Chapter 106
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 106
Chapter Title: Absolute Sect Master
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Moreover, from what they had heard up until now, he had once stood with the orthodox sects to suppress the Great Cloud Bright Religion's grand undertaking, so U Cheonso, the former leader, could be seen as half an enemy of the cult.
On top of that, the man standing before them was a young man who appeared to be in his mid-twenties.
There was no way they could muster the loyalty to prostrate themselves and offer a grand bow right then and there.
At that moment, Seonwoyong's lips parted once more.
His complexion was already flushed with clear signs of anger.
“I am now about to handle cult affairs, so outsiders, leave this place.”
This was, of course, a command directed at Son Mugi.
“Heh heh. Cult affairs... I see, indeed.”
Son Mugi muttered this as he slipped the daggers he held in both hands back into his sleeves.
Seonwoyong's presence was now murderous.
His appearance was still that of a young man in his twenties, and his face was clear and beautiful, but the aura he now exuded was that of an absolute sect master who had once chastised the heavens and earth of the Central Plains.
He, who had commanded and led the Great Cloud Bright Religion—boasting hundreds of thousands of followers and tens of thousands of subordinate experts—for so long, was finally revealing his true colors.
Son Mugi glanced once at Seonwoyong's face before tossing a word to Seong Ilchung, the Blood Banner Saber King standing before him.
“I'm off. We'll meet separately next time, just us.”
With that, he launched his body into the air and vanished into the darkness.
It was the supreme lightness skill of a peak-level wanderer sect master, enough to draw exclamations from all, yet no one paid it any mind.
In particular, Seong Ilchung acted as if Son Mugi was beneath notice, not even pretending to acknowledge him.
But his freakish saber remained gripped in his hand.
Now, Seonwoyong's gaze began to coldly sweep over the surroundings.
It lingered last on Seong Ilchung's freakish saber.
“You're still holding that blade of yours.”
Seonwoyong pointed it out in a chilling voice, but Seong Ilchung's retort was directed at Dae Jongdo.
“Listen here, Elder Protector. Just who the hell is this guy? What are we supposed to do?”
Seong Ilchung's question voiced the doubt shared by every Ming Cult expert present.
Seonwoyong half-turned his body to look at Dae Jongdo, and all the others fixed their eyes on Dae Jongdo's mouth as well.
“Of course, this is my master and the former leader who once led us. But at the same time, he ambushed the current leader, ruining the cult's grand undertaking, and handed him over to the enemy—so I truly have no idea what to do.”
Dae Jongdo's response was utterly inscrutable and ambiguous, yet it contained no falsehoods and no breaches of reason.
Thus, the experts in the hall only grew more furious upon hearing it.
Perhaps the current situation was unfolding exactly as Dae Jongdo had intended from the start.
Even Seonwoyong found himself at a loss for words.
For him now, he could no longer be certain whether that past action had been right, so how could he persuade the others?
But one thing was clear.
“You lot are devotees of our cult, are you not? Then you must know the Three Great Edicts. Who will recite them?”
As Seonwoyong asked in a calm voice, the hall fell into solemn silence.
After a moment of quiet, one expert standing in the shadows began to quietly recite the passages of the Three Great Edicts.
“Do not covet worldly power, for it is filthy. The people are heaven itself—serve them as such. Above all, those who serve the Sacred Light must never fight among themselves.”
No disciple of the Ming Cult was ignorant of the Three Great Edicts' three tenets.
They were absolute commandments for the cult's devotees.
“Correct. You know them well. That incident back then was me punishing the impure faction within the cult that violated those Three Great Edicts. Are you saying you'll abandon them now?”
At that moment, Dae Jongdo spoke up again.
“Kill the apostates as punishment, and kill those who collude with the cult's enemies. That is the final line of the Five Lesser Edicts. Does Master still believe that one of those Five Lesser Edicts holds no value?”
Indeed, now the cult experts in the hall were plunged into confusion.
This was the very root of the conflict between the Three Great Edicts faction and the Five Lesser Edicts faction that had persisted for centuries.
“Always that same argument. One cannot obscure the greater with the lesser. Do you truly not realize that trying to undermine the Three Great Edicts' most vital tenets with the Five Lesser Edicts' most trivial one is impure in itself?”
As Seonwoyong countered once more, Dae Jongdo stepped forward again.
“Was it not Master who violated the last of those Three Great Edicts—the command that cult members must never fight among themselves? Moreover, you colluded with the enemy, oppressing the cult's brothers alongside them—can you truly claim innocence from that sin?”
Seonwoyong slowly scanned such a Dae Jongdo.
This was precisely why he had brought so many experts here.
This issue could not be settled by martial prowess.
The Great Cloud Bright Religion, this vast religious organization, moved solely by faith and justification—so this was an attempt to condemn the past U Cheonso here and shatter his legitimacy.
Seonwoyong now fully grasped Dae Jongdo's intent.
“True, that sin cannot be denied. That is why I confined myself for sixty years. I handed my one and only bloodline over to the enemy with my own hands. I alone buried my wife as she passed away in lonely solitude. All to avert a hellscape where the blood of innocent people flowed like rivers and their corpses piled like mountains on this land.”
Suddenly, a wave of poignant sorrow surged in his heart.
Seonwoyong recalled that time once more and steadied himself.
Had that day's events not occurred, millions of innocent lives would surely have been lost.
In any case, Seonwoyong's words left Dae Jongdo speechless, but the encircling Ming Cult experts showed no change in demeanor.
“Very well, then what now? Having completed sixty years of confinement, do you intend to reclaim your authority within the cult?”
Dae Jongdo now pressed him on the future.
Seonwoyong could no longer tolerate such a Dae Jongdo.
“You there, Jongdo. Do you truly believe you have the right to question me like that?”
Seonwoyong's voice was icy beyond measure, sending chills down the spines of all who heard it, unbidden.
Even Dae Jongdo, upon hearing that voice, recalled events from the past.
Long ago, just once, he had heard his master's voice like this.
The result had been ruin.
The past U Cheonso had a hidden side.
Beneath his usual kind, gentle, and reasonable nature lurked a ferocious, murderous intent.
An absolute murderous aura possessed only by one who could chide the entire world.
Few in the world knew of it, and Dae Jongdo knew it best of all.
What of the current Seonwoyong?
Dae Jongdo suddenly felt as if he stood barefoot atop a gleaming blade.
Doubt crept in—had he crossed the line?—along with an urge to hastily conclude the situation.
“I dare not, as your disciple—I have been irreverent. Forgive me.”
Dae Jongdo knew well that in such cases, prostrating oneself was the only option.
As Dae Jongdo abruptly clasped his hands, bowed his waist, and offered a courteous apology, the experts in the hall were slightly taken aback.
It was a sight never seen from the usual Dae Jongdo.
Most of the Ming Cult experts gathered here belonged to the Great Cloud Division under Dae Jongdo's command.
A few assassins from the Phoenix Flag under Seong Ilchung, the Blood Banner Saber Guest, were mixed in, but they too received most of their missions from Dae Jongdo, so it made no difference.
The sight of the normally majestic Iron Scholar Hermit Dae Jongdo groveling before a fresh-faced youth was nothing short of astonishing, regardless of his true nature.
And on the other hand, it bred resentment.
A former leader or whatever, but what made this young punk so arrogant?
The experts gathered here, including Seong Ilchung the Blood Banner Saber Guest, were a group who knew neither the past U Cheonso nor the current Seonwoyong.
Dae Jongdo had deliberately excluded the old hands.
Warriors were inherently violent and impatient, their hands moving before their mouths.
Inevitably, one with an especially fiery temper muttered aloud.
“Jeez. I don't know if he's the former leader or what, but that kid's looks already rub me wrong, and that tone of voice is just grating.”
Had Dae Jongdo started by having them all perform grand bows and show proper respect, there would have been no such reaction.
Seonwoyong's subtle attitude of not acknowledging him as Supreme Leader had foreshadowed this very thing.
Seonwoyong's expression hardened further at the mutter, but he offered no response to them—only beginning to rebuke Dae Jongdo alone.
“Your intent today was utterly impure. How shall I punish this sin of yours? Speak first.”
But Dae Jongdo merely evaded.
“How could a disciple meeting his master after sixty years harbor any other intent? To hear it called impure—this disciple is truly devastated.”
It was a truly cunning and sly three-inch tongue.
Knowing Dae Jongdo's nature from long ago, Seonwoyong had never passed on his ultimate techniques without reservation.
He had given his all to his son and leader U Gyeongcheon, and to his other disciple Seong Manjo, but never to Dae Jongdo.
Perhaps that had been the problem, but he could not regret it now.
In place of regret, Seonwoyong's chest filled with seething rage.
And as he gazed at Dae Jongdo, bowed low at the waist, the corners of Seonwoyong's mouth curved up in a smirk.
To the ignorant, it would seem like a mere smile, but it signaled that Seonwoyong's fury had reached its peak.
With his head bowed deeply, Dae Jongdo could not see it.
With this, Seonwoyong's course of action was set.
Something deep in his chest, long suppressed, had now burst open.
Even while plucking bamboo shoots in the deep bamboo groves of Yunnan, he had occasionally felt such rage.
But he had endured and suppressed it.
Even as his wife passed away in lonely solitude within that straw hut in the bamboo grove, he had felt intense fury.
But he had to endure.
That rage was a torment of blood surging backward, and that forbearance was excruciating.
To escape that excruciating agony, he had chosen self-obliteration, but heaven had granted him a new body.
To fathom heaven's will, he had spent countless nights since that day sleepless in anguish.
How was the current Seonwoyong to live?
What would the past U Cheonso have done?