Chapter 209 Hapsan Sect-1

Chapter 209: Hapsan Sect-1

Hapsan, Guangxi Province.

At the main gate of the Hapsan Sect, now the strongest force not only in Hapsan but in all of Guangxi Province, martial artists came and went without cease.

And sadly, most of those martial artists did not come for good reasons.

Today, too, many martial artists pleaded with desperate expressions to the gate guards.

“Please let me see the Sect Leader! All the members of our Pyeongdo Sect were brutally murdered overnight! That day, witnesses saw warriors from the Hapsan Sect nearby! Please clear our Pyeongdo Sect’s name!”

“My daughter was murdered! And there was testimony that Heapsan Kwaegam’s leader, Gye Juseok, was drinking nearby that day and then vanished! Please let me see that bastard!”

“Please clear my name!”

“Let me see the leader of the Hapsan Sect!”

Countless martial artists were clamoring in front of the main gate.

But the gate guards of the Hapsan Sect merely pushed them back with cold expressions.

“Your grievances have been duly conveyed to Lord Mun! Now return to your respective homes and await further notice!”

The gate guards tried to send them away with these words.

But the crowd that had gathered couldn’t simply turn back after hearing only that.

“Didn’t you say the same thing when we came a few days ago?! How long are we supposed to wait?!”

“At least tell us how long we must wait! Then we can go back and wait properly!”

The warriors desperately wanted a proper answer.

But the gate guards’ stance remained as unyielding as ever.

“Though His Excellency is busy with official duties, he is not one to ignore the grievances of his fellow citizens! Go and wait, and he will surely send word!”

It was at that moment, as they were clamoring like that.

Not far from the main gate, hidden among the trees in the forest, someone was watching them.

An old man and a young girl who appeared to be in her mid-teens.

The girl suddenly asked the old man.

“Grandfather, do they really think the Hapsanpa will respond just because they’re making such a fuss?”

The old man gulped down the liquor from his flask and replied.

“They probably think there’s no other way. They lack both the strength and the courage to oppose the Hapsan faction. Besides, they likely believe that the Hapsan faction, being a legitimate faction, wouldn’t harm them.”

At those words, the girl frowned and said.

“It’s so foolish. Begging for justice from people who might be the very criminals. Just look around—you can see several of those who were protesting alongside us yesterday are nowhere to be found.”

The old man then gulped down more liquor from his flask and sighed, as if lamenting.

“Don’t you think they’d assume we’d return and wait as they said? Surely they never imagined the Hapsan faction, a legitimate sect, would handle people that way. Even the most level-headed person becomes that foolish when trapped by preconceptions. You too, I-rang, be careful.”

At those words, the granddaughter called I-rang shook her head and said.

“Sigh, it’s both pitiful and pathetic. But….”

She suddenly frowned and asked.

“It seems clear enough that the Hapsan faction authors are scoundrels masquerading as a political faction. But are they really puppets of the Hyeongsan faction? We’ve been undercover for a week now, yet we haven’t found any clear connection to the Hyeongsan faction, have we?”

The old man answered as if soothing a child.

“The information came from inside sources. How could it be wrong? What can you accomplish in just a week? You need at least a month to observe. If they were the kind of people whose trail could be found so easily, why would we have suffered so much?”

“But it’s so tedious and exhausting. It feels like a waste of time.”

“Oh, really. Didn’t I tell you not to follow me?”

“But still.”

The girl was sulking at the old man, and he was trying to soothe her.

At the main gate of the Hapsan Sect, the commotion was growing louder.

“I’ve been waiting for a month already! How much longer do you expect me to wait?! I can’t stand it any longer! Let me see the Gate Master immediately!”

“That’s right! I’m sick of waiting! Let us see the Gate Master now!”

It all happened in an instant.

The twenty or so warriors who had been pleading with the gate guards could no longer hold back and tried to push past them to enter.

“Waaaaaah!”

“The leader of the Hapsan Sect, come out!”

“Come out! Hapsanpa Sect Leader Eo Jeong-gi! Come out now!”

Caught off guard by the sudden commotion, the gate guards panicked and tried to push them back with their spears.

“What the hell is this?!”

“Stand back! If you don’t stand back, I’ll stab you!”

Just as the commotion at the main gate reached its peak, with both sides pushing and shoving,

Suddenly, the main gate swung open, revealing a man.

– What is this commotion?!

It was a thunderous voice, resonating with immense inner strength.

The voice, which violently shook their eardrums, forced people to retreat, covering their ears in agony.

Then the man with the cold expression shouted again.

– How dare you cause a disturbance at the main gate of the Hapsan Sect! Do you all want to die?!

Hiding behind his imposing presence, the girl urgently asked her grandfather.

“He seems like a master. Who could he be?”

The old man frowned and replied.

“Hmm, it’s Gye Ju-seok, the legendary master swordsman of the Hapsan Sect. Of all people, he had to show up. This is going to be trouble.”

“Huh? Why him?”

It was then.

One of the men who had been covering his ears recognized Gye Ju-seok, his eyes widening as he shouted.

“Gyeju-seok, you bastard! You finally showed up!”

At those words, Gyeju-seok glared at the man and demanded.

“Gyeju-seok? Who the hell are you to dare call my name so casually?”

Then the man shouted in a voice boiling with rage.

“I am Jiseokjung, head of the Jijang Clan of Dosan! Answer me! Wasn’t it you who murdered my only daughter just last week?!”

At those words, Gyeju-seok’s eyes narrowed.

“Duan… the head of the Ji family?”

Then he scoffed and replied.

“I’ve never even been there, so what on earth are you talking about?”

But at those words, Ji Seok-jung, the head of the Ji clan, only grew more furious and shouted.

“Stop lying! Countless people saw you drinking at the tavern in Duan that day! And at the exact time you vanished, my daughter was murdered! If you have nothing to hide, why are you lying?!”

At that, Gye Ju-seok frowned and muttered.

“This is getting tiresome.”

He then swept his sharp gaze across the people in the hall.

There were roughly twenty people in the hall.

After confirming their numbers, Gyeju-seok suddenly flashed a sinister smile and asked.

“So, if what I did is true, what are you going to do about it?”

At that question, Ji Seok-jung, the head of the Ji clan, roared in fury.

“What?! What did you say?! Are you confessing your crimes now?!”

Gye Ju-seok grinned and drew his sword.

Swish!

“So, if what I did is true, aren’t you asking what you’re going to do about it?”

With that murderous grin and drawn sword, anyone could now see what he was thinking.

Startled by the unusual atmosphere, the head of the Ji family gasped and shouted.

“You… you bastard! As a warrior of the righteous Hapsan Sect, do you dare commit murder?! All the people present here are witnesses!”

But Gyeju Seok paid no heed.

“Heh heh heh, you say there are many people here? They’ll soon be gone, I suppose?”

“Wh-what?!”

In that instant, a yellow sword aura surged from Gye Juseok’s blade.

Whoosh!

Then it immediately lunged toward the man.

“Die!”

Hiding nearby, the granddaughter watched the scene unfold. She looked at her grandfather with a pained expression and cried out softly.

“Grandfather!”

But the old man merely shook his head with a dark expression.

“Haah!”

Shhhhhhhhh!

“Gah!”

Just as the yellow sword energy from the Keiju Stone flew toward Ji Jiazhong’s chest, threatening to cleave it open, and Ji Jiazhong screamed in terror, unable to react…

At that instant, something suddenly flew toward Gyeju-seok.

Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

It was a dagger moving at incredible speed.

“!”

Gyeju-seok could not afford to underestimate it and had to block it with his sword once more.

Clang!

“Guh!”

Gye Ju-seok barely parried the incoming object with his sword’s edge, feeling his hands tremble violently from the powerful impact.

It was a hidden weapon imbued with tremendous force.

And the moment Gyeju-seok saw the true nature of the projectile that had struck the sword’s surface and bounced away, he was utterly shocked.

It was just a stone.

‘You blocked my sword with a mere stone sling?’

A chill ran down Gyeju-seok’s spine. He aimed his sword at the direction the stone had come from and shouted.

“Who is it?! Who dares challenge the Daeapsan Sect?!”

All eyes in the arena turned toward him simultaneously.

Then they could see.

A handsome young man clad in pure white robes, wielding a snow-white sword engraved with a white tiger, strode toward them with a cold expression.

The young man lifted one corner of his mouth in a sneer and muttered.

“The Grand Union Sect? That’s laughable.”

Though spoken softly, his voice pierced clearly into the ears of everyone present.

At that sneer, Gyeju Seok gritted his teeth and shouted.

“You dare mock our Hapsan Sect?! You truly wish to die!”

Hearing this, the girl hiding nearby urgently asked her grandfather.

“That guy is super handsome! Who is he, Grandpa?”

But her grandfather too could only shake his head in astonishment.

“I don’t know either. It’s a face I’ve never seen before. But that white sword engraved with a white tiger… could it be…?”

That was when it happened.

Sensing the opponent was no ordinary foe, Gyeju Seok commanded the gate guards.

“What are you doing?! That bastard dared to mock us at the gates of the Great Mountain Sect! Kill him!”

Startled by his command, the ten gate guards who had been staring at the youth reflexively answered and aimed their spears.

“Yes, yes! Understood!”

But at that moment, the young man flashed a faint smile, gripped his sword, and took a step forward.

Not only the gate guards, but even the supreme master Gye Ju-seok couldn’t help but gasp in shock.

“Gasp!”

“Wh-what?!”

It was because the young man had suddenly appeared among them the instant he took that step.

His movement resembled the execution of a shape-shifting technique.

He drew his sword the instant he appeared.

Shwaaah!

It was a sword strike that seemed to split the world horizontally in an instant.

Those watching felt a momentary illusion that the world had shifted slightly, as if caught in the suddenly drawn, gleaming line.

And in the next instant, red lines were drawn across the bodies of the gate guards who had been watching with bewildered expressions.

It happened without them realizing anything.

And it was only after a single breath had passed that the lines finally split apart, spewing blood.

Puhwaak!

“Gah?!”

“What…?!

“Aaargh!”

Gyeju-seok, who had been standing back, now muttered with a pale face.

“Wh-what… How dare you attack the warriors of the Hapsan Sect….”

Then the young man laughed coldly.

“Don’t worry. They’ll all die anyway.”

“What…?!”

At that moment, the youth in white leaped toward the relay stone.

Bang!

It was a charge at tremendous speed.

Gyeju-seok was startled and hastily tried to defend against his sword.

But it was impossible for him.

Clang! Sssshhh!

The young man’s sword had only slashed twice.

Once horizontally, once vertically.

The sword strikes, almost without pause, seemed to create a cross of sword light in the air.

And with that single strike, Gyeju-seok’s body split vertically.

It happened before he could even scream.

Puhwaak!

Blood gushed out like a fountain from his body, split open on both sides.

Those who witnessed the scene were too horrified to utter a sound.

No, they couldn’t even comprehend what had just happened.

The only one who could accurately perceive what had just transpired was the old man who had been watching from hiding.

The old man muttered in horror.

“That… that’s… impossible?”

All that white-robed youth needed to kill Gye Ju-seok, a peak master, was this single sword.

This sword, whose edge splits both horizontally and vertically.

The horizontal slash forced back the sword Gyeju-seok had raised in defense, while the vertical slash split his body apart.

The old man could say nothing more.

The sight was too shocking—both that this single sword had reduced the famed master swordsman of the Hapsan Sect, Hapsan Kwaegam Gyeju-seok, to a mere ghost, and that it had slaughtered the Hapsan Sect warriors right before the sect’s main gate.

But neither of those facts delivered the greatest shock to the old man.

The old man muttered with a look of horror.

“No, no way… Me, the Southern Cross Sword?! Wha—how?!”

At those words, the girl asked with a puzzled expression.

“The Southern Cross Sword? What’s that?”

“That sword technique is none other than the Haenam family’s…!”

At that moment, the old man couldn’t help but be shocked once more.

The white-clad youth had turned his head and was staring directly at the spot where he was hiding.

In midair, the young man in white and the old man locked eyes.

The old man couldn’t help but swallow hard.

Gulp!