Chapter 25. Gale (5)
"Young Master, are you alright?"
"......"
"Young Master?!"
"Hmm? Ah, were you calling me?"
"Yes. I was wondering if you were feeling okay..."
"I'm fine. I wasn't even warmed up yet."
"Ah, I see."
Shinmo looked flustered.
Yeon Hojeong spoke with a hint of apology.
"I messed up and put you guys in a tough spot. I'm really sorry."
"No, no! Don't say that!"
"I have a lot on my mind today. I'll buy you a drink tomorrow."
"Cider? That's not necessary."
Shinmo bowed his head.
"I'm relieved to hear you're alright. Please get some rest."
"You rest too."
"Just in case, I will deploy Chang'eung guards near your rooms."
Yeon Hojeong, who was about to say there was no need, nodded. If he didn't set up some kind of guard, Shinmo would be even more anxious.
He didn't want to make others worry about him anymore.
"Thank you."
"I'll go now."
As Shinmo left the room, Yeon Hojeong turned his gaze to the window.
The banquet had started just after noon but was canceled in less than thirty minutes. So, it was still light out.
Yeon Hojeong stared out the window, his eyes filled with a chilling darkness.
"Is it the Myeong Family?"
He acted like he didn't care to keep things under control, but he was still focused on Myeong Horim.
'It's the same. I can't be sure yet, like with the Jegal or Pang families. But...'
It was a bit premature, but Yeon Hojeong trusted his intuition. He trusted his instincts.
Something felt really off about Myeong Horim's inner energy.
To be precise, it was different from the inner energy of the family's killers. Just looking at the type of energy, you'd think it was a completely different martial art.
However, Myeong Horim's inner energy was completely different from Central Plains martial arts. It was like a wolf in sheep's clothing.
It was as if the rough and fierce energy had been toned down to fit Central Plains styles. Inner energy usually reflects the cultivator's personality, but Myeong Horim's felt fundamentally foreign to the Central Plains.
'Damn. If I'd pushed him harder, I could've seen what he was really capable of.'
Yeon Hojeong sighed and suddenly tilted his head.
"But how did the Myeong Family fall?"
After learning martial arts from his master and coming down the mountain, when he was cleaning up the Black Path and starting to look at the wider world.
At that time, the Myeong Family was already gone. It wasn't like the Yeon Family, which was wiped out; their power just crumbled, and they fell apart in less than three years, or so I heard.
Yeon Hojeong stroked his chin, puzzled.
"How on earth?"
If one of the Nine Great Myeong Families had fallen, he wouldn't have ignored it, especially since he was starting to shake up the Black Path at the time. He should have heard something about the Myeong Family.
But he hadn't heard a thing. He was crazy busy setting up the Black Heaven Fortress, but still, this was weird, right?
"Did someone control the information?"
The Black Path and Evil Sects have better and faster information networks than the White Path and Orthodox Sects.
Early on, Yeon Hojeong was also in charge of intelligence at the Black Heaven Fortress. No one in the Black Path who dealt in information could have escaped Yeon Hojeong's notice.
'Could it be the Orthodox Sects...?'
One thought led to another.
He couldn't stop thinking about it. The main thing was whether the Myeong Family were enemies or not, but his mind kept going back to it.
Yeon Hojeong was deep in thought.
"Young Master."
Shinmo's voice came from outside the door.
"Huh?"
"The Jegal Family's eldest daughter is here to see you. Should I let her in?"
Shinmo was being formal even though they knew each other. Yeon Hojeong nodded.
"Let her in."
Click.
Jegal Ayeon entered immediately.
She'd changed from her fancy light green clothes into something more practical and looked even more energetic.
"What are you doing alone? Sitting by the window like that?"
"What brings you here?"
Jegal Ayeon grumbled.
"Hey, a guest is here. You could at least offer me a seat, right?"
"Have a seat."
"Tea?"
"Help yourself."
"You're so prickly."
Jegal Ayeon sat down with a grunt. She seemed tired.
"How are you feeling?"
"Fine."
"Yeah, you look fine. I'm embarrassed I worried so much. Seriously, I never thought you'd be able to toy with that Dang Family brat like that."
Even if he was a spoiled brat, Dang Yangseon was the Dang Family heir. They wouldn't have skimped on his training.
Jegal Ayeon studied Yeon Hojeong's face.
Yeon Hojeong was still staring out the window, his expression unreadable.
She had a lot of questions for Yeon Hojeong.
How had he become so strong, why was he so fixated on Myeong Horim, and what was he thinking?
She sighed inwardly and smiled brightly.
"I guess I can hide behind you if something happens later."
"So, what do you need?"
"You're as stiff as my dad's old club. I just came to check on you."
Yeon Hojeong frowned.
Just as Jegal Ayeon was bracing herself for another blunt remark...
"Thank you."
"......Huh?"
"I said thank you."
Jegal Ayeon blinked.
"Thank you? For what?"
"For stepping in and defending me. Thanks to you, things calmed down. I owe you one."
"Whoa, what's with the sudden thanks? It's kinda freaking me out."
"You're really good at twisting words. You're a true Jegal."
"Twisting words? I'd prefer if you called it 'persuasion'."
"You might be able to make a name for yourself with your silver tongue."
"Is that a compliment or an insult?"
"I'm just saying thanks."
"Ugh, never mind! Forget I said anything! Just forget the whole thing!"
"Then I'll just forget it."
"No way!"
Yeon Hojeong turned away, clearly done with the conversation.
Jegal Ayeon's face flushed slightly.
She had blurted it out without thinking because she was embarrassed, but, in fact, she felt good. Especially because she knew he wasn't someone who easily said thank you to others.
She'd come to cheer him up, but she got a thank you instead. She hadn't planned on bringing it up, but now seemed like a good time.
"Be a little more careful from now on."
"I will."
She giggled.
"What's with that sly smile?"
"Sly?!"
She flared up, then let out a weak sigh.
"Tch, if you weren't stronger than me, I'd have punched you... Ah!"
Jegal Ayeon's face became a little serious.
"There's one thing I want to ask you."
"What?"
"Remember at Choseong Pavilion? That Thunder Flame Lord guy."
"What about him?"
"I've been meaning to ask, how did you hurt him?"
Yeon Hojeong tilted his head.
"Is there some secret to hurting someone? I just went at him to kill."
"That's not what I meant..."
Whoong.
Strong inner energy rose from Jegal Ayeon's hand. At the same time, the scent of sandalwood began to circulate in Yeon Hojeong's room.
"My family's Hyeonwon Jeondan Divine Art is a rare secret art. And my attack hit him square in the stomach."
Even a normal blow to the stomach is dangerous. All those organs are packed in there; a bad hit can take you out, or even kill you.
"But that guy didn't even flinch, let alone fall. It's not like his inner energy was several times stronger than mine either."
"It's the difference in the nature of qi."
"Huh? Nature?"
Yeon Hojeong shrugged it off.
"The Yeol Yang Art he has mastered is of a very high level. In other words, his inner energy itself contains fire energy. But your inner energy is centered on wood energy."
"......?!"
"If you throw a piece of firewood into a blazing bonfire, will the fire go out? It will only burn even stronger."
Jegal Ayeon was dumbfounded.
"But even if the energies are different, there's still a clear difference in our skill..."
"That guy's martial art isn't just some cheap trick. It's a technique that was once considered one of the best in the world."
"What?"
"The Yin Fire Crimson Flow, which was famous as one of the two great arts of the Yin God along with the Yin Cold White Flow, is the martial art he has mastered."
Yin God? Yin Fire Crimson Flow?
Jegal Ayeon frowned.
"I've never even heard of those martial arts?"
Of course. Even Yeon Hojeong only learned about the Yin God after becoming the Black Heaven Fortress Lord.
The Yin God was the emperor of the assassination world.
The Yin God of Yeon Hojeong's time wasn't as impressive as the previous one, who was legendary, succeeding in ninety-nine out of a hundred assassinations.
And after that one assassination failure, they disappeared until they trained a successor.
"Even so, it doesn't make sense that he didn't even flinch..."
"That's because neither of you have mastered your techniques."
"Huh?"
"Even at the highest level, it's hard to overcome elemental weaknesses. That's why there can be someone who's the strongest, but no one can be truly invincible. Heaven doesn't allow absolute supremacy."
"......"
"Well, it seems like that guy hasn't even inherited thirty percent of the Yin Fire Crimson Flow, let alone the Yin Cold White Flow."
"Thirty percent..."
Jegal Ayeon's face became serious.
"You're saying he's that strong with only thirty percent."
"It doesn't matter if it's thirty percent or ten percent; what matters is mastering what you've learned. Both of you have only scratched the surface of your divine arts."
"I feel a bit off being lumped together with him."
"Not my problem."
"Tch."
Jegal Ayeon sighed. She'd come to comfort him, but now she just felt confused.
"There is a strongest under heaven, but there is no absolute invincible? That's true."
"If that's all..."
"But what about that one guy?"
"What?"
"I mean, someone who was called absolutely invincible in martial arts history."
Yeon Hojeong tilted his head.
"If you're talking about Bodhidharma, the founder of Shaolin..."
"No, not Bodhidharma. I'm talking about that legendary martial artist who pacified the Blood Cult Rebellion three hundred years ago, during the golden age of the martial arts world."
"Three hundred years ago? Who?"
"You don't know?"
"Nope. I'm too busy trying to stay alive to worry about something that happened three hundred years ago."
"You're weird. I thought you knew everything about the martial world, but you don't know this guy?"
"I hate studying history."
"Makes sense."
"So, who is that great person?"
His tone was no different from before, but to Jegal Ayeon, it somehow sounded sarcastic.
She snorted and said.
"You'll be shocked when you hear this."
"So who is it?"
"The Four Directional Martial Emperor."
"The Four Directional Martial Emperor?"
"You really didn't know? Wow."
"What a childish epithet."
"Don't say that. For us White Path martial artists, he's evaluated even higher than Bodhidharma. If he hadn't pacified the Blood Cult Rebellion back then, the world would be hell by now, wouldn't it?"
Yeon Hojeong shook his head.
"The world is hell enough as it is now."
"Ugh, you're so dark. You're a really dark guy, you know."
"Shut up."
"Anyway, if the Four Directional Martial Emperor's skills are as history says, wouldn't he definitely be called absolutely invincible? Because he mastered not just one, but four martial arts to the extreme."
"Four martial arts?"
"Yeah. They say no martial art under heaven can match him in offense, defense, and evasion. And they say he even handled Yin and Yang energy?"
Yeon Hojeong's eyes flashed.
"Offense, defense, and evasion, and Yin and Yang energy?"
"That's right. Well, he's such a deified figure, so I guess there's bound to be some exaggeration. Later on, they even said he controlled a golden dragon, so he was also called the Yellow Dragon Emperor. Even I think that's too much."
"......"
"Anyway! Don't be so gloomy all the time. Life has a lot of interesting things to offer..."
"......"
"Jeong-ah?"
Jegal Ayeon was surprised.
She had never seen Yeon Hojeong's blank expression before.
'The Four Directional Martial Emperor? Controls a golden dragon?'
Perfect offense and defense, and evasion. And Yin and Yang energy.
And a golden dragon on top of that?
"Uh... I think I might have said something I shouldn't have..."
"Tell me more."
"H-huh?"
Yeon Hojeong's eyes lit up.
"Tell me more about that person, the Four Directional Martial Emperor."
