Family pierced the very heavens.
They fought countless bandits and demons, contributing greatly to the safety of the Central Plains, and never once retreated in their battles against the Demonic Cult, which perpetually threatened the region, thus securing the peace of the Central Plains.
Such was the Righteous Spirit of the Baek Ri Family, a spirit willing to accept the family’s annihilation in their fight against the Demonic Cult.
Yet the Baek Ri Family of today is not so.
Though the exact moment cannot be pinpointed, at some juncture they were displaced from their seat of authority in Sichuan Province by the Dang Family, and the Righteous Spirit of the Baek Ri Family began slowly to be worn away by jealousy and resentment.
Centuries have passed in this state.
And yet, despite all this, the Baek Ri Family refuses to acknowledge the Dang Family.
They say the Dang Family gained its fame merely through the use of poison—they withhold recognition that its members are true martial artists.
In ages past, many in the Martial World held the same view as the Baek Ri Family, but such is no longer the case. In reality, the Dang Family rarely employs poison anymore.
Moreover, a wind has blown through the Martial World that the ability to wield poison is itself a legitimate martial skill.
Perhaps because of this, or perhaps in spite of it?
Though the Righteous Spirit of the Baek Ri Family has been broken and rendered insignificant, the unity of the Baek Ri Family stands as perhaps the finest in its entire history.
All speak with one voice: the overthrow of the Dang Family.
Late in the night when all should be sleeping, the study of Baek Ri-woo, the lord of the Baek Ri Family, burned brightly with lamplight.
The voice of Baek Ri-woo fills the study with a cold, dark atmosphere.
“Success was within reach.”
Had that Dang Yi-hyeok merely assumed the position of minor lord of the Dang Family, events would have unfolded according to their design. Eventually, as time passed, Dang Yi-hyeok would have risen to become the true family lord.
After that, they had planned to spread rumors throughout the Martial World that family lord Dang Yi-hyeok was using the Yin-Yang Stone to control his own brothers.
Should such rumors take root, it was abundantly clear that the Dang Family would never rise again.
Then the Baek Ri Family could finally accomplish what they had dreamed of for all these long centuries.
“But how did they find out?”
The speaker is Baek Ri-jin, the family lord’s younger brother and holder of the position of chief administrator of the Baek Ri Family.
Unless that Dang Yi-hyeok had confessed it himself, the scheme should have remained undiscovered. No matter how hard he racked his brains, he could not fathom how things had gone so wrong.
Baek Ri-hyeon, the minor lord of the Baek Ri Family, speaks as well.
“We need to find him first.”
Baek Ri-hyang, the younger sister of the family head Baek Ri-hyeon, nodded in agreement.
“That’s right. We have to find him and kill him quickly, or we’ll be exposed.”
Even if people whispered that the Baek Ri Family had been pushing Dang Yi-hyeok from behind after he took the position of family head, it would be pointless. The finger of blame would point at Dang Yi-hyeok, who had ascended to family head while committing shameless acts against his own blood, not at the Baek Ri Family.
But now, things were different.
What would happen if Dok Wang learned that the Baek Ri Family was behind this affair?
Absolute Master Dok Wang.
One of the finest martial artists within the top ten of the Central Plains Martial World.
He would never leave the Baek Ri Family unpunished for their treacherous scheming against the Dang Family.
In the worst case, it could escalate into all-out war, and they would have to prepare for extermination. Of course, they had begun this affair with such resolve, but such is the way of humans.
When ambition becomes stained with darkness, it transforms into desire, and before long, without even realizing it, it corrupts into greed. When that happens, one’s vision and judgment become clouded.
This is something even an Absolute Master cannot escape. And indeed, there are countless tales of such masters who vanished in precisely this manner.
Baek Ri-woo, the head of the Baek Ri Family, asked his younger brother Baek Ri-jin.
“What is the current situation?”
“It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Dang Family’s eyes are spread across all of Sichuan. Moreover, they have even enlisted the help of the local authorities.”
“Damn it.”
“Still, there is one consolation—those bastards did not burn him where he was found. They fled instead.”
Had they been caught by the Dang Family and confessed their involvement with the Baek Ri Family on the spot, all of the Dang Family’s forces would have descended upon the Baek Ri Family immediately.
“Then we still have a chance.”
“Yes, brother. Heaven has not yet abandoned our Baek Ri Family. As long as we find those bastards first, we will be fine.”
“The key is that we must move without falling under their watchful eyes…….”
“That is why we cannot move directly ourselves.”
“It will cost considerable money.”
“There is no avoiding it. And there is something more important.”
“Are you suggesting we prepare for the worst-case scenario?”
Baek Ri-jin, the family steward, lowered his head shamefully.
“Forgive me, brother.”
“There is nothing for you to apologize for. If anything, I should blame myself for not guiding the Baek Ri Family better than this.”
“How could you say such a thing…….”
“No, it is the truth. And as for that matter, do not worry. Ri-hyeon has already prepared himself mentally, hasn’t he? Isn’t that so, Ri-hyeon?”
If things went wrong, the young master of the Baek Ri Family was prepared to step forward and claim that he alone, blinded by greed, had orchestrated everything.
In his heart, family head Baek Ri-woo wished to take all blame upon himself and end it, but if he admitted to being the mastermind, it would be no different from admitting that the entire Baek Ri Family had been complicit. So he could not do such a thing.
“Yes, Father.”
Baek Ri-hyeon, the young master of the Baek Ri Family, spoke words as if accepting death itself, yet without a trace of hesitation in his voice.
“No, brother! We cannot sacrifice Ri-hyeon. The future of our Baek Ri Family will be dark. I wish it were Ri-ga-jin instead.”
He was speaking of Baek Ri-ga-jin, the eldest son of Baek Ri-jin.
“Family Head! Allow me to take young master’s place and sacrifice myself for the Baek Ri Family! I am certain of it.”
He was saying he would throw himself into the flames of death for the Baek Ri Family.
Family head Baek Ri-woo smiled faintly.
“I am grateful to all of you. However, unless the Dang Family are fools, they will not be deceived. You know this as well as I do—you, Ri-jin, and you, Ri-ga-jin. Am I wrong?”
The heads of both Baek Ri-jin, the family steward, and Baek Ri-ga-jin, his son, hung heavy with resignation.
Because it was true.
Not a word of it was false.
“Still…….”
“Heh. Let us speak of it no more. We risk making the Baek Ri Family even more a laughingstock if we continue. There is no other way, so we shall proceed as planned. And let all of you remember this: the fate of our Baek Ri Family rests upon this affair. So each of you must do everything within your power. But do so while remaining vigilant of outside eyes.”
“Understood, Father.”
“Yes, Family Head.”
“Yes, Father.”
The Baek Ri Family was steeling their resolve.
They were prepared to do whatever it took to cover up what they had done.

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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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