Jang Ho was not the type to step forward by nature.
But he did not like the attitude of the shackled man, who dared to speak so arrogantly about the position of right-hand man.
He was the first to realize that today’s gathering was because of the shackled man.
-Perhaps the reason we came today is because of that shackled man.
So he had even sent a voice transmission to Ian and Seo Daeryong.
Ian bravely took action, and Seo Daeryong moved as well.
Jang Ho, who had abundant real combat experience, had instinctively realized that this place was a battlefield where an unseen fight would continue.
At Jang Ho’s words, the shackled man raised his head and stared at him. The large scar on Jang Ho’s face twitched.
The shackled man said to Jang Ho,
“Why are you so fixated on being the right-hand man? If it were me, I would become the left hand and watch the right hands fight.”
“I have no hobby of enjoying other people’s fights. Since I set becoming the right-hand man as my goal, I will strive to become the right-hand man.”
“How manly of you.”
“Thank you.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader, who had only been watching until then, sent a voice transmission to the shackled man.
-Manly? Bullshit. Since when did you say things like that?
-You just don’t know me well. I am a man who can say all sorts of things. I make jokes and banter too.
-Damn it! Why say something like that in this situation?
-The Cult Leader started it first.
-Let’s say that’s true. But what are these people trying to do, flocking to you like this?
-Can’t you tell by watching? They’re all working hard for their leader.
-Cowardly! I’m alone.
-What have you been doing all this time? The Cult Leader has so many subordinates.
-So? The Second Young Master is the kind of leader who cherishes his subordinates more?
-Even if I go to the Second Young Master, it will be for reasons that have nothing to do with them. It would be the same even if a hundred people came rushing in to praise him. So you don’t need to worry about them.
-Then for what reason would you go?
But the shackled man did not tell him the reason.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader said to Geom Mugeuk,
“The Second Young Master has good subordinates.”
“I’m sure you have far more good subordinates, Cult Leader.”
“No. I am a lonely man. Other than that man over there, no one understands me.”
“To have someone who understands you is one of life’s great blessings.”
“I hope that blessing stays by my side for a long time.”
Geom Mugeuk did not say that, if that was the case, he ought to remove the shackles. He knew very well that pressing him by bringing up the shackles would instead be a disadvantageous choice for himself.
“Now, accept a cup from me.”
As the Pungcheon Cult Leader poured the wine, he imbued it with internal energy. Imbuing internal energy into the wine without breaking the cup was a technique only true masters could perform; unless one possessed internal energy on par with his, they would never be able to receive the wine to the end.
Gurgle.
But until the cup was filled to the brim, Geom Mugeuk’s expression did not change in the slightest.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader was inwardly greatly shocked.
‘Could it be? He surpasses my internal energy? Impossible!’
Compared to the stunned Cult Leader, Geom Mugeuk’s expression was gentle. He accepted the wine, drank it, and held out the cup.
“This time, please accept a cup from me.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader’s expression hardened. If he failed to receive Geom Mugeuk’s cup, he would be humiliated before all these people.
But in terms of momentum, he could not refuse.
“Good. Let me receive the wine of our ascending hidden dragon.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader received the wine.
This time as well, internal energy was carried in the falling wine. The Pungcheon Cult Leader accepted it while making an effort to remain calm. It was internal energy he could endure well enough.
“The wine tastes excellent.”
“Let’s drink until we’re drunk today.”
“Good.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader triumphantly sent a voice transmission to the shackled man.
-Did you see? Receiving the wine imbued with the Second Young Master’s internal energy? It was nothing.
-The Second Young Master saved the Cult Leader’s face. He probably didn’t want to, but he went out of his way to imbue it with internal energy because the Cult Leader had done so first, and if he poured normally, the Cult Leader would have been embarrassed. That’s why he didn’t put all his internal energy into it either.
-…….
In truth, the Pungcheon Cult Leader had felt it before anyone else. They had exchanged internal energy through their bodies, so how could he not know? He had only exposed his own limits by trying to show off to the shackled man for no reason.
-Don’t be discouraged. I know very well that the Cult Leader is this kind of person.
-Because of you, I feel even more diminished. I’m normally a better person than this, but I keep making mistakes.
-I understand that too.
Geom Mugeuk had noticed that the Pungcheon Cult Leader was exchanging voice transmissions with the shackled man.
But he pretended not to know and drank his wine. At that moment, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s voice transmission flew in.
-Why didn’t you humiliate him?
-If his pride is wounded, the situation will become worse.
-When you had the chance to show him, you should have shown him. You should have trampled him properly. People’s hearts move in simpler places than you think.
-He must have seen something more important than that.
-Aren’t you overestimating him too much?
-Perhaps I am.
The drinking continued again.
Geom Mugeuk drank with the Pungcheon Cult Leader and exchanged calm conversation with him, but refrained from words or actions that attacked him. His strategy was not to go after the Pungcheon Cult Leader.
Geom Mugeuk focused on why he had come here today. On showing his people to the shackled man.
“Investigator Seo. How is your martial arts training going these days?”
“It’s difficult, but I’m working hard.”
Then the Blood Heaven Blade Demon cut in.
“Difficult?”
“No, it isn’t difficult.”
“Is that so? I’ll have to increase the amount of training.”
“No, it’s difficult enough to kill me.”
Geom Mugeuk laughed and joined their conversation.
“Catering to the elder’s mood must be as hard as striking my father’s vital point.”
“Master is not that difficult.”
“You’re calling me Master again.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon bluntly rebuked Seo Daeryong. As if it had not been a mistake, Seo Daeryong said confidently,
“Though you have not accepted me as a formal disciple, I think of you as my teacher. Even if you drive me away tomorrow, I will remember you as my master forever.”
“Who gave you permission to remember me?”
“Are you saying I can’t even remember as I please?”
The one who added strength to Geom Mugeuk’s scolding was the One Flower Sword Venerable.
“That’s the sort of person he is.”
At her curt remark, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon did not flare up.
“Do you even know me properly before saying that?”
“Clearly. I’m the one who doesn’t want to remember.”
The two carried on a war of nerves without raising their voices.
Geom Mugeuk did not stop them. Showing them as they were was the purpose of today’s visit. The problem was that they were showing themselves too much as they were.
Geom Mugeuk silently poured wine for them.
The One Flower Sword Venerable toyed with her wine cup, and the Blood Heaven Blade Demon immediately emptied his.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader looked at that sight with a somewhat unfamiliar emotion. It seemed he had never imagined that the Demon Venerables would have an emotional fight in front of him.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader sent a voice transmission to the shackled man and asked,
-What on earth are they trying to do? What is their intention?
-You knew those two were on bad terms, didn’t you?
-But they’re openly showing their emotions and fighting in front of me? Those sly old foxes? That can’t be. Do you know what kind of people they are?
-It’s probably not because they’re in front of the Cult Leader.
-!
The Pungcheon Cult Leader gently bit his lip and looked at Geom Mugeuk and the two Demon Venerables.
As though they were wings on either side, they sat with Geom Mugeuk between them and freely revealed their emotions without caring about him.
Even that sight came to the Pungcheon Cult Leader as a burden. Loneliness rushed over him, as if he were standing alone on a remote rocky island.
‘It can’t go on like this!’
When he first began this gathering, he truly thought he could face Geom Mugeuk with great momentum. He felt he might be able to bring about some impressive reversal, but…….
But reality was that he was losing in momentum, losing in internal energy, losing in magnanimity, and on top of that, the people who had come with him were moving differently from what he had expected.
The woman suddenly offered wine to the shackled man, that small and gloomy fellow stepped forward and chimed in, and the Demon Army Lord, unfittingly, coveted the position of right-hand man. And now the two Demon Venerables were having an emotional fight with each other.
‘These people are a pack of madmen.’
The Pungcheon Cult Leader was plunged into all sorts of worries. In his heart, he wanted to overturn the table and shout.
-You bastards! Won’t all of you get lost? Do you know who I am, coming here in a pack and making this fuss? Do you want to go to war with the martial world beyond the passes? If you want to come at me, then all of you come!
But he could not do that. If he had possessed even that much boldness, perhaps such a moment would never have come.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader did not give up until the end.
He poured wine for Geom Mugeuk and said in a pleasant tone,
“Our cult will spare no support to ensure that you become the next Heavenly Demon.”
“Thank you. I, too, will actively assist the Pungcheon Cult’s advance into the Central Plains.”
“This time, thanks to your help, my disciple became a Demon Venerable. You wanted no reward for it, but I must reward you.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader showed that he no longer begrudged even a divine relic. He was trying to show the shackled man that he had changed. To show his resolve to change. To show that he was not forever a narrow-minded and greedy person.
“Choose.”
“Will you truly give me what I want?”
“I will. If it is in this room, I will give you anything.”
Everyone looked at Geom Mugeuk, waiting to see what he would choose.
At last, Geom Mugeuk spoke to the Pungcheon Cult Leader. Words no one present had imagined flowed from his mouth.
“Please give me those shackles.”
At the statement that he wanted the shackles, everyone was startled.
Among them, the Pungcheon Cult Leader’s surprise was the expected sort of surprise that said, “What was bound to come has finally come.”
That was why he became even angrier.
‘How dare he make such a demand when I said he was my right-hand man?’
The Pungcheon Cult Leader spoke firmly with a cold gaze.
“I can never give you that man.”
But he had misunderstood Geom Mugeuk’s request.
“I am not asking for the person. I said I want the shackles made of Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader was startled. It was truly something he had never expected.
“What do you plan to use the shackles for?”
“To tie up someone who won’t listen.”
He said it like a joke while looking at Seo Daeryong.
Seo Daeryong stuck out his lower lip and said,
“Shackles are for tying up people who listen well. You mustn’t tie up someone who doesn’t listen, like me! That’s when something terrible happens.”
He had said it jokingly, but the Pungcheon Cult Leader flinched, shaken. It was a problem he had never once thought about.
Then Geom Mugeuk revealed to the Pungcheon Cult Leader the true purpose for which he wanted the shackles.
“I want to melt that Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron and make something more valuable. A treasure of that caliber would be hard to find even among divine relics.”
In any case, the man could be bound with another set of shackles. So this request was a symbolic one. It was an expression of his intention that he wanted to set him free.
“So please give me those shackles.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader fell into contemplation.
‘What should I do?’
At a time like this, it would have been good if the shackled man sent him some voice transmission.
‘But this is about removing his own shackles, so there’s no way he would send one.’
At that moment, the shackled man sent a voice transmission.
-Refuse.
-What?
-For the Cult Leader’s sake, it is a request you must not accept.
-Why are you telling me?
-Didn’t you ask me to be fair?
The Pungcheon Cult Leader let out a sigh without realizing it. He had not known that Geom Mugeuk would ask for the shackles, nor that the shackled man would send a voice transmission.
‘Everyone is smarter than me, so I cannot keep up with my own head.’
He had really thought he could do well…… but the gap between ideal and reality was so vast that it drove him to despair.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader was conscious of the gazes directed at him.
“A promise must be kept.”
It was not because of pride or face. It was because he judged that only by releasing him now would the shackled man see him in a better light.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader took out the key hanging from his necklace. Then he slowly walked over and unlocked the man’s shackles. During the process, they said nothing. They did not exchange voice transmissions either. He simply unlocked the shackles, and the man merely watched.
Clank.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader brought the shackles and key before me and set them down.
“Take them.”
“Thank you.”
The shackled man remained seated there, head lowered in the same posture as before.
Geom Mugeuk asked the shackled man,
“Is there perhaps something you would like made from what these are melted into?”
Everyone’s startled gazes focused on Geom Mugeuk.
They had never imagined that he would return the melted Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron to the shackled man.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader felt dizzy and squeezed his eyes shut.
He thought that the only thing he could do against these people was overturn the drinking table.