CLS-Chapter 440

Chapter 440:

Wei Jeong-han’s reaction wasn’t much different.

“……Why did you drag that one along?”

“I didn’t drag him. He followed me.”

“Good grief.”

Wei Jeong-han let out a sigh.

“Stop picking up strange things everywhere you go.”

“I told you I didn’t pick him up.”

Though Zhuge Mun-in was being treated like a stone picked up from the roadside, he himself seemed perfectly fine with such treatment and was grinning foolishly.

“Is it funny?”

When Jang-il asked, Zhuge Mun-in shrugged his shoulders.

“Fengchu was also treated as useless at first. But didn’t he soon prove himself? Hardships naturally accompany the achievement of great deeds.”

“……Writing novels and falling over.”

Jang-il acknowledged that the Beggar’s Sect’s intelligence had flaws.

Despite putting tremendous effort into understanding the personalities within the Heavenly Alliance, they hadn’t known even a bit about Zhuge Mun-in being such a fool. How could this not be lamentable?

‘The intelligence said he was an extremely cold and calculating person with information…… What is this? He’s a complete fool!’

He was beginning to doubt whether this guy was really Zhuge Mun-in. Perhaps he had a twin brother or something.

“But you’re from the Zhuge Family.”

“Hmm, honestly, I didn’t expect much from the intellectual level of a Beggar’s Sect member, but this is lower than I anticipated. If you ask someone with the surname Zhuge whether they’re from the Zhuge Family, how should they answer?”

“That’s not what I meant!”

Jang-il’s face flushed red.

This was someone who had the talent to make people feel terrible with the same words.

“The Zhuge Family must belong to the Heavenly Alliance, so is it okay for you to attach yourself to Wei Yan-ho?”

“What a foolish statement.”

“Huh?”

“Our ancestors each entered different factions and sometimes devised strategies to kill each other. As a rule, when a man becomes an adult, he chooses where he will dwell on his own. Even if I were to bring down the Zhuge Family with my own hands, my father would smile and say I had grown up splendidly.”

‘Isn’t that just a completely dysfunctional family?’

If he made a cold assessment, this would probably be correct, but Jang-il couldn’t bring himself to say such words. He could insult the person involved, but he couldn’t insult their family.

“So you’re saying you’ll attach yourself to this side?”

“That’s right.”

“Where does your confidence come from that the Righteous Martial Alliance will accept you?”

“You’d better know this properly, beggar. Guangdong is not a place subordinate to the Righteous Martial Alliance. To be precise, it would be fair to call it an alliance relationship. I’m not going to the Righteous Martial Alliance but taking the position of a personal retainer to Broad Sword Wei Yan-ho, so it has nothing to do with the Righteous Martial Alliance.”

“Who said they’d give a food parasite a position!”

“It’s a retainer, not a food parasite.”

“That’s the same as a food parasite.”

“Hmm, it seems my lord lacks common knowledge. Well, it’s fine. If you don’t know something, you just need to teach it.”

Wei Yan-ho grabbed the back of his neck.

“Damn it, you need to be able to communicate to say anything.”

“Right. That’s exactly how we feel when dealing with you.”

“Shut up!”

“Humans should be able to put themselves in others’ shoes. I don’t know why that guy has gone so crazy, but I want to praise him for forcibly teaching you empathy.”

Wei Yan-ho let out a deep sigh.

“Are you finished?”

Wei Jeong-han, who had been watching the situation, clicked his tongue.

“Yes. It seems roughly finished.”

“If you’re not finished yet, go ahead and finish. But if you’re going to do more, it would be good to let me know in advance. I’m getting old and it’s hard to keep standing. I’ll go inside and have a cup of tea, so either finish up or continue.”

“I’m so deeply filial that I can’t bear to see father waste time unnecessarily. Since we’re finished, let’s proceed.”

“……Thank you. You’re the only one who thinks of your old man. I’m so grateful I could cry.”

“Hehe, don’t mention it.”

Jang-il grabbed his head as he watched Zhuge Mun-in muttering beside him, “As expected, deep filial piety too. I really chose well.”

‘Why do only these idiots gather around this guy?’

He thought he knew the reason.

Actually, those gathered around Wei Yan-ho were all pillars of the martial world. Even if not now, in the next generation, these people would lead the martial world proactively.

There was Mu San, whom Shaolin was raising as the next abbot, Peng Dao-ji who was the legitimate heir of the Peng Family, and even himself was a Small Beggar of the Beggar’s Sect.

Their status came from their extraordinary achievements. In other words……

‘A sane person can’t be excessively superior compared to others of the same age.’

The martial world was a place where only those who lacked something or were less human from focusing only on training could be called prodigies. Those classified as special talents even in that martial world couldn’t have been sane from the beginning.

“Follow me.”

“Yes.”

Wei Jeong-han led Wei Yan-ho and strode forward. Then Jang-il and Zhuge Mun-in followed behind them.

“Has anything new come up?”

“No. A message arrived from Elder Divine Strategist.”

“Already?”

“If there hadn’t been adaptation, it would have been impossible.”

“I should give him some nourishment. I should catch at least a rabbit.”

“You go catch one.”

“Hehe, a self-respecting hawk should catch and eat on its own.”

“……Ugh.”

Wei Jeong-han gave up on conversing with Wei Yan-ho any further and strode toward the Medicine Hall.

“The looks in their eyes are……”

Wei Yan-ho pouted as if displeased.

“Don’t forget. This is the Sichuan Tang Family. In their eyes, we’re still enemies.”

“Geez, everyone lives so tensely.”

Wei Yan-ho was quite displeased.

Though he didn’t particularly want to acknowledge it, Zhuge Yeom’s words weren’t wrong. They now had to face the Demonic Cult. And the Demonic Cult had always driven the Central Plains to the edge of a cliff. Even when the Central Plains’ power was stronger than now, the Demonic Cult had always been an enemy that the Central Plains had to face while risking their fate.

But to think they were squabbling among themselves while a tiger was growling in the underbrush.

As Zhuge Wu had said, to antagonize the Righteous Martial Alliance for the safety of Sichuan’s martial world was an utterly petty act.

‘That can’t be it.’

Wasn’t justification something you could attach afterward? They wouldn’t have been picky about any justification they could reasonably present. In the end, it was a power struggle. Nothing more, nothing less.

‘There’s a reason those old men are frantic.’

He had thought that Quan Ji and Divine Strategist were paying excessive attention to other places, but if the situation was like this, he could understand why they were so concerned about the Heavenly Alliance and White Sword Castle.

It was different from the Nine Orthodox Sects who would inevitably cooperate with the Righteous Martial Alliance when great chaos occurred. These people might really refuse to cooperate with the Righteous Martial Alliance until the very end.

They wouldn’t side with the Demonic Cult, but if they tried to face the Demonic Cult with disunited strength, they would suffer a complete defeat. Wei Yan-ho had already experienced firsthand just how strong the Demonic Cult was.

Wei Yan-ho entered the Medicine Hall with complex feelings.

“Were you here?”

“Come in.”

Tang Cheon-gun was waiting inside the Medicine Hall.

“We’ve already seen it once, so what more is there to see?”

“There’s something to confirm.”

At Wei Jeong-han’s firm voice, Tang Cheon-gun let out a sigh. He wasn’t comfortable with constantly exposing the family’s shame to outsiders.

“Is this Divine Strategist’s instruction?”

“That’s right.”

“Then it can’t be helped. Go in.”

Brushing off the hostile gazes of the Medicine Hall members, Wei Yan-ho and the others followed Tang Cheon-gun toward the sickroom.

Wei Yan-ho and Wei Jeong-han frowned as they entered.

“It’s gotten worse than before.”

“It smells like a rotting corpse.”

Wei Yan-ho recoiled in disgust.

A corpse would have been better. All the corpses Wei Yan-ho had seen so far were those who had died recently. But the patient before his eyes was giving off the feeling of a rotting corpse despite being alive.

“It’s decomposing.”

Wei Jeong-han pulled back the cloth covering the patient and examined the body’s condition.

‘Strong stomach.’

Wei Yan-ho was newly impressed by the battlefields Wei Jeong-han had crossed. In the past, for Wei Jeong-han who had seen countless deaths in war, rotting corpses would have been everyday occurrences.

Wei Jeong-han, who had been checking the patient’s pulse and examining the symptoms, looked back at Jang-il.

“What do you think?”

“It’s definitely strange.”

Jang-il answered while scratching his head.

“It’s a bit different, but probably what I’m thinking isn’t much different from what Senior Wei is thinking. When I saw it before, these symptoms weren’t clear so I hesitated, but now it’s certain.”

“Mm, I think so too.”

Wei Yan-ho opened his eyes wide and asked.

“What? Don’t talk like only you two know well, let’s discuss it together.”

Wei Jeong-han glanced at Tang Cheon-gun and opened his mouth.

“The message that the strategist sent mentioned one possibility. So we examined it once more, and it seems the strategist’s thinking is correct.”

“What? What is it?”

Wei Jeong-han didn’t explain immediately but pointed at the patient.

“Look.”

“I don’t want to look.”

Wei Yan-ho turned his head and stepped back.

Though Wei Yan-ho was strong against everything under heaven, he had a weak stomach.

“I can’t sleep at night if I look at things like that.”

“As if you wouldn’t be able to sleep.”

“I do sleep, but I have nightmares.”

Wei Yan-ho waved his hand.

“Look, here. It’s definitely rotting. While still alive.”

“I said I won’t look!”

Wei Yan-ho shouted loudly.

Normally Wei Jeong-han would have gotten angry and fought back, but this time he didn’t relax his serious expression.

“Among all the countless martial arts under heaven, there’s only one martial learning that makes people rot while still alive.”

Tang Cheon-gun spoke up.

“Wait.”

Tang Cheon-gun’s blade-like gaze fixed on Wei Jeong-han.

“You should be careful with your words. Do you know what you’re saying right now? The moment those words leave your mouth, what you’ll have to bear will become enormous.”

“I know, Family Head Tang.”

Wei Jeong-han’s voice didn’t waver even a bit.

“But now is not the time to worry about such things. If there’s a possibility, we must face that possibility directly. If we worry about justification and face while the incident grows larger, something truly unbearable might happen.”

Tang Cheon-gun was silent.

But conflict was visible on his face.

“Didn’t you call us to solve this matter?”

“……I understand.”

Finally, when Tang Cheon-gun yielded, Wei Jeong-han looked at Wei Yan-ho and said.

“Do you know what that is?”

“I don’t know.”

Wei Yan-ho was confident. Not knowing something wasn’t a sin. If you don’t know, what can you do about it?

Wei Jeong-han sighed and spoke. Not because of the pitiful fact that Wei Yan-ho didn’t know this, but because of the weight of the words he had to utter from now on.

“Among all the countless martial arts under heaven, there’s only one thing that makes living people rot.”

Wei Jeong-han pointed at Tang Jin, who had collapsed unconscious, and opened his mouth.

Enunciating each word clearly.

“It’s precisely Demonic Arts.”

As soon as the words ‘Demonic Arts’ were spoken, the atmosphere in the room began to rapidly chill.