Chapter 303
Chapter 303
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 303
Chapter Title: Blood Chain Rakshasa's Return
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In a deep valley, deep into the night.
Grgggggrrr.
The heavy scraping of iron against the mountain floor echoed far and wide.
It was a sound that would draw the attention of the beasts in the mountains, yet no presence could be felt anywhere nearby.
Instead, the presences fled farther away as if escaping from it, with not a single animal daring to approach.
Even the kings of the mountains instinctively avoided him.
Continuing onward alone, he soon came to a halt midway up the mountainside.
Before his eyes loomed a sheer cliff with an astonishingly steep incline.
He glanced up at its central section for a moment before launching one arm upward.
Ching!
With that motion, a sharp chain shot forward and struck the midpoint of the cliff, then pulled straight down in a taut line.
At that moment.
Kugugugugu—
The cliff split in half and parted like a gate opening.
It was a hidden lair covered in intricate mechanisms, one that no outsider could ever enter without knowing the exact procedure.
The metallic grinding sound headed inward, and soon the parted cliff seamlessly returned to its original state, leaving no trace behind.
Grgggggrrr.
Within the dim light emanating from somewhere, he pressed on.
The path was a straight tunnel, but the interior seemed laid with some kind of formation as well.
The ground slanted diagonally as if tilted at an angle, and each step brought a damp, unpleasant sensation crawling over his entire body.
As if trying to prevent him from advancing further.
Yet he ignored all such obstructions with an expressionless face and strode straight ahead.
After passing through the tunnel, several forks appeared, but he disregarded the left and right paths, always sticking to the center.
After navigating a few more forks, even the faint light faded away.
Though complete darkness now blanketed everything, his footsteps did not falter.
He relied not on sight, but on his senses to continue forward.
Had it been anyone short of his level of mastery, they would have surely lost their sense of direction, veered into a wrong path, and wandered eternally in an endless loop for the rest of their lives.
Pressing straight on like this, he soon reached the end of the cavern.
But it was a dead end.
No way forward, no side paths—nowhere left to go.
Yet he did not turn back.
Thud.
He placed a hand against the front wall and infused it with internal energy, sending dozens of streams of qi spreading through the surface.
And at the end of that.
Kuboom.
The dead-end wall sank into the floor.
Light became visible once more, and before long, he stepped beyond the vanished wall.
Torches blazed in all four directions.
Thousands of documents scattered haphazardly around.
A desk cluttered with scrolls and letters, and a single figure holding a brush.
The man seated in the chair slowly turned his head and parted his lips in a smile.
"Back already?"
"Blood Chain Rakshasa."
The Great Overseer of the Four Black Lotuses, Twin Brains, greeted Blood Chain Rakshasa warmly.
Confirming his surroundings, Twin Brains nodded and spoke.
"Coming alone means..."
"You've judged that he's not one to join us after all, right?"
In truth, it was Twin Brains who had urged Blood Chain Rakshasa to attend the Manchurian Great Night Festival.
He had arranged for Blood Chain Rakshasa to meet Choe Paegwang directly, to gauge the man's character.
Choe Paegwang, who had risen as the head of the Manchurian Conference, was undoubtedly a figure from the unorthodox sects.
But being unorthodox and joining the Four Black Lotuses were two entirely different matters.
Twin Brains knew Choe Paegwang had shown positive leanings toward the Four Black Lotuses, but he needed to confirm if the man could truly walk the same path as a comrade.
"It was somewhat expected, wasn't it?"
"Choe Paegwang's always been a stubborn one with a strong ego."
Choe Paegwang's martial prowess was quite tempting.
Even if entangled with the Murim Alliance, hadn't he been a prime candidate for Ancient Martial Venerable?
If a warrior of that caliber joined the Four Black Lotuses, their forces would surge immediately—no denying it.
Yet even so, he required meticulous vetting.
What the Four Black Lotuses needed was a dog that obeyed its master; a dog that raised its head with its own opinions was unnecessary.
However.
"Great Overseer."
Blood Chain Rakshasa, who had been silent, finally spoke in a subdued tone, denying Twin Brains' words.
"I... never met Choe Paegwang."
"What do you mean by that?"
Twin Brains whipped his head around, frowning as he continued.
"I clearly sent a letter to the Manchurian Conference in advance."
"Did that bastard suddenly change his mind and turn you away at the door?"
Blood Chain Rakshasa slowly shook his head.
"By the time... I arrived, there was already a guest."
"What guest all of a sudden?"
"Who else would come looking for Choe Paegwang besides us?"
Twin Brains tilted his head, his face showing utter incomprehension.
Then Blood Chain Rakshasa gave his answer.
"The Demonic Cult."
"...!"
"What did you say?"
"The Heavenly Demon and Sword Venerable were already there."
Hyeok Mulin and Cheon Sumyeong!
Twin Brains' eyes widened at the response.
"No way."
"You mean..."
"Yes. Choe Paegwang died by the Heavenly Demon's hand."
"...!"
Twin Brains then heard the full report: Choe Paegwang's death, the confrontation with Sword Venerable, and the dissolution of the Manchurian Conference.
Upon grasping the situation, Twin Brains fell deep into thought, his left and right heads exchanging glances.
The dissolution of the Manchurian Conference left even him with a twinge of regret.
Even if Choe Paegwang didn't join the Four Black Lotuses, he had planned to maintain ties with the Conference.
'But now even that's impossible.'
With the Conference's leader dead and its warriors scattered.
And at the center of it all was Hyeok Mulin.
Previously, Twin Brains had felt great intrigue toward this utterly anomalous existence called Hyeok Mulin.
And that spark of interest still burned.
However.
"...Dangerous."
Now, his wariness overshadowed that intrigue.
Even if the Heavenly Demon had swayed most of the Seven Great Demon Clans, resolving conflicts with Sword Venerable wouldn't be easy.
Twin Brains had assumed he wouldn't have the leisure to step into unorthodox territories, so watching from a distance would suffice.
Who could have foreseen him traversing the Central Plains alongside Sword Venerable, heading straight for the Manchurian Conference?
It wasn't certain yet if the Cheon Clan had fully aligned with the Heavenly Demon, but Sword Venerable himself clearly took an interest in Hyeok Mulin.
"Hyeok Mulin again."
His sudden appearance had once more disrupted Twin Brains' plans.
In this situation, he could no longer afford to merely observe with interest.
Frowning, Twin Brains gripped his brush and began penning a letter to somewhere.
"Military Strategist Jeogal! Word that the Manchurian Conference has collapsed and Choe Paegwang is dead...!"
"I've already heard. Calm yourself."
Jeogal Hak, the veteran strategist of the Murim Alliance, stood with hands clasped behind his back, gazing intently at the clouds beyond the window as he spoke.
His voice was calm, unlike his subordinate's, but his mind was far from at ease.
The entire Murim Alliance was in an uproar over the news from the Manchurian Conference.
'The spies I sent to monitor just in case brought back intelligence I never anticipated.'
Jeogal Hak had dispatched Alliance spies to the Manchurian Great Night Festival.
Having closely watched the Conference's recent movements, Choe Paegwang, and the Four Black Lotuses' tendencies, he was certain they would make contact soon.
The perfect timing was the Great Night Festival.
Thus, he predicted that Choe Paegwang and one of the Four Black Lotuses' top experts would meet there, and sent spies to observe.
And his prediction proved correct.
Indeed, on the final day of the Festival, Blood Chain Rakshasa of the Four Black Lotuses appeared.
But what followed was intelligence beyond all expectation.
'For the Heavenly Demon to show up there.'
Accompanied by Sword Venerable, no less, leaving even Blood Chain Rakshasa unable to act freely.
And in the end, Choe Paegwang lost his life to the Heavenly Demon.
"Hoo..."
Jeogal Hak let out a heavy sigh.
The dismantling of the unorthodox Manchurian Conference indirectly weakened the Four Black Lotuses' forces, which could be seen as a good thing.
It wasn't wrong.
But a far greater problem had arisen on top of that.
And that encroaching issue was none other than Heavenly Demon Hyeok Mulin.
The Four Black Lotuses' movements were tricky but not unpredictable.
But Hyeok Mulin's actions were utterly unforeseeable.
He existed in a realm beyond prediction.
Who could have known?
That the Heavenly Demon would roam the Central Plains with Sword Venerable in tow and slay Choe Paegwang, who was mingling with the Four Black Lotuses.
For Jeogal Hak, Hyeok Mulin's sudden moves posed a bigger threat than the Four Black Lotuses' potentially rising power, which was difficult but predictable.
'We just discussed the Heavenly Demon at the council not long ago, and now he renders it all meaningless.'
Each report on Hyeok Mulin only deepened Jeogal Hak's mounting concerns day by day.
At that moment, his subordinate, who had belatedly relayed the news, spoke in a stiff voice.
"Strategist. Doesn't this amount to the Heavenly Demon openly declaring his bid for Ancient Martial Venerable?"
Already two of the Three Stars One Sun had fallen.
One lost his life, the other cleanly admitted defeat.
News of Choe Paegwang's death at the Heavenly Demon's hands would soon spread across the land.
Hyeok Mulin's reputation would undoubtedly soar even higher among the people.
After all, the Murim Alliance's touted candidates for Ancient Martial Venerable were being toppled by him one after another.
"Then his next target must be the Shandong Yak Clan. We need to dispatch reinforcements from the Alliance immediately and bolster defenses in the Shandong region!"
His subordinate's assessment was a perfectly logical prediction.
To claim the title of Ancient Martial Venerable, Hyeok Mulin had to defeat the last remaining member of the Three Stars One Sun. Thus, the Shandong Yak Clan was the obvious next stop.
And Jeogal Hak knew it was the prevailing theory.
But.
That assumed a normal scenario.
'The opponent is that Hyeok Mulin.'
The Heavenly Demon whose next step no one could foresee.
After a brief yet profound moment of contemplation with eyes closed, Jeogal Hak slowly parted his lips.
"Send the Diamond Protector Squad to the Shandong Yak Clan."
To the end, he wasn't fully convinced that deploying the Alliance's elite guard unit—tasked with protecting the headquarters—to the Shandong Yak Clan was the right call.
From what he had observed of Hyeok Mulin so far, it felt like he would choose a different path altogether right now.
Yet in the current circumstances, there was only one choice available.
Make the best possible decision to avert the worst outcome.