WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME NOVELS

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ The Former Supreme ◈

Chapter 66: Yeom Hwasin (1)

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Baek Socheon emerged from the Hidden Land of the Heavenly Dragon forty-five days after entering it.

He wanted to continue training until he reached full mastery of the Seven Stars Tathagata Sword Art, but the situation outside did not allow it.

His brief period of closed-door training had yielded several results.

First, the Immovable Wisdom King Heart Method had reached the fourth level. It was the first achievement he had made there.

Next, he could freely perform the Thousand-Hand Tathagata Asura Divine Sword through the third form. He was not simply performing it, either. He could execute the forms so swiftly that, by the time he completed the third, the sword trails of the first and second remained.

Of course, the moment he achieved that, Baek Socheon had firmly declared, "I can't go any further!"

Still, he had felt much the same way when he first succeeded with the second form.

Honestly, he now held a vague hope that he might manage it somehow. Even so, he sensed that it would not be easy from here on.

He could also smoothly perform the Heaven-Turning Nine Fists through the Fourth Fist. Rather than advancing further, he focused on perfecting the first four fists.

The Greatest Sword Art of All Time, a fist art, and a heart method. He was learning three of the Greatest Martial Arts of All Time.

Since he was already learning three, he found himself wanting to obtain and learn the last one as well. The final martial art was a movement art.

Wind God Traverses the Sky.

It was known as the fastest movement art in the world.

Yet it was exceptionally difficult to obtain.

The Black Heaven Alliance Leader, Yeom Hwasin, possessed it.

Baek Socheon gave a quiet laugh.

In the past, he had thought it would be harder to obtain the Thousand-Hand Tathagata Asura Divine Sword held by Ak Sogun. That showed just how strained his relationship with Ak Sogun had been at the time.

In any case, if he could obtain Wind God Traverses the Sky as well, he would achieve the remarkable feat of learning all four martial arts called the Greatest Martial Art of All Time that had been passed down to the present era.

After leaving the Hidden Land of the Heavenly Dragon, Baek Socheon briefly looked up at the sky. The autumn sky awaiting winter was clear and high. The chilly wind told him winter was already drawing near.

Baek Socheon headed straight for Cloud Dragon Hall, where the Alliance Leader worked.

Ak Sogun warmly greeted him.

"Socheon."

"Alliance Leader."

"How was it? Did you make any progress?"

"Thanks to you, I made some progress."

"Well done. That's a relief."

Ak Sogun was as pleased as if it were his own accomplishment.

"You remember the exact location of the life gate in the Seven Stars Nine Palaces Formation, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Then remember this as well."

Ak Sogun taught Baek Socheon the internal energy circulation method for opening the stone wall of the Hidden Land of the Heavenly Dragon.

"Have you remembered everything?"

"Yes."

"Repeat it for me."

Baek Socheon recited the method Ak Sogun had taught him word for word.

"Now you can go there and train whenever you wish."

"Is this really all right?"

"It is."

This was something that should originally have been taught only to the Alliance Leader, but Ak Sogun spoke without hesitation.

'Could it be?'

A thought suddenly came to Baek Socheon, but he did not voice it. He decided it was not something to discuss now.

Baek Socheon bowed in gratitude.

"Thank you very much."

"You've been inside for quite some time. Go get some fresh air first. We can talk later."

"Yes, Alliance Leader."

After bidding Ak Sogun farewell, Baek Socheon left the Alliance Leader's Hall in high spirits.

* * *

The first place Baek Socheon headed to was Daru, near the headquarters entrance, which Cheon Geuk had taken over.

She was the person he wanted to see first.

Of course, forty-five days had passed, so she would not be there. One of her subordinates would be guarding the place, and he intended to leave word that he wanted to see her.

Just as he was about to enter Daru, someone called from behind him.

"Socheon."

There were not many people who would call his name so casually.

Baek Socheon turned around without thinking and was startled.

Across the street, a man was waving at him.

The massive man, easily twice the size of an ordinary person, was none other than Yeom Hwasin, the Black Heaven Alliance Leader.

"This is insane!"

The words slipped out of Baek Socheon's mouth before he could stop them.

"Why are you standing there looking so dazed? It's me."

Yeom Hwasin's manner was as casual as if he were calling a friend, and Baek Socheon wondered if he was seeing things. The Black Heaven Alliance Leader had brazenly come all the way to the front of the Murim Alliance headquarters. It took incredible nerve.

Baek Socheon walked toward him.

"Are you in your right mind?"

"My mind is perfectly sound."

"Do you know how many of our martial artists are in that headquarters?"

"I know more accurately than you do. I receive reports every morning. Which organizations are moving where, and which are returning. Isn't it the same for your side?"

Yeom Hwasin taunted him with complete confidence.

"What? Want to shout and call them out? Go ahead. What do you think will happen?"

"You'll die."

"Not a chance. Hundreds of your people will die, and I'll escape at my leisure. It isn't as if your cowardly Alliance Leader will personally step forward, either."

Baek Socheon hesitated. He considered whether he should simply fight him.

What if his first surprise blow landed cleanly?

He could fight even with his relatively weaker internal energy.

Still, he was not yet confident he could kill Yeom Hwasin. Besides, if they fought here, passersby and merchants would suffer terrible losses.

Unaware of Baek Socheon's thoughts, Yeom Hwasin pointed at a tavern in the distance.

"Let's go have a drink over there."

"Let's."

To think he would be drinking with the Black Heaven Alliance Leader in a tavern right outside the Murim Alliance headquarters.

Perhaps because it was still early, there were no customers in the tavern.

The server who came to take their order flinched at Yeom Hwasin's overwhelming size.

If the server had known Yeom Hwasin's identity, they would not have smiled so brightly and said, "You have a truly impressive build."

Like a traveler who had come from afar, Yeom Hwasin ordered the tavern's best dishes and liquor.

The two drained their first cups in one refreshing gulp.

"Why did you come here?"

"I came to see you. I heard you reconciled with the Alliance Leader?"

"I did."

The news had already spread throughout the Murim Alliance, so naturally Yeom Hwasin knew as well.

"Your Alliance Leader is a hypocrite. Don't be fooled by that bastard."

"Why do you hate our Alliance Leader so much?"

"Because he is someone I could call my archrival. Of course I hate him."

He said it with a broad smile, but it was also the core truth that defined their relationship.

"This world is full of truth and lies. Which one did you choose?"

"At least I know you're someone far removed from the truth."

"Hahaha. Wouldn't it be strange for the leader of the unorthodox faction to believe in truth?"

After Yeom Hwasin stopped laughing, an unimaginable question came from his mouth.

"How did you get rid of the Heaven-Exiled Grudge Gu?"

Baek Socheon froze.

"You? How do you know about that?"

He even knew exactly which gu parasite it was. That could mean two things. The first was...

"Were you involved in this?"

"I have always loathed gu parasites."

If his words were true...

'There was a spy?'

Only a few people had been present when they treated the Alliance Leader. Even the Secret Guard, aside from Pung Geukan, had been dismissed. There had only been Baek Socheon, Cheon Geuk, Na Sarin, the Pavilion Masters, and the Divine Physician Ban Wollyang.

'Could one of them be a Black Heaven Alliance spy?'

Yeom Hwasin smiled faintly.

"It seems you're trying to guess who the spy is. Only key figures would have been present to treat the Alliance Leader, right? Listen, Socheon. If one of them were a spy, would I reveal it to you? After taking such pains to plant them and raise them to a high position?"

That was true. Now that he had reconciled with Ak Sogun, Yeom Hwasin would have no reason to tell him there was a spy.

'Then?'

Baek Socheon stared silently at Yeom Hwasin.

A moment passed.

Then a thought flashed through Baek Socheon's mind.

"Don't tell me. You too!"

"As expected. You really are smart."

A shocking fact came from Yeom Hwasin's lips.

"I was afflicted by that damned gu parasite too. But the other side did not know one thing. The Dark Spirit Binding Art I learned could detect when a gu parasite entered my body and suppress its activity."

Baek Socheon had heard from Gwoe Yeo, who had been in the underground martial prison, that Yeom Hwasin had learned the Dark Spirit Binding Art. At first, he had even suspected that Yeom Hwasin had used the Dark Spirit Binding Art to cast the Soul-Seizing Art on Ak Sogun.

"They put the female gu parasite in you?"

"Yes."

"Who did they put the male gu parasite in?"

"My son."

His son was the Black Heaven Alliance's official heir. The Blood Cult had been plotting to destroy both the Murim Alliance and the Black Heaven Alliance simultaneously.

"Have you removed the gu parasite?"

"If I had, I wouldn't have come all this way to find you. I've only suppressed the gu parasite in my body with the Dark Spirit Binding Art. I still haven't been able to remove it."

The ingredients for the medicine that removed the gu parasite were easy enough to find. The acupuncture and acupoint pressing method was not particularly difficult, either. The problem was that no one knew the method.

"Damn it. The technique was lost so long ago that no one in my alliance knew how to deal with it."

"So what did you do?"

"I pretended to the conspirators that the gu parasite was affecting me, and kept pretending to keep my son at a distance."

"You know who is behind this."

"Of course. There is only one place that stands to gain the most if your side and mine fall apart."

So Yeom Hwasin knew as well.

"Those dog-bred bastards from the Blood Cult were plotting to destroy us all while we were busy tearing each other apart."

"Then why haven't you punished the Blood Cult Leader? With your temperament, I would've expected you to go after them already."

"Why do you think?"

Baek Socheon soon found the answer.

"Because if your alliance with the Blood Cult breaks, you can't attack us?"

"That's why I like you. Of all the sword-wielding bastards I know, you're the smartest."

In other words, Yeom Hwasin intended to use the Blood Cult for all they were worth before getting rid of them.

Yet after Baek Socheon and the Alliance Leader removed the gu parasite, the situation changed, and Yeom Hwasin decided to remove his own as well.

"You knew from the beginning that the Alliance Leader and I had been infected with gu parasites."

"Yes. I noticed the moment it entered my body and settled in. Then I wondered, would the Blood Cult really have placed gu parasites only in us?"

Yeom Hwasin truly was no ordinary person. Even with that huge body, he had been considering every possibility.

That meant he had known even when they met over the Mythic Gang incident. And yet he had gone on about how the Alliance Leader was a hypocrite, and how three years would be enough.

He had planned to devour the Blood Cult next if the Alliance Leader and Baek Socheon fell.

'Ah, so when he spoke of three years before, he had meant something else!'

Baek Socheon glared at Yeom Hwasin. His brain was as large as his massive body, and so was his ambition.

"The reason I came today is simple. You will remove the gu parasites in my body and my son's body. You must have found the method. That stupid Alliance Leader could not have discovered it."

"What if I refuse?"

Bang!

The table before them flew away, and Yeom Hwasin rushed forward with the speed of light, grabbing Baek Socheon's throat.

"I'll kill you. Why would I keep you alive now that you're no longer useful to me?"

Killing intent poured from Yeom Hwasin's body. It was not false killing intent. It carried a firm resolve to kill Baek Socheon.

The internal energy sleeping in Baek Socheon's meridians was about to awaken. The urge to strike first surged through his whole body.

What if he launched a surprise attack and poured everything out at once? Could he win?

The temptation had returned.

Baek Socheon assessed his chances. Yeom Hwasin might have grown stronger while recovering from his injuries.

Coldly speaking, Baek Socheon had a three or four in ten chance of winning now.

He had to endure. This was a fight that would favor him more as time passed. There was no need to decide the outcome while things were uncertain.

At that moment...

"Stop!"

The person who appeared at the tavern entrance was Cheon Geuk. Even after forty-five days, she had remained near the Murim Alliance headquarters.

"I'll grant your request, Alliance Leader."

Yeom Hwasin turned to her and grinned broadly.

"So you were the one who helped him."

Baek Socheon looked at her.

Cheon Geuk had revealed herself and abandoned her concealment to save his life. She knew better than anyone how dangerous it was to become entangled with Yeom Hwasin.

Baek Socheon and Cheon Geuk met each other's eyes.

'...Why are you going this far?'

Cheon Geuk's eyes replied.

'...Why are you going this far? You could just live well on your own.'

Cheon Geuk spoke to Yeom Hwasin.

"So let go of him."

"Do you dare order me around?"

At Yeom Hwasin's icy question, Cheon Geuk's gaze grew calm and deep.

"Look at him and me. Do either of us look afraid to die here?"

Neither Cheon Geuk nor Baek Socheon cared about life or death anymore. Yeom Hwasin was the same kind of person, so he understood their feelings exactly.

Yeom Hwasin smiled faintly.

"Yes, this is it. This is what makes it interesting."

Yeom Hwasin released Baek Socheon's throat.

"We leave from here in half a shichen. Get ready, then gather here again. If you try any stupid stunt to capture me, a hundred times as many people as you expect will die today."

Footnotes:

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