Chapter 46
Chapter 46
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: The Traitors' Demise
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“……!”
When Sima Jin appeared from the rear, Hwang Gibok and Hyeok Gwan froze for a moment.
However, they exchanged glances with each other, and soon Hwang Gibok spoke up with feigned nonchalance.
“What brings the Deputy Military Strategist all the way here?”
They immediately played dumb about the current situation.
Officially, the two of them were the Hyeok Clan's Chief Steward and the Falling Petals Unit Leader.
So without any evidence, there was nothing particularly suspicious about the two making contact.
Fortunately, Sima Jin had shown up right when they were about to spill something crucial.
But Sima Jin's response sent a chill down their spines.
“I sent a cat to catch the rats, but if those two are in cahoots, of course they wouldn't get caught.”
“……!”
“Enough with the bad acting.”
Hwang Gibok flinched at the tone that implied he already knew everything, but he stuck to his denial anyway.
“Haha, I have no idea what you're talking about.”
Sima Jin then curled his lips into a faint sneer.
“I've thought it was suspicious from the start. The finances have been on a smooth downward curve for decades without a single inflection point.”
Finances typically follow the general situation unless there are major directives.
When there's a poor harvest, grain prices rise and belts tighten. When vicious crimes break out, powerful martial clans naturally profit.
Thus, finances commonly fluctuate with the times, but the Hyeok Clan was different.
Even though they must have faced varying circumstances each year, the annual financial statements always showed a decline from the previous year.
“So I figured there had to be a hole somewhere. The key to widening the gap between revenue and expenditure.”
And that was none other than...
Sima Jin's gaze shifted to Hyeok Gwan, who stood rigidly beside him.
“Military supplies.”
Among the financial records, all items purchased at prices higher than standard transactions were military goods.
Of course, the records claimed they were top-grade items justifying the premium, but upon personal inspection, the quality was utterly mediocre.
“Currently, only two people in the Hyeok Clan have authority over military supplies. If even one of them wasn't a mole, I would have reported the unfair dealings.”
Yet the Chief Steward and Falling Petals Unit Leader had turned a blind eye for decades.
No one who truly cared for the Hyeok Clan could have done such a thing.
“You're grasping at straws. All that rambling is just your suspicions, isn't it? Quite the leap.”
But they refused to admit it to the end, insisting on their innocence.
Then Sima Jin delivered the final blow.
“Taeeun Merchant Group.”
They froze.
“You can't claim ignorance. It's the very group that's been colluding with you to drag the Hyeok Clan into the abyss.”
The characters in the gold pouch given by the Cult Leader.
That single phrase untangled the messy knot in an instant.
On the surface, the Taeeun Merchant Group had no ties to the Hyeok Clan.
There were no records of direct transactions with the Hyeok Clan, and it had never influenced their finances in any way.
‘But that's exactly what aroused suspicion.’
A group large enough to rank among the top ten merchant associations in the Shin River region, yet it had never once traded with the Seven Great Demon Clans' Hyeok Clan?
Impossible unless they were deliberately avoiding it.
That's why Sima Jin had tasked the Secret Affairs Hall with investigating the Taeeun Merchant Group, and the results confirmed it.
“Isn't it strange? Not a single direct transaction, yet countless indirect ones.”
Even without direct deals, indirect transactions through other merchants had occurred innumerable times.
All the traded goods were military supplies, priced higher than market rates, and the person who ultimately inspected and approved them was...
“Hyeok Gwan, that was you.”
Sima Jin had pieced together the entire situation and pegged the Chief Steward and Falling Petals Unit Leader as moles.
Afterward, he informed only the Clan Patriarch and set a trap.
Announcing that the Deputy Military Strategist had concluded the investigation and withdrawn.
Sure enough, the silent Chief Steward had hauled his heavy frame into action, and they tailed him quietly.
Until these ugly traitors revealed their true faces.
“…….”
Dry sweat trickled down Hwang Gibok's cheek, who had been denying everything until now.
Sima Jin put the period on it while watching him.
“Even if you rush to the Taeeun Merchant Group now to falsify the ledgers, it's too late. I ordered a seizure and search an hour ago—they're probably being turned upside down as we speak.”
Of course, this was just Sima Jin bluffing.
But it served as an excellent catalyst, making them believe their last foothold was gone and spurring them to act.
Hyeok Gwan, who had been silently holding his tongue until then, finally spoke slowly.
“Deputy Strategist, did you come alone?”
“Finally showing your true colors. Do you plan to silence the Cult Leader's right-hand man?”
“What's to stop me? To survive, I'd kill even the Cult Leader if needed.”
Sima Jin furrowed his brow at those words.
“Don't you know insolence toward the Cult Leader means summary execution?”
“Do as you like.”
Either way, failure to kill meant death.
“If you can still say that!”
Hyeok Gwan charged straight ahead in an instant, drawing his sword simultaneously.
He closed the distance in a flash and thrust his blade in a straight line at Sima Jin's throat.
‘Got him!’
The Deputy Strategist seemed to realize it was too late, standing with hands clasped behind his back, making no attempt to defend.
So he fully extended his arm, certain of the kill.
But what the sword tip met wasn't flesh—it was a lump of steel.
Clang!
Danri Hyang appeared, blocking his path and clashing blades.
The two swords pressed together, testing strength as their faces came into view.
“...The Divine Demon Blood Death Squad.”
Hyeok Gwan shoved the sword away and retreated, creating distance.
Danri Hyang fixed him with ice-cold eyes and declared,
“Falling Petals Unit Leader. By the cult's laws, I hereby execute you on the spot.”
“Quite the bravado.”
The Cult Leader's personal guard.
He'd heard the rumors.
But rumors were often exaggerated, weren't they?
Hyeok Gwan felt no fear toward this young punk before him.
Thud!
Danri Hyang kicked off the ground and advanced, his sword slicing toward Hyeok Gwan's waist.
However, Hyeok Gwan swung his blade to block the momentum, then countered with a natural flow.
“……!”
In that instant, Danri Hyang reflexively twisted his head aside.
Simultaneously, the blade grazed past his ear, the sword wind tousling his hair.
He hadn't thought and moved—it was pure instinct that saved his life.
‘He lives up to the name of Falling Petals Leader. No room for carelessness.’
Facing the brink of life and death, Danri Hyang gripped his hilt steadily without flinching.
He charged at Hyeok Gwan's face, swinging his sword like the wind.
“Think that'll make me back off?”
Hyeok Gwan sneered, curling his lip viciously.
And he lunged forward as well.
In no time, the two swordsmen were at punching distance, engaging in close-quarters combat.
Fierce demonic energy emanated from Hyeok Gwan's blade tip, heading for Danri Hyang's solar plexus.
But Danri Hyang didn't block the sword path. Instead, he raised his sword and brought it down from above as if to split his head.
‘How did he spot it as a feint!’
Hyeok Gwan hastily withdrew his sword and ducked to block.
However, Danri Hyang fluidly deflected his blade downward like flowing water.
A red line traced across Hyeok Gwan's shoulder, blood bursting forth.
“Kuhk!”
To think he'd hidden such a move.
Rumors weren't always inflated, it seemed.
Hyeok Gwan had no time to clutch his shoulder and check the wound.
The blade clash rushed at him again immediately.
The two swords clashed wildly in the air.
And as time passed, Danri Hyang's offense grew fiercer.
Hyeok Gwan's face gradually hardened.
‘Should have gone all out in that first ambush!’
He bitterly regretted not unleashing full power then.
Wounds accumulated, pain throbbing through his body.
At this rate, he'd be cornered and killed.
He needed a final breakthrough.
And so he drew his last resort.
Gripping the hilt tight to not let go, he swung the sword left, then right—fifteen consecutive storm-like strikes.
The secret sword art Hyeok Gwan had diligently practiced in hiding but not yet perfected. Still, its power rivaled the world's best: Wind-Sweeping Fifteen Swords.
His wrist snapped from the rapid horizontal sweeps, but he didn't stop.
If this attack didn't kill, he was dead anyway.
‘He's staking everything on this.’
Danri Hyang's eyes sharpened amid the flurry of strikes aimed at him.
Tremendous power, fueled not just by demonic energy but even some innate true qi, bore down on him.
He focused on the overlapping dozen sword shades.
‘Can't dodge by moving to the rear or flank.’
The answer was...
‘Straight ahead.’
Instead of retreating from the oncoming strikes, Danri Hyang thrust forward like an arrow.
His sword bent sinuously like a serpent, the path curving wildly.
The third form of the Danhyang Demon Sword: Twisting Serpent Sword.
The two sword arts collided head-on.
And the result came without a single breath's delay.
“…….”
“…….”
Their forms overlapped.
Yet Hyeok Gwan's sword cleaved empty air, while Danri Hyang's pierced his lung.
Moments later, as Danri Hyang withdrew his blade, Hyeok Gwan toppled forward helplessly.
The dead man would never rise again.
Danri Hyang looked down at him, exhaling raggedly in relief.
‘The Danhyang Demon Sword saved my life.’
If he'd clung to the Danri Clan's sword to the end, hesitated even a moment in swinging, or failed to master the Danhyang Demon Sword's forms, he'd be the one fallen here.
Gazing at his blade, Danri Hyang felt gratitude once more for the Cult Leader's grace.
With the situation resolved, Sima Jin slowly stepped forward.
He fixed Hwang Gibok with a chilling gaze and said,
“Now, you're the only one left.”
Hyeok Clan, Punishment Chamber.
A man bound tightly to a chair there wailed in agony.
“Kughhh—!”
Without a gag, he might have bitten his tongue and ended it all—the excruciating pain seeped into his very bones.
Yet since he uttered nothing but screams, two warriors looking down at him frowned.
“At this rate, we'll have a corpse to haul. Brutal stuff.”
“Damn, the stench of rotting flesh—let's take a break and continue.”
The two shook their heads and stepped out of the chamber for a moment.
Thud.
As the door closed, Hwang Gibok finally caught his breath.
His appearance was no longer human.
His body was shredded like a rag, face swollen purple—unrecognizable as the Chief Steward without identification.
He was blind, teeth all pulled, nails and toenails gone.
The branding torture had filled the air with the acrid stink of seared flesh piercing his nose.
The Hyeok Clan's method of handling moles was savage and vicious, enough to send chills down the spine.
But even so, he hadn't broken.
No matter the torment, he never confessed his backers.
‘It's not over yet.’
Only the mole in the Hyeok Clan and the Taeeun Merchant Group tail had been caught.
If he kept his mouth shut, the outcome wouldn't change.
Creeeak—
The door opened with footsteps—he steeled his resolve once more.
‘I'll die before I talk.’
Could he ruin the plan inherited from his father?
He intended to maintain silence as before.
However.
“Stubborn one.”
“……?”
The voice in his ear wasn't his torturers'.
But so familiar that, turning toward it, someone approached and removed his gag. Hwang Gibok unwittingly moved his pale, cracked lips.
“……Cult Leader?”
“It's been a while, Chief Steward.”
No doubt.
The voice belonged to Hyeok Mulin.
Realizing this, Hwang Gibok let out a hollow laugh.
After all the torture failed to break him, they'd called the Cult Leader for persuasion?
The Hyeok Clan was more foolish than he thought.
The Cult Leader's presence wouldn't shake his resolve.
“I didn't expect you'd summon the Cult Leader himself when torture failed.”
But Hyeok Mulin, silently watching him, said something unexpected.
“No need to confess about the mole or backers. That's not what interests me.”
Hyeok Mulin stared intently at him.
And soon, he spoke firmly again.
“Tell me why.”
Hwang Gibok fell silent at the question.
After a moment, he faintly lifted the corner of his mouth.
“Cult Leader, do you know this? A wolf that encounters a tiger abandons its den and flees. Even if it's the homeland it's lived in all its life.”
“…….”
“The Hyeok Clan were wolves, and the Seven Great Demon Clans were tigers. We were wolves trapped in a tiger's den.”
But bound by the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's fence and the Seven Great Demon Clans' framework, escape was impossible.
So what was to be done?
“Before my father, the previous Chief Steward, passed, he left me one message.”
It was this:
“The Hyeok Clan is a setting sun.”
Hyeok Mulin watched his sorrowful murmur impassively.
“We were wolves, yet we held our heads high against them. And the result? Being kicked around at the bottom of the Seven Great Demon Clans.”
“For that alone, you sold out the clan?”
“We foolishly challenged tigers, so I merely sought a path to survival.”
As disappointment colored Hyeok Mulin's voice, he sneered back.
“Wouldn't it be better for the Hyeok Clan? Better to be the head of a snake than the tail of a dragon.”
Head of a snake.
Hyeok Mulin knew that wasn't true.
No paradise awaited in flight.
“I planned to make the Hyeok Clan the dragon's head.”
“Such nonsense...”
“It's no empty talk.”
Hyeok Mulin continued clearly.
“I've restored your ancestral martial art.”
“……?”
A straightforward statement, yet Hwang Gibok couldn't grasp it at first.
He'd lived his whole life without entertaining even the slightest possibility.
But as time passed and the meaning sank in, hollow laughter burst from him.
“Ha, haha, hahahaha, hahahahaha!”
Having lost his wits, Hwang Gibok soon stared blankly into space with a vacant expression.
“A crouching tiger in the grass, eh.”
In that moment, he severed the last lingering attachments.
Sensing the end, Hyeok Mulin closed his eyes gently.
And after a pause, he spoke calmly.
“Chief Steward.”
He was someone who'd been with the clan since Hyeok Mulin's birth.
If he'd shown potential from becoming Patriarch, could he have swayed him?
Who knows.
But now, it was as if he'd crossed too far a river to return.
“You've worked hard all these years.”
With final farewell, Hyeok Mulin turned to leave.
As he headed for the door, a small voice came from behind.
“Cult Leader. Live long and prosper.”
Hyeok Mulin left slowly, leaving the last greeting behind.