The Board Is Laid
"Why would the Inspection Bureau be targeting me?"
Yun Cheon asked back with an expression of genuine puzzlement.
"More than ten organizations in this cult have their eyes on you. The Inspection Bureau was only one of them. Men who can't have something for themselves set out to destroy it."
Ma Chung led Yun Cheon out of the Inner Library, then, after confirming no one was around, spoke in a low voice.
"It may have something to do with the way you shattered Muk Ha-jin a while back."
"You mean the direct-line heir of the Serpent Scorpion Muk Family?"
"It's only conjecture. But if it's the Muk Family, their eyes would have rolled back in fury. First Muk Wi-jin, the pride of the branch line, falls to you, and then Muk Ha-jin of the direct line. How could they not go mad?"
Yun Cheon's eyes narrowed.
So the act of dismantling the Serpent Scorpion Family's martial arts had circled back around to poison him in the end.
"The charge they've hung on you is a vicious one. The martial art you used against Instructor Jeok Mu-gwang in the end-of-month evaluation—especially that final strike that shattered the black iron plaque—reads as alien, nothing like the techniques of our cult."
It was a kick art Yun Cheon had created by applying the subtleties of the Heaven and Earth Moving Art and the Limitless Step to Ma Chung's Blood Wind Leg, so the misunderstanding was only natural.
"I'm curious myself, you know. What in the world is that art of yours? It resembled Blood Wind Leg, but it was different somehow."
"…I've named it Whirlwind Leg."
"Hoh… You conceived an entirely new martial art in the middle of a sparring match with Instructor Jeok Mu-gwang? You monstrous brat…!"
A cadet creating his own martial art? Ordinarily, that would earn nothing but a scoff.
But after witnessing Yun Cheon's talent at close quarters for so long, Ma Chung found himself believing it.
"In any case… the Inspection Bureau intends to brand you as a sect spy who used hidden orthodox internal energy."
"I don't have any internal energy to begin with. Would that even matter?"
At Yun Cheon's calm rebuttal, Ma Chung shook his head with a bitter expression.
The charge of espionage.
There was no accusation more lethal within the Demonic Cult at present. Once the charge was laid, truth be damned, you were dragged down to the Bureau's underground dungeon and put to torture. Few who entered that place ever came out whole.
"…You're naive, boy. This isn't a question of truth. It's a question of power. If the Inspection Bureau and the Serpent Scorpion Muk Family set their minds on you, they'll fabricate a crime out of nothing."
Yun Cheon fell silent for a moment.
But his eyes weren't trembling with fear—if anything, they had sunk into a cold stillness, already calculating the board.
The Murim Alliance and the Demonic Cult are one and the same.
Wherever power became entangled, even the simplest matters twisted into knots.
"Thank you for telling me, Instructor."
"Spare me the thanks. I simply don't care to watch something I've invested in die a pointless death."
Ma Chung clicked his tongue briefly and hurried Yun Cheon along. Before long, the two men's footsteps came to a halt in front of Gal Mu-heun's office.
Ma Chung reached for the door handle, then stopped and turned back to Yun Cheon one last time.
"…Keep your head on straight, whelp. If you fall into the Inspection Bureau's hands wrong, even a great family or a great sect can be scattered to the winds."
Knock, knock.
Having delivered his final counsel, Ma Chung rapped on the door. Then he gave Yun Cheon's shoulder a single pat and vanished into the darkness without a backward glance.
The heavy iron door groaned open with a long screech, and as Yun Cheon stepped into Gal Mu-heun's office, a weighty silence settled over the room.
Gal Mu-heun, uncharacteristically, had set down his brush and was gazing out the window.
"…So you've come."
He turned slowly. Even the face of the ever-composed Lord of the Mad Path Pavilion wore a shadow.
"You'll have heard by now? Tch. The Inspection Bureau has finally crossed the line."
A flicker of displeasure passed through Gal Mu-heun's eyes. Laying hands on Yun Cheon—his own personal protégé—was nothing less than a challenge to Gal Mu-heun's authority itself.
"The elders of the Serpent Scorpion Muk Family appear to have moved the Bureau Chief. Espionage charges… They've made up their minds entirely."
He tapped the desk lightly and spoke with firm resolve.
"But don't worry. I'll shield you. By my authority as Pavilion Lord, I'll see that those men never set foot near you again. As long as you are mine, they won't touch so much as a single hair on your head—"
"No, Pavilion Lord."
At Yun Cheon's firm refusal, Gal Mu-heun's eyebrow twitched.
"What is this? For a mere cadet to contend with a plot the Inspection Bureau has deliberately unveiled is no small burden."
"If I hide now, they will only circle back and tear at me more obsessively. And your honor would bear the scar, wouldn't it, my lord?"
Yun Cheon walked slowly forward until he stood before Gal Mu-heun's desk. Then he rolled up his right sleeve and extended his arm.
"…Would you take my pulse?"
Gal Mu-heun grasped Yun Cheon's wrist with a puzzled look—and the instant he sent his energy inward, his eyes flew wide open.
"——! Th-this…!"
Gal Mu-heun's hand trembled faintly.
I knew something was wrong with his body, but to this degree!
A dantian swept utterly bare.
And more shocking still was the state of his qi channels—deformed, twisted, and sealed shut completely.
"…Severed Meridian Syndrome. And a congenital case at that…"
"As you can see. There's no possibility whatever of my harboring internal energy."
"Hoh…!"
Gal Mu-heun let out a long sigh.
A child who had displayed such extraordinary martial talent, trapped in a body as good as condemned to a countdown.
"I thought I was looking at a genius of the ages, only to find talent betrayed by fate…"
Astonishment that he had achieved so much without a shred of internal energy was followed at once by a wave of pity.
"All the more reason I must make use of this board."
Yun Cheon lowered his sleeve and spoke with perfect calm.
"The Bureau's forced charges? I could strip them away this very instant. But I must not."
"Why not?"
Yun Cheon only shook his head slowly.
"If I prove my innocence now, they'll simply cut off their own tail and call it 'an unfortunate error.' The Serpent Scorpion Muk Family will slink into the shadows untouched."
Yun Cheon's gaze turned glacial.
It was the look of a hunter luring prey toward a trap.
"To sever them for good, I have to make them come in deeper. All the way to a checkmate they cannot escape."
An intrigued smile spread across Gal Mu-heun's lips.
"Hoh… So you mean to set a trap and wait. That's some nerve you carry. Very well—what is it you need from me?"
"Lay the board for me. Smoke out the informant, and steer them into demanding my verification before a public assembly."
"A public trial… Excellent. I'll gladly lend you the training ground."
Just as Gal Mu-heun was about to nod, Yun Cheon added one more thing.
"And there is one further favor I must ask."
"Speak."
"Well then—how would it be to draw the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons into this? ………"
When Gal Mu-heun had heard Yun Cheon's plan, he laughed with deep satisfaction.
"Heh heh… Good. Very good. A brilliant scheme! I'll see it done."
"I'm in your hands, my lord."
Half a day later.
Men in black martial robes came swarming up to the Inner Library. The character for Inspection embroidered across their chests announced their allegiance plainly.
The Inspection Bureau's enforcement squad.
"Prisoner Yun Cheon! Come out and submit to binding!"
The rough shout shattered the stillness of the Inner Library.
Yun Cheon closed the book he'd been reading and rose slowly from his seat. He had expected this.
They're here.
He moved with unhurried calm toward the entrance.
Behind him, from deep among the shelves, he felt the weight of someone's gaze.
………
A woman in a thick fur-lined coat—Seol Yeong—was hiding in the gap between the shelves, watching with a bloodless face as Yun Cheon was led away. Her glacier-blue eyes wavered with anxiety.
"Move it, you! What are you dawdling for!"
Even as they dragged him off, the faintest smile played at the corner of Yun Cheon's mouth.
Now… the board is fully laid.
Dawn broke on the day of judgment—a board designed by Yun Cheon and set by Gal Mu-heun.
The venue was the central training ground where the end-of-month evaluation had been held. But the atmosphere now bore no resemblance to that day.
The heat was gone. Only the crackle of bonfires drifted through a cold tribunal air.
On the raised platform sat Gal Mu-heun, Lord of the Mad Path Pavilion, alongside observers from every organization, all wearing grave expressions. And across from them, in the seat of honor where the shadows lay thickest, sat rare guests not often seen in such company.
Even the elders of the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons have come…
Old monsters exuding an oppressive presence that made even the spectators hold their breath.
Their attendance owed partly to Gal Mu-heun's request—but partly, too, to the provocative subject on the docket: the espionage charge against a genius cadet had kindled their curiosity.
Gal Mu-heun spoke in a low voice.
"All are assembled. Let us begin."
The moment his words fell, the Bureau's observer stepped forward as though he had been waiting for precisely this.
"I am Sa Do-myeong, observer of the Inspection Bureau. I have questions for the cadet Yun Cheon."
Beside Sa Do-myeong stood a figure wrapped entirely in black cloth, waiting like a shadow.
"You stand accused of feigning a lack of internal energy to evade suspicion, then committing fraud by wielding strange internal power during the end-of-month evaluation. This Bureau suspects that you are a spy of the orthodox sects—in other words, a mole."
The training ground stirred. The word mole carried staggering weight.
"Accordingly, by the Bureau's rules, your inner energy must be thoroughly examined! Force the criminal to his knees at once!"
At Sa Do-myeong's command, the Bureau's warriors started toward Yun Cheon. But in that instant—
"Halt!"
Gal Mu-heun's roar split the air.
"Yun Cheon is no longer a cadet. He is a full warrior under this Pavilion Lord's command. You would verify his inner energy without a shred of evidence—do you intend to insult me?"
Checked by Gal Mu-heun's intervention, Sa Do-myeong faltered briefly.
But he soon recovered, a knowing smile on his lips—as though even this resistance had been anticipated.
"Evidence? We have it, of course. There is an informant."
"An informant? Reveal their identity."
"The identity cannot be disclosed! However, in the interest of fair verification… it happens that the elder of the Serpent Scorpion Muk Family present here today has graciously agreed to conduct the examination himself."
At Sa Do-myeong's gesture, an old man seated to one side of the observers rose to his feet, a sinister smile curling his lips.
"An elder of the Serpent Scorpion Muk Family, you say?"
A master of poison arts—Muk Wi-gyu, elder of the Serpent Scorpion Muk Family.
"Well… they say poison and medicine are but a paper's width apart. With his skill…"
Even the other observers nodded in acknowledgment of Muk Wi-gyu's authority.
It was a meticulously prepared trap, assembled just to topple a single man.
"Heh heh… Unable to refuse a request from the Inspection Bureau, this humble elder steps forward. Pavilion Lord Gal Mu-heun—surely you don't mean to say you distrust even this elder's medical skill?"
Yun Cheon's eyes flashed cold.
An elder of the Serpent Scorpion Muk Family, stepping forward personally.
Just as expected… they've drawn the blade themselves.
The moment Muk Wi-gyu laid hands on his body under the pretext of examination, what he would do was obvious as fire. Inject a poison, or sever his qi channels outright.
But watching Muk Wi-gyu, Yun Cheon let the corner of his mouth rise, ever so slightly.
Everything is proceeding as planned.
All of them were dancing on the board he had drawn. Now it was Gal Mu-heun's turn to provoke them.
"No—I object."
Gal Mu-heun pushed back hard once more.
"Surely you don't mean to tell me you distrust this elder's medical skill? An insult!"
"No, it isn't that. The Serpent Scorpion Muk Family holds a private grudge against Yun Cheon! Fair verification is impossible!"
"Ha! A grudge, you say! You dare insult this family?"
Muk Wi-gyu flared up, voice rising.
"A grudge, between a mere cadet and the Serpent Scorpion Muk Family?"
The observers stirred again. And into that opening, Gal Mu-heun declared openly:
"Both the branch-family cadet Muk Wi-jin and the direct-line cadet Muk Ha-jin were defeated by that boy—how could no grudge arise?"
The moment Gal Mu-heun aired the family's shame in public, Elder Muk Wi-gyu's face turned the color of ash.
"…What? A cadet of the Serpent Scorpion Muk Family, defeated by that boy?"
"Don't tell me that's why Elder Muk Wi-gyu brought his presence here…"
Given the Muk Family's temperament, the suspicion was entirely plausible. But raising it aloud, before everyone, was another matter entirely.
It was like pouring oil on a fire.
In an instant the dispute flared into open conflict.
"Chief Instructor Gal Mu-heun! To drag the Serpent Scorpion Muk Family's honor through the mud… Can you answer for those words?"
Elder Muk Wi-gyu raged, jabbing his finger as he shouted.
"Fine. I, Gal Mu-heun, will stake my post as Lord of the Mad Path Pavilion. And what will the rest of you stake?"
"…Th… that is—"
Sa Do-myeong tried to retreat a step, but at Muk Wi-gyu's murmuring he soon stepped forward with a resigned expression.
"…No help for it, I suppose. I will stake my post as Bureau investigator."
"I will stake the elder's tablet of the Serpent Scorpion Muk Family. Will that suffice?"
Muk Wi-gyu could not back down.
Muk Wi-jin's defeat had already been made public. Word of it spreading to the other organizations was only a matter of time. If he withdrew now, the family's honor would collapse beyond recovery—that much was self-evident.
Well, no matter. The boy dies here today! I'll swallow the poison now, and if the verification comes up clean, I'll simply claim the boy used some trick to force it down me out of terror that his espionage would be exposed.
Slipping his hand into his sleeve, Muk Wi-gyu advanced a step toward Yun Cheon, ready to take the poison.
"Satisfied now? This elder will stake his honor and take the boy's pulse. Still some complaint remaining?"
He drew his hand from his sleeve and swept his gaze across the assembly.
"If any soul present possesses medical skill surpassing my own, I would gladly step aside."
Muk Wi-gyu surveyed the crowd with an air of absolute confidence.
"Heh heh… as if such a person could exist. If no one comes forward, I shall take the assembly's silence as consent!"
In that instant, a chilling smile settled on Gal Mu-heun's lips.
Fools. Little did you know—the trap you dug would become the noose around your own necks.
Gal Mu-heun's voice rang out across the training ground like a rebuke.
"Elder Muk Wi-gyu! How dare you spew such insolence when the Life and Death Venerable himself has graced this gathering with his presence!"
Then Gal Mu-heun bowed with deep formality and cleared a path.
An absolute authority before which even the Lord of the Mad Path Pavilion bowed his head.
At the end of that path, from the deepest shadows of the observers' seats, a figure rose slowly to his feet.
Guuuuum—
Merely standing, and the very air of the training ground pressed down, heavy as stone.
As he slowly removed his bamboo hat, the face of an old man weathered by long years came into view.
"Yes, child of the Muk family. That remarkably insolent speech you made a moment ago—recite it again, word for word, right here before these old eyes. Not a syllable changed."
The Life and Death Venerable.
The supreme physician of the Heavenly Demon Cult, bearing the title of the One Who Governs Life and Death, now stood in their midst.
Return of the Cloud Dragon
Author | Chu Sang (Autumn Frost)
Publisher | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Managing Editor | Editorial Department
Published by | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. — Dreambooks
Address | 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Gwangseong Building, 7th Floor
Blog | blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter (X) | @dreambookss
Submissions | [email protected]
No portion of this book may be used in any form or by any means without the written permission of Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. — Dreambooks.