Chapter 342
—"The Demon Hall and the North Sea Ice Palace have formed an alliance!"
As this rumor spread, the martial world was thrown into an uproar.
The North Sea Ice Palace had never once opened its doors to an external faction since its founding.
Even though they practiced Ice Art, a martial discipline of the Demonic Path, they had always prided themselves on standing between the orthodox and heterodox.
And now, of all things, they had formed an alliance with none other than the Demon Hall, the united body of the Demonic Path?
—"That information is incorrect. The North Sea Ice Palace did not form an alliance with the Demon Hall—they swore a Golden Bond of Friendship with the Martial Soul Lord!"
But then, an even more shocking piece of news arrived.
Rumors spread that the North Sea Ice Palace had not formed an alliance with the Demon Hall, but had instead pledged an oath with the Martial Soul Lord, the successor of the Demon Hall.
—"How could that be possible?"
People refused to believe such rumors. No—they couldn't believe them.
The North Sea Ice Palace was an amalgamation of six clans from the North Sea. Their martial might was so overwhelming that even the Demon Hall would hesitate to provoke them.
And yet, the Ice Palace Lord had sworn an oath—not with the Demonic Heavenly Emperor, but with the mere Martial Soul Lord?
—"Thirty thousand Ice White Divine Pills, sent by the North Sea Ice Palace, have arrived at the Demon Hall—addressed to the Martial Soul Lord."
As if to confirm the rumors, the North Sea Ice Palace had indeed dispatched thirty thousand Ice White Divine Pills to Bu Eun-seol at the Demon Hall.
In an instant, the martial world erupted with discussions about the Martial Soul Lord.
—"It was true—the Ice Palace Lord has sworn an oath with the Martial Soul Lord."
As this news spread, intelligence organizations put forward two interpretations:
—"The Ice Palace Lord is playing a clever game."
If they had formed an alliance with the Demon Hall, it would have been difficult to back out.
But instead, the North Sea Ice Palace had formed an alliance not with the Demon Hall, but with Bu Eun-seol.
A successor could always be deposed—or replaced by another.
If, by any chance, Bu Eun-seol were to die or fall from grace, the North Sea Ice Palace would no longer be bound by their agreement.
—"Not a chance. The Ice Palace Lord must be absolutely certain that the Martial Soul Lord will become the master of the Demon Hall—that's why he swore the oath."
The North Sea Ice Palace had no need to submit to any individual or organization.
The fact that they had still pledged an oath with Bu Eun-seol could only mean one thing—they believed without a shadow of a doubt that he would become the master of the Demon Hall and the leader of the Million Demon Blades.
Thus, intelligence organizations remained divided, their opinions clashing endlessly.
Because of this, the martial world could not stop talking about the Martial Soul Lord, Bu Eun-seol, for quite some time.
In stark contrast, the White Horse Monastery was shrouded in a funeral-like atmosphere.
Gang Yang-cheon, the leader of the White Horse Monastery, had demanded that Bu Eun-seol form an alliance with a sect from Beyond the Frontier under absurd pretenses.
In the end, forced to comply with this unreasonable demand, Bu Eun-seol had departed for the North Sea Ice Palace—with a sharp blade pointed at Gang Yang-cheon's throat.
—"I should resume my inspections of sects that nibble away at the Demon Hall's influence. There are far too many factions wasting their time on pointless schemes."
At the time, Gang Yang-cheon had laughed off Bu Eun-seol's threat of an inspection.
Because he had already investigated the North Sea Ice Palace's situation—and was absolutely certain that Bu Eun-seol would never succeed in forming an alliance with them.
But that expectation was shattered to pieces.
Not only had Bu Eun-seol formed an alliance with the North Sea Ice Palace—he had returned after swearing a Golden Bond of Friendship with the Ice Palace Lord himself.
Because of this, Gang Yang-cheon, who had been strangling Bu Eun-seol's neck at the Demon Governance Council, had now—no, the entire White Horse Monastery—been checkmated.
—"I will begin the inspection."
The moment he returned to the Demon Hall, Bu Eun-seol kept his promise.
With his adjutants, Myo Cheon-u and Yu Un-ryong, and the entire Martial Soul Order, he launched an unprecedented inspection of the White Horse Monastery.
The scale of this operation—mobilizing the entire Martial Soul Order—was something never before seen.
Witnessing this, Gang Yang-cheon could no longer contain his rage and retreated to the training room.
—"I'd rather die than endure this humiliation!"
Unable to bear the sight of Bu Eun-seol leading the Martial Soul Order in a full-scale raid, he entered closed-door training in frustration.
—"Whether the sect leader enters seclusion or not makes no difference. Strip everything bare."
With Bu Eun-seol's stern command, the Martial Soul Order descended upon the White Horse Monastery—demonstrating exactly what an inspection meant.
From every paper-bound record in the monastery to the exact count of chopsticks in the dining hall—nothing was left unchecked.
Even guests invited by the White Horse Monastery and those associated with them—no matter who they were—were thoroughly investigated.
—"This is going too far!"
All the dependents of the White Horse Monastery raised their voices in protest.
Even households guilty of treason weren't subjected to such an all-out ransacking.
But whether they liked it or not, the Martial Soul Lord's Unit Members were turning White Horse Monastery into a devastated wasteland.
Unable to endure this humiliation, the High Command personally sought out Bu Eun-seol to protest.
—"Even if we are part of the Demonic Path Ten Gates, how can you treat us with such disrespect?"
But that was a grave mistake.
—"Perfect timing. I was just getting tired of summoning you all one by one. From now on, all Hall Master-ranked figures of White Horse Monastery shall have a private audience with this Lord."
As if he had been waiting for this, Bu Eun-seol began interrogating each member of the monastery's High Command, dragging them before him one by one and questioning them relentlessly.
—"This is just an interrogation!"
Those who had undergone their "private audience" with Bu Eun-seol trembled in fury and humiliation.
Though it was called a private audience, the so-called conversation was nothing short of a brutal interrogation, without physical torture.
—"This Lord has discovered grave irregularities within White Horse Monastery. You have been summoned to assist in uncovering the truth. Cooperate."
Only then did the High Command realize they had made a fatal error.
Before this madman, they should have simply prostrated themselves. Their feeble resistance had only tightened the noose around their own necks.
But it was too late—the water had already spilled.
Like dogs at a funeral home, they could only be dragged before Bu Eun-seol with tears in their eyes.
And because he kept questioning them until he got the answers he wanted, those with weaker Internal Power even vomited and collapsed.
But that was only the beginning...
—"Forty years ago—why did you attack the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade?"
Bu Eun-seol dropped a bombshell of a question.
He was asking about an incident from forty years ago—something so old that most couldn't even remember it.
In fact, the only ones who might recall were those already deep into old age.
The younger Hall Master-ranked figures knew nothing, so they had to scrape together whatever rumors they had heard.
—"I can't take this anymore!"
Finally, the Vice Hall Leader of White Horse Monastery, Yeok Jung-maeng, could endure Bu Eun-seol's tyranny no longer.
BOOM! BOOM!
Yeok Jung-maeng stormed into the Scenic Pavilion, where Bu Eun-seol was temporarily staying and interrogating the Hall Leaders.
—"Isn't this going too far?!"
Though Yeok Jung-maeng barged in furiously, Bu Eun-seol didn't even glance at him, still flipping through documents.
'This bastard—!'
Seeing Bu Eun-seol ignore him completely, thick veins bulged on Yeok Jung-maeng's forehead.
—"Martial Soul Lord!"
Only when he roared did Bu Eun-seol finally lift his head.
—"Ah, Vice Hall Leader Yeok. Welcome."
—"What kind of 'welcome' is this supposed to be?!"
—"What do you mean?"
—"Why are you interrogating our Hall Master-ranked figures with questions that have nothing to do with the audit?!"
—"'Interrogating with strange questions'?"
Yeok Jung-maeng gnashed his teeth and shouted.
—"You claim to be auditing our monastery's corruption, so why are you dredging up events from forty years ago?!"
In an instant, Bu Eun-seol's gaze turned glacial.
—"You find it strange that I ask about the affairs of this Hall's former Deputy Hall Lord?"
—"The Seven Fingers Demonic Blade disappeared decades ago! Why interrogate our Hall Leaders about his whereabouts?!"
—"How curious."
Bu Eun-seol kept his eyes fixed on the documents as he spoke.
—"No matter how long ago he vanished, he was still the Deputy Hall Lord of the Demon Hall. Yet, every disciple of White Horse Monastery refers to him as the 'Seven Fingers Demonic Blade.'"
Yeok Jung-maeng flinched but quickly gritted his teeth.
—"The disappearance of the Deputy Hall Lord is a matter even the Demonic Heavenly Emperor and the entire High Command of the Demon Hall have kept silent about. So why interrogate us about it?!"
Bu Eun-seol finally looked up, a composed smile playing on his lips.
—"Because I received information that his disappearance is connected to White Horse Monastery."
—"Nonsense! That's nothing but baseless rumors!"
—"'Baseless rumors,' you say?"
Bu Eun-seol's sharp gaze pierced Yeok Jung-maeng's eyes.
—"Forty years ago, before he became the leader of the Demonic Path, White Horse Monastery attacked him, didn't they?"
For the briefest moment, Yeok Jung-maeng's pupils trembled. But he quickly schooled his expression into indifference.
—"What are you talking about? Our monastery attacked him?"
—"Do you have proof? Evidence that White Horse Monastery attacked him forty years ago?"
—"Do you think this Lord would ask such questions without evidence?"
An icy blade seemed to leap from Bu Eun-seol's eyes, slashing at Yeok Jung-maeng's throat.
—"If you have proof, then proceed as you see fit."
Ignoring Bu Eun-seol's frigid glare, Yeok Jung-maeng scoffed.
—"Then there's no need to interrogate our monastery about it, is there?"
"Hah?"
This was a man in his fifties who had risen to become the deputy leader of White Horse Monastery—not only due to his exceptional martial prowess but because he was a figure adept at handling all matters.
If Bu Eun-seol truly possessed solid evidence that White Horse Monastery had attacked Seven Fingers Demonic Blade—
He had already discerned there would be no reason to torment them with such a farcical interrogation.
"It's not that there's no evidence. It's simply that this lord was merely... contemplating."
Bu Eun-seol smiled coldly.
"After all, White Horse Monastery is one of the Demonic Path Ten Gates, isn't it?"
"'After all'?"
Yeok Jung-maeng barely suppressed his rising fury and retorted,
"What were you contemplating?"
"The Death Command Gate."
Bu Eun-seol stared directly into Yeok Jung-maeng's face.
"I was debating which to destroy first—White Horse Monastery or the Death Command Gate."
In an instant, Yeok Jung-maeng's complexion turned ashen.
'Does he truly know that our sect and the Death Command Gate attacked Seven Fingers Demonic Blade?'
"Ah, of course, Deputy Hall Leader, you need not answer if you don't wish to."
Bu Eun-seol's lips curled into a meaningful smile.
"However, since the Hall Leader is in closed-door training, you, as the deputy, will bear all responsibility, won't you?"
Bu Eun-seol rose from his seat and slowly stepped toward Yeok Jung-maeng.
"If you've decided to keep your mouth shut, then so be it. However..."
He smiled as he looked at Yeok Jung-maeng's profile.
"...once you leave this room, you will be held accountable for everything that follows."
"W-wait. Accountable? What do you mean?"
"It's a simple matter, really."
Bu Eun-seol chuckled softly.
"If rumors spread that the information this lord possesses actually came from Deputy Leader Yeok's own lips... wouldn't that lead to an amusing outcome?"
'This bastard!'
Yeok Jung-maeng's fists clenched instantly.
If Bu Eun-seol spread such rumors within White Horse Monastery—no matter how much he denied it, no one would believe him.
And if Gang Yang-cheon, with his notoriously explosive temper, were to hear of it... the consequences would be utterly unmanageable.
'From the very beginning, torturing the hall leaders was just bait—he was waiting for me to come to him in anger!'
A chill ran down Yeok Jung-maeng's spine.
The way he had interrogated the ignorant hall leaders about Seven Fingers Demonic Blade—
It had all been a trap, laid to lure him, the deputy leader, into coming to Bu Eun-seol himself.
'If I refuse, this madman will pin everything on me.'
Yeok Jung-maeng bit his lip.
This was a dead end.
No matter how much authority the Martial Soul Lord held, he couldn't interrogate Gang Yang-cheon, the leader of one of the Demonic Path Ten Gates.
From the start, Bu Eun-seol's goal had been to corner Yeok Jung-maeng into this position and force his compliance.
"You're taking too long to think."
Bu Eun-seol yawned lazily.
"To help this lord make a swift decision, I'll take immediate action."
"W-wait."
Yeok Jung-maeng gritted his teeth hard enough to shatter them.
Even though he knew the abyss before him was a trap, he had no choice but to crawl into it.
"If I speak... will the secret be kept?"
"Of course. This lord has no desire for the matter to escalate either."
Yeok Jung-maeng took a deep breath.
In the end, to avoid being framed—
To escape Gang Yang-cheon's merciless reprimand and punishment, he had no choice but to answer Bu Eun-seol's questions obediently.
"Our sect... had a slight grudge against Seven Fingers Demonic Blade."
After a brief hesitation, he continued,
"At the time, the sect leader's son and our heir, Gang Mu-hak, was killed by Seven Fingers Demonic Blade."
Bu Eun-seol's eyes widened at this unexpected revelation.
"The Deputy Hall Lord killed the sect leader's son?"
"Yes. At the time, Seven Fi—no, the Deputy Hall Lord was not yet a figure of the Demon Hall."
Bu Eun-seol couldn't comprehend it.
Seven Fingers Demonic Blade had killed the only son of the White Horse Monastery's leader? That meant the two shared a grudge so deep they could never coexist under the same sky.
"Then why didn't he kill him? If he had mobilized the full might of the Demon Hall, he could have easily done so."
Before joining the Demon Hall, Seven Fingers Demonic Blade had been a peerless figure roaming the Murim alone.
Back then, since he wasn't under the Demon Hall's protection, the White Horse Monastery's leader would have had countless opportunities to kill him.
So why hadn't he?
"I don't know either. But at some point, the sect leader... gave up on seeking revenge."
"And by the time he became Deputy Hall Leader, he was already an untouchable figure."
Though Bu Eun-seol had his answer, his mind only grew more tangled.
"That's all this deputy leader knows."
Bu Eun-seol bit his lip at Yeok Jung-maeng's words. He could tell the man wasn't lying.
"So this is the extent of the information we can obtain from the White Horse Monastery."
The sect leader, Gang Yang-cheon, couldn't even be interrogated—even with a blade at his throat, he wouldn't speak.
'Ironically, the sect leader's closed-off and autocratic leadership worked in my favor.'
No matter how much his pride suffered, Gang Yang-cheon would have had to face Bu Eun-seol directly.
But the White Horse Monastery operated under a structure where the sect leader made all decisions, and his disciples obeyed without question.
And that included the deputy sect leader, Yeok Jung-maeng. That was why Bu Eun-seol's threats had worked.
"Good."
Bu Eun-seol gave a slight nod.
"Thank you for your cooperation."
"Then it's over? All of it?"
At Yeok Jung-maeng's words, Bu Eun-seol smiled softly.
"Of course. We'll stop here."
Bu Eun-seol kept his promise.
After his private meeting with Yeok Jung-maeng, he immediately left the White Horse Monastery with the members of the Martial Soul Division.
—I heard the deputy sect leader negotiated with the Martial Soul Lord. That's why they're leaving without a word.
—A relief. If it weren't for the deputy sect leader, the main temple would've been squeezed dry until it was in complete shambles.
And as he left, Bu Eun-seol made sure to preserve Yeok Jung-maeng's dignity.
This way, he could continue extracting information from the White Horse Monastery through him.
It was just a matter of breaking the ice once.
Humans instinctively obeyed those who alternated between threats they couldn't refuse and sweet rewards.
'Sect Leader. You made the worst possible choice.'
A faint smile curved at the corner of Bu Eun-seol's lips as he thought of Gang Yang-cheon.
When Bu Eun-seol came to express his "gratitude," the sect leader had chosen to enter seclusion, claiming he didn't want to witness such a disgraceful spectacle.
But that was no way for a leader responsible for an entire sect to act. In the end, because of him, the White Horse Monastery had suffered the worst possible "gratitude."
'And he doesn't even know how to manage his people properly.'
Not just that elder, but Gang Yang-cheon had only ever demanded absolute obedience from his subordinates.
Of course, such a method could quickly and easily unite a large organization.
But in doing so, its members would refuse to take even the slightest responsibility for their own actions.
In the end, Gang Yang-cheon had made the wrong choices and failed to wield his people effectively.
That was why Bu Eun-seol had been able to trample over the White Horse Monastery—one of the Demonic Path Ten Gates—as he pleased.
Hidden Demon Pavilion, Conference Room.
Having finished the audit at the White Horse Monastery and returned to the Demon Hall, Bu Eun-seol sat alone in the empty conference room, lost in deep thought.
He had uncovered another piece of the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade's mysterious trail at the White Horse Monastery.
And now, he was considering how to resolve the lingering questions even faster.
'The martial world viewed the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade's disappearance from multiple angles.'
—The Demon Hall's intelligence network is pathetic. They couldn't even find their own missing deputy hall lord for decades.
And on the other hand, some said:
—There's no way they couldn't find him. They just chose not to. Too much trouble.
—Or... maybe they killed him themselves, so they didn't bother looking.
'All plausible theories.'
Because he had slaughtered countless masters of both orthodox and unorthodox factions, the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade had made far too many enemies in the martial world.
In fact, his actions had even landed the Demon Hall in trouble multiple times.
If he hadn't suddenly vanished, some even claimed the Martial Alliance would have launched an all-out war against them.
'But the North Sea Ice Palace Lord described him as a gentle man.'
So far, the people who knew of the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade's movements were all high-ranking figures—either from the orthodox faction or those who walked the line between righteousness and heresy.
That suggested the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade had deliberately sought them out.
'Could he have been quietly executed after his movements were exposed?'
After a moment of contemplation, Bu Eun-seol shook his head.
If the Demon Hall had gathered its strength to kill the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade, they wouldn't have left his position vacant for so long.
'Then... the Martial Alliance?'
Again, Bu Eun-seol shook his head.
The trail he had uncovered painted the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade as a hero among heroes. If the Martial Alliance had reached a consensus on his punishment—
At the very least, someone like the Sword Sage, a pillar of the orthodox faction, wouldn't have spared Bu Eun-seol's life just because he was the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade's successor.
'Then why has the Demon Hall kept the deputy hall lord's seat empty all this time?'
Even the Demonic Heavenly Emperor couldn't unilaterally decide to leave the position vacant without justification.
Because there was no valid reason to keep it empty.
'Which means... the Demonic Path Ten Gates have tacitly allowed it.'
A sudden flash of insight lit up Bu Eun-seol's eyes.
His thoughts turned to the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade's cherished sword, Journey, which he carried with him.
'If I use Journey as leverage... I might be able to get closer to the truth.'
If he brought this before the Demon Hall's highest echelons—including the Demonic Heavenly Emperor and the Demonic Path Ten Gates—
Bu Eun-seol could use Journey as bait to pry out the secrets the Demon Hall's leadership had been hiding about the Seven Fingers Demonic Blade.