The Patriarch of the Northern Heavens - Chapter 96

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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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Master of the Bukcheon Sword Family – Chapter 96

Regardless of whether others were startled, I paid them no mind and fixed my gaze upon the tome.
The manuscript bore no title whatsoever.
Given how weathered it appeared, it seemed to have been preserved here for quite some time.
To the untrained eye, it would have seemed a genuine relic of Pungsin himself.
But I was not deceived.
‘Senior, I entrust the interpretation to you.’
-Very well.
I possessed a stalwart ally whose experience far exceeded my own, whose understanding of martial arts was profound, and whose knowledge of Pungsin was intimate.
I carefully unrolled the manuscript and examined its contents.
‘Let me see what we have here….’
The contents appeared plausible enough.
The calligraphy was exquisite, and the formulaic passages were sufficiently intricate and elaborate to seem authentic.
But.
-A trap, this is.
Senior spoke with absolute certainty.
-Should one cultivate inner energy according to these instructions, the meridians would become entangled, the qi would spiral into chaos beyond control. Blood vessels would rupture, and one could easily fall into demonic possession, becoming a crippled husk.
‘To such an extent?’
-Indeed. The malice is concealed beneath a veneer of sophistication. Those with shallow understanding of martial arts would swallow the deception whole.
‘I see.’
I answered thus while sweeping my gaze across the chamber.
Everyone who had followed me was swallowing hard, their expressions taut with tension as they watched me.
We had obtained what was presumed to be a legacy of Pungsin.
They were gauging whether to strike at me and seize it for themselves.
Mak Ri-hyeon was no exception.
“Your words contradict what you said before.”
He deliberately raised his voice as he challenged me. “Did you not declare with certainty that there would be nothing here? Yet here stands tangible proof.”
“It is merely a trap.”
I spoke casually and tossed the book toward him.
Mak Ri-hyeon caught it with a bewildered expression.
He had clearly not anticipated I would relinquish it so readily.
“A trap, you say?”
“Indeed. At first glance, it appears to be a martial arts manual left by our founder. But take it elsewhere and study it carefully. It is an object brimming with malice, designed to plunge the greedy into demonic possession.”
“…!”
“Now that I have confirmed the nature of the object, there is nothing more to examine here. Do with that book as you wish—study it yourself or burn it for kindling.”
I spoke thus and folded my arms, as if to signal my complete indifference.
The martial artists of the Ami Sect and Blue Star Sect, now flustered, pressed toward me.
The martial artists of the Ami Sect and Blue Star Sect, flustered by his actions, clung to me.
“Jin So-hyeop…!”
“You’re really going to hand that over to Sadoryean?!”
“Did I not tell you? This is a trap. From the start, that thing isn’t even worthy of being called a demonic art—there’s no need to concern ourselves with it. As the Young Family Head of the Bukcheon Sword Family, I stake my family’s honor on this assurance. Please trust me.”
“Amitabha Buddha!”
“If Jin So-hyeop says so…”
Fortunately, they believed my words.
To be precise, they had no choice but to believe me.
Among all the people gathered here, who knew the most about Pungsin’s martial arts?
Naturally, it was me.
‘Technically, it’s the Sword Spirit, but the others don’t know that.’
And such a person had declared the object worthless.
Not merely in words—I had actually handed it over to someone else.
And I had even staked my family’s name as a guarantee…
‘If they ignored my words and revealed their greed, it would be no different than shaming the Bukcheon Sword Family.’
The Ami Sect and Blue Star Sect would find that uncomfortable as well.
While our Bukcheon Sword Family’s standing doesn’t compare to theirs, it’s not something they could afford to disregard either.
Besides, the Blue Star Sect owes us a debt.
“Hmm…”
Meanwhile, Mak Ri-hyeon, who had received the tome from me, still wore a complicated expression.
He couldn’t quite grasp whether my words were genuine or not.
But I paid it no mind.
‘I’ve given them fair warning.’
Whatever happened to them with that tome—whether they fell into demonic delusion or suffered some other fate—was no longer my concern.
I had warned them, and if they chose not to heed it, that was purely their responsibility, was it not?
There was no need to help them further.
“Sigh. So this place truly was a trap after all.”
“The Blue Star Sect has incurred another great debt to Jin So-hyeop.”
The martial artists of the Ami Sect and Blue Star Sect, now understanding that the matter had concluded, came to thank me.
They had finally realized that the tomb itself was a deception, and that this had been an enormous trap.
And had I not been here, many of these people would have died or been gravely wounded.
‘Even if they had somehow breached the trap zone, they would have been annihilated fighting each other in that vast chamber.’
And though I had taken a shortcut, I couldn’t be certain whether some mechanism awaited in the final chamber where the tome lay.
For instance, a device that would trigger the moment one entered that space.
‘Or perhaps there would have been problems even without the trap?’
Normally, they would have arrived here only after a bloody battle.
Then, seeing the tome, their eyes would have gone wild.
It was entirely foreseeable that another fight would have erupted to claim it.
Thinking of it this way, I felt anew that this place was like a lonely urn.
‘Had I not been here, a great calamity would have unfolded.’
With that thought, I felt as though I had accomplished something truly momentous.
I suspect even Black Night Fortress, having orchestrated this scheme, must find the outcome rather displeasing.
It was precisely as I entertained such thoughts.
Snap!
Mak Ri-hyeon, who had approached before me, clasped his fists in salute.
“The Sadoryeon likewise owe you an immense debt of gratitude.”
“Is that so?”
“Without you, I can well imagine what would have transpired. We would have slaughtered one another for possession of this place, and most of us would have perished here.”
“I’m glad you understand.”
“This debt shall be repaid without fail. I assure you, the compensation will be such that you shall have no cause for regret.”
I nodded quietly.
A reward from the Sadoryeon.
Regardless of the Bukcheon Sword Family’s allegiance to the Orthodox Faction, accepting such a reward would prove advantageous.
It was, after all, another card to play when circumstances demanded it.
“Then let us depart.”
Having resolved thus, I declared our return.
But it was then.
Rumble… rumble… rumble…
A tremor seemed to shake the passage through which we had traveled.
An earthquake?
‘Impossible.’
This was almost certainly a final, desperate gambit.
A Black Night Fortress spy, lurking somewhere, must have activated a mutual destruction technique.
My face hardened as I shouted.
“Run!”
We all bolted toward the entrance without hesitation.
We had to escape the collapsing false tomb of Pungsin.

* * *

A moment later.
“Huff, gasp, huff.”
“W-we’re alive!”
We barely escaped through the entrance and gasped for breath heavily.
Rumble!
The cave entrance collapsed completely shortly after.
Had we been even slightly slower, it would have been catastrophic.
“Wind God Dragon!?”
“When exactly did you enter?”
At that moment, Pung Ho Jin-in and Jung Hyun-sa-tae, who had been blocking the entrance, approached me with expressions of shock.
They seemed bewildered that I, whom they thought hadn’t come, had appeared with my disciples.
“I determined it would be difficult to enter normally, so I snuck in. I apologize for deceiving you all.”
“Then you secured Pungsin’s legacy?”
I shook my head at Pung Ho Jin-in’s words.
Then I pointed to Mak Ri-hyeon and the Sadoryeon faction members, who were still catching their breath.
“I gave what we obtained inside to them. It was a trap anyway, so it was useless.”
“A trap?”
“Yes. The others who came out with us will explain the details.”
I gestured to the other members of the Ami Sect and Blue Star Sect I had met inside.
They nodded and recounted the story to their respective sect members.
After hearing the explanation, everyone either fell silent or gasped in shock.
“I expected there would be traps, but a dark art that made us slaughter each other….”
“And you had to offer your heart to pass through the entrance of the final chamber?”
“Yes. However, thanks to Wind God Dragon’s wisdom, we were able to obtain the scripture without resorting to such barbarism.”
“Though that itself turned out to be a trap.”
The other entry teams who heard the story looked skeptical.
Even with my word, they seemed worried about handing over what was presumed to be Pungsin’s legacy to Sadoryean.
But that was the moment.
“If he said so, then that’s how it is. Why are you all so suspicious?”
Whoooosh!
An overwhelming presence suddenly filled the surroundings.
Everyone gasped and stared at her.
Sichuan First Sword Dang So-hye, revealing her true presence, stood holding an unconscious man by the collar.
“S-Sichuan First Sword! How did you come to be here….”
“I’ve been here from the beginning. You foolish lot. I simply didn’t enter in case something went wrong.”
Dang So-hye spoke thus and flicked her hand.
“…!”
The scripture that had been in Mak Ri-hyeon’s hands floated into the air and settled into hers.
“Wh-what!”
Mak Ri-hyeon stared at Dang So-hye with a bewildered expression.
But Dang So-hye paid no mind to such concerns, flipping through the pages of the book with swift, decisive motions as she absorbed its contents.
“Garbage.”
With that, she flicked her finger and tossed it to Mak Ri-hyeon.
“Ugh!”
“If you wish to live long, it would be wise not to learn such things. In any case, someone of the Sadoryean leader’s caliber would immediately recognize something amiss.”
“Then it truly is…!”
“A trap saturated with the malice of its author. These bastards prepared it with meticulous care.”
As she spoke, Dang So-hye shook the man she held in one hand.
I approached her quietly and asked.
“Is he a spy?”
“Yes. The details will emerge once we investigate, but he’s been inciting those outside exactly as Black Night Fortress desires. He’s either the one who orchestrated this affair, or he came under someone’s orders.”
“I’ve already killed one suspect from inside. Of course there may be more, but it’s impossible to distinguish them, so I couldn’t find any others.”
“Well done. Rather than exhaust ourselves searching for those we can’t discover, it’s far better to properly dispose of those we do find.”
As she said this, Dang So-hye patted my shoulder.
“You’ve accomplished great deeds. Without you, everyone inside would have perished, and we wouldn’t have captured Black Night Fortress’s spy like this.”
“Thank you for the praise.”
I bowed my head respectfully toward her.
She smiled with a knowing grin and turned to address the astonished crowd around us.
“Did you hear? All of you here. You are indebted to this one. I, Sichuan First Sword Dang So-hye, shall vouch for this fact.”
“….”
Everyone stared at us with expressions of shock.
None of them had anticipated that Dang So-hye would go so far for me.
“From now on, when you deal with this one, mind your conduct. You wouldn’t want to embarrass yourselves before your benefactor, would you?”
She spoke playfully before turning her gaze toward the Blue Star Sect and Ami Sect representatives.
“Especially you two.”
“…!”
“I hope you won’t spout nonsense about that fake scripture. I stake my name on it being a trap—not just for this one, but for myself as well. If I hear that you’ve been oppressing Wind God Dragon….”
“That will never happen, I assure you!”
Pung Ho Jin-in cried out in terror.
Jung Hyun-sa-tae also nodded with a pale face.
As members of sects in Sichuan, they knew just how ferocious an enraged Dang So-hye could become.
“Ever since you verified it, we’ve abandoned all interest in that scripture. Rather, we’ve been considering how to repay Wind God Dragon.”
“Indeed. Above all, did he not save our disciples? That alone is sufficient reason to support him.”
Both men desperately tried not to offend Dang So-hye’s sensibilities.
Whether their efforts succeeded, Dang So-hye smiled knowingly.
“Is that so? Then I look forward to seeing what sort of repayment you offer.”
“…!”
At her words, both men trembled as if struck by lightning.
-She certainly does enjoy toying with people.
The Sword Spirit clicked his tongue as he observed the scene.
But I could only smile wryly.
I could distinctly feel that Dang So-hye was lending me her aid.
‘The gratitude of the Blue Star Sect and the Ami Sect.’
Perhaps I would gain an unexpected windfall from this.

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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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