Chapter 295

He ignored the screams rising from behind.

Before being a martial artist, one had to pay the price for one’s choices as a person.

Poison Lord Mu Cheoru was a man who could do far more than expected from the position of a poison guild’s lord.

He was not the same case as the Shadow Lord or the Killing Lord, who had bowed their heads cleanly and come in.

Based on the memories of his previous life, the Poison Lord had indeed followed Seo Hyo, but among the four once called the Four Pillars, the most calculating of them was precisely the Poison Lord.

He hadn’t investigated him in detail, but there had been reasons why he followed Seo Hyo.

Even now it was plain.

Mu Cheoru understood the board exactly.

The very fact that he pulled out the word “persuasion” proved his greed.

There was no guarantee such a man wouldn’t try to sway him, and he had no desire to waste time for nothing.

That was why he killed him.

He headed to the bedchamber in silence and searched every corner.

A set of minor elixirs and a considerable amount of gold coins.

And even a Cheonrim Five Poisons Array.

He exhaled a sigh inwardly.

There had been several ambushes, and among them the Cheonrim Five Poisons Array had appeared.

Judging by routes of movement and the like, it was right to view it as Cheonrim’s doing.

It had been arranged that way.

After stowing the items into his pack, he turned his head.

He had said with his mouth that it was Mu Cheoru’s work, but it was not him.

He could stake his neck and swear it.

It could not be Mu Cheoru.

But for now, settling it as Mu Cheoru’s was the right course.

He stepped outside slowly.

There were several dozen corpses, and amid them a dozen men and women looked up at him with faces smeared in blood.

Killing Lord Sa Seollan grinned and said,

“These are the people I mentioned on the way. They were raised mainly as killers, and their level will surely surpass that of the Soul-Spirit Gate.”

So they appeared.

Their number was ten in all.

One among them was at the Mythic Stage, and the remaining nine were all at ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) the Five Energies Five Origins.

To say it again, a killer’s way and a martial artist’s way are different.

Reaching the Five Energies Five Origins as a martial artist and reaching it as a killer differ starkly; for that reason alone, the nine should be rated highly for having reached the Five Energies Five Origins.

All the more so since their technique was evident from the way they had slaughtered the several dozen around them.

“You’ve been raising a fine unit.”

“You flatter me.”

“Is there more left to clean up?”

The Shadow Lord and the Killing Lord shook their heads.

He thought for a moment, then spoke in a quiet voice.

“I can’t discard a unit that was raised with such effort.”

“...Sir?”

“Bring the county magistrate.”

He sank down onto the spot as he was.

If he stationed the Shadow Lord and the Killing Lord here while the friction with the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect remained unresolved, they would die with high probability.

For the time being, until everything was settled, he needed a person to manage this place—and in truth, there was only one.

The county magistrate.

Whether that man grew greedy and seized this place or did something else was a matter for later.

“What are you doing? Go bring him.”

Scratching his head, Ya Mukcheon sprang to his feet at once.

***

Before long, hurried footsteps reached Unhwi’s ears.

Bang!

The Heavenly Poison Consortium’s doors were flung open and a man rushed in.

He looked to be in his early forties, a sturdily built man, who panted harshly as he looked around.

His face went pale at the sight of the guildhall awash with blood and the dozens of corpses.

“Heavenly... Arbiter!”

The man spotted Unhwi and dropped to his knees in haste.

“County Magistrate of Un’guk, Yang Hyeok, begs pardon for arriving late!”

Unhwi spoke evenly.

“You are not late—you came in time. Rise.”

Yang Hyeok stood and looked around once more. Awe lingered in his eyes.

“All of this... so the rumors were true.”

What Unhwi had done was only kill the Poison Lord, but such a detail was irrelevant to a county magistrate.

Why was a county magistrate so deferential to Unhwi?

There was only one reason.

Word of what had happened at the royal capital of Un’guk had spread like wildfire among the officials.

The Chancellor, once the real power of Un’guk, and the Prince of the Blood were dead, and the Crown Prince had taken hold of everything.

Bluntly put, the sky over Un’guk now was the Crown Prince.

He had pressured such a Crown Prince and clasped hands to share the future—how could a mere county magistrate treat Unhwi roughly?

“I don’t care what you have taken from Mu Cheoru until now. Just do as you have been doing.”

As he had been doing?

From Yang Hyeok’s position, he could not simply take as-is the words of Unhwi, who stood almost on the Crown Prince’s level.

He blurted out at once,

“...Only give the order—anything at all!”

Unhwi rose from his seat and walked up to Yang Hyeok.

“Administer Cheongpung City.”

“...Cheongpung City, sir?”

“Not just this place.”

Unhwi’s eyes glinted cold.

“Put the whole of Cheongpung City in the palm of your hand.”

Yang Hyeok’s eyes flew wide. Cheongpung City was the greatest commercial city of the south. To administer that entire place...

“But Heavenly Arbiter, even if Mu Cheoru is dead, his forces are not collapsed...”

“Can’t do it? Afraid of clashing with a headless force?”

“That is... not so!”

Unhwi gave a small smile.

“Prefect Wi Jungdal of Seongjak Province now has a foothold laid to rise beyond the prefect’s seat to the one above.”

At the sudden name of Wi Jungdal, Yang Hyeok’s eyes rounded, then turned at once to rapture.

“Even such a man needs hands and feet. If you set this chaotic Cheongpung City in order, that will be proof of yourself, will it not?”

“Ah...”

“Yang Hyeok.”

“Y-Yes, Heavenly Arbiter.”

“If you were born a man, you ought to take what you want and remove those who block you. When one appears who is worth clasping hands with, clasp them; when there is a chance to prove yourself, you must prove yourself. Is that not a man’s path?”

Yang Hyeok’s eyes sparkled bright.

“...I will bear it in mind... and bear it in mind again.”

“Good.”

Unhwi looked to Sa Seollan.

“Turn your subordinates over to Yang Hyeok. For the time being, they will forge a new order in Cheongpung City.”

“Understood.”

Sa Seollan nodded and looked back at her subordinates.

“From today, serve County Magistrate Yang Hyeok. His order is my order.”

All ten killers dropped to one knee as one.

“We will do as commanded!”

Unhwi laid a hand on Yang Hyeok’s shoulder.

“Bear it in mind. Cheongpung City is no longer ‘Cheonrim’s land’ but the land of the Heavenly Alliance and Un’guk. Make it so that no one can even breathe without our leave.”

“I will see it done!”

Conviction rang in Yang Hyeok’s voice.

“Your attitude is good.”

Unhwi looked to Ya Mukcheon and Sa Seollan.

“We go to Cheonsu. Make ready.”

“Yes!”

There was not a trace of doubt in the eyes of Ya Mukcheon and Sa Seollan.

Unhwi’s way.

The trust Unhwi gave.

Even if it had been through Seo Hyo, it had surely been conveyed. Thus they were certain.

He was a man worth working with.

And so the three departed for Cheonsu, where the Heavenly Alliance’s main headquarters would be.

***

There was a man with black hair and a neat appearance.

A go board lay before him, and though it was his turn to play a stone, he did not place it.

He closed his eyes, drew a deep breath, and slowly opened them.

As he clenched the black stone in his hand, crack— the stone powdered and scattered.

“Heh heh... someone is in a foul mood.”

At the unhurried remark of the Original—the Heavenly Daoist—of the Original Blood Cult, seated opposite him, the man lifted his head.

His face was the very picture of calm, with not a trace of emotion—yet both the man and the Heavenly Daoist knew.

It was only an outward mask; inside, he was boiling, ready to explode at any moment.

“I wish to ask only one thing, Original.”

“Ask.”

“Why are you doing this?”

The Demonic Preceptor Yu Cheong’s eyes were sunk very deep.

Facing that gaze, the Heavenly Daoist was, unexpectedly, smiling.

Yu Cheong knew it as well: the Heavenly Daoist was a man full of mischief.

But this was different.

“Keeping me penned and making me merely watch while my hands and feet die one by one at the hands of the Snow Mountain Army Lord—why, I truly wish to know.”

“Heh heh... hands and feet, is it... Even you don’t quite know whether they are your hands and feet or wraiths gathered by ambition.”

“Why do you think I don’t know? I am their ambition.”

The Heavenly Daoist chuckled and chuckled.

“So will you place the stone.”

“To ask if I will not play while you prevent me from playing the very move I must play—I call that a contradiction.”

Even at such words, the Heavenly Daoist’s smile did not fade.

Yu Cheong was a man who had mastered the art of hiding his inside.

The reason Unhwi of his previous life had failed to notice him was not that the Heavenly Daoist covered him, but only Yu Cheong’s own ability.

Even Yu Cheong was not hiding his inside now.

With the reports he’d heard of late, Yu Cheong had been startled and startled again.

The things happening in the Heavenly Alliance.

The things happening between Cheonrim and the Mukse Society.

And at the center of all of them, a single man.

“The Snow Mountain Army Lord—do you rate him that highly.”

“If I answer, will you place the stone.”

“Answer first, Original.”

“Well now, it seems our Vice Cult Lord truly is very angry. Hu hu hu hu.”

At the Heavenly Daoist finally bursting into hearty laughter, it was Yu Cheong who was taken aback.

He could not recall seeing this man so delighted even once in the past thirty years...

“Listen.”

“...Yes.”

“What do you think is the value of completion as a martial artist.”

There was not a hair’s breadth of hesitation.

“To rule this world in place of Heaven for ten thousand generations. That is what completion as a true martial artist means.”

“Do you truly think so.”

“Then what do you think.”

“My thought does not matter, but someone said this: the value of completion as a martial artist is a spirit that does not retreat under any circumstances.”

Yu Cheong let out a thin laugh.

“I call that no different from arrogance.”

“That is why I wish to watch.”

“...”

“If you move, the Palace Lord of the Snow Palace will move as well. Then the Snow Palace and our Cult would start a war... and that would be no fun.”

“It could be made a stepping stone for unifying the Central Plains.”

“Heh heh... exactly—no fun at all.”

“...”

“My friend, who gave you leave to make it a stepping stone. I have not decided that.”

From the Heavenly Daoist’s gently smiling body, the might of a sovereign erupted. Yu Cheong swallowed.

‘...Monster.’

He did not consider himself the weak. He had planted people across the Central Plains, built an organization, and while cultivating had clearly recognized himself as “the strong”—yet looking at this mad old man before his eyes, that thought inverted.

An eternal weakling? Was this man truly someone he could never surpass?

He was so unpredictable a man it was fearsome.