Camellia 143

In truth, Hayeon was already exhausted. She had forcibly drawn out the innate celestial energy within her since birth to display overwhelming martial strength. It was only natural for her body to collapse.

Had she been in her usual condition, she would never have paid attention to the murmured words of a gentle-looking orthodox warrior.

Only after blood gushed from her chest did Hayeon realize she had failed to notice the ambush. She had no choice but to admit defeat. To think she had let her guard down over a few kind words from a stranger she had just met.

It had been, without a doubt, her own mistake. Hayeon gave a faint smile, and Namgung Woonpyeong instinctively rose to his feet. The emotion that filled his composed face was none other than despair. His niece, who so closely resembled his sister, was coughing blood and collapsing before his eyes.

Namgung Woonpyeong rushed to catch the girl’s body as it slid down like a puppet with its strings cut.

“What is this… what happened…?”

Before he could even try to piece together the situation, he heard the sound of branches rustling. The Qi of a master, seemingly restrained on purpose, swept through the air. Namgung Woonpyeong, who had been pressing hard on Hayeon’s wound to stop the bleeding, lifted his head.

“This is why your so-called martial world always lags behind.”

The man who spoke in a tone filled with contempt leapt down from a tall tree. With unkempt hair spread like a beast’s mane, the man was not unknown to Seolyeong or Tang Yujae. Namgung Woonpyeong likely recognized him as well.

It was Gyo Seokryun, the Lord of Daeyeonggak.

His eyes gleamed slickly as though oiled, fixing themselves on Namgung Woonpyeong. The madness in Gyo Seokryun’s gaze made Woonpyeong fall silent.

“And this is the man they call the new face of the orthodox martial world? How pathetic. How will you protect your clan, or the martial world, like this?”

At last, the truth behind the fall of the Tang family began to reveal itself.

Heaven’s will often moved in unfathomable directions. The truth that the boy who had once escaped the bloodbath at the Tang clan would come to face decades later might not have been as dignified as one might hope. The world made by the heavens and lived in by men was often filled with truths that diverged wildly from expectations.

“Did I not warn you? That if you held on to useless sentiment, all you would prove was your own weakness?”

Clicking his tongue, Gyo Seokryun looked down at the ruined girl. Then, with a light movement, he pulled a book from his robe. Black Qi surged up the cover like fire.

“Your sister’s handwritten journal is no longer of this world, just as we agreed. You may stop worrying.”

Namgung Woonpyeong held the dying life in his arms with desperate strength.

Her frail body could no longer withstand the power surging inside her. Before long, her flesh and bones would erupt outward.

As Woonpyeong looked down at her pale face, Gyo Seokryun added with mock surprise,

“Why the long face?”

His low voice dripped with perverse delight.

“Is this not what you wanted? You’ve secured the future of your clan. Don’t tell me, after selling out your own kin to avoid scandal, you are now pretending at virtue.”

“…”

“Come now, Woonpyeong. Our agreement was simple and honest. You wanted your clan’s safety, I wanted punishment for a heretic. So we joined hands.”

“You said the choice would be mine.”

Namgung Woonpyeong, swallowing his fury, managed to speak.

“You said the child’s life would be left to me, and that you would only handle the Tang clan…”

“You wouldn’t have accepted the deal otherwise, would you?”

Cutting him off, Gyo Seokryun smiled, showing his pale teeth.

“Don’t be so aggrieved, Woonpyeong. None of this would have happened if you hadn’t panicked the moment you received that letter. But you, at the very mention of that girl’s existence…”

“How can a martial artist not take responsibility for his own words? If you cannot even uphold your own honor, how can you speak of punishing others?”

Namgung Woonpyeong’s roar echoed with sorrow. His voice carried a dull resonance that made Gyo Seokryun flinch.

“…Tsk. So full of blame today, after all your mistakes and fears.”

Then he laid out a vile argument that Namgung Woonpyeong could never have imagined.

“I, Gyo Seokryun, am an elder of the Cheonma Divine Sect. You, Namgung Woonpyeong, are the leader of the Martial Alliance. Tell me, who should take responsibility for the promises made to uphold trust? If not me, then surely it must be you.”

“Even you must know how utterly absurd that sounds.”

“Perhaps. But before you whine further, I suggest you check on that child.”

Woonpyeong could not suppress a groan. Even as he continued to channel his Qi into her, the girl’s body showed no signs of warmth returning. She looked up at him with pleading eyes, as if asking him to end it quickly.

With each fading breath, the scent of death thickened. Blood welled up and soaked his sleeves.

Seolyeong bit his lip as he watched the leader of the Martial Alliance. This once-strong warrior, now holding a dying child in his arms, left behind a painful imprint.

Namgung Woonpyeong cried out,

“You punish heretics in the name of the Cheonma Divine Sect, yet…”

His bloodshot eyes were filled with betrayal.

“How could you, who worship that Cheonma so devoutly, try to kill one of his own blood? At the very least, this child…”

Seolyeong could guess who Woonpyeong’s fury was truly aimed at. Perhaps he wanted to curse himself more than anyone for creating this outcome.

“There was that old man in the Namgung clan. The one who read the future of the martial world.”

As if offering a final gift before leaving, Gyo Seokryun began to speak.

“When I peeled off the skin of his face, it took only a few strokes before he confessed. He said that if the half-human beast who had stolen the Cheonma’s seed were killed now, the Cheonma would return, and the Cheonma Divine Sect would rise again.”

“…”

“It’s for the best. Tainted with the blood of that vulgar woman, this thing would only drag the great one down if left alive. If the Cheonma Divine Sect had not collapsed after the Cheonma passed into eternal sleep, that creature would not have lived this long anyway.”

Gyo Seokryun even hummed to himself with joy. He wanted nothing more than to drink down a bottle of the finest wine in Fujian, using others’ suffering as a side dish. Watching Namgung Woonpyeong struggle to save the girl was an amusing spectacle. He shrugged his shoulders as if bored.

Even after losing the war against the orthodox sects, the Lord of Daeyeonggak had continued gathering power, waiting for his chance. The appearance of a fortune teller who spoke of the Cheonma’s return had been as good as prophecy.

Gyo Seokryun, who had intended to torture the old man for as long as it took, had been surprised at how quickly the prophecy came out. The prediction even included the arrival of a boy who would become his new lord.

And so, on a sunny afternoon with the heavens in full bloom,

Hayeon exploded.

Namgung Woonpyeong, unable to withstand the wave of energy unleashed by the child’s destruction, lost consciousness. Gyo Seokryun had planned to finish him off too, but the very Qi that erupted from the girl’s death protected the Martial Alliance leader.

So even a young divine beast was still a divine beast. To think she would still hinder him after death.

From atop a distant tree, Gyo Seokryun watched as Namgung clan warriors arrived and carried their leader away.

“Those who follow heaven will live. Those who defy it shall surely die.”

Reciting the line, he ended his time in the martial world.

Now, his only task was to wait until his lord returned. Gyo Seokryun descended to the ground, praying that this long wait would not end in vain.

He stared down at the crushed head of the girl, who resembled the woman once meant to be the Sect Leader’s bride.

Then, without hesitation, he stomped it beneath his foot.

It was the same head that Tang Yujae had failed to find, even after digging through the dirt of Gyehong Mountain with his bare hands.

With a hopeful smile on his face, Gyo Seokryun turned his gaze to the high heavens.

“I pray the new Cheonma will quietly accept his fate.”