Chapter 8 : Chapter 8
Chapter 8: You will find out if you watch.
The Clan Head's chamber of the Jaegal Clan.
“We can't delay any longer, Father. You must make a decision now.”
At the serious tone of the Great Young Master, Jaegal Cheon, the expression of the current Clan Head of the Jaegal Clan, Jaegal Myeong-won, became even more complicated.
Jaegal Yeseong said solemnly.
“A decision about what. It was out of the question from the beginning. If we, who are in charge of the Alliance's Military Strategy Department, move the family for private reasons, how can our family uphold the Alliance's command in the future?”
“But Grandfather, this is an unstoppable tide. With the entire Jiangxi region as a land without a master, how long can everyone just save face? Everyone is already heading south. Even the Namgung Clan and the Peng Clan, who were such bitter rivals, have joined hands.”
“Do you truly believe that imperfect alliance will last long?”
Three years had already passed since the Great Murim Alliance disappeared.
As the Martial Emperor had often shown bizarre behavior, the Murim Alliance had thoroughly investigated the incident for a long time this time as well.
They had examined the movements of every last one of the subordinate organizations that were intricately connected with them.
But just like the main headquarters of the Great Murim Alliance that had vanished without a trace, the entire vast human resource of the Great Murim Alliance had completely disappeared from Jianghu.
The vast southern region, stretching from Hunan and Guangxi, also known as south of the Yangtze River, to Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong, had lost its master in an instant.
As a result, the small and medium-sized gangs of the underworld, which had been suppressed by the might of the Great Murim Alliance, were now rising up in all directions.
It would be good to suppress the newly rising underworld groups, and it would also be fine to stabilize the common people who had fallen into misery and correct the turbid situation.
Although they could clearly put forward any justification, the Sword Saint remained silent to the end.
While the Murim Alliance remained silent like that, Namgung finally made its move.
A situation where the mere Namgung Clan could occupy a territory comparable to the Murim Alliance.
That meant a crack in the Murim Alliance.
Namgung, which had devoured the south of the Yangtze River, would by no means be satisfied with just being one of the Five Great Clans.
“Whether it's an imperfect alliance or a solid one, that's not the important issue right now, is it? The fact that Namgung has moved means the cooperation of Wudang, which maintains a special relationship with them. And now, even the Peng Clan has joined.”
“They are none other than Wudang. A few disciples whose hot blood has not yet dried might have harbored wicked ambitions, but the true masters of Wudang will correct them.”
“Discipline and rules cannot control the disciples.”
“Ahem! They are the suzerains of the Way of the Immortals! If they had committed such wicked choices, how could they have remained the Southern Revered for so many long years!”
“Grandfather!”
What silenced Jaegal Cheon's sharp voice was the head of the current Jaegal Clan, the Scholar of the Sovereign's Will, Jaegal Myeong-won.
“The Murim Alliance has already been split in two.”
“Clan Head!”
Jaegal Myeong-won's great phoenix fan slowly fluttered.
“From the moment Wudang yielded the position of Alliance Leader to Mount Hua, they have fostered close relations with the Five Great Clans, not the Nine Sects One Gang. Therefore, this incident was already foretold, Father.”
“Hah……”
In the old days, the Sword Saint of Mount Hua was elected as the Alliance Leader by a unanimous decision of the Nine Sects One Gang.
Surely that lofty Wudang did not still remember the humiliation from that time?
In that moment, a strong resolve appeared in Jaegal Yeseong's eyes.
“To think I would see such a world……!”
The Old Man of Heavenly Wisdom, who had dedicated his entire life to fighting the Demonic Cult.
The Jianghu he had sought to protect was not such a Jianghu.
The Demonic Cult had been annihilated, and now even the Great Murim Alliance had disappeared, but for them to be split in two and engage in a mud-slinging fight in the world of the Murim Alliance!
At that moment, Jaegal Cheon's eyes suddenly sparkled.
“Surely you don't mean to say, Father, that this entire situation is a game orchestrated by the Alliance Leader?”
“He already knows of the deeds Wudang has been committing in the shadows. Naturally, the Alliance Leader's silence is an intended silence.”
“He intends to sort the wheat from the chaff on this occasion!”
Jaegal Yeseong, who had been tightly closing his eyes in a terrible state of mind, muttered with a sense of futility.
“And after sorting the wheat? Surely the Alliance Leader doesn't intend to start a civil war among the people of the Orthodox Faction?”
Jaegal Myeong-won put down his great phoenix fan.
He then took out two letters from his sleeve and placed them on the table.
A letter with the red character for ‘Alliance’ clearly visible.
And next to it was a letter with an azure dragon pattern engraved as a seal.
“Clan Head? Surely these are……?”
“That is correct. One is from the Sword Saint, and the other was sent directly by the Namgung Clan Head.”
Letters from the Murim Alliance Leader and the Namgung Clan Head.
“So you were already being forced to choose between the two, Father!”
Meanwhile, Jaegal Yeseong was looking strangely at the fact that neither letter's seal was broken.
He soon asked the Clan Head back with an anxious heart.
“Why have you not yet opened the letters?”
Jaegal Myeong-won quietly shook his head.
“I have not yet made a choice.”
“What!”
The head of the Jaegal Clan, who oversaw the Murim Alliance's Military Strategy Department, was agonizing over such a matter?
Jaegal Yeseong, who was furious to the tips of his hair, roared and rose from his seat.
“You! What kind of wicked thoughts are you having right now! Surely you don't mean to turn your back on the Alliance and cozy up with the Namgung bastards!”
Jaegal Cheon looked at Jaegal Yeseong in surprise.
The grandfather he knew was not a person who would ever speak informally, even if it was between father and son.
But that grandfather, who was like an incarnation of etiquette, was scolding the Clan Head as if he were a child.
At that moment.
“Chung. Forgive me. I have committed a rudeness despite knowing it is a clan meeting.”
The martial artist who opened the door of the Clan Head's chamber and appeared was the Clan Head's personal guard, Dark Phantom, known as the greatest master of the Jaegal Clan.
“What is it?”
“The Third Young Master is sending a message from the reception room.”
“Hwi-ya?”
Jaegal Yeseong's long, beautiful beard trembled.
“That wretched boy again! I told him so many times to rest in the medicine hall!”
The Dark Phantom, bowing deeply.
“What will you do?”
Right now, a clan meeting was being held.
Even if one was a blood relative, as a matter of principle, one could not participate in a clan meeting unless they were of the True Blood who had passed the Nine Phoenix Gates.
The boy surely knew that fact.
And yet he was requesting a meeting so forcefully like this?
Above all, that boy who had been so battered in the Wind and Cloud Creation Formation was already moving his body?
“Let the Third Young Master in.”
Jaegal Yeseong was looking at Jaegal Myeong-won with a strange gaze.
The matter of choosing between the two letters, and now this, the son he knew was not a person who would so easily break principles.
For some reason, his son was very strange today.
At that moment, Jaegal Hwi appeared in the Clan Head's chamber.
As if his dreadful strange disease had acted up again, a bizarre smile flickered on his face.
Just as Jaegal Myeong-won was frowning, feeling a sinister madness, the corners of Jaegal Hwi's mouth twisted at an even more bizarre angle.
“I hear you are raising your voices over some trivial matter.”
Jaegal Myeong-won's eyes turned sharp.
There was no doubt.
His third son was not in the reception room, but right here, in front of the door of this Clan Head's chamber, pressuring the Dark Phantom.
“How dare a boy with no qualifications eavesdrop on a clan meeting.”
Jaegal Hwi, paying no heed to the Clan Head's scolding, walked over and nonchalantly sat down.
His appearance was so brazen and confident that Jaegal Cheon could only stare blankly at his younger brother.
“Is that something to agonize over so much?”
Jaegal Yeseong, who was watching him, couldn't bear his burning thirst and touched his throat.
“You, you rascal…… how on earth can you even move?”
Until yesterday, his grandson had been unable to even stir due to the fatal injuries in various parts of his body.
Especially the laceration on his side, hadn't the physician clearly said he needed to rest for several months?
“Youth is a wonderful thing.”
Jaegal Hwi, nonchalantly snatching his older brother's teacup and taking a sip.
The Clan Head, Jaegal Myeong-won, opened his mouth again.
“It wasn't enough for you to activate and destroy the formation in the rear garden, you also changed the format of the lessons without the permission of the Teaching Origin Pavilion. Have the family rules become a joke to you now?”
“Wait, what are you talking about? You even taught the Crouching Dragon Hall children in the midst of that?”
Jaegal Myeong-won, sighing and answering his father's question.
“I heard he changed the format of the lessons from a review to a lecture.”
“W-Well done! What's there to scold about!”
“……Father.”
“Ahem! If a teacher teaches in his own way, why bring up the yardstick of family rules?”
Jaegal Myeong-won, who was observing his father's face, which was boiling with vitality, finally let out a long sigh.
In any case, his third son was the only joy of his father, who had been exhausted by a long war.
In the end, Jaegal Myeong-won shook his head and looked at Jaegal Hwi again.
“So. What is it you want to say.”
Jaegal Hwi smirked.
“If the Great Murim Alliance has fallen, it means the World Under Heaven Society, which was a thorn in the Namgung bastards' side, has lost its power, and there's no way those bastards would pass up such a good opportunity. The Nanchang branch bastards probably cozied up with the Namgung bastards too. Those greedy, young bastards, the entire south of the Yangtze River has become a land without a master, and you think they're just holding back? No, how long can a dog hold back in front of steaming meat?”
“……”
“……”
The Clan Head, Jaegal Myeong-won, the Old Man of Heavenly Wisdom, and the Great Young Master, Jaegal Cheon, were literally frozen blankly with their mouths open.
The genius of the Jaegal Clan, the Third Young Master, was famous for being an incarnation of etiquette, belying his age.
The boy, who had never lost the dignity of a noble family in any situation, was suddenly acting like a back-alley ruffian, so they couldn't come to their senses.
“……Nanchang branch? Surely you're not talking about the Murim Alliance's Nanchang branch?”
Jaegal Hwi, nodding his head without a hint of hesitation at Jaegal Yeseong's question.
“Well, is there another Nanchang branch?”
“Ahem! Such a dangerous thing to say! The Nanchang Branch Chief, Yul Geuk, is a man who knows the great cause! How could that man, as upright as a pine tree, ally with the Namgung family out of wicked desire—”
Smirk.
“That bastard Yul Geuk has been living off the shit of the Namgung Clan for over ten years. Are you blind or something? No, the Alliance doesn't know this?”
“Wh-What did you say?”
If the Nanchang Branch Chief had been in a relationship of adhesion with the Namgung Clan for a long time, this was no ordinary matter.
Because the expression that the Alliance was split in two would no longer be a simple figure of speech.
The Clan Head, Jaegal Myeong-won, asked in a serious tone.
“Where did you hear such a fact.”
“Phew, as if this is some grand piece of information. It's a fact you can find out just by buying a bottle of bamboo leaf liquor for the storytellers wandering the marketplace. This is why people need to be out in the field. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry acts like an expert in the corner of their room, so we get stabbed in the back day in and day out. Ah, never mind.”
“We?”
“Ah, my head……”
“Hwi-ya!”
Jaegal Yeseong, looking worriedly at Jaegal Hwi, who was covering up his slip of the tongue with outstanding acting skills.
Jaegal Myeong-won let out his usual sigh and opened his mouth again.
“You wouldn't have come without a plan. So what is your method.”
Jaegal Hwi touched his head and answered bluntly.
“So, what you mean, Father, is that you don't want to side with this one or that one, you just want to watch from the sidelines and take the profits, right?”
He had certainly understood his meaning correctly, but the nuance was somehow strange.
Just as Jaegal Myeong-won was frowning, Jaegal Hwi suddenly picked up the brush on the table and began to write with a single stroke.
Jaegal Hwi, who had put down the brush, crossed his arms.
“There is an inn called the Diamond Inn in Yujiang, Jiangxi. Hang this up in the most eye-catching place there.”
“W-What is this?”
At Jaegal Yeseong's question, Jaegal Hwi smiled more brightly than ever.
“If you don't like Namgung or the Murim Alliance, there is only one way.”
“What?”
Smirk.
“You will find out if you watch.”