A Lion Among Wolves
As if they had been waiting for Dang Sa-oh to speak, everyone's eyes turned toward Dang Hwa-young, Dang Hwa-soo, and ultimately, Yoo-sung.
The gazes of the Tang Clan members directed at Yoo-sung, who had previously kept a low profile, were remarkably sharp.
"Indeed, it is difficult to simply dismiss the Chief Manager's doubts."
At someone's agreement, Dang Sa-oh's smile deepened.
"That is precisely my point. The achievement of these three is undoubtedly magnificent. They not only split the credit that the Diancang Sect could have claimed entirely for themselves, but they also managed to seize the upper hand."
Just as Dang Sa-oh said, the incident in Hojung was an event that could have allowed the Diancang Sect to establish dominance within the Sichuan Righteous Alliance.
Though it carried great risk, had Diancang resolved it alone, they would have secured far more key positions, including that of the Alliance Leader.
Therefore, even while commending Dang Hwa-young and Dang Hwa-soo for handling the situation so well, it was only natural for doubts to linger.
"First, this is my assessment," Dang Sa-oh said, naturally taking control of the meeting's flow.
"First! As reported, the timing was incredibly fortunate, coinciding with the Silver Spear Demon's betrayal of the Ten Demons. Frankly, there is no room for doubt on this point. Had it been otherwise, achieving such a feat would have been impossible."
"I agree."
"My thoughts exactly."
"That is what I am saying! Let us refrain from making groundless accusations, Chief Manager!"
Those who followed the one known as the 'Iron Flower' quickly spoke up in her defense.
Despite their protests, Dang Sa-oh calmly continued.
"Second! It is possible that not all of the Ten Demons were present in Hojung from the beginning. While the Red-Eyed Demon and the Silver Spear Demon were certainly there, the others might have been absent."
"Are you suggesting they lied to inflate their achievements?"
"Well, knowing the Iron Flower's character, that is highly unlikely. However..."
Dang Sa-oh's peculiar gaze shifted toward Yoo-sung.
"That only applies to the Iron Flower and the Iron Sword. The nameless swordsman who accompanied them is a different story."
From the very beginning, Dang Sa-oh's target had been Yoo-sung.
Realizing this, the expressions of Dang Hwa-young and Dang Hwa-soo hardened.
"Watch your mouth, Chief Manager Dang," Dang Hwa-young warned.
"Who do you think you are accusing right now?!" Dang Hwa-soo barked.
Seeing the two of them grow agitated, a smirk played on Dang Sa-oh's lips.
"It is a perfectly reasonable suspicion. Even if I trust the abilities of you two, that fellow over there is hard to believe. These are turbulent times, are they not? We live in an era where demonic practitioners disguise themselves and infiltrate our ranks. We must verify his identity thoroughly."
Dang Sa-oh's words drew mixed reactions.
The direct descendants of the Tang Clan felt his suspicions were entirely valid.
On the other hand, while the branch members wished to refute Dang Sa-oh, they could not do so with absolute certainty.
After all, Yoo-sung was not someone they had brought in themselves.
Good. This should be enough to dampen their momentum for a while.
As the atmosphere shifted exactly as he intended, Dang Sa-oh smiled inwardly with satisfaction. But then—
"Can you take responsibility for those words?"
Dang Joong-myung, who had been quietly observing the exchange, finally spoke up.
"That child is my maternal grandson. He has possessed exceptional talent since childhood and has safely returned after ten years of traveling the Jianghu. I am the one who dragged him here when he only wished to spend quiet time with his family. I already carry a heavy heart for doing so. Am I to take your words as an insult to my own pride as well?"
Tsk! I thought he was a grandson whose ties with the family had been severed.
Taken aback by Dang Joong-myung's unusually stern tone, Dang Sa-oh took a step back.
"Of course not, Elder. I was merely voicing my own concerns and the grievances of others. I fully acknowledge the achievements of the three."
Dang Joong-myung clicked his tongue inwardly at Dang Sa-oh's slippery retreat.
Pressuring him further by intervening directly would only make things look awkward.
I am showing nothing but my own pathetic side to So-ryung and Yoo-sung.
Even if their relationship was not what it used to be, Dang So-ryung was still his cherished daughter, and his heart naturally went out to her children.
Yoo-sung, in particular, possessed a strange quality that constantly drew his attention, making this situation all the more uncomfortable.
Yet, finding it awkward to push any further, Dang Joong-myung was about to let it slide when—
"You certainly don't act like a member of the Tang Clan."
Yoo-sung, who had remained silent until now, spoke up nonchalantly.
"....?!"
At his entirely unexpected remark, every eye in the room snapped to him.
Yoo-sung casually brushed off the weight of their collective gazes.
"Am I wrong? Since when did the Tang Clan doubt the achievements of its own kin and openly try to sabotage them like this? Considering the history of the Tang Clan, isn't this utterly ridiculous? Though only half of the blood flowing through my veins belongs to the Tang, I have heard of its history from my mother since I was a child. The Tang Clan of those days was always proud and upright. Yet now, some bastard who took the Tang surname from God knows where is shaking the very foundations of the clan's traditions."
"....!!"
At Yoo-sung's insulting words, Dang Sa-oh's face stiffened.
In truth, this was one of Dang Sa-oh's most sensitive vulnerabilities.
Though he had married into the family and received the Tang surname, he was ultimately an outsider.
While his actions served as a strong pillar of support for the Clan Leader, they also provided ammunition for opposing factions to attack him.
Many disparaged his deeds, dismissing them as the arrogant meddling of an outsider who knew nothing of the Tang Clan's true traditions.
Each time, Dang Sa-oh forced himself to ignore it, but he harbored deep resentment and took quiet, ruthless vengeance behind the scenes.
Consequently, no one dared to bring up that sore subject in front of him anymore.
Yet, to think this youth would mock him so openly in a hall packed with so many people.
"Can you take responsibility for those words?"
The heavy, oppressive gaze of the Tang Clan Leader, Dang Ho-ryung, shifted toward Yoo-sung.
"Responsibility? Then let me ask you, Clan Leader. Does the Chief Manager's will represent the will of the entire Tang Clan? To undermine and devalue the achievements of clan members who risked their lives on the battlefield... Surely, this isn't some petty attempt to tarnish a rival's standing in the succession race, is it?"
At Yoo-sung's brazenly arrogant remarks, the Clan Leader's aura flared dangerously.
Rumble.
"The Heavenly Sword Academy, was it?"
"Soon, it will be known as the Heavenly Sword Sect."
Yoo-sung effortlessly brushed off the crushing pressure exerted by the Clan Leader, Dang Ho-ryung.
Witnessing his nonchalant demeanor, everyone gathered in the hall realized one undeniable truth.
Yoo-sung's martial realm was, at the very least, capable of rivaling a top-tier master of the Transcendental Realm.
"Let us stop here. There is no need to sow discord among ourselves when a great task lies ahead," Dang Joong-myung intervened at the perfect moment, prompting Dang Ho-ryung to reluctantly withdraw his aura.
However, the Clan Leader was inwardly quite shaken.
To think he could withstand twenty percent of my pressure so easily. It seems Dang Joong-myung has acquired a formidable weapon.
The branch member Dang Ho-ryung kept his closest eye on was Dang Joong-myung.
Though he took comfort in the fact that Dang Joong-myung generally sought harmony within the clan, there was no telling when the elder might change his mind and rally the branch families around him.
And now, a mysterious master of unknown depth had aligned himself with that very man.
"Clan Leader, it seems we must investigate that bastard's past."
Hearing Dang Sa-oh's telepathic transmission at that precise moment, Dang Ho-ryung gave a subtle nod.
That bastard. He will pay dearly for daring to mock me.
With the Clan Leader's silent approval, Dang Sa-oh's eyes gleamed with a cold, venomous light.
Recalling the Tang Clan's unyielding tenet—to return any slight twofold—Dang Sa-oh's gaze grew exceedingly dangerous.
"Now then, let us proceed with the agenda for the upcoming assembly. We must secure the position of Alliance Leader and at least three other key seats. If the leadership itself is out of reach, we must obtain concessions of equal value."
As the topic shifted to steer the atmosphere in a new direction, the focus on Yoo-sung naturally faded.
Throughout the tedious meeting, Yoo-sung's eyes remained fixed on Dang Sa-oh.
A son-in-law of the Tang Clan harboring demonic energy. How intriguing.
Something highly entertaining was unfolding right before his eyes.
Once the stifling meeting finally concluded, Dang Hwa-young took Yoo-sung and Dang Hwa-soo to a nearby tavern to unwind after their grueling journey.
"Ha! I knew you were a reckless bastard, but I never imagined you'd actually say those things right to Dang Sa-oh's face!"
Borrowing a bit of liquid courage, Dang Hwa-soo blurted out the thoughts he had been holding back.
Dang Hwa-soo was a prominent member of the anti-Dang Sa-oh faction.
In fact, the primary source of internal conflict within the Tang Clan was Dang Sa-oh's disproportionately massive influence.
No matter how deeply he had been trusted by the previous Clan Leader, his origins lay outside the Tang Clan.
Despite this, the authority that Dang Ho-ryung and other core figures of the clan granted him was bizarrely immense.
"I always knew that bastard would get his comeuppance one day. His problem is that he mistakes the power he wields as his own."
"Hwa-soo, behave yourself," Dang Hwa-young, who had been listening quietly, chided him.
At his sister's warning, Dang Hwa-soo clicked his tongue and emptied his cup.
"Is that Dang Sa-oh fellow's position really that secure?" Yoo-sung asked, finding the situation somewhat puzzling.
"He was also the mentor of the current Clan Leader."
"So those rumors were true?"
At one point, rumors had circulated that Dang Sa-oh was Dang Ho-ryung's martial mentor.
Although the Tang Clan had quickly dismissed the rumors, the suspicion, once planted, lingered for a very long time.
"A mentor weaker than his disciple, huh?" Yoo-sung murmured.
"Some people possess a greater talent for teaching than for personal martial arts. Dang Sa-oh is one of them. The reason he earned the trust of the previous Clan Leader, the Poison King, was due to his sharp eye and deep understanding of martial principles."
"He sounds like a martial scholar."
Currently, back at the Heavenly Sword Academy, Do Yoo-chan was also seeking to walk the path of a martial scholar.
Since childhood, Yoo-chan had been far more interested in analyzing and deciphering martial arts than in his own physical training.
Now, with his dantian damaged, he was reviving those childhood instincts to contribute to the clan in any way he could.
Thanks to his efforts, he had been of far greater help to the academy's martial studies than either Yoo-sung or Bing-hwa had anticipated.
If Dang Sa-oh was similar to Do Yoo-chan, then the Tang Clan's absolute trust in him was entirely understandable.
However...
"Has no one ever questioned his past?"
"Of course they have."
There were many who had investigated Dang Sa-oh's past far more aggressively than Yoo-sung.
The branch members of the Tang Clan, in particular, had spared no effort in trying to uncover any weakness they could use against him.
"They tried utilizing the Tang Clan's internal intelligence network first, but when they realized it was futile, they changed their approach," Dang Hwa-soo explained.
"They even sought the help of the Beggars' Sect, but even they couldn't find anything out of the ordinary," Dang Hwa-young added.
Yoo-sung fell into deep thought at their replies.
The energy residing within Dang Sa-oh's body was faint, but it was undeniably demonic qi.
Moreover, it was a demonic energy accumulated through highly vile and repulsive means, suggesting that the demonic art he practiced was of a low, sinister grade.
While it might be difficult for the Clan Leader to doubt his own mentor...
There were plenty of exceptional martial artists around him, regardless of their personalities.
There is no way the Poison King didn't notice it.
If so, it meant the demonic art the man practiced was mysterious enough to deceive even the Poison King's senses.
I'll just have to watch and see. Fortunately, they happen to be nearby.
Yoo-sung recalled the information he had obtained a few days ago.
A diverse crowd of people had gathered for the official inauguration of the Sichuan Righteous Alliance.
While some sincerely wished to celebrate the alliance's birth, many others opposed it or were actively searching for any vulnerability to exploit.
I heard the eccentric monks of the Demon Slayer Temple are coming.
The Demon Slayer Temple was an organization that had emerged after the Great Matian War.
It was a temple established solely for the purpose of eradicating demonic practitioners, founded by rogue monks from Shaolin and other Buddhist devotees who had broken their vows against killing to wage a holy war.
Since they possessed an incredibly acute sensitivity to demonic qi, they would surely be able to detect the hidden darkness within Dang Sa-oh.
And if things didn't go as expected, he could simply stir the pot himself.
Things are going to get very interesting soon.
Was Dang Sa-oh truly the only anomaly here?
Yoo-sung was certain he wasn't.
There were bound to be others like Dang Sa-oh among the gathered crowd. How their confrontation with the Demon Slayer Temple would unfold...
It would certainly be entertaining to watch.
Just then—
"Do Yoo-sung!!!"
A harsh, roaring voice echoed as a group of martial artists burst into the tavern.
Bearing hostile gazes and menacing auras, they were Kwak Young and the men of the Cheondo Gate.