Chapter 636: Thanks, You Bastard

CLANG CLANG CLANG!

The clash of bladesmen was ferocious. Blood sprayed every time their blade qi grazed flesh, and their heavy stomps shattered the floor of the duel stage. Stone dust burst up on all sides and scattered in every direction.

The fight looked nothing like a simple contest between prodigies to see whose martial arts were superior. Rather, it was so savage and brutal that it could easily have passed for a life-or-death battle.

“They look ready to tear each other apart...”

“Their mastery of the blade is astonishing, but their fearlessness toward injury is even more so. That isn’t something you normally see from prodigies their age.”

“Shouldn’t someone stop them? At this rate, one of them is going to get badly hurt.”

Even the spectators looked sickened as they watched Hyonwon Kang and Peng Sahyuk fight without holding back.

Only masters could watch the two boys duel with a cool head. Among them, the elders familiar with the long-standing rivalry between the two clans nodded gravely.

“Considering the history between the Hebei Peng Clan and the Hyonwon Clan, it’s easy to see why they’re fighting like that,” the Sword Sage remarked, his eyes filled with pity.

“Fate is a strange thing indeed. Two clans that once visited each other often and shared a close friendship became sworn enemies overnight. Following that, one of the clans was destroyed in a bloody massacre, and old grudges have piled up for generations since...” the Supreme Buddha murmured, his expression solemn.

With Ilgak’s defeat, all of the Nine Sects’ prodigies had been eliminated from the Dragon and Phoenix Tournament, but neither of the two peerless masters looked the least bit upset. In fact, they calmly accepted the result and watched the remaining duels with interest.

After all, they agreed wholeheartedly on one point.

The Nine Sects deserved to lose.

The Nine Sects, which had conducted themselves as though they owned the entire murim, had laid their own shortcomings bare throughout this Heavenly Martial Festival. Of course, this did not mean that their disciples lacked skill. Rather, the festival exposed the Nine Sects’ arrogance, selfishness, and complacency to the world. While there were variations in severity, the difference among them was merely a question of magnitude.

The Sword Sage clicked his tongue. “They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. If the elders of the Nine Sects cannot set a good example, what message are they sending to the younger generations?”

Several Sect Leaders bowed their heads in shame and murmured Taoist invocations.

The Supreme Buddha regarded them with a benevolent smile. “There is nothing wrong with being ashamed of your actions. Does it not mean that we have realized how arrogant we were and that we must change? Even better, we have people worth learning from right beside us.”

His gaze turned toward the Azure Dragon Academy.

How hard must those children have trained?

Each time the Supreme Buddha watched them fight with all they had in the tournament, he could glimpse all the sweat they had shed over the past year.

“The Nine Sects should be grateful to the Azure Dragon Academy and the Azure Dragon Hero for showing us the right path when we were on the brink of losing our way due to our arrogance.”

“Indeed, Venerable.”

The Sword Sage and the Supreme Buddha—the two pillars who held the Nine Sects together—had said the same thing. Their words were akin to admitting the Nine Sects’ defeat and ceding command in the coming war to the Azure Dragon Hero.

No one objected. The defeat was undeniable, and every sect leader accepted the outcome.

After confirming this, the two giants of the orthodox murim expressed their concern about the coming age of chaos.

“Venerable, seeing so many exceptional prodigies this year, it seems an age of chaos is upon us.”

“Amitabha. I can only pray the sacrifices will not be too great...”

Little did they know, war was far closer than they imagined.

Of all the people in the stands, one man watched the duel more anxiously than anyone else.

“Kang...”

Hyonwon Su, Patriarch of the Hyonwon Clan, grimaced in anguish as his son’s injuries worsened. His wife and daughter sat beside him with their eyes squeezed shut and their hands clasped in prayer, unable to stomach the sight.

Hyonwon Su had always blamed himself for his son’s plight. The boy was born with remarkable talent, but he couldn’t teach him proper martial arts.

He felt like a worthless father who was holding his son back. Because of this, even when the boy misbehaved, he never once properly scolded or disciplined Hyonwon Kang.

When did you become such a magnificent martial artist? I’m so proud of you, son.

As he watched his son fight through tears, someone spoke to him.

“Mind if I sit next to you for a moment?”

Hyonwon Su scowled at the large shadow looming over him. “What brings you here?” he asked sharply, glaring at the Patriarch of the Hebei Peng Clan, the man who treated the Hyonwon Clan as if it were one of his own branch families.

The Hebei Peng Clan Patriarch replied expressionlessly, “If you’d rather I didn’t, I’ll leave.”

“...Have a seat.”

The two patriarchs sat side by side, watching their sons duel.

Six years ago, Hyonwon Su had knelt before this man and begged for forgiveness.

“I’m sorry. I am so sorry. Please forgive us, just this once. My son did it ignorantly.”

He did not regret what he had done that day. Even so, he would never forget it for as long as he lived.

Fallen clan or not, he was still the head of a murim clan and a martial artist. More importantly, he was a father.

Nevertheless, on that day, the Hebei Peng Clan Patriarch was an absolute ruler, holding the power of life and death over them. He had been reduced to a beggar, pleading for mercy.

The Peng Clan Patriarch stared at the stage for a while before slowly opening his mouth. “The Hebei Peng Clan supported the Hyonwon Clan after the bloody massacre which devastated it. We sent warriors to protect you and provided the funds to rebuild. Without my family, the Hyonwon Clan’s lineage would have ended.”

“And didn’t you receive plenty in return? You trampled on my family’s honor, stole the praise of the jianghu, and gained one more ‘branch family’ to carry out your menial chores.”

The Hyonwon Clan had recently begun to make a name for itself again. Until recently, however, it was treated as little more than a branch family of the Hebei Peng Clan. Its martial artists were sent to handle the trivial and messy jobs that the Hebei Peng Clan could not be bothered with, and this was accepted as perfectly natural. The two men had lived through an era when that was simply how things were.

“I suppose that isn’t wrong either,” the Peng Clan Patriarch admitted with a calm nod.

Hyonwon Su blinked in surprise. He had fully expected the man to lose his temper or call him ungrateful. Strangely enough, though, the Peng Clan Patriarch looked almost repentant.

“My son told me something,” the Peng Clan Patriarch said. “He said he would manage the clan’s affairs himself from now on, so I should stop burdening him with the grudges of the previous generation. He may be my son, but he is an impertinent little bastard.”

Hyonwon Su snorted. “Peng Sahyuk definitely takes after you. No, the young Peng Jingun was much worse.”

The Hebei Peng Clan Patriarch, Peng Jingun, let out a small laugh. Just like their sons, he and Hyonwon Su were the same age. He had attended the Heavenly Martial Academy, but Hyonwon Su could not afford to attend an academy. Still, they had come of age at the same time, so their paths as martial artists often crossed.

Back then, Hyonwon Su had always looked at him with envy. And every now and then, he would stare back at Hyonwon Su with a peculiar expression.

“What the hell? How am I worse than Sahyuk?”

“Have you no self-awareness? I’ve seen you get involved in some seriously crazy shenanigans more than a few times. Do you remember getting into a fistfight with the current Namgung Patriarch at your eighteenth birthday party?”

“I won that bout.”

“You both claimed you won back then, too.”

The two patriarchs talked without so much as glancing at each other. Their eyes stayed fixed on their sons, who were trading blows on the duel stage.

After a moment of silence, the Peng Clan Patriarch spoke again. “If only I had two children, I could have thrown that brat out and restored the clan’s dignity. Unfortunately, it’s probably too late for that now.”

“It’s not too late to think about adopting another kid. With a personality like that, he’ll drag your clan through the mud.”

“Before you criticize someone else’s son, I suggest you take a good, hard look at your own.”

“My Kang is a good boy at heart.”

“Once upon a time, I believed that about mine, too.”

Neither man cracked a smile, but the people around them could tell their tones had softened.

This time, Hyonwon Su blurted out, “If not for the bad blood between our forefathers... Who knows? Maybe we could have been friends.”

“......” The Peng Clan Patriarch smiled bitterly.

Theirs was a relationship distorted by generations of family feuds. Neither had ever wronged the other, yet from the beginning, they were never equals. The elders of their clans and the atmosphere surrounding them had seen to that.