Chapter 206: What I Learned

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader could barely keep the grin off his face.

“So Sword Demon, that old monster, still hasn’t woken up. I suppose the shock hit him hard.”

After the confrontation interrogation at the Martial Alliance ended and he returned to the sect, the Skybreaker Gate sect leader summoned Yang Seonu for a private conversation.

The way he looked at Yang Seonu, it was as though honey might drip from his eyes.

“This is all thanks to you, Elder Yang. Your testimony was decisive.”

“I merely stated the facts honestly.”

Even that humble answer brought a pleased smile to the Skybreaker Gate sect leader’s lips.

“Do you think I do not know how difficult that honesty must have been? No matter what a terrible criminal he became, he was still once the man you called Master.”

“...”

Yang Seonu lowered his head and gave a bitter smile, as though he still felt sorry for Choi Geon.

Seeing that, the Skybreaker Gate sect leader clicked his tongue softly.

“Tsk, tsk. Do you still have feelings for that man?”

“I apologize. He raised me like his own child... If only he had not strayed from the righteous path and become drunk on murder...”

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader snorted as Yang Seonu lowered his head and trailed off.

“There is only one thing I regret. If Sword Demon had attacked you right then and there, we would not have needed any more of those troublesome confrontation interrogations.”

A faint killing intent glimmered in the Skybreaker Gate sect leader’s eyes as he muttered in a low voice.

It was far too naked a killing intent for the sect leader of one of the Eight Great Sects—the very pillars of the orthodox martial world.

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader smacked his lips, lamenting the missed opportunity.

“We could have executed him on the spot, but one brat ruined everything.”

His face twisted as he recalled Kim Muhyuk.

A young rising star barely twenty years old, who had publicly declared himself the head of Blue Wolves, the newly formed organization everyone had been talking about.

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader still believed Sword Demon was Blue Wolves’ true power behind the scenes, but Kim Muhyuk’s skill had unquestionably shocked him.

“...He must be an assassin Sword Demon raised with vengeance in his heart, just to take revenge on us. If we had never learned his identity, he might have gone on to assassinate the leaders of the Eight Great Sects one by one.”

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader harbored a deep grudge and a profound sense of victimhood toward Choi Geon.

Those feelings had begun long ago, when his cousin had been brutally killed by Sword Demon.

GRIND.

“A mere Martial Alliance watchdog...”

When he learned that Sword Demon had returned, part of him had even thought it was for the best.

At last, he had an opportunity to avenge his cousin’s supposedly unjust death.

“After piling up that many sins, he deserves to pay the price. Did he think he could crawl back out after all this time and everything would be fine?”

Yang Seonu, who had silently listened to the Skybreaker Gate sect leader’s angry words, spoke cautiously.

“I will investigate Blue Wolves more thoroughly. I know my master’s methods better than anyone. I should be able to find evidence of their illegal acts soon enough.”

At that moment, Yang Seonu—the foremost disciple of Sword Demon—was worth an army to the Skybreaker Gate sect leader.

“Ha ha ha! That is reassuring to hear. This is exactly why I like you, Elder Yang!”

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader laughed with satisfaction and patted Yang Seonu on the shoulder.

When Yang Seonu had come to Skybreaker Gate on his own after Sword Demon was expelled, the sect leader had suspected his intentions.

But over the past twenty years, Yang Seonu had proven both his usefulness and his competence.

Now, he had become a trusted confidant to whom the Skybreaker Gate sect leader could reveal his darkest thoughts.

“Elder Yang.”

“Speak, Sect Leader.”

When the Skybreaker Gate sect leader called him in a low, suggestive voice, Yang Seonu bowed his head.

“The vice sect leader will not be coming back. The doctors say he has only a few months left.”

“What a shame...”

For several years, Skybreaker Gate’s vice sect leader had been wasting away from an unknown illness.

They had searched everywhere for the cause, but even the hospitals could not identify it. Recently, he had been confined to his home, barely holding on.

“It is unfortunate. But we cannot leave the position vacant forever, can we?”

With the vice sect leader absent, the Skybreaker Gate sect leader had begun relying more heavily on Yang Seonu.

Recently, he had even entrusted him with some of the vice sect leader’s duties.

“Be patient a little longer, and a great opportunity will come to you. When the time comes, I will throw my weight behind you.”

Yang Seonu lifted his head, his expression filled with emotion, and offered a clasped-hands martial salute.

“Give me any task, and I will serve you with all my loyalty!”

“Just keep doing what you have been doing, Vice Sect Leader Yang.”

“I will never disappoint you!”

“Good. You may go now.”

After withdrawing from the sect leader’s office,

Yang Seonu’s face went blank as a mannequin’s as he made his way back to his own office, as though the emotion that had overwhelmed him moments earlier had all been a lie.

“...”

Once there, he turned on his laptop, checked his work, and handled the paperwork with practiced ease.

Twirling the pen he had picked up from the Martial Alliance between his fingers, he murmured to himself as though humming a tune.

“The vice sect leader is practically taken care of. When would be a good time to kill the sect leader?”

His tone was that of someone deciding on a lunch menu.

He was about to obtain the vice sect leader’s position, which he had worked toward for years, yet he felt nothing in particular.

Over the last twenty years, Yang Seonu had steadily built his career within Skybreaker Gate.

He had chosen Skybreaker Gate because he judged it to be the easiest place to become a sect leader, even if its pedigree was weaker than the others.

And now, he had nearly achieved the outcome he wanted.

“If I move too quickly, people will get suspicious. Five years should do it. I will make it look like an accident, unlike the vice sect leader...”

Yang Seonu decided that, five years from now, he would become Skybreaker Gate’s sect leader.

There were no variables likely to disrupt the process.

He had already taken care of most of them in advance.

Except for one—the master who had suddenly returned and begun shaking everything up.

Master, why did you have to come back? You should have stayed quietly hidden in the darkness where you belong.

Yang Seonu looked down at the pen twirling between his fingers.

It was the very pen Choi Geon had tried to drive into his throat.

Now I have to deal with you with my own hands, Master. Twice, no less. How troublesome.

CRACK.

Yang Seonu snapped the pen in half with ease and tossed it into the trash.

“Would it be better to send you to the World Martial Alliance underground prison instead of killing you? You would probably like it. There would be so many people there for you to kill...”

Yang Seonu was expressionlessly considering which option would be better when his phone rang.

Vrrrrr—

The caller ID was restricted. Yang Seonu deliberately waited a moment before answering.

“This is Yang Seonu speaking.”

[It has been some time. Have you been well, Elder Yang?]

He recognized the voice. A thin smile touched Yang Seonu’s lips.

A sneer.

“So you are alive, Black Swallow. The Martial Alliance has been searching for you with everything they have. Are you still in the country?”

Black Swallow.

That was the name of the chief operative the Heavenly Demon Cult had dispatched to Korea.

Very few people even knew he existed, and most of those people were dead now.

[Thanks to your concern, I have remained unharmed. I know you are tired after appearing as a witness at the confrontation interrogation, but there is something we need to discuss. Could you spare me a moment?]

Black Swallow subtly flaunted the fact that his intelligence network was still not to be underestimated.

But Yang Seonu regarded him as an incompetent fool.

A man who possessed the Heavenly Demon Cult’s enormous power and influence, yet had still failed to swallow the Korean martial world whole.

“Hmm. This is difficult. I have been busy lately, and there is much to do. I will contact you once I have time.”

[...Elder Yang.]

When Yang Seonu remained uncooperative, an edge entered Black Swallow’s voice.

[Are you saying this while knowing that the Cult could put a leash around your neck whenever it wishes?]

An open threat, simply because the conversation was not going his way.

Yang Seonu could not suppress a laugh at the reaction he had expected.

“Pfft... Heh heh heh. You sound desperate. But I think you are taking the wrong approach.”

[...]

Yang Seonu liked that, at least in front of the Heavenly Demon Cult, he did not have to maintain pointless pretenses.

“Your entire plan has failed, and I am the only thread you have left in this country. Are you going to expose me? Go ahead. That is, if you want to prove to the Cult you serve exactly how incompetent you are.”

The breathing on the other end of the line grew rough with anger.

Black Swallow was no trivial opponent, backed as he was by the Heavenly Demon Cult, but repeated failures had put him in a difficult position.

At the moment, Yang Seonu held much better cards.

In the end, Black Swallow could only be at a disadvantage in this negotiation.

[...Tell me what you want.]

“I want to send Sword Demon Choi Geon to the World Martial Alliance underground prison. Can you help me?”

Yang Seonu had concluded that it was a much less risky solution than killing Choi Geon.

[I can pull some strings, provided you have sufficient justification and evidence.]

Ivan Volkov, the investigator, would write the special-audit report, but they had been told that the severity of the punishment could be changed from above.

In other words, the Heavenly Demon Cult had its claws inside the World Martial Alliance as well.

“That will be enough. What does the Cult want?”

[Connect Blue Wolves to Sword Demon and deal with them as well. It would be good if you could send a few of them to the underground prison with him.]

Black Swallow wanted him to frame Blue Wolves as corrupt-path filth and bury them socially.

Since it was a deal that benefited him as well, Yang Seonu did not deliberate long.

“Easy enough. Fine.”

After the two villains concluded their simple negotiation over what they needed from each other,

Black Swallow offered a warning.

[Attacking the investigator was reckless. Because of that incident, the World Martial Alliance has begun watching the Korean martial world closely.]

For the first time during the call, Yang Seonu’s cheerful expression twisted.

“That was not me.”

[...Then who was it?]

“Probably...”

That was when a sudden commotion broke out outside.

WEEEEEE-OOO!

Along with an alarm that rarely ever sounded within Skybreaker Gate, Yang Seonu sensed martial artists hurrying about outside.

“Could Master be...?”

Narrowing his eyes at the door, Yang Seonu spoke into the phone.

“I am ending the call.”

[What is going on? That sounds like an alarm—]

The moment he cut the call, his office door burst open as though someone had smashed it apart.

Yang Seonu instinctively gripped his sword.

“...Hah.”

The atmosphere around this intruder was so similar to Sword Demon’s that, for an instant, Yang Seonu thought Sword Demon himself had come to kill him.

“We met again quickly, didn’t we?”

Kim Muhyuk stood crookedly in the doorway, his weight resting on one leg, having barged into Yang Seonu’s office without so much as asking permission.

Yang Seonu gave a hollow laugh.

“Didn’t the martial artists outside try to stop you?”

“Something urgent must have come up. They were not paying much attention.”

“...”

The emergency alarm still blared loudly outside.

His phone began vibrating again, moments after he had ended the call with Black Swallow.

Yang Seonu did not yet know what had happened, but for now, he focused on Kim Muhyuk standing before him.

“Not much of an office for someone who betrayed the master who raised him for ten years.”

Kim Muhyuk leisurely looked around Yang Seonu’s office as he spoke.

Heh.

The angrier Yang Seonu became, the more he smiled. It was a habit of his.

“What you did, I do not know. But this will put you at a greater disadvantage in the next confrontation interrogation.”

“What a cold welcome. Can’t a junior martial sibling visit the office of his one and only senior martial sibling?”

Kim Muhyuk’s shameless question made Yang Seonu’s smile deepen.

“Of course you can visit. So, what did you come to do for fun?”

“How about proving something?”

“Who Sword Demon’s real disciple is.”

At that moment, a radiant smile spread across Yang Seonu’s face.

“Are you suggesting a spar? To see which of us is the better swordsman?”

At the same time, terrifying killing intent began to seep from his entire body.

One hand moved to his sword hilt, and he turned his body slightly into an opening stance that looked as though it had been reflected directly from Choi Geon in a mirror.

Yang Seonu’s martial arts were far stronger than the world knew.

Everyone who had learned that fact was dead.

“No. Another time.”

But Kim Muhyuk shook his head.

The day would come when he crossed swords with Yang Seonu, but that day was not today.

“What I learned from the martial artist named Choi Geon was not merely martial arts.”

Choi Geon had not passed down all of his martial arts to Kim Muhyuk.

Rather, claiming it would only hinder his disciple from completing his own sword, he had taken it upon himself to guide Kim Muhyuk toward completing the Solitary Life-and-Death Sword.

Therefore, Kim Muhyuk could not call himself Sword Demon’s inheritor in terms of martial arts.

But he had learned something more important.

“The mindset of a heroic swordsman who will punish evil by any means necessary.”

He took pride in the fact that he, and no one else, had inherited that spirit.

Perhaps the madness in Kim Muhyuk’s eyes reminded Yang Seonu of the Sword Demon of old, because his smile trembled faintly.

“...Junior martial sibling. May I ask what you are plotting right now?”

At that moment, the alarm outside grew louder, and an emergency announcement echoed through the building.

[The Black Night Gang is raiding us! All martial artists in the main building, assemble at the front entrance immediately! I repeat: the Black Night Gang is raiding us! All martial artists in the main building—]

A massive clash of qi waves began to roll through the air from outside the building.

Yang Seonu glared at Kim Muhyuk with an expression of total incomprehension.

“What the hell... did you do?”

CRACK.

As his anger reached its limit, Yang Seonu’s false smile broke apart. He glared at Kim Muhyuk with a face twisted like an evil ghost.