I Shouldn't Have Joined the Martial Arts Alliance - Chapter 75

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

Needlessly Entering the Murim Alliance — Chapter 075
Jang Hye-in and his subordinates were overjoyed when Sa U-rin emerged after seven weeks.
First Daughter of the Evil Sect Jang-ryeo would have felt the same, if not more.
And yet.
Jang-ryeo had also heard.
Of Sa U-rin’s final appearance, demon-like in the grip of Qi Deviation.
So despite their joy, Jang Hye-in, his subordinates, and Jang-ryeo could not rush toward Sa U-rin.
He might still wear that demon’s face.
If the demon had truly awakened, it would be a calamity beyond measure.
So everyone watched Sa U-rin’s eyes. Back then, his eyes had been dark as pitch.
As though stained by something infernal.
His voice had been the same.
If a true demon existed in the Kangho, surely it would speak in a voice like that—or so it seemed.
So they were cautious.
‘……Seems all right, doesn’t it?’
‘……But what if he changes again……?’
‘……Though he was so badly wounded…….’
‘……How is he so perfectly fine?’
‘……That bastard doesn’t seem human at all…….’
‘……Maybe the demon just sleeps in his body…….’
‘……What do we do?’
And so they remained uncertain.
But Jang-ryeo, Sa U-rin’s mother and First Daughter of the Evil Sect, was different.
At first she had regarded him with suspicious eyes, but in mere moments, using a First Daughter’s keen perception, she scanned her son’s body thoroughly.
There was nothing amiss.
Even if he should transform again into that demon from before, as Jang Hye-in and the others feared, Jang-ryeo would never abandon her son.
For now, she simply wanted to be certain.
And so Jang-ryeo broke into a radiant smile.
She opened her arms wide and joyfully welcomed her son—awakened safely, having crossed the Mountain of Death—home.
“Come here, my son.”
“Mother.”
Sa U-rin smiled and embraced her. It was only for a moment. For a grown man to linger long in his mother’s arms would have been embarrassing.
Jang-ryeo looked over Sa U-rin’s body and spoke.
“You look perfectly well.”
Even if it was her beloved son, she had to marvel at it.
A body that should have needed at least two months of recovery was already on its feet, completely whole.
“Yes. I seem to heal rather quickly.”
“I see.”
In any case, rapid recovery was a good thing.
And finally, late though it was, Jang Hye-in and his subordinates greeted Sa U-rin warmly.
“U-rin, are you all right?”
“Nothing strange, is there?”
“No pain in your eyes, no burning sensation?”
“You remember who we are, don’t you?”
“The world doesn’t look black to you?”
At that, Jang-ryeo raised her eyebrows and spoke sharply to the subordinates.
“You lot. Do you have a death wish?”
The subordinates froze in absolute terror.
‘……Damn.’
‘She’s been calm for a while now.’
‘And here she goes again.’
“……We apologize.”
“……We were only worried…….”
“Watch yourselves. Keep this up and you really will die. Understood?”
“……Yes, ma’am.”
But Sa U-rin found their strange questions puzzling.
“How long was I asleep?”
Jang-ryeo answered.
“Seven weeks.”
“……That long?”
“To wake up perfectly fine after only seven weeks—that’s the truly impressive part.”
No, it was strange.
It shouldn’t be possible for any human.
Even if he was the son she’d borne herself, Jang-ryeo sometimes wondered if he was truly human at all.
“That’s just how I was born, Mother.”
The disciples shook their heads in disbelief, yet their hearts eased—at least the youngest, Sa U-rin, still carried that same shameless arrogance, which meant he hadn’t become a demon.
He remained their Sa U-rin, insufferably proud as ever.
“That’s right. Our son is talented, isn’t he? Of course he is.”
“Because my mother is the First Daughter of the Evil Sect, isn’t she?”
Well, well.
The disciples were left speechless.
“Ha ha ha! That’s our boy! Smart too. Perfect. I couldn’t love you more.”
The disciples shook their heads again.
Like father, like son.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Blood tells, as they say.
Then Sa U-rin asked Jang Hye-in and the disciples a question.
“But why were you all asking those strange things earlier? Something about my eyes hurting and being dark?”
So Jang Hye-in turned back to him with a question of his own.
“You don’t remember?”
Wasn’t it stranger to remember anything at all, when they’d thought him dead?
“……Yes.”
“I see.”
He’d suspected as much. Jang-ryeo had even mentioned that Sa U-rin probably wouldn’t recall anything.
So Jang Hye-in took it upon himself to explain in detail what had happened that day, laying out the full account.
And when he did—
Sa U-rin’s perpetually expressionless eyes widened in shock.
“……Me?”
Jang Hye-in nodded firmly, agreeing with all the disciples.
“Yes. It was you.”
“I……thought Mother had come. So that wasn’t it.”
Then Jang-ryeo interjected.
“Oh, so you were disappointed I didn’t come?”
“No, Mother. It’s not that. I just remembered thinking it would have been good if you had been there.”
Honestly, the way Sa U-rin and Chu Yeop had appeared like that—she’d lost sleep every night for seven weeks out of guilt.
“I see. But do you remember anything at all? Even a fragment?”
According to what he’d heard, Sa U-rin had performed swordplay that defied all reason. If Jang Hye-in and the disciples hadn’t witnessed it firsthand, they would never have believed such a technique existed.
That’s why she asked again.
If he could recall such a technique, it might be the catalyst to reach the next level of mastery.
The stronger he became, the higher his chances of surviving in Kangho.
“No, I remember nothing. But hearing about it now, I think I understand what it might have been.”
Hadn’t they said he’d transcended into enlightenment and then descended? That’s how he knew. It had to be a martial art he was already cultivating.
“What is it?”
“It was probably the Destruction Heart Sword, the swordsmanship I’ve been learning. I did attempt that technique at the very end. Though, of course, I failed.”
Jang-ryeo’s eyes widened.
The words coming out of her son’s mouth made no sense whatsoever.
According to what she’d heard from Jang Hye-in and the disciples, such an absurd martial art didn’t even exist in Kangho, nor could any human possibly master it—
Yet her son was saying he’d not only learned it but attempted to execute it?
Jang-ryeo wasn’t alone in her shock. Jang Hye-in and the disciples were equally stunned.
“……Do you really mean you’ve mastered that strange technique? Or… that it’s even possible to master?”
“Yes, Mother.”
“Ha ha. In all the world…….”
It was absurd.
For Jang Hye-in and the disciples as well.
That monstrous, grotesque martial art they’d all assumed had been performed through Sa U-rin’s body by some briefly possessing demon—he was learning it himself.
‘……Really…….’
‘……He’s not human, is he…….’
‘……Oh, merciful heavens.’
It was absurd, unbelievable even now—and yet their beloved son had mastered it.
So Jang-ryeo turned to her son Sa U-rin with a question.
“So that technique—Dok-wang taught it to Cheol-gang, and Cheol-gang taught it to you?”
“…Yes. But how did you know?”
Sa U-rin had never mentioned this to his mother before.
“I heard it from them.”
From Jang Hye-in and the others.
While waiting for Sa U-rin to wake during those seven weeks, First Daughter of the Evil Sect Jang-ryeo had spoken at considerable length with Jang Hye-in and his companions.
That was how she had learned of it.
“That cursed Dok-wang…”
“Mother. Dok-wang did nothing wrong…”
“Next time I see him, I’ll have to embrace him.”
“…Pardon?”
A moment ago, it had seemed like she might kill Dok-wang, or else keep him alive… but now embrace him?
Embrace him?
“He taught such remarkable techniques to our son. Shouldn’t I reward him for that? If I embrace him once, he’ll feel like he possesses the whole world. That fellow Dok-wang will.”
“…Ah.”
Probably so.
That would be the case.
He had said he fell for Mother at first sight, after all.
“But, Mother?”
“What? Don’t you think so?”
“No. I think you’re right. I do, too.”
“Then?”
“Well, everyone’s listening, and calling Dok-wang that… it might be a bit much.”
Was there truly anyone in the Kangho who spoke of Dok-wang, that legendary figure, in such crude terms?
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“Very well. I’ll change it to ‘this fellow’ or ‘that fellow’ instead.”
Crude language or crude language—it was all the same.
“…Yes.”
“Our son’s going to become a Great Swordmaster at this rate.”
“It doesn’t sound bad.”
“No?”
“No.”
“Our son’s definitely taken after his mother in this—look at that shamelessness.”
“…I’m your son, after all.”
“That aside, what will you do now?”
“We should return to the Alliance.”
“Of course. But you should stay here for a while longer even after you do.”
“Why?”
“Because we need to watch how things unfold, don’t we?”
The invisible hand would not simply accept this defeat and stand by watching. Of that, everyone was certain.
Anyone would think the same.
“And besides, we need to wait until Chu Yeop’s body has fully recovered.”
It would take at least a month for Chu Yeop to restore himself to health.
“Understood.”
“And from now on, your mother will move with you as well. How is that? Does it please you?”
“You as well, Mother?”
“Shouldn’t I? You say those fellows have learned the same techniques you have?”
Indeed they had.
Moreover, that technique called the Destruction Heart Sword was truly formidable. Even the First Daughter of the Evil Sect Jang-ryeo found herself uncertain whether she could stand against it.
“Not all of them, though. That middle-aged man didn’t seem to have mastered it.”
“That middle-aged man is unlikely to be the strongest of his group. Surely someone among them has learned it.”
“That’s probably true.”
“Then don’t you need your mother?”
Jang-ryeo could not guarantee that she alone could block everything, but having her was a hundred times better than not having her.
She was, after all, the First Daughter of the Evil Sect herself.
“Yes, I’d like that.”
“Haha. So our son approves—then Mother is pleased as well.”
In truth, Jang Hye-in and the others were even more pleased.
Or rather.
His heart surged with the desire to shout aloud, to cry out in triumph.
* * *
One might assume that the greatest wealth accumulated throughout the Central Plains belonged to the massive martial sects that swept across Kangho, but such an assumption would be, regrettably, mistaken.
Sects that prioritize martial prowess are organizations that dedicate considerable effort to accumulating long tradition, martial skill, and experience.
Yet.
The trading companies—organizations established with profit as their explicit and transparent purpose—are, perhaps inevitably, the ones who have amassed the greatest wealth in Kangho.
And among them, people unhesitatingly name five trading companies as the finest.
The Yeseong Trading Company, situated in Cheonmun District of Hubei Province.
The Geumhon Trading Company, situated in Taebaek District of Shaanxi Province.
The Wonhyeon Trading Company, situated in Beijing of Hebei Province.
The Sanon Trading Company, situated in Nanning District of Guangxi Province.
The Biryeong Trading Company, situated in Tiantai District of Zhejiang Province.
These five trading companies are the ones that truly hold and move the wealth of the Central Plains.
The fortunes they have built are beyond anyone’s reckoning, some say with conviction—wealth so vast that even the masters who own these companies could scarcely fathom its measure.
And justly so they deserve such renown.
For all five possessed histories spanning more than a thousand years—an achievement that cannot be overlooked.
And that they have not once yielded their position as the preeminent trading companies of the Central Plains in all that thousand years is itself a remarkable feat.
Who then would dare claim that these five trading companies are anything less than supreme?
Moonlight descended brightly upon a mountainside.
Where the light fell softly, a neat pavilion stood quietly, presenting itself to view.
Within that pavilion sat four middle-aged men and one woman.
They were, in fact,
the masters of the five trading companies most preeminent in the Central Plains.

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