Chapter 168
Chapter 168
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 168
Chapter Title: A Perfectly Healthy Sect Leader
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The moment Hyeok Mulin entered Cheonggangpyo's line of sight, his face drained of color, all hope severed.
He's been tailing me.
He had been completely fooled by that man's claim of being alone, forgetting there was another figure named Sangseo.
In his haste, he hadn't even thought to check if anyone was following him before rushing here.
As Cheonggangpyo wore a look of utter dismay, Sangseo spat out her words in a bitterly cold voice.
"I trusted you."
He recognized her face all too well.
Mount Hua disciples always passed through the village whenever entering or leaving, naturally staying at the sub-mountain pavilion often.
Thus, Sangseo had built a rapport with him as the pavilion master.
That made her sense of betrayal all the sharper.
"But why would you do this?!"
At Sangseo's outburst of anger, Cheonggangpyo let out a hollow laugh before replying.
"On the contrary, let me ask you this, Elder. Did you ever truly see me as one of Mount Hua's own?"
"Of course—!"
"Then why has Mount Hua never given me the chance to learn the core sword arts?"
Cheonggangpyo was an ordinary lay disciple who had arrived at Mount Hua over a decade ago, rather late in life.
He had sought out the main sect with one burning desire: to master the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Techniques, the very essence of Mount Hua.
But that dream was impossible.
His background as a lay disciple.
His meager talent.
Connections, wealth.
Lacking in every regard, Cheonggangpyo had hit the limit and could never grasp Mount Hua's true essence.
Defeated, a spark ignited deep in his heart.
Rather than blame his own shortcomings, his fury boiled toward Mount Hua for rejecting him as he was.
What followed was simple.
He set aside his sword and stepped back from the front lines, taking charge of the sub-mountain pavilion in the village below.
Bribing such a man was no great feat for the Four Black Coalition.
After all, he bore Mount Hua's name on the surface while harboring constant resentment toward them in his heart.
"Not everyone can master Mount Hua's essence. Seizing that opportunity is a matter of ability."
"Spare me the excuses. I simply saw the true face of the righteous sects and was disillusioned."
With that, Cheonggangpyo drew his sword.
There was an iron cage behind him anyway, and nowhere left to run.
So he had to show that even a cornered rat could bite a cat.
"Raaah!"
Letting out a fierce kiai, Cheonggangpyo raised his sword high and charged at Sangseo.
But Sangseo looked at him with pitying eyes, deflecting his blade outward as if shoving it away.
The instant Cheonggangpyo lost his grip on his sword, she struck the nape of his neck with her blade's tip.
Cough!
With that single blow, Cheonggangpyo collapsed unconscious on the spot.
Sangseo slowly sheathed her sword. Watching the scene, Hyeok Mulin asked,
"Not killing him?"
"……."
At Hyeok Mulin's words, Sangseo glanced down at Cheonggangpyo.
Then she whipped her head around and said,
"I'll make him confess every detail of what happened here at the sect, then ensure he pays for his crimes."
She's merciful.
The righteous sects were righteous sects, and the Daoist sects were Daoist sects, after all.
Hyeok Mulin didn't approve of their way of handling traitors, but he had no intention of interfering further.
Mount Hua's affairs were Mount Hua's to resolve.
With that, Sangseo quickened her pace past Cheonggangpyo.
"Sect Leader!"
Sangseo hurried to the iron cage.
She gazed sorrowfully at the sect leader beyond the bars.
"To think you've been in this freezing cave... You must have endured the chill for so long...."
Sangseo looked at the sect leader with eyes full of worry.
And as she hurriedly struck the cage's lock with her sword to free him—
"……!"
For a split second, Sangseo's pupils dilated wide.
Sensing something, she whipped her head toward Hyeok Mulin.
"Hyeok Gong, be care—"
But she collapsed to the ground before finishing her words.
Hyeok Mulin, seeing Sangseo fall before the iron cage, lifted his gaze.
Sleeping poison, is it?
There was no detectable scent, but Hyeok Mulin sensed a subtle shift in the cave's air currents.
They had prepared contingencies to the end.
Hyeok Mulin slowly turned his body.
And he regarded the newly appeared masked figures at the cave entrance.
They were clad head to toe in black, hiding their identities, but one stood out unmistakably.
His prominent physique and distinctive predatory gaze were plain to see.
"Already the third time, is it?"
Once in the Demonic Martial God Battle.
Twice when he met the Twin Brains.
And now, three times.
Tuguang stood at the forefront of the masked group.
As if concealing his face didn't suit his temperament, the moment Hyeok Mulin recognized him, Tuguang flung off his mask.
"That's why I said there's no need for me to do this."
His face fully revealed, Tuguang grumbled at Hyeok Mulin.
"The situation is... I have no idea how it came to this."
Gazing at Hyeok Mulin and the sect leader slumped behind him, Tuguang continued.
"The Four Black Coalition has no intention of antagonizing the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. So, would you kindly step aside?"
"I can't do that. I have my own objectives here."
"I see."
Rejected outright, Tuguang nodded.
Their intentions clashed, but he couldn't back down.
His gaze turned inscrutable as he stared at Hyeok Mulin.
Why isn't the sleeping poison affecting him?
The poison filling the cave now was a long-refined sleeping toxin from the Four Black Coalition, potent enough to fell thousands of grown men effortlessly.
Thus, everyone on their side had preemptively taken antidotes and even worn poison-filtering masks as a double precaution.
Yet he had done nothing, showing not even a hint of the poison's influence.
I planned to grab just the sect leader and slip away once he dozed off.
He was the leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
Targeting his life would be a grave mistake.
The Four Black Coalition's true aim was the Murim Alliance—expanding the front unnecessarily was unwise.
No helping it.
With that, Tuguang shifted his plan.
Not capturing the sect leader, but eliminating him right here.
And that had been his contingency from the start.
That's why he had brought the Desperate Squad.
They were operatives trained directly by the Four Black Coalition, versed solely in the Blood Death Bursting Strike Art.
And what was that Blood Death Bursting Strike Art?
Simple.
It rapidly condensed all internal energy and innate true qi throughout the body, causing the flesh—unable to contain it—to rupture and explode in a suicidal blast.
A self-destruct technique, forsaking one's own life.
Thus, they were composed only of those with unwavering loyalty to the Coalition, raised to hurl themselves off cliffs without hesitation at their leader's command.
And now, they would fulfill the purpose of their lifelong training here.
"Perish."
At Tuguang's order, the masked figures moved without hesitation.
Scaling the walls to enter, they rushed past Hyeok Mulin toward the sect leader.
They intended mutual destruction with the sect leader via the Blood Death Bursting Strike Art.
As they closed in on the iron cage, light flashed from their bodies.
At that moment.
Slashslashslash.
Their lights extinguished in unison.
And the masked figures' heads fell neatly, without exception.
Tuguang's widened eyes turned to Hyeok Mulin.
He hadn't even seen when the sword was drawn, but Hyeok Mulin now held it at the ready.
Gulp.
Tuguang, who usually thrilled at battle, felt his blood run cold throughout his body.
This won't work.
He couldn't envision breaking past him to reach the sect leader.
As Tuguang instinctively began to back away step by step, Hyeok Mulin spoke.
"Retreating like that? Your name will ring out far."
Tuguang.
He was a man who had never once shown his back in battle since birth.
Hyeok Mulin's words might have trampled his pride, but he didn't care.
In the end, on the precipice of life and death, survival mattered most.
As Tuguang awkwardly shuffled backward, Hyeok Mulin said,
"Go. I have no desire to widen the battlefield with the Four Black Coalition over this."
This was merely a shadow struggle between righteous and demonic factions.
Hyeok Mulin had merely involved himself in Mount Hua's affairs for his own goals.
He had no intention of escalating their brief clash into all-out war between the Divine Cult and the Coalition.
However.
"You will pay the price for beholding my sword up close."
Shuuuuk!
In an instant, a streak of black sword light flashed before Tuguang's eyes.
With it, Tuguang let out an agonized scream.
"Gaaah!"
A vertical sword scar marred one of Tuguang's eyes.
Pain like his eye was burning surged through him, but he clutched the dripping blood and turned to flee.
Hyeok Mulin watched Tuguang bolt without looking back.
Turning then, he passed by the still-unconscious Sangseo and the cooling corpses of the masked intruders.
Approaching the iron cage, he regarded the white-haired elder slumped with depleted energy: Baek Hyeon-gyeong.
And he whispered emphatically into his ear.
"Wake up."
Baek Hyeon-gyeong slowly opened his eyes.
Raising his head languidly, he stared straight ahead and rasped,
"……Who are you?"
"Just a wanderer roaming the Central Plains. Elder Sang sought my aid to find you."
At those words, Baek Hyeon-gyeong surveyed his surroundings, spotting Sangseo collapsed outside the cage.
"Sangseo came here...."
His gaze soon shifted deeper into the cave.
Taking in the fallen sub-mountain pavilion master and the sprawled corpses around the cage, he spoke.
"What in the world happened here?"
"A tiresome mess."
He had come merely to meet the sect leader, only to end up rescuing him personally.
Even he hadn't anticipated Mount Hua harboring an inside man.
"But it's over now. Come out."
Hyeok Mulin gazed steadily at Baek Hyeon-gyeong as he said it.
His eyes scanned the man's body before fixing on one spot.
"I knew from the start."
Staring at Baek Hyeon-gyeong's dantian, Hyeok Mulin murmured coldly.
"That your condition."
"Was perfectly normal."