Chapter 496
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 496
Chapter Title: Just a Passerby
A plain near a deep valley in the Yungzhong Mountains.
It was far even from the Jegal Clan territory, making it an ambiguous land that could neither be claimed nor denied as under their influence.
The current head of the Jegal Clan had come out here, scanning the surroundings with deep, thoughtful eyes.
Jegal Clan Leader Jegal Namcheon.
His hair and beard both fully white, he missed not a single detail of the scene unfolding at his feet.
"Gofeng."
"Yes, Uncle."
The middle-aged man who had once discussed the church's messengers with his son.
Jegal Gofeng.
As the clan leader's nephew, he held a significant position even among the direct bloodline.
"The formation is complete?"
"Yes, it is."
The area stretching out below them.
This was where the completed formation had been deployed.
It was also the place where they raised the church's messengers.
"All nine layers overlap. If every one activates, no one in the world could survive."
A confident reply.
Jegal Namcheon nodded at Jegal Gofeng's words.
Even with his own eyes, he couldn't fully grasp all nine formations.
No one in the world would detect the nine formations layered here.
They had poured their utmost effort into designing and installing them.
The previous war.
The Jegal Clan had failed to properly hold back the Blood Cult.
Senyu Valley's success in repelling the jiangshi with their barrier arts stood in stark contrast.
The exceptional warrior Ha Mu-baek.
He alone had taken down 200 Blood Cult fighters here because the Jegal Clan couldn't stop them.
It was the Jegal Clan's shame.
That was when it began.
They analyzed and researched every formation they had from scratch, struggling to create stronger ones.
Now that they had borne fruit, it was time to use it.
"And the funding?"
The Ninefold Absolute Formation.
The materials needed to deploy it were not only vast in quantity but also exceedingly rare.
Even for the Jegal Clan, their finances couldn't fully cover it.
"From the church's devotees."
Jegal Namcheon nodded at Jegal Gofeng's words.
The Sesegwanum Church.
A denomination preaching the end of the world.
That had been one of its purposes from the start.
The devotees' wealth.
In a doomed world, what did possessions matter?
Salvation amid the apocalypse was what counted.
Things were proceeding as planned.
"The Five Great Clans of the World."
Jegal Namcheon murmured calmly.
That was how the world saw them, but the Jegal Clan had always ranked last.
Namgung.
Yeon.
Tang.
Pang.
Jegal.
That was the order.
After the Great Martial War, the order shifted, but the Jegal Clan's position remained the same.
The Yeon and Namgung had simply swapped places.
Recently, the Pang and Jegal had traded spots too.
The Pang Clan's foolish leader had sealed their gates himself.
"How did our Jegal Clan end up like this?"
Jegal Gofeng had no words for Jegal Namcheon's lament.
"How could that fool Myeong make such a stupid choice?"
Jegal Namcheon's gaze turned toward Luoyang, home to the Righteous Heaven Alliance headquarters.
Heavenly Eye Pavilion.
He himself had been the previous pavilion lord of the place named for heaven's gaze.
He had devoted himself to building the clan's power on that foundation, but then the Great Martial War erupted.
The one who took his place as pavilion lord was Gong Son Dan-gyeong.
No one knew where the man had come from or what he did.
The new alliance leader, So Hwi-woong, had planted him there.
The new lord purged every base Jegal Namcheon had embedded in the pavilion.
The Jegal Clan became just one of the Five Great Clans.
Afterward, they forced Jegal Myeong into Heavenly Eye Pavilion, but the fool bolted to the Dragon Training Pavilion.
"They say the world belongs to warriors, but was our martial prowess truly weak?"
Jegal Gofeng had no answer to the second question either.
It couldn't have been weak.
Through endless research and analysis, they had continually forged stronger arts.
They prided themselves on creating the world's finest through ceaseless refinement.
The problem was that the result was no longer a martial art humans could practice.
It ignored human limits.
That art was sealed deep in the Jegal Clan's forbidden vaults.
The derivative arts from that research weren't weak, but they fell short of world-dominating level.
"Before the last two Great Martial Wars, how much did our Jegal Clan strive for peace in this realm, this martial world... and now look at us."
A sigh heavy with discontent escaped Jegal Namcheon's lips.
"The Eight New Sects."
The eight factions that had been steadily rising even before the wars.
After the wars, they entrenched themselves, and this was the Jegal Clan's fate.
Of course they couldn't look kindly on them.
The formation spread below was the fruit of years of painstaking effort to reclaim their rightful place.
"Rootless upstarts daring to control the martial world."
Anger filled Jegal Namcheon's voice.
"Enough. Let's go. The bait should start drawing them in one by one soon."
Jegal Namcheon turned away.
The Sesegwanum Church.
As their influence spread unchecked, people would take notice.
They'd learn of the Demonic Cult's existence, grow suspicious, and discover the Yungzhong Mountains—leaked on purpose.
Then they'd come here.
Whether Heavenly Eye Pavilion, the Demonic Cult, or Ha Mu-baek.
And all would vanish from this world together.
That was the picture Jegal Namcheon had painted.
Ha Mu-baek left Luoyang.
All his business there was done.
With rumors of schemes in the Yungzhong Mountains, it couldn't be the Demonic Cult.
Gong Son Dan-gyeong had sent orders to the Fierce Dragon Corps, so Ha Mu-baek just needed to head straight to Jiangxi Province.
Han Seol-bing would lead the Fierce Dragon Corps there herself.
Thus, Ha Mu-baek's journey was unhurried.
The inner demon.
He focused more on resolving it.
After leaving Luoyang, it had quieted down again.
Perhaps because he'd parted from his family, who stirred memories of his past.
No reaction at all.
Or maybe because the presumed Demonic Cult presence wasn't demonic.
Ha Mu-baek meditated and trained ceaselessly.
Not just practicing the Abyss, but trying to deal with the inner demon somehow.
Yet there was no progress.
It could have been frustrating.
But Ha Mu-baek showed no impatience or distress.
His face held faith that it would come naturally with the right trigger and timing.
Such a journey continued.
He passed by Wuchang, home to the Dragon Training Pavilion, and entered Jiangxi Province.
Stopping to rest in a small village.
Ha Mu-baek furrowed his brow.
His habitual sense detected a familiar presence.
'Even here...'
The church messenger he'd caught in Luoyang.
A similar aura.
The presence of someone trained in the same arts, felt in this tiny village.
He'd just entered the village moments ago.
'What are they plotting?'
For internal Righteous Heaven Alliance strife, the scale was far too vast.
They were secretly expanding influence among the common folk across the entire realm.
Deep into the night.
Ha Mu-baek had no choice but to move.
He'd thought to ignore it as White Path Society or Eight New Sects business.
But the village's elders were gathered there too.
In the end, he left the village's only inn and headed to their meeting place.
An old shrine on the village outskirts.
Now abandoned, untended by anyone.
Yet no cobwebs.
Many had been coming and going frequently.
Still, its dilapidated state remained.
The scene inside matched what he'd seen in Luoyang.
The shrine's altar.
A small wooden table before it, where everyone bowed and murmured prayers.
Ha Mu-baek couldn't help frowning at the sight.
So many hoping for the world's end.
'This isn't normal.'
No normal proselytizing could expand this fast.
Not even the Blood Cult or Demonic Cult had managed it.
They must have used sorcery, but as far as Ha Mu-baek knew, the Jegal Clan had no ties to such arts.
Among the orthodox sects, sorcery pointed more to Senyu Valley.
'What the hell are they doing...'
He frowned and left the shrine.
It wasn't much different from Luoyang, so no need to intervene.
The village grew even quieter.
With so many gathered at the shrine.
As he turned back toward the inn.
"Sis... I'm hungry..."
A young boy's faint voice reached Ha Mu-baek's ears.
A presence as if asleep.
"Just hold on a bit. It'll be okay once you sleep."
His sister replied in an equally feeble voice.
"My stomach hurts too much... I can't sleep..."
The boy's whining held no strength.
Not a single missed meal or two.
He couldn't ignore the conversation.
The two children whispered weakly; no one else in the village would hear.
Only Ha Mu-baek, with his senses heightened.
In the end, he had to head that way.
Ignorance would have been fine, but now he knew.
The opposite outskirts from the shrine.
The village's slum, clustered shacks.
Ha Mu-baek entered one.
A scrawny boy and girl lay covered in straw mats.
Clearly unfed for at least three days, even at a glance.
But.
Only the children were in the shack.
"Why are you two alone?"
The two startled at the sudden deep voice.
They tried to huddle and retreat, but lacked the strength.
"Wh-who are you?"
The girl, summoning what little energy she had to pull her brother behind her, stared at Ha Mu-baek.
"Just a passerby."
Doubt filled the girl's eyes.
This was the slum; no one passed through at night.
Come to think of it, a stranger.
Not a villager—a traveler.
"I mean you no harm. Nothing worth taking here anyway."
Her lips trembled at his pinpoint words.
"I-I heard they sell people too."
Indeed.
He could be one trying to kidnap and sell her and her brother.
Ha Mu-baek chuckled softly.
"You two?"
She bit her lip hard at the response.
Yes.
Starving and skin-and-bones, they held no value even for sale.
"Why are you alone?"
Ha Mu-baek asked again.
Malnourished, they looked younger, but the girl seemed eleven or twelve at most.
The boy around nine.
Yet clear traces of adults lingered in the shack.
"They said there's a place that saves the world. We have to pray there to be saved too. So they went."
A place sprang to mind immediately.
But the people gathered there had already assembled when Ha Mu-baek arrived.
Only after sensing the messenger later did he realize the Sesegwanum Church followers were there.
"When?"
"Three days ago..."
Ha Mu-baek's face twisted.
Those so-called parents.
Abandoning their kids for three days.
"Starving for three days?"
The girl nodded faintly.
"How..."
Words failed him.
Leave these young ones and be gone three days?
Without even preparing food.
Madmen.
Utter lunatics.
A small jar of water in the corner.
Likely all the siblings had consumed in three days.
"Wait here."
Ha Mu-baek said and left the shack for the inn.
Fortunately, the cook was still there.