Chapter 022. Requiem (9)
“……Castle Lord.”
The first one to react to the Martial Sovereign's appearance was none other than Woo Gi-tae, who was stiffly frozen with his paralysis point suppressed.
His voice was truly filled with a myriad of emotions.
Hatred and anger, regret and remorse, resentment and guilt……. Even the inferiority complex he failed to overcome in the end. Complex emotions that could not be fully expressed.
“Yes, Iron Blood Family Head, it has been quite a while since we faced each other like this.”
To that, the Martial Sovereign responded with an emotionless voice that had no pitch whatsoever.
It was a completely contrary tone to when he praised Dam Jeok-san as excellent.
“You have kept a fine disciple; he resembles the Castle Lord's younger days exactly.”
Woo Gi-tae said while glancing at Dam Jeok-san.
“Resembles this Seat?”
At the Martial Sovereign's rhetorical question, Woo Gi-tae nodded without answering.
The person who stimulated his inferiority complex the most in his youth was none other than Man Su-geuk.
A genius who was called the Divine Dragon and took the position of the number one rising star of the Central Plains, the person closest to the position of the next Castle Lord.
Man Su-geuk had carried such titles one after another since that time.
Woo Gi-tae, who was the Young Family Head of the Iron Blood Woo Clan, steadfastly stayed by his side whenever they went to the battlefield.
He took the lead without refusing even the dirty work, and when danger arose, he fought back before anyone else.
Woo Gi-tae became the Martial Sovereign's close aide like that, and unlike the heads of the other Five Great Families, he succeeded to the family without much difficulty even though he failed to reach the Entering Transformation Realm. Although the relationship between Woo Seo-gwang and Dam Jeok-san was hostile from beginning to end, it resembled that of the previous generation.
So, in Woo Gi-tae's eyes, Dam Jeok-san and the Martial Sovereign were bound to resemble each other.
Thus, Woo Gi-tae knew the despair his son felt better than anyone else.
When the gap he thought could be narrowed with effort became unreachable no matter how much he reached out.
Because people are bound to collapse at that time.
However, even when Woo Seo-gwang was collapsing and breaking down, Woo Gi-tae only suppressed and scolded him.
And he gave help by mobilizing methods that deviated from human principles.
Both as a father and as a martial artist of the Martial Sovereign Castle,
It was a life that was disqualified in every way.
Was that why he wanted to soothe his soul at least at the last moment?
Even Woo Gi-tae himself could hardly guess his own heart.
He just regretted it.
When he purged the elders and offered a very trivial encouragement to Woo Seo-gwang. Woo Seo-gwang's expression brightened noticeably. He thought that perhaps what his son wanted was not a spiritual elixir created by ignoring human principles, but such trivial encouragement.
But it was too late to turn back now.
Because Woo Gi-tae had lived like this all his life.
‘Then I should die like this.’
“I have a request, Castle Lord…… No, Brother.”
He called the Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle. Just like the days when they wandered the Jianghu in the past.
The Martial Sovereign nodded with indifferent eyes as always.
“Please let Gi-hwan, my younger brother, become the new Family Head of the main house.”
“If it is your younger brother, are you talking about the Eccentric Hero?”
The Martial Sovereign asked back as if unexpected.
“That is correct; who else would I have as a younger brother except that guy?”
Eccentric Hero Woo Gi-hwan.
Enraged by the Iron Blood Woo Clan's tyrannical path, he fought greatly with Woo Gi-tae and left the family. And he wandered the world aimlessly, saving civilians suffering from monsters. In fact, his deeds were significant enough to be frequently reported to the information networks of several large organizations, including the Martial Sovereign Castle.
Anyone can spit out plausible words.
Wasn't Woo Gi-tae, who sacrificed civilians while enslaving monsters now, also a figure who once shouted the great will of the Martial Sovereign Castle at the forefront more than anyone else?
However, mimicking life itself is not easy.
The Eccentric Hero's deeds were literally those of a devoted hero itself.
Perhaps if he becomes the Family Head, most of the Iron Blood Woo Clan members involved in this incident will not survive.
‘I see.’
Thinking up to there, the Martial Sovereign could naturally notice Woo Gi-tae's intentions.
He is begging right now to at least maintain the lineage of the family.
That he will put forward someone who will surely punish those responsible for breeding monsters and kidnapping, confining, and massacring civilians as the Family Head, so please let them avoid annihilation.
Normally, the Martial Sovereign would have accepted this proposal. The Iron Blood Woo Clan, one of the Five Great Families of the Martial Sovereign Castle, commands countless forces besides the martial artists belonging to the main house. Therefore, if the Iron Blood Woo Clan disappeared overnight, confusion would be unavoidable. Naturally, the power defending the Demonic Realm itself would weaken.
That was not what the Martial Sovereign wanted.
That was also why he could not easily approach the issue even after recognizing the Iron Blood Woo Clan's monster breeding problem.
However, the Martial Sovereign slowly shook his head.
Just this once, he judged that it was right to hand over the decision-making power to his disciple, not himself.
“Jeok-san.”
The Martial Sovereign looked at his disciple and spoke quietly.
“What punishment do you want this Seat to mete out to the Iron Blood Woo Clan?”
* * *
The moment he heard the Martial Sovereign's question, Dam Jeok-san felt his heart beating fast.
He was acknowledged. By his Master.
However, Dam Jeok-san quickly calmed that excitement.
From the start, he himself has no right to decide the treatment of the Iron Blood Woo Clan.
He sincerely thought so.
Fortunately, the person who Dam Jeok-san thought had that right was here.
He approached the Martial Sovereign without hesitation.
And reached out his hand to the child sitting on his shoulder.
“Did you see?”
“I heard you would tear their limbs apart.”
The girl jumped down lightly and held Dam Jeok-san's hand.
A voice full of playfulness.
However, the girl's expression still mixed unfathomable pain and joy.
She was just enduring it resolutely.
‘You have matured too early.’
Dam Jeok-san thought bitterly.
Of course, he was no different from that child. Not just him. Countless children mature early. It is an era where monsters run rampant. People dying in droves is daily life, and an entire village being annihilated happens frequently.
But that does not mean the weight of the tragedy the girl will experience becomes lighter.
“I will ask just one thing. are you satisfied with the revenge?”
Dam Jeok-san asked while looking straight into the girl's complex eyes.
A gaze that persistently chased every single emotion dwelling in her pupils, as if refusing to tolerate lies.
“You may speak honestly. If your heart is still sore, if the burning desire for revenge has not been extinguished, I will gladly make the choice for you.”
Dam Jeok-san said while lightly placing his hand on the girl's head.
“I don't really know.”
The girl sobbed shallowly and rubbed her chest with her small hand.
“After my parents became like that, here…… it feels like there is a gaping hole.”
Perhaps that hole would be difficult to fill for a lifetime.
The girl was still young and small, but strangely, she could intuitively sense that fact.
“But about the burning desire for revenge, I don't really know.”
She thought very much about wanting to pay back the same pain to those who gave her pain.
But seeing Dam Jeok-san fighting while becoming covered in blood made her heart complicated. The fact that the person who saved her was fighting for her once again became an inexplicable comfort.
When he was in danger, it really felt like her heart stopped. To the point where she didn't think at all about things like revenge or whatever. She just desperately wished for her savior to survive. To the extent of unhesitatingly pleading even to the Martial Sovereign, whom everyone treated with difficulty.
Was it because of that? Now, it felt like her mind was becoming strangely calm. Is this enough for revenge?
She couldn't be sure. But he was hoping.
That she would be satisfied at a reasonable line.
And that she would move forward without clinging to the past.
Looking into that person's eyes, that heart was read entirely.
She cannot forgive the enemy. But she can discard the desire for revenge. If you, who saved me, wish for it.
“I'm fine.”
The girl, Lee Hyang, said. Her voice was not shaking at all.
“……Understood.”
At that moment, Dam Jeok-san realized.
That she had already become an adult.
Although he succeeded in breaking the cycle of revenge and putting her back on the trajectory of life, she had bid farewell to her childhood forever.
It can't be helped. Since it's such a world.
He swallowed the bitterness and looked at the Martial Sovereign.
“Master, I have decided.”
It was the moment when the Third Young Master, who lost his dantian and was ridiculed as trash and abandoned, decided the fate of one of the Five Great Families of the Martial Sovereign Castle.
* * *
The owner of the Martial Sovereign Castle's Northern Branch, Northern Heaven Sword Venerable Un Wol-hyang.
She is a woman with a beautiful appearance as if she descended from the heavens.
However, on that face that looked as if a celestial god had painstakingly sculpted it, dried monster blood and deep fatigue were smeared thickly.
“Haa…….”
A long sigh flowed from her mouth.
She doesn't know how many monsters she has cut down already.
The Northern Branch Manager of the Martial Sovereign Castle.
The weight that position carries is heavier than thought.
In the north, there is a hell on earth where monsters endlessly pour out, the Demonic Realm.
Battles in the Demonic Realm are fierce and dangerous.
To the extent that even she, a master who reached the Entering Transformation Realm, has to risk her life every day.
But that is not all.
Quite a few forces are stationed in the northern land.
Starting from the Martial Sovereign Castle, the Unorthodox Alliance, a coalition of unorthodox sects promised immense rights and power.
The Righteous Heaven Alliance, where only chivalrous warriors specifically crazy about exterminating monsters gathered from the Orthodox Murim.
On top of that, the Imperial Army, which has no substance but only a plausible shell.
They are forces of all shapes and sizes. However, when dealing with monsters, even they cooperate unavoidably.
Because if they neglect the crisis of the Demonic Realm, they will only perish together harmoniously.
However, although they can be put in one bowl, they are existences that cannot mix like water and oil in the end. So the intensity of political strife and hidden struggles they engage in over strategy or distribution of merits is beyond imagination.
That means the north is practically another small Jianghu.
Un Wol-hyang forcibly peeled off the hem of her clothes, which were soaked in blood and sticking to her body, and looked at the void.
It is better when she empties her head and fights.
Considering complex political relationships was too tiring.
However, she could not just ignore it either.
Especially…….
It was even more so now that she heard the news that Dam Jeok-san, who lost his dantian, was coming to the north as if being chased out.
She had a debt to that child.
When her Eldest Senior Brother, Man Su-geuk, annihilated all Senior and Junior Brothers except her and ascended to the position of Castle Lord. After leaving the words, "If you're going to do that, kill me too," to Man Su-geuk who became the Martial Sovereign, she spent several years like a crippled person.
But for some reason, the Eldest Senior Brother never killed her.
She didn't know what emotion that was due to. No, she didn't want to know.
Un Wol-hyang, who lived like a crippled person like that, happened to meet the Martial Sovereign's third disciple.
A boy who lost his family to monsters, a brat who acted cynical about everything. Dam Jeok-san.
A few words shared with that child drove away the inner demons that persistently tormented Un Wol-hyang.
Perhaps Dam Jeok-san does not know that fact.
The only person who knows about it is probably…….
‘Only the Eldest Senior Brother.’
Because she talked about Dam Jeok-san with him while leaving words that she would leave for the Northern Branch.
It must have been vaguely revealed.
The feelings she holds for that child.
So, for the Martial Sovereign to send Dam Jeok-san, who lost everything and became a cripple, to the north means…….
That he intends to keep him alive.
Because Un Wol-hyang herself, no one else, will make it happen.
Why?
Martial Sovereign Man Su-geuk is not despicable, but he is a heartless figure.
He is not of the nature to bother keeping a useless disciple alive.
That means he still holds a shred of expectation for Dam Jeok-san.
What can she do to turn that expectation into reality?
She felt an emotion she didn't know whether it was excitement or worry.
‘It will be hard to just keep him by my side and protect him…….’
That is probably not what that child wants either.
Should she go somewhere and dig up a spiritual elixir?
Or should she rummage through divine techniques and secret manuals that can heal the disability of the dantian?
She could not even imagine.
In what appearance Dam Jeok-san would reach the northern land.