Chapter 155
Chapter 155
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 155
Chapter Title: The One the Soul-Stealing Immortal Awaited
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Just then, the Jade Crane, who had been observing Mu-heun's reaction, spoke.
“Judging by your expression, it seems you met Hye-nang before coming here... What do you think? Doesn't it seem like there's a significant reason for them appearing in the Hubei region?”
“......!”
Wi Guk, the Leader of the Beggars' Union, said the same thing.
“You seem quite pleased with the information we've provided. How about it? Isn't it time you gave us some surprising information in return?”
In response to the Jade Crane and Wi Guk's words, it was Mu-heun who now smiled faintly and spoke.
“Hahaha, of course.”
Mu-heun thought that with the level of information and insight the Jade Crane and Wi Guk possessed, it would be fine to trust them.
Considering that the things they had discovered hadn't yet become widely known throughout the Central Plains, it meant they weren't loose-lipped or lacking in a sense of justice, despite trading in information.
Furthermore, unlike him, they weren't people acting on prophecies about what would happen to the Heavenly Demon. They were investigators of phenomena that had actually occurred.
Perhaps they were even more dedicated to justice than he was. If he couldn't rely on them, who could he rely on?
This was no time to be testing the waters or sizing up the situation. The Martial Alliance, where the Dragon and Phoenix Assembly was being held, was on the brink of potential annihilation.
‘Alright. I'll tell them.’
Finally, Mu-heun began to speak.
“What I am about to tell you must never be repeated elsewhere.”
The Jade Crane and Wi Guk felt themselves leaning forward. They couldn't hide their excitement.
The thrill of new information. It filled them with an almost maddening joy.
That day, Mu-heun began to reveal his identity to them. Not just his current identity, but his past life's as well.
He didn't know if they would be able to accept it, but he even divulged what had happened on the border between life and death.
And the story of the Three Books on Inhuman Beings, and the future he had discovered at Chipyeong Temple...
Mu-heun spoke calmly, and throughout his story, the Jade Crane and Wi Guk couldn't close their gaping mouths.
* * *
The Jade Crane and Wi Guk were utterly astounded.
The words falling from Mu-heun's lips were so astonishing they could never be taken back. Every vibration from his throat was earth-shattering to the Jade Crane and Wi Guk, and they couldn't close their wide-open mouths.
The Jade Crane was confused about what he had just heard. Then, as the information began to settle in his mind, he spoke in utter shock.
“The, the Divine Doctor? Are you truly saying you're the Divine Doctor of Sichuan?”
“If you don't believe me, check with Gaeheung. Ask if the conversations we had were true. I have not spoken of our discussions to anyone, and neither would he. You should be able to confirm it.”
“......!?”
Confusion was also rampant on Wi Guk's face.
“......Th-then. After you died like that, Divine Doctor... are you saying you really met the first Heavenly Demon?”
“Whether you believe it or not is up to you, Leader of the Beggars' Union. However, everything I have told you so far is what I personally experienced.”
“......”
Mu-heun revealed his true identity to the Jade Crane and Wi Guk. How he was betrayed by the Sichuan Tang Clan, met the Heavenly Demon upon his death, and then gained a new life in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
“As I mentioned earlier, the Sichuan Tang Clan has been reborn. Dang Baek-ho is no more, and Dang Yeon-hwa now leads the clan. I hope you will not hold what happened in the past against them.”
“O-of course. Who are we to interfere in matters the Divine Doctor has already handled?”
“That's right. The Beggars' Union was never that close with the Orthodox Sects of the martial world to begin with. We don't act for the sake of justice. We are simply a union of the have-nots.”
Wi Guk and the Jade Crane treated him with a completely different attitude than before.
“Before I continue, let me ask one more thing. The fact that you contacted the Soul-Stealing Immortal and came here—can I take that to mean that neither of you wants to see the world perish?”
“......The story we just heard was indeed world-shaking. However, if we were the type to disbelieve something just because it defies common sense, we would not have come here in the first place.”
“Indeed. What's important is whether the circumstances align when we combine the information we've heard so far with what we've gathered. And synthesizing what you've told us, Divine Doctor, everything makes perfect sense.”
“Does this mean you are willing to cooperate with me?”
“Of course.”
“I am as well.”
Wi Guk and the Jade Crane nodded their heads vigorously.
“Then, I will tell you the next part. It's about what happened after I left Sichuan and before I came here. It begins with Chipyeong Temple, the arhats, and the Three Books on Inhuman Beings.”
Mu-heun told the Jade Crane and Wi Guk the story of what happened in Okhwa Prefecture, including the Three Books on the Advent of the Chaotic Heavens' Inhuman Beings.
All the while, the Soul-Stealing Immortal sat perfectly still, without a single movement, as if his mind were elsewhere.
The Jade Crane looked stunned upon hearing Mu-heun's story, and Wi Guk began to clutch his head.
“Does that mean the monsters and ghost spirits we encountered are not all there is...? Are you saying they are just the beginning, and behind them is an Evil God that the entire martial world might not be able to defeat even if we join forces?”
“That is correct.”
Wi Guk's face also turned pale.
“Then what are we to do? The monsters and ghost spirits that vanished over three hundred years ago have begun to run rampant. And to think they are merely the minions of an Evil God...”
“It may be hard to believe, but it is the truth.”
“......And you're saying that even with you, Mr. Mu-heun, and Mr. Pae-seon, along with other masters of the Profound Realm, you struggled to defeat those monsters. And they were just minions.”
“That is correct.”
“If we truly combine our strength, can we stop the Evil God?”
“I don't know. However.”
“You... you don't know...?”
Mu-heun spoke firmly to the anxious Leader of the Beggars' Union.
“However, shouldn't we at least try everything we can? Are you suggesting we give up just because we don't know if we can win? Are we just going to sit here and wait for them to come and kill us?”
“Th-that's...!”
“Make no mistake. We don't have a choice. The invasion is a foregone conclusion, and if we fail to stop it, we will die. From this moment on, we must unite the martial world and fight against this great enemy.”
“......”
“There is no other way. They were defeated once before, and now, after three hundred years, they have begun to show themselves again.”
“......”
“We must never underestimate the enemy. There must be a reason why they have reappeared now. They won't want to be defeated like last time. They will be more meticulous, and much stronger.”
One piece of bad news after another.
“However.”
Mu-heun's eyes were unwavering.
“I will not stand by and watch this happen. I will act to protect my beloved disciples, my friends, and my comrades. I will stop the annihilation of the people I have healed.
And I am prepared to do whatever it takes to stop it.”
A firm and unwavering gaze.
A determined tone.
Hearing Mu-heun's words and seeing his expression, Wi Guk and the Jade Crane nodded and soon spoke in unison.
“You truly are the one the Soul-Stealing Immortal was waiting for.”
* * *
-A secret room in the Martial Alliance.
The sect leaders and family heads listened to Du Baek's words. They were silent for a moment. The stories he told were simply too hard to believe based on common sense.
These were the leaders of renowned sects and clans. All of them were seasoned veterans, masters with sharp judgment and profound insight.
Their accumulated experience provided them with a wealth of knowledge, and that knowledge granted them the wisdom to handle sudden crises with precision.
However.
The limits of experience were also clear.
The more experience and knowledge one accumulated, the deeper their wisdom, the harder it became to stray from the path of their own common sense.
The strange phenomena Du Baek described were literally beyond common sense. They were things that could not be judged by past experience.
These were events that hadn't occurred in nearly a hundred years, so they had no idea what precedent to use as a basis for their judgment.
Just then, Mong-yu, the Sect Leader of the Zhongnan Sect, spoke up.
“It is hard to believe, but I do not think the Alliance Leader is lying. However, it is also true that what you've just told us is difficult to accept, so I must ask this one thing. Alliance Leader, where did you hear this information?”
The Martial Alliance Leader, Du Baek. He was one of the five great masters of the Central Plains, an absolute powerhouse who vied for the title of the strongest under heaven alongside the current Plum Blossom Sword Venerable.
He came from a background of bandits, a man who had clawed his way up from the very bottom.
He belonged to no prestigious clan or great sect, but trained in martial arts on his own, joined the Martial Alliance, and started as a member of the lowest rank.
A man who had built a record of accomplishments from the very bottom that everyone had no choice but to acknowledge.
He was a man acknowledged by everyone gathered in this room, the undisputed head of the Martial Alliance.
The face of the Orthodox Sects.
“Where did I hear it, you ask...? Will that be enough for you?”
“For me, the Sect Leader of Zhongnan, yes.”
Before Du Baek became the leader, the Martial Alliance was a dysfunctional organization, like a disorderly mob.
The Martial Alliance, founded for the benefit of various sects and clans.
This motley crew was never a group that ran toward justice from the start, and its system was a mess.
The Martial Alliance, which began simply as an attempt to create a joint council, had a fatal flaw: the absence of a leader to guide it.
It wasn't that there was no leader at all, but most were little more than figureheads, easily swayed by the various sects.
The Alliance's internal affairs were also chaotic.
Political schemes and struggles for power were rampant, much like in an Unorthodox Sect blood alliance. Du Baek was the man who entered that crucible of chaos alone, with no backing, and overcame it all.
“Is it the same for the rest of you?”
Du Baek looked around the meeting hall, and everyone nodded.
A man who started from the very bottom, silently built his achievements, and ultimately proved himself. A survivor who had endured all the great wars that created mountains of corpses and rivers of blood.
A man who had stubbornly survived and established his merit even in the Great Orthodox-Demonic War and the Great Orthodox-Unorthodox War, where so many had laid down their bones that the phrase 'mountains of corpses and rivers of blood' was an understatement.
Du Baek, a powerhouse whom everyone had no choice but to acknowledge, one of the men who built the current martial world. When he took over as the Alliance Leader, the Martial Alliance was completely transformed.
Therefore, no one could doubt him. However, that was precisely why the question of where he obtained his information was so important. The source of the information.