Chapter 477
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 477
Chapter Title: Ha Mu-baek Saw It Too
The cleanup of the corpses wasn't finished until late into the night.
Everyone had skipped dinner because they'd jumped straight into action the moment they arrived.
After gathering the recovered bodies in one place,
they hastily prepared some simple snacks for a late meal before turning in for the night.
Ha Mu-baek stepped outside alone and gazed up at the sky.
The dark night sky was filled with stars that filled his vision.
"……."
In silence.
He stared up at the heavens for a long while like that,
then began wandering the surroundings.
Was it because of the grueling, intense days they'd endured?
Both the Demon-Sealing Corps and the Fierce Dragon Corps had fallen into a deep sleep.
The only sounds were their deep breathing.
As he walked,
he arrived at the spot where the recovered corpses were gathered.
Ha Mu-baek regarded the bodies with cold eyes.
He had heard from Dam Mu-hyeon what had led these people to such a fate.
Dokgo Yapa.
These were the ones who had served as the foundation for that bastard's overwhelming power.
The ones who had processed and devoured the inner cores of walking corpses to grow stronger.
He couldn't look upon them fondly.
"Tch."
A click of his tongue escaped his lips.
They had wiped out the Blood Cult in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest,
yet traces of them lingered here like this.
He wanted to burn these worthless corpses to ash right then and there.
But Dam Mu-hyeon had earnestly pleaded with him.
To please hold back, just this once.
He'd sent an urgent dispatch to the Righteous Heaven Alliance headquarters about everything that had happened.
Using the Thousand-Li Black Pigeons that Dam Mu-hyeon had brought—no, more precisely, the ones Heavenly Eye Pavilion Lord Gong Son Dan-gyeong had sent along.
While they were handling the corpses, the Alliance Leader had been busy in his tent with that very task:
drafting a letter to send to Gong Son Dan-gyeong.
The Thousand-Li Black Pigeons would return with his reply before tomorrow ended.
Ha Mu-baek turned on his heel again.
Before his eyes lay the Mountain-Crossing Great Wall and Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest, shrouded in darkness.
"It must feel different for you."
Before he knew it, So Hwi-woong, out for a nighttime stroll himself, had come up beside him.
Ha Mu-baek had sensed his movements from the moment he left his tent.
"Eh. Just feels a bit anticlimactic."
So Hwi-woong nodded at Ha Mu-baek's response.
That was all.
He said nothing more.
"You did well. If not for you, that place would still be a demonic forest. This is thanks to you."
With those words, So Hwi-woong turned away.
Ha Mu-baek continued to gaze silently at the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
Truth be told, he still couldn't quite believe it.
That the tenacious Blood Cult had vanished just like that.
Even though he had eradicated them with his own hands.
Was that why?
Ha Mu-baek's steps turned once more toward the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
His figure vanished in an instant.
No matter where he scanned in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest,
no matter how far he extended his senses,
there were no traces of the Blood Cult left here now.
A few battered walking corpses shoved into corners were the only remnants.
Just in case, he extended his senses deep underground across the entire forest.
But as expected, he detected nothing.
He checked again and again.
Truly.
Truly.
The Blood Cult was gone.
There might be remnants hiding somewhere outside the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest,
but they could accomplish nothing.
With their main base utterly annihilated,
and all survivors among the Blood Cult's Ten Elders, starting with Il-no, slain.
Five had died in the previous war,
plus the ten Ha Mu-baek killed at the Hao Clan and the four today.
All ten in total.
There was no one left to revive the Blood Cult.
He had annihilated them completely.
'That kid, too.'
Ha Mu-baek's thoughts drifted to Nak Woo-jin.
The first time he saw him in the Dragon Training Pavilion's training grounds,
peering into him with the Infinite Bright Wheel Eye, he had intuited it.
Some connection to the Blood Cult.
He hadn't cultivated blood arts,
but still,
deep within his body, he had faintly sensed that insidious energy from the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
He had suspected the Blood Cult might have sent him as a spy to the Dragon Training Pavilion.
But seeing him cultivate the Three Talents Arts had dispelled most of those doubts.
Those who practiced blood arts couldn't cultivate the Three Talents Arts.
Blood arts rejected the pure inner energy of the Three Talents Arts.
Even so, when he first brought him to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest,
Nak Woo-jin's reaction convinced him there was definitely some link to this place.
And yet,
today,
as the energy of the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest changed,
that suspicious aura around Nak Woo-jin had vanished as well.
What could it have been?
"Well, this side's truly finished now."
Ha Mu-baek muttered to himself after confirming the state of the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest over and over.
His gaze turned northward.
"Now for the remaining ones……."
The Demonic Cult.
They had been sustaining their lineage just like the Blood Cult.
Now it was their turn to be wiped out.
Not right away, of course.
"Hm?"
Ha Mu-baek's senses picked up the stealthy movements of several martial artists.
He didn't act immediately.
He knew who they were.
'Men sent by Strategist Mun In-baeksong.'
The distinctive presence of warriors from the Black Mist Squad, the intelligence unit under Mun In-baeksong of the Sa-hwa Alliance.
Ha Mu-baek didn't know the movements of the Sa-hwa Alliance forces,
so he assumed they had come to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest merely to gather intelligence.
The Righteous Heaven Alliance's Demon-Sealing Corps managed the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest,
but the Sa-hwa Alliance was paying close attention to it too.
"Ugh."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong awoke from his short sleep.
He had finished overflowing with work past midnight before finally bedding down,
only to wake after a mere hour.
There was no other reason.
An urgent report from the Alliance Leader.
He couldn't complain.
The Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest was the most pressing matter.
The dispatch carried by the Thousand-Li Black Pigeon was quite thick.
Not written by Dam Mu-hyeon or a Hocheon Corps member, but in the Alliance Leader's own hand.
Gong Son Dan-gyeong read it quickly.
And at one point,
"Th-this, this—what a waste… He burned it all?"
At the part where Ha Mu-baek had torched the Blood Cult's hidden underground lair with fire,
Gong Son Dan-gyeong felt immense regret.
No, he even trembled with rage.
He, who rarely got angry over Ha Mu-baek's actions,
this was a new side of him.
"The Blood Cult's secret documents there… all gone up in smoke too. Corps Leader Ha, why would a man of such profound composure…."
His regret doubled, then tripled.
And soon enough,
he guessed the reason.
"The Blood Cult drives men mad……."
He must have burned it all in the exhilaration of finally annihilating the Blood Cult.
From Ha Mu-baek's perspective, what did it matter what documents were there?
It mattered to Gong Son Dan-gyeong himself.
After So Hwi-woong left Righteous Heaven Alliance headquarters,
and the Sa-hwa Alliance mobilized their forces,
and walking corpses rampaged in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest,
as the situation suddenly turned dire,
he had glimpsed a faint tail.
There was definitely someone in the Righteous Heaven Alliance colluding with the Blood Cult.
He had been tracking it.
"Hmm."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong suddenly fell deep into thought.
He was the first at headquarters to receive this news.
Delivered by Thousand-Li Black Pigeon, no less.
No faster way existed for news to travel from the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest to Righteous Heaven Alliance headquarters.
Which meant
he alone knew of the Blood Cult's downfall right now.
"Perhaps……."
He might be able to catch that tail.
Plus Yang Bi-chang's confession of the White Path Society's atrocities and all their crimes.
With those two, he could suppress the White Path Society's forces as well.
Gong Son Dan-gyeong swiftly penned a dispatch.
The fatigue from his interrupted sleep was gone.
The hastily scrawled letter was placed in the traditional tube tied to the Thousand-Li Black Pigeon's leg and sent flying back to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
"Fly swiftly."
"Gasp!"
Yeon Ja-gyeong awoke drenched in cold sweat.
His entire body was soaked.
He had a nightmare.
Countless Dragon Training Pavilion cadets turned into walking corpses,
pouncing on him,
tearing his body apart.
"Ugh. Am I getting old……?"
He rose from bed and filled a teacup from the table.
The tea was cold, but it didn't matter.
Moistening his parched mouth was what counted.
"Hoo."
He collected himself, took a deep breath, and slumped into a chair.
'Are things going awry?'
Such thoughts crossed his mind.
Ha Mu-baek.
That bastard had returned to headquarters once more.
He'd only met Gong Son Dan-gyeong before vanishing quickly, but
his destination was obvious.
Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
His younger sister was heading there, after all.
Of course he'd go.
By his calculations,
Ha Mu-baek might interfere with his plans.
Probably
the source of this nightmare.
"Ominous."
He rarely dreamed at all.
Yet a nightmare like this.
He couldn't dismiss it lightly.
He needed to be cautious for a while.
It felt like a warning about his own safety.
He opened the window and looked at the night sky.
'I've upheld all our promises. The rest is up to you, Il-no.'
Yeon Ja-gyeong decided to sever all contact with the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest for the time being
and moved at once.
Though it was still deep night,
his actions were unhesitating.
Thus, all faint traces connecting Yeon Ja-gyeong to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest vanished.
"Alliance Leader. You should take some medicine."
Gongya Jangcheon snapped his eyes open at his guard's report, rousing from deep sleep.
"What is it?"
"Strategist Mun In-baeksong has come urgently."
Gongya Jangcheon scanned his surroundings.
Darkness still blanketed everything.
"What time is it?"
"Just past the hour of the tiger—around five a.m."
Early dawn.
Gongya Jangcheon rose from bed, dressed quickly, and left his bedchamber.
If Mun In-baeksong sought him urgently at this hour,
it meant something critical.
Mun In-baeksong, waiting outside the bedchamber, bowed deeply upon seeing Gongya Jangcheon.
"Urgent news from the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest."
"What is it?"
The two conversed as they headed to the Alliance Leader's office.
"Something happened in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest."
"Something?"
"All the walking corpses are gone. The forest's energy has changed… and there's a site of an enormous battle, reduced to ruins."
Mun In-baeksong summarized the long report succinctly.
Gongya Jangcheon's face twisted at the words.
What was this sudden nonsense?
All the walking corpses in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest gone?
Did that even make sense?
Hadn't they just reported a monstrous walking corpse surpassing the Dark Blood Walking Corpses?
They had mobilized forces on that pretext.
Currently, those forces were in standoff with the Righteous Heaven Alliance's Dragon Child Squad and Dragon Pavilion Squad.
A tense atmosphere gripped Gangseo Province, war on the verge of breaking out.
"Does that make any sense?"
Arriving at the office and sitting, Gongya Jangcheon asked.
"So Hwi-woong is in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest."
"We already knew that. Even for So Hwi-woong, that's impossible. If it were, they never would have built the Mountain-Crossing Great Wall."
In truth,
Mun In-baeksong found it equally unbelievable.
But
the report came from the Black Mist Squad he had sent to assess the current state of the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest,
to determine the optimal time to move Gangseo Province's forces.
It couldn't be wrong.
"Ha Mu-baek saw it too."
"Even if that monster… it's impossible. All walking corpses in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest gone? No matter how obsessed he is with slaughtering Blood Cultists, he's human. Humans have limits."
Gongya Jangcheon spoke with frustration.
Mun In-baeksong felt the same frustration.
"Figuring out how it happened can wait. The key point is that the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest… is no longer the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest."
Gongya Jangcheon's face hardened gravely.
He understood the implication.
"You mean pull our forces from Gangseo Province."
"Were you not planning to head to Gangseo Province yourself, Alliance Leader?"
So Hwi-woong had already left Righteous Heaven Alliance headquarters.
With the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest resolved,
his next move was obvious.
Gangseo Province, where tensions were at their peak.
With the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest settled, the only place to deploy the remaining forces was there.
The investigation into the exact situation in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest was incomplete,
with only urgent details sent,
so neither Mun In-baeksong nor Gongya Jangcheon
could precisely predict the Righteous Heaven Alliance's state.
They could only infer the most likely scenario.
"Me going… You know what that would mean, Strategist?"
"A clash between righteous and evil."
The leaders of the two factions meeting on a frontline where tensions were at their zenith.
The outcome was predictable.
"And not the result we want."
Gongya Jangcheon nodded at Mun In-baeksong's follow-up.
"Hoo. So we pull the forces?"
His voice was thick with regret.
"If Ha Mu-baek comes along, it would be irreversible."
Mun In-baeksong's next words
helped seal Gongya Jangcheon's decision.
"Pull the forces immediately. And investigate the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest more thoroughly."
"Understood."
The messenger pigeon, bearing the Alliance Leader's sealed orders tied to its leg, soared through the dawn sky.