Chapter 23 (Abandoned Disciple of Heavenly Demon)
Episode 23: Kunlun School (2)
“Welcome.”
As soon as they arrived in Seonyeong, they went straight to the Woo Clan Estate, because this was one of the branches of the Heavenly Demon Sect in Cheonghae.
“Please take good care of us.”
“Yes. I have already prepared a place to rest.”
After greeting Neung Byeok-mun and Mok Ja-gyeong, Head of Woo Clan immediately began guiding the group to the rooms prepared for them to rest.
“We can finally get some rest”, one the disciple said, looking at room prepared by Woo Clan. As soon as they arrived at the room, the group examined their bodies.
Each one of them looked extremely dirty, having been moving around without being able to wash properly and sleeping on the streets.
Jin Myeong was very eager to wash up, rest, and have a drink too.
“Get some rest. By the way, the departure is tomorrow”, looking at the group, Neung Byeok-mun said.
“We are leaving tomorrow.”
When Neung Byeok-mun said they would be leaving tomorrow, voices of discontent could be heard here and there. But he paid no attention and continued talking.
“If you don’t show up on time, then you’ll be left behind here.”
After saying those words, Neung Byeok-mun moved into the guest room. But faces of young warriors hardened hearing Commander’s word.
“What do you think, Miss Shin? Would you like to have a drink together?”
As Commander Neung left, Jang Hoo, Second Disciple of Heavenly Demon, approached Shin Ye-hyang.
“I’m sorry, but I have to decline. Since we have to leave tomorrow, you should drink moderately too, Young Master Jang.”
Shin Ye-hyang seemed to have no intention of drinking like that. Jang Hoo’s face distorted, but Shin Ye-hyang immediately turned her gaze to Jin Myeong.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I was thinking of asking for a favour……”, Shin Ye-hyang sighed as she answered Jin Myeong’s question and watched Jang Hoo and his group leave.
“I guess we’ll have to postpone that until next time.”
“I never said I would do it.”
“Is that so?”
Shin Ye-hyang responded indifferently to Jin Myeong’s words. It seemed like she had no intention of accepting Jin Myeong’s rejection.
“I probably will.”
“Well.”
Jin Myeong thought that if he didn’t accept, it will remain secret between them. Of course, that is, unless the Mad Demon intervenes in the middle.
“Let’s wait and see”, Shin Ye-hyang turned around after saying those words.
“Oh, there you are.”
At the same time, Mok Ja-gyeong approached Jin Myeong. Beside him was Bi Yeong, Fifth Disciple of Heavenly Demon.
“Let’s go out for a meal together”, said Mok Ja-gyeong with bright smile. It seemed he wasn’t asking, instead stating his opinion.
“I’m tired…….”, said Jin Myeong. Of course, he had no such intention of being ordered around, so he turned away and refused.
“Oh, well, wouldn’t it be better for the brothers to have a meal together? And talk about what’s going to happen in the future”, asked Mok Ja-gyeong who didn’t have intention of giving up. He blocked Jin Myeong’s path.
“Are you going?”
“Whew. Even if I don’t want to go, it seems like it wouldn’t change your mind.”
“That’s right. I’m just going to bother you until the you say you’ll go with me.”
Jin Myeong sighed. He wanted to ignore the Mok Ja-gyeong. But even if he ignored it and went back to his room, it was clear that it would still be a bother.
“Oh, Miss Shin, will you come with me too?” Mok Ja-gyeong shouted at Shin Ye-hyang who was returning.
Shin Ye-hyang, who was walking to the guest room, stopped in her tracks and turned her head to look at the three people.
‘I don’t think she’ll go’, thought Jin Myeong, looking from Shin Ye-hyang’s expressionless face and thought that she would not attend.
“Yeah.”
But contrary to his expectations, she nodded obediently and approached them.
‘But what is the relationship between Bi Yeong and Mok Ja-gyeong?’ Jin Myeong thought.
In the end, people who appear in the novel are Mok Ja-gyeong and Bi Yeong. All the other disciples seemed to be dead, but Bi Yeong was alive.
‘They aren’t lover, are they?’
That doesn’t mean the two had a special relationship. Rather, Bi Yeong felt affection for the protagonist.
It was absurd, in its own way. After confronting the protagonist several times due to a mission, she became attached to him.
To be exact, the protagonist said something to Bi Yeong, and it was something that Jin Myeong didn’t want to remember.
Because of that, she helped the protagonist easily enter the Heavenly Demons Sect. Later, ended up dying at the hands of Mok Ja-gyeong.
‘Come to think of it, all the people who helped protagonist are here.’
‘There’s Shin Ye-hyang too, who helped the protagonist when he was in danger at Heavenly Demon Sect, right before my eyes. So, what should I do?’
Jin Myeong was troubled as to whether he approach Shin Ye-hyang or just watch. After all she would eventually betrays the Heavenly Demon Sect.
In novel, Shin Ye-hyang was someone, who hated the Heavenly Demon Sect very much. But current Shin Ye-hyang doesn’t seem like she’d any resentment.
‘It feels a little strange. She’s completely different from what I read in the novel.’
‘Ahhhh…. Didn’t novel mention that Shin Ye-hyang had scar on her face. A hideous scar.’
‘That’s why she was called an ugly face, but looking at it now, it wasn’t a face that could be called ugly at all. Rather, she has a very beautiful appearance.’
‘Is what I thought before really right?’
Jin Myeong is not sure because it is not described in detail in the novel. However, he was guessing that it might have something to do with Mok Ja-gyeong becoming the leader.
‘Even if that’s the case with Heavenly Demon now, something must have happened to Mad Demon too. Other than that, Shin Ye-hyang had no reason to hate the Heavenly Demon Sect. Moreover, Mad Demon does not appear at all in the novel, no he simply didn’t exist.’
Before meeting Mad Demon, Jin Myeong had never even thought that there would be a position called Vice-Sect Leader in the Heavenly Demon Sect.
‘That’s fine. Anyway, the problem is that Shin Ye-hyang has the key to obtaining that swordsmanship.’
What Shin Ye-hyang gave to the protagonist was not just the Heavenly Demon Sword Control Art and the Heavenly Demon Divine Finger.
Rather, it didn’t matter if protagonist gets Heavenly Demon Sword Control Art, but compared to that, she gave him- Heavenly Demon Sword.
It wasn’t an actual sword, but a sword technique. A sword technique that consists of only one move.
A sword art which was created by the first Heavenly Demon and refined by subsequent Heavenly Demons for generations.
In novel, even though Sword Art had only one move, it can cut down mountains and split seas whenever it is used to swing sword.
Even the author had stated that, this sword art was so strong that it was ranked among the top three in this world, and also mention that, depending on who learned it, he/she could become the strongest swordsman.
Heavenly Demon Sword, is stored in a secret room, and Shin Ye-hyang was the person who have key to enter that secret room.
‘But I don’t know if there’s a way to befriend her.’
To get the key, Jin Myeong had to become friends with Shin Ye-hyang, but he had no idea how to do that.
‘How can I become friends with that woman who has such a cold face and doesn’t even talk to other people?’
‘Should I accept her request?’
Jin Myeong had declined to help her earlier, but he thought maybe he should accept her request for one time if he wanted to become closer to her.
‘I guess I’ll have to think about that slowly.’
As Jin Myeong continued to walk while thinking, it seemed like they had arrived at the inn that Mok Ja-gyeong had talked about.
“This place, Cheonghae, is famous for its Yangjangmyeon. You should try it too.”
As soon as they arrived at the inn, Mok Ja-gyeong ordered various dishes. Without even asking other people’s opinions. But it seemed like both Shin Ye-hyang and Bi Yeong took it for granted.
“Yeah”, Jin Myeong also didn’t refuse either.
“What about alcohol?”
Since, Jin Myeong had no intention of drinking alcohol, he shook his head at that question.
“Hmm. I guess had you definitely changed.”
Mok Ja-gyeong, who had finished ordering, looked at Jin Myeong with an interested smile.
“It’s ridiculous for a person, who once loved alcohol so much, heartlessly refuse it.”
“I guess things changed after my amnesia”, Jin Myeong answered nonchalantly, but Mok Ja-gyeong shook his head.
“It’s not common for people to change just because they lose their memories.”
Mok Ja-gyeong didn’t think that people would change even if they lost their memories, unless the person is trying to deceive others.
The point is that Jin Myeong had always lived, hiding his true self, but then he loses his memories and his true self emerges.
“Why are you going that far…….”
Jin Myeong shook his head as he looked at Mok Ja-gyeong who was looking at him with sharp eyes. It seems that Mok Ja-gyeong thought that Jin Myeong had deceived the world by pretending to be incompetent.
‘It’s just that soul have changed’, Jin Myeong wanted to say that.
Even if Jin Myeong tell him the truth, Jin Myeong is confident that Mok Ja-gyeong wouldn’t believe him. And neither did he had any intention of saying it.
“Why would I deceive the people of the world?”
“Hmm”, Mok Ja-gyeong snickered at Jin Myeong’s question.
“Well, there’s nothing to gain by deceiving people.”
“There is no need to show such an attitude while being abandoned by your own teacher”, Mok Ja-gyeong nodded in agreement with Jin Myeong’s words.
If it was just a matter of hiding one’s abilities appropriately, then it wouldn’t be necessary, but there was no need to show one’s incompetence at all.
“In fact, it would be more correct to say that the Master was not that interested in me.”
Since Heavenly Demon had already been taught martial arts, it was Heavenly Demon’s nature to wait until his disciple became strong on their own.
He was not the type of person to keep his disciples and train them until they were strong.
“The reason the Master did not call the you, because as Sect Leader he judged that you did not have the ability to do anything for him, not because he had abandoned you.”
If Jin Myeong had mastered martial arts to some extent, Heavenly Demon could have called Jin Myeong and given him an appropriate mission.
‘It looks like that anyway.’
Jin Myeong don’t know whether Heavenly Demon didn’t call him because he didn’t have the ability, or if they just threw him away because he was weak.
“Anyway, that means there’s no need to say things like I lied to you before or that this is my real self.”
Because Jin Myeong appeared incompetent, none of the elders came to help him. If it weren’t for the Vice-Sect Leader, Jin Myeong would still have no power.
That is to say, he would not have been able to get involved in the competition for the Next Sect Leader.
“That’s right. If I tried to let down the guard of the other martial brothers, I would have built up my faction.”
Although Mok Ja-gyeong nodded in agreement, but he still did not seem to completely believe Jin Myeong’s words. He was still looking at Jin Myeong with sharp eyes.
“For example, you may not have been interested in succeeding Sect Leader position, or you may have acted that way just to avoid getting the attention of the other sect elders.”
“If that were the case, I wouldn’t be here now. Besides, even though I was rumoured to be incompetent, didn’t someone tried to kill me?”
“Let’s stop now. I have nothing more to say about that”, Jin Myeong said that and looked at Bi Yeong and Shin Ye-hyang who were listening to the conversation between the two.
“It seems like the ladies are also bored.”
Bi Yeong was listening to the conversation between the two with interest, but Shin Ye-hyang just had her eyes closed as if she really wasn’t interested.
“And the food you ordered came out, too.”
As Jin Myeong said, waiter was bringing food.
“Tsk. As expected from those Demon Sect Members, they’re noisy.”
“As expected, they have no manners.”
It was when Jin Meyong was about to eat the Yangjangmyeon that Mok Ja-gyeong recommended, he heard comments like that.
And it seemed that Jin Myeong wasn’t the only one who heard those words.
Everyone else also stopped, ignoring the food they turned their heads toward the source of comment.