He gathered his internal energy and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Everyone, listen! The Baegyo leadership, led by the Commissioner, is attempting to assassinate our Commander right now,
and by despicable ambush at that. Those who would save the Commander, follow me
immediately."
At those words, sparks flew from the warriors' eyes. Upon hearing that their Commander was being assassinated, the warriors thought of nothing else
as they gripped their weapons and sprang into action. Jongriryeong ignored the Chief Guardian standing there in a daze
and led the warriors in a charge.
"Get out of the way. I have no time to deal with the likes of you."
The Chief Guardian's face twisted severely.
"D-damn it all."
Of course, outside the great hall, warriors belonging to the main headquarters had formed an encirclement. However,
he could not guarantee that they alone could stop the famously powerful Guardian Demon King Army, so
the Chief Guardian could not fathom how to handle the situation.
In another great hall, a celebratory banquet was underway. The atmosphere of the feast was ripening
wonderfully. Sajunhwan approached Dokgo Seong, who was thoroughly drunk, having finally relaxed after so long.
The upper echelons who had been drinking in silence tensed up, but Dokgo Seong failed to notice their demeanor
in time.
"Once today has passed, I shall hand over all my authority to the Lord, as promised. If that comes to pass,
you will become the rightful and true nineteenth Leader of the Baegyo Sect."
"This truly stirs new emotions in me."
Dokgo Seong stared intently at Sajunhwan with half-lidded eyes. By nature taciturn, he had been utterly unable
to express his gratitude while sober, so he had resolved to borrow the strength of drink and had imbibed freely,
such was Dokgo Seong.
"Will you accept a cup in celebration?"
"Burp. If the Commissioner offers it, I shall accept anything."
Sajunhwan approached Dokgo Seong and promptly knelt. At the sight, Dokgo Seong felt the alcohol
evaporate instantly.
"Wh-what is the meaning of this?"
Still kneeling, Sajunhwan continued in a solemn tone overflowing with loyalty.
"From this moment forth, you are my supreme sovereign. Thus, from now on, you must receive treatment befitting
that station."
"No. I cannot bear such a thing."
A flustered Dokgo Seong quickly rose to his feet. Then, recalling the words of gratitude he had composed in his heart, he approached Sajunhwan. He intended to raise him up and then unburden himself
of those innermost thoughts.
"I already regard you as…."
Dokgo Seong, who had been trying to raise Sajunhwan by embracing him, could not finish his words. Thus, the words declaring that he would henceforth regard Sajunhwan as a parent
could not pass his lips.
"Urgh."
At the icy sensation piercing his dantian, Dokgo Seong's eyes flew wide. An expression of utter disbelief
rose upon his face. He trembled violently and brought his hand to his dantian. His raised hand was drenched in fresh blood. Fresh blood he had seen countless times on the
battlefield.
It was now soaking his hand thoroughly.
Dokgo Seong looked ahead with his eyes open wide. But Sajunhwan had already withdrawn to a place beyond his reach. His face had changed drastically. It was a face of unfathomable treachery, bearing a wicked smile, the likes of which he had never seen before. Unable to comprehend the situation, Dokgo Seong simply could not gather his wits. Suddenly,
Sajunhwan's sneering voice reached his ears. That voice, once boundlessly clear, had now
utterly changed in tone.
"Well done, Dokgo Seong. It seems your mission is now complete."
"Wh-what do you mean? Commissioner—"
Sajunhwan smiled faintly. Already, the heavyweight powers who held the real authority of the Baegyo Sect had all come to stand behind him.
"It seems you haven't noticed yet. Let me spell it out for you. To be precise, you were raised as a disposable pawn.
A consumable item created solely to solidify my foundation. Now that the Great War of Good and Evil has ended,
there is no longer any need to keep you alive, is there?"
"……."
"If the devil nature of the Celestial Blood Demon Art had manifested early according to my plans, I wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble.
As expected, the seal performed by Shaolin Shengseng himself is truly something else."
"Wh-what are you talking about?"
The smile on Sajunhwan's face grew even deeper.
"If you're curious, I'll tell you. The Celestial Blood Demon Art you mastered is a martial art with a fatal flaw from the very beginning. Although it transformed you into an unrivaled expert in merely ten years, under normal circumstances, you would have transformed into a bloodthirsty fiend knowing only slaughter within five years.
Because the devil nature of the Celestial Blood Demon Art would have manifested."
"Th-the Celestial Blood Demon Art?"
"That's right. Do you understand now?"
Only then did Dokgo Seong guess at the situation. But he simply could not believe the reality.
A trembling voice forced its way through his lips.
"Th-then why did you go through the trouble of extracting me from the Shaolin Temple?"
"I needed a scapegoat. One who would fight bloodily against the orthodox martial world in my stead, and at the final moment
solidify my position. Ah! Of course, I also intended to reap what I had sown, so to speak."
"What do you mean, reap what you sown…."
Sajunhwan chuckled and continued.
"Have you never once guessed the reason your father died and you were detained at the Shaolin Temple?"
"…...?"
"The previous leader, Dokgo Mugi, lost his wife in the process of having you, regrettably. Perhaps because of that,
he cherished you alone terribly. I found that exceedingly distasteful. So, in the process of eliminating him, I resolved
to get rid of you as well."
Sajunhwan explained all this with utter composure. Yet the contents were anything but ordinary....
"First, I ordered a trustworthy subordinate to kidnap young you. Naturally, the subordinate executed the plan without fail. Having lost you, that Dokgo Mugi fellow literally went berserk. To the point that he slaughtered every warrior and maidservant guarding you at the time. So, unable to bear it any longer, I quietly revealed your location. But he never suspected, even in his dreams,
that the orthodox scum had already formed a flawless encirclement there to eliminate him, nor
that I was the very one who had passed along that information. Foolishly, Dokgo Mugi departed with only ten Guardian Demon King soldiers
to find you. And he never returned."
As Dokgo Seong listened in silence, his eyes slowly began to flush with blood. Having trusted Sajunhwan as steadfastly as iron and stone until now, the shock was correspondingly unimaginable. As if relishing such a reaction, Sajunhwan continued to rattle on.
"Honestly, I never imagined you would survive. Much less that you would receive the Sevenfold Tendon-Sealing Technique from Shaolin Shengseng. Those foolish orthodox scum. They didn't even realize everything was arranged by me, and proposed to use you for a prisoner exchange.
So I dismissed it very lightly."
As Sajunhwan's words continued, Dokgo Seong trembled like an aspen leaf. It was a testament
to the magnitude of the shock he was receiving.
"I had forgotten about you for a time, but one day you suddenly came to mind. Along with a plan to make use of you.
So I immediately dispatched the Dowicheong. Of course, that included a plan to eliminate Shaolin Shengseng as well."
By now, Dokgo Seong's voice had sunk into a grim calm.
"Then the murder of Shaolin Shengseng—"
"Exactly. The Holy Monk was unfortunately forced to depart this life by the hands of the Dowicheong.
Of course, his death was thoroughly disguised as your doing."
"You bastard."
Finally, his rage exploding, Dokgo Seong jerked upright. But with a stabbing sensation, all his strength drained away, forcing him
to slump back down into his seat.
"Wh-what is this?"
"Why? Surprised? Of course, seeing as I'm revealing these secrets, you should know I've made thorough preparations, should you not? On top of your destroyed dantian, you have already ingested the Seven Treasure Gut-Severing Powder.
The very drug used to capture Shaolin Shengseng. Naturally, I also laced the food generously with Dreamblur Powder and Merit-Scattering Poison.
One must prepare at least that much to catch a ferocious beast, no?"
Unable to muster even a thread of internal power, his mind was now growing hazy as well.
Dokgo Seong cursed even himself for having been so endlessly grateful to Sajunhwan just moments ago. The existence he had trusted so deeply. He had even resolved to hand over the position of Baegyo Leader to him—he was truly beyond foolish.
Unable to simply accept his fate, he forcibly squeezed out his voice.
"If you k-kill me, d-do you think the followers of our sect will stand idly by?"
But the smile lingering at the corners of Sajunhwan's mouth did not fade.
"Of course they will have no choice but to stand idly by… I already have a proper justification."
"Justification?"
"The proof that you have mastered the Celestial Blood Demon Art. That is it. Ah! You probably don't know yet.
While cultivating the Celestial Blood Demon Art, the essence blood you consumed was not that of young goats, but of boys and girls—specifically,
the children of followers secretly kidnapped for that purpose…."
Dokgo Seong's eyes bulged as if torn open. It was something he had never even dreamed of until now.
"Their rotting corpses, I have kept well preserved. Soon—likely immediately after you are executed—they will be publicly displayed to the followers.
To prove the just cause for your execution, you see."
Dokgo Seong let out a groan. He had truly fallen into a perfect trap. Even as his mind grew muddled from the effects of the Dreamblur Powder,
he tried to shoot to his feet with a furious roar.
"You damned bastard."
But it was futile. His flesh had long since slipped from his mind's control. Moreover,
no sensation whatsoever came from his ambushed dantian. Dokgo Seong was seized by a despair that seemed to pierce his very bones.
"It's over."
Now his consciousness was fading into an endless distance. Through blurred vision, he saw Sajunhwan approaching with a smile upon his face.
The murderous intent flowing from the long sword in his hand. Over and over, Dokgo Seong tried to rally his mind, telling himself he could not be finished like this, but his body
refused to obey at all.
'Is this the end?'
Dokgo Seong finally gave up on life. There was simply nothing he could do. Just then,
a sudden thunderous roar resounded through the hall.
"Stop. How dare you lot lay a hand on our Commander?"
It was the voice of someone Dokgo Seong knew well. A light of joy rose upon his face.
'It's Jongriryeong.'
But Dokgo Seong could no longer hold onto the thread of consciousness. His spirit was already
tumbling down into an endless abyss.
"Damn it all……"
Sajunhwan was now blazing with fury. Before him lay the mangled corpse of the Chief Guardian, torn to shreds and sprawled out miserably.
It was precisely the handiwork of Sajunhwan himself.
Having failed to complete his mission, the Chief Guardian had paid the price of death. Unable to contain his fury, Sajunhwan gnashed his teeth continuously.
"I thought everything was finished…."
His plan had unfolded flawlessly, and Dokgo Seong had lost all capacity to resist, awaiting only his disposal. With a single stroke of the blade, the entire Baegyo Sect would have fallen into his grasp.
And yet, the completely unexpected Guardian Demon King Army had burst in here out of nowhere… It was, in a word,
a bolt from the blue.
Everywhere was a field of corpses. Most were the bodies of the Guardian Demon King Army, but more than half were also those of his confidants and the guard warriors. Sajunhwan was dumbfounded when the Guardian Demon King Army, who should have been sprawled out under the influence of the Dreamblur Powder, suddenly stormed in. Even Sajunhwan, a born strategist, could not get his bearings—the situation was horrific beyond measure.
The Guardian Demon King Army, having broken through the guard warriors defending the outer quarters with irresistible momentum, stormed straight into the great hall. Their assault was literally a tempest. Having struck the great hall like lightning, they rescued Dokgo Seong in an instant and withdrew like the ebbing tide. With such skill,
breaking through the outer defensive formation of the headquarters was only a matter of time.
"For things to go so awry…."
The problem was that the martial arts of the Guardian Demon King Army warriors were unimaginably profound. So much so that even Sajunhwan himself had barely managed a draw against five of their warriors, including Jongriryeong.
Their combined assault technique was truly incomparably intricate, and because of that, Sajunhwan had no choice but to watch helplessly with his own two wide-open eyes as those bastards carried off the collapsed Dokgo Seong.
The might of the Guardian Demon King Army was truly monstrous—beyond even what he himself had imagined.
Not a single confidant gathered here of lesser skill had survived. Even those who barely survived were riddled with wounds all over their bodies. Although they had managed to kill half of the Guardian Demon King Army,
Dokgo Seong—the most crucial existence—had already fallen into their hands.
Only after hurriedly dispatching the armed organizations under his control could Sajunhwan finally catch his breath. Without delay, he summoned the Chief Guardian who had been put in charge of this matter to ascertain the truth.
And the moment the man finished his answer, Sajunhwan mercilessly hacked him to pieces.
"We must catch them. If he survives, he will surely become a grave threat."
After the Guardian Demon King Army fled with the critically injured, near-death Dokgo Seong, Sajunhwan immediately
set about handling the aftermath.