Chapter 213
Chapter 213: Eight Trigram Hall (2)
Dong Bong-soo stood atop the now-completed [Alchemy Workshop] roof, surveying the surroundings while engaged in [Whisper].
[Do you remember everything I said earlier?]
The sight of the Founding Ceremony in full swing filled his eyes.
[There is only one thing for you to do with that information.]
People gathered from all corners of Gangdo were filling the interior of Hero Gate. The Founding Ceremony of a newly established sect that had single-handedly subjugated the Iron God Society, the Seven Star Immortal Assembly, and the Red-Red Alliance. The scale was not grand, but the eyes of those attending were serious. There was no one present who didn't know that the board of Gangdo had changed.
[Your worth. All you need to do is raise the value of Hero Gate.]
At the front of the Training Grounds, the children stood in a row, dressed in new clothes. Ho-ae at the very front, back held straight. Beside her, Jeon Ra-hwa was walking through the order of proceedings in a composed voice. At the seats of honor, Eom Bi-ryeong and Myo Jin-heo sat side by side, while across from them Yo Han-myeong of the government office and Bae Dal-pae of the Ten Thousand Things Known were drinking tea and looking out over the Training Grounds.
Two of Formation Tower's Trigram Leaders seated as honored guests at a newly founded sect's Founding Ceremony. That single fact alone had the Gangdo Martial World people buzzing in continuous whispers.
[Remember. For you to be able to ask the question you want, this matter must proceed without a hitch.]
[Whisper] ended there.
Closing the chat window and mini-map, Dong Bong-soo immediately climbed down from the roof.
The Founding Ceremony. The day Hero Gate hung its sign before the world.
But this was only the beginning.
The makeup had been applied. The cosmetic surgery was complete. The direction was slightly different from what had been planned at first, but it had been completed in a direction upgraded to 120% satisfaction.
'Now it's time to create demand.'
Making the enormous force that was Formation Tower seek out Hero Gate of their own accord. Making the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect perceive Hero Gate as an indispensable existence.
For that to happen, Formation Tower first needed to side with Vast Heaven. And the pivot point of that tilt had to be Hero Gate. The benefactor who brought Formation Tower along. From Vast Heaven's perspective, Hero Gate would become the top contributor.
'And if we also leverage the information about the Sword Patrol Corps' annihilation and the information about Sang Gwan-hwi's Inner Power of Evil?'
The current struggle between the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect and the Dark Net Rakshasa Path,
Could become the perfect debut stage for 'Kim Rae-won's' heroic emergence into the Central Plains, and for Hero Gate, which would protect chivalry and justice.
Dong Mu-toe.
That fellow was the absolute stage-setter for this board. The role of laying out the arrangement with exquisite precision.
Even without the vow, if only for the sake of the 'question,' he would properly set up this board.
Of course, the decisive blow……
'I deliver personally.'
Dong Bong-soo swept both hands down over his face. To others it would look like loosening tension, but in reality, beneath the face hidden by both hands, an appropriate expression was being woven together upon the skin.
A smile full of warm composure tinged with the tension befitting a young Guild Master facing their newly founded sect's Founding Ceremony.
Both hands moved away, and Dong Bong-soo, wearing a perfectly composed smile now revealed to the outside, moved his steps toward the guests.
From here on was Dong Mu-toe's time.
Even if he was several hundred miles away.
***
"By any chance—have any of you heard of a newly founded sect called Hero Gate?"
Dong Mu-toe released his propped chin and moved his hand across the table in a finger-walking motion, crossing his freed index and middle fingers back and forth.
Tap-a-tap-a-tap.
Light sounds produced by his fingers alternating against the table.
Aside from that, a peculiar stillness hung over the Eight Trigram Hall.
Hero Gate.
Because there was no one in this room who knew that name.
"……What did you say?"
Baek Jang-gyeong narrowed his eyes.
"Hero Gate? Never heard the name."
"Yes, well, that's natural of course. It's a newly founded sect."
Dong Mu-toe replied lightly.
"Some never-before-heard mob…… ahem. Hero……what was it? In any case, what faction does that sect belong to? Orthodox or Evil?"
"Neither. They profess a Middle Path."
"Middle Path?"
Baek Jang-gyeong's brow furrowed.
"It's a sect located in Gangdo."
"Gangdo? Where's that?"
The Wind Formation Division Trigram Leader, who had been quietly listening to the two of them, couldn't hold back and cut in.
"Gangdo—isn't that the rotten place where petty factions squabble daily over small interests?"
"It was."
Dong Mu-toe nodded.
But the Wind Formation Division Trigram Leader missed the past tense. No, most in the room missed it. Because Gangdo's position in the Martial World was precisely that and nothing more.
Click, click, click.
Ga Myo-ryeon's abacus sounded three times. Right on cue, her narrow eyes opened halfway toward Dong Mu-toe.
"Trigram Leader Dong. There must be a reason you brought up an unknown newly founded sect the moment you returned to this two-day deadlocked conference?"
"A reason?"
"This isn't a simple change of topic, is it?"
Ga Myo-ryeon. This woman was sharp as ever.
[Remember. For you to be able to ask the question you want, this matter must proceed without a hitch.]
That will he had received from Kim Rae-won a short while ago. Not voice, not text—yet the meaning had been precise as a blade, a thought-impression.
It had been a one-way transmission to which no reply could be given, but if he was to continue with what was called 'questions' from Kim Rae-won going forward……this current exchange was extremely important. Even intolerable things like dying or getting hurt in trivial matters he could endure, but an overflow of things he didn't know was something he absolutely, definitively, categorically could not.
"The reason is simple."
Dong Mu-toe stopped all hand movements and rested both elbows on the table, interlacing his fingers.
"If we pinpoint exactly why this debate has been deadlocked for two days."
He swept a glance across the room.
"Siding with the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect builds standing but leaves no Formation Stones; siding with the Dark Net Rakshasa Path means Formation Stones in abundance but standing is lost. Both sides are making valid points."
Baek Jang-gyeong's shoulders loosened slightly. His argument had been acknowledged.
Ga Myo-ryeon's abacus also paused a beat. Acknowledgment as well.
"However, the real problem with this structure lies elsewhere."
He raised one finger.
"The issue, I believe, is not whether Vast Heaven or Dark Net Rakshasa Path—but the very structure in which Formation Tower, whichever side it takes, becomes the enemy of the other side."
Dong Mu-toe's mouth rested for a beat, and a brief silence descended over the Eight Trigram Hall.
But not a long one.
"If we side with Vast Heaven, the Dark Net Rakshasa Path becomes an enemy. If we side with the Dark Net Rakshasa Path, we may of course fall out of favor with the entire Orthodox Path."
"But hasn't that sort of thing always been happening? Our Formation Tower—"
"No. It has not always been happening. Has everyone forgotten the Blood Heaven Great Chaos?"
At those single words—Blood Heaven Great Chaos—everyone's expression shifted dramatically.
The blood storm that swept across the entire Central Plains a hundred-odd years ago.
Dong Mu-toe paid no heed and continued.
"Ahh, I see you consider something of this scale to be a trivial matter that won't escalate all the way to a great war on the level of the Orthodox-Evil-Demonic Great War?"
[Listen carefully.]
"No one will know this yet."
[The Sword Patrol Corps heading to Gangdo has been annihilated.]
"The Sword Patrol Corps, which had been making rounds to gather Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect's allies, has been completely wiped out. Before things have even begun in earnest, this has already happened—who can guarantee how much greater things will become from here?"
The moment Dong Mu-toe threw out the information he had received mid-staircase a short while ago, a massive wave of bewilderment surged through the room.
"What! Does that make any sense?"
"Trigram Leader Dong? You're saying that means Sang Gwan-hwi is dead as well?"
"Nonsensical. If there were such information, there's no way our Formation Tower wouldn't know."
The room erupted.
Baek Jang-gyeong slammed the table.
"The Sword Patrol Corps annihilated? Sang Gwan-hwi dead? The youngest of the Vast Heaven Three Swords? If that's true, the entire Central Plains would already be in an uproar!"
His voice shook the entire Eight Trigram Hall.
The Wind Formation Division Trigram Leader shook his head as well.
"Trigram Leader Dong, if the Sword Patrol Corps was annihilated, Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect's main mountain would have moved first. How could a Trigram Leader know information that hasn't even been caught in our intelligence network?"
Formation Tower's intelligence network was the second most dense in the Central Plains after the Great Beggar Sect, and yet a single Trigram Leader knew information that hadn't been caught in that network?
It was a reasonable question.
Even so, Dong Mu-toe maintained his smile.
Tap-a-tap-a-tap.
His index and middle fingers walked across the table again.
Did he not know this question would come?
On the contrary—this very question was the crux.
"Correct. Formation Tower didn't know."
Acknowledgment.
At those words alone, the Eight Trigram Hall fell quiet again.
"But Hero Gate did."
Dong Mu-toe stopped his finger-walking and laid both hands flat on the table.
"What I just told you is information relayed to me by Hero Gate's Guild Master Kim Rae-won. The fact that the Sword Patrol Corps was annihilated in the vicinity of Gangdo, and the fact that Corps Leader Sang Gwan-hwi was killed. Information that Formation Tower didn't know—and that in all likelihood, even Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect's main mountain has not yet officially confirmed."
"……What did you say?"
Baek Jang-gyeong's expression changed.
"A newly founded sect's Guild Master knew of the Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect's elite unit's annihilation before us?"
"Yes."
Dong Mu-toe gave a crisp nod.
"That is precisely why I brought up Hero Gate in this room."
Click.
Ga Myo-ryeon's abacus moved a single bead.
Her narrow eyes widened ever so slightly. What this woman was calculating was no longer Formation Stones.
Information.
The value of a force that held information Formation Tower's network had failed to catch.
How much that was worth.
"Trigram Leader Dong."
Ga Myo-ryeon swept the abacus once.
"The source of the information has not been verified. Could it not be that a newly founded sect is spreading false information to inflate their own value?"
"Possible."
Dong Mu-toe answered.
"But, Trigram Leader Ga. Where is the Sword Patrol Corps' current location?"
"……?"
"The Sword Patrol Corps that departed Vast Heaven Limitless Sword Sect was moving in the direction of Gangdo, and their scheduled arrival date has long since passed. Yet there has been no report of them arriving in Gangdo?"
Silence.
"No report means one of two things. Either they arrived but had no reason to report, or they became unable to report."
Dong Mu-toe placed one finger on the table with a tap.
"For over two days, not a single report from the Sword Patrol Corps—from personnel who should have arrived long ago. How do you interpret this?"
Baek Jang-gyeong's hand clenched on top of his knee.
Ga Myo-ryeon's abacus came to a complete stop.
It was no longer interpretation—logically, it had become confirmation.
The Wind Formation Division Trigram Leader asked in a trembling voice.
"Then Trigram Leader Dong, that place called Hero Gate……why do they have that information? Does it mean they were present at the scene of the Sword Patrol Corps' annihilation?"
A good question.
Dong Mu-toe considered his answer to this question—just slightly, ever so slightly.
He couldn't be certain whether Kim Rae-won had eliminated the Sword Patrol Corps or not. But the deliberation didn't last long. Because even if he could be certain, he had become convinced that this was information that could not, and must not, be shared.
Dong Mu-toe himself needed only to spit out precisely the information needed, at precisely the position needed, at precisely the moment needed. Who had eliminated the Sword Patrol Corps did not fit any of these three, and was naturally rejected.
Well, I can use something similar.
Right now, in fact.
"That."
Dong Mu-toe smiled slightly.
"Is not a question it would be appropriate for me to answer. You'd simply have to ask Hero Gate's Guild Master directly, wouldn't you? Ha ha."
He hadn't said he didn't know. A tone implying the answer was tantalizingly within reach, yet unable to be shared.
Even to himself, it was perfectly handled.
"Directly?"
Baek Jang-gyeong, caterpillar brows twitching as he retorted, glared with wide-open eyes. Dong Mu-toe's eye-smile deepened as he met that gaze head-on.
"Yes. Directly."
"Do you think that makes any sense right now? That Formation Tower! Why! For what reason! For a matter of this enormous magnitude! Must meet the Guild Master of some never-before-heard mob sect!"
"Ah, yes. I anticipated that, which is why I prepared more. Please hear me out further."
Dong Mu-toe shifted his posture. He lifted both elbows off the table and leaned his back against the chair. A step back from the offensive posture of until now—the posture of becoming candid.
"I faced him myself. That Guild Master."
The Eight Trigram Hall went quiet once more.
Dong Mu-toe. One of Formation Tower's Eight Trigram Leaders. Had said he 'faced him personally.'
"The result?"
The Water Formation Division Trigram Leader asked cautiously.
Dong Mu-toe leaned back and stared at the ceiling for a moment.
Then he made the smile of one side of his mouth lifting—a smile that looked, outwardly, a perfectly self-deprecating one.
"Defeat."
One word.
The Eight Trigram Hall froze.
Baek Jang-gyeong leaned his body forward.
"……What did you just say?"
"I lost. And absurdly, completely lost at that."
Dong Mu-toe said it once more, composedly. He didn't bother with unnecessary words about having deployed an unverified, incomplete, and extremely dangerous formation like the Eight Direction Uninterrupted Hell. Information was to be kept to a minimum.
A Trigram Leader had lost.
Formation Tower's Trigram Leader. To a newly founded sect's Guild Master.
Baek Jang-gyeong's eyes shot upward.
"If this is not boasting—"
"Trigram Leader Baek."
Dong Mu-toe cut him off briefly.
"I do talk a lot of nonsense, but I'm not one to boast, am I?"
Baek Jang-gyeong fell silent. Of everyone in this room, the one who had known Dong Mu-toe the longest after the Grand Zenith Position was none other than Baek Jang-gyeong. He knew better than anyone that while this young Trigram Leader overflowed with intellectual vanity, he was not one to boast.
Ga Myo-ryeon's abacus, which had been listening, began to move rapidly.
Click-click-click-click.
She was calculating something.
"Trigram Leader Dong. If you were to quantify the Hero Gate Guild Master's martial prowess in numbers, how would it compare?"
"It cannot be quantified."
Ga Myo-ryeon's abacus slowed dramatically, and for the first time, its rhythm faltered.
"I could not measure it by my own standards. That is precisely why I'm saying see him in person."
Dong Mu-toe swept a glance across the room.
"Let me summarize."
With his palm open, he first folded his thumb.
"First, the war between Vast Heaven and Dark Net Rakshasa Path has already progressed deeper than we believe. The Sword Patrol Corps' annihilation is proof of that."
His index finger folded to join the thumb.
"Second, in this war, Formation Tower is likely to become the sworn enemy of whichever side it doesn't take. Which means it is imperative that we attach ourselves to the winning side. No one here needs to be told that stepping back isn't an option, correct? If we step back from something like this, Formation Tower's credibility and standing will be buried down to the level of Haomun at the very bottom of the Martial World."
Dong Mu-toe folded his middle finger as well.
"Third, this sect called Hero Gate—though newly founded, extraordinarily powerful. More precisely, the one called that Guild Master—the point that he wishes to negotiate with Formation Tower regarding this matter. And—"
In truth, he had initially intended to stop here, but there was still more information available to deploy. A very powerful piece of evidence—though not something Kim Rae-won had told him.
"Fourth."
After a mere moment's deliberation, he folded his ring finger all the way.
"Trigram Leader Myo Jin-heo and Trigram Leader Eom Bi-ryeong are currently at Hero Gate."