Chapter 115: Chapter 115
“What do you mean by that! The traces of the Dark Emperor’s seal have disappeared?”
White Elder raised his voice unusually.
He, Black Elder, and Man Gi-ja had sealed the Dark Emperor in the place where the Dark Emperor had resided. It was a seal that no one could ever break.
As the central agent of the secret art, Man Gi-ja had taken charge of maintaining that seal. Yet, around the time a month had passed since the sealing, he had abruptly visited and uttered such words.
The atmosphere flowed urgently.
Even amidst this, White Elder watched Black Elder. Because given that fellow’s temperament, he might try to kill Man Gi-ja immediately.
“From exactly when?”
Contrary to White Elder’s expectation, Black Elder’s voice was calm. However, because of that, it was instead cold like a lump of iron sunk in the deep sea.
Man Gi-ja replied while shuddering slightly.
“The problem is not knowing that. If the Dark Emperor did something at the final moment, we cannot rule out the possibility that we have been deceived for the past month. Perhaps we failed to seal him in the first place…”
Swish!
The figure of Black Elder, who had been sitting, stretched long.
Into the palm of Black Elder surging toward Man Gi-ja, the Crescent Moon Staff was drawn before anyone noticed.
Clang!
Imbued with ink-colored astral qi, the Crescent Moon Staff came to a halt an inch before Man Gi-ja’s head. A white fan had blocked it.
“Black Elder, calm down a bit. Shouldn’t hearing the explanation come first?”
“What explanation.”
Black Elder peered into Man Gi-ja with abyss-like pupils.
Man Gi-ja’s body trembled once. A considerably long time had passed since he too was called one of the Three Eccentrics of the Righteous Path. Even so, facing Black Elder’s momentum right before him, fear surged in an instant.
Black Elder’s raspy voice seeped through his lips.
“It is not that we were deceived, but that you, Man Gi-ja, were deceived. Perhaps you bastard might have deceived us.”
A dark, murky Dark Heavens Qi arose from Black Elder’s entire body. It was to the point where even White Elder’s arm blocking the Crescent Moon Staff began to tremble.
“Black Elder! Are you truly unable to come to your senses until the end and insisting on staining your hands with blood?”
“Nonsense. I merely joined you because our purposes aligned; did you expect me to become a virtuous man or something? I am the eldest disciple of the Dark Emperor. Through my entire body flows the energy of the one called the greatest evil in history. Even if heaven and earth were overturned, there is no way I would ever become a virtuous man.”
Black Elder and White Elder glared at each other as if to kill.
Black Elder’s words were correct. The two had merely joined together for the same purpose, but possessed temperaments that were far too different.
Watching this from the side, Cheon Woo-jin wanted to step forward personally to dissuade his masters. However, he could exert no influence whatsoever on the figures of the past.
It was at that moment.
Around the time Black Elder’s rough momentum completely filled the entire forest.
From inside the hut, the crisp crying of an infant carried out.
At the same time, the momentum of Black Elder and White Elder vanished cleanly in an instant.
White Elder, who had dashed hastily toward the hut, abruptly walked out carrying a baby about the size of his forearm.
“Little baby, I am sorry for startling you. It wasn’t me, but that pitch-black fellow over there who did it.”
“…”
Black Elder looked at White Elder with resentful eyes.
Selling me out just like that?
It was precisely that kind of look.
Thanks to that, once the precarious atmosphere was somewhat patched up, Man Gi-ja opened his mouth once more.
“The Dark Emperor will return.”
It was painful for Man Gi-ja to utter such words with his own mouth as well. Such precious things had been expended on this great undertaking, yet it had ended in failure.
However, it was something that had to be said. If he kept his mouth shut because it was painful, no one would be able to inform the world of the danger.
“I do not know when it will be, but if that time comes after twenty years have passed, we will be dead and gone.”
“…”
White Elder and Black Elder met each other’s gazes.
Even in their era, they had failed to stop the Dark Emperor.
Yet, when that time came, who on earth could stop him?
All three people were harboring the exact same worry.
Naturally, everyone’s gazes turned toward the baby held in White Elder’s embrace.
On the way back from sealing the Dark Emperor.
In an utterly exhausted state, they had entered an inn.
There, a young mother had been experiencing severe labor pains, and Man Gi-ja, who was also well-versed in medicine, had personally delivered the child.
However, because the mother’s body was already heavily broken, she passed away immediately after giving birth without even being able to hold the child once.
The three people made a grave for her and inevitably brought the child with them, who was none other than…
“Woo-jin, is it because you miss your mother?”
White Elder coaxed and pacified the baby who kept whimpering. However, there was no sign of the crying ceasing anytime soon.
“Tsk, hand him over here.”
Black Elder embraced the baby in his arms. At that, the baby tugged on Black Elder’s beard and giggled with a bright smile.
Even martial artists who claimed to fear nothing under heaven would tremble and bow their heads upon seeing Black Elder, but the baby, knowing nothing, would burst into laughter whenever given Black Elder’s beard.
Suddenly, White Elder spoke.
“How would it be if we taught that child?”
Black Elder looked at him with an expression telling him not to speak crazy nonsense.
“How could you have this child learn the Dark Emperor’s martial arts, which are akin to a curse? Please use your head a little.”
“He must know. If he truly returns, one must know him better than anyone else to be able to stop him, wouldn’t you say?”
“…”
Black Elder shut his mouth. If the Dark Emperor returned in an era where they were gone, the only person who could stop him would be someone well-versed in the Dark Emperor’s martial arts.
Furthermore, the only person in the contemporary era capable of raising such a person was Black Elder himself.
“You bastards have truly gone mad.”
Black Elder tossed the baby toward White Elder. In the midst of that, he operated the subtlety of Telekinetic Attraction, leaving not the slightest jolt.
Soon, after casting a disgusted look at White Elder and Man Gi-ja, Black Elder vanished into the forest.
Man Gi-ja let out a deep sigh. Since even the method he had thought to be the last hope had failed.
“As expected, it won’t work. Well, he is Black Elder, who loathes the Dark Emperor’s martial arts more than anyone.”
Man Gi-ja plopped down onto the ground.
However, White Elder stared quietly in the direction where Black Elder had disappeared, then spoke.
“Even acting like that, he will teach martial arts to this child in the end. Because if no one can stop the Dark Emperor when he truly returns, there will be no world for this baby to stand on either.”
White Elder had strived for quite a long time to eliminate the evil dwelling within Black Elder, but to no avail. However, from Black Elder when he was with this child, there was not the slightest malicious intent.
Who could have known that the terrifying Black Elder who made the world tremble would be weak to a baby?
White Elder suddenly looked up at the sky.
A fleeting sorrow crossed his face.
“In this vast world, those I can trust can be counted on one hand. At most five or so, perhaps? With the disciples of the Dark Emperor running rampant across the world, I cannot be certain at all that no one is entangled with them.”
For the first time, White Elder felt regretful about his life.
He had walked alone far too much all this time.
The martial world had looked up at the retreating back of such a White Elder, and White Elder had internally been satisfied with such a life as well.
However, seeing the end of his life and being placed in a situation where work still remained, he felt exceedingly regretful.
How much time had passed like that?
Just as White Elder expected, Black Elder returned. In his hand, he even held a wooden staff suitable for a child to use, carved who knew when.
Passing the baby to Black Elder, White Elder spoke.
“When the child grows up, I will send him to the Martial Alliance. At the very least, I hope this child will not be left to walk the world alone like us.”
“Why the Martial Alliance of all places?”
When Black Elder found fault, White Elder retorted as if it were obvious.
“Then should we send him to the Demonic Cult or the Unorthodox Path? The only place even somewhat trustworthy is the Martial Alliance. Moreover, according to Man Gi-ja’s astrology, there is a high likelihood that that Bukli Cheon fellow will become the Alliance Leader in the future. He is a trustworthy fellow.”
Black Elder looked at Man Gi-ja with an expression asking if he could even do such a thing. Man Gi-ja puffed up his shoulders without any shame and nodded his head.
Pondering something deeply, Black Elder spoke.
“Then how about sending him to the Unorthodox Path? There is quite a decent junior named Ha Yul-cheon. I have a feeling that around the time this child grows up, that fellow will unify the Unorthodox Path.”
“Ha, even so, how could fellows who only care about their own rice bowls like the Unorthodox Path unite their wills? That is nonsensical talk.”
Even while saying so, Man Gi-ja began casting divinations.
Soon, Man Gi-ja’s expression shifted subtly.
“How is it? Am I right?”
“N-No, it isn’t?”
Man Gi-ja stuttered unusually.
He had glimpsed the future known as the Black Overlord Castle.
However, as one of the Three Eccentrics of the Righteous Path, how could he send a child who could be called the future of the martial world to the Unorthodox Path?
Man Gi-ja uttered a white lie.
“The Unorthodox Path will not be unified even after a hundred years pass. Well, as expected.”
Black Elder smacked his lips with regret.
Since they couldn’t send him to the Demonic Cult, in the end, there was only the Martial Alliance.
In the first place, regardless of orthodox, unorthodox, or demonic, everyone had hated and feared Black Elder, so it was not a matter he clung to very much either.
In that manner, the three men gathered their wills toward sending the child to the Martial Alliance in the future.
Cheon Woo-jin was personally watching that entire process from the side. There was a legend that Man Gi-ja had recorded everything in the world, but he had never even imagined that he would have left such a record to him.
It was at that moment.
In an instant, the three people looked at Cheon Woo-jin simultaneously.
Because Cheon Woo-jin had merely been beside them as an observer, he was startled by the suddenly converging gazes.
Suddenly, White Elder spoke.
“Woo-jin, what are your thoughts? No matter if it is Man Gi-ja, he merely predicts the future roughly, unable to know it in detail. But you of the present know, don’t you? What kind of place is the Martial Alliance of your era?”
Flustered, Cheon Woo-jin could not easily answer White Elder, who was speaking to him.
At that, Black Elder chimed in from the side.
“Why? Did we perhaps do something useless again? The Martial Alliance wasn’t very trustworthy either, was it?”
There was a subtle expectation.
Cheon Woo-jin recalled the Martial Alliance he had seen and experienced firsthand.
Starting from Young Hero Song to Cheol Ji-ak, Zhuge Rin, Jin Un, the Martial Alliance Leader and the Chief Strategist…
While there were good people, there were also those like the White Dragon Squad Leader and the Benevolence Division Head who stood contrary to master White Elder’s will.
He didn’t know what to reply.
At that, White Elder approached and placed a hand on Cheon Woo-jin’s shoulder. Regrettably, no warmth was felt through physical contact.
However, he could feel warmth from the gazes of his masters looking at him.
“Enough. I believe in you, Woo-jin.”
Soon, Cheon Woo-jin’s world was dyed completely white, then returned to normal once again.
* * *
Cheon Woo-jin was standing in the Disciplinary Hall Master’s office.
Before him, the Dragon Head Sect Chief and the Disciplinary Hall Master were looking at Cheon Woo-jin with faces practically dying of curiosity.
In Cheon Woo-jin’s mind, the question his masters had left behind was still vivid. Asking what kind of place the Martial Alliance of his era was.
Cheon Woo-jin could not give an immediate definite answer.
All sorts of human figures existed within the Martial Alliance.
However, what was certain was that people entirely contrary to his masters’ expectations were trying to disrupt the Martial Alliance.
“What content did you see?”
The Dragon Head Sect Chief asked.
Cheon Woo-jin replied that he apologized, but it was a personal matter.
At that, unlike the fretful Disciplinary Hall Master, the Dragon Head Sect Chief merely nodded his head and asked.
“What do you intend to do from now on?”
If he was someone to whom Man Gi-ja had personally left a letter, as the Dragon Head Sect Chief, it was only natural to watch his steps closely.
Cheon Woo-jin spoke calmly.
“First, I intend to clean up the Martial Alliance.”
It was a bold declaration to be made by a youngest recruit who had been in the alliance for less than a year. However, was he just an ordinary youngest recruit? He was the successor to whom Man Gi-ja had left a letter, and the disciple who had inherited the true transmission of the White Flower Sword Immortal.
The Dragon Head Sect Chief burst out laughing as if thoroughly delighted.
“Splendid!”
Carried away by excitement on his own again, the Dragon Head Sect Chief guzzled from his liquor bottle. While his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, Cheon Woo-jin bowed politely and left the office.
“Whew.”
Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, the Dragon Head Sect Chief, his face flushed red, spoke to the Disciplinary Hall Master.
“Bring the Beggars’ Sect Annals and record like this on today’s date. A gale has begun to blow in the martial world. A wind that will topple even a giant tree that has held its roots for hundreds of years in a single blow. If one wishes to live, one must prostrate flat on the ground like a reed and wait for the gale to pass.”
The Disciplinary Hall Master’s hand taking down the dictation came to a dead halt.
He asked with a serious face.
“Sect Chief, do we prostrate as well?”
“We don’t need to worry. We live prostrating on a daily basis anyway.”
“…”
Soon, the two men burst into hearty laughter that resembled each other.