Volcanic Age - Chapter 22

The Late Known Partner of Heaven

Gu Pung had told the three people that they could freely roam inside Kaiyang.

Jang Hong and Jang Seo Eun seemed to be really excited. The two of them wandered around like fish on water because it was their first time outside of Mount Hua. The time limit was four days and that was because their mission would start four days later.

Zhuge Sang and Zhuge Suran stayed together.

Zhuge Sang spoke actively with Jang Hong and Jang Seo Eun to accumulate friendship with the members of Mount Hua as the future leader of the Zhuge.

Jang Hong showed interest in Zhuge Suran and mostly stayed around her.

“Moreover little brother Jang, is that fellow disciple of yours also a bit special inside of Mount Hua?”

Zhuge Sang had a more extraordinary head than others and also had a good personality.

Jang Hong and Jang Seo Eun followed Zhuge Sang immediately and they got so close in a day that they started to speak comfortably to each other.

Jang Hong nodded at Zhuge Sang’s question.

“Yes, brother Sang. That guy is called the ‘flashy yet frail one’…”

Jang Hong started to explain about Ju Seo Cheon.

“It seems like the weird people are attracted to each other.”

Jang Seo Eun shrugged her shoulder and couldn’t help smirking.

Zhuge Sang had gotten quite close to Jang Hong and Jang Seo Eun but he wasn’t even able to have a conversation with Ju Seo Cheon.

“I didn’t know that there would be anyone that would show interest in Seung Kye, and I would have never imagined that that person was a martial artist of the Lotus Peak.”

Zhuge Sang couldn’t hide his astonishment.

Ju Seo Cheon approached Zhuge Seung Kye and spoke to him.

“Hello Seung Kye. Do you want to be friends with this mister?”

“Hey, aren’t you only two years older than me? What do you mean with mister? Stop spouting nonsense and go away!”

Zhuge Seung Kye looked at Ju Seo Cheon in an absurd way.

“Wow, if your uncle had seen you act this way he would have been really surprised. Would he have ever imagined that Seung Kye was such a great man? Huh? Isn’t that right?”

As soon as he was allowed to move freely he went to find Zhuge Seung Kye, who was stuck in his room, and spoke to him persistently.

Even Zhuge Seung Kye treated Ju Seo Cheon as a rare specimen.

“Just why are you being like this?”

Zhuge Seung Kye himself knew that he was weird. Everyone looked at him that way so he would be a fool not to notice that.

“This mister just wants to talk to you.”

Ju Seo Cheon smiled softly.

‘Right, let’s compliment him first. It will be dangerous if I don’t handle him properly.’

He would love to grab him from his collar and threaten him by saying ‘kid, let’s go raid a treasury!’.

“It’s weird for me to say this but it would be good for you to not get along with me. I have only learned up to the second star of the Small Heavenly Star Arts and I’m a pathetic bastard that is stubborn on learning something useless at this age like the Arts of Machinery!”

Zhuge Seung Kye put on a teary face and raised his voice.

It seemed like he had a lot of pent up emotions.

Ju Seo Cheon put on an understanding expression at this.

“Right. Even I know that your nature isn’t that good and that you are a retard that starts to sob at anything.”

“I didn’t go that far…”

“But it’s not bad being interested in the Arts of Machinery. It’s the opposite, I think that it’s really amazing studying something that no one puts their hands on constantly without bending your will.”

Ju Seo Cheon patted Zhuge Seung Kye’s shoulders and made a soft smile. His eyes were showing desperation.

“That’s why you shouldn’t stop and continue walking on your own path.”

The Late Known: Partner of Heaven.

His evaluation spread late, just like his nickname indicated.

Zhuge Seung Kye received attention from the first time at the Treasury of the Three Eyed Immoral God.

It was because of the traps installed there.

The Righteous Faction and especially the Zhuge Sega family obtained a great amount of treasures thanks to Zhuge Seung Kye’s knowledge in traps and machinery.

Zhuge Seung Kye thought that he would get reevaluated as having been disregarded until now but that was a big mistake.

He did attract attention once again but the gazes of the people were mostly saying ‘so you do have your uses.’

Murim was a world based purely on strength. Most people got recognized and evaluated by their martial arts.

Zhuge Sega was a bit of an exception but it didn’t mean that they didn’t look at martial arts at all.

It couldn’t be helped being ignored if he had worse martial prowess than the children of Zhuge Sega.

It would have been different if he had studied the Fortune Telling Battle Tactics that required you to use your head but he wasn’t even able to do that so had heard ridiculing laughs inside of his family and even outside.

The comparison became worse every time because of the existence of the two geniuses, Zhuge Cheon and Zhuge Suran.

And in the end Zhuge Seng Kye couldn’t endure the ill treatment he received from the elders such as Zhuge Sak and died.

But the cause of death was suicide.

“Listen well little brother. Even if the entire world ignores you, at least I won’t. Remember that I am with you.”

Your self esteem would fall naturally if you receive scorn and disdain since you were young.

And that point influenced his personality greatly.

“Even though I haven’t met you for long, I felt fate. If there was alcohol at least I would have shared a drink with you and become sworn brothers. It’s really unfortunate.”

“I’m not planning to become your little brother….”

“Call me big brother comfortably Seung Kye.”

Low self esteem and a shy personality didn’t bring good results. The result for that was that Zhuge Seung Kye would live a life where he would only get used without having any leisure.

“Don’t bend your will like you have done until now. There’s no need to deny everything you have accumulated and studied until now. If the world doesn’t recognize you, then I will. I will yell towards the one that ignored my little brother to not spout nonsense.”

When Zhuge Seung Kye’s existence was about to get completely forgotten, his existence emerged once again. And that was thanks to his skills in the Arts of Machinery.

The Arts of Machinery that was thought to have disappeared completely got reborn completely at the age of war thanks to another force.

The only person that could answer to the Arts of Machinery was Zhuge Seung Kye as it was a technique that wasn’t used well.

After this, Zhuge Sega’s influence obviously soared to the skies. It was an obvious thing as Zhuge Seung Kye was the only person that could be called an expert in the Arts of Machinery.

But Zhuge Seung Kye couldn’t call that as being good.

The evaluation on him certainly increased after this case and everything he had done until now wasn’t in vain. That was a happy thing.

But entrusting this to only Zhuge Seung Kye was a really burdensome thing.

Having only one proficient person in the Arts of Machinery meant that he had to take care of everything related to it alone.

He had to work alone in a room under surveillance disguised as an escort without any help at all.

It was normal to go insane under that pressure.

He would have loved to reject them all but he couldn’t do that due to his timid personality that originated from the continued pressure since he was young.

If he raised his voice even a little bit they yelled at him saying that he was an adult of the Zhuge Sega and that he had to think of the Sega.

Everytime they did that he wasn’t able to decline them and in the end he got trapped in a bird cage called the Sega family and wasn’t able to see the outside properly either.

Zhuge Seung Kye got used until he died and that pressure influenced the cause of his death directly and made him catch an illness.

After about forty something years, when Zhuge Seung Kye was in his mid fifties, he ends up committing suicide after being used thoroughly.

That was a really miserable life.

‘What’s worse is that even then he wasn’t as respected as he should have been.’

The evaluation on Zhuge Seung Kye was still too vague at that time. It was hard to get recognized in Murim if you didn’t have strength or martial arts.

You could already see that in Zhuge Sega and the Sichuan Family as they were a bit ignored between martial artists.

In case of forgotten arts like the Arts of Machinery it was more serious. No matter how impressive Zhuge Sega was, everyone tended to ignore him in their treatment. This also influenced the death of Zhuge Sega.

His death was terribly bitter as he died without having anyone he could call as family and even his funeral was miserable.

After that, time passed by and the Righteous Faction of Murim regretted this happening.

In the beginning when Zhuge Seung Kye died, they were worried about who would be the responsible one for the Arts of Machinery.

At this, Zhuge Sega boasted and told them not to worry. Although Zhuge Seung Kye didn’t raise any scholars, they thought they could solve it as there were the books and documents he had left behind.

But they would realize not long after that that thought was really foolish.

Zhuge Seung Kye was a peerless genius. His knowledge and comprehension wasn’t something that could be followed by the people of Zhuge Sega.

He had recorded his own thoughts in the books but that was still the thoughts of a genius.

That was so hard to understand that no one could interpret it or even understand it.

In the first place Zhuge Seung Kye had never thought of anyone or had any interaction with other people.

There was no way someone like that would prepare records for someone else to read and in the end no one was able to obtain his knowledge.

After that, the Murim Association and the Righteous Faction included weren’t able to react to the Machinery of the enemy. They ended up suffering great damages without being able to do anything.

Only then did Zhuge Sega regret it greatly and after this matter got known after the age of war ended, they received great scorn and disdain.

That was the Late Known Partner of Heaven.

“Hey, speak honestly. My uncle entrusted you to do something about me, right?”

“Of course that is the case. Scram!”

It seemed like there was a long way to go.

The wait had ended and the mission came to them.

“If you go south from Kaiyang for two days you will arrive at Weng An.

It is a place where the flags of the Murim Association and the River of Death change every two or three months. When we checked yesterday, our side was being pushed behind so I hope you can go and assist the warriors of the Murim Association.”

Shin Do Gyun finished speaking and glanced at Gu Pung and Zhuge Sak.

“Hm.”

Gu Pung let out a sound. He had a face like he was drowning in thought.

“It will be a bit dangerous but it will be a good experience for Sang and Suran. It is obviously fine.”

Zhuge Sang welcomed it.

Weng An was the most intense territory of all of Guizhou’s war zone and there that many injured and dead people came out from that place.

It was a place where a lot of disciples of the great sects with no experience get arrogant and die.

Many experts of the Death Faction also appear in this place as it’s the front lines.

They weren’t at the level of a hundred generation expert but even so, enemies you should be aware of still appeared.

‘How rude.’

Shin Do Gyun’s brows twitched faintly at Zhuge Sak’s words. There was an unpleasant feeling showing in his eyes.

The Zhuge Sega don’t fight with the martial artists of the Death Faction anyways. They only set up strategies and gave orders from behind.

He didn’t think badly of it because the specialty of Zhuge Sega was using their head but those words weren’t of courtesy as it could be heard as ‘it doesn’t involve us anyways’.

He had said that going to a dangerous place would be of experience to them so what would Gu Pung think about that?

“…I understand. Mount Hua sect accepts.”

Gu Pung received the mission after a while.

“Those are good news!”

Shin Do Gyun rejoiced at those words.

The Fourteenth Gallant Sword was a pinnacle expert everybody knew. The morale of the warriors was secured with this.

Even if an expert of the Death Faction appeared, they could feel relieved because they had Gu Pung.

‘I should prepare it so that the Fourteenth Gallant Sword doesn’t have to mind about the members of the Lotus Peak and is able to fight freely.’

He was anxious about Gu Pung rejecting the mission.

Originally, he had planned to give them a safer mission but the notices he received from Weng An were so urgent he couldn’t do anything about it.

But fortunately Gu Pung had accepted so he could feel a bit relieved about the matter in Weng An.

And about one o’clock on that same day.

They received the details about their mission and left Kaiyang.

“Weng An, Weng An….What do I have to be careful about at this time?’

He closed his eyes and searched in his memories. But that happened too long ago and Weng An is a place where its owner changes dozens of times in a year. There were so many things happening in it that there was nothing that stood out in that place.

“Mister, why do you keep following me.”

Zhuge Seung Kye mumbled with dead eyes.

Ju Seo Cheon stuck next to Zhuge Seung Kye wherever he went and the warriors of the Murim Association that got to accompany them mumbled to each other.

“They are still young but they shouldn’t have that kind of relationship, right?”

“Sh, save your words. He may become the Plum Blossom Sword Examiner in the future. What if he remembers our faces and comes to find us later? Don’t you know that the kids of the nine sects all have a dirty temperament? Each one of them are famous for being dislikeable.”

“Honestly speaking, you should be the one we are worried about.”

“Ahem!”

“And you don’t have to worry about that brat called Ju Seo Cheon. A while ago brother Jang told me that he was called the flashy yet frail one. He only became a member of the Lotus Peak because he was lucky, it seems like there’s nothing great about him in reality.”

“Ho, it’s already really lucky having entered Mount Hua sect but he entered the Lotus Peak on top of that? I’m really starting to dislike that kid.”