Chapter 117: Seolyoung, Angry

After some time, a major incident shook Jianghu.

Qin Manor’s master Qin Gwan, the famed chivalrous hero of Jianghu, and everyone in his household had been slaughtered by an unidentified group.

Jianghu turned upside down. Qin Gwan had been a true man of chivalry, a renowned figure who carried the respect of many on his shoulders.

The Murim Alliance dispatched the Azure Dragon Hall at once to pursue the murderers.

Once they crossed out of the Murim Alliance’s sphere of influence, catching them would no longer have been easy.

Azure Dragon Hall’s Captain Gwak Bon felt pressed for time. If they failed to seize the culprits, trust in the Murim Alliance would plummet.

Right before the edge of Alliance territory, the pursuing Alliance warriors were all taken aback.

Someone had already wiped out the fleeing enemy and was waiting there for the Alliance warriors.

Amazingly enough, it was Lee Jaseung.

“Huh? Aren’t you my good brother Seop?”

Gwak Bon recognized Lee Jaseung. Back when Lee Jaseung had tried to win over Yeo Beom, Gwak Bon had also been a target for recruitment. The two of them had grown close enough over drinks to call each other brother.

It had been good fortune for Lee Jaseung that Azure Dragon Hall took this case. Gwak Bon readily believed Lee Jaseung when he said he had been tracking the culprits using his own information.

In any case, what mattered in this affair was not how, but who.

News that Lee Jaseung had single-handedly taken them all down spread through Jianghu in an instant. It was natural that the matter became the talk of the world.

When people combined the fact that he had become the Northern Sky Clan’s Lord’s husband through a marriage tournament with the fact that, this time, he had slain villains the Murim Alliance nearly let slip, Jianghu truly erupted again.

Everyone praised Lee Jaseung.

What made it worse was that the ones who had killed Qin Gwan had murdered his wife and child as well. They were vicious to the core.

Everyone praised him, except one person.

Baek Seolyoung stormed into his office with an angry face and spoke without preamble.

“It’s not, right? Please tell me it wasn’t.”

When Lee Jaseung didn’t answer, her beautiful brows arched upward.

“So it’s true?”

Lee Jaseung answered calmly.

“You should start by asking a proper question.”

“Fine, alright. I’ll ask it properly. Qin Manor’s entire family, did you kill them? Did you make the order to kill them!?”

She was truly furious. She would have been angry even if he had only killed the manor master. When she heard he had killed the wife and child too, her anger shot all the way to the crown of her head.

“This isn’t right no matter how much I think about it!”

She had thought it over many times before coming here. She had tried to understand him. She had told herself to understand him somehow.

But she simply could not endure it.

“I made up my mind to understand whatever you try to do and to help you. I threw away everything about myself because of you. And this is what I get? The most effective way you talked about, was this it? Was it this?”

Lee Jaseung waited until she poured out every last drop of the anger she had bottled up.

“Are you done?”

“No, I haven’t even started. I have things to say that would not have been enough even if I talked all night”

“Go on”

For a moment, Baek Seolyoung almost choked. The words ‘you murderer!’ almost burst from her mouth.

But instead of that, tears came first. Her eyes filled to the brim. She bit her lip so she would not cry.

At that moment, Lee Jaseung picked up a sheet of paper from the desk and began to read.

“Qin Manor’s master Qin Gwan, age forty three, made a name as a man of chivalry. His son, Qin Seo, twenty years old. First murder at age ten. The victim then had been a nine year old girl, the daughter of a household servant at Qin Manor”

“What?”

Blindsided by words she had never expected, Baek Seolyoung was shocked.

Lee Jaseung continued to read.

“The one who handled the first murder had been Qin Gwan’s wife, Lady Jo. She killed the dead girl’s father to keep the secret. His second murder happened that next autumn. He brutally strangled a fifteen year old girl from the same village. This time again, Lady Jo threatened the victim’s family and bought them off to keep the secret.”

“That’s absurd!”

Baek Seolyoung shouted. Yet she knew. Lee Jaseung was not the kind of person who would fabricate something like this. In other words, what he read was the truth.

From Lee Jaseung’s lips, the murders continued, and then the additional murders committed to protect those secrets. By the time he was seventeen, twenty people had died, and to keep the secret, twenty eight more had died.

“The father Qin Gwan learned the truth when the son turned eighteen, during the twenty-first murder. He heard everything from Lady Jo about what had happened, yet he took no action. After that, he abetted three more murders, and for the last one he stepped in himself to cover it up. The dead woman then had been the daughter of a renowned martial clan.”

After he finished reading what was on the paper, Lee Jaseung lifted his head.

Baek Seolyoung stood there with a shocked face.

“Is that all true?”

Lee Jaseung nodded.

“Their son had gone mad and rampaged. I suppose they too had agonized and shed many tears for that. I suppose they had suffered as well. But does that mean it’s something they can understand and forgive just because it’s their son?”

“Absolutely not!”

“Exactly. If they had not known, that would be one thing. But they knew and they should have stopped it by any means. So I killed them. All three of them.”

The innocent had not been killed. Dan Woobin had carefully selected only those in Qin Manor who deserved to die and had killed only them.

The fact that it had looked like a great massacre meant so many people had been involved in this matter.

“I may belong to the Unorthodox Faction, but I don’t kill just anyone without a good reason.”

Baek Seolyoung let out a long sigh. A great sense of relief washed through her. Even as she had snapped at Lee Jaseung, she had secretly hoped for a turn like this.

She felt grateful to him. She had been terrified and worried about what she would do if he truly had slaughtered an innocent family.

?Why didn’t you say this sooner?

“First, there was no opening to cut in. Second, I just wanted to hear what you thought.”

“Now that you’ve heard it, what did you think?”

“It was good. Of course you should have been angry. That’s how people should be.”

“Do you really think that?”

“Yes. This was not a matter of Orthodox Faction or Unorthodox Faction. It was a matter of whether one was a person or not.”

She felt he was right. The man in front of her was showing it through his very life. This world could not be explained with simple black and white logic.

“And the ones who killed them are?”

“My subordinates.”

They were the ones Dan Woobin had hired and trained separately with funds from the outer regions. They had been created from the start to be used as expendables.

So the group had been composed mainly of those who had committed capital sins. In particular, for this job he had picked only the most guilty. Because this had been something that needed to be wiped out to the last.

Only after Lee Jaseung explained them briefly, did Baek Seolyoung finally feel relieved.

Even so, her heart trembled.

In her life, there had been nothing like this. To raise those who had committed capital sins, then to use them up as expendables like this.

Lee Jaseung watched her in silence. He felt sorry, yet he wanted her to understand him. This was what the Unorthodox Faction was. The one who gave such orders without hesitation was himself.

Baek Seolyoung spoke evenly.

“Sorry I lashed out first. If I lose my temper like this again in the future… Oh, that reminds me. Do you remember? You asked me for a favor, right? I promised that I would hold back my anger just once.”

“Of course I didn’t forget.”

“Why didn’t you use it this time then? When you revealed your identity?”

Lee Jaseung, who had been looking at her in silence, finally answered.

“Because I plan to save it for something bigger later”

“Good grief! Just how much of a bigger mess do you plan to make?”

Of course that had not been the reason. He had simply not wanted to brandish that promise for the most important work in their lives.

Well, he felt he could use it now.

Their relationship had changed.

Baek Seolyoung asked out of the blue.

“Hey, are you alright?”

Suddenly she found herself worried about Lee Jaseung. He was the very definition of someone for whom the saying of pot calling the kettle black applied. Who was she to worry about whom, and yet it applied so clearly to him.

Even so, at this moment she worried about him. She could not have explained the reason precisely. Simply because she was his woman, because she had staked her life on him.

Yes, that was why she worried. Would he be all right if he continued to carry out things like this?

She asked again.

“Are you okay?”

With a faint smile, Lee Jaseung answered.

“I’m fine.”

He was not walking alone. He had a dream, he had subordinates… and now he had her as well.

* * *

From the next day, Yeo Beom began to move in earnest.

Of course, before that, Lee Jaseung met him one more time. At that meeting he handed over several drawings. The title written on the drawings was the one that said they could never refuse this request.

Yeo Beom moved the Council of Elders to pressure the Alliance Leader’s Hall. He knew full well he could never take over Ban Yeo’s seat for himself. He judged that it would be better to yield that seat to Seop Mu-pyeong and use him.

Public opinion boiled that the pick should be made by fair ability, and talk spread openly that Seop Mu-pyeong was the perfect fit for the seat.

Once things reached that point, Jang Wonso could no longer insist on Wang So alone.

That very conversation was in full swing now inside the Alliance Leader’s Hall.

“This is troublesome.”

The man standing before Jang Wonso, who shook his head, was Wang So.

“Why is the Council of Elders doing this? I heard Elder Yeo had taken the lead in driving this.”

“How would I know?”

Of course, contrary to his words, Jang Wonso had a very clear guess.

‘That greedy old man must have taken a bribe from that brat Seop Mu-pyeong.’

With a show of irritation, Wang So spoke.

“Then please allow a contest of skill instead.”

“And if you lose?”

“Would I really lose to a young brat like him?”

“Even a monkey sometimes falls from a tree.”

Despite the words, Jang Wonso did not trust Wang So at all. He was certain that if it came to a contest of skill, Wang So would lose.

Jang Wonso thought of Lee Jaseung.

‘Seop Mu-pyeong’

He had thought the man had both ability and luck. He had survived even though Ban Yeo had targeted him.

He had thought that was all there was to it, but now his thoughts had changed. He had learned that those behind him had tried to kill Seop Mu-pyeong and had failed.

It had been information wrested with great difficulty. The organization moving behind the scenes acted with extreme secrecy and never forgave betrayal.

If they learned he had dug out information, they would try to erase him. Just like the way they had so casually issued the order to remove Ban Yeo.

‘Why were they trying to remove Seop Mu-pyeong anyway?’

He wanted to know the reason, but he could not get that far. He could only guess there was definitely something.

In any case, Lee Jaseung had survived, and what was more, he had coaxed Yeo Beom over and was trying to swallow the Virtuous Heroes whole.

A strange smile crept up the corner of Jang Wonso’s lips.

‘He is one hell of an extraordinary guy.’

He thought that if used well, he could be of great use. Especially as an excellent tool to press back against the forces pressing him from behind.

‘And that wasn’t the only thing he swallowed.’

When he thought of Lee Jaseung, one more person naturally came to mind. Baek Seolyoung.

Jang Wonso wet his lips with his old, long tongue. His lower body swelled and lifted.

‘Hehehe.’

A benevolent smile sat on Jang Wonso’s face. Wang So did not even dream what filth that smile hid.

Having finished all his calculations, Jang Wonso spoke offhandedly.

“Are you truly confident you could beat him in a fight?”

“Of course.”

Clapping Wang So on the shoulder, Jang Wonso spoke with vigor.

“Good. Then show everyone you are not a monkey that falls from the tree.”

Just as he failed to read the hidden meaning behind the look on Jang Wonso’s face, Wang So never caught on to the hidden meaning behind his words.

* * *

Thud!

Arms flailing, Wang So flew back.

He crashed to the ground and rolled several times, then sprang back to his feet. A few paces away stood Lee Jaseung.

Their duel had been held as a public match. It had not been opened to all of Jianghu, only to the warriors of the Murim Alliance.

In this rumor swift Jianghu, thousands watched. It would not have been an exaggeration to say it was a duel the entire Jianghu watched.

Face red as blood, Wang So shouted.

“It’s not over yet!”

He rushed at Lee Jaseung again.

Lee Jaseung deliberately did not end it with a single blow. He did so that those watching would frown. With such a vast gap in skill, it was an easy thing to do.

But from Wang So’s perspective, he was getting beaten in a way that was humiliating, and if he only attacked a little faster he felt he might be able to beat Lee Jaseung.

He thrust his sword fast again.

As Lee Jaseung slipped by with a hair’s breadth to spare, his fist smashed into Wang So’s abdomen again.

Wang So rolled across the floor once more, then sprang up.

With a courteous clasped fist salute, Lee Jaseung spoke to him.

“Let us stop here.”

“Silence! I can win.”

The next moment, Wang So heard jeers from the crowd. The onlookers who had only been scowling began to send a low boo.

Only then did he realize everyone was staring at him with shame. Shame quickly turned to rage. Killing intent flared from Wang So as he charged as if to die together.

“Die!”

As he stabbed like a madman, Lee Jaseung’s fist slammed into his abdomen.

With another thud, Wang So went flying. He lost consciousness and did not rise.

Everyone clapped and shouted with joy.

From the side, Jang Wonso walked out. All the warriors paid him the utmost respect.

Jang Wonso stepped onto the dueling platform.

“Great Expert Seop.”

“I greet the Alliance Leader.”

Lee Jaseung also showed proper courtesy to him.

So that everyone could hear, Jang Wonso infused his voice with Qi and spoke loudly.

“He is one of the Northern Sky Clan’s rulers who had steadfastly held up our Alliance for long years, and the great hero who punished the vile enemies who had wiped out the Qin Manor, so no one could dare speak of qualifications. I also believe age does not matter in the keeping of chivalry. Then from this moment, the new head of Virtuous Heroes is Great Expert Seop!”

A roar burst out at Jang Wonso’s proclamation.

Lee Jaseung and Jang Wonso. Their gazes crossed in midair, full of ulterior motive yet betraying none of it.

Lee Jaseung’s instincts spoke.

The man before him was a monster.

“Though I am still lacking, I gladly accept the order.”

Lee Jaseung bowed his head with respect. Only then did the eyes he had kept hidden begin to shine, deep and clear as an abyss.

I will not become a monster to catch a monster.

I will become the darkness.

I will drag the monsters that block my way down into the deepest depths of the abyss forever and drown them in the pain of ruin.

No monster could ever defeat the darkness.

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