Reincarnation of the Martial Emperor

Chapter 32: You’ll lose everything at this rate.

While the steward stood with his mouth agape and his face pale, my father’s eyes were letting out a sharp edge like a blade.

“Do you even know what those words mean?”

Well, the problem was that I knew all too well.

“If you put Namgung and Jaegal on a scale, it will naturally tip towards Namgung. Many trading companies will turn hostile. The only ones who would stick with us would be the Giryung bastards and the Songbaek Trading Company, perhaps?”

It was a stupid structure where the Jaegal Clan’s tea houses performed tricks like a bear, and all the falling honey was eaten up by the Giryung and Songbaek Trading Companies.

Because of this, those guys couldn’t do business at all without the Jaegal Clan.

The ones licking the honey wouldn’t move, but the problem was the rest of them.

“Then, you must also know that it is an impossible task?”

“Of course, it would seem so to you.”

In fact, this was a structural problem.

Merchants were people who would do anything for profit.

But to enjoy such profits, they inevitably had to create a stable business structure.

What was the point of earning hundreds of silver coins a day through transactions?

If Namgung swordsmen suddenly stormed in, spouting all sorts of justifications, and demolished the business, everything would be over that day.

The fundamental reason why no one dared to touch the items distributed by the Namgung Clan.

The merchants would turn a deaf ear to the words of the Jaegal Clan, but they would wash their ears and listen attentively to the command of the Namgung Clan.

That was the Jianghu, a world governed by power.

This Jaegal Clan had wisdom, but it lacked that very power.

That was why even my level-headed father had rescued a man like the Blood Demon and made a once-in-a-lifetime gamble called the Nine Phoenix Gates.

I could clearly see what kind of limits my father before me had faced and what kind of self-loathing he had struggled with.

“Give it up.”

Give it up.

Was that a word that the leader of a clan should mention so carelessly?

I immediately dug into my father’s heart.

“You’ll lose everything at this rate.”

The Jianghu was a place where if you yielded and retreated, you would eventually have everything taken from you.

Did the Jaegal Clan, who had weathered such a battlefield with the Alliance, really not know this and were only retreating like this?

Facing the question in my eyes, my father slowly opened his mouth again.

“Although not all of it, I can vaguely sense the martial might you have achieved in the Nine Phoenix Gates. You will surely try to use that martial might.”

My father’s eyes, filled with worry.

“If, as you say, that martial might is truly at a level to handle ten of this father, how could you possibly contain your boiling blood? But it cannot be. You are already on the bad side of the Namgung Clan’s Lord for instigating the Great Tiger Gang’s march north. In such a state, if you step forward and even touch their territory……”

The surprising words that followed.

“At that time, I, no, this Jaegal Clan…… might find it beyond our power to protect you.”

Oh-ho, was the Namgung Clan that powerful?

Only then did I feel the need to lower my perspective, that of the Great Murim Alliance’s leader.

I had to shrink the board and read the Namgung Clan’s moves from the perspective of the Five Great Clans.

Only then would I be able to clearly see the aspects that were hard to grasp when I was managing the Great Murim Alliance.

The Namgung that my father perceived was the Murim Alliance, no, perhaps even the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

Yes, if the Heavenly Demon were to throw a tantrum, it would be a scary thing for me as well.

But still, wasn't the sword I was holding a world-renowned one?

“Father, you haven’t forgotten how to fight, have you?”

“Hoo…… Hwi-ya.”

From my perspective, the Jaegal Clan was an unbearably foolish.

The biggest pushover in the world, holding the strongest card in their hand and doing nothing.

“Do you really not know what a great sword you hold in your hand, Father?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“If anything happens to me, you just need to lower Namgung’s weight class.”

My father, not readily understanding my words.

But, as befitting the lord of the Jaegal Clan, his face soon showed astonishment.

“Are you telling me to move the Nine Dragons Pavilion right now?”

The Nine Dragons Pavilion.

A powerful organization that exercised the personnel rights of the Murim Alliance.

The problem was that even such a Nine Dragons Pavilion was an organization under the Military Strategy Department.

Naturally, since the family that held the Military Strategy Department was the Jaegal Clan, they could exert influence over the Nine Dragons Pavilion at any time.

Whatever the faction, the one who could manipulate personnel as they wished could be said to hold the ultimate power.

“What are they going to do if we keep demoting their captains to pavilion masters, and their commanders to vice-commanders? Are they going to overthrow the Military Strategy Department? Or are they going to get rid of the Murim Alliance?”

“How dare you now……!”

“How dare I use the Alliance’s power for our family’s private affairs! Is that what you were going to say?”

After reciting my father’s lines for him, I let out a smirk and then leaned back in my chair.

“Then just keep living as a pushover like this. I guess I’ll have to be satisfied with a father who can’t even save his own son in this life.”

“……”

Orthodox and Heretical.

To someone just starting out in Jianghu, they might seem as far apart as heaven and earth, but in reality, the difference was just this thin.

Jaegal Myeong-won, who tried to uphold his principles even at the cost of abandoning his son.

Jin Gang-cheon, who tried to save his brothers by mobilizing every available resource, if there were means left.

There was no right or wrong here.

Only the ideals they pursued were different.

I was now forcing my father to choose black, not white, and both the choice and its consequences were my father’s.

After all, I wasn’t the lord of the Jaegal Clan.

“Of course, even if you don’t draw your sword, Father, I will find my own way. It’ll just be a bit more troublesome. Well then.” For more chapters visıt novel•fire.net

Having declared war like this, all that remained was action.

Goosebumps rose on my back.

Fearsome strategies were already intricately weaving themselves in my mind.

Should I call this a blessing or a disaster?

***

Dawn at the Jaegal Clan.

There was a young man standing under the eaves of the Phoenix Martial Emperor Pavilion, not bothering to avoid the rain.

I recognized him at a glance.

Moyong Baek.

His build had grown noticeably, but his characteristically calm and firm eyes were the same.

The weather was chilly, and seeing him like a drowned rat made a curse slip from my mouth for no reason.

“Crazy bastard. So you mastered the Turtle’s Hidden Breathing Method on your own.”

I could feel at a glance how long that kid had been continuing his training of placing a stone on his stomach.

If he could endure thirty breaths with a stone the size of his own body on his stomach, Pressure Pain would no longer be a problem.

He must have gradually forgotten his fear and attempted to inhale and exhale, eventually even mastering the principle of the Turtle’s Hidden Breathing Method.

“Your eyes do not fear water.”

“Because I’ve fallen deep into it.”

I already knew the answer, but I still wanted to ask.

“How long did you endure?”

“Four hours. If I’m prepared to pass out, I can endure even longer.”

“Crazy bastard.”

Was he this intense?

Training for three years as if it were a single day was not something that could be done with ordinary determination.

Even I, who had watched Martial Bones to the point of being sick of them, was left speechless.

A human whose spirit is stronger than their body can forge a more solid Martial Soul.

I already knew why he had come to the Phoenix Martial Emperor Pavilion.

“Have you seen the notice?”

“Yes.”

Moyong Baek was from a branch family of the Jaegal Clan.

He already had the qualifications.

‘Hmm…….’

It wasn't that I was dissatisfied with him.

But when I was about to take him in as a disciple, something felt unsettling, like something was caught in my throat.

After pondering what it was for a long time, I finally understood its identity.

The Black Way was faint in him.

He was more grey than black.

‘Grey…….’

A grey person has a short life.

A person who stops their sword at a point where they shouldn't hesitate.

A person who gives meaning to the small parts of life and is needlessly swayed by emotion.

It meant that I could be presenting an even shorter life to this kid who wanted to learn martial arts to survive.

“If you become strong by learning martial arts, what do you want to do?”

“I must survive and protect the Moyong……”

“You still look down on me.”

“Yes?”

With my hands behind my back, I glared fiercely at him.

“Do not take the power of the martial arts I will teach you lightly. My martial arts are not just for survival, but are martial arts that can unfold a man’s will.”

The teachings of the Seven Revered of Jianghu.

A fortune that most people would never come by.

Not even knowing what a great opportunity was flickering before his eyes, he dared to say that his only goal was to survive.

“……I don’t have any grand goals.”

Yes, this was the problem.

The fact that his heart, as reflected in my eyes, was a fluttering grey.

It wasn't that a person with desires was scary.

Having no desires at all was even scarier.

Having no desire or craving meant that he could also turn into a demon who could do anything.

Although I had walked the Black Way, I had no intention of raising my disciple to be a Demonic Emperor.

“Go back. You and I are not a good match.”

“Ah, I will be honest with you.”

Huh?

“I wish to enter the service of the Alliance and officially re-establish my family.”

“You want to re-establish the Moyong Clan?”

“If I rise to the rank of brigade leader before I am forty and achieve military merits, I can become a captain. Since I am from a branch family of the Jaegal Clan, my promotion will be fast.”

“Why a captain of all things? If you’re going to dream, you might as well dream bigger?”

“Because in the end, I must leave the Murim Alliance and establish a foundation. I am aiming to be the head of the Chongqing branch.”

“Chongqing?”

I immediately understood the reason.

Because Chongqing was the former site of the Moyong Clan.

“Can you re-establish a clan with just the power of a branch head?”

“Chongqing is currently a no-man’s-land. Thanks to that, numerous remnants of the Demonic Cult are active in the shadows. Naturally, for the captains, Chongqing is a rough place no one wants to go to.”

“You’re going to hunt them all down?”

“Yes. I will desperately accumulate merits and build a foundation in Chongqing. If I build up my reputation like that, I will have my own alias by then.”

But there was a problem.

Because establishing a clan was impossible without the permission of the Alliance and the consent and cooperation of the Nine Sects One Gang.

“But that alone seems difficult? The scars of the Calamity of the Blood Alliance still remain in the orthodox faction. That means there are still many who have not forgotten that grudge.”

The fact that an orthodox faction clan had cooperated with the Demonic Cult.

Such an event was not something that would be easily forgotten even after hundreds of years.

At that moment, the boy bit his thick lips hard.

“I will break through with force. I will build up that much fame. I will make it so that no one can dare resist, so that even the Alliance Leader cannot grab me by the scruff of my neck.”

Only then did I smile.

To reveal such inner thoughts in front of the third young master of the Jaegal Clan was truly to bet one’s life.

Yes, this is what a human is.

Daring to pretend to be a grey-person in front of this black King of the Underworld?

As expected, this kid was not grey.

He was just a jet-black man of the Black Way who had been pretending to be grey to survive.

“And Yujeong…… I want to make her my woman.”

Huh? Yujeong? Jaegal Yujeong?

My sister, by any chance?

Once this brat’s mouth opened, he started running wild without knowing his limits.

“Hahaha.”

Although I had the identity of the Martial Emperor, she was still my younger sister now.

“In the end, you crossed the line.”

“N-No? Didn’t you want me to confess my honest feelings?”

“That’s right. But shouldn’t some secrets be swallowed even with a knife at your throat?”

Thwack-thwack-thwack!

“Kuaaak!”

Fortunately, it was raining, so no dust rose.

Like that, the boy, half-crippled, continued his Nine Bows.

By the time the sun was faintly rising, Cho Ryeo-un arrived.

Cho Ryeo-un was smiling awkwardly at his junior brother, who was sprawled out like a corpse.