Chapter 153: The Conspiracy of Go Ju-gang, Leader of the Martial Alliance (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 153: The Conspiracy of Go Ju-gang, Leader of the Martial Alliance (1)
When Nok Gwi-bo and Gwi Cheon-neung arrived at the scene, they were met by Jin-cheon, Yu Yeok-gil, Yu Hwa, and the fallen Beopgye, who had lost a hand.
“What happened here?”
“A Giant Demon appeared—one unlike any we’ve ever seen or heard of,” Yu Yeok-gil stepped forward to explain the situation.
As his explanation grew longer, the expressions of the two elders soured. Eventually, they scanned the area and asked, “Where is Seok Myeong?”
“Ah. He said he wasn't feeling well and left first.”
“Hmm.”
Nok Gwi-bo’s brow furrowed even deeper. Seok Myeong had already realized someone was coming and made his escape. However, learning that the boy was injured was good news.
- If we give chase now, we can catch him.
- The public eye is the problem. These kids already know we’re looking for him. If we kill him now, suspicion will fall directly on us.
- Then is there another way? If we lose him now, he’ll just crawl back into some hole at the Qingcheng Sect.
- I am well aware. But the situation is complicated. It is more important to figure out how those Giant Demons are connected to Seok Myeong first.
Nok Gwi-bo and Gwi Cheon-neung fiercely exchanged mental transmissions. The hot-tempered Nok Gwi-bo insisted on killing Seok Myeong immediately, but Gwi Cheon-neung held him back. It was already late, and the corpse of the Giant Demon was beginning to change, its body dissolving into a shapeless, viscous slurry.
- For now, let’s identify the nature of this thing and plan for later. We can rally public opinion within the Martial Alliance and strike all at once…
- I cannot afford to wait so leisurely!
Gwi Cheon-neung clicked his tongue. Just as Nok Gwi-bo looked ready to give chase alone, the other elders arrived.
“What in the world happened! Beopgye!”
Abbot Hye Seon of Shaolin, who had just arrived, was horrified as he checked the condition of the Little Divine Monk.
“Jin-cheon. Are you alright?”
Taoist Unyang checked Jin-cheon’s condition, while Gu Jong-myeong of Mount Hua examined Yu Yeok-gil and Yu Hwa. These Rising Stars were the talents who would carry the future of the Jianghu on their shoulders. While understanding the cause of the incident was important, checking on these precious disciples came first.
“Beopgye! Beopgye! Wake up!”
Abbot Hye Seon’s voice grew louder. Little Divine Monk Beopgye’s body was limp. He had managed to maintain consciousness through sheer tension and adrenaline during the fight, but once the danger passed, he had collapsed completely.
“Martial Uncle Hye Seon…”
“Yes, it’s me. Are you conscious?”
“Haah… haah…”
He was barely breathing, drifting in and out of consciousness. He had lost too much blood. After his hand—which had been caught by the Giant Demon—was severed, only basic first aid had been applied to stop the bleeding. Furthermore, since his internal energy and origin qi had been drained, he looked as if he might pass away at any moment.
“Who did this!” Abbot Hye Seon roared in fury.
The Little Divine Monk was the one destined to build Shaolin’s foundation for the next hundred years. Seeing Beopgye’s hand severed and his body reduced to skin and bones, the usually gentle monk became incredibly fierce.
“That is…”
The Rising Stars couldn't bring themselves to speak. They say a gentle person is scariest when angry, and the sight of the enraged Abbot Hye Seon was truly terrifying. Even though the hand had been severed to save Beopgye from the Giant Demon, they felt they wouldn't be able to handle the fallout the moment they mentioned Seok Myeong’s name.
Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—a voice broke the silence.
“I heard that fellow Seok Myeong of Qingcheng did it.”
It was Gwi Cheon-neung.
“What!”
The elders all looked at him in shock. The Rising Stars stared at him as well. Gwi Cheon-neung immediately pressed his advantage.
“It seems that fellow harmed Beopgye while they were fighting the monster.”
At those words, Yu Hwa immediately protested.
“No! That’s not it!”
Unlike Jin-cheon and Yu Yeok-gil, who were busy calculating the consequences, she was honest and bold.
“Taoist Seok Myeong did that to help Monk Beopgye. They were in the middle of a fight with the Giant Demon…”
“So he cuts off a hand? Not the monster’s, but an ally’s? Does that make any sense! Did you even see the situation clearly at the time?”
Gwi Cheon-neung shouted her down, silencing her.
“No. That’s… I mean…”
Yu Hwa stomped her feet in frustration. Gwi Cheon-neung was an elder of the Diancang Sect, a senior of a much higher generation. Moreover, as the one with the weakest martial arts among the group, her words carried little weight. Above all, she hadn't fully grasped the fight at the time. The clash between the monster and Seok Myeong had been too fast, a series of desperate moments that only those directly involved could truly comprehend.
“Monk Beopgye! Monk Beopgye! Please wake up!”
In the end, she shouted at the semi-conscious Shaolin monk.
“Yu Hwa!”
A startled Yu Yeok-gil tried to grab her, but she clearly stated what she had seen and heard.
“It was Monk Beopgye himself who asked for his hand to be cut! The monk was caught in the Giant Demon’s grip and was having his internal energy and essence sucked out alive! Taoist Seok Myeong only acted because of that!”
“Hmm?”
Abbot Hye Seon, who was tending to Beopgye, paused for a moment. Meanwhile, Gwi Cheon-neung smirked and pushed further.
“Hah! The martial arts of Qingcheng are truly formidable, then. You’re saying he so grandly defeated an opponent that even Shaolin’s Little Divine Monk couldn't handle—an opponent that was draining the monk’s very life force?”
“That…”
Yu Hwa couldn't answer immediately. Gwi Cheon-neung was twisting the narrative to provoke Shaolin.
“Would such a brilliant master have no other choice but to cut off a comrade’s hand to save him? Furthermore, this story is getting interesting. You say this Giant Demon, which absorbs internal energy, was instead killed because all its origin qi was sucked out? By Seok Myeong?”
At those words, the look in the elders' eyes changed instantly.
Absorption of internal energy. The Demonic Energy Absorption Art.
By the time their thoughts reached that conclusion, Gwi Cheon-neung raised his voice.
“Isn't it truly strange? According to Yu Yeok-gil of Mount Hua, the monster sucked out internal energy. And then Seok Myeong killed that Giant Demon by sucking its energy back? This is bizarre. Perhaps that fellow Seok Myeong has mastered the same demonic art as the Giant Demon. No, I’m not even sure if it’s just Seok Myeong or the entire Qingcheng Sect!”
“T-That’s…”
Yu Hwa was flustered. Gwi Cheon-neung was shouting at her, but in reality, he was speaking for all the elders of the Nine Sects One Gang gathered there to hear.
“I don’t think that’s it…”
“What do you know about demonic arts!”
She tried to stammer out an excuse, but Gwi Cheon-neung’s seniority immediately shut her up.
As the situation spiraled, Jin-cheon and Yu Yeok-gil also found themselves unable to speak. Everyone knew about the bad blood between Diancang and Qingcheng. However, in terms of martial depth or insight, they were merely Rising Stars. It was not easy to oppose the elders of other sects, who were essentially their masters' peers. Moreover, although they had received great help, they were reluctant to bring harm to their own sects by speaking up when Diancang was being so aggressive.
‘Gwi Cheon-neung is doing well.’
Standing off to the side, the corners of Nok Gwi-bo’s mouth curled up imperceptibly. Until now, with his simple temperament, he had only thought of beating Seok Myeong to death. But seeing Gwi Cheon-neung’s maneuver, he realized there was something much more important.
A justification to interrogate him.
Once they branded Seok Myeong and Qingcheng as villains, they could take action without any burden, whether that meant capturing him or killing him.
The crowd began to murmur. Just as the atmosphere became thick with suspicion due to Gwi Cheon-neung’s eloquent framing…
“I… I am the one who asked him to cut off my hand.”
Beopgye, who had been unconscious, slowly lifted his head.
“Are you alright?”
With Hye Seon’s support, he pulled himself up.
“You requested it?”
Nok Gwi-bo and Gwi Cheon-neung frowned as they looked at him. In fact, everyone’s eyes turned toward the monk.
“Then what about this sinister demonic art? What about the internal energy of the man who sucked the Giant Demon dry!”
As Gwi Cheon-neung pressed him, Beopgye shouted with a flicker of anger on his deathly pale face.
“Watch your words, Elder of Diancang…!”
Ugh!
“Beopgye!”
Hye Seon was startled and funneled qi into his Gate of Life Acupoint. The Little Divine Monk vomited a mouthful of blood mid-sentence.
“The martial arts I sensed from him…”
Even in that state, he did not stop speaking. He glared at the elders of the Diancang Sect, his eyes filled with a clear, righteous light.
“It was undoubtedly pure internal energy.”
*
When day broke, the Martial Alliance was as noisy as a marketplace. Monsters had suddenly appeared in the middle of the Inner Court, resulting in many casualties. When it became known that they were the Giant Demons who had caused the blood incidents in the Jianghu not long ago—and that Alliance Leader Go Ju-gang had been keeping over a hundred of them locked up—the place was turned upside down.
On top of that, rumors that a Taoist from Qingcheng named Seok Myeong had mastered a demonic art made the situation as unpredictable as a jagged ball. Eventually, the leaders of the sects participating in the Martial Demonstration Gathering held an emergency meeting.
“The Alliance Leader is waiting. Please enter.”
“Hmm.”
Won Hyo-ja, the "Vast Thunder Ghost’s Sorrow" and Sect Leader of Diancang, nodded. He had a long beard that reached down to his throat. His face was narrow, with a long forehead and chin that gave him a prickly impression. Age spots bloomed around his eyes, making his already unpleasant appearance look even more sinister.
Step. Step.
The garden behind the Alliance headquarters was a masterpiece of nature. It was a pavilion built in a canyon overlooking the south, nestled against a snow-capped mountain. The area was composed of a massive bedrock spanning over a hundred li and surrounded by high, snow-covered peaks, giving it a mystical aura. Inside, there was not only a lush primeval forest but also over a hundred beautiful alpine lakes. The lake water was so clear that the bottom was visible, and the colors of the surface and the floor changed by the hour as the sun rose and set—a sight that captivated all who saw it.
“It is here.”
As the guide gestured, Won Hyo-ja moved into a cave opening in the canyon wall. After a few steps, darkness quickly fell. They lit the inside of the cave with torches, and after walking a bit further, the sound of voices could be heard.
Step, step.
Going in a bit deeper, they reached a clearing that could accommodate a hundred people. Several old men were already seated inside.
“It has been a long time, Sect Leader of Diancang.”
“Yes. True Person Baegun of Kunlun, you have made a long journey.”
True Person Baegun. He wasn't the Sect Leader of Kunlun, but he was the sect's sole surviving elder. He had been active roughly thirty years ago. Because of his extreme age, his teeth and hair were gone, and he didn't even have eyebrows, making him look like an old man who might lie down in a grave any day now. However, his eyes held a glint of light that could not be ignored, and his voice was clear; he was not someone to be taken lightly.
“So, has the Taoist Friend been well?”
“Well, I live each day looking for a place to be buried.”
“You mustn't say that. You must remain healthy for another hundred years.”
“I would like to… but is it not human destiny to be fine today and gone tomorrow?”
Baegun chuckled at Won Hyo-ja’s well-wishes.
“That is why we must raise reliable disciples before we go. Once we die, our bodies become a handful of dust, so only our disciples remain, do they not?”
At the words of Taoist Unyang of the Wudang Sect, Won Hyo-ja’s eyebrows twitched. There was a subtle thorn in those words. They were certainly people whose temperaments did not align. During the Martial World Gathering ten years ago, Unyang was the one who took the opposing side when Won Hyo-ja almost came to blows with Song Jeong of Qingcheng.
“I teach my disciples to become human beings before they become strong warriors. Only then can they distinguish right from wrong and realize what they should and should not do,” Won Hyo-ja replied with a standard platitude.
“Indeed. Living like a human being is a very difficult thing to achieve. It can be a great burden for young disciples. That is why I teach responsibility. For that is the way to live together.”
Abbot Hye Jeong of Shaolin, a peerless master known as the Great Divine Monk, chuckled and mediated between the two.
“That is also true. A true Taoist is one who takes responsibility for the things they must. In that regard, I wonder how the Qingcheng Sect is doing.”
Won Hyo-ja subtly turned the arrow toward Qingcheng. It was a gathering attended by all of the Nine Great Sects. However, Qingcheng was not present. Song Gwan, who should have attended as an elder, had already left with his disciples.