Chapter 326

"Dog of the Heavenly Alliance...."

Unhwi shook his head.

"I’m not a dog. And I’m not someone subordinate to the Heavenly Alliance."

A faint shift passed through Im Suje’s eyes.

"What are you saying?"

"You already know, Senior. I am Seol Unhwi. Whether it’s Heavenly Arbiter or Snow Mountain Army Lord, those are only modifiers. How could the worth of a single person be decided by whether an organization endures?"

"...Just like I heard, you have a long tongue."

"Other things are long, too. I do."

"...Insane bastard."

Unhwi looked Im Suje straight in the eyes as he said it.

That was when it happened.

Kwaaaang—!

From deeper inside the Sect Master Hall, an enormous force burst out as if exploding. The overwhelming might unique to No-Extremes Incarnation made the surrounding space tremble. But it was not only that. Clear emotion was mixed into that force.

Panic.

Blatant, primitive panic began to shake the entire Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect.

Im Suje’s eyes widened. Then he looked back at Unhwi.

"...What is that? That thing."

Unhwi kept staring at Im Suje, and in that moment, he caught one thing.

"Your panic is pointed in a slightly different direction."

"...What?"

"You definitely felt the same Ihwa Flowing-Water Sword Art colliding. Yet you’re asking what it is."

"..."

"Shouldn’t you be asking whether I came to assassinate someone?"

As if realizing he had made a mistake, Im Suje furrowed his brow.

Now that he looked again—

"You knew."

"...What are you talking about."

"The truth from twenty years ago. And the identity of the man who has been sitting in the Sect Master seat all this time."

Im Suje’s body stiffened slightly, and a smile drew itself across Unhwi’s mouth once more.

"As expected of the Skywind Swordsman. To do nothing but watch for twenty years. May I ask why?"

By now, countless people had gathered around the Sect Master Hall.

With more eyes on them, Unhwi pushed his back off the Heavenshaking Spiritblade he had been leaning against.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about. You walked here to die and now you’re spouting nonsense...."

"Is it loyalty?"

"..."

"Looks like it is. Then loyalty to whom? It doesn’t seem like a person... an organization?"

Im Suje drew his sword. The momentum of someone at Unity of Heaven and Man poured out like madness—

Kwaaaang—!!

From within the Sect Master Hall, a second collision rang out.

Unhwi shook his head.

"Could you calm down a little?"

"Why should I?"

"Because it’s hard for me to talk."

"There’s no reason to listen to you."

"There is."

"..."

"If there wasn’t, you wouldn’t be standing there without cutting me down."

"..."

"If I collapse like this, things can get tangled in a strange way again. And—over there, you can see Grand Elder Sang Jihyeok trying to control the sect’s martial artists. He looks like he’s struggling. Help him a little."

"You...."

"If this goes on, you may ruin it. Today, someone who already died will die once more. There’s no need for anyone else to die."

"..."

"In the end, this is work to minimize sacrifices. You’re not someone who wouldn’t understand that, so stop now and act."

Im Suje glared at Unhwi with narrowed eyes, then shouted at the top of his lungs.

"All of you—hold!"

Everyone froze in place.

Im Suje kept glaring at Unhwi, then finally let out a deep sigh.

Unhwi was right.

Im Suje had suspected that the Sect Master of the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect, Yeon Songbaek, was not truly Yeon Songbaek, but Shin Gang.

Since when?

Twenty years ago.

Yeon Hakcheol, the previous Sect Master, took two disciples and headed into a Hidden Cavern on Mount Ihwa. And from there, only Yeon Songbaek returned alive.

That was the beginning.

The original Yeon Songbaek had been brutal and stupid.

And Shin Gang had been bright, with an exceptional mind.

They were men with opposite temperaments, yet the Yeon Songbaek who returned—though he still had a hint of thuggishness—looked as if he were “acting” it out.

The death of a master who was also a father, and betrayal by a sworn brother he had trusted.

Im Suje wanted to believe that such things could change a person.

At first it was suspicion, but there was a trigger that turned it into certainty.

It was the sect’s sacred relic, the Heaven-Extreme Sword.

Back then, the Yeon Songbaek who returned had said it plainly.

That he had lost the Heaven-Extreme Sword.

That could happen. It was understandable, even acceptable.

But about eighteen years ago, when Im Suje went out briefly on an excursion, he visited a Yeon Family safehouse—and found the Heaven-Extreme Sword there.

How could Im Suje have known of a Yeon Family safehouse that only the Yeon Family knew?

It was simple.

Im Suje had belonged to the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect for over fifty years.

Twice, he had personally inspected safehouses, and both times they were in different locations.

He went to those two safehouses—and found the Heaven-Extreme Sword in them.

Yet Yeon Songbaek claimed he did not know the Yeon Family safehouses? That he had lost the Heaven-Extreme Sword?

That meant the one sitting in the Sect Master seat under the surname Yeon did not know the Yeon Family safehouses, and even worse, did not know where the Heaven-Extreme Sword was stuck away.

At that point, it was impossible not to be certain.

And yet Im Suje remained silent.

For the larger framework called the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect.

Even when Sang Jihyeok, a Unity of Heaven and Man martial artist inferior to him, was appointed Grand Elder, even when he was excluded from the Seven Swords of Ihwa, he said nothing.

He remained there like a quiet tree.

He did not swear loyalty to a person.

He swore loyalty to an organization.

Yes.

Just as Unhwi said—loyalty.

He did not plot rebellion.

Of course, the Shin Gang wearing Yeon Songbaek’s face was now a master at No-Extremes Incarnation, but when he first became Sect Master, he had only been at Unity of Heaven and Man, and it took about ten years to climb from Unity of Heaven and Man to No-Extremes Incarnation.

If he intended to plot, he should have done it then.

But he had no such intent, and he did not.

Because with that man there, the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect could exist as the greatest among the Five Sword Sects.

His skill at managing affairs was extraordinary as well.

Even running Cheonrim from the shadows—he was clearly no ordinary man, so watching was the right choice.

But Seol Unhwi knew this?

Then what was happening inside—

"Don’t tell me...."

"Just as you guessed."

Third exchange.

Kwaaaang—!!

The ceiling of the Sect Master Hall shattered, scattering in every direction.

Unhwi said quietly.

"It’s time for the truth to be revealed."

"...What truth is it."

Unhwi smiled.

"What else? The truth everyone wants."

"..."

"Do you want revenge for the previous Sect Master, and for the man called the real Yeon Songbaek?"

Im Suje shook his head.

Yeon Hakcheol was a man worthy of respect as a martial artist, but not worthy of respect as a human being.

Yeon Songbaek’s brutal nature had been learned by following Yeon Hakcheol.

"Then join us."

"Join what."

"Throw yourself with us into the yoke called truth."

Im Suje looked at Unhwi in silence.

"...And what improves, if I do?"

"The bond between the Heavenly Alliance and the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect will deepen."

"..."

"Up to now, the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect has done many things. We plan to bury all of it under the name Yeon Songbaek. ‘The Sect Master’ agreed to that as well."

Bury it...?

"...The way of those in power."

"The way of people."

"..."

"Will you join us?"

After thinking hard, Im Suje did not answer with his mouth.

He slowly sheathed the sword he had been holding.

That was enough of an answer.

But then—

Something happened that even Unhwi had not fully expected.

The fifth exchange had just ended.

Flame King Hwa Munyeom was supposed to withdraw now.

Kwaaaang—!!

A sixth.

Kwaaaaang—!!

A seventh.

The exchanges continued.

Unhwi’s brow gradually furrowed.

***

Inside the Sect Master Hall, two masters at No-Extremes Incarnation were locked in a violent, desperate battle.

Flame King Hwa Munyeom’s eyes flashed. In his hand was the First-River Advance Sword, a blade Shin Gang had handed him, ranked among the upper tier of Martial Divinity grade.

A blue light began to flow from that sword.

Third Form of the Ihwa Flowing-Water Sword Art—Flowing Water, Split Current.

The sword tip curved with a mysterious, wave-like motion, then split into three branches in an instant, aiming at Shin Gang’s philtrum, lower abdomen, and heart at the same time. Three enormous waves of swordflow, shaped from Heaven-Earth spirit energy, tore through space as they surged forward.

But Shin Gang did not take it like a fool.

What he unleashed was a secret within secrets of the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect—the fifth form of the Ihwa Divine-Spirit Art, Severed Flower, Impermanence.

The blade of the Heaven-Extreme Sword in his hand created seven afterimages, like petals scattering, and blocked every one of Flame King Hwa Munyeom’s strikes.

Kaang! Kaaang! Kaang—!

The sound of metal colliding rang out in a chain. Sparks flew where the two swords met, and the shockwave that spread in all directions struck the pillars of the Sect Master Hall.

As cracks ran through the pillars and the hall shook violently, Shin Gang was thinking something else.

‘...Flame King... was he always like this?’

To be honest, Shin Gang had never liked things like the Gold-Dust Ablution Rite. Letting go of old grudges and turning his back on the secular world—call it whatever you wanted, but how was it any different from running away?

In Shin Gang’s eyes, holding a runaway in high regard because they lacked the strength to bear the grudges they had accumulated was something his nature could not tolerate.

That was why he had looked down on the Flame King as well.

Even if two people shared the same realm, how could a man who fled and a man who did not flee—who kept overcoming fate and trying to carve something new—ever be the same?

But it took only a single exchange.

That one exchange forced Shin Gang to change his mind.

Flame King Hwa Munyeom.

A master who could contend for the very top even among the old greats.

He was near a hundred years old, yet his vigor was comparable to Shin Gang’s.

"It’s truly something, but it seems the Ihwa Flowing-Water Sword Art has been altered too much."

"Does it."

He was not saying it for nothing.

What Flame King Hwa Munyeom displayed was not simple imitation. His own distinctive killing intent and martial philosophy were blended into it—something Shin Gang had no choice but to point out.

"I will restrain myself."

Flame King Hwa Munyeom said it, but inside, he was also deeply shocked.

‘Shin Gang... was this man always like this?’

Flame King Hwa Munyeom had withdrawn from the martial world, but he had not neglected his training.

He had refined himself without pause, and now he was looking toward the realm above No-Extremes Incarnation—the Peach-Blossom Fist Realm.

‘Interesting.’

Flame King Hwa Munyeom kicked off, and Shin Gang kicked off as well.

Their swords crashed together once more.

Kwaang—!!

Kwaaaang—!!

Even as the roars shook the hall, Mae «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» Wuidong’s corpse—laid out on the floor—suffered not the slightest damage.

They were men capable of that level of control.

The two men traded exchanges.

A third.

A fourth.

And the final fifth.

After trading those exchanges, the two men drew back for a moment, and Flame King Hwa Munyeom thought:

No matter how much Shin Gang avoided revealing his true martial arts, the man he was facing now was clearly someone who stood on the same ground as he did.

‘When he acted as Yeon Songbaek, he wouldn’t have been able to display proper martial arts. Then this must be his real strength... not bad.’

The sword intent packed into each form, and the trajectory of the sword energy it produced.

Everything was impressive.

If fortune favored someone today, someone might rise through this bloodbattle—to the Peach-Blossom Fist Realm.

To put it bluntly, the chance to cross blades at full strength with an opponent of this level was something that might come once in a lifetime—if at all.

Flame King Hwa Munyeom lifted his head. The instant he saw the slightly excited look on Shin Gang’s face, he became certain they were thinking the same thing.