CLS-Chapter 113

Chapter 113

It was like fireworks.

She too had lived her entire life in a martial family, and it wasn’t the first or second time she’d seen those who wielded swords.

Right now, wasn’t the Heavenly Orthodox Martial Alliance she belonged to a place where the most skilled swordsmen under heaven gathered?

But what she witnessed now was somehow different.

Before even discussing strong or weak, there was a ‘difference.’

It felt like two people were sitting and playing Go, but someone had suddenly placed chess pieces on the board—that kind of incongruity existed.

The problem was that this incongruity was far too captivating.

Thanks to this, Seomun Da-yeon couldn’t help but stare with dreamy, unfocused eyes.

“Lady!”

“…Yes? Yes, yes?”

“Are we capturing him alive?”

“Ah, alive?”

She snapped back to her senses with a start and trembled as she looked at Gwak Hwan, who was stuck in an awkward position, unable to move either way.

“They’re Demonic Cult members, right? If Demonic Cult members suddenly appeared, there must be some reason. So we need to capture them alive to find out why. Have you already learned everything there is to learn?”

“Ah, no.”

She had seen some things herself, but naturally it would be several times better to hear directly from the person involved.

“Then what should we do?”

“It would be good if you could capture him alive, if possible.”

“Hmm…”

Wei Yan-ho turned his head to look at Gwak Hwan.

“Let’s make this easy for both of us, shall we?”

“Hehehe.”

Gwak Hwan sneered and bared his teeth.

“You underestimate the Demonic Cult too much. We would rather die than…”

At that moment, Wei Yan-ho’s body seemed to stretch out and reached right in front of Gwak Hwan.

“Hyup-cha!”

Wei Yan-ho struck Gwak Hwan’s jaw with the hilt of his sword.

“Urgh.”

Not knowing what hit him, Gwak Hwan lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground.

“What’s there not to know? My ears hurt from hearing it all.”

Wei Yan-ho had received thorough early education about the Demonic Cult from Wei Jeong-han. Ever since returning home, whenever Wei Jeong-han drank, he enjoyed barging into Wei Yan-ho’s room and giving lengthy speeches about his fights with Demonic Cult members.

He tried covering his ears and pulling blankets over his head, but nothing changed. Until Han Sang-ah noticed the situation and dragged Wei Jeong-han away by the ear, he had no choice but to be forced to listen to those boring tales.

Thanks to this, Wei Yan-ho felt familiar with Demonic Cult members despite never having met them.

“Let’s see, poison pill…”

Wei Yan-ho broke off a tree branch nearby and began stirring around inside Gwak Hwan’s mouth.

“Oh my, here it is. Pulling out a healthy tooth to put a suicide poison pill inside—Demonic Cult members are really ruthless.”

“…”

Seomun Da-yeon was confused about what was more ruthless: the ones who pulled out healthy teeth to carry suicide poison pills inside, or the one who knocked out those ruthless people in one blow and was now poking around in their mouth with a tree branch.

‘These people aren’t like this…’

What kind of place was the Demonic Cult?

It was a place that could instantly turn normal humans into killing machines. In the past, when the Demonic Cult was rampant, wasn’t the reason the numerically superior Central Plains was helplessly devastated precisely because of the endless strength of the Demonic Cultists?

No matter how much they weren’t combat units, the Demonic Cult was still the Demonic Cult.

These were people so ridiculously strong that Seomun Da-yeon, who had confidence in martial arts among the later-generation masters, couldn’t even think of resisting and had to choose flight.

But…

“Ah, damn! It won’t come out.”

Right now, the simple-faced youth before her eyes had shoved a tree branch into the mouth of that terrifying Demonic Cultist and was stirring around for the poison pill.

‘Is this a dream?’

It was an excessively surreal scene.

She’d rather it be a dream, but it was too vivid to dismiss as such.

“Oh, it came out…”

At that moment, she saw the poison pill that had been extracted from between the teeth slide down Gwak Hwan’s throat.

“Kyaah! No!”

Alarmed, she rushed desperately toward Gwak Hwan’s face. At that moment, Wei Yan-ho stepped on Gwak Hwan’s stomach with a thud.

“Kuk!”

Gwak Hwan, who had clearly been unconscious, let out a groan, and the poison pill shot up from his throat.

“Ey, tsk tsk.”

Wei Yan-ho batted the poison pill flying through the air away with his tree branch.

“…”

She had fallen flat on the ground with a thud and looked up at Wei Yan-ho with a dazed expression.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to tie him up?”

“Yes.”

Though she was called a prodigy and had sufficient qualifications to be called one, she had felt like an idiot since earlier.

“But there’s nothing to tie him up with.”

“Why not?”

Wei Yan-ho pointed to the Demonic Cultists who had been beaten to a pulp on the ground.

“Strip their clothes.”

“…”

Seomun Da-yeon stammered, unable to speak properly.

It was already problematic to ask a grown unmarried woman to strip men’s clothes, but right now those men were in a terrible state. They were scary just to look at, and now she was supposed to go close and strip their clothes?

“I’m sorry, but could you do it instead?”

That was the best she could do.

At that moment, Wei Yan-ho’s face contorted.

“What? I even fought the Demonic Cultists for you! And now you want me to do the menial work too?”

“I’m sorry.”

That was all she could say.

“Tch.”

When Wei Yan-ho showed no intention of stepping forward readily, she resigned herself.

“It doesn’t seem like someone who would be subdued just by being tied up with clothes anyway. Can’t we just take him as he is?”

“Well, suit yourself then.”

Wei Yan-ho seemed to have lost interest and began wrapping his sword back up in cloth after putting it in its sheath.

‘What material is that?’

Both the sword and sheath were pure white.

She had heard that swords made from Thousand-Year Cold Iron that only came from the North Sea had a white gleam, but surely no one would make a sheath from that expensive Thousand-Year Cold Iron.

Besides, no one would wrap such a magnificent sword in rags like that and carry it around stuck in a bundle.

“Well then, be careful on your way.”

“Yes?”

“What?”

“Ah…”

Suddenly, Seomun Da-yeon realized Wei Yan-ho’s intention.

‘This person has no intention of coming with me.’

Thinking about it, going together would be stranger. She and Wei Yan-ho had merely met by chance in the mountains, and had only joined forces out of necessity because the Demonic Cult was pursuing them.

Looking at the details, it had become a situation where she had received help while trying to help Wei Yan-ho, who could have beaten down the Demonic Cult and everything else.

‘Then I have to…’

Seomun Da-yeon looked at the unconscious Gwak Hwan and shuddered.

Was she supposed to drag that Demonic Cultist along?

No matter how unconscious he was now, the moment the Demonic Cultist woke up, she would be the one getting dragged away.

“Young Hero.”

“Yes?”

“I will formally introduce myself. I am Seomun Da-yeon of the Seomun Family, belonging to the First Unit of the Jade Mist Pavilion of the Heavenly Orthodox Martial Alliance.”

“Yes. I’m Wei Yan-ho.”

Seomun Da-yeon bit her lip firmly and spoke boldly.

“Currently, I was in the middle of carrying out a certain mission under orders from the Heavenly Orthodox Martial Alliance. Since I received Young Hero’s help in the process, there will naturally be personal repayment from me, as well as repayment from the Heavenly Orthodox Martial Alliance.”

“Yes, yes.”

Wei Yan-ho answered indifferently. Though she knew Wei Yan-ho’s reaction was lukewarm, Seomun Da-yeon didn’t give up and delivered her final strike.

“So could you help me just a little more? This is truly a serious matter. I must escort this Demonic Cultist to the Martial Alliance. If you would only help, the Martial Alliance would not only give great rewards, but Young Hero’s name would resound throughout the realm.”

Wei Yan-ho nodded and answered.

“I don’t want to.”

“Yes?”

“I don’t want to.”

“No, please don’t be like that…”

“Ah, I said no.”

Not even a needle could penetrate his refusal.

***

“That was quite a show.”

The old man had recovered his original composure. It seemed like a lie that he had been surprised watching Wei Yan-ho.

“Remarkable martial prowess.”

“Indeed.”

The old man slowly nodded. Certainly, having such martial prowess at that age was shocking. It was even more so when he thought about whether there was anyone among those he knew who had reached such a level at that age.

“Moreover…”

A sword that emitted light…

“I feel like I’ve heard of it somewhere?”

The old man fell deep in thought.

It wasn’t something he had heard as a rumor from somewhere. Before that, much earlier than that, it seemed like something he had heard somewhere.

Of course, swords that emitted light were common when you thought about it.

Sword qi naturally emitted light above a certain level, and even sword energy was bound to emit brilliant light.

But the old man was also someone who could use sword energy. The sword energy he used was definitely different from that light-emitting sword.

Wasn’t the light that poured out brilliantly far too bright to simply call it a variation of sword energy?

“Radiance, indeed.”

The old man shook his head.

It seemed like he would remember but couldn’t quite recall. But if it had been something important, he surely would have remembered, so the light-emitting sword couldn’t be that important.

“What should we do?”

“Hmm?”

“Shouldn’t we eliminate him?”

“Eliminate…”

The old man quietly looked at Wei Yan-ho.

“It doesn’t feel good to trample on a growing sprout, but the gravity of the situation doesn’t allow us to just stand by and watch.”

“That’s right.”

The old man fell into contemplation.

If the old man stepped forward personally, no matter how Wei Yan-ho was a later-generation master difficult to measure, he would be able to handle him sufficiently. The old man was that kind of person.

But breaking someone with such talent in these dark mountains also didn’t sit well with him.

He too was a swordsman.

What need was there to speak of his affection for those who walked the path of the sword together?

The old man made his decision.

“Blue Moon.”

“Yes.”

“Cancel the order given to Red Moon. Someone of that caliber cannot be blamed for Red Moon’s abilities. Return Red Moon to the original unit, and I will give the same order to both you and Red Moon.”

“Yes. Please command.”

“Kill all the survivors.”

Survivors?

Blue Moon fell into contemplation. He couldn’t know exactly who the old man meant by survivors.

“The sect is not yet ready to surface. If it’s just what they saw and heard, it will end at the level of suspicion. The girl from the Seomun Family doesn’t yet have enough influence to speak up. Kill all the surviving sect members and seal their mouths.”

“I will follow your command.”

The old man quietly looked at Wei Yan-ho.

“Child, I’ll let you go just this once.”

It wasn’t simply because they walked the path of the sword together. If those young ones who thought themselves supreme learned of such talent, they couldn’t help but be stimulated.

Thinking of what expressions those arrogant ones would make when they learned of Wei Yan-ho’s existence made him feel cheerful.

“What about the Great Plan?”

“It’s not a Great Plan that would be shaken by something like this. Everything will proceed without a hitch. That’s why I came.”

The old man turned and began walking away. Where the old man was walking, there was a cart with a mule tied to it.

“I saw something enjoyable on this rare outing. This is why the martial world is interesting.”

The old man climbed onto the cart with a hearty laugh.

‘Strangely, I feel a sense of familiarity.’

It was like meeting a grandson. But since he had no heirs, such a thing was impossible.

Feeling both vague joy and unease simultaneously, the old man patted the mule’s rear.