Chapter 10
Murong Yeon left White Cloud Pavilion and made his way steadily along the corridor. His destination was Cheongun Hall, where Murong Gwak resided.
It was only three inner gates away, a distance an ordinary martial artist could cross in a single breath. To him, it felt impossibly far.
The first threshold was no trouble. But by the time he had passed through the second gate and stepped into a small courtyard, his breathing had turned ragged, his fingertips had gone cold, and a dry cough was clawing its way up his throat.
"Haa..."
He managed a few more steps before he had to stop and brace a hand against the gatepost. Despite warding off the chill with medicinal tea and building up his stamina day after day, his strength was already giving out. It really was a body with an abysmal return on investment.
If I could just eat even one root of a proper spirit elixir, I wouldn't have to suffer like this.
He had no ambition of becoming a great master. If he could only be rid of these wretched Severed Meridians...
As he smacked his lips in longing, his thoughts drifted of their own accord to Wi Hyeokrin, and to the elixir that, in the original story, had revived Hyeokrin like a miracle when his dantian was destroyed and he was cornered.
The Earth-Core Supreme Blood Treasure.
It grew in a mountain valley where steam seeped from the cracks in the rocks, hot springs bubbled, and the reek of sulfur hung thick in the air. Deep within, amid geothermal heat where lava seethed, a spirit herb had grown by feeding on supreme yang energy.
Hyeokrin had plunged off a sheer cliff and barely escaped with his life, and down there he had found a luminous herb that looked as though it were beaded with blood. That was the Earth-Core Supreme Blood Treasure.
The legendary elixir mended shattered dantians and added a hundred and twenty years' worth of internal energy. It had turned Hyeokrin, then a mere Peak martial artist, into a Transcendent Peak.
And that wasn't all. Wounds closed, scars vanished, and twisted joints were set straight. His already striking looks became even more dazzling.
"...Looks don't matter."
What mattered, to Yeon, was that the herb held such extreme yang energy. That scalding force would flow through not only his frozen Eight Meridians but also the tiniest vessels throughout his body, breaking through every blockage.
Still, it already has an owner.
Yeon swallowed a sigh. It would be easy enough to rationalize that the herb suited him better, a man plagued by yin energy all his life, than Hyeokrin, who had suffered so badly trying to tame all that supreme yang qi.
Even so, quietly stealing what was meant for someone else weighed on his conscience.
Wait. Why not just nip the problem in the bud?
The reason Hyeokrin needed the Earth-Core Supreme Blood Treasure was the destruction of his dantian. So all Yeon had to do was prevent that tragedy.
If Hyeokrin got through it safely, Yeon would raise the Character Narrative Depth and neatly pay off a plot thread!
His spirits restored, Yeon started walking again. Before long, a courtyard came into view, without a single tree. Instead, swords hung in rows along the walls of the buildings, because Murong Gwak used the yard as his training ground.
Having only ever read about Cheongun Hall, Yeon found it far more martial in atmosphere than he had imagined. He took in his surroundings with fresh eyes, then crossed the yard and stopped before the door to the inner chamber.
"Uncle, are you in?"
"Hm? Yeon? Come in, come in!"
Knowing how Gwak could never sit still, Yeon had worried he'd be out, but a voice rang out from within. Relieved, Yeon opened the door and stepped inside, then stopped short at the unexpected sight. Murong Gwak and Murong Seoran sat facing each other across a table.
"Sit here," said Seoran, setting down her cup and nodding at the seat beside her.
"What brings you to seek me out? Hah... no, wait. I think this is the first time. Isn't it?"
Gwak watched Yeon sit, overcome with emotion, and began to make a fuss.
"Clan Head, I'm right, aren't I? We ought to commemorate this day for years to come...!"
"Captain Gwak, don't make a spectacle of yourself."
Even under her sharp rebuke, he couldn't stop grinning like a fool.
"Really, why must you be so stiff, Sister? Aha, is that it? Are you jealous that Yeon came to see me instead of you? Heh heh."
Yeon laughed in spite of himself.
Right. That's what he was like.
For a man of his talent and standing, Gwak was far too unpretentious. Put kindly, he was free of airs. Put bluntly, he was a goof.
He was also a man with the largeness of spirit to judge himself unfit to be clan head and yield the seat to Seoran.
"Here, try this tea. It's Dongting Biluochun, which I brought back from the Martial Alliance. The Alliance Leader's favorite."
Gwak refilled a cup with a flourish and spoke proudly.
"Don't tell me you took it without asking?"
"Tsk, what do you take me for? I asked first!"
True enough, the Alliance Leader and Gwak were bosom friends. That was how a man of such free-spirited nature had ended up shouldering the Martial Alliance's business as well.
"But really, what brings you all the way here? It's quite a distance. Aren't you worn out? If you'd sent word, I would have come to you."
"I thought I'd take a stroll."
As if that were something to be deeply moved by, Gwak's face melted into mush.
"Clan Head, look at this. Hngh... Our Yeon thinks of me this much."
A man of such massive frame, on the verge of tears, was by no stretch of the imagination a pretty sight. Even Seoran, composed in all things, turned her face away from her younger brother.
"Then I'll take my leave. You two talk."
She had hardly seen her son in ages and surely could have stayed a little longer, yet she rose to leave at once. Yeon hurried to stop her.
"No, Mother. There is something I'd like to discuss with both of you."
Seoran's gaze sharpened, turning serious at once. Gwak, too, waited with a curious look for Yeon to speak.
"It concerns my attendant."
Yeon calmly laid out how Jang Punghyeop had picked a fight with Hyeokrin and tried to beat him with a wooden sword under the pretext of family discipline. Gwak's brows drew together at once.
"A-rin doesn't carry a weapon outside of training, does he?"
"That's right."
"Swinging a sword at an unarmed opponent. Punghyeop was thoroughly in the wrong."
"Which is why I intend to hold him accountable."
"Hm? Not punish him on the spot?"
"I don't want it to end that simply, so I came to consult you, Uncle."
At that, a gleam lit Gwak's eyes, the look of a man thinking, Well, well, what have we here? Then again, it wasn't in Yeon's nature to settle for a simple reprimand.
"Hm, then what punishment would you like him to receive?"
"Before I decide, I'd like to hear both your opinions."
Gwak studied his nephew's pale, coy face. The boy so clearly wanted something and was feigning innocence. He dangled a little bait.
"Do you want the two of them to spar, with A-rin winning fair and square?"
Gwak also knew full well that Yeon, surprisingly, looked after Hyeokrin. In truth, that was the very reason he had arranged today's meeting with Seoran.
There was a limit to how long he could keep coaching Hyeokrin on the side, with the boy improving by the day. It was time to let him train properly. But Gwak had been agonizing over whether Yeon would allow it.
Now that he saw how things stood, his worry had been for nothing.
"Good. Then I'll set the date myself."
"One moment."
Seoran, who had been listening quietly, cut in. When both men's eyes turned to her, she spoke calmly.
"Is all you want for your attendant simply to defeat Punghyeop in a sparring match?"
It was a different sort of question from Gwak's.
"No. I want the other disciples to see for themselves what he is capable of."
Realizing that Yeon's thinking matched his own, Gwak smiled warmly.
"Then why not hold a Martial Tournament?"
"A tournament?"
"Yes. We hold one to gauge the skill of the West Dormitory disciples, and also when the elders select their direct disciples. It's about time we held one. Enter him in it."
"That's a good idea."
Yeon nodded. As Gwak said, the family held Martial Tournaments at irregular intervals. The original story had featured two such tournaments as well.
At the first, Hyeokrin had been kept out by the sabotage of Jo Muryang and Punghyeop. Three years later, given another chance, he had finally shown what he could do and, astonishingly, earned a place in the Jinseong Squad.
And that had turned out to be poison instead.
Punghyeop had become the Third Elder's disciple but never distinguished himself, and in the end he had conspired with Muryang to frame Hyeokrin and drive him out of the clan.
If it's now, I can stop it.
Muryang, once grown, would be even more devious, and Punghyeop would have the Third Elder's faction at his back. But for now both were still children, and easy to deal with.
"Then please name Punghyeop as his first opponent."
"Ha, that's nothing!"
Gwak agreed readily.
"Then the tournament will be held in fifteen days."
The moment Seoran fixed the date, as if it had been waiting for its cue, a system window appeared.
[Main Story Quest Issued!
Have Wi Hyeokrin defeat Jang Punghyeop at the tournament and prove his worth.
Upon success: Story Plausibility Level +3, Character Narrative Depth +10, Foreshadowing Payoff Rate +10
Upon failure: Story Plausibility Level, Character Narrative Depth, and Foreshadowing Payoff Rate will each drop by 30.
Time limit: 360 hours (15 days)]
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