What relationship do I have with the Heavenly Demon.
Upon hearing those words, only one thought crossed my mind.
'How do I look right now?'
How does Mukyeon see me at this moment?
Did my eyes widen? Or did I narrow my gaze? If not, did I swallow dry saliva?
Or perhaps, is cold sweat running down my back?
There must not be even the slightest sign of discomposure. I checked every detail.
One second passed like that.
"What do you mean by that?"
My response was not delayed.
I had been cursed at for being terrible at acting, so the best I could do was remain expressionless.
Mukyeon speaks upon hearing my words.
"It means exactly that."
"Then I find it even harder to understand."
I narrowed my eyes slightly. It was to show discomfort.
"What reason could an elder have to ask me such a thing?"
Is he suspecting me?
If he suspects me, where exactly did the problem start?
While showing annoyance outwardly, I repeatedly thought inwardly.
Around the time I was recalling all sorts of thoughts.
"Hoho. My, it seems this old man has greatly offended the Sage King's mood."
"It would be stranger if you hadn't."
"Then let me offer my apology first."
Even while speaking, a smile rested on Mukyeon's face.
Seeing that made my insides feel somewhat stifled.
'I knew he'd come, but facing him directly, he's even more annoying.'
When laying the groundwork during the previous attack, the most important thing I focused on was none other than this.
It was the existence of that old man 'Mukyeon' himself.
A man who had been retired for over ten years.
It seems he likely returned to the Alliance only a few days ago.
I expected he arrived right after the attack.
If that calculating man had been in the Alliance, that would have been impossible.
'If that were the case, they wouldn't have been hit so easily.'
No matter how relentlessly I strung the situation together and made a mess of things for a hundred days, if that man had been there, things would have proceeded differently.
The combined cultivation levels of those gathered at the Alliance?
The power of the forces they possessed?
Not one of them frightens me.
I found a human like that far more terrifying than those sorts of brutes.
'Seeing him in person makes it even more so.'
A single person who reads the flow is far more terrifying than a hundred superhuman beings running amok.
Having witnessed how Cheon Yu-rang-a manipulated the Central Plains in my past life, I couldn't possibly not know this.
Therefore, I had explicitly stated this when devising the operation.
That there would be no strategist named Mukyeon in the Murim Alliance.
That was the most crucial part. And since that was actually the case, the plan succeeded.
I shook the public sentiment to make the Alliance's foundation tremble.
And that trembling would soon become a massive quake.
It would grow so large it could no longer be controlled.
That was clearly the situation, but I did not let my guard down.
Only one plan had worked. What came after was far more important.
In that sense.
'I need to watch this old man closely.'
I needed to know more about Mukyeon with greater certainty.
"I heard that before the one called the Heavenly Demon disappeared, you had a brief conversation with the Sage King. Is that correct?"
"It wasn't quite a conversation. I merely answered when he asked my name. Does that happen to be a problem?"
"Hoho. Not at all. A problem, you say... Please just consider this the rambling of an old man."
"Rambling?"
"The Sage King is truly an anomalous existence."
He abruptly brings up words bordering on verbal abuse.
"The realm the Sage King has achieved at this moment is likely unprecedented in the history of the Central Plains. Going by the records, the one who reached Hwagyeong the fastest would have been the Geumcheon Gwonwang."
Geumcheon Gwonwang Yeon Il-cheon. The greatest under the heavens of his generation who fended off the Blood Demon.
The age at which he reached Hwagyeong was twenty-five, which was the youngest Hwagyeong entry in prior history.
He broke a record no one had been able to shatter since.
Upon hearing the words, I tilt my head slightly.
"Isn't the youngest Hwagyeong entrant the Divine Dragon anyway?"
The Alliance proved it was someone else, didn't they? I said it with that meaning, but.
"Well. The Murim Alliance says so, but. I see it differently. And. It seems the Sage King is aware of this as well."
"..."
At Mukyeon's words, I had to immediately click my tongue inwardly.
That old man already knows.
The Alliance's official stance is a stance, but he has the conviction that I reached it before that.
Such meaning was contained in Mukyeon's eyes.
Of course, honestly, this part doesn't matter either way, so I could let it pass, but.
"So, what does that have to do with you thinking I'm related to the Heavenly Demon?"
"It has nothing to do with it. I don't know much about a martial artist's enlightenment and effort. It's just that the potential the Sage King possesses is simply astounding."
"Then..."
"Even with such potential, you didn't reveal it outwardly, merely enduring it in the past. And despite enduring it for so long, when Henan fell into crisis, you finally unleashed the power you had held back and became a hero who saved the people."
"..."
As the conversation went back and forth, I could feel my gaze slowly furrowing.
"Repelling the attack, slaying the demonic creatures, and finally severing the dark arts to save the Alliance Leader and others... The deeds the Sage King performed that day were truly enough to be called heroic. Yes... truly."
A brief silence ensued, and Mukyeon looks at me as he continues.
"So much so that it makes me wonder if someone was trying to make the Sage King into a hero..."
Hearing those words, I was convinced.
I see.
'That old bastard.'
He's suspecting me.
This is because my achievements fit together too perfectly. It was starkly evident in the eyes hidden behind the smile and the tone feigning concealment while actually revealing it.
Doesn't the unfolding situation seem strange to you too?
Were the achievements you accomplished truly created by coincidence? Or, were they achievements fabricated by someone else?
It's too anomalous to call it a coincidence.
Therefore, I am suspecting you.
It was a statement brimming with such implications.
'Good grief.'
This really isn't easy. Situations like this really don't suit me.
Look at me right now. My hands were itching to snap the neck of the old man right in front of me.
Using my head is always a hassle.
It would be so convenient to just settle things with my body. It's just a shame I can't live like that.
So what should I do?
What do you mean what. I have to do it even if I don't want to.
"...Haha."
It starts with an empty laugh.
I didn't show any signs of panic. Doing what I'm best at right now was the right move.
"Elder."
"Yes, Sage King."
"Let me ask you one thing."
"I am listening."
"In your view, until when must I endure this rudeness?"
"..."
I spat the words out and immediately contorted my expression.
I might not know acting, but I was confident in getting angry, so I let out my emotions brimming with irritation.
"I went through hell to save them, and if this is the treatment I get in return, how am I supposed to accept this?"
"Sage King."
"If you intend to keep going, I have no intention of staying here any longer."
"..."
"If you're still going to do it, then by all means, continue."
I glared at Mukyeon with fiercely raised eyes.
Mukyeon was already facing me with eyes that had wiped away his smile, and we held eye contact for a not-so-short time.
As time passed like that.
"I apologize."
The one who bowed his head first was Mukyeon.
"It was the foolish act of an old man with too many trivial worries. I apologize once more for offending you."
I heard his words, but I displayed an aura that my mood was still thoroughly foul from being suspected, and I didn't smooth out my furrowed expression.
However, even in that state, I had to sit my raised body back down.
I was originally brought here under the concept of an interrogation.
I spouted useless nonsense about Ilcheonggeom's proposal and whatnot.
But this was a place to call in and verify those related to the attack. I knew that not just me, but many others would be coming and going.
In a situation like this, merely getting angry over being suspected would only fuel further suspicion; it wouldn't help at all.
"Given the nature of this place, I will accept your apology."
"Thank you for your consideration."
If it were up to my feelings, I'd flip the table or whatever and walk out, but I couldn't do that.
'Not yet.'
The conversation seemed over, but I knew.
That the look in that old man's eyes remained unchanged.
'I won't be the only one he suspects.'
There were surely a few more he had recalled, and I knew he would show them all the same kind of look.
'Tch.'
It was a suffocating sensation just from watching.
The feeling of being alone with Cheon Yu-rang-a in my past life. It was similar to the bloody sensation I felt back then.
Fearing I might be swept along by his words and blurt out the wrong thing, I had to heighten my qi perception to the extreme.
I also felt stifled by his unfathomable presence.
Meaning, even though I could barely sense his energy, I felt like I was being crushed by his very presence.
It was ridiculous, but this was the truth.
'What should I do?'
I agonized, and agonized again.
'Should I kill him now?'
Mukyeon, right before my eyes.
Even if the Sword Emperor was beside him, at this distance, killing the old man was possible.
Then, should I reach out and snap his neck?
'If I do that, and manage to evade the Sword Emperor's hand.'
I'd definitely be caught. If successful, all my future plans would completely change.
There were still more plans for the Murim Alliance. I had uses for Bong Sun-i, and there wasn't just one or two things I needed to meddle with, but.
'Even taking all that into account, killing that old man might be more beneficial.'
Being able to dispose of such an annoying existence immediately, this might actually be the better option.
Should I try? After seriously pondering it repeatedly.
'No... Not yet.'
In the end, what I chose was to endure.
I had too much to lose. Even if I were to kill him, now wasn't the time.
Judging so, I released the tension in my hands.
At that moment.
"Sage King."
"Yes."
As if he had been waiting, Mukyeon speaks to me.
"I am shameless, but there is something I wish to say to the Sage King."
"...Suddenly?"
I asked back as if flustered by those words.
"Is the interrogation over?"
"Ah, the earlier conversation is sufficient for that."
It's already over?
It didn't seem like we exchanged that many words?
While I was wearing a peculiar expression, wondering what was going on, Mukyeon carefully pulled something out from his robes.
Swish.
It was a single letter bearing the Alliance's crest.
"By any chance, do you remember what the Azure Dragon Commander said earlier?"
"Yes. I remember."
The Great Corps the Alliance was going to newly create.
He said it was a proposal asking me to come as its Commander.
"This is a similar discussion to that."
At Mukyeon's words, I narrowed my eyes slightly.
"I already answered that earlier."
I wouldn't do it. I had clearly said so, and Mukyeon must have heard it too.
Yet he brings it up again?
Even in this situation?
Right after I threw a fit of annoyance over being subjected to such petty suspicion. To make such a proposal again in this kind of situation.
What could be his intention? It was something I couldn't comprehend.
"I will apologize once more for my earlier rudeness. However, please remember that these words are quite different from what the Azure Dragon Commander said."
"What do you mean..."
"This is... not a mere proposal, but a formal request to the Sage King in the name of the Murim Alliance."
"Ha."
I immediately let out a scoff at the old man's words.
Not a proposal, but a request.
It makes me recall the words I had just spoken.
"The Murim Alliance right now needs the Sage King. So, please lend us your hand."
Needlessly bold, and shameless too.
I didn't expect him to say it so openly.
Rather, it felt refreshingly straightforward because of that.
'Yeah, that's much better.'
It's a hundred times better attitude than Ilcheonggeom's.
The Murim Alliance needs me right now. That was a fact I had known for a long time.
To be precise, rather than them needing me, it would be more accurate to say they needed the value of the name they had created for me.
'Right now, the Murim Alliance is shaking heavily.'
Though I didn't have time to grasp the full picture so it's not certain, they must be going through considerable hardship.
The public sentiment was one thing, but the most practical problem here was:
'The departure of the Merchant Lords.'
The merchants who had been sponsoring the Murim Alliance until now would have started pulling out.
It was obvious. Why would they sponsor a Murim Alliance that had lost public sentiment?
Merchants move solely for money.
Their reason for repeatedly sponsoring the Alliance included safety, but ultimately, their purpose was money.
The merchants who directly sponsored the Murim Alliance.
The stability and the value of the name that came from it. That alone would have been a significant advantage.
But with the Murim Alliance losing public sentiment and shaking, continuing to sponsor them was now a dangerous choice.
As a result, the merchants would be pulling out one by one.
If the sponsorships get cut off, problems would arise at the very core that formed the Alliance.
Meaning they would be in trouble on multiple fronts.
So the current Murim Alliance needed to handle this quickly. They needed to regain public sentiment as soon as possible before it was too late.
That was why.
The reason they were creating a new Great Corps and trying to seat me.
It was a problem that three Commanders had died, but the biggest reason was simply:
'Because that's the fastest way to regain public sentiment.'
The value of the name Sage King.
The praise and the public response that came with it.
The Murim Alliance needed that.
'The hero who saved Henan being appointed as a Commander of the Alliance.'
It was a means to hold onto those who had lost faith in the Alliance.
It was also a ploy to make the Merchant Lords turn their steps back.
Others might say it's arrogant to believe public sentiment would return just by elevating me.
'Objectively, it's true.'
It was something I had roughly expected to begin with, and I could tell from the way the people in the Martial World treated me earlier.
My current standing was considerably high.
Knowing that full well was also why I said those things to Ilcheonggeom.
Did they really think they were in a position to propose anything to me?
That their heads were too stiff for their standing.
Those were the words I spat out with that meaning, but.
'To think he'd bring it up like this.'
Mukyeon knew all that, and still openly brought it up to me.
"I am making a request."
At the old man's words, I let out a hollow laugh.
"You do realize it's quite strange for a situation where you're making a request, don't you?"
If you're going to do it, you should have done it before our conversation earlier. Isn't it strange to have a battle of nerves and then make a request now?
At my words, Mukyeon smiled slightly and said.
"My earlier words were from my personal standpoint. These words now are from the Alliance's standpoint."
"You're saying they're different."
"That is correct."
Ultimately, this old man suspects me, but from the Murim Alliance's perspective, he's saying I'm needed.
What an absurd statement.
'What is this. Should I say it's better than trying to deceive me? Or should I say it's actually more dog-like?'
I was at a loss as to how to react.
Then.
"These are the conditions we prepared, hoping the Sage King would grant our request."
Leaving me thoroughly dumbfounded, Mukyeon thrust the letter in front of me.
"Even if you refuse, I earnestly request that you at least read it first."
"..."
Should I tear it up while showing my displeasure?
Just as I thought that would be better, I reached out and examined the letter.
I'd read it first and then tear it up, as the saying goes.
But.
"Hmm?"
Five lines at most.
The text wasn't very long, but as I read on, my eyes widened.
"..."
After reading all the words like that, I did not tear up the letter.
I merely raised my gaze to look at Mukyeon.
My gaze held the question of whether this was truly serious.
"If there is anything more you desire, we are also willing to add to it."
"Well."
Laughter burst out of me. However, it felt different from the hollow laugh from earlier.
To bring something with these kinds of conditions and then have the Azure Dragon Commander approach me like that?
'Or was this that old man's plan all along?'
Questions kept arising, but it didn't matter right now.
They were incredible conditions that made anything irrelevant.
Conditions so good that the irritation and stifled feelings I had moments ago vanished all at once.
With that, I folded the letter I was holding and tucked it inside my robes.
"Would it be alright if I give you my answer after thinking about it a bit?"
"By all means."
The choice was put on hold.
And with that, the conversation came to an end.
******************
Right after the conversation ended. In the room where Gu Yang-cheon had left.
Mukyeon, who hadn't left yet, was carefully pouring the tea placed in front of him.
Behind him, the Sword Emperor was silently standing his ground, but.
"Cough-!"
Suddenly, Mukyeon violently coughed.
He hurriedly covered his mouth with a cloth. Yet, as if he still couldn't hold it back, he repeatedly coughed.
"Haa..."
When he finally managed to stop, he pulled the cloth away.
The cloth that had been covering his mouth was heavily stained with red blood.
"Are you alright."
Seeing that, the Sword Emperor asked blandly, and Mukyeon gave a short nod.
"I am fine. Today is at least better than yesterday."
"..."
He didn't ask anything further. Because he knew nothing would change even if he did.
Just silently. The Sword Emperor watched Mukyeon drinking tea.
As the quiet atmosphere persisted, the Sword Emperor opened his mouth.
"How was it."
A question without a subject. But Mukyeon knew what he was asking.
"How did it seem to the Sword Emperor?"
"..."
Mukyeon threw the question back. Hearing the question, the Sword Emperor thought for a moment and then gave his answer.
"Outwardly, there appeared to be no issues."
Outwardly. Mukyeon focused on those words.
As if knowing that, the Sword Emperor also added his thoughts right after.
"However, something was微妙."
Only after hearing those words did Mukyeon take a sip of his tea.
Was it instinctive intuition? The Sword Emperor had always been an outstanding person with a sharp sense for such things.
Mukyeon's thoughts were not far off from his answer either.
The person he had just been conversing with. The youth called the Sage King, the youngest to reach the King-tier.
Gu Yang-cheon of Shanxi.
Recalling that young man, Mukyeon speaks.
"Sword Emperor."
"Yes."
"Are you curious about my answer?"
"Yes."
Thinking of Gu Yang-cheon, Mukyeon smiled.
The conversation with him was distinct.
An age younger than his own grandchildren if he had any.
An age that would be considered young even among the Meteor Shower generation, yet while talking with him, Mukyeon recalled a peculiar impression.
'He's different.'
Not just among the late-blooming elites, but even among the martial artists he had dealt with, he was special.
He couldn't feel the combative spirit or passion a young martial artist typically possessed.
Rather, his eyes were cold and chilling.
At the same time, his speech and verbal habits were excessively violent for someone of the Orthodox Faction. He was ferocious, looking as though he would smash anything if things went awry.
While overflowing with arrogance on one hand.
'He looks reckless, but he's sharper than anyone.'
Within those words lay a thoroughness that seemed determined to reveal not even a single hint of calculation.
The displayed ferocity seemed to be a means to conceal that.
His situational judgment was swift, and while meeting my eyes, he was constantly observing his surroundings.
Meaning he was watching the forest while pretending to look at the trees.
This meant that his entire demeanor was based on meticulous calculation.
'Interesting.'
Thus, Mukyeon felt enjoyment for the first time in a long while.
A feeling he hadn't experienced in a truly long time.
Just a few words of conversation. That alone was enough to tell.
That young man, despite looking entirely different from himself, was a similar kind of person.
'Perhaps.'
If he hadn't been one who opened his eyes to martial arts, regardless of the circumstances, he would have seized him and made him his disciple.
He was a person that agreeable, but.
'What a pity.'
Truly regrettably, that was impossible.
No matter what, he seemed to harbor a different purpose.
"Sword Emperor, do you know something?"
He vividly recalled the recent conversation.
-What relationship do you have with the Heavenly Demon?
The Heavenly Demon who attacked Henan.
An unknown existence who was said to have suffered no damage whatsoever even from the Heavenly Lord's surprise attack.
How strong he was. How large his forces were.
What he moved for. In a situation with absolutely no information.
In such a situation, Mukyeon asked Gu Yang-cheon about his relationship with the Heavenly Demon.
And at Mukyeon's words, he spat out denials while showing a displeased demeanor.
Gu Yang-cheon's reaction like that seemed to have no issues on the surface, but.
"The Sage King never explicitly denied it in the end."
Mukyeon caught that sense of incongruity even within those words.
Throughout the few questions, he never said until the very end that he had no relation to the Heavenly Demon.
Perhaps, it could be dismissed as a mere coincidence. However.
"I'm certain,"
Mukyeon was convinced that there was something to him, and.
"I believe we need to keep an eye on him."
He resolved to keep him close and watch him, no matter what means it took.
And.
"Hmm. As expected."
Gu Yang-cheon, who had left the Alliance and was walking slowly, also looked back toward the Alliance while thinking.
"I need to kill him."
Meaning, he had to kill Mukyeon within a short timeframe.