Chapter 208
In the end, the meeting had no choice but to conclude with Jintaedo stepping back.
Myo Cheongju, head of the Myo family, who had tried to mediate by all means, found himself powerless and had to ask Jintaedo to yield. In response, Jintaedo said he would reconsider his stance on the naval unit, forcing the meeting to be postponed for another week.
As soon as the meeting ended, Jintaedo could no longer hold back and stormed out of the conference room first.
Bang!
His departure was a stark contrast to his usual self—normally the last to leave, smiling and seeing off the other family heads.
His back seemed to radiate an unbearable fury.
Startled by his sudden exit, the heads of the Chuk, Mi, Sul, and Hae families hurriedly called after him, chasing him out.
“Master Jang!”
“Master Jin!”
“P-please wait!”
Once they all disappeared outside, the room fell silent. Unable to contain himself any longer, Oh Ikdeok burst into laughter.
“Ha ha ha! I don’t think I’ve ever seen that snake lose his temper and reveal his true feelings like this before! This is the most satisfying meeting I’ve attended in a long time! It’s like a breath of fresh air, brother! Ha ha ha!”
His hearty laughter was joined by Shin Duwol, the small but sturdy head of the Shin family, who chuckled in agreement.
“Ha ha ha! Same here! This is exhilarating! I feel like I should go back and hammer some steel right now! If I keep this mood, I might forge a legendary sword! Ha ha ha!”
But not everyone was amused.
The eldest among them, Myo Cheongju, scolded them sharply.
“This is no time for laughter!”
Then, turning to the next eldest, Ja Gajoo of the Ja family, he reproached him.
“Master Ja, even if those hotheads are like that, I never imagined you would side with them on this matter. What are you thinking? Don’t you realize what will happen to Haenamdo’s future if we fall into division?”
Stroking his goat-like beard and avoiding eye contact, Ja Gajoo remained silent. Instead, Yu Haeung answered Myo Cheongju’s words.
“Master Myo, I believe the order is reversed. It’s not us who divided the Haenam faction, but the naval unit—more precisely, Master Jin—who caused the split. I clearly stated I would serve under him and command the naval unit. Is that really a demand that would divide Haenam?”
Myo Cheongju sighed deeply and spoke gently, as if trying to soothe him.
“Phew… Master Yu, isn’t he the Jangmunin we elected? It’s only natural for the Jangmunin to command the military unit. But if someone like you becomes the naval commander, how can the Jangmunin freely control the forces? That would mean taking command away from the Jangmunin. How could that be…”
Yu Haeung cut him off.
“Strictly speaking, we never elected him. For some reason, one candidate disappeared, so we never had the chance.”
Ja Gajoo’s expression hardened instantly.
“What are you implying? Surely you’re not going to repeat the baseless conspiracy theories that Master Jin killed Master In, are you?”
Yu Haeung looked at him with a strange glint in his eyes.
“I’ve sensed this for a while, but you’re speaking oddly. Until the truth comes out, all unknown facts are dismissed as conspiracy theories, aren’t they? What I’m saying is not that he killed Master In, but that he is not the Jangmunin we elected. Who knows? If he had brought the sacred White Tiger Sword and issued orders, we might have had no choice but to obey. But now, even that is gone. I don’t know who caused its disappearance.”
Yu Haeung was essentially saying that Jintaedo lacked both the legitimacy and authority of the Jangmunin.
In other words, they would no longer recognize him as their leader.
Others nodded in agreement.
Seeing this, Myo Cheongju could only sigh deeply.
Myo Aran, the youngest daughter of Myo Cheongju, had been sitting in a small pavilion in the Haenam faction’s garden for over an hour, reading a book and waiting for her father.
Many attendants glanced at her and whispered as they passed by.
Her stillness and focus on the book made her look like a living painting.
Her graceful and dignified beauty was renowned throughout Haenamdo.
Whispers of admiration floated around.
“Miss Myo Aran is as beautiful as ever!”
“How can she look so ethereal?”
“I wonder who she will marry?”
“Well, with Master In’s heir gone, she has no betrothed now.”
“But she was supposed to be the lady of the In family. Who else could marry her so easily?”
Aran heard their murmurs clearly, but she read on as if oblivious.
After a while, she looked up and saw her father approaching with a dark expression.
She smiled gently and asked, “Father, you don’t look well. Did something happen at the meeting?”
Myo Cheongju shook his head.
“Nothing. Let’s go home.”
Aran’s eyes sparkled as she asked cautiously, “Could it be… Master Yu has rebelled?”
Startled, Myo Cheongju looked at her.
While others only praised Aran’s beauty, he knew his youngest daughter possessed wisdom beyond her looks.
But even he thought this was a bold guess.
How could she tell just from his expression? And why mention Yu Haeung by name?
He sighed and replied, “Your eyes can’t be fooled. How did you guess?”
Aran smiled softly.
“I was just lucky. I expected that sooner or later, someone would oppose Master Jin. I thought it would be Master Yu, the only one among the family heads with the standing to confront him.”
Myo Cheongju nodded slowly.
“You were right. Master Yu said that unless the naval unit was entrusted to him or disbanded, the Haenam Yu family would leave the faction. Then the heads of the Oh, Shin, and Ja families agreed with him.”
“I see.”
Aran smiled faintly, as if she had anticipated this.
Myo Cheongju frowned slightly and asked, “Why do you look so pleased? Do you think they’re right?”
Aran returned his smile with a calm gaze.
“Do you think their actions are wrong, Father?”
Myo Cheongju snapped angrily, “Of course! Even if Master Jin’s methods are extreme, division? Don’t you realize how reckless that is when we’re still clashing with the Ma Kyung enemy?”
But Aran met his anger with steady eyes and replied slowly.
“If that premise is true, then maybe.”
Myo Cheongju’s face hardened.
“What did you say? ‘If that premise is true’?”
Aran looked at him with an inscrutable expression.
“But… is it really true that we’re still clashing with the Ma Kyung? Do you truly believe that, Father?”
Myo Cheongju was momentarily speechless.
Aran’s gaze seemed to hold some secret.
Jintaedo, the Jangmunin of the Haenam faction—also known as the Haenam Swordmaster or Namhae Geomang—had to summon superhuman patience as he stormed out of the meeting room and headed back to his office.
The faint laughter of the family heads behind him made him want to turn around and swing his sword immediately.
Grinding his teeth, he barely suppressed the urge.
“How dare they!”
He spoke coldly to those following him.
“I need time to clear my thoughts. You all may leave.”
The heads of the Chuk, Sul, Mi, and Hae families, who had been chasing after him, looked startled but quickly bowed and replied.
“Y-yes, Master Jang, understood.”
“Please don’t listen to those kinds of people…”
“We’ll take our leave then.”
Jintaedo watched their backs with a cold glare.
If those who opposed him were insignificant, he would have dealt with them without hesitation. But he couldn’t.
Unlike those useless ones, the family heads remaining in the room all held crucial roles within the Haenam faction.
The Yu family trained archers, the Oh family built ships and trained sailors, the Shin family crafted various weapons, and the Ja family managed finances.
There was no family he could afford to handle recklessly.
In the end, suppressing his anger, Jin Taedo sat down in his office, stewing in his fury with a cold, deadly glare.
But then, suddenly, he let out a short, bitter laugh and muttered through clenched teeth.
“Yeah, this is exactly why the Haenam faction won’t work. With such a flimsy structure that can’t concentrate power in a strong leader’s hands, there’s no way to grow any further. So…”
He stopped mid-sentence, then suddenly broke into a fierce grin.
“Get rid of the Naval Squadron? Fine. I’ll get rid of it. Just wait a little longer, Yoo Haeung. The day my power is complete, I’ll do exactly as you say.”
In truth, Jin Taedo had been thinking this way for some time.
As the head of the Haenam faction, he was limited by having to watch the other family heads.
If he wanted to become the ruler of the southern seas, he needed a force that moved solely according to his will—his own faction.
So, for a while now, he had been quietly building his own power base on the mainland.
He had secretly taken over a small sect and was slowly growing it from within.
The story about the Naval Squadron’s ships sinking in a battle with the Ma-gyeong fleet was a lie.
Jin Taedo had told people the ships were lost, while quietly siphoning off the squadron’s troops to bolster his own forces.
Using that excuse, he pressured them to keep expanding the Naval Squadron’s size.
All of it was part of Jin Taedo’s plan to grow his personal faction.
And now, those forces had grown enough to establish themselves as the leading factions representing Guangxi Province and Guangdong Province.
They were the Hapsan faction in Guangxi and the Baekgyo faction in Guangdong.
Jin Taedo stroked his chin thoughtfully and muttered to himself.
“Still, I wanted to move all the Naval Squadron troops to Baekgyo if possible… but I guess I have to transfer them to Hapsan first.”
Unlike the Hapsan faction, which had become the undisputed strongest sect in Guangxi, Baekgyo had yet to surpass the Guangdong Jin family’s influence in Guangdong Province.
So Jin Taedo had been quietly shifting the Naval Squadron’s forces toward Baekgyo, trying not to draw attention.
“Hmm…”
But as he muttered, a frown crept across his face.
He preferred to strengthen Baekgyo’s forces properly rather than Hapsan’s.
Unlike Hapsan, which was a joint faction formed with the Hyungsan faction, Baekgyo was entirely his own creation.
Moreover, Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, where Baekgyo was based, was a strategic location with waterways leading out to the sea.
It was an ideal place to transfer the Naval Squadron’s forces along those routes.
So he had been slowly moving the Naval Squadron’s troops to Baekgyo to strengthen it—but before that process was complete, Yoo Haeung had suddenly risen up.
Jin Taedo clicked his tongue and muttered.
“Tch, if only I’d had a little more time…”
It was a bitter regret.
If he’d had another year or so, he could have handled things much more smoothly.
Just as he was deep in thought about how to transfer the Naval Squadron’s forces to Baekgyo, his subordinate suddenly knocked urgently on the office door.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
“Master! It’s urgent!”
The voice was tense, unlike usual.
Frowning at the commotion, Jin Taedo said, “Come in.”
The subordinate rushed in, face pale, and blurted out, “Master, it’s a disaster!”
“A disaster?”
“Yes, Hapsan… Hapsan!”
Jin Taedo’s eyes widened as he listened to the report.