Chapter 146. Trying to Row a Boat On Land (17)
Fortunately, it didn't seem like the bandit was lying.
As Woo-Moon walked up the canyon, he felt a large number of figures strong enough to trigger his senses.
Woo-Moon used the stealth technique he had previously learned from Ma-Ra to approach the base while avoiding the guards. Then, he used a lightness art to scale the wall.
As he looked around, one of the larger barracks caught his gaze.
‘That should work.’
He melded into the darkness and shifted like a ghost, slipping into the barracks without being detected by the guards. There, he slowly moved behind a middle-aged man and put a sword to his throat.
“Get up.”
As the man flinched and tried to move, Woo-Moon simultaneously pressed the man’s speech and movement acupoints, rendering him mute and paralyzed.
Woo-Moon had picked his target carefully. The man was a Transcendent expert and probably knew most of the things that happened within the Cruel Sandstorm Riders.
He placed his hand on the man’s abdomen and gently imbued him with qi.
“...!”
The middle-aged man was flustered. He could feel Woo-Moon’s qi seeping into his dantian and coating it. It was as if Woo-Moon had his dantian in the palm of his hand, able to destroy it with but a thought.
“Listen carefully. I only have a single question. As long as you can answer me, your life and your cultivation will be safe.”
Woo-Moon used his qi to create a qi barrier around them before unlocking the man’s speech acupoint.
“W-what can I help you with?”
Luckily, Woo-Moon seemed to have picked a good target, as the man seemed timid and meek.
Woo-Moon was disgusted. The man seemed to have killed many people, from the bloodlust and murderous aura emanating from his body. To think someone with such vile aura was so afraid of his own death....
Woo-Moon explained in detail the appearances of Dae-Woong, Jin-Jin, and Gun-Ha.
“Have you seen them or heard anything about them?”
Hearing this kind question, the man sighed in relief. It was nothing important enough to hide.
“I haven’t seen nor heard anything about them.”
Woo-Moon gauged how the man’s heart rate changed while he spoke. From his slowly steadying heartbeat and the look of relief in his eyes, Woo-Moon could tell that he was telling the truth.
Disappointed, Woo-Moon tried to ask him something else.
But then, Woo-Moon suddenly felt something strange enter the range of his senses.
‘Who is that?’
Sensing signs of something strange going on, Woo-Moon pressed the man’s speech acupoint again, killed him, and quickly fled from the barracks.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?!” a white-bearded old man shouted as he chased after Woo-Moon. He quickly stepped forward and thrust out his hand, sending a blast of palm force toward Woo-Moon’s back.
Bang!
As Woo-Moon turned and sent his own palm force out to match, he used the counterforce of the clash to fly backward.
‘There’s another one on this side!’
Coincidentally, a young man with red hair and red eyebrows[1] rose through the ceiling of one of the barracks in the direction Woo-Moon was fleeing and swung a saber.
Woo-Moon drew Lightflash and struck back before stepping on air and flying through the sky, moving away from the white-bearded old man and the red-haired young man.
‘They’re on the level of the Forgetful King! They’re definitely members of Martial Heaven!’
The only person that Woo-Moon had met stronger than the peak Absolute Masters that formed the Eight Heavenly Martial Emperors and the Six Rising Transcendents was the Forgetful King. And now, Woo-Moon could feel the same level of aura exuding from the two he had just clashed with.
“Get him!” shouted the young man with red hair and brows. However, not even they had been able to stop him, so how could their subordinates do anything?
Looking at Woo-Moon’s back as he flew away, the red-haired young man spoke to the white-beared old man.
“He’s pretty impressive. To think he would be on par with us... Actually, how did you even sense him?”
“I happened to pass by the Twenty-Third Mu Heon’s barracks and sense something strange. I would never have known otherwise if I hadn’t been so close.”
It really had been pure chance; he wouldn’t have noticed Woo-Moon even after getting that close if Woo-Moon hadn’t used any qi-based techniques to capture the Twenty-Third Mu Heon.
“How shocking.... To think there was someone in the murim with the same level of cultivation as us....”
***
Even though he was forced to leave the main base of the Cruel Sandstorm Riders, Woo-Moon did not see that as a failure on his part. His most pressing questions had already been answered.
‘The Cruel Sandstorm Riders were ultimately Martial Heaven’s minions. There’s also a high probability that their enemies, the Hegemon Clan, are the same, too.’
Woo-Moon deduced that the war had been manipulated behind the scenes by Martial Heaven in order to inflict damage on both the Justice Coalition and the Black Bull Gang, which weren’t on their side.
Moreover, it appeared that the Cruel Sandstorm Riders had only made an appearance only in order to reassure the two powers that the Hegemon Clan they were so wary of wasn’t playing the role of the oriole hiding while the mantis and cicada fought. Naturally, the Justice Coalition and the Black Bull Gang had been able to invest their forces into the war without worry after seeing the Hegemon Clan battle the Cruel Sandstorm Riders.
‘Hmm, yeah, that seems to be the gist of it. In that case, it looks like I’ll have to destroy the Cruel Sandstorm Riders first.’
However, as he had just discovered, there were two people there whom not even he was sure of defeating. Woo-Moon knew there was zero chance of pulling that off by himself.
He needed help from other forces in order to win.
‘The martial forces in the area are the North Sea Ice Palace and the Kunlun Sect. However, the two of them alone aren’t nearly enough to take down the Cruel Sandstorm Riders. But... it may be possible if I get the imperial government involved.’
Woo-Moon had been planning on stopping by all of these factions to find his parents and Gun-Ha, anyway.
He quickly made his decision as to his next destination. It would be more efficient if he were to investigate the larger areas before moving on to smaller locations.
‘Let’s go to the Imperial Government first.’
The imperial government authority that commanded the troops within Gansu Province, the Regional Military Commission [2], was located in the provincial capital, Nanzhou.
As he had no need to wear a mask unless he was dealing with organizations of the murim, Woo-Moon took off his impromptu mask and asked around to ask for directions to Nanzhou.
“Is this the right place?”
Woo-Moon hid on the roof of a building close to the Regional Military Commission.
‘How should I do this?’
He had to get the Regional Military Commission’s aid to find his parents and Gun-Ha. Moreover, he had to get the help of the imperial government to take down the Cruel Sandstorm Riders.
In the meantime, he had to make sure no one discovered his identity.
If his identity were to be revealed, Martial Heaven would stop at nothing to kill him, which would make it much more difficult for him to move around for his goals. It definitely wouldn’t be easy to destroy the Cruel Sandstorm Riders in that state.
No, he had to eliminate Martial Heaven’s forces one by one while it was unaware of his existence.
‘I have to try it first, at least.’
He hadn’t found a clear-cut method yet. However, he couldn’t just sit around worrying about what would happen forever.
Woo-Moon’s eyes lit up.
A carriage was entering through the main gate of the Regional Military Commission, and the driver instantly caught his eye.
‘She’s definitely a strong expert. From the looks of it... she’s reached the Absolute stage.’
Although they were too far apart for Woo-Moon to judge it accurately, what fluctuations he could feel in the air led him to make a cursory judgment.
The carriage went in through the gate just as the sun was setting.
Woo-Moon used his stealth techniques and infiltrated the Regional Military Commission.
Even though there was a massive group of horse bandits called the Cruel Sandstorm Riders within Gansu, the mood within the Commission seemed peaceful. Almost as if nothing was wrong.
‘Aren’t the Cruel Sandstorm Riders hard to classify as just a murim force or a mere group of bandits? There should be enough justification for the imperial government to subdue them... why are they sitting around like...?’
Woo-Moon inspected his surroundings.
‘Huh?’
The female driver who had caught Woo-Moon’s attention earlier was speaking with two people in a room.
One was a cute girl in her late teens who didn’t seem to have turned twenty yet. The other looked familiar somehow...
‘Saber Emperor!’
It was Jeong Yi-Moon.
Woo-Moon almost cried out with joy. He felt like he had found a ray of light just when he was at a loss as to what to do.
Although he thought about getting closer and listening in to their conversation, the meeting had already ended; it was evening already.
Woo-Moon followed the Saber Emperor, who had parted ways with the others, and just as the man was about to close the door of his room, Woo-Moon slipped in like a gust of wind.
“It’s been a while.”
Jeong Yi-Moon was startled by Woo-Moon’s sudden appearance and drew the broken saber in an instant.
As expected from an Absolute Master, his movements were flawless and without any unnecessary flourishes.
“Who are you?!” Jeong Yi-Moon shouted. However, his voice seemed to dissipate before it could get past the door. Woo-Moon’s energy actually blocked his qi-powered roar!
It was only after Jeong Yi-Moon saw Woo-Moon’s face that he lowered his weapon.
“You’re...!”
The Saber Emperor looked utterly bewildered.
Someone who could enter his room and stop his shout just like that was unquestionably someone he would have to put his life on the line to fight. Naturally, his shock was not small when he saw that it was none other than Woo-Moon.
“Have you been well?”
“Ha...”
It had only been about a year and a half since he had last seen Woo-Moon.
To be frank, rather than being proud of Woo-Moon’s accomplishments, he found himself becoming despondent at his own lack thereof.
‘Aren’t you just barely twenty-three? But you’ve already surpassed me? To think you’ve not only broken through the Absolute Wall within a year and a half but even surpassed it....’
“Hohohoho.”
Eventually, Jeong Yi-Moon burst into laughter and shook his head from side to side. Then, he looked at Woo-Moon with pride in his eyes.
“I can’t believe it. It’s been barely over a year, yet you’ve left me in the dust and you’ve become a Paragon!”
“A Paragon?”
“What, didn’t your grandpa tell you? That’s what they call the realm beyond Absolute. Haha, that bastard Baek Sang-Woon must be ecstatic. To think his grandson got so strong at such a young age, hohoho.”
As Jeong Yi-Moon smiled and mentioned his grandfather, Woo-Moon bit his lip, pain streaking through his chest.
“My grandfather is no longer...”
Although Woo-Moon wasn’t able to finish his sentence, the few words he spoke were enough to make Jeong Yi-Moon understand what he wanted to say.
Jeong Yi-Moon staggered, his eyes bulging.
“Oi, wait a second. There’s no way you’re saying that venomous bastard is dead, right? You’re not, right?”
Woo-Moon closed his eyes and didn’t respond.
The silence was deafening.
Jeong Yi-Moon staggered and grabbed a chair, falling into it as if his legs had lost all strength.
“That bastard always drove me up the wall, spouting shit about how he would live longer than a government dog like me. To think he’d be the one to kick the bucket first...”
Jeong Yi-Moon’s eyes turned red.
He had first met Sang-Woon in the prime of his youth, meeting the wanderer on his first mission as an Embroidered Uniform Guard.
As rivals, they had fought a lot and gotten into lots of trouble. At the same time, they had worked together many times to destroy bandits of the Black Path.
Even though he hadn’t seen Sang-Woon much after they grew older, he still considered the Palm Martial Emperor his closest friend. And that friend....
CRACK!
The arm of Jeong Yi-Moon’s chair burst into powder under his hand.
“Who did it?”
“A hidden sect, Martial Heaven.”
“Martial Heaven?”
This was the first time Jeong Yi-Moon had heard the name, so Woo-Moon explained everything he knew about them.
As he spoke, he realized how little he actually knew about them. He didn’t know how they came into existence or even what their purpose was.
“There isn’t much to work with, is there? Well, I’ve at least heard the name, so I’ll look into it separately.”
Woo-Moon bowed his head and expressed his gratitude.
“I have a favor to ask.”
“What is it?”
Woo-Moon explained both about his missing parents and the news that the Cruel Sandstorm Riders and the Hegemon Clan were Martial Heaven’s vassals.
“So, I need the imperial government’s aid in eliminating the two forces and inflicting a blow to Martial Heaven. Also, I would like to request help in finding my parents and Gun-Ha. Can you help me?”
“Hmm... that’s not something that I, a mere magistrate, can decide.”
Woo-Moon was disappointed, hearing the Saber Emperor’s words as a form of rejection.
“But let me introduce you to someone who can help. Just wait a moment.”
Jeong Yi-Moon left the room, leaving Woo-Moon to wait for about half an hour.
Soon, he felt two women approaching, along with Jeong Yi-Moon.
‘I can kinda guess who it is.’
The door opened, and a girl dressed in regal attire accompanied by a beautiful female officer that looked to be in her early twenties entered the room.
Closing the door, Jeong Yi-Moon introduced the two.
“Mind your manners. This is Her Highness, Princess Mok Yong.”
1. Reference to the Red Eyebrows, a peasant rebellion movement. It’s not a very important reference. ☜
2. One of the three provincial-level agencies within the Ming and Qing Dynasties. ☜