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Chapter 252
Chapter 252. The Black Flame Dragon Collects the Stakes (5)
Fine. I will honestly admit it.
My actions had been somewhat excessive.
In the eyes of an Ideological Inquisitor with a demon of suspicion clinging to him, I must have looked, at a glance, like either a Black Path spy or a traitorous bastard who could change sides at any moment.
Otherwise, why would I throw my life away for the Grand Strategist of an enemy army that was practically our enemy?
Ẅ е̇b̄n̄ о̌v̂ е l̄ Е̇.n̆ū m а
To be honest, even I would have thought, ‘How much bribe money did that bastard stuff into his pockets to throw his life away like that?’
But from my perspective, was it not unfair?
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No, did I want to risk my life either?
How was I supposed to know that damned Je Geum-hak bastard would turn out to be the Yin-Yang Twin Demons?
Of course, that did not mean I would not have dealt with him even if I had known, but I would have at least tried to find another method rather than facing him head-on.
I would not have tried to gain Dam-ak’s goodwill by creating such a dramatic situation.
En̈ û ḿ ǎ
“Why are you not answering?”
Even so, was it not going a little too far to ask me, the greatest contributor to the peace treaty between the Black Thought Alliance and the Murim Alliance, whether I intended to join the Black Path?
I had crossed the line too, but Ak Byeong-bi had crossed it hard as well.
When I stared at him with an incredulous gaze, the crease between Ak Byeong-bi’s brows deepened even further.
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“Do you truly intend to join them?”
Seeing his fierce expression and those flashing eyes, it seemed as though he was only waiting for me to say yes.
W е́bn_ōv е l Ӗ n um а̄
This damned man.
“What are you talking about? Why would I join them?”
The corners of Ak Byeong-bi’s eyes trembled.
It had been a long time since his wounds healed, so it did not seem to be from a lack of blood. It looked as though unnecessary thoughts were running through his head……
This sort of thing had to be cut off from the beginning.
“Why would I, a disciple of a legitimate sect among the Hundred Righteous Sects, join something like the Black Thought Alliance?”
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
“……Legitimate?”
What was with that displeased look?
I put on an equally displeased expression.
“In terms of history, the Taeul Sect is older than the Ak Clan.”
“…….”
Ak Byeong-bi flinched briefly, then went back to wearing that displeased expression.
Ё.n̊ ũ m̃ ӑ. i d̆
“Hundred Righteous Sects?”
When it came to walking the Righteous Path, no sect could compare to the Taeul Sect.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
For five hundred years, it had never expanded its influence or possessed power.
……Then why did that make me want to cry?
I shrugged.
“If we are talking about purity, is there any sect that can compare to the Taeul Sect?”
Е̂ n u.m а_
“……That is why I am asking. As the Alliance Leader said, if you join the Black Thought Alliance and seek wealth and glory……”
“Is joining the Black Thought Alliance not already the point where one grows distant from wealth and glory?”
Ak Byeong-bi stared at me silently for quite some time.
To tell the truth, it was not as if I was not anxious.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Even if Ak Byeong-bi had no selfish motives, if what I had done in the Black Thought Alliance became known to the Murim Alliance and the Academy, it seemed likely that an enormous uproar would break out.
Those possessed by demons of suspicion would probably glare with crimson eyes and interrogate me over whether my black hair meant I had been stained by the Black Path.
Ŵ е bn̆ ȯ v̈е̄l Е́ň u m̈ а
And the Ideological Inquisitor before me would stand at the very front of those demons of suspicion.
The Ideological Inquisitor nodded.
“So that is how it is.”
But that did not mean I intended to show him some servile attitude.
Let the red-eyed bastards live like that.
I was proud of my actions.
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“Do you intend to join the Black Thought Alliance in the future, or……”
“No. I am going to rise spectacularly in the Murim Alliance, and I intend to turn the Taeul Sect into a sect equal to the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans.”
“…….”
Ah, did I go a little too far with that?
Ak Byeong-bi, who had been looking at me with suspicion until just a moment ago, now wore a pitiful expression.
Damn it, why?
Ё n̂ ûm̊ ӓ. і d́
That made me feel even worse.
“I do not think it will be possible, but……”
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“What?”
When I raised my eyes like a wildcat, Ak Byeong-bi cleared his throat.
“Ahem. In any case, if that is so, then I understand. Make sure that your heart does not change in the future.”
Hm?
Eń u m a.і d
“Pardon?”
What was this?
Why was the Ideological Inquisitor over there making a warm expression?
“I mean exactly what I said. From now on, countless people who envy and resent you will slander and tear you down.”
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No, was he not the one who had taken the lead in doing that more thoroughly than anyone else?
Why was he acting as though he had not?
Е̌ ň úm̂а . і̃_d̆
For now, I decided to listen.
“Considering the actions you have taken, there is no better material for them to sink their teeth into.”
Before I knew it, Ak Byeong-bi’s face had turned solemn.
“Even so, do not become duplicitous and step onto the wrong path because you are intoxicated by immediate profit or emotion.”
“…….”
“The Righteous Path is, by nature, a difficult and painful road. Those who turn their eyes away from that pain…… surround themselves with stubborn self-righteousness, justify themselves, and blind their own eyes.”
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Ak Byeong-bi looked into the air as if he were regretting his own past.
“Such people cannot even recognize that they are walking the wrong path.”
Ak Byeong-bi spoke as though he were talking about someone else, but anyone listening could quickly tell that he was talking about himself.
“So even if it is painful and agonizing, continue down that path. If you do……”
Ak Byeong-bi paused for a moment and clenched both hands into fists.
“People who believe in you and help you will surely appear.”
E numа.і̄d̃
Then he stared straight into my eyes and added in a voice full of conviction.
“They appeared even for a man like me, so this is certain.”
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Soon after, Ak Byeong-bi turned his head away, his ears dyed red.
It seemed that saying words so ill-suited to him had made embarrassment surge up inside him.
I chuckled and asked in return.
“Does that mean you have confirmed that I am not a Black Path spy?”
Ēň um а. і́d̃
“……Ahem. You were never a spy to begin with.”
“What kind of nonsense is that……?”
“In any case, know that to be true. And……”
Ak Byeong-bi lowered his reddened face.
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What was this?
Why were his hands fidgeting?
Ӗ nùm̈а̂
Was he going to say something else……?
“Thank you for not giving up.”
For a moment, I lost the words to reply.
At this point, there was one last thing I had to confirm.
“Um, may I check one thing?”
Ak Byeong-bi nodded obediently.
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“Very well. In the future, the Inspection Pavilion will never suspect you of being a Black Path spy. I swear this on my name as the Third Hall Master.”
No, that was not the important part right now.
“Yes, yes, I understand. But that is not what I was going to ask.”
I stared intently at his face and asked.
“Um…… may I tug on your face once?”
“?”
En üm̀а
You know, just to check whether it was a Human-Skin Mask.
No matter how I looked at him, he did not seem like the Ideological Inquisitor I knew.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
“I will only tug lightly.”
“…….”
At lightning speed, Ak Byeong-bi’s face crumpled like a sheet of paper.
Il-myeong, who was entering the inner chamber, tilted his head when he saw Ak Byeong-bi’s face.
Ѐn̄ ū ḿ а̇.і̇d̃
He had clearly just had a ‘conversation’ with Jin So-un, so why were both of his cheeks flushed red?
“Delegation Leader, did something happen?”
“……No.”
It did not look like nothing had happened……
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“Your cheeks……”
“I said nothing happened!”
E.n̈ u̇m̌ а̌ .іd̀
“…….”
Ak Byeong-bi barked like an angry puppy.
Seeing him glare with both eyes blazing, Il-myeong pressed his lips tightly shut.
Had the conversation perhaps not gone well?
“Could it be…… that you still suspect him?”
“Suspect?”
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If that was not it, then why were his cheeks flushed so red?
Il-myeong received Ak Byeong-bi’s gaze fully and nodded.
“Jin So-un may be somewhat rough in the way he acts, but does that mean even the color of his heart can be seen as black?”
“…….”
Jin So-un simply had no background to protect and support him.
Monk Cheongwon of the main temple and the Tyrant Sword of the Murong Clan were also exceedingly rough in their conduct, but no one in Jianghu doubted their essence as figures of the Orthodox Path.
Еn u m̃а
From Il-myeong’s perspective, the worldly people who judged humans by their outer shells with crooked eyes were pitiful.
Then.
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“I know as well. At least, I know what kind of person that boy is.”
“Pardon?”
Unexpected words burst from Ak Byeong-bi’s mouth.
“That boy is…… like a lesser dragon climbing against a waterfall. He is an existence who cannot help drawing people’s eyes each time he leaps upward.”
Ẅė b̄ n̄ оv е̃ l̃ Ĕ n̆ üm̆a.
“…….”
“I also suspected him because I saw only the outer skin of one who had not yet become a dragon. I did not even think to look at what his goal and his essence were.”
Then Ak Byeong-bi lowered his head slightly and murmured.
“……I am reflecting on all of it.”
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For a moment, Il-myeong felt that Ak Byeong-bi’s face had changed greatly.
He could not say specifically what had changed, but he felt somehow more at ease and more solid.
Е ǹ u̇m̃a . і̃_d̀
“Perhaps the reason that boy’s actions felt so uncomfortable was because we—no, perhaps all of us—had already lost much of our essence.”
Ak Byeong-bi raised one eye and looked at Il-myeong.
“Small Buddha, you also thought so, and that is why you obediently followed Jin So-un, is it not? Otherwise, why would the Small Buddha under Heaven do nothing but run errands for someone? You did not even do that beside Yong So-ah.”
“……Amitabha.”
Before long, a relieved smile appeared on Ak Byeong-bi’s lips.
“Do not worry. I will no longer suspect him. No, from now on, it will be my task to suspect those who suspect him.”
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Il-myeong quietly closed his eyes.
One who had attained enlightenment brightened the eyes of those around him by the mere fact of his existence and guided them onto the right path.
Yong So-ah was also one who had attained enlightenment, but the trajectory was different.
If Yong So-ah took another’s hand and directly guided them down the path, Jin So-un forced their eyes open and made them find the path themselves.
“Amitabha……”
Il-myeong found himself deeply contemplating which kind of hero was truly needed in the present age.
Wе̄bn̂ôvе̌l É ǹ ŭ ḿа
At that moment, Ak Byeong-bi muttered to himself.
“……In any case, I have been cleared of suspicion. That much is a relief.”
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Then he rubbed both cheeks with his hands, perhaps because they hurt.
“…….”
Il-myeong once again became curious as to why Ak Byeong-bi’s cheeks were red and swollen.
“Where is Old Master Blood Battle?”
Е̌ n̈úm a
Where on earth had this man hidden himself that I could not see him?
“Oh my, Young Master Jin. It seems you are finally up. I had something to say to you anyway.”
Flame Ghost Consort-bi gave off an alluring fragrance as she discreetly reached out a hand.
I pushed that hand away and said,
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“What could you have to say……”
“What else would there be for a man and woman who overcame hardship together to discuss?”
Е̂ nuṁ а̇ . id
Flame Ghost Consort-bi twisted her body shyly and touched her lips.
As the alluring scent somehow grew thicker, my nose began to sting little by little.
I unknowingly frowned and asked in return.
It was absolutely not because Flame Ghost Consort-bi was spouting nonsense.
It was because my nose hurt.
My nose.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
“What strange thing are you trying to say now……”
“In any case, Young Master Jin and I crossed life and death together, did we not? Should we not do something to commemorate that? Huhu.”
Flame Ghost Consort-bi placed her arm on my shoulder and breathed into my ear.
No, why was this grandmother acting like this?
“What, do you want me to praise your contribution?”
When I lowered Flame Ghost Consort-bi’s burdensome arm and took a step back, she looked bewildered.
Ёn̈ u m.а.
“……Why is it not working?”
At her mutter, I hurriedly patted down my body.
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What was this? Had she done something to me in the meantime?
“Was the Taeul Sect’s martial art not a hodgepodge heart method mixed from all sorts of things?”
For some reason, her voice seemed to have grown colder as well.
I took another step back and replied,
Ẇ е bn̄ ò v е̇ l̂ Е̄nû m̃ӓ
“……Why would you say such a thing about an orthodox Daoist sect?”
“Was that old man Blood Battle right? Tch.”
Flame Ghost Consort-bi sat down with a helpless expression, as though the mask she had been wearing had been exposed.
Then she lifted a liquor bottle and drank straight from it like a rough man.
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What on earth had happened?
“What is going on?”
Е n̆ u ṁ а̂
“Forget it. If I struggle with a man it does not even work on, only my own body will wear down.”
“……Where is Old Master Blood Battle?”
Flame Ghost Consort-bi waved her hand lazily as if it was annoying.
“Try the small training ground at the back. He has been drinking straight from the bottle there since morning.”
Her gaze was none too kind, as though her mood had been abruptly ruined.
I thought we had been getting along decently, in our own way.
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“Thank you.”
Unable to understand what was going on, I lightly bowed my head and turned around.
And then.
The moment I grabbed the door handle while leaving the inner chamber—
CRACK.
……I heard something break.
Е̂ ň um а́
When I lowered my head, the door handle that was supposed to be attached to the door had fallen into my hand.
‘Again…….’
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I did not know how many times this made it.
When I turned my head and looked at Flame Ghost Consort-bi, she did not seem particularly concerned.
Surely she would not tattle to Dam-ak later, would she?
Dam-ak was human too, so he probably would not send an invoice to the person who saved his life.
W̄ê bñ оv̊е ĺ É n û ṁ а
‘Even if he does…….’
By then I would be at Murim Academy, so I could simply ignore it.
Once that calculation was settled, I carefully closed the door and left as though nothing had happened.
This was exactly why I was looking for Blood Battle after roughly taking care of urgent matters.
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The vitality overflowing through my entire body.
A body I simply could not control.
W.е bñ о̀v̀ е̌ ľ Е̊ n̄ ù mā
The way my qi moved was also unusual.
Before, my Dantian would move only when I concentrated, but now, my Dantian moved swiftly with nothing more than the extension of my Intent.
‘What on earth did he do?’
Even by my own senses, I should have died in the battle against the Yin-Yang Twin Demons.
The amount of blood I had shed was so enormous that it would not have been strange if I had crossed the threshold of the underworld and was greeting King Yama.
Yet far from having side effects in my muscles or abnormalities in my body, my body was instead becoming even more vigorous.
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Neither the physician nor even Dang Seo-hui could determine what had happened to my body.
They merely told me to ask Blood Battle if I had questions.
If not for those words, I would have simply accepted it and moved on. But the thought that he might have placed some kind of witchcraft on my body made it impossible for me to suppress my anxiety.
Since I also had something to discuss with him, I was looking for him in order to find out exactly what he had done to my body.
As soon as I entered the training ground, I saw a man humming to himself.
“So you were here.”
W̌ëb n̆ о v̆ е l̂ Ёn u mа̀
“……Eh?”
Blood Battle, who was drinking alone in the center of the training ground with the scattered liquor bottles as his companions, raised one eye.
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“What is this? Why is a lackey of the Orthodox Path lifting his head so stiffly in front of me?”
“…….”
Was he drunk?
“I came because I have something to ask. Should I come back another time?”
Eń úm̊å . іd̆
“Hmph! A lackey of the Orthodox Path says he will come back to see this esteemed Old Master Blood Battle of the Black Path? How dare you even dream that would be possible?”
He was drunk.
Definitely drunk.
Whether or not I glared at him with a profoundly pitiful gaze, Blood Battle pointed at me with his liquor bottle and shouted,
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
“Very well! Speak, then. What are you curious about?”
“There are two things. One is about my body.”
Е_ńǔ m̄ ä
“Very well.”
Blood Battle nodded obediently.
I stared straight at him, as though engraving my face into his memory, and asked,
“What exactly did you do to my body?”
“Hm?”
CRACK—
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As soon as I snatched the liquor bottle from Blood Battle’s hand and gripped it lightly, the bottle crumbled without a trace.
“I cannot control my body. At this rate, I am going to break every door handle in the Black Thought Alliance, and piles of tableware are being thrown away every time I eat.”
At my words, Blood Battle laughed darkly.
“Euhuhuhuhu.”
No, this old man.
I was being truly serious here.
Еń um a. īd
“This is not the time to laugh. You should know better than anyone how important control of the body is to a martial artist.”
However, Blood Battle picked up another liquor bottle and scolded me.
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“When a fool holds a lump of gold in his own hand and does not even know its worth, how could I not laugh?”
“……A lump of gold?”
As though his stomach burned, Blood Battle gulped from the bottle without stopping for breath.
Judging from the number of liquor bottles scattered around him, he already seemed to have surpassed his limit……
Е n ũmа̊ . і̇d̀
Was that old man not going to collapse at this rate?
“Khaa……! I did not do anything. Your body simply changed on its own.”
“……Is that possible?”
As I tilted my head, Blood Battle looked at me and chuckled.
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“That is why it is called a Fortuitous Encounter, is it not?”
“A Fortuitous Encounter?”
Е̄ n̆ u m а
“Yes…… A tremendous Fortuitous Encounter, one that ordinary martial artists—no, even exceptional ones—would struggle to encounter.”
I looked at him and asked seriously, “Then what exactly is the Fortuitous Encounter I encountered?”
Blood Battle, who had been about to bring the liquor bottle to his mouth again, stopped moving and quietly looked at me.
I too held my breath and focused every nerve on the movement of his mouth.
At last, his lips, which bore a faint smile, opened.
“Bone Remolding and Rebirth.”
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At his words, exhilaration spread along my spine and throughout my entire body.
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