Hong Ilgon's Downfall
When the Dokbong Unit stormed Hong Ilgon's residence, the place was already empty.
The Dokbong Unit Captain reported in a heavy voice, trembling with rage and shame.
"This is my failure. His kin run businesses all across Sichuan—I never imagined he would abandon every last one of them and flee with nothing but his own skin."
"Do not take it so hard, Captain. Who in their right mind would guess a man would cast aside his entire family like some beast and run?"
The notion that no one would abandon his family to flee alone might have seemed careless to Hui-yeom, a man of the modern world—but to the people of this era, it was the most natural assumption imaginable.
They condemned Hong Ilgon as human garbage who had even forsaken his own blood, and their fury only burned hotter.
Amid that seething anger, Hui-yeom allowed himself a quiet smile.
Things are going rather well. Thank you for running, Hong Ilgon.
"Search every trading house, money shop, and workshop run by Hong Ilgon's relatives until you find him. And strip away every privilege granted by the grace of the Sichuan Dang Family."
"Strip away privileges—do you mean confiscate their property?"
"No. That would be unwise. They are not a martial power; they are ordinary merchants.
Simply sever every deal with them, and announce it across the whole of Sichuan: anyone connected to the Hong clan is an enemy of the Dang Family."
The Dang Family had long been Sichuan's foremost house of power, but lately—by lowering interest rates, clearing the debts of the poor who had fallen into Yeowangchae's clutches, installing sewers and waterworks, and curing the cholera that had stricken Emei—their reputation in the province had reached its absolute peak.
People who would believe a stone was gold if the Dang Family said so would never again be able to do business in Sichuan once they were declared the family's enemies.
Hong Ilgon was the villain; the rest had only lived diligently. Yet showing them mercy risked giving him a foothold for a comeback—or breeding future grudges. That was a risk they could not afford.
Everyone nodded at Dang Un-sang's words. Then Hui-yeom spoke.
"Family Head, there is a better way."
"What is it?"
"Place a bounty on Hong Ilgon's head. Declare that every place tied to him will be treated as an enemy of the Sichuan Dang Family—but that if they capture him and hand him over, all of it will be wiped clean and forgotten."
Dang Un-sang's eyes lit up.
"A sow-discord stratagem."
"Yes. The very blood relatives who grew fat on his support will then scramble to seize him just to survive. And to justify themselves, they will heap every blame upon him and come to hate him."
"Come now—would it really go that far?"
"It will. There is precedent."
Hui-yeom knew several cases from world history where exactly this kind of public pressure had been used.
He spoke to the Dang Family members, who were already leaning in with interest.
"'It is not your fault. Hand over Hong Ilgon alone and everything will be as if it never happened. There will even be a reward. But if you continue to shield him to the end, we will not leave you alone.'
Do that, and his dependents will all betray him to save themselves—and then, to rationalize what they have done, they will resent him. Hong Ilgon, in turn, will see the kin he once sheltered turn on him, and the breach between them will never heal."
"The Young Master's words are sound."
"And in my view, Hong Ilgon is most likely hiding with the Qingcheng Sect."
"I would expect as much. We will have to write to the Murim Alliance."
"If we make it known that this house is prepared to go to all-out war with Qingcheng, the Alliance will certainly dispatch a mediator to prevent chaos among the orthodox factions. We can then use that person as a front to negotiate with Qingcheng and extract concessions."
The plan unfolded smoothly, as if they had rehearsed it beforehand.
And not long after, a rumor spread across the land of Sichuan: the Dang Family had nearly seen their Young Master assassinated by the Qingcheng Sect, and they intended to lodge a formal protest with the Murim Alliance.
At first the people of Sichuan reacted with sheer disbelief.
"What? Qingcheng tried to assassinate the Young Master of the Sichuan Dang Family? What kind of nonsense is that?"
"Why would those two fight? They've been old friends for ages."
"Come on—Qingcheng aren't some unorthodox rabble. They're a great and proper orthodox sect of refined Taoist masters. What are you even talking about…"
It was only natural. For generations Qingcheng had been one of the pillars of Sichuan, and their reputation ran deep.
But as the old saying went: three men can make a tiger. Gather enough mouths, and rumor can conjure a beast that never walked the marketplace.
"But it's true the Young Master nearly got assassinated, you know? Injeong Valley reeks of rotting corpses right now—every wild animal for miles has come running to tear at the bodies."
They first spread the truth of the assassination attempt by pointing to the Yeowangchae corpses left in Injeong Valley.
"Wait—so Qingcheng really…?"
"If Qingcheng had been involved, would the assassins have been slaughtered like that? No chance. The assassination and Qingcheng are separate things~."
"No—someone from the Dang main line was right there, and one of the assassins used Qingcheng's Azure Cloud Crimson Sunset Sword Art. They captured him alive and are interrogating him at the Dang estate as we speak."
"Huh? For real?"
Next they circulated word that an assassin had employed Qingcheng swordsmanship.
"Come to think of it, when everyone said the Sichuan Dang Family was going under, who was reaping the reverse benefits? Qingcheng, right?"
"They'd been quietly swallowing Dang interests piece by piece—and now the situation's flipped and they're the ones losing ground?"
"Losing interests? What would a pure Taoist monastery care about worldly profit…"
"You're dense. Do Taoists live on dew alone? Every inn and shop under Qingcheng's wing is empty these days—every soul in Sichuan knows it. Of course they'd be seething…"
"Now that you mention it, you had ties with Qingcheng, didn't you?"
"Ah, so that's why you were taking their side."
"No! That's not why I—!"
By broadcasting reasons for Qingcheng to hate the Dang Family, they finally managed to scar the sect's once-solid reputation and let the rumor take root throughout Sichuan.
"…I never thought Qingcheng would sink so low…"
"The Azure Cloud Crimson Sunset Sword Art isn't some common technique. That had to be a valued disciple even within Qingcheng."
"Tsk. And they call themselves Taoists."
"What, were there no other people to touch that they dared lay hands on the Prodigious Young Dragon?"
"Exactly. Everything that made Sichuan this livable came out of Young Master Dang Hui-yeom's head."
"They just can't stand to see someone else succeed. Ha! With a heart like that, what Dao are they even cultivating…"
In the end they succeeded in wounding Qingcheng's hard-earned name and spreading the rumor far and wide across the province.
As events turned, it was Qingcheng that grew desperate.
At first the Taoists of the Qingcheng Sect paid the gossip no mind at all. They had never dreamed they were connected to any of it.
"Honestly, if you're going to start rumors to sow discord, at least make them somewhat believable. Tsk tsk."
"The quality of unorthodox scum has really dropped lately, hasn't it?"
Even when they heard that assassins' corpses had been found in Injeong Valley, they still treated it as someone else's affair.
"So there really was an assassination attempt? This isn't even Green Forest territory—where did those dogs come from?"
"Their weapons were all mismatched, and they used bows… doesn't look like any particular martial force…"
"Has to be Yeowangchae scum holding a grudge after getting driven out of Sichuan."
"Ah, that would make sense."
They continued reacting as if it were none of their concern—until the next news landed.
"…What? Azure Cloud Crimson Sunset Sword Art? Impossible."
"According to Dokbong Dang Su-jeong's testimony?"
"The Sichuan Dang Family has sent a formal protest?"
When the letter stamped with the Family Head's personal seal arrived at Qingcheng, they finally understood this was no joke—and they were appalled.
A letter of protest written by a clan head himself meant the matter was anything but trivial. And from the perspective of a Qingcheng that knew nothing, the contents of that letter were outrageous beyond measure.
People may shrug when someone merely pounds his chest and cries injustice—but when that same person douses himself in oil and tries to set himself ablaze in the middle of the main street, even the skeptical begin to believe something truly grievous must have occurred.
To the Qingcheng elders who read a letter that was all but a declaration of war, it felt as if a man soaked in oil had seized a torch and was charging them, determined to die together.
Naturally, the entire sect erupted in uproar.
"There truly is no disciple named Haun?!"
"They said Azure Cloud Crimson Sunset Sword Art! There is no way we would not know a disciple who uses a technique that precious!"
Yet even as they shouted, several elders felt a chill crawl down their spines and began eyeing one another with suspicion.
These few were the ones who knew of the Crimson Sunset Sword Ghost's existence.
Don't tell me that madman…
He sent a Crimson Sunset Sword Ghost to take the Dang Young Master's head? Insane…
This is no ordinary mess…
In the end they realized Songhak Jin-in had privately deployed one of the Crimson Sunset Sword Ghosts—and that the man was now missing.
Furious beyond measure, they stormed to confront him.
"Sect Leader! What is the meaning of this?!"
"To use a Crimson Sunset Sword Ghost for private ends—what have you done?!"
"And the purpose was an assassination attempt on our sworn ally, the Sichuan Dang Family?!"
"Explain yourself, Sect Leader!"
The words of the junior elders were still relatively restrained even in this crisis.
But although Songhak Jin-in was the long-reigning Sect Leader of Qingcheng, among the elders who had stepped back from the front lines were many long-lived masters whose standing rivaled his own.
And their words were far more blunt.
"I truly apologize, but I must say this. Sect Leader—have you taken leave of your senses?!"
"We entrusted the seat to you because you were capable, and now you mean to ruin the entire sect!"
"No, I honestly don't understand! Have you held the position so long that you went looking for some novel excuse to get yourself thrown out?"
Faced with even these men, Songhak Jin-in could no longer keep silent.
He did his utmost to justify himself.
"If we do not check the Sichuan Dang Family now, Qingcheng has no future!
We need only claim it was the personal deviation of a single disciple! We will have to yield a little of our interests, but…"
To the elders it was pure nonsense.
Those who had long opposed Songhak Jin-in and hungered for the Sect Leader's seat had every reason to seize the chance.
"Sect Leader, take responsibility and resign!"
"It seems you have occupied that seat far too long."
Of course not everyone in Qingcheng felt the same.
Factions that had enjoyed his favors or followed him with fervent loyalty worked their tongues hard to defend him.
"Even so, the years of contribution the Sect Leader has made cannot simply be cast aside!"
"Why should the Sect Leader resign over this? Was it not the personal deviation of that disciple Haun?"
And so the Qingcheng elders split into those determined to discard Songhak Jin-in and those determined to protect him, and launched into an ugly free-for-all of factional strife.
Meanwhile, Hong Ilgon himself could hardly sit back and watch the fire on the other side of the river.
He had pretended to step down quietly from the head of the Elder Council, intending a glorious return once the Crimson Sunset Sword Ghost assassinated the Young Master.
The assassination had failed, and the branch-family blood relatives who once worshiped him now treated him as the man who had splattered filth on the clan's name—and they were frantically hunting him to hand him over to the main line.
This cannot be. Hong Ilgon cannot end like this!
Abandoned by both the Dang Family and his own house, the only thread left to him was Songhak Jin-in.
Even now I am only able to hide in Qingcheng thanks to Master. The moment he loses his seat, I am truly finished!
In the end he scraped together every last scrap of wealth he had amassed and sought out Songhak Jin-in.
"Ilgon, you bastard! With what face do you dare show yourself here?!"
"Master, this disciple has something to say."
"Silence! I have nothing to hear from the likes of you! Get out!"
Songhak Jin-in glared at Hong Ilgon as if at a mortal enemy.
He had completely forgotten how Hong Ilgon's help had once lined his private purse, expanded Qingcheng's interests, and kept him sailing smoothly in the Sect Leader's seat year after year. Now he seemed to believe every disaster was Hong Ilgon's fault alone.
At that sharp hostility, Hong Ilgon felt a surge of heat in his chest.
That's why you should have sent more than one Crimson Sunset Sword Ghost!
Damn it—if the assassination had simply succeeded then, none of this would have happened!
Yet even as his insides boiled, he flung himself face-down on the floor and pleaded in a voice thick with tears.
"Master, this disciple begs you one last time with all his heart!
Please hear me out just once. If you decide it is empty talk, I will leave Qingcheng of my own will!"
When his aged disciple prostrated himself in full kowtow and pleaded so desperately, Songhak Jin-in reluctantly nodded.
"…Speak."
"As Master has surely heard, the Dang Family does not desire all-out war with Qingcheng.
Had they truly wanted blood vengeance, they would have struck Qingcheng in secret.
And has the rumor not already spread across all Sichuan that the Dang Family will protest to the Murim Alliance?"
"It has."
"Through my connections in the Alliance I have confirmed the rumor is true.
If Qingcheng and the Dang Family go to war, chaos will rock the orthodox murim—so they intend to send a mediator to stop it."
As Hong Ilgon's words poured out like flowing water, Songhak Jin-in's attitude softened a fraction.
"If the Murim Alliance is sending a mediator…"
"Exactly, Master. Much will turn on whose side that mediator takes.
And if we weather this crisis well, we can even turn the pressure back upon those who are slandering you.
We can say the Alliance sided with Qingcheng precisely because you are its Sect Leader."
Songhak Jin-in's ears pricked up.
Was it not said that crisis is opportunity?
If they overcame this as Hong Ilgon claimed, he could invoke the Alliance's name and raise his authority inside Qingcheng even higher.
"In other words, you can persuade the Alliance's mediator properly?"
At his master's immediate, mercenary change of face Hong Ilgon felt only disgust—but his life hung on the man, so he had no choice but to soothe him carefully.
"I will empty every last coin of my fortune if I must, and arrange through the Alliance for a mediator friendly to Master to be dispatched. Simply assign me a few disciples as escort until then."
"…There must be absolutely no mistakes."
"My own life is on the line as well. There will be no mistakes."
Songhak Jin-in attached two of his own disciples as Hong Ilgon's guards.
Hong Ilgon packed every scrap of his remaining wealth and set out for the Murim Alliance.