Chapter 215. Rumors Are This Terrifying.
“Putting aside this failure of yours.”
“……”
The Cult Leader, whose expression had returned to indifference before anyone realized it, continued speaking.
“You are different from the Four Heavenly Kings I knew. Different even from the previous Four Heavenly Kings who died by my hand. Even while fighting over succession, they were men I had to either win over to my side somehow or kill. The Four Heavenly Kings of that time were not even daunted by the Left and Right Envoys above them. That was because they had the confidence that, if they fought with their lives on the line, no one could know how the battle would turn out. If they had been sent out of the cult and made independent, they would have become patriarchs of their own sects. In a word, they were men worthy of the title of king. And yet those Four Heavenly Kings have grown this feeble.”
The Radiant Right Envoy looked at the Cult Leader, then lowered his gaze.
The Cult Leader said,
“You are to go to the old headquarters, seek the elders’ help, and then enter closed-door training until I summon you.”
“Yes, Cult Leader.”
“Until then, do not interfere in the cult’s affairs in any way. What kind of training you do, and in what manner you become stronger, is your choice. When you appear before me again someday, if it seems to me that you have wasted your time, I will call you to account for today’s crime then. Withdraw.”
The Four Heavenly Kings answered at the same time.
“Thank you, Cult Leader.”
Only after the Four Heavenly Kings disappeared did the Cult Leader look at the Radiant Right Envoy.
“Right Envoy, did you hint to the Sword Demon that there would be a surprise attack?”
The Radiant Right Envoy answered with a smile.
“Yes.”
“His reaction?”
“What emotional reaction do you expect from the Left Envoy? I am told he simply acted as if what was bound to come had come.”
The Cult Leader sighed.
“In my heart, I had hoped the Sword Demon would absorb them all, but matters are turning strangely. If he grew exhausted just dealing with a few elders, it seems he did not absorb them with the Radiant Sword.”
“There were many elders, so it likely was not easy to absorb them in the middle of battle. What were you planning to do if the Left Envoy truly became invincible?”
The Cult Leader said calmly,
“Congratulate him, of course. But the blade-impervious body that the previous Sword Demons claimed to possess is not invincibility. Simply being able to take spears and blades with one’s body does not make one invincible. At most, they would have remained among the top ten in the jianghu. Since no one can live with the seven orifices (the openings of the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth) sealed shut, every expert is bound to have a weakness. It is just that the Left Envoy has a purer obsession with the sword than the previous Sword Demons, so he shows the qualities needed to reach great completion.”
“What were you planning to do if, as you say, he achieved great completion in both the blade-impervious body and swordsmanship?”
The Cult Leader looked at the Right Envoy.
“You and I live to see such things. Since we cannot know whether those old men have ceased their activities or died, it is time for the next strong ones to emerge. If the Sword Demon reached great completion, I would have gladly passed the position of Cult Leader to the Left Envoy and devoted myself solely to training. Why? Do you wish for me to remain in the position of Cult Leader?”
“How could you hand such a high position to an apostate?”
The Cult Leader said with a faint smile,
“If someone ascends as the Heavenly Demon, whose opinion would he care about? The words the Heavenly Demon speaks become law. Right Envoy, the same applies to you. Do not forget the great cause behind why you seek to grow stronger. If the day comes when you become stronger than I am, I will hand my seat over to you at any time. That is the role of the Left Envoy and yours, and that is the demonic path as I understand it.”
“Yes, Cult Leader. Before I withdraw, allow me to ask one more thing.”
When the Cult Leader nodded, the Right Envoy asked,
“What will you do about the Haomun Leader?”
“Handle it as you see fit.”
“Then I, too, will observe him later and judge. He is such a strange man that I cannot judge him based on the Four Heavenly Kings’ words and my subordinates’ information alone.”
The Cult Leader spoke with a thin smile.
“From what I confirmed.”
“Yes.”
The Cult Leader twirled a finger near his own temple.
“He is not in his right mind.”
The Right Envoy tilted his head.
“Is that so? In front of you, Cult Leader, even the crooked and unorthodox sorts all tend to become proper, courteous, normal people. He must be an unusual man.”
As if the Right Envoy’s words amused him, the Cult Leader laughed through his nose.
“If he were an ordinary man, Elder Heo would never have taken notice of him.”
The Radiant Right Envoy nodded.
“If he can associate with the Left Envoy and win Elder Heo’s favor, is he not a man suited to the demonic path?”
The Cult Leader shook his head.
“There are sometimes men who are difficult to define as righteous, evil, or demonic.”
***
At first, I was flustered as I watched Haomun arrive after the fight had already ended, but when their numbers began to swell, I felt a strange emotion.
“Why are they all flooding in so late?”
The Black Cat Gang led by So Gunpyeong arrived with their flags fluttering.
Dokgo Saeng’s Black Fan Fort, the Four Divine Generals, Geumhae, Hongshin, and the Namcheon Alliance arrived one after another by the narrowest of margins and surrounded the collapsed Cheolli Inn, just as the Demonic Cult had when they encircled it.
I had been surrounded by the Demonic Cult, and this time I was surrounded completely by my own subordinates.
“……”
Even when I told them the fight was over, none of them tried to go back.
They had come too far.
I had no choice but to exchange opinions with the villains in order to host the alliance.
The Sword Demon said in an admiring tone,
“Sect Leader, did you have this many troops you could mobilize?”
I answered as if it had nothing to do with me.
“I know, right? Now that they’re gathered, there really are a lot. To be honest, I don’t even know exactly how many there are.”
The Lust Demon said,
“They were a little late, but gathered like this, it’s quite a sight. But how are they all so different from one another?”
“Haomun has always been a total mess.”
The Ghost Demon said with a laugh,
“A mess? With troops of this scale, they are by no means a weak force.”
The Lust Demon and Ghost Demon were both extremely surprised that my allied forces were this numerous. Thanks to that, the Haomun members, having nothing better to do, rushed over to the area around Cheolli Inn, where we had roughly dug pits and cleaned things up, and tidied, swept, and organized everything neatly all the way to the main road.
In any case, perhaps because they were Haomun, they were all good at cleaning.
Even amid all that, some of them quietly pocketed intact spoils left behind by the Demonic Cult forces. Since there must have been men who had been thieves before becoming Haomun members, there was nothing to be done about it. Junior Sister Hongshin was like that. I could not very well stop them from taking weapons, so anything even remotely intact vanished into the arms of the Haomun members.
They said they had come to help, but even to me, they were truly terrifying bastards.
In any case, I could not simply send away the bastards who had come all the way here to help, so the Lust Demon made a request to the Pungun Mong Family, and I also spent money to prepare dinner to be eaten at the campsite.
In short, it was nowhere near enough.
Moreover, because so many troops had gathered, the jianghu people in Baengeungji began flocking over to watch, and they ended up thoroughly mixed in with Haomun.
In all my life, I had never seen such a mess, such chaos, such a pandemonium.
“Hoo… They should have gathered in moderation.”
I learned that when a crowd gathers in absurd numbers, crowd psychology takes effect and even more people gather.
People continued to gather.
In the end, I had no choice but to set up a temporary camp where Cheolli Inn had once stood and receive the guests there.
From the chatter I heard here and there,
a rumor had already been spread by the Murim Alliance.
And that rumor had somehow been twisted into the absurd claim that part of the Demon Cult’s forces had already clashed with the Hao Sect, and that the Hao Sect had won.
Listening for a moment, I found that this battle had even been given a name.
They called it the Great Victory of White Eagle (白鷹大捷).
The rumor had spread in a complete mess, but fortunately, the man who led the Great Victory of White Eagle had been uniformly identified as the Sect Leader of Hao.
In other words, I had now officially become the Demon Cult’s chief enemy, even in the eyes of the orthodox factions.
It was enough to drive a man insane.
Before, the words I had tossed out about wanting to hear Chaehyang of Maehwaru sing a song had been distorted into wanting to sleep with Chaehyang of Maehwaru.
And now, before I knew it, I had become the Sect Leader of Hao in a rumor that said I had led an enormous number of Hao Sect disciples and annihilated part of the Demon Cult’s forces.
This is why rumors are terrifying.
How powerful was that rumor? The inns, restaurants, and taverns gathered around White Eagle Pond sent alcohol and food to the campsite at Cheolli Inn.
The reason was simple.
Because I had fought the Demon Cult.
And so I ate a free meal, mixed in among the Hao Sect, the orthodox factions, and the Four Great Evildoers. I came to learn that the orthodox factions also had a side that spared no expense when it came to things like this.
There were so many people that the situation was chaotic, but at some point, they began laughing and chatting among themselves as they ate and drank.
Once alcohol entered the picture, there was no mess quite like this mess.
I could no longer tell whether these bastards had come to fight, to see me, or to eat.
Even the Sword Demon, who disliked noise and bustle, failed to escape and ended up trapped in the campsite, eating and drinking.
Fortunately, the moon was bright.
***
“The Sect Leader of Hao, who repelled the Demon Cult in the Great Victory of White Eagle, will now say a few words.”
Clap, clap, clap— Following the sound, thunderous applause and cheers rang out.
I roughly wiped my greasy mouth with my sleeve and stood up.
Because there were too many people, I climbed onto the neatly piled wreckage of Cheolli Inn and looked around.
Everyone was seated, watching me.
‘Damn it, there are a lot of them.’
It was the most bewildering situation I had ever experienced in my life.
If only the Hao Sect had been here, I could have rambled on with some nonsense, but already, martial artists from White Eagle Pond and even non-martial artists were mixed in among them.
Suddenly, I spotted the White-Robed Scholar sitting nearby with a mat spread out. This madman had, at some point, blended in with his disciples and was eating the food brought from White Eagle Pond.
‘……This bastard is properly insane, through and through.’
The White-Robed Scholar said something to his disciples, laughed, then pointed at me.
“……The Sect Leader is about to say a few words. All of you, listen carefully.”
“Yes, Master.”
I felt that if the White-Robed Scholar used force here, more than half the people present would be slaughtered, so I had no choice but to pretend desperately that I didn’t know him.
Because there were so many people, it took some time for the local chatter from here and there to die down.
I remained still until the surroundings grew quiet.
“…….”
This was also my first experience of its kind in life.
I had never spoken in front of this many people before. Moreover, within the crowd were the orthodox path, the black path, the Hao Sect, evildoers, and even madmen like the White-Robed Scholar mixed in. It was a perfect crowd. What on earth was I supposed to say to bastards like these?
I looked around and opened my mouth.
“I am Yi Jaha, Sect Leader of Hao.”
Before speaking as thoughts came to me, I drank more alcohol. Since I had no confidence in saying anything logical or coherent, I had to pretend to be drunk.
“Thank you for coming. If I may say a few words, I’ll begin with the conclusion. There may be many of you who do not know what kind of organization the Hao Sect is, but the Hao Sect can be called a one-man sect.”
At the unexpected declaration, people began murmuring here and there. I endured it for only a brief moment before opening my mouth.
“Would you shut up a bit? Why are you making so much noise when I’m talking?”
“…….”
I clapped my palms together roughly, then placed my hands on both hips.
“Attention, attention!”
“…….”
“As I said, the Hao Sect is a one-man sect. I am the Sect Leader, and I am the disciple. I have never passed my martial arts on to anyone. Which means there are no official disciples. The people who came running here are brothers of the martial world whom I helped or saved before. I consider a traveling merchant on the road to be a Hao Sect disciple, and I consider a waiter working at an inn to be a Hao Sect disciple. But the only person formally belonging to the Hao Sect is me. Do not torment innocent people for no reason, and come find the Sect Leader of Hao instead. As of today, the Hao Sect Alliance will be disbanded again. Is what I’m saying hard to understand?”
The Lust Demon grabbed me as I rambled and tried to drag me down.
“The Sect Leader is drunk.”
“Let go.”
I shook off the Lust Demon’s arm, then spoke to the gathered people.
“Repeat after me. The Hao Sect is a one-man sect.”
“The Hao Sect is a one-man sect.”
“If a disciple is harassed, the Sect Leader of Hao steps forward. The disciples the Sect Leader of Hao has in mind are ordinary people who work for a living. The brothers of the martial world with whom I had ties before belong to the Hao Sect Alliance. This is the key point. Since they are by no means official disciples of the Hao Sect, do not torment them carelessly. Everyone understands what I mean, don’t you?”
Had I drunk too quickly before climbing onto the platform?
The surroundings were far too quiet.
It felt like I was dreaming, so I slapped my cheek once and looked around.
“Is this a dream?”
Since I was drunk anyway, I pointed at the White-Robed Scholar with my finger.
“Hey, you White-Robed Scholar bastard who looks like a turtle shell. Do you understand what I’m saying? Don’t bully the weak. Come find me. Got it?”
Not only the Hao Sect, but also the Four Great Evildoers and the martial artists from White Eagle Pond all turned to look at the White-Robed Scholar at once. They didn’t know who he was, but because I had singled him out, everyone was staring at him.
The White-Robed Scholar moved his shoulders as he laughed loudly, then nodded toward me.
“I understand. Who else would I go find, if not you?”
The people probably did not know who the White-Robed Scholar was, nor did they understand the meaning behind the conversation between him and me. But I always spoke my true feelings aloud with sincerity.
“Scholar, let those who have learned martial arts settle things among themselves. You must not kill the weak carelessly. You must not treat people like ants. I can see that in your eyes.”
Only then did the White-Robed Scholar answer with a stiff expression.
“……I understand, so Sect Leader, stop there.”
I nodded and glared at the White-Robed Scholar.
“If a strong man like the Scholar, who is superior to me, tells me to stop, then I suppose I should stop. Confirmed.”
Only then did I look around and speak.
“I hope everyone eats and drinks, then returns peacefully. There are too many people, so do not come greet me one by one. Let us part naturally, as if you had simply eaten dinner and gone home. That is all. I was Yi Jaha, Sect Leader of Hao.”
I waved my hand, then climbed down from the platform made of Cheolli Inn’s wreckage. In any case, this was what I had wanted to say.
It was nonsense he had spouted in the hope that rumors would spread that Haomun was a one-man sect.
After all, the speed at which rumors spread was truly frightening.