Chapter 130: Chapter 130
Even after the sun completely vanished beyond the western mountain, reddish sunset light still remained near the horizon, displaying a vague spectrum of light. The western sky was now less glowing than looking like drawing paper painted with orange paint of strange texture, and dark clouds inside looked like messy smudges.
Jang Geon, sitting with his back to the bonfire slightly apart from the group, exhaled smoke while looking at that unclear boundary between day and night. The half-burned tobacco sparkled red.
Several days had already passed since Jang Geon, Jeok-sein, San-ho, and their prisoner Namgung Cheon left Gowon City and moved to New Sichuan. Son Gwang remained there to continue watching the situation of the tribe alliance and Gowon City. He seemed burdened by Jeok-sein and San-ho who thought of him as a Martial Alliance secret operative. As heard in Gamsan City as well, the two organizations clearly had parts cooperating covertly while being distinct groups.
At any rate, during those several days, Namgung Cheon did not open his mouth even a single word. Jeok-sein wanted to check a few pieces of Palace information before arriving at the Martial Alliance, but his mouth opened only when eating meals. Other than that, he did not answer no matter what Jeok-sein and San-ho said.
He probably did so to raise his value even a bit. Due to Jang Geon’s continuous management, the demonic arts in his dantian felt increasingly scattered rather than recovering strength, and his severed left arm and large upper body wound foretold clear aftermaths. In a situation where he didn’t even know if the Martial Alliance would really let him live, he selected simply shutting his mouth because he couldn’t gauge what information would guarantee his life.
Jang Geon, looking at the gradually darkening sky, flicked away the finished butt and stood up. Afterward, he checked Jojo squabbling with other horses on one side and returned to the bonfire.
They had finished their meal a moment ago. It was a dinner managed by roughly putting dry grains, beans, and jerky into water and boiling it. However, whether because the jerky was a high-grade item, or thanks to seasoning San-ho tossed in between, the taste was reasonably alright.
Namgung Cheon sat huddled close to the bonfire with a blanket pulled over him. He appeared to feel cold. San-ho was scraping clean the remaining dinner stuff to eat, and Jeok-sein was pulling out a bundle of papers to examine.
Seeing that, Jang Geon sat down and spoke:
“That is what you were looking at with that friend Son Gwang in Gowon City. What is it?”
Jeok-sein examining the papers raised her head, smiled lightly at him, turned her eyes back to the papers, and answered:
“It is reports he sent to the Martial Alliance until now, and the report he is sending this time. And what he personally researched is also included together.”
“Research?”
Jeok-sein pulled out one of the paper bundles separately and spoke:
“Warrior Son considers that Central Plains people who departed east past Gowon City were far more numerous than people think. Right now western coastal cities and lands are merely a tiny fraction compared to this entire New Continent, and Central Plains people who landed on this land a hundred years ago scattered far into such vast land, he says.”
She glanced at Namgung Cheon’s reaction and continued speaking:
“And his thought was that perhaps in the far east, there is also land where Central Plains people gather and live. That there is land carved out by people other than those commonly called demonic families of the Palace… These materials estimate the stories of eastern natives and the number of Central Plains people who crossed Gowon City in the old days.”
Jang Geon fiddled with his chin. His house filled with books and paper came to mind. It seemed this was the work he did besides grasping eastern native movements.
Recalling the conversation with Son Gwang last time, the Palace seemed to have set up their base around the Five Great Lakes far northeast of Gowon City. But if there were other Central Plains settlements nearby, would the Palace have just left them alone? Thinking briefly, one could guess they were absorbed or destroyed by the Palace’s power during a hundred years.
His eyes turned to Namgung Cheon blankly gazing at the bonfire.
“What do you think?”
Jeok-sein examining papers and San-ho clattering the pot froze still. Over the past several days, Jang Geon had not initiated a single word of conversation with Namgung Cheon. So the two patrol officers had thought that perhaps if Jang Geon initiated talk, Namgung Cheon couldn’t help but answer. However, they could not ask Jang Geon, who had already done the Martial Alliance’s job for them in Gowon City, to interrogate the prisoner as well.
In the end, the two were in a situation of half-giving up on obtaining information from Namgung Cheon right now.
“…Not everyone in the Palace possessed a family line. There were those with humble bloodlines, and those who were distant branch lines of ruined families. And, right… there were certainly farmers who came all the way to that far place in search of new land. Someone had to cultivate fields to get food to eat, right?”
As if the patrol officers’ thoughts were right, the mouth of Namgung Cheon gazing at the bonfire opened. He was trembling violently, grasping the blanket with his single remaining hand as if wanting to preserve even a little warmth.
“The New Continent is a very vast and fertile land. Somewhere, it is plausible there might be a settlement self-sufficient among themselves besides us. However, I have not seen those larger and more prosperous than the Palace. To begin with, if there were such people around the Palace, would we have eyed the west? Naturally, wouldn’t we have unified them first?”
“You said last time that the grand scheme might have been too fast. What does that mean?”
Namgung Cheon’s eyes gazing at the bonfire slowly turned to Jang Geon. He shook his head and answered:
“That doesn’t seem to be a matter to chatter about here. Since it’s a story on which my lifeline hangs, I cannot chatter carelessly. Still, to tell you briefly… just know that we also had various opinions.”
Jang Geon faced his eyes for a moment, soon nodded, and turned his gaze to the bonfire. He seemed to know what it meant. Just as the Martial Alliance was a coalition formed by ancient noble families and various sects of the New Continent gathering into one, the Palace was also a coalition formed by oppressed old families and demonic practitioners gathering into one, like the Namgung Clan or Murong Clan.
Of course, even if that was not a coalition as loose as the Martial Alliance, various opinions were bound to collide inside. Namgung Cheon had told him that.
At that moment, this time Namgung Cheon opened his mouth first:
“…May I ask a question this time?”
Jang Geon looked at him again as if telling him to ask since he was listening.
“Your that… sword art. Imperial Sword Form… I have never heard of any family or Martial Alliance sect possessing such martial arts. I haven’t heard of similar martial arts either. Is it, by chance, the martial art of the Imperial Army?”
In the eyes of Namgung Cheon asking, faint anxiety was mixed. As if his expression asked whether the past years of the Namgung Clan were too futile if what defeated him was the Imperial Army’s martial art.
Jang Geon shook his head.
“No. That is the sword art of the Namgung Family.”
“What did you say?”
Namgung Cheon wore an astonished expression, then soon hardened his face.
“…Are you teasing me? I didn’t know you had a taste for teasing the defeated.”
However, that face contorted strangely at Jang Geon’s following words.
“Not you people. There is another Namgung Family I know. At least, it is not a family that practices demonic arts and serves an ancient foolish ruler. Counting your family and their family as the same family seems an insult to that Namgung Family.”
“…Another family? Has there been another Namgung Clan besides us in the world?”
Jang Geon smirked.
“The world is wide. This New Continent you call wide is merely a part of that world. The Han Empire that the Palace hates so much also barely includes the Central Plains, a few southern islands, and part of the New Continent’s coastline. So isn’t there no law that another Namgung Family wouldn’t exist somewhere in that wide world?”
Namgung Cheon furrowed his brows as if unable to understand those words. Jang Geon did not think he would understand either. Just as his words said, another Namgung Family might really exist somewhere in the world, but at least Jang Geon’s Namgung Family was a name existing only in his heart.
In truth, at that level, it was fine even if Jang Geon claimed to be the creator of the Imperial Sword Form. Since he merely gained inspiration and personally realized it, the master of the Imperial Sword Form was him.
However, Jang Geon himself did not consider it so. He merely excavated and reproduced the martial art buried deep in his heart with his body, not considering it his own secret technique that must be kept secret.
So he could casually speak to Namgung Cheon in passing:
“If you want, I can teach you, the Imperial Sword Form.”
Namgung Cheon, who had been contemplating whether another Namgung Clan could exist in the world, wore a stupid expression at those words and looked at Jang Geon.
“…You’ll teach me?”
“Of course, you will have to give up the demonic art you learned. Since with a body already accustomed to the Northern Imperial Sword Form, you cannot learn the Imperial Sword Form anew.”
“…”
Telling someone of Namgung Cheon’s age to give up the martial art he had learned until now was no different from telling him to die. However, whether because Jang Geon spoke so casually, or because he could feel sincerity felt even heavier because it was casual, Namgung Cheon did not get angry.
While he stared blankly, Jang Geon had already turned his gaze to the bonfire and was snapping dry twigs to toss in.
Only after a long while did Namgung Cheon smile bitterly and adjust his blanket.
“…At this age, it’s too late to learn a new martial art. If you’re looking for a disciple, look for a young friend.”
He pulled the blanket over himself and lay down on the spot. As he lay down, the patrol officers who had been only listening to the dialogue between the two looked at each other. Recalling if there was anything useful in their conversation.
Meanwhile, the sunset that had been dyeing the horizon now completely vanished. What remained was merely the dark blue night sky and bright stars that began sparkling early.
“Whew, ate well.”
As it seemed there would be no further conversation, San-ho, who had been holding the pot all this time, put it down and patted his stomach. Jeok-sein also turned her eyes back to Son Gwang’s report, and Jang Geon snapped one more dry twig and tossed it into the bonfire.
That evening’s conversation passed like that.
Afterward, the four people continued sprinting toward New Sichuan in the west. Passing grass-covered hills and dry valleys, ruins where traces of human habitation remained, and villages bustling with merchants and martial artists.
Because of Jeok-sein who wanted to move as much as possible during the day, staying in villages rarely happened. They spent most of their journey camping out, and in villages merely replenished foodstuffs and stopped by physicians to check Namgung Cheon’s condition.
That Jeok-sein hurried the journey was due to Namgung Cheon’s condition gradually worsening, and simultaneously from the reason of minimizing exposure of their location. She did not change her thought that Namgung Cheon might leave signals or traces for the Palace.
Namgung Cheon occasionally opened his mouth after that day’s conversation, mostly stories of being hungry or cold because the fire was weak.
Unlike Jeok-sein closely observing such Namgung Cheon, San-ho seemed to have forgotten his ear was bitten yesterday, even cracking jokes occasionally.
Thus running horses for several days. Familiar hills entered Jang Geon’s eyes.
It was a hill he had climbed together with others last time as well. Back then he was riding a carriage, and Jojo was carrying a girl. Shaolin monk Jin Gyeon and Jin Seo-ha, Princess Yu Seol, her guard martial artist Jin-ha. All were names that departed across the sea to the Central Plains.
Jojo, as if thinking similar thoughts to Jang Geon, suddenly snorted with a puff. Jang Geon patted the fellow’s neck once and turned to look beside him.
This time they were not comfortable people like back then. Jeok-sein seemed convinced Jang Geon was the culprit in the disappearance of the Soaring Eagle Unit, and seemed curious about their secret. Namgung Cheon had emaciated over the past few days, taking on the appearance of a sick person while making only his two eyes glint blue. His words of surviving through a deal with the Alliance did not seem empty.
The only one rejoicing upon seeing New Sichuan visible below the hill was San-ho. Having been responsible for most meals over the past few days, he was purely rejoicing that camping out was over.
Jang Geon, scanning the group, turned his head to look down the hill. Countless pavilions and people coming and going busily. Numerous carriages and bullock carts. Far away on the coast, ships anchored and merchant ships vanishing beyond the horizon were also visible.
Gazing at those, Jang Geon felt a feeling of being sucked back into the whirlpool of a bustling city. It didn’t seem a very wrong thought.
At that moment, horsemen sprinting toward this place from down below entered his eyes. Burly martial artists dressed in the same clothes, holding a large flag as well. Seeing them, Namgung Cheon muttered:
“The greeting for guests is grand…”
On those martial artists’ flag, the characters Martial Alliance were written. They had come out to greet them due to Jeok-sein’s message sent from the previous village.