Chapter 84: Chapter 84
“Th-That, that bastard! Isn’t he out of his mind?”
Infuriated, Daoist Master Un-seong pointed his finger at the door through which Jin Un had exited. However, no voice spoke up to take his side.
Un-seong looked around at the faces of those seated at the table. Everyone had looks in their eyes urging him to stop it already and proceed with the meeting.
Amidst that, the face of Namgung Jin, seated at the lowest seat, caught his eye.
‘Is he smiling?’
That fellow was snickering repeatedly, as if finding this entire situation amusing.
Heat rushed to Un-seong’s head for a moment, but he could say nothing. While he had pointed fingers and lectured the Mount Hua Sect’s Plum Blossom Swordsman, he could not dare to do the same to the young patriarch of the Namgung Clan.
In any case, the Namgung Clan was a family vying with the Sichuan Tang Clan for the title of number one clan under heaven in the present era. Unlike the Tang Clan, the Sword King stood firm as patriarch, so many viewed the Namgung Clan as holding the advantage. In fact, the title of number one clan was still a term that referred to the Namgung Clan.
Exhaling a long breath, Un-seong struggled to swallow his rage. Channeling the fury he could not unleash upon Namgung Jin, he cursed the absent Jin Un.
“That bastard seems to think he has become some great chivalrous hero under heaven. It is truly not even laughable. They say ruin has thoroughly taken root in Mount Hua, and indeed it has!”
It was then.
A cold voice struck his ears.
“Are you perhaps afraid?”
It was Tang Bi-cheon. Un-seong flared up in fury and spoke.
“Afraid! Do you honestly mean that I fear a duel with that greenhorn!”
“If not, sit down first. The meeting is dragging on because of you, Daoist Master. As a senior of Daoism, you can simply bestow your lessons at the sparring tournament.”
Tang Bi-cheon’s voice was endlessly cold.
Meeting those chilly deep green eyes, Un-seong flinched and stealthily sat down in his seat.
Looking at Un-seong for a moment, Tang Bi-cheon let out a short sigh and resumed the meeting.
As expected, various opinions emerged, but finding a way to properly drive out Cheon Woo-jin and Song Yi-yeon proved difficult.
Suddenly, Tang Bi-cheon’s gaze caught the remaining two youngest members.
His younger sister, Tang So-yeon, was looking at everyone as if they were pathetic. Since she had always checked him over the patriarch position, there was nothing particularly novel about it.
More than her, the man beside her who wore a sneer as if finding this situation ridiculous caught his eye even more.
“Young Hero Namgung. Are you that amused?”
“Do I appear amused?”
He looked exceedingly amused. A smile continuously lingered around his eyes and mouth. To the point where, had he not been the young patriarch of the Namgung Clan, Tang Bi-cheon would have wanted to gouge his eyeballs out right on the spot.
However, even Tang Bi-cheon, boasting omnipotent authority, could not treat Namgung Jin recklessly. It was because his family was the Namgung Clan, and his father was the Sword King.
Of course, he could not simply cast down his eyes and swallow his anger like that idiot Un-seong. For he, too, was the eldest son of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
“Why don’t you offer an opinion, Young Hero Namgung? In any case, Cheon Woo-jin and Song Yi-yeon are your peers. I believe you bear some responsibility.”
“What responsibility could I possibly bear?”
Namgung Jin smirked.
As the two eldest sons of the Five Great Clans glared at each other, everyone held their breath and observed the confrontation.
Tang Bi-cheon’s words continued.
“When my term ends, the next president to lead the Dragon and Phoenix Society will be you, Young Hero Namgung. However, such an attitude is somewhat troublesome. Furthermore, had the first place in this selection exam been Young Hero Namgung rather than Cheon Woo-jin in the first place, a meeting like this would not have even convened.”
Tang Bi-cheon knew well that Namgung Jin felt an inferiority complex toward Cheon Woo-jin. He deliberately poked at that point to sour the other’s mood.
Unfortunately, however, he knew only one thing and failed to see the second.
The bloodline of the Namgung Clan was endowed with a terribly arrogant disposition for generations. What Namgung Jin looked down upon was not merely Cheon Woo-jin, but also Tang Bi-cheon, an eldest son of the Five Great Clans just like himself.
No one gets angry because an insect crawls up. One merely waves a hand indifferently to flick it away.
“If the seat is too burdensome, step down. The master of the cave has changed, after all.”
“…”
Tang Bi-cheon gritted his molars.
Generation after generation, the seat of honor in meetings of the Five Great Clans belonged to the patriarch of the Namgung Clan.
In any gathering where the Tang Clan and the Namgung Clan assembled together, there had never been a time when a figure from the Namgung Clan was not the representative.
It meant that while the fox called the Sichuan Tang Clan might have played king in a cave lacking a tiger called the Namgung Clan, now that the rightful master had arrived, he should conduct himself accordingly.
Tang Bi-cheon wished to say something, but he could not utter words that belittled the Namgung Clan in this setting.
The Namgung Clan did not keep checks on the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Yet the Sichuan Tang Clan endlessly concerned itself with the Namgung Clan.
That subtle dynamic was being revealed vividly even within this small conference room.
“At any rate, since I have no particular opinion coming to mind, let us continue the meeting.”
Namgung Jin spoke thus with a smirk.
Tang Bi-cheon’s words were true. This situation was exceedingly enjoyable. The emptiness and frustration he had experienced when he first encountered the existence known as Cheon Woo-jin.
The sense of incongruity felt by one who had lived his entire life at the very peak when confronting an even higher wall.
Those who reigned over the martial world under the names of the Five Great Clans and Nine Great Sects were now all feeling that exact same thing.
How could he not be delighted?
Tang So-yeon, sitting beside him, raised a thumb toward Namgung Jin beneath the table. For she, too, disliked the conduct of Tang Bi-cheon and the Dragon and Phoenix Society just as much.
* * *
After the meeting ended.
Tang Bi-cheon, left alone, let out a sigh.
There were many evaluations that this batch was splendid to a degree rarely seen in the history of the Martial Alliance.
Cheon Woo-jin, who displayed nonsensical martial prowess and conduct.
Namgung Jin, the Little Sword Dragon of the Namgung Clan.
Song Yi-yeon, who was the child of a merchant clan yet defeated a Plum Blossom Swordsman, and Jin Un, the genius swordsman carrying the future of Mount Hua.
Even Tang So-yeon, who had entered the realm of a Poison Human before even reaching twenty years of age, just like her elder brother.
Because of that, the expectations held by those from the Dragon and Phoenix Society were immense.
If they absorbed all of them into the Society, the power of the Dragon and Phoenix Society would also become that much stronger.
Yet two bastards refused to join. One fellow had just stormed out. Furthermore, the remaining two wretched individuals did not move according to his wishes either.
For that reason, theories regarding the incompetence of the current president were even circulating implicitly within the Dragon and Phoenix Society.
“Dammit.”
Tang Bi-cheon cursed in a low voice. In the end, the meeting had concluded inconclusively without producing any viable method.
In truth, whatever became of the Dragon and Phoenix Society in the future did not matter. Rather, the Dragon and Phoenix Society was a tool. A tool for the grand enterprise he had prepared by laying a foundation and securing supporting factions as president over the past eight years.
When that day came, not only would he no longer need to walk on eggshells around the Martial Alliance Leader, but he could also step out from the shadow of his father, who could not make proper judgments due to dementia yet refused to yield his seat thanks solely to his high martial arts.
Yet ahead of that, a nuisance had arisen.
Because of insignificant young punks named Cheon Woo-jin and Song Yi-yeon, people doubting his capabilities had appeared.
It was truly vexing. A fissure was forming in the grand undertaking that needed to be executed in one breath upon an overwhelming foundation of support.
Just as Tang Bi-cheon revealed his anxiety without concealing it, a voice resembling blunt iron being rubbed came from the shadows at the edge of the conference room.
“Young Patriarch. Do you require my assistance?”
“…Killing them is out of the question.”
Tang Bi-cheon spoke with a rarely seen respectful attitude.
Chuckling laughter followed from within the darkness.
“Anyone watching would think I am a corrupt monk crazed with slaughter. This humble monk knows a way to resolve this matter without shedding blood.”
Tang Bi-cheon wore a strange smile. The one who relished blood more than anyone he knew was precisely Dharma Master Won-dang in the darkness.
Dharma Master Won-dang, who had appeared suddenly one day, was someone who had resolved all of Tang Bi-cheon’s worries and settled matters for him over the past several years.
Furthermore, he was also the person who helped Tang Bi-cheon fully attain the realm of a Poison Human.
At first he had suspected him, but Dharma Master Won-dang did not conceal his desires. He too, just like Tang Bi-cheon, desired not the Martial Alliance, but a new heaven.
The two did not trust one another. They merely trusted the desires each displayed.
Listening to such a voice from Dharma Master Won-dang, his anxious mind naturally settled, and he even felt somewhat reassured.
“What is that method?”
“First, let me ask. Is the Martial Alliance a collective of chivalrous heroes?”
“…Yes, well. It is.”
Tang Bi-cheon felt a dry roughness on his tongue. He could not fail to know that he himself was far removed from being a chivalrous hero.
From the shadows, amused laughter spilled out repeatedly.
“Chuckle, chuckle, you are truly honest, Young Patriarch. At any rate, if the disciple of a villain has snuck into a collective of chivalrous heroes, what do you think the Martial Alliance would do?”
Tang Bi-cheon’s brows twitched.
The disciple of a villain?
“Are you saying that bastard Cheon Woo-jin’s master is a villain?”
Even without this, he had investigated Cheon Woo-jin countlessly.
However, where his sect was and who his master was could not be uncovered. He was an existence that had appeared as though dropped out of the blue from the heavens one day.
He harbored reasonable suspicions that someone might have deliberately erased the information, but in the end, it was useless if it could not be uncovered.
Pondering deeply, Tang Bi-cheon soon shook his head with a disappointed expression.
“That alone is insufficient. It is an open fact that Alliance Leader Bukli Cheon views that bastard Cheon Woo-jin fondly. From what I hear, Master Beop-jin of Shaolin also inexplicably dotes upon those two scoundrels.”
The name value of those shielding Cheon Woo-jin and Song Yi-yeon was far too high. The two could not be slandered through clumsy political maneuvering.
Unless Cheon Woo-jin’s master happened to be the Demonic Cult Leader…”
At that moment, Tang Bi-cheon’s eyes widened sharply.
“Could he be a member of the Demonic Cult?”
It was a reasonable suspicion. If he were a hidden disciple of the Demonic Cult Leader, Cheon Woo-jin’s incomprehensible martial prowess and actions would finally make sense.
At that, Dharma Master Won-dang burst into uproarious laughter.
“Hahaha! Could that possibly be? Regrettably, the current cult leader has taken only three disciples. I know the faces of all of them.”
“…Is that so.”
In that case, it was impossible. Unless he was of the caliber of the Demonic Cult Leader’s disciple, he could not be ousted through politics.
“However, he is the disciple of someone even more terrifying than the Demonic Cult Leader.”
“Pardon?”
Now that the Dark Emperor had disappeared.
Did another such existence exist under heaven?
Soon, Dharma Master Won-dang’s words echoed heavily, as though dropping a stone into a deep well.
“Black Elder.”
“Wh-What…!”
Tang Bi-cheon sprang up from his seat.
His deep green eyes trembled finely.
How could he not know that name?
For it was right after the duel against Black Elder that the current patriarch of the Sichuan Tang Clan, his own father, succumbed to dementia.
Had Cheon Woo-jin been in this place, he would have let out a quiet sigh, wondering, ‘No, Master again?’
Blinking his eyes in astonishment, Tang Bi-cheon soon slyly raised the corners of his mouth.
“Is that bastard Cheon Woo-jin truly the disciple of Black Elder?”
“Have I ever spoken a falsehood to the young patriarch?”
“No. Not once over the past several years!”
Tang Bi-cheon felt as though he had caught sight of a ray of light within pitch darkness.
If it was Black Elder, he lagged by no means behind the notoriety of the Demonic Cult Leader.
Nay, rather, the eminent masters who had lived through the era of the Dark Emperor might disdain and fear Black Elder even more than the Demonic Cult Leader.
“Young Patriarch, let us spread this fact immediately. That fellow will not merely be expelled from the Alliance, but will have his limbs torn apart and die.”
Tang Bi-cheon held the same thought.
No matter how much of a genius Cheon Woo-jin was, how could he single-handedly contend against the Martial Alliance?
“Immediately to the Alliance Leader…”
“No, that will not do.”
Dharma Master Won-dang firmly dissuaded Tang Bi-cheon.
When suspicion flashed in Tang Bi-cheon’s eyes, Won-dang continued.
“The Alliance Leader might already know. In any case, he is bound to be a man with more interest in the Dark Emperor than anyone under heaven.”
“…Could that really be?”
Alliance Leader Bukli Cheon was an enemy of the Dragon and Phoenix Society.
Yet as a martial artist, there was not a single person under heaven who doubted his chivalry.
Would such a man keep Black Elder’s disciple within the Martial Alliance?
“Chuckle, chuckle. Of course, it is a scenario with low probability. But there is no harm in being cautious. Rather than reporting directly to the Alliance Leader, utilize rumors.”
Tang Bi-cheon nodded his head. He had never suffered a loss by following Dharma Master Won-dang’s words.
Just as Tang Bi-cheon was about to expose to the whole world that Cheon Woo-jin was Black Elder’s disciple and persecute him, he hesitated for a moment.
“Wait.”
In a situation where people questioning Tang Bi-cheon’s ability had already appeared among the elders from the Dragon and Phoenix Society.
Resolving Cheon Woo-jin’s matter was a good thing, but even so, suspicion once spread would not disappear.
To achieve the grand enterprise, the more people who trusted and followed him, the better.
Soon, turning his mind over, Tang Bi-cheon thought of a scheme.
A method to expel Cheon Woo-jin by exploiting the fact that he was Black Elder’s disciple, while simultaneously proving his own capability.
“The sparring tournament will open soon. It is a truly opportune time.”
Tang Bi-cheon spoke thus.
From the shadows, the corners of Dharma Master Won-dang’s mouth lifted quietly.