The Patriarch of the Northern Heavens - Chapter 33

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

Master of the Bukcheon Sword Family – Chapter 33

I fixed Lee Tae-gyeom with a cold, piercing gaze.
Torture had left him a patchwork of wounds, his hair disheveled and matted, his clothes torn to tatters.
Yet I felt no pity for him.
I had endured far too much at his hands to afford him sympathy.
‘What if Lee Tae-gyeom had never existed in my first life?’
The Bukcheon Sword Family might not have fallen.
Father might still be alive, and the elders would never have dared commit their crimes.
But his very existence had changed everything.
Though he was merely a pawn of the Dark Shadow Force—the colossal power known as Black Night Fortress—
I could not bring myself to forgive Lee Tae-gyeom.
“Time to pay for your sins? Ha, hahahaha!”
Lee Tae-gyeom laughed like a madman, his half-severed hair hanging limp.
“Pay for what sins? Is it a crime to have led the Bukcheon Sword Family in place of you incompetent fools?”
“Stop spouting nonsense. What you did to Father is unforgivable.”
“Hmph. That’s the fault of a family head who swallowed poison without a shred of suspicion. If he had any real ability, he would have overcome it himself!”
“You deranged old fool—!”
Hearing such drivel, rage ignited within me.
Lee Tae-gyeom twisted his lips, sensing my fury.
“You made a mistake. It seems you dragged me here alone for revenge… do you truly believe someone like you could defeat me, no matter how hard you struggle?”
“Had you been in full condition, it would have been difficult.”
Though I had inherited the Pungsin Technique, Lee Tae-gyeom was a formidable master who had reached the Harmony Realm years ago.
Should we clash in the future, who knows—but had we fought at full strength, I would have been limited to exchanging a few blows before fleeing.
But now?
“You’re practically dead on your feet, yet your confidence overflows.”
Lee Tae-gyeom was, quite literally, dying.
Great-Uncle had inflicted severe internal injuries, and torture had added fresh wounds.
Moreover, during his imprisonment in Thunder Prison, they had barely fed or watered him, so his recovery had been glacial.
He was far from his peak.
Yet Lee Tae-gyeom seemed confident.
“No matter how weakened I am, I’m more than capable of dealing with a mere child like you!”
With that cry, Lee Tae-gyeom launched a sudden assault.
What followed was a claw technique.
He channeled his inner force through his long-grown nails, wielding them as weapons.
But—
“How pathetic.”
I was already moving before his attack could close the distance.
The wind itself had warned me of his incoming strike.
Is this the effect of Pungsin’s technique?
I immediately twisted my body to evade his strike, then drove my knee upward with all my strength.
Thud!
“Ugh!?”
Lee Tae-gyeom let out a pained groan.
His arm, which he’d been withdrawing, caught the full force of my knee and bent at an unnatural angle.
Gritting his teeth, he unleashed another martial technique.
‘I can sense it.’
Where he would strike next.
And exactly how he would attack.
I felt the currents of wind and evaded or deflected every assault with perfect timing.
Lee Tae-gyeom’s expression twisted in disbelief.
“How… how is this possible!?”
“I told you.”
I channeled the Yaksha Transformation and drove my fist forward.
“You would pay the price for your sins.”
Crack!
This time my strike connected squarely with his ribs.
“Cough!”
Lee Tae-gyeom hastily summoned his defensive inner force to cushion the impact, but he couldn’t fully negate it.
Boom-boom-boom! His body tumbled across the ground.
He struggled to his feet through the pain, his eyes burning with an emotion he couldn’t quite comprehend.
“You… were you hiding your true strength all along?”
“Figure it out yourself.”
I replied coldly, gripping my sword hilt as I charged forward.
Gale Step.
Whoooosh!
Responding to my will, a fierce whirlwind wrapped around my entire body, maximizing my momentum.
My speed was incomparable to before.
I capitalized on that velocity, unleashing a barrage of strikes at him.
Boom-boom-boom!
“Aaaaaargh!”
Wind-wrapped fists hammered relentlessly across his entire frame.
Each individual strike carried modest destructive power, but together they became devastatingly overwhelming.
Lee Tae-gyeom’s defensive inner force shattered instantly.
Crack!
His bones snapped and his body, now a bloody mess, was hurled backward.
I shifted my stance to finish this.
But then—
“Jin Muyeol!!”
Boom, boom, boom!
In that instant, an overwhelming force erupted from Lee Tae-gyeom.
“Even if I die now, I’ll take you with me!”
His power had suddenly surged like this.
Had he opened his Innate True Qi?
He seemed determined to kill me even at the cost of mutual destruction.
“Ha.”
I twisted the corner of my mouth into a smile.
Such deep hatred toward me—it was something to welcome.
The more he thrashed about, the greater the despair he would feel in his final moment.
“Die!”
Lee Tae-gyeom charged forward without hesitation.
His expression alone made him look like a yaksha crawling up from the depths of hell.
He reached out to seize my throat.
The momentum was tremendous.
If he grabbed me, it would surely be the end.
But I had no intention of submitting meekly.
“Huh.”
I exhaled lightly and felt the ‘flow’ that the wind conveyed to me.
Then I explosively drew upon the Vajra Yaksha Technique.
Simultaneously, I unleashed the first stance of the Gale Whirlwind Sword.
Gale Slash.
Whoosh, crack, crack!
My blade, wrapped in gale force, severed Lee Tae-gyeom’s arm at the shoulder.
For a moment, he forgot even the pain, staring stupidly at his own severed forearm floating through the air.
Had he truly not expected his attack to fail?
It didn’t matter.
I intended to end this now.
“I’ll send the others from Black Night Fortress soon enough.”
I spoke and altered the trajectory of my blade’s arc.
Slice!
Lee Tae-gyeom’s head flew into the void.
Thud!
His body collapsed to the ground.
The first life ended.
Elder Won-ju, who had greatly contributed to the destruction of the Bukcheon Sword Family, fell thus.
“You’ve worked hard.”
My Great-Uncle, who had followed me just in case, patted my shoulder.
I looked at him and slowly sheathed my sword.
“Your words from last time were of great help to me.”
Unlike the Founder, that advice to forge the shape of martial arts using Pungsin’s technique—it was invaluable.
Thanks to that counsel, I could apply Pungsin’s technique to the Gale Consecutive Sword.
But it wasn’t limited to the Gale Consecutive Sword alone.
‘The Gale Step, and even my ordinary fists—they all carry the power of Pungsin’s technique now.’
It manifested as wind, lending me its strength.
I realized that if I so desired, I could summon a tempest with my own will.
And if I could master this freely, I would ascend to even greater heights.
‘Truly, I’ve received an extraordinary gift.’
I felt renewed gratitude toward the Founder for leaving such an opportunity for his descendants.
If I have the chance to meet him again, I must offer my proper thanks.
With that thought, I returned to the family estate with Great-Uncle.

* * *

The family compound was in complete chaos.
The Thunder Prison lay in ruins, guards were sprawled unconscious, and a prisoner had escaped—it was only natural.
I did not move to quell this disorder.
Instead, under the pretext of hunting the escaped beast, I organized pursuit squads and continued the search.
Why, you ask?
‘I wanted to send a warning to Black Night Fortress.’
Many knew that something stood behind Lee Tae-gyeom.
The Elder Won-ju faction that followed him would certainly sense it keenly.
Beyond them, those entangled in the power structure of the Bukcheon Sword Family had largely caught on as well.
So this opportunity was my chance to expose their existence slightly.
‘But I mustn’t pin everything on them completely.’
If I did, I would expose Black Night Fortress’s existence and risk drawing them into the open entirely.
The problem was that the Bukcheon Sword Family wasn’t yet prepared to face them.
So I needed to make them wary while allowing the matter to pass quietly—a delicate balance.
Of course, achieving this wasn’t difficult.
“We’ve found him!”
Soon the pursuit squad discovered Lee Tae-gyeom’s headless corpse.
It was inevitable. After all, I hadn’t even buried it, so they found it quickly.
“Could someone have silenced him…?”
“How gruesome.”
The whispers of the Iron Blood Sword Squad warriors reached my ears.
They too seemed to have heard something and were letting their imaginations run wild.
None of them suspected I was responsible.
After all, I could kill him even while standing still—there was no need to do it this way.
‘Besides, no one has yet gauged the extent of my cultivation.’
Not long ago, I was still treated as a martial artist below the first rank.
Yet recently, I had accumulated numerous accomplishments through various endeavors.
This time, I had even managed to repel Lee Tae-gyeom’s assault.
Thus, the clan members seemed to estimate my realm at least at the level of a perfected peak master or beyond.
Of course, in reality I surpassed even that…
But there was no need to reveal it yet.
After Lee Tae-gyeom’s corpse was discovered.
The Bukcheon Sword Family underwent tremendous upheaval.
The corruption he had been involved in came pouring to light.
Simultaneously, the elders and senior members who had served as Lee Tae-gyeom’s subordinates were stripped of their positions or placed under house arrest.
Those who remained were either those who had confessed their own crimes first, or those genuinely uninvolved in any misconduct.
My Great-Uncle, who had become the new head of the Elder Council, left the newly vacated elder positions unfilled.
He said it was to later promote those among the clan members who worked diligently and had made great contributions to the rank of elder.
‘A rational decision.’
If that were to happen, the clan members would naturally have no choice but to watch our every move.
In the end, the family’s power had returned to my Great-Uncle and Father.
Overall, matters seemed to be progressing favorably, but I remained vigilant.
I could not fathom how the Black Night Fortress faction might interfere next.
‘How would they react to this incident?’
Would they believe we had orchestrated schemes against them, or would they simply think Lee Tae-gyeom had lost in a power struggle within the family?
‘I would prefer they think the latter…’
But there was ample possibility they would believe the former and attempt something.
With our internal collaborator gone, they would likely try to touch us using forces outside the Bukcheon Sword Family.
‘Or they might observe and focus their attention elsewhere.’
Well, that remained unknown.
I could only do my part and prepare thoroughly.
More importantly, as family matters seemed to be settling, I turned my gaze outward.
‘I have eliminated the internal enemy. But I have yet to deal with the external one.’
That external enemy was the other principal culprit who had poisoned both Father and me.
If Lee Tae-gyeom had administered the poison directly to us, then the external enemy was the one who had supplied it.
However, I did not move immediately.
I had entrusted the investigation of that matter to someone.
And how much time had passed?
“Young Master. A letter has arrived for you.”
Sa Gong-cheon respectfully handed me a letter while I was training.
It was a crude letter without proper wrapping.
Yet I could not help but smile upon opening it.
This was precisely the letter I had been waiting for.
“Sa Gong, prepare for an outing.”
“Yes?”
I spoke to Sa Gong-cheon with a serious tone.
“It seems Moyong the Great Hero has caught the tail of those Wuzhu Sect bastards.”

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