Chapter 467
Chapter 467
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 120
>Chapter Title: The Beginning of the Disaster (3)
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“Hah. As if I’d let you interfere, you damn寄生 eyeball bastard.”
“What?”
Mok Gan’s expression turned icy at the vulgar curse spilling from the mouth of Je Il-gye Chun Chu of the secret council.
Whether it was a clone or not, this mere pawn who couldn’t even look him straight in the face normally dared to insult him and interrupt at such a crucial moment.
-Swish!
Mok Gan raised his left hand upward.
At once, grotesque winged beasts appeared from not far away, as if they had been waiting.
-Roooaaar!
Judging by the demonic energy pouring from them, they were at least on the level of demon beasts or higher.
As expected of the base where Mok Gan’s true body resided, there were a considerable number of airborne grotesque beasts.
Nearly dozens of them lay in wait.
They had likely been left there in anticipation of an aerial approach.
Mok Gan sneered.
“Fool. I’ll make you pay the price for your betrayal.”
“Ridiculous. You’re the one who betrayed us. Why did you take my father from me?”
-Fwoosh!
As Chun Chu spread her hands wide, scorching heat spread through the surroundings, and dozens of fireballs materialized.
Mok Gan clicked his tongue at the sight.
As one of the secret council’s top executives, she should know full well the council’s strength and his own fearsomeness. Was she really staking her life just because she’d lost her father?
Having clicked his tongue, Mok Gan pointed his raised left hand toward Chun Chu.
The grotesque beasts immediately opened their maws and began firing demonic energy blasts at her, as if they’d been waiting.
-Pew pew pew pew pew pew bang!
Chun Chu countered by launching condensed explosive fireballs of her own demonic energy.
The demonic blasts and fireballs collided, unleashing a chain of explosions that shook the air in all directions.
-Kaboom kaboom kaboom kaboom kaboom boom!
‘Now.’
In that instant, Mok Gan gathered all his true energy into his right hand and thrust forward.
The formless sword, halted by the explosions, finally broke through and shot toward Cheong Ryeong.
Trapped in the Heavenly Duke Sealing Sky Style, she would slip away if it went any farther.
This was his only chance...
-Stab!
‘!?’
Mok Gan’s face twisted in fury.
He’d thought Chun Chu would be tied up blocking the grotesque beasts, but she had veered into its path and blocked the formless sword with her own body.
‘You venomous bitch!’
Was she truly prepared to fight him to the death?
His assumption was spot on.
After halting the formless sword—whose tip pierced her abdomen—with her body, Chun Chu gripped it with her left hand brimming with demonic energy and glanced back.
Cheong Ryeong was growing smaller as she receded into the distance.
‘Go.’
Get there first, no matter what.
Only then would things not play out as this damn eyeball parasite desired.
“Cough... cough.”
Even with her top executive-level rapid regeneration, she couldn’t withstand the power of the formless sword, the pinnacle of sword arts, and hacked up blood from her internal injuries.
Yet her will burned fiercer than ever, her rage fueling even hotter flames.
-Swish!
-Kaboom kaboom kaboom kaboom boom!
Chun Chu extended her hand, reigniting the stalled explosions to block the incoming grotesque beasts.
Her role here was set.
‘Even if this becomes my grave...’
She would drag them all to the afterlife.
As if sensing her resolve, Cheong Ryeong clenched her fist tight while flying away.
Chun Chu had likely steeled herself for death.
It was her only path to vengeance, after all.
To make that sacrifice worthwhile, Cheong Ryeong had to reach the Cheonji Society before Mok Gan’s true body arrived.
‘Jung Saeng...’
Strangely, her mind overflowed not with hatred, but worry for Mok Kyung-un.
She shook it off.
She believed Mok Kyung-un would escape whatever trap the bastard had set and come to her.
She pushed her spiritual power to its limits and pressed onward.
* * *
Sichuan Province.
A valley reduced to ruins after Jin Shik’s barrier crumbled.
The area was a horrific slaughterhouse, blanketed in the corpses and blood of grotesque beasts.
Beneath one stone wall, amid the pile of shattered rocks, a single hand protruded starkly.
The hand, still as death, began to tremble faintly.
Then,
-Shoooo!
It glowed red-hot, steam rising from it.
Right then—
-Boom!
The rocks exploded outward, and a figure riddled with wounds emerged from within.
It was Yu Mu-jin, of the Yu Clan.
“Haa... haa...”
Even unscathed, being buried under that many rocks could have been fatal, but with his injuries, even he—who possessed the Yu Clan’s supreme physique—struggled to breathe properly.
As Yu Mu-jin caught his breath and scanned the surroundings, his face darkened further.
“Father?”
He’d recalled his father’s safety.
-Shoot!
Yu Mu-jin shot toward the valley.
‘Damn it.’
He’d been fighting the incoming foes when heart-wrenching pain had thrown him into peril for a moment.
But the agony vanished midway, allowing him to regain his senses and continue battling the grotesque beasts—only to face the worst scenario he’d feared.
-Kaboom kaboom kaboom kaboom boom!
A colossal entity crawled from the depths of Wu Jian Valley, said to be the deepest in the Central Plains—vast beyond comprehension, making “gigantic” seem inadequate.
The moment he laid eyes on it, Yu Mu-jin felt true terror for the first time in his life.
He knew of its existence, but the reality surpassed imagination.
-Rooooaaar!
-Kraaaaaargh!
As it emerged halfway and bellowed, a shockwave devastated the surroundings, hurling him away and knocking him unconscious.
“Father! Father!”
Yu Mu-jin dashed through the ruined cliffs, shouting.
He’d never imagined his father could fall to anything.
Yet this thing transcended all imagination.
How had their ancestors sealed such a monstrosity in Wu Jian Valley?
As he scoured the area desperately, Yu Mu-jin’s eyes reddened.
Had he lost even his father’s body?
-Thud!
After fruitless searching, Yu Mu-jin collapsed to his knees, tears streaming.
Had his mighty father truly perished without a trace?
How could that be...
-Flinch!
Then Yu Mu-jin’s ears perked up.
The Yu Clan’s innate physique recovered stamina over time without meditation, healing internal and external wounds swiftly.
His heart injury had slowed it, but searching for his father had restored some physical ability.
His sharpened senses revived as well.
-Hoo... hoo...
A faint breathing sound from nearby.
It wasn’t far.
‘It wasn’t there before?’
Yu Mu-jin rose and headed toward the source.
It came from the cliff’s edge.
He leaped down the cliff without hesitation, following the sound, and spotted a hole in the precipice some thirty-odd zhang below.
-Thud!
Yu Mu-jin dove into the hole.
It appeared artificially carved, not a natural formation.
In the dark interior, his eyes caught a figure.
It was his father, Yu Mu-jeok—right leg crushed, one arm torn off, barely clinging to life.
“Father!”
Yu Mu-jin rushed to him and checked his condition.
He still breathed, but his muscles had atrophied from exhaustion.
“Father? Father?”
At Yu Mu-jin’s calls, Yu Mu-jeok struggled to speak without fully opening his eyes.
“Mus... block it... must block... grrr.”
“Father!”
Shaking his unconscious father, Yu Mu-jin bit his lip hard, hoisted him over his shoulder, and exited the hole.
He clung to the cliff with one hand.
‘I have to go. There.’
Only one place could save his barely breathing father.
He had to get there and report that the Great Power King’s seal had broken.
* * *
Cheonji Society headquarters grand hall.
Gathered there were the key figures of the civil war victory—Mok Kyung-un’s top executives.
To the immediate left of the stone statue leader’s central jade throne stood Gu Cheon-mu, head of Spirit Sword Manor and one of the Seven Heavens, leading outsiders like Sword Demon Ji Oe, Sacred Flame Lord of the Blaze Cult, and others. To the right sat Ho Tae-gang the Fragment King, one of the Five Kings with the Eight Stars title; Venom King Baek Sa-ha; Life-Extinguishing King Son Yun; Dark Sect Leader Hwan Ya-seon; Water Sect Leader Go Yeon-byeok; Blood Pond Valley Lord Lee Ji-yeom; and more.
Among the protagonists, figures equivalent to top executives like the Eight Venom Sergeants’ Gu Yang-so, Masked Mara Hyeon, Defiant Monk Pok Ma-gwon-sa Ja Geum-jeong, Seop Chun, and Mong Mu-yak were absent on missions. Also missing was Gyu Jong-sin, one of the Eight Stars and Five Kings, the Spirit Creation King, still under investigation for suspected collusion with the enemy secret council.
‘Hm. With everyone assembled like this, our forces haven’t taken a major hit.’
Venom King Baek Sa-ha’s assessment as he crossed his arms and glanced at the top executives.
The secret council’s hidden forces and the Na Yeol faction’s civil war had caused significant losses.
Numerically, about a third of the total forces had been sacrificed.
But in terms of combat power, that wasn’t the case.
‘The biggest gain is the surge in wall-transcending supreme experts.’
Outsiders like Sword Demon Ji Oe, Eight Venom Sergeant Gu Yang-so, Masked Mara Hyeon, Defiant Monk Ja Geum-jeong at supreme level, plus himself and Blood Pond Valley Lord breaking through the wall.
Six new Eight Stars-level ultra-experts.
Fortunately, none of the existing Five Kings among the Eight Stars had been lost.
‘And the greatest addition...’
Baek Sa-ha’s gaze turned to Gu Cheon-mu, head of Spirit Sword Manor.
The addition of one of the Seven Heavens, hailed as the pinnacle of the current martial world, was enormous.
The Righteous Alliance and Evil Alliance each had one of the Seven Heavens, but the nascent Cheonji Society now boasted two.
One had even surpassed the wall of walls—the Profound Realm—to reach Life and Death Realm, making him practically the world’s strongest.
‘Keh heh heh. My choice was wise. In the end, my disciple will rule the new era.’
Satisfied, Baek Sa-ha’s lips curled up.
Then someone spoke.
It was Fragment King Ho Tae-gang.
“With the civil war cleanup mostly sorted, we have key agenda items left.”
“Agenda? Mok Kyung-un, who will become Leader, hasn’t even been inaugurated yet. What agenda is there to discuss?”
Water Sect Leader Go Yeon-byeok’s question was answered not by Ho Tae-gang, but by Dark Sect Leader Hwan Ya-seon.
“Heh heh heh. The Leader position is one of the key agenda items.”
“Leader? What do you mean?”
“It looked like a civil war within the Cheonji Society, but strictly speaking, this war was the process of forming a new organization.”
“You mean...?”
“Even small units need names. Our organization, poised to become one of the three great powers, deserves a fitting name.”
“Ah...”
Most top executives nodded in agreement.
Those gathered under Mok Kyung-un weren’t just following the Cheonji Society’s Leader.
Thus, a new organization name befitting that was needed.
“But shouldn’t such a weighty matter wait for Mok Kyung-un, our Leader, to return?”
Blood Pond Valley Lord Lee Ji-yeom’s opinion was met by Ho Tae-gang’s response.
“Of course the final decision lies with our lord, but wouldn’t it be easier for him if we at least outline it beforehand?”
“I agree. Heh heh heh.”
Venom King Baek Sa-ha concurred.
Lee Ji-yeom nodded as well.
Dark Sect Leader Hwan Ya-seon then spoke.
“Does anyone have a proposal for a name fitting this new organization?”
Ho Tae-gang jumped in eagerly.
“If we’re naming it, let’s go with something powerful.”
“Do you have something in mind?”
“Something that’d make the Righteous Alliance or Evil Alliance bastards tremble just hearing it—like Overlord Society?”
“Hm. Not bad.”
Life-Extinguishing King Son Yun, still recovering, stroked his chin in approval.
He too favored strength.
But Blood Pond Valley Lord Lee Ji-yeom tilted his head disagreeingly.
“Overlord isn’t bad, but do we need to revert to ‘Society’?”
“Why? Is there a problem?”
“‘Society’ might seem like we’re clinging to our predecessor, the Cheonji Society.”
Sword Demon Ji Oe spoke for the first time at Lee Ji-yeom’s words.
“Even I, an outsider, see the logic. Do we need the ‘Society’ title used by overlords past?”
“Heh heh heh. Then, Sword Demon, do you have a suggestion from an outsider’s view?”
To Dark Sect Leader Hwan Ya-seon’s question, Ji Oe grinned.
“Wouldn’t ‘Alliance’ sound better?”
Gu Cheon-mu, head of Spirit Sword Manor, nodded approvingly.
As moderates, they preferred solid yet rounded connotations.
“Alliance...”
“Hmm.”
Cheonji Society natives weren’t thrilled with “Alliance.”
In the current martial world, “Alliance” was used by the Righteous Alliance and Evil Alliance.
The Cheonji Society was formed by those venerating pure might, neither righteous nor evil.
Did they need to follow the same path?
Then someone spoke.
“What about ‘Cult’?”
All eyes turned to the voice’s owner.
It was Sacred Flame Lord of the Blaze Cult.
Ho Tae-gang snorted first at her suggestion.
“‘Cult’? Absurd. We seated you at the top executive meeting, but this is strictly a martial organization.”
“I agree with Brother Ho.”
Life-Extinguishing King Son Yun showed displeasure.
Though tense under their pressure, Sacred Flame Lord spoke again.
“This isn’t because I’m from the Blaze Cult.”
“Then what?”
“Young Master Mok is the Fire Incarnate.”
“Fire Incarnate?”
“A being to be revered as a god. He will lead the foolish mortals of the Central Plains...”
“Enough!”
Ho Tae-gang cut her off.
He clicked his tongue.
“This is a martial organization. Best abandon any notion of tainting it with Blaze Cult colors using clever words.”
“I’m not trying to impose Blaze Cult colors. I just...”
“Sacred Flame Lord’s opinion isn’t without merit.”
Dark Sect Leader Hwan Ya-seon interjected.
Cheonji natives frowned at him.
Undeterred, Hwan Ya-seon continued calmly.
“‘Society’ or ‘Alliance’ have clear limitations.”
“What do you mean by limitations, Dark Sect Leader?”
“We won the war, but over eighty percent of our forces are still tied to the Cheonji Society name. Undeniable.”
“So what? Is that a problem?”
“Everyone here chose to follow Young Master Mok—our lord—by their own decision. But not all. Many followed their own leaders into the war blindly.”
“Hm.”
Ho Tae-gang couldn’t refute this time.
The headquarters still simmered with unrest, far from unified.
Many saw the war as lacking justification or as a mere internal conflict.
Thus, some who revered the Cheonji Leader harbored resentment or dissatisfaction.
“But that doesn’t necessitate adopting ‘Cult’ as justification.”
“It could. Unlike ‘Alliance’ or ‘Society,’ which emphasize gathering, ‘Cult’ demands absolute faith in the leader, like a nation revering its emperor.”
“...Faith?”
“To overhaul and absorb the Society’s long-built systems and power swiftly, absolute trust in the leader is essential. Nothing suits that like ‘Cult.’”
“Hm...”
Everyone pondered Hwan Ya-seon’s words.
It was an unconsidered angle, but not unprecedented.
The old martial world’s Blood Cult came to mind.
Sword Demon Ji Oe chuckled.
“If we must deify the leader, why not name it after him—Mok Kyung-un Cult? Or better, Heavenly Demon Cult?”
It was a joke to lighten the mood.
Yet no one laughed.
‘!?’
Instead, they murmured “Heavenly Demon Cult” thoughtfully, seemingly endorsing it.
What? Were they seriously considering it?
As he wondered, footsteps rushed in.
-Tat tat tat tat!
An urgent figure entered the hall, clad as a Dark Sect intelligence messenger.
The messenger dropped to one knee, clasped hands in salute, and reported breathlessly.
“E-emergency report! The Righteous Alliance’s full forces are rapidly heading south toward our headquarters!”
‘!!!!!!!’
[End of Chapter 120: The Beginning of the Disaster (3)]