Chapter 351
Chapter 351
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 351
>Chapter Title: Preparation (1)
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“…That’s a different face from the one I saw.”
At Il-mok’s words, the distrust etched on the faces of the three orthodox faction members deepened.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“The sketch we drew might be inaccurate, or perhaps your memory has faded with the passage of time.”
At True Person Cheong-mok’s and the Beggar King’s words, Il-mok slightly lowered his head and replied.
“Please excuse me for a moment.”
After obtaining their permission, Il-mok turned his head toward where his group was waiting.
“Miss Jin, are you still keeping the sketch of the jiangshi’s appearance?”
At Il-mok’s question, Jin Ha-yeon unpacked the bundle she always carried whenever they traveled somewhere.
As a member of the Silver Shadow Pavilion who also served as a maidservant, she always kept items necessary for assisting Il-mok on hand.
She pulled a single sheet of paper from within and handed it to Il-mok.
“This is the face of the jiangshi I saw. Does it match the one you three witnessed?”
Il-mok had asked in case the sketch was drawn incorrectly, but all three shook their heads.
As they gazed at the sketch with complicated expressions, So Ho-gae muttered regretfully.
“If we’d known there was a sketch like this, it would’ve been nice if you’d told us sooner…”
“Ahem.”
So Ho-gae clamped his mouth shut at the stern voice of the Beggar Sect Leader.
Il-mok clasped his hands in a fist salute and slightly bowed his head.
“My apologies. I was caught up in my own troubles as well. And since I lack artistic skill, I kept quiet to avoid spreading an inaccurate sketch.”
“Then what is this sketch?”
“This isn’t one we drew.”
With those words, Il-mok opened the floodgates and recounted the events in the northern grasslands.
The custom of wind burial in the grassland regions and the incident that led to its disappearance—that is, the theft of the corpse of one of the top experts in the grasslands.
“In case it might be related, I asked the tribe’s chieftain to draw the face of the missing corpse, and this sketch is that drawing.”
After briefly explaining the circumstances, Il-mok clasped his hands in salute once more.
“We only obtained this sketch a short while ago ourselves. And by the time we returned from the Western Regions, rumors were already widespread that the Blood Cult had been eradicated. I know the information came late, but please understand.”
Though they had obtained the sketch years ago, Il-mok casually mixed truth and lies in his tale.
He couldn’t very well say he’d hidden it so they’d fight and kill each other.
“Hmm. If that’s the situation, it can’t be helped.”
True Person Cheong-mok appropriately took Il-mok’s side, while the Beggar King stared at the sketch with a complicated expression.
“Well then, that means the Blood Cult obtained the corpses for their jiangshi from that northern region?”
“Master, that must be why we didn’t notice their remnants lingering all this time, even though they were there.”
“Indeed. There are no beggars in the north, so it would be hard to gather information.”
The north was a harsh land.
No one gave alms to beggars, and the moment one became a beggar, it was as good as a death sentence—or they’d be absorbed into another tribe and used like slaves.
After conversing with his disciple, the Beggar King gathered his thoughts for a moment before speaking.
“To be frank, I can’t fully believe your words. However, this is clearly a crucial matter, so it needs verification.”
“Verification? What kind?”
“I’m thinking of scouring the Central Plains once more to hunt for traces of the Blood Cult. If the jiangshi the Alliance Leader slew was a fake, that means remnants of the Blood Cult still remain—no, with real jiangshi still out there, it’s closer to the Blood Cult’s main force.”
Il-mok nodded at the Beggar King’s words.
“Our Maitreya Illuminating Cult will investigate as far as our footsteps reach.”
“If anything turns up, let us know. Then we’ll take our leave. The matter is urgent, so we can’t afford to linger.”
As the Beggar King said, he led his beggars away, coming like the wind and leaving like the wind.
Il-mok watched their retreating figures for a moment before asking True Person Cheong-mok, who remained.
“What will Cheongseong do?”
“Now that we know we were deceived by the Blood Cult, we have no choice but to track them down.”
True Person Cheong-mok had attained enlightenment and now possessed a clearer aura, but at this moment, that clarity was interspersed with thick killing intent.
‘I recall that Cheongseong’s disciples suffered a tragedy in the Illusory Dream Formation, stabbing each other to death.’
Cheongseong’s deep-seated grudge against the Blood Cult made this reaction entirely understandable.
“Come to think of it, this might be for the best. Staying cooped up in Sacheon makes it hard to gather information. This time, while working as escorts, we’ll scour the Central Plains for intel on the Blood Cult.”
“So you’ve decided to operate an escort agency after all.”
“Indeed. And this is thanks to the Maitreya Illuminating Cult’s advice. Immeasurable blessings.”
True Person Cheong-mok exchanged greetings and departed, leading his Cheongseong disciples.
As he watched True Person Cheong-mok leave, Il-mok pondered the issue he had deliberately not mentioned.
‘…Why use a fake jiangshi? If they caused that much bloodshed, they should’ve completed the real one by now.’
The incident that accelerated the war with the Blood Cult was the massacre in Guizhou City.
Most of the mid- and small sects there were wiped out, and even commoners were swept up, resulting in the horrific deaths of thousands.
In terms of sheer numbers slain, it exceeded the Sacheon Secret Passage Bloodbath, so the Blood Cult must have amassed tremendous power.
Yet with that power, why resort to a fake?
‘To lower the orthodox factions’ guard? That doesn’t add up. Even if fake, to fool them properly, they’d have to sacrifice a significant portion of their forces.’
After agonizing over it repeatedly, a shift in thinking struck Il-mok’s mind.
‘What if the Blood Cult didn’t cause that massacre?’
The Guizhou bloodbath was what prompted the orthodox factions to seriously hunt the Blood Cult.
Before that, they’d only used the Blood Cult as an excuse to fight over territories among themselves.
From the Blood Cult’s perspective, it was a convenient situation to exploit.
That left only one question.
Who had disguised themselves as the Blood Cult to perpetrate that horrific massacre?
Amid slaughtering most of Guizhou’s mid- and small sects, to fabricate evidence framing the Blood Cult without getting caught—scarcely any faction in the entire jianghu could pull that off.
‘…The Martial Alliance ultimately benefited, but that doesn’t make sense.’
The Martial Alliance wasn’t a monolithic entity.
If they’d staged such a massacre under the pretext of eradicating the Blood Cult, the chances of information leaking were near zero—not impossible, but slim.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, a certain faction’s name surfaced in Il-mok’s head.
Realizing the problem was graver than expected, Il-mok hurriedly sent a transmission to Jin Ha-yeon.
—Bring paper and ink right away. I need to send an urgent letter to headquarters.
* * *
A mountain somewhere in the Central Plains.
Its treacherous terrain made it too arduous for humans to climb, and lacking the auspicious energy of the Five Sacred Peaks, it was a place few people visited.
In the depths of that worthless mountain lay a deep cave.
Hidden by intricate and profound formations, inside that cave reposed a single corpse with a talisman affixed to its forehead.
Surrounding the corpse was a bizarre pattern drawn in dark crimson lines, with sulfur-scented candles placed at each cardinal direction, their flames flickering.
An elder who had been chanting incantations in a阴森 voice before this eerie altar halted his ritual at the presence detected behind him and turned around.
“How fares it?”
“As per Your Holiness’s will, it proceeds. The foolish orthodox fools have all fallen into Your Holiness’s trap.”
At his subordinate’s report, the Cult Leader let out a deep sigh.
He showed no satisfaction despite succeeding in deceiving the enemy.
It was only natural.
They had deceived their foes, but the damage sustained in the process was immense.
The Blood Cult’s last hope: the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi.
In developing it through repeated experiments, they had once created a jiangshi closest to it—the pinnacle of blood jiangshi, a derivative of the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi.
And to dupe the orthodox factions, the Blood Cult Leader had to sacrifice that blood jiangshi.
On top of that, he disguised First Elder as himself and threw him into the trap.
No—First Elder had volunteered to charge into the jaws of death for the Blood Cult’s future.
Even excluding First Elder, a significant number of the Blood Cult’s sorcerers and warriors perished in that battle.
Excluding the unfinished Heavenly Blood Jiangshi behind the Blood Cult Leader, half their forces had been lost in that fight.
Even now, recalling that day made the Blood Cult Leader grind his teeth.
“Those vile hypocrites—I shall never let them be.”
There were those who had staged the Guizhou City massacre and pinned all the blame on them.
“Martial Alliance Leader Cheok Pae-myeong. I will capture that man, torture him mercilessly until death, then resurrect him as a Heavenly Blood Jiangshi to serve as my slave.”
The Blood Cult Leader believed it was all the doing of Martial Alliance Leader Cheok Pae-myeong and Chief Strategist Gong Son-hyeon.
At the Blood Cult Leader’s vow, the man who had come to report slammed his forehead to the ground and shouted.
“With the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi, Your Holiness’s will shall come to pass! The era of Blood Cult supremacy is at hand!!”
The Blood Cult Leader gazed down at his subordinate for a moment before issuing a command.
“Continue hiding and monitor the jianghu’s movements. The orthodox hypocrites cannot endure without spilling blood. The day their greed blinds them and they slaughter each other—we shall bathe the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi in their blood, complete it, and usher in the Blood Cult’s dominion.”
* * *
Il-mok entrusted the hastily written letter to Gu Yang-mun and ordered him to return to Lanzhou.
Then Il-mok and his group headed south again, arriving at Mount Emei, where they returned the hundred-odd corpses and the captured nuns to the Emei Sect.
“…As promised, the Emei Sect shall seal its gates for fifty years.”
“…Thank you for your mercy.”
At the gesture of the Emei Sect elders, who spoke with gloomy faces, the Emei disciples wrapped thick ropes twisted like straw around the main gate and hung a cloth emblazoned with the character [Seal] over it.
Thus, the Emei Sect—one of the Nine Great Sects, a top-tier power in the Central Plains—entered seclusion.
Having finished his business at Emei, Il-mok turned north again to address a more pressing matter.
While Il-mok was en route to Lanzhou in Gansu Province, at the Martial Alliance near Dongting Lake.
“How did it go?”
The Chief Strategist asked, barely concealing his bewilderment.
It was too soon for the Alliance Leader’s return.
This was barely enough time for a quick detour to Sacheon and back.
“The Emei Sect has already sealed its gates. By the time we arrived, they had already been thoroughly defeated by the Maitreya Illuminating Cult.”
The Alliance Leader’s tone was unmistakably irritated, unlike his usual self.
“I tried to punish them belatedly, but the Beggar Sect and Cheongseong got in the way.”
Cheok Pae-myeong then briefly relayed to Gong Son-hyeon his conversation with the Beggar King and True Person Cheong-mok.
“…My apologies, Alliance Leader. The Beggar Sect has always interfered with our affairs, so I half-expected that, but even I didn’t anticipate Cheongseong’s sudden change.”
As Gong Son-hyeon bowed his head and spoke, Cheok Pae-myeong clicked his tongue and replied.
“Tch. Enough. What’s done is done. The Beggar Sect, the Huangbo family, and now Cheongseong—they’re the ones complicating things unnecessarily.”
Though clearly meant to console him, for some reason, the ‘tch’ of his tongue-click rang especially loudly in Gong Son-hyeon’s ears.
Sensing the Alliance Leader’s foul mood, Gong Son-hyeon opened his mouth very cautiously.
There was news he had to relay, even if hiding it would only stoke the flames.
“Alliance Leader, the Beggar Sect, Cheongseong, and Huangbo family aren’t the end of it.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Two more have joined the Huangbo family reinforcements departing from Shandong to aid the Maitreya Illuminating Cult.”
“Two more?”
Reporting an increase of just two meant those two were highly significant figures.
As Cheok Pae-myeong asked with a displeased expression, Gong Son-hyeon answered.
“The Wudang Sect’s Taiji Sword Immortal and Daoist Sword Dragon Yun-baek have joined them.”