Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 133 – Erosion (1)

“The Society Leader’s second disciple just left?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm.”

At Seok Jung’s report, the Shadow Clan Master tapped the desk in his office with his finger.

It seemed the result at the Corpse Blood Valley gates had spread faster than expected.

Already, the second disciple Jang Neung-ak had made a move.

‘It seems Young Master Jang Neung-ak was trying to use that child Mok Gyeong-un as a foothold.’

He had already approached several times, requesting support, but each time, the Shadow Clan Master had refused, saying the Clan Master was still in good health and he had no intention of supporting anyone.

However, now that he had a formal disciple, Jang Neung-ak was blatantly targeting him.

But unexpectedly…

‘He refused Young Master Jang Neung-ak’s offer…’

What was surprising was that Mok Gyeong-un had refused Young Master Jang Neung-ak’s offer without any hesitation.

And yet nothing particular had happened, which was astonishing.

The second disciple was someone who had to get what he wanted to be satisfied.

It was strange that such a person would return without any complaints after Mok Gyeong-un’s single refusal.

“Was there nothing else out of the ordinary?”

At the Shadow Clan Master’s question, Seok Jung hesitated for a moment.

In his heart, he wanted to tell everything, but the fear that had pierced his chest made it impossible for him to reveal what had happened earlier.

‘He is concealing his martial prowess. He possesses a strange ability. He had some inaudible conversation with the second disciple.’

There was so much he wanted to say.

However, his lips wouldn’t part.

Even though the Shadow Clan Master’s room was soundproofed, he had the illusion that Mok Gyeong-un was watching, making it impossible for him to say this.

“… Nothing else happened.”

At his answer, the Shadow Clan Master’s eyes slightly narrowed.

However, without revealing it, he said,

“That’s fortunate. Then you may go.”

“Yes.”

-Tap!

Escort Seok Jung clasped his hands in greeting and left the office.

As he left, a voice came from somewhere.

“Clan Master.”

“Yes.”

“It feels like something is missing from the report.”

“I agree with that statement.”

Unlike usual, Seok Jung’s complexion was pale, and for some reason, he seemed to have not fully conveyed the circumstances of what had happened outside the estate.

Considering the second disciple Jang Neung-ak’s temperament.

Nominally, he was the leader of the Shadow Clan, commanding the information, secrets, and spies of the Heaven and Earth Society.

There was no way he wouldn’t find this strange.

“Assign someone to Seok Jung.”

“Yes.”

“And inform those stationed at the separate residence to write down and report his every move.”

“Yes.”

-Tap!

With a small sound from the ceiling, the presence disappeared.

After he left, the Shadow Clan Master unrolled an old scroll placed on the desk in his office.

The scroll was written in characters completely different from Hanzi.

[اهریمن][1]

It was difficult to even consider it a secret code.

***

And so, seven days passed.

Over those seven days, the Shadow Clan Master fell into various concerns.

They were concerns that arose from observing Mok Gyeong-un, who had become a formal disciple over those seven days.

The first was Mok Gyeong-un’s talent.

It was something he experienced starting the very next day.

He had given him a secret manual to memorize and called him to the Clan Master’s private training room to teach him the Ghost Shadow Footwork.

So, before teaching him, he told him to demonstrate the stances to the extent he understood if he had memorized the secret manual.

However…

‘… Just what is this?’

The Shadow Clan Master couldn’t hide his surprise.

That’s because Mok Gyeong-un had digested the Ghost Shadow Footwork too perfectly.

Not a single stance was out of place, and it was accurate as if he had trained and mastered it for a long time.

He wondered if Mok Gyeong-un had perhaps practiced the Ghost Shadow Footwork overnight.

But that wasn’t the case either.

[Young Master Mok just stayed locked in his room quietly.]

According to the reports from the escort warriors and attendants monitoring the separate residence, he had done nothing.

It seemed he had really just rested last night after having a meal.

The Shadow Clan Master couldn’t hide his amazement at the fact that he had perfectly grasped the footwork in a single day without doing anything.

‘Is he truly a genius?’

He was aware that Mok Gyeong-un possessed innate martial talent.

Hadn’t he shown the amazing ability to instantly imitate the Right Fist, Left Palm technique‘s marvelous principle right in front of him?

So, the Shadow Clan Master tested Mok Gyeong-un.

This time, he gave him the Flying Phantom Saber Art and told him he would give him an hour to memorize or learn as much as he could.

An hour later, the Shadow Clan Master asked Mok Gyeong-un,

[How much have you learned?]

The Flying Phantom Saber Art was the Shadow Clan Master’s unique martial art and belonged to the Demonic Ascension martial arts.

He took pride in it being one of the top ten saber arts in the entire martial world.

So, it was somewhat more difficult to learn than the Ghost Shadow Footwork, and he thought it would be impossible to master in a short time.

However…

‘… Just what am I seeing?’

What was happening?

Mok Gyeong-un demonstrated the Flying Phantom Saber Art too skillfully.

He even displayed the later stances that couldn’t be performed without grasping the saber intent, not inferior to the Shadow Clan Master himself.

Seeing this, the Shadow Clan Master was genuinely shocked.

How was this possible in just an hour?

‘It’s absurd.’

Beyond shock, he even felt fear at Mok Gyeong-un’s martial talent to the point of being terrified.

From the beginning, Mok Gyeong-un didn’t need something called teaching.

When learning stances for the first time, the master had to correct the accurate posture and the meaning behind the stances, but he comprehended it all on his own just by looking at the secret manual.

Just in case, he could confirm it by teaching him two more martial arts.

‘One hears and knows ten, no, one martial art and knows ten.’

There was nothing much to teach.

In just a single day, he had comprehended all the main martial arts of the clan.

Since he had awakened to all the stances on his own, the key was nothing but reaching a higher realm through cultivation methods or enlightenment.

[I’ll have to change the teaching method.]

So, the Shadow Clan Master changed the method to a question-and-answer format rather than teaching martial arts.

Even if it wasn’t related to stances, there were various studies in martial arts, so he told Mok Gyeong-un to ask if there was anything he didn’t know.

But over the seven days, there was hardly anything he asked.

No, there was one thing.

[I heard that thing on Master’s face is a human skin mask, so how do you make that?]

Mok Gyeong-un showed interest in that rather than martial arts training.

However, since he still didn’t trust Mok Gyeong-un, he hadn’t taught him about the final three stances of the Flying Phantom Saber Art and the human skin mask yet.

The first concern was his martial talent that could truly be called genius without exaggeration.

And the second concern was an extension of this.

[Is this true?]

[Yes. It’s information received from the branch in the northern part of Anhui Province.]

[… It’s hard to believe.]

Just three days ago, he had requested information about the Yeon Mok Sword Manor.

The Shadow Clan Master had ordered an investigation into the environment Mok Gyeong-un had grown up in to clearly understand what kind of person he was.

With this level of talent, he thought the Yeon Mok Sword Manor would have also put in a lot of effort to nurture him.

However, contrary to such expectations…

[Hmm.]

The Mok Gyeong-un described in the report was too different from the one he knew now.

His martial arts talent was insignificant, and his standing within the Yeon Mok Sword Manor was the worst.

Rather, the one known to possess innate martial talent was a fellow named Mok Yu-cheon, who had also been dragged as a hostage from the righteous faction.

‘It’s hard to understand.’

His reputation within the family was too poor.

To this extent, he was practically ignored in the succession structure.

But how was this possible?

‘Before being taken as a hostage, he was merely at the third-rate level?’

According to the report, he should have been called trash, let alone having talent, but compared to his current appearance, it was utterly unimaginable.

It was like looking at the records of a different person.

This made him even question if the Yeon Mok Sword Manor had distorted the information to hide their talent.

‘The only thing that matches…’

Looking at his standing within the Yeon Mok Sword Manor, it made sense for him to have grievances.

After all, he was in a position where he wasn’t recognized by everyone in the family.

However, this alone was insufficient.

[Look into it further.]

[Understood.]

In the end, more definite information was needed.

If he had been the same as the image the Shadow Clan Master knew, this information alone would have been enough, but the person was completely different from the information brought.

Even up to this point, the third concern was an immediate problem he was facing.

-Tap tap tap!

The Shadow Clan Master tapped the floor with his finger out of habit and muttered,

“What to do?”

The desk in the office was filled with reports, all of which were observations of Mok Gyeong-un’s every move written by the monitors.

Since they had observed him for seven days, he thought there would be at least one thing that would come up.

But there was nothing.

As if it was predetermined, Mok Gyeong-un’s daily routine was simply martial arts training, meals, breathing exercises, and reading books before bed. That was it.

For seven days, there was no deviation from this cycle of actions.

‘… It’s too consistent.’

Because of this, his suspicion reached its peak.

When the records sent by the monitors remained unchanged for two days, he replaced them all, just in case.

But they also had the same records as the previous monitors.

So, two days later, he changed them again to different monitors, but it was the same.

To this extent, he could really believe it to be true, but the Shadow Clan Master rather felt a sense of dissonance from these records.

‘Is it for show?’

The feeling of trying not to stand out was too strong.

As a result, all his actions felt like they were for show.

Since he knew he was being monitored, it seemed like he was restraining himself to reassure them or gain their trust.

‘Hmm. What to do?’

In case he could coax or threaten the monitors like in the case of Escort Seok Jung, he had changed them three times.

A total of 18 monitors had observed Mok Gyeong-un.

For now, it was virtually impossible for Mok Gyeong-un, who had only been in the training room and separate residence for just seven days, to persuade or threaten all of them and use them as he wished.

‘It might have only heightened his vigilance.’

Mok Gyeong-un wasn’t simply outstanding in talent.

He was a very cunning fellow, so he must have already noticed that he was being monitored.

So, there was no point in continuing to change the monitors like this.

‘No other choice.’

A monitored target doesn’t show what you want to see.

In that case, it was better to change the method.

“Byeok.”

At the Shadow Clan Master’s call, a voice came from the ceiling.

“Yes.”

The one called Byeok was the Shadow Clan Master’s guard and confidant.

His martial prowess had reached the pinnacle of the peak realm, and he was a former member of one of the Four Great Assassination Sects, the Silent Sorrow Assassination Sect[무음수살문]], reaching the highest level in concealment.

“Byeok, replace the attendants with ordinary ones and withdraw the escort warriors, leaving only two.”

“Yes, I understand.”

The Shadow Clan Master’s next move was this.

It was to reduce the number of monitors and lower Mok Gyeong-un’s vigilance.

And…

“Byeok will have to work hard for a while.”

“Understood.”

Instead of openly monitoring, he was planning to secretly monitor through Byeok.

Although his martial prowess was similar to Mok Gyeong-un’s, Byeok, a top-class assassin from the Silent Sorrow Assassination Sect, was a master at concealing his presence to the point where even masters who had reached the transcendent realm would have difficulty finding him if he seriously hid himself.

Of course, there were varying degrees of the transcendent realm, and it was difficult to deceive those who had surpassed the consummate level.

However, he could easily deceive Mok Gyeong-un’s level of perception.

***

Mok Gyeong-un’s separate residence.

Byeok, who had been moving while suppressing his presence with the Silent Step, carefully entered the gap between the roof tiles.

After entering like that, he headed towards the room where light was leaking out.

From there, the sound of someone reciting something long could be heard.

Byeok quietly moved there and looked down at the room with the candle lit from the ceiling.

‘!?’

Byeok frowned.

He saw Mok Gyeong-un grasping a man’s head and chanting something strange.

“Turbid fire road, Noon hour labor, Promise to fairy realm, One grain transforms into ten thousand……”

‘What?’

Just what was going on?

Byeok, who had been looking at this seriously, quietly took out something from his bosom and, after watching for an opportunity, jumped down from the ceiling.

Byeok, who had jumped down behind the defenseless Mok Gyeong-un, then…

-Swish!

He held out an old scroll to Mok Gyeong-un.

Then, Mok Gyeong-un, who had finished the incantation, turned his head and spoke as if it were nothing.

“You came quickly.”

“Yes. Master.”

What on earth was happening?

Surprisingly, Byeok called Mok Gyeong-un “Master.”

Then, Mok Gyeong-un received the scroll Byeok had held out and said with a smile,

“How is the new body? Demonic Monk.”