Call Of The Spear [EN]: Chapter 438

Tales of a Wandering Swordsman – Part 2, Chapter 147

The Song of the Valiant Nine.

Near the center of the Upper World, south of the Geonwon Sea, lies a small island.

It is home to a peculiar mystical creature that roams the Geonwon Sea as if it were its own backyard. This creature sings with a strange timbre, a song so captivating that even highly skilled cultivators with powerful divine abilities, once they hear it, can never forget it and are compelled to seek it out again.

However, due to its proximity to the Geonwon Sea, many cultivators who approached the Song of the Valiant Nine often mysteriously disappeared, making it a dangerous place.

“The Song of the Valiant Nine….”

Unfortunately, the Song of the Valiant Nine was also close to the Four Seasons Boundary, and Saha had left for that place ten years ago, only to disappear without a trace.

The Great Heavenly Gate Leader was unable to spare the resources to search for Saha, the Immortal Slaughter General, and her subordinate cultivators due to the circumstances. Just then, Cheonbeom appeared, and he seemed relieved.

“Are you going to go?”

“I have to.”

What else could he do?

He heard she was alive, so he had to go there and find out what was going on.

If something happened to Saha, he would have no face to show the Heavenly Outlawed Army, and he had no intention of losing her again as he had in the Lower World.

Then, Hwaran pouted as if she knew he would.

“Are you jealous?”

“Why would I be jealous? I’m just a lowly woman….”

She suddenly wrapped her arms around herself, casting a wistful gaze.

Cheonbeom nodded silently.

“What does that mean? Do you really think of me as lowly?”

“If that’s what you think of yourself, what can I say? I just thought I should respect Ran’s feelings.”

He gave her a gentle smile, and Ran’s expression soured instantly.

“You old sly fox.”

Well, she wasn’t wrong.

“Come to think of it, I am getting old. I can’t even remember how old I am anymore.”

He was a little over three thousand years old, but now even counting his age had become meaningless. It was like that in the Lower World, but even more so in the Upper World; age meant nothing.

“You still look young to me.”

Did she still see him as the tiger dying from an arrow near the Hwasan Sect [a famous martial arts sect]?

Well, whether now or then, he was living a precarious life in Ran’s eyes, so perhaps there was not much difference.

“That’s because you’ve been aging with me, Ran.”

“No, my age has stopped at a youthful eighteen.”

“You haven’t mastered any time laws, so why would your age stop there?”

“A woman’s age is like that. If you try to learn more, you might incur the wrath of the heavens, so don’t pry.”

Cheonbeom nodded, thinking it was just the usual nonsense, when suddenly, he heard a sound from outside.

“Hall Master, it’s Gyulgyeong.”

“Enter.”

Cheonbeom was resting in the Hall of Military Affairs, recovering from his long journey. Gyulgyeong rarely disturbed him, so he was curious about what he had to say.

“There is someone who wishes to meet the Hall Master.”

“Me, you say?”

“Yes.”

It wouldn’t be Munmu Seon or Tamlang.

They had recently regained consciousness but still needed a lot of rest, so they had been sent back to their respective families to recover.

Of course, Tamlang didn’t have such a thing, so he was staying in a corner of the Hall of Military Affairs.

“The Hall Master will surely be pleased to see them.”

‘I don’t think I’ll be pleased.’

It was just a feeling.

Perhaps it was because his senses had become sharper as an Incense Immortal [a high-ranking immortal], or perhaps it was because he had mastered the Sixty-Four Trigrams [an ancient divination system].

“If you say so, there must be something to it. And there’s no good reason to turn away a guest.”

As Cheonbeom rose from his seat, Ran adjusted his attire.

Soon, he came out into the courtyard and saw three figures. As soon as he saw them, Cheonbeom’s eyes widened.

“Tango Mal?”

One of them was Tango Mal, a cultivator who should have been in the Ministry of Justice.

“No, what brings you here?”

He rushed forward, delighted, and Tango Mal was moved for a moment before bowing his head with envious eyes.

“Congratulations on your ascension.”

In the world of cultivators, age is meaningless.

All that matters is one’s realm and the divine power to support it.

Tango Mal naturally lowered himself as if he were a subordinate.

Originally, that was the norm, and it was common sense in the world of cultivators.

One’s realm is one’s status and position. Even a small family’s reputation would change with the emergence of just one Incense Immortal.

Cheonbeom had decided that his ascension to Incense Immortal was the path he was meant to take, but to others, it was unbelievable.

Even if a family produced just one Incense Immortal, they could boast about it everywhere. Cheonbeom had ascended from the Lower World and had become an Incense Immortal just over a thousand years later, so how could they not be surprised?

Moreover, Tango Mal had been with him since his ascension and had built a friendship with him, so it would have been even more so.

“Be casual. Just because I’ve become an Incense Immortal doesn’t mean I’ll treat you any differently, and I certainly don’t want to lose one of my few drinking buddies.”

“Haha, I appreciate the sentiment, but how could I? There are eyes everywhere, so I wouldn’t dare to be a burden.”

“Hmm….”

He wanted him to be comfortable, but Tango Mal didn’t seem to want to.

However, the look in his eyes as he looked at Cheonbeom seemed no different than before.

‘It’s not something that can be forced.’

He had to consider Tango Mal’s position as well.

Even if they were close, if a Superior Immortal was too familiar with an Incense Immortal, it would give others a reason to bother them.

It was not something that could be forced in the first place, so Cheonbeom was disappointed but decided to respect his wishes.

“But who are these people….”

“Don’t you recognize them?”

Tango Mal smiled meaningfully, and Cheonbeom examined them one by one.

The man had a diagonal scar on one cheek, making him look fierce, and the woman next to him had a sharp and venomous look.

Their appearances had changed so much that he didn’t recognize them, but they were people Cheonbeom knew well.

“…You’ve changed a lot.”

The man was Hu Hae, the last survivor of the Hu Clan, and the woman was Gon Sabi, the daughter of the Gon Clan, who had even played a trick on Cheonbeom.

Both were descendants of families belonging to the Five Great Clans, so they had a lot of youthful charm, but he didn’t expect their appearances to change so much in such a short time.

‘Their Transfiguration has changed a bit too.’

The form of Transfiguration, which takes on an appearance similar to humans, is closely related to one’s mental state, so their appearances must have changed due to their changed circumstances.

“These two have been taking the initiative to deal with all the Celestial Insects that occasionally appear in the Ministry of Justice. It hasn’t been a short time, so their appearances have changed a bit, but their inner strength has also grown.”

Tango Mal had built a lot of friendship with them over the years, and he proudly listed the beneficial effects they had on the Ministry of Justice on behalf of Hu Hae and Gon Sabi, as if he were their grandfather.

“If a swarm of Celestial Insects comes again, these two will step up….”

They annihilated them, and when there were disputes with families causing trouble nearby, Hu Hae and Sabi stepped up to quell the disturbances.

“At first, I didn’t trust them much, but now they have become the most reliable Celestial Guardians of the Ministry of Justice.”

It seemed they hadn’t just been playing around there.

Well, it had been well over a thousand years, and he would have been disappointed if they were still clinging to the past and acting like reckless fools.

“So, what brings you here?”

The distance from the Ministry of Justice to the Tongcheon Water Palace is needless to say.

Even using the teleportation array, it would take several years to travel that distance, so it wasn’t a distance to travel just to say hello.

They must have come here because they wanted something.

“Tell me without hesitation.”

He asked, looking at Hu Hae.

“I wanted to use the small connections I had to become a Water Palace Warrior.”

He answered respectfully with a fist salute.

He wanted to become a Water Palace Warrior.

“Do you know what it means to become a Water Palace Warrior in this situation and have you made your decision?”

The entire Water Realm is trembling with anxiety due to the Immortal Slaughter War.

No one knows when a front line will be breached and they will be killed by the vicious Slaughter Immortals, so becoming a Water Palace Warrior now means that they may be dragged straight to the battlefield.

Yet, he was stepping forward to jump into the battlefield of his own accord. He wondered if this was the same Hu Hae who had tried to sell Cheonbeom to protect his family and safety in the past.

‘He used to be a cowardly fool, but now he has the eyes of a man.’

However, it seemed a bit excessive.

It was as if he was too confident in his abilities.

He was overly confident.

Such an attitude is not good on the battlefield. It’s better than being intimidated and acting foolishly, but he wasn’t satisfied with his current appearance.

“I know. But I have a heavy responsibility to rebuild my family. The fact that my brother died and I am still alive must be my destiny.”

“You want to gain merit?”

“You guessed it. There is no better time than now for someone like me with nothing to rebuild my family.”

He knew what he meant, but Hu Hae’s actions looked like a moth flying into a fire to Cheonbeom.

“Life is unpredictable, but are you confident that you can gain merit on a battlefield where life and death are rampant?”

“The Ministry of Justice was not a peaceful place. I have been fighting to protect it for over a thousand years. I am confident that I have improved significantly compared to the past.”

It was good to see him expressing confidence.

“Is it the same for you?”

He asked Gon Sabi, and she nodded in response.

“It’s not a difficult task.”

The Munmu Seons under Cheonbeom’s command were all in poor condition, so incorporating them would not be difficult.

It would be better for them to fight by Cheonbeom’s side than to be assigned elsewhere and die like dogs.

That must be what they wanted as well.

“But we need to assess how skilled you are.”

“You’re going to test us….”

“That’s right. It would be stranger for a superior not to know how much power his subordinate cultivators possess.”

Hu Hae and Gon Sabi looked at each other and then nodded.

They must have been relying on each other and training together since they had been together for so long.

“That’s what we wanted. How should we conduct the test? Perhaps the Hall Master will personally….”

He could, but he didn’t think it was necessary.

There was no need to use a butcher’s knife to kill a rat.

“That wouldn’t be bad, but there is someone more suitable than me, so let’s save that for later.”

“Yes? Who is more suitable….”

As they wondered, Cheonbeom called out to the child sitting on top of the Hall of Military Affairs gate.

“Tamhwa. Come down here.”

“!”

Hu Hae and Sabi’s eyes widened as if they didn’t even know she was there.

“Tamhwa, I want you to spar with them.”

He asked if she was okay with it.

“I don’t care. They look weak.”

Crack.

She scratched their nerves from the start.

“This child is….”

“She’s my adopted daughter.”

Then, discomfort was evident on Hu Hae’s face.

“Even so, wouldn’t this be a problem with the fairness of the test? Even if we beat such a small child, it wouldn’t be suitable as a verification of our skills….”

He said something ridiculous.

Cheonbeom was so dumbfounded that he couldn’t even laugh, but when he thought about it from their perspective, he made a condition.

“Then how about this?”

“What is it?”

“If you compete with my daughter and win, I will give you the treasures of your families that have been entrusted to me.”

“!!”

Their expressions changed rapidly in an instant.

“Are you serious?”

“The treasures were not mine in the first place, and I promised the former family heads that I would give them to you when you grew up. If you beat my daughter, you must have grown up as cultivators, so there is no reason why I can’t give them to you.”

They needed motivation.

“Do you feel like trying now?”

“Of course!”

They seemed full of enthusiasm.

“Then what about me?”

But this time, Tamhwa asked.

“Huh?”

He made a dumbfounded sound at the unexpected move.

“Give me what you promised me last time. That’s enough. You promised me the Orb of Resolution, Father.”

It seemed she still remembered that.

‘…I don’t have that anymore.’