The Legend of Red Cloud - Chapter 45

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

Episode 45. The Change at Juksan
Ha-Un’s guide had led them to a mine.
The mine, situated halfway up the mountainside with its dark mouth gaping open, emanated an unsettling aura.
Surrounding the mine’s entrance stood roughly a hundred disciples of the Mudang, their hands gripping sword hilts, arrayed in a tight formation.
It was as though they were maintaining an extreme vigilance against someone who might burst forth from within.
A question rippled through the ranks of the Jeoksajo members.
“Is there someone inside?”
Ha-Un shook his head at Yi Song’s inquiry.
“That is not for me to answer. Ask that person instead.”
Ha-Un stopped walking and gestured respectfully toward a figure approaching with a serene smile.
“The Sect Leader!”
At Hwangbo Jang-Sung’s exclamation of shock, the identity of the elderly Daoist became unmistakable.
Hyeonun, the Sect Leader of the Mudang, had arrived.
“Thank you for taking the trouble to come.”
The elderly Daoist, holding the Songmun Go-Geom in one hand and executing a light palm salute, possessed eyes that were piercingly clear.
His gaze alone suggested unfathomable depth of Dao mastery.
“I am grateful for such generous hospitality. I am Jang Min-Su, the leader of the Jeoksajo, a humble student of the martial world.”
Hyeonun smiled in response to Jang Min-Su’s respectful salute, his gaze moving methodically as he met each person’s eyes one by one.
It seemed to be his manner of greeting, though all found it difficult to endure.
It was not due to his lofty station, but rather the penetrating quality of Hyeonun’s gaze, as though he could see through to one’s very core in an instant.
As Hyeonun’s gaze passed over the increasingly flustered Jeoksajo members in turn, his eyes flickered with something unexpected.
He had encountered an abyssal darkness within their ranks—a depth that defied all measure.
To the one whose eyes were so dark and profound they appeared pristine black, Hyeonun posed a question.
“You must be the Jeoksajo member I’ve heard of.”
Just as Ha-Un had demonstrated earlier, Hyeonun seemed to know of his nature as well.
Though one might have asked how he knew, the one called Ryu, upon hearing Hyeonun’s words, instead asked something unexpected.
“A master of Ipsingyeong and the Sect Leader besides. What in the world is happening here?”
At Ryu’s words, the Jeoksajo members were even more startled than Hyeonun.
It was the mention of an Ipsingyeong master that caused their shock.
A master of Ipsingyeong was the current realm of those known as Gangho’s Fifteen Spirits.
One could gauge how extraordinary such a realm was simply from the fact that masters at that level were once called the Ten Grand Masters.
When their numbers exceeded ten, making the old name unwieldy, the new designation of Gangho’s Fifteen Spirits had been established.
That their number had grown did not diminish their significance.
Each and every one of them still possessed the power to shake the very axis of the martial world.
The problem was that since departing the Maengui-dan, the Jeoksajo members had never encountered a master they could suspect of reaching Ipsingyeong.
Moreover, if Ryu’s words held true, such a person apparently existed among the Mudang disciples they had met here at Juksan—yet there seemed to be no one of such caliber.
As their thoughts aligned, the Jeoksajo members’ gazes all turned toward Ha-Un at once.
Seeing this, Hyeonun smiled slightly and turned back to Ha-Un.
“You see? Did I not say my Jeoksajo friend would recognize the master-disciple relationship?”
At the Sect Leader’s words, the expressions of the Jeoksajo members grew only more confused.
This was because the Ipsingyeong master the Mudang was known to possess was none other than the Sect Leader’s predecessor.
Though a former master who no longer held active rank, he remained in office as Grand Elder—Tae-Geuk Geom-Wang.
Yet Hyeonun had referred to Ha-Un as his disciple, and Ha-Un as having reached Ipsingyeong.
This meant that Mudang had produced a second master who had achieved that realm, separate from Tae-Geuk Geom-Wang.
The faces of Hwangbo Jang-Sung, Paeng Gyeong, and Chul Ja-Ryong—those who best understood the weight of this revelation—hardened.
Though they were called the pillars upholding the Chulhyeol Alliance together, they could not deny they were rivals to one another.
Amid their stares, Ha-Un wore a frustrated expression.
“I lost. So as promised, when I return, I shall clean my senior brother’s room for two months.”
At Ha-Un’s words, Hyeonun’s face broke into a broad smile.
“Ho-ho-ho! Thanks to my Jeoksajo friend here, I am at last liberated from the shackles of housekeeping. Ha-ha-ha!”
Watching Hyeonun laugh so heartily, as though this were cause for great celebration, Ryu asked again.
“You provide no actual answers and speak only in unnecessary words. It seems there is someone in that mine whose name you find difficult to speak aloud.”
“Sharp eyes and a keen mind to match…. You are a better companion than Yi Hwan, it would seem.”
Yi Hwan.
The Maengui-dan Lord’s name was spoken as casually as that of a neighbor’s child.
Of course, Hyeonun was Yi Hwan’s master in private matters.
Whether because they already knew this or for some other reason, the Jeoksajo members showed no surprise at hearing the Maengui-dan Lord’s name spoken so lightly.
Observing them, Hyeonun, the Sect Leader of the Mudang, wore a momentary expression of deliberation before speaking.
“The Grand Elder is inside.”
At the Sect Leader’s answer, the eyes of the Jeoksajo members widened.
Mudang had only one Grand Elder.
“Tae, Tae-Geuk Geom-Wang!”
Yi Song’s cry of shock drew a glance from Hyeonun, who nodded slightly.
“Correct. The Grand Master is present.”
Combining Hyeonun’s confirmation with the sight of Mudang disciples streaming toward the cave, only one answer presented itself.
“Simma.”
At Ryu’s words, Hyeonun nodded again.
“Yes. We believe the problem arose when he crossed the Realm Boundary.”
Ryu shook his head at Hyeonun’s words.
Crossed the Realm Boundary?
Not untrue, but if one spoke plainly, the word “forcibly” had been left out.
Had he followed the natural path, the demon could never have taken hold.
The problem had arisen because he defied the natural order and greedily sought to break through to a higher realm despite lacking something essential.
Most cases of Simma or Juhwa Ipma arose for exactly such reasons.
Ryu, having lived through battlefields, had witnessed such things countless times.
All around him had been those desperately clawing upward to higher realms, driven by the need to live, to survive.
Juhwa Ipma was fortunate in that respect.
The damage fell only upon oneself.
One’s body twisted into paralysis, or all blood and energy meridians contorted until death—the harm remained confined.
But Simma was different.
In this case, harm to others was almost inevitable.
When deaths occasionally occurred within Maengui-dan’s garrison, about nine tenths could be traced to those consumed by Simma, gone mad and wielding blades against their comrades.
Of course, Maengui-dan’s official reports always blamed raids by the Blood Demon clan.
The damage had been crude and savage enough to justify it.
It could never have been claimed as casualties inflicted by fellow soldiers.
Comparing those past experiences with what Mudang now displayed in this cave in Juksan, the conclusion came easily.
“Blood must have sprayed.”
Hyeonun did not answer Ryu’s flat statement.
Truthfully, even Hyeonun had not known the full details of how the crisis began.
The disciples on patrol had thought only that an intruder had breached the grounds; only after the masters deployed against him did they realize their opponent was Tae-Geuk Geom-Wang and that something was terribly wrong with his state.
Immediately, Jinmu Chil-Geom, composed entirely of supreme masters, was committed—yet even they could not restrain the consciousness-lost Tae-Geuk Geom-Wang.
When Tae-Geuk Geom-Dae was sent in as reinforcement, the defensive lines within Mudang’s grounds were breached, and the inner fortress shattered; Tae-Geuk Geom-Wang escaped.
Recognizing the gravity, the Elders and the Sect Leader himself drew the Songmun Go-Geom and rushed forth from Mudang.
The sect’s key disciples followed naturally.
Even the instructors of Jinmu-Gwan, who oversaw the second and third generation disciples’ training, joined the pursuit—so much so that nearly all of Mudang’s first generation had been mobilized.
Thanks to such deployment, Mudang managed to reform an encirclement just before Tae-Geuk Geom-Wang could strike the civilian settlements.
Dozens of disciples fell in the effort, and many more were wounded.
The fact that casualties remained limited even to that degree owed to the Sect Leader’s order to open Namam-Gwan, Mudang’s final bastion.
The power of Namam-Gwan, deployable only in existential crises, was fearsome.
When they joined the fight, they finally succeeded in driving Tae-Geuk Geom-Wang into the Mine in Juksan.
In exchange, many of Namam-Gwan’s masters suffered grave wounds.
The price of standing foremost without reservation.
Through their sacrifice, no additional disciples were lost.
With Tae-Geuk Geom-Wang sealed away, Mudang sought aid everywhere it could.
Not that Mudang believed military force could resolve what had transcended mere sect capability—they sought masters specifically.
Masters were what they needed.
Yet no one came forth to aid Mudang, from any quarter.
The danger was simply too great.
Though disappointed, Mudang harbored no resentment toward those who refused, understanding their position.
Truthfully, had such a calamity struck elsewhere, even Hyeonun might not have sent Tae-Geuk Geom-Wang away without hesitation.
The only force that had answered was Maengui-dan.
And even that was possible because Yi Hwan, Hyeonun’s own disciple, served as their leader.
That was why Jeoksajo had been dispatched here to Juksan.
As if to ease the Sect Leader’s helplessness, Ha-Un stepped forward.
“We have succeeded in containing the Grand Master here, and now…….”
As Ha-Un trailed off deliberately, the gathered attention shifted instantly from past to future.
What mattered now, after all, was what would unfold next.
So Ryu too waited quietly for what was to come.
Hyeonun, catching Ryu’s eye, continued.
“As you know, the Grand Master was an expert of the Ipsingyeong Realm. For one of his attainment to succumb to Simma…….”
“Divine Fire, the Divine Fire Realm!”
The formal name was the Divine Transformation Realm.
By the terminology, it meant ascending toward godhood, and plainly put, it signified transcending the human category entirely.
Crossing from the Ipsingyeong into the Divine Fire Realm while caught in Simma naturally meant the force erupting from him was Divine Fire.
Simma was a kind of side effect that arose when deficiency bred calamity in the process of surpassing a realm.
He might not be in his right mind, but at this moment, Tae-Geuk Geom-Wang was in the Divine Fire Realm.
He had become a master equal to Heaven’s Three Souls—the absolute rulers who divided the world into three domains and governed it.
Naturally, only masters of equal standing could suppress him.
But the way things were turning out…….
“We were denied.”
At the elder’s blunt words, Hyeonun smiled bitterly.
“Precisely so. We sent urgent dispatches simultaneously to the Chulhyeol Alliance and the Namgung Clan requesting aid, but as the Jeoksajo strategist said, we were refused.”
Because Changcheon Geom-Je, one of Heaven’s Three Souls, was the Alliance Master of the Chulhyeol Alliance.
The reason dispatches were sent not only to the Chulhyeol Alliance but also to the Namgung Clan was that Changcheon Geom-Je was also the patriarch emeritus of the Namgung Clan.
Thus, the Mudang had to persuade both sides—the Namgung Clan and the Chulhyeol Alliance.
Of course, refusal came at the Chulhyeol Alliance stage, before it could even reach the Namgung Clan.
Hyeonun laid out that detail plainly.
“I understand there was desperate opposition from Chul Sa-Jeon on the grounds that safety could not be guaranteed.”
Indeed, no matter how recently he had stepped into the Divine Fire Realm.
And worse, caught in Simma, he had lost all reason while being saturated only with murderous intent.
Facing such an opponent was something even the seasoned Changcheon Geom-Je, fully accomplished in the Divine Fire Realm, would have to accept grave risk for.
If grievous wounds difficult to recover from were sustained in the process, or worse, if something went even slightly wrong…….
The Chulhyeol Alliance would lose its master capable of standing against Heaven’s Three Souls, whom the Gunmarim and Baekui-Ryeon possessed.
Chul Sa-Jeon, the mind of the Chulhyeol Alliance, could not overlook the danger such a development posed.
As those present inferred the broader situation, Hyeonun continued.
“With the most efficient method thus closed off, we found a second-best approach instead.”
A second-best approach?

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