The Heaven-Slaying Sword - Chapter 51

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

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◈ The Heaven-Slaying Sword ◈

Chapter 51: Chapter Six - Escort Journey, Fateful Encounter (1)

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About three more days passed.

After wrapping up everything in She County, the group left the city they had grown fond of behind and set out.

Before them stretched a road with no end in sight.

Mok Ri-won gazed at it with a fluttering heart, then suddenly remembered something he had forgotten and spoke.

“Ah! Come to think of it!”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Miss! I forgot about Monk Il-un! Didn’t he say we had to stop by the Shaolin Sect before going to the Martial Alliance?”

Mok Ri-won turned pale as he fussed.

He had every reason to.

During the Dragon Phoenix Gathering, they had learned that anyone seeking a Division Leader position in the Martial Alliance needed a recommendation from a renowned figure.

Dang Hwa-seo had also said they should visit the Shaolin Sect before going to the Martial Alliance with that in mind.

Yet look at them now.

If they intended to visit the Shaolin Sect, they should have brought someone from the Shaolin Sect along, yet they had set out without discussing anything with Il-un.

Their journey was already about to go awry from the very start.

Dang Hwa-seo chuckled at his panic.

Jegal San did the same.

He let out a loud, frivolous guffaw and slung an arm over Mok Ri-won’s shoulder.

“Brother Mok, things are different now.”

“Uh, what do you mean?”

“That would have been true at first. If Sister had gone alone to establish a division in the Martial Alliance, she would surely have needed the recommendation of the former Alliance Leader, Great Master Wonmyeong. Mind you, only if she had gone alone.”

Mok Ri-won’s face filled with confusion.

Jegal San playfully raised a hand and pointed to Dang Hwa-seo, himself, and Mok Ri-won in turn.

“Now then, what are our bynames?”

“Miss is the Poison Phoenix... Brother Jegal is the Strange Dragon, and I am...”

Mok Ri-won’s cheeks reddened.

He even cleared his throat awkwardly before finally saying his own byname.

“...I-Ink Dragon!”

His shoulders straightened.

Dang Hwa-seo blushed and covered her mouth with her sleeve.

Jegal San nodded in satisfaction and continued.

“That’s right. We are dragons and phoenixes. All three of us have such bynames, and we all want to establish a new division and join it. Brother Mok, you need to take the meaning carried by a dragon byname more seriously.”

Dragon and phoenix bynames were special.

Not simply because of what the names meant, but because of the standing they carried in the Martial World.

“We are proven talents, the ones who will lead the next generation of the Martial World. Even if we do not see ourselves that way, the Martial World does. So if we go to the Martial Alliance together and say we want to establish a division, they would be in a position to bow down and thank us.”

Dang Hwa-seo nodded in agreement.

It sounded arrogant, but it was true.

The talented figures who would lead the next generation were joining the Martial Alliance.

For an organization meant to oversee the Orthodox Sects of the Martial World, there could be no better news.

There were political reasons as well.

‘They believe this could reshape the next generation’s landscape of prestigious factions.’

Prestigious factions were groups the Martial Alliance had to treat with caution.

Each sect and clan possessed considerable power, so meddling with them recklessly would only bring losses.

If the future leaders of those prestigious factions joined the Martial Alliance, it would be the perfect opportunity to weaken their influence while strengthening the Alliance’s own.

‘Of course, given their backgrounds, they could return to their families if they wanted to...’

Even so, the Martial Alliance would benefit.

It would build friendly ties with the next generation of leaders from prestigious factions.

Dang Hwa-seo did not bother explaining such complicated matters.

Instead, she told Mok Ri-won, “In any case, Jegal is right. We no longer need to stop by the Shaolin Sect. We can go straight to Wuhan in Hubei Province.”

Mok Ri-won’s expression became serious.

“...I-I can feel the weight of it!”

He clenched his fist.

Being one of those who would lead the next generation of the Martial World was no small burden to accept.

Mok Ri-won had only wanted to practice Chivalry, smile coolly, and walk away. Now that he truly understood the weight carried by a dragon, he felt he needed to change his mindset.

“Understood! I’ll become a man with the weight to match my byname!”

Ink Dragon Mok Ri-won.

He would become someone worthy of that name!

Dang Hwa-seo and Jegal San simply smiled at his determined declaration.

Both thought the same thing.

‘If only he kept his mouth shut, he would naturally seem that way.’

The very image of a country bumpkin from the mountains.

A clueless greenhorn.

If those traits did not show through, Mok Ri-won’s appearance suited the title of Dragon better than anyone else’s.

In other words, his mouth was the problem.

* * *

On a map, Hubei Province lay directly west of Anhui Province, but that did not mean the two were close.

How could they be?

This was the vast Central Plains.

Even crossing a single province took weeks on horseback.

It was only natural that Mok Ri-won and the others faced a long journey.

Two weeks after leaving She County, Mok Ri-won finally reached the last city in Anhui and exclaimed with delight.

“Once we pass through here, we’ll be in Hubei Province!”

“That’s right. We arrived sooner than expected. Perhaps it is because nothing happened along the way.”

Dang Hwa-seo spoke with a satisfied expression.

She was in an especially good mood.

‘There were few things along the way that would catch Young Hero Mok’s curiosity. That must be the biggest reason.’

His scattered curiosity, which could turn a day’s journey into three, had not caused trouble, allowing them to travel at this pace.

Of course, she had planned their route with that in mind from the beginning, but even considering that, they had moved quickly.

‘At this rate, we’ll arrive in two weeks.’

If they took their time, it might take three.

Either way, their pace was more than satisfactory. Dang Hwa-seo was ready to continue the rest of their journey at leisure.

“Now then, shall we go?”

“Where are we going?”

Mok Ri-won asked, his eyes sparkling.

Dang Hwa-seo was about to answer immediately, but then a smile spread across her lips.

She was curious how Mok Ri-won would react.

He would probably leap for joy.

With a strange sense of anticipation rising inside her, Dang Hwa-seo smiled broadly and said, “We’re going to an escort agency. We’ll guard an escort convoy as we leave Anhui.”

Mok Ri-won froze.

Then he began to tremble.

His eyes shone, and his mouth slowly fell open.

“G-guarding an escort convoy...!”

Mok Ri-won clenched his fist.

His reaction was even stronger than Dang Hwa-seo had expected.

“This is wonderful!”

The fire of romance had been lit in Mok Ri-won’s heart.

* * *

Escort work was such a frequent subject in [Tales of Martial Heroes] that there was hardly a chapter without it.

That was only natural for a story about the Martial World, but one chapter featured it especially often.

Chapter Six.

The chapter of the Wandering Hero.

The Wandering Hero was a mysterious master who roamed the Martial World.

He concealed his identity, enjoyed passing the time by taking on jobs such as escort work, and shared drinks with the companions he met along the way.

Since the chapter mostly took the form of a travelogue, the children who made up Tales of Martial Heroes’ main readership did not care much for it.

Mok Ri-won was different.

One scene from Chapter Six had set his heart ablaze.

-This too is a bond, so I shall lend my aid this once.

The life-or-death duel between the Black Evil Alliance Leader and the Wandering Hero was considered the peak of Chapter Six.

The Wandering Hero, who had never known love in his life, fell for a woman he met while on an escort job. For the first time in his travels through the Martial World, he revealed his true identity.

-Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Cheon Gwak, the final successor of the Seven Valley Sect.

The mysterious master, the Wandering Hero, was the final successor of a vanished sect that passed its teachings down to only one person.

The description of the Black Evil Alliance Leader taking hesitant steps back after learning this had been enough to leave Mok Ri-won thrilled beyond restraint.

...That was right.

Mok Ri-won had become obsessed with the idea of being the successor of a single-successor sect while concealing his strength.

He could not deny that it was because the circumstances seemed strangely similar to his own.

“Quickly! Let’s hurry to the escort agency!”

Unable to contain his excitement, the immature Mok Ri-won urged Dang Hwa-seo onward.

Jegal San snickered and added his support.

“Come now, Sister. Brother Mok’s this excited, so let’s get going.”

Dang Hwa-seo looked flustered by Mok Ri-won’s more fervent reaction than expected, along with Jegal San’s urging.

Only then did she think, ‘Had I underestimated Young Hero Mok?’ She let out a deep sigh, then smiled helplessly as if giving up.

“Yes, yes. Let’s go.”

People who never gave her a moment to be bored.

Thinking that, Dang Hwa-seo started walking.

* * *

Woonseong Escort Agency was a fairly well-known escort agency in the area, based in Hubei Province.

It mainly transported merchant guilds’ precious metals.

Its escort missions had a success rate of ninety percent, so it was never short of work. Accordingly, many martial artists wanted to take part in its jobs.

Today, it received unexpected guests.

“We came because we would like to take part in an escort job.”

In the reception room of Woonseong Escort Agency’s Anhui branch, a beautiful woman with an elegant bearing sat across from the branch manager.

Poison Phoenix Dang Hwa-seo.

The young clan head of the Sichuan Tang Clan, which had made a spectacular return at this Dragon Phoenix Gathering.

The branch manager’s heart was already pounding at the sight of her alone, but the two men standing behind her made him seriously wonder whether he was dreaming.

The sly, weasel-like man standing to the Poison Phoenix’s right was Strange Dragon Jegal San.

And the dazzlingly handsome man to her left was...

‘In-Ink Dragon...!’

Ink Dragon Mok Ri-won.

He was one of the most promising rising talents currently shaking the Martial World.

The branch manager wondered why they had come to an escort agency like this.

It was not so small that it deserved to be called a local escort agency, but people who could even take commissions from the All-Heaven Merchant Guild had come here. He could not help thinking of it that way.

Dang Hwa-seo spoke.

“We happen to be on our way to Hubei, and our schedule is fairly open. Rather than simply travel, we thought it would be good to find something to occupy ourselves with.”

“I-Is that so...?”

The middle-aged branch manager fought to keep his head from drooping.

‘Th-there’s no downside, but...’

It would be wonderful if they joined an escort job.

Recent rumors had been especially grim.

‘...They say more bandits have been targeting escort convoys lately.’

The rumor had begun circulating a week ago.

The bandits’ cruelty was too extreme to be dismissed as ordinary banditry. Those who found them later were said to have vomited.

The branch manager swallowed hard.

It would be wonderful to have them along, but there was still something he had to consider.

“Um... We cannot promise payment beyond our set rates. Is that acceptable? You would receive the same wages as the other guards.”

An escort job was still work.