Chapter 25
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: Seizing Control of the Inspection Corps
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Cheon Muryang held up three fingers.
Then, folding his index finger, he said.
“One.”
He had investigated every member of the Inspection Corps beforehand.
It was to see if there were any among them who hadn't committed a crime.
But it was a needless worry.
The entire Inspection Corps was a collection of irredeemable trash.
“Two.”
He folded his thumb.
The former head of the Inspection Corps, Cheon Ah-haeng, had been imprisoned in the underground dungeon.
The reason they were still holding out was obvious.
It meant they had a powerful backer, and Cheon Muryang knew who it was.
‘The Third Elder.’
No one else would stoop to such a petty scheme.
The Grand Elder, Cheon Jungho, at least seemed to be a man of dignity.
“Three.”
Cheon Muryang held his middle finger aloft, a clear display for them all, before folding it down with deliberate slowness.
“…”
No one left.
In fact, it was for the best.
“How fortunate.”
All of them were of the same ilk as Cheon Ah-haeng.
They had all secured their positions in the Inspection Corps through bribes or connections, and every single one of them was on the take.
So, he was truly glad.
If even one of them had fled, they would just repeat their vile deeds elsewhere.
“That no one ran away, I mean.”
“Great Young Lord, behind us is…”
“I know who it is.”
“…!”
“But if you think I won't cut you down just because you're trusting in something so pathetic…”
Cheon Muryang swung the Heavenly Light Sword with indifferent eyes, as if cutting a roadside pebble.
“Gasp!”
It was incredibly fast.
Everyone's eyes flew wide open.
In that instant, the chest of the man standing closest was split open.
*Thud!*
His body collapsed.
Cheon Muryang flicked the blood from the Heavenly Light Sword a few times.
“You've miscalculated.”
“Y-You bastard!”
They were bewildered.
They had never imagined the situation would unfold like this.
“What are you doing? Not attacking?”
“How could we possibly draw our swords against the Great Young Lord?”
“Oh, really? Then let's do this. As the Great Young Lord of the Cheon Family, I swear. If you kill me, no one will touch you.”
“How can we believe that!”
“If you don't believe me, then just die.”
“Ugh…!”
“It's not like you have a choice, is it?”
Cheon Muryang deliberately provoked them.
He wanted to see how much he had changed since his rebirth.
At a level where they could muster sword energy, they were the perfect opponents.
*Grind!*
They realized.
They had no choice.
They were being sacrificed.
And so, they unleashed a thick killing intent toward Cheon Muryang.
“Yes. You should have done that sooner.”
“My lord! It's dangerous.”
Cha Myeonghak tried to stop him, but Neung Ryeoun shook his head.
“You two, stay out of it.”
“Yes.”
With Neung Ryeoun's reply.
Countless blades flew toward Cheon Muryang.
*Claaang!*
But not a single blade could reach him.
“H-How can this be…!”
The force behind the Heavenly Light Sword was so great that some of their swords were ripped from their hands, tearing the flesh as they flew.
“Hmm. My strength and reflexes have certainly improved.”
Cheon Muryang could feel how incomparably better his body had become.
Their best sword strikes looked so slow he could have yawned.
Furthermore, even without using his full power, he had enough strength to effortlessly deflect their swords.
*Grip.*
Cheon Muryang tightened his grip on the Heavenly Light Sword.
“In that case…”
He suddenly grew curious.
What would happen if he used this body to cleave the heavens with all his might?
*Smirk.*
Cheon Muryang smiled, his face full of curiosity.
It was the same smile he wore as the scoundrel of the past, but everything else about him had changed.
*Whoosh!*
The Heavenly Light Sword shot toward the sky.
That alone was enough to envelop them in a pressure like a great mountain bearing down.
*Tremble, tremble.*
Their legs trembled.
Even standing felt difficult.
They clenched their teeth, trying to endure, but the sight before them left them dumbfounded.
“Ah…!”
All of them had learned the sword arts of the Cheon Family.
Even if they had only scratched the surface without grasping its true essence, they could see it clearly.
*Fwoosh!*
The loftiness of the heavens contained within Cheon Muryang's sword.
They saw Cheon Muryang looking down on them with indifferent eyes from an unreachable, distant height.
*Whooosh!*
That sky collapsed in an instant.
It was unstoppable, and there was nowhere to run.
In this moment, the power of life and death over them rested solely on Cheon Muryang's will.
‘I won't kill them.’
Until they had paid for all their sins, death was a luxury they didn't deserve.
Making them rot in that underground dungeon for the rest of their lives was Cheon Muryang's justice.
“Hoo…”
When the Heavenly Light Sword stopped.
No one was left standing before Cheon Muryang.
“Ughh…!”
No one was dead.
But a gruesome scene unfolded before his eyes.
Cheon Muryang had severed their right arms so they could never wield a sword again.
“You are all expelled.”
Declaring his verdict with indifferent eyes, Cheon Muryang gave his first order to Neung Ryeoun and Cha Myeonghak.
“Throw all of them into the underground dungeon.”
“Yes, my lord.”
The two men shuddered.
Because through Cheon Muryang, they had each seen their own sky.
That was why the true essence of the sword Cheon Muryang displayed sent a shiver down their spines.
“*Tsk.*”
Cheon Muryang started toward the Inspection Corps office through the path that had naturally formed.
*Craaaash!*
Just then.
A loud roar echoed from not too far away.
*Whip!*
Cheon Muryang's head snapped around.
He felt a powerful demonic energy from that direction.
It was a deep and dense demonic energy, incomparable to that of the Soeung Gang Leader.
“This is…”
He had thought the Soeung Gang Leader's demonic energy was an incomplete form.
But this demonic energy was the same as the dense, ominous energy that had once attacked the Cheon Family.
*Gnash.*
Cheon Muryang was furious.
‘Starting with the Soeung Gang Leader… just how far has the Demonic Cult's reach extended?’
The Demonic Cult never revealed itself.
But it had already established itself deep within the martial world of the Central Plains.
“At least not in my house. I won't allow it.”
Cheon Muryang raised the Heavenly Light Sword.
*Vwoom!*
The Heavenly Light Sword reacted to the demonic energy.
At the same time, he realized that the one emitting the vile demonic energy was heading this way.
“Good, saves me the trouble of finding you.”
“Cheon Muryang!”
Soon, the figure who appeared was Cheon Ah-haeng, his hair disheveled and shackles on his wrists.
He looked like he had just escaped the underground dungeon.
*Pfft.*
Cheon Muryang laughed.
“I cut down some trash, and now even bigger trash shows up.”
“How dare you! A bastard like you did this to me?”
Cheon Ah-haeng's eyes were filled with madness.
Only rage toward Cheon Muryang remained.
“You must have seen the Soeung Gang Leader's end…”
Wasn't Cheon Ah-haeng there as well?
But Cheon Ah-haeng sneered at Cheon Muryang with a foul smile.
“Don't compare me to that pathetic fool. The pill I gave him was incomplete.”
“Incomplete, you say…”
“It means I have more than enough power to tear you to shreds and escape.”
“I like the sound of that. I was feeling a bit stiff since I haven't fully warmed up yet.”
“Shut up. I will tear you to pieces, I swear it!”
Cheon Muryang knew about Cheon Ah-haeng.
He was a man who only cared for himself, a sheltered flower who had learned martial arts but never once fought with his life on the line.
‘Does it change one's personality too?’
But this reckless Cheon Ah-haeng seemed like a completely different person.
Perhaps because of the madness in his eyes, the whites of his eyes seemed larger.
“Why don't you stop talking and come at me?”
“Alright! That's exactly what I'll do.”
*Glance.*
Cheon Ah-haeng practically tore the chains off.
Then, he glanced at a sword lying on the ground.
“Pick it up. If you're going to do this, do it properly.”
“…”
Cheon Ah-haeng picked up the sword.
The blade instantly turned black.
The vile demonic energy seemed to darken the entire area.
The ominous feeling was so strong that even Neung Ryeoun tried to stop Cheon Muryang.
“My lord!”
“It's fine. Let me finish warming up.”
“Arrogant bastard!”
Cheon Ah-haeng rushed toward Cheon Muryang frantically, like a man being chased.
“I'll kill you before Cheon Wigang and Cheon Seonhak arrive!”
The roar from Cheon Ah-haeng's escape from the dungeon was enough to trigger a state of emergency.
Therefore, Cheon Wigang's safety would be the top priority.
For that reason, all the martial forces of the Cheon Family, as well as Cheon Seonhak, would have gone to Cheon Wigang.
Thus, the time Cheon Ah-haeng had was only until they realized his target was Cheon Muryang.
“You seem to be mistaken…”
Cheon Ah-haeng was gravely mistaken.
Mistaken in thinking that false power could be enough to kill Cheon Muryang.
“Because I'm more than enough on my own.”
*Claaang!*
The two swords clashed.
A powerful shockwave erupted from the point of impact, spreading in all directions.
“…!”
Even though they were just watching, Neung Ryeoun and Cha Myeonghak had to circulate their internal energy to withstand it.
“Look at this overwhelming power! It's not something a scoundrel like you can handle after just a few months of training!”
Just like the Soeung Gang Leader.
Cheon Ah-haeng was also intoxicated by the power the demonic energy gave him.
“I believe I told you back at the Soeung Gang that power isn't yours.”
“Shut up. Shut up!”
*Rumble-rumble-rumble!*
Cheon Ah-haeng's sword energy grew even more intense.
The demonic energy pouring from him stained the sky of the Cheon Family with darkness.
“So this is the sky of the Cheon Family! Nothing more than this! To think they act so high and mighty with a sky like this!”
Cheon Ah-haeng laughed maniacally.
His jealousy and envy toward Cheon Wigang and Cheon Seonhak were palpable.
“To think someone bearing the Cheon name would forget their own essence. Why must I be the one to feel ashamed?”
It was shameful.
How could someone with the surname Cheon utter words that denied the very essence of the Cheon Family, the sky?
“Shut up!”
“The one who should shut up is you.”
“…!”
“And what needs to be cut is that filthy, false demonic energy.”
*Fwoooosh!*
An even clearer energy than before seeped into the Heavenly Light Sword.
“A frog in a well can only see a sky the size of the well's mouth.”
And so, the frog can never know the sky outside the well.
“You foolish frog who knows not the sky beyond the well.”
The frog in the well was Cheon Ah-haeng.
“…!”
“Do you think you've tainted the sky?”
The blackened sword energy had indeed tainted the sky.
But he should have known.
That while he could taint a part of it.
He could never taint the entire sky.
“The sky you've tainted is merely the sky you've been seeing from your well.”
The Heavenly Light Sword, imbued with streams of blossoming blue sword energy, severed a part of the blackened sky.
Space distorted.
A heat haze shimmered, and through that rift, Cheon Ah-haeng's demonic energy was swept away.
“N-No!”
“So, realize it, even in death.”
He probably wouldn't realize it even after he was dead.
“That the sky of the Cheon Family is not so low as to be reached by the likes of you.”
The Heavenly Light Sword cut through Cheon Ah-haeng's very darkness.
*Slice.*
Cheon Ah-haeng's head fell.
Nowhere remained the insolent darkness that had sought to defile the sky.
Having cleaved the Darkened Sky.
“Dark Sky Cleave, I suppose.”
Cheon Muryang memorized the sensation.
It would be effective against those who harbored demonic energy.
“…”
Dark red blood flowed from Cheon Ah-haeng's corpse.
It seemed the vile demonic energy had absorbed even the fundamental life force contained within his blood.
*Crack, creak!*
Then, Cheon Ah-haeng's corpse began to twist violently.
It was a disgusting and gruesome sight, but Cheon Muryang just watched with indifference.
“Great Young Lord!”
At that moment, those who had been tracking the source of the roar arrived.
*Kwaang!*
Cheon Muryang infused his voice with internal energy and shouted in all directions.
“No one!”
“…!”
“Shall defile the sky of the Cheon Family!”
Everyone flinched.
For Cheon Muryang's sharp, cold gaze held a commanding dignity.
“Clean this up.”
With indifferent eyes, Cheon Muryang walked past the lump that had been Cheon Ah-haeng and the former members of the Inspection Corps, who were still groaning in pain with their right arms severed.