Return of the God of War - Chapter 92

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

Episode 92. How far can one truly go?
The Yohee Palace Master possessed an ageless beauty.
Yet it was not an artificial sort of beauty, as though demonic aura had been forcibly drawn forth and daubed on in crude, heavy layers.
She was simply a woman of grace and refinement—one who appeared somewhat younger than her years, yet carried herself with the poise and elegance befitting her age.
Muk Yeojin found himself inwardly rebuking his own assumptions.
It had only been recently.
Having just seen Baek Yupae demonstrate a dark art based on the Bangjung Technique, he had carelessly presumed the Yohee Palace Master would emanate a similar aura.
‘I was trapped in idle prejudice.’
When he’d faced Baek Yupae, his first impression had been one of deviousness and vulgarity; yet from the Yohee Palace Master, what radiated was rather purity and refinement.
Though both practiced martial arts rooted in the same Bangjung Technique, their forms and essences differed as heaven from earth.
Even the same martial art, wielded by different hands, in different ways, for different purposes—yields a hundred different hues. This was the truth he grasped anew.
He perceived it once more.
This was the way of martial arts.
Muk Yeojin cupped his fist respectfully and bowed to her with proper courtesy.
“I am Yeojin, youngest son of the Muk Clan of Gwangso. It is my honor to meet the Yohee Palace Master.”
The Yohee Palace Master’s eyes gleamed.
“Ah, so that explains why the young master has been called a whirlwind stirring Gangnam of late.”
“Such rumors exist?”
“Indeed they do.”
“They are merely a small breeze in a teacup.”
The Yohee Palace Master’s smile deepened.
“Whether that teacup is the size of Gwangso or the size of Jungyeon—no one can say for certain.”
“I have never met anyone at a first meeting who would overestimate me quite so generously.”
“Have not all those who underestimated you come to regret it?”
……
“Haha, then I am not overestimating you at all—merely seeing you as you truly are.”
In this brief exchange, Muk Yeojin sensed something.
‘The Yohee Palace Master… she is certainly of a different grain than those I have met before.’
He realized he would need to focus more carefully in this conversation, and drew his robes tighter about himself with deliberate precision.
For such a person was far more difficult to contend with than those who displayed their hostility openly.
“Through the connection of the Yeonghung Palace, I have heard why the youngest young master sought me out. You wish to obtain the Cheonju Ling.”
“That is correct.”
It was so.
The strongest card held by Muk Hyeonam, the Yeonghung Palace Master.
Its true nature was none other than the Cheonju Ling.
The Cheonju Ling.
By its very name, it signified the authority of the Sadocheon Master’s decree—a form of command.
Should any qualified person activate the Cheonju Ling, their word becomes the will of the Sadocheon Master itself.
The Yeonghung Palace Master is granted the authority to use this Cheonju Ling only once during their tenure.
‘I do not know all the circumstances.’
Currently, regarding the Cheonju Ling held by the Yeonghung Palace, Muk Hyeonam, the Palace Master, possesses half, and the Yohee Palace Master possesses the other half.
In other words, only by obtaining the half she holds can Muk Hyeonam make full use of it.
This was why Muk Yeojin had come to seek out the Yohee Palace.
A moment of silence hung between them.
A delicate tension flowed.
But soon the corner of the Yohee Palace Master’s mouth curved upward lightly.
And with perfect naturalness, she twisted the thread of conversation.
“By the way, how fares the lady of the Nangung house—or should I say, the Sword Palace Master? I should have attended your investiture banquet, but circumstances prevented it.”
At those words, Muk Yeojin’s shoulders trembled ever so slightly.
Through Muk Hyeonam some time ago, he had learned of the past between his mother, Nangung Yeongryeong, and the Yohee Palace Master.
Yet now, of all moments.
The very instant the true conversation began, why invoke his mother by name?
‘She means to seize the initiative from the outset and control the mood.’
With this thought, Muk Yeojin sharpened his gaze, seeking to discern his opponent’s intent.
Yet the Yohee Palace Master simply smiled—soft as his reading of her was wrong.
“There is no need for such tension. It is true that I share a somewhat awkward history with the Sword Palace Master, but I harbor no resentment toward her whatsoever.”
Inwardly, Muk Yeojin nodded.
‘That much is likely true.’
Had she harbored any desire for vengeance, there was much she might have done especially in her past life, when his mother was nothing more than a bag of millet discarded within Sadocheon.
Yet throughout both her past and present life, the Yohee Palace Master had never brought harm to his mother or to him.
But.
“I heard that you reconsidered the alliance between my elder brother and myself on that account. As for me, it was a matter I couldn’t help but react sensitively to.”
“Hmm, truthfully, that was merely an excuse. The real reason lay elsewhere.”
The Yohee Palace Master paused.
Then she regarded Muk Yeojin with a meaningful gaze and spoke.
“The greatest reason I opposed the alliance between the Yeonghung Palace Master and you, Yeojin—it was because of you, Moonlight Sage.”
“…….”
For a moment, Muk Yeojin met her gaze in silence.
Soon, with a slight shake of his head, he opened his mouth.
“I don’t believe I’ve ever acted in a way to displease you, Palace Master. Might I ask the reason?”
The Yohee Palace Master posed a counter-question with a subtle smile.
“Hmm…… Do you perhaps know why I support the Third Prince, the Yeonghung Palace Master?”
This was information he had not heard before.
Why did the Yohee Palace Master look after Muk Hyeonam?
There was no way to find out immediately.
It was not a problem that could be solved by thinking alone.
In such moments, sometimes speaking freely worked better than calculated restraint.
Muk Yeojin shrugged his shoulders and replied with casual audacity.
“I couldn’t say. Is it because he’s handsome?”
“……What?”
For an instant, the Yohee Palace Master’s expression went blank before she burst into laughter.
“Hehe, it’s true the Yeonghung Palace Master is quite striking. Had I been ten years younger, I would have invited the Third Prince to my chambers—what a pity.”
“It seems the rule about Yohee Palace courtesans not lying with the opposite sex when there is more than a dozen years’ difference in age is indeed true.”
“It is, and whoever violates it faces immediate execution.”
“You seem to maintain quite strict discipline. The Yohee Palace, I mean.”
“Of course. Pursuing pleasure is both human nature and our essence, but if we indulged in it without restraint, would we be any different from beasts? I am no beast, nor do I intend to raise them.”
Suddenly, words spoken by Muk Hyeonam came to mind.
―The Yohee Palace Master is not one who belongs in Sadocheon.
Muk Yeojin too began to understand what that remark meant.
Unlike the martial artists of the dark path who placed desire foremost, the direction of her convictions seemed altogether different.
The Yohee Palace Master cleared her throat lightly.
“Ahem, the conversation has strayed for a moment. In any case, the reason I support the Third Prince is because he is a coward.”
Muk Yeojin turned that word over in his mind.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Someone who knows their limits.”
Limits?
Now Muk Yeojin grasped what the Palace Master had meant by coward.
“I believe each of us who walks this world has a line we must never cross. The Third Prince clearly recognizes that line and fears stepping beyond it. But the First Prince and Second Princess ignore the line before their eyes and think only of stepping across.”
Suddenly, the Yohee Palace Master’s presence turned cold.
“That is not courage. I despise those who, overconfident in their own abilities, walk willingly toward ruin that lies plainly before them.”
Muk Jujin, the eldest prince who dreamed of a dark-path world, and the Second Princess Muk Seoin.
And the Third Prince Muk Hyeonam, who said he must become the Cheonju to stop them.
Here, one could dimly understand what the Yohee Palace Master meant by that line.
“Then do you regard me also as a foolish person attempting to cross that line, and thus opposed the alliance?”
The Yohee Palace Master shook her head.
“No. The youngest prince…….”
Suddenly, Muk Yeojin sensed the current of energy in the room shifting, and he waited for her to continue.
After a moment, she finally murmured in a low voice.
“That line itself is invisible to you.”
“…….”
Then her eyes grew sharp with a terrible cold.
“You are dangerous. Not because you walk toward ruin, but because you yourself feel like ruin incarnate. Of course, such an assessment would be unfair to make of a martial artist not yet come of age. That is why I first convinced myself it was merely an old woman’s worry and let it pass. But…….”
The Yohee Palace Master’s eyes flashed.
“Having accumulated enough martial prowess to face my true self at your age, this can no longer be dismissed as mere elderly concern.”
At the same time, Muk Yeojin felt the air around them settle heavy and dense.
A thick demonic aura flowed from the Yohee Palace Master’s entire being, seizing the space.
“So I ask you directly, Muk Yeojin. What is it you aim toward?”
He recalled having received a similar question once before, and without hesitation, he gave the same answer as then.
“I aim toward a peaceful world.”
Those were the words he had spoken to his father, Muk Umyeong, at Mangdam Event right after his return.
The Yohee Palace Master had been one of the people in that room.
“That’s a vague answer, if I may say. Peace, after all, is an intensely personal value. So let me ask again: how far are you willing to go to achieve this peace of yours?”
Muk Yeojin closed his eyes for a moment and posed the question to himself.
How far can I really go?
A soft, dry laugh escaped his lips.
It was a question not worth entertaining.
He had already settled the answer to it long ago.
Muk Yeojin brushed the dust from that answer, which had lain undisturbed in one corner of his heart for so long, and presented it to the Yohee Palace Master.
“I will seize that peace, even if I must stain the world with blood.”
Of course, that blood did not include the blood of family, brothers, and innocent commoners.
The path of blood leading toward peace would be painted only with the blood of villains and the Demonic Aura Cult.
But such caveats hardly mattered.
The Yohee Palace Master had asked him, “What manner of man are you?”
And he had answered, “I am this kind of man.”
The judgment of that was hers alone to make.
Tssssssss.
The Demonic Aura, now tangible and thick enough to see with the naked eye, pressed down upon Muk Yeojin.
Yet Muk Yeojin did not waver.
He drew upon the true energy of the Muk Cheonhyeon Wonggong, pushing back against her Demonic Aura.
Booooom.
Even as the collision of true energy shook the entire chamber, Muk Yeojin maintained a faint smile and bowed his head.
“Though brief, this has been a most pleasant conversation, Palace Master. Please take your time with deep deliberation before deciding about the Cheonju Ling.”
He turned and walked out of the Palace Master’s chamber.
Even as he stepped through the door for the last time, the Yohee Palace Master’s gaze remained fixed upon him.
And he understood instinctively.
They would meet again before long.
Whether what she held in her hand would be something sweet.
Or a fatal poison—that much remained unknown.

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