Chapter 63 : Sewing Gate

Chapter 63: Seal Gate

“C-Cult Leader!”

At Shin Jijinren’s trembling voice, the Cult Leader, standing at a crooked angle, spoke.

“Wake up a bit earlier, earlier. A Daoist, and the sun’s already high in the sky.”

High in the sky?

The sun had not even shown its face yet. It was barely the exact hour of the Tiger (04:00 a.m.).

So it was an argument picked for no reason.

No matter how much weaker Kunlun was compared to the Bright Cult, and no matter how great its sins, there were still things that had to be upheld.

To protect that, Shin Jijinren forcibly steadied his surprise and straightened his chest.

And just as he was about to face the Cult Leader, a disciple came running up, then faltered upon seeing an outsider standing at the Sect Master’s residence.

Shin Jijinren summoned that disciple with Mental Voice Transmission.

It’s fine. Come.

Responding to the Sect Master’s transmission, the disciple approached quickly with small steps and bowed his head.

“Sect Master, a message from the External Defense Pavilion.”

The External Defense Pavilion was the organization responsible for guarding Kunlun’s outer perimeter. The Pavilion Lord was Gwangseongja, whom Yul Han had previously encountered at the foot of Mount Kunlun.

That meant the disciple who had rushed over was a martial artist under Gwangseongja.

“What is it?”

“Th-that is……”

It meant the matter was something problematic for an outsider to hear.

“It’s fine. Speak.”

Shin Jijinren thought it was likely related to the Cult Leader. And indeed, it was.

“At the foot of Mount Kunlun, a large group of unidentified individuals—”

The Cult Leader cut off the Kunlun disciple mid-sentence.

“Ah! Those guys. The Blood Sword Unit. I stirred them up while protecting Kunlun.”

“What do you mean, protecting?”

“The Red Blade Unit brats lost their minds. They heard their unit commander and squad leader were killed or injured by some Hundred Paths trash.”

“Hmmm……”

At the Sect Master’s low hum, the disciple cautiously continued.

“They say a large number of people have been detected even farther out……”

“Ah! Those guys. The Ten Thousand Swords Unit. They’re holding the Red Blade Unit in place. The bastards have so much stamina that it took ten per person just to keep one under control.”

As the Cult Leader once again cut in, Shin Jijinren asked him,

“What is it that you want?”

“What do I want? I just wanted to take a look. To see with my own eyes what could possibly be in their heads, that they’d openly assault my disciple, whom I’ve spared so many times.”

He spoke with a smile, but the content itself was dangerously extreme.

In truth, if the Cult Leader were to draw his blade, there was no master in Kunlun who could stand against him.

It was a grave miscalculation.

Having focused solely on the Vice Cult Leader, they had failed to account for the Cult Leader as another variable.

No matter what anyone said, the Cult Leader was a member of the Four Heavenly Forces.

If a fight broke out, defeat was guaranteed. Kunlun would have to brace itself for total annihilation.

The reason Kunlun had endured for so long in its conflicts with the Bright Cult was precisely because neither the Vice Cult Leader nor the Cult Leader had been present in those many battles.

It was humiliating, but there was no denying it.

That was why Shin Jijinren had no choice but to ask where the Cult Leader’s intentions lay.

“Do you truly desire Kunlun’s blood?”

Though tense, Shin Jijinren was not servile. After all, Kunlun’s martial artists lived with the belief that they would someday die in battle against the Bright Cult.

The Sect Master was no different.

And so—

“Give us your answer. Then we, too, will give ours.”

At Shin Jijinren’s calm demeanor, the Cult Leader let out a snort of laughter.

“A guilty man getting angry. Someone who should be begging doesn’t even feel refreshed, yet he’s straining his neck. Stop it. You’ll break it.”

The words were profoundly humiliating and threatening. Even so, there was no time to give in to anger.

“Kangho is a place where killing and being killed happens daily. Just because such a thing occurred, assigning blame and fault—”

“So if I turn this place into a sea of blood today, will you call that just one of those everyday occurrences too?”

Shin Jijinren could not answer the Cult Leader, who interrupted him and posed the question.

The Cult Leader continued.

“Our Strategist said this: when consideration is repeated, people start thinking it’s a right. I’m wondering whether you lot might be exactly that.”

It was not that they could not wipe out Kunlun, but that they were leaving it alone out of consideration.

Understanding those words, Shin Jijinren’s cheeks trembled violently with rage.

Watching him, the Cult Leader opened his mouth.

“Anger.”

After tossing out the word, the Cult Leader scoffed and glanced up at the sky. The moment he lowered his head and stared straight ahead, a distance of three full jang vanished into nothing, and he appeared right before Shin Jijinren’s nose.

“The anger of the powerless is nothing but vanity and self-satisfaction. If you thought that I, that we, that the Bright Cult had to keep indulging it……”

He cut himself off there, and as he bared a cruel grin, murderous intent swirled around the corners of his mouth.

The instant he saw it, Shin Jijinren shouted to the disciple who had brought the report.

“R-run! Get away!”

He did not merely shout. He even moved to block the External Defense Pavilion disciple’s path.

But—

Thud.

At the sound coming from behind, Shin Jijinren turned his head, his eyes trembling violently.

Before he knew it, the External Defense Pavilion disciple had become a corpse, his neck severed, collapsed on the ground.

Shin Jijinren drew his sword without hesitation and turned around, but he could not swing it.

Before he realized it, the Cult Leader’s sword had already touched Shin Jijinren’s Adam’s apple.

“Decide. If you want to die, I’ll cut off your neck, and then I’ll kill every single breathing thing living in Kunlun.”

“Th-There’s no need to go this far……”

“Your mouth may be crooked, but speak straight. This is something you brought upon yourselves. Did you think we’d just keep getting beaten, and as long as you said you were sorry, we’d simply smile it off every time?”

“Hmmm……”

Shin Jijinren’s contemplation grew deep. If it were only about rage, he should have swung his sword even if it meant dying here.

But since it was not a matter of his life alone, Shin Jijinren ultimately sheathed his blade.

The Cult Leader likewise withdrew the sword that had been pressed against Shin Jijinren’s throat.

“What a shame.”

“You didn’t come all this way just to cut down the neck of a mere young disciple. Speak. What more do you want?”

At Shin Jijinren’s question, the Cult Leader clasped his hands behind his back and walked slowly, stopping beside the corpse of the External Defense Pavilion disciple lying dead.

“You still speak like that. It seems you didn’t understand my words properly.”

“What… do you mean?”

‘Just’? Everything was taken from this child, yet you say ‘just.’ Well, you’re alive, and this child is dead. Then let me ask you. Was it truly I who killed this child?”

Shin Jijinren could not answer the Cult Leader’s question.

The Cult Leader spoke to him.

“Don’t drive young disciples to their deaths. Just like this child.”

Leaving those words behind, the Cult Leader walked down through Kunlun’s grounds as if he had merely come out for a stroll.

Even while watching him plainly, Shin Jijinren could make no sound and take no action.

As Shin Jijinren stood there in a daze, Gwangseongja, who oversaw the External Defense Pavilion, came running.

Approaching the Sect Master’s residence, Gwangseongja stopped short when he discovered the disciple’s corpse sprawled on the ground.

But only for a moment. Gwangseongja hurried his steps again and reached the Sect Master.

“Sect Master, the Demonic Cult—no, the Bright Cult has done something like this……”

Shin Jijinren’s expression hardened as he unfolded and read the letter Gwangseongja handed over with a guilt-ridden face.

“Ha… in the end……”

Gwangseongja looked up at the sky with a face that seemed to fall into an abyss. In the letter briefly visible in his hand were written the following words:

< Seal Gate for ten years. If you do not comply, you will be annihilated on this date next month. >

“There is a month’s time. If we prepare properly, we may be able to fight back sufficiently—”

Gwangseongja’s voice was cut off by Shin Jijinren slowly shaking his head.

After falling silent, Gwangseongja heard Shin Jijinren speak.

“During that one month, who will come?”

“Th-That is……”

“The Vice Cult Leader is seated in Gansu. The sects of the region cannot move. Then what of the others? They too will only read the situation. In the end, we must face this alone.”

Kunlun alone against the Bright Cult? Certain defeat. Decades of repeated experience proved that.

And if the Cult Leader were added to that—

The young disciple who had been slain would become Kunlun’s future.

This was both the Cult Leader’s resolve and his warning that this time, he would leave no one behind.

Neither Shin Jijinren nor Gwangseongja could say a word.

A few days later, news of Kunlun’s Seal Gate shook the entire martial world.

The situation of the Secular Disciples, who lost the support they leaned on when their sect sealed its gates, became dire.

In a martial world rife with fierce competition, the sealing of one’s backing sect was fatal.

Requests from Secular Disciples to lift the Seal Gate poured in, and the number of Secular Disciples visiting Kunlun increased.

But no one was able to cross Kunlun’s mountain gate.

The Secular Disciples who could not cross the gate wept, and the disciples of Kunlun’s main sect, who had to block them, also wept.

Thus, tears piled up at Kunlun’s mountain gate, which had been forced to close against its will.

Kongtong was annihilated, and Kunlun sealed its gates.

Though the announcement came from Kunlun, anyone in the world could easily guess that it was not voluntary.

The Tang Clan took the drastic step of expelling the families of expelled disciples, including Tang Yul.

Though it was for survival, the cries of those driven out overnight filled Sichuan.

While many sects of the Hundred Paths watched the Bright Cult and the Vice Cult Leader with apprehension, a single Daoist in tattered clothing arrived at Golden Flower Manor.

A commotion broke out.

The Daoist refused to leave even after being turned away at the gate by Golden Flower Manor’s security, which had been strengthened further since the last bloodshed.

An argument broke out between the Daoist and the guards at the main gate.

Yul Han, who had been walking along the walls of Golden Flower Manor for a stroll, noticed the disturbance.

“What is going on?”

He had approached thinking someone might be causing trouble, but an unexpected story came out.

“Well, look at him—he comes dressed like that and claims he’s the Sect Master of Mount Zhongnan… and insists he must see the Vice Cult Leader.”

Angered by the other party’s lies and obstinacy, a Golden Flower Manor guard spoke heatedly, prompting Yul Han to step outside the gate.

The other party looked as shabby and dust-covered as the guard had described.

“You say you are the Sect Master of Mount Zhongnan.”

“Yes. I was told to awaken late, so I received the Dao name Malko.”

At the Daoist’s words, the Golden Flower Manor guard’s grumbling was heard.

“Where did you even pick up the Dao name of the Mount Zhongnan Sect Master? Tsk! You’ll get into big trouble, old man. If you’re going to impersonate someone, at least pick the right name.”

Yul Han calmed the hopping guard and asked,

“You are aware that your appearance leaves you no choice but to be spoken to like this, are you not?”

“I am.”

“Then such lies—”

The guard, about to lash out again, shut his mouth with wide eyes at the sight of Yul Han forming a respectful fist-and-palm salute.

Into the guard’s ear came Yul Han’s voice.