WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME NOVELS

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ The Former Supreme ◈

Chapter 67: Yeom Hwasin (2)

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After Yeom Hwasin left the tavern, only Baek Socheon and Cheon Geuk remained.

The server and cook, who had hidden in the kitchen for fear a fight might break out, finally emerged.

Baek Socheon generously paid for the broken furnishings before stepping outside with Cheon Geuk.

"Maybe I should've just gone at him."

"Just as I thought. Men and their bravado. How far could the Black Heaven Alliance Leader have gotten? I'll bring him back."

"Hahaha."

Baek Socheon laughed. She could make him laugh even in a situation like this. Perhaps that was why she had been the one he missed most in the Hidden Land of the Heavenly Dragon.

"Are you really going?"

"Yeah."

Given the situation, he needed to report this to Ak Sogun and Zhuge Hyeon immediately.

But would Yeom Hwasin have come without any countermeasures?

Baek Socheon knew better than anyone that Yeom Hwasin was not as simple-minded and brutish as he appeared.

So what if, by some chance, he failed to stop him?

Yes, he might fail to stop him.

The real problem lay elsewhere.

Cheon Geuk and Na Sarin would be in danger. Now that Yeom Hwasin knew Cheon Geuk had helped with the treatment, he would try to take her away somehow.

Unless Baek Socheon intended to stay with them for the rest of his life, the two would eventually be taken by Yeom Hwasin while outside his protection.

Cheon Geuk was quicker than anyone at reading the situation.

"Is this because of Elder and me?"

"No."

His answer was too firm. Cheon Geuk understood that Baek Socheon had decided to go to the Black Heaven Alliance for her and Na Sarin's sake.

She remembered the moment their eyes had met while Yeom Hwasin had Baek Socheon by the collar. She remembered how she had felt then, too.

'Why would he go this far?'

They could have simply ended things as a relationship where they used each other.

But if she intended to live with that mindset, she should never have revealed herself in the first place.

"I'm going to the Alliance for a while."

"Go ahead. I need to see Elder."

"See you later."

"All right."

Baek Socheon started walking away, then spoke to her without looking back.

"Thank you."

The words she always said to him came back from behind.

"As long as you know."

After he took a few steps, Cheon Geuk spoke again.

"I'm grateful too."

A faint smile formed on Baek Socheon's lips as he walked away.

He had not known when he was young how much it meant to have someone acknowledge you.

'Yes. I know.'

* * *

Cheon Geuk returned to Daru and told Na Sarin what had happened.

"I'm sorry, Elder. I made the decision on my own."

Cheon Geuk bowed her head. She had made the decision because she believed Baek Socheon's life was in danger, but Na Sarin was the one capable of performing the treatment. It had been deeply disrespectful to decide without asking her.

Na Sarin wore her usual gentle smile.

"It's all right, Alliance Leader."

Her warm words showed that she meant it. Na Sarin already believed she did not have much longer to live. If anything, she was worried about Cheon Geuk.

"I'll go alone."

"No. You can't."

"I'm the one performing the treatment anyway."

Cheon Geuk answered even more firmly in the face of Na Sarin's resolute will.

"Absolutely not. I'm going too."

This had been Cheon Geuk's decision. She already felt this guilty, so how could she send Na Sarin alone? It was unthinkable.

"Alliance Leader!"

"This is an order."

Their determination collided, but Cheon Geuk ultimately prevailed by invoking the authority of the Alliance Leader.

"Come with me, Elder."

"Yes. Let us go together."

"I'm sorry for being stubborn."

"You've always been stubborn, ever since you were young."

Cheon Geuk hugged Na Sarin. Her small body settled snugly in Cheon Geuk's embrace. It carried eighty-four years of life, yet it was so frail and slight.

While Na Sarin prepared to leave, Cheon Geuk summoned the Guardian Assassin Stars.

"Follow me, but don't enter the Black Heaven Alliance headquarters."

She knew their personalities better than anyone. Stopping them from following her was impossible. Letting them protect her from a distance was the best option.

"Alliance Leader!"

"As you saw before, Yeom Hwasin could see through our concealment even from afar. He'll allow you to follow us, but he won't allow you to enter the Black Heaven Alliance headquarters. If you end up in danger, I'll be in danger too."

She would never simply stand by and watch the Guardian Assassin Stars die.

Knowing how she felt, the four of them took a step back.

"Understood. We'll stay as close to the Black Heaven Alliance as possible. If anything happens, please set off an emergency signal flare at once."

"All right."

She always carried emergency signal flares. They looked like ornaments attached to clothing rather than fireworks, so they would not be found even in a body search.

Before the appointed time, Baek Socheon returned.

He told Beon Saeng and Im Chung that he would be away for a while on personal business, and asked them to inform the Alliance Leader's Hall or the Sage Heaven Pavilion that he was absent if either contacted them.

Before leaving, he met Wang Ho and ordered him to increase the intensity of training. With war approaching, what they needed most was training.

Baek Socheon asked Na Sarin for permission.

"I'd like to speak with Alliance Leader Cheon alone for a moment. My apologies, Elder."

"It's fine."

The two walked a short distance away from Na Sarin and stopped.

"What did Elder say?"

"What else? She's worried about me, as always."

"Once the treatment is over, Yeom Hwasin may try to kill us."

Cheon Geuk remembered what Yeom Hwasin had said earlier.

"Now that you're no longer useful, is there any reason to keep you alive?"

"I'm worried about Elder, but..."

She was not afraid for herself.

"You remember what I told you before, right? That I don't care about money. Would a bitch who doesn't care about money be afraid of dying? Everyone dies someday. It's fine if it has even a little meaning."

"What meaning would dying now have?"

After a brief pause, she cautiously said,

"...One hundred thousand nyang?"

"One hundred thousand nyang?"

When Baek Socheon repeated it, she quickly changed the subject.

"Forget it. Let's go. The three of us can take on that big bastard. If things go wrong, we'll join forces, fight like hell, and die."

"All right. Let's do that."

Still, that was what would happen in the worst case.

For now, he had to create the best possible situation.

'I need some way to make sure he can't touch us.'

He needed to find a way before they arrived.

A little later, a carriage stopped before the three of them.

The door opened, and Yeom Hwasin, seated inside, said,

"Get in."

Baek Socheon, Cheon Geuk, and Na Sarin boarded the carriage.

It began to pick up speed. Their destination was Nanning in Guangxi Province, where the Black Heaven Alliance headquarters stood.

The carriage was quiet.

Each of them had sunk into their own thoughts, their eyes closed or fixed on the view outside.

Baek Socheon knew how dangerous this small space was.

Cheon Geuk was the Assassin King, even if she was complying with Yeom Hwasin's wishes. No one yet knew the true extent of her strength.

Na Sarin was also an eighty-four-year-old master and a master of the Soul-Seizing Art.

And then there was Baek Socheon himself.

Yeom Hwasin held all of them under control.

It was the kind of place where it would not have been strange for anything to happen in a flash.

Rattle.

The carriage lurched as it passed through a puddle.

The silence naturally broke.

"You look quite old. How old are you?"

Yeom Hwasin had seen through Na Sarin's identity, and he had also realized that she would be the one treating the gu parasites.

"I am eighty-four."

Na Sarin answered politely. She remained courteous no matter who she faced.

"Haha. You must have already been active in the martial world when I was born."

"I suppose so."

Na Sarin was even more cautious than usual because Cheon Geuk was with her. She had experienced every hardship imaginable in her eighty-four years. Experience had taught her one thing.

'A person's nature never changes.'

No matter how much the Black Heaven Alliance Leader smiled, it was only the ease of a well-fed tiger. Once it grew hungry, it would tear into someone without mercy.

Baek Socheon was staring at Yeom Hwasin's forearms and hands.

His skin looked harder than when they had fought before. Even without raising his body-protecting qi, bluish energy seemed to flow. Earlier, he had been too shocked and flustered to properly notice the change.

"Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Have you become stronger?"

"Does it look that way?"

Baek Socheon nodded, and Yeom Hwasin smiled in satisfaction.

"You have a good eye. After getting taught a lesson once, I couldn't just come back unchanged."

If his words were true, the Martial World Ranking Record might have to be revised again. Who was stronger, Myeolsaeng or Yeom Hwasin?

"So that's why you came alone without fear? All the way to the Murim Alliance headquarters?"

"I enjoy excitement, but I don't enjoy foolishness."

That meant he clearly had something he relied on. What could it be?

Seeing Baek Socheon stare at him, Yeom Hwasin asked,

"Why do you keep looking at me? Are you disappointed that you can't fight me again?"

"I am."

"I'm not disappointed at all. I never want to fight you again, not even if it's a fight I can win."

Baek Socheon knew that only truly strong people could be this honest. Those who were genuinely strong did not put on airs. Yeom Hwasin had returned stronger.

Sensing that the battle ahead would not be easy, Baek Socheon turned his gaze outside the carriage.

Yeom Hwasin suddenly asked Cheon Geuk,

"Do you like that fellow?"

Cheon Geuk hesitated. How should she answer? In the end, she chose honesty.

"Yes, I'm interested in him."

She looked at Baek Socheon.

He continued staring out the window without saying a word.

"Isn't he charming? Look at him. Even when such a pretty woman says she's interested in him, he just pretends not to hear and stares outside."

Yeom Hwasin glanced at Baek Socheon, then said to her,

"He's embarrassed."

"Embarrassed? Him?"

Her reaction made it clear she did not believe that for a second, so Yeom Hwasin asked Baek Socheon directly.

"You're embarrassed, aren't you?"

Baek Socheon still did not respond.

Fearing Yeom Hwasin might get angry, Cheon Geuk quickly stepped in.

"See? He's just rude."

Yeom Hwasin burst into laughter.

"Hahaha! He's also the only person who can act like that after I ask him a question. Yes, he's definitely charming."

The carriage continued on as they talked.

They stopped at inns along the way, and Cheon Geuk devoted herself to caring for Na Sarin.

Though she had the appearance of a child, she was an elderly woman of eighty-four. Cheon Geuk cared for her with utmost devotion, worried that she might be uncomfortable while eating or sleeping.

Seeing this, Yeom Hwasin said to Baek Socheon when they were alone.

"That girl is in a position that doesn't suit her either."

He meant that the life of an assassin did not suit her.

He had said before that Baek Socheon had started off wrong as well.

At the time, Baek Socheon had believed he sincerely thought so.

He no longer did.

Yeom Hwasin had known perfectly well that Ak Sogun and Baek Socheon had gu parasites inside them, yet rather than tell them, he had tried to drive a wedge between them by saying the Black Heaven Alliance suited Baek Socheon.

Baek Socheon could not be fooled by Yeom Hwasin's burly frame and boisterous personality, appearances that seemed unsuited to schemes and manipulation. Yeom Hwasin was a man who calculated better than anyone, a deeply political man.

On the third day, Baek Socheon took hold of Cheon Geuk's hand as she came downstairs after preparing Na Sarin's bed.

"Why?"

"Eat."

Baek Socheon had already ordered food on the first floor.

"You haven't eaten all day."

"I'm not hungry."

"That's why you need to eat. I haven't eaten either, so let's eat together."

"All right."

Cheon Geuk could no longer refuse and sat across from him. As they ate, she said,

"Thank you for looking after me."

"Are you nervous?"

"I'm just worried about Elder."

"What about you?"

"Me? If I make up my mind to run, I'm good at it. You should be careful."

"That's a relief. When you need to run, make sure you do."

Yeom Hwasin, passing by at that moment, casually said,

"Do you think that'll be possible?"

After leaving only those words behind, Yeom Hwasin went upstairs to the second floor, where his room was.

Baek Socheon picked up his chopsticks again.

"It has to be. You don't have to show me any loyalty."

Cheon Geuk drank the liquor that had been set out with the meal.

"Don't worry. I'm more of a bitch than I look."

"Keep being a bitch until the end. Don't change."

Baek Socheon drained his cup as well.

On the fourth day, when they had grown accustomed to the journey and Yeom Hwasin's guard had relaxed, Baek Socheon secretly sent Na Sarin a voice transmission.

-When you treat that father and son later, there is one thing I need you to do. If it can't be done, please pretend that you did it.

He had found one way for them to escape safely. For it to work, he absolutely needed her help.

Baek Socheon made one request of her through voice transmission.

-Understood. Leave it to me.

The carriage continued onward, and on the fifth day after they set out, they finally arrived at the Black Heaven Alliance headquarters.

Its scale was overwhelming from the entrance alone. It was incomparably larger than the Murim Alliance's entrance.

The massive statues of martial artists standing on either side of the main gate seized everyone's attention. The enormous sculptures, so large it was impossible to imagine how they had been made, were crafted with such precision that they looked ready to come alive at any moment.

The carriage carrying them slowly passed between the crossed swords thrust out by the giant statues and entered within.

Footnotes:

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