Chapter 187
Chapter 187
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 54
>Chapter Title: Zenith (1)
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“Hee hee.”
In the end, Gyu So-ha, who had possessed the body of Seo Hye-in, the leader of the Four Peaks’ Chaeyeon Group—a woman—just as he wanted, let out a satisfied cackle.
Cheong-ryeong clicked her tongue as she watched Gyu So-ha.
-Tsk tsk. It’s hilarious how he’s so thrilled yet insists he’s a man.
-Yeah, right.
Mok Kyung-un shrugged.
Truth be told, it didn’t matter to him whether Gyu So-ha was a man or a woman.
He just needed a pawn he could move as he wished.
-So, what’s your plan now? Regardless of how it happened, you’ve got the second disciple Jang Neung-ak and the youngest disciple Wi So-yeon’s faction right in your grasp, just like you intended.
-Not completely yet.
-Why do you say that?
-You can only call it a success once you can mobilize their real heavy hitters and merge the two groups properly.
At Mok Kyung-un’s words, Cheong-ryeong replied as if impressed.
-Hoo? Is that so?
-Isn’t that the obvious next step?
-You’re right. The young underlings might follow their masters blindly, but the real veterans are different.
The real veterans Cheong-ryeong mentioned weren’t the close aides of the two successors.
Most of those aides were the next generation’s rising stars, but the true powerhouses were the executives backing them.
-If you try to merge the two forces too abruptly, you might provoke backlash from those executives in the shadows.
-Probably.
The close aides following Jang Neung-ak or Wi So-yeon were all around the same age, part of the younger generation.
Unless something extreme happened, they had no choice but to follow their lords’ will.
But as Cheong-ryeong said, the executives were another story.
They were likely to resist if it strayed from their own interests.
-Have you thought of a countermeasure for that?
-Well, what do you think would be best?
At Mok Kyung-un’s question, Cheong-ryeong asked in bewilderment.
-Are you seriously asking?
-Yes.
-...Are you actually seeking advice from me, you brat?
-Yeah. So what?
-Hah? The sun must be rising in the west. You never listen to my advice anyway and just do whatever you want.
-You seem more experienced than me at handling organizations.
-...
-Is that not the case?
-...Hmph. Don’t talk nonsense.
-If you have a good idea, tell me. We need to prepare before the eldest young master Na Yeul-lyang wakes up and comes for my head.
At Mok Kyung-un’s words, Cheong-ryeong looked at him in surprise from within the wooden doll.
She had thought he’d stubbornly do everything his own way to the end, based on his actions.
Yet at some point, he had started incorporating her advice bit by bit.
Especially when it came to handling organizations.
‘This guy... might actually have what it takes to be a leader.’
It was an unexpected side of him.
Up until now, the Mok Kyung-un she had observed was as solitary as they come, trusting no one.
But ever since he began facing enemies with organized forces, his judgment and insight had grown to match.
That was the hallmark of a true leader.
A leader didn’t just bully or bulldoze their way through an organization with intimidation or stubbornness. They needed a broad perspective to survey situations, gain insight, and know how to deploy the right people at the right time.
Unbeknownst to himself, Mok Kyung-un was gradually doing this on instinct.
‘He’s not just growing in martial arts?’
What a peculiar guy.
Usually, excellence in one area meant deficiency in others, but he was developing across multiple fronts to an eerie degree.
As she secretly admired him inwardly, Mok Kyung-un spoke.
-If there’s no special plan...
-Move people.
-Move people?
-Yes.
-How?
-Even if you run yourself ragged for a hundred days alone, it’s hard to bend the executives to your will. But if you move others, it’ll be much smoother.
-...
-Doesn’t that ring true? There’s a good example related to this.
-What?
-When the Island Poison King—that old brat—cleaned up his surroundings, talked to the Dark Sect Leader about the current situation, and pushed for an alliance, what did you do?
-...I asked him to handle it.
-Exactly. You left it to that old brat—who isn’t even your spirit servant and whose weakness you don’t hold—and went about your own business, right?
-Yeah.
-Why were you so casual about entrusting it to him, when he’s neither your spirit servant nor under your thumb?
-Well...
Mok Kyung-un trailed off.
He had realized what Cheong-ryeong intended with these words.
Her call to “move people” wasn’t just casual advice.
The true meaning behind her words was,
-...You’re saying I should trust them?
Mok Kyung-un never trusted anyone.
That’s why, until he became a death row inmate, he never relied on anyone and acted alone.
But at some point, things had changed.
He had hit the limits of his solo power.
If his enemy hadn’t been a martial artist or tied to a massive organization like the Heaven-Earth Society, he probably would have kept trying to handle everything alone.
But not anymore.
He had realized that to face a huge organization, he needed a variety of cards.
‘Trust...’
Mok Kyung-un’s eyes narrowed.
He knew he needed diverse cards, which was why he had been gradually increasing his spirit servants.
However, when he recently turned a new grudge spirit into a spirit servant, he learned something.
You couldn’t infinitely increase spirit servants.
[Oh? There’s another one.]
He thought only one grudge spirit had formed from the warrior at the cliffside stone, but two had tried to emerge.
So Mok Kyung-un attempted to make that second one a spirit servant as well.
But he couldn’t.
No bond had formed.
[-As expected.]
[Expected? What do you mean?]
[-A bond is essentially forcing fate to connect. Fate is inevitable, bound by laws and principles—trying to extend it infinitely from the start would be the real anomaly.]
[Is there a limit?]
[-If bonds could chain infinitely, that would defy inevitability itself.]
Since Mok Kyung-un wasn’t dead, he struggled to grasp the enlightenment of the deceased.
But one thing was clear: creating spirit servants violated inevitability and natural laws, so limitations were inevitable.
In short, there was a cap on the number of spirit servants he could maintain.
Thus, expanding his cards through spirit servants had its limits.
‘No helping it, huh?’
As Cheong-ryeong said, to expand his cards, he might need a measure of that “trust.”
As he pondered this, Mok Kyung-un chuckled wryly.
The irony of him—someone who trusted no one—contemplating trust in others to expand his options.
Cheong-ryeong spoke to such a Mok Kyung-un.
-You’re a strange one, brat. You know you need to move people, yet you can’t trust them.
-Is it a contradiction?
-Contradiction... Yeah, that fits you perfectly. But it makes me curious all of a sudden.
-About what?
-Why can’t you trust people, brat?
-Well, do I have to?
At Mok Kyung-un’s dry retort, Cheong-ryeong clicked her tongue inwardly.
‘What a unique guy.’
If he’d been betrayed by someone he trusted, like her, that’d be one thing.
But what could make a guy not even twenty years old so distrustful of others?
Did he just think differently from normal people?
That could be it.
From what she’d seen, he was full of quirks and surprises.
But somehow, she felt that wasn’t the whole story.
-...I’ll find out by watching.
She would learn why Mok Kyung-un distrusted people so deeply by observing his ultimate pursuit: revenge.
Until then,
-Whatever. Trusting or not is your call. But to make an organization function organically, you’ll need some level of trust.
-Got it. I’ll keep that in mind. So, what should I do?
-What do you think is the most crucial card on the second disciple Jang Neung-ak’s side?
-Ho Jong-hyeok’s master, probably.
The father of Annihilation Group’s Grand Leader Ho Jong-hyeok was Ho Tae-gang, the Destruction King—one of the Five Kings, an upper executive, and one of the Eight Stars hailed as the top masters of the central plains martial world.
-Yes. He’d be the pillar of the forces supporting Jang Neung-ak.
-If we move him, the others will naturally fall in line.
-Exactly. So use Ho Jong-hyeok to move the Destruction King.
-Sounds reasonable.
Wi Maeng-cheon had possessed Ho Jong-hyeok’s body.
As a spirit servant, Wi Maeng-cheon had no choice but to obey Mok Kyung-un’s commands, so he could help persuade his original body’s father, the Destruction King Ho Tae-gang.
-The problem isn’t Jang Neung-ak’s faction—it’s Wi So-yeon’s.
-...Yeah.
-The biggest supporter and pillar of Wi So-yeon’s faction is someone you couldn’t like even if you tried.
Wi So-yeon’s biggest supporter was Son Yun, the Clarity King, one of the Five Kings.
As Cheong-ryeong said, the most tangled relationship since joining the Heaven-Earth Society was with the Clarity King.
He had rejected Mok Kyung-un’s request to take him as a disciple, and his ties with the Clarity King’s disciples Woo Ho-rang and Yeop Wi-seon were practically hostile.
Even the Clarity King’s newest disciple, Mok Yu-cheon, was the same.
Mok Kyung-un shrugged.
-Not everything can go smoothly.
-You don’t even think the messes you made are graves you dug yourself, even if you’re about to die.
-Does rehashing what’s already happened serve any purpose?
-Tsk tsk. Anyway.
Cheong-ryeong clicked her tongue.
Then she continued.
-Either way, things will only worsen if you step in yourself, so move someone else.
-My disciples are already a lost cause.
Neither Woo Ho-rang nor Yeop Wi-seon would move for Mok Kyung-un.
And now that he had made Wi So-yeon his woman, they’d harbor even more resentment if they found out.
-It’d be better to work through the Dark Sect Leader or Island Poison King to persuade them.
-Through the Dark Sect Leader or Island Poison King?
-Yes. Another executive making the move would be more convincing. But the Island Poison King over the Dark Sect Leader. You know why, right, brat?
Mok Kyung-un smirked at Cheong-ryeong’s words.
He understood what she meant.
The Dark Sect Leader had clashed with Clarity King Son Yun at the Blood Valley execution site over acquiring Mok Kyung-un.
If he stepped forward to unite the factions, would his words even carry weight?
-Then I need to move fast.
The night wasn’t long.
He had to establish the alliance before eldest young master Na Yeul-lyang regained his senses.
* * *
Leaving Jang Neung-ak’s residence, Mok Kyung-un hurried toward Island Poison King Baek Sa-ha’s estate.
But on the way, he ran into a Dark Sect warrior rushing toward him in a panic.
-Young master! There you are.
Mok Kyung-un asked, puzzled.
-What’s going on?
-The Dark Sect Leader is urgently summoning you.
-My master?
-Yes. It’s extremely pressing—he said to bring you immediately.
‘Urgent matter?’
What could it be?
Was it because Island Poison King Baek Sa-ha had discussed the incident with eldest young master Na Yeul-lyang and proposed an alliance?
But right now, he needed to see Baek Sa-ha first and address the Clarity King Son Yun issue.
Thus, Mok Kyung-un said.
-Got it. Just give me a moment...
-You must come right now.
-It won’t take long. First...
Before Mok Kyung-un could finish, the Dark Sect warrior fidgeted anxiously.
-No. You have to go immediately.
-Ah, this is awkward. I’ll head back to the Dark Sect soon...
-Not the Dark Sect.
-Pardon?
-The Dark Sect Leader is currently meeting with the Society Leader at the inner castle’s main hall.
‘!?’
Mok Kyung-un’s expression changed at his words.
The Dark Sect Leader was meeting the Heaven-Earth Society Leader—and urgently calling for him?
That meant...
‘Can I meet that person?’
Mok Kyung-un had infiltrated the successors’ factions precisely to create a chance to contact the Society Leader.
And now, an unexpected opportunity had arrived.