Black Wolf

The Qingcheng Sect and the Tang Clan first decided to completely clean up the Righteous Chivalry Guild, then later sit down and discuss how to divide up the interests.

It was thanks to Hwa Yeong-bin, who had stepped in when he could no longer watch and mediated between the two sides.

I sent Hwa Yeong-bin a sound transmission telling him that Bi Sayoung had rescued the women and where they currently were, then withdrew into a corner.

I judged that there was no benefit in making my presence known here.

But the situation felt a bit strange.

I had thought I ought to at least be hiding myself, but it turned out there was no need for that at all.

That was because neither side paid my existence the slightest bit of attention.

Even Hwa Yeong-bin, and his disciple Lee Geon, who knew my face, were too busy mediating between the leadership to spare any attention for me.

Countless people moved back and forth, putting out the fires in the buildings and binding the remnants of the Righteous Chivalry Guild, yet none of them even glanced my way or spoke to me, which felt very odd.

‘It’s like I’ve become something invisible.’

I didn’t know whether I ought to be offended at being ignored, or pleased that I could relax, it was that confusing.

At that moment, someone among the mass of people finally spoke to me for the first time.

“Hey! You there!”

The tone was so overly familiar that at first I didn’t even realize they were talking to me.

So I looked over without thinking, and a bunch of young martial artists were staring at me.

When I stared blankly back that way, the one at the very front strode toward me with an angry face and shouted.

“Are your ears deaf or something?! Didn’t I just call you?!”

His manner of speaking was so rude it was almost laughable.

As I looked at him with a dumbfounded expression, he came closer and asked.

“You don’t look like a disciple of the Qingcheng Sect—what sect do you belong to?!”

I let my gaze slide over him and the ones behind him who were standing with their arms folded, looking this way.

Roughly seven or eight young martial artists.

They were with the Tang Clan warriors, but since their robes weren’t green, they clearly belonged to some other power, not the Tang Clan.

And the one speaking to me was obviously a flunky, while the leader was that arrogant-faced man in the middle with his arms crossed.

For the moment, I answered obediently.

“I don’t belong to any particular sect.”

Then he gave a nasty little smile, as if that was exactly what he’d expected.

“Of course! Just as I thought, a vagrant.”

I didn’t bother correcting him.

I was more curious what his deal was.

Perhaps he took my silence a certain way, because he looked at me arrogantly and said.

“I am No Jiwang, disciple of the illustrious Hongsa Sword Sect of Sichuan. And the young master behind me is Young Lord On Jeung, the Hongsa Sword Dragon, eldest son of our Sect Master. He will soon be granted the Tang surname.”

Hongsa Sword Sect? Hongsa Sword Dragon?

He seemed to assume I would of course know them and boasted like that, but unfortunately I had never heard of that sect or that person.

Still, since he had the title Sword Dragon, he was probably a post-generation genius who had reached the pinnacle realm at a young age.

And being granted the Tang surname, huh.

Did that mean he was becoming the Tang Clan’s adopted son or son-in-law?

Anyway, as I stared with a face that asked what any of that had to do with me, the flunky pointed at my sword, Black Wolf, and spoke.

“Our Young Lord On Jeung has taken an interest in your sword. He said it was too fine a piece for a mere vagrant to be carrying around. So sell that sword. We’ll pay you generously. It’ll be money a vagrant like you couldn’t earn in a lifetime.”

I had been listening silently to see how far he would go, but at that unexpected line I ended up gaping.

No matter what, if they had come here with the Tang Clan, they should be orthodox, and yet they were threatening a martial artist to sell his sword—that was behavior beyond imagination.

With a faint laugh, I asked.

“Did you just tell a martial artist to hand over his sword?”

The punk laughed proudly and nodded.

“That’s right! Consider it an honor that our Young Lord has taken an interest in you!”

It was a worldview that truly defied belief.

To think there were people with this kind of unbelievable mindset even among those who weren’t from the Demonic Sect.

The world really was wide.

Smiling, I asked him.

“Do you know that a weapon is like a martial artist’s life?”

He snorted and answered.

“Ha! That’s what they say about real warriors, not some vagrant like you… Guh!”

Kwak!

I clamped a hand around his throat, lifted him lightly into the air, then bared my teeth in a feral grin toward the On Jeung fellow watching from afar.

“Since you know that, you won’t have any right to complain. You tried to take someone else’s life, so you can’t say a word even if you die. Isn’t that right?”

“Gk! Gk!”

While the punk choked and gagged in my grip, On Jeung and his group, who had been watching from a distance, started toward me with stiff faces.

But just then, someone else reached me first and spoke.

“What’s going on here, Junior Brother Seonu?”

It was the Red-Rain Divine Sword, Hwa Yeong-bin.

I gave him an incredulous smile.

“Ah, Great Hero Hwa. This man here was threatening me to sell my sword. He said he was from some Hongsa Sword Sect or other….”

Hwa Yeong-bin also looked at the punk with an incredulous face and spoke.

“He threatened you to sell your sword? And to Junior Brother Seonu of all people?”

Then he shook his head as if in disgust and said.

“For someone who has probably only just managed to reach first-rate to say such things to Junior Brother Seonu, who fought a life-and-death duel with the Masked Demon Lord, shows an astonishing lack of judgment. It’s amazing he’s survived in the martial world at all. He really would have no right to complain even if he died.”

At his words, the punk, whose face had been flush from lack of air, turned deathly pale.

He was finally sensing the danger.

I smiled brightly at him and answered.

“Yes. That’s why I’m thinking of killing him.”

Tears sprang instantly to his eyes.

Then he squeezed out the words.

“Guhk! S-spa… re… me! I-I’m s-sorry!”

When I turned my head, On Jeung and his companions were already hurrying off in another direction, deliberately looking away from this side. Their change of course could not have been swifter.

I almost had to admire how cleanly they abandoned their companion.

Ah, perhaps they had never considered him a companion at all.

For some reason, I started to feel a little sorry for the man in my hand.

I showed him the backs of his comrades as they fled the scene and asked.

“Now, where did you say you belong?”

“Th-that…”

Tears pooled in his eyes, then streamed down.

Clicking my tongue, I simply hurled him to the ground.

Thud, crash!

“Guh-urk!”

Then I spoke to him in a bored tone as he watched my face like a rain-soaked rat.

“Get lost. If I see you next time and you’re acting the same way, I’ll take your life then.”

“Th-thank you! Thank you, great hero!”

Hwa Yeong-bin and I watched him run away with his tail between his legs for a moment.

Then I suddenly turned to Hwa Yeong-bin and asked quietly.

“Are you all right?”

It was a question loaded with several meanings.

Hwa Yeong-bin, who had been watching the fleeing man, gave a faint smile and answered.

“Well, I think so. When I thought that Heaven—or perhaps she—did not yet wish for me to come to her, I started wanting to live what life I have left a little more earnestly.”

As he said that and smiled, his expression still held a trace of sorrow in one corner, but overall he looked far lighter than before.

Most likely, having come back from the brink of death had actually stirred up his will to live.

I was relieved.

He gave a small smile and asked me.

“You said you’d attack the Demonic Sect within five years, didn’t you?”

To attack the Demonic Sect within five years.

That was the line I had always spouted like a habit.

But it was also something I had been agonizing over deeply just a moment ago.

‘Is that really possible?’

After being utterly crushed by Sa Won-yang, and then witnessing Cheok Gang’s overwhelming martial prowess, that goal now seemed as reckless as trying to reach the sky.

It felt far more likely I would die like a dog without accomplishing anything, let alone bring down the Demonic Sect.

But then I gave a crooked smile and nodded.

“Yes, I will.”

Even if that happened—even if I died like a dog without achieving anything—I still had to launch an assault on the Demonic Sect within five years.

It wasn’t something I could do if it seemed possible and give up if it didn’t.

If I failed to topple the Demonic Sect, I would end up losing everything again, just like in my last life.

So I had to succeed.

For myself, and for the people precious to me.

Then Hwa Yeong-bin looked at me with a burning gaze he hadn’t shown since I’d met him and said.

“Right. Somehow, I feel like you might actually be able to do it. When that time comes, won’t you let me join you? I’ll do everything I can to become much more of a help than I am now.”

The emptiness that had always lurked in his eyes was completely gone, replaced by a fierce flame.

Seeing that blazing gaze, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

Maybe it really was possible.

If I didn’t go alone, but together with people like this, then perhaps it truly could be done.

My own chest felt as if it were heating up together with his gaze.

I grinned playfully and said.

“Well, you’re a bit lacking at the moment, but I’ll trust you when you say you’ll work hard.”

He also broke into a wide smile and answered.

“All right, thank you. I’ll give it everything I’ve got.”

We exchanged burning looks and clasped each other’s hands tightly.

The heat I felt from his hand seemed to travel all the way into my heart, setting it ablaze.

Then, as if remembering something, Hwa Yeong-bin suddenly asked me.

“Ah, right. There’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you. It’s about your sword. Do you know anything about that sword?”

“Huh? My sword?”

I looked down at Black Wolf, the sword that that Hong-something fellow had just been coveting, and asked back. He answered with a grave face.

“Yes, your sword. If my memory isn’t wrong, I’ve seen something very similar before. The color was different, but the shape was almost identical.”

Knowing the secret of Black Wolf, I couldn’t help being startled at his words.

A sword shaped exactly like Black Wolf?

And what followed was even more astonishing.

“And the man who possessed that sword was the Sword Sovereign.”

“…Sorry?! The Sword Sovereign?!”

“Yes, the Sword Sovereign Ban Jungyang, called the Red-Wolf Sword Sovereign or the Blood-Wolf Sword Sovereign, the man hailed as the number one in the world. Him.”

My jaw wouldn’t close.

The Blood-Wolf Sword Sovereign, Ban Jungyang.

Among the fifteen absolute beings known as the Two Kings, Three Saints, Four Demons, and Five Eccentrics, he occupied the very first seat.

In other words, he was the so-called strongest under Heaven.

At his name suddenly popping up, all I could do was swallow hard.

And wait for what he would say next.

But the story Hwa Yeong-bin continued with was, somewhat oddly, about a martial artist from a hundred years ago.

“You know about the Seven-Star Sword God from a hundred years ago, don’t you?”

The age a hundred years back, when the Martial God, Demon God, Thunder God, and Sword God had all been active at roughly the same time, was remembered as mythology by today’s martial artists.

Since those days, no one had appeared in the martial world worthy of the title “god,” and Zhejiang Province, where the Martial God, Thunder God, and Sword God had all appeared, was still called the Divine Land and revered as a holy place by martial artists.

And now, of all things, the story of the last of those gods, the Seven-Star Sword God, was coming up—could it be?

Feeling my heartbeat quicken, I nodded.

“Yes, of course.”

“But did you know that aside from the title Seven-Star Sword God, he was also called Cheonrang, or the Heavenly Wolf Sword God?”

Cheonrang, the Heavenly Wolf?

“The Heavenly Wolf… Sword God? No, I’ve never heard that.”

As I said so, I found myself looking again at my sword, Black Wolf.

At the clearly carved wolf’s head on the guard.

“Before he passed away, the Sword God lamented that there were no disciples with enough talent to inherit his true legacy, and said this: that he would leave his true attainments in an object he used in life, and that through that object, they would be passed on to some destined successor in a later generation. But he never revealed what that object was.”

I swallowed.

So that was the Sword God’s legacy I’d only ever heard about as rumor.

I muttered without thinking.

“A storm of blood must have blown. Is that why there was the Sword God Blood Incident?”

Hwa Yeong-bin nodded.

“Yes, that’s exactly what caused the Sword God Blood Incident. It was an incredible storm of blood that lasted ten whole years. They say even a single brush or sheet of paper he’d used in life cost countless people their lives. But after about ten years, that storm of blood died down as if it had never happened.”

“It died down?”

That sounded strange.

Greed over treasure never died down.

And if it was related to the Sword God’s true legacy, it would surely be a demonic treasure that dragged a storm of blood in its wake for as long as humans existed, not just ten years.

Yet it had supposedly quieted down after only ten years.

I gathered my thoughts and slowly spoke.

“So there was no such thing as the Sword God’s true legacy.”

Hwa Yeong-bin smiled in approval and nodded.

“Exactly. Unable to bear that storm of blood, the Heavenly Killing King of the time gathered all of the Sword God’s belongings and had them examined one by one in front of the orthodox masters. They say that Heavenly Killing King, unlike the current one, was a great man respected by both orthodox and unorthodox alike. He was also a personal acquaintance of the Sword God.”

It was a remarkable story.

The current Cold-Blooded Killing King Naeng Gyuram, lord of the Ten-Thousand Threads Alliance and one of the Two Kings of the world, was rumored—despite liking fair and square duels in a way unlike a typical unorthodox master—to be, along with the Heavenly Demon and Blood Demon, one of the cruellest people under Heaven.

To think that such a man’s ancestor had been someone respected by all was a bit hard to picture.

Brother Hwa’s explanation continued.

“Yet even after he gathered all of the relics and inspected them, they could find no trace of the Sword God’s true legacy. No one and nothing could find it. So people finally reached a conclusion: that the Sword God had left those words just to set greedy people fighting among themselves over his belongings. And in fact, they say that for decades afterward, no great blood incidents occurred in the martial world. Of course, even so, most people still believed the Sword God had hidden his true legacy somewhere else.”

No one had ever discovered the Sword God’s legacy.

My heart was pounding.

If so, then perhaps….

At that moment, Hwa Yeong-bin went on.

“Then, twenty years ago, that man appeared in the world. A man who’d been just a common vagrant warrior, but at some point became an absolute of the martial world and the greatest swordsman under Heaven—the Blood-Wolf Sword Sovereign, Ban Jungyang. Him.”

At those words, I swallowed and asked.

“Then, could it be…?”

“Yes. A few years ago, when I visited him with my master, who is acquainted with him, he frankly acknowledged it. That he had indeed inherited the Sword God’s true legacy. And as he said that, he smiled in satisfaction and looked at his sword—a red blade shaped exactly like yours, called the Blood-Wolf Sword.”

Listening to him, I stared blankly at Black Wolf.

My heart pounded as if it would burst.

If so, then the true identity of this ‘Black Wolf’ was….

“Of course, it could be a completely unrelated sword. And even if it is one of the swords the Sword God left behind, it might be nothing more than a well-forged treasure blade. But be careful, always. If anyone recognizes that sword, they will surely reveal their greed for it.”

Knowing that Black Wolf held a secret, his warning weighed heavier on me than anything.