Chapter 363
Crack-crack.
The sound of the campfire slowly burning reached his ears with crystal clarity. Along with it, the low sounds of insects in the grass began to follow.
It meant the surroundings had become that quiet. Those who had witnessed Wei Yan-ho's completely different reaction from usual couldn't dare open their mouths. They concentrated all their senses trying to identify who was approaching.
The insect sounds gradually subsided.
As if even those mere creatures knew who was approaching now.
In the space that had fallen silent with even the insects holding their breath, only the eerie sound of the campfire crackling and burning could be heard.
"Huu."
Wei Yan-ho exhaled lowly.
'What the hell?'
Jang-il found it difficult to accept this strange situation.
Who was Wei Yan-ho?
Wasn't he someone who couldn't find where he'd left his manners and common sense even when facing Gwon-geuk and the Divine Hand? Wei Yan-ho was the one who hadn't shown a tense appearance even in front of Gwang Mu-ryang, not just Gwon-geuk and the Divine Hand.
But now Wei Yan-ho looked like a cat with its hackles raised. His entire body tensed as if he might pounce somewhere at any moment. That appearance felt far too awkward.
'Who the hell is that person?'
Who could possibly be the one capable of making Wei Yan-ho this tense—Wei Yan-ho who had never once lost his composure even before that Demon Cult's Gwang Mu-ryang?
"Beggar."
Then, Wei Yan-ho quietly opened his mouth.
Jang-il couldn't even open his mouth and just looked at Wei Yan-ho, signaling that he was listening.
"If the situation seems ambiguous, take Miss Jin and run immediately."
"What?"
"Not 'if it seems disadvantageous.' If it seems ambiguous, run."
"..."
"Got it?"
"Got it."
There were too many things he wanted to ask, but he couldn't ask the current Wei Yan-ho.
The taut tension continued precariously as if it might snap. The figure of the man approaching them through the darkness grew closer and became somewhat clearer.
'An old man?'
And a very small old man at that.
Jang-il couldn't help but fall into confusion. From what he was seeing now, he couldn't feel even the slightest threat. If not for Wei Yan-ho's reaction, he would have thought some village elder from a mountain village nearby had come out for a walk.
It was a bit strange that he was walking the darkened official road so leisurely, but wasn't it stranger to be on such guard for just that?
The old man maintained his unhurried pace even after making eye contact with them, only stopping when he reached three zhang in front of them.
Only then could Jang-il discover one more strange thing.
Eyes.
The old man's eyes were clearly different from those of other elderly people he had seen.
The moment he met those eyes that had sunk low without even a twitch, Jang-il had to feel a chill as if his body had jumped into an icy lake.
"Admirable children."
The old man slowly nodded his head. As if pleased.
"You've trained splendidly for your age. Very good. After all, a sound mind dwells in a healthy body. Shaolin and the Peng Family, and the Beggar's Sect too. Even after all these years, they haven't just been idle. To have raised children like these."
As expected, it became certain that this old man was also a martial artist.
'How should I react?'
If he was a martial artist, this old man was dangerous. Jang-il couldn't discover even the slightest trace of that from this old man. It meant he was a master beyond his imagination.
But how should he receive that gentle tone?
He couldn't make heads or tails of it.
Among them, Wei San-ho, who was maintaining the most composure, opened his mouth.
"Do you have business with us?"
"What is your name?"
"...Wei San-ho."
"Wei San-ho... Are you from the Guangdong Wei Family?"
"That's correct."
"Are you Wei Jeong-han's son?"
"He is my father."
"I'm acquainted with your father. He too was a good martial artist. Though young, he had righteousness. Though he struggled before reality, he didn't retreat just because it was difficult. The world is changed by such people. You have a good father."
"I think so too."
On the surface, it looked like a scene of a martial world elder giving encouragement to a junior. But Jang-il knew this situation wasn't that simple.
With each word exchanged, he could feel a tension like sharp blades being thrust at each other.
"I see. The Guangdong Wei Family..."
The old man smiled warmly. His gaze turned toward Wei Yan-ho.
"Then it's you, the child called Wei Yan-ho."
Wei Yan-ho stared silently at the old man without answering.
"Tsk tsk, don't look at me with such eyes. I didn't come with bad intentions, did I?"
"Not bad intentions?"
"That's right."
"Then why did you come here getting on people's nerves like that?"
"I merely gave a greeting. Wouldn't you be startled if I appeared suddenly without a word?"
"Getting greeted twice like that and my heart would jump out of my mouth."
"Heh heh heh, if you were startled, I apologize. I didn't intend to go that far, but it's been a while so my control seems off."
Jang-il glanced at Peng Dao-ji and Mu-san.
But both Peng Dao-ji and Mu-san just shook their heads.
'Something only they could understand passed between them?'
Looking back at the initial reaction, Wei Yan-ho was the only one who had noticed that old man approaching. He had thought it happened simply because his martial arts were high, but apparently that wasn't the case.
That old man had sent some kind of signal this way, and only Wei Yan-ho had heard that signal.
"So, what business brings you all this way? It couldn't have been easy for your aged body to come here."
"If I must crawl, I crawl—what choice do I have? That's what organizations are like. If they feed you, they eventually make you work. If I didn't want to do that, I'd have to grow rice with my own hands and cook my own meals, but could this old man do such things? So I have no choice but to do as I'm told."
Wei Yan-ho chuckled.
"Anyone who could order around someone of your stature must be a tremendously frightening existence."
"Frightening indeed."
The old man quietly nodded.
"But I didn't come because that frightening person ordered me to. Though that person is frightening, I don't have many days left to live anyway, so would I do work I don't want to do just because I might get punished? I came more because I wanted to confirm with my own eyes."
"What did you come to confirm?"
"Hmm, I don't know what to say. I doubt you'd understand even if I explained..."
The old man smiled broadly.
"Right. I should say I came to confirm an inheritance."
"Hmm."
Wei Yan-ho nodded as if he understood.
"I have no idea what you mean."
"...That's why I said I wouldn't explain."
Jang-il couldn't find a gap to enter the conversation.
'What's with this gentleness?'
Of course, he was being a bit snippy, but wasn't that Wei Yan-ho's usual way of speaking? The fact that he continued the conversation with Wei Yan-ho without caring about such things made him even more curious about that old man's identity.
'He doesn't seem to have malicious intent... '
The old man who had been quietly watching Wei Yan-ho opened his mouth.
"You're different from your father."
Wei Yan-ho slightly furrowed his brow.
"Your father was more taciturn. Taciturn on the surface, but deep inside. He was someone who agonized between reality and ideals. But you're too light."
Wei Yan-ho chuckled.
"If the visitor doesn't come with good intentions, the host needn't speak well. Well, you don't seem to have come with good intentions, so why should I speak nicely to you?"
Just as the old man was about to answer, Wei San-ho stepped forward slightly and bowed his head.
"I apologize for my younger brother's rudeness."
"No, brother. That's not..."
"You be quiet for a moment."
When Wei San-ho spoke with serious eyes, Wei Yan-ho also closed his mouth.
"No matter what the relationship, it's discourteous to treat someone who had a relationship with father in such a manner. Even if they were enemies."
At Wei San-ho's firm words, Wei Yan-ho pouted.
"I would have done the same if I were alone."
It was the old man, not Wei San-ho, who was surprised by those words.
"Huh?"
The old man stared at Wei Yan-ho with wide eyes.
"You're saying you figured it out?"
"How could I not know when you're radiating killing intent like that?"
"Heh heh heh heh."
The old man laughed helplessly.
"Blood cannot be deceived, I suppose."
A smile appeared on the old man's lips.
It didn't seem like he was simply pleased that Wei Yan-ho was strong and sensitive. It felt like he was seeing something... different.
And that gaze turned to Wei San-ho.
"Brothers..."
The old man shook his head.
"Indeed, that's how it was. Yes, that's right. That person and Wei Jeong-han were close enough to entrust their backs to each other. The backs they wouldn't even entrust to us."
Wei San-ho slightly furrowed his brow.
What was this old man talking about?
"But I didn't know. I didn't know they were close enough to entrust not just their backs, but everything to each other. I never thought that in that final moment, he would pass on everything not to us, but to someone else."
"I'm sorry, but could you indulge in reminiscing about the past somewhere else? We need to rest now."
Even at Wei Yan-ho's words, the old man didn't react at all.
"Why was it? Why couldn't we gain that person's trust? We devoted everything we had, believed that person would bring us enlightenment, and didn't hesitate to throw away even our lives for that person's sake, so why didn't that person trust us in that final moment?"
"No, so..."
"Why the hell whyyyyyy!"
Wei Yan-ho instinctively stepped in front of Wei San-ho and drew his sword.
An unimaginably thick and fierce aura burst forth from the shouting old man's body. Just receiving that momentum with his body felt like thousands of blades were slashing his entire body.
Even Wei Yan-ho couldn't react.
He could only tense his entire body, thinking he didn't know what that old man might do.
But there was someone who spoke.
Wei San-ho, who had stepped one pace to the side to escape Wei Yan-ho's protection, opened his mouth calmly.
"Did you trust him?"
"..."
The old man looked at Wei San-ho with eyes full of killing intent.
"Trust? Yes, I trusted. I trusted everything, I was devoted. But what came back was betrayal."
"That wasn't trust."
"...What did you say?"
Though aura was billowing from the old man's body, Wei San-ho didn't waver in the slightest.
"Trust means believing in the other person. If you truly trusted that person, you should think about the reasons he had no choice before discussing betrayal."
"..."
"Sometimes, there are things one cannot do precisely because they are too close."
The aura completely disappeared from the old man's body as if washed away.
In an instant, those who had been unable to move like bugs caught in a spider's web were released from the pressure and collapsed on the spot.
The old man's gaze fixed on Wei San-ho.
"That's not wrong. Child, do you know who I am?"
"I don't know."
"Then let me tell you. I am called Gwang-ma."
Those released from the pressure all raised their heads at once.
As if driving in a wedge, the old man muttered.
"I am a High Priest of the Divine Cult."