Extreme Evil Soma was delighted.
He may have lived through all manner of experiences as a Demon Venerable, but he had surely never been involved in deciding the successor of the Sado Alliance. No—he probably had never even imagined there would be any reason for him to be involved.
“Are you truly saying we should decide the successor?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“How, exactly?”
“If Bi Sain, the current successor, seems acceptable, we help him hold on to his position. If someone else seems more advantageous to us, we seat that person instead. I may meddle in many things, but when it comes to the successor of the Sado Alliance, regardless of each individual’s character, I believe we must install someone who will be thoroughly beneficial to our cult.”
Of course, he had to be beneficial not only to our cult, but to me as well.
“Then we should seat the most worthless bastard there is.”
“No. If we did that, the state of the murim would become unstable instead. At the very least, we need to put someone there whose actions can be predicted. In any case, if we handle this matter well, we’ll have rendered a great service to our cult.”
Extreme Evil Soma laughed loudly. He was already pleased at the thought of facing a formidable foe like Seok Gwanchu, and if that deed also earned merit, it would truly kill two birds with one stone.
“Will I finally get to see the Second Young Master’s world now?”
A glimmer of anticipation passed through the eyes within his sockets.
“No. This world is still your world, Lord Soma.”
“My world?”
“If you were not here, this would never have been possible in the first place. Do you think I would have even considered facing the Great Elder of the Sado Alliance alone?”
“Are you employing your Divine Art of Flattery again?”
“Why else would it be called a divine art? One must hone and polish it for a lifetime.”
At my joke, Extreme Evil Soma was amused. He found the turn of events interesting.
I sent Ian and Cheongmyeon to the safe house where the Lord of Cheonhwaru was staying.
I ordered them to protect the Lord of Cheonhwaru, but there were two other reasons.
First, it was dangerous. Now that it had been revealed that our main enemy was Seok Gwanchu, the Great Elder of the Sado Alliance, there was no telling what kind of master might appear next.
Second, I wanted Ian and Cheongmyeon to spend time together. I had told Ian: Your subordinate is for you to obtain. Whether she could manage that would depend on Ian. I could only hope Ian’s vessel was large enough to contain Cheongmyeon.
Before leaving, Ian said only one thing to me.
“If anything happens to you, Young Master, I will die too.”
“Very well. I’ll fight as though I have two lives.”
Cheongmyeon watched this, then bowed politely to Extreme Evil Soma. Extreme Evil Soma said nothing.
I had never seen the brusque Extreme Evil Soma and Cheongmyeon exchange any conversation apart from official commands.
After sending the two of them to the safe house, Extreme Evil Soma and I sped off using qinggong.
“Where are we going?”
“To Baegya Valley, to meet Bi Sain.”
Previously, I had informed Bi Sain that those who had tried to kill Extreme Evil Soma were the Bloody Hand Five Shadows of Baegya Valley.
Since there had been no further news from Bi Sain or Baegya Valley afterward, it meant Bi Sain had yet to resolve the matter of finding the mastermind in Baegya Valley.
* * *
Bi Sain was drinking in a tavern near Baegya Valley.
His face was red. Not from the alcohol, but from anger. The deeper his worries grew, the more hideous the scar on his face became.
He still had not uncovered the mastermind. It was valuable information he had obtained in Guizhou, in exchange for withdrawing the Baekgye Merchant Guild and paying a tremendous sum of money, but things had not gone as he had expected.
Until he came here, he had intended to pressure the lord of Baegya Valley by any means necessary and make him confess that he had ordered the Bloody Hand Five Shadows to kill Extreme Evil Soma.
If that failed, he had intended to force a confession through strength. With himself and seven of the Thirteen Wolves of the Sado Alliance, neither the lord of Baegya Valley nor the experts of Baegya Valley would be able to do anything.
But when they arrived at Baegya Valley, the lord of Baegya Valley had already gone somewhere. He had been here until the day before their arrival, yet had suddenly left the valley in a hurry with only his close aides.
Bi Sain had tried to frighten his subordinates into revealing the valley lord’s whereabouts, but they did not know.
He wondered if the lord had heard in advance that he was coming. Secrets kept leaking out.
Bi Sain emptied another cup of wine. Suddenly, Geom Mugeuk came to mind. Whenever he felt cornered, the man would come to mind without his realizing it.
‘Pointless.’
Just as Bi Sain was about to drink again, as though to shake Geom Mugeuk from his thoughts—
A man wearing a bamboo hat pulled low strode toward the seat where he was sitting. The seven Thirteen Wolves of the Sado Alliance seated around him leaped to their feet and drew their swords.
Then the approaching man removed his bamboo hat and revealed himself.
“It has been a while.”
The man who had come to find him was none other than Geom Mugeuk. Since Geom Mugeuk had appeared just as Bi Sain was thinking of him, Bi Sain was truly startled.
“How did you know I was here?”
Bi Sain glared at Geom Mugeuk with a face full of suspicion.
Geom Mugeuk, on the other hand, was calm.
“The information came from me, so it was only natural to guess you would have come to Baegya Valley. And with so many of you moving together, how could I fail to find you?”
Geom Mugeuk looked at the Thirteen Wolves of the Sado Alliance around him. He meant that with eight martial artists moving as a group, finding their location had been easy.
“May I sit?”
“Do as you please.”
Geom Mugeuk sat down before Bi Sain.
Bi Sain ordered the Thirteen Wolves of the Sado Alliance to take their seats. Everyone sat back down tensely. First Wolf Baek Cheolgi sat beside Bi Sain, ready to draw his sword at any moment.
“Why have you come here?”
He asked bluntly, but inwardly, Bi Sain was glad to see Geom Mugeuk. He should not feel such emotions, yet he kept finding himself wanting to rely on him.
“I came because I have important information to tell you, Young Master Bi.”
“What is it?”
“I have discovered who is behind this matter.”
In that instant, Bi Sain was shocked. Not only he, but Baek Cheolgi beside him and all the other Thirteen Wolves of the Sado Alliance were shocked as well.
“Who is it?”
Geom Mugeuk did not answer immediately.
“I can’t simply hand over such important information for free.”
The next moment, Bi Sain looked at Geom Mugeuk with a sense of dismay.
‘Second Young Master, you have made a grave mistake.’
He should not have mentioned such an important fact in this place.
The reason was the Thirteen Wolves of the Sado Alliance.
Bi Sain suspected that among these seven Thirteen Wolves of the Sado Alliance who followed him, there was a spy planted by the person trying to kill him.
Many things had not gone well recently, and he believed that was because the spy had been leaking information to the other side in advance.
When he arrived at Baegya Valley this time and saw that the lord of Baegya Valley had vacated his seat, his suspicion turned to certainty. Someone was definitely passing information to that side.
In a situation like this, such important information had now been revealed, so it was only a matter of time before this fact reached the mastermind.
Previously, the reason he had started to send a voice transmission to Geom Mugeuk and then stopped was because he had considered telling him this and seeking his help, but in the end, he could not bring himself to ask.
He regretted sending the voice transmission at all. The successor of the Sado Alliance seeking help from the blood of the Heavenly Demon? He had reproached himself endlessly for nearly doing something so absurd.
“I came from far away, so my throat is dry.”
Geom Mugeuk held out his cup.
Bi Sain poured wine into Geom Mugeuk’s cup.
At that very moment, Geom Mugeuk’s voice transmission reached Bi Sain.
—Let’s talk about the details after we catch the rat first.
—!
Bi Sain’s hand, which had been pouring the wine, paused for a moment before he finished pouring.
Bi Sain could tell. Geom Mugeuk understood exactly what situation he was in. At the thought that the problem he had agonized over all this time might finally be resolved, Bi Sain’s heart began to beat rapidly.
It was a change that had come after meeting Geom Mugeuk. This man kept making his heart race. He kept making him compare himself, kept making him feel shabby.
‘Damn it!’
He made him hope.
That night, a masked man silently landed on the roof of the largest inn in the village.
He hid something beneath the roof tiles at the edge of the roof. There was a set rule for sending secret letters. No matter what village one went to, if one hid a secret letter at the corner of the roof of the largest inn in that village, there would be someone who retrieved it and sent it by messenger pigeon. If it was in the mountains, there was a designated tree for hiding it; if it was in the fields, there was a designated place to bury it.
Just as he hid the secret letter and was about to hurry away, someone spoke from behind him.
“Geom Mugeuk has discovered the mastermind’s identity.”
The masked man flinched in shock and turned around. Before he knew it, Geom Mugeuk had approached silently and was taking out the secret letter he had hidden and reading it.
Geom Mugeuk had been drinking with Bi Sain at their lodging in Baegya Valley, and the masked man had confirmed that he had fallen asleep before leaving.
“I’m a light sleeper, you see. While I was sleeping, I heard someone sneaking out like a thieving cat.”
In that instant, the masked man realized this entire thing had been a trap. He had thought the information he needed to report was too important, and his haste had been his undoing.
Just as the masked man was about to flee—
“I’ll run after you and tell everyone. That the person among the Thirteen Wolves of the Sado Alliance who is absent right now is the traitor. I’m confident in my qinggong, at least, so you won’t make it back before me.”
The masked man’s figure froze, and Geom Mugeuk provoked him.
“You’d be better off killing me here and now. Then at least your identity won’t be exposed.”
The masked man turned toward Geom Mugeuk and drew his sword.
The masked man still did not say a word. Since he did not know how things would turn out, he had no desire to let his voice be heard unnecessarily.
Since things had come to this, there was only one method left. Kill him to silence him, then return quietly and pretend to know nothing.
The masked man immediately rushed toward Geom Mugeuk.
Swish!
As befitted a master said to be stronger than a Demon Venerable when paired with another, the masked man’s movements were extraordinary.
Swiish.
The masked man’s figure closed the distance in an instant and flew at Geom Mugeuk.
Clang!
The moment their swords clashed for the first time, the masked man’s heart sank. In the instant he nearly lost his grip on his sword, he realized it. Geom Mugeuk possessed internal energy far superior to his own.
And it was not only his internal energy that was outstanding.
Clang! Clang!
The techniques with which he had easily killed enemies until now did not work at all.
Every attack aimed at vital points was invariably blocked by Geom Mugeuk’s sword. He was using all his strength, yet it felt as though his opponent was blocking half-heartedly.
Feeling the clear gap in their abilities, the masked man threw himself in the opposite direction after barely a dozen exchanges. All he could think was that he had to flee far away if he wanted to survive.
At that very moment—
Piiing!
Thud!
A blast of finger wind shot through his thigh.
With a short scream, he rolled across the ground, then sprang back to his feet. The person who had descended to block his path was none other than Extreme Evil Soma.
“A man turning his back in the middle of a fight? Are you not ashamed?”
The masked man’s eyes reddened with humiliation.
Behind him, Geom Mugeuk had already arrived. The problem was that these two were not the only ones to appear here.
“Sixth Wolf!”
At the sound of someone calling him, the masked man’s heart sank.
Bi Sain and the rest of the Thirteen Wolves of the Sado Alliance revealed themselves.
The masked man was the sixth of the Thirteen Wolves of the Sado Alliance—Sixth Wolf. Their leader, First Wolf Baek Cheolgi, was truly furious.
“Was it really you who betrayed us?”
Even seeing it with his own eyes, Baek Cheolgi could not believe it. If someone had asked him to choose, among the thirteen Thirteen Wolves of the Sado Alliance, the ones least likely to betray them, Sixth Wolf would have been the first person he chose.
“Why in the world did you do this? Did you not know that the Thirteen Wolves of the Sado Alliance must not involve themselves in politics?”
Sixth Wolf removed his mask.
“Why not?”
“What?”
“Why must we live bound by some rule when we don’t even know who made it?”
“You bastard. Then what more did you want, living as a martial artist? If you hated living this way, you should never have sworn loyalty in the first place!”
“Because I didn’t know. Because I didn’t know that the martial arts I honed my entire life would lead to such a pathetic life! Because I didn’t know my life would become one where I wandered around in a pack just to protect the Eldest Young Master!”
At that moment, Bi Sain’s expression hardened. He had not known Sixth Wolf had followed him with such feelings. Did the others feel the same?
First Wolf shouted at him.
“Enough excuses! What did that side promise you? Just what did they offer to let you escape this pathetic life?”
Sixth Wolf could not answer. It was not something he could say to First Wolf or to his other comrades. He could not bring himself to say that he had been promised an enormous sum of money and a high position.
“I am not a traitor. I was only trying to find my own life!”
Shouting fiercely, Sixth Wolf chose the person he would take down with him. The person he chose was Geom Mugeuk.
“This is all because of you!”
Sixth Wolf threw himself toward Geom Mugeuk.
Even when he had not been agitated, he had been no match for him, and now he was wounded as well.
Just as he unleashed his techniques at Geom Mugeuk—
Thuk!
A sword blade pierced through his back and emerged from his chest.
As Sixth Wolf slowly turned his head, Bi Sain was standing behind him.
“……This is all because of you.”
At Sixth Wolf’s resentful words, Bi Sain said bluntly,
“A moment ago you said it was because of the Second Young Master.”
As if he had no desire to continue the conversation, Bi Sain drew out his sword.
Beneath the moonlight, a fountain of blood sprayed from Sixth Wolf’s body. Had Geom Mugeuk remained still, he would have been drenched in blood, but he stepped aside. After all, this fight was a family quarrel within the Sado Alliance.
Bi Sain, holding the sword from which blood dripped steadily, asked Geom Mugeuk,
“Now, tell me. Who is the mastermind?”