I Shouldn't Have Joined the Martial Arts Alliance - Chapter 78

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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 — Episode 78
Seven days passed, and Bi-ryeong sought out Jegall Su-yeon again. He needed to report what he’d learned from Jeong-hye.
His eyes were utterly bewildered.
So Jegall Su-yeon asked him.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“This bastard… You were right. Something’s off.”
“Yeah? Did you at least find something?”
“No.”
“…No?”
So Jegall Su-yeon too looked at him with bewilderment.
“Then what do you mean something’s off?”
“I had someone tailing him… and we lost him.”
“…What? You don’t make mistakes like that.”
No, he never had before. But now he had.
“What the hell is this boy’s real identity?”
“How should I know?”
Wasn’t it Jegall Su-yeon who’d ordered the tail in the first place because he didn’t know either?
“How did you lose him?”
“Just lost him. Or rather, Jeong-hye said he vanished. Like a ghost.”
Bi-ryeong found this even more baffling.
He’d never imagined this boy Sa U-rin could be capable of something like that.
No—it went beyond capable. It was beyond his ability to even gauge.
“Vanished like a ghost?”
“He moved too fast to follow. Oh, and he said to tell you this: don’t question him about it. He said you’ll get hurt if you keep this up.”
So now Bi-ryeong too was at a loss for words.
A common soldier of the Murim Alliance threatening a strategist with injury? Something was deeply, deeply wrong.
“…What… He knew I was looking into him?”
“Apparently so.”
“And what? He said I’ll get hurt? Me?”
“That’s what he said. Baffling, I know.”
“…That boy… to say such a thing…”
Jegall Su-yeon fell silent for a moment.
There was no helping it.
But in that instant, a thought crossed his mind.
“There’s someone backing that boy.”
Wasn’t this proof that a master skilled enough to harm even Jegall Su-yeon himself stood behind Sa U-rin?
“That’s why I’m asking you—what the hell is this boy’s real identity?”
“You’re the one who went all the way to Sacheon Province. Not me.”
Though of course, he’d moved on Su-yeon’s orders.
“…That’s true.”
“But really, who could he be? Who would say such a thing about harming even me?”
“Now I’m curious too.”
When he’d first heard it from his subordinate Jeong-hye, he’d assumed the boy had simply blurted it out. But hearing Su-yeon’s words, he began to wonder if there truly was someone pulling strings behind the scenes.
“You want to know, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I want to know. It’s driving me crazy.”
“Then you tail him.”
It was an order to follow Sa U-rin.
So Bi-ryeong’s eyes widened.
“…Me?”
“Yes, you.”
Bi-ryeong studied Su-yeon’s eyes.
“…You’re serious?”
“Of course I’m serious. This isn’t a time for jokes.”
His suspicions about Sa U-rin had only deepened.
“If that’s the case, I’ll do it. You know I’m high-level talent, right?”
“So what?”
“It means my price is steep.”
“Am I not enough?”
Bi-ryeong’s face broke into a full smile.
“Then it’s more than enough.”
A smile crossed Jegall Su-yeon’s face as well.
* * *
Bi-ryeong, acting on Jegall Su-yeon’s orders, couldn’t afford to linger near Sa U-rin the way his subordinate Jeong-hye had done.
After all, wasn’t he the commander of the Bi-yeong Division?
There was hardly anyone within the Murim Alliance who didn’t know the division commander’s name. For someone of such standing to be spotted prowling near the patrol posts? The gossip would spread through the entire Alliance within hours.
So it was obvious that news would soon be flying through the organization.
That’s why Bi-ryeong ordered a different subordinate—not Jeong-hye—to keep watch over Sa U-rin from within the Murim Alliance.
When Sa U-rin headed out beyond the Alliance’s gates, Bi-ryeong would personally pick up the trail.
Seven more days passed like this. Sa U-rin set out beyond the Murim Alliance once more, and Bi-ryeong began to follow.
“This time, there’s no way you can hide your true self from me.”
So Bi-ryeong hoped.
But didn’t everyone know it?
That the world rarely unfolds as we wish.
And yet people live in hope that their desires will come to pass, believing that they will.
Especially someone of Bi-ryeong’s rank and station.
With such power at his command.
With such ability at his disposal.
Having risen to such a position because of it.
“Again?”
Within a single day, Sa U-rin realized that his intention hadn’t properly reached Jegall Su-yeon.
“Sigh. Really, even with an injury, still at it.”
But since this time too someone capable had attached themselves to him, he thought it wasn’t serious enough to actually hurt the person, and treated it lightly.
Then what was this?
The moment he left the Murim Alliance, he sensed a different person had latched onto his trail.
“……What do I do?”
This was a skilled practitioner several leagues above Sa U-rin’s own level.
Still, one never knew what might happen, so it was worth attempting something. That’s why Sa U-rin ran at full speed.
The corners of Bi-ryeong’s mouth lifted.
“All right then. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Bi-ryeong was supremely confident. Who was he, after all?
The commander of the Bi-yeong Division of the Murim Alliance, the very heart of the Baekdo Martial World. There was no conceivable reason he should lag behind the speed of some mere foot soldier from the Alliance.
Especially not when he was the division commander.
The Bi-yeong Division was composed of individuals faster in Divine Movement Technique than any other organization under the Murim Alliance. And Bi-ryeong stood at the very pinnacle of such an organization.
And yet……
“……Damn it all.”
Sa U-rin’s movements were absolutely ghostly. Even Bi-ryeong, confident as he was, nearly lost sight of him.
His breath came in gasps, his throat constricting; several times he nearly stumbled.
‘This madman!’
The boy surpassed everything Bi-ryeong had anticipated—and by a wide margin!
‘How could such a person……’
At such a young age……
No. This wasn’t the time for such thoughts. Now was the moment to push his inner strength to its absolute limit and cling to the boy’s heels to the bitter end.
Not to indulge in idle speculation.
So Bi-ryeong shook his head vigorously, clicked his tongue, and fixed his eyes on Sa U-rin’s back as he poured every ounce of strength into his pursuit.
“Damn.”
Sa U-rin realized he couldn’t shake whoever was on his tail. So he abandoned his all-out pace and resumed a walking speed instead.
“But who is it?”
……Now that he thought about it, this energy signature……he’d definitely sensed it before.
“Ah.”
He thought he knew.
“The commander of the Bi-yeong Division?”
Incredible.
They’d really go this far? Coming in person, no less?
Sa U-rin could sense Jegall Su-yeon’s intention now. He was making a statement: he would get to the bottom of this, no matter what.
“……What should I do?”
Should he turn back without going to see his mother?
But for how long?
He couldn’t keep doing this indefinitely, could he?
If he kept it up like this……
His mother would certainly grow angry, wondering why he hadn’t come. ‘I’d rather die,’ she’d say.
Then, if Sa U-rin explained that this and that had happened, and the situation had unfolded this way and that way?
Would she simply nod and say, “Ah, so that’s what happened”?
If things went that direction, there was no telling what trouble might arise.
“Sigh.”
A sigh escaped unbidden from Sa U-rin’s lips.
“……Me?”
Sa U-rin sighing?
“……That’s strange.”
Yes, it was strange.
Sa U-rin was not the sort of person to sigh.
Had the division members witnessed this side of him, their reactions would have been clear.
‘Now he’s becoming human.’
‘He should have been human all along.’
‘Even so, he’s not quite there yet.’
‘He’d need to act human to be human.’
Some such thought, surely.
But Sa U-rin remained unaware of this. He only found it odd.
In any case.
“What should I do?”
Turning back would complicate things with his mother. Continuing forward would mean confronting the Bi-yeong Division leader.
Then his father’s words came to mind.
“Gangho flows according to its natural course, just as water follows the riverbed,” he had said.
Whether the water is clear and pure or foul and reeking of decay, water is water—it has no choice but to flow along the riverbed, he had said.
“Right. There’s no help for it.”
Whether his father’s words truly applied to his present situation, Sa U-rin could not say, but he continued onward toward where his mother waited.
“I gave fair warning, didn’t I? But……, surely she won’t kill him?”
No.
He’d need to stop her from killing him.
His mother would almost certainly try to murder the Bi-yeong Division leader, after all.
Yet Sa U-rin continued forward, in the direction his will carried him.
As water flows along the riverbed.
Before long, Sa U-rin arrived at the estate where his mother waited. Far behind him, the Bi-yeong Division leader kept watch.
“There it is.”
There it was, but…….
He needed to know who was inside. For that, he’d need a vantage point overlooking the estate…….
“……There isn’t one.”
Just the estate standing alone.
“This won’t do…….”
The purpose of the difficult pursuit faded.
How could he speak with confidence to Su-yeon unless he learned who had been watching his back?
“I’ll have to get closer.”
Bi-ryeong pressed himself against the wall surrounding the estate that Sa U-rin had entered. Then he extended his Energy Sensing as far as it would reach.
To eavesdrop on the conversation inside. Whether he could hear anything was uncertain, but he had to try.
“……Damn it.”
He could hear nothing.
How could he gather any intelligence this way?
Only that Sa U-rin frequented this estate.
That was when it happened.
Whoosh.
Someone appeared before Bi-ryeong at a speed he could not counter.
‘Surely…….’
He’d suppressed his presence as much as possible…….
Hadn’t Sa U-rin himself not noticed Bi-ryeong’s presence until now?
‘But how…….’
Yet that was not important at this moment. Right now, the figure blocking Bi-ryeong’s path was very much in his way.
‘……A master.’
The Bi-yeong Division leader Bi-ryeong could clearly sense this was a skilled practitioner of higher rank than himself.
Not an absolute master like the Murim Alliance Lord, but nonetheless a supreme practitioner of the highest order.
‘So it’s this person.’
The one who had been watching Sa U-rin’s back.
Only with a master of this caliber backing him could Jegall have dared to speak to me like that.
Yes, this makes perfect sense now.
The figure blocking Bi-ryeong’s path was none other than Chu-yeop.
‘What do I do?’
Draw the sword and fight the opponent standing before me?
Or.
Make a quick escape now that I’ve confirmed what I needed to know?
While Bi-ryeong was deliberating,
someone else emerged unhurriedly through the estate’s gate.
A woman.
A breathtakingly beautiful woman who appeared to be in her mid-thirties.
To Bi-ryeong’s Energy Sensing, she registered as nothing more than an ordinary woman untrained in martial arts—no, rather, a woman possessed of beauty so transcendent it could topple kingdoms.
Bi-ryeong’s head tilted in confusion.
‘…I feel like I’ve seen that face somewhere before…’
But he couldn’t place exactly who she was.
One thing was certain: Bi-ryeong had never laid eyes on a woman so strikingly beautiful.
Yet he had the uncanny sense that he had seen her—and that very contradiction unsettled him.
Then, in that very moment, an overwhelming aura erupted from the woman who had seemed devoid of any martial training.
Bi-ryeong’s eyes widened to the size of lanterns.
The very air around him shifted.
No—it was an aura that completely dominated the surrounding atmosphere.
Bi-ryeong’s body went rigid of its own accord.
He couldn’t even muster the courage to attempt anything against it.
His body recognized the threat of her presence before his mind could process it.
Him—the Chief of the Bi-yeong Division of the Murim Alliance, no less.
‘…What… what is this…?’
Now his mind caught up, and trembling seized him at the sheer impossibility of this woman’s aura.
‘…Afraid? …Me?’
He couldn’t believe it.
The beautiful woman who radiated an aura that could make Bi-ryeong tremble approached slowly, and with each step, he found himself shrinking back before her presence.
‘Damn it.’
It wasn’t the man in front of him.
Only now did he understand the true reason Sa U-rin had spoken of being injured.
And.
‘…Could it be…?’
A single woman suddenly materialized in Bi-ryeong’s mind.
“…Y-you… the W-Witch…?”
It was true.
Impossible as it seemed, the beautiful woman drawing ever closer was none other than Jang Ryeo—the Witch, the supreme leader of the Evil Sect.
The information stored in Bi-ryeong’s mind confirmed it without doubt.
“Would you like to die? You dare call me the Witch to my face? This is truly…,”
Then a voice sounded out.
“Mother.”
Bi-ryeong’s head snapped toward the sound.
“…?”
…No, how could he…? Why…?
Why was he calling that witch ‘mother’?
Mother…?
…Mother?
Suddenly the word ‘mother’ lost all meaning in Bi-ryeong’s mind.
Despite being such a simple, ordinary word.

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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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