Chapter 168 - No Anger for the Extraordinary

“I forgot!” Seo Daeryong cried. He had completely forgotten about the pouch of stratagems his master had given him.

“How could I forget about this?”

“That must be why he gave it to me instead of you.”

“Ah! I’m saved. Finally, I’m saved!”

“Are you sure? You might otherwise have simply lost without much trouble. Opening this pouch could make you push yourself too far and get you killed.”

Seo Daeryong flinched.

“Are you using my tactic of imagining the worst-case scenario to take the wind out of my sails?”

“No. This time, I’m talking about a genuinely plausible possibility. Do you still want to open it?”

“I have to see it. Win or lose, this is the first stratagem Master has left for my sake. I have to see it.”

I opened the pouch. Inside was a rolled-up sheet of paper.

I handed it to Seo Daeryong. He took a deep breath, then slowly unrolled it and began to read.

What he saw astonished him. Before he had even finished reading, he handed it back to me, trembling.

“L-look at th-this!”

Written on it was the mnemonic formula for a saber technique: the first form of the Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s exclusive art, the Heaven-Destroying Demonic Saber Forms. Not the formula for the entire art—only its first form.

[... Though this is only the first of the nine Heaven-Destroying Demonic Saber Forms, it will prove a great help in a fight between promising young martial artists. For anything you do not understand, follow the Second Young Master’s instruction. He will also teach you how to conceal that this is my martial art.]

Seo Daeryong looked half dazed.

“What’s wrong?”

“The Heaven-Destroying Demonic Saber Forms are only passed down to his official successor.”

“Naturally.”

“Then why aren’t you surprised, Pavilion Master?”

“Why should I be?”

“It means he thinks of me not merely as his disciple, but as his successor.”

Seo Daeryong’s voice trembled. I had never seen him tremble so much since we first met.

“Isn’t that only natural?”

“Natural? Master sees me as the next Blood Heaven Saber Demon, and you think that’s natural?”

“Which of his other disciples has what it takes to become a Demon Supreme?”

Seo Daeryong was so overwhelmed that he didn’t know what to do.

In truth, this was also the first time I had learned that the Blood Heaven Saber Demon considered him his successor. I had expected it, but he had made his decision sooner than I’d thought. That was how much he liked Seo Daeryong.

“But he’s passing down such an important martial art on a scrap of paper?”

“That’s why he gave it to me. I wouldn’t lose it.”

Even if it was only a portion, he had effectively shared the formula for his exclusive martial art with me as well. It was a clear demonstration of just how much the Blood Heaven Saber Demon trusted me.

“Ahhh!”

Overcome with emotion, Seo Daeryong paced back and forth, unable to collect himself.

Then I showed him the bottom of the sheet.

“Did you read this part too?”

“Which part?”

A separate line had been added after the formula.

[If you lose, I will kill you myself.]

“Gah!”

Seo Daeryong recoiled in alarm.

I, on the other hand, burst out laughing. Of course. With the Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s temperament, there was no way he wouldn’t leave a remark like that.

“Ah! These words look especially dark, as if he pressed down hard when he wrote them. Surely he wouldn’t... actually kill me for losing?”

There was no way I would let such a fine chance to tease him slip by.

“Are you sure? You fight a promising young martial artist using his art—and lose? Would that stubborn pride of his let it slide?”

“Ah, he really might kill me.”

Seo Daeryong clutched his head.

“Even if he spares you for my sake, you’ll be in for hellish training for a while.”

“It’ll be hellish training for the rest of my life. Pavilion Master! I absolutely have to win! Please help me win!”

“Calm down. If you accidentally injure or kill Miss Jin in your excitement, the Martial Alliance Leader will kill you. In that case, you really will die.”

He already knew my identity and Seo Daeryong’s, so we absolutely could not injure Miss Jin. The only reason he had allowed us to come this far, all the way to the final, was our shared goal of eliminating the Heavenly Mandate Society.

“Pavilion Master! Please help me win without hurting Miss Jin! I must win using the first Heaven-Destroying Demonic Saber Form, but make it look nothing like Master’s art to anyone watching.”

“You do realize how impossible a request that is?”

“I wouldn’t ask anyone but you.”

Five days remained until the final.

Fortunately, the first form didn’t seem all that difficult, and someone as clever as Seo Daeryong had a fair chance of learning it. We weren’t aiming for complete mastery, after all. Our goal was to use the move’s profound subtleties to defeat Jin Haryeong. One move was all we needed.

“When my right-hand man asks a favor, I have to oblige. Let’s go!”

We headed straight up to the mountain training ground. We paid no mind to Jin Haryeong, the alliance leader, or the Heavenly Mandate Society.

I actually thought this would keep the Society from suspecting us. Who would imagine that people disappearing to train before the final were plotting something? They would think us nothing more than earnest martial artists fresh from the countryside.

We devoted ourselves purely to the tournament, and I believed that was, in fact, the best way to get closer to the Heavenly Mandate Society.

Several days passed, and the eve of the final arrived.

The Orthodox Martial Alliance was positively festive on the eve of the decisive match. Its surroundings teemed with martial artists from across the Central Plains. Many merchants had come to sell them goods, while others demonstrated martial arts in the streets to publicize their sects’ techniques.

Swindlers pounced on newcomers to Murim, and thieves eyeing money pouches abounded.

The Orthodox Martial Alliance deployed martial artists from several elite organizations, including the Azure Dragon Corps, to patrol and prevent untoward incidents.

Amid the bustle, Jin Haryeong entered the inn with her bamboo hat pulled low. When she asked the innkeeper about Geom Yeon, she learned that he and his young master had been absent for days.

‘Where on earth has he gone?’

She wanted to see Geom Yeon before the final. She wanted to joke with him: Should I go easy on your young master or not? She had really wanted to make that joke.

She was also curious how she would feel if he begged her to go easy on him. At present, she had no intention whatsoever of doing so. Would she waver even a little?

Disappointed, she left the inn. Now she would have to change the joke. After winning, she would tell him:

If you’d come and asked me beforehand, I would have gone easy on him. Where on earth did you go, my friend?

* * *

At last, the day of the final dawned.

An enormous crowd gathered, and, as befitted a final, all the important figures were present.

The seats filled with the Martial Alliance Leader, who had hosted the tournament, the heads of the Alliance’s organizations, and renowned Murim elders from across the Central Plains.

Seo Daeryong was unquestionably the talk of the tournament. All attention focused on whether he, a man from a small sect, could make history.

Especially since his opponent was Jin Haryeong, the Martial Alliance Leader’s granddaughter. The moment he defeated her, he would become a true hero.

Of course, far more people predicted Jin Haryeong’s victory than his.

At the referee’s introduction, Seo Daeryong stepped onto the platform first.

Even the look in his eyes was different from his previous matches.

For the past five days, he had burned himself out with effort. Never in his life had he worked so hard at anything, and he never would again. Even if he lost, he would have no regrets. No, wait. He couldn’t lose. The mere thought of a lifetime of hellish training was terrifying.

Cheers chanting his name erupted from every direction. Seo Daeryong closed his eyes for a moment and savored it. This was a gift life had given him. Once this affair was over and he returned, he might spend the rest of his life in the Divine Cult of the Heavenly Demon as an investigator of Yellow Springs Pavilion. The final match of the Young Dragon Tournament—this moment would never come again.

Seo Daeryong looked back at Geom Mugeuk below the platform.

Standing with his arms folded, Geom Mugeuk had been looking up at the platform. He nodded at him, and Seo Daeryong nodded back. That was all the understanding they needed before the match.

The referee introduced Jin Haryeong next. Cheers even louder than those for Seo Daeryong erupted.

Standing on the platform, she looked past Seo Daeryong toward Geom Mugeuk.

He was watching them both with an impassive gaze. She didn’t know why she felt this way, but at this very moment, Geom Mugeuk seemed like someone else. Someone who was neither a servant nor a friend.

“Now, let the final match begin!”

At the referee’s cry, the match began amid cheers that shook heaven and earth.

Seo Daeryong moved first. His saber cut swiftly through the air.

He had only one chance to win. He had practiced over and over for that single chance. Until he created it, he absolutely could not let her defeat him.

Seo Daeryong pressed her fiercely, but Jin Haryeong blocked his attacks with ease. Her martial skill was clearly superior.

His one consolation was that his newly increased internal energy kept him from being overpowered.

The closely fought battle continued.

Gradually, however, the match began to tip in Jin Haryeong’s favor.

Seo Daeryong’s attacks grew slower, while her sword grew ever faster. He had to exert every ounce of strength to block her attacks.

Only his hard work and talent had allowed him to hold out this long. But neither could overcome that unmistakable gap in skill.

Watching him steadily lose ground, the spectators expected the match to end soon. The Martial Alliance Leader, too, watched his granddaughter’s match with an easy mind.

Just as Seo Daeryong was driven to the edge of the platform, the moment arrived.

The distance between them, the positions of her feet and sword, his own feet and body, sword and saber—everything fell into precisely the positions he had been waiting for.

Seo Daeryong did not miss his one chance.

SWISH!

His saber shifted into a variation, unleashing the modified first Heaven-Destroying Demonic Saber Form.

It was the first variation he had used since the match began, and it caught her completely off guard.

Startled, she swung her sword to block it, but they had practiced that response too.

Seo Daeryong’s saber twisted at an uncanny angle, battering her sword repeatedly as it swept toward the fingers gripping it.

At that very moment, the Martial Alliance Leader sprang to his feet!

CLANG!

Jin Haryeong’s sword flew from her grasp, traced an arc through the air, and clattered to the ground. Had she held on, her fingers would have been severed. She had no choice but to relinquish it.

Before she knew it, Seo Daeryong’s saber was pointed at her throat.

Jin Haryeong could not believe what had happened. The final move that had knocked away her sword had been so exquisite that she could do nothing to counter it.

Words she truly did not want to say slipped from her lips.

“... I lost.”

At that moment, the referee declared Seo Daeryong’s victory.

“The champion of the Young Dragon Tournament is Seo Ryong of the Western Saber Sect in Gansu!”

Cheers erupted from all directions. Like a child, Seo Daeryong jumped down from the platform and threw himself into Geom Mugeuk’s arms.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Tears streamed from Seo Daeryong’s eyes. It was the first time Geom Mugeuk had seen him cry. He had seemed like someone who rarely would, yet now he could not hold back his tears.

Though he could never have won without Geom Mugeuk, Seo Daeryong had worked incredibly hard. In other words, it was precisely because he was who he was that Geom Mugeuk’s instruction had borne fruit.

Geom Mugeuk hugged him tightly and whispered,

“Well done.”

From an investigator of Yellow Springs Pavilion, he had become the Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s disciple. Now he had won the tournament that selected the Orthodox Martial Alliance’s promising young martial artists, defeating the Martial Alliance Leader’s granddaughter. His joy was not simply about the championship. He loved this feeling that he had finally set foot on the path of a true martial artist.

“Stop crying and get back onto the platform.”

“Yes.”

Wiping away his tears, Seo Daeryong climbed back up.

Then Geom Mugeuk felt someone watching him. Far away, the Martial Alliance Leader was looking at him. It was a distance over which ordinary experts could never send a sound transmission, but Geom Mugeuk’s message reached the alliance leader clearly.

—My apologies. The friend who came with me was so earnest that I helped him train.

—What was that final technique?

—It is the Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s martial art.

My candid answer astonished the Martial Alliance Leader.

—That was the Saber Demon’s art?

—Yes. My friend is his chief disciple.

I told him deliberately. Knowing Seo Daeryong was no ordinary demonic martial artist would actually quell the Martial Alliance Leader’s anger. Sure enough, he took no further issue with the result.

—Sometimes defeat can be more useful than victory.

Apparently, he had decided that this defeat might do his granddaughter, who had never known defeat, greater good.

—I am deeply impressed by your magnanimity, Alliance Leader.

Geom Mugeuk turned his gaze back to the platform.

Then another moment arrived.

Beyond Seo Daeryong, who was beside himself with joy, someone on the far side caught his eye. It was the woman who had come to congratulate him after every victory.

Then Geom Mugeuk saw it. Her eyes and expression were so impassive they seemed cold. Having only ever seen her smiling shyly, he found that expression utterly unfamiliar.

She practiced loosening her face. She smiled, frowned, then smiled again. Then she looked up at the platform and waved, calling Seo Daeryong’s name.

The instant their eyes met, she beamed. She was a completely different person from the one Geom Mugeuk had seen moments earlier. It was thanks to the New Eye Procedure that he could clearly discern those contrasting expressions even from afar.

‘The Heavenly Mandate Society!’

They had been working on this for some time already.

Perhaps they had approached not only Seo Daeryong, but the other martial artists who reached the main tournament in much the same way.

A woman for someone who liked women, a friend for someone who needed friendship, money for someone who needed money. The Heavenly Mandate Society was indeed no ordinary organization.

At any rate, he had finally succeeded in picking up the Heavenly Mandate Society’s trail!

But his delight was short-lived. Geom Mugeuk looked at Seo Daeryong with sympathy. He was waving at the Society’s woman, smiling broadly.

‘Oh, Daeryong. What am I going to do with you?’

He intended to tell Seo Daeryong nothing until the woman revealed her true colors. His words and actions would be more natural if he knew nothing.

Sorry, Investigator Seo. The more genuinely you like her, the more certain we can be of catching them. There’s no helping it. Let’s grow as much as it hurts!