Bachelor Swordsmanship Remastered [EN]: Chapter 318

318. The Expedition of the Taipeh Alliance

A mansion on the outskirts of Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

The Bukhae Ilmun group was temporarily staying here.

“Sect Leader.”

At the polite voice of the middle-aged man, the woman, who was the Sect Leader of Bukhae Ilmun and the Young Palace Mistress of Binggung, raised her head.

“What is it?”

“The Deputy Head of the Outer Affairs Office has arrived.”

The Young Palace Mistress smiled.

“Tell her to come in.”

Swish.

The door opened, and a beautiful woman dressed in white silk robes appeared.

The Deputy Head of the Outer Affairs Office was none other than the former Twelfth Palace Mistress of Binggung.

She still had a cute impression, but her meticulously styled hair and silver hair ornaments enhanced her charm.

Swish, swish.

The Twelfth Palace Mistress moved softly.

The silk robes that wrapped around her body fully revealed her feminine charm.

The Young Palace Mistress smiled and looked at the Twelfth Palace Mistress.

Swish.

The Twelfth Palace Mistress stopped and bowed gracefully to the Young Palace Mistress.

“The Deputy Head of the Outer Affairs Office pays her respects to the Sect Leader.”

“Heh heh.”

The Young Palace Mistress chuckled.

“Good. You pass.”

The Twelfth Palace Mistress’s expression brightened instantly.

“Really? Wow! I can do it too, after all!”

Unlike a moment ago, she looked completely innocent.

“Oh dear, you can’t fall apart like that already.”

“What does it matter? I’m in front of you, Sister.”

The Twelfth Palace Mistress stuck out her tongue.

“How was it? Was I similar to Sister?”

“Yes.”

The Young Palace Mistress nodded.

“If you do that, the people here won’t look down on you easily.”

“Hehehe.”

The Young Palace Mistress let out a hollow laugh at the smiling Twelfth Palace Mistress.

“You’re also a Third Palace Mistress now, so be especially careful with your actions.”

Bukhae Binggung had undergone a major change.

The battle for succession had virtually ended with the Young Palace Mistress’s victory, and the positions of the twelve Young Palace Mistresses had also changed.

The Twelfth Palace Mistress became the Third Palace Mistress in one fell swoop, and the Young Palace Mistress rose to the position of First Palace Mistress and gained the title of Great Palace Mistress.

She was now wielding unprecedented power, partially representing the authority of the Ice Emperor.

The Bukhae Ilmun was also an accomplishment of her authority.

The Bukhae Ilmun, which had been nominal for the past thirty years, seized Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province, and officially entered the Jianghu [the martial arts world].

It was the advancement of Bukhae into the Jianghu.

“Hey, but are we allowed to come here?”

The Third Palace Mistress, formerly the Twelfth Palace Mistress, asked hesitantly.

“We promised Brother Un back then that we wouldn’t come south…….”

“Are you still saying that?”

The Young Palace Mistress, now called the Great Palace Mistress, said.

“That promise was between the Ice Emperor and the Murim Alliance [a coalition of martial arts sects]. But the Murim Alliance is gone. So what’s not allowed?”

“Um, but…….”

Logically, the Great Palace Mistress was right.

However, most of the warriors of Bukhae still thought like the Third Palace Mistress.

As long as the Blue Wolf of Bukhae exists, they should never invade that land.

“To antagonize the Blue Wolf…….”

“We’re not antagonizing him.”
The Great Palace Mistress said soothingly.

“You saw me paying my respects to him, right? Binghon and Bingseol also bowed their heads.”

“Uhm.”

“I will never antagonize him. If he blocks us, we will retreat in any case. Who would dare to oppose the Blue Wolf of Bukhae?”

Bukhae will never antagonize the Blue Wolf under any circumstances.

Before him, they will only kneel, pay their respects, and retreat.

This was the Great Palace Mistress’s keynote.

She vowed to expand her power to the south, but never to go against the Blue Wolf.

“Really?”

“Of course. I know him well.”

Although it seemed like a contradictory policy, the Great Palace Mistress knew that there was a huge gap and many gray areas between the two.

Moreover, the Great Palace Mistress knows Unhyun.

She knows what kind of person he is and how he looks at her.

“That’s right. Sister knows Brother Un the best.”

The Great Palace Mistress bit her lip slightly.

And she said quietly.

“……Be careful when you go.”

“Okay.”

The Third Palace Mistress nodded greatly.

“When talking to people here, I just have to be cold and short, right?”

“Yes.”

The Great Palace Mistress said.

“They are people with human faces and the hearts of beasts. So if you draw your sword, never back down. They’ll try to tear you apart if you show weakness.”

“Okay!”

The Third Palace Mistress nodded with sparkling eyes.

The Great Palace Mistress smiled at the sight.

The Third Palace Mistress was the only person the Great Palace Mistress opened her heart to.

Rustle.

The Great Palace Mistress stroked the Third Palace Mistress’s hair.

Her touch was full of affection for her sister.

“Good. Go and show them the power of Bukhae.”

The Great Palace Mistress said with shining eyes.

“So that no one can look down on Bukhae. Got it?”

The Third Palace Mistress nodded greatly.

And she quietly turned and left the room.

Thud.

The door closed, and the Great Palace Mistress, left alone, sat down.

The smile had long since left her beautiful face.

‘Yes. I know him well.’

She knows Unhyun.

And she also knows what Unhyun’s true feelings for her are.

That’s why she couldn’t turn a blind eye.

She also knows what her own heart feels for him.

Daze.

The Great Palace Mistress gritted her teeth.

‘It’s already over.’

The conclusion had already been reached a long time ago.

She thought it was already over, that it was a thing of the past.

She thought that personal feelings had no place in the face of the great cause for Bukhae.

But the moment she saw him, everything collapsed.

“……I.”
The Great Palace Mistress muttered, biting her lip.

“Was that all I was?”

Bowing deeply to Unhyun was unexpected.

But she felt that she couldn’t hide the emotions that were bursting out unless she did that.

“Just!”

Thump.

Her hand slammed down on the desk.

“Is that all I am!”

She shouted as if in despair.

But no one answered.

“Ha.”

A self-deprecating laugh flowed from between her red lips.

She clenched her teeth again and clenched her fist.

A small, pale fist, devoid of blood, trembled faintly beneath her eyes.

***

The center of Jianghu.

To the people of Chengdu in Sichuan Province, who had lived on the fringes, it was a dream.

A dream that everyone in Sichuan longed for, but could never achieve.

But the Taipeh Alliance gave them hope that that dream could become a reality.

When the Taipeh Alliance held the Murim Yongbong Tournament [a martial arts competition], the famous families of the world gathered, and large and small merchants and influential figures from all over the world filled Chengdu.

Chengdu, Sichuan Province, was already the center of Jianghu.

So when Dang Seol-ryeon led a hundred riders under the banner of the Taipeh Alliance, the people of Chengdu cheered.

The fluttering giant flag of the Taipeh Alliance, Dang Seol-ryeon’s beautiful and dignified appearance, and the hundred riders of the Seven Great Families following behind her seemed to show the power of the Taipeh Alliance, or rather, Sichuan.

People scattered flower petals and colorful paper, wishing for the victory of the Taipeh Alliance.

Even though the opponent was the Emei Sect, a prestigious orthodox sect in Sichuan Province.

It was a long journey from Chengdu to Mount Emei, taking several days.

The hundred riders who raised the spirit of the Taipeh Alliance headed towards Mount Emei along the main road.

As soon as the main road ended, the mountain path began, and the dust raised by the hundred horses thickly covered the mountain path.

“Ahem, this is quite dusty.”

Je Gal-giho, riding a horse, frowned.

He was clearly speaking to Mo Yong-mi, who was riding a horse next to him, but she didn’t answer.

She had no intention of talking to Je Gal-giho, who had approached her on his own.

“The mountain path is quite rough. If there were an ambush, we’d be caught for sure, wouldn’t we?”

Mo Yong-mi couldn’t help but react to that.

“An ambush?”

“It’s just an assumption, an assumption. There’s no way the Emei Sect would do something like an ambush. Besides, we’re trying to settle the situation, not start a full-scale war.”

The Taipeh Alliance Family Heads Meeting decided on sanctions against the Emei Sect.

However, they did not want to wage a full-scale war with the Emei Sect or cause a major conflict.

Dang Seol-ryeon, the General Military Officer in charge of external affairs, proposed a solution.

The Family Heads approved her plan, and the result was this expedition.

“Settle the situation…….”

Mo Yong-mi let out a hollow laugh.

“I wonder how the situation will be settled by forcing an unavoidable duel on the opponent.”

The method proposed by Dang Seol-ryeon was a duel.

According to the tradition of the Jianghu Murim, a duel would be held, and the loser would fully comply with the winner’s demands.

Of course, there was no way the Emei Sect would agree.

To them, this situation was a complete outrage by the Taipeh Alliance.

Who would agree if they were unilaterally provoked and then asked to resolve it fairly through a duel?

Therefore, this expedition was largely intended to put pressure on the Emei Sect to bring them to a duel.

“Well, it doesn’t matter to Military Officer Dang Seol-ryeon whether Emei accepts the duel or whether it leads to a full-scale war.”

“It won’t be easy, though?”

Mo Yong-mi said with a cold gaze.

“No matter how elite the Seven Great Families are, they can’t wage a full-scale war with Emei with only a hundred people.”

“They can.”

Je Gal-giho asserted.

“Because there’s someone from the Dang Family here……. Oops, I shouldn’t have said that.”

Je Gal-giho, pretending to be surprised, glanced at the front of the line and lowered his voice.

“……There’s an amazing person here.”

Mo Yong-mi’s expression hardened.

‘Could it be…….’

What makes the Dang Family scary is that they handle poison.

They are sometimes ridiculed for being cowardly, but no one can ignore the horror of poison.

‘A master of Poison Qi Gong [a martial art that utilizes internal energy and poison]?’

What’s most frightening is Poison Qi Gong.

Poison Qi Gong was so deadly that even the masters of Sword Qi Manifestation [a high-level sword technique] couldn’t take it lightly.

If a master of Poison Qi Gong is hiding among the Dang Family group, the Emei Sect’s chances of winning are slim.

Rustle.

Mo Yong-mi looked at the front of the line.

Dang Seol-ryeon and the heads of the families were at the front, followed by about thirty Dang Family warriors.

The winner of the Yongbong Tournament, Dang Hyeok, was also there.

Because Dang Hyeok volunteered for this, the other Oryong Sambong [Five Dragons and Three Phoenixes – elite members] and the later generation talents had no choice but to step up.

They didn’t even seem tense, leaving the line and gathering among themselves to chat.

“Tsk, it’s all useless anyway.”

Je Gal-giho shook his head, looking at them.

“They may like their peers now, but in the end, it’s useless in the face of the family’s interests.”

Without even responding to that, Mo Yong-mi carefully examined the line.

The rest were mostly sixty warriors from the six families.

With only about ten people from each family, it was structured too much around the Dang Family to be considered a forceful pressure from the Taipeh Alliance.

This may have been due to the influence of Sichuan being the Dang Family’s base.

‘I don’t see anyone unusual…….’

If a master of Poison Qi Gong wants to hide, Mo Yong-mi can’t figure it out.

So it’s only natural that she can’t see them.

“Well, anyway.”

Je Gal-giho shrugged his shoulders and said.

“Besides the Dang Family, the rest are just decorations. Like that Bukhae Ilmun over there.”

Mo Yong-mi looked back without realizing it.

Unlike the other families, she saw about ten warriors wearing white uniforms.

They were the people of Bukhae Ilmun.

“It’s a truly unfortunate thing.”

Je Gal-giho shook his head.