Silence fell.
Jin Paecheon, made of wood, was staring at Geom Mugeuk. Because it had no expression at all, it felt all the more chilling and intense.
Ssssst.
The wooden doll returned to its original size, like an actor leaving a stage after the curtain had fallen.
Looking past the wooden doll that had dropped to the floor, Geom Mugeuk asked Baek Cheongyeong,
“Did the leader of the Murim Alliance annihilate your clan?”
Geom Mugeuk’s voice trembled. He had experienced all manner of things, but even so, this shocked him deeply.
Baek Cheongyeong, on the other hand, was savoring Geom Mugeuk’s reaction.
Now then, oh clever Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult! What will you say now?
“Why? Is it so hard to believe that the Murim Alliance Leader would do such a thing?”
Geom Mugeuk answered firmly.
“It is. I cannot believe it. The Alliance Leader I saw was not someone who would do such a thing.”
Jin Paecheon was certainly a domineering man, but he was not someone who would massacre an entire clan. However unknowable the human heart might be, Jin Paecheon had done such a thing? No. That could not be.
“Very well. Then why did the Alliance Leader do it?”
Baek Cheongyeong refused to answer.
“I have said enough.”
As if the next conversation would only be possible if he withstood this attack, Baek Cheongyeong once again unleashed the Wooden Figure Thousand-Soul Art.
Ssssst.
This time, three dolls grew larger.
As they slowly walked forward, their movements and presence were different from the dolls before them.
Geom Mugeuk could tell. Among the dolls, these were special ones. If they were people, they would not be ordinary experts, but exceptional ones.
And yet, though the enemies were stronger, Geom Mugeuk returned his sword to its sheath.
Just as Baek Cheongyeong looked at him in puzzlement—
Whoooosh.
Geom Mugeuk charged first with the Myeongwang Step. In the literal blink of an eye, Geom Mugeuk crossed space and thrust out his fist.
Boom!
Rumble!
An explosion rang out along with the roar of thunder. Before it could even launch a proper attack, the head of the doll standing in the middle was blown clean off.
It was the Fist Demon’s martial art, the first fist of the Thunderclap Asura Fist: Black Cloud Asura.
The remaining two dolls attacked without the slightest agitation.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two swords flew in, aiming for Geom Mugeuk’s vital points.
‘I’ve got him!’
The attacks were so fast and precise that Baek Cheongyeong was deluded into thinking so.
At the very moment the two swords pierced Geom Mugeuk’s body—
Geom Mugeuk’s form vanished.
‘Form-Shifting Transposition!’
At the same time, a peal of thunder erupted, burying Baek Cheongyeong’s astonishment.
Ruuumble!
A second thunderclap burst out. Before anyone knew it, the head of the doll on the left was exploding.
Even amid the flying fragments, the last doll did not hesitate at all and launched its attack.
But Geom Mugeuk was already no longer there. This time, he had used the Dark Shadow Step.
Ruuuumble!
The third peal of thunder rang out even louder, and the last doll’s head was smashed apart as well. No matter how well-trained a hunting dog might be, it could not bring down a tiger. All three were finished in a single blow each.
The three dolls returned to their original size as well and fell to the floor.
Baek Cheongyeong’s entire body trembled. He had never imagined he would feel this kind of fear here. Here, of all places, in a place filled with forests and dolls.
Geom Mugeuk picked up the severed doll again.
“These dolls are different.”
“They were. Until you made them ordinary.”
“I did not want to waste time for no reason.”
“You are trying to turn ten years of my life into wasted effort.”
At that, Geom Mugeuk stared into his eyes and said,
“What about Miss Jin’s time? Have you thought about the years she has lived and the days she has left?”
Certainly, when he thought of Jin Haryeong, there was something that weighed on his heart. But before that, there was rage.
“What about the time of my family, who died unjustly! The time of my elder brother, my sister-in-law, and my nephews! The time of the children my nephew had? Can you even imagine it? The hearts of parents who died clutching their child, trying to protect them! How I felt when I unfolded that bloodstained swaddling cloth! In that swaddling cloth! Do you know what I saw in that swaddling cloth?”
Baek Cheongyeong’s eyes were bloodshot.
Sssssst.
His rage was contained in the doll growing larger once more.
This time, there were two dolls. The fewer their number became, the more extraordinary the aura they revealed.
This time, the two dolls attacked first. They were truly fast; there was no doubt they had been made by imitating masters of the swift sword.
They were so fast that even Baek Cheongyeong, who had created the two dolls, could not clearly see the fight.
Since he could not see their movements, sound was everything. The clash of sword against sword rang out in succession, and the end was marked by three distinct sounds.
Whoooosh! Slash! Clack!
The moment Geom Mugeuk’s sword returned to its sheath—
Thud, thud!
At the same time, the heads of the two dolls fell and rolled across the floor.
It was the Flying Heaven Sword Art, Swift Sword Style, Fifth Form: Azure Heaven Form.
It had been a long time since he had used the Azure Heaven Form, and it had become faster than before. Even at the same great completion of the Twelfth Star, as his realm gradually matured, it manifested as an even more powerful technique.
Baek Cheongyeong was so shocked that he could not say a word.
No matter how he was the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult, he should not have been able to neutralize the swift sword dolls’ attacks this quickly. Baek Cheongyeong had expected at least five hundred exchanges. In this fight, he had thought that even Geom Mugeuk would be unable to withstand them and would be gravely injured.
Geom Mugeuk’s reaction was even more astonishing. He could have boasted about his martial arts, yet he did not mention them at all. It was as if he considered a fight of this level to be meaningless. His attention was fixed solely on Baek Cheongyeong’s life.
“Answer the question I asked earlier. Why did the Alliance Leader annihilate your clan?”
“Why is that so important to you? Why does it matter whether the Alliance Leader did it because he went senile or because he was bored? What does it matter whether the Murim Alliance Leader is a hypocrite or not! In the end, all you Demonic Cult bastards only intend to wipe everyone out and devour the whole of murim anyway, don’t you?”
“Even if we devour it, we will cut away the rotten parts first. So tell me.”
He deliberately called it rotten. Whatever the truth of this incident was, Baek Cheongyeong believed it so.
“Did you see it yourself?”
“Are you trying to say it was not the Murim Alliance Leader’s doing because I did not see it myself?”
Every word he spoke was laced with rage. Because Geom Mugeuk knew better than anyone just how immense that rage must be, he calmly soothed his emotions.
“I am not on the Murim Alliance’s side. I merely want to know the truth.”
“If you are not on the Murim Alliance’s side, then why are you standing before me?”
Because of Hwa Mugi. If he had not learned of the connection to Hwa Mugi, he would never have approached him to this extent.
“Because of Miss Jin.”
Baek Cheongyeong snorted once, but in the end he answered.
“I did not see it myself. When I returned, it was already…”
As if that moment had come back to him, Baek Cheongyeong could not continue.
“Then why are you so certain it was the Alliance Leader’s doing?”
“There was someone who witnessed him.”
“Who?”
“The chief steward of my family. He was dying, drenched in blood. Those were the last words he left. That the murderer was the Murim Alliance Leader.”
Geom Mugeuk said nothing. The Murim Alliance Leader might have killed them, or he might not have. The human heart was something no one could ever truly know.
But the reason Geom Mugeuk considered the possibility that he had not done it first was because Baek Cheongyeong was someone who, in the future, would follow Hwa Mugi.
“No matter how I think about it, I cannot see why the Alliance Leader would annihilate your clan…”
At that moment, a thought flashed through Geom Mugeuk’s mind.
Geom Mugeuk recalled a fact he had forgotten. There was one reason the Alliance Leader might have annihilated them.
“You killed the Alliance Leader’s son and daughter-in-law!”
Baek Cheongyeong’s expression hardened, and he said nothing. From his reaction, Geom Mugeuk could tell.
“You knew.”
“If I knew, does that lighten his crime? If he wanted revenge, he should have taken it only on the person who committed the deed. Why did he kill everyone?”
His protest was justified. The grief of losing one’s children was understandable, but annihilating the other party’s entire clan was unquestionably wrong.
“But there is one thing I wonder about. If that is the case, why did the Alliance Leader leave you alive? It would have been obvious you would try to take revenge like this.”
“Because after that incident, I was recorded as dead as well.”
So he had entered the Murim Alliance under a new identity.
“Who handled those matters? Did you do it yourself?”
Faking one’s death and becoming the teacher of the Murim Alliance Leader’s grandson under a new identity—this would not have been easy even if the cult’s Tongcheon Pavilion had taken great care in arranging it.
“Of course.”
His answer came after a hesitation. That meant it was a lie. Geom Mugeuk was certain there was someone behind him.
“So? What is it you want to say?”
Geom Mugeuk spoke words that startled him.
“What if that incident was not the Alliance Leader’s doing?”
“!”
“What if a third party was involved? What if someone deceived you and deceived the Alliance Leader as well?”
To Baek Cheongyeong, whose face was deeply contorted, he added something even more shocking. If he had not known of Hwa Mugi’s existence, he would never have made such an assumption. But the Alliance Leader’s character and Hwa Mugi’s existence called forth this possibility.
“What if even the deaths of the Alliance Leader’s son and his wife were planned from the very beginning?”
Baek Cheongyeong stood blankly for a moment, as if struck by a blow. It was something he had never once thought of. What was this bastard saying? Nonsense.
“And what would they gain from that?”
Geom Mugeuk gave the final conclusion.
“You.”
“!”
“You, who went mad with revenge, endured ten years, and embedded yourself deep within the Murim Alliance. You, who would one day become the decisive dagger that kills the Alliance Leader.”
Killing intent erupted from Baek Cheongyeong’s body. He denied everything. No, he had no choice but to deny it. If Geom Mugeuk’s words were true, then what he had carved for the past ten years had been his own foolishness. It meant a doll had been carving dolls.
“What would the likes of you know! Do you think every word that spills from that flapping mouth of yours becomes truth? What do you know!”
It was rage born from bewilderment. What if those words were true? That deep anxiety was sweeping through him. If they had come from someone else’s mouth, he would not have paid them any mind at all. He would have dismissed them as lies made up to shake him.
But they were words from Geom Mugeuk, who had overwhelmed him in martial arts. Words from the mouth of an extraordinary person, extraordinary enough to make him advance his own plan.
Feeding on shock, fear, and unease, the trees began to grow.
Around the two men, branches rose from the ground.
They were no ordinary trees. Trees that could not be cut by blades or swords—the secret technique of the Wooden Figure Thousand-Soul Art was being unleashed. The growing trees formed walls and then a ceiling. There was nowhere to flee. The two faced each other inside a sealed space made entirely of wood.
Other branches wrapped around Baek Cheongyeong’s body, forming armor for him. At least in this place, even sword qi and sword aura could not cut through this armor.
“You ruined everything. Because of you, Jin Haryeong will die as well.”
Geom Mugeuk asked him calmly,
“What did you say to me earlier? Did you not shout and ask why he killed not only the person involved, but the family as well? And yet what are you doing now?”
“They were the ones who did it first!”
“The ones who began this were you people, were they not?”
No, perhaps it had been Hwa Mugi.
“Release Miss Jin. I know you never planned to kill her originally.”
Vines rising from the ground climbed up Geom Mugeuk’s feet. Then they began slowly binding his entire body so he could not move.
“The person who helped you infiltrate the Murim Alliance—this entire matter was that person’s scheme.”
Geom Mugeuk saw it. Baek Cheongyeong’s pupils trembled. The branches climbing up his body paused for a moment. There had definitely been someone.
“Tell me who it is.”
“There is no one! No such person exists! Do you take me for a fool?”
Around Geom Mugeuk, more trees grew and became long spears. Aimed like the arms of an octopus, they stabbed toward Geom Mugeuk from all directions with the speed of scorpion tails.
Geom Mugeuk raised his protective aura and blocked the attacks.
Clang! Claaang! Clang!
The wooden spears collided with his protective aura and rang out like metal.
Even when he cut them away with his sword, they grew back again. Even when they shattered against his protective aura, other trees grew and attacked. They attacked endlessly, trying to tear through the protective aura. The only way to stop this assault was to kill Baek Cheongyeong, who was hiding inside the armor.
Clang! Claaang! Claaang!
It was an attack within this space. It was several times stronger than it would have been outside.
“It is not too late. Face him together with me!”
Because he felt Geom Mugeuk’s sincerity, Baek Cheongyeong wavered. What if his words were true?
“Please! Do not make me kill you.”
But in the end, he did not believe Geom Mugeuk.
Baek Cheongyeong drew up his inner force to the limit. Blood flowed from his mouth, but he did not stop. More than ten spears attacked only one place: Geom Mugeuk’s heart.
Clang! Claaang! Clang!
At this rate, the protective aura would eventually be pierced.
“If you die, war with the Demonic Cult will break out. Even if I cannot kill him, the Heavenly Demon will kill him.”
The wooden spears merged into one. Turning an even deeper color, it became Baek Cheongyeong’s final attack, into which he poured all the inner force he possessed. At least within this space, that attack could no longer be stopped.
Shraaaaaak!
It flew toward Geom Mugeuk’s heart.
At that very moment—
Flash!
The wooden spear rushing toward him had stopped before Geom Mugeuk’s heart. Soon after, the sharpness of the spear vanished, and it dropped to the floor with a thud.
Far ahead, standing before Geom Mugeuk, there were five in all.
Four evil spirits stood around Baek Cheongyeong. The first technique of the Guhwa Demonic Art, the Annihilation Form, had been unleashed.
The wooden armor that could not be cut even by sword qi was sliced apart and began falling to the ground in clattering pieces. His martial art, rooted in demonic arts, could not withstand the Guhwa Demonic Art.
When the evil spirits disappeared, Baek Cheongyeong’s entire body was soaked in blood.
Baek Cheongyeong looked at Geom Mugeuk with vacant eyes. Geom Mugeuk sensed that he did not have much time left.
Geom Mugeuk took a doll from his bosom. It was the very doll whose face he had once said he would carve himself.
And now, a face had been carved onto that doll. Over the past few days, as he had gone to and from Baek Cheongyeong’s workshop, Geom Mugeuk had carved Hwa Mugi’s face into it.
“Was the man this person?”