Star Instructor, Master Baek

TL: FoodieMonster007

If the Azure Dragon Hero Baek Suryong is the Sword Saint's disciple, then that would definitely explain why his martial arts is so profound.

Still, Moyong Jun couldn't easily believe this revelation.

"You're the Sword Saint's disciple…?" he asked cautiously. "But as far as I know, the Sword Saint died a very long time ago, before you were born…"

Even fifty years ago, the Sword Saint had been an old man. Of course, peerless masters often lived well over a hundred years, and the murim was known to contain all sorts of unimaginable miraculous encounters, but…

The timing doesn't fit.

Until just a few days ago, Moyong Jun had been in a position to examine all kinds of information within the Murim Alliance, including information the Murim Alliance had gathered on high-level masters.

Although it was hard to believe, that was when he learned that the Azure Dragon Hero had been born with a weak constitution.

The Azure Dragon Hero lived mostly in his hometown. Although he went on trips with his father once a year, he was never away long enough to learn martial arts from someone.

Of course, Baek Suryong had anticipated that question and already prepared an answer to it.

"Ah, don't get me wrong, I didn't learn the Unlimited Sword directly from the Sword Saint. It's only me who considers him my master."

"What do you mean by that…?"

"Well, since I was young, I traveled with my father once a year during the anniversary of my mother's death. We toured all sorts of famous places in the jianghu."

Baek Suryong began to add lies built upon a foundation of truth. It didn't matter if the pieces didn't fit perfectly, because the fact that he knew the Sword Saint's martial arts was undeniable.

"I was very weak when I was young, so my father took me to all sorts of famous healing locations, saying he'd help me absorb good qi. We also visited countless renowned physicians, and he even bought elixirs for me despite our poor circumstances. Unfortunately, no matter what he tried, there was no improvement."

Baek Suryong smiled gently. Ever since he realized the secret behind his 'reincarnation,' some memories of his lost childhood had gradually returned to him.

In other words, everything he was saying about his childhood was the truth.

"Then one day, I chanced across a secret manual while exploring," he lied for the first time, intending to weave the Sword Saint's story into his own history.

Moyong Jun asked dubiously, "…Are you saying that during your travels in the jianghu, you discovered a secret manual left behind by the Sword Saint?"

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Baek Suryong nodded, though even he had to admit that attributing everything to 'miraculous encounter' was quite a convenient explanation.

Regardless, I don't intend to just gloss over everything with only the words 'it was a miraculous encounter'.

Baek Suryong looked Moyong Jun straight in the eye. "I can't tell you where I found it. Not only was the secret manual the Sword Saint left behind there, but so were records about his life. I don't want them damaged."

"……" Moyong Jun still listened to Baek Suryong's story with a half-believing, half-doubting expression.

No matter. Baek Suryong intended to make him believe this story starting now.

"The Sword Saint's name was Moyong Hon. He was born as a direct descendant of the Moyong Clan, but as a child, he wasn't particularly known for his talent. Apparently, he was a quiet child who loved the sword so much he'd even sleep embracing it."

Baek Suryong recounted the Sword Saint's life in a calm tone.

"The times he left the Moyong Clan grounds in his entire life could be counted on one hand. Because he had such a quiet nature, was the fourth among his brothers, and had no interest besides the sword, he didn't marry until a late age. To him, just swinging the sword alone was more enjoyable than anything else."

"……" Moyong Jun's uncertain expression gradually became serious.

"Finally, the Sword Saint had a son late in life. A precious son born after he was over fifty. It sounds dumb, but only after decades did he realize that he was actually in love with a maidservant who he had been together with since childhood."

"……" Moyong Jun flinched. He too had spent twenty years with Ryu Seol while denying his own feelings.

"However, the Moyong Clan disapproved of the Sword Saint's son because of his mother's low birth. On top of that, the child was also physically weak. In the end, the Moyong Clan refused to register his birth under the Moyong name."

"Sons of bitches…"

Ryu Seol, who had been listening quietly, cursed under her breath, while Moyong Jun let out a deep sigh.

Baek Suryong chuckled softly. "You know what's really interesting? That refusal was the reason the Sword Saint, who had only trained his swordsmanship within the family his entire life, ventured out into the jianghu. He believed that if he slew lots of villains and became famous, the Moyong Clan would accept his son."

As he spoke, the Sword Saint's bitter voice seemed to echo again in his ears.

"My wife died a few years after giving birth to the child. All I had left was my young son, and I wanted that child to live proudly as a member of the Moyong Clan."

"…In reality, after emerging into the murim, the Sword Saint became one of the murim's Three Greatest Swordsmen in just one year. He gained the alias 'the Sword Saint' then too."

"Damn, he did exactly as he said he would. What a cool guy!" Ryu Seol nodded, smiling pleasantly.

Yeah, it would be a nice story… if it ended here. If the tragedies that happened next never happened.

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Baek Suryong smiled bitterly, recalling the Sword Saint's words.

"What I saw upon returning to the family estate was my son coughing violently as he swept the yard."

The Moyong Clan was located in Liaoning, quite far from the Central Plains. Because of that, news of the Sword Saint's newfound fame took a long time to reach there.

The Sword Saint, wanting to see his son again even a day sooner, returned to the family using his movement arts at full power, but what he actually saw was heart-wrenching.

"I didn't ask for much. I just wanted them to give Dan the Moyong surname and treat him ordinarily."

Right then and there, the enraged Sword Saint had cut down the family's dojo signboard with a single sword strike.

The Moyong Clan was turned upside down. When Moyong Hon, who had always kept a low profile, suddenly cut down the family signboard, the Patriarch flew into a rage and tried to punish him.

Unfortunately, the Sword Saint was no longer someone the Moyong Clan could control by force.

"I defeated them all, including my Hyung-nim who was the Patriarch, and the Elders. Although I managed to suppress my killing intent and didn't kill them, I also cut ties with my family right then and there."

Baek Suryong ended the story, "…In the end, the Sword Saint, enraged and disappointed, left the Moyong Clan and went into seclusion deep in the mountains with his son."

A brief silence followed.

After organizing his thoughts for a moment, Moyong Jun asked, "Wait, then… the Moyong Dan you asked about earlier…"

"Yes, I was talking about Master Sword Saint's son. Seeing as you don't know him, it means he was never accepted into the Moyong Clan."

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"……" Moyong Jun bowed his head deeply, unable to lift it out of shame for what his family had done.

Visibly steeling his resolve, Baek Suryong continued, "I will no longer hide the fact that I inherited the Sword Saint's martial arts. However, even if the Moyong Clan demands the Sword Saint's martial arts from me, I have no intention of yielding to them. Blood relation or no, I'll never let them have it. Moyong Jun. Make sure you deliver this message to your family."

"…Understood."

If the Moyong Clan had added Moyong Dan's name to the family registry, even belatedly, Baek Suryong would have been willing to share the Unlimited Sword's secret manual with them. However, the Moyong Clan never acknowledged the Sword Saint and Moyong Dan, right to the end.

In that case, that's the end of it.

The Moyong Clan was unworthy of possessing the Unlimited Sword.

"…I am an outcast from the family anyway. I will not pass on the Unlimited Sword to anyone. I swear it," Moyong Jin said firmly.

Baek Suryong nodded, accepting his oath.

"Wait a minute. But why does the Blood Cult possess the Sword Saint's martial arts?" Ryu Seol asked.

She understood the story about the Sword Saint and the Moyong Clan, but none of it explained why the Blood Cult possessed the martial arts of the Sword Saint, who had gone into seclusion.

As the Acting Chairman, this was a question she couldn't just overlook.

Baek Suryong mixed truth and lies appropriately regarding that reason as well.

"Because the Blood Cult kidnapped the Sword Saint's son while they were living in seclusion," he explained.

This was true.

CRASH!

Ryu Seol slammed her fist on the table, splitting it in half. "Those crazy sons of bitches!"

Moyong Jun also stared at him, wide-eyed.

Baek Suryong continued, "…The last record I saw said this: I will go to rescue my son, and I may not return, so I shall leave all my martial arts here. If anyone should read this message and succeed my techniques, please ascertain my son's fate…"

This was a lie.

"If I die, and you manage to survive… Could you look after my son?" "Master Sword Saint, please don't say such ominous things. You should take care of your son yourself. Why push him onto others?"

"…If, I said. Just if…"

"I told you not to jinx it."

"……"

"Sigh, I understand. I'll look after your son and teach him your martial arts so he can become healthy."

"…Thank you."

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Recalling the Sword Saint's face smiling faintly with relief, Baek Suryong bit his lip hard without realizing it.

"From here on, I'm just speculating. The Blood Cult probably tried to steal the Sword Saint's martial arts after trapping and capturing him, but they failed and only managed to obtain an incomplete technique, which is the fake Unlimited Sword that Moyong Jun learned."

"Indeed…"

"That seems plausible."

Ryu Seol and Moyong Jun nodded in agreement.

Baek Suryong couldn't say, nor did he intend to say, the fact that the Sword Saint had been locked up in the Blood Cult's underground prison and had his martial arts completely stolen.

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He couldn't tell the whole truth if he wanted to protect his master's honor.

I'm sorry, Master Sword Saint. This is the best I can do.

Still, even if only in this way, Baek Suryong wanted to make it known that the Sword Saint Moyong Jun had indeed existed, and that the peerless swordsmanship he left behind had been passed down to later generations.

Looking brighter, Baek Suryong turned to Moyong Jun. "Have all your questions been answered?"

"…Yes. Thank you for sharing such your story."

"Good, because I'm leaving Wuhan tomorrow."

"So suddenly?"

"Why?"

Baek Suryong shrugged. "I never intended to stay here long from the start. It just turned out that way."

"But…"

"If you had told us earlier, we could have at least prepared a farewell ceremony."

Baek Suryong scowled in absolute disgust. "Don't you dare tell anyone. I'm going to leave quietly, alone, at dawn."

He rose from his seat and clasped his hands together in farewell.

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"Well then, let's meet again later."

"Thanks for everything," Ryu Seol said.

"…I will definitely repay this debt," Moyong Jun added.

With that, Baek Suryong left the Chairman's office.

The remaining two stared blankly at each other for a while.

Ryu Seol said first, "What do you think about the Chief Instructor's story? It didn't seem like a lie."

"…I think most of it is true. I can easily confirm the part about the Moyong Clan if I put my mind to it. He wouldn't tell a lie that could be exposed," Moyong Jun replied.

Ryu Seol nodded. From her perspective too, the Azure Dragon Hero's words seemed mostly true.

His eyes weren't ones that were lying.

Whenever Baek Suryong spoke about the Blood Cult, Ryu Seol could see the immense anger blazing within those eyes. It was deeply submerged, but the fury shimmering within was enough to make her flinch.

"One thing is certain, though. The Blood Cult has made an enemy out of the worst possible opponent," she muttered, looking at the door Baek Suryong had just walked out of.

Baek Suryong returned to his room and quickly packed his belongings. His business at the Murim Alliance was finished, and he intended to leave quietly before dawn broke.

I can't meet those kids in my current state.

The fact that his former students were alive had haunted him greatly over the past few days.

I have to become stronger than I am now.

They were his trainees. He knew their talents and abilities better than anyone.

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Besides, decades had passed since then. He couldn't even begin to guess how strong they had grown in fifty years.

They're at least at the level of the current Ten Supremes, or perhaps even beyond.

Baek Suryong recalled the strongest martial artists among the Ten Supremes he had met personally. The Chairman, the Blue Sky Sword King, and the Night Emperor.

To face his former students on equal footing, he needed at least that level of strength.

It's not like there's no way.

Baek Suryong opened a wooden box about the size of his palm. Inside was the Blood Demon's finger that he'd obtained from the Namgung Clan and the poison essence the Poison Demon had given him as he died.

Baek Suryong stared at the items inside the wooden box in a daze.

"If I can completely overcome the Heavenly Yin Severed Meridians…"

The Heavenly Yin Severed Meridians was the optimal constitution for learning the Heaven Defying Divine Art. Thanks to it, Baek Suryong had grown stronger at an unprecedented rate, but now he had reached the limit of relying on raw talent.

Currently, his Heaven Defying Divine Art was at the 8th Star. To achieve anything beyond this, he had to completely overcome his constitution and transform the Severed Meridians (絶脈) into Divine Meridians (神脈).

I knew for sure while fighting the Poison Demon.

Right now, his body was a vessel filled to the brim with water, and just one more drop could cause the water to overflow and spill, or the vessel to shatter. To become stronger, he needed to improve the vessel.

I need to either seek out the Divine Physician and beg him for help or find a way to break through the barrier myself.

Of course, the Heaven Defying Divine Art wasn't the only martial art he had learned. He had received instruction in all four of his Masters' martial arts. The reason he focused so much on the Heaven Defying Divine Art until now was because it was the one best suited for his constitution, the one he had most talent in learning.

During the remaining vacation, he planned to focus on raising his mastery of the other four martial arts.

"…I'll save these for a last resort."

Baek Suryong closed the wooden box, tucked it inside his robes, and continued packing his belongings.

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Suddenly, his thoughts turned to his students at the Azure Dragon Academy.

"I wonder if they're all doing well…?"

Since it came to mind, Baek Suryong decided to write letters to his students before leaving the Murim Alliance.