The Legend of Red Cloud - Chapter 51

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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 51. Oath-Brotherhood
Jwa Ryang’s expression crumpled instantly at the prospect of losing money.
Catching sight of Jwa Ryang’s dismay, Tae Geuk Geom Wang smacked his lips regretfully and called out to Jeom So Yi, who was bringing over the Alcohol Jar.
“Cancel that extra jar!”
At his words, Jwa Ryang’s face, which had been wrinkled in disappointment, suddenly brightened.
Seeing the swift transformation in Jwa Ryang’s expression, Tae Geuk Geom Wang glanced at Jeok Sa, who was smirking.
“Why don’t you ask?”
“Ask what, sir?”
“Why I keep sticking around?”
“Would hearing it change anything?”
“No, it wouldn’t.”
“Then I won’t ask. Since nothing would change.”
“Ha, I like the way you speak. If you’d married early and had a daughter, I’d make you my son-in-law on the spot.”
A muttered comment—”Then the daughter would’ve turned out stunted too”—drifted from somewhere, and Tae Geuk Geom Wang’s fierce gaze swept toward it, but there stood only a startled-looking Hee Jun.
As Tae Geuk Geom Wang’s eyes turned away with a click of his tongue, Dong Pil, who had poked his head out from behind Hee Jun, stuck out his tongue.
In an instant.
“Ow!”
Tae Geuk Geom Wang spun back around so quickly that Dong Pil, meeting his gaze head-on, yelped and bit his own tongue.
Tae Geuk Geom Wang watched Dong Pil hopping about with a hand over his mouth, his expression one of schadenfreude, then turned his attention back to Jeok Sa.
“What do you think about it?”
“Do you have a daughter, sir?”
“Not my own, but if I dig through the disciples back at the sect, I might find a decent young woman.”
Jeok Sa noticed sincerity gleaming in Tae Geuk Geom Wang’s eyes and asked with a look of genuine surprise.
“Why would you do that for someone like me, with no family name to speak of?”
“Family name? Is that something you eat?”
Jeok Sa let out a bitter laugh at Tae Geuk Geom Wang’s blank stare.
Tae Geuk Geom Wang continued his thought.
“Young man, don’t be timid. Have confidence in yourself. You’re worthy of it.”
Though the others weren’t entirely pleased with his words, they seemed to agree with this one—the heads of the Jeok Sa Jo members nodded in unison.
***
The next day.
“Ah, my head……”
Yi Song groaned as he rose and looked around the dormitory, his eyes widening.
He had spotted Tae Geuk Geom Wang sleeping in the corner of the barracks, half-pinned beneath Jwa Ryang.
Jwa Ryang was slender enough, but Tae Geuk Geom Wang was so small and scrawny that Yi Song felt a sudden panic he might be crushed to death.
He hurried over and moved Jwa Ryang’s body aside, and only then did Tae Geuk Geom Wang’s frame straighten out, his face relaxing into comfort.
Finally finding his composure, Yi Song muttered to himself.
“But what in the world is he doing here……”
Before he could finish, memory began to surface.
Hwangbo Jang Seong had stepped forward to pay for the drinks instead of the tearful Jwa Ryang, and the drinking bout had resumed.
The hazy memory flowed past—drink calling to drink, people becoming beasts.
“Good grief!”
One memory surfaced with crystalline clarity.
Jwa Ryang and Tae Geuk Geom Wang, both thoroughly drunk, had sworn an Oath-Brotherhood.
No, wait—that wasn’t all.
He had sworn it with everyone except Jeok Sa and Yi Song.
That memory held it clearly.
Hee Jun’s voice calling Tae Geuk Geom Wang “brother.”
“This is insane!”
If word of this reached Moo Dang—though it need not travel that far.
There were already numerous disciples of Moo Dang within the Maeng Ui Dan itself.
Once it reached their ears, there would be no shortage of people rushing to kill them all.
For them, it would be tantamount to insulting their sect master.
The place where it happened was no private chamber either.
The inn had been filled with numerous Maeng Ui Dan members.
Yet no trouble had erupted at the time—which meant no one there had recognized Tae Geuk Geom Wang.
But if word spread……there would eventually be those who would figure it out.
“I’m going to lose my mind. Hey, wake up! Wake up!”
Yi Song’s voice rousing the Jeok Sa Jo members was filled with urgency.
***
Despite having time to spare, the Jeok Sa Jo, insisting on departing at once, marched out of their encampment. Yi Hwan watched them go, and Dam In approached him with a flustered expression.
“Chief.”
His voice was thick with disbelief.
Yi Hwan understood the reason well enough, so he spoke first to the man drawing near.
“I know. It’s absurd.”
“But how could…?”
“Because he wishes it. The moment I heard that yesterday, I sent word by courier to Moo Dang asking for their guidance. This dawn, a reply came from the Chief Abbot—do as he desires.”
“Merciful heavens! So you truly mean to assign Tae Geuk Geom Wang—that man—to the Jeok Sa Jo?”
…….
Yi Hwan offered no reply, only nodded with a bitter smile playing at his lips. Dam In, his jaw slack with shock, turned away without strength.
But soon after he left, disciples of Moo Dang belonging to the Cheongjung Dae came pouring out, fully armed.
“What is this?”
Yi Hwan’s voice, infused with Nae Ryeok, cut through the air, and the disciples halted in their rush.
Among them, the First Disciple who had been dispatched as their captain hurried forward to Yi Hwan.
“Chief.”
“What is this? I received no word of any operation orders for the Cheongjung Dae.”
“Well, that is…”
He hesitated at length before speaking, and when Yi Hwan heard the full account, he gripped the back of his neck.
The First Disciple of Moo Dang spoke to him with indignation burning in his voice.
“We cannot let this stand. We will exterminate them all.”
“All of whom? The Jeok Sa Jo?”
“Yes.”
In truth, Yi Hwan wanted to ask whether they possessed such strength.
So long as Jeok Sa lived—indeed, even Jwa Ryang—none among the Moo Dang disciples dispatched to the Maeng Ui Dan could be counted upon to handle them.
But he had no wish to ask so bluntly and crush their spirits with reality.
After all, they were his brothers in Moo Dang, just as he was.
So Yi Hwan drew upon a suitable excuse.
“Do you think your Chief would overlook such a thing?”
“That is… well…”
“Mark my words: the Chief’s displeasure will come down upon you.”
“We are not afraid of rebuke, Elder Brother—or rather, Chief.”
“I did not say it would fall upon you. It will fall upon your masters. From what I know of the Chief’s temperament, he will likely rush straight to Moo Dang with a rod in hand.”
Yi Hwan continued as his junior grew visibly more distressed.
“It seems this arose from drunken folly. When he returns, I will assess the matter and set it right. So for now—go back.”
“But…”
“Should you prove stubborn and insist on going, I will not stop you. Yet know this: the consequences that follow will not be borne by you, but by your masters.”
Yi Hwan’s threat took hold. The First Disciple relayed the word to his disciples, and the murmuring Moo Dang disciples returned to their encampment.
As Yi Hwan watched them go, a dull ache throbbed behind his eyes.
Tae Geuk Geom Wang was not called the Lightning Bomb of Moo Dang for nothing.
In recent years, he had withdrawn from the world in pursuit of cultivation, and his eccentricities had lessened. But a decade ago, he and the Beggar of Ten Thousand Knots were so notorious for their peculiar habits that tales of them spread throughout the Kangho.
There was no Moo Dang disciple who did not know this, which is why Yi Hwan’s threat had proven effective.
The problem was that so long as Tae Geuk Geom Wang remained in the Maeng Ui Dan, his eccentricities would not end with this one incident.
“This is maddening.”
A note of frustration escaped Yi Hwan’s lips, and Gong Chan appeared at his side—when, Yi Hwan could not say.
“Is it the rumors circulating through the unit, sir?”
“Rumors? Already? The rumors have spread?”
Gong Chan offered Yi Hwan a smile at his alarm.
“Yes, sir. Word is that an old Daoist has sworn Oath-Brotherhood with members of the Jeok Sa Jo. Some seem to have already guessed his identity.”
Of course they had.
That was precisely why the Moo Dang disciples who heard the tale had risen up in arms.
If that rumor spread to the leadership of other sects… The thought alone made Yi Hwan dizzy. He pressed his palm to his forehead, and Gong Chan asked softly,
“Shall we suppress the rumor, sir?”
“Is there… a way?”
At Yi Hwan’s question, Gong Chan smiled meaningfully.
***
Hwan Do is not an island, despite its name.
It is a small forest in the heart of Saja Plain.
Ancient people named it so because its position in the midst of vast open plains resembled an island upon the sea.
Many birds dwell in the forest, and rare flowers bloom there in abundance, so the nearby villagers call it by another name as well: Flower Island.
Access to it is now forbidden to ordinary people, yet the warriors of the Maeng Ui Dan and the Hyeol Gwi Dae who remain on Saja Plain still call it Flower Island.
But the meaning behind that name is different. The flowers that bloom there are of a different kind altogether.
Flowers of blood.
Petals of devastation, watered by the lifeblood of warriors from both sides.
That’s why, lately, it’s come to be called by another name—Blood Island.
Truth be told, Hwan Do held no particular strategic advantage.
Situated as it was in the middle of an open plain with nothing to conceal, it lay bare and exposed to view.
Yet it happened to occupy precisely the midpoint between where the Maeng Ui Dan and the Hyeol Gwi Dae faced each other, which meant a considerable portion of their clashes had unfolded on that very ground.
Still, neither side had ever attempted to garrison it with large numbers.
It was too small to hide any sizable force, and the dense forest structure made it difficult for many to remain concealed there for long.
Most critically, Hwan Do had no spring.
There was no way to secure fresh water.
This lack of water was the greatest reason why, despite its geographic advantage at the center of conflict, neither side had bothered to occupy it.
For these and other reasons, Hwan Do, along with Saja Gwan, was called one of the Saja Plain’s useless relics.
Yet recently, Maeng Ui Dan warriors had begun to mass around Hwan Do.
The Maeng Ui Dan deployed the Heuk Ya Dae, regarded as their main fighting force, and even mobilized the Nok An Dae alongside them.
Before long, they had summoned the Cheongjung Dae as well.
Seeing this clearly displayed, the Hyeol Gwi Dae could not simply stand idle.
Soon, forces of comparable scale advanced to the opposite side of Hwan Do.
Spearheaded by the Sal Gwi, the elite combat unit of the Hyeol Gwi Dae, and supported by the Pa Gwi—battle groups that held the rear lines just as the Maeng Ui Dan’s Nok An Dae did—they were sent forth.
In truth, after the previous fighting at Saja Gwan, the Hyeol Gwi Dae had lost not only the Heuk Gwi, their supposed strongest warrior, but also the Mil Gwi, long regarded as an equal match for the Heuk Ya Dae, and the vast majority of their Blood Ghosts, leaving them no choice but to make their stand with these two combat groups.
Even so, both sides mustered seven hundred warriors each, and the forces remained balanced, tilting toward neither.
Then a shift occurred.
The Maeng Ui Dan finally committed two hundred soldiers from the Baek Ui Dae, whom the Baek Ui Ryeon had deployed beforehand.
Perhaps because the Baek Ui Dae had already agreed to perform the same duties as the Heuk Ya Dae, those connected to the Baek Ui Ryeon raised no objections to their deployment.
For the Hyeol Gwi Dae, this was a difficult position, yet they had no reinforcements readily available to deploy in response.
Drawing upon the Cham Myeong Gwi, who guarded supply depots and transport routes, would leave their main encampment dangerously depleted.
Thus, numerical superiority swiftly tilted toward the Maeng Ui Dan.
With their advantage in numbers secured, the Maeng Ui Dan reorganized their troop deployment around Hwan Do.
They withdrew half of both the Heuk Ya Dae and the Baek Ui Dae, combined them into a center column, and fashioned the remaining halves into a rear guard.
The Nok An Dae, whose numbers had swollen to five hundred with support from the Cheol Hyeol Maeng before these operations began, was split in half and deployed as the left and right wings.
The Jeok Sa Jo, who had volunteered to serve as scouts—their strength—found themselves assigned instead to the rear, positioned within the Heuk Ya Dae contingent, contrary to their hopes.
For the Jeok Sa Jo, who had always bled at the front lines, this was an unusual arrangement.
“Something feels off.”
Even when Jwa Ryang voiced his suspicions of conspiracy yet again, not a single member of the Jeok Sa Jo dissented—all of them could sense that the current situation differed markedly from what they knew.

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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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