Reincarnation of the Martial Emperor

Chapter 10: That's a question I'd rather ask.

Other than giving review lessons to the children of the Crouching Dragon Hall, my daily routine was nothing special.

To be fair, if he had been so immersed in his studies as to pile up that much paper every day, he probably wouldn't have even left his quarters.

The only ones who came to visit were the servants who informed me of mealtimes, the physicians from the medicine hall who visited periodically to check on my body, and.

Clack!

“Brother!”

This one was the problem.

The Fourth Young Master of the Jaegal Clan, Jaegal Yeong, who came to bother me at all hours.

“What is it now.”

“Is it true that you are teaching that boy Baek-ah separately!”

“So what?”

The emotion coloring his two eyes was closer to anger than bewilderment.

“It's an impossible thing! If you were to personally bestow your teachings, even the direct descendants of the Phoenix Pavilion would come to you with a thousand pieces of gold! But Baek-ah! He is……!”

“Is there by any chance a family law in this Jaegal Clan that says you shouldn't teach a child from the fallen Moyong family?”

“Yes?”

“Are your ears blocked? I asked if there is a family law that says you shouldn't teach a collateral branch.”

The Jaegal Clan strictly followed the values of Confucianism as well.

Not to question one's origin when it comes to learning was a strict rule of Confucianism.

That was why they had no choice but to accept the outstandingly skilled Moyong Baek in the Crouching Dragon Hall.

Suddenly, the boy bit his lip hard and talked back.

“Why him of all people? If you're looking for a bright child, there's Seol-ah and Ja-un too!”

“He's a good kid.”

“……Yes?”

I smiled at him.

“The reason a good person should be treated well is because good people are that rare in Jianghu.”

It was teeming with heinous monsters, regardless of whether they were orthodox or unorthodox.

But Moyong Baek's eyes.

Such eyes were rare.

Enough to remind me of the young Wi So-gun from my Baengrang Village days.

The courage to offer up a family treasure, which might contain an astronomical amount of wealth, just to live.

No matter how young, not everyone could make such a bold decision.

I held his purity in high regard.

“If you personally teach a collateral branch, do you think the adults of the Phoenix Pavilion will just stand by? Moreover, you haven't even been conducting the review lessons recently! If you only dote on a collateral branch in this situation……!”

“You. Your words are somehow strange.”

As I glared at him, he hurriedly bowed his waist.

“I-I have misspoken……! Forgive me!”

Although I was offended, it wasn't wrong when I heard it.

Normally, my unfaithful lessons wouldn't be a problem, but if I were to teach a collateral branch separately after working hours, it would be a different story.

The old men of the Phoenix Pavilion would surely think I had some ulterior motive, and it was highly likely that troublesome things would happen.

If so, the answer was one of two.

“Then it wouldn't be a problem if I teach the children diligently again.”

“B-Brother!”

This young man also didn't want the children's achievements to suddenly increase.

It was because he believed that it would lead to the result of advancing the children's Nine Phoenix Gates.

“You don't like that? Then why don't you all learn Moyong Baek's lessons together?”

“Yes?”

“What I am teaching Moyong Baek is not an academic study.”

“Then what is it?”

“You all should also come to the rear garden after your daily routine is over.”

This young man still didn't know what I was teaching Moyong Baek.

That was why he bowed with a more relaxed expression and retreated.

“I understand, brother.”

* * *

Moyong Baek was flustered, looking at the children of the Crouching Dragon Hall gathered under the bright moonlight.

I smiled at him.

“From today, those fellows will also be learning together.”

The children of the Crouching Dragon Hall, who had discovered the appearance of Moyong Baek emerging from the darkness, were also surprised.

And for a good reason.

As my insight had told me, he was a rare martial talent, and the boy, who had been floundering in desperation, had followed my lessons faithfully.

“Today, we will discuss how to survive the Pressure of the Cooking Tower.”

“Pressure of the Cooking Tower?”

I looked at Moyong Baek again.

“It is the stage before the Heaven and Earth Net. To deploy the Heaven and Earth Net, one must first eliminate the private houses and villages. That process is called the Pressure of the Cooking Tower.”

The faces of the flustered Crouching Dragon Hall children gradually turned pale.

As befitting of children who had learned their studies, they had clearly understood the meaning of elimination.

“S-Surely you don't mean killing all the people?”

I nodded my head boredly at the girl who had asked the question.

“The targets for elimination in the Pressure of the Cooking Tower are all the elements that obstruct the operation. The reason the Pressure of the Cooking Tower is deployed before the Heaven and Earth Net is because the biggest hole is created where people are. If the target of assassination infiltrates and disguises himself as a commoner in a private house, the Heaven and Earth Net cannot be established from the beginning.”

The Jaegal Clan girl covered her mouth with her hand and couldn't continue her words.

Well, it was probably because she couldn't believe the reality of slaughtering private houses first to assassinate one person.

But that was Jianghu.

I made them clearly aware of what kind of place this land they were standing on was.

“The organization that has deployed the Heaven and Earth Net the most in the last ten years is the Demon Subjugation Group.”

“D-Demon Subjugation Group……?”

“The Demon Subjugation Group!”

Smirk.

“Where do you think the group that hunts down the surviving remnants of the Demonic Cult and countless public enemies of Murim with fire in their eyes is?”

All the children froze as if in shock.

I smiled cruelly at them.

“That is none other than the Alliance you belong to.”

No more questions followed.

A few children shook their heads as if shuddering and shouted desperately.

“T-That's ridiculous! Why would the Murim Alliance, which reveres justice and righteousness, kill innocent commoners!”

“That's right!”

I, too, burst out with the question I had held back for a long time since my Great Murim Alliance days.

“That's a question I'd rather ask.”

It would be a mistake to think that the underworld was born solely from human desire.

The reality they turned a blind eye to, the underworld grew healthily, feeding on their self-gratification that sacrifice was inevitable.

Baengrang Village was like that, and Musan Valley was like that.

For the survivors, the Murim Jianghu was a target of revenge they wanted to wipe out. The weight of that grudge was quite deep and wide.

As I was twisting my lips and smiling like that, Moyong Baek's usual indifferent voice was heard again.

“How can one survive that elimination?”

It was Moyong Baek, as expected, who got straight to the point.

Trying to find a reason for what had already happened was a meaningless act.

Such a thing would be of no help in surviving.

“The answer is in the water.”

“……Water?”

I glanced over the children and then stared at the Yongso Stream, which ran through the center of the Jaegal Clan.

“Where people live, there is always a waterway. One can burn houses and kill people, but a human cannot eliminate a waterway. A river is a target that the Pressure of the Cooking Tower cannot eliminate.”

Moyong Baek frowned and asked me back.

“Are you saying we should learn how to swim?”

I burst out laughing with a smirk.

He was unusual, but seeing him ask such an innocent question sometimes, he was just a child after all.

“That's not to say that those who deploy the Pressure of the Cooking Tower do nothing to the water. After the elimination operation is over, they will surely discharge an enormous amount of oil into the river. Until that oil slick is a finger deep.”

“Oil? Why oil……” Follow current novᴇls on novel·fıre·net

I held the brush upside down and showed it to them.

“Those who have mastered water arts can easily last for half a day by holding a long tube like this in their mouth. But if there is an oil slick, they have no choice but to expose the tube more out of the water. That's when it becomes identifiable.”

Moyong Baek, who had been frozen with a serious expression, suddenly lifted his head again.

“Isn't that only effective in places where the water is calm, like a lake? If the current is fast, the oil slick would be quickly swept away……”

“Then they release poison.”

The children's mouths dropped open simultaneously.

“The poisons mainly used in the Pressure of the Cooking Tower operation are Purple Yin Phosphorus, Blood Paste, and Ghost Water Poison. They are all poisons that have the property of becoming more rampant when they meet water. No matter how swift the current is, for at least half a day, that river becomes a river of death.”

The children's expressions were complicated.

But as befitting of children who had learned their studies, there were soon some who were exchanging various opinions.

“To pour that much oil into a river, the amount of silver consumed would be considerable…… wouldn't it be better to just release the poison from the start?”

“Could it be that they're considering a live capture? Capturing someone alive would increase the success of the operation much more than taking a body bloated in water.”

“Poison isn't cheap either. Purple Yin Phosphorus and Blood Paste are extreme poisons produced exclusively by the Sichuan Tang Clan.”

“Still, it's better than pouring oil!”

The children of the Crouching Dragon Hall, making various calculations even in this situation.

It was as if I was seeing the childhood of cruel military strategists, and I suddenly shuddered.

Moyong Baek, who had been lost in thought, looked at me again.

“How long do they watch after releasing the oil or poison into the river?”

“Two hours.”

I looked at the boy whose mouth was gradually opening wider and delivered the core of this training.

“A person who can hold their breath underwater for two hours is very rare. It is said that some pirates in the distant South Sea have learned such a water art, but that has not been confirmed either.”

I picked up a stone the size of a human head, which was decorating the base of the waterwheel, and stood in front of him.

“Lie down.”

“Yes.”

Moyong Baek lay down on the floor of the rear garden.

I placed the stone on his stomach as it was.

“Heup!”

It was a weight that was hard to endure for even a single breath for a body that had not learned martial arts.

But the boy was already tenaciously holding his breath, even though I hadn't said anything.

“This training is to hold your breath as long as possible while enduring this stone with the strength of your stomach. When you can hold your breath for thirty breaths, I will replace it with that stone.”

The mouths of the children who followed my gaze dropped open in astonishment. Because that stone was as big as a human torso.

“If you can endure thirty breaths even with that stone, I will teach you the Turtle's Hidden Breathing Method.”

Moyong Baek, unable to open his mouth, expressed his question with wide-open eyes.

“It is a type of Turtle Breathing Technique. But it is my own modified version.”

Moyong Baek held the stone with bloodshot eyes.

At that moment, Jaegal Yeong ran over in astonishment.

“His internal organs will be damaged!”

“They will be. But surviving the Pressure of the Cooking Tower doesn't just end with holding your breath.”

“Brother……!”

“To avoid the eyes of martial artists who have learned eye arts, one must be submerged at least five feet deep. For a person to withstand that water pressure, this training is inevitable.”

I passed by Jaegal Yeong and walked straight to the children.

“I plan to teach this kind of thing every day, do you really intend to join this harsh training?”

“N-No!”

“I-It's fine!”

Thud-thud-thud!

The children of the Crouching Dragon Hall ran away in a frenzy.

I stared blankly at Jaegal Yeong, who was left alone.

“Will you learn?”

Jaegal Yeong, who had been silent with a serious expression, revealed an unbearable question.

“Why is this kind of training necessary for the Jaegal Clan?”

I walked over calmly and brought a stone the size of a human torso.

And then, I lay down next to Moyong Baek and placed the stone on my stomach.

Meeting Jaegal Yeong's eyes, which were stained with astonishment, I twisted my lips.

“To a novice, Jianghu is a hell. But to a master, isn't Jianghu a playground?”

I received the weight of the stone with all my might and said resolutely.

“If you're not going to lie down together, then get lost.”