The Great Heavenly Sword Emperor - Chapter 52

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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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#052. The Wavering Mark (2)

The Gongsun Family.
One of the great houses steeped in ancient history and tradition.
Though they had never reached the summit of the Five Great Families, no one dared dismiss them.
It was the trust and reputation they had built across long centuries.
The Gongsun Family’s standing in the Jianghu was unshakeable, and many counted them among the most respected houses—not the strongest, but the most revered.
Perhaps because of this, whenever some great affair erupted in the Jianghu, the Gongsun Family would step back rather than forward, taking the role of neutral mediator and arbiter.
Yet here stood Gongsun Youbaek, an elder of that very house.
Given the Gongsun Family’s habitual restraint, the appearance of one of their own to pursue Cheon Mujgyeol came as a shock.
But Gongsun Youbaek’s presence here did not speak for the Gongsun Family as a whole.
He stood here in his personal capacity as Gongsun Youbaek—not as an elder of his clan.
He had heard rumors that Bukgung Danya traveled alongside Cheon Mujgyeol.
Though it was long ago, he had once exchanged courtesies with Bukgung Hyeondo, Bukgung Danya’s father.
He had come here to confirm with his own eyes whether this was truly Bukgung Danya, and if so, why he would travel with Cheon Mujgyeol.
Gongsun Youbaek gazed upon Bukgung Danya.
Bukgung Danya met his gaze with eyes that did not waver in the slightest.
Unlike the two men, who stood silent and watching, the atmosphere around them grew restless.
Confusion rippled outward swiftly, and murmurs grew thick.
Then one man pressed close to Gongsun Youbaek and spoke in a low voice.
“Elder Gongsun, is this man truly Bukgung Danya?”
“He is. Though I saw him only as a child, his features are unchanged. I am certain.”
Conviction rang clear in Gongsun Youbaek’s voice.
With this, one of the Jianghu’s honored elders had officially confirmed Bukgung Danya’s existence.
Namgung Hwiggyeom, the outer lodge elder of the Namgung Family, had been the one to ask Gongsun Youbaek once more.
Now, as he heard the confirmation, a peculiar light flickered in his eyes.
‘So Bukgung Danya is real. Then the rumors are true? Then why did the Dongbang Family deny it?’
Namgung Hwiggyeom turned this over in his mind.
In truth, the Dongbang Family had never denied Bukgung Danya’s existence.
They had simply never mentioned it at all.
But people had taken that silence as denial.
“Bah! You would trust those words?!”
At that, someone cried out.
All heads nearby snapped toward the source of that loud, rasping voice.
It was Sagong Geuk, an elder of the Sagong Family.
Of all the patriarchs and elders of the Sagong Family, he was the most savage and coarse in temperament.
His words were often unpleasant to hear.
His very presence was enough to displease some, and so when his voice rang out, many faces twisted with instant displeasure.
“Whether this man is Bukgung Danya and whether his words merit belief are two separate matters!”
His eyes blazed and his voice came like a snarl, but the logic held—he had a point.
Sensing as much himself, Sagong Geuk’s expression grew smug as he raised his voice further.
“What is there to dispute? Cheon Mujgyeol’s crimes stand revealed in plain sight through the Dongbang Family—we need only exact punishment!”
Sagong Geuk snorted sharply as he shouted.
Yet no one moved hastily forward.
Whatever Cheon Mujgyeol’s moral standing, his strength was real.
The man who had slain so many in Danae Valley.
There was no figure among them bold enough to rush at such a man with mere principle and righteousness.
‘This should do it!’
A shadow of a smile played across Sagong Geuk’s lips.
It seemed to carry the satisfaction of one who has executed a task flawlessly.
Then another voice rang out.
Unlike Sagong Geuk’s rasping, hoarse tones, this voice was measured and strangely, somehow reluctant.
“When did the Bukgung Family cease to be the Bukgung Family? And as the heirs of an already fallen house, they will have changed a hundred times over by now!”
It was Wiji Myungheon, an elder of the Wiji Family.
His words seemed to follow the same path as Sagong Geuk’s, yet they veered subtly in a different direction.
Where Sagong Geuk had ridden on the coattails of the Dongbang Family’s claims, Wiji Myungheon’s barb was aimed with precision at Bukgung Danya alone.
‘Fighting Cheon Mujgyeol is suicide. We target only Bukgung Danya. That alone should be enough to catch the Dongbang Family’s eye.’
Wiji Myungheon had chosen the safer path.
Minimize casualties, maximize impact—the surest way forward. And that path led through Bukgung Danya, who stood at Cheon Mujgyeol’s side.
‘Thank heaven Sagong Geuk is such a fool.’
Wiji Myungheon felt satisfied knowing he’d seized the enemy’s weakness first, stealing a glance at Sagong Geuk from the corner of his eye.
Sagong Geuk’s expression clouded—late to realize what had happened.
Watching that face only brightened Wiji Myungheon’s mood further.
The Sagong Family and the Wiji Family were houses of comparable scale and standing.
They existed in quiet competition, and in a gathering like this, they couldn’t help but watch each other’s every move.
Though Wiji Myungheon had missed his chance to speak first, the turn of events felt like fortune smiling upon him—his heart grew considerably lighter.
“Surely we’re not going to spend all day talking before a Jianghu Public Enemy? Why not simply strike?”
A voice cut through the two men’s tension.
It was Youngho Jun, an elder of the Youngho Family.
Youngho Jun looked at them both as if to say, why all this tedious deliberation?
Wiji Myungheon’s expression, which had been pleasant moments before, crumpled.
Sagong Geuk’s darkened even more severely—his head twisted toward Youngho Jun, his eyes burning with threat.
‘That bastard!’
Sagong Geuk clenched his fist so hard his knuckles blanched, glaring at Youngho Jun as if ready to devour him.
But with the enemy before them, they could not afford the shame of allies turning on each other.
Even as rough and violent as Sagong Geuk was, he possessed at least that much judgment.
‘None of them mean to fight.’
Namgung Hwiggyeom, listening to the three men, recognized their true intentions and muttered to himself.
As he did, he stole a glance at Gongsun Youbaek’s expression beside him.
Gongsun Youbaek’s face had not changed in the slightest.
And his gaze, tinged with something like regret, remained fixed on Bukgung Danya.
Having surveyed the room, Namgung Hwiggyeom recalled the words his family lord had spoken before this expedition began.

“Your role is not to become the Dongbang Family’s hound and capture Cheon Mujgyeol. It is to spot an opening and seize it without hesitation, to shake things loose. That is your duty. Remember it well.”

Though the Five Great Families had long since faded into irrelevance, the Namgung Family had never relinquished their pride as one of them.
Unable to stand against the Dongbang Family now, they endured—gritting their teeth, waiting for the moment when they might topple the Dongbang and restore the Namgung to their former eminence.
This military campaign was part of that larger design.
And so they had sent not their elite, but Namgung Hwiggyeom, an elder of the outer branch, to lead the troops into battle.
Now fortune had delivered its opportunity.
First came Bukgung Danya’s existence; second came the chaos that followed, through which each house revealed its true ambitions.
All of them claimed to have come seeking Cheon Mujgyeol and Bukgung Danya, but in truth they were here for one reason alone—to curry favor with the Dongbang Family.
‘Gongsun the elder has no intention of fighting either. I must make full use of this moment.’
Namgung Hwiggyeom gathered his thoughts, then opened his mouth.
“Let us all calm ourselves!”
At Namgung Hwiggyeom’s cry, the three men fell silent, though their discomfort was plain to see.
No matter how eager the three families were to impress the Dongbang, they could not dismiss the weight of the Namgung name.
“Listening carefully to what you gentlemen have said, your words seem similar yet different.”
Namgung Hwiggyeom turned his gaze back to Cheon Mujgyeol before he continued.
“Should we not then confirm the matter beyond doubt?”
“Infuriating! What’s there to confirm? We are all in accord that this man is a villain—that’s why we came!”
Sagong Geuk burst out, unable to restrain himself any longer.
Namgung Hwiggyeom turned a cold eye upon him.
“Elder Sagong.”
“What? What is it!”
“Then why not step forward yourself, rather than merely speak? If the Sagong Family leads the charge, we shall surely support you.”
“Damn it!”
At Namgung Hwiggyeom’s words, Sagong Geuk’s head snapped sharply away.
His reaction proved, to some degree, that none of those assembled here had any true intention to fight.
‘Loud of mouth, but without the courage to act—a coward through and through.’
Namgung Hwiggyeom cursed Sagong Geuk silently, then turned his attention back toward Cheon Mujgyeol and Bukgung Danya.
“That the man beside Cheon Mujgyeol is Bukgung Danya has been confirmed by Elder Gongsun here! And we all remember well what manner of house the Bukgung Family is! How can we overlook this contradiction—a villain named Cheon Mujgyeol traveling in the company of the heir to the Bukgung Family, once a noble house—without seeking answers?”
Several nodded at Namgung Hwiggyeom’s words.
“Bukgung Danya, I would ask you this!”
“Speak, I am listening.”
“You claimed that Cheon Mujgyeol is the descendant of Cheongeomjae! That all of this is a misunderstanding! Do you have any way to prove what your own mouth has spoken?”
All eyes fixed on Namgung Hwiggyeom as he spoke.
No one would simply follow Cheon Mujgyeol on his word alone without evidence—there had to be something that had convinced them.
Bukgung Danya, faced with the question, began to retrace the days gone by.
A cascade of countless moments flooded his mind—from the day he first met Cheon Mujgyeol to this very hour, each memory passing like a swift-turning lantern show.
Then Bukgung Danya opened his mouth slowly.
“Everything I have witnessed of him all this time is itself the evidence.”
Namgung Hwiggyeom’s brow furrowed at those words.
“There! Is that evidence? That’s absurd!”
“True. Without evidence, one cannot speak to it.”
Wiji Myungheon backed Sagong Geuk’s words as well.
Namgung Hwiggyeom then turned his gaze to Cheon Mujgyeol and asked again.
“Then Cheon Mujgyeol, I ask you directly.”
Cheon Mujgyeol met his stare in silence.
“Do you have evidence that what Bukgung Danya says is true? That you are the heir of Cheongeomjae?”
At Namgung Hwiggyeom’s question, Cheon Mujgyeol thrust the Cheonsingeom he held forward.
“This is the Cheonsingeom.”
[Humph! None of these fools here would recognize the Cheonsingeom if they saw it!]
The spirit seemed as displeased with the situation as anyone else, its tone sharp with resentment.
“Prove that this blade is the Cheonsingeom!”
Sagong Geuk seized on Cheon Mujgyeol’s words, pressing his counterattack.
No one had ever seen the Cheonsingeom before—how could they possibly recognize it? And so the demand had escalated to requiring proof that the Cheonsingeom was indeed the Cheonsingeom itself.
At Sagong Geuk’s outcry, Cheon Mujgyeol, who had been silent, spoke again.
“Have you ever heard that the Cheonsingeom cannot be wielded by just anyone?”
“I have heard such a thing.”
It was Gongsun Youbaek who answered Cheon Mujgyeol’s question.
Connected by ties to the Bukgung Family, Gongsun Youbaek had heard it directly from Bukgung Danya’s father.
With Gongsun Youbaek stepping forward, the others fell silent and simply watched Cheon Mujgyeol.
“Whether this is the Cheonsingeom or not, you will know only by taking hold of it yourself. Let anyone come and try.”
There was only one way to prove the Cheonsingeom was truly the Cheonsingeom.
“Do not be fooled! Whatever scheme this is, he must have done something to the blade!”
Sagong Geuk cried out with mounting fervor.
At this point, it was clear he had no intention of believing any evidence at all.
And the agitated Sagong Geuk did not stop speaking.
But he should have stopped there.
“Cheongeomjae is revered by all of Jianghu! Do not desecrate his name by impersonating his heir! You are not worthy even to speak his name!”
At Sagong Geuk’s cry, Cheon Mujgyeol let the Cheonsingeom slip slowly downward.
“Young Master?”
In that instant, Bukgung Danya flinched and stared at Cheon Mujgyeol.
Something was profoundly wrong with Cheon Mujgyeol’s aura.
Without thinking, Bukgung Danya took a step back.
Cheon Mujgyeol’s face remained unchanged.
Yet one could feel that his entire being was consumed by a fury that could not be contained.
And at last, Cheon Mujgyeol opened his mouth.
“You said he was revered?”
The atmosphere of this vast space froze in an instant.

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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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