Little Yama, Gu Yangcheon.
The eldest son of the Shanxi Gu Family, a righteous faction renowned family located in the frontier of Shanxi, and the child of “Tiger Knight” Gu Cheolun, who was counted among the lower ranks of the Hundred Great Masters.
In his youth, he was called the madman of Shanxi, ran amok committing atrocities, and was known as a “tiger father, dog son.”
Whether it had simply been a phase, as time passed, he began to display his talent.
Before the massacre at the Divine Dragon Hall in the past, he displayed overwhelming martial prowess at the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly and earned the sobriquet “True Dragon,” and shortly after, he prevented the massacre that occurred at the Divine Dragon Hall and slaughtered the demonic faction members, earning the sobriquet “Little Yama.”
Afterward, there were also achievements that briefly spread his name throughout the Central Plains due to matters planned inside the Alliance, but…
From some time later, his traces began to fade into obscurity.
Moreover, the Divine Dragon Plan carried out in cooperation with Shaolin even eroded the rumors he had briefly spread.
In just a few years, rumors regarding the Little Yama disappeared as if dead.
“What is this?”
Beomdong tilted his head as he looked at the letter in his hand.
It had taken Beomdong four days to grasp this information.
It was not particularly difficult information; had he set his mind to it, it should have been finished within two days.
Yet Beomdong felt a strangely subtle sense of dissonance.
“There is more than one strange thing.”
While reading the information regarding the Little Yama, he noticed several conspicuous gaps.
It was information that clearly showed someone had intentionally erased it.
“Who?”
Those who could touch the Alliance’s own information were few enough to count on one hand.
The leader of the Azure Dragon Squad, who was both the current Alliance Chief’s bodyguard and one of the current Ten Great Masters.
Or perhaps the Sect Leader of the Beggars’ Sect, or the Abbot of Shaolin, and so on.
At most, there would not be more than ten such people.
How could blanks have been left in such information?
The strange things did not end there.
“He was involved in the Sichuan Tangmen affair as well?”
It was an incident that had caused an uproar in the Central Plains a few years ago.
An exposé that the Tangmen, called one of the Four Great Clans and a prestigious family, had been secretly conducting human experiments.
Because of that, the Tangmen were forced to step down from their position among the Four Great Clans, and a tendency to hush up regarding the Tangmen, who belonged to the righteous faction, had emerged.
The problem here was:
“It was classified information?”
The incident at the time was treated as top secret even inside the Alliance, and was stored divided by colors, just like the grades of demonic beasts.
Among these, the incident that originated from the Sichuan Tangmen was White-grade information.
Even the Alliance’s squad leaders, who could peruse most of the information department’s files, could not open it.
Yet in such information—
“There were traces that the Little Yama had been involved…”
In the processed information, it was written that the Tangmen’s Family Head had carried out the exposure in order to discover and stop the human experiments.
It was said that he had personally executed the elders and gathered evidence to submit to the Alliance, but…
The fact that information regarding the Little Yama had seeped into this meant:
“Does this mean something else happened?”
What on earth could have happened that even a squad leader could not know?
Beomdong continued examining the information with narrowed eyes.
“He has many women around him. His fiancée, Geom Muhi, and the Tangmen… Tangmen?”
Beomdong’s eyes widened as he read down.
Including Dokbong of the Tangmen, who was walking a path of ruin, and Seolbong of the Murong Family—
“And even the descendant of the Sword Venerable?”
It was said he indulged in women, and indeed, it seemed he had such inclinations.
However, the perplexing thing was:
“If he indulges in women, why did he not fall for Bihyeonhwa?”
Bihyeonhwa, called the greatest beauty of Henan.
She was an outstanding figure at using her face to obtain information, yet—
“She failed.”
Not only did she fail to approach him, but Bihyeonhwa returned a ruined shell of a person.
“S-save… me. P-please save me, save me, save me… Save… me.”
Her thick makeup had completely crumbled. She scratched at her own face repeatedly with long, slender nails.
Bihyeonhwa, with the eyes of a dead fish, was found ruined in an alley near the Alliance entrance.
“I have to run away… Scary, scary… Please save me… Save…”
Her broken form trembling uncontrollably was enough to inspire terror in others.
Afterward, Bihyeonhwa was entrusted to a physician and received treatment, but her mind did not properly return.
Even now, gripped by terror, she would not step outside the treatment room.
What on earth had happened to her?
The information written down and found on Bihyeonhwa’s person stated that regarding the Little Yama, he had been using the name Pajeolyeop at the time and was the sect leader of the crumbling Somunpa.
“That was false.”
After digging a little deeper, he learned that all of this was a lie.
It was likely that the Little Yama had noticed Bihyeonhwa’s approach and her purpose from the very beginning.
Thanks to that, obtaining information took more time than expected.
Moreover:
“There are no traces.”
If she had been found near the Alliance entrance, there should have been personnel who approached that area.
Yet among the sentries on watch, none had sensed any trace or sign of human presence.
There was no evidence.
Bihyeonhwa was broken to the point where she could not answer questions, so the situation was quite bizarre.
“Moreover, an incident occurred in the middle of it all.”
Around the time Beomdong was conducting his work, the Azure Dragon Squad had sent one person, but that person had gone missing.
The problem here was:
“Why did it have to be the Baekhwa Merchant Guild again?”
The Baekhwa Merchant Guild had been gathering enough personnel to form a sect.
The Alliance had found this suspicious and sent a member of the Azure Dragon Squad.
Yet even that member’s whereabouts became unknown.
A martial artist of the Azure Dragon Squad, the Alliance’s finest sword corps, at that.
In just a few days, the situation seemed to have become strangely entangled.
And at the center of it:
“Is the Little Yama there?”
The Demonic Cult, was it not?
The name of an organization that had recently been heard not only in Henan but throughout the entire Central Plains.
A name that had started from the edge of the Central Plains and was now spreading even to Henan, where the Alliance firmly stood.
Since the Alliance was intensively focused on grasping this, Beomdong was also conducting an investigation.
Amidst this, the current movements of the Baekhwa Merchant Guild were inevitably somewhat suspicious.
“There does not seem to be a direct connection, but something feels off.”
The Baekhwa Merchant Guild was one of the few top merchant guilds in the Central Plains.
No matter how unaffiliated they were with the Martial Arts Alliance, they would not engage in pointless acts, or so it would seem.
“But looking at their recent movements, there are subtle oddities.”
The fact that they were conducting something without the Alliance’s knowledge was one thing.
Especially from the moment he identified the young expert he had met as the Little Yama, his suspicions began to amplify.
A few years ago, a rising star of the younger generation and a figure who had been known by rumor even before the Divine Dragon, who was officially recognized as the youngest Transcendence Realm master.
And the most important reason was:
“That he is none other than a person of the Gu Family.”
The Gu Family was a righteous faction renowned family located in the frontier of Shanxi.
Though not at the level of the Four Great Clans—no, the Three Great Clans, it was an ordinary renowned family in a decent position.
Known to have existed for several centuries, but it had only begun to show prominence starting from when the current family head, the Tiger Knight, was active.
After that, the eldest daughter of the Tiger Knight, “Sword Phoenix” Gu Huibi, and the eldest son, the Little Yama, as well as the second daughter Gu Yeonseo, and so on.
Recently, public opinion had formed that the Gu Family was quite a powerful family.
However.
Because it was such a “Gu Family,” Beomdong sensed a subtle sign.
The reason was none other than:
“Ink-Black information…”
Among the information ranged from green to white.
The information grade regarding the Gu Family was ink-black.
It seemed the information had recently been altered, but even Beomdong did not know what ink-black meant.
Far from perusing it, he could not even attempt to do so. That was what ink-black was.
It was a grade he was seeing for the first time, and of all things, it had to be the Gu Family.
Even the other Four Great Clans were at most red-grade; where had this ink-black grade come from?
There were more than one or two strange parts.
An unknowable air had fallen precisely upon the territory of the Baekhwa Merchant Guild.
The fact that he had coincidentally met the Little Yama at the merchant guild he had headed to in order to confirm this went without saying.
The fact that the Gu Family’s grade was ink-black.
And the attitude with which the Little Yama had treated him there, as well as the situations that had occurred afterward.
It was a situation where doubt could not help but sprout.
“In a case like this.”
Until now, exactly two means by which Beomdong operated had existed.
One was:
“Deploy more personnel to grasp the information in detail.”
There was the method of trying to find an opening by observing every single move.
“At present, that is somewhat difficult.”
The Alliance’s situation was not good at the moment; handling it this way was impossible.
Not only was the Martial Arts Competition right around the corner, but they also had to respond to the Demonic Cult.
The forces that Beomdong could move independently were currently spread throughout the entire territory because of that.
To avoid the Baekhwa Merchant Guild’s forces and enter to obtain information was impossible given their considerable strength.
This would be a situation nearing impossibility.
If so:
“Then only the second option remains?”
It seemed there was only one method for now.
Go find him directly.
If there were limits to investigating secretly, then openly going to find him was the thing to do.
“The justification seems somewhat insufficient, but…”
If there was no justification, he just had to create one.
That was the kind of place the Alliance’s Information Department was.
“Besides, no matter how high his realm is, he is merely a youth who has only recently passed his coming of age. He should not be difficult to handle.”
It was bewildering that his strength was beyond expectations, but at the end of the day, he was a mere boy.
No matter how strong he might be, it would be difficult for him to bare his teeth at the Martial Arts Alliance. Furthermore:
“From what I can see, he seems to have a great deal to protect.”
He seemed to have close relationships with the women around him. Beomdong could use this to slowly dig at him.
Therefore, before the investigation rights were properly issued, he needed to take him down a peg.
With that thought, Beomdong turned around and spoke.