Chapter 98: Zhuge’s Move (1)

Zhuge Household, Internal Affairs Pavilion.

As usual, Zhuge Yeon, the Internal Affairs Pavilion Lord, was stamping her seal onto an endless mountain of papers.

Her eyes skimmed over the scrawled writing as she did.

Sometimes, Jang Yul wondered whether Zhuge Yeon was not actually a person at all, but a machine made for stamping seals.

There was something oddly hypnotic about it.

If he sat there blankly and watched the young lady stamp document after document, time passed in no time at all.

It was a little wasteful, really. It felt like throwing time away.

If only the room were bigger.

Then there would have been more than enough to clean, sort, and put away.

Unfortunately, Zhuge Yeon’s office in the Internal Affairs Pavilion was not very large.

More precisely, the usable space was not very large.

Most of it was crammed full of document chests and bookshelves.

But today, things were a little different.

The sound of Zhuge Yeon stamping her seal was louder than usual.

That only happened when there were more irritating problems than she could stand.

“...Haa.”

Zhuge Yeon let out a long sigh.

Then she set the seal down on the ink pad and clutched her head.

This was all because of the Flame-Saber Lord, Ak Jupae.

“I never thought something like this would happen...”

Zhuge Yeon muttered to herself.

Jang Yul had heard the story too, so he knew exactly what had happened.

Her maternal uncle, the Flame-Saber Lord Ak Jupae...

had gone after the Demonic Cult’s Left Luminary Guardian and vanished.

No one had seen that coming.

The Namgung Household certainly had not.

Probably not even the great Sword Sovereign Namgung Ak had expected it.

“At a time like this, if that man Eunsong were here...”

Eunsong never panicked.

He was always the kind of person who found a way.

At least, that had been Zhuge Yeon’s experience.

Her neatly trimmed nails and slender fingers slipped into her black hair.

Jang Yul looked down at Zhuge Yeon as she tugged at it.

There was nothing he could do for her.

He was only her bodyguard.

Just then, someone knocked quietly at the door.

Two quick knocks, two slow knocks, then two quick knocks again.

Jang Yul slowly laid his left hand on the hilt of his sword.

Then he opened the door.

“Oh, come now. Why are you putting a hand on your sword, Jang Yul?”

“Because I was wondering whether you’d dropped dead somewhere and spilled a secret before doing it.”

“Oh, come now. If someone managed to kill a man in the Transformation Realm, how exactly would you kill him?”

Jang Yul narrowed his eyes.

“Still as ill-mannered as ever. So it really is you.”

“We’re both over fifty now. Don’t you think it’s time you stopped calling me ill-mannered over a four-year age gap?”

“You’ll always be an ill-mannered bastard to me.”

Even at Jang Yul’s sharp tongue, Namgung Byeok only snickered.

That was partly because the two of them really were that comfortable with each other...

and partly because Namgung Byeok, who had reached the Transformation Realm at a younger age than Jang Yul, who was only at the entrance to Transcendent Apex, had every reason to be confident.

But for Sky-Burning Sword Tiger Namgung Byeok to come looking for her?

To Zhuge Yeon, that was practically the same thing as a disaster.

Not because he himself was a disaster.

But because, more often than not, the information he brought in situations like this was.

Zhuge Yeon swallowed dryly.

She let out another deep sigh and reached for her seal...

then set it down again.

She could not focus on work.

“So then, what brings you here? For the great Sky-Burning Sword Tiger to come all the way to the Zhuge Household... don’t tell me something else is about to happen. It isn’t news that the Right Luminary Guardian has shown up again, is it?”

Her voice was full of thorns.

Without being invited, Namgung Byeok pulled over a chair.

Then he sat down across from Zhuge Yeon.

A woman young enough to be his daughter.

And yet she was holding the Reverse Heaven Society together with nothing but her extraordinary strategy and intrigue.

Even though it was so fragmented it could barely cooperate properly.

“You are at least eating while you work, aren’t you?”

“Please, Senior. If you don’t tell me, I’m going to make myself sick.”

Indigestion was not something a person could choose at will.

Even so, Zhuge Yeon knit her elegant brows and threatened Namgung Byeok without hesitation.

At that threat-that-wasn’t-really-a-threat, Namgung Byeok burst into hearty laughter.

“Fine. I can’t have that happen. Fortunately, it isn’t the Right Luminary Guardian. Someone else is coming.”

“...Who? Don’t tell me the dead Sword Demon has come back to life.”

Zhuge Yeon shot back as though she were on the verge of skipping straight past indigestion and into a splitting migraine.

Namgung Byeok shook his head.

Of course, that did not reassure Zhuge Yeon in the slightest...

but the name that came next was more than enough to stop her fretting for a moment.

“Eunsong is coming here.”

Zhuge Yeon’s eyes went round.

“Eunsong is coming all the way here?”

“That’s right. You can hear the details from him in person.”

“...I understand. Then... is he coming alone, by any chance?”

Even now, Zhuge Yeon’s mind was turning sharply.

She did not know exactly what kind of child Cheon Soyak was, but at fourteen, that girl had already shown a talent the world had never seen.

Whatever it took, she had to bring her into the Reverse Heaven Society.

“Your eyes are shining, Internal Affairs Pavilion Lord.”

“At this moment, I’m the Society Head.”

The Internal Affairs Pavilion of the Zhuge Household was itself protected by a formation.

Even from the corridor directly outside, no one could hear a sound from inside the room.

And once one crossed the threshold, it made no difference whether the door was open or not—no one [N O V E L I G H T] could eavesdrop on voices within.

“I know very well that talent absolutely has to be on our side.”

“She really was something.”

“The fact that even you would say that, Great Hero Namgung Byeok...”

“Not her talent. Her spirit.”

Zhuge Yeon tilted her head.

Then she glanced down at the information she had all but torn out of the Beggar Union’s hands.

“Decisive and brilliant, yet quiet and composed... there was nothing in here about spirit. Did you speak with her?”

“Of course I did. I’m on my way back from seeing Eunsong just now.”

“Ah...”

“She said this to me. If she was fated to bring forth a Blood Calamity, then at the very least, she would bring it forth in the direction she herself chose.”

Zhuge Yeon blinked.

In one sense, that was only natural.

Every Heavenly Killing Star...

had always unleashed bloodshed according to their own will.

But Zhuge Yeon understood perfectly well what Soyak really meant.

“...Revolutions spill blood.”

“That’s right, Society Head. A fourteen-year-old brat already understood that much.”

Behind them, Jang Yul, who had been listening in silence, gave a faint nod.

They were not merely trying to kill people.

They were trying to destroy a system.

That would inevitably spill an enormous amount of blood.

Because this was not a fight between one person and another.

It was a fight between one ideology and another.

When a person dies, their sword stops moving.

But an idea is different. Those who come later can pick up the dead man’s sword and carry it on.

Killing people was easy.

Killing thought was hard.

“...If she already knows that, then that’s good.”

“Well, yes. You’ve seen her yourself before, haven’t you, Society Head?”

“Only in passing.”

At the Ilji Gathering, it had been Zhuge Yeon who put up the Blacksteel Sword as the champion’s prize.

She had once seen Soyak from a distance, seated in the tent beside the Sect Leader’s.

A shining talent.

A monster carrying within that small body a talent she had never once seen before.

“In any case, if Eunsong and Young Hero Soyak are coming, I need to make preparations ahead of time.”

“By the way, do you know where the Medicine Sage is at the moment?”

“The Medicine Sage has probably gone to Wudang Mountain for a short while.”

Namgung Byeok quietly stroked his chin.

It was not hard to guess why he had gone all the way to Wudang Mountain.

“Wudang Mountain, hm. Is it because of that pellet?”

“Yes. That Primordial Peerless Pellet, or whatever it was...”

“I trust him. He is the one who reconnected the tendons in my severed wrist and ankle, and pieced my shattered dantian back together.”

What came out of Namgung Byeok’s mouth sounded like the kind of thing only a miracle doctor ought to be able to do.

Neither Zhuge Yeon nor Jang Yul could deny it.

The living proof was standing right in front of them.

“In any case, he’s been busy these days gathering the ingredients to make it.”

“And you told him about the brat?”

“You mean Young Hero Soyak? Yes. Thanks to that, he’s been even busier.”

“Good. Then I suppose I’ll spend some time helping the Medicine Sage with his work.”

Zhuge Yeon thought for a moment before speaking.

“...I’d rather you keep following Young Hero Soyak a little longer.”

“Damn it. How long is ‘a little longer’?”

“Hmm. Until Young Hero Soyak surpasses you, perhaps?”

Namgung Byeok’s brow creased.

He was asking whether she was serious.

Zhuge Yeon only rolled her eyes and looked elsewhere.

“...That brat has already moved past the early stage of Transcendent Apex and is racing toward the middle. She does not look as if she needs protection.”

“But you are at the entrance to the Transformation Realm, aren’t you?”

“You are seriously trying to use a great Transformation Realm master as a child’s babysitter?”

It was not a wrong thing to say.

But Namgung Byeok owed her.

“I suppose it can’t be helped. I’ll have to tell the Medicine Sage that Great Hero Namgung Byeok coldly refused my request.”

“...Damn it. They say a debt is harder to cut off than life itself. Fine. Fine, I said. But I have a condition.”

“What condition?”

“I’m going to see the Medicine Sage for two days first. That much should be acceptable, shouldn’t it?”

Then Namgung Byeok raised his trembling left hand.

He needed medicine.

His body had been repaired and pieced back together, but the lingering effects of the brutal medicine used then were still tormenting him.

“The aftereffects are still there...?”

“I died and came back. I have no complaints. The dependency is easing little by little too.”

“All right. I’ll allow you four days.”

“That is so generous of you I feel I ought to kneel and thank you.”

Namgung Byeok let out a long sigh.

Then he rose from his seat.

“B-but...”

“What is it?”

“When did he say he would be coming?”

Zhuge Yeon’s hand was wrapped around her seal again.

Now that she thought Eunsong’s arrival would solve her worries, her mind felt at ease.

Work was beginning to come back to her hands.

“He’ll probably set out tomorrow.”

“...Then he’ll be here before long.”

“That’s right.”

“Thank you for telling me. Things inside the household have been unsettled lately as it is...”

“Did something happen?”

Zhuge Yeon smiled bitterly.

“What else? My brothers have started vying for the successor’s seat.”