Chusaeng (秋生), the master of the Wolpung Sect, was struggling to contain his boiling rage.
“Please do not worry too much. Several sects in Hunan have promised to cooperate with us.”
It was precisely such words that angered him. And hearing them from Seok Hyeong, a man he trusted, only made him angrier.
“Cooperate? How? Tell me specifically. How many men did they say they would send, when, and where?”
Seok Hyeong could not answer. They had only said they would help; not a single sect had come forward with such concrete terms. Despite all their efforts to keep it secret, rumors were already spreading that the Demonic Cult had become involved.
“Put yourself in their place. Do you think they would send you to deal with the Demonic Cult bastards? Outwardly, they’ll pretend to be concerned, but they’ll be too busy locking their own doors.”
Chusaeng sprang to his feet. At the force in him, as though he might smash something at any moment, Seok Hyeong tried to stop him.
“Please calm yourself.”
“How am I supposed to endure this when I’m furious? Those Demonic Cult sons of bitches! I’ll chew them alive!”
Boom!
Chusaeng thrust out a palm and punched a hole through the wall. Since the incident had occurred, more than twenty holes had already appeared in the walls. They patched one up, and he broke through another; patched that one, and another was broken.
Chusaeng felt so wronged and enraged he could hardly bear it. He could not contain the fury rising within him. And at the root of all those emotions was fear.
Fear that the bastard would return.
Chusaeng could not sleep at night, and his nerves had grown strained to the utmost.
“Even now, you should ask the Murim Alliance for help.”
The Wolpung Sect had originally been a sect that stood between the righteous and unorthodox paths, belonging neither to the Murim Alliance nor the Evil Dao Alliance.
“If I do that, we’ll be at the mercy of the Murim Alliance bastards from now on. If they resolve this matter, they’ll use it as an excuse to force us to obey the Murim Alliance unconditionally. And even if they fail to resolve it, they’ll use one pretext or another to bring us under their control.”
Sects belonging to the Murim Alliance had to pay a fixed sum to the alliance every year. The same was true of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult and the Evil Dao Alliance. In return, when trouble arose, they could receive help.
Money was one thing, but Chusaeng did not want to belong to the righteous faction.
It was then that someone spoke his thoughts exactly.
“You wouldn’t want to serve under bastards who do nothing for you in ordinary times and yet never fail to wring money out of you, would you?”
Startled, Chusaeng and Seok Hyeong turned around. At some point, a young man had entered the main hall.
Seok Hyeong stepped between the sect master and the man, drawing his sword.
“Who are you?”
The fact that they had not noticed someone enter like this put both men on edge.
Then the young man said,
“I have come from the Divine Cult.”
The one who had startled the two of them was none other than me.
I could have announced myself from the entrance, but I deliberately did not. At present, the Wolpung Sect was in a chaotic state, with countless martial artists swarming from the gate all the way inside.
“Forgive me. I dislike crowds, so I came in quietly.”
Chusaeng had Seok Hyeong step back. He had acknowledged that if I had intended to ambush them, they would already be dead.
“I am Chusaeng, master of the Wolpung Sect.”
Having lost his father early, he was among the youngest heads of sects in Hunan Province, being in his late twenties.
I did not reveal my identity to him.
“I have come to deal with the incident that occurred in your sect. Circumstances prevent me from revealing who I am, but you should recognize this.”
I showed them the divine token engraved with the evil spirit that symbolized our cult.
Naturally, Chusaeng began with suspicion.
“A divine token can be forged. I cannot trust you on that alone.”
“How did someone as suspicious as you get deceived by them?”
“You go too far!”
Just as Seok Hyeong took a step forward, I stretched out my hand.
Swaaaah.
The demonic energy emitted from me constricted Seok Hyeong’s body.
With a brief groan, he found himself unable to move. As his breath was cut off, his face turned bright red.
“Sometimes, one’s ability can stand in for one’s identity, can it not?”
With the demonic energy dominating the surroundings, Chusaeng spoke urgently.
“Stop! I lost several subordinates this time. I cannot lose another. Release him.”
When I withdrew my demonic energy, Seok Hyeong gasped for breath and was able to move again. He glared at me with fearful eyes, but he still stood in front of Chusaeng to protect him.
“I, too, have loyal subordinates like you. If I were to lose them, I would truly feel as though my heart had been torn out. The same must be true for Sect Master Chu here, so the two of you should not act rashly.”
Though I said it to Seok Hyeong, in truth, it was also meant for Chusaeng. Quick to understand, Chusaeng sent Seok Hyeong out.
“You wait outside.”
“Yes.”
Seeing him leave obediently in this situation, it seemed Chusaeng had sent him a voice transmission. Since the two of them alone could not deal with me anyway, he had likely ordered him to go out and gather all the experts of the Wolpung Sect.
Even after only the two of us remained, Chusaeng was composed.
“You people caused the trouble, and now you come claiming you will clean it up. Just what are your intentions?”
“Not clean it up. Investigate. The previous incident was not our doing.”
Chusaeng snorted. He had been struck by the Cheonmyeong Society, which had impersonated one of our cult’s Demon Venerables, and he firmly believed it was our doing.
Several similar incidents had occurred recently, but not all the sects of the Central Plains were aware of this yet.
In other words, it was still a time before the Cheonmyeong Society had fully surfaced.
“Tell me what happened. If I had come to harm you, would I be standing here trading words like this?”
Perhaps those words reached him, for Chusaeng finally began to speak of the past incident.
“Not long ago, someone came here, claiming to be from the Divine Cult.”
“Who did he say he was?”
“He was Geugak Soma.”
I had known they had impersonated a Demon Venerable, but I had not known the one they chose was Geugak Soma.
A hollow laugh escaped me. Of all people, why would they go around pretending to be Geugak Soma? What did they plan to do if they were caught by the real Geugak Soma?
“What did he look like?”
“He came wearing a white mask.”
Then again, since he wore a mask, Geugak Soma was probably the easiest Demon Venerable to impersonate.
“You believed him just because he wore a mask?”
At that, Chusaeng spoke with conviction.
“He was the real Geugak Soma.”
“Why do you believe that?”
In that instant, Chusaeng was swept up in anger.
“He killed the experts of my sect in an instant. His finger wind pierced holes through their faces, and his palm art shattered their bodies into pieces. Among the dead was one of the top three experts of our sect. If he was not Geugak Soma, then who in the world was he?”
It seemed they had even imitated Geugak Soma’s unique demonic arts, the Mageuk Gwangpokjang and the Hyeorangji. With the situation like that, Chusaeng had no choice but to believe it.
“After killing those who tried to protect me and turning the place into a sea of blood, Geugak Soma forced us to submit to the Demonic Cult and swear loyalty.”
The bastard had committed unnecessary slaughter solely to frighten his opponent. That act alone made him an evil deserving of death.
“And do you know what else he did? It would have been less absurd than this if he had simply massacred us. I would have thought we had just been unlucky enough to run into him and die.”
“What did he do?”
“As he left, he stole our money. He told us to hand over all the money we could provide right then. He cleaned out all the sect’s funds. And yet thieves like you dare—!”
Whatever insult might have followed, it was a situation I could understand.
“How much money did he take?”
“About sixty-two thousand nyang.”
Only then could I understand Chusaeng’s rage. I also understood why there were so many holes in the walls.
“If we had fought for some other reason and lost, I would not feel so wronged. Submit to the Demonic Cult? Don’t make me laugh! That was just an excuse. He killed my subordinates like that so he could steal our money. Do you understand what I am saying? My subordinates died for mere money! If he wanted money, he should have asked for it from the beginning!”
Unable to hold back, he roared.
“Uaaaaaah! I am so furious I cannot endure it. I will not die a natural death.”
Listening to Chusaeng, I thought he must ordinarily have been a pleasant and cheerful person. At this rate, he would never return to who he had been. The families of the dead, their friends, the survivors. The number of victims had yet to be determined.
“Right now, Sect Master Chu, you are so angry that you cannot make use of your strengths.”
“And what exactly are my strengths!”
I took a sheet of paper from my robes and read it.
“Chusaeng, master of the Wolpung Sect. Clear-headed and possesses sound judgment. Strong pride, with a hot-blooded side.”
“What bastard made that assessment?”
“The head of our cult’s Tongcheon Pavilion Hunan branch. Would you like to meet him?”
Chusaeng stared at me with eyes that seemed torn between believing and disbelieving, then rebuked himself in a drained voice.
“What good are a clear head and sound judgment? I was only helplessly victimized like this.”
“Even so, should you not take revenge?”
At the word revenge, strength returned to Chusaeng’s eyes.
“I will. I absolutely will.”
There had been a time when I felt the same.
Revenge when I slept, revenge when I ate, revenge when I looked at people. A time when my mind was filled only with thoughts of how I would take revenge, and I could not live a normal life.
Chusaeng was the same. The enemy before him was not one he could face by ordinary means.
But fortunately, just as I had met Seojin, he had met me.
“I will help you with that revenge.”
Chusaeng went to the table and gulped down the cold tea straight from the pot.
“Was it truly not your doing?”
“Doesn’t something seem strange to you as well? If the real Geugak Soma had been after your money, do you think he would have taken only sixty-two thousand nyang and left? He would have pulled up the very pillars of this place.”
“What if it was merely a kind of amusement?”
“If he enjoyed such amusement, he would die by the hand of the Cult Leader, the Heavenly Demon himself. Let us say it was amusement. If that had been the case, who here would have survived?”
“To be honest, I found it strange as well. That is why I thought Geugak Soma had gone mad.”
If he stared at white walls like that long enough, he might someday go mad.
“He is still sane. I met him not long ago.”
At my words that I had met Geugak Soma, Chusaeng flinched. But because of the ability I had shown him, he did not seem to think I was bluffing.
“Are you saying Geugak Soma is truly in your cult?”
For a moment, I hesitated to answer. When I had set out, Geugak Soma had not been in the Valley of Villains.
“He was.”
I did not answer that way because I wanted to avoid an argument with Chusaeng. It was because I was certain this was not Geugak Soma’s doing. Father says one can never know what is inside another person, but there are still things one can know. No matter how wicked Geugak Soma may be, he is not the kind of person to commit such an act.
“If that man was a fake, then the one in your cult must be fake as well.”
It made me wonder just how overwhelming the figure he had seen had been for him to say such a thing.
I slowly walked around the main hall and looked about. I tried to recall the scene from that time. The scene of the Wolpung Sect’s martial artists being killed and their money stolen.
Why in the world had they done this? For money? Or to draw us in? In this incomprehensible incident, I had to find a clue about them.
“Fine. Let us say he was a fake, as you claim. Then why did that fake bastard do something like this? Was he trying to sow discord with the Murim Alliance? Was he trying to start a war?”
“If that were the case, he would have touched a righteous sect belonging to the Murim Alliance.”
“Then what in the world is going on?”
“That is why I came. To uncover what is going on.”
After staring at me for a while, Chusaeng opened the door and went outside. Outside, Seok Hyeong and dozens of Wolpung Sect martial artists who had gone ahead were waiting in formation.
Chusaeng went out alone and spoke to Seok Hyeong.
“Have all the men withdraw, and clean out a guest room for him. We will be treating him as an honored guest for the time being.”
“Yes, understood.”
Seok Hyeong looked relieved. Though he had gathered the martial artists, he seemed to have judged that they could not handle me.
Chusaeng came back inside.
“The thought that you may be in league with that bastard still will not leave my mind. Even so, I intend to try trusting you. Do you know why? Because right now, I have to grasp at even a straw.”
Then he suddenly looked up at the ceiling and shouted,
“Father! Grandfather! Please help me! Please do not let me be toyed with any longer! Watch over this sect! Save my subordinates!”
Considering his fate had led him to meet me, his ancestors were already helping him plenty.
After shouting once, he revealed his true feelings. He lowered his voice so his subordinates outside would not hear.
“Because you came, I am ruined. If, as you say, he was a fake Geugak Soma, then I cannot stop seeking revenge. If it had been the real Demonic Cult, I might have been able to give up, telling myself there was nothing I could do. Because of you, I have stepped onto a bridge from which I can never return. I will have to cross this endless bridge of revenge for the rest of my life!”
“I will help you cross that bridge.”
In the past, I had arrived too late, and in my urgency, I had left this place without even investigating properly.
In those days, I did not look at Father, and I did not look at Ian. It was a time when I looked only at myself and not at others, so naturally, I did not look at Chusaeng either.
“There are countless sects in murim, yet there must be a reason they chose your sect in particular. Why you? Young, clear-headed, hot-blooded, and proud. Aside from what is written on this paper, what else is there about you?”
I approached him, stared intently into his face, and said,
“There must be a reason they chose you. Now give me the answer!”