Chapter 112
Chapter 112. Black Path Night March (2)
Four Emperors Peak.
Though there was no single central pillar of the Black Path Murim, if one were to name the representative sects of the Black Path Murim, this was a great sect that had to be included no matter what.
Since we had smashed through the main gate of Four Emperors Peak, which had been taking a rest period because of the Murim Regular Exam, and entered, naturally, Four Emperors Peak did not welcome us.
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG.
Though not much time had passed since the bell rang, hundreds of Black Path warriors were already running in perfect order around the Grand Riding Ground, swords drawn.
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG.
Hundreds of swords surrounded each member of our party so densely that the term Forest of Swords suited the sight perfectly.
And our party.
“Huff, huff, huff, huff, huff.”
“Gasp, gasp, gasp, gasp, gasp, gasp.”
“Haaah, haaah, haaah, haaah, haaah.”
Regardless of all that, they had collapsed on the ground and were catching their breath.
They had been making a grim resolution, saying they could not throw the person they served alone into a Black Path sect, but they were so busy catching their own breath that they had not even managed to draw their swords.
“How dare you bastards set foot here, of all places?”
The hundreds of warriors split to either side, and a large man wearing black armor walked out.
“Did the Murim Regular Exam tell you it would preserve your necks?”
CLANG.
A greatsword was drawn from his waist.
Only then did the party come to their senses and begin turning pale as they looked at the Black Path warriors surrounding them.
“You fools. You merely needed to give up on the exam, yet you failed to do so. This is your own fault. What are you waiting for? Cut off all their heads and throw them outside the gate.”
“Yes!!!”
Along with a battle cry that shook the air, suffocating killing intent erupted from every direction.
“W-Wait! Haa, haa. Please wait a moment.”
I carefully put Namgung Seon-hwa, whom I had been holding in my arms, down.
“Are you trying to enter and leave Four Emperors Peak as you please?”
“That is not it!”
“If you are pointlessly stalling for time, I will cut off your hands and feet and throw you into the pigsty.”
Black qi took shape and wavered over the large man’s greatsword.
“I understand! Do that. But first, just a moment! Please give me just a very brief moment.”
I quickly thrust my hand into my robes.
SHNK. SHNK. SHNK. SHNK. SHNK.
Five swords stabbed in toward the end of my throat.
“I-I am just trying to take something out.”
“Leave him be.”
I slowly drew out the hand I had placed inside my robes and showed the object in my palm to the large man.
Starting with the large man, the people standing around him began opening their eyes wide one by one.
“H-How. How dare a mere Orthodox Path small fry......”
Something seemed to be streaming down my back.
Namgung Seon-hwa shouted from behind me.
“Young Master Jin. Blood!”
Ah, was it blood?
I thought it was sweat.
No wonder my mind felt dizzy.
I gathered my senses and spoke.
“I wish to see the Four Emperors Peak Lord. I am Jin So-un of the Taeul Sect.”
“Jin So-un?”
“Taeul Sect?”
“Is he not that Black Flame Dragon?”
“Hooh, so that bastard is the Rising Star of the Black Path, the Black Flame Dragon?”
Yes, I am your damned Black Flame Dragon.
I cursed wildly inside and closed my eyes.
“Hooh, how fascinating.”
An exclamation burst from the mouth of the White-Bearded Divine Sword Hyeok Mu-gang as he touched the skin of the corpse, which was nothing short of grotesque.
“Hmm...... It seems there should originally have been more of the corpse on this side, but this wound was cut after death, was it not?”
Jegal So-myeong, who had examined the corpse first, nodded.
“Someone must have taken it away in order to examine the corpse during the process of bringing it to the Alliance.”
“Hmm....... Do you think it was the work of the Elder Hall?”
“Who else could it have been? In any case, they are not what matters.”
“Then, you are saying that the procedure that made the body like this belongs to the Demonic Cult......?”
“Yes. My report was delayed because I had to search for materials in the deepest depths of Sim Hyeon-gak.”
Jegal So-myeong did not mention that the work of Mantongbu had been paused temporarily in order to search through Sim Hyeon-gak.
“......”
Hyeok Mu-gang closed his eyes and slowly stroked his long white beard.
“But was the Heavenly God Cult that manifested on Mount Tianshan a hundred years ago not completely exterminated?”
A hundred years ago, the Heavenly God Cult had appeared on Mount Tianshan, claiming to be the successors of the Demonic Cult, and had all been killed at the hands of the Azure Heaven Great Emperor, the Alliance Leader of that era.
“This is not at their level.”
“They were said to have made as many as a hundred Iron Corpse Puppets.”
“This procedure is different.”
“Fundamentally, it makes them master a bizarre martial art that combines Concealment Art and swordsmanship into one, all the way to the Peak level. Then those Peak experts undergo another absurd procedure called the Fluid-Body Bone Sword, and the result is these monsters.”
It was a horrific procedure that required grinding down at least thirty Peak experts in order to create a single monster.
“The report said that at least twenty of those monsters moved among the people.”
“......”
At the absurd probability and numbers, even Hyeok Mu-gang firmly shut his mouth.
“......A sect capable of grinding down at least six hundred Peak experts......”
“Does not exist within the Central Plains Murim.”
It was said that the Peak realm was the final realm an ordinary warrior could reach, but even that was only possible when one dedicated one’s entire life to effort and had a background to support them.
Just imagining a group capable of grinding down three hundred such experts was horrifying.
“In any case, the effect was extremely certain. If not for this corpse, we would not even have been able to trace them.”
Just imagining Peak experts who blended into the darkness and launched surprise attacks was enough to send cold sweat down one’s back.
“Hoo...... I do not know.”
Hyeok Mu-gang’s reaction was only natural.
Even Jegal So-myeong, who could see into Jianghu as if it lay in his palm, did not know what he should do now.
“First, let us begin by setting up a hypothetical enemy.”
“......Will the Elder Hall understand this?”
“......That is why, for now, we should be the only ones who know. Fortunately, they do not seem to have been active after the Puyang Plains.”
“Come to think of it, there has been no word from the Kunlun Sect.”
The Demonic Cult of the past had been located on Mount Tianshan.
The Kunlun Sect had been the vanguard that first blocked the Demonic Cult, and had also played the role of the Orthodox Path sects’ scouts.
Jegal So-myeong pursed his lips.
“They must be too busy holding the Regular Exam.”
This was a round of the exam with more twists and turns than ever before.
“So that was why the Elder Hall was quiet.”
“......?”
“Was his name Jin So-un of the Taeul Sect?”
“!!”
Jegal So-myeong suddenly raised his eyes.
Because the forces of the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans had become stronger than ever, they could not choose the Murim Alliance Leader from either side.
In the end, they had chosen the White-Bearded Divine Sword Hyeok Mu-gang, who had no faction and was strong alone, but from some point onward, Hyeok Mu-gang seemed to have acquired his own information network.
“It is only for carrying out the Alliance Leader’s work. If you wish, Grand Strategist, I will show them to you.”
After thinking for a moment, Jegal So-myeong shook his head.
In the first place, was there any meaning in the White-Bearded Divine Sword Hyeok Mu-gang creating a faction?
What use was having or not having a faction to a man who could easily face all the elders of the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans alone?
“It is all right. I apologize for not preparing one for you first.”
“Hoho, in any case, this must be somewhat regrettable for you. I heard you had marked that child Jin So-un.”
At Hyeok Mu-gang’s words, Jegal So-myeong clicked his tongue.
If only those bastards of the Elder Hall had not pulled their tricks, he might have created the first Mantongbu member from the Murim Academy.
“There is nothing that can be done. He will come for his mandatory service anyway. I intend to seat him there then.”
“Then how about this? For now, I will bring him to the Alliance Leader Hall. Then, when the time is right, I will hand him over to Mantongbu.”
Jegal So-myeong looked at Hyeok Mu-gang with eyes that said there was no one in the world he could trust.
“No, you know how busy Mantongbu is, and yet you say such a thing!!”
“Ah, no, I mean. Only until he originally enters Mantongbu......”
“If that was what I intended, I would have brought him in long ago. Do you think I had no way of bringing him in? This is all because of politics. Politics!”
“......Ahem. I apologize, Grand Strategist. My greed got ahead of me.”
“Do not say such a thing again. I have claimed that bastard, and I will not let anyone take him from me.”
The place that had stolen the most talents who should have come to Mantongbu was the Alliance Leader Hall.
Now that it seemed he was even thinking of stealing a fellow to use as a scholar, the Alliance Leader’s love of talent was going too far.
‘If he is going to be like that, he might as well establish a sect.’
Jegal So-myeong had said several times that he would help him establish a sect, but the fact that the man who refused every time was so greedy for talent was also difficult to understand.
‘As if I would let him be stolen from me again.’
Resolving that he would absolutely not have him stolen this time, Jegal So-myeong was heading toward Mantongbu when he saw someone running toward the Alliance Leader Hall in a panic and clicked his tongue.
“Tsk, tsk. Just what is inside that bastard’s head?”
Then he barked at Maeng Ju-won.
“You bastard! Do you not know what sort of place this is, that you run like that!”
“Grand Strategist, s-something terrible has happened.”
But when he saw Maeng Ju-won’s face, urgent and seemingly out of his mind, his heart suddenly dropped.
Because the fellow was usually easygoing, even greater fear swept over him.
“Could it be, has the Heavenly Demon Divine......”
“Our So-un! He has been thrown into Four Emperors Peak by the vicious, merciless schemes of the Nine Sects and One Gang.”
“......”
“Oh no, Oh no, now he will never be able to marry. Oh no, Oh no.”
Seeing the fellow wailing as if he had lost his parents, Jegal So-myeong smoothly rolled up his sleeves.
“The saying goes that a beating is the best medicine for a madman.”
At Seong Mo-ran’s words, everyone’s gaze naturally turned toward the unconscious Jin So-un.
“He has to wake up before we can give him a beating or a reward.”
Thanks to the Four Emperors Peak Lord’s nameplate that Jin So-un had taken out as soon as they entered Four Emperors Peak, they had preserved their lives for the moment, but the situation was not good at all.
Leaving aside why Jin So-un had the Four Emperors Peak Lord’s nameplate, the actual person concerned had not woken up, so they had not even seen the Four Emperors Peak Lord’s face. All of them were locked in one room and under the watch of two thousand Black Path warriors.
What drove them further into despair were the words of the Physician who had treated Jin So-un and left.
“He is already a dead man. Do not wait. Find a way to live for yourselves instead. Just how much did he overwork his body...... Tsk, tsk.”
At the Physician’s words, not only the Gold-Silver-Copper Brothers, but even Namgung Seon-hwa had been unable to come to her senses.
They had followed Jin So-un because he said it was their final chance, but because Jin So-un would not wake up, the entire plan was going awry.
BANG.
Just then, the door opened, and over a dozen Black Path warriors entered the room.
All of them were wearing black armor, the symbol of Four Emperors Peak.
And behind them, a large man with a massive body entered.
“He still has not woken up?”
They could have expressed displeasure at his unpleasant conduct, but not one member of Jin So-un’s party could rashly step forward.
Giant Shield Hwang Bu-sik.
He was the fourth-in-command of Four Emperors Peak and one of the notable experts of the Black Path Murim.
The anecdote that thirty First-Rate Warriors of the Diancang Sect had all become corpses after getting into a quarrel with him was enough to prove his strength.
“Only two days have passed.”
“If he cannot wake within two days, he is no different from already dead. Moreover, in such urgent circumstances, do we have the leisure to sit around treating him?”
Seong Mo-ran could not hold back the anger rising inside her.
“We are people who came carrying the Four Emperors Peak Lord’s nameplate. Please show us at least the minimum courtesy.”
Hwang Bu-sik snorted.
“The one who brought the Four Emperors Peak Lord’s nameplate was the Black Flame Dragon Jin So-un. And unless he wakes, that nameplate’s value has already come to an end.”
“Please let us meet the Peak Lord. I know his intention.”
The last traces of amusement disappeared from Hwang Bu-sik’s face.
“Hey, brat. Do you think the Four Emperors Peak Lord is someone a brat like you can meet?”
“......”
“Outside, the disciples of the Nine Sects and One Gang are clamoring for us to hand over Jin So-un’s group. In the first place, we of the Black Path Murim do not interfere in events of the Murim Alliance. The mere fact that we already gave you two days means the nameplate’s value has been used up completely.”
“That cannot be......”
What had they risked their lives to come all the way here for, if in the end they had even placed the life of the one they relied on most in danger?
Seong Mo-ran could not raise her head.
“Pack your things and leave. At the very least, we will take charge of the Black Flame Dragon’s treatment.”
“......”
“Leave Four Emperors Peak before the sun sets today.”
Whether Seong Mo-ran and the others looked disheartened or not, Hwang Bu-sik turned without hesitation and headed outside.
“......Is Four Emperors Peak afraid of the disciples of the Nine Sects and One Gang?”
“!!!”
Hwang Bu-sik’s body abruptly stopped.
A terrifying aura blasted out from his body.
“What brat dares......”
Whether Hwang Bu-sik’s aura blasted out or not, everyone turned their heads toward the place where the usual madman had been.
“Young Master Jin!!!”
“Young Master Jin!!!”
“Eldest Senior Brother!”
There, Jin So-un had raised himself up, swaying dangerously.
“Hmph! Black Flame Dragon. So you finally got up?”
“Fortunately, I did not pass two days. Please guide me to the person who gave me that damned epithet. Tell him that Jin So-un has come to collect a debt.”