Chapter 148
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 148
Chapter Title: Don't You All Know?
"These are what the attackers who tried to kill me had on them."
Gong Mu-hyeok said this while looking at one of the five elders.
It was the man who had been avoiding eye contact with Gong Mu-hyeok, his face full of shame.
"Elder Seong worked with me on researching the Heavenly Chain Thunderclap, so you know what this is, right?"
Gong Mu-hyeok's question.
The one called Elder Seong nodded.
At the mention of Heavenly Chain Thunderclap, the expressions of the other four elders changed abruptly.
Some even looked shocked.
"This is the launcher left behind after firing the Heavenly Chain Thunderclap. And when we made the launchers, I secretly engraved a mark on each one."
Elder Seong nodded unconsciously.
He had heard Gong Mu-hyeok say he would take certain measures when producing the Heavenly Chain Thunderclap.
But he never imagined it would be engraving a mark on the launcher.
"Take a look."
Gong Mu-hyeok tossed the launcher over.
It spun through the air and landed in Elder Seong's hand.
"Hmm..."
A low groan.
The other elders craned their necks to peer at the launcher.
They wanted to check the engraving.
Soon, they were all tilting their heads in confusion.
There was no engraving anywhere.
Gong Do-hyeok smirked.
"What cheap trick is this..."
"Try channeling your internal energy into it. The Heavenly Chain Thunderclap launcher requires internal energy to fire, after all."
Elder Seong reflexively infused it with internal energy.
And then, two characters emerged.
Do-hyeok.
All five elders' eyes widened in shock.
"Do-hyeok is the one who smuggled out the league's greatest secret—the Heavenly Chain Thunderclap—to outsiders in order to kill the leader. And yet you're saying you'll follow him?"
Elder Seong's eyes trembled faintly.
He had already struggled deeply with his decision to side with Gong Do-hyeok, so this revelation shook him hard.
"Leader, what have you done for the league?"
At that moment.
A man who had been standing silently until now spoke up to Gong Mu-hyeok.
"And who are you?"
"I'm Wi Sang-hyeong of the Upper House. The leader just holed up in his research lab all the time, making excuses about developing new weapons. It was Gong Do-hyeok here who actually ran the league."
Gong Mu-hyeok frowned at the way he called himself the leader and referred to Gong Do-hyeok as the leader too.
"The leader only became leader because he was born the eldest son of the Gong family, despite his frail body. The children of elder council families naturally enter the elder council, and the same for elder families. That's the Myriad League—always the same families, the same people stuck in the same positions. A stagnant pond rotting away. What exactly has the leader done?"
Wi Sang-hyeong's question.
Gong Mu-hyeok smirked at it.
It was a question trapped in its own contradiction.
"So because I did nothing, Do-hyeok should be leader? Fine, let me ask you this. While I was holed up in the research lab, Do-hyeok ran the league, as you say. What did he accomplish during that time? Did that stagnant state change at all?"
"At the very least, he promoted me. That's how change begins."
Wi Sang-hyeong answered without flinching.
He had anticipated a question like this.
"Fine, good. A small change. Change that begins that way. But do you know who the outsider was that Do-hyeok handed the Heavenly Chain Thunderclap to?"
Gong Mu-hyeok's question.
There was no way they knew.
Gong Do-hyeok had kept his contacts with the Demonic Cult strictly secret.
It was something only he knew.
The six men's gazes turned to Gong Mu-hyeok's mouth.
Who on earth was this outsider?
Their eyes were filled with that question.
"The Demonic Cult. The Demonic Cult. It was the Demonic Cult that got it and came to kill me."
Thud!
A heavy impact rang in the five elders' minds.
The name Gong Mu-hyeok had emphasized three times.
Demonic Cult.
The idea that Gong Do-hyeok had been colluding with the Demonic Cult was something they had never even suspected.
It was utterly impossible in the Myriad League, one of the New Eight Sects.
The culprits of the last war.
The enemies of the orthodox faction.
That was the Demonic Cult and the Blood Cult.
The five elders turned to Gong Do-hyeok, their eyes questioning whether what Gong Mu-hyeok was saying was true.
Gong Do-hyeok remained calm.
Not a hint of agitation.
He had expected this.
His smart brother wouldn't have left such a fearsome weapon—or rather, siege engine—without any countermeasures.
"Where's the proof? Do you have proof that the leader colluded with the Demonic Cult?"
Wi Sang-hyeong asked as if it were nothing.
There couldn't be any. What kind of fools would the Demonic Cult be to leave evidence?
The attackers that day had no identifying marks whatsoever.
"The valley master of Seon Yu Valley was there with them."
"Your father-in-law."
Wi Sang-hyeong no longer called Gong Mu-hyeok "leader."
"It's the valley master of Seon Yu Valley. Do you think he'd lie about the Demonic Cult's involvement just because of some family ties? Are you insulting the valley master right now?!"
Gong Mu-hyeok exploded in rage.
Seon Yu Valley—one of the New Eight Sects, a sect that had saved countless lives in the last war.
He was purely furious at the claim that its valley master would fabricate the Demonic Cult's involvement for his son-in-law's sake.
"You're the leader of the Myriad League. Isn't accusing the leader of colluding with the Demonic Cult an insult to him?!"
"I am the leader!"
Wi Sang-hyeong and Gong Mu-hyeok glared at each other with blazing eyes.
"This doesn't seem like a place for you to butt in. I'm standing right here. You worthless punk. Hey, Gong Do-hyeok. Why don't you speak up."
Until then, Ha Mu-baek—who had been silent—spoke in a voice thick with killing intent.
At his aura, Wi Sang-hyeong and the five elders suddenly felt their legs go weak.
It was an aura that instinctively made their whole bodies shrink.
Ha Mu-baek's killing intent now turned toward Gong Do-hyeok.
Gong Do-hyeok gritted his teeth.
But such resistance was futile; soon, cold sweat drenched his entire body.
Silence fell.
The moment Ha Mu-baek withdrew his killing intent.
"Kuhuk. Hek... hek hek."
"Hak hak."
"Uhk... hek hek."
Rough breaths escaped them.
Fear filled the faces of Wi Sang-hyeong and the five elders.
Gong Do-hyeok glared at Ha Mu-baek with a twisted expression.
'As expected, a monster is a monster... Nothing like that Third Spirit Lord.'
Even so, Gong Do-hyeok's spirit didn't break.
After getting ambushed once by the Third Spirit Lord, he'd resolved to become leader and grown a step further.
And he trusted the preparations he'd laid out here.
"What Vice Leader Wi said is my stance as well. As vice leader, he has every right to speak as an equal to Gong Mu-hyeok."
Gong Do-hyeok growled.
Gong Mu-hyeok watched him with incredulous eyes.
Vice leader?
Wasn't that Gong Do-hyeok standing right in front of him?
When had leader and vice leader switched without him knowing?
Gong Mu-hyeok's gaze turned to the five elders. They showed no surprise, as if they'd already been informed.
They merely cast fearful glances at Ha Mu-baek.
"Proof, you say?"
Ha Mu-baek smirked and asked.
Gong Do-hyeok nodded.
Ha Mu-baek pulled something from his bosom and flicked it over.
A small pouch landed at Gong Do-hyeok's feet.
He picked it up.
"Look at it."
At Ha Mu-baek's words, he opened the pouch to reveal a tooth permeated with black energy.
"What is this..."
Gong Do-hyeok looked at Ha Mu-baek with uncomprehending eyes.
The others were the same.
Even Gong Mu-hyeok looked puzzled.
"Don't you all know? And here you are demanding proof. Ridiculous. I've handed you proof right in front of your eyes."
Ha Mu-baek bared his teeth in a contemptuous grin.
"Do you lot know what changes happen to the body when demonic arts are used?"
They had only heard rumors about demonic arts; no one here knew.
None of them had fought on the front lines in the last war.
The Myriad League had mainly handled supplying weapons and firearms from the rear.
So they had no experience seeing demonic cultists using demonic arts.
"Demonic energy is a dark qi. Black energy rises from the dantian and spreads through the whole body. It permeates every part—the skin, the eyes, even that tooth you're holding. When you see the dead ones, even their bones are soaked in black energy."
Gong Do-hyeok clenched the tooth in his hand.
He gritted his teeth.
The five elders hesitated.
"You still don't believe this? Go ask the Righteous Heaven Alliance right now. See what they say. And that tooth was pulled from one of the corpses buried at the inn ruins where Gong the leader was attacked. There are still bodies piled up there."
The three days before departure.
Ha Mu-baek had prepared it just in case.
"Eek."
Gong Do-hyeok's face twisted viciously.
"The innkeeper was a very thorough man."
Gong Mu-hyeok almost nodded unconsciously at Ha Mu-baek's words. He had experienced it himself while searching for the launcher.
"Thanks to him, we've got plenty of evidence. Couldn't bring the bodies, so I pulled a tooth."
A chilling gaze.
Two of the five elders edged away from Gong Do-hyeok.
Three stayed by his side.
They seemed conflicted but resolute.
"So what? What of it?"
It was Wi Sang-hyeong.
"To remake the stagnant, rotting Myriad League from the ground up, we have to take risks like that!"
Wi Sang-hyeong practically screamed it.
"You mad bastard. Colluding with the Demonic Cult, and you talk like it's nothing."
Ha Mu-baek growled.
Wi Sang-hyeong trembled all over. Still, he glared at Ha Mu-baek.
Then Gong Mu-hyeok cut in.
"The Myriad League isn't stagnant and rotting."
Wi Sang-hyeong raised his voice, calling it nonsense.
"What do you mean? The elder council was there before I was born, and the five elders are the same. No one ever rises higher in the Myriad League!"
"Shut up with that nonsense! It wasn't five elders, it was four! Elder Seong only became an elder five years ago! When we developed the Heavenly Chain Thunderclap! Don't just remember what suits you!"
Gong Mu-hyeok shouted harshly.
Wi Sang-hyeong flinched.
It was the truth.
He had lumped them together as "five elders," but Elder Seong had definitely been one of the four before.
A fact he had deliberately ignored.
"You thought it was stagnant because you didn't try to rise and just blamed the environment."
Cold words.
Gong Mu-hyeok's eyes were icy.
"Besides Elder Seong, who else?"
Gong Do-hyeok interrupted.
This time, Gong Mu-hyeok fell silent.
There had only been Elder Seong in the last ten years.
"Saying it's not stagnant just because one elder was promoted is laughable."
"You bastard Do-hyeok! You ran the league all that time! I was the one who elevated Elder Seong! You're the one who stagnated the league!"
"I was just the vice leader."
As the two glared at each other with fiery eyes.
Elder Seong and another elder moved to Gong Mu-hyeok's side.
They were the ones who had sided with Gong Do-hyeok out of persuasion and threats.
"You think it'll be different if you become leader?!"
"Kill your brother and take the leader's seat. Then you'll have to overhaul the entire league. That ends the stagnation and brings new vitality."
Gong Do-hyeok smiled thinly as he spoke.
"Let's end this petty argument. The conclusion is simple anyway. The strong one takes all. That's why you brought that guy along too."
Gong Do-hyeok glanced at Ha Mu-baek as he continued.
His body was still trembling.
This man was truly terrifying.
Ha Mu-baek smirked.
He had now decided how much of the debt to repay and how.
"Attack!"
The moment the order left Gong Do-hyeok's mouth.
The remaining three elders launched themselves at Ha Mu-baek and Gong Mu-hyeok.
They had already drawn their bizarre weapons.
Fear filled their faces, but they charged anyway—they had to settle this here.
Elder Seong and the other elder drew their own weapons.
At that moment.
Gong Do-hyeok smiled faintly and lifted a single thread.
"Well, the new Myriad League will need all new elders anyway."
A quiet mutter.
Then Gong Do-hyeok infused the thread with internal energy. The thread grew taut with qi.
He tugged it lightly.
Ingenious mechanisms activated, and changes occurred in four places.
Gong Mu-hyeok was startled by the sight.
"Thousand Silken Threads?"
Threads capable of transmitting internal energy.
What trick was this?
The moment he followed the thread to the ceiling.
Four Heavenly Chain Thunderclaps with triggered firing mechanisms came into view.
"Wha—what?! Ru-run awa—!!!"
Gong Mu-hyeok screamed at the top of his lungs.