Chapter 198: Chapter 198
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Cheol Sun-jik tapped the table rhythmically.
It was a habit of his that emerged when he fell deep into thought.
His finger, which had been tapping for quite some time, stopped.
“What happened?”
After returning from Sichuan, the first to speak had been Nam Hwa-seong.
[Brother Cheol…… what do you think of me joining the Representative Executive Staff?]
Because it was an unexpected remark, Cheol Sun-jik could not answer right away.
[Won’t others try to join too? I’ll go in first and grasp the internal atmosphere.]
Of course, if Jin So-un’s wavering Representative Delegation were to settle in place, then occupying even one Executive seat before that would be advantageous.
That way, for the remaining period of the academic curriculum, they would be able to do at least a little more to benefit the Twelve Peak Citadels.
However.
[…….]
Even so, was it the right judgment to use Nam Hwa-seong for a position where he had to enter enemy territory and engage in politics?
[Wh-why are you looking at me like that? Do you not trust me?]
Just by seeing how he stammered in unusual panic, anyone could tell that he was not suited to schemes.
Was it not impossible to entrust the role of a strategist to Zhang Fei?
Nam Hwa-seong had a tender-hearted side that did not suit his size, and when the other party pushed blindly, there were often times when he broke his own stubbornness.
As a general, he could be called a decent card, but…….
Moreover, the part Cheol Sun-jik was curious about was something else.
[Do you truly want to do it?]
Because Nam Hwa-seong did not trust his own mind, he did not take the lead in anything.
For such a Nam Hwa-seong to personally step forward and say he would play the role of a spy that did not suit him was something Cheol Sun-jik found rather difficult to understand.
[After I-I experienced that bastard in Sichuan this time, I saw that he was unbelievably rough. Among the Twelve Peak Citadels, if not me…… ahem, who could endure such a hard task?]
The subject had been omitted, but he immediately realized whom Nam Hwa-seong was talking about.
In the end, Nam Hwa-seong submitted an application to join the Representative Executive Staff.
The other members of the Twelve Peak Citadels expressed concern or worry over Nam Hwa-seong’s choice, but that was all.
Because they knew well what sort of influence his choice would have, not only on Nam Hwa-seong himself, but even further, on the entire Three Origins Sect.
“Interesting.”
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
His finger moved once again.
The period during which Jin So-un and Nam Hwa-seong had acted together had not exceeded even a week.
What, then, had Nam Hwa-seong seen in Jin So-un during that time?
“It isn’t as if Nam Hwa-seong doesn’t know my personality.”
He was meticulous and pursued perfection.
He was wary of variables and irregularities, and controlled matters so they flowed as predicted.
In other words, he had a personality that did not welcome sudden proposals.
And yet, that timid bastard had stepped forward on his own.
He himself had also seen something special in Jin So-un, but it was not so great that he would stake the fate of his sect on it.
Tap. Tap. Tap—
Cheol Sun-jik’s finger stopped moving.
“Or did he sense something so great that he could not afford to care about me?”
What aspect of Jin So-un was Nam Hwa-seong able to see that he himself could not?
“Puhaha! There’s no way such a thing exists…….”
Cheol Sun-jik opened one report.
It was a trend analysis regularly sent by the members of the Twelve Peak Citadels.
There, information was written about the Righteous Path Association falling into confusion because of the Sichuan matter, and about what sort of movements the Orthodox Path Association was showing.
They were only things visible on the surface, but once such information entered Cheol Sun-jik’s hands, it changed into something different.
“The Orthodox Path Association is making a move, is it?”
They had shrewdly aimed for the gap left by the Righteous Path Association.
However, he could not erase the feeling that they were being a little hasty.
Jin So-un’s strength, whose public evaluation had risen through this incident, had not yet weakened…….
“They must be impatient. Heh heh.”
It was a situation of the clam and the sandpiper struggling.
The Twelve Peak Citadels simply had to wait until the clam and the sandpiper exhausted themselves, then pick up the prize.
“By then, though, there will no longer be a place for the Three Origins Sect…….”
The seats of the Twelve Peak Citadels were different from those of the Nine Sects and One Gang or the Five Great Clans.
The members of the One Hundred Eight Peaks could become one of the Twelve Peak Citadels at any time, and through competition, they could rise above.
Because they knew that, the other members of the Twelve Peak Citadels had also not actively stopped Nam Hwa-seong.
“Heh heh…… I’m going to become quite busy from now on. I’ll have to reorganize the structure as well.”
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Cheol Sun-jik’s finger began moving again.
***
The Execution Pavilion.
The highest enforcement agency of Alliance Law.
It was the place Alliance members who feared nothing under heaven feared most, and at the same time, a place whose ill fame was widely spread externally as well.
In effect, it was also called another absolute authority within the Alliance.
“The Execution Pavilion?”
At that word, which felt unpleasant from the very sound of it, the man glared.
“Follow me.”
The clothes that were roughly pulled stretched taut, as though they would tear at any moment.
Truly, his ignorance knew no bounds.
“……Let go of this.”
When I sighed, his eyebrows shot upward.
“Did you fail to understand me?”
From his hand, I felt a sense of obviousness.
That it was fine to do this.
That this was natural.
Whenever I was dragged around here and there in my past life, I had felt such rough and violent hands countless times.
At first, I had been frightened in advance, but later I realized it.
That they were nothing more than the cowardly and weak hands of those who fled before death faster than anyone else.
I tilted my head down at the bastard’s hand, then looked back into his eyes.
“I said, let go.”
“…….”
Perhaps because my words offended him, the veins on the bastard’s brow stood out.
Grip.
My clothes made a rip── sound, as if they would tear at any moment.
“Do you think your paltry authority as Academy Representative will protect you…….”
The bastard could not finish his words.
“Ugh!”
Because I used the force with which he was gripping my collar, flipped him, and threw him to the ground.
THUD.
The bastard struck the dirt floor with his back, and perhaps because his lungs were shocked, he could not breathe.
If he could not breathe because he was shocked, what of it?
I did not intend to end it here.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
I stomped on the bastard’s face until white fragments flew from his mouth.
“Guhk── You dare do this to the Execution Pavilion…….”
Seeing him still mentioning the Execution Pavilion, as if he had enough life left in him, drew a hollow laugh from me.
I grabbed the bastard by the hair and lifted his ruined face.
“Are you a man of the Ak Clan?”
“……What?”
The bastard’s eyes wavered.
As expected.
“Impersonating the Execution Pavilion is a grave crime.”
“What are you talking abou──.”
“The Execution Pavilion does not move alone.”
Even when I looked around, there were only onlookers gathering because of the sudden fight, and no one who seemed to be this man’s companions.
I did not miss the instant a flustered light flashed through the bastard’s eyes.
“And they show their identification token first. Because that alone can tighten around the opponent.”
“…….”
“What is your name?”
“…….”
“So you won’t say it?”
I immediately threw two punches into the bastard’s face.
Blood streamed from his nose, and one more white fragment flew from his mouth.
“Grr!”
The bastard scattered Phoenix Claw Wind Hand and retreated.
He quickly connected the three iron rods at his waist, turning them into a single spear.
“As expected, you were a man of the Ak Clan.”
“I came as a proxy of the Execution Pavilion.”
At an excuse that did not even sound like words, a sneer escaped me.
“Who sent you as a proxy?”
“…….”
The bastard rolled his eyes around.
It would never be easy for him to spit out someone’s name here.
“You can’t say it in a place where people are around, can you?”
The name of the ‘Execution Pavilion’ was an object of fear to everyone.
People trembled merely at the name ‘Execution Pavilion,’ and were easily swayed.
That had been true of me in my past life, of Sojeong Squad, and of White Tiger Pavilion.
“And you bastards must have used that point.”
He would not have dared to impersonate it recklessly before someone who knew that the transfer of the Execution Pavilion’s absolute authority to the outside was something that could never be tolerated.
‘It must mean I looked that easy to them.’
In this life, I had risen in success as a seedling that seemed promising in its own way, but in their eyes, it appeared I still did not look all that different from the me in my past life, who had been from Sojeong Squad.
“Jin So-un! After doing something like this, aren’t you afraid of handling the aftermath?!”
“The aftermath?”
I tilted my head.
“A person impersonating the Execution Pavilion did not reveal the name of the proxy sender, nor did he reveal his own affiliation.”
“…….”
“Could you not be a spy of the Black Path?”
“What is that supposed to…….”
As if I had gained a great realization, I deliberately spoke in a loud voice that rang clearly around us.
“Right! You are a Black Path Murim spy who impersonated the Execution Pavilion and came to kidnap the Representative of the Murim Academy. No, you may be a spy of the Blood Cult who survived in Sichuan.”
Murmurs began to rise from the surroundings.
The mood had been created.
Shing.
I drew the Black Dragon Sword and raised my internal qi.
BOOM.
When I gave off pressure intense enough to make my martial arts uniform seem ready to burst, the people who had been watching from all around retreated.
I shouted with as much righteous spirit in my voice as possible.
“To think you dared come and go in the Murim Alliance’s domain without fear. As the Representative of the Murim Academy, I will punish you and hand you over to the Execution Pavilion!”
As the atmosphere flowed strangely, the bastard twisted his body as if making a final desperate struggle.
“……Grr! I am a man of the Shandong Ak Clan!”
The Phoenix Soaring Spear Art unfolded from the man’s spear.
The spear tip, holding heat, shot out and pierced toward my vital acupoints, but so what?
Originally, incitement was sufficient with a single sentence.
Countless pieces of evidence for explanation could be fabricated as much as one wanted, after all.
“To think you even stole the Ak Clan’s spear art and pretended to be of the Ak Clan. You truly are a frightening bastard.”
While scattering the Twin Heaven Sword Formula with the Black Dragon Sword, I unfolded the Ten Thousand Transformations Invincible Fist with my remaining left hand.
Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang.
While retreating and countering the Twin Heaven Sword Formula, he then neutralized the Ten Thousand Transformations Invincible Fist that flew after him with Phoenix Flying Heaven Palm.
But──
He could not properly neutralize the Flying Dragon Claw I shot out from between the Ten Thousand Transformations Invincible Fist, and with a shocked gaze, he looked at the Heavenly Silkworm Thread wound around my arm.
“Wh-when……!”
“As expected, you are certainly a spy. There is no way someone from the Shandong Ak Clan would be this sloppy.”
Rattle, rattle.
When the Flying Dragon Claw pulled taut, the man could not endure the pain and was eventually dragged toward me.
Then, in the next moment, he used the momentum to instead attempt to stab with his spear tip.
I slightly twisted my body and lightly let it flow away.
“Your improvisation was good, but…… such simple movement only becomes prey for the opponent.”
I infused the profundity of Lotus into the Black Dragon Sword, lifted the bastard half a turn together with his spear, then struck him down.
THUD, THUD.
After rolling on the dirt floor for the second time, the bastard groaned and twisted his body, as if he no longer had the strength to rise.
And I adjusted my grip on the Black Dragon Sword and began striking the man with the blade’s edge.
Crunch- Crunch- Crunch-
For an instant, only the sound of flesh being crushed echoed through the surroundings that had fallen silent.
The man could not endure even fifteen minutes, and eventually fainted.
Looking down on one’s opponent without skill or justification was the most foolish thing a martial artist could do.
“Or perhaps he overtrusted the backing he had.”
When I searched inside the bastard’s clothes, sure enough, an Ak Clan nameplate came out.
Fourth Team, O Un-gyeong.
It did not state what agency he belonged to, and seeing as his surname was not ‘Ak,’ he was not of the Shandong Ak Clan’s direct line.
I continued searching his clothing, took his money pouch, and also checked whether he had promissory notes.
Various words began passing among the onlookers.
“Is that person really a Black Path spy?”
“But his martial arts and clothes are too much like the Ak Clan’s, aren’t they?”
“Isn’t that person really from the Ak Clan……?”
Even though it was not their own affair, the people were pointlessly anxious.
From my standpoint, there was no great need to worry.
‘To begin with, I did this while knowing it.’
It may have been everyday routine for those bastards, but the fact that they had been acting in the name of the Execution Pavilion was something people from other agencies could make a major issue out of if they came to know of it.
In truth, what they truly wanted was probably not to make this matter grow large.
“By the way, this has become troublesome. The Ak Clan moved directly…….”
I thought I could finally finish things up and live peacefully at the Academy, but another matter had erupted.
Was not only my past life’s fate like this, but even my present life’s fate this fierce?
“……This is all because of Yaryul Geuk, that mannerless bastard.”
After cursing the bastard who must be groaning in the dormitory while expelling stagnant blood, I headed toward the meeting place.
***
Guided by a waiter, I entered the detached building, but the atmosphere among those who had arrived first was strange.
“Ahem…….”
“…….”
“…….”
What was the reason?
Hmm, as for Jang Woo-jae, we had a bond from fighting together in Yueyang, and to begin with, there was no grudge between us.
Then the source of this terrible atmosphere was none other than…….
“Nam Hwa-seong really came.”
“……Fuck.”
Nam Hwa-seong crumpled his face like a sheet of paper, as if something displeased him.
“Y-you were the one who contacted me to come!”
That bastard really had no tact.
“Well, that’s because you’re part of the Representative Executive Staff. But I didn’t think you’d really come.”
“……Damn it.”
Nam Hwa-seong’s face turned red as if he would burst at any moment.
But from my point of view, I truly had not thought he would come.
Before the Sichuan matter, Nam Hwa-seong had been an existence that directly stood against our Representative Delegation.
“Well, you must have your own circumstances, I suppose?”
“…….”
When I sat down, the disorderly atmosphere roughly settled.
I looked over the people gathered here in order.
“The existing members of the Representative Executive Staff all know one another, right?”
The people sitting across from Jang Woo-jae and Nam Hwa-seong each revealed their names in turn and greeted them formally.
As expected, wherever our group went, they never did anything that could be found fault with.
I smiled in satisfaction and looked across.
“You all know this side, right? Jang Woo-jae of the Yujang Sect.”
“I greet you once again. I am Jang Woo-jae of the Yujang Sect. As for what happened in Yueyang…… I thank you once again.”
When he bowed politely, the existing group smiled brightly and waved their hands.
“Not at all. The elders within your sect are doing well, yes?”
“Yes. They are working day and night to rebuild the foundation of the Yujang Sect once again.”
“That is a relief.”
Everyone nodded at Namgung Seon-hwa’s words, but only Nam Hwa-seong, who did not know what had happened in Yueyang, wore a dumbfounded expression.
“Did something happen?”
“…….”
“…….”
Nam Hwa-seong asked a question, but no one answered him.
Perhaps feeling awkward, Nam Hwa-seong lowered his head and scratched the back of it hard.
That is why he should not have inserted himself into such an uncomfortable seat for no reason.
Since I could not leave him like that anyway, I quickly continued Nam Hwa-seong’s introduction.
“This side is Nam Hwa-seong of the Three Origins Sect.”
Suddenly, Nam Hwa-seong sprang up from his seat and formed a clasped hands greeting.
“Glad to meet you. I am Nam Hwa-seong of the Three Origins Sect. Let us send what happened in the past down the Yangtze and write new history.”
His voice rang loudly through the detached building.
Even so, we awkwardly applauded.
I continued the explanation about Nam Hwa-seong.
“He is from the Twelve Peak Citadels and entered the Representative Executive Staff as a spy. So please do not discuss secrets in front of him.”
“…….”
In an instant, the air turned cold.
Nam Hwa-seong blinked at me like an ox whose fodder had been taken away.
“What? Why?”
“…….”
If they were going to insert a spy, they should have inserted someone smart.
I truly have no idea what Cheol Sun-jik is thinking.