Chapter 211
Chapter 211
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 211
Chapter Title: What Are You Doing Here?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Hwangbo Family began to move with urgency.
The Secret Pavilion was an important organization within the family, but it wasn't solely responsible for all their intelligence.
The Hwangbo Family was a colossal clan, one of the Five Great Families.
Besides the Secret Pavilion, they operated two other intelligence organizations.
With these two organizations at the core, the Hwangbo Family moved swiftly.
Their objectives were twofold: to find the vanished Secret Pavilion and to find the one who had done that to Hwangbo Yeop.
No, to be precise, their true objective was to find the mastermind behind it all—the ones who were clearly plotting against the Hwangbo Family.
Hwangbo Wonhu was certain such a group had to exist.
Otherwise, there was no way to explain what had happened.
Who in the world could believe that someone had spontaneously decided to crush Hwangbo Yeop and his cronies, make them soil themselves, and then obliterate the Secret Pavilion on a whim?
It was only natural to assume there was a purpose behind it.
However, the Hwangbo Family's intelligence organizations were somewhat lacking compared to those of the other Five Great Families.
To even compete, they needed the Secret Pavilion, and even then, without its elites, it was inferior to the Underworld Sect.
So when the Underworld Sect and the Secret Heaven Group set out to manipulate information, how could they not be deceived?
Furthermore, the Hwangbo Family had just recently fought a major war against Nameless.
It had also been revealed that Nameless was not just active in Nanchang but was an organization hiding like poisonous mushrooms all over the world.
The other Five Great Families, as well as the Martial Alliance, the Black Alliance, and the Hubei Martial Alliance, had all recently had a heated clash with Nameless.
Therefore, the fabricated information from the Underworld Sect—that Nameless was behind all of this—was thoroughly convincing to Hwangbo Wonhu.
For the past few days, Hwangbo Wonhu had been calmly reading through the intelligence gathered by mobilizing not only his intelligence organizations but all the power of the Hwangbo Family.
Dozens of documents were piled on his desk, and he was currently reading a single-page summary of them.
"So… the ones behind all of this were those Nameless bastards, is that it?"
Hwangbo Wonhu read the document over and over.
Normally, he would have accepted the summary as it was.
But he couldn't do that now.
If the Secret Pavilion had been here, if they had prepared this document, he would have.
Hwangbo Wonhu couldn't completely trust the skills of the Hwangbo Family's other intelligence organizations.
His gaze fell on the thick pile of documents on his desk, and he let out a deep sigh.
It might take some time, and his reading it might not change anything, but it was better than being foolishly played while knowing nothing.
Hwangbo Wonhu started with the document on the very top of the pile and began to read through them methodically.
He didn't eat, rest, or sleep.
The time it took to read through all the documents was a full six hours.
After finishing, Hwangbo Wonhu felt a sense of unease.
"According to this information, it's almost certain…"
The intelligence organizations had done a decent job of investigating and summarizing.
Yet, something nagging felt like a tight knot in his chest.
He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.
Hwangbo Wonhu decided to accept the results.
"Chief Steward! Are you there!"
The Hwangbo Family's chief steward quickly entered.
"You called for me, my lord."
"From this moment on, our Hwangbo Family will commence a war against Nameless."
At the word "war," the chief steward's eyes widened like saucers.
"A-a war, you say?"
"Yes. So, hurry and make the necessary preparations."
The chief steward bowed his head and replied.
"Yes, my lord. I will prepare to provide support without any setbacks."
As the chief steward replied and left, a chilling, murderous intent poured from Hwangbo Wonhu's eyes.
He might have hesitated before making a decision, but once he had decided to fight, he would never look back, crushing the enemy with all his might.
That was the way of the Hwangbo Family, and the way of its master, Hwangbo Wonhu.
The first step was to thoroughly identify any remaining remnants of Nameless that might be in Nanchang.
And so, the Hwangbo Family began to move.
***
Byeok Taesan left the inn alone.
He would usually take someone along to give them experience, but not today.
Today, Byeok Taesan's destination was the Hwangbo Family estate.
So he couldn't bring anyone with him.
The atmosphere around the Hwangbo Family had been extremely tense lately.
No matter how much Byeok Taesan's people had grown, infiltrating the Hwangbo Family estate in such a tense state would not be an easy task.
In truth, it wouldn't be a big deal even if they were caught. Byeok Taesan had the power and ability to resolve any situation that might arise.
But he judged that there was no need to endure such a hassle and simply went out alone.
The reason Byeok Taesan was heading to the Hwangbo Family estate was because of the Heaven-Suppressing Formation the shopkeeper had mentioned.
The Heaven-Suppressing Formation was a secret technique the Hwangbo Family had created to deal with the Heavenly Demon.
In reality, the shopkeeper and the Hwangbo Family's secret organization that had confronted Byeok Taesan at the time were somewhat inadequate to draw out the full power of the formation.
To perfectly deploy the Heaven-Suppressing Formation, at least masters of the Hwangbo Family's elder-level were required.
But even for the Hwangbo Family, mobilizing dozens of masters of that caliber was nearly impossible.
As a last resort, the secret organization had researched a way for them to use it themselves.
And they had used it on Byeok Taesan.
This secret organization was very peculiar.
It was an organization that even the head of the Hwangbo Family did not know about.
They operated solely for the sake of the Hwangbo Family as a whole.
Each member was a part of the Hwangbo Family, active within the clan.
Their positions were not high, but they were posted in important places, secretly supporting the activities of the secret organization.
They procured funds in such a cunning way that neither the family head nor the chief steward who managed the family's finances noticed.
The scale of the secret organization was considerable.
The men the shopkeeper had mobilized to capture Byeok Taesan were the ones who carried out direct actions.
And besides them, there were others who created and researched the Heaven-Suppressing Formation.
They were, of course, outside the family estate.
As Byeok Taesan was heading to the Hwangbo Family, the members of the Underworld Sect were on the move to capture them.
They worked for the Hwangbo Family, but they didn't even know they were doing so.
They were just formation masters and martial arts scholars being used.
Naturally, they didn't possess the Heaven-Suppressing Formation. They only researched the fragments given to them by the secret organization.
But that research material was anything but ordinary. It was data derived from the Heaven-Suppressing Formation, a creation in which the Hwangbo Family had invested immense money and time.
What the Underworld Sect wanted was precisely that data.
And the reason Byeok Taesan was going to the Hwangbo Family was that the Heaven-Suppressing Formation itself was stored there.
The process of its creation and the various operational methods gained from using it in actual combat were all there.
The entire history of the Heaven-Suppressing Formation was preserved in the Hwangbo Family estate.
In a place no one knew.
Only the leader of the secret organization, the shopkeeper, knew its location.
Arriving at the Hwangbo Family estate, Byeok Taesan leaped over the wall.
He did it as confidently as if he were hopping his own fence.
Near where Byeok Taesan landed, there were five Hwangbo Family warriors.
Yet, they didn't notice him at all as he vaulted the wall and strode inside.
Spiritual power spread out like a mist around the walking Byeok Taesan, slowly dissipating.
A satisfied smile formed on Byeok Taesan's lips.
"This is quite nice."
Right now, Byeok Taesan was doing something he had never done before.
He was using spiritual power to drastically lower his presence.
In fact, erasing his presence with spiritual power would have been impossible back when he was the Heavenly Demon.
Reducing one's presence is something that can only be achieved by reaching a tremendous level of control and regulation of one's energy.
To erase it almost completely, as he was doing now, would be impossible without reaching the pinnacle of control and regulation.
The Soul-Devouring Demonic Arts of his Heavenly Demon days was impossible to control, so there was no way he could have used it to erase his presence.
Besides, there was no need for it back then.
In his days as the Heavenly Demon, he always went around crushing everything with his presence.
Countless people would fall to their knees, crushed by his presence without even realizing it.
He never gave it much thought. He just went about his business that way.
So, moving around with his presence erased like this was a very fresh experience for Byeok Taesan.
It was also an amusing one.
Wrapping his body in spiritual power, Byeok Taesan wandered throughout the Hwangbo Family estate.
If he had come with someone skilled at navigation like Hwaok or the Underworld Sect members, he would have reached his destination immediately, but since he was alone now, he just wandered until something caught his eye.
The place he had seen in the shopkeeper's remnant thoughts was a place with a large pond.
Unusually shaped rocks were placed around the pond.
And in the center of that pond, a pavilion was built.
In the shopkeeper's memory, there was a scene of him sitting across from someone on that pavilion, drinking.
There was also a scene of him hiding the Heaven-Suppressing Formation beneath that pavilion.
A place like that couldn't be common within the Hwangbo Family estate.
Byeok Taesan leisurely wandered here and there. Soon, he arrived at the very place he had seen in the shopkeeper's remnant thoughts.
A pavilion stood in the center of a pond so large one might question if it could even be called a pond.
And around the pond, strangely shaped rocks were arranged in a circle.
It was the exact place from the remnant thoughts.
Byeok Taesan was about to head to the pavilion when he turned his head.
Someone was approaching.
A faint light glinted in Byeok Taesan's eyes.
It was the very person from the shopkeeper's remnant thoughts, the one who had been drinking with him on that pavilion.
And that person was also the shopkeeper's master.
He was an old-looking man. He wore what looked like a worker's clothes and held a broom in his hand.
Anyone would see him as a man who did menial chores.
The man, holding the broom, approached the pond and stood still at its edge, gazing at the pond and the pavilion.
Byeok Taesan quietly observed the man.
He was a considerable master. He was at least twice as strong as the shopkeeper. His internal energy, his posture, and the feeling he gave off from his gait all indicated it.
The shopkeeper himself was quite a master.
To compare, he was stronger than Hwangbo Yeop. And according to Hwaok, Hwangbo Yeop was said to be on par with the elders of the Hwangbo Family.
But for this man to be at least twice as strong as someone like the shopkeeper meant that he might just be the strongest person in the Hwangbo Family.
And there was another peculiar thing.
This man possessed spiritual power. Of course, the amount was extremely faint.
The amount of spiritual power Byeok Taesan's people possessed was far greater than this man's.
But there was a big difference between them.
This man had trained on his own, elevated his state, and created spiritual power, while Byeok Taesan's people had it forcibly awakened by Byeok Taesan.
Curiosity sparked in Byeok Taesan's eyes.
Could a person with spiritual power see him?
He had erased his presence with spiritual power, and he was curious if someone who possessed spiritual power could notice it.
The man slowly approached the edge of the pond.
He stood there, quietly gazing at the pavilion.
Judging by his actions so far, it seemed he hadn't seen Byeok Taesan.
How long had it been like that? The man suddenly blurted out.
"What are you doing here?"
At the man's question, Byeok Taesan turned his head to look at him.
It seemed he could see him after all.
Byeok Taesan observed the man once more.
His spiritual power was concentrated in his eyes, his ears, and a specific part of his mind.
Seeing him use that small amount of spiritual power so sparingly and well, Byeok Taesan felt a strange sense of pride.
"Interesting."
It seemed he hadn't noticed from the start but had checked because he sensed something was off.
Since his own senses couldn't detect anything, he had resorted to using his spiritual power.
The part that caught Byeok Taesan's attention was that he had sensed something was amiss even when nothing registered on his senses.
While splitting and sparingly using spiritual power was impressive, it was something that could be achieved with practice.
But sensing something was wrong with just his intuition was by no means an easy feat.
Byeok Taesan, still not revealing his presence, spoke to the man.
"Can you see me now?"
The man gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
"I know you're somewhere over there, but it's not clear."
Byeok Taesan nodded. It seemed the man was accustomed to splitting his spiritual power but not to drawing out its proper strength.
Well, with such a small amount of spiritual power, what could he have even tried?
Byeok Taesan asked.
"Are there people like you in the other Five Great Families?"
The man nodded as if it were obvious.
"Of course. We are the Five Great Families."
If the Five Great Families were like this, then the Martial Alliance and the Black Alliance must be the same.
It seemed the overall level of the martial world had risen since the days he roamed the world in the body of the Heavenly Demon.
Perhaps he had been cooped up inside the Heavenly Demonic Cult for too long.
The corners of Byeok Taesan's mouth lifted slightly.
"This is fun."
It really pays to live a long life. It's just this much fun.
At Byeok Taesan's words, the man looked in his direction. No, his gaze was slightly off. He really couldn't pinpoint his exact location.
"Now then, would you mind telling me who you are and why you're here? I need to respond according to the situation, don't I?"
A heavy momentum began to surge from the man's body, pressing down on the surroundings.