Chapter 264: TranQingdent (1)

Qing received an armband in addition to her alias.

It was a blue armband with “Leader” written on it, which is worn by leader-level personnel of the Heavenly Martial Team.

The Dragon Phoenix Assembly is not just a social club for future leaders of the orthodox martial arts world. It’s also a combat unit officially organized under the Murim Alliance.

Thus, the rising stars of the orthodox martial arts world belong to the Heavenly Martial Team and Earthly Courage Team, reserve combat units under the Murim Alliance.

These two are officially equal and independent combat units without hierarchy.

However, among the rising stars, those with outstanding skills or backing from the Nine Sects One Union, Ten Great Clans or equivalent are assigned to the Heavenly Martial Team, while the leftovers go to the Earthly Courage Team.

But according to the Murim Alliance’s explanation, they are absolutely not divided by status or backing, but assigned based on the need for additional teaching.

Young martial artists who already have their own martial arts systems and don’t need outsiders’ teachings go to the Heavenly Martial Team.

In contrast, the Earthly Courage Team provides advanced martial arts and customized guidance from masters possessed by the Murim Alliance.

Of course, this is the official stance.

That may have been the original intention.

However, most of the still young and immature, in other words foolish young martial artists, didn’t think that way.

In fact, Heavenly Martial Team members find Heavenly Martial Team activities very annoying because they consider themselves hostages held by the Murim Alliance for the Nine Sects One Union and Ten Great Clans.

The members’ principle was that if you can skip Heavenly Martial Team events, you should absolutely skip them.

In contrast, Earthly Courage Team members are desperate to build up skills and fame to enter the Heavenly Martial Team. So Earthly Courage Team members supposedly compete to volunteer whenever occasional missions come down.

This glorious Heavenly Martial Team, but Qing is not at all pleased.

If you say combat unit, isn’t it just fancy talk for the military?

And as a veteran pretty girl, she knows that combat unit names are usually cool.

To raise a sense of belonging and maintain morale.

But no matter how good the packaging, the military is the military. Absolutely no second time.

“Master, do I really have to participate in this Heavenly Martial Team or whatever?”

“Don’t worry, it’s not as serious a group as you think. How could the Murim Alliance dare to use the children of prestigious families in the first place? Unless there’s a crisis in the whole martial arts world, there won’t be forced missions.”

Just looking at the members of the Half Sword Twin Sabers Society, both Peng Daesan and Namgung Shinjae belong to the Heavenly Martial Team. The heirs of the Five Great Clans fit right in.

So if they were given a dangerous mission and got hurt, the Murim Alliance couldn’t handle that resentment.

So in fact, the missions that come down are mostly like: someone is going somewhere, please escort (accompany) them. Or someone is holding a feast somewhere, please attend and leave the three characters “Murim Alliance” in the guestbook.

It’s almost at the level of helping prestigious young masters’ journeys in the martial arts world rather than missions.

“Hmm. But still.”

“But you’ve already won the Hidden Dragon Martial Arts Competition. For the face of the Murim Alliance, you should understand.”

In fact, a Divine Maiden Sect disciple doesn’t have the qualifications to enter the Heavenly Martial Team.

The Divine Maiden Sect is just famous for being treated as a mysterious sect of only women, but if you ask to show the Divine Maiden Sect’s martial arts, it’s at a level where no one knows.

Even now, the Divine Maiden Sect is hard to call a recognized martial arts faction.

The recognized one is Ximen Surin as an individual, not the Divine Maiden Sect.

However, the situation changes when another peerless master is born following the greatest woman under heaven.

Prestige means continuing power, so people will say the Divine Maiden Sect has something too, and a new prestigious clan is born.

“So I was hoping my disciple would help. If you really don’t want to, it can’t be helped.”

“What do you mean help, it’s what I should do. Of course I’ll just.”

Qing immediately changed her opinion.

Anyway, if I go around seeing Absolute Sword Walls and traveling the martial arts world, how will they know where I am to find me and give me work?

Ximen Surin didn’t even hide her pleased expression. How such a kind and obedient disciple rolled in, it seems all the blessings of three lifetimes gathered in her later years.

These days she’s so excited just seeing the envious looks as she busily goes around meeting old people from the orthodox faction she hadn’t met.

Qing wasn’t particularly disgusted either, just feeling a bit off.

So she added:

“Besides, as you said, there won’t be forced mobilization unless there’s a big crisis in the martial arts world.”

Qing said this.

If the orthodox martial arts world has the Murim Alliance, the unorthodox world also has their united community.

It’s called the All-Under-Heaven Martial Arts Unorthodox Path Heroes United Alliance!

Shortened to Unorthodox Alliance.

It’s an extremely grand name, because unorthodox guys tend to be very obsessed with outward appearances.

Orthodox martial artists called the unorthodox bastards just the Unorthodox Alliance, what path, making the last syllable a bit easier to pronounce.

Anyway, the current Unorthodox Alliance leader is a guy called Bu Anpyeong. His alias is Heaven-Defying Lord, and he’s known to be ranked third among the Ten Great Masters under Heaven.

However, Bu Anpyeong didn’t acknowledge it.

Because he was always the world’s greatest.

Unlike the orthodox martial arts world, in the unorthodox world you must thoroughly hide your true skills.

This is because backstabbing at any moment is the virtue of unorthodox guys.

If news spreads that someone was betrayed and killed, it’s a culture that curses the fool who kept the laws of trust and sincerity, saying the one who got it was an idiot, keke.

In such a ruthless world, if you reveal all your true skills, you’re just right to get stabbed and die.

So when rumors started spreading that Wuxue Dashi had entered the mid-stage of the Profound Realm, Bu Anpyeong had already entered the late stage long ago.

Of course, though the degree is different, hiding skills is the same in the orthodox martial arts world too. If the orthodox hide one part, the unorthodox must hide five parts.

So when news spread that Wuxue Dashi had broken through to the mid-stage of the Profound Realm, it’s right to think he had already surpassed the next realm.

Anyway, these days Heaven-Defying Lord Bu Anpyeong’s mouth waters every day.

Because good news flies in every day.

“Alliance Leader.”

“Oh, what? Did somewhere else fall?”

“The Longmen Sword Sect, Yingde Sect, and Liandao Sect, sir.”

“Kukuk, they say you can blow your nose without using your hands, those Blood Cult bastards are unexpectedly helpful, aren’t they?”

“But, will it be okay? No matter what, they’re still Blood Cult bastards.”

“What, do we have any connection with the Blood Cult? Did we collude with them?”

“Lips and teeth are mutually dependent- Aak!!!”

With a low thud sound, the subordinate reporting suddenly flew and rolled while screaming wildly.

“Didn’t I tell you not to use literary phrases? Just speak simply, why are you so desperate to show off that you ate ink? Did someone not eat ink?”

Bu Anpyeong is from a scholarly family of Confucians, as can be known just from his proper name.

Inheriting the blood of such an upright scholar to become the boss of thugs, there’s a long story… or not.

It’s just because he was from a humble family and couldn’t get an official position, so he was full of resentment towards the world, and happened to be a heavenly talent in martial arts.

Starting with third-rate martial arts at an age when his qi and blood had already hardened, a late-blooming martial artist without even a proper master reached the level of the unorthodox world’s greatest expert through self-study, so how could it not be?

If he had entered the imperial court early, a Celestial Martial Emperor or Celestial Martial General from the imperial court would have been born. On top of that, a superhuman with a scholar’s integrity, a scholar’s knowledge, and a martial artist’s martial prowess.

However, even if someone in the imperial court knew this and miraculously went back in time, there would have been no way to break through the holy trinity of blood ties, regional ties, and school ties, so he had no connection with official positions from the start.

(The opinion of the strategy guide writer may differ slightly.)

“Huk, it was too powerful an attack. The greatness of the Unorthodox Alliance Leader is growing!”

Bu Anpyeong had just lightly touched with wind force, so the subordinate rolling on the ground was flattery expressed by throwing his body.

“This kid. This is why I can’t hate you. Well, so lips and teeth, what’s that.”

Lips and teeth are mutually dependent, a phrase meaning the importance of lips. Without lips, not only would the teeth be cold, but you’d become a hideous monster just looking at it.

“Right now it’s fun to watch the orthodox bastards fall, but if the Blood Cult bastards start rampaging in earnest-“

“So what, should we go save the orthodox bastards when they’re under attack? Why should we get involved when the two are fighting in the first place?”

It started with the tragedy of the Chen family in Guangzhou.

Of course, it was just losing their foundation since it was an empty house with all the masters gone out playing from the clan leader, but still they won’t be able to flourish in Guangzhou again.

After that, all the orthodox factions in Yangzhou and Jiaozhou regions, the southeastern Central Plains, are being reduced to ashes one by one every day from unidentified attacks.

Though they say unidentified attacks, anyone could see it was the work of the Blood Cult.

There were sightings of jiangshi, corpses with missing hearts must be the work of the Man-Eating Demon, and they say they heard the mad laughter of the Sky-Gazing Demon.

The Blood Cult bastards are taking an ambiguous attitude, not revealing that they did it but not particularly trying to hide any evidence either, attacking in such an ambiguous manner.

“But won’t it be a big problem if the Blood Cult properly rampages?”

“Ha. You brat. Pretending to have eaten ink all the way. Lips and teeth is not something we say. It’s what those Murim Alliance bastards say. Anyway, if the Blood Cult shows their true colors, they’ll be in a position to ask us for help, so even if we act annoying now by being arrogant, would they stab us first to die together?”

In fact, when the Blood Cult appears, the unorthodox factions just need to protect their own territories while keeping quiet.

But the Murim Alliance, with the justification of protecting peace in the Central Plains, absolutely can’t just protect their own territory.

“So tell our family members to keep holding feasts. Tell them to pick up everything after the Blood Cult bastards sweep through. We’ll take over Yangzhou and Jiaozhou this time.”

Though there’s chaos in one part of the Central Plains, it’s a primitive Central Plains that relies entirely on human messengers for communication despite the vast land.

It’s still a long way from being known.

Just look at the Blood Sand incident on the Yangtze River.

One month for a protest to reach the Murim Alliance about Yan Yeonyoung after the Man-Eating Demon’s death, one month to dispatch an investigation team, one month to return and organize, another month to go to the Yan clan and one more month to investigate and reach a conclusion.

Even though they moved quickly by urgently arranging messengers, it took five months.

So it’s still far from the unsettling events happening in that corner of the Central Plains being known.

It will only be known after people slowly return home after the Murim Conference ends, see only ashes left of their home, and head back to the Murim Alliance for help.

So the atmosphere in Kaifeng, with only the closing ceremony left in the final order of the Murim Conference, was in a messy excitement with the lingering festival mood.

And there was one person who was just excited.

“Hmm. Isn’t the restaurant a bit dark?”

At this, Peng Daesan gritted his teeth.

“Please, can’t you stop?”

“Come on. I’ll turn on the light. Look. Ta-da.”

Qing infused sword energy into her Azure Sword.

The biggest difference between sword qi and sword energy is whether it emits light.

In fact, from commoners’ perspective, they’re both sharp, and the names sword qi and sword energy are similar.

But sword qi just glows on its own like phosphorescence, while sword energy provides a delicate light source to the surroundings like starlight.

But even so, starlight is starlight.

What help would one beam of starlight that’s no help even at night be in broad daylight?

It just evolved, or upgraded, to an Azure Sword that shines very, very brightly.

“It’s Azure Sword plus one. Oh so bright. What use is a gloomy dining place? With just one sword energy you don’t even need lamps. On a dark night road, you can feel safe with just this one.”

“Using sword energy instead of a torch is something I’ve never heard in my life.”

“What are you talking about? I’m saying if some weirdo attacks in the middle of the night, one hit with this. With sword energy, it cuts the weapon in half too? Those who only use sword qi wouldn’t know.”

“Kuk.”

“Kuk.”

Peng Daesan and Namgung Shinjae both made resentful sounds at the same time. Qing’s expression became even more triumphant.

“Especially Sword Acquaintance should work harder. At this rate you’ll become Sword Disciple or Sword Subordinate instead of Sword Acquaintance. Since Sword Peak isn’t enough, hurry and become Sword Transcendent.”

“…Just call me Sword Friend.”

Namgung Shinjae was thoroughly humiliated for carelessly bringing up Sword Acquaintance.

Originally, Namgung Shinjae had made a useless vow that no one asked for, saying he would reach the extreme with swordsmanship alone. It was also a concern for the Namgung clan leader.

However, at this moment, he sincerely thought the world was truly filthy and nasty, and he needed to quickly raise his realm regardless of swords or whatever.