Chapter 54: Where did This Fortuitous Encounter Come From? (1)

Translator: hwarang

Editor: Klaurem

Number Seven walked through a corridor resembling a maze.

Forward, side, back, side, forward, side. It was a corridor that even a smart person would have a hard time getting through on their first try. After some time, when she got out of the maze there was a long and straight corridor waiting for her. At the end of the corridor was a door that was decorated in gray.

When she entered the room there was a single man with his back facing her inside. The room had no window, as if it was a basement. The man was staring at a picture where a window should have been.

It was a dynamic picture of a wave crashing into the rocks along the shore causing foam and bubbles. It was truly an antithesis to the pent-up room.

Ma Jung Soo is dead

It was raining outside, as if it was an omen.

The mans expression was unchanged, How?

Although Ma Jung Soo died, he wasnt going to report it to Ma Bong GI nor was he going to report it the Murim Alliance either.

He died because of the Dark Guild of San Dong.

Did you verify?

Yes, I verified with my own eyes. Here is the detailed report.

She laid her report down on the table. But the man didnt move his sight from the picture.

Whenever I see this picture this is what always comes to my mind. Did the artist draw this picture while looking at the ocean, or did he draw it from his imagination? What do you think?

I dont know.

Finally when the man turned around, he looked like he was in his thirties. Contrary to the atmosphere when he was looking at the painting, his atmosphere completely turned cold.

He was the leader of this organization, Number One. He was the only person who knew how many members were in this organization and the only source to the boss of the organization.

Number One slowly read the report.

The Old Man Flower Fan and Si Gon who went with you went missing? And it seems like it is the doing of another successor?

Yes, thats what I believe.

Number One said all this while still staring at the report, Stand by until further instruction.

Yes

As she was about to leave the room, Number One called her, Number Seven.

Yes

Number Ones tone became lighter, Good job

But Number Seven was still emotionless, Thank You

When she left the room, Number One finished reading the report. Then he put the report back on the table and went back to staring at the picture.

Three hours after the report was made, the report got to the Murim Mengju, Ma Bong Gi.

The person who reported was the leader of the Moonlight Sect, Joo Chul Ryong.

This report just came in sir. Unfortunately sir, your son, Ma Jung Soo has died.

Even though he heard the news about the death of his son, Ma Bong Gi didnt show any emotion.

Who killed him?

It seems like one of the other successors.

Joo Chul Ryong didnt report anything about the Dark Guild or about San Dong Merchants. Either he altered the information or he didnt receive information about it since no one knew how many people it went through after it left Number Ones hand.

It seems like we need to look into it. Since we cannot send someone from the Alliance I think you must send someone from your Clan.

Ma Bong Gi nodded, I will take care of it. Now, the next report.

With that, the conversation about the death of Ma Jung Soo ended. If Ma Jung Soo saw this from the depth of hell he would be cursing and raging.

Due to this, it seems that Kang Ho isnt in a great state. Please bring back the successors that you sent out.

There is no need for that, Ma Bong Gi refused his request.

Even if my successors might object to it, I will send some men. I am sure you are more capable than me in this area. I am giving them this much opportunity, at least they should be respectful of it.

You cannot ignore the public opinion.

You should stop ignoring me first.

Joo Chul Ryong pretended that he didnt hear the last statement and went on, There are some things the Murim-In expect out of the Mengju.

As you know, I am not that sort of a person.

Then why dont you become one starting now.

The two of them were engaged in a battle of will.

I will ask you a question.

Yes

Why did you choose me?

If it wasnt for Joo Chul Ryong of the Moonlight Sect, one of the three pillar sects of the Alliance Ma Bong Gi would never have been the Mengju.

I have respect for you.

Dont give me that shit and tell me your real reason.

I dont have other reason.

Who is the one behind you.

There is no one.

Laughing, Ma Bong Gi grabbed the chairs handle and shifted his weight to the front. Ma Bong Gi might have believed Joo Chul Ryong if he didnt say it with an atmosphere, but he knew that it was fake. Ma Bong Gi was someone who had experienced many things in life and he knew what sort of person he was.

There was someone behind him. Even though he was appointed as the Mengju for over half a year he didnt know how that person looked like or what he wanted. Since he made Ma Bong Gi into a mengju it wasnt unlikely that he would come demanding something.

Let us stop here.

Then take your leave.

Joo Chul Ryong slowly left the place.

Ma Bong Gi was closely staring at Joo Chul Ryong as he left.

If you see me as a fool, and think that you can use me that easily then you have made a grave mistake.

The rumor about Ma Jung Soo started spreading from San Dong to other cities.

It was about how Ma Jung Soo made an agreement with the San Dong merchants, but during that process he stole money from the San Dong Merchants as they were borrowing money from the Dark Guild.The news about his death didnt spread. But it was just told that he left, and his plan for making a martial arts school went down the gutters.

Of course, all these rumors were created by me.

I was very careful while spreading these rumors, but these rumors spread like a wildfire after leaking it. Soon the rumors spread to other parts of Kang Ho. Then, another rumor started spreading about how the Heavenly Dao Gate was trying to influence the Kang Ho.

Finally, peoples resentment for Ma Bong Gi erupted.

The Murim Alliance believed everything settles down through time, so they didnt make a move.

San Dong finally found its peace once more, but there were two organization that didnt. They were the San Dong Merchants and the San Dong Dark Guild. The Dark Guild left San Dong after hearing what happened to Ma Jung Soo, and San Dong Merchants were discriminated against because of their dealings with the Dark Guild coming to light.

In the end however, the ultimate victor was me.

I was able to obtain two hundred thousand nyang thought this event.

It was enough money to expand the strength of our sect tenfold, but I planned to build to up slowly. So, I would increase the number of our sect in spring as planned, Still adding only forty members as planned..

Due to the recent events, the Heavenly Dao Gate or Murim Alliance might start their investigation and I didnt want to attract their attention too much.

The Sword Sect was running smoothly under the instruction of Kwan He. It was to the degree where I could entrust him as the chief of the sects that I planned on creating.

Even so, I was going to let them mature and get stronger until next spring. If the chief was well training additional members will be easy. The moment that these twenty become the leader of their own sect is when I will have become a major power with over four hundred men.

Kwang Du was also diligently training. He had truly improved after I fed him the profound medicine, raising the energy in his dantian by eight years. With that he gained a lot of self-confidence.

Its hard to see your face these days young master.

I was busy.

You should have taken me.

Should I have? I questioned him with my eyes wide open.

was it dangerous?

I told him with a serious face, There were crazy people with swords everywhere, some were even shooting out their weapons from their hand, and curses were the norm. Hundreds of thousands of Nyangs were exchanged, and there was a lot of backstabbing

Kwang Du put his hands in his ears, Please! Stop!

I will take you next time. I will show you how Kang Ho really is. I think its time.

No, I think I still have ways to go. I like the peaceful Kang Ho where you receive medicine and weapon as presents. Thats the kind of Kang Ho I want to live in.

Ho ho

Please dont laugh like that!

It was fun teasing Kwang Du like this. It had been a while since I last teased him like this. It felt as if joking around with him like this was taking away my tension that I had built up taking down Ma Jung Soo.

But where are you doing? You even have a bag?

Kwang Du asked me after seeing the bag in my back.

I told him with a cold expression, What? You want to go with me?

What! Is the thing that you are carrying a body?

Kwang Du ran away from me and waved his hand at me.

After giving him a laugh I left the house.

What I had inside the bag wasnt a corpse but what the corpse had given me as a gift.

With the two hundred thousand nyang I went to theShrouded City Merchants.

I was planning on buying some cultivation medicine.

Why was I so focused on raising my ki?

This was because it was the fastest way to get stronger. Usually if people took different types of cultivation medicine it would hinder their progress. There was a limit on how much money can give you when it comes to cultivation medicine since it will be less and less effective the more ki that you have.

Fortunately, I was practicing the best cultivation technique, the Divine Protection Techniques which would bring out the maximum potential of medicine. However even I couldnt change the fact the effect of it will go down as my dantian gets bigger. Still, I didnt even have sixty years worth of energy; thus, I believed that I wont have too much effect in my cultivation.

This was what I realized after taking down Ma Jung Soo. Something was happening in the Murim that I didnt know about.

Thus, I decided that I must get stronger as soon as possible.

I had perfectly mastered the first three stances of my Ashura Sword Arts. I never forgot to train my body in the morning. The thing I was lacking the most in was my ki.

I must quickly reach the sixty years point so that I could use the fourth stance of the Ashura Soul Chasing Sword Art.

For this, I needed to find decent medicine at the Shrouded City Merchants.

I met with the same old man as before. I altered my face again as usual.

But the old man said with a disappointed face, We are out of medicine today.

I see.

The day that I had the most money was the day that they ran out of the cultivation medicine.

I was disappointed but I couldnt do anything since it was like what that old man said, the owner of the elixir already exists.

I believe the other branches dont have any either. The production of Cultivation Medicine has dwindled. We might not even be able to find one at all this year.

Oh well

Since you are here, why dont you look at our other merchandise?

Good idea sir.

It wasnt a bad idea to look at some of the merchandise that they might have.

I followed the old man and exited the room. After crossing the garden we arrived at a large room with many displayed objects. This room was as big as the Yang Clans banquet hall.

There were all sorts of merchandise on display here, which were divided into two general types. One type of merchandise was enclosed in a metal cage while the other type wasnt. I could tell that the metal cage wasnt an ordinary steel. Although it may not be able to withstand my attack, it was enough to hold off ordinary attackers.

In the prime of my previous life, there was nothing that I couldnt cut down. I remember when I fought against the Black Dragon of the Thirteen Demons Alliance. He ran into a secret cave protected by an Adamantine door. When I showed my sword light he laughed at me even more. However, when my sword light was able to slowly cut down on his door, others should have seen the look on his face. In the end, he couldnt escape and died at my hand.

The old man took me to where some of the swords were displayed.

Looking at your sword, it seems pretty old. You should buy a new one.

Haha.

I wanted to laugh out loud.

He was saying that since he doesnt know what sort of sword this is. If I told him that this was the Heavenly Origins Sword, he would have been pleasantly surprised.

He pointed at one of the swords that were encaged.

That sword is the Mystical Typhoon Sword. The one that was personally used by theLord Typhoon.

I knew about that sword. It was a sword that I had fought against when I was still young. I won against him under a minute. After that we exchanged letters every so often. But then he stopped sending me letters.

Seeing his sword here it must mean that he was dead.

Senior, I hope that you went to a better place.

I prayed for him in my heart.

How much is it?

Ninety thousand nyang.

Ninety thousand nyang?

I was surprised. It was more than I expected.

It was the personal blade of Lord Typhoon.

So thats how it is.

If that sword cost that much, how much would these Heavenly Origins Sword cost? The sword much better and was the personal sword of the previous Mengju. A few hundred thousand nyang wouldnt be enough. Not that I thought of selling it, but since I customized it a bit it's worth might have gone down a bit.

If I found the King Shuras Divine Sword now, that sword would be priceless.

Besides the Mystical Typhoon sword, there were a few other swords that caught my attention. A few of them were a level above it and few were below. However they would only cost thirty to fifty thousand nyang.

It would be difficult, but I would be able to cut down most of the swords that were below the Mystical Typhoon sword level.After looking at the swords I looked at other weapons. Staff, spear, glove, there were many different things on display here. The things that I wanted to buy were too expensive. For example, the hidden armor that I wanted to buy was over a hundred thousand nyang. Of course, it was made of a material that wouldnt be cut by a sword that easily but it was too much for my current financial situation.

After looking at all the encaged merchandise I went to look at the cheaper ones.