Chapter 260
Chapter 260
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 260
Chapter Title: The Demon Sword Sovereign Emerges
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In the Central Plains, within an antique office somewhere.
There sat an elderly man whose long white beard draped down just as imposingly as the towering stacks of documents before him.
As he signed papers, sorting matters to approve from those to discard, he eventually set his brush down for a moment.
Whew—
Pressing the back of his eyelids against the profound fatigue weighing on him, Je Gal Hak let out a deep breath.
As the Murim Alliance's chief strategist, he was arguably the one handling the most work within the alliance.
However, his current exhaustion wasn't purely physical.
Lately, a torrent of incoming reports had been grinding away at his spirit.
And among them, the biggest issue by far was...
'...The Heavenly Demon.'
It was Hyeok Mulin's movements.
Je Gal Hak had lived long enough to witness several Heavenly Demons come and go.
Yet he'd never encountered one as elusive and unpredictable as this—impossible to anticipate even one step ahead.
"Three into One. No, now it's Two into One."
What he muttered just now had become his greatest headache of late.
After the previous Heavenly Demon fell in the Nine Demons Realm, elevating new warriors from the righteous sects as candidates.
This scheme, dubbed "Three into One," had largely unfolded without much of his direct involvement.
The Beggar Clan had sketched the outline as the Nine Great Sects' representative, and Je Gal Hak had merely given final approval at the end.
He'd spotted a few flaws while signing off, but he'd let them slide.
After all, he figured no one sharp enough to notice those gaps would come along anyway.
'Who would've thought the Heavenly Demon Hyeok Mulin would be one of the few who did...'
The new title "Three into One" had barely spread across the martial world, and yet who could have predicted it would shrink to "Two into One" so soon?
Hyeok Mulin's response had upended everyone's expectations.
He'd made contact with the Three into One faster than anyone, reducing their numbers.
And by sparing the life of the famed romantic swordsman, the Wind Flow Sword Star, he'd even won the favor of the common folk.
With the first button fastened wrong, shaking off the unease afterward wouldn't be easy.
He'd applied some stopgap measures himself, but those were just temporary at best.
They couldn't resolve the root issue: the Three into One becoming Two into One while simultaneously elevating the Heavenly Demon's prestige.
Thinking of it brought a fresh wave of headache crashing over Je Gal Hak.
At that moment, urgent footsteps sounded outside the door, followed by a subordinate's voice.
"Strategist! Urgent report!"
With permission to enter granted, the subordinate burst into the office, panting as if he'd sprinted the distance in record time.
Je Gal Hak voiced his puzzlement at the sight.
"What has you rushing in like this?"
The subordinate, barely catching his breath, rattled off the news from the Beggar Clan without pause.
"The Demon Sword Sovereign has ended his seclusion and returned to the Cheon Clan, stepping to the forefront of the family!"
"...!"
Je Gal Hak's pupils dilated in an instant.
An ancient demon lord of the Demonic Cult was stirring?
Upon hearing the report, Je Gal Hak issued orders without delay.
"Raise the alert level across the entire Central Plains by two stages to respond swiftly to the Demonic Cult's movements. Deploy Beggar Clan informants heavily in Gansu and Qinghai to monitor the Shaanxi situation, and seek cooperation from the Kunlun Sect."
"Understood!"
The subordinate hurried out after receiving the command.
Left alone again in a flash, Je Gal Hak's white hair seemed to droop even lower.
A calamity seed of an entirely different magnitude had been planted, far beyond the documents he'd been handling.
It was just a report of one warrior appearing at the front of his clan, but it was news enough to shake the world.
In truth, examining the Demonic Cult's situation, the odds of his blade turning toward the Central Plains were low.
'His target is probably the Heavenly Demon.'
The Murim Alliance had records of the deep enmity between the Cheon Clan and Hyeok Mulin, and it seemed the Demon Sword Sovereign emerging from seclusion aimed to settle it once and for all.
Yet the reason for Je Gal Hak's somewhat excessive vigilance was simple.
Because he was an ancient demon lord of the Demonic Cult.
Even if the chance was slim, even a sliver of possibility. If the Demon Sword Sovereign changed his mind...
"...The mountains and rivers of the world would drown in blood."
As the Murim Alliance's strategist, he always had to anticipate and prepare for the worst.
All he could do was pray that future never came.
Gazing at the piled documents beside him, Je Gal Hak let out a heavy sigh.
"The paperwork from here on out will multiply several times over."
The Central Plains had unwittingly entered the eye of the storm.
"Kekekekekeke!"
"Kikikikikiki!"
In a lightless cavern somewhere in the Central Plains.
There, the Twin Brains—each clutching a letter in hand—burst into mad laughter.
After unleashing their ear-piercing cackles for a good while, the Twin Brains pulled back their torn grins and checked the letters again.
The scrawled handwriting mirrored the informant's frantic haste.
But none of that mattered.
What had driven the Twin Brains to peak excitement was the content of those letters.
"The Demon Sword Sovereign has stepped to the front!"
"That's it, right? It has to be!"
The Demon Sword Sovereign returning from seclusion.
For him to take the forefront of the Cheon Clan.
It was exceedingly rare for someone who had handed real power to the clan head and retired as honorary patriarch to return.
But the Twin Brains instinctively grasped the truth.
'The Heavenly Demon's stirred things up again.'
Though the Demon Sword Sovereign was the one moving, the trigger was undoubtedly tied to the Heavenly Demon. Of that, they were certain.
"This."
"What do we do?"
The right head and left head of the Twin Brains swiveled grotesquely to meet each other's gaze.
And they smiled in unison, declaring:
"Just sit back and watch?"
"Let's watch and do nothing!"
From their position, there was no need to get involved.
If the Demon Sword Sovereign stayed in Shaanxi, the Demonic Cult would plunge into chaos. And even if he set foot in the Central Plains, the Murim Alliance would have to block him first.
So the Twin Brains needed only to stand a step back and enjoy the spectacle.
"Kekekeke!"
"Kikikiki!"
For a time, the cavern echoed unrelentingly with the Twin Brains' laughter.
The Demon Sword Sovereign had returned.
And news of him stepping to the forefront of his clan ignited Shaanxi like nowhere else, unleashing tremendous repercussions.
Cheon Sumyeong, an ancient demon lord, embodied the pride of all demonic folk simply by existing. His countless feats in the jianghu had earned him their respect and admiration.
Now, such a figure stood at the head of the Cheon Clan.
Expectations surged that he would soon clash head-on with Hyeok Mulin, their longtime foe, plunging the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult into a storm-like frenzy.
The Cheon Clan's movements remained utterly composed.
Cheon Sumyeong simply graciously approved meeting requests from various clans and sects' notables, but even that alone dramatically shifted the tide.
Heads of prestigious families and leaders of renowned sects rushed in droves, bearing lavish gifts to pay their respects to Cheon Sumyeong.
Those who had waffled ambiguously toward Hyeok Mulin or stayed neutral now flocked to the Cheon Clan at the mere name of the Demon Sword Sovereign.
The prestige of an ancient demon lord—nay, the Demon Sword Sovereign—held value beyond any imagination.
And the one feeling this frontline upheaval more acutely than anyone was...
"My Lord, the Eastern Workshop Family has sent a letter halting all deliveries to the Manri Merchant Group."
Sima Jin, who received updates on the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's situation faster than anyone.
"Another one joins the list."
The Manri Merchant Group under Hyeok Mulin's control now faced an unprecedented crisis.
When Cheon Jungak had pressured it before, there had still been some breathing room.
Longtime partners bound by solid trust had honored their contracts.
But the situation now was entirely different.
"Every single trading partner has expressed intent to terminate contracts. They're even willing to pay the full cancellation fees."
Not a single partner remained; all had turned their backs on the Manri Merchant Group.
It wasn't due to coercion or pressure from the Cheon Clan.
On the contrary, they hadn't issued any threats or sanctions—they'd simply waited.
Yet those eager to forge ties with the Cheon Clan had severed their business with anything linked to Hyeok Mulin.
It was the natural judgment call: to grow close to the Cheon Clan meant distancing from Hyeok Mulin.
And this wasn't affecting Hyeok Mulin alone.
"Clans like the Yagul Clan are facing similar predicaments. It's gotten so bad that even sourcing liquor for our taverns in the music district is proving difficult."
Any group tied to Hyeok Mulin faced total isolation, their connections ruthlessly cut.
Those who couldn't endure broke off from Hyeok Mulin, restoring their status quo.
How many could withstand the pressure from the Cheon Clan and countless other prestigious families and sects?
Before long, Heavenly Mountain fell completely under the Cheon Clan's influence, with lines to Hyeok Mulin snapping one by one.
They preserved the Heavenly Demon's authority while steadily eroding Hyeok Mulin's power base.
Sima Jin spoke in a voice thick with utmost concern.
"My Lord, is it truly alright to stay idle like this?"
"Would anything change if we acted?"
"That's..."
Cheon Sumyeong's return was a disaster in itself.
Hyeok Mulin knew that making any hasty move could cause everything to crumble.
"Still, we should devise some countermeasures. If we do nothing, won't things play out exactly as the Cheon Clan intends?"
Even so, Sima Jin had been racking his brain for hundreds, thousands of possible responses—anything to struggle against this.
He couldn't bear the thought of being helplessly crushed without even fighting back.
But.
"You know as well as I do that drawing swords against the Cheon Clan right now is absolutely off-limits."
Rushing into a head-on clash when no immediate solution existed was not an option.
Setting aside Cheon Sumyeong's transcendent realm, they lacked any justification.
The Cheon Clan and Cheon Sumyeong were simply standing by.
Others were voluntarily cutting ties with Hyeok Mulin to align with them—there was no blaming the Cheon Clan for that.
Thus, even Sima Jin had found no viable way to break the current flow.
"But if this trend continues..."
Hyeok Mulin's faction would dwindle and dwindle, reverting to the isolation of his early days as Cult Leader.
No one by his side, powerless and a mere puppet Heavenly Demon.
Biting his lip at the dreadful vision, Sima Jin squeezed his eyes shut.
At that moment, Hyeok Mulin, watching him, curved his lips into a faint smile.
"Don't worry too much."
With Cheon Sumyeong's emergence, every circumstance had turned dire for Hyeok Mulin.
Yet his expression remained utterly serene.
"Even so, there are still places that haven't cut ties with me."
Cheon Sumyeong's appearance had unleashed an overwhelming wave across Shaanxi.
But the reason Hyeok Mulin could maintain his composure was clear.
"...!"
Sima Jin's eyes widened as he grasped the implication.
With a smirk at the sight, Hyeok Mulin turned his gaze to the window.
"Just wait."
Simply biding time would resolve it all naturally.