Chapter 333
The crimson woman dissolved like smoke, and the sorcerous aura vanished with her.
The air inside the training chamber became clear once more.
Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak’s mind did not.
It was not because he stood at the final moment of his life.
As a mortal, death was an inevitable fate.
It had always been coming, and he had long since prepared himself for it.
Cheol Gun-ak had faced that final, insurmountable wall and realized that he would never cross it.
It was not a realm mortals could dare ascend to.
Afterward, Cheol Gun-ak had let go of his hunger for greater martial attainment. And once that longing was gone, so too was his attachment to life.
A moth that realizes the flame can never be reached has no reason to keep flying.
I suppose a moth suits me perfectly.
A bitter smile touched Cheol Gun-ak’s lips at the word that seemed to define his entire life.
For a man who had spent his whole life running toward ever-higher realms of martial arts, what metaphor could fit better than a moth blindly hurling itself toward the flame?
Perhaps this was the most fitting end for a moth that had finally folded its wings.
From the moment it settled down, it was only a matter of time before someone came along and crushed it underfoot.
Cheol Gun-ak had thought himself fortunate. The branch he had chosen was high and sturdy enough that, unlike countless moths throughout the history of the martial world, perhaps he would live out his natural span.
He had never imagined the branch itself would snap so easily.
It was all a futile hope.
In the martial world, where debts of gratitude and grudges intertwined without end, there was no such thing as an absolutely safe place.
Perhaps that was why he had been so eager to withdraw from the world.
Heaven’s net might seem loosely woven, but nothing ever slipped through.
The countless lives he had taken had finally returned to him as karmic retribution.
He had wielded his sword beneath the banner of driving out demons and destroying evil, but how could every death beneath that blade have been just?
If this was the end those sins had brought him, he had no cause for resentment or anger.
His only regret was that, because he had failed to finish matters properly, the people of the realm would now suffer.
Using what little time remained to leave behind something useful was the least he could do to lighten that burden.
And so, rather than spend his final moments reflecting on the life he had lived, he devoted himself to thought.
He needed to leave behind whatever he could about the hidden power plotting against the realm from the shadows.
That was also why he had endured such a humiliating conversation with that sorcerous bitch for as long as he had.
Without realizing it, she had let several clues slip.
Perhaps she had thought there was no harm in talking before a man trapped in this chamber and moments from death.
Or perhaps it had simply been arrogance.
An orthodox faith with a thousand-year history, yet one that had never revealed itself to the martial world of the Central Plains.
Cheol Gun-ak paid particular attention to her choice of words: “the martial world of the Central Plains.”
Martial artists of the Central Plains simply called it the martial world, or the rivers and lakes.
It was people from beyond the frontier who spoke of the “martial world of the Central Plains.”
Yet she had clearly meant that her order had existed within the Central Plains for a thousand years without ever revealing itself.
Which meant the order was not beyond the frontier.
It was somewhere within the Central Plains.
An order that entered the Central Plains more than a thousand years ago?
She had sneered at the Blood Heresy Cult, which had once brought the realm closer to ruin than any other faction in martial history, dismissing it as nothing more than a mere secret sect.
“Secret sect” was a term orthodox faiths commonly used for heterodox offshoots.
Which means the Blood Heresy Cult was a heretical branch that split away from her order...
Between her Soul-Separation Spirit-Borrowing Art and the great sorcery used on the Demonic Eight Divisions, there was little doubt that her order stood above even the Blood Heresy Cult.
Then Cheol Gun-ak suddenly remembered something.
The Blood Heresy Cult had originated in the Western Regions.
Then the order behind all this must have entered the Central Plains from the Western Regions!
That also fit perfectly with the way she had spoken of the martial world of the Central Plains.
An orthodox faith that had entered from the Western Regions a thousand years ago, had become the progenitor of the Blood Heresy Cult, and had never once revealed its true existence until now.
The pieces fit.
But why hide their true nature for an entire thousand years, only to reveal themselves now?
Even Cheol Gun-ak, with all his knowledge of the martial world, could find no answer to that.
As he wrestled with the question, he suddenly remembered the woman saying that Mount Wudang was the first place where she had appeared.
Could the reason somehow lie on Mount Wudang...?
Cheol Gun-ak was still pursuing the thought when the steady flow of his inner power and true qi began to falter.
As his body weakened, his true qi was dispersing.
I don’t have much time left.
There was no longer time to think.
Before his consciousness faded, he had to leave behind the conclusions he had reached.
Then perhaps someone could use his deductions to uncover the true identity of the power behind all this.
Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak naturally thought of Kwak Yeon.
That child may be worth placing my hopes in.
Now that he had reached this point, Cheol Gun-ak found himself wondering whether meeting Kwak Yeon had itself been Heaven’s will.
I have to find some way to get these thoughts to him.
Cheol Gun-ak snapped off the section of blade protruding from his chest.
CLANG!
Using the sticky, black-blood-smeared tip of the broken blade, he began carving words into the stone floor of the training chamber.
KRAK! KRAK! KRAK!
Stone dust sprayed into the air as grooves were gouged into the floor.
His vision suddenly whitened.
Having poured his remaining inner power and true qi into carving the words, Cheol Gun-ak stopped.
CLINK!
He tossed aside the shard of blade, shifted himself onto the stone slab where he had written the message, and closed his eyes.
He could not allow anyone who came upon it to erase what he had left behind.
A short while later, he heard the voice of the one person he feared might do exactly that.
“...Alliance Leader.”
Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak opened his eyes.
“You’re awake.”
Myung Jincheon asked in a trembling voice,
“...Why did you spare me?”
“You knew that sorcerous bitch was using your body to commit these crimes?”
“Yes. I... knew, and I still accepted it.”
Not only Myung Jincheon’s voice but his entire body was trembling.
Cheol Gun-ak knew it was neither fear of death nor fear of him.
His conscience was shaking so violently that he could not control his body.
“Haaa...”
Cheol Gun-ak let out a low sigh and spoke as though asking himself a question.
“So in the end, you could never let go of your grudge.”
“I couldn’t. Not even for a moment...”
Myung Jincheon lowered his head before continuing.
“I am sorry for deceiving you all this time. I know it is a worthless, shallow excuse... but I did keep trying.”
Cheol Gun-ak studied him for a moment.
“The Martial Sage insisted that no amount of kindness could ever bury a grudge. It seems he was right after all.”
“...”
“It appears I overestimated the kind of man you were.”
Cheol Gun-ak shook his head.
“Go. Walk the path you chose.”
When he saw Myung Jincheon clasp his hands and raise them toward his forehead to offer a full ceremonial bow, Cheol Gun-ak thundered,
“How dare you show me those filthy, bloodstained hands!”
“Alliance Leader...”
Tears spilled from Myung Jincheon’s eyes.
“For the sin of betraying you today, I will cleanse myself in the fires of Yama’s hell for all eternity. So please... allow me this final bow.”
“The sin of betraying me? Wearing a human face, do you still intend to deceive me to the very end?”
“...”
“I wish to rest quietly. Close the door behind you and leave. Your sins will not be cleansed by the fires of hell. Heaven’s net will see to them.”
The severity in Cheol Gun-ak’s voice left Myung Jincheon frozen in place.
Not long before, Myung Jincheon had dreamed a savage dream.
In it, he had driven a sword into the back of a man who was no different from his own father.
When he awoke, the dream had become reality.
His own broken sword protruding through Cheol Gun-ak’s chest proved it.
And Myung Jincheon knew that even while lost in that dreamlike haze, some part of him had understood that it was real.
Yet he had not resisted.
Which meant that, in the end, he had done it himself.
And after all that, he had still dared ask permission to offer a bow of apology.
As Cheol Gun-ak had said, only a devil wearing human skin could do such a thing.
“...!”
Feeling a sudden chill, Myung Jincheon lifted his head.
Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak’s body had already gone cold.
Myung Jincheon realized that after issuing his final order for him to leave, Cheol Gun-ak had deliberately dispersed what remained of his inner power and true qi.
For a moment, Myung Jincheon stared at the Martial Supreme Venerable, seated cross-legged and rigid as a stone statue.
Then he turned away.
To Cheol Gun-ak, he was a devil wearing human skin.
Even before the man’s corpse, he could not force upon him a bow he had refused in life.
Myung Jincheon left the training chamber and slammed the black iron door shut.
BOOM!
Then he looped the chain into place and locked it.
CLANK! CLICK!
As Hocheon Unit Lord of the Martial Alliance, Myung Jincheon was carrying out his Alliance Leader’s final command:
He wished to rest quietly.
CLACK. CLACK. CLACK.
His footsteps echoed down the deserted corridors of Righteous Heaven Hall, growing clearer with every step.
And with each step, his resolve sharpened as well.
I am a devil wearing human skin.
From the moment he chose to repay a grudge by betraying a debt of gratitude, that was what he had become.
Once he stopped denying it, he felt strangely liberated.
BANG!
He threw open the doors of Righteous Heaven Hall, and a blast of scorching heat struck him.
A sea of fire stretched out before his eyes.
Below the True Immortal Quarter, the entirety of the Inner Fortress and Outer Fortress was burning.
Soon, Righteous Heaven Hall and the Alliance Leader’s Office would be swallowed by the flames as well.
This is only the beginning!
A murderous gleam flashed in Myung Jincheon’s eyes as he spotted a middle-aged man.
Left Military Strategist Yong Baekcheon was racing up the steps of Righteous Heaven Hall.
“Hocheon Unit Lord!”
The moment Yong Baekcheon spotted Myung Jincheon, he shouted urgently,
“What are you doing? Why haven’t you informed the Alliance Leader at once?”
Yong Baekcheon had rushed here because he believed only the appearance of Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak could break the Martial Alliance out of this crisis.
“Even blood fiends have appeared. We’re helpless against them. But...”
Yong Baekcheon’s eyes suddenly widened.
“Unit Lord Myung... isn’t that the Alliance Leader’s Righteous Heaven Boundless Sword in your hand?”
“It is.”
Myung Jincheon nodded calmly.
“Though it isn’t anymore.”
With his own sword broken, Myung Jincheon had left the training chamber carrying the Alliance Leader’s cherished blade instead.
Taking a martial artist’s signature weapon without its owner’s permission was a grave taboo.
But the unwritten laws of the martial world meant nothing to a devil wearing human skin.
“Unit Lord Myung... what do you mean?”
“I mean the sword lost its owner, so its name has changed as well.”
Yong Baekcheon’s eyes widened until they seemed ready to split.
“Are you saying the Alliance Leader is dead? How could that happen...? No—who under heaven could possibly have killed the Martial Supreme Venerable...?”
Then Yong Baekcheon noticed the blood on Myung Jincheon’s hands.
“Don’t tell me...”
SHING!
Myung Jincheon raised the Righteous Heaven Boundless Sword toward the heavens.
“That’s right. This devil killed the Alliance Leader...”
SWISH!
“...with his own hands!”
The roar that followed sounded like the cry of a wild beast, reverberating through Righteous Heaven Hall.
SLASH!
Yong Baekcheon’s head was severed cleanly from his shoulders and went tumbling down the stairs.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
For decades, he had climbed and descended those same steps as Left Military Strategist.
Today, only his head was going down.
CLONK!
THUMP!
Someone planted a foot on Yong Baekcheon’s head as it reached the landing and stopped it from rolling any farther.
The owner of that foot, Geum Yulcheok, stood at the bottom of the steps and saluted Myung Jincheon.
“Society Leader! We are ready to depart.”
Dozens of Martial Alliance warriors appeared behind Geum Yulcheok.
No.
Heavenfall Society warriors.
They formed ranks behind him.
At their feet, Yong Baekcheon’s severed head stared upward with eyes stretched wide, glaring one by one at the traitors of the Martial Alliance.