Chapter 298: Variable (1)
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When Hyeon-wol took me and Myeong-gyeong out of the Forbidden City, no one could stop us. That was how tremendous Hyeon-wol’s killing intent was.
“Grandmaster.”
“Why?”
“You are quite an extraordinary person. You even left the Emperor unable to say a word.”
“Hmph. You only realize that now?”
“Yes. So please tell me a little more.”
“What do you mean?”
Hyeon-wol played dumb. I frowned.
“Why the Emperor cannot even open his mouth before you, what this place called the Peach Garden is, and what the Penglai Covenant is.”
“Ask one at a time, one at a time.”
Hyeon-wol coughed dryly, expressing displeasure.
“It will be a long story.”
“We have nothing but time on the road from Hubei to Hunan anyway.”
“Do you truly think so?”
“No. So please tell me quickly.”
The story was long, just as Hyeon-wol had said. Explaining the cause and history of the Penglai Covenant alone took a full shichen.
To summarize, it went like this. In the Central Plains, including the martial world and the Imperial Palace, the number of people who mastered immortal arts and entered the realm of Half-Immortals gradually increased, and as they lived on without dying and achieved longevity, their numbers steadily swelled.
The problem arose there. The five desires and seven emotions of those who had entered the realm of Half-Immortals dulled, and they incompletely transcended human emotion.
They regarded humans as inferior beings and distinguished themselves from the human race.
To distinguish themselves from humans meant they no longer felt affection or kinship toward humanity. And so the Half-Immortals killed humans as one might crush ants, and as a result, half the population of the Central Plains vanished.
As the situation expanded to that extent, a group eventually emerged that, while mastering immortal arts, refused to become Half-Immortals and kept the five desires and seven emotions intact. Because they rejected Half-Immortality, they were called Superhumans.
Superhumans and Half-Immortals were fated to fight, and in the end that battle ended in victory for the Superhumans. The victorious Superhumans afterward established the Penglai Covenant, declaring that those who had mastered immortal arts would no longer influence the Central Plains.
“So that is what was just broken?”
“That is right.”
“This is bad, isn’t it?”
“That is right.”
Hyeon-wol spoke calmly, as though he had known it would come to this.
“Superhumans who kept the five desires and seven emotions intact had their own problems as well. It was a covenant that would have to break someday.”
“Is that so?”
“Because they kept the five desires and seven emotions, the desire to pass strength and authority on to their descendants remained. So the Superhumans secretly taught immortal arts to their disciples and descendants. Private transmission is something we cannot track.”
I nodded. After all, human greed had no end. Remove greed and they saw humans as insects. Keep greed and the human tendency toward expedience ran rampant.
“The Peach Garden and the Immortal Realm were their own measures of self-preservation. The Peach Garden was meant to manage the Superhumans on the martial world’s side, and the Immortal Realm was meant to manage the Superhumans on the Imperial Palace and common people’s side. Though they warped into factions that only sheltered their own.”
“This is not because of me, is it?”
“Did I not say it? It was a covenant that would break someday. That is why the Peach Garden has been preparing for the covenant’s collapse for a long time.”
“The Immortal Realm as well, I suppose?”
“Say it twice and your mouth will hurt.”
I had more or less expected this in abstract terms. When martial artists’ martial arts grew powerful, living long was a common saying. So where had all those old martial artists gone? That was where the question began.
The answer was that because of the covenant, they had not been coming out. So what would happen if all those hidden Superhumans emerged into the Central Plains?
“Monsters will pour out.”
I sighed. Hyeon-wol looked at me and snorted.
“Even if the covenant is broken, war among ourselves will not break out immediately. We know one another’s strength well. We are descendants of Superhumans, not Half-Immortals. We know how devastated the Central Plains would become if we fought one another. The five desires and seven emotions exist as well. Depending on training methods and the individual, some are lighter.”
“So there is something like a grace period?”
Hyeon-wol seemed to think for a moment, then slightly changed direction in his words.
“There is a difference between Superhumans and Half-Immortals.”
“What difference?”
“The Half-Immortals mistakenly believed themselves to be immortals. That is why they never even thought of ascending. Superhumans, on the other hand, wished to ascend and obtain eternal life. Do you know what is most important in ascending?”
“What is it?”
“Not accumulating evil karma. The celestial realm is a pure space. One who has piled up evil deeds cannot enter.”
“I have never met anyone who did not kick up dust when shaken out into the world.”
“That is right. That is why one must go through the work of removing accumulated evil karma with good karma.”
“Ascending is difficult as well.”
“Did you think obtaining eternal life would be easy?”
Hyeon-wol snorted.
“For reference, when one accumulates the evil karma of killing a single person, it is not offset by the good karma of saving one person.”
“Is that so?”
“Grudges are always deeper than gratitude. That is how humans are by nature.”
“So even you distinguish yourself from humans, Grandmaster.”
“That is only how I put it. In any case, if the dead or the living bear deep resentment, one must accumulate that much good karma again. That is why killing an evil person does not greatly increase evil karma.”
“I will never be able to ascend. Why is it so complicated?”
I shook my head back and forth.
“Then how do you think the state of the Central Plains will change going forward?”
“Until now we helped quietly when we could. From now on we will help openly. Without even reading the room.”
“If they only help, nothing will change much, will it?”
“One master can produce a hundred disciples. They may not have destructive power right away, but their later ripple effect will be enormous. They will come to steer the future of the martial world.”
“It will become a competition.”
Hyeon-wol affirmed my words. Among Superhumans, they could not fight because of evil karma, but they were free to teach as much as they wished.
The meaning of hidden Superhumans coming out was that people far greater than my peers, on the level of Cheong-hwa or Cheong-su, would appear. They had almost no one to teach them, so they were people who had to grow strong through trial and error. But if someone appeared to lead them, they would certainly grow strong quickly.
“From now on, it can be called a competition of power.”
“That is right.”
A competition of power. I had done that a few times among merchant companies in my previous life. But this was a different scale.
A decisive battle to seize the martial world across the entire Central Plains.
Before I turned my head, I first had to meet the immortals. They were the greatest new variable in the martial world. For now, returning quickly was best. I clenched my teeth and stamped the ground, trying to match Hyeon-wol’s speed.
* * *
The face of Zhuge Gyeom, Clan Head of the Zhuge Clan, was flushed red. Before him sat Su Je-heon, former Martial Alliance Leader and Vice Master of the Palace of Heavenly Worship, wearing a languid expression in his chair.
“……I have never heard of such a thing in all my life.”
“That I have not heard of it does not mean it does not exist, and that I have not eaten it does not mean it is not food, does it?”
“And you call that words?”
Zhuge Gyeom slammed the desk. The potted plant on the desk fell and shattered. The sound of breaking pottery was sharp.
“I did not cooperate with the Martial Alliance for this.”
“I know. But what can be done? A person cannot change the flow of the current.”
Zhuge Gyeom’s lips twisted. Su Je-heon’s shameless manner provoked Zhuge Gyeom’s anger all the more.
“Was this the new martial world the Alliance Leader spoke of? Becoming the chess piece of some Palace of Heavenly Worship Master who appeared from nowhere?”
“For now, there is nothing to be done. We have already mounted the tiger’s back. What then?”
Su Je-heon’s expression hardened slightly as well. He had already cast his lot with Zhuge Gyeom. Yet if he defied the captain like this, the boat would rock.
“Please trust me and wait a little. I have my thoughts as well.”
“What thoughts do you mean? Looking at the Alliance Leader’s movements, I cannot tell what you are thinking at all. Is your thought to become a puppet?”
“You would do well to watch your words.”
Su Je-heon’s voice sank low. The look in his eyes as he gazed at Zhuge Gyeom sank deep as well.
But the agitated Zhuge Gyeom did not notice it at all.
“I wanted the Zhuge Clan to stand at the center of the new martial world the Alliance Leader spoke of. I could even understand borrowing the Imperial Palace’s hand a little. But I absolutely cannot endure the scum act of selling the martial world to the Imperial Palace.”
Su Je-heon’s eyes flashed. Then a flash of light flickered beside Zhuge Gyeom’s ear.
Zhuge Gyeom’s ear fell with a soft thud, and blood poured out. Su Je-heon had drawn his sword and cut off Zhuge Gyeom’s ear.
“……You madman.”
As Zhuge Gyeom placed his hand on his sword, Su Je-heon unleashed killing intent. At the cold killing intent rising from his entire body, Zhuge Gyeom froze.
“If you mean to draw it, you had better do so with resolve.”
Su Je-heon’s voice was frigid. Zhuge Gyeom gripped his sword hilt, yet trembled. His ear had been cut off, and he had suffered such an insult on top of it. Was he supposed to endure?
But even as Clan Head of the Zhuge Clan, the reality was that he could only shrink before one of the Five Great Sword Masters Under Heaven.
In the end, Zhuge Gyeom released his sword. Su Je-heon nodded.
“A wise choice. I too do not wish to cut down a comrade.”
“……Alliance Leader. We are already bodies that have abandoned our orthodox allies.”
“I know.”
“At least tell me your thoughts, Alliance Leader. Do I not have the right to hear them?”
“You do. I cannot deny that.”
Su Je-heon moistened his lips and continued.
What Su Je-heon had thought at first, and what he thought now. The more Zhuge Gyeom heard, the harder his expression became.
“So in the end, you tried to reorganize the martial world, but the Imperial Palace’s power was greater than expected and you could not uproot it. Is that what you are saying?”
“That is right.”
“And now you want to make the New Justice Association the protagonist. So that they can protect the martial world?”
“My thinking has never changed from the beginning. A sustainable martial world. I have kept moving for that. Now the New Justice Association simply suits that better.”
“Then where does the Zhuge Clan stand in the martial world the Alliance Leader envisions?”
“It does not. But must not the ox be sacrificed for the greater good?”
“Who!”
Zhuge Gyeom shouted.
“Are you saying that if you die, everyone can be happy, and you will gladly offer your life?”
Su Je-heon looked at Zhuge Gyeom as though he could not understand.
“Is that not chivalry?”
“I am no chivalrous hero. I am a clan head who must protect his house.”
“Is that so? I did not know.”
Zhuge Gyeom seemed at last to understand Su Je-heon somewhat as a person. This man was mad. A person who thought only of his own design, used any means without hesitation, and felt no guilt whatsoever.
Even as he shamelessly admitted that he had used and failed with the Zhuge Clan, there was not the slightest hesitation on Su Je-heon’s face.
“I too did not know the Alliance Leader was this sort of man.”
“Is that so? Well, what can be done. This is the sort of man I am.”
“The Zhuge Clan will leave the Palace of Heavenly Worship.”
“Do so. If I may offer advice to an old comrade, the moment you leave the Palace of Heavenly Worship, the New Justice Association will rush to devour you. The Zhuge Clan without the Palace of Heavenly Worship will not be frightening in the least.”
“Thank you so much for your concern.”
Zhuge Gyeom picked up his severed ear and placed it before Su Je-heon’s desk.
“A final gift.”
“Thank you. I shall boil it and eat it well.”
As Su Je-heon sneered, Zhuge Gyeom sent him a look of contempt and withdrew.
After the Penglai Covenant was broken, the first variable came from the Palace of Heavenly Worship.