Geom Mugeuk and Jin Hagun left the Murim Alliance.
Geom Mugeuk was still wearing his bamboo hat to avoid drawing attention, but—
“They’ll know over there that I met the Alliance Leader.”
Geom Mugeuk did not underestimate the enemy’s intelligence network. This place, Wuhan, was a stage they had built. The protagonists of this stage were them.
A grave look flickered in Jin Hagun’s eyes. If Geom Mugeuk’s words were true, it meant those bastards were watching them from close by.
“Are you saying they have eyes inside the Alliance as well?”
“Think of it as something they’ve been preparing for decades.”
Geom Mugeuk tapped the bamboo hat he was wearing and said,
“This cannot block the passage of that much time.”
Hearing those words, Jin Hagun felt something similar to what Jin Paecheon had felt. This fight would be harder than any fight he had ever faced.
“Is it them?”
By “them,” Jin Hagun meant the hidden force behind the tripartite meeting between the righteous, unorthodox, and demonic factions.
Geom Mugeuk understood at once and nodded.
“Yes, I believe it is them.”
Because only they would be capable of plotting such a conspiracy against both the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult and the Murim Alliance.
Jin Hagun asked carefully,
“You still think it’s Cheonae Geosa, don’t you?”
Jin Hagun wanted to confirm it one last time. He believed Geom Mugeuk was grasping the situation with sharper insight than he himself could.
Geom Mugeuk persuaded him of his belief by speaking of the possibility that he might be wrong.
“Of course, it may not be him. But if it isn’t, there’s no need to keep that possibility in mind.”
“Why not?”
“If he’s innocent, then I simply apologize for misunderstanding him.”
Jin Hagun looked at Geom Mugeuk as if asking how he could think it was that easy. Geom Mugeuk truly did think it was easy.
“A friendship of decades should be used at times like that. Not as something so precious that it confuses your judgment.”
“!”
Jin Hagun felt that those words contained the core of how he ought to view this matter.
“Compared to the consequences of failing to recognize Cheonae Geosa’s black heart, briefly misunderstanding a friend is nothing at all.”
Yes, he was right. In any case, without solid evidence, his grandfather would not kill Cheonae Geosa based on a mere feeling. Which meant he himself could suspect the man to his heart’s content.
At Geom Mugeuk’s refreshingly clear conclusion, Jin Hagun felt the tightness in his chest suddenly loosen.
“Thank you for coming.”
Jin Hagun expressed his gratitude sincerely. Geom Mugeuk would never know just how grateful he was that he had come.
“Of course I had to come.”
That one sentence was enough. Yes, of course he had to come. It would have been the same the other way around. Of course he would have gone.
“By the way, where are we going?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s question, Jin Hagun smiled and said,
“A friend came from far away. I should at least give him a room to sleep in.”
* * *
The manor Jin Hagun had prepared for them was a place used by the Demon-Exterminating Unit.
It stood beneath a mountain on the outskirts, far from the marketplace, and since everyone knew it belonged to the Murim Alliance, they would not have to worry about being searched by the warriors of Wuhan for the time being.
“See? The treatment changes the moment I arrive, doesn’t it? This is the kind of person I am.”
Geom Mugeuk boasted loudly from the entrance, but of course, no one indulged his bragging.
Geom Muyang examined the inside of the manor as though looking for anything suspicious, and Mabul went out to inspect the exterior. The Poison King slipped after Mabul.
Seeing that, Geom Mugeuk shouted,
“Even if the Poison King tempts you to go dig up poisonous herbs, don’t fall for it! He thinks of you as an herb gatherer, Mabul!”
The Poison King’s back visibly flinched.
Once the two of them had gone outside, Geom Muyang scolded his younger brother.
“Don’t be rude to Mabul.”
At that, Geom Mugeuk smiled meaningfully.
“You have to scold me when he’s beside you, so Mabul will understand how you feel, hyung.”
“I’m not saying it so he’ll understand.”
“I know. I do, but if he understands anyway, isn’t that better?”
Because he was Hyung’s very own Demon Venerable. Because he was the only Demon Venerable Hyung liked.
Geom Mugeuk sincerely hoped that this relationship would remain unchanged until the very end of their lives.
After examining the courtyard, Geom Muyang entered the rooms. Even while walking down the corridor, he carefully checked whether any mechanisms had been installed.
“Are you worried Unit Leader Jin might have pulled some trick in this manor? You don’t need to worry.”
Without looking back, Geom Muyang replied,
“What makes you trust him?”
Geom Muyang was worried about the same thing Jin Paecheon had worried over with his grandson. Not to trust people carelessly.
“Not everyone is like you.”
Geom Mugeuk followed closely behind him.
“Was that a compliment?”
Geom Muyang did not answer and opened the doors to inspect the rooms.
“You use this small room. This room will go to Mabul.”
Geom Muyang chose the largest and best room as Mabul’s. Of course, he gave the smallest one to Geom Mugeuk.
“Mabul, of all people, would be fine even if we gave him the smallest room…”
Geom Muyang frowned and whipped around, and Geom Mugeuk fled into the small room as if escaping.
“I’m telling you, act like that when Mabul is around.”
Geom Mugeuk flopped down on the bed.
“Ah, this is comfortable and nice!”
Lying there, Geom Mugeuk looked out the window. After watching the drifting clouds for a while, he asked loudly,
“I heard you called Unit Leader Jin first, Hyung?”
After a short pause, Geom Muyang’s voice came from his room.
“There’s someone I have to save.”
Geom Mugeuk also knew that an artisan’s younger sibling named Gwak Yeong had been taken hostage.
“It feels so awkward hearing someone who only ever thought about killing people say he’s going to save someone.”
Even when accused of being a murderer, Geom Muyang showed no reaction.
Of course, Geom Mugeuk was not about to miss this chance to tease his older brother.
“Is that woman pretty?”
It would not have been strange if he had snapped back, but no answer came.
Geom Mugeuk looked like he was just joking around and taking it easy, but inwardly, he was more tense than anyone.
Hwa Yulcheong.
How could he let his guard down when this was the first member of the Hwa clan he would face after his regression?
Then came a rebuke from the doorway.
“You should not have come. You should have stayed behind to protect the cult.”
When he turned his head, his brother was standing at the door.
Geom Muyang knew very well that it must never happen that two people of the Heavenly Demon’s bloodline were in the same dangerous place.
“The cult will be protected better without me there, won’t it?”
Since the temporary cult leader was busy robbing the Heavenly Demon Library.
“Stop joking!”
“What are you so worried about? You’ll protect me, Hyung.”
“Me? Why?”
“I heard you came all the way here because of me.”
Caught off guard by words he had not expected, Geom Muyang was flustered.
“Who said that?”
“Who else? Someone with a loose tongue.”
There were three people who had heard those words. When he had said them to Jin Paecheon, Jin Hagun had been below the pavilion, and Mabul had been inside the mist.
“Was it Unit Leader Jin?”
He naturally thought his friend Jin Hagun must have told him. But the culprit was someone unexpected.
“Mabul told me.”
On the way here, Mabul had discreetly told him through sound transmission.
He had said it in the hope that the relationship between the brothers would improve.
“He didn’t tell me for my sake. He told me for yours, Hyung. So you’d treat me better.”
At times like this, even that blunt brother’s face seemed to ripple with emotion.
“So express yourself a little when you live. How many years has Mabul spent living with his eyes only on you? It’s all right to show it now.”
Then Geom Muyang abruptly said,
“Thank you.”
“Not to me. I’m telling you to say it directly to Mabul.”
But Geom Muyang had not been speaking to Mabul.
“I’m saying thank you to you.”
“All of a sudden?”
Since the gratitude had come out of nowhere, Geom Mugeuk sat up on the bed.
“I’ve done so many things to earn thanks from you, Hyung, that I don’t know what you’re referring to, but anyway, it’s fine. Between brothers, that much is nothing.”
At that, Geom Muyang slightly opened the front of his robe. Inside, the Supreme Heavenly Silkworm Thread was wrapped around him.
He had asked Mabul to wrap it around his brother’s heart, and it seemed he had succeeded. As expected, when all was said and done, the person who handled his brother best was Mabul.
“Ah, this isn’t something I can call ‘that much is nothing.’ I tore off part of my life for you.”
If it had been his brother of the past, he would have said, “Who do you think you’re looking down on?” and immediately unwound it and told him to take it back. No, he would never have wrapped it around his heart in the first place. Even if it had been forced on him, he would not have shown it like this.
There were sides of him that had changed, but there were also sides that remained unmistakably like his brother.
“I’ll return this to you once we go back.”
Saying he would return it once they went back meant that he intended to stand at the front and fight.
He had been furious because his younger brother had nearly been killed, and now that his younger brother had come to this dangerous place as well, he was truly enraged at those bastards.
“Our hyung is angry. I don’t know who you people are, but you’re in big trouble now.”
* * *
Geom Mugeuk and Geom Muyang began their investigation in earnest.
Through Tongtian Pavilion, they received all records on the sects that had been founded in the years before and after Cheonae Geosa settled in Wuhan.
There were eight sects that fit the criteria.
Geom Mugeuk and Geom Muyang divided the sects to be investigated in half and looked into them personally.
Since they could not determine the truth from the written information alone, they went to the sects and observed them in person. Were these not two people who could sense something suspicious just by looking at a gatekeeper’s face, or by the air flowing through a courtyard?
After the two of them finished their investigation, they returned.
“The Ningchuan Sect is excluded because it has too many branches across the Central Plains. The Bajian Gate is excluded because its sect master died in an accident not long ago and a blood relative succeeded him. The Shijian Gate is excluded because they follow Cheonae Geosa far too passionately. And the Shengdao Gang has too many disciples.”
The two shared what they had investigated with each other, and Geom Muyang’s findings were no different from Geom Mugeuk’s. They could not find the guardian sect that had been secretly protecting Cheonae Geosa.
“It seems our prediction was wrong.”
At Geom Muyang’s conclusion, the two Demon Venerables nodded. Since the two of them had personally gone out to investigate based on Tongtian Pavilion’s records, the results were likely correct.
Which meant there was no sect here in Wuhan protecting him. Had he truly taken on this work alone and come this far by himself?
Geom Mugeuk firmly shook his head.
“That can’t be.”
He was certain they had missed something.
“This isn’t something that ends in a year or two. It has been carried out over decades, and they entrusted everything to the effort and luck of one person? Impossible.”
What if he had done well for twenty years, only to die in an accident the following year? Then twenty years would have been wasted for nothing.
Someone must have supported and helped him from his side. They must have overcome countless crises no one knew about. There had to be someone who had crossed the storms of time with him.
“Could it not be that, rather than a sect founded at the time, they won over another sect after he gained fame?”
At Mabul’s thought, Geom Mugeuk nodded.
“Of course, that’s possible, but I don’t think that’s the case this time. Somehow, I feel they would have placed the person they trusted most by his side from the beginning.”
This time, Geom Muyang offered his opinion.
“Then it may not have been a sect, but an individual who helped him.”
“He was friends with the Alliance Leader. Naturally, the Murim Alliance would have monitored and investigated him according to Alliance regulations. They must have done it thoroughly. Imagine if Father had a closest friend. Think how thoroughly we would investigate him.”
And according to Tongtian Pavilion’s investigation results, Cheonae Geosa had no friends other than the Alliance Leader. He was, in every sense, completely alone.
“Did you not say those bastards handle poison?”
The one who answered Mabul’s question was Geom Muyang. He had experienced it personally while pursuing the counterfeit hidden weapons.
“That’s right. A powerful poison had been applied to the counterfeit hidden weapons.”
And that was not all.
“On top of that, whether they used drugs or some kind of great art, they even controlled people’s minds.”
They had made them commit suicide at decisive moments and forced them to make specific confessions. Just that alone proved they were no ordinary experts.
The four people present knew better than anyone.
They knew how tense the Murim Alliance became when poison was involved, and how much they shuddered at soul-bewitching arts.
Murim warriors feared the Poison King and the Soul-Capturing Demon Venerable the most.
And yet the Murim Alliance had failed to notice that the Alliance Leader’s one and only friend was associating with someone who used poison or soul-bewitching arts?
Geom Mugeuk thought that could not be. The ones who had missed something were them.
Geom Mugeuk examined the records again. He read them with a different mindset than before.
There is definitely something we overlooked. The answer is here.
Reading through the records with that thought, Geom Mugeuk’s gaze stopped sharply at one point.
A smile slowly formed at the corners of Geom Mugeuk’s mouth.
“Not an individual, and not a sect. Do you know of a place that can legally use poison and even stick needles into people’s heads?”
* * *
Geom Mugeuk and the other three sat in a teahouse, looking at the building across the street.
In the middle of the bustling marketplace, where many people came and went, stood a large building occupying expensive land.
Mingxin Medical Hall.
“This is the place Cheonae Geosa, who often carried out acts of chivalry, visited most frequently. He would bring people without money here and have them treated every time. Which is why no one would have suspected it.”
It was a place Geom Muyang and the two Demon Venerables had truly never imagined.
A medical hall? The place supporting the force behind this conspiracy was a medical hall? Who could possibly have imagined that?
There was another reason to suspect this place was the organization behind it.
“The physician here, Shao Qingluo, has excellent medical skill and a good reputation. In Wuhan, he is the most popular after the divine physician of the Murim Alliance.”
The Poison King and Mabul had also heard his name before.
“In particular, Shao Qingluo is famous for being skilled at detoxification. They say that when it comes to detoxifying poison, he surpasses even the divine physician of the Murim Alliance. So when warriors of the Central Plains are poisoned, they say this is the first place they seek out. He has saved more than a few warriors by now.”
Then the Poison King, who had not said a word until now, calmly struck at the heart of the matter.
“The flower of poison arts is not poisoning, but detoxification.”
Absolute Regression, Chapter 639