Chapter 643

Rumble!

The stone gate descended behind me with a heavy rumble.

Inside the spacious main hall, illuminated by spreading lamplight, thirty-one pairs of eyes flew toward my face like arrows and lodged there amid a silence in which no one spoke.

What are you doing coming out of there?

That was the look they gave me. But it held more surprise than hostility toward a Han Chinese man, and several chieftains even looked pleased to see me.

Of course, there was one absolute exception.

“One of two things must be true. Either my eyes deceive me, or the rules of the Tribal Grand Council have changed without anyone—including me—knowing.”

The middle-aged man who broke the silence was Baeksang, the Great Chieftain of the Bai people. He continued in a cold voice.

“Explain why you’ve brought a mere Han Chinese man here. He is neither a chieftain nor a Nanman.”

Baeksang wasn’t asking the Beast Miao King, who had yet to arrive. He wasn’t asking me, either.

Yayul Mok stood to my right. He answered calmly.

“Because he has the right to be here.”

“The right.”

Baeksang repeated the words under his breath.

“That sounds like the rash judgment of a brat who isn’t even thirty.”

“It is also the judgment of someone else who has yet to arrive.”

“…!”

“My father. No—the Palace Lord said he has the right to attend the Tribal Grand Council.”

Baeksang’s eyes darkened. After a moment’s silence, he asked, “Why hasn’t the Palace Lord come?”

“He’ll be here soon. By then, there will be only one empty seat left.”

“Unacceptable.”

Baeksang tapped the table with a finger pierced by a nail.

“The Tribal Grand Council is a solemn gathering where the chieftains representing all of Nanman come together to exchange their views. If one is not a chieftain, no one may take a seat here except the Young Palace Lord. This man’s qualification is merely the will of the Palace Lord alone. We will not permit it.”

I watched for a moment, then muttered, “That’s funny. Isn’t that just your opinion?”

I was clearly talking to myself, but none of the chieftains gathered here were so lacking in martial arts that they couldn’t hear me.

That went without saying for Baeksang, whose martial arts were particularly formidable.

He turned a cold gaze on me. “What did you say?”

“Oh, you heard me?”

“Did you think I wouldn’t?”

“No. I said it so you would. Glad you caught that.”

“…!”

I shrugged at his frozen expression.

“Since the subject has come up, let me say this. We may call ourselves ‘we,’ but isn’t this ultimately just your personal opinion as well? You haven’t even asked what the other chieftains think, yet you say you won’t permit it. What exactly are we supposed to do with that?”

As my words continued to flow smoothly, I could feel an invisible stir spreading among the seated chieftains.

Baeksang was the Great Chieftain of the Bai people, the most powerful tribe in Nanman after the Miao people, as well as a Supreme Peak master who represented Nanman alongside the Beast Miao King.

I doubted anyone had ever dared speak to him so openly.

Anyone but me.

“When Great Hero Yayul sent me ahead, he told me this: ‘Yayul Cheok, Great Chieftain of the Miao people, recognizes your right to attend. But Yayul Cheok, Palace Lord of the Nanman Beast Palace, cannot decide this alone. Gain the other chieftains’ consent.’”

Nanman was hardly a welcoming place for outsiders. Even breathing here felt like a privilege. And the Tribal Grand Council, held once a year, was so rigid a needle couldn’t slip through its rules.

If the Beast Miao King hadn’t done me this favor, they’d have stopped me at the door.

His help had gotten me past those rules. Now I intended to claim a seat—by winning the other chieftains’ support.

“So that’s what I’d like to ask.”

I met their eyes one by one.

“What do the rest of you think?”

Fwoosh.

A breeze from somewhere made the torches flicker. In their reddish light, some faces tightened with discomfort, others looked troubled, and more than I’d expected looked receptive.

Including the middle-aged chieftain who had just opened his mouth.

“Everyone here, including my Zang people, knows what happened at Ailao Mountain last night.”

From what I’d seen and heard in Nanman, the Zang people weren’t one of its four great tribes, but they had enough strength to stand just behind them.

The man who appeared to lead them continued slowly.

“An unexpected disaster cost us much blood. Swift action kept the loss from becoming greater. We owe that to our wise Palace Lord, Great Chieftain Yayul, and to a young Han Chinese man who helped him.”

His strong voice carried through the hall. He watched the other chieftains’ expressions shift, then turned to me with a faint smile.

“It’s late, but I want to thank you here. Because of your help, twenty-two brave, fine warriors of the Zang people are alive. One of them is my own kin.”

“Ah.”

Around two hundred warriors had been dragged into the Poisonblood Grounds. I hadn’t learned all their names or who they were.

I hadn’t known, and couldn’t have known. But what I’d done last night was coming back to me now as goodwill and gratitude.

“On behalf of the Zang people, I welcome Blazing Flame Divine Dragon Jin Taekyung to the Tribal Grand Council.”

He finished with a respectful salute—not one from the land where he’d been born and raised, but a cupped-fist salute from the Central Plains.

And that was only the beginning.

Scrape. Scrape.

Unfamiliar chieftains rose one after another. Their faces and clothing differed, but they spoke with the same goodwill.

“We can’t accept a kindness and pretend it never happened. The Hui people support his attendance.”

“The Man people have no objection. I only wish to thank him for saving my good-for-nothing son.”

Each of them ruled a tribe, large or small.

But they were also heads of families. Fathers and mothers with children they loved.

One by one, they offered me their thanks with painfully awkward cupped-fist salutes. The warriors I’d rescued from the Poisonblood Grounds last night were their people. Their families.

Not everyone who supported me was doing it because of last night’s rescue, though.

“The Bouyei people also support him. He is more than qualified.”

At the words of the middle-aged female chieftain, one of the chieftains who still had not risen from his seat frowned.

“Wait. What reason do the Bouyei people have? None of your warriors were stationed at Ailao Mountain, were they?”

“Nanman is my homeland.”

“What does that have to—”

“Even beasts that cannot speak repay a kindness. Blazing Flame Divine Dragon Jin Taekyung risked his life fighting for my homeland last night. Isn’t that reason enough to let him attend?”

“…Ahem.”

The chieftain who had questioned her fell silent after an uncomfortable cough. Warm smiles appeared on other faces.

And amid this atmosphere, so clearly different from the one only a few days ago, I felt a tickle in one corner of my chest.

Repaying someone who helped you. It should be the most natural thing in the world.

But sometimes, in this world, it wasn’t.

I hadn’t gone into the Poisonblood Grounds looking for repayment. Yet here the chieftains were, giving me their gratitude and trust.

Some because I’d helped them last night. Others because of something that had happened long ago.

“My late father, who was once a Great Chieftain, often said things like this after returning from the Great Faction War. ‘If it hadn’t been for the Fire King, I would have gone to the Nine Springs¹ instead of returning to Nanman.’ I had completely forgotten those words after his death, but they have finally come back to me.”

“My ancestor destroyed the Five Poisons Sect alongside the Sect Leader of the Fire Gate Clan at the time. If it hadn’t been for him, our tribe would not have survived to this day. I support him as well.”

Still water began to flow.

Chieftains who had sat in silence rose with the current, one after another, and spoke. Soon more of them were standing than seated.

Then the last person—the one who would put an end to this—finally appeared.

Rumble, rumble—boom!

A giant eight cheok² tall lifted the stone gate, heavy as a thousand geun³, with one hand.

The Beast Miao King cast a long, enormous shadow across the hall. He spoke in a low voice.

“Looks like a conclusion has been reached.”

At the end of his gaze, Baeksang slowly rose and offered him a cool, formal salute.

“I greet you, Palace Lord.”

“Unless my eyes and ears deceive me, he seems more than qualified. Don’t you agree, little brother?”

“It is the wrong choice. You are breaking the rules of a Tribal Grand Council with a long and venerable tradition.”

“More than half the chieftains have agreed to his attendance. Scholars in the Central Plains call that a consensus.”

Baeksang closed his eyes instead of answering. The Beast Miao King did not wait.

“I, Yayul Cheok, Great Chieftain of the Miao people and Palace Lord of the Nanman Beast Palace, permit Jin Taekyung—Fire Dragon Pavilion Master of the Murim Alliance and successor to the Fire Gate Clan—to attend the Tribal Grand Council.”

At that moment, a clear bell sounded in my ears.

Ding.

System

• Quest: Tribal Grand Council has been created!

Somewhere damp and sweltering.

In a darkness that lay somewhere between pitch-black and the abyss, voices no one could hear passed back and forth.

—The grand council has begun in the Inner Palace.

—And him?

—He attended as well. But…

—Go on. Don’t hesitate.

—Th-that is…

A moment’s hesitation.

The man sending the Sound Transmission could never have guessed it would cost him his life.

Swish. Slice.

At the faint sounds, a figure hidden in the darkness collapsed.

When the white fingers that had wiped the blood from their cheek moved, the lifeless corpse flew beyond the darkness and vanished.

—So? What happened?

One life was gone in an instant, but someone else soon took the dead man’s place. A tense Sound Transmission followed.

—Jin Taekyung. Jin Taekyung attended the grand council.

—Who? Jin Taekyung?

—Yes! Apparently he gained permission with the support of the Beast Miao King and the other chieftains.

After a moment’s silence, someone in the darkness clicked their tongue.

—Those barbarian bastards… And you? You just stood there and watched?

—W-what?

—Then again, how could a worm like you be at fault? It was my mistake for keeping a useless worm under my command.

—…!

The person reporting to the entity in the darkness immediately realized the danger, but he could not escape death either.

Swish. Thrust!

Death swept past again. The figure stared down at the corpse swallowed by darkness and murmured,

“Jin Taekyung. It’s been a while.”