WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 97: Jade Token (3)
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Before long, someone returned.
‘Ah...’
At the sight, Ha Ryun felt deeply troubled.
That person named Hae Ryang from the Hao clan seemed to have been one of those who served the future Master.
Ha Ryun had not killed him himself, but the moment he abandoned Hae Ryang, he had stood by and allowed someone else to kill him.
‘What was I supposed to do?’
Mumu would be furious if he learned of this.
Ha Ryun wondered if he should have stopped it, but his feelings were a complete mess.
The contradictions kept piling up.
[The future Master specifically told me to be wary of a man named Mumu.]
[The fundamental reason your question is wrong is this. The one who personally dealt with Young Chun, the Eastern River Sword Sage's third disciple, was the future Master.]
Because of that, Ha Ryun could not even tell what was true anymore.
‘Should I have told them I served the future Master?’
Would that have been better?
No.
If he had, his own situation might have become even more complicated.
He could not carelessly reveal what he knew when he was not even certain who the true future Master was.
For now, there was one thing he needed to learn.
[Could it be... did you meet another holder of a Jade Medallion?]
From those words, he could infer that there might be a truth even the masters of the Valley of White Death did not know.
His first master, the Valley Lord, had clearly said that the person with the Jade Medallion was the Master.
Yet the Valley Lord had never implied there was more than one.
Ha Ryun spoke to someone.
“Are there multiple people who possess the Jade Medallion?”
At that, someone glanced behind them before approaching.
“Let's move somewhere else first.”
The person who had stirred up Ha Ryun's Ki sense earlier might still be tracking them, so they needed to leave this place.
Ha Ryun shook his head.
“...I will not go until you answer my question.”
“You are becoming a nuisance.”
Thick killing intent seeped into someone's voice.
They wondered whether to kill him on the spot.
Pawns became troublesome once they started asking questions.
Still, no matter how useless he had become, they could not casually kill the successor of the Valley of White Death, one of the House of the Eight Villains.
‘Just because this one has become somewhat useless does not mean the Valley of White Death is useless to the future Master.’
Someone spoke in a low voice.
“Yes.”
Ha Ryun's eyes wavered at the answer.
Until now, he had believed there was only one surviving blood relative of that person.
But there was more than one holder of the Jade Medallion?
‘Ah!’
Come to think of it, there was something he had always found strange.
They never called that person's blood relative the Master. They called them the future Master.
That could mean they had not yet become the Master.
Ha Ryun spoke in a trembling voice.
“Why does the Valley of White Death not know this...”
“Shh.”
Someone cut him off.
Then they spoke meaningfully.
“You would do well to remain quiet. That matter is more complicated than you think.”
* * *
Sa Mu-heo, the Formless Ten Fingers and one of the Six Stars of Heaven, was imprisoned in a holding cell.
Someone entered the heavily guarded holding cell.
Sa Mu-heo, who had been sitting with his eyes closed, turned his gaze toward the entrance.
The visitor in antique official robes was none other than O Mu-yang, Left Assistant Censor of the Censorate.
O Mu-yang spoke to the guard warriors stationed at the holding cell.
“I will interrogate the criminal from this moment onward. All academy guard warriors, except for the Censorate officials, are to leave.”
Six Censorate officials had accompanied him.
The guard warriors examined them with suspicious eyes before speaking.
“We are required to guard this place.”
One of O Mu-yang's eyebrows rose.
“Hm. Are you saying you intend to obstruct a Censorate interrogation?”
“Even if you came from officialdom, this place is...”
“Step aside.”
At the voice from behind, the guard warriors looked toward the holding cell door.
Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu stood there with his hands clasped behind his back.
“Vice-Master.”
“The Academy Director has granted permission.”
“...Understood.”
There was nothing they could do if the Academy Director had given permission.
The guard warriors cast displeased looks at O Mu-yang before leaving the holding cell.
Once they were gone, Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu said to O Mu-yang,
“Once you confirm the criminal's confession again through interrogation, please report it to the Imperial Palace as agreed.”
“I understand. Now, leave us.”
Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu left the holding cell.
After he departed, O Mu-yang gave a small laugh and approached Sa Mu-heo, who lay there as if dead.
Stopping directly before him, O Mu-yang looked down at him and quietly spoke.
“You have become quite the sight. Tsk, tsk.”
Sa Mu-heo glared sharply at the tongue-clicking Left Assistant Censor.
It was entirely unlike the reactions he had shown the people who had visited to interrogate him until now.
He had not even revealed such emotion when Kang Mu-i, the future Master, came to see him.
“Even in that state, it seems you still have some spirit left.”
O Mu-yang sneered as though he knew Sa Mu-heo.
Sa Mu-heo spoke.
“I am not in the mood for games.”
“And if you are not, what will you do? Get up and throw a punch at me like before?”
-Crunch!
Sa Mu-heo ground his teeth at O Mu-yang's provocation.
He truly wanted to do just that, but his Ki Gates were blocked, and Mumu had nearly shattered his entire body. He could not move.
O Mu-yang continued.
“Without even seeing it, I can imagine how furious that bastard must have been.”
Sa Mu-heo snorted.
“...He came to take my life himself.”
“But then he simply left? What sort of whim was that?”
O Mu-yang tilted his head, sounding unable to understand.
In that situation, even he would have taken Sa Mu-heo's life.
Sa Mu-heo spoke in a meaningful voice.
“I told him how to obtain the secret manual.”
“What?”
O Mu-yang's eyes widened.
His face grew agitated as he spoke again.
“So it really was here?”
“Yes. Before he died, that old man Hang Yeon finally opened his mouth.”
“You found out in the end.”
O Mu-yang clicked his tongue.
Then he stared at Sa Mu-heo as though he could not understand, before giving a small laugh.
“It seems things have become quite tangled. You even told that Mu-i bastard about it.”
“...”
Sa Mu-heo could not deny it.
Everything had gone wrong because of that one bastard.
‘Mumu!’
Without that variable, the Grand Plan and everything else would have proceeded exactly as he had intended.
Even the secret manual would have fallen into his hands rather than Mumu's.
O Mu-yang stroked his beard and muttered,
“If that falls into his hands, he will have become the closest to the elder's seat. The one in the Imperial Palace must be sick at heart.”
“...It is too soon to know.”
“In that state, what is there left to know? Neither you nor I has the qualifications. I told you it would be better for your future if you let go of pointless greed.”
Sa Mu-heo's brow twisted fiercely at those words.
O Mu-yang clicked his tongue as he watched him.
It was pitiful, seeing him struggle desperately despite having no chance.
Pathetic, even.
‘It is none of my concern anyway. Whether one clings to the natural order and survives, or meets ruin through desire, that is a choice each person makes.’
O Mu-yang smiled coldly.
“So, what do you want, brother?”
* * *
‘It feels eerie.’
That was Dan Baek-yeon's first impression after entering the Old Teaching Hall.
There had been underground laboratories there before the accident, so it was a familiar place. Yet after being left unattended, it had turned into such a ruin that it felt as though ghosts might leap out at any moment.
‘Come to think of it, weren't there cadets who fainted after claiming to see ghosts?’
There had been quite an uproar.
They feared such superstitions more than the poison vapors.
They were still children, it seemed.
‘Though this child does not seem to be.’
Mumu strode ahead without hesitation, seemingly unconcerned by the gloomy atmosphere.
What bothered Dan Baek-yeon more was the little girl clinging closely to Mumu's side.
Tang So-so, was it?
‘Why is she standing so close to him?’
“Oh my. Why is it so frightening even though we came during the day this time?”
Tang So-so slipped her arm through Mumu's and pressed close against him.
It was so blatant that it made Dan Baek-yeon strangely irritated.
Was Tang So-so interested in Mumu?
Dan Baek-yeon stared at her before clearing her throat.
“Ahem. Cadet Tang So-so.”
“Yes?”
“Why don't you walk a little farther away from him?”
Tang So-so smirked slightly, then spoke as though nothing was wrong.
“Why? Is there a reason I cannot stay close to him?”
“...”
There was a reason.
Dan Baek-yeon disliked seeing another woman clinging to Mumu.
If they were outside the academy, perhaps it would be different. But she could not reveal such feelings toward a cadet.
“What is there to be scared of in broad daylight? Step away from him.”
Tang So-so replied shamelessly.
“Master, ghosts really do appear here. It is very scary.”
“Hoo. There are no such things in this world.”
“There are.”
“I said there are no...”
-Slither!
At that moment, Dan Baek-yeon spotted something black creeping into view.
Something with a single bloodshot red eye flickered on the ceiling. It did not look human in the slightest.
She froze at the sight of a ghost for the first time.
‘What is that?’
As she stood there in shock...
-!!!!!
The strange entity with the bloodshot red eye suddenly shuddered when it saw Mumu, then fled as though melting into the ceiling.
Dan Baek-yeon could not make sense of it.
‘...Have I been too weak lately?’
She must have imagined it.
By then, they had reached the stairs leading underground.
What was unusual was the holes in the ceiling and floor near the staircase.
‘What is this?’
They looked as though they had been forcibly punched through.
Dan Baek-yeon stared at them in puzzlement, and Mumu scratched his head in embarrassment.
Then they descended underground.
‘The ice could not have melted in only a few days, right?’
What Mumu wanted to show them was the ice around the Golden Fragrance Snow Blossom flowerbed.
The Golden Fragrance Snow Blossom was a flower that only bloomed in the frigid Northern Seas, but the artificially created ice had made the entire underground area resemble that environment.
They had brought the flowers there, but the ice should not have melted so quickly.
Yet...
“Huh?”
After reaching the deepest part of the underground cavern, Mumu frowned.
The place had been frozen solid in every direction last time, but now there was nothing left.
There was not even any moisture.
“Huh? That is strange.”
Tang So-so, who had seen it with Mumu, also found it strange.
There was not a single trace, as though nothing had ever been there.
Dan Baek-yeon looked around and asked,
“Are you sure this is the place?”
“Yes. I felt something similar to the Icy Heart Sutra from the ice that had frozen here.”
Dan Baek-yeon paused at those words, then asked in confusion.
“You felt something from the Icy Heart Sutra?”
“Yes. It was similar to what you showed me, Master.”
“Are you certain?”
There was a simple reason she asked again.
At Mumu's level, having only just begun to learn Martial Arts, he should not have been able to distinguish the life energy lingering in a technique or traces left by its aftermath.
Besides, one needed to properly learn the Martial Arts itself to recognize it in the first place.
Yet he had distinguished it after seeing Dan Baek-yeon demonstrate the Icy Heart Sutra only once?
‘...Is that even possible?’
Normally, she would have denied it without question.
Still, Mumu, who had not even possessed a dantian two days ago, now had second-rate internal energy. That made it clear his talent was far from ordinary.
If he had truly distinguished the life energy...
That was when it happened.
-Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-boom! Rumble!
“W-what? Aah!”
“The ceiling?”
The ground shook amid a series of deafening crashes, and the cavern ceiling collapsed.
* * *
Someone was watching the Old Teaching Hall from afar.
A man clicked his tongue as he watched the building collapse layer upon layer, its supporting pillars all shattered.
[That bastard will certainly go underground in the Old Teaching Hall. Collapse the building when he does.]
Just as that person had predicted, Mumu had entered the Old Teaching Hall.
Dan Baek-yeon and a female cadet joining him had been unexpected, but there was nothing to be done.
They had brought it upon themselves by entering the Old Teaching Hall with him.
“Tsk, tsk.”
He had made preparations to ensure it would collapse like that, but that person was ruthless to the extreme.
They had arranged for the whole building to collapse and crush them to death.
No matter how monstrous Mumu's strength was, he could not endure the pressure and weight of a five-story building collapsing from the underground foundation upward.
‘The corpses will be crushed beyond recognition.’
This should have taken care of them properly.
Even one of the Ten Great Masters of the Force of Justice would find it impossible to survive that situation, much less someone with brute strength.
On the other side of the Old Teaching Hall stood another person.
It was Secret Agent No. 2.
“Th-this is...!”
As usual, Secret Agent No. 2 had been watching Mumu.
They had judged that sneaking into the Old Teaching Hall carelessly, as they had last time, might lead to encountering strange entities or being trapped again. So they had observed from outside.
They never expected the entire Old Teaching Hall to collapse so suddenly.
‘How could this happen?’
Could a building really collapse inward like that?
Secret Agent No. 2 stared blankly at the fallen Old Teaching Hall.
Mumu had clearly gone underground.
It was obvious he had been crushed to death.
‘How could anyone possibly...?’
With the entire building collapsed on him, he would have taken all that pressure and weight head-on.
No master could possibly escape from that...
-Rumble!
At that exact moment, the collapsed building began to shake.
The guard warriors who had rushed over after the sudden collapse were at a loss before the strange phenomenon.
“W-what is that?”
“Why is the collapsed building moving?”
“Uh?”
The guard warriors could not hide their shock.
A powerful vibration rose from the ground beneath their feet.
At the same time, the collapsed Old Teaching Hall slowly began to rise from around the first floor.
Then...
-Kwaaaaaaaaaa!
Everyone doubted their eyes.
The collapsed Old Teaching Hall, which had been trembling, rose nearly five jang into the air.
“Gasp!”
“The building?”
It was an unbelievable sight.
Yet something even more shocking came into view.
Beneath the raised Old Teaching Hall, a massive man with gray, overheated muscles and steam pouring from his entire body was supporting the underground foundation with both hands.
‘!!!!!!!!’
Secret Agent No. 2 and the man who had been about to withdraw after completing his mission both stood with their jaws hanging open.
Footnotes:
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