Chapter 85: Chapter 85
Deep within the Murim Alliance.
Inside a quiet and tranquil room, a middle-aged man was moving his brush over the blank paper placed before him.
Swish… Swish…
How many times had he repeated the long lines appearing on the paper following the middle-aged man’s gentle hand gestures?
A moment later, an orchid overflowing with vitality was completed on the white paper.
Looking at the completed orchid painting, the middle-aged man wore a satisfied smile on his lips.
“Hmm. This time it’s quite decent.”
The face of the middle-aged man, who laid down his brush and lifted his head, was truly an impressive sight.
A slender jawline and a high nose bridge.
Not only that, his gentle eyes were enough to tell that he would have been a handsome man renowned throughout the world in his youth.
His identity, exuding an extraordinary impression and atmosphere, was no ordinary person.
The Murim Alliance Leader, Heart Righteousness Sword Hero (Simui Geomhyeop)!
He was a legendary figure who rose to the position of Murim Alliance Leader alone with just a single sword, a hero even the Nine Great Sects and One Gang yielded to.
Wheee…
His hair, neatly tied up, flowed down through his coronet in the blowing wind and swept across his face.
And that amplified his already extraordinary atmosphere even more.
At the same time, his lips slowly parted.
“You may come out now.”
As soon as the question ended, a man appeared in the empty courtyard.
With his hair a half-and-half mix of white and black, making it impossible to gauge whether he was an old man or a middle-aged man, the man looked at the drawn ink painting with a calm gaze.
“It is overflowing with more vitality than before.”
The man carefully scanned the orchid painting.
A single ink painting drawn only with ink was full of vitality, creating the illusion of a real orchid.
The Alliance Leader formed a wrinkled smile.
“It is thanks to you. I took your advice to try using the brush like a sword, and this good result came out.”
“I am glad it was helpful, Alliance Leader.”
A man who directly sought out and had a private audience with the Alliance Leader, who had been reclusive for several years.
He, too, was a formidable figure.
The Strategist of the Murim Alliance, Zhuge Gong.
He was a figure who remained alone in the Alliance even when the entire Zhuge Clan withdrew from it, known as the brains of the Murim Alliance.
“By the way, isn’t this quite interesting.”
The Alliance Leader dropped the brush as he spoke.
Roll…
The brush, still stained with ink, rolled over the paper and soiled the completed ink painting.
However, as if he had lost interest in the ink painting, he paid no attention to it.
Instead, he lifted his head and gazed into the empty air.
Staring vacantly at the location of the martial arts arena, he let out a low voice.
“To think that the Mount Hua Sect, not the Sword Pavilion or the Qingcheng Sect, produced an expert in the Heavenly Martial Realm. Who in the world would have expected it.”
“It is all my negligence.”
The Strategist quickly bowed his head.
“I shouldn’t have hastily expected that the Mount Hua Sect would now decline and withdrawn my attention.”
“No. I would have done the same.”
The Alliance Leader smiled gently and brushed it off.
“If you had predicted this situation, Strategist, I would have suspected you were an immortal.”
The Alliance Leader spat out jokingly.
If an expert in the Heavenly Martial Realm had appeared in the Sword Pavilion, the Qingcheng Sect, or another of the Nine Great Sects and One Gang, anyone would have accepted it.
For they had accumulated strength for a long time and were currently in a situation closest to their prime.
On the other hand, the Mount Hua Sect was not.
A state where it wouldn’t be strange if they collapsed at any time.
Because it was a place walking the path of decline after experiencing the Yulim Blood History disaster, in which they lost the outstanding rising star Plum Blossom Sword Hero and the Plum Blossom Swordsmen all at once.
Therefore, hadn’t he himself also completely excluded the Mount Hua Sect?
“They say form is temporary, but class is permanent. So this is still the Nine Great Sects and One Gang. Their underlying strength accumulated over a long time cannot be ignored.”
The Alliance Leader, who had been quietly muttering, asked the Strategist.
“I see the Beggars’ Sect contacted the Mount Hua Sect.”
“That is correct.”
“Do you think the Mount Hua Sect will be able to fulfill the roles of the Sword Pavilion or the Qingcheng Sect, Strategist?”
“As you know, by achieving a tie with the Zhongnan Sword Saint this time, the Mount Hua Divine Sword’s reputation is piercing the sky. Not only that, but recently, the Seven Plum Blossom Swords, led by the One Red Plum Blossom, have also shown formidable skills and are building up their reputation…….”
The Strategist’s eyes narrowed.
“Not right now, but I consider it will be sufficient if they are only given time. Furthermore, since they have formed an alliance with the Beggars’ Sect, that time would have been further shortened.”
“Is that your answer?”
The Alliance Leader steadily gazed at the Strategist, who nodded quietly instead of answering.
How long had he looked like that?
“Heoheoheo.”
The Alliance Leader burst into hearty laughter.
Following that, withdrawing his momentum, he stroked his long, beautiful beard once.
“My thoughts are the same as yours. The current Mount Hua Sect shows a momentum that will soon catch up to the Sword Pavilion and the Qingcheng Sect……. But.”
In an instant, the atmosphere inside the room changed.
The gentle atmosphere from just a moment ago vanished, and an icy cold air began to envelop the standing Strategist.
“But there is something wrong.”
The Strategist’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
“What is it?”
“The Zhongnan Sword Saint did not use his full power in the martial arts duel.”
“……Are you saying the Zhongnan Sword Saint went easy on the Mount Hua Divine Sword?”
“That is right.”
The Alliance Leader’s voice was calm.
“And the rumors floating around the streets will also be different from what is known.”
His two eyes deepened like an abyss.
He knew about the White Snake God.
His level of martial arts, and the master who taught him too.
Therefore, he completely did not believe the rumor that the Mount Hua Divine Sword killed the White Snake God.
“Looking at it now, it is certain that there was someone helping the Mount Hua Divine Sword from behind when he defeated the White Snake God.”
Grasping what the Alliance Leader was trying to say, the Strategist spoke in a low voice.
“……I will investigate it in detail.”
At the Strategist’s words, the Murim Alliance Leader erased the thoughts he was having and wore a faint smile.
“Heoheo. To think the Strategist is moving personally, it is truly reliable.”
The Alliance Leader slowly stood up.
Walking toward the courtyard where flowers had bloomed, he fiddled with an orchid and asked.
“How is the Four Black Alliances?”
“They are not budging an inch.”
“Hmm, as expected, the level of the White Ghost Castle collapsing cannot shake the Alliance Lord.”
If someone who knew them in detail had seen it, a conversation that would throw them into bewilderment continued consecutively.
It was natural because the Murim Alliance Leader was a figure who had never stepped out of his residence for several years since becoming the Alliance Leader.
Also, what about the Strategist?
He was someone who had handed everything over to his disciple and Vice Strategist, Seol Geom, and gone into hiding.
Yet now, they were conversing as if they knew everything about how the situation outside was turning out.
“Do you think there will be any setbacks to the plan?”
The Strategist shook his head.
“There are none. There were a few twists and turns, but it is flowing smoothly. If things go as they are, the Nine Great Sects and One Gang will be shattered and divided within ten years according to the plan.”
The Alliance Leader clasped his hands behind his back and straightened his waist.
“Heoheo, it is going well.”
Whispering, he looked at the Strategist.
The Strategist’s expression was calm.
However, the Murim Alliance Leader was reading it.
The deep resolve and pledge hidden within the firm expressionlessness like a mask.
“Then proceed from now on.”
* * *
Late at night, Cheon-hwi’s lips twitched as he practiced the Plum Blossom Divine Art and absorbed the cold energy remaining in his body.
The effects of circulating his qi every day while staying in the Murim Alliance were beginning to show.
‘Yes, it should be at least this much.’
A satisfied smile graced Cheon-hwi’s lips as he observed the roughly accumulated internal energy.
The yin energy of the Extreme Yin Earth Spirit Body, which he had only encountered through writing, was purer and cleaner than anything else.
‘What remains is now about five pun. I should be able to absorb it all in three or four days.’
Feeling the cold energy lodged in the corner of his lower dantian, still unable to be absorbed, Cheon-hwi ended his qi circulation and slowly opened his eyes.
Grin…
Cheon-hwi’s lips rose even more than before as he looked at the wide-open room.
Just a day ago, he had stayed in a shabby room, but now an antique room welcomed him.
The final match with the Zhongnan Sect.
It was a draw, but the pavilion he obtained as the Zhongnan Sword Saint stepped back was in a completely different class compared to his previous lodging.
“It finally feels like I am staying in a place where people live.”
While looking at the room in the changed pavilion, the blue moonlight beautifully shattered through the window.
As if bewitched, his gaze headed outside the window.
Looking at the silver river that appeared in the dark sky, a scene of the martial arts duel held today came to mind amidst it.
The internal energy resembling a river of the Milky Way, and the footwork that seemed to cross that river.
Cheon-hwi’s eyes, comparing the martial arts performed by the Zhongnan Sword Saint to the Milky Way, embraced the darkness and gradually deepened.
After a while, his mouth opened.
“So, for what matter have you come?”
At that moment.
Rustle…
A figure appeared beneath the blue moonlight.
It was none other than the Zhongnan Sword Saint.
“I hid my presence, yet you noticed it.”
“Ah, was that hiding it?”
The Zhongnan Sword Saint’s two eyes widened.
“Are you saying you already knew?”
“Isn’t it strange not to know?”
Surprise colored the Zhongnan Sword Saint’s eyes.
Having reached the Heavenly Martial Realm, he was already in a state of melting into and assimilating as one with nature.
Yet, since a young man who seemed to have just passed twenty grasped his presence from the very beginning, wonderment beyond admiration flowed out.
“Dragon Pearl Beggar praised you until his lips dried out, and it wasn’t an overstatement.”
“Yes? Who did you say?”
Cheon-hwi’s eyebrows drew the character for eight.
‘This is different from the details of the previous deal, isn’t it?’
He recalled his transaction with Dragon Pearl Beggar.
Clearing the past between the two sects in exchange for erasing his information.
Yet now, the Zhongnan Sword Saint said he had heard about him from Dragon Pearl Beggar.
‘There’s no way that old man like an old ginger would just hand over information, even while breaking a deal…….’
Recalling the Beggars’ Sect Leader who was like an old fox, Cheon-hwi’s eyes narrowed.
“What did the Beggars’ Sect Leader say?”
“He said you are a talent who might contend for the title of world’s best in the future generations. Of course, it feels a bit excessive…….”
“That is true, though.”
The Zhongnan Sword Saint lost his words for a moment.
The future generations’ world’s best acknowledged by the Beggars’ Sect Leader.
If these words had leaked elsewhere, they would have caused a huge ripple.
Therefore, it was only natural to usually feign modesty and say it wasn’t true.
‘Heoheo, so he’s acknowledging that.’
Cheon-hwi in front of him obediently acknowledged it.
No, he spoke as if it was a matter of course.
“Heoheo.”
A chuckle leaked out for a moment.
‘His confidence is the world’s best.’
A martial artist of the murim before being a Daoist.
Furthermore, perhaps because he was young, showing such ambition felt favorable.
‘It is exactly as the Beggars’ Sect Leader said.’
Bursting into admiration internally, the Zhongnan Sword Saint recalled what happened this morning.
Dragon Pearl Beggar, whom he met after the martial arts duel ended, stealthily leaked Cheon-hwi’s story while handing over information about this matter.
As if asking him to recognize it.
He initially let his words go in one ear and out the other, wondering if he was trying to use him again, but.
‘The one you must pay more attention to than the Mount Hua Divine Sword in the Mount Hua Sect is that guy.’
He fell for it completely at the following single remark.
And up until now, those words the Beggars’ Sect Leader had said seemed to be correct.
The skill to figure out his presence.
And the attitude overflowing with confidence.
If he even possessed martial arts skills just as the Beggars’ Sect Leader had said on top of this…….
‘The recent movements of the Four Black Alliances and the Flying Heaven Society have been unusual. Heaven is helping us.’
The annihilation of the White Ghost Castle and the movements of the Flying Heaven Society.
A crack was occurring in the balance of the Nine Provinces Three Supreme Powers that had lasted for a long time.
‘A war will break out someday.’
The Zhongnan Sword Saint felt, no, was certain that a war would break out.
The murim is a world where the strong rule supreme.
Peace could not last forever.
‘In this situation, the appearance of a new star in the Alliance is a good omen. By the way…….’
The Zhongnan Sword Saint’s eyes flashed.
There was one thing remaining.
“Then I want to experience once to see if you possess such power.”
With those words, he looked at Cheon-hwi.
A Daoist wearing the Daoist robe of the Mount Hua Sect.
However, his actions and tone of speech were closer to a martial artist of the murim than a Daoist.
‘Will his character indeed be upright?’
Skill was important, but the most important thing in the Righteous Faction was an upright character.
“Experience?”
Meanwhile, Cheon-hwi’s eyes half-opened.
He thought this was just right.
He already had an interest in the Zhongnan Sword Saint through the martial arts duel back then.
Both his level of martial arts and the martial arts he learned.
Yet to think he would speak first.
Cheon-hwi grinned.
“Alright. Shall we have a spar, then?”
Looking at Cheon-hwi, who immediately accepted, the Zhongnan Sword Saint’s expression became noticeably softer.
“No, a spar is too much.”
He refused a spar.
“Then what will you do?”
The Zhongnan Sword Saint smiled radiantly.
After that, he let out a low voice.
“Do you perhaps know of something called Sword Discussion Sparring?”
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