The Wolf Still Sharpens Its Teeth
Dongting Lake, where the waterways of the world converged and every manner of human desire tangled together. The position of Branch Head of Hao Gate, which ruled the flow of information across this vast muddy expanse, carried power that rivaled — or even surpassed — that of the leader of a middling sect.
And Hongyeon had staked everything she had to reach that seat.
She had lived as a courtesan, swallowing contempt and mockery with a smile, while behind the curtain she cut down her rivals one by one in a bloody war of shadows. She had burned through countless nights gathering intelligence, ingratiating herself with the powerful, clawing her way up the ladder with desperate, pitiless determination.
When ten years of that struggle finally carried her to this position, she had been certain of one thing: the fortress she had built was solid enough to withstand any storm that blew against it.
But now.
Hongyeon could feel her fortress shaking to its very foundations.
You intend to visit the Gate Master yourself?
Namgung Cheon's low voice bored into her heart like a blade. The Master of Hao Gate was a man who weighed every matter against the principles and interests of the Gate alone. The moment word reached him that a Red-ranked honored guest had been slighted, the tower she had spent ten years building would collapse like a sandcastle.
Worse — if anything were to happen to the son of the Sword Emperor, even that would not be the end of it.
It's over.
This would not end with a reprimand. All of Hao Gate would be reduced to ash beneath the Sword Emperor's wrath.
Hongyeon's gaze fixed on Namgung Cheon's back, his hand already on the door latch. That unhesitating, unbowed posture. He knew. He knew exactly what she feared most, and exactly what she was trying to protect. Her shallow gambit — doling out information in measured doses to keep him under her thumb — had shattered helplessly against his seasoned cunning.
It's unbelievable.
Where did this seasoned deftness come from, in a youth barely past twenty? It was a clear defeat. Hers — for having wasted thought on pointless scheming.
Namgung Cheon was about to pull the door open when—
"......Wait, please."
Hongyeon's trembling voice stopped his hand.
"I made a mistake, my lord."
At those words, Namgung Cheon turned his head. His eyes were cool, touched with indifference. Meeting them, Hongyeon bowed deeply.
"I beg you to set aside your displeasure and take your seat once more. I will tell you everything about the Ghost Mask Pact."
Namgung Cheon walked back and sat down.
"There had better be nothing held back."
"Will you judge for yourself whether there is?"
Drawing a long breath, Hongyeon pulled a map out from beneath the table and spread it open. Then she traced the waters of Dongting Lake with her finger.
"The Ghost Mask Pact. They appeared out of nowhere only a few years ago. For all their brief history, they are disturbingly well organized, and the martial skill of their members is anything but ordinary. But the strangest thing about them is not their caliber."
"Then what is it?"
Hongyeon's voice sank low.
"The silence of the Four Black Alliance. Have you heard, by any chance, of the destruction of the Flying Sword Sect two years ago?"
Namgung Cheon shook his head.
"I don't. I hadn't yet entered the Jianghu at that time."
Hongyeon gave a small nod and pressed her finger down on Yueyang.
"The Flying Sword Sect of Yueyang was a force of some standing under the Four Black Alliance. But one day, the Sect Master's grandson was abducted. The Sect Master named the Ghost Mask Pact as the culprits and declared he would annihilate them."
She smiled bitterly.
"Everyone assumed it would be the end of the Ghost Mask Pact. But the outcome was the exact opposite. What vanished in the end was not the Ghost Mask Pact — it was the Flying Sword Sect."
Namgung Cheon narrowed his eyes.
"And despite all that, the Four Black Alliance stayed silent."
Hongyeon nodded.
"Yes. They buried the matter without even a proper investigation. Normally, they would have eradicated the culprits to uphold the Alliance's prestige."
Namgung Cheon fell into thought. He knew little about the present state of the Four Black Alliance — but there was one man about whom his knowledge was crystal clear.
The Alliance Master of the Four Black Alliance — the Blood Flame Saber Emperor, Hyeok Gwiguang.
A man who had reigned in the heavens of the Unorthodox Path since long ago. Judging by that firestorm of a temper...
Something like the Ghost Mask Pact should have long since been reduced to a handful of blood and gore.
And yet such a man stayed silent?
Something was wrong somewhere.
"The Alliance Master would never leave them be," Namgung Cheon said.
Hongyeon nodded.
"Quite. But as it happens, the point at which the Alliance Master stopped appearing in public and the point at which the Ghost Mask Pact began running rampant align precisely. Even so, I cannot know what lies behind it. It concerns no one less than the Alliance Master of the Four Black Alliance himself."
Namgung Cheon nodded slowly. In the end, it meant some upheaval within the Alliance — or a deliberate silence on its part — had become the fodder feeding the monster called the Ghost Mask Pact.
"Which brings us to the greater problem. If you move against them, my lord, there is no telling how the Four Black Alliance will respond."
Hongyeon leaned forward slightly and asked quietly:
"Even so — do you still intend to touch the Ghost Mask Pact?"
At that, the corner of Namgung Cheon's mouth lifted.
"If the Four Black Alliance were to come out in force because I rid the world of slavers who traffic in human lives..."
His gaze sank into cold stillness.
"Then that would only mean they, too, are people who deserve to vanish."
For a moment, Hongyeon was at a loss for words. And yet, in another way, she understood him. This matter stood above any quarrel between the Orthodox and Unorthodox Paths — it concerned the great principles of the Jianghu itself.
The Guan-Wu Non-Interference. Government and martial world do not trespass upon one another.
But human trafficking — above all, the abduction of common folk — was a taboo among taboos, an unforgivable violation of that unspoken covenant. Namgung Cheon was right. If a power sheltered people like that, then that power, too, deserved to be struck from the records of the martial world.
Hoo.
Hongyeon let out a resigned sigh. She had neither the justification left to stop him, nor the leverage to persuade him.
"......Very well. When you put it that way, I will not dissuade you any further."
Then she pressed her finger to the empty space at the very center of the map.
"This is their stronghold. Menghuando — Dream Ring Island."
"Menghuando?"
"Yes. Its fog never lifts, and jagged reefs ring it on every side — a naturally fortified fortress that can only be approached by boat. We know where it is, but..."
Hongyeon's voice trailed off, and her face showed her helplessness.
"Even our intelligence network cannot see inside. People have gone in — but not one has ever come out alive."
Namgung Cheon stared at the island on the map, brow furrowed.
The enemies within were no pushovers.
And if their numbers remained unknown as well...
This will not be easy.
A deep silence filled the sealed room. Just as Namgung Cheon's deliberation stretched on—
Creeeeak—.
The heavy iron door began to open.
"!"
Hongyeon shot to her feet in alarm. Namgung Cheon, by contrast, watched the door with a perfectly placid expression.
At length, a man came into view. Seeing him, Namgung Cheon let a cool smile settle on his lips and spoke.
"I never expected to meet the Commander of the Black Wind Squad in a place like this."
"And I never expected to see the young master of the Namgung Clan again in such a dreary hole, so I'd say we're even. But more to the point—"
Tap.
A single bound volume landed on the table.
"This information is my gift to you. Everything about Menghuando."
Thud.
The iron door of the sealed room shut fast. Only two remained inside: Namgung Cheon and Ak Mookyeol.
Ak Mookyeol gave a dry chuckle and spoke.
"Sharp eyes, that fox of Hao Gate."
He jerked his chin toward the closed door and went on.
"She knew this was no place for her to intrude, and left of her own accord."
Namgung Cheon nodded slowly. The moment Ak Mookyeol had walked in, set down the bound volume, and spoken his first words, Hongyeon had glanced back and forth between the two of them — and then, with a respectful bow, quietly withdrawn.
To read all that from so brief an exchange.
That he and Ak Mookyeol were not meeting for the first time. And that some manner of deal was passing between them — one she did not know, or must never come to know. And the other party was no ordinary man, but the commander of the Black Wind Squad, one of the Ten Direction Squads of the Four Black Alliance. Even a branch head of Hao Gate could hardly presume to share a room with Ak Mookyeol on equal footing.
"Now that the intruder is gone, let us talk business."
Ak Mookyeol pointed at the bound volume on the table.
"What you want is inside. The way into Menghuando, its internal layout, down to its personnel."
Namgung Cheon narrowed his eyes.
"There's no such thing as information without a price."
"Of course not."
Ak Mookyeol nodded.
"In the same way, what I want is also information. Menghuando — whatever you learn there. Everything you see and hear. I need all of it."
Namgung Cheon's gaze turned to the volume.
"If you were able to put together intelligence this detailed on your own, then whatever I learn in there would hardly be worth anything, would it?"
It was a razor-sharp observation. If the Black Wind Squad had already mapped the interior of Menghuando, they had no real need to learn its affairs through Namgung Cheon. They could simply move themselves.
A flicker of hesitation crossed Ak Mookyeol's eyes. He lifted his teacup, moistened his lips, and answered quietly.
"......That is a difficult question to answer."
At those words, Namgung Cheon's mind began to race. The depth of intelligence the Black Wind Squad possessed. Unless they bore some grudge against the Ghost Mask Pact, there was no reason to investigate them to this degree. And yet they did not move.
The Four Black Alliance is holding its silence.
Hongyeon's words resurfaced. A vast power that tolerated the beasts rampaging through its own territory. If so, was handing over this intelligence the will of the Alliance itself?
No.
If the Alliance meant to act, there would be no need to route it through him at all. The Black Wind Squad could simply sweep the place clean on its own. An alliance that hoarded information yet refused to move — and a squad commander who secretly siphoned that intelligence out to an outsider like him.
The answer was clear. A faint smile played at the corner of Namgung Cheon's mouth.
"So it isn't the Four Black Alliance making this move at all."
His eyes turned to Ak Mookyeol — to eyes sunk in a bottomless gravity unlike anything they had shown before.
"You are acting against the will of the Four Black Alliance right now. Am I wrong?"
"......"
Ak Mookyeol did not answer. But his silence was a more certain affirmation than any words could have been.
Scrape—.
Ak Mookyeol rose slowly from his seat. He turned his gaze from Namgung Cheon and walked toward the wall, which was covered edge to edge with maps of Dongting Lake.
"Against the will, you say..."
His voice had sunk deep.
"You have it wrong. I do not defy the Alliance. I refuse to let the Alliance rot."
Ak Mookyeol turned his head slowly and looked at Namgung Cheon. Then, in a tone different from any he had used before, he spoke.
"But hear this much, and hear it clearly."
Ak Mookyeol's voice dropped to a low murmur.
"A wolf does not become a dog just because a collar silences its bark."
His eyes flared and rippled like flame.
"It is merely sharpening its teeth."
The Heavenly Demon of Namgung
Author | Baek Rihaeng
Publisher | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Managing Editor | Editorial Department
Published by | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. — Dreambooks
Address | 7F, Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
ISBN | 979-11-7306-734-1
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