Reaper of the Drifting Moon - Chapter 197

Woo-sung and other taoist thought that Sang-jin took care of Pyo-wol, but Woo Pyeong, who watched the situation closely, clearly realized that was not the case.

He had read the agitation that appeared in Sang-jin’s eyes.

There was no question about Sang-jin’s martial arts. He had powerful martial arts to back up his title of being the Wudang sect’s Number One Sword. However, just because his martial arts was strong does not mean that everything would go the way he wanted it to.

Pyo-wol was a serpent that made it difficult to guess what was inside his mind.

Although he is much younger than Sang-jin, his experience in Jianghu is superior. In addition, he had gone through trials and paths that others cannot dare to guess.

His eyes and intuition to read the flow of times were unmatched.

He accurately read the situation and responded appropriately to Sang-jin. He knows that Sang-jin will not be able to control himself.

Above all, Pyo-wol was not at all intimidated by Sang-jin.

Woo Pyeong doesn’t know how strong Pyo-wol’s martial arts skills were, but he was confident that Pyo-wol would not be pushed back by Sang-jin.

‘I should never let him and senior brother collide.’

Woo Pyeong felt again that his role was important.

He tried to change the atmosphere, and said to Pyo-wol,

“Did you get any results?”

At that moment, Woo-sung and the taoists looked at Pyo-wol in unison.

Pyo-wol had asked to bring out Lee So-yeol’s body again, and when Sang-jin came forward, the atmosphere became messed up. If Pyo-wol ever says that he doesn’t have anything to contribute regarding So-yeol’s death, then a riot might break out at any moment among the taoists.

Pyo-wol opened his mouth,

“I found out the cause of his death.”

“Really?”

“Yes. But I do not know who killed him.”

“So he was really murdered?”

“That’s right.”

“Oh my!”

Woo Pyeong’s eyes widened.

It was the same for others.

“Is that true? Do you have any proof?”

Woo-sung asked urgently.

Pyo-wol held out a silver needle wrapped in a handkerchief to Woo Pyeong.

“This is?”

“It’s a silver needle. It’s stuck in the disciple’s tongue.”

Woo Pyeong carefully unfolded his handkerchief. Then, he saw a silver needle that was so thin that it could not be distinguished with the naked eye.

“This was stuck in the tip of So-yeol’s tongue? You mean, you can kill a person with this?”

“It’s possible.”

“Really?”

“It’s possible for me. So maybe someone else could do it too.”

“Okay. You worked hard.”

Woo Pyeong carefully wrapped the silver needle again with a handkerchief.

Since Pyo-wol found evidence of assassination, he had to inform the sect leader and the elders as soon as possible. But before that, there was work to be done.

He looked at the Woo-sung and the rest of the Wudang sect taoist and said,

“All of you have seen the evidence. Do not persecute him any more. I will not forgive those who persecute him.”

“Senior brother!”

“Woo-sung, I know you’ve been through a hard time, but if you cross the line, I won’t forgive you. Do you understand?

“Alright.”

Woo-sung lowered his head and replied.

He saw the evidence that was responsible for killing Lee So-yeol right in front of his eyes, so he had nothing to say. It was the same with other taoists.

No matter how much they searched, Pyo-wol found evidence that they could not find in less than half a day. In the end, Woo Pyeong’s judgment of bringing him in, was right.

Denying the evidence would only make them look ugly.

When Pyo-wol and Soma returned, the Qingliu Temple was as quiet as a mouse. Most of the people had already gone outside to explore the Wudang sect.

Today was the day the Wudang sects opened their gates.

Outside the gate, people were already forming a big crowd. It was clear that once they started coming in, there would be no more opportunities to explore the Wudang sects in private. So before that happens, most of the people left the Qingliu Temple to see the entirety of the Wudang sect.

Thanks to that, Pyo-wol and Soma were able to rest quietly.

Pyo-wol said to Soma,

“Get some rest.”

“What about you, brother?”

“I have things to sort out.”

“Okay, brother!”

Soma nodded.

He quickly climbed to the top of the tallest tree.

The sight of him crouching on top of a Wudang sect with the sword Gongbu in his arms while looking at the Wudang sect made him look like a crow.

Pyo-wol looked at Soma for a while before entering his own room.

He sat in a chair and tried to recall the contents of the books he had read in the Scripture Pavilion.

It would almost be impossible for him to get a chance to re-enter the Scripture Pavilion. So he had to sort all the information he got while he still had a clear memory.

The books that Pyo-wol focused on reading at the Scripture Pavilion were all written about the trends and history of Jianghu after the two great wars.

Those two wars greatly changed Jianghu.

Before the first great war, the powers that dominated Jianghu were traditional powerhouses such as the Nine Great Sects and the Five Families.

They owned vast lands and fields, and with this, they reaped enormous harvests. In addition, they produced and supported numerous secular disciples.

With their support, these disciples grew frighteningly. They established organizations, such as escort agencies, the merchant associations, and temples, which continuously sent profits obtained from their organizations back to the monks.

The Nine Great Sects and Five Families supported the secular disciples, while the grown secular disciples tried to repay back the kindness they received to the monks. This created a strong iron fortress that no one could invade for hundred years.

If the Great War had not occurred, their impregnable fortress would never have been broken.

The first Jianghu War, The Battle of the Blood Heaven, completely shook the existing order that had been firmly maintained until now.

The Nine Great Sects and the Five Families, which seemed to be forever impregnable, either perished in the war or their power was greatly weakened.

They suffered a fatal blow that made it impossible for them to recover in a short time. They took a long time before they could recover.

In the end, the surviving sects chose to close their gates, and the force that arose at that time was the Supreme Ten.1

The Supreme Ten grew with a terrifying momentum, and dominated the entire Jianghu.

They built a stronghold that no one could touch in a short period of time. Their strength was so great that no one dared to challenge them.

However, their strength, which seemed to last forever, came to an end with the outbreak of the War of the Demons and Heavens.

The War of the Demons and Heavens, which was caused by the Celestial Demon Union, devastated the entire area of Jianghu.

If warriors, such as Lee Gwak, were not determined to stop the Celestial Demon Union, then Jianghu would have already fallen into their hands.

Many of the Supreme Ten were either destroyed or suffered fatal damage.

If the Shaolin Temple, the Wudang sect, and Mount Hua had not stepped forward, then even the surviving Supreme Ten would not have been able to avoid its extinction.

The war was that brutal.

Countless people died, and numerous sects collapsed.

On the land of Jianghu, which was so thoroughly destroyed, the current sects rose again.

The Two Factions, the Three Sects, the Three Packs, and the Three Manors.

The Two Factions, Insane Martial Arts Sect and Cheon Mujang, rose rapidly through the War of the Demons and Heavens.

The Three Sects which used to be among the Nine Great Sect, includes the Shaolin Temple, the Wudang sect and Mount Hua sect.

The Three Packs were the Heavenly Dragon Vallet, Military Sword and Tiancang Defense.

And lastly, the Three Manors which are the New Moon Village, Spirit Sword Village and Rain Mountain Manor, grew rapidly through the war.

In a way, the harmony between old and new was exquisitely achieved.

These 11 sects collapsed through the war, and revived again.

What Pyo-wol was interested in was the flow of power and hegemony.

A series of events broke down the existing strong forces and brought up new forces.

Jianghu has changed greatly, and has now established a new order.

It is not known how long the current stronghold dominated by the Two Factions, Three Sects, Three Packs, and Three Manors will last, but no other force threatening their stronghold was seen.

Jin Geum-woo, who recently died, mentioned Kowloon.

A nine-headed dragon, or Nine Dragons.

There is no mention of them in any of the books.

Pyo-wol wish he had some clues, but there wasn’t even one.

If it was an organization that Jin Geum-woo risked his life to pursue, he would have been saving strength for quite a long time. If so, at least one or two names might have been put on the forefront of history, but that is not the case.

There was none.

At this point, he wondered if Jin Geum-woo had misunderstood something. However, Pyo-wol thought that there was no way that a warrior as good as Jin Geum-woo would risk everything he had to pursue Kowloon because of his delusion.

It was clear that he had tracked Kowloon because he was certain about them. And he probably came quite close to discovering the truth behind Kowloon.

If the Kowloon didn’t feel threatened, then there would be no reason to kill Jin Geum-woo by force.

Pyo-wol organized his thoughts.

“Now I know that Kowloon is something that didn’t exist before the two great wars. Since if it existed before the two great wars, then its name should have been mentioned at least once in some way.”

One of the parts that Pyo-wol paid attention to the most while reading in the Scripture Pavilion was the word Kowloon. However, the word Kowloon never appeared in any of the books.

That meant that Kowloon did not exist at the time of the two great wars in Jianghu.

The fact that Kowloon did not appear even when Jianghu was devastated meant that he did not exist at that time.

“Maybe they are the forces that have grown in strength through two great wars. They have grown in size by taking advantage of the war, just like Three Packs did.”

The second thing to note was the change in power of Jianghu.

What did people think when they saw the collapse of the traditional powerhouses such as, the Nine Great Sects and the Five Families, during the Battle of the Blood Heaven? How about the collapse of the Supreme Ten in the War of the Demons and heavens?

Pyo-wol tried to think from their point of view.

Maybe someone thought it was dangerous to show up.

It was understandable because Pyo-wol himself was a person who thought that appearing in Jianghu would do more harm than good.

In particular, there were many such tendencies when it came to those who accumulated enormous wealth in a short period of time. If so, it could be that someone who gained huge profits through the war completely concealed his identity to protect himself.

The third thing Pyo-wol paid attention to was the word ‘Kowloon’ itself.

A name carries an identity in itself.

In particular, the more powerful the clan, the more this tendency was severe.

The sect called Insane Martial Arts,2 created by Lee Gwak, was literally a collection of people who were crazy about nothingness.3

Lee Gwak himself was a man crazy about nothingness, and he was a great master who created something out of nothing, so those who followed him have the same tendency.

As such, the name of the sect itself implies what kind of tendency they had and what direction they were pursuing.

‘Kowloon, maybe they are a coalition of different forces. Or are they a group of different trained warriors?’

Pyo-wol frowned slightly.

No matter how close his assumptions were to the truth, this remains to be a problem. It’s because a type of sect or alliance that has never appeared in Jianghu has been born.

Until now, the reality of Jianghu’s enemy was clear.

The Demonic Cult, the Celestial Demon Union.

They were powerful enough to control Jianghu, but since their base and number of people they had were known, it was still easy to defend against them.

But the Kowloon is different.

He doesn’t know what purpose they were created for, and both their substance and the members were thoroughly hidden.

It is never easy to deal with an enemy like this.

He doesn’t know if Jin Geum-woo knew about this fact which was why he decided to track them, but it was clear that he was close to uncovering the reality of the Kowloon.

“Maybe they’re made up of a strict point organization.3 The lower members don’t even know where they belong.”

Pyo-wol thought his guess was almost correct.

When an organization becomes too big, information leaks inevitably occur. No matter how much you crack down on it, it’s because there are people who talk about it.

The fact that there were no suggestions from people who knew Kowloon so far meant that they had thoroughly cracked down on subordinate organizations, and the most efficient way to crack down on mouths was to manage them as point organizations.

If Pyo-wol was in their position, he would have created and managed the organization in the same way.

Never leaving a trace, just like a ghost.

What Jin Geum-woo was chasing was no different from a ghost.

They exist, but without substance.

“But why is he chasing them? For what reason…”

Pyo-wol was genuinely curious about Jin Geum-woo’s reason. However, there was no one in this world who could answer his question. It was now up to him to find out why.

“In many ways, he left nothing but trouble.”

Pyo-wol thought of the man who could never come again.

A man as strong as a steel tower, with a will like steel.

Pyo-wol shook his head slightly and approached the window.

There was a loud noise coming from outside.

Pyo-wol opened the window wide. Then, the view of the Wudang sect came into view at a glance.

Warriors who had not been seen until morning were entering the Wudang sect.

Finally, the Wudang sect opened its doors and accepted outsiders.

It seemed that a new wind was blowing in the Wudang sect, which had been stagnant until now.