Chapter 314

Gurgle gurgle gurgle.

The boat was sinking in an instant.

It wouldn’t take longer than one watch at most to completely sink.

Taoist Haewol had to give Jin Ja-gang an answer within that time. That was why Jin Ja-gang had punched a hole in the boat.

“You said you’ve never been on a boat, yet you punched a hole in the boat’s bottom… Interesting. What are you hiding? This makes me want to check it out.”

Taoist Haewol opened his mouth wide and stared at Jin Ja-gang.

Click.

Jin Ja-gang separated the Soul Seizing Thread’s ring.

“Soul Seizing Thread? Keke. You carry around an interesting thing.”

Splash splash splash splash.

Meanwhile, more than half the boat had filled with water.

But Taoist Haewol was leisurely as if he found this situation enjoyable.

“Use everything that can be used to the fullest? Even your own body. Impressive. A technique of driving yourself into a corner to instead pressure your opponent.”

Taoist Haewol had even avoided Shaolin Temple’s pursuit to come to Chongqing to meet Jin Ja-gang.

If he left Jin Ja-gang to die, only Taoist Haewol would regret it. So if Taoist Haewol hesitated to act, Jin Ja-gang would unhesitatingly exploit Taoist Haewol’s weakness.

Taoist Haewol clicked his tongue.

“Meeting you, I see there’s a big problem. You have righteousness but no greater cause. That’s a very big flaw for an orthodox sect hero.”

“Are you lecturing me?”

Jin Ja-gang bared his teeth and said.

“People say about you that you’re the one who made the martial world a mess. Is that your greater cause?”

“Every individual has their own righteousness. Every organization has the righteousness that organization pursues.”

Taoist Haewol extended both hands to the sides, pointing at the rushing river.

“Just as the Jialing River, Wu River, and hundreds of tributaries combine to form the Yangtze River… each righteousness combines and separates to ultimately form a great cause. A greater cause is the justification that everyone commonly pursues and becomes the standard for proper consultation. Think about it! How many righteousnesses must clash and clash again for a proper greater cause to be created? Therefore, none of the individual righteousnesses can be said to be wrong, and a martial world where numerous righteousnesses compete is the correct martial world.”

It was a strange story.

If Taoist Haewol’s words were true, he should have been the martial alliance leader who had to protect the martial world’s greater cause. Yet he himself had destroyed and collapsed the martial world’s framework called greater cause to create a single new framework.

But why was he talking about the framework he had destroyed?

“Mutual benefit. I heard that’s the new banner you raised. Is that correct?”

“Correct.”

Strength entered Jin Ja-gang’s hand gripping the Soul Seizing Thread.

“According to your words, there’s no righteousness left in this era. Isn’t that right?”

“That’s also correct.”

“What are you trying to say? If you say I lack greater cause, aren’t you the very person who eliminated this era’s righteousness!”

But unexpectedly, Taoist Haewol didn’t deny it and readily agreed.

“Right. I did that.”

“The reason?”

“To prevent the martial world from collapsing.”

Jin Ja-gang’s expression distorted.

What kind of sophistry was this!

Swoosh!

Fierce waves crashed against the boat’s side. Now the boat was almost completely filled with water.

Taoist Haewol held onto the oar and sat on top of it like a monkey.

Jin Ja-gang was submerged up to his legs.

But without retreating at all, he glared at Taoist Haewol and said.

“Great Master Beom-mong said the same thing. The Breaking Sect practices true dharma through force.”

“That’s actually not important.”

“I don’t like that answer.”

“Even if you don’t like it, it can’t be helped. What’s wrong with sword-wielders solving problems with swords? As long as they don’t cowardly ambush or betray by striking from behind, it’s right for swordsmen to use swords.”

“You’re saying it’s a matter of method?”

“Right. That’s why orthodox sect people have annoyingly detailed orthodox methods. First judge whether this fight is right, then after deciding to act, determine precedence by considering senior-junior relationships. Also warn before acting, and agree in advance whether it will be a life-or-death battle or just a contest. Only then do they finally draw their swords.”

Jin Ja-gang smiled bitterly.

“Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have seen many such orthodox sect people. Probably because of the one who made the martial world a mess.”

“Right!”

Taoist Haewol chuckled again.

“I’d like to continue talking, but if we stay longer, you’ll become fish food. Time to stop the games.”

Taoist Haewol extended both hands to the sides.

Then he struck the water surface on both sides of the nearly filled boat with his twin palms.

The palm force didn’t explode when it hit the water surface but penetrated into the water. Then suddenly tremendous water sprays erupted.

Roooar!

The palm force pushed away the water and the boat that had almost sunk floated up. At the same time, it began to move forward.

Taoist Haewol continued speaking while pouring out palm force with his twin palms.

“So I…”

He spoke while looking backward.

Because Jin Ja-gang had made such a large hole in the bottom, water kept filling the rear and it wasn’t moving forward well.

Moreover, Jin Ja-gang was just watching that sight.

Taoist Haewol’s eyebrows twitched.

“Don’t just sit there, bail out some water! An old man is working while a young guy is just playing around! Not even a speck of respect for elders!”

Jin Ja-gang cut a plank with the Soul Seizing Thread to block the bottom and half-heartedly scooped out water with his hands.

Taoist Haewol frowned.

But thanks to this, the boat’s speed increased much faster.

“Please continue.”

“Ahem!”

Taoist Haewol cleared his voice and began speaking by asking a question.

“Do you think the martial alliance leader can control the martial world at will?”

“Haven’t you already done so?”

“It’s impossible.”

Taoist Haewol’s expression became serious.

“The martial world has countless sects and tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of proud people who won’t move even with a blade at their throats. Unless the demonic cult rises up, it’s impossible to lead them as one.”

Jin Ja-gang asked again.

“But you did it.”

“How do you think I did it?”

Jin Ja-gang frowned.

He had just said he made the martial world a mess, but now said it was impossible for the martial alliance leader to control the martial world at will. Yet now he was asking how he had controlled it.

“It doesn’t make sense at all.”

“There are two reasons why hundreds of thousands of martial artists with different thoughts move. One is when the martial world itself faces a threat to survival, and the other is when they must follow a greater cause. No matter how much the martial alliance leader commands, if it doesn’t match one of those two, the entire martial world won’t move.”

Taoist Haewol continued.

“So when something happens that requires the entire martial world to move, we hold a martial arts conference. They compete in martial arts to gain speaking rights, then engage in heated debate according to the greater cause they believe in before reaching consensus. Even if some madman with the world’s best martial arts creates chaos, if it goes against the greater cause, the martial world won’t support it.”

Jin Ja-gang thought briefly then said.

“Based on what I just heard, there should be almost no way for the martial world to go wrong.”

“Right.”

“Even if you raised the banner of mutual benefit… if it didn’t match the greater cause, it couldn’t have been accepted… Is that what you’re saying?”

Taoist Haewol smiled bitterly.

“Your tone is insolent, but you roughly grasped the key point. I’ve been talking about the system by which the martial world operates. That is, no matter how much I raged, in an intact system it could never have become as messed up as now. Do you understand what this means?”

Taoist Haewol’s eyebrows lifted slightly as sharp eyes leaked out.

“The martial world was already broken before I became alliance leader.”

For a brief moment, Jin Ja-gang thought he had misheard.

The martial world was already broken?

Even before Taoist Haewol became martial alliance leader?

“Actually, only I and a few acquaintances knew. That there was a weak but strange flow in the martial world.”

Taoist Haewol’s voice was very serious.

“What do you mean by strange flow?”

“Bacterial wilt!”

Bacterial wilt, also called blue wilt disease, is a disease where plant leaves or roots rot and wither.

Jin Ja-gang felt a strange sensation.

Taoist Haewol continued explaining.

“Disputes between very small minor sects kept increasing. Fierce fights broke out between family-unit sects or dojo-level sects that received tuition fees. That itself wasn’t unusual. But the methods were the problem. They picked fights, stabbed from behind, set fires, and even poisoned wells.”

These weren’t methods that orthodox sects should use.

“Since they were such small minor sect affairs, most didn’t even become big topics of conversation.”

Jin Ja-gang listened quietly to Taoist Haewol’s words, then asked.

“Did you think it was someone’s conspiracy?”

“At first I was half-believing too. But I traveled the martial world for a long time and confirmed it. Such things were happening not just in one place but across all of the Central Plains.”

Oh Tae from Hao Sect in Gubuk Village seemed to have met Taoist Haewol at that time too. Oh Tae had said the Taoist Haewol he met in his youth was closer to a stubborn Taoist.

“People commonly think a few giant sects are all of the martial world, but what actually constitutes the martial world are the small and medium sects. Tens of thousands of small and medium sects spread roots in the soil called the martial world, and giant sects branch out above them. No matter how flourishing the branches, they die if the roots rot. But the root tips that support the tree, the minor sects, were rotting.”

Taoist Haewol paused briefly, then looked at Jin Ja-gang and said.

“Since I’ve laid out the story this extensively, you should know what I want to say.”

Jin Ja-gang’s eyebrows twitched.

“Don’t tell me…!”

“I’m saying the medicine and poison sects were the same.”

Jin Ja-gang’s head became complicated. Was this not something that simply happened, but something that had been occurring for decades? And someone had instigated and deliberately stirred up conflict?

“The medicine and poison sects originally had the same roots so their relationship wasn’t bad. But the conflict gradually worsened until finally they became enemies who couldn’t live under the same sky.”

Strength entered Jin Ja-gang’s fists. The words people he’d met so far had said to him came to mind one by one.

The words that you couldn’t tell who was victim and who was perpetrator between medicine and poison sects.

Especially the words of Emei Sect’s sect leader Divine Nun Eun  were sharp as if piercing bones.

The words that to see the truth, you must know the whole picture.

Had Divine Nun seen through such facts?

“Still…”

Jin Ja-gang spoke slowly, word by word.

“This doesn’t excuse making the martial world a mess.”

“When I started digging in earnest, they instantly hid from me. I could no longer find out anything. Who started first, how far the contamination spread. How long ago this had been planned, I couldn’t know anything. But what was certain was that even at that moment, work was continuing underwater.”

Taoist Haewol spoke with a slightly self-mocking voice.

“I alone couldn’t watch over all of the Central Plains. If I blocked one place, another would burst, and if I blocked that place, somewhere else would burst.”

“So…”

Taoist Haewol nodded.

“I needed trustworthy people. I organized Yangtze River Sword Sect with like-minded people, selecting sects judged to be least contaminated.”