Novel Martial Artist Lee Gwak - chapter 343
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Episode 343
Different Thoughts in Front of the Same Goal (3)
Ban Cheon Sang looked incredibly young for someone in his early fifties. To those unaware of his true identity, he could easily be mistaken for a man in his early thirties.
He was mentioned as a potential future leader of the Main Court due to his powerful martial arts skills. His personality was cold and deep, instilling fear in everyone around him.
His group, the Demon Squad, was renowned as the strongest organization within the main court. Indeed, during the war with the Celestial Demon Troupe, the Demon Squad had achieved numerous remarkable victories.
Ban Cheon-sang believed that a true martial artist was forged through countless real battles.
The number of scars on a martial artist’s body was testament to their growth, and from this perspective, the Demon Squad, under his leadership, was arguably one of the most powerful martial forces in the Jianghu.
Ban Cheon-sang’s body was also marked with numerous scars.
Among them, the most horrific was a worm-like scar crossing his neck.
Had the wound been slightly deeper, he would not have survived.
In front of Ban Cheon Sang was a large piece of paper.
Had the wound been slightly deeper, he would not have survived. Although he had barely saved his life, the deep wound to his vocal cords left him with a voice that grated like metal.
A detailed map showing the terrain around the Dragon Heaven Valley. Red and blue flags marked the location of the valley.
“Did you say the Martial Sword Troupe has joined forces here?”
Ban Cheon Sang tapped the blue flag with his finger.
He had arrived here a month ago, and since then, he had devoted himself to gathering information about Dragon Heaven Valley.
The previous leader from the Jade Heaven Alliance, who had come here before him, had underestimated the importance of intelligence and launched a premature attack, resulting in heavy losses.
The Jade Heaven Alliance had suffered a great defeat, and many had died.
As a result, the former leader was summoned back to the Jade Heaven Alliance and was probably now dying lonely in the underground prison.
Ban Cheon-sang was left with the responsibility to clean up the mess.
It became Ban Cheon Sang’s duty to clean up the mess left behind, restore morale that had fallen to the ground, and reverse the dire situation.
He needed to revive the fallen morale and turn the unfavorable situation around, so the pressure he felt was immense. However, he thrived under such tension.
It made him feel alive.
Born into an ordinary warrior family, he had joined the Jade Heaven Alliance at the age of sixteen.
Over the past thirty years, he had undertaken numerous missions and survived many brushes with death.
His humanity had worn thin, and he became so numb that little phased him. The only place he felt alive was on the battlefield.
The more intense, the better.
The more dangerous, the better.
Only in such places did all his senses sharpen.
This was one of those moments.
He was formulating a strategy to conquer Dragon Heaven Valley when he was interrupted.
“Leader Ban!”
Annoyance flashed across Ban Cheon-sang’s face.
He hated being disturbed when focused.
“What is it?”
His response was sharp.
“A guest has arrived.”
“Tell them to come later.”
“But…”
His subordinate hesitated, which was unusual. Ban Cheon Sang realised that the identity of the guest couldn’t be ordinary.
Just then, the door opened, and a robust man walked in.
The man had a fierce and sharp gaze like a lion, a blunt nose, and tightly closed lips, which only enhanced his warrior-like appearance.
He wore a white hero’s band tightly around his head, and his muscular arms were exposed through a sleeveless white tiger-skin vest.
The sheer presence of the man was breathtaking, and Ban Cheon-sang, about to express his anger, paused and widened his eyes.
The man’s status was clear.
“It’s been a long time, Leader Ban.”
“How did you…?”
“From now on, I’ll be in command here.”
The man, Yeong Cheon Myeong, spoke with a cold voice that filled the room.
***
The first person to greet Lee Gwak when he returned to the inn was Cheol Gwang Woo.
“Brother! Are you alright?”
“I’m fine! Where is Bang Ye-in?”
“In the kitchen.”
“She must have been quite upset. Take good care of her.”
“Do you really think she’d be shaken by something like that?”
“Right!”
Lee Gwak shook his head.
In terms of experience in the Jianghu, Bang Ye-in had far more than Lee Gwak. She had been through much more dangerous situations than this.
Her nerves were so strong that something like this wouldn’t even make her blink.
“What is the Myriad Merchant Troupe planning?”
“I can’t say for sure, but something serious seems to be brewing.”
Woo Mun-pae had let slip some clues that could be significant.
Terms like “the center of the world,” “five days’ time,” and “the world will change” were particularly striking.
They could have been dismissed, but they nagged at him like a fishbone stuck in his throat.
“What will you do?”
“We have to watch and wait.”
“For now, we watch.”
They only had suspicions at this point.
Acting rashly without concrete evidence would only backfire.
Despite Lee Gwak’s reputation, he was just an individual, and Woo Mun Pae had the support of the entire Martial Sword Troupe.
There was a significant gap in their influence.
“Phew!”
Lee Gwak sighed softly.
He had come to seek Seok Yi Cheon, but now he felt entangled in an unwanted situation. Yet, he couldn’t just leave as if nothing had happened.
His chest felt tight with anxiety.
Lee Gwak stood up.
“Are you going out?”
“I need some air.”
“Do you want company?”
“No, I’d rather be alone.”
“Okay.”
Lee Gwak stepped outside and looked up at the sky.
The sky was clear, but his mind was clouded.
Even if this place turned into a battlefield, he could easily save himself. But Seok Yi Cheon was different.
Seok Yi Cheon didn’t have the same obsession with martial arts or the desire to become stronger.
He was a simple man whose only wish was to live each day peacefully.
Despite not being a strong martial artist, he had reluctantly taken on the role of an outer hall squad leader.
Given his nature, he wouldn’t abandon his comrades in a crisis.
And it wasn’t just Seok Yi Cheon.
Woo Il Yeong was also confirmed to be with the Dragon Heaven Valley troops. They were all
once members of the thirteenth group under Lee Gwak’s leadership.
To Lee Gwak, they were as dear as his own family.
“I need to find him first…”
The problem was that he had no idea where Seok Yi-cheon was within the Jade Heaven Alliance’s military setup. Even with Hao Clan’s intelligence capabilities, the inner workings of Jade Heaven Alliance’s military were not fully accessible.
Jade Heaven Alliance was thorough in maintaining its secrets.
Lee Gwak’s mind was a whirlwind of thoughts.
“Martial Sword Troupe, Dragon Heaven Valley, Dragon Heaven Valley, and the old Thirteenth
Squad…”
Numerous forces and personal interests were tangled like a spider’s web.
Lee Gwak shook his head and walked toward the slums.
There was a branch of Hao Moon there.
Lee Gwak thought that if he could obtain information from the Hao Clan branch, he could clarify his confused thoughts a bit more. However, as he approached the location of the Hao clan branch, his expression gradually hardened.
“What’s this?”
Where the Hao Moon Branch was supposed to be, there were only charred ruins. Smoke was still rising from the debris, indicating that the fire had not been out for long.
Lee Gwak looked around, wondering if he had come to the wrong place. But it was definitely the Hao Clan branch in Taegang.
He had made sure of this place before he came here, so the chances of him being wrong were slim.
Lee Gwak grabbed a nearby elderly man and asked,
“What happened here?”
“There was a big fire last night. The flames broke out suddenly and burned everything down.”
“The fire started suddenly?”
“Yes! It came out of nowhere. The flames were so fierce that there was no chance of extinguishing it before it consumed the house. Luckily it didn’t spread to the neighbouring houses. Otherwise every house in the street would have burned down.
The old man shuddered, as if the very thought were horrifying.
“What happened to the people who lived in this house?”
“What else? They all died. Don’t even talk about it. It was horrible.”
“They all… died? Without exception?”
“Yes. That’s why people fought to get rid of the bodies.”
Just talking about it seemed to bring back traumatic memories for the old man, his expression distorted as if he were about to vomit, showing just how horrible the scene had been.
Lee Gwak approached the charred ruins.
Everything had been reduced to ashes.
Finding anything in the rubble seemed almost impossible. But Lee Gwak did not give up and sifted through the ashes.
The warriors of the Hao Clan branch lost their lives to a mere fire?
Besides, this branch in Taegang was a secret branch that was not exposed to the outside world. Naturally, the martial arts skills of the Hao Clan members here would have been much higher than those of a regular branch.
Lee Gwak was not naive enough to believe that such martial artists would simply be massacred by a fire.
He sifted through the ashes, not caring that the soot stained his clothes. After a while, Lee Gwak found a broken sword blade.
The fracture on the sword was smooth, like glass – an indication that it could not have simply broken, but been cut by a violent blow.
A sword qi?
Only sword qi or a powerful sword strike could cut a weapon so smoothly.
“Phew!”
Lee Gwak stood up holding the broken sword piece.
This confirmed that someone had attacked Hao-mun’s branch and killed everyone inside.
The intelligence to locate Hao Clan’s secret branch, the execution to ambush without the neighbours noticing, and the meticulousness to disguise it as a fire.
This was not the work of a mere individual.
Moreover, this was practically the courtyard of the Dragon Heaven Valley.
The very fact that they could pull off such a feat here spoke volumes about how well organised the attackers were.
Lee Gwak blamed himself for not finding the Hao Clan branch sooner.
Now they had lost their eyes and ears in this place.
Hao Moon would send people to manage this place again, but until then there would be a gap in information.
“Who could it be? Martial Sword Troupe, Dragon Heaven Valley? Or maybe the Celestial Demon Troupe?”
There were too many suspects.
It was impossible to pinpoint one of them at the moment.
“Mr Lee?”
A woman’s voice interrupted Lee Gwak’s train of thought.
Turning his head, he saw a woman with a curvaceous figure.
Although her face was veiled in thin silk, Lee Gwak recognised her immediately.
“Lady Mok?”
“I knew it was you, Master Lee.”
The woman removed the veil covering her face, revealing a beautiful form that combined the freshness of her twenties with the maturity of her thirties.
She was none other than Mok Seon-wol, the young mistress of Dragon Heaven Valley.
Lee Gwak clasped his hands in greeting.
“It’s been a long time, Lady Mok!”
“I heard someone resembling Master Lee had clashed with the young master of the Martial Sword Troupe, so I came to see for myself. And it really is you! When did you arrive in Taegang?”
“I arrived yesterday.”
“Why didn’t you come straight to Dragon Heaven Valley?”
“I was actually planning to head there today.”
At Lee Gwak’s response, Mok Seon-wol’s disappointment eased slightly.
Her face lit up with joy.
The situation here was dire enough that she had requested reinforcements from the Martial Sword Troupe. At a time when they desperately needed even one more skilled martial artist, having someone of Lee Gwak’s caliber arrive on his own was a welcome relief.
Mok Seon-wol had personally witnessed Lee Gwak’s martial prowess three years ago. She knew just how extraordinary his skills were.
Now, three years later, she couldn’t even begin to guess how much stronger he had become.
The fact that Lee Gwak was here felt more reassuring than the thousand elite warriors the Martial Sword Troupe had brought with them.
Mok Seon-wol glanced around.
“Where are your wife and child?”
“I came alone.”
“They didn’t come with you?”
“Yes. Due to certain circumstances, I sent them to a safe place.”
“I see. I was looking forward to seeing Cheong-ah.”
She wore a wistful expression.
Cheong-i was the most intelligent and lovable child she had ever met. She had been eagerly anticipating seeing the child again, so hearing that they weren’t here was disappointing.
But her disappointment was short-lived.
She quickly composed herself and looked around again.
She couldn’t understand why Lee Gwak was standing amidst the ruins.
“But what brings you here, master Lee? What exactly is this place…?”
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