Chapter 86: The Real Reason for the Six Families Conference
“What in the world is this?!”
The First Elder shot to his feet and rushed toward the Sixth Elder’s corpse.
“Chun-seok, my friend… What happened to you?!”
He pulled the body into a hug, his face twisted in what anyone would see as profound grief.
Of course, my own reaction was more along the lines of, Oh, so the Sixth Elder’s name was Sado Chun-seok. What a throwaway name for an extra.
It wasn’t because I was some blood-desensitized psychopath. The situation just screamed it.
Anyone can see something’s off.
From my perspective as someone who lived for the act, the First Elder’s performance was painfully awkward. The sobs and the shoulder tremors were completely out of sync.
He was overplaying his hand to smooth things over.
But the other martial artists, oblivious, probably just saw it as the sorrow of a man who’d lost a close ally.
[Things are starting to make sense. Looks like your hunch was right, you little monster.]
Yeah. It’s the Il Wol Chu family’s doing.
No matter how you sliced it, the Sixth Elder looked like a drunken mess—far from normal. He’d lost all reason, like some kind of zombie.
[Classic symptoms of soul-seizing sorcery. The First Elder’s theatrics are probably just to cover up the fact that he fell victim to it too.]
Soul-seizing sorcery was a type of evil art that manipulated the mind.
Spot on. And the Il Wol Chu family are the masters of it.
In the Divine Cult, “strength” didn’t always mean raw martial power. Personal prowess was prized above all, but if martial arts wouldn’t cut it, other methods were fair game—that was the Cult mindset.
The Chu family obsessed over those “other methods.” Their martial arts were impressive, but their sorcery and formation arts were even more insidious. No wonder they got compared to the Je Gal family of the jianghu.
You don’t need to worry. It’s not that easy to fall for soul-seizing sorcery. Someone like you, who withstood a fragment of the Sovereign’s mental image even briefly, is basically immune.
I’m not too worried about that. It’s just… those last words from the Sixth Elder that are nagging at me.
[Traitor. Gift.]
Exactly.
The Sixth Elder’s dying words were “traitor” and “gift.”
In the Divine Cult, calling someone a traitor was worse than any insult—even cursing their parents. Those words didn’t pair up under normal circumstances.
Unless…
“We’ll deliver the traitor as a gift.” That phrasing worked.
[The First Elder tried to cut off a loose end, and the Chu family sent a “gift” in return.]
Right. The First Elder must be panicking. He didn’t expect them to go this flashy.
The Sixth Elder’s suicide carried two messages.
One was a warning to the First Elder: Don’t try to use us.
The other was for me.
“No more games.”
With the situation escalated this far, a peaceful resolution was off the table. If they’d wanted that, they would’ve discreetly delivered the Sixth Elder’s head to me.
This was a declaration of war.
What’s your plan? They’ve declared war, but we don’t have many ways to hit back.
I can’t just let them drag me around. You said it yourself: Luck alone isn’t enough. Real skill is gathering intel and shaping the situation.
Still seated, I spoke up.
“Everyone, stand down.”
My low command made the senior members flinch. The First Elder kept sobbing, pretending not to hear.
“First Elder. I said stand down.”
“But—”
“Stand. Down.”
Only when I infused my gaze with power did he finally rise. It looked ridiculous to me.
“Sa Wol.”
“Yes.”
She materialized from thin air at my call, startling the seniors. No one had sensed her hiding.
“Take three squads of Black Shadow Guard elites and head to the Il Wol Chu family. Bring back a soul-seizing sorcerer.”
“……!”
Shock rippled through the seniors. The First Elder’s performance had briefly overshadowed the Sixth Elder’s odd behavior, but now it flooded back.
“And until we get a read on this, no one touches the body.”
“Understood!”
Martial artists flooded in, cordoning off the corpse like police tape.
“A soul-seizing sorcerer, young master?!”
The First Elder finally snapped to, protesting.
“Those fiends force the souls of the dead to return before their rest! This insults the late Sixth Elder!”
“Then you don’t want to know why he died?”
“The Sixth Elder was always lazy and greedy—he must’ve gotten drunk or drugged!”
“I’m not sure who’s insulting whom here.”
The seniors nodded. They’d sensed something off too—public opinion was shifting my way.
“……Fine, a soul-seizing sorcerer I can stomach. But bringing one from the untrustworthy Il Wol Chu family?!”
“I’ll pass along your personal feelings about the Il Wol Chu to their family head.”
The First Elder shut up like a clam.
[What’s your angle here?]
Something I realized fighting Sado Gwang: Guys who think with their heads always treat people like chess pieces.
They maneuver without mercy, cornering you until you can’t move.
So why play on their board?
From the Chu family’s view, we wouldn’t dare act rashly. They figured we were weaker, so even if they provoked us openly, we’d just take the hits.
Why would we?
No need to dance to their tune. The best way for a piece to escape? Leap off the board.
[Sending the Black Shadow Guard openly? They won’t expect a direct challenge.]
Exactly. They probably envisioned shadowy intrigue… but dragging this into the light will throw them off. Let’s see them think their way out of that.
If they were geniuses…
I was the possessor.
And possessors don’t hold back.
In the end, my plan was only half successful.
Because the Chu family didn’t send a soul-seizing sorcerer.
Officially, it was because they were busy with rituals ahead of the Six Families Conference.
The Sixth Elder got buried as is. But I did manage to plant the seed that the Chu family was plotting something.
Half a win.
“You pulled that off without a backup plan, huh? Heh heh heh!”
Cheol Mu Geuk let out a creaky old-man cackle. It was weird coming from a vibrant black-haired middle-aged guy. He even slapped his waist and shoulders like they ached—though they shouldn’t.
“……That doesn’t match your face at all.”
“I’ve already gotten an earful from So Pyeong. What can I do? It’s a habit from decades ago.”
“If your body’s changed, act the part. The body follows the mind.”
“You’d think I was the one who got reborn young. Hey, kid, I’m the one who pulled off the reversal aging—not you.”
His words hit too close; I chugged my tea to dodge.
Staring at my face, Cheol Mu Geuk pouted.
“I said bring booze to share, not drink alone.”
True to his word, he was knocking it back solo.
It was my gift.
After wrapping up the Sixth Elder mess, I couldn’t just sit idle.
We’d openly clashed with the Chu family, so they’d counter with their sneaky specialties.
In this spot, Cheol Mu Geuk was the most helpful ally.
I didn’t need a specific treasure artifact—just his advice.
The original protagonist never even got near the Six Families Conference.
I’d boasted about being a possessor, but my info was capped at what was mentioned in Return of the Murim Lord.
Mu Jin, the original protagonist, was such a loser he couldn’t attend—so only secondhand details.
Like the venue being a lonely island in a lake at the heart of the Second Demon Realm.
No one better than Cheol Mu Geuk to dig up more. I couldn’t go to Kwak Ri Yeon.
“Tch, you’re ruining the taste.”
“Says the guy downing it like water.”
“Is this ordinary swill? Hundred Python Brew! Aged a century with pythons steeped in it. Even a Sovereign would struggle to get this. Turning it down is just criminal.”
Yeah, it was from Sado Gwang’s collection. Probably saving it for after recovery.
My thoughts drifted to him again. Months since he plunged off the Forgotten Soul Valley cliff—no sign.
If alive, there’d have been ripples by now.
Was he really dead?
Maybe that “fall off a cliff in crisis for a fateful encounter and revival” trope was protagonist-only. He wasn’t this story’s hero.
“Hey! What’re you thinking about with me right here?”
“Ah.”
“That stone-faced look—you’re worried about the Six Families Conference too, huh?”
“Lying if I said no. Unlike some, I don’t have parents to spill the beans.”
“Your worst trait is shutting people down like that.”
Cheol Mu Geuk drained his cup and continued.
“If you screwed up there, my face would be mud too. Was gonna summon you anyway.”
“Lucky me.”
“Do you know why the Six Families Conference exists?”
“After the Heavenly Demon Blood Purge, right? The Heavenly Demon Sovereign rules but doesn’t govern—so the heads of the Mad Demon Six Families meet to decide Cult affairs. Right?”
“That’s the surface excuse.”
“There’s a real reason?”
He nodded gravely.
“The true purpose of the Six Families Conference is……”
I nearly lost my composure at his next words.
“To research ways to kill the Heavenly Demon.”
Pretending to Be the Heavenly Demon