Silver Dragon Legend Episode 48
Chapter 12. A Demon Appears in Shaanxi
There existed two renowned martial sects in Shaanxi.
One was the Huashan Sect, and the other was the Zhongnan Sect.
Both were major sects belonging to the Nine Great Sects and One Union, and the Huashan Sect in particular wielded influence considered to be the third greatest even within that alliance.
For reference, the ones vying for first and second place were the Shaolin Temple of Mount Song and the Wudang Sect of Mount Wudang.
Some time after Jehwa’s group arrived in Shaanxi, Jegal Hwan’s group was finally able to reach it as well.
“W-what the hell kind of walking speed is that…….”
Paeng Okryeong muttered with a deathly pale face.
Even for Sawollin and I Seolhye, defeating Moyong Sinu—said to be one of the finest juniors of the orthodox faction—had not been particularly difficult.
That was how formidable their martial arts were.
But the ones even greater than them were none other than Jehwa and Hong Yuhwa.
Jegal Hwan’s group had to resort to lightness arts just to keep pace with Jehwa’s group.
“See, we’re keeping up.”
“Hah…… hah……”
“See…… should we have gone a bit faster?”
“Do you…… hah hah…… have a grudge…… hah…… enough to kill us? Hah hah hah……”
“Come on…… still, you look to be in better shape than them, don’t you?”
Hong Yuhwa said with a smirk to Sawollin, who was glaring at her with a resentful expression.
That look on her face was unbearably smug.
“What a pity! If we’d done it right, we could have shaken you off too……. You’re much stronger than those guys, huh? Hmm, shall we run this time?”
“You really…….”
Sawollin, having somewhat caught her breath, glared at Hong Yuhwa with a scowl, but Hong Yuhwa merely put on an expression of utter amusement.
“Hmm?”
Suddenly, Jehwa tilted her head and looked down an alleyway.
“Hmmm…….”
Hong Yuhwa showed the same reaction, turning her head in the direction Jehwa was looking.
“What is it?”
“It’s nothing.”
In response to Sawollin’s question, Hong Yuhwa shrugged.
***
“Ah, this damned life!”
A young man with ebony hair grown to his shoulders was drinking himself into a stupor and lamenting his lot in life.
Though he was the handsome, noble-looking sort who seemed to have a bright future ahead, for some reason he looked thoroughly displeased, as if the words “Life is a cesspool~” were written across his face.
Hiccup!
Now he was even hiccupping……. He was truly making a spectacle of himself.
Passersby began to whisper to one another as they looked at the young man.
“What are you staring at? Scram! Won’t scram? Hah!”
When the young man shouted at them with glaring eyes, the people scattered in an instant.
Normally they would have frowned at such behavior, but they could not in front of him—and the reason was the massive greatsword on his back.
Anyone who carried such a weapon was unquestionably a martial artist.
Once the people had vanished, the young man put on a satisfied expression and began drinking again without a care in the world.
“Intimidating commoners……. Is that something a martial artist would dare to do?”
The young man, who had been enjoying his drink again, twisted his face mercilessly when someone disturbed his pleasant time once more.
“What?”
Looking toward the voice with a thoroughly drunken face, the young man snorted a moment later.
“Who are you?”
“Hmph! I have no name to give a drunkard.”
At the man’s words, the young man merely snorted again.
“You’re sitting there spouting nonsense!”
At those words, the man’s face suddenly contorted.
“You seem to be in a foul mood, old man. But brats like you should stop throwing tantrums and go home.”
“Eek! I am Chu Myeongji, the young master of the Chujia Estate of Shaanxi! Do you think you can be rude to me and walk away unscathed?”
“Chujia Estate? What’s that, some place I’ve never even heard of?”
“Eek……. Y-you damn drunkard!”
At the young man’s words, Chu Myeongji flared up and tried to draw his sword.
“Stop.”
A pretty young lady behind Chu Myeongji held him back.
Several other young people were gathered there besides Chu Myeongji.
“Hahaha! Don’t get so worked up. It’s true that the Chujia Estate is counted among the ten great families in Shaanxi, but someone from another region might not know of it, no?”
“Eek! What?”
Chu Myeongji flared up when one of the young men spoke with a hearty laugh.
But he did not dare speak recklessly to him.
The young man’s name was Jeong Ocheol. He was famous enough in Shaanxi to be counted within the top five martial families.
He was also quite well-known in other regions.
“And who are you?”
When the young man looked at Jeong Ocheol and spoke indifferently, the latter’s face twitched.
He too was displeased with the young man’s arrogant attitude, but the daughter of the Huashan Sect leader, Yun Yejin, whom he admired, was present.
Intending to score points with her by maintaining a composed demeanor, he spoke to the young man.
“Ah, I am the eldest son of the Jeongjia Estate of Shaanxi. Surely you’ve heard of the Jeongjia Estate in Shaanxi?”
Jeong Ocheol, who had intended to make the young man tremble in fear, felt his face harden stiffly at the reply.
“Ah, the Jeongjia Estate? So what? Does a mere son of the Jeongjia Estate dare to challenge this seat?”
“Wh-what?”
“My mood is already filthy enough today……. Do you pieces of trash dare to sully this seat’s mood even further? Do you wish to die?”
“Eek, how arrogant and reckless! Knowing who we are! To utter such rash nonsense before the juniors competing to be the finest of Shaanxi’s orthodox faction!”
“The orthodox faction? What does that have to do with me?”
“You……. could you be of the unorthodox faction?”
“Indeed.”
At the young man’s words, the juniors’ faces twisted mercilessly.
Some looked at him with expressions as if they had laid eyes on something unsightly…….
Seeing them, the young man let out a deep sigh.
No matter where one went, there were always such pieces of trash among the orthodox juniors.
Yet he could not simply kill them as he would have in the past, which left him nothing but vexed.
Normally he would have beaten them black and blue, but the current situation was not favorable.
“I’ll let it go at this for the sake of the Nine Great Sects and One Union and the Martial Alliance, so do not test my temper any further and get lost.”
The young man, waving his hand dismissively while taking a drink, spoke to the juniors with an annoyed expression—and at his words, they exploded.
“How dare a mere unorthodox ruffian look down on us orthodox juniors!”
“Indeed! How dare a mere unorthodox ruffian speak such…….”
Those were words the juniors should never have uttered. Because of them, the young man’s demeanor changed.
“How dare you……. trash not even fit to be maggots……. If it were not for the fight against the Blood Cult, you would have died by my hand.”
“Hmph! The Blood Cult and whatnot! I never liked it in truth! The fact that we must join hands with unorthodox and demonic riffraff, disgracing the orthodox faction’s honor in the process! That measly Blood Cult can be handled by our orthodox faction’s strength alone!”
The young man’s eyes flickered with disbelief.
His mood was already quite foul thanks to these lowly scum who could not even read the current atmosphere running wild.
He knew better than anyone how terrifying the Blood Cult was.
That was precisely why he had striven to maintain good relations with the orthodox faction.
Yet these so-called famous orthodox juniors were spouting such drivel.
The momentum he had held back for so long finally burst forth.
“Hoh, is that so?”
Gooooooo!
A terrifying aura began rising from his body.
Then, the orthodox juniors sensed that something had gone terribly wrong.
“Did you say Chujia Estate and Jeongjia Estate?”
The juniors began retreating before the young man’s aura.
“From today, those two families……. no longer exist in Shaanxi.”
Having spoken thus, the young man drew the greatsword from his back.
It was an ink-black greatsword.
In the martial world, that ink-black greatsword symbolized only one thing!
“T-the Black Lion Greatsword! M-Ma Taeak!”
Someone shouted with a face of horror.
Kwagagagagagagang!
An enormous explosion that shook the surroundings rang out with it.
***
Kwagagagagagagang!
“What?”
Sawollin turned her head toward the sound of the explosion with a bewildered expression.
“What is going on…….”
I Seolhye also turned her head to one side with a flustered face.
“Does something blow up here whenever people get bored? Well, at least we won’t be bored.”
Hong Yuhwa murmured with a placid expression.
“It’s annoying. Let’s ignore it.”
Jehwa made no effort to hide her annoyance.
***
“Hu-uhk!”
Jeong Ocheol and Chu Myeongji looked at the massive hole between them with horrified expressions.
“How dare mere Jeongjia and Chujia Estates look down on the unorthodox faction? And to spout such words without even understanding how the martial world turns? You will die by my hand today.”
Ma Taeak said as he looked at them, his eyes flashing with killing intent.
At those words, Jeong Ocheol shouted with a terrified face.
“N-now the orthodox and unorthodox factions are at war with the Blood Cult! If you kill us, do you think the orthodox faction will stay idle?”
Having realized his opponent was one of the Three Invincibles, he did not dare speak casually.
“Did you not just spout that from your own mouths?”
Ma Taeak said with a cruel smile.
“That the unorthodox faction’s strength is unnecessary.”
“Th-that was…….”
Chu Myeongji opened his mouth to make a desperate excuse, but Ma Taeak did not permit it.
“Shut your mouth.”
Shick!
In an instant, Ma Taeak lightly swung his greatsword. With that, Chu Myeongji’s head fell to the ground.
Tuk— Puhwak! Thud!
A fountain of blood spouted from where Chu Myeongji’s head had been, and his body collapsed.
Ma Taeak was not the type to make jokes. He possessed a fiery temperament—if he said he would kill, he killed.
“Hu-uhk!”
Jeong Ocheol looked at Chu Myeongji, who had died in an instant, with a face of horror.
“Come here. For the sake of my ties with the orthodox faction, I shall kill you without pain.”
At those words, Jeong Ocheol’s face turned deathly pale.
“W-wait!”
Then, someone blocked Ma Taeak’s path.
“Lord Ma Taeak! Please wait!”
“You…….”
Ma Taeak looked at Yun Yejin, who had blocked his way, with a surprised expression.
“I smell plum blossoms. Are you a child of the Huashan Sect?”
Though they appeared close in age outwardly, Ma Taeak was one of the absolute pinnacle figures of the martial world, one of the few who could be counted on three fingers.
He was of an age where calling Yun Yejin a child was not strange in the least.
“Lord, it is true that they have done wrong, but we are currently at war with the Blood Cult! Please reconsider…….”
“For the sake of Sin Jangho of the Huashan Sect’s face, I will overlook you blocking my path this once……. but there will not be a second time.”
Sin Jangho was the greatest elder of the Huashan Sect and a master of Rejuvenation, said to be one of only two in the Central Plains martial world.
But even he could not help but yield before Ma Taeak.
As Yun Yejin flinched at Ma Taeak’s aura, his blade slashed through Jeong Ocheol’s neck.