Chapter 652: For the Sake of the Alliance Leader
Chapter 652: For the Sake of the Alliance Leader
Jin Pae-cheon, the Murim Alliance Leader, stood within a pavilion in the heart of the Blue Cloud Forest, his hands clasped firmly behind his back.
As he watched the morning mist drift lazily through the bamboo grove, Geom Mu-geuk approached the pavilion.
“Alliance Leader.”
“You’ve arrived.”
Geom Mu-geuk had sent word that he had urgent information to report, necessitating this clandestine meeting.
The two men stood in silence for a long moment, observing the flowing mist. It was Jin Pae-cheon who finally broke the quiet.
“That matter... it continues to weigh heavily on my mind.”
The Heaven’s End Recluse he had recently met was the same man he had always known. However, a new, unsettling realization had taken root: in all the years they had been friends, the man had never once lost his temper with him. He had never once revealed his true, raw emotions.
To attribute such restraint solely to his personality or to Jin Pae-cheon’s status felt hollow. The decades they had spent together were simply too long for such barriers to remain so absolute.
“But I suppose that isn’t definitive proof that he is an evil man,” Jin Pae-cheon added.
Geom Mu-geuk responded with calm conviction.
“I don’t believe that knowing someone for a long time equates to knowing them well. What matters is whether you’ve made a genuine effort to see them for who they truly are. But friends rarely make that effort. You are friends precisely because you don’t feel the need to look beneath the surface. That is why he is the worst kind of villain.”
Jin Pae-cheon turned to look at Geom Mu-geuk. The young man remained unshakable in his certainty that Heaven’s End Recluse was a villain.
“What became of the masters who broke the Forbidden Demonic Order?”
At Jin Pae-cheon’s question, Geom Mu-geuk blinked in feigned surprise.
“The Forbidden Demonic Order?”
Jin Pae-cheon stared at him. Geom Mu-geuk was the one who had brought him the news in the first place.
“There are no masters in our Cult who have violated the Forbidden Demonic Order.”
He offered a sly, knowing grin. That playful smile made the truth chillingly clear: the Old Demons who had defied the order were already dead.
Of course, claiming no one had broken the order was a dark joke; Geom Mu-geuk soon relayed the facts.
“They appeared at the Myeong-sim Clinic.”
In truth, Jin Pae-cheon had already received reports of this—that So Jeong-rak had left the clinic after meeting two elderly masters, and that those masters were Demonic Cultists who had violated the Forbidden Demonic Order.
“They died in the secret underground chamber of the Myeong-sim Clinic.”
Geom Mu-geuk deliberately emphasized the existence of the hidden room.
“Did you handle them yourself?”
“Yes.”
Despite having killed them, Geom Mu-geuk appeared perfectly fine, without so much as a scratch on his robes. This young Cult Leader seemed to grow more formidable every time they met.
“Did Physician So die as well?”
Jin Pae-cheon felt a pang of doubt. Was So Jeong-rak truly a villain? He was a man who had served the people of Wuhan for a lifetime.
“Yes, he is dead as well.”
Geom Mu-geuk answered without a shred of hesitation and provided the justification.
“So Jeong-rak was attempting to release their seals.”
Then came the decisive blow.
“He was practicing forbidden poison arts in the secret room beneath his residence. He specifically selected patients with unique constitutions required for his experiments and slaughtered them there.”
A cold, sharp fury flickered in Jin Pae-cheon’s eyes. If those words were true, the man was utterly unforgivable.
If everything Geom Mu-geuk said was true.
Jin Pae-cheon scrutinized the youth. At this moment, if he chose not to believe the man standing before him, then this entire affair would be nothing more than a grand conspiracy orchestrated by the Demonic Cult.
“Trust your instincts, Alliance Leader.”
“If what you say is true, shouldn’t I distrust my instincts instead? I failed to realize my oldest friend was an enemy.”
“He approached you with intent when you were both young. No one could have seen through it, not just you.”
Jin Pae-cheon’s gut told him to trust Geom Mu-geuk. Nevertheless, he remained cautious. This matter concerned not only his own life but the security of the entire Orthodox Murim.
“Let us assume you are right. Was there truly a need to prepare for so many years? If it were me, I would have upended the board several times over by now.”
“That is exactly why they waited.”
“Exactly why?”
“If it were you, Alliance Leader, you certainly would have achieved a better result than this.”
After a brief pause, Geom Mu-geuk spoke as if posing a rhetorical question.
“But they aren’t you, are they?”
“...!”
“Because they had to face someone of your caliber, it could never be easy. Even decades of preparation might not have been enough to guarantee success.”
Jin Pae-cheon could feel it—the genuine, high regard Geom Mu-geuk held for him.
“Actually, I once thought the person they were targeting wasn’t Ha-gun or Ha-ryeong, but Heaven’s End Recluse himself.”
Jin Pae-cheon flinched. That would mean the Recluse intended to sacrifice his own life to ignite the Great Demonic-Orthodox War.
“Why didn’t you tell me that then?”
“I thought it might cloud your judgment regarding your friend even further. But looking back, I should have spoken up sooner.”
Geom Mu-geuk bowed his head in a rare show of apology.
“I am sorry. Even though I promised to tell you everything, I made a unilateral decision.”
Jin Pae-cheon didn’t think it was something that required an apology. The Young Cult Leader claimed he would be transparent, but Jin Pae-cheon still didn’t fully trust him. He himself had no intention of revealing all his cards to the boy, either.
He still harbored a natural wariness toward Geom Mu-geuk. He trusted the boy’s competence, yet remained on guard against his nature. He was realizing once again how difficult it was to trust another soul completely.
“Did you find out who their true targets were?”
“Yes. So Jeong-rak confessed it himself.”
Geom Mu-geuk lowered his voice.
“Their targets were me... and Ha-gun.”
The moment those words left his lips, Jin Pae-cheon felt a surge of uncontrollable killing intent for the first time in years.
The anger he felt now, upon hearing the confirmed fact, was incomparable to the suspicion he’d felt when he first guessed his grandchildren might be in danger.
It wasn't mere anger. It was a dense, suffocating murderous intent—a primal desire to hunt down the mastermind, to inflict ultimate agony upon them before tearing them limb from limb.
At times like this, Jin Pae-cheon found the mantle of Murim Alliance Leader cumbersome. He wanted to draw his sword and charge out this very instant, demanding a single answer:
Where are they? Who is it?
This was his true nature. He had suppressed it and endured for so long after becoming the Alliance Leader that his very personality seemed to have shifted. But this incident was dragging his original self back to the surface.
“Thinking about it, their ultimate target might have been my father. They likely calculated that if I died, my father would start a war. It was a judgment made by someone who doesn't know my father at all.”
Jin Pae-cheon stared intently at Geom Mu-geuk.
“Perhaps they saw him more clearly than you think.”
“Pardon?”
He wasn't just saying it to flatter the boy. The Geom Wu-jin he had observed at the Three-Party Meeting certainly hadn't lost his ambition. Whether he used the grief of losing a child as a pretext or was truly driven by that sorrow, Jin Pae-cheon felt that Geom Wu-jin was indeed capable of drowning the world in blood.
Yes, perhaps the targets this time weren't just the Young Cult Leader and his grandson, but the Demonic Cult Leader and himself.
“There is something else I discovered while handling this matter.”
The most important reason for meeting the Alliance Leader today was to deliver this specific intelligence.
“There is a master of the Soul-Seizing Technique behind this.”
Jin Pae-cheon’s expression hardened. The martial arts the Orthodox Faction loathed most were poison arts and the Soul-Seizing Technique.
So Jeong-rak used poison, and the other mastermind used the Soul-Seizing Technique; they had deployed the most insidious methods possible.
“I hope you will prepare countermeasures. I have sent a separate message to Captain Jin regarding the Soul-Seizing Technique.”
The Murim Alliance surely had defenses against such arts. They would have established them if only to face the Cult.
“I understand.”
“As you can see, the person they fear most is you, Alliance Leader.”
He bolstered the leader’s resolve once more. Right now, the most important thing was for Jin Pae-cheon to remain steady and unshaken.
“Lastly, there is one more thing I wish to say.”
“What is it?”
Geom Mu-geuk spoke cautiously. He might not have shown such consideration for anyone else, but for this man, he felt the need to inform him in advance.
“I intend to meet Heaven’s End Recluse myself.”
Jin Pae-cheon gave a start. He felt as though the inevitable moment had finally arrived.
“If you were in my shoes, what would you do?”
After a moment of reflection, Geom Mu-geuk answered calmly.
“If I were in your position, I would first ask myself: what is it that you fear most right now?”
“...!”
Jin Pae-cheon posed that question to his own soul.
Was he afraid of his friend being revealed as a monster?
Or was he afraid of realizing his entire life had been built on a lie?
“Are you going to kill him?” Jin Pae-cheon asked heavily.
Geom Mu-geuk revealed his honest feelings.
“At first, I thought you should be the one to kill him. For your sake. But now, I think it’s fine if I am the one to do it. Also for your sake.”
Geom Mu-geuk did not explain his reasoning. He simply gave a respectful bow and descended from the pavilion.
“First, I will find the evidence that proves he is the mastermind.”
*
When Geom Mu-geuk opened the door and stepped inside, Heaven’s End Recluse asked with a startled expression.
“Who is it?”
Geom Mu-geuk had entered silently, evading the eyes of the martial artists guarding the perimeter.
“You know exactly who I am.”
Heaven’s End Recluse soon nodded.
“I heard about you from the Alliance Leader.” He added with a look of genuine surprise, “I didn’t expect you to come looking for me.”
Geom Mu-geuk could see why the Alliance Leader was so conflicted. Nothing in this man’s appearance suggested a villain hiding a dark identity.
“If I shout, everyone outside will come rushing in.”
“Are you going to kill them all? Ah, was that your original goal? To have the warriors of Wuhan slaughtered by my hand?”
Heaven’s End Recluse stood up as if to prove a point and walked out the door Geom Mu-geuk had just entered.
The martial artists standing in the hallway looked at him. No one was dead, and no one had their demonic or acupoints suppressed. In the courtyard outside the window, numerous warriors were visible. Geom Mu-geuk had entered the room while evading all of them. The crucial point was that he had entered without needing to incapacitate a single guard.
“Do you need anything, sir?” a guard asked.
“No.”
At the guard’s question, Heaven’s End Recluse shook his head, closed the door, and stepped back inside.
In the meantime, Geom Mu-geuk was surveying the room.
“You are as frugal as the rumors suggest.”
Though he seemed to be glancing around casually, Geom Mu-geuk’s eyes were sharply scanning every corner—looking for secret passages for an emergency escape or mechanical traps.
One might think such things wouldn't exist for someone who had lived so thoroughly hidden, but one could never be sure. As he had told So Jeong-rak, the man might have been perfect at first. But could he still be flawless after all this time?
There had to be something. A finger-sized hole that could collapse a dam.
“I wonder... if I were to step through a secret passage in this room, would I find a hidden palace? A place overflowing with feasts and beautiful women?”
He spoke as if joking, but Heaven’s End Recluse did not laugh.
“Is there such a secret passage in your residence?”
He was retorting: Why project such fantasies onto me when you don't have one yourself?
“We Demonic Cultists live in such luxury without hiding it, don't we?”
After surveying the room, Geom Mu-geuk sat in a chair by the tea table and opened the teapot.
“You even use the cheapest tea. You should treat yourself to the good stuff.”
“My palate is not so refined.”
Geom Mu-geuk acted nonchalantly, but all his senses were focused on Heaven’s End Recluse. He did not let his guard down for a second. This man was the eye of the storm.
Trickle.
Geom Mu-geuk poured tea into a cup and took a sip.
“Actually, I’m not picky either.”
Heaven’s End Recluse stared silently at Geom Mu-geuk, who was acting as if he were in his own home.
“Hasn't it been exhausting, living in hiding all this time? Why don't we have a candid conversation? It’s not like the Alliance Leader or the Orthodox martial artists will believe my words anyway.”
The man surely had a desire to reveal himself. He would want to boast about what he had accomplished over such a long time. Do you know how I endured? Do you know how far I’ve come?
But Heaven’s End Recluse showed no such sign.
“What is your purpose in this? What do you hope to gain by slandering me?”
The Recluse’s gaze turned sharp.
“Are you targeting the Alliance Leader?”
To his surprise, Geom Mu-geuk nodded in admission.
“Yes, the Alliance Leader is my target.”
As Heaven’s End Recluse flinched, Geom Mu-geuk added:
“My goal is to protect him from you.”
Realizing he had been mocked, the Recluse’s expression hardened.
“The Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult came to protect the Murim Alliance Leader? How preposterous.”
“The world is full of preposterous things. Like how the Murim Alliance Leader’s oldest friend could be his most dangerous enemy.”
Geom Mu-geuk laughed, but the other man remained stone-faced.
“Why did you come to see me?”
“There is an honest answer, and a dishonest one. Which would you like to hear?”
“I’ll hear the honest one.”
Geom Mu-geuk stated his purpose truthfully.
“It is to find evidence that our dear Recluse is hiding his true identity.”
To drag out the man named Hwa Yul-cheong hidden beneath the title of Heaven’s End Recluse. He lived for the moment he would rip away that shell.
“Since you are being so honest, I am curious about the dishonest answer as well.”
“Shall I tell you?”
When Heaven’s End Recluse nodded, Geom Mu-geuk’s demeanor shifted instantly. With a gaze colder than ice, peering into the depths of the man's soul, he spoke in a low, lethal voice.
“I came to kill you.”
As if he had expected it, Heaven’s End Recluse showed no agitation.
“Cleaning up after the kill. It’s not a bad way to deal with someone as dangerous as you.” The Recluse asked calmly, “That answer sounds more like the honest one.”
At that, Geom Mu-geuk’s cold expression softened into a smirk.
“You’re right. In truth, that is my honest desire.”
“Then why don’t you kill me?”
Geom Mu-geuk stood up and approached him. The two stood face-to-face, close enough to sever a neck with a single draw of a blade.
“Because I want to make you a proposal.”
Geom Mu-geuk reached out a hand to him. It was a proposal that was truly beyond imagination.
“Let’s join forces.”