Book 11 Chapter 15

Neo-Murimagi (新武林記)

- Those who want to change history

"How long do I have to learn this? "

I saw a small hand, badly cut and oozing blood.

"Until it's the easiest!"

The answer came out as if I had prepared it in advance.

"How should I swing my sword? "

"Fastest! "

The answer was simple and straightforward.

"How do I kill a person? "

The answer came so easily to me, even though I'm not one for easy answers.

"Simplest! "

That was it.

Then he spoke again, summarizing. The voice was still dull and cold, but it had the power to strike terror into the hearts of men, a terror that would turn their hearts to dust and scatter them!

"Simplest, fastest, and easiest! All you have to do is remember this."

He closed his eyes for a moment, and the memory of the past came flooding back to him. As he lingers in this fragmentary memory, the door to his office bursts open, and Qi Sahan rushes in to report.

Frowning, he snapped out of his reverie.

"What's going on? "

It was at least clear from his stony demeanor that this was not good news.

"That's a failure."

His voice was completely devoid of emotion. Qi Sahan was so embarrassed that he didn't dare to look up.

"Sin, sorry, no excuse."

Qi Sahan's waist is folded at a right angle.

"What's the status of the deer damage?"

When asked, Chisahan was forced to say something he didn't want to say.

"Me, none."

For a moment, Qi Sahan thought an invisible spark had shot out of thin air, and the shiver he felt was inexplicable.

"Were they really that strong? So strong that they could be attacked by a greenfang and not suffer any damage?"

There was a hint of surprise in the voice that asked the question, a momentary loss of composure. If they were that strong, Qi Sahan thought, it would be much easier to report.

"No, they didn't stick to the front, there were unexpected variables."

"Variables? Isn't it the job of the military to find them and stop them in their tracks?"

Qi Sahan felt as if a cold ice pick had been driven into his heart. The Grand Duke's power was immense. Qi Sahan barely controlled his trembling heart as he summarized the information he had received from the texts. The Grand Duke listened calmly, his eyes shining like a cold lake at night. When Qi Sahan had finished, the Grand Duke muttered something unexpected.

"Son of the King of the Green Forest……."

What an unexpected variable. How could such a person be in the midst of a group of martial artists?

"What are you going to do, send them to the volcano in one piece?"

But the Grand Duke said nothing, deep in thought. Qi Sahan stared at the Grand Duke and remained silent. After a moment, the oppressive silence was broken.

"I don't like it, but I'll do it as a last resort."

Finally, the Grand Duke's decision was made.

The art of borrowing a sword to wound one's enemy with another's sword without getting one's own hands dirty. It usually refers to the strategy of playing with one's own hands and using another as an enemy to gain paternal advantage. Some scholars interpret it as "blowing one's nose without touching it") ended in failure, this was already a foregone conclusion.

"We're already prepared, but we're going to have to make some sacrifices."

The Grand Duke nodded in satisfaction.

"We'll have to take it. Reports say that there's one Heavenly Five Swordsman and one Heavenly Five Great Daoist amongst this group… Ice Sword and Salt Water, both heroes and masters of the unknown powerhouse! How much can the Twelve Blood Horsemen stand against them with minimal losses?"

"You're right. Even if the Twelve Blood Horsemen were our secret power, it would be difficult to break through the protection of the Ice Sword and Yeomdo to deal them a fatal blow."

Thinking there was something to Qi Sahan's words, the Grand Duke asked.

"When you say you're aware and prepared, I assume you mean you've already figured out how to do it?"

"I've asked for help, old-timers! "

For a moment, the Archduke's body flinched.

"The old ones? You mean you moved them without their permission?"

"Sin, I'm sorry. It was all my own doing, but I felt it was necessary."

Qi Sahan tensed up at the sudden chill that swept through his body.

'This, this heavy pressure…….'

Cold sweat trickled down his spine. Qi Sahan couldn't bring himself to look into the archduke's formidable eyes.

"Hmmm, dogma……."

"Sin, I'm sorry. Please forgive me this one time."

Qi Shahan broke out in a cold sweat and begged. The Grand Duke glanced at him, then continued.

"Just because it's necessary doesn't excuse all assertive behavior, and I hate to see things happen outside of my line of sight."

His heart felt like it was being stabbed with countless ice picks. Under the immense pressure, Qi Sahan could barely breathe.

"Once is considered enough, but twice is never welcome."

"I'll keep it in mind, I'll keep it in mind."

"Sure. You have to keep that in mind, if you don't want to get fucked!"

The smile that curved his lips had never felt so murderous, and the words sent a chill down his spine. Qi Sahan was in for a treat today, having seen what the King's chambers looked like.

"Military, do you know why a stuck wheel doesn't roll?"

After a moment of thought, the Grand Duke spoke again. Qi Sahan listened to him with the most respectful attitude in the world, but every word of the Grand Duke's speech exerted an unbearable mental pressure on the listener. Even Qi Sahan, who was constantly advising him, could not get used to this, so he still had to feel the tension in his heart every time he heard the Grand Duke speak.

"What are they trying to say?

I had no idea what he meant. At times like this, it was important to listen carefully. If I pretended to know, I might not be able to find the right place and we might lose a lot of goals.

"I'm not sure."

Qi Sahan replied in a cold sweat. For a man who was always expected to advise his master, not knowing was a very dangerous answer.

"Because it's stuck, of course."

Qi Sahan didn't bother to tell him that even a three-year-old child knew the story. He didn't want to argue too loudly and die before the rats and birds knew. And he had no offspring yet to perform the ritual.

"Do you know why the river is stopped? "

"I'm not sure."

"That's because it's blocked by a dike."

What was he trying to say? Qi Sahan still had no idea.

"I'm saying that this clan is like a stalled carriage or a stagnant river. For a hundred years now, this great carriage has been rolling on two old, rusty pairs of wheels, the Black Heavenly Pavilion and the White Heavenly Pavilion, and the Heavenly Martial Hall, without even thinking of replacing them with new ones. On top of that, the river is choked with the banks of old giants, all of whom wear the name tags of the Great Old Ones, and they're blocking the way for new water to flow."

His ideas were innovative and disruptive, going against the grain of the conventional wisdom that the current bipolar system of the Ming dynasty had brought about the current peace.

"I want to burst that weir. Water exists to flow, not to stagnate, and stagnant water is bound to rot, isn't it? You've built the Temple of Heaven and the Temple of Heavenly Wisdom, but as it is, you're just a frog in a well. Theoretical classes alone will never make you stronger than you already are. Without trials, a man never becomes stronger. That kind of thing is just boring, for me and for him……."

His body stiffened at the mere mention of her. Her mere presence was enough to make him cringe.

"Take it."

The Grand Duke took a pamphlet from his bosom and tossed it to Qi Sahan. The pamphlet flew through the air at a very slow speed and landed precisely perpendicular to Qi Sahan's hand. Qi Sahan quickly examined the contents of the pamphlet.

"This, this?"

His eyes widened.

"Hey, isn't this a blank booklet with nothing written on it?"

The pamphlet, which he had expected to contain something enormous, turned out to be a simple blank page. Qi Sahan felt like he'd been played, but he didn't bother to show his displeasure.

"Why? Were you dissatisfied with a blank piece of paper? Was it some kind of mystical secret weapon that would make you the greatest master in the world just by reading it once?"

"Oh, no, how could I be so uncharitable, and besides, there's no such thing in the world, not even in martial arts."

Qi Sahan wore his trademark smirk on his face.

"You're going to need that booklet soon."

The Grand Duke's voice was full of conviction.

"My dumb brain can't figure out what it's for, please enlighten my dumb brain."

Despite Qi Sahan's pleas, the Grand Duke remained fixed on the high blue sky outside the window, the vast expanse of the heavens sucked into his pupils.

His mouth fell open in silence.

"Have you ever heard the saying, "New booze in a new bottle?"

"Sure."

There are few people who don't know the old saying.

"You know what I mean, right? "

"Absolutely. When you start anew, you have to start fresh from the ground up, and that means not leaving any remnants of the past behind. I think it's a story about how only by breaking with the past can you open up a new future."

It's a unique interpretation that deviates from the norm, but it's not entirely wrong. Just because a proverb has been around for a long time doesn't mean it has to be interpreted in a single way. The point is to get a lesson or life wisdom from it that you can apply in real life.

"Don't you think that the blood in the Great Lake is too stagnant nowadays? Yes, there is too much blood stagnation in the current Martial Forest. Most of the masters who are making a name for themselves in the Great Lake are still people from a hundred years ago, the very ones who survived the Heavenly Blood Tax. There are so many people who are still alive and enjoying immortality who were supposed to be former masters, but ended up as former masters. Moreover, as the years passed and their influence grew, their presence grew larger and larger. Their enormous presence completely blocked the paths of their juniors, making it seem like it was a sacrilege to surpass them. In this world of the weakest, strongest, and survival of the fittest, it's absurd. Isn't that a big deal?"

"That's right. The seniors need to pave the way for the juniors."

"A rusty wagon gives way to a new one; an old bum gives way to a young bum as king of the mountain; how can you hunt properly with rust in your bones?"

Qi Sahan nodded his head in agreement with the Grand Duke's words.

"You have a point. Even the leading lights of the Thousand Blood Tax are all but a waste now!"

"He's a linguistic blasphemer for still being so smug about a subject who barely begged for his life back then, so this volcano convention is going to be a grand affair, the greatest convention of all time, the one that can't be traced back to its origins, the one that will rejuvenate the clan with its brilliant flames."

"Hmph, destruction for regeneration."

The Grand Duke nodded at Qi Sahan's words.

"It's time for an old era to pass and a new one to rise, for with this tournament, all the old guard will be gone from this powerhouse. The future cannot come unless the past is cleansed, and the fall of the pinnacle and symbol of the Old Ones, Tianmusheng and Swordzon, will provide new wind and new blood to a stagnant clan. And……."

"And if we can only eliminate the missing Taipei Divine Army's Heng Yue Lin and the hiding Patriarch Gal Zhonghua! The order of the Jianghu will be reorganized around the Heavenly Beast once again.

As yet he was unaware of the death of Mushin.

"This is going to be one to watch, and I'm already getting excited."

Anyone else would have been looked down upon and treated as a madman, but since it was the Grand Duke himself who said it, it seemed possible.

"Whether the old ginger is spicy, the little pepper is spicy, or the freshly grown ginger is spicy will be determined on this occasion, and on that day a new chapter in the history of the martial arts will open."

"Oh, and one thing I forgot to ask, how are the military's calligraphy skills?"

Suddenly, the Grand Duke asked.

"I wouldn't call it masterful, but I'd say it's good enough that I'm not embarrassed to be seen."

"Really? Well, you'll get a chance to put those skills to use sooner or later. The military's job is simple: fill it with text."

Qi Sahan looked at the pamphlet he'd received from the Grand Duke earlier and asked with a puzzled expression.

"What am I supposed to fill in this blank booklet with? "

In response to Qi Sahan's question, the Grand Duke looked into thin air and made a single, unreadable expression. It was like a faint smile, or a sigh, and Qi Sahan couldn't guess his true intentions.

Then the Grand Duke opened the red lips of his handsome face and spoke word for word.

"Xin-Wu-Mu-Lin-Ki! "