Namgung Heavenly Demon - Chapter 124

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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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124
Hwa
Swoosh—.
The churning waters of the Yangtze lashed savagely against the prow.
After the bloody battle at Dongjeongho.
The seven-ship fleet made for Jangsa in the south, where the Sable Alliance’s headquarters stood.
On the deck.
Hyeok Muhwi had spent two full days without moving, devoting himself entirely to circulating his internal energy.
He was trying to set his scattered qi and blood back in order and restore the internal strength he had drained.
“…Hah.”
Exhaling a long breath of turbid qi, Hyeok Muhwi slowly opened his eyes.
The deathly pallor had left his face, and color had returned to his cheeks.
Akmugyeol, who had been keeping watch at his side, noted the change and spoke.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’ve come through the worst of it. No, if anything, I feel better than before…”
Hyeok Muhwi looked down at his own palm.
He could feel his energy flowing clearly, unobstructed, all the way to his fingertips.
Was it because he had walked back from the edge of death?
The internal strength coursing through his meridians was faster now, and far more explosive.
Hyeok Muhwi slowly rose from where he sat.
The river wind tugged roughly at the hem of his blood-soaked combat robes.
Then his gaze turned toward the prow.
There stood a man in a deep navy robe, billowing in the wind, watching the Yangtze alone: Namgung Cheon.
Hyeok Muhwi approached him slowly and spoke.
“Namgung…”
“Speak plainly. I’ll do the same.”
“…Very well.”
Hyeok Muhwi came to stand beside Namgung Cheon.
His eyes, fixed on the black river flowing silently past, grew heavy and settled.
“There’s something I want to ask.”
“Go on.”
“Are you truly going to the headquarters as things stand?”
A strange tension crept into Hyeok Muhwi’s voice.
Right after the battle at Dongjeongho ended, Namgung Cheon had declared that the real reason Samu Ryun had tried to kill Hyeok Muhwi and target Namgung Cheon himself was to ignite a war between the orthodox and the heterodox.
By striking at the direct line of the Namgung Clan, he would provoke the Orthodox Faction; by slaying the Alliance’s only heir, he would remove the center of gravity holding the inside together.
Then, taking advantage of the chaos, he would start a war and seize control of the Alliance.
That was the explanation, and it fit every piece with a chill.
“…If what you say is true, then our situation is even worse.”
Hyeok Muhwi spoke through clenched teeth.
“If he truly meant to start an orthodox-heterodox war, Samu Ryun would have made every preparation already. Even if the Sayeongdae, the Spear Demon Unit, and the Hyeolrangdae have been wiped out, six armed divisions still stand intact at headquarters.”
His eyes wavered.
“And there should be the elite of the Three Evil Paths and the Three Families, gathered under the Gunsa’s orders for war. Yet he means to march in with only this many men?”
Hyeok Muhwi looked at Namgung Cheon with the expression of a man who could not make sense of it at all.
“Wouldn’t it be wiser to wait for the Orthodox Faction’s support, or to infiltrate quietly…”
“No.”
Namgung Cheon cut him off.
“Answering a man who wants war with war is the most foolish thing one can do.”
Namgung Cheon’s gaze settled on Hyeok Muhwi.
“And if we must fight, we fight the war Samu Ryun least wants.”
A cold smile touched the corner of Namgung Cheon’s mouth.
“A war between the false master and the true master.”
“….”
Hyeok Muhwi closed his mouth.
It was Namgung Cheon’s scheme: to put Hyeok Muhwi himself at the front and induce a split within the Alliance.
It was a perilous gamble, but it was also the only way.
“Do we have any chance of winning?”
“A chance…”
Namgung Cheon murmured quietly.
Then he turned his gaze to the clear sky and continued.
“Hyeok Muhwi. What do you think I’m relying on to move like this?”
“…You’re counting on your strength, then.”
“That’s part of it, but this matter can’t be done by me alone.”
A strange smile settled on Namgung Cheon’s lips.
He paused for a moment and gazed at the blue light that filled the sky.
“Cheoncheon.”
“Cheoncheon?”
“Yes. I put my faith in Cheoncheon.”
Hyeok Muhwi’s eyes narrowed.
What nonsense is this…
Then a single thought flashed through his mind.
Namgung’s Azure Sky. If it’s the sky…
“…Are you talking about Geomhwang?”
Hyeok Muhwi’s eyes widened.
Namgung Cheon nodded in silence.
I’ve sent a message. I’ll go to the Sable Alliance headquarters, and we should meet there.
“….”
Hyeok Muhwi shut his mouth.
A single letter.
To throw your life away and charge into the middle of enemy territory over a single sheet of paper.
Yet as he looked into Namgung Cheon’s eyes, he felt a premonition that his words were true.
That overwhelming conviction could not be a lie.
At length, Hyeok Muhwi gave a bitter smile.
Yes, a father, then.
‘I too once held that kind of conviction.’
Even if the whole world turned its back on me, one person’s back would never turn away from me.
Recalling that back he had seen long ago, Hyeok Muhwi spoke quietly.
“I envy you.”
Namgung Cheon heard Hyeok Muhwi’s words and replied calmly.
“There’s no need to envy. In the end, it’ll be good for you too.”
Namgung Cheon stroked Mukhon at his waist as he continued.
“If you, who were said to be dead, return alive, and I, your enemy, appear standing on your side, then the plan Samu Ryun has laid will begin to crumble.”
Hyeok Muhwi fell silent for a moment, then nodded.
It was a dangerous, yet clear path.
Namgung Cheon would go for Samu Ryun’s throat, while he would prove the Ryeon’s legitimacy.
And at the end of that chaos, Geomhwang would come crashing in.
“Fine. I’ll bet on your mad conviction. Not that I have anything left to lose.”
Hyeok Muhwi slung Hyeolrindo over his shoulder.
“If I can take the head of that bastard Samu Ryun, I’d leap into hellfire itself.”
Just then, Jang Gwang’s booming voice rang out from afar.
“We’ve reached Jangsa!”
Just as he said, the bustling scene of the Jangsa riverbank came into view in the distance.
The sun hanging high in the sky made the river water glitter, and the lively riverbank was crowded with countless merchant ships and fishing boats coming and going.
But.
“They’ve come to greet us.”
Namgung Cheon spoke, his gaze fixed on the riverbank.
Sharp eyes lurked everywhere.
They were disguised as ordinary merchants or boatmen, but the killing intent seeping from them could not be concealed.
“What will you do?”
When Hyeok Muhwi asked, Namgung Cheon let out a short laugh.
“We came here to wage war…”
Namgung Cheon drew Mukhon.
Under the sunlight, the black blade gave off a cold, piercing gleam.
“We’ll have to cut through all of them as we go.”
* * *
Sable Alliance headquarters, the Gunsa’s office.
Samu Ryun picked up his brush and loaded it generously with ink.
Black characters flowed across the paper in a single, unbroken stroke.
―Heukpungdae, which had been colluding with the Namgung Clan, and its captain Akmugyeol assassinated Soryeonju, the successor of the Ryeon.
A smile curled at the corners of Samu Ryun’s lips.
The tip of the brush moved again.
“As a result, the Hyeolrangdae and the Spear Demon Unit of the Headquarters were dispatched to put the rebels to the sword and to console the spirit of the Young Lord.”
Thud.
Samu Ryun set down his brush and gazed silently at the dispatch he had just written.
“A flawless narrative.”
A trade between the Baekcheon Trading Company of Namgung and the Nambyeok Trading Guild of the Lian.
It was a grand scheme Akmugyeol had prepared from the moment he proposed that deal.
‘Evidence of collusion may fall short, but…’
The Young Lord’s head.
That alone would silence every doubt.
Once the traitor who colluded with the Orthodox Faction is executed, the blade of vengeance can turn on the Namgung Clan behind him.
Who in the world could dare raise a hand against me, the Military Strategist, before such a towering justification?
Samu Ryun closed his eyes, savoring the victory he had already painted.
Just then.
Bang!
The door of the office burst open roughly.
Samu Ryun’s eyebrow twitched.
Few within the Lian would dare barge into the Military Strategist’s office with such disrespect.
“Military Strategist!”
The one who rushed in was the Captain of the Night Crow Division, in charge of intelligence and surveillance among the Ten Directions Battalion.
“How rude.”
“Forgive me. But the situation is so dire… a grave report has arrived from Dongjeongho!”
At the hurried cry of the Night Crow Captain, Samu Ryun’s brow furrowed.
A grave report.
By the plan, a report of victory should have arrived.
“Report.”
“The Hyeolrangdae and… the Spear Demon Unit have been annihilated.”
“…What?”
Samu Ryun’s eyes narrowed.
“Annihilated, you say!”
“Not a single one was left alive, so confirmation was delayed, but we have verified that every man has died, including the captains.”
“That can’t be.”
Samu Ryun let out a thin, mirthless laugh.
Akmugyeol may be strong, but he was wounded, and Hyeok Muhwi should have been barely able to move.
The Black Wind Division was exhausted as well.
And yet, annihilated.
“Who intervened? Has the main force of the Namgung Clan already arrived?”
“No, sir. It was the Surochai. Namgung Cheon brought in the Janggang Surochai!”
“…The Surochai?”
Samu Ryun’s brow creased deeply.
The Night Crow Captain swallowed dryly and continued his report.
“Yes. It appears Namgung Cheon boarded a Surochai vessel at Gwiju, sailed straight to Dongjeongho, and fought alongside the river pirates on the Young Lord’s side.”
At this unbelievable report, Samu Ryun clenched his teeth.
It was an unforeseen variable.
That the Surochai and Namgung Cheon would join hands and move together had not been part of the calculation.
Yet what was even further beyond his calculations was this.
‘We failed.’
The annihilation of the Blood Wolf Corps and the Spear Demon Unit meant that Hyeok Muhwi and Akmugyeol had survived.
A situation in which every justification was about to be uprooted.
‘No, it’s worse than that.’
The moment Hyeok Muhwi returned alive and opened his mouth, it might be not the Black Wind Division but himself who was branded a traitor.
“Where are they? Where did they flee to?”
“They did not flee.”
The Night Crow Captain’s voice trembled.
“They are heading here, to Jangsa.”
“…!”
At that moment, another subordinate came running from outside in a frantic rush and threw himself down before the door.
“M-Military Strategist! An urgent dispatch!”
“Speak!”
Pirates have appeared before the Headquarters! And… the Black Wind Division and the Young Lord are with them!
Kwadeuk.
The brush clutched in Samu Ryun’s hand snapped in two.
‘They’re here already?’
The room seemed to tilt beneath him.
The men he had expected to flee or go into hiding had instead charged straight at the front gate.
And faster than anything he could have imagined.
“Ha… Namgung Cheon…”
A hollow laugh escaped Samu Ryun’s lips.
His grand scheme: purge the enemies within, then use the enemies without to seize control of the Ryeon.
Every piece of it was unraveling because of a single variable named Namgung Cheon.
Samu Ryun closed his eyes for a moment and steadied his breathing.
He had no time to be flustered.
His enemy was already at the gate, and at this rate, everything would come crashing down.
“…Very well.”
Samu Ryun spoke in a voice that had gone cold and level.
“First, order the Ten Directions Battalion to surround the pirates.”
“As you command!”
The Yajo Division leader and his subordinate withdrew, and a heavy silence settled over the office once more.
Samu Ryun rose slowly from his seat.
He walked to the window and looked down at the tightly shut city gate.
‘This won’t do.’
With Hyeok Muhwi returned alive, my words alone can no longer turn this situation around.
That leaves only one option.
Samu Ryun turned and bowed his head toward the deepest corner of the office, where the darkness lay thickest.
“…Pretender Lord.”
Samu Ryun pleaded softly.
“Help me, just once more.”
Sseusseu—.
The moment he finished speaking, the darkness rippled.
And then a middle-aged man stepped out of it.
The man called Wijon regarded the bowed Samu Ryun with a sneer.
“Pitiful. You’ve brought all this trouble on yourself just because you couldn’t deal with a mere Soryeonju or a milk-faced brat like Namgung Cheon. Your so-called strategy is hardly worth mentioning.”
“…I have no excuse.”
Samu Ryun could not lift his head.
But Wijon did not scold him any further.
He strolled slowly toward the window.
The energy radiating from his body pressed down on the air of the office like a weight.
“Enough. We’ve passed the point where your silver tongue could settle this anyway.”
Wijon gazed out the window.
At the same moment.
Woooong—!
Around his body, a violent Geukyang Jigi surged like a storm, so fierce it seemed to warp the very space around him.
Gradually, his frame and his qi began to transform.
A great wolf emblem, vivid against black martial robes.
Blazing red eyes that were impossible to believe belonged to a human being.
It was the form of Hyeok Gwi Gwang, the Blood Flame Blade Sage.
Wijon, now wearing the skin of Hyeok Gwi Gwang to perfection.
He clenched and unclenched his hands slowly, savoring the power that overflowed within him.
“Hyeok Muhwi…”
Murderous intent rippled thickly through those blazing red eyes.
“A son torn apart by his own father’s hands. How fitting.”
The corners of Wijon’s mouth curled upward in a grotesque smile.
“This is going to be quite the spectacle.”

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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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