The Legend of Red Cloud - Chapter 106

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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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Episode 106. Neither Defeated nor Victorious
“Did you really lose?”
“Speak plainly. Who lost to whom?”
Nam On gestured toward the room where Poongryu lay, responding to Yucheon Chu-hon’s irritated tone.
“To Haedong Gwi, sir.”
“So you’re asking whether I truly lost to Haedong Gwi?”
“That’s correct, sir.”
“I don’t know why you’re asking, but I didn’t lose.”
Despite confirming that his suspicion was correct from Yucheon Chu-hon’s decisive answer, Nam On’s expression grew no lighter.
It was because he could not recruit the skilled master who had defeated Yucheon Chu-hon.
Amid such disappointment, Nam On pressed forward with his remaining question.
“Then why do the rumors claim that Haedong Gwi defeated you?”
“How would I know? I didn’t start the rumors.”
“Yet the family head hasn’t denied it either, has he?”
Yucheon Chu-hon answered Nam On’s puzzled inquiry.
“Because I didn’t win.”
“What do you mean by that…?”
“I neither lost nor won.”
It was the truth.
He’d managed to reach a point where he could have settled matters decisively, but his own blood meridians had been severed by an arrow Poongryu fired, causing his true energy to reverse course and his consciousness to slip away.
Had he remained slightly more composed, it would never have happened, yet such a possibility could not unmake what had already occurred.
Nam On appeared confused by his answer, but Yucheon Chu-hon had no desire whatsoever to explain his foolish conduct in tedious detail.
Without hesitation, Yucheon Chu-hon turned and entered Poongryu’s room.
-Damn it. I wish you’d explained more thoroughly. Now I’ve lost all leverage with him.
Meeting the glare of Yun Yeo-ok’s eyes—as displeased as if she’d sent a telepathic message—Yucheon Chu-hon halted his step awkwardly just inside the room, then made as if to turn back around.
He was thinking of going back out now to explain things properly.
But Yun Yeo-ok’s telepathic message struck him again.
-Stop it! Now you’ll just look strange.
At Yun Yeo-ok’s message, Yucheon Chu-hon simply stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
But his expression remained uneasy.
Displeasure was radiating from Yun Yeo-ok in waves.
From experience, once Yun Yeo-ok’s temperamental nature took hold in such moments, it became difficult to manage.
Unaware that Yucheon Chu-hon inside the room was being placed in an awkward position by his own question, Nam On, left outside, was absorbed in deep contemplation of a new mystery.
He could scarcely comprehend what Yucheon Chu-hon had meant by neither losing nor winning.
It wasn’t that he failed to grasp the words themselves.
Given Yucheon Chu-hon’s abilities, he could not fathom why he would fail to defeat Poongryu—a man whose dantian had hardened, leaving him without a shred of internal energy or anything resembling it.
This continued to perplex Nam On.
As Nam On stood in the courtyard of the guesthouse, lost in such tangled thoughts, So Cheong-jin approached So Gwang Yeo, who had been watching him from the entrance.
“Do you intend to simply leave matters as they stand, sir?”
“What do you mean?”
“We cannot embrace both the Yucheon Cheol-ga and the Cheonmyeong Namun. However much the Kangho may be a place where skill decides all, people’s eyes and tongues are not so governed.”
“You speak of rumors.”
So Cheong-jin nodded at his brother’s somber reply.
“There is much talk these days—that Yucheon Chu-hon frequents our Mun Chang-so Family like a squirrel on a wheel. Now rumors even suggest that we may abandon the Cheonmyeong Namun and turn toward the Yucheon Cheol-ga.”
“I’ve heard that rumor too, but given our position, can we not welcome the family head of the Yucheon Cheol-ga? Besides, these days the Yucheon Cheol-ga has been searching harder for So Cheon than the Cheonmyeong Namun….”
“That is true, but….”
“There is no other way. For now, finding So Cheon matters more than quelling rumors.”
“Then perhaps we should commit all our strength to it as well. Lay bare what we’ve hidden and concealed. Especially that matter of the Sound Technique….”
So Gwang Yeo hastily cut off his younger brother’s words.
“Absolutely not! If that becomes known, we shall never find So Cheon. To those who have mastered the Sound Technique, that child would become more precious than any elixir.”
“But wouldn’t more people then seek them out if the rumor spreads?”
“And what comes after? Will the one who finds them simply let them go? In the end, the child would suffer grievously—perhaps even risk their life. Even now, I fear what may happen to them in the hands of those we currently shelter.”
So Cheong-jin understands his brother’s fear.
Because of this, he could not urge the matter further and had no choice but to fall silent.
So Gwang Yeo then asked So Cheong-jin a question.
“What of Haedong Gwi? Should we truly leave him as he is?”
“The physicians all said there would be no danger to his life, so we’ve simply been waiting. But it’s strange—he doesn’t seem to wake at all….”
“For that reason, shouldn’t we send word to the Kangdo Pung Family?”
“I’ve been considering it myself, but I’m at a loss for what to tell them…. I thought we might send word once his consciousness at least returns.”
In truth, So Cheong-jin was deeply worried.
The fear was that if, by some chance, word reached the Kangdo Pung Family in his current state, they might send someone to whisk Poongryu away unconscious, allowing them to wash their hands of the entire affair.
It was a desperately selfish thought, but no less desperate for it.
So Cheong-jin believed that the Cheonmyeong Namun, which hadn’t shown its face when the Mun Chang-so Family was pleading in earnest, had only stepped forward belatedly because of Poongryu—and that the Yucheon Cheol-ga had thrown their weight behind the effort for the same reason.
If Poongryu disappeared from the picture……
Then he couldn’t be certain the two sects would continue their aid.
Understanding his younger brother’s worry, So Gwang Yeo couldn’t help but offer a cautionary word.
“But if consciousness doesn’t return for too long, the situation could become far worse.”
In other words: don’t concern yourself only with getting him away from here.
The Kangdo Pung Family might very well hold the Mun Chang-so Family accountable.
The Kangdo Pung Family had produced martial masters skilled enough to defeat Yucheon Chu-hon even without their Internal Energy.
If their masters came seeking accountability, the already precarious situation of the Mun Chang-so Family would spiral into genuine catastrophe.
Grasping his brother’s point at last, So Cheong-jin nodded with a grave expression.
“I hadn’t thought it through. Let’s wait a few more days and see. If consciousness still hasn’t returned by then, I’ll send Samil to Kangdo with word of what’s happened.”
So Gwang Yeo offered a wry smile to his brother, who had understood his concern so fully, and posed another question.
“I hear the Yongmopagi is being made and distributed in large quantities. But have you had any word of the thief?”
Since Poongryu had chased the thief and been brought back unconscious, the Mun Chang-so Family had broken the Kangho’s unwritten code by rounding up every Fence Dealer in Pyeongdo and interrogating them.
It was a kind of responsibility for what had happened to Poongryu.
Of course, Gyeongcheon Chu-gwi and many other tracking specialists had warned that it appeared to be simple theft unconnected to So Cheon’s abduction, but there was no question of doing nothing.
Yet despite all these efforts, the Mun Chang-so Family had obtained only a single Yongmopagi that the thief had meant to fence, and the bitter resentment of countless Kangho martial schools.
The Fence Dealers of Pyeongdo had disappeared the moment they were released by the Mun Chang-so Family.
By vanishing, they had blocked the path by which the martial schools of Haenam might easily track down stolen treasures—and that was the source of their grievance.
Against this backdrop of resentment, even the Yongmopagi the Mun Chang-so Family had obtained had proven of little use.
When his brother asked about the Yongmopagi’s effectiveness, So Cheong-jin shook his head with a disheartened air.
“We’ve been distributing the Yongmopagi in great quantities throughout the region as you said, but so far no one has reported a sighting.”
“Sigh……. How is it that everything becomes so tangled? Nothing seems to come undone.”
At the depth of despair in his brother’s sigh, So Cheong-jin could not loosen his own grave expression.
***
Though a day had passed, Nam On had failed to determine why Yucheon Chu-hon had not prevailed.
This uncertainty kept him rooted to the spot.
He wondered whether Poongryu, despite lacking Internal Energy, might possess something else that Nam On could not perceive.
Otherwise, there was no way to explain Yucheon Chu-hon’s words: “I neither lost nor won.”
If his suspicion were correct—if something else had made Poongryu a true match for Yucheon Chu-hon—then Poongryu would still qualify as a master of Yeongha Baekwi caliber.
Of course, Nam On harbored doubts about whether such a thing was even possible “without Internal Energy, and without any power equivalent to it, in a body stripped of both”——
But the world held countless mysteries, and he couldn’t entirely dismiss the possibility that something he didn’t understand might make it so.
Especially with Yucheon Chu-hon himself as a witness.
Moreover, given the Cheonmyeong Namun’s current circumstances, he couldn’t afford to leave empty-handed when there remained even a possible candidate.
For all these reasons and hesitations, Nam On found himself staying on at the Mun Chang-so Family.
Which put Yun Yeo-ok in a foul mood.
The rival she’d thought was finally leaving remained stuck like a burr.
Naturally, Yucheon Chu-hon—the unwitting cause of Nam On’s decision to linger through his own inadequate explanation—bore the full brunt of her fury.
“I’m giving you four days. If you don’t bring him to me by then, I’ll flay your hide and feed it to the dogs in town. You understand? Find him. I mean find him!”
Whatever he said, she had a way of making it sound lethal.
Terrified that if he voiced any complaint she might actually tear off a piece of him, Yucheon Chu-hon simply bowed deeply and bolted from the Mun Chang-so compound.
And so he mobilized not only the Yucheon Cheol-ga’s own warriors, but also personnel from the neighboring sects allied with them and local bandits from the surrounding villages, launching a frantic search for the culprit.
For Yucheon Chu-hon, it was a kind of demonstration for Yun Yeo-ok.
A message that said: “Look how hard I’m working.”
Of course, the primary target wasn’t the kidnapper shrouded in mystery, but the thief who possessed the Yongmopagi.
Whether by intention or circumstance, with Yucheon Chu-hon himself now leading the search, the eastern districts of Haenam had erupted into chaos, warriors poking their noses into every corner.
Market stalls and streets were lined with martial artists holding Yongmopagi, so much so that even ordinary folk began saying a journey of a hundred steps guaranteed a checkpoint—”Hundred Steps Inevitable Check,” they called it.
This clamorous search activity interfered with the Ghost Shadow Escape’s movements.
The ominous presence of warriors was spread so thickly through the region that even the Ghost Shadow Escape couldn’t move without encountering them.
So the Ghost Shadow Escape gave up venturing out and chose instead to remain hidden in the Cave, hoping the fervor would die down.
The long hours spent in the Cave afforded the Ghost Shadow Escape time to focus on deciphering the words written in the letter Manbeon Ho-ri had left for Samil.
After days of struggling to unravel the meaning, the Ghost Shadow Escape suddenly slapped his knee.
Slap.

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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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