Chapter 174

“Huh? Blade of Flowers Jin Baekyang—isn’t he the person you killed, Benefactor? Right?”

Only one thought crossed my mind.

I should’ve put a muzzle on that bastard ages ago.

Was he even human? No, he was an animal.

But it was already too late. Cheongpung was running wild like a pit bull off its leash.

“It’s a famous story. After a fierce battle, Benefactor drove his spear straight into the Blade of Flowers’s chest—bam! And the blood went splat!”

Please stop. That’s enough, you lunatic.

I had to shut him up, even now. I hurriedly opened my mouth, but before I could speak—

“I heard you even cursed at the Blade of Flowers. ‘Get your hands off me, you son of a bitch!’”

“…Where did you hear that?”

“Everyone I met seemed to know about it. When I told them I was close to Benefactor, lots of people came over and told me all kinds of things. The cook even packed me a ton of delicious food.”

No wonder he kept disappearing so often.

While staying with the Jin Family of Taiyuan, he must have wandered all over the place, eating plenty and listening to what people had to say.

And thanks to him, I’m fucked.

I swallowed hard and slowly turned my head.

Jeok Cheongang stood there with an utterly unreadable expression.

“It’s a misunderstanding.”

Jeok Cheongang’s eyebrow twitched.

“A misunderstanding?”

“Yes. Really. It truly is.”

“A misunderstanding. That’s possible. Rumors circulating through the Murim tend to get twisted and exaggerated.”

His dry voice continued.

“So you weren’t the one who killed the Blade of Flowers?”

“Uh… I was, actually. But the thing is—”

“Then there’s no need to hear any more.”

I could not finish my sentence.

Just a few steps away, Jeok Cheongang’s hands were blazing red.

Whoooosh.

I could feel it.

An overwhelming current of internal energy.

The cold shattered, and the scorching wind of a desert whipped around us. The heat forcing its way between my lips felt as though it would sear my lungs.

A memory from only a few months ago flashed through my mind.

The Flame Divine Palm?

That was it. The Flame Divine Palm.

But it was on an entirely different level from Jopil’s.

It was several times stronger. Stronger, stronger, and simply stronger.

Jeok Cheongang was no longer an old man with little time left to live.

He was the Fire King incarnate.

“You defied the sacred bonds of kinship and killed the Blade of Flowers. Are you even human?”

“W-wait! There are some very profound and complicated circumstances behind that…”

That was a mistake.

Instead of babbling about circumstances, I should have blurted out that the Head Elder had betrayed the Jin Family of Taiyuan.

Profound and complicated circumstances?

Shit, you have to let me explain before you decide anything.

For a moment, I had forgotten who I was dealing with.

The Fire King, Jeok Cheongang.

This was a man who had burned a thousand people to death for the simple offense of trespassing on his home and setting it on fire. Words like profound and complicated were light-years removed from him.

Whoooosh!

Damn old man…

No wonder they called him the Fire King. He was brutally straightforward and fiery as hell.

Feeling the heat of the Flame Divine Palm, I stared wide-eyed.

Is my life flashing before my eyes?

In a world slowed to a crawl, his flame-wreathed palm crept toward my chest.

If Jopil’s Flame Divine Palm had been beef-bone soup, this was spicy fish stew loaded with hot green chilies.

If I took a direct hit from that, I could not guarantee I would survive.

I have to block it.

The problem was, I could not move so much as a finger.

The whole world seemed to be moving in slow motion only because my brain had registered the threat of death. Jeok Cheongang had not slowed down, and I had not gotten any faster.

Damn it.

I desperately tried to raise my hand, but it was already too late.

Jeok Cheongang’s burning red palm filled my vision amid the darkness of despair.

Then—

Shiiiiing! Boom!

A streak of Sword Energy shot out of nowhere and slammed into Jeok Cheongang’s hand.

Brilliant violet Sword Energy.

It was Cheongpung.

Beyond the thunderous explosion, I heard his desperate cry.

“Benefactor!”

Even Cheongpung’s Sword Energy could not stop Jeok Cheongang’s Flame Divine Palm. It had only slowed it for the briefest instant.

But the crossroads between life and death was always decided in that instant.

Now!

The forty-five years of internal energy coiled within my dantian stirred awake.

Scorching Yang Qi flared like wildfire and surged through countless acupoints.

Its destination was my hands.

I thrust them forward with all my strength to meet Jeok Cheongang’s Flame Divine Palm.

Damn it. I don’t even have time to draw a weapon.

Of all the things I could have come up with against the Flame Divine Palm, I was using my bare hands.

It was clearly insane, but it was the best insanity I could manage in this situation.

I roared from the depths of my soul.

“Cheongpung, you son of a biiiiitch!”

The instant my hands met the Flame Divine Palm—

Gooooong.

A deafening blast of splitting air erupted.

The thunderous boom seemed to split the sky.

After a brief silence, things began to change.

Fssssss.

Everything crumbled into ash and scattered through the air.

The stone wall Jang Taebo had painstakingly built ten years ago. The few trees he had planted in one corner of the yard.

All of it.

Black ash fluttered down onto the old man’s white hair.

“W-what in the world…”

Jang Taebo could not stop trembling.

He had spent a long lifetime in the Murim—long enough for the mountains and rivers to have changed six times over, and then some.

He was merely a blacksmith who had never learned martial arts, but that was precisely why he had been able to meet so many people.

“I beg you. If that’s what you want, I’ll even give you my head!”

“Make me the finest sword under heaven.”

“Are you the Guild Leader of the Ironcraft Guild? I was sent by the Imperial Son-in-Law.”

From clueless martial artists to the leaders of renowned sects and great factions, even powerful figures from the imperial court had sought him out.

They came from every walk of life, but Jang Taebo’s answer was always the same.

“If you are worthy, I will make one for you.”

Jang Taebo believed that every blade had a soul.

For a blunt, rounded lump of metal to take shape, it had to endure thousands, tens of thousands, of hardships. It was bent countless times and beaten again and again. It was heated until it glowed, then cooled until it was cold.

Only once that long ordeal was over and it had finally taken shape did it gain a soul.

So it must also be my duty to choose a master worthy of the weapon.

Depending on whose hand wielded it, the weapon could become a killing blade or a life-giving blade.

Jang Taebo knew that better than anyone, which was why he never accepted a commission lightly.

One with a gentle nature. One overflowing with ambition. One determined to walk a path all his own…

No two people were alike. Countless people, each different from the next, had received weapons from him and returned to the Murim.

Some had died, while others survived.

But they all had one thing in common.

They were strong. Every last one of them.

They were masters capable of becoming the overlords of entire regions.

Strong enough to protect treasures coveted by all and use them as they saw fit.

Some had possessed martial arts that could be compared to those of the leaders of the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Families.

But…

This is different. This man is different.

The Fire King, Jeok Cheongang.

The aura and martial arts erupting from that diminutive frame were beyond human.

Jang Taebo also realized that Jeok Cheongang would never need a weapon.

His martial arts have reached the heavens.

Whether he held something in his hands no longer mattered.

This was the Supreme Peak realm he had only vaguely imagined.

“Phew.”

Jang Taebo released the breath he had been holding. As the strength left his body, the object tucked inside his robe slipped to the ground.

So hard and light that it was difficult to believe it was a mineral, it gave off a faint glow even in broad daylight.

“Good grief!”

It was a treasure destined to be reborn as his final masterpiece—the greatest work of his life.

Jang Taebo hurriedly picked up the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron and clutched it to his chest.

Then he froze.

As he came to his senses, he suddenly remembered something he had forgotten.

His client.

“W-wait! Stop! I said stop!”

Jang Taebo scrambled to his feet and rushed forward.

A young man lay naked at Jeok Cheongang’s feet, every scrap of his clothing burned away. He was not moving at all.

“I-is he dead?”

Jeok Cheongang did not answer.

He merely looked back and forth between his hand and the young man, his face terrifyingly rigid.

“Say something!”

“…”

“Y-you…!”

Jang Taebo burst out in fury and was just about to examine Jin Taekyung when a clear voice stopped him.

“He’s not dead. He only suffered an internal injury and lost consciousness for a moment.”

The owner of the voice continued.

“Right, Grandpa Jeok?”

“…Yes.”

When Jeok Cheongang finally answered, his voice was hoarse.

Every word revealed his surprise and the complicated emotions roiling inside him.

“I never intended to kill him in the first place.”

Just as Cheongpung and Jang Taebo sighed in relief, Jeok Cheongang added one short sentence.

“Until now, that is.”

“…!”

“…!”

“Don’t worry. I’ll decide what to do after I hear the full story.”

Jeok Cheongang stared strangely at the fallen Jin Taekyung.

“I have a great many questions for this boy.”

The words sounded almost threatening, prompting Jang Taebo to step forward.

Even witnessing the Fire King’s martial prowess firsthand had not shaken the resolve hardened by his long years.

“That sounds as though you intend to torture him.”

“I have no taste for that. But if it proves necessary…”

“Do you have any idea who that young man is? You may be a master counted among the Ten Kings, but if you think you can make an enemy of the entire Shanxi Murim and emerge unscathed, you are gravely mistaken!”

Jeok Cheongang gave a short laugh.

“There were once men who swallowed half the world with an army of one hundred thousand. Do you think I feared them?”

“…!”

Jang Taebo was left speechless.

That was right. His opponent was the Fire King.

The old monster of Mount Jiuhua who had once fought alone against the Demonic Cult when it sought to rule the world.

Orthodox, unorthodox, or demonic—he belonged to none of them.

He had thrown his own weight onto the scales of war.

The reason was simple.

They had invaded his territory.

Jeok Cheongang stared at Jang Taebo with reddish eyes.

“I have one request. Please don’t ask anyone for help. I have no desire to burn down the Shanxi Murim at my age.”

He meant it.

And he possessed the power to make his words reality.

“Understood?”

“I-I’ll bear it in mind.”

“A wise decision.”

Jeok Cheongang grinned and turned away.

All the strength suddenly left Jang Taebo’s legs. As he began to fall, Cheongpung caught him and asked,

“Where are you going?”

“There’s an inn where you lot were staying, isn’t there? I’ll go ahead. Follow me.”

Cheongpung watched Jeok Cheongang’s back slowly recede and muttered plaintively,

“Whew. Grandfather was right. He really does have a strange personality.”

He said it so calmly that Jin Taekyung would have reached for a muzzle if he had heard.

Cheongpung turned to Jang Taebo and bowed deeply.

“Sorry for causing you so much trouble. We’ll be going now.”

Then he tucked Jin Taekyung under one arm and Hyuk Mujin under the other before trotting briskly away.

Jang Taebo stood there for a long while as though bewitched by a ghost.

Before long, he remembered the crucial fact that had momentarily slipped his mind.

Fire King, you goddamn old bastard.

There had to be a limit to this kind of outrageous behavior.

He had burned everything down, leaving nothing but the foundation stones.

Jang Taebo stared blankly at the ash drifting all around him, then let out a deep sigh.

“Fuck. This place is done for too.”

That was the moment his sweet retirement came to an end.