Chapter 676: It's been a while! (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 676: It's been a while! (4)
Lesser King of Hell, Gu Yangcheon.
He was the eldest son of the Gu Clan of Shanxi, a noble Orthodox clan situated on the province's border. He was also the son of Gu Cheolun, the Tiger Warrior, a man ranked among the lower tier of the Hundred Masters.
In his youth, Gu Yangcheon was notorious as the Scoundrel of Shanxi. His wicked deeds were so well-known that people often sneered, saying a tiger father had sired a dog son.
But perhaps it was merely a case of youthful recklessness, for as time passed, his true talent began to manifest.
Before the Heavenly Dragon Academy Massacre, he displayed overwhelming martial prowess at the Dragons and Phoenixes Tournament, earning the title of "True Dragon." Shortly after, he played a pivotal role in stopping the massacre at the Heavenly Dragon Academy, slaughtering members of the Unorthodox Faction and earning the grim moniker "Lesser King of Hell."
Afterward, his name briefly echoed throughout the Central Plains due to certain operations orchestrated by the Murim Alliance, but…
Soon after, his whereabouts became unknown.
Furthermore, the Heavenly Dragon Plan—carried out in cooperation with Shaolin—served to erase the rumors that had only just begun to spread. In just a few short years, all talk of the Lesser King of Hell had vanished without a trace.
‘What is this?’
Beomdong tilted his head, staring intently at the report in his hand.
It had taken him four days to gather this information. It hadn't been particularly difficult to find; he could have finished in two days if he had pushed himself. Yet, Beomdong felt a strangely subtle sense of incongruity.
‘There's more than one thing off about this.’
While reading the intelligence on the Lesser King of Hell, he noticed several conspicuous gaps—information that had clearly been intentionally erased.
‘Who could it be?’
Those with the authority to tamper with the Alliance's internal data could be counted on one hand. The Captain of the Blue Dragon Army, who served as the current Alliance Leader's personal guard and was one of the Ten Masters; the Leader of the Beggar’s Sect; or perhaps the Abbot of Shaolin. At most, there were no more than ten such individuals in the world.
Why would they create blank spaces in a report like this? That wasn't the only anomaly.
‘Was he involved in the Sichuan Tang Clan's affairs as well?’
It was an incident that had shaken the Central Plains a few years ago. The Tang Clan, one of the Four Noble Clans and a prestigious family, had been exposed for conducting secret human experiments. Because of this, the Tang Clan was stripped of its status, and a trend emerged within the Orthodox Faction to hush up any mention of them.
The problem was…
‘It's classified as top-secret?’
The events of that time were treated as top-secret within the Alliance, categorized by color much like the ranking system for demons. The incident involving the Sichuan Tang Clan was classified as White-Grade information. Even an Alliance Captain, who could access most of the intelligence department's files, was barred from opening it.
And in that very file…
‘...there are traces of the Lesser King of Hell's involvement.’
The official report stated that the Lord of the Tang Clan had discovered the human experiments and orchestrated the exposé to stop them. It claimed he had personally executed the elders and submitted the evidence to the Alliance.
For information about the Lesser King of Hell to be mixed in with that…
‘Does this mean something else happened?’
What could have occurred that was kept hidden even from a Captain? Beomdong continued to scan the report with a deepening frown.
‘He has a lot of women around him. His fiancée, the Sword Dancer, and the Tang Clan… The Tang Clan?’
Beomdong's eyes widened as he read further. Including the Poison Phoenix of the declining Tang Clan, the Snow Phoenix of the Moyong Clan, and…
‘Even the descendant of the Sword Venerable?’
The rumors called him a womanizer, and it certainly seemed there was truth to the claim. However, the puzzling part remained.
‘If he's such a womanizer, why didn't he fall for Bihyeonhwa?’
Bihyeonhwa was known as the First Beauty of Henan. She was an exceptional agent, skilled at using her beauty to extract information from the most guarded men.
‘She failed.’
Not only did she fail to get close to him, but she had returned a complete wreck.
“Save… me. P-please, save me, save me, save me… Save… me.”
Her thick makeup had been ruined, and she had relentlessly scratched at her own face with her long fingernails. With the eyes of a dead fish, the broken Bihyeonhwa had been discovered in an alley near the Alliance entrance.
“I have to run… It's scary, so scary… Save me… Save…”
Her trembling, shattered form was enough to inspire fear in anyone who saw her. Bihyeonhwa was later entrusted to a healer, but her mind never recovered. Even now, she was so terrified that she refused to leave the treatment room.
What on earth could she have gone through?
The information found on her person noted that the Lesser King of Hell was, at the time, using the alias Pajeolyeop and acting as the leader of a collapsing minor sect.
‘That was a lie.’
After digging deeper, Beomdong realized it had all been a fabrication. It was more likely that Gu Yangcheon had seen through her approach from the very beginning. Because of that, Beomdong had been forced to spend more time gathering information than expected.
What's more…
‘There are no traces.’
If she was found near the Alliance entrance, someone must have brought her there. Yet, not a single guard on duty had sensed a presence. There was no evidence. Bihyeonhwa was too broken to answer questions, making the situation all the more bizarre.
‘And to top it all off, that other incident happened right in the middle of it.’
While Beomdong was proceeding with his work, the Blue Dragon Army had dispatched a member who had subsequently gone missing.
The problem was the location.
‘It had to be the White Flower Merchant Association, of all places.’
The White Flower Merchant Association had been gathering enough personnel to form its own sect. The Alliance, finding this suspicious, had sent a member of the Blue Dragon Army to investigate. But even that elite martial artist's whereabouts were now unknown.
A member of the Blue Dragon Army—the most elite swordsman unit in the Alliance—had vanished. In just a few days, the situation had become strangely tangled.
And at the center of it all…
‘...is the Lesser King of Hell?’
Then there was the Demonic Cult. It was a name that had recently been heard not only in Henan but throughout the Central Plains. The name had started spreading from the fringes of the continent all the way to Henan, where the Alliance held a firm grip.
As this was something the Alliance was investigating intensively, Beomdong was also looking into it. Amidst all this, the recent movements of the White Flower Merchant Association were bound to be suspicious.
‘There doesn't seem to be a direct connection, but something about it bothers me.’
The White Flower Merchant Association was one of the top merchant groups in the Central Plains. Even if they weren't exactly pro-Alliance, it seemed unlikely they would stir up unnecessary trouble.
‘But looking at their recent actions, there's something subtle going on.’
The way they operated without the Alliance's knowledge was one thing. His suspicions began to snowball the moment he identified the young master he had met as the Lesser King of Hell.
He was a promising prodigy from a few years back, a figure rumored to be the youngest to reach the Fusion Realm before the current, officially recognized Heavenly Dragon.
Furthermore, the most important reason was…
‘...that he is a member of the Gu Clan.’
The Gu Clan was a noble Orthodox clan located on the Shanxi border. While not on the level of the Three Noble Clans, they were a respectable family. It was known that they had existed for centuries, but they only began to truly distinguish themselves during the time of the current Lord, the Tiger Warrior.
After him came his children: his eldest daughter, the Sword Phoenix Gu Huibi; his eldest son, the Lesser King of Hell; and his second daughter, Gu Yeonseo. Recently, public opinion had shifted to view the Gu Clan as a considerably powerful family.
However, it was precisely because it was the Gu Clan that Beomdong felt something was off.
The reason was simple.
‘Black-Grade information…’
Among the files categorized from Green to White, the information classification for the Gu Clan was Black. It seemed the classification had been changed recently, but not even Beomdong knew what ‘Black’ signified.
He couldn't even attempt to view it, let alone read it. That was the nature of the Black classification. He had never seen such a grade before, and of all families, it was assigned to the Gu Clan. Even the other Great Clans were Red at best; he had no idea where a ‘Black’ grade could have come from.
There were too many anomalies.
The unknown energy that had fallen on the White Flower Merchant Association's grounds. The fact that he had coincidentally met the Lesser King of Hell at the very association he went to investigate. The fact that the Gu Clan's information was classified as Black. And on top of all that, the man's arrogant attitude toward him.
It was a situation that bred nothing but suspicion.
‘In a case like this…’
Based on Beomdong's experience, there were two options. One was to deploy more personnel and gather detailed information—a method involving monitoring his every move and waiting for an opening.
‘But that would be difficult right now.’
The Alliance's current situation was too stretched to handle it that way. Not only was the martial arts tournament just around the corner, but they also had to deal with the Demonic Cult. The forces Beomdong could move on his own authority were currently spread across the region for those very reasons.
Trying to slip past the White Flower Merchant Association's forces to gather intelligence would be a challenge, as their strength was considerable. It was a near-impossible task.
In that case…
‘Is the second option all that's left?’
It seemed there was only one method available. Go to him directly. If there were limits to investigating in secret, then he would simply go openly.
‘The justification seems a bit weak, though.’
If there was no justification, he could simply create one. That's what the Alliance's intelligence department was for.
‘Besides, no matter how high his realm is, he's just a fledgling who's barely past twenty. He shouldn't be difficult to handle.’
His strength was unexpectedly high, which was startling, but he was still just a kid. No matter how strong he was, he wouldn't dare bare his fangs at the Murim Alliance. Also…
‘It looks like he has a lot to protect.’
He seemed to have close relationships with the women around him. Beomdong could use that to slowly needle him.
‘Therefore, before the official investigation warrant is issued, I'll have to put him in his place a bit.’
With that thought, Beomdong turned around and spoke.