Chapter 70: Chapter 70
‘Grand Patriarch? No wonder he didn’t seem ordinary.’
Only then did it make a bit of sense.
Such as his outstanding martial prowess and the gate guards accepting him even if it meant disobeying the Patriarch’s orders.
However, there were still unsolved questions.
Why had he become a secluded old man in the back room?
Was he kicked out of the Patriarch position or something?
At that moment, the Grand Patriarch’s face heavily crumpled.
It was the most extremely annoyed expression he had seen so far.
“What did you just say? Grand Patriarch? Haven’t I repeatedly told you since the past not to call me that?”
Startled by the loud voice pouring out endlessly like a waterfall, Namgung Jin-gyeong hurriedly bowed his head.
“I apologize, Grandfather.”
“As long as you know.”
But contrary to his words, the Grand Patriarch’s face still hadn’t smoothed out.
As Namgung Jin-gyeong awkwardly raised his head.
“More importantly, why do you look like that?”
Witnessing Namgung Jin-gyeong’s ruined face, the Grand Patriarch asked in surprise.
His handsome young man’s appearance was nowhere to be seen, his face stained with bruises.
“Hahaha. You mean these wounds?”
Namgung Jin-gyeong smiled awkwardly and stroked his still-bruised cheek.
“It is my karma.”
“Karma……?”
“That’s right.”
Seeing Namgung Jin-gyeong answer refreshingly unlike his ruined face, the Grand Patriarch asked no more about it.
“By the way, you haven’t set a single foot in this place for half a year, so what brings you back?”
“That is to the guest of this clan…….”
Namgung Jin-gyeong stopped answering, suddenly turned his head, and smiled while looking at Cheon-hwi.
‘Why is he looking at me?’
As Cheon-hwi was staring at Namgung Jin-gyeong who was looking at him out of nowhere.
“No, I came to introduce this place to my friend.”
He spat out even more unexpected words.
‘What, friend?’
“What did you say, friend?”
For a moment, Cheon-hwi thought his thoughts had come out of his mouth.
However, the one who spoke was someone else.
“Are you saying a disciple of the Mount Hua Sect is your friend?”
The Grand Patriarch, with slightly surprised eyes, pointed at Cheon-hwi with his index finger and asked.
“That’s right.”
“Isn’t the relationship between our clan and the Nine Great Sects and One Gang quite strained?”
“Hahaha. What does it matter if the relationship between our clan and the Nine Great Sects and One Gang is bad?”
The laughing Namgung Jin-gyeong stared at Cheon-hwi.
“He is a friend whose heart connects with mine, completely unrelated to such worldly views.”
“You’re saying I’m friends with you?”
Unable to bear it, Cheon-hwi interjected.
“Ah, wasn’t that it?”
“What ridiculous nonsense.”
He said it flatly.
What friend?
They had only sparred a few times, and there was absolutely no reason to become friends with him.
However, contrary to Cheon-hwi’s thoughts, Namgung Jin-gyeong greatly staggered as if he had genuinely considered them friends.
“B-but didn’t you and I truly exchange swords and open our hearts to each other?”
“Yes? When?”
“T-through the sparring, didn’t we?”
“That was just sparring.”
“How could this be…….”
The shocked Namgung Jin-gyeong dropped to his knees with a devastated expression.
“Then was it all my illusion?”
Muttering, Namgung Jin-gyeong suddenly made his eyes shine and sprang to his feet.
“If so!”
Namgung Jin-gyeong, who shouted loudly enough to hurt the ears, approached with long strides.
“How about becoming friends starting today?”
What?
While Cheon-hwi was feeling dumbfounded, the Grand Patriarch approached, laughing joyfully.
“Heoheoheot. The Second Young Master of our clan and a Daoist of the Mount Hua Sect being close friends, I really like that!”
The Grand Patriarch, who had been laughing loudly for a while, flashed his eyes and asked Namgung Jin-gyeong.
“But will you be okay? If you become friends with a Daoist of the Mount Hua Sect, you might get further away from the successor position you desired so much…….”
Namgung Jin-gyeong shrugged his shoulders.
“That might have been the case in the past, but now I have absolutely no interest in things like the successor position or whatever.”
“You mean yourself?”
The Grand Patriarch widened his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Even though I stopped you so much, weren’t you making a fuss to get the successor position.”
“During that time, I was a frog in a well. I was blinded by what was in front of me and couldn’t see the distant places.”
As the Grand Patriarch stared with surprised eyes.
“Are you saying our clan is a well?”
“Honestly, compared to the world, isn’t it a well?”
As Namgung Jin-gyeong scratched the back of his head while reading the room.
“Hahaha!”
The Grand Patriarch threw his head back and burst into boisterous laughter looking at the sky.
“Yes. You are right! Compared to the world, our clan is a well.”
Soon stopping his laughter, he looked at Namgung Jin-gyeong with a much softer expression.
“You’ve changed a lot.”
“I think so too.”
At the agreement that naturally followed, the old man’s smile deepened even more.
“It is a very encouraging change.”
“It is all thanks to Little Daoist Cheon-hwi.”
‘Me?’
Cheon-hwi stared at Namgung Jin-gyeong who suddenly mentioned him.
As their eyes met, he held a smile around his mouth.
It was a very refreshing and bright smile that he had never seen before.
At that time, the Grand Patriarch initiated a conversation.
“Thank you for broadening the perspective of my foolish grandson.”
“I didn’t exactly do that though.”
“Heoheoheo. Perhaps because you’re a Daoist, your modesty is excessive.”
No, I really didn’t.
However, the Grand Patriarch, who had already firmly misunderstood, was wearing a warm gaze.
“Come to think of it, we haven’t exchanged names yet. I am called Namgung Han Sang. I was once called the Thunder Lightning Sword…….”
Even after speaking, the Grand Patriarch seemed to feel ‘Oops’ and added words later.
“It’s an alias attached so long ago that you probably wouldn’t know.”
“Thunder Lightning Sword……?”
However, contrary to the words he spat out, the moment he heard the alias, a piece of information quickly rose in Cheon-hwi’s mind.
The one who was the Patriarch of the Namgung Clan.
And the Thunder Lightning Sword.
Then there was only exactly one person.
“You were one of the previous generation’s Five Great Swordsmen of the World.”
“How did you……. It was an alias from before the Nine Provinces Three Supreme Powers, so I thought you wouldn’t know.”
Unable to hold back his pride, the Grand Patriarch twitched the corners of his mouth.
No wonder he was strong.
Cheon-hwi understood his martial prowess.
Unlike how lightly it was spoken, the name Five Great Swordsmen of the World was quite heavy.
Those who dominated the era before the Nine Provinces Three Supreme Powers were the Five Great Swordsmen of the World.
According to rumors, they were people with skills so outstanding that it was said their abilities surpassed the supreme rulers of a region and shook the world.
‘But to be in this state now…….’
Subsequently, pity slowly spread across his complexion as he observed the Grand Patriarch.
‘The sense of loss must be great.’
Had he read those thoughts?
The Grand Patriarch’s expression became strange.
“What is with that gaze?”
“What gaze?”
“As if sympathizing with me…….”
The Grand Patriarch swallowed the words he was saying and shook his head from side to side.
‘There’s no way.’
Who in the world would look at him like that?
“No. It’s nothing.”
The Grand Patriarch shook his head.
“Rather than that, can you tell me your name, no, your Daoist title now?”
“Don’t you already know?”
“I want to hear it directly.”
The Grand Patriarch’s eyes sparkled.
Facing the burdensome gaze of the elderly old man, Cheon-hwi immediately opened his mouth.
“Cheon-hwi.”
“Cheon-hwi. It’s a good Daoist title.”
Nodding his head with a satisfied face, he let out a low voice.
“By any chance, is there anything you want?”
“Pardon?”
“Due to circumstances, there’s a limit to what I can do for you right now, but I will help you with anything.”
‘Something I want?’
There was nothing to agonize over.
“Then please spar with me.”
“A spar?”
Towards the Grand Patriarch who widened his eyes as if surprised, Cheon-hwi added words.
“They say the Namgung Clan’s sword art is the absolute best in the world, so I wanted to see it.”
At the words of praise, a bright smile spread across the Grand Patriarch’s mouth.
“Heoheoheo. Our clan’s sword art indeed is the absolute best.”
A smile also formed on Cheon-hwi’s mouth.
‘If I praise them like this, they just love it to death.’
Martial artists were bound to feel good when the martial arts of their sect were praised.
Especially if it was a family clan, they were even more fanatical.
“Good. You’ve also done something for me, so.”
The Grand Patriarch spoke coolly.
‘It’s a good thing I waited.’
The conversation got longer, so he was conflicted multiple times in the middle about whether to leave or not, but fortunately, his waiting wasn’t in vain.
‘If it’s the Namgung Clan’s martial arts unleashed by a master of that level, the class would be different, right?’
Cheon-hwi’s mouth, holding high expectations, slowly opened.
“Can I see it right now?”
“Heoheo. You seem quite confident.”
“Because without that, I’m a corpse.”
The Grand Patriarch let out a laugh as he looked at the Daoist possessing childish confidence.
He had outstanding skills, but as expected, he was young.
“Your skills are preeminent, but excessive confidence will become a great weakness in the Jianghu.”
“That has never happened so far, so I can’t relate.”
“Then I will let you know.”
The Grand Patriarch extended his hand toward Namgung Jin-gyeong, who had been quietly watching from the side.
“Could I borrow your sword?”
“Here it is.”
Namgung Jin-gyeong immediately handed over his sword.
For a swordsman to hand over their sword to another person was something that didn’t make sense, but the two were none other than a grandfather-grandson relationship.
Soon, the Grand Patriarch drew the sword.
Seureureung…
Following him, Cheon-hwi, who drew his sword out of courtesy, hurriedly added words.
“Ah! Since we’re at it, please let me know what kind of martial art it is before you unleash it.”
“Is there a reason to do that?”
“I should know properly what kind of martial art it is.”
“You have a lot of interest in our clan’s martial arts.”
“……That is true.”
Cheon-hwi’s pupils deepened.
The pupils that had become completely pitch-black like a bottomless pit were chillingly fierce, but since they disappeared immediately in a split second, nobody had seen his gaze.
“Then starting with one of our clan’s sword arts, the Lightning Thirteen Sword Thunder…….”
The moment the speaking Grand Patriarch was about to lift the sword to display the sword art.
“Ah! If it’s that one, it’s fine.”
Cheon-hwi cut off his words.
“I saw that person unleashing it.”
As soon as those words ended, Cheon-hwi immediately swung his sword and spoke.
“It’s like this, right?”
Flash!
A sword light brushed past the Grand Patriarch’s side.
“……!”
The Grand Patriarch’s eyes flashed open.
The sword light just before was the Lightning Thirteen Sword Thunder.
If only the internal energy was proper, it was perfect!
“How can you use the Lightning Thirteen Sword Thunder…….”
Looking at the dumbfounded Grand Patriarch, Cheon-hwi parted his lips.
“I’m telling you, I saw what that person unleashed.”
Along with his words, he pointed at Namgung Jin-gyeong.
He too, upon seeing Cheon-hwi’s Lightning Thirteen Sword Thunder, could not suppress his astonishment.
“Are you saying you copied it?”
“Yes.”
Seeing Cheon-hwi’s confident expression, the Grand Patriarch’s face stiffened faintly.
“……The Lightning Thirteen Sword Thunder is an outstanding sword art to the point that it’s difficult to even grasp it just by seeing it once or twice. But how…….”
‘Ah, that?’
Cheon-hwi chuckled.
Having strong pride in their martial arts was what martial artists were.
However, to have someone copy their martial art this quickly could be something that greatly damaged their pride.
“Because it certainly is quite a high-level sword art, I couldn’t even guess what kind of sword art it was just by seeing it once or twice.”
Seeing the Grand Patriarch’s stiffened expression relax, Cheon-hwi added words.
“So I saw it about six times? Around then, I figured it out.”
Enjoyed the chapter?
If you like our work, consider supporting us on Ko-fi. This site solely runs on donations. Every donation helps us keep translating!
Support on Ko-fi