NOTICE: Many of the novels have been removed because they might cause violations, which we were not aware of earlier.
Chapter 56. A First-Rate Warrior Who Startled the Divine Sword (4)
A short table had been placed at the highest seat. A table that could seat about six people.
And at right angles to that table, long tables were attached on both sides.
I did not know whether it was deliberate, but inside the banquet hall, the Direct Line and the Collateral Line were seated facing each other.
On the left sat Namgung Jin-myeong of the Direct Line, his wife, and his children, Namgung San and Namgung Seon-hwa. Beside them sat the Hall Masters and unit heads of each hall.
On the right sat Namgung Song-ju and his son, Namgung Gi-pyo. Beside them sat the office chiefs in charge of the Outer Office and those who handled external affairs.
Me?
I was seated on the left side of the highest seat.
At first, I approached thinking I could simply sit beside Namgung Seon-hwa, only for Namgung Jin-myeong to point to the seat of honor.
Greatly startled, I refused several times, but in the end, he forced me to sit here.
“We prepared a small banquet for you.”
The time I had tried so hard to avoid had come back around.
Just as I wondered whether I had to endure this embarrassingly awkward occasion once again.
“I wonder whether that was truly the right decision, Young Clan Head.”
At Namgung Song-ju’s words, Namgung Jin-myeong’s brow furrowed slightly.
“What do you mean?”
“It is true that a benefactor of the Namgung Clan has come. However, did the Namgung Clan not suffer a grave incident? Five warriors died. Do you think the clan’s warriors and people outside the clan will truly look favorably on this?”
Namgung Song-ju was stopping the banquet just as I had wanted, but because he was the one stopping it, an odd rebellious feeling surged up inside me.
“…….”
Namgung Jin-myeong could not say much in response to Namgung Song-ju.
To outsiders, it was close to an absurd act of insubordination, but the Namgung Clan’s warriors did not seem especially surprised.
Only those seated on the Direct Line side looked at Namgung Song-ju with displeased eyes.
“Then what do you think should be done?”
“I have prepared one hundred gold taels in the name of the Namgung Clan. I believe that should be more than sufficient compensation for a disciple of the Taeul Sect.”
“Are you saying the lives of the Namgung Clan’s warriors are worth only that much?”
“One could hardly dare put a price on the lives of warriors. However, compensation is, in the end, relative to the other party, is it not?”
Namgung Jin-myeong was clearly being pushed back.
This was one facet of the Namgung Clan’s reality.
Namgung Song-ju, Master of the Azure Sky Merchant Guild.
Though he was from the Collateral Line, he held enough influence within the Namgung Clan to refute the Young Clan Head’s opinion.
The reason he could act this way was because the Azure Sky Merchant Guild, of which he was the master, managed every external business the Namgung Clan conducted.
In a word, all the money earned under the name of the Namgung Clan flowed through the Azure Sky Merchant Guild and into the Namgung Clan.
It was a situation in which he was practically gripping the Namgung Clan by the throat.
“…….”
As an uncomfortable silence drifted through the hall, the door burst open, and a large-bodied old man entered.
“What is the meaning of that?”
In that instant, everyone in the hall sprang to their feet and greeted him.
“““We greet the Clan Head.”””
He was nearly six feet tall, with solid muscles, and if not for the white beard and hair that framed his jaw and head, he could have easily been called middle-aged.
He sat down firmly beside me.
“I ask you, Namgung Song-ju. What was the meaning of that?”
Everyone else had sat down, but Namgung Song-ju remained standing and answered.
“It is exactly as I said. Just today, the Direct Line descendants of the Namgung Clan experienced a crisis where they nearly died. In the process, five elite warriors of the Namgung Clan lost their lives. I fear how the world would view us if we held a banquet on a day like this.”
“I heard that the one who distinguished himself in that ambush today was also this young man. And only a few months ago, this young man personally saved more than four thousand people, including the Namgung Clan’s warriors. If such an honored person visited the Namgung Clan and we did not even hold a banquet, what would the world say?”
Namgung Song-ju did not answer and simply stared steadily at Azure Emperor Divine Sword Namgung Tae-ha.
Surprisingly, Namgung Song-ju’s gaze did not contain even the slightest fear. It was merely the confident gaze of a young man looking at a pathetic old fool.
“The mourning for the dead will be carried out with proper ceremony. But does that mean our clan must be so mindful of outsiders’ eyes that we cannot even treat a guest we have barely managed to invite?”
“…….”
“Answer me!”
“……No.”
“Then that settles it. Let us begin.”
***
I did not particularly want to receive gratitude in such an atmosphere like walking on thin ice, but regardless of my will, Maidservants entered and began setting down food and wine.
“You are Jin So-un, yes?”
“This insignificant junior of the Murim, Jin So-un, offers greetings to the Azure Emperor Divine Sword.”
“Hmm, you are more ordinary-looking than I expected.”
I could not answer, unsure whether those words were praise or criticism.
“I hear you beat Namgung Gi-pyo into mush?”
“Ah……. I did not know. I thought he was an intruder.”
“Puhahaha. You saw what he was doing to the Maidservant, yet you tell such a lie. You are quite the shameless child.”
He laughed heartily and tapped my shoulder, and my body resounded with each tap.
When I discreetly turned my head to look at Namgung Song-ju and Namgung Gi-pyo, their expressions looked as though they were eating bugs, not food.
“Um, Grandfather.”
At that moment, Namgung Seon-hwa rose from her seat.
“Do you have something to say?”
“Yes. I’d like to give Young Master Jin So-un the Great Swallow Divine Pill I am to receive this time.”
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“!”
“!”
The commotion in the hall abruptly ceased.
At Namgung Seon-hwa’s sudden words, even I dropped the meat I had been eating. I had heard that the descendants of the Namgung Clan received one Great Swallow Divine Pill every five years.
Don’t tell me she’s giving that up?
“The Namgung Clan has already prepared a gift to give him. You need not step forward like that.”
“No. Separately from that, I have owed him my life again this time. I believe not repaying grace would smear mud on the Namgung Clan’s name.”
“You…… must take the Murim Academy Regular Exam soon. Will you be all right?”
“I will not use the Great Swallow Divine Pill as an excuse to cover my own shortcomings.”
“Good. Then do so.”
A pained groan briefly came from Namgung Jin-myeong and his wife, but once the Clan Head had made the decision, no one raised any objection.
The banquet was carried out quietly in its own way.
There was no group greeting like the one at the Clear Bright Escort Agency, though some people occasionally approached me personally to offer thanks or pour me wine.
When the banquet had more or less reached its end, the Azure Emperor Divine Sword spoke.
“You should see me.”
This was the very reason I had come here in the first place.
“Understood.”
“Ah, do not rise immediately. It seems there are still people who wish to speak with you, so I shall excuse myself first.”
Thus the Azure Emperor Divine Sword left first, and only after quite some time could I rise from my seat.
“Disciple of the Taeul Sect. May I see you for a moment?”
I was on my way to the Clan Head’s private training ground when Namgung Song-ju separately called me to a halt.
“What is the matter?”
Instead of answering, he wrapped qi around us to prevent our voices from leaking out.
At Namgung Song-ju’s action, Namgung San and Namgung Seon-hwa furrowed their brows, but they could not really stop him.
“You may not know this, but the sight of you does not please my eyes.”
“For what reason?”
“You need not know the reason. What you need to know is that even without borrowing the power of the Namgung Clan’s Direct Line, the power of the Collateral Line alone is enough to erase something like the Taeul Sect.”
“……Is this because of the incident on Mount Gueom?”
Namgung Song-ju’s eyes widened.
Soon, a smile appeared on his lips for the first time.
“I heard your mind was sharp. It was no empty boast.”
“aren’t you afraid of the Azure Emperor Divine Sword?”
“……The Azure Emperor Divine Sword is fearsome. But not enough to stop a great undertaking. You can tell that much from the fact that I am still walking around the clan unharmed, even after the incident on Mount Gueom.”
“…….”
“You may think this is only about Mount Gueom, but for me, it is not. You have wronged me in many ways.”
“…….”
“So remember this. The moment I make up my mind, the Taeul Sect disappears from Anhui Province.”
Namgung Song-ju then withdrew the qi screen and left.
Namgung San and Seon-hwa approached and asked in serious tones.
“What did he say?”
They clearly looked certain something had happened. I shook my head and reassured them.
“It was nothing important. Let us go. The Clan Head is waiting.”
“…….”
***
Great Swallow Hall.
It was the Clan Head’s residence, located at the deepest and highest place in the Namgung Clan.
In the front yard, beautiful flowers of all colors were in full bloom, and when we went around the residence to the back, a training ground the same size as the Taeul Sect’s large training ground had been made into the Clan Head’s personal training ground.
Standing there, the Azure Emperor Divine Sword was stroking his beard and gazing at the peak of Mount Huang.
“Clan Head, we have come.”
“The meal was not exactly comfortable, was it?”
The Azure Emperor Divine Sword’s dignified appearance had vanished, and he had changed into the image of an old man who wanted to play a prank.
“No. I ate delicious food, was treated well, and was very satisfied.”
“But you see.”
“…….”
“I hear you stole our San’s Divine Pill?”
“!!!”
The Azure Emperor Divine Sword struck straight in where I had not expected it.
Namgung San quickly stepped forward.
“I am so wronged I could die, Grandfather. I feel as if my nose was cut off with my eyes wide open.”
I looked at Namgung San, feeling as if I had been hit hard in the back of the head.
“What in the…….”
“Do you know that the Seven-Colored Jewel you took was actually one of my most treasured possessions?”
“Huh…….”
The sky turned yellow before my eyes.
Given Father’s temperament, he must have sold off a gemstone that could not even be eaten long ago, saying there was no point in keeping it.
And it was not as if I could return it now.
‘No, why did the grandson take the Azure Emperor Divine Sword’s possession and stake it in a bet as he pleased?!’
The situation had no solution anyway.
I decided to act shamelessly.
“That was a fair and square contest with Senior Namgung San. If you are going to scold someone…… please scold Senior Namgung, who used the Divine Sword’s treasure in a bet as he pleased, rather than me.”
“Pfft!”
“Khuhuhu.”
Namgung San and Seon-hwa snickered, and a faint smile appeared on the Azure Emperor Divine Sword’s lips.
“How very amusing. I heard you caught a sword with your hand, and your guts are indeed extraordinary.”
Was it a joke?
I shook my head, feeling as if my strength had been drained.
“……!”
At the same time, an invisible energy tried to enter my body.
‘What is this?!’
The level of the Torrent of Qi was in a different dimension from what I had experienced so far.
If Father, Jin Tae-san, grasping me with a Torrent of Qi had been at the level of a brook, the Azure Emperor Divine Sword felt like an enormous current like the waters of the Yellow River trying to bind my entire body tight.
I quickly stepped two steps back and raised the Taeul True Scripture.
“?”
“?”
Namgung San and Seon-hwa did not know what was happening inside.
The Azure Emperor Divine Sword quickly withdrew the Torrent of Qi and chuckled.
“How interesting. There was a reason a child not yet twenty has shaken the Murim.”
“What do you mean, Grandfather?”
Namgung Seon-hwa asked, but the Azure Emperor Divine Sword shook his head.
“Huhu, you need not know. If you knew, you would regret your choice.”
The Azure Emperor Divine Sword looked at me and asked.
“I hear there is something interesting among the things you have taught yourself?”
Seeing him speak while glancing at Namgung San, he seemed to be talking about the Shattering Form.
“……I do not know what you mean.”
“You do not, I see. San, go bring me my sword, and Seon-hwa, you go down.”
“I want to watch a little longer, Grandfather.”
“I will send San down as well. I have something to discuss with this child alone.”
“……Yes.”
Namgung Seon-hwa pouted and looked back at me several times as she went down.
Once the two had moved far from the training ground, he asked me again.
“I heard from San. You know the weaknesses of the Boundless Firmament Sword Art inside and out?”
In the end, my guess was right.
And the Azure Emperor Divine Sword was fairly certain of it.
For now, I played dumb.
“How could someone like me know the weaknesses of such a mysterious and marvelous sword art? Senior must have exaggerated.”
“Even if Namgung Gi-pyo’s comprehension is lower than San’s, he is not at a level where he would be subdued in two moves by a child who has just reached twenty.”
At that moment, Namgung San was coming out of Great Swallow Hall carrying the Divine Sword’s sword, and the Divine Sword reached his hand toward Namgung San, who was far away.
Then the sword slipped out of Namgung San’s hand and was caught in the Azure Emperor Divine Sword’s hand as if pulled by a magnet.
“Tell me. What price must I pay to see your sword?”
“You say you will pay a price for something that does not exist, so I can only be rather troubled.”
His eyes, which had been filled with goodwill, gradually turned cold.
The pressure exuded by one who had spent his life ruling was as difficult to endure as killing intent.
“I do not like lies.”
Even while feeling that my life was hanging by a thread, I could not easily open my mouth.
The foundation of the Namgung Clan was the Boundless Firmament Sword Art.
Ever since the Founding Ancestor who created the Boundless Firmament Sword Art, for generations, the Boundless Firmament Sword Art had been renowned as the Namgung Clan’s ultimate art and greatest sword art.
Even after the Emperor Sword Art appeared, the Murim’s regard for the Boundless Firmament Sword Art had not differed from before.
Knowing the Shattering Form of the sword art that formed the foundation of a clan was the same as gripping and shaking that clan’s roots.
“If you want to make this expensive, make it as expensive as you like. If you knew how urgent this is for me, you would ask for anything. I shall allow even that.”
I knew why the Azure Emperor Divine Sword coveted the Shattering Form of the Boundless Firmament Sword Art.
The Namgung Clan’s Collateral Line also learned the Boundless Firmament Sword Art as its main sword art.
When the Collateral Line tried to act as it pleased, as it did now, the Shattering Form was the best card with which to subdue their sword art and restore discipline.
“This could not possibly be the case, but supposing I did know the weaknesses of the Boundless Firmament Sword Art. Would my life be preserved? No, even setting me aside, could the Taeul Sect remain intact?”
The reason I, having returned, did not reveal Shattering Forms to the world.
It was because a Shattering Form was a dangerous thing that could cut off both my lifeline and my sect’s lifeline.
Any sect in the world would try to eliminate it by any means if a Shattering Form existed for their representative martial art.
“!!!”
As if struck by lightning, the Divine Sword withdrew every bit of the energy he had been exuding.
“No matter what price I received, if the end of it was ultimately death, would it not be meaningless no matter what I took?”
The Azure Emperor Divine Sword stared at me for a long while with a blank expression, like an old man who had suffered a stroke.
“……Good. Then you have no such thing as a Shattering Form, yes?”
“Yes. That is correct.”
“Then how much do you intend to ask for that Shattering Form?”
“Are you so desperate that you must buy what does not exist?”
“If it were in hell, I would have to go there and buy it.”
Once the Azure Emperor Divine Sword had resolved himself, I would ultimately have to hand over the Shattering Form.
I, too, wished for the Namgung Clan to remain intact until the Great Righteous-Demonic War, so I was considering handing over the Shattering Form.
Then what was the highest price I could extract from the Namgung Clan now?
“Does it not matter what it is?”
“Say it.”
If anything was acceptable, there was only one thing I wanted from the Namgung Clan.
“Please give me the Azure Sky Merchant Guild.”
“……What?!”
The Azure Emperor Divine Sword’s mouth opened as wide as a washbasin.
It was the first time I had seen the Divine Sword look flustered.