Survival Guide for the Reincarnated - Chapter 280
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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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Chapter 280
Yeong Woon-seong’s eyes gleamed with sudden understanding.
“What do you mean?”
“Outside, it’s known that Hye Jung-san was impressed by me and granted me this opportunity.”
Seol Woon-hwi paused briefly before continuing.
“But the truth is different.”
“….”
“That meeting was where I rebuked Hye Jung-san.”
Yeong Woon-seong drew in a sharp breath.
“I questioned what had become of the Beggar Sect’s spirit, whether he truly grasped the weight of his position as a Nine Knot Beggar.”
“You… rebuked Hye Jung-san?”
“Yes. And I preserved his honor.”
Seol Woon-hwi pointed to his forehead.
“This scar was not carved by Hye Jung-san.”
“Then….”
“I carved it myself with my own hidden dagger.”
Yeong Woon-seong was completely speechless.
“I needed to create a wound. And when that scar became famous, it restored Hye Jung-san’s honor.”
“This….”
“And at that meeting, I spoke of Jin Mu-hyeok’s expulsion. I said the Beggar Sect’s future would be ruined the moment it carried Jin Mu-hyeok forward.”
“…So you destroyed my plan to swallow the Beggar Sect whole.”
The position of Grand Elder is not something anyone can occupy.
Yeong Woon-seong was clearly intelligent. Watching him with veins bulging slightly at his forehead—whether from anger or something else—Seol Woon-hwi spoke.
“I do not believe an apology would be appropriate. Instead, I have revealed a truth hidden from the world, and I hope this will ease your anger.”
Yeong Woon-seong stared at Seol Woon-hwi in silence for a long moment.
Then he suddenly burst into hearty laughter.
“Hahaha! My goodness, you madman, truly, you are a madman.”
What followed from Yeong Woon-seong’s lips
would have made anyone else’s eyes widen in astonishment.
Yeong Woon-seong slapped his knee and exclaimed.
“I truly like you!!”
“You are too kind.”
“It is not excessive praise!”
Yeong Woon-seong raised his cup.
“It is rare to meet someone who possesses both the spirit of a martial artist and the skill to back it up.”
Seol Woon-hwi also raised his cup.
Yeong Woon-seong spoke with sincere conviction.
“I truly hope that one day you will come to the Main Sect.”
The two men’s cups clinked together.
Ting—!
A clear sound pierced through the night air, resonating across the plaza.
Yeong Woon-seong sipped his drink, lost in thought.
Truly an interesting fellow.
He even subdued Hye Jung-san, that old man.
I could clearly see why that old man would resort to such intricate schemes.
He has no intention of taking Seol Woon-hwi under his wing.
In fact, he never intended to travel together with him from the start.
Isn’t he a remarkably foolish human being?
I was genuinely curious to see how far this man would climb in the future.
Seol Woon-hwi also drank, contemplating his own thoughts.
It’s definitely Yeong Woon-seong.
Nothing has changed about him.
Yet that very fact brought me comfort.
The thirty years of destiny we shared in my previous life suddenly felt precious.
There were certainly good times and bad times, but destiny is neither easily formed nor easily broken.
Yeong Woon-seong is undoubtedly a member of the Main Sect.
A Blood Person through and through.
Yet he possessed the qualities of a true man.
Yeong Woon-seong asked.
“What are your plans going forward?”
“I intend to resolve the immediate problems one by one.”
“Problems, you say…”
Yeong Woon-seong displayed an enigmatic smile.
“They seem quite substantial.”
Seol Woon-hwi shrugged. As Yeong Woon-seong said, there were far more than one or two problems to resolve.
“The Heavenly Righteousness Alliance has appointed a new Alliance Leader, and a new position called the Heavenly Righteousness Central Authority has been established, yet neither the Martial Alliance nor the Four Heaven Alliance sent representatives.”
This was indeed the case.
The Cheonin Palzwa had taken their seats, but they came solely due to their connections with the Heavenly Righteousness Alliance, and looking deeper, many martial artists with whom they had ties did not attend.
This signified one thing.
“Three of the Five Great Sword Sects and one of the Four Demonic Outer Sects have sided with them.”
“Correct.”
“Moreover, the Beggar Sect’s leader views you with displeasure, and after today’s events, he will surely prepare another scheme. Do you have a way to overturn all these circumstances?”
“I am considering it.”
Yeong Woon-seong chuckled softly.
“Considering, you say… You’re quite the schemer. You must already have something in mind. Isn’t that right?”
Seol Woon-hwi also chuckled softly.
“I have about two options.”
“Two options… That’s quite a few. Does one of them involve my participation?”
“No.”
“Then devise a new plan.”
“…What?”
Yeong Woon-seong rose from his seat.
“I’ll take care of the Beggar Sect.”
Yeong Woon-seong’s pupils gleamed under the moonlight, and they were unmistakably crimson.
“The Martial Alliance and the Four Heaven Alliance don’t give me justification to act, but the Beggar Sect? I have both justification and honor to uphold, so no one would fault me for deploying assassins.”
Yeong Woon-seong spoke with absolute sincerity.
“I’ll break three of Hye Jung-san’s limbs. With that, he won’t be able to lay a hand on you for two or three years.”
He didn’t literally mean breaking his limbs.
The Beggar Sect would certainly reunite under Hye Jung-san’s leadership once more, but in that process, there would inevitably be key figures supporting him.
For instance, the Seven Knot Beggars who upheld the Beggar Sect, or the Grand Elders and such.
Typically, limbs referred to four pillars.
Breaking three of them meant eliminating more than half—a rhetorical method Yeong Woon-seong had frequently employed in his previous life.
Seol Woon-hwi stood and spoke.
“There’s no need to go that far.”
Yeong Woon-seong shook his head.
“This isn’t about placing you in my debt.”
“….”
“I won’t use this to recruit you into the Main Sect or anything like that. You may not know it, but I’m not petty enough for such things.”
“I understand.”
“Then try to guess why I’m helping you.”
It was remarkably simple.
“Don’t make an enemy of the Original Blood Sect. If circumstances arise where you must, remember this moment and consider backing down. That’s what it means.”
Yeong Woon-seong laughed brightly.
“You truly are impressive. Yes, exactly that.”
“….”
“The Founder’s reasons for taking notice of you may differ from what I sense, but there’s certainly interest there.”
Yeong Woon-seong was truly not as terrible a person as one might think.
His loyalty to the Original Blood Sect was beyond question. In his previous life, it was precisely that loyalty which had made him stand against Seol Woon-hwi at the end.
Prioritizing loyalty to one’s organization over personal bonds.
It was both Yeong Woon-seong’s weakness and his strength.
“Let’s meet again next time.”
Crimson energy rippled across Yeong Woon-seong’s form as he turned to leave.
“Great One Yeong.”
At Seol Woon-hwi’s call, Yeong Woon-seong paused and turned his head.
Seol Woon-hwi performed a respectful Embracing Fist salute.
“Travel safely, and don’t overexert yourself.”
Yeong Woon-seong chuckled softly and replied briefly.
“Very well.”
And so Yeong Woon-seong vanished.
Whether their connection would begin again as it had in his previous life remained to be seen.
Or perhaps it will become a karmic debt—I cannot say for certain.
But the beginning was not unfavorable.
* * *
Left alone, Seol Woon-hwi swept his hand across his forehead.
Intoxication was rising, and the poison of the Ten Thousand Year Snow Palace circulated through my blood vessels.
I drew upon my Internal Energy and burned it away as much as possible.
Only then did my mind clear.
I turned my head.
“Truly, I find myself having a rare experience.”
It was Mae Wi-dong, now the Alliance Leader of the Heavenly Righteousness Alliance.
“I never expected my inauguration to proceed smoothly, but that Jin Mu-hyeok, the Deputy Sect Leader of the Beggar Sect, and Yeong Woon-seong, the Grand Elder of the Original Blood Sect, would come calling… I could scarcely have imagined it.”
Mae Wi-dong, now seated where Yeong Woon-seong had been moments before, gestured for me to sit.
I sat silently in my place and asked quietly.
“Have the guests departed?”
I had held a private audience with Yeong Woon-seong, while Mae Wi-dong had hosted a drinking gathering with the members of the Eight Seats of Heaven and countless other martial artists at the Cheon-ui Pavilion.
Mae Wi-dong smiled faintly.
“Yes, they have all gone. I received them, and the ‘Cheon-ui Arbiter’ received the Grand Elder of the Blood Cult, so it seems we have already begun dividing our roles.”
I poured wine for Mae Wi-dong, who was making light conversation.
“Thank you.”
Whether Mae Wi-dong’s courtesy toward me, the Cheon-ui Arbiter, stemmed from his personal character or was merely cultivated demeanor—it mattered little to me.
I paid it no mind either way.
Mae Wi-dong drank deeply, and his brow furrowed sharply.
“…When I heard the rumors, I harbored doubts, but there truly is a man who poisons his own wine.”
“If it does not suit your palate, I shall bring something else.”
“Haha… it is fine.”
Mae Wi-dong set down his cup and continued with a small laugh.
“The guests have all withdrawn, and the martial artists of the Heavenly Righteousness Alliance’s Main Headquarters have each gone to attend to their own matters. Now let us discuss the great and small affairs of the Heavenly Righteousness Alliance.”
Though the atmosphere was festive now, everyone knew the truth.
This was the calm before the storm.
It all stemmed from the problems Yeong Woon-seong had mentioned earlier.
Looking at the current situation alone, this could not help but become a problem.
The Heavenly Righteousness Alliance, reeling from the death of the former Alliance Leader Ye Won-je, had requested aid from the Odaegeomsong and the Four Demonic Outer Sects under the pretext of revival, and seven sects minus those two had sent envoy groups.
Adding the Ten Thousand Year Snow Palace to that, there were eight sects in total, yet four of those envoy groups had been completely annihilated.
Regardless of how it came to pass, they had been asked for help and provided it—not for personal gain, but in earnest from their perspective—yet their envoy groups met shameful deaths, and the Heavenly Righteousness Alliance has not even replied to official correspondence, instead holding an Alliance Leader’s inauguration and a Cheon-ui Arbiter appointment ceremony.
The Martial Alliance sided with the Odaegeomsong in the dispute between the Heavenly Righteousness Alliance and the Odaegeomsong.
The Four Heaven Alliance sided with the Four Demonic Outer Sects in the dispute between the Heavenly Righteousness Alliance and the Four Demonic Outer Sects.
“As for the Four Heaven Alliance, I understand Kang Cheon-u has connections with them.”
Who had given me the Jinwha Cheonryeong Sword hanging at my waist?
Kang Cheon-u had given it to me.
It would be stranger still to claim we had no connection.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be a situation where I can rely on personal connections.”
From the start, the Martial Alliance and the Sichuan Sect had never been on good terms with the Heavenly Righteousness Alliance.
The Sichuan Sect revered the Path of Supremacy rather than the Righteous Path, and since that supremacist path leaned more toward the Demonic Path than the Righteous Path, they maintained close ties with the Four Demonic Outer Sects.
No matter how close Kang Cheon-u was with Woon-hwi, from the perspective of managing an organization, it was only proper to uphold the face of those closer to them.
For Kang Cheon-u, it was an unavoidable choice, and Woon-hwi understood that.
“Since the Martial Alliance is in an awkward relationship with the Heavenly Righteousness Alliance… unfortunately, I cannot see an appropriate solution from my position.”
Woon-hwi listened quietly to Mae Wi-dong’s words.
“Moreover, whether the Odaegeomsong and the Four Demonic Outer Sects exchanged whispered talks behind the scenes or not, everyone is now declaring they will distance themselves from the Heavenly Righteousness Alliance.”
At this point, Woon-hwi raised his hand.
“Forgive me for interrupting, but did you say everyone?”
“Yes. Even the Divine Slaughter Sword Sect and the Heart Demon Dao Gate, who did not respond to the aid request.”
“The Black Heaven Demon Prison Palace, the Suncheon Sword Sect, and the people from the Mixed Path Demon Flame Palace who are stationed at Cheonsu Temple—are they included as well?”
Mae Wi-dong nodded with a complicated expression.
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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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