Chapter 284: Shadow War (4)
Uung! Uuuung!
The blue true qi surrounding his entire body was so clear and deep that it made one feel refreshed just by looking at it.
Murong Yu’s true qi was like that. The color of the true qi, which was condensed and compressed to the point of being emitted into the visible realm, was refreshing as if his nature was oozing out, making it very good to look at.
However, why was it?
Perhaps there was a turbidity in his mind recently, but the deep blue true qi seemed to waver slightly uneasily as well.
Seureureu.
Murong Yu, who had controlled his inside for a long time, finally finished his breathing exercises.
“It’s amazing.”
Murong Yu opened his eyes.
Yeon Ho-jeong was sitting on the windowsill.
“I roughly knew, but it’s hard to find a person whose time of exhaling and inhaling is this drawn out. To the point where even I find it hard to notice when you inhale and when you exhale.”
Murong Yu smiled.
“That is exactly the characteristic of my martial arts.”
“But you aren’t showing martial arts that suit that breathing.”
“Haha, right. This isn’t easy at all.”
People who have properly trained internal energy generally have long breaths. However, it is hard to find a case that is extremely long and shallow like Murong Yu no matter what.
Murong Yu’s breathing is much longer and quieter than Yeon Ho-jeong’s. That immediately speaks of his martial arts characteristics, where Murong Yu shows strength in linking techniques that flow like water rather than one-hit certain kills.
Therefore, he has good endurance and no openings, and has the tenacity to revive the broken flow even if the flow is broken.
However, Murong Yu did not do that when he had a spar with Yeon Ho-jeong. Yeon Ho-jeong’s martial arts were indeed fierce, but if he had faced him with constant linking techniques like his own breathing, the outcome would not have been decided so quickly.
“Younger Brother Yeon also shows martial arts that do not suit your breathing in a different meaning.”
Yeon Ho-jeong realizes martial arts centered on explosive output and the profound principle of one-hit certain kills.
Such martial arts usually have extreme techniques. Whether I die or the opponent dies, they are full of tricks to produce a result in a single strike, so the moment the sword is drawn, it becomes a life-or-death battle.
A martial art of the style where if the opponent doesn’t die, I die. Naturally, there are few variations and it overflows with murderous intent, and he enjoys using the kind of martial arts that breaks the opponent’s spirit from the beginning.
What was surprising was Yeon Ho-jeong’s breathing.
He was someone who handled his breathing freely. However, his usual breathing is long and soft.
However, it wasn’t that he used unsuitable martial arts like Murong Yu, but because he had to use that level of breathing to prevent his usual physical stamina consumption.
“It’s because I’ve done physical training like I was going to die. Seeing that I still feel a lack even after that, as expected, there is no end to the Martial Path.”
Yeon Ho-jeong has experience.
The experience of his days as the Dark Emperor, that one experience of reaching the ultimate realm, pulled him up to his current realm in just a few years.
However, right now Yeon Ho-jeong was walking a completely different path while being similar to himself from that time. Based on the enlightenment of his days as the Dark Emperor, he was stepping up to advance toward a new direction, a higher realm.
‘That’s why it’s slower than expected.’
If he had walked the same Martial Path as his days as the Dark Emperor, he would have already been aiming for his father’s level, or even higher.
However, doing so is meaningless. Thinking of the enemies he will fight in the future, and to fully carry the countless Martial Principles he could not obtain at that time, he had to endure the slow growth right now.
Also, Yeon Ho-jeong firmly believed without a doubt.
Even if he fell behind for a year or two right now, in three or four years he would be able to rise to a completely different realm from before.
That he was walking a path where he could reach the peak of a lofty mountain, which he couldn’t even look up to during his days as the Dark Emperor, faster and more certainly.
“By the way.”
Murong Yu smiled.
“I knew Younger Brother Yeon had come in.”
“I openly made a presence. Even so, since you didn’t stop, I just stood guard for a bit.”
“How shameless.”
“Are you surprised anew?”
“Hahaha.”
Murong Yu sat on the bed.
“Did you come because of the Divine Maiden of the Western Regions?”
Yeon Ho-jeong’s eyes shook.
“Did you know?”
Murong Yu shrugged his shoulders.
“It seems I am also getting to know a little about Younger Brother Yeon. It seems you yourself tried not to show it, but to my eyes, you definitely had a look of feeling uncomfortable with the Divine Maiden of the Western Regions.”
“Feeling uncomfortable…….”
“To be precise, it looked closer to trying to keep a distance.”
Yeon Ho-jeong smiled bitterly.
“It seems I made you care without realizing it. I’m sorry.”
“What’s there to be sorry for. Don’t say it like that. However, it didn’t seem like you were uncomfortable seeing the Divine Maiden of the Western Regions’s origin or skin color. You’re not that kind of person in the first place anyway.”
“…….”
“If Younger Brother Yeon has a worry, even if I can’t solve it for you, it seems possible to share the burden.”
Yeon Ho-jeong smiled.
“You mean you’ve become that reliable?”
Murong Yu patted his forearm.
“Of course.”
Yeon Ho-jeong, who stared blankly at Murong Yu, soon sighed.
“At a moment like this, I didn’t know I would come to tell the secrets until now.”
In the end, Yeon Ho-jeong also informed Murong Yu of the facts he had only told his father and Muk Bi.
Of course, he left out the story about his previous life. Not because he couldn’t trust Murong Yu, but because he thought such a story would only uselessly eat up time in the current situation.
Like that, Yeon Ho-jeong unpacked all the stories about the Three Fanatical Cults.
‘…….’
A strange light shone in Yeon Ho-jeong’s eyes as he finished the story.
Murong Yu’s expression was calmer than expected. He seemed surprised, but he didn’t seem greatly shocked either.
“So it was like that.”
“You don’t seem very surprised.”
“I was surprised.”
“You don’t seem to disbelieve it either.”
Murong Yu shook his head.
“I know that Younger Brother Yeon is not a person who would lie with something like this.”
“Really?”
“At the same time, I finally understand now.”
Murong Yu’s eyes deepened.
“It’s a bit much to bring this kind of story out of my own mouth, but it seems you genuinely intend to make me the Murim Alliance Leader.”
“……Yeah, I’m sincere.”
“I thought about it. Why an outstandingly capable genius would go out of his way to make me the Murim Alliance Leader. I worried if perhaps it wasn’t a trick trying to do something by using me.”
Yeon Ho-jeong smiled.
“So you weren’t completely clueless?”
“Even if I were clueless, I would have no choice but to doubt. Of course, that was at first, and now I don’t have such thoughts at all.”
“If you had been having such thoughts, you wouldn’t have asked to become sworn brothers first.”
“Exactly.”
Murong Yu closed his eyes.
“If you simply wanted to form a friendship, just active interaction would have been enough. But Younger Brother Yeon was different. You were looking straight at me as a person, but at the same time, I knew you wanted something from me.”
“…….”
“I was curious, but I didn’t ask in detail. Whatever it was, I didn’t think the guy I made my younger brother for the first time in my life would betray me.”
“Or, it could be that you didn’t want to believe so.”
“Of course that could also be true. The important thing is that I trust Younger Brother Yeon.”
Murong Yu nodded his head.
“Yes, it was this. I don’t know what my younger brother saw in me, but my younger brother saw that only if I became the Alliance Leader could we stop them.”
“That’s right.”
“Also, listening like this, their strength seems to be amazing to an unprecedented degree.”
“It’s immense.”
Murong Yu, who had been lost in thought for a moment, interlocked his fingers.
“I will summarize. Outside the borders, there is a group called the Three Fanatical Cults. And the strength of that group is at a level where each one rivals the Murim Alliance, and they are working behind the scenes to make the Central Plains theirs in a single breath.”
“That’s right.”
“Among them, a group called the Evil Lust Cult secretly supported the Black Dragon Manor, but currently, the Black Dragon Manor Master, the Combat King Yang Cheon, has realized the purpose of the Evil Lust Cult. Thus, Yang Cheon is also in a situation where he is keeping an eye on the Evil Lust Cult.”
“That’s right.”
“The reason Younger Brother Yeon hasn’t informed the Murim Alliance leadership about this matter is to prevent confusion in the Alliance, and at the same time, you worried that if this side moved hastily, the Three Cults would hide again to an unseen place.”
“Furthermore, because there might even be those who sympathized with them just in case.”
“Right. Lastly, the people who currently know about their existence are Strategist Zhuge, and Clan Head Yeon and Vice Commander Muk. Is there anything I have grasped incorrectly up to here?”
“No. You understood properly.”
“I see. And…….”
Murong Yu’s eyes flashed.
“To your eyes, you’re saying that Divine Maiden of the Western Regions seems like a string of the Three Cults?”
Yeon Ho-jeong nodded his head.
“I’m not certain. However, I see the probability of that as high.”
“The reason?”
“Because I read the internal energy aura of the Three Cults from the internal energy cultivation method she learned, from her aura.”
“……Younger Brother Yeon knows well about the Three Cults.”
Yeon Ho-jeong nodded his head.
“I know well. Especially in the case of the Evil Lust Cult, even more so.”
“I see.”
Murong Yu did not go out of his way to ask how Yeon Ho-jeong knew so well about them.
“I will speak honestly. I haven’t had much conversation with her and it hasn’t been long since I met her, but the Divine Maiden of the Western Regions I saw is genuine.”
“…….”
“Her nature is definitely closer to Good than Evil. I believe so.”
“Older Brother.”
“Please speak.”
“To me, whether she is Evil or Good is not important.”
“…….”
“The important thing is that she is learning the martial arts of the Three Cults, meaning there is just a high probability that she is connected to the Three Cults in some way.”
Murong Yu felt a horrifying feeling for an instant.
Ghost fires were wavering in the two eyes of his sworn younger brother, who was looking at him while smiling coolly. And in those ghost fires, a terrifying anger and resentment that he couldn’t understand were lurking.
“Do you intend to harm her?”
“If necessary.”
“…….”
“She enters the Alliance with an intention? The moment I am certain of that, her nature or past deeds mean nothing to me. The fact that the Murim Alliance, of course, but also the entire Central Plains could suffer a severe crisis because of her is the only important thing.”
“…….”
“What kind of life she lived is none of my business. To handle matters while picking at such trivial things, excessively many lives are at stake.”
Yeon Ho-jeong withdrew his smile.
“The countless enemies I have killed until now also each had their own stories.”
Murong Yu closed his eyes.
“……Right, if Younger Brother Yeon thinks so, I too have no intention of changing your mind.”
“I want to change Older Brother’s mind. A soldier who cannot use his hands at an important moment is disqualified as a soldier.”
“Right.”
“It doesn’t matter if you see her in a good light, but the moment you are certain she is a spy for the Three Cults, there should be no hesitation in your hands.”
“Do not worry about that.”
Yeon Ho-jeong, who stared blankly at Murong Yu, sighed.
“However, since we didn’t meet on the battlefield, I will try to find out about her in more detail.”
Murong Yu’s expression noticeably brightened.
“Right, that is good. Because there’s nothing bad about being careful.”
Yeon Ho-jeong put his foot up on the windowsill.
“I’m sorry to visit at a late hour. Rest well.”
“Younger Brother Yeon, you rest too.”
Seureuk.
Yeon Ho-jeong threw his body out the window.
Murong Yu, who was left alone, looked up at the ceiling.
“……Murim Alliance Leader?”