Ghost Face - Chapter 269



Only Krnovel

Chapter 70. The Banquet is Held (1)

*Lion room.

Looking at their organizational chart, they were composed of the first hall, the fourth hall, and the nine pavilions, and operated a total of seventeen combat units.

The predecessor of the Sajabang was Sajamun, one of the many small and medium-sized sects in the capital city of Chang’an. It was only half a century ago that it began to grow. After a long period of effort from the previous generations, an outstanding master emerged from Sajamun, and the Sajamun leader at that time gained confidence and began to actively seek to expand his power.

The first step was a joint venture.

After more than ten years of effort, the nine surrounding small and medium-sized sects came to share the same goal, so at first, these ten sects, including the Lion’s Gate, had the character of a loose alliance. However, over the next ten years, the Lion’s Gate gradually subdued the other nine sects and reorganized itself, and finally officially disbanded all the sects and was reborn as a single sect called the ‘Lion’s Gate.’

Instead, it guaranteed a certain degree of independence and autonomy to the existing sects, and thus the Iljeon and Gugak were born. One Jeon was the Sajamun, and the nine Gak were the nine sects.

And in order to efficiently lead the newly reorganized organization, a new sect was newly established. The four sects were the Blue Hawk Party (靑鷹黨: a group of blue hawks) in charge of routine patrol work, the Black Dog Party (黑犬黨: a group of black dogs) in charge of supervision and inspection, the Red Bat Party (紅蝠黨: a group of red bats) in charge of customer service, and the Golden Toad Party (黃蟾黨: a group of golden toads) in charge of money management. To do this, excellent talents were selected from the existing ten sects, and a lot of effort was put into recruiting additional people from outside. This was because they were the future of the Sajabang.

In this way, the Sajabang completed the organization of Iljeon, Sadang, and Gugak and entered into a full-scale struggle for power. Having revealed its ambitions to the world, it expanded its power without hesitation by subjugating surrounding forces by force. So after another ten years, at least in terms of scale, it had grown into the largest guild in Chang’an.

And the gaze of these ambitious men now went beyond Chang’an Chengdu and looked across the entire Shaanxi Province.

As a result, a huge alliance called the Wujin Alliance was finally born. And now, after another ten years, the Wujin Alliance, centered around the Lion King, has unified the entire Shaanxi Province.

*Haengrakdo (行樂刀) by Gwakbu.

The current lord of the Lion’s Gate, he led the gate during a time of upheaval, created the alliance, sometimes compromising and sometimes shedding blood. And finally, he achieved the feat of unifying Shaanxi Province. Among his enemies, there were those who were stronger in force, those who were more powerful, and those who had better support. However, he defeated them all.

However, the actions he took during the process were not always beautiful, and in fact, they were quite shameful, so the world called him a hero of troubled times.

And this Hyo-ung showed no signs of stopping his expansion. He was leading a large number of warriors from the Mujin Alliance to participate in the large-scale interstellar battles that were taking place throughout the Central Plains.

Some people clicked their tongues at this, saying that he was rushing too much when he hadn’t even stabilized Shaanxi Province yet, while others criticized him, saying that he was dragging a tiger into the house and it was being dragged around. This was a criticism made about the process of unifying Shaanxi Province by bringing in external forces outside the castle.

Despite all the talk, the Lion’s House that Kwak Bu-ui left has been running smoothly without any major incidents under the management of his disciple Ho Yeon-sang, who is his agent. At least that’s how it looked on the outside. Until recently, that is.

*Narakata (Narakata) Hoyeonsang.

As a great disciple of Kwak Bu-ui, he showed his talent from an early age. It is said that he was an orphan from a young age and was taken in by his master. He had a clever personality, was sharp with a sword, and was very quick-witted. As a result, he helped his master greatly during the unification war.

Rumor has it that he led the independent forces and took on all sorts of difficult and arduous tasks, but judging from the fact that most of the operations he was in charge of were classified, it was hard to guess that they weren’t the kind of things he wanted to do. He must have gotten something on his hands, whether it was blood or feces. In any case, the most famous incident that made him famous was when he participated in the ‘Duel on the Yanman Plain’ with his master, Kwak Bu-ui. It was thanks to his name being on the list of the best players from both factions.

In this way, he had the reputation of being the great disciple of the ark, had merits in war, and even had strong political supporters on his back. Many groups supported him, and among them were many of the nine-legged lords. At one time, the lords, who were descendants of independent sects, had conflicts with the Kwak family, who monopolized all power and shined alone, and in that respect, at least the fact that he was not of the Kwak family bloodline seemed attractive.

In this way, Hoyeonsang had been on a smooth path, and at some point, there was a general belief that he would become the next ark of the lion’s house. Especially recently, when Kwak Bu-ui left for a long expedition and entrusted him with the role of ark’s agent, many people thought that he had finally established himself as the next ark’s agent.

However, when Sanye Kwak Nan-hoe, the bloodline of the Bangjoo clan who had been stepping back from the succession structure, began to take political action, the prevailing opinion was greatly shaken. So when people looked at it, the assets that Hoyeon-sang had accumulated so far looked different. Is he really the right leader to lead Sajabang into a new era? He has dirty blood on his hands and is buried among old-fashioned supporters?

As the saying goes, new wine should be put into new wineskins.

In the meantime, Hoyeonsang has recently shown behavior that is difficult to understand. For reasons that no one can see, he destroyed the Yeosan Jo family, and also tried to blatantly kill Jin Ga-yong. Jin Ga-yong, who Bangju had tolerated and who was now rising to prominence as a member of Gwak Nan-hoe, has been running wild since then.

Nevertheless, he was the agent of the Lion’s Room, so no one came forward and kept himself safe. Not even Gwak Nan-hoe. However, the martial artists frowned and watched his every move.

It was clear that he was taking a risk. Could he be on the path to self-destruction?

What on earth is Kwak Bang-ju’s intention?

It was something to be seen.

“It’s not a mess.”

The old man who came to see Hoyeonsang from the early morning breeze was Hyanggye-cho, a man from Goamsan and the head of Cheong-eungdang.

Now that the master had taken all the key figures of the Iljeon and the Nine-Eight factions to the battlefield, his official rank in the Lion’s Fang was second. The acting head of the Fang, Hoyeonsang, was first, and the four clansmen ranked second through fifth were the four clansmen.

But what does the hierarchy matter?

These five had clear territories and could not interfere with each other.

Even Hoyeonsang had never seen the face of Hwangseomdangju, who was in charge of the money supply. Everyone called him Hanoya, but few people actually saw him. This was because no one but the master could tell Hanoya to come and go. In short, the master had a firm grip on the money supply.

Is that all? The Black Dog Party leader, who practically possessed the most powerful military force and would be the first to confront anyone who tried to rebel, only saw Hoyeon Sang once on the day he took office as acting head of the household, and never showed his face again after that. The reason was that he couldn’t carelessly build relationships with anyone in order to be strict with his work. What the hell is he talking about? Is he blatantly threatening the acting head of the household to not even dream of such absurd ideas?

‘It’s annoying. It’s all the same, this guy or that guy. Those damned bastards, if they think of me as the next ark, how can they do that?’

Hoyeonsang felt irritated just by looking at Hyanggyecho’s face, but he was not naive enough to express it openly. After all, he was the one who had to say something regrettable. So when he asked what was going on, Hyanggyecho started saying things that upset people.

There were rumors about Jin Ga-yong. They say that the martial arts world is currently in the news because of his unstoppable actions. Even his subordinates are in a state of agitation, calling him a ‘sword demon.’ And as the achievements he made while serving in the Chumyeondae are also mentioned, there are even people who praise him as a ‘hyeopgaek.’

At those words, Hoyeonsang sternly grinned. Hearing that, he praised the guy who had been swearing at him until recently. He said that he was a person with no sense of humor. Then Hyanggyecho said that was the way of the world, and looked at him like he was an idiot, asking when he would talk about his enemies. He didn’t say anything back, but if I were to guess, he probably wanted to say that the world had changed and Hoyeonsang was now being sweared at. At that thought, Hoyeonsang felt dirty and asked back.

“You’re saying everyone is excited about a murderer who dared to kill the family of the lion’s den?”

“You really didn’t know. Do you really not know why?”

“… … .”

“Sympathy and justification.”

“Sympathy and justification?”

“Yes. He worked like a dog for the Mujin Alliance… Oh, this is not my opinion, but what people said, so don’t misunderstand. Anyway, the price he paid was the annihilation of his family, so everyone thinks it’s unfair and pitiful. And he’s a murderer? When all his family members died? No one thinks so. They just think it’s justified revenge. Think about it. He’s weak to anyone’s eyes, but he pulled out his sword for revenge! How heartbreaking are these words?”

“Ah~ Are you blaming me now? Me, the one who punished those who committed mortal sins?”

“Do you really believe that? Is that why you are complaining to this old man from Cheong-eung-dang, who acts as the eyes and ears of our lion’s quarters?”

Hyanggye-cho, who had been laughing until now, asked back with a serious expression.

Hoyeonsang thought, “Oh no. He wasn’t the ark yet. So he shouldn’t have gotten excited like this, rather than acting cute. A painful mistake… He felt like he was making mistakes more often than before.

I guess this is… … .

‘You fucking idiot. If you set the stage like that, you should have killed him, right? What? Do you think he’s dead? Isn’t it because I couldn’t kill him in time that I’m having such a hard time?’

Hoyeonsang suddenly felt a surge of rage. Then, all of a sudden, he realized that he was having strange thoughts in front of that person.

Why do I keep doing this?

Hoyeon Sang shook his head and spoke honestly to the head of the Cheong-eung Party, who was observing him.

“Okay, I admit it. I’m being cussed out right now.”

“Not only Narakdo, but also the Lion King.”

“Yes. Not only the lord, but also the elders, it’s not me who is the problem, but that. But so what? Those who want to curse can do so.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. Even if you do that, nothing will change. If you do that, won’t they realize it again? That power is justice and law! And when time passes again, won’t those pigs and dogs cheer for this hell and lion’s nest? It only takes a moment to turn away, and it only takes a moment to come back. That’s the way the world is.”

Hoyeonsang spoke confidently. That appearance suited him very well. It wasn’t the appearance of a desirable leader… but maybe that’s why he suited the leader of the lion’s quarters. Hyanggyecho nodded faintly as she thought about it.

“So are you saying that you’re going to push through no matter what criticism you get?”

“Yes. I plan to throw a grand banquet and invite you. I will thoroughly humiliate and destroy you.”

“Do you think he will come?”

“Of course. He’s just a weakling pretending to be righteous. He can just be pitied by pigs and dogs. Heh heh.”

“Responsibility is… … .”

“I will take responsibility on the name of this hell.”

“Okay, I’ll watch.”

It was the moment when Narakdo Hoyeonsang’s will was carried out.