Chapter 331

“I suppose you mean I should let that bastard live.”

“Only for a while. As with the Heavenly Arbiter, accidents in the martial world aren’t all that rare.”

Shin Jueon set down a go stone.

“Even if things go well, and even if the Heavenly Arbiter is a bastard-born whelp, the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Palace will definitely act in some way.”

“.......”

“I don’t want to sound weak, but I will kill Dong Yuseong’s youngest son no matter what. I know well enough that the Heavenly Arbiter cherishes him, so the Heavenly Arbiter and I can’t help but become enemies. In that process, what can the Martial Alliance do for me?”

Jegal Yeonghyeon smiled.

“If our Martial Alliance takes the Heavenly Alliance into our hands, we intend to split Cheonrim and the Heavenly Alliance apart again.”

“And?”

“We will manage Cheonrim ourselves on the Martial Alliance side, and we will recommend Sect Master Shin as the new Alliance Lord of the Heavenly Alliance.”

“Me, as Alliance Lord?”

“Who else but you could sit in that seat. The Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect has now become a toothless tiger, and it won’t be looking to make major moves in the near future. Then what remains are the Five Great Families and the sects of the Four Demon Sects, and among them, your realm is the highest.”

“Hmm.”

“I will persuade our Alliance Lord.”

That was the core of the core.

Gun Mugyeol, the Martial Alliance’s Alliance Lord.

His name had to come out. And beyond merely allowing this to happen, it would be far easier if he did it “together.”

“And we can block the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Palace’s intervention at the source.”

Only now was the conversation finally moving in the right direction.

“Is that possible?”

“In truth, it’s not that we couldn’t kill him all this time.”

Murderous intent shimmered in Jegal Yeonghyeon’s eyes.

He meant it.

It wasn’t that they couldn’t kill him—it was that they hadn’t.

“No matter how formidable the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Palace may be, a thorn that sticks out that far is bound to be snapped. The Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Palace’s Seol Jungcheon is no exception.”

Jegal Yeonghyeon paused, set down a stone, and continued.

“The moment the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Palace’s main palace intervenes, they will be turning the entire martial world into their enemy.”

From the moment Seol Unhwi entered the martial world, even if he was someone from beyond the frontier, he had to follow the martial world’s rules.

He had followed them up to now, but in a situation where his standing was rising and his share was increasing, only fools would still insist on seeing him as a greenhorn.

Now he was a full-fledged master of the martial world, a rising star among rising stars who wielded enormous influence.

But building fame in the martial world also meant increasing one’s enemies.

He had not made one or two enemies, so if a proper justification was created, everyone’s blades would point at him.

Whether he could endure it or not didn’t matter.

By the board Jegal Yeonghyeon had set, Seol Unhwi had no “future.”

Across from him, Shin Jueon lifted his head.

“Make it certain. Will you lend strength to killing him?”

Jegal Yeonghyeon gave a small laugh.

“Of course, Sect Master.”

No more stones were placed.

The game was already over.

To his shame, Jegal Yeonghyeon had once drawn up a plan to pressure Seol Unhwi by using the Divine Slaying Sword Sect.

But that had been completely ruined and left hanging in midair, so he needed to seek a new path.

That path was the Soul-Dao Demon Flame Palace.

Killing three birds with one stone—no, with one stone.

Jegal Yeonghyeon’s eyes were fixed on the future, and at the end of that future was Seol Unhwi’s death.

His scheme—why he was drawing Shin Jueon into the Heavenly Alliance, why he had put forward such a crude stratagem.

Those things were unknown. There was no need to know.

What mattered was that Jegal Yeonghyeon had pulled Shin Jueon in, and that this would be something the Martial Alliance and the Soul-Dao Demon Flame Palace carried out together.

That was what truly mattered.

Because Gun Mugyeol stepping in meant the plan’s inevitable success.

“I’ll be seeing the Alliance Lord again after a long time.”

Jegal Yeonghyeon smiled.

“He, too, is eagerly awaiting a meeting with you.”

The sound of the two men’s laughter echoed through the Palace Lord Hall.

***

Letters went back and forth.

Unhwi’s letter, Shin Jueon’s letter.

Each said what needed to be said, and {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} they coordinated.

The conclusion was simple. Unhwi would head to the Soul-Dao Demon Flame Palace in person.

That was decided.

“Young master.”

At Chief Seong’s call, Unhwi turned his head.

“Everyone is in place.”

No matter what the purpose was, no matter what happened there, as long as you belonged to an organization, you couldn’t help but be mindful of outside eyes.

If you tried to crush everything with sheer force, backlash was inevitable.

In the end, the martial world was a fight over justification.

Shin Jueon would want that, and Unhwi wanted it as well.

That way, when he went and did whatever needed to be done, the cleanup would be easier.

When Chief Seong said everyone was in place, it meant that the delegation formed to head for Flame Demon Mountain, where the Soul-Dao Demon Flame Palace was located, had gathered at the alliance.

“Then let’s depart.”

As Unhwi moved to step forward, Chief Seong asked,

“......Will you be all right?”

Unhwi read the emotion in his voice.

“Are you anxious?”

“Is that even a question. Of course I’m anxious.”

Unhwi smiled.

“We’re only going to talk.”

“......Talk...... Young master. I’m not an idiot. Do you think I don’t know what you’re thinking?”

“Externally, we’ll settle it as going to talk, that much—”

Unhwi trailed off.

Following Unhwi’s gaze, Chief Seong turned his head.

There, a man was walking over, dressed very neatly—nothing like the appearance he had shown so far.

“Chief.”

It was Han Murin.

Unhwi watched him for a moment, then patted Chief Seong’s shoulder and said,

“As always, I intend to produce results. Chief Seong only needs to support me at the closest distance—closer than anyone else. Is that difficult?”

“It isn’t difficult, young master.”

“Then what more would I need?”

Chief Seong smiled awkwardly.

“Go on ahead.”

After looking at Han Murin for a moment, Chief Seong nodded.

“Understood.”

Chief Seong stepped away, and a space was made for just the two of them—Unhwi and Han Murin.

Unhwi examined Han Murin’s face in silence.

His appearance was neat and his expression thoroughly blank, but he couldn’t fool Unhwi’s eyes.

The deep deliberation and resolve etched into Han Murin’s gaze.

He knew.

What would happen at Flame Demon Mountain.

“Perhaps no one has asked you this.”

“What?”

“......Because of me alone, you’re moving. If someone has to stop you, it would have to be me.”

Unhwi quietly turned Han Murin’s words over.

Stop him...

“From someone else’s point of view, staking your life to help with your revenge would look extremely inappropriate.”

“.......”

“It’s a simple problem. If you throw away one person named Han Murin, the Heavenly Alliance becomes safe and strong. The Soul-Dao Demon Flame Palace is the core of the core even among the Four Demon Sects. Just joining hands with them would let you wield overwhelming influence in the Central Plains. That’s what you want to say, isn’t it.”

“Yes.”

To put it bluntly, to a third party who truly knew nothing, Unhwi’s actions would be strange beyond strange—they would be outright bizarre.

Risking his life in the Central Plains for one of his people? Fine. Even if you conceded a hundred times, maybe that could happen.

But what was the Heavenly Alliance now.

In the martial world, the term “three great powers” had even appeared.

It was still lacking compared to the Martial Alliance and the Sichuan Alliance, but no one dared look down on the Heavenly Alliance.

It was an organization where the Five Sword Sects and the Four Demon Sects had joined forces. And with high odds that even the Five Great Families, who kept to neutrality, would add their weight, the Heavenly Alliance was close to becoming another rising sun within the martial world.

Who had made that?

Unhwi.

Starting from the posting at Cheonsu Temple, he had turned the Heavenly Alliance—which had been on the verge of collapse—into one of the three great powers of the Central Plains.

And yet if this matter failed, everything Unhwi had launched would turn to foam and vanish.

The fate of such an organization being decided by Han Murin’s revenge? For Han Murin, that burden was inevitable.

“Everyone has a path they walk.”

“.......”

“The path I walk as a martial artist is not the path of a coward.”

“......Chief....”

Unhwi stepped forward and stopped in front of Han Murin.

“A bond is not something that forms easily.”

Unhwi’s voice rang out, cutting through the stillness of the Annex.

“There are those who meet by following the thread of a bond, and those who cherish that bond and vow to become a blade for one another. To turn your back on such a person is not only to betray your own will—it is to betray the will of martial arts.”

Han Murin’s eyes shook.

Unhwi always spoke in difficult terms.

Once you started measuring the deep meaning held inside them, it was only natural for emotions to churn like this.

“If the one who serves vows to become a blade for your sake, then as the one being served, isn’t it only right that you protect his honor.”

Yes.

It wasn’t wrong.

“And to accept his past, to build his future together, and to make it so he can lift his head proudly and look upon the world—that is the duty of a human being, and the duty of a martial artist.”

Unhwi continued, resting a hand on Han Murin’s shoulder.

“If I threw you away, things would be easier. Fabrication and creating justifications are easy. Using that, I could gain even more. But the option of throwing you away never existed from the start. To throw you away would also stain my honor, and it would mean I deny the path I walk with my own hands.”

“.......”

“You know well. I’ve never taken the easy road.”

“......I know well.”

“I intend to cherish the bond I have with you, the one that began at Seolap.”

“......Chief....”

Han Murin’s shoulders trembled.

He realized how narrow his old perspective—where he had thought only of himself—had been.

“And.”

A deeper resonance entered Unhwi’s voice.

“True loyalty doesn’t shine when it’s comfortable—it shines when it’s hard.”

Han Murin’s eyes fixed on Unhwi’s.

“The reason I don’t throw you away isn’t because I’m soft-hearted. You are my subordinate, and I am the one you serve. What more would I need than that.”

Tears began to gather in Han Murin’s eyes.

Unhwi had always been this kind of person.

Once he began something, he always saw it through.

Even when countless matters could be resolved by yielding a little and stepping back—by placing only a small blemish on his honor—he never retreated.

He lived so that he would not regret.

The vow he had made for his people.

The vow he had made for the future.

He had not betrayed the path he walked as a martial artist for even a single moment.

And if he died in that process, he was the kind of madman who would consider it a good death.

That was the kind of man he was.

Unhwi.

“But listen.”

Unhwi removed his hand from Han Murin’s shoulder and spoke slowly.

“How long do you intend to keep calling me ‘Chief,’ or ‘Heavenly Arbiter.’”

Han Murin’s eyes opened wide.

“Then....”

Unhwi looked straight at Han Murin and said,

“From now on, call me your lord.”