Chapter 24

Chapter 24

* * *

“…….”

A countless number of people gathered where the woman stood.

They expressed their anger by swearing and throwing stones at those being dragged away by the constables.

The constables and the County Magistrate who descended upon the village below Mount Tianzi wiped out the crowd of the Black Dao Association.

Considering that not only the Murim Alliance but also all sorts of organizations had made countless attempts to find and eliminate their stronghold but failed, this could not help but be quite a surprising thing.

Their appearance was miserable.

It was to the point of causing nausea just by looking with human eyes.

‘Something is strange.’

A woman standing among the people releasing their anger cast a questioning look. The crowd of the Black Dao Association was roughly two hundred people, and the number of constables was also about the same.

However, while the constables had only learned third-rate martial arts, those men hovered between second-rate and first-rate, and it was even the public assessment that the Leader of the Black Dao Association was a peak-stage expert.

Yet, they subdued the Black Dao Association without a single casualty?

It was an impossible thing.

‘The fact that the Black Dao Association was here was nothing more than a guess that even Chief Strategist Zhuge could not be sure of, but that County Magistrate found it out?’

Namgung So-hye, the Leader of the Phoenix Squadron of the Murim Alliance.

She was a woman who possessed a genius for martial arts both in name and reality, serving as the Leader of the Phoenix Squadron at the young age of around twenty, and was expected to grow even further in the future and rise to the position of the Sword Empress.

All sorts of thoughts mixed in the head of she who possessed outstanding skills even among the young talents of the Jianghu.

“Excuse me, did that County Magistrate really subjugate the Black Dao Association?”

“Huh?”

In the end, Namgung So-hye asked the person beside her. No matter how much she thought about it, this was a situation that she could by no means understand.

However, the man who was asked the question turned his head without answering.

It was the same for the other people as well.

As if they knew something but had been strictly warned to keep quiet.

The firmly closed mouths did not open easily.

Namgung So-hye sighed softly and left the place. Under the situation where the constables were keeping a sharp eye on their surroundings, there was no benefit in needlessly poking a hornet's nest.

In the first place, it was no exaggeration to say that the government and the Martial World were under a non-aggression pact.

‘First of all, informing the Alliance is the most urgent matter.’

If it were an event of this magnitude, they would find out quickly even without sending a messenger pigeon. It was a major event where the Black Dao Association, of all places, had collapsed.

It was also her duty to inform them of this fact faster than anyone else.

* * *

“Wow… is this for eating?”

Entering the manor, Dan Woo-hyun handed over the food he had bought. Since he had gone far, it was something he brought to comfort Hwa So-mi's heart.

It was full of things that young children would like.

Not to mention sugar candy, malt taffy, and even dumplings.

Every single one of them was food from an expensive shop, and the taste was also exquisite. Since one had to stand in line to buy them, one could tell how much effort Dan Woo-hyun had made to obtain them.

A flower bloomed for the first time in a while on the face of Hwa So-mi, who had been depressed for the past few days. The delicious food was good, but she was even gladder to see Dan Woo-hyun's face.

Hwa So-mi sat softly on the lap of Dan Woo-hyun, who was sitting on the wooden veranda. He patted her head as that appearance of acting like a spoiled child was quite cute.

“Hehe.”

“Have you been well?”

Hwa So-mi nodded without answering.

Soon, as if wanting to feel Dan Woo-hyun's warmth, she dug deeper into his embrace and rubbed her face.

It was an action just like a baby kitten looking for its mother's embrace.

“I see, well done.”

Hwa So-mi held a sugar candy in her mouth and nibbled on it. It was so sweet that the bright smile hanging on her face did not easily fade away.

“Is it delicious?”

At Dan Woo-hyun's question, Hwa So-mi nodded her head once again. The area around her mouth became dirty because of the sticky sugar candy. As Dan Woo-hyun wiped it for her, Hwa So-mi's face became even brighter.

Delicious food was good and playing was also good, but the very fact of being together with Dan Woo-hyun was even better.

Hwa So-mi, who had been feeling a great emptiness because Dan Woo-hyun was not by her side for the past few days, tightly grasped Dan Woo-hyun's sleeve as if she would never let go.

“Come to think of it, you seem to have lost a bit of weight over the past few days?”

“Ah, Uncle Jang was doing something called… training? And I did it together beside him!”

“Hooh…”

What Jang Sam-tae practiced was the Tai Chi Chuan commonly sold in the market street. However, since its form had changed somewhat due to Dan Woo-hyun's advice, it would have been difficult for Hwa So-mi to practice it.

“So, was it fun?”

“Mmm, I don't know. It's just hard.”

At those words, Dan Woo-hyun laughed, “Haha.”

Of course it would be hard. Since it was not a common martial art but one modified to make it suitable for Jang Sam-tae, there was no way it would fit Hwa So-mi's body.

Just as clothes are tailored to an individual's body, martial arts also must be learned according to the constitution of the person practicing them.

For this child, Jang Sam-tae's martial arts were too much.

“Where did you put the book I brought last time?”

“Ah, that strange picture book?”

As Dan Woo-hyun nodded, Hwa So-mi stood up with a grunt. She ran to her room with quick, short steps and returned carrying the Three Talents Sword Style manual that Jang Sam-tae had bought.

“Three Talents Sword Style…”

“Uncle Jang said this is an extremely cheap martial art.”

Dan Woo-hyun chuckled.

Three Talents Sword Style.

Heaven was composed of a vertical slash, Earth of a horizontal slash, and Man of a thrust.

This was the absolute basic of the Wudang Sect.

Basics always had their own significance.

“A very long time ago, there was a person born under the Three Disasters.”

“Three Disasters?”

“Three disasters. When he went to the waterside, a water disaster arose; when he was near fire, a fire disaster broke out; and even when he just stood still, he would cause a wind disaster.”

“How did that person live?”

“Haha, who knows. At any rate, the fellow was born that peculiarly. Everyone only thought that he would die before he turned twenty.”

Hwa So-mi's eyes sparkled brightly.

Seeing how she liked old stories, she was undeniably a young child. She stared at Dan Woo-hyun with sparkling eyes and pestered him to tell the next story.

“Then, he entered Taoism to resolve his karma, and eventually, by realizing the principles of Taiji, he was also able to handle those three disasters naturally.”

Dan Woo-hyun stood up slowly.

He then picked up a tree branch that had fallen on the ground and gathered his breath slightly. As Hwa So-mi, who did not know the reason for what he was doing, stared intently, he struck down with the branch vertically just like that.

Whoosh!

“Ack?!

As he struck vertically with the sword, fire caught on the tree branch. Soon, as he moved naturally and swung the sword horizontally, a cold yet refreshing air was felt, and the fire on the branch was naturally extinguished as if it had touched water.

Finally, pulling it back, he lightly thrust it forward.

Boom!

Then, a momentum like a giant storm extending from the tip of the branch swept heavily through the manor and spread in all directions.

“W… Wow…!”

Hwa So-mi could not close her mouth.

Right now, before her eyes, Dan Woo-hyun seemed to manipulate fire and water, and even control the wind. Just like an immortal appearing in stories.

“This is the Three Talents Sword Style.”

Dan Woo-hyun chuckled.

One of the Three Heavens.

Tae Gong-jin.

He was a person from the period when Dan Woo-hyun was active about a thousand years ago, and he made a name for himself as an expert representing the orthodox faction.

He remembered that the man had led quite a few followers, in that he was one of the three heavens who could compete for supremacy with Dan Woo-hyun.

The first martial art he created after coming out to the Central Plains was indeed the Three Talents Sword Style. Although it was unknown how it had become known as Wudang's now, it was undoubtedly a nostalgic martial art for Dan Woo-hyun.

* * *

The world began to shake greatly.

It was because the Black Dao Association, which had been operating in the shadows for a long time, had collapsed.

People could not help but be even more surprised that the one who brought it down was not the Murim Alliance, nor an organization of the Unorthodox Faction, but the County Magistrate of Yueyang.

His reputation was renowned, saying that the fact that there was not even a single casualty was proof of how outstanding the County Magistrate's strategy was.

The Murim Alliance.

It was the absolute place symbolizing the orthodox faction, and the very place that all orthodox martial artists dreamed of.

Inside the huge main office, the Nine Great Sects and One Gang, the Eight Great Families, and other giant hands supporting the Murim Alliance were gathered in one place.

“Ho, the report of the Phoenix Squadron Leader was not a lie.”

The one called the head of the Murim Alliance, Chief Strategist Zhuge Un.

He was a member of the Zhuge Family, a family of wise men whose intellect no one could match, and one of the pillars of the Eight Great Families.

He scratched his head, wearing an awkward smile.

“Chief Strategist Zhuge, you are not believing those words right now, are you?”

Murong Cheon, the Head of the Murong Family, stared at Zhuge Un with a displeased expression. Seeing him laugh at such nonsense seemed to have rubbed him the wrong way.

“Well, that is just what was said. At any rate, this has made it certain.”

“What is it?”

“That there is an expert of considerable skill near that County Magistrate.”

“An expert… an expert…”

People here and there frowned.

Indeed, otherwise it made no sense. All the things that County Magistrate had accomplished so far were too difficult for a mere County Magistrate to achieve.

“Who could it be… who could it be…”

“Could it not be one of those we are pursuing?”

“Haha, that is likely not it. Among those who have been publicly declared wanted, there is no one with the guts to pull off such a bold act.”

“Then who on earth…”

“We will have to find out from now on. Whether that person is well-disposed to us or not…”

Zhuge Un muttered with a serious expression.

In this Martial World, there were countless eccentric experts. Therefore, it could not be considered strange for a hidden expert who was concealing their identity to reveal themselves to the world.

However, from the perspective of the orthodox faction and the Murim Alliance, it was a matter that had to be verified.

Whether that person, who had not revealed their face, was hostile, or someone they could work together with.

Of course, the Murim Alliance was likely not the only one thinking this way.

Perhaps the orthodox, unorthodox, and demonic factions would all move at once.

A collision was something that had to be prepared for.

Because a talent with the ability to crush the Black Dao Association at once without even leaving a trace was not common.

If so, in the end, they had to find and recruit them faster than anyone else.

The Murim Alliance Leader let out a short groan and opened his mouth.

“Instruct the Phoenix Squadron Leader to go and look for him.”

“Understood.”

Zhuge Un bowed his head deeply.

It was a perfect judgment.

It was not that the Murim Alliance had no branch in Hunan, but the Phoenix Squadron Leader was perfect for this kind of task. Surely, other places had also sent formidable people.

‘The Martial World will become noisy.’

Zhuge Un sighed softly and turned around.

There is no time.

One must move even a little faster.