Chapter 483
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 483
Chapter Title: Too Late
Righteous Heaven Alliance Leader So Hwi-woong arrived at the Alliance headquarters leading the Demon-Sealing Corps as the sun was setting.
The treatment they received upon arrival was unprecedented.
The prisoners they had apprehended and escorted were immediately thrown into the underground prison beneath the Alliance Lord's Hall.
The rest of the Demon-Sealing Corps members were also perfectly isolated in the Alliance Lord's Hall, prevented from meeting anyone else.
It was called isolation, but it was no different from confinement.
And the place where the prisoners were locked up was another problem.
According to Alliance rules, criminals of the Righteous Heaven Alliance were supposed to be held in the Discipline Hall's underground prison.
Except for a few special cases.
Locking them in the underground prison of the Alliance Lord's Hall meant...
As a result, all sorts of rumors and speculations swirled through the Righteous Heaven Alliance that night.
Because there were more than a few people who had witnessed their return.
Among those who returned, the only ones who were free were the Alliance Lord, the Hocheon Corps members, and Ha Mu-baek.
No one dared approach them to ask what had happened.
"What in the world is..."
Cheon Gi-buk paced back and forth in his office, his face twisted in frustration.
The return of the Demon-Sealing Corps, the death of his disciple Do Sim-geuk, and the imprisonment of Yang Bi-chang.
The sudden flood of news had left him deeply uneasy.
He couldn't even figure out what was going on.
While others cheered the annihilation of the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest zombies and questioned the imprisonment of the Demon-Sealing Corps,
Cheon Gi-buk was filled with anxiety.
It was none other than Yang Bi-chang who had been thrown into the underground prison.
And all those imprisoned with him were disciples of the Kongdong Sect. That was another issue.
"This won't do."
He wasn't without suspicions.
But he dismissed them as impossible.
Cheon Gi-buk stormed out of his office.
His destination was Yeon Ja-gyeong's office.
However.
He couldn't meet him.
The guard at the gate gave him a curt, formal reply: Elder Yeon was absent.
Cheon Gi-buk's face contorted in anger.
He never imagined Yeon Ja-gyeong would treat him with such disdain.
How much had he cooperated with him by mobilizing the Demon-Sealing Corps up until now?
"Grand Elder!! You can't do this!!"
From the entrance.
He shouted loudly, infusing his voice with internal energy.
But there was no response.
"You can't do this, Elder Cheon. If you keep this up, we'll have no choice but to act."
At the guard's words, Cheon Gi-buk shot them a sharp glare.
"You dare..."
His eyes burned with fury.
Mere gate guards couldn't lay a hand on Cheon Gi-buk, sect leader of the Kongdong Sect.
However.
Officially harming the Grand Elder's guards would itself be a crime.
So Cheon Gi-buk had no choice but to turn back.
'Something's gone wrong.'
It was clear some disaster had occurred that made Yeon Ja-gyeong ignore—no, abandon—him.
Something he hadn't anticipated, but Yeon Ja-gyeong had.
'What could it be?'
Cheon Gi-buk racked his brains desperately as he headed back to his office.
Then he stopped dead in his tracks.
"No way?"
He was so shocked that he muttered aloud without realizing it.
His footsteps quickened urgently.
Back in his office,
he burned every single document.
Not knowing which ones,
he torched every paper in sight.
'Evidence. I have to destroy the evidence.'
Even if there were testimonies, without evidence to back them up, he could claim it was a frame-up.
A conspiracy. He could plead innocence.
And then.
He fled the Alliance.
Not through the main gate,
but through a secret back exit he had learned about just in case.
He was truly desperate.
He barely managed to grab his sword, gold and silver notes, and one jade box before leaving.
'They must have discovered how I obtained the zombie inner cores.'
Cheon Gi-buk's instincts told him so.
The incident where he had deliberately let the Alliance disciples die.
This was no ordinary crime.
The only one who knew about it was
Do Sim-geuk.
Or so it should have been.
But when Yang Bi-chang was appointed as the next Corps Leader and became vice leader, he learned the truth as well.
According to a secret letter from Do Sim-geuk,
Yang Bi-chang had doubts about the matter.
Even so,
he probably wouldn't have confessed so easily.
But staying put while trusting that felt too risky.
Especially since
Yeon Ja-gyeong had refused to meet him.
That cunning old Grand Elder had sensed something amiss.
So Cheon Gi-buk prepared for the worst.
The road ahead was long.
Gansu Province, Kongdong Mountain.
Home of the Kongdong Sect.
Cheon Gi-buk ran at full speed.
Before pursuers could catch up.
Return to the Kongdong Sect, seal the gates, and fight to the death.
That was his plan.
No matter how he thought about it, there was no other way.
And the Kongdong Sect's naturally impregnable location made such a plan feasible.
At that moment,
Ha Mu-baek was meeting with So Hwi-woong and Heavenly Eye Pavilion Lord Gong Son Dan-gyeong.
Along with a pile of documents found in Do Sim-geuk's tent.
"Hmm... Indeed. These are suspicious orders. Operations that make no sense. As if they were meant to send them to their deaths."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong nodded as he spoke.
"If I'd seen these documents, I would have interrogated Yang Bi-chang immediately. He's the only one left who would know about them."
"Then that means Mu-baek was right."
So Hwi-woong's voice was frosty, like frost on the ground.
"Looks like we'll have to summon Elder Cheon Gi-buk and investigate him."
At Gong Son Dan-gyeong's words,
"Too late."
Ha Mu-baek said calmly.
"What?"
Gong Son Dan-gyeong's puzzled question.
"That rat already slipped out of the Alliance."
"What?"
At Ha Mu-baek's words, So Hwi-woong immediately extended his senses.
He confirmed that Cheon Gi-buk's presence was nowhere within the Righteous Heaven Alliance.
To detect presences over such a wide area like Ha Mu-baek, So Hwi-woong had to concentrate fully.
It was impossible for him to casually spread his senses over a vast range like breathing.
"Why didn't you say so earlier?"
Gong Son Dan-gyeong chided.
"I thought he'd get caught trying to leave. I'd already warned him when he joined the Alliance. Who knew the headquarters would be this lax."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong frowned at the response.
"You expected him to escape safely?"
Ha Mu-baek just smirked at the follow-up.
Taking it as affirmation, So Hwi-woong asked,
"Why?"
Ha Mu-baek turned his head westward.
"Just wanted to see how far the rat would struggle."
The two tilted their heads at his answer.
It didn't seem like the usual Ha Mu-baek.
"Hmm. You're not trying to wipe out the Kongdong Sect in one go, are you?"
Gong Son Dan-gyeong eyed him suspiciously.
Ha Mu-baek merely shrugged.
"Think he's heading to the Kongdong Sect?"
"If he sensed something and fled in panic, probably. Plus, given its location."
So Hwi-woong nodded.
He had recalled the Kongdong Sect's position.
Even among the rugged peaks of Kongdong Mountain,
atop the most treacherous summit, Peak Demon Subduer,
on the sheer cliffs of Heavenly Layer Terrace.
There was only one narrow path leading there,
and even that was part of the Heavenly Layer Terrace cliffs.
It was a naturally fortified fortress so impregnable that one wondered how such a massive sect could have been built there.
A place where one man could hold off a thousand enemies.
"What about Yeon Ja-gyeong? I heard he was close to Cheon Gi-buk."
"That sly fox wouldn't leave evidence lying around. If there was any, he's probably destroyed it by now. Seeing Cheon Gi-buk bolt like that."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong replied dismissively to Ha Mu-baek's question.
"Yeon Ja-gyeong already caught on and cut him loose. At tomorrow's assembly, he'll probably be the first to call for the extermination of the Kongdong Sect."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong declared it as if he had seen the future.
Neither So Hwi-woong nor Ha Mu-baek objected.
They thought the same.
"It's a shame."
So Hwi-woong said sincerely.
"Grand Elder Yeon may be a cunning old fox, but he's not the type to consume zombie inner cores. And if he deliberately sacrificed Alliance warriors, he wouldn't have left evidence behind."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong glanced at Ha Mu-baek as he spoke.
"That's why we should have properly ransacked the Blood Cult headquarters. But you burned it all. Tsk."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong clicked his tongue, genuinely regretful.
"Did that bastard collude with the Blood Cult?"
Ha Mu-baek asked in a cold voice.
"We barely pieced together a few circumstantial clues. But no hard evidence. Dang."
He truly seemed disappointed,
smacking his lips and all.
"If that's true, he'll die by my hand."
A viscous killing intent flickered in Ha Mu-baek's eyes,
then vanished as he shook his head slightly.
"What do you plan to do about the Kongdong Sect?"
Gong Son Dan-gyeong turned his gaze back to So Hwi-woong.
"Have the Dragon Fang Corps and Dragon Child Corps returned?"
He had already heard they had pulled forces from Sa Pae-ryeon.
"They're on their way back. Should arrive in about three days."
"Send them."
Yeon Ja-gyeong would push for the extermination of the Kongdong Sect, so he wouldn't oppose deploying the Dragon Child Corps.
And with the Dragon Fang Corps as well,
they could fully eradicate the sect.
Traitors of the righteous faction.
That was the Kongdong Sect.
The operations that sacrificed the Fierce Dragon Corps had also cost the Demon-Sealing Corps lives.
And their sects were spread across the New Eight Sects, Old Nine Schools, and Five Great Clans.
Except for the Kongdong Sect itself.
"Mu-baek. What about you?"
So Hwi-woong asked Ha Mu-baek.
Hadn't he been pondering whether to tear him apart?
"I'll think about it slowly."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong tilted his head at Ha Mu-baek's response.
He had suddenly suppressed his killing intent earlier too.
It wasn't like him.
"This isn't like you. Is something wrong?"
When he was told to relinquish the Fierce Dragon Corps leadership and now,
they seemed like different people.
"Nothing."
Ha Mu-baek replied curtly.
"Still, compared to last time when we discussed the Fierce Dragon Corps position..."
"Speaking of which. What about the Fierce Dragon Corps?"
The conversation naturally shifted at Ha Mu-baek's question.
The Fierce Dragon Corps.
Their disposition.
Above all, the Fierce Dragon Corps belonged to the Heavenly Eye Pavilion.
"Hmm. Their service term hasn't ended yet."
"Good thing. If it was almost up, they'd have driven them to their deaths."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong fell silent at Ha Mu-baek's pointed remark.
He understood the intent.
A reprimand for allowing the Heavenly Eye Pavilion's Fierce Dragon Corps to suffer such sacrifices without knowing or intervening.
"Hmm. Even so, they agreed to the service term and received corresponding pay."
"They took payment for their lives, and now you're blaming them for not dying."
Ha Mu-baek struck again.
Then he changed direction.
"So what about the Demon-Sealing Corps?"
The zombies of the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest were gone now.
The Blood Cult remnants had been wiped out.
And the Kongdong Sect, which had led the Demon-Sealing Corps, had committed such madness.
The outcome was all but decided.
That's why So Hwi-woong had brought them all back to headquarters.
"Disband them and reassign to various combat units. But you're not hoping for the same for the Fierce Dragon Corps, right?"
Gong Son Dan-gyeong knew what Ha Mu-baek wanted.
How could he not know what kind of man he was?
Since he couldn't grant it,
he was holding firm.
Once freed from the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest mission, they would be scattered to other Alliance combat units to finish their terms.
Ha Mu-baek crossed his arms.
This old man was no pushover.
"We devoured the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest. Thanks to me and my master."
Ha Mu-baek pressed on.
He knew.
That one massive sword strike that wiped out the remaining zombies.
How incredible it was.
"The Alliance Lord went through quite a bit too. Without you there, we wouldn't have achieved that result."
Ha Mu-baek shut his mouth at the counter.
It was true.
With Wi Ji-gun and So Hwi-woong there, they had pulled it off.
If So Hwi-woong hadn't been there?
His master might have just grabbed Seol-ran and fled.
Ha Mu-baek and Gong Son Dan-gyeong stared at each other intently.