Cheonui Palace Lord Wi Mucheon glared at the Muhwang Divine Sword with eyes full of resentment. He could not understand it. For a man who received the respect of the orthodox sects to bring in the Demonic Cult and the Heretical Alliance.
“Why in the world did you do this?”
At last, the Muhwang Divine Sword spoke for the first time.
“Too many people have died because of you. Should we not end the war now?”
“Nonsense!”
Wi Mucheon shouted, then coughed up blood again. On the boundary between life and death, he clenched his teeth and cried out toward life.
“Are you not ashamed?”
His voice rang out as though he were perfectly unharmed.
The eyes of the Guardian Palace Lord beside him were filled with sorrow. The Cheonui Palace Lord was spending what little life force he had left on anger.
By contrast, the Muhwang Divine Sword was calm.
“In the end, the one who called these people here was not me, but you.”
The Muhwang Divine Sword had not known the war against them would drag on this long. Nor had he known that the mysterious organization called Cheonui Palace was this powerful.
“All of this happened because you dreamed a dream you should never have dreamed.”
“Even so, you brought in the Demonic Cult? At the very least, I thought you were a man who knew honor.”
Then astonishing words flowed from the Muhwang Divine Sword.
“I did not bring them in.”
“!”
The Muhwang Divine Sword’s gaze turned toward the Demonic Cult Leader, Hyeok Docheon.
“That man contacted me first.”
Wi Mucheon looked at Hyeok Docheon in shock. The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had contacted the Murim Alliance first? Why on earth?
At last, Hyeok Docheon opened his mouth. One might have expected it to be deep and low, but contrary to his appearance, his voice was sharp and ringing. From that voice alone, one could tell he had lived without hiding his emotions.
“They say a mysterious power capable of gaining the world is hidden within Cheonui Palace’s sacred relic.”
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, having learned that information, had intervened in this matter first.
When Geom Mugeuk had come here before, he had already confirmed that the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult knew of the secret coffer’s existence.
‘They intervened because of that sacred relic.’
There was no way he had stepped in for the sake of the Murim Alliance.
But doubts arose as well.
‘There’s no way the Demonic Cult Leader believed some legendary tale.’
At that moment, one person came to mind.
‘The Dark Palace Lord!’
He must have packaged Cheonui Palace’s sacred relic beautifully as a legend and leaked it to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. He must have put in a great deal of care over a long time, eventually making Hyeok Docheon believe it.
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze turned toward the Muhwang Divine Sword.
When he had come last time, they had eaten together, and he had spoken with him as well. He had been mentally exhausted, but he had not seemed like a man who would move according to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s wishes.
The final place Geom Mugeuk’s gaze turned was toward Ju Gasin, Leader of the Heretical Alliance.
‘The answer must lie with that man.’
The Muhwang Divine Sword again emphasized that the one who had created today’s situation was Wi Mucheon.
“You called them all here. So stop blaming others.”
Originally, the Muhwang Divine Sword was not a man who shifted responsibility onto others, but he decided to make an exception this time. Otherwise, he would not be able to endure it. Each time he closed his eyes, he saw the figures of his subordinates who had died on the battlefield.
Of course, Wi Mucheon did not accept it meekly.
“You blame someone else while telling me not to?”
For the dying man, his disappointment in the Muhwang Divine Sword turned into fury. His eyes blazed, but all he could do now was glare like this.
Hyeok Docheon declared to everyone.
“We will be taking the secret coffer.”
Hyeok Docheon looked at the Guardian Palace Lord. The small secret coffer was in his hands.
“Bring it here.”
The Guardian Palace Lord knew. Whether he handed over the secret coffer or not, he would die either way. They would never allow what had happened here today to leak outside.
The Guardian Palace Lord looked at Wi Mucheon. With eyes losing their vitality, Wi Mucheon said nothing. Having served him for so long, he could understand the emotion contained in that gaze.
Do as you wish.
The Guardian Palace Lord gripped the secret coffer with both hands and held it forward.
“If you do not withdraw, I will destroy the secret coffer.”
A moment of silence flowed in an instant.
A cold smile formed on Hyeok Docheon’s lips.
“If it breaks so easily just because you destroy it, then it is not worth possessing.”
Hyeok Docheon said coldly.
“Break it.”
Threats did not work on him.
Of course, the Guardian Palace Lord was no easy man either. He lowered his eyes to the secret coffer.
Then he truly injected his internal energy into it, intending to destroy it. All of Cheonui Palace’s tragedies today had begun with this secret coffer.
‘I will bear this sin. Forgive me.’
He sincerely apologized to both the Cheonui Palace Lord and the secret coffer.
For an instant, Hyeok Docheon twitched, but he only watched. If it truly was something that could be smashed like that, then the information itself was wrong.
But no matter how much internal energy the Guardian Palace Lord poured into it, the secret coffer was not destroyed.
Changing methods, the Guardian Palace Lord raised his hand high, about to strike it down.
Shiiik.
Slice.
A streak of sword energy passed through the Guardian Palace Lord’s arm.
Thud.
His arm was severed and fell to the floor.
Papapapapap!
Blood sprayed from the cut. His blood poured down onto the secret coffer he had dropped to the ground.
Before anyone knew it, Hyeok Docheon’s sword had been drawn.
“That is enough.”
He had sent out sword energy in an instant and cut off the Guardian Palace Lord’s arm. Even if the Guardian Palace Lord had been focused on the secret coffer, he was not someone who should have been struck down so easily. That was how extraordinary Hyeok Docheon’s martial arts were.
The Guardian Palace Lord pressed his acupoints to stop the bleeding from his arm. Wi Mucheon’s face turned even paler as he watched.
Wi Mucheon stretched out his arm and picked up the secret coffer that had fallen to the floor. The secret coffer, already stained with his own blood, was now covered in the Guardian Palace Lord’s blood as well, making it look like a red box. Wi Mucheon embraced it.
Geom Mugeuk silently watched the scene.
First, he felt sorrow at the Guardian Palace Lord’s loyalty. It was the tragedy of one who served the wrong master. He was in no position to help, and even if he could, he could not carelessly change the history of the past.
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze turned toward the secret coffer, from which blood dripped steadily.
It was a secret coffer he had always treated like a friend, one on which he had even drawn a smiling face, so its current appearance felt far too unfamiliar.
Whenever he opened the beach within the Spacetime Transference Art, he had always placed the secret coffer beside him.
Thinking about it now, that smiling friend had been a secret coffer that had gone through something like this. It struck him that it was like a martial artist who had returned to his hometown from the battlefield.
Looking down at the secret coffer, Wi Mucheon asked.
“Did he want my position?”
At the calm question, Hyeok Docheon nodded and answered.
“He wanted your position. In exchange for offering up your lives, he demanded that we no longer pursue Cheonui Palace.”
The Guardian Palace Lord’s eyes, as he listened, turned red. They were bloodshot eyes, as though tears of blood might flow at any moment. The only thought in his mind was that he had to kill the Dark Palace Lord before he died.
Wi Mucheon, on the other hand, was tranquil. Rather, an inscrutable smile formed on his lips.
It looked like the hollow smile of a man facing death, but Geom Mugeuk felt a strange exhilaration dwelling in that smile.
And Geom Mugeuk could tell what that exhilaration was.
The Dark Palace Lord he had seen with his own eyes was an evil man, and a greatly ambitious one.
‘He wanted the position of Cheonui Palace Lord, but he would give up the secret coffer?’
Would he really try to seize a Cheonui Palace without its sacred relic? That would be the same as obtaining a Cheonui Palace with its core missing.
Wi Mucheon was now thinking the same thing he was. That this was not the end.
‘Dark Palace Lord, what on earth is the arrangement you have made?’
He had a feeling there was surely something more than a simple betrayal.
Hyeok Docheon said to the Muhwang Divine Sword,
“What you want must be that man, so take him and go.”
Ju Gasin, the Leader of the Heretical Alliance, who had silently watched the situation until then, spoke for the first time.
“I will take one of the secret coffers. Choose first.”
As if he had known it would come to this, a sneer formed on Hyeok Docheon’s lips.
“I knew why you brought in the Heretical Alliance. You brought them in to prevent me from monopolizing the secret coffers, didn’t you?”
The Muhwang Divine Sword had not told Hyeok Docheon in advance that Ju Gasin would come here today.
So when Hyeok Docheon saw Ju Gasin appear on Baegyang Peak, he knew the Muhwang Divine Sword had played a trick, but for the time being, he showed no reaction. Yes, the Muhwang Divine Sword was not a man who would simply be led around.
But the reason Ju Gasin had come was different from what he expected.
“You misunderstand. I never contacted the Heretical Alliance first.”
In other words, the Leader of the Heretical Alliance had also intervened on his own.
At that moment, Wi Mucheon let out a low laugh.
“……Now I know for certain.”
It was the moment his premonition turned into conviction.
“The Dark Palace Lord drew all of you into one place.”
He had leaked to both the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult and the Heretical Alliance that the secret coffers were treasures of the ages.
Then Hyeok Docheon spoke loudly.
“So what if it is a trap? I need only smash everything apart.”
He was confident that no trap could contain him.
“I will take both the large and the small secret coffers.”
A chilling demonic energy whirled around his body.
But Ju Gasin was not afraid at all.
“You will have to concede one.”
There was another reason he could be so confident before the Demonic Cult Leader.
Ju Gasin took one step toward the Murim Alliance Leader. Hyeok Docheon immediately understood what that symbolic step meant.
“You two will join forces?”
Even in a situation where he should have erupted in rage, he remained calm. He had expected this from the moment the Leader of the Heretical Alliance appeared.
“What will you do if I come to take it later?”
It was a threat that he would strike the Heretical Alliance to obtain the small secret coffer, but it did not work on Ju Gasin.
“Better than letting you come after gaining the secret coffer’s power.”
He was saying that if Hyeok Docheon obtained power from the secret coffer, he would invade anyway. At the very least, Ju Gasin firmly believed that some kind of power was contained within the secret coffer.
When Hyeok Docheon looked at him and smiled, Ju Gasin smiled as well.
If Hyeok Docheon’s smile was one of intense will that said, I will definitely kill you, then Ju Gasin’s was a smile filled with madness that said, Then let’s die together, you bastard.
Hyeok Docheon wanted, if his heart had its way, to kill them all, but facing those two at the same time would be a battle in which even he would have to stake his life.
He was an incomparably cruel and terrifying figure, but he was not reckless or foolish enough to wage a life-and-death battle against the Murim Alliance Leader and the Heretical Alliance Leader in a place that might be a trap.
Between the two men, amid the taut tension passing back and forth, the Muhwang Divine Sword said nothing. One war had ended today, but he sensed that a new war had begun.
His gaze turned toward Wi Mucheon.
The Guardian Palace Lord had withdrawn to one side and was struggling to save Wi Mucheon, whose life was fading away, by pouring internal energy into him with his one remaining hand. Thanks to his efforts, Wi Mucheon was still alive.
‘Even after this, are you telling me not to blame you?’
Meanwhile, Hyeok Docheon decided he would take only one. The one he chose was the large secret coffer.
“If I am going to take one, the larger would be better, would it not?”
He walked toward the large secret coffer. His back was turned to the two alliance leaders, but he did not care at all. He was as relaxed as a tiger walking through its own territory.
How many steps had he taken?
Wooooong.
The large secret coffer, which had been quiet, began to vibrate. It was a heavy vibration that rang out from deep within the secret coffer.
In that instant, everyone there was shocked.
‘The secret coffer is reacting to the Demonic Cult Leader?’
Thinking that the secret coffer recognized him, Hyeok Docheon’s steps grew firmer.
Woooooooong.
The closer he drew, the louder the secret coffer vibrated. It was not simply vibrating; it felt as if it were speaking to him.
Saaaaaaa.
That was not all. A faint light flowed from the secret coffer, and a mysterious profound energy began to emerge. It was a wondrous aura that did not exist in the human world.
Joy flashed across Hyeok Docheon’s face.
If he obtained power capable of possessing the world? This murim would become his.
The dream of unifying the murim, hidden deep within his heart, began to stir.
But Geom Mugeuk instinctively knew.
‘This is the Dark Palace Lord’s arrangement!’
After all, in the history of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, there was no record of Hyeok Docheon having obtained great power. Nor had he left any special achievements in the history of murim.
‘But if that is so, how did the Dark Palace Lord know the secret coffer would react to the Demonic Cult Leader?’
The closer Hyeok Docheon drew, the louder the secret coffer’s resonance became, and the energy flowing from it grew stronger as well.
Standing before the secret coffer, Hyeok Docheon spoke boldly.
“From now on, I am your master.”
Then he slowly placed his palm on the secret coffer.
He had expected some greater reaction, but instead, nothing happened. The resonance vanished, and no profound energy flowed out.
Just as Hyeok Docheon, feeling somewhat deflated, was about to take his hand away from the secret coffer, he started in surprise.
His palm would not come off the coffer. The coffer had begun pulling him in with tremendous force.
“What the hell?”
It was not only his hand being pulled.
He braced himself with his other hand and resisted as his body tried to be dragged toward the coffer.
At the ominous premonition, a curse burst from his mouth on its own.
“Fuck!”
The secret coffer was pulling him in with incredible power. It was a kind of force he had never experienced before. A power he had never felt in the human world.
Hyeok Docheon lifted the hand he had been bracing himself with and struck the coffer with his fist.
Bang! Kwaang!
Even under the tremendous impact, the secret coffer did not budge, as if it had taken root in the floor.
Thud.
Rather, because he had taken one hand away and scattered his internal energy, Hyeok Docheon could not withstand the pulling force and slammed his face into the coffer.
It was a situation in which he, as the Heavenly Demon, ought to have felt humiliated.
All the more so because those watching were none other than the Murim Alliance Leader and the Sado Alliance Leader.
But he did not even have the leisure to feel shame.
It was not simply because the suction force was powerful. It was because he instinctively sensed that this power was different.
Like a waterfall falling from above to below, like water flowing from a river into the sea, it sucked him in as if it were an irresistible law of nature.
It was not a power a human could defy.
Even so, Hyeok Docheon drew up his internal energy to the extreme and endured.
“You goddamn bastard thing! Guaaaaaaaaaah!”
With his face crushed against the coffer, Hyeok Docheon forced his head to turn and looked back.
The Muhwang Divine Sword and Ju Gasin, startled by this sudden turn of events, were only staring this way.
Wi Mucheon and the Guardian Palace Lord were the same. They had revered the secret coffer as a divine object all their lives, but this was the first time they had ever seen it pull in a person.
At first, Geom Mugeuk’s blood had run cold. He feared it might send that Hyeok Docheon three hundred years into the future.
But that did not seem to be the case. When it had absorbed him, it had drawn him in as if sinking him into a swamp, but right now the surface of the coffer was hard.
At that very moment!
Geom Mugeuk saw it. A single existence that, for a fleeting instant, appeared superimposed over Hyeok Docheon’s body. Something was wavering as it slipped out of him.
And Geom Mugeuk knew better than anyone here what it was.
‘The Heavenly Demon Soul!’
Geom Mugeuk realized it. What the secret coffer was trying to suck in was not Hyeok Docheon.
‘The secret coffer is absorbing the Heavenly Demon Soul!’