I Shouldn't Have Joined the Martial Arts Alliance - Chapter 82

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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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It was Chapter 82 — why he’d even entered the Murim Alliance.
Hyeon-wi, utterly exasperated, hurled words at the witch Jang Ryeo.
“Truly, what a wretched man. Wouldn’t you say so, witch?”
Hyeon-wi himself knew that because of that man’s request, Cheol-gang had fallen into such a state that he’d even contemplated taking his own life.
“Want to die? Calling my lord a wretched man. Well, he’s not exactly virtuous, I’ll grant you that. But still. An open mouth ought to mind what spills from it. Unless you’re eager to shorten your days.”
Hyeon-wi turned to Sa U-rin again.
“What do you make of it?”
“My father is not a bad man.”
“Ha. They do say the arm bends inward. There’s not a false word in the old saying.”
“Please, continue with what you were saying.”
A smile leaked from the corner of Hyeon-wi’s mouth despite himself.
He was simply too bewildered.
No matter how he considered it, nothing made sense.
“……The truth you believe you know is a fabrication. However you came by it, that story was deliberately spread through the Gangho to mislead people — according to Cheol-gang’s own design.”
“……Then you’re saying the Alliance Master did not cut off my father’s arm?”
“That’s right.”
“Then who did?”
“Cheol-gang cut off his own arm. With his own hands.”
“What? You mean to say that’s truly what happened?”
The witch Jang Ryeo, who had been listening, erupted in irritation.
“You little bastard, you’re wriggling now to keep your hide intact, aren’t you? Aren’t you?”
“Ha ha ha. Fear not, Jang Ryeo. Even if you don’t kill me, I came here to end my own life.”
He had lost all desire to live. Being alive itself had become a source of resentment.
He loathed his own powerlessness, and the rotting, festering Gangho was something he wished to tear his eyes from.
Which is why he despised Sa Cheol-gang all the more.
“……You truly expect me to believe that?”
A former Murim Alliance Master taking his own life? Who would credit such a thing?
Though she had witnessed the very act of attempted self-destruction, she still found it hard to believe.
“Hear my story to its end, and you shall understand.”
The former Murim Alliance Master Hyeon-wi closed his eyes, lost in the memory of those distant days.
After lingering a moment in reverie, Hyeon-wi opened his mouth.
“An order came down. To kill that man Cheol-gang.”
The witch Jang Ryeo cut him off.
“Who in damnation gave such an order?! The former Alliance Master?”
Hyeon-wi shook his head.
“No. The order came from the training ground where the Muelma Unit was raised.”
“What? Isn’t the Muelma Unit a force that takes orders only from the Alliance Master?”
“That is what people believe. But while they do receive the Alliance Master’s orders, there were times when commands came from that place itself. The order to kill Cheol-gang came from there that day.”
“Tell me where that place is. I’ll burn those creatures to——”
“It’s useless.”
“Why?”
“It relocates every ten years. And haven’t you heard? The Muelma Unit has been dissolved.”
With all the Muelma Unit members dead and gone, dissolution was inevitable.
“……Damn it all.”
“That place too likely received its orders from the Hidden Hand. I believe that to be the case.”
“……I suppose so.”
If that were true, then naturally that place would have issued the order to kill Sa Cheol-gang.
“What are you doing? Keep going.”
She meant for him to continue.
“I could not carry out the order that fell to me. How could I? We endured harsh training from childhood, leaning on each other through those difficult years. Cheol-gang and I especially. Yet within the Muelma Unit, there was one who truly meant to kill Cheol-gang. Of course, I killed that one myself.”
The witch Jang Ryeo interrupted again.
“A shame. I should have been the one to kill that worm.”
“……Must you interrupt constantly?”
“Don’t mind it. Just go on. A man shouldn’t be so timid.”
“……Did you just call me timid?”
“Just continue.”
“……Very well. After that, I told Cheol-gang to flee far away and hide. But he said he could not simply leave like that, and so he cut off his own arm.”
“Pathetic fool. I’d have taken the blessing and lived well. But that Cheol-gang——tsk, tsk.”
“……Did you truly love Cheol-gang so much?”
Her tone suggested otherwise, so it was a question rather than an assertion.
“So we rolled around together, and she even bore my child. You can see it, can’t you?”
“……Yes, I can see it.”
Of course he could see it.
“Then why aren’t you saying anything? Go on.”
Hyeon-wi shook his head slowly, his words spilling out.
“……And then he begged me earnestly. Asked if I wouldn’t help him accomplish what he himself could not. Damned fool that I was—I should have refused him right then.”
True regret, sinking deep.
Though of course, even if he’d refused, it would have changed nothing.
Sa U-rin stepped in now.
“Then perhaps—was what my father asked of the Alliance Leader to build the Murim Alliance into what it truly should be?”
“Yes. I regret it deeply, but at the time I had no choice but to accept. Cheol-gang and I trusted each other so completely, depended on each other so wholly. Now I see—you’ve been following your father’s will in the same way, haven’t you? Isn’t that so?”
He meant the matter of the Human Trafficking Organization.
“Yes. But I also have my own will in this.”
“Hah. So Cheol-gang’s son intends to ruin many people.”
“I don’t see it that way.”
“Since you’re Cheol-gang’s son, I suppose I’m allowed to speak my mind?”
“Yes. I’m listening.”
“I became Alliance Leader at Cheol-gang’s request. And I worked without rest to achieve what he desired. But look at me now—look at what I’ve been trying to do here.”
“That is…….”
The witch Jang Ryeo cut in again.
“That’s only because you’ve grown weak. My son will be different. Can’t you see that from the fact he came back alive this time?”
Though of course, he’d had Jang Ryeo’s help.
“It is impressive, certainly. But that’s merely the tip of an iceberg. What I’ve endured as Alliance Leader is truly…….”
Hyeon-wi’s words faltered.
A wave of despondency crashed over him—at his own helplessness.
Hyeon-wi gathered himself and continued.
“The Hidden Hand truly remains hidden. I’ve even questioned whether it exists at all. Yet somehow, from somewhere, they pull the strings—according to their will. I may have moved at their command more than once. They’re like ghosts. That’s what terrifies me. How does one fight an enemy that cannot be seen, that cannot be grasped?”
The witch Jang Ryeo opened her mouth as if to speak, but found no words when she tried.
Consolation was not a witch’s work.
Sa U-rin spoke to the despairing Hyeon-wi.
“Alliance Leader. I have seen the identity of the Hidden Hand. At least in part, I believe—but I have seen it clearly. And I also know the reason why they place such weight on the Human Trafficking Organization.”
Light flickered back into Hyeon-wi’s eyes, which had seemed utterly drained of force.
“……Is that true? Really?”
“Yes.”
“……What exactly is their identity?”
Sa U-rin hesitated before speaking.
“……Why do you hesitate? Speak.”
Hyeon-wi was desperate. He truly wanted to know their identity. But he could not know it. Yet wasn’t Cheol-gang’s son claiming to know it?
So he wanted to hear it.
In this moment when everything could finally be made clear.
“The thing is…… this story is quite long. So I was thinking—wouldn’t it be better to change locations?”
“It doesn’t matter. I can listen. Don’t you understand? Time is the one thing I have left now.”
“No. It’s genuinely long.”
“It doesn’t matter. Go ahead.”
“Then let me propose something.”
“……What do you propose?”
“If you give me what I want, I’ll tell you everything you want to know right here.”
“What you want……. I have nothing left now. If you desire my martial skills…….”
“No. It’s not that.”
“……Then what exactly is it that you want from me?”
At this moment, Hyeon-wi had nothing at all to give Sa U-rin.
Surely that couldn’t be it…….
“……Could it be money? If so, I can go to the—”
“No.”
“Right…… it wouldn’t be that.”
The son of the witch Jang Ryeo would hardly lack for money.
“Then speak. What is it?”
“Give yourself to me, Alliance Leader.”
“……Give myself? What do you mean by that……. Are you saying I should place myself under your command?”
“No. That together with me, we expose the Hidden Hand—their identity made visible to all of Gangho. Surely that is worth more than taking your own life here?”
“Let me think on this for a moment.”
“Very well.”
Cheol-gang’s son was right a hundred times over. What he proposed seemed far worthier than simply taking his own life.
And yet……
His doubt stemmed from a single question: could such a thing truly be done? What if he failed again, only to sink deeper into this helplessness? Then he’d be back to considering the same final exit.
On the other hand, if he was going to die anyway, there was something to be said for buying himself a little more time.
But……
How strange—he’d followed Cheol-gang’s words and ended up in this state, and now here he was, about to follow Cheol-gang’s son’s words as well.
Come to think of it……
That household was peculiar in the most extraordinary way. Impressive, even.
All of them like monsters—the man a monster, the woman a mad genius—and their son, born beneath such parents, proving himself no lesser than they.
What was the Gangho coming to?
Whatever the case, Hyeon-wi hungered to see with his own eyes the ruin of those who had reduced him to this impotence.
A strong feeling took root in him: perhaps Cheol-gang’s son was offering him a genuine opportunity.
With his deliberation concluded, Hyeon-wi spoke again.
“Very well. I shall do as you wish. But if you mean to manipulate me……”
“Fear not. I harbor no such intention.”
“And your mother?”
“My mother will not either.”
Hyeon-wi turned to Jang Ryeo, needing to ask her directly.
“Do you truly believe you can manage this?”
He was asking whether she would follow her son’s wishes.
“You saw it yourself just now—I cannot even squeak in front of my son.”
Ah, yes.
He had indeed witnessed it.
“Then I shall accept it as so and proceed as you intend.”
“Thank you.”
“Now then, tell me—who are these people?”
“As you wish.”
Sa U-rin began to lay out his account methodically: first Hwon-won, then the events within the Human Trafficking Organization, and finally what had transpired at Gwiju Fortress.
Throughout the recounting, Hyeon-wi listened with the wide eyes of a child glimpsing a world beyond imagination.
And his lips never closed. The things Sa U-rin described—impossible things, unimaginable things—were happening around him, stemming from him.
“Is this truly so?”
“It is.”
“No……”
He could not believe it.
Hyeon-wi himself had reached the realm of the Absolute Master—the Hwagyeong—a Martial Artist at that pinnacle.
One did not ascend to such heights through mere will; only those chosen by heaven itself could claim such a realm. That much was beyond question.
And now he was told there existed an aura that even an Absolute Master could not perceive?
Certainly, it was possible.
The world held countless mysteries; such a thing was not beyond the realm of possibility.
But——
The notion that some could sense an aura imperceptible even to an Absolute Master, and could build their own power upon such sensing—that was far harder to accept.
And harder still to believe that the young man before him, Cheol-gang’s own son, was one of those rare few.
“You are not fabricating this to sway me?”
After all, Sa U-rin might have woven this entire tale to bend Hyeon-wi to his purposes.

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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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