—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Clang!
The sound of shattering porcelain echoed through the house. I, who had been lying down languidly after finishing my training, immediately grabbed my ax and stood up after hearing the sound. Seon-go, who had been working on the ledgers, widened her eyes in surprise. The servants glanced at me, grabbed clubs or brooms and said,
“Leader, we’re hearing suspicious sounds from the storage. Do you think it’s a thief?”
“You guys stay here. I’ll go check it out.”
I stretched my body, tossed my ax in the air a few times and whistled. A thief in the sect! How exciting.
After taking over the sect, my days had been filled with following the same routine like a soldier in training. Train in the morning, mentality training during lunch, review what I learned in the evening, make love to Seon-go or take a bath in the remaining time and then relax and sleep.
Although I was having a good time, there was a lack of thrill and satisfaction that could fill my heart in this comfortable pleasure. Whenever I reached a certain point and asked myself ‘Isn’t this enough?’, a passionate reply of ‘This is not enough’ would always come back.
It was not enough.
I couldn’t be satisfied with this small amount of happiness.
If one was a man, they should pursue greater power and authority and wish for even more people to look up to him. I wanted to flaunt my authority a bit more, and pursue greater strength.
To me, a thief who had tried to steal from the sect’s storage, was a welcome guest.
Even if I were to just split the thief’s head, I could have a more fun and exciting day than usual.
I put on a happy smile, kicked the door open with my foot, and shouted,
“You’ve been caught red-handed!”
“…Oh my, I’ve been caught.”
The doors of the storage were destroyed, and sunlight seeped in.
Sanyeo was crouched in the middle of the storage and the vase that had been in front of her was smashed. It was the vase that she had said was a relic from the Qin dynasty or something, and the vase whose worth she couldn’t even tell was now in pieces, as if it would be just perfect to be used when flying kites.
I blinked, silently grasping the situation for a moment, and then Sanyeo said in a calm tone,
“…I just touched it since I wanted to take a look.”
“If you’re a martial arts expert, even if a vase is about to fall, wouldn’t you… like catch it with a flick of your hand? You know, like catching the vase on the back of your foot and placing it back down without it breaking.”
I said while recalling the cartoon that I had seen as a child. It was a scene where a martial arts master used his toes to catch the vase without it breaking, and that graceful movement had still lingered in my memories.
“…I can do something like that too.”
Sanyeo said while raising her body. The pieces of the vase were in her hand.
“Because I’ve been using my feet so much lately when training, I put a little too much strength habitually…”
Sanyeo was muttering excuses that were not really excuses, as she began putting the vase pieces back together.
Simply put, she had touched the vase while wearing shackles to take a look at it, and the vase had fallen off when it had hit her shackles, and since it was hard for her to hold the vase with her shackled hands, Sanyeo had tried to use her feet like she usually did to catch it, and because she had been kicking so much lately, she unconsciously put too much strength into it and kicked the vase, smashing it.
“Wow, masters are indeed different. You’ve smashed it artistically.”
The only fortunate thing was that the vase pieces that she had kicked were neat and big so that they seemed to be easy to reattach. As I saw her putting the vase back together, it looked like puzzle pieces that had been broken apart that way from the start.
“Do you want any help?”
“…It’s fine.”
Sanyeo shook her head and picked up a vase piece. I watched her for a moment, and then pushed the door of the storage that I had smashed by kicking it, closed. Sanyeo made a puzzled expression while saying,
“What are you doing? You can just leave it.”
“My master’s transgression is my transgression. You idiot, when would you be done piecing it together with your shackled hands?”
Sanyeo was just looking down at me with the vase piece in her hands and didn’t say anything. Sometimes she would stare silently at me, as if she was a sculpture or a bird. While looking silently at me, she would suddenly nod as if she had understood something and would start to smile.
“That’s right. You’re my disciple after all.”
Just like now.
I had become used to her strange reactions, so I just smiled and nodded.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“But is it really okay for us to keep on living like this?”
Just like that, two weeks had passed. After I had finished my training as per my routine, and while I was wiping off the sweat on my forehead, I suddenly felt this thought come to me.
‘But what should I do now?’
‘I’ve been too relaxed lately, is it really okay to stay like this?’
“Why, are you feeling impatient? If you rush, then you won’t be able to achieve anything.”
Sanyeo said that with a calm expression, but I was still feeling uneasy at her words. After taking over the sect, it had been more than a month where we were just repeating our training without any goal.
It was good that I was training to become stronger. But it was better if I was to decide my next target, wasn’t it? My goal was to become the strongest in the world, and Sanyeo’s goal was to overturn the martial world using me.
Since the two of our goals were the same, didn’t I have the right to know the next step of our revenge?
“It’s not that I’m impatient, it’s more like my goals are becoming more vague. Just living here comfortably… it makes one too lax. One needs some tension in life, you know.
“Don’t worry too much, Do-cheol. Soon, they’ll come to us even if we don’t do anything.”
“Come to us?”
I had a bewildered look on my face. What was coming? We had already taken the leader of the Hongryun Sect and killed him.
“Are you saying that the army of the Martial Alliance is coming?”
“Ahahaha!”
Sanyeo started laughing loudly while covering her mouth at my question. Seon-go, who had come to watch, and the servants were all looking at her with bewildered expressions at the cheerful laughter. I felt like I had said something funny and awkwardly rubbed my ax, and Sanyeo managed to suppress her laughter and shook her head, saying,
“That’s not a bad idea, but it’s on too big a scale. Although the Hongryun Sect belongs to the Orthodox Sects and is under the Martial Alliance, it’s not a big enough issue for them to dispatch an army. The sect is not that large either. Although the death of the leader was unfortunate, you’re still married to his daughter, and you have the right to inherit the sect. And you haven’t done anything evil or openly supported the Demonic Sects either, so they wouldn’t openly attack us.”
“Still, are you saying that there will be push back from the Martial Alliance?”
“It’s not exactly that the Martial Alliance will push back against us, it’s more like someone who is doing evil under the name of the Martial Alliance in this region will try to push back.”
The Martial Alliance pushing back directly and someone working under them pushing back, were entirely different matters.
“Do-cheol. We’re not important enough for the Martial Alliance to even bother.”
“That hurts my pride.”
“Still, it’s a relief. Because a situation that we can handle will start to arise.”
I tried to recall what I knew. The leader of the Hongryun Sect had said that he was taking orders from someone called Master Gold Fortune. And he had also said that he went to see Master Gold Fortune at the very end.
It was probable that even the Hongryun Sect was a part of Master Gold Fortune’s plans. I asked Seon-go,
“Seon-go. Who is this Master Gold Fortune?”
Seon-go raised her head and furrowed her brows before recalling her memories.
“He’s apparently someone who is cultivating near Mount Jongnam, and I don’t think he was a martial artist. But I heard he has strong martial artists under him and he has connections all over the sects in the region, so he’s very influential.”
So he was a local influential figure. Sanyeo nodded at Seon-go’s words and added,
“He was a merchant, and he was someone who expanded his power in the martial world by lending money to the sects and taking interest. It was like, when he got older, he wanted to… act like the owner of a sect himself? So, he tried to build a sect under his name, and even tried to devour some small sects.”
Sanyeo paused after saying that. And then she narrowed her eyes and smiled. Unlike before, this smile felt awkward, as if it was being forced.
“Sanyeo Valley was also one of the places that Master Gold Fortune wanted to build his sect. So, he cooperated with the Martial Alliance and contributed to its destruction.”
Sanyeo didn’t explain any further.
But just with what she had said, I could tell that Master Gold Fortune was our next target.
He was rich and had committed many sins.
He was a person who was well suited for my ax.
Seon-go awkwardly looked at us and shrugged. I put my arm around her shoulder and said,
“So, how do you think that Master Gold Fortune is going to mess with us?”
Sanyeo said,
“I think that…”
“Leader! Leader! There’s someone outside!”
And a servant rushed in, cutting Sanyeo off. He was sweating profusely and looked very frantic. I asked,
“What is it?”
“Th, the Martial Al, Alliance has sent an i-investigator…! Wh, what should we do?!”
And a loud woman’s voice echoed from the gates, as if she didn’t have any time for the servant’s questions.
“The new leader of the Hongryun Sect, open these doors right now! Because of the serious corruption of the Hongryun Sect, I, the Kirin of the Hengsan Sect (恒山派), Im Seo-ryeon, has come to investigate this sect under the name of the Martial Alliance!”
“…Where is the Hengsan Sect?”
Sanyeo said,
“There’s that sect where they only take women.”
“Oh.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Thanks vine! you sandy fucker