Chapter 328

Everything had been arranged for Shin Gang.

As for the new system of cooperation between the Heavenly Alliance and the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect, the plan was that once the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect’s internal matters were completely put in order, Shin Gang would personally come to the Heavenly Alliance to affix his name to it.

Naturally, there was no longer any reason for Unhwi to remain.

So Unhwi quietly went down the mountain.

An old man wearing a mask fell into step beside him.

It was Flame King Hwa Munyeom.

“Before, I got angry at you.”

Unhwi stopped in place and quietly looked at Hwa Munyeom as he spoke.

“This time it’s the opposite, isn’t it. Fine—let’s talk about it once. What is the reason?”

“Do you not know? That reason?”

“......”

“It seems you’re guessing, but I think you’re pointed in a slightly different direction.”

“Direction?”

“It wasn’t simply because you almost ruined the work.”

He was briefly taken aback.

He had thought that was the reason, but it wasn’t?

“Of course, it’s true I felt bad about that part. Because with your actions, you nearly ruined everything.”

“I won’t deny it.”

“For a martial artist who has reached the Realm of Martial Divinity, it is rare to cross hands with an equal. Above all, when you cross hands, there are times you can gain an opportunity for insight, so it is certainly a valuable chance. But chances always come. To be swallowed by passion in a situation where you must not waver? I’ll speak frankly.”

Unhwi’s gaze was resolute.

“If you were not the next Alliance Lord of the Heavenly Alliance, and if you were not the man leading the Mukse Society, then I would not have cared. If a martial artist wants to stake his life and fight like a martial artist, who am I to stop him. But haven’t you already undergone the Gold-Dust Ablution Rite once as a martial artist?”

“......”

“Even if you return to activity in the martial world, there are things you laid down and left behind when you underwent the Gold-Dust Ablution Rite back then.”

“Are you talking about grudges and debts?”

“No. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about lingering attachment.”

Hwa Munyeom’s eyes widened.

“You cast away your lingering attachment as a martial artist and chose a new life to rebuild the Millennium Demon Cult. That is a new «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» path you vowed to accomplish as a ‘human being.’ But listen. What you showed earlier was neither the latter, nor the former.”

“......”

“You were only a wraith swallowed by craving. Without even thinking about what results would come afterward, you immersed yourself in that moment alone. I’m asking because I truly want to know—do you think rebuilding the Millennium Demon Cult will be easy?”

“...Of course not.”

“No. It isn’t the level of difficulty you’re thinking of right now. Rebuilding the Millennium Demon Cult is like turning the entire martial world into your enemy—and in particular, it means you must either persuade or make an enemy of the strongest and most dangerous, a genius among geniuses the likes of which this world has never had in all of history.”

“......”

“Get a grip. Others may waver, but you must not waver.”

For a while, Hwa Munyeom did not say anything.

Unhwi did not speak either.

Just then, rain began to fall from the sky.

The drops pattering down broke the silence.

Unhwi asked,

“Does what I said offend you?”

“It does, but it’s so right from start to finish that I can’t even show dissatisfaction.”

Hwa Munyeom was not a man who held grudges, and Unhwi was not a man who held grudges.

If there was something they disliked about each other, they were the kind to shake it out right there on the spot.

Unhwi went straight to the point.

“I’ll make a situation where you give up neither.”

“...Hm?”

“In this vast game I’m laying down, I will make you a stage where you can devote everything without worrying about what comes after—only as a martial artist, and only with victory in mind.”

“...When will that be?”

“It won’t be far. And it won’t end with just once, either. Is that acceptable?”

“Yes. It is.”

Unhwi let out a small breath and looked up at the sky.

“Do you know what is needed to rebuild the Millennium Demon Cult?”

“You mean you’re going to speak of something more specific than what you just said.”

“Yes. More precisely, I’m speaking of the core that can be compressed into one thing.”

“I want to hear it from your own mouth.”

Unhwi answered at once.

“Dominion.”

“Dominion?”

“You must make the order of precedence clear. It is not that you rebuild the Millennium Demon Cult and then impose order through force—you must make order first, and then rebuild the Millennium Demon Cult.”

“......”

“Whether you do something by force or not, there are countless people in this martial world who fear and resent the very existence of the Millennium Demon Cult. You must make them all submit. If you cannot make them all submit, then at the very least, you must become the sort of existence that contends for the seat of supreme in the martial world—someone who can exert overwhelming dominion.”

In his previous life, how had Yucheong been able to rebuild the Millennium Demon Cult?

It was simple.

Because Unhwi had made the entire board for him.

This was not something he had intended. He had merely held his breath, and killed, and killed.

Unhwi had simply moved and moved for the sake of an organization called the Original Blood Cult, by his own free will.

As a result, every force in the martial world submitted to the Original Blood Cult and bowed their heads. Powers weakened, and every expert among experts died off.

In the moment when every organization in the martial world fell silent, he moved.

Naturally, he had created a stage where only the Original Blood Cult could be made the enemy.

Yucheong was the one who waited, and Unhwi was the one who made.

That was the difference—and even in this life, Unhwi had no intention of stopping.

With all the enemies he had already made, even if he wanted to stop, he could not.

Unhwi looked at Hwa Munyeom for a moment, then tossed the words out as if casual.

“Do you want to raise your realm?”

As if asking why he would ask such a question, Hwa Munyeom blinked.

“Of course I do. I am a martial artist of No-Extremes Incarnation, but I have always lived while dreaming of a leap into the Peach-Blossom Fist Realm. Even if I underwent the Gold-Dust Ablution Rite, how could that be cast aside so easily. In the end, my identity is a martial artist.”

“That’s why I’m telling you.”

“...Hm?”

“Do you know how to play go?”

Hwa Munyeom’s eyes widened.

“I can’t cross hands with a martial artist of No-Extremes Incarnation, but I can combine the stagnant insights you have.”

“...You....”

“Do you dislike it?”

Until now, there had been no time to sit facing Unhwi for a “long time.” Of course, that must not happen, and it should not happen—but now, externally, they needed a pretext that Unhwi had persuaded the reclusive Hwa Munyeom.

If word spread that he had persuaded him while playing go, and playing again—

Wasn’t that killing two birds with one stone?

Hwa Munyeom smiled brightly.

“How could I dislike it.”

“Then first, let’s return.”

As Unhwi started to move, he stumbled, and Hwa Munyeom supported him. From close range, Unhwi looked at Hwa Munyeom. He said,

“...I promise. There won’t be anything like this again.”

“You don’t have to promise. I’ll just believe you.”

“...You are... No.”

He could not bring himself to say it.

Right now, in Unhwi’s appearance, Hwa Munyeom saw Dong Yuseong—his only disciple from the past.

Their temperament and personality were clearly different.

Clearly different, yet strangely, he was drawn in.

“What are you thinking about so deeply?”

“I was thinking about the future.”

Unhwi did not say anything more, and Hwa Munyeom did not speak either.

Before long, the two men headed for the wagon they had left at the foot of the mountain, and immediately turned the horses toward Cheonsu Mountain.

The driver was Hwa Munyeom.

***

Less than a month had passed since the Heavenly Alliance’s Alliance Lord Mae Wuidong died, and yet another shocking incident occurred.

In truth, everyone had been curious.

When the Heavenly Alliance’s Heavenly Dragon Hall exploded, access to the place had clearly been blocked off from most people.

And most people realized it then. Something had happened.

Either Alliance Lord Mae Wuidong or Heavenly Arbiter Seol Unhwi—one of the two had died, or fallen into a grave condition.

Usually, when it reaches that point, it is right for the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect, who was at war, to move with all their strength.

They could deliver a finishing blow to the already weakened Heavenly Alliance, and if things went well, they could collapse the Heavenly Alliance itself.

Then they could absorb that foundation and expand the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect as a power.

And of course, the most important justification was already there.

Enemy.

That is the justification.

Everything fit—yet the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect was unexpectedly silent.

Later, the whole story was revealed.

Alliance Lord Mae Wuidong had died in the explosion, and Unhwi, who tried to protect him, had fallen into a grave condition.

After fifteen days he regained consciousness, but he would not be normal. At that news, everyone clicked their tongues.

It was clearly an opportunity, so why remain silent?

The Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect’s way of acting was something so hard to understand it was almost incomprehensible, but today—this time—the truth about the disaster from twenty years ago within the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect was revealed to the world.

Everything proceeded as if it had been promised.

Shin Gang became the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect’s Thirteenth Sect Master, and Yeon Songbaek died.

Shin Gang confessed every one of Yeon Songbaek’s sins in detail and declared that for the peace and stability of the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect, he would form a cooperative relationship, or even an alliance, with the Heavenly Alliance.

In the end, Seol Unhwi, with an injured body, joined hands with Shin Gang—who had been a hidden figure within the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect—and ended the war by granting him his vengeance.

And so another achievement was added to Seol Unhwi’s record, and his fame, which had seemed to have nowhere higher to rise, only rose further.

And usually, when an allied power reaches about the scale of the Heavenly Alliance, some minor internal noise tends to arise from within.

Meanwhile, within the Soul-Dao Demon Flame Palace, one of the Four Demon Sects, ominous movement was stirring.

The Bloodflame Ghost of the Soul-Dao Demon Flame Palace, Han Cheolsu, had been unable to sleep for days because of a thought that kept circling in his head.

Once, Unhwi had summoned delegations from every sect of the Five Sword Sects and the Four Demon Sects.

At that time, Han Cheolsu had sat there as the representative of the Soul-Dao Demon Flame Palace, and there, he had seen him.

The youngest son of Dong Yuseong—the Vice Lord who had been purged on suspicion of rebellion within the Soul-Dao Demon Flame Palace some ten-odd years ago.

Dong Yuseong, and of course his entire family, had definitely died.

They had captured and killed every last one without exception, and they had even confirmed the bodies—and Han Cheolsu had been there at the time—yet no matter how he thought about it, it was strange.

Because the man at Seol Unhwi’s side, the man named “Han Murin,” had an appearance very similar to Dong Yuseong’s youngest son, “Dong Murin.”

To be honest, if the name had not been “Murin,” he would have shrugged it off.

He would have assumed it was simply someone who resembled him and moved on.

But when there were two and three things that snagged, even close to four—this was not coincidence. It could not be coincidence.

So he became certain.

That the grudge of the past was still alive.

Han Murin was definitely Dong Yuseong’s youngest son, Dong Murin.

Han Cheolsu finally steeled himself and went to see the Palace Lord.