Storm Brewing (4)
The heavy thud echoed like a thunderclap.
“Goddammit.”
The fist that slammed into the table radiated a terrifying fury.
“Did that bastard notice?”
This was the first time he had actually sat down and spoken face-to-face with Yeon Hojeong.
In truth, he already knew why the cult had been watching Yeon Hojeong so closely.
Yeon Hojeong had killed Yayul Jeok with his own hands, and So Bang had vanished without a trace. The power base in Guangdong Province that the cult had spent years carefully cultivating had been obliterated in a single moment.
And that wasn’t all.
Yeon Hojeong had also been present during the life-or-death battle against the martial generals of the Shinwha Sect. According to reports, he and Yeon Wi had played decisive roles in driving back Beon Jak, the First Martial General.
There was even a strong possibility that Yeon Hojeong had been the first to discover the Shinwha Sect’s intelligence outpost near the Martial Alliance.
In other words, Yeon Hojeong had been involved in every major clash between the Martial Alliance and the Three Sects.
Despite knowing all of that, he had never considered Yeon Hojeong particularly dangerous. The boy’s talent, insight, and cunning were certainly impressive, but he believed the limits of youth were obvious.
No matter how much of a genius someone was, they could never overcome decades of hardened experience.
It was undeniable that Yeon Hojeong had run wild in critical locations, but the one truly supporting him from behind was someone else. That was what he had believed.
It wasn’t Jegal Mun-ho.
The real monster—the one who had used Yeon Hojeong as a long-term piece on the board, systematically eliminating the experts of the Shinwha and Saeum Sects with razor-sharp vision.
He had thought that monster was Jegal Mun-ho.
In fact, the presence Jegal Mun-ho had displayed during the recent meeting had been truly overwhelming. Realizing the man had been hiding such capability all this time sent a fresh chill down his spine.
But after meeting Yeon Hojeong today, he realized he needed to completely revise his thinking.
It wasn’t Jegal Mun-ho. No… more accurately, it was most likely a collaboration between Yeon Hojeong and Jegal Mun-ho.
Goosebumps erupted across his entire body.
Yeon Hojeong hadn’t even tried to hide himself. And yet, he—and the vast majority of others—had looked past Yeon Hojeong to the man standing behind him.
Only now did he finally understand.
Just how dangerous Yeon Hojeong truly was. That the central figure who had actually driven back the experts of the Three Sects wasn’t Jegal Mun-ho, but Yeon Hojeong himself.
He saw me.
One of the most essential qualities for becoming a spy was intuition.
An instinct that couldn’t be explained by logic. A sensitive temperament capable of detecting approaching danger and reading the air itself.
He possessed that quality. And his innate sixth sense had fully blossomed thanks to his advanced martial arts and peak-level inner energy.
That instinct was screaming at him.
He was watching me more closely than Bok-ho. Our eyes didn’t meet often, but every ounce of that bastard’s attention was focused on me.
Pung-byeok-ja bit his lip.
“I haven’t escaped the stage of suspicion yet. But it’s only a matter of time before he tightens the noose.”
Beyond his intuition, one of the reasons he believed Yeon Hojeong suspected him was the reaction he had shown.
The overwhelming shockwave unleashed when Pae Yul of the Jeomchang Sect and the Qingcheng swordsman clashed had been powerful enough to shake the inner energy of even someone as tense as he was.
Pung-byeok-ja remembered that sensation. That exact moment.
The instant his unintentionally disturbed inner energy had briefly revealed the core of the ‘mask’ hidden within it.
And the look in Yeon Hojeong’s eyes as he caught that moment and stared directly at him.
No. I need to change my thinking. I should assume he doesn’t just suspect me—he’s certain. That’s how I need to move.
Pung-byeok-ja felt the crisis closing in.
Dammit! Just when everything was falling into place…!
He was an outstanding talent as a spy. But he had never once faced a real threat.
From the beginning, he had been raised as the leader of the Qingcheng Sect with the sole purpose of embedding himself in the Martial Alliance. That was why he had never experienced the kind of life-threatening danger that many other spies had faced.
Perhaps that was the reason.
His mind knew he needed to stay calm, but calming down wasn’t easy. One wrong move and decades of work as a spy could vanish into thin air.
That reality—that crushing pressure—kept disturbing his composure.
I can’t just keep being dragged along passively like this.
When an enemy suspects you, there are three possible escape routes.
First, shift the suspicion onto someone else so the enemy withdraws their doubts.
Second, let them suspect you but create a massive incident that draws their attention elsewhere, allowing you to slip away.
And third, silently kill the person who suspects you without anyone ever knowing.
What should I do?
The most stable option was the first.
If he could pin the suspicion on someone else and make them believe they had caught the spy, the doubt would never return to him. Once someone was cleared of suspicion, they were rarely suspected again.
Of course, the most certain method was the third. If he killed both Yeon Hojeong and Jegal Mun-ho, the resulting chaos would reach its peak, and he would be safe as well.
The second option is unusable.
Pung-byeok-ja’s eyes darkened.
If I do that, I’ll be the one who dies.
Even if he successfully escaped and fled safely, would his safety be guaranteed?
Absolutely not. From the start, he had been cultivated as a spy for the orthodox martial world. If such a spy fled out of fear for his life, the Three Sects would never let him live.
No matter what, I have no choice but to take a risky gamble.
Pung-byeok-ja’s face twisted in frustration.
“Dammit, why is that bastard nowhere to be seen at a time like this? He should know this isn’t the time to be absent!”
The administrator was someone with intuition as sharp as his own.
His stealth techniques had reached an extreme level, nearly rivaling that of the Shadow God himself. It was only natural, since he too had been raised from birth to live as an administrator.
If he wanted to, he could slip out of the Tang Family’s underground prison, the Black Dragon Department, or even the imperial palace’s dungeon with ease. There was no place he could not infiltrate.
Thanks to that, he knew everything. Whenever something important happened, he would approach using stealth techniques so perfect that even Pung-byeok-ja couldn’t detect him, observe the situation, and then disappear.
Did he come this time too?
He might not have. But if he had, he would have realized just how dangerous Yeon Hojeong truly was.
Enough. There’s no point waiting for someone who isn’t here.
In the end, he had to make a decision.
The first method… shifting suspicion onto someone else is fine, but the key is how deep Yeon Hojeong’s suspicion of me runs.
If he was already close to certain, then trying to deflect suspicion would be pointless. It would only make him look like he was desperately struggling because he was cornered.
In that case?
“……”
“I have no choice.”
A murderous glint flashed in Pung-byeok-ja’s eyes.
“I’ll just have to kill them both—Yeon Hojeong and Jegal Mun-ho.”
Yeon Hojeong did not go to see Jegal Mun-ho.
Instead, he first called for Yeon Wi, Dang Gwan, and Moyong Gun.
“How did it go?”
At Dang Gwan’s question, Yeon Hojeong answered immediately.
“Two people are definitely suspicious.”
“Hmm.”
A troubled look crossed Yeon Wi’s face.
“Seunghyeon Jinin and Bok-ho Satae.”
When they had gathered to compile their information, the two most suspicious individuals had been Seunghyeon Jinin of the Wudang Sect and Bok-ho Satae of the Emei Sect.
Yeon Hojeong shook his head.
“No, that’s not who I’m talking about.”
“Then who?”
“Seunghyeon Jinin is certainly suspicious. If we assume that the spy from the Three Sects has mastered the martial arts of the Nine Great Sects, can hide himself perfectly, and performs the role of sect leader better than anyone else, then there is no one more suspicious than Seunghyeon Jinin.”
He had felt Seunghyeon Jinin’s sincerity.
But that didn’t mean he had erased his suspicions. On the contrary, the fact that the man seemed so perfectly like a Daoist only made him more suspicious.
“If Seunghyeon Jinin really is a spy for the enemy… that would be no ordinary threat.”
If a spy existed in any of the Nine Great Sects, it would be frightening enough.
But the Wudang Sect was different. If the sect leader of Wudang—one of the two pillars alongside Shaolin—was a spy for the enemy?
If that were true, it would mean the Three Sects had no limits. While the same could be said for other sects, Wudang’s martial arts, like Shaolin’s, placed great importance on one’s character.
If the spy could fool even the most seasoned elders of the Daoist sect, he was no ordinary monster.
Moreover, the Wudang Sect possessed the strongest expert of the current generation.
The Sword Immortal, Tak-mu-ja.
He was a half-immortal whose martial prowess and enlightenment were said to surpass even the Fist God of Shaolin.
If even Tak-mu-ja had been deceived, then no one could stop him. With that level of mental fortitude, he would continue acting as the leader of Wudang until the very moment of his death.
To be honest, there are plenty of reasons to suspect him. Looking at Seunghyeon Jinin’s past, he lived a considerably cold and turbulent life compared to now. In a way, his desire to become sect leader seems fiercer than anyone else’s.
Yeon Hojeong’s expression darkened.
But…
There were many grounds for suspicion, but when it came to pure instinct, he could not smell the scent of a spy on Seunghyeon Jinin.
“Then who is the other person you’re thinking of? Wasn’t it Bok-ho Satae?”
Yeon Hojeong’s eyes gleamed.
“Before meeting her, I did suspect Bok-ho Satae. According to the information we all analyzed, she clearly lived her youth with an excessively emphasized sense of justice. And judging by her actions up until becoming an elder, she had just as much ambition as Seunghyeon Jinin.”
Having a strong sense of justice didn’t mean one lacked the desire for status. Anyone could dream of becoming the best and standing at the peak while commanding others.
“However, I found Pung-byeok-ja even more suspicious than Bok-ho Satae.”
Moyong Gun’s eyes narrowed.
“Qingcheng?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you feel that way?”
“Well… truthfully, if I look at it coldly, there’s no clear reason to suspect him. But…”
Yeon Hojeong frowned.
“I got the feeling that something was… sculpted.”
“Sculpted?”
“Yes. It felt like he had been perfectly carved to fulfill that exact role. Honestly, my gut told me he was far more suited to being a spy than either Seunghyeon Jinin or Bok-ho Satae.”
Yeon Wi, Dang Gwan, and Moyong Gun exchanged glances.
They all knew how exceptional Yeon Hojeong’s intuition was. But since they hadn’t seen it for themselves, it wasn’t easy to fully accept his words.
“Of course, it’s only a feeling. Circumstantial evidence without physical proof is worth less than half of nothing.”
“Mm.”
“There’s no concrete evidence, but I deliberately asked Senior Pae Yul to have a spar with the Qingcheng swordsman. I wanted to observe a few things…”
“And?”
“After the shockwave that shook the entire residence, Pung-byeok-ja’s inner energy fluctuated. And within that energy, I sensed that he had trained in something other than Qingcheng’s martial arts.”
It was a continuous stream of words like “feeling” and “instinct.” Even Yeon Hojeong knew his statements lacked credibility.
But the three family heads did not dismiss his words lightly.
At their level, there were more times when they followed their senses rather than pure logic. Moreover, Yeon Hojeong was a true powerhouse that none of them present could easily defeat.
“One thing is certain, though. The spy will soon try to kill either me, the strategist, or both of us.”
“…!”
“That is the only option left for the spy. There is a very slim chance he might try to shift the seed of suspicion onto someone else, but…”
Yeon Hojeong’s eyes shone sharply.
“We need to force him into a corner. If we start pressuring the spy from now on, his assassination attempt will come even sooner. That will be our first decisive battleground.”