Chapter 503
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 503
Chapter Title: Shall I Take a Quick Peek?
“That’s ridiculous!”
“Of course it is. In a world that’s doomed to fall apart anyway, what good is money? It’s utterly useless, but they claim the more you offer, the greater Avalokitesvara’s blessings will be. It doesn’t make any sense. Anyone with half a brain can see through it in an instant. What’s truly baffling is how people get so sucked in and can’t pull themselves out.”
Seeing Ha Mu-baek take an interest, the man spoke without pause.
Thinking it over calmly, he had a point.
But were the fools ensnared by the Meticulous Guanyin Cult really thinking rationally?
And with the Jegal Clan’s formations layering on hypnotic suggestions, it was only natural for people to fall that deeply.
The real marvel was this man in front of him, thinking so clearly.
Probably because he’s naturally resistant to suggestion.
Ha Mu-baek had already guessed the man’s constitution made him immune to hypnosis, so his perspective made perfect sense.
“So there are others who’ve sensed something off?”
“In Yangyang, there’s one other besides me. He didn’t show up to the gathering today, though. Which means there must be more elsewhere, right? The world is vast, and there are plenty of people. And I heard something intriguing from that guy who didn’t come.”
The man spilled everything he knew, holding nothing back.
The terror of a martial artist—especially one who moved like a ghost—drove him to it.
Ha Mu-baek nodded at the man’s words.
Of course. There couldn’t be just this one person in the world with a natural resistance to suggestion.
“What was this intriguing thing you heard?”
“There’s a Meticulous Guanyin Cult headquarters in An’gang City, Shaanxi Province. He suggested we head there and make a big score. Said a bunch of people have already gathered, and his cousin is one of them.”
“And that’s why you were grinning?”
“I was planning to join in and grab a share myself.”
The man grinned sheepishly.
“Good. Off with you.”
Ha Mu-baek had heard all he needed.
He turned and vanished in an instant.
Like a ghost into thin air.
“Huuuuaaaah.”
Only then did the man let out a massive sigh and collapse to the ground.
His legs had given out completely.
“Fuck. The Guanyin Cult... What the hell kind of place is that, sending martial artists like him...? No way. I’m done.”
He shook his head vigorously.
The man vowed never to even glance at the Guanyin Cult again.
After seeing that martial artist, the place felt ominously foreboding.
Something big was bound to go down soon.
“An’gang in Shaanxi Province...”
Ha Mu-baek muttered as he headed back to the inn.
Yangyang was right at the foot of Mt. Yungjung.
Yet their headquarters was supposedly in An’gang, Shaanxi Province.
He pondered briefly.
Should he head straight to Mt. Yungjung, or make a detour to An’gang?
An’gang.
It sounded far in Shaanxi Province, but it wasn’t really.
A city just north of Hubei Province.
A bit distant from Mt. Yungjung, but not too far overall.
Did they set up there as a decoy?
Ha Mu-baek figured as much, considering the moderate distance from Mt. Yungjung.
It fit the Jegal Clan’s scheme.
***
“Black Wind reporting.”
The Black Wind’s Wind Lord announced his arrival at the door.
“Come in.”
Sek Mu-won’s summons drew the Black Wind Wind Lord into his room.
He had been digging deeper into the Meticulous Guanyin Cult when a sudden recall order forced him to rush back.
“The Cult Leader orders us to drop the Guanyin Cult matter.”
“Understood.”
The Wind Lord bowed without question, honoring the Cult Leader’s command.
“How far did you get?”
Sek Mu-won was dropping it, but he was curious about the progress so far.
“The Meticulous Guanyin Cult’s headquarters is in An’gang, Shaanxi Province. There’s no official cult leader; a figure called the Great Emissary manages the organization. From what we confirmed, that’s Jegal Cheol-san.”
“Jegal Cheol-san?”
“The Jegal Clan head’s second son.”
“Looks like the Jegal Clan wants the world to know it’s their doing. Parading the head’s son as the Great Emissary like that.”
The Wind Lord bowed deeply at Sek Mu-won’s incredulous tone.
“Not quite. He wore a mask to alter his appearance and took security measures. We only uncovered it because of who we are.”
His words brimmed with pride in the Demonic Cult and Black Wind.
“Heavenly Eye Pavilion or Black Unit could’ve sniffed it out too. It’d just take them longer.”
The Wind Lord stayed silent.
It was true enough.
But not as swiftly as they had.
Sek Mu-won tapped the armrest of his chair.
His father had ordered him to back off, but curiosity gnawed at him.
What were the Jegal Clan fools thinking with this scheme?
It was too sloppy and amateurish for them.
Yet the cult’s influence wasn’t negligible, so he couldn’t dismiss it lightly.
“If I could just pluck them out and claim them...”
Sek Mu-won murmured softly.
The Wind Lord kept his head bowed.
“Dismissed.”
“Yes.”
The Black Wind Wind Lord withdrew quietly at Sek Mu-won’s order.
Sek Mu-won sank into thought.
“What to do...”
His father said back off, but the cult’s gathered forces were too tempting.
There was no current cult leader, apparently.
Just the Great Emissary overseeing it all.
So if I just devour that one guy...
He could seize the entire Meticulous Guanyin Cult.
And devouring him would be simple.
The Soul Devouring Great Law existed for that.
The preparations were tricky, but now that he knew the target’s identity and location, it was feasible.
The only concern was defying his father’s order.
The Cult Leader had explicitly commanded him to stand down and bide his time. Acting alone carried risks.
If it succeeded, fine—but if it failed?
He could fall hopelessly behind in the succession race, where he was already a step back.
“Mu-pung.”
Sek Mu-won whispered, and a man appeared prostrated before him without a sound or stir.
“Investigate Jegal Cheol-san and the Meticulous Guanyin Cult discreetly.”
As soon as Sek Mu-won finished, the man vanished as silently as he’d come.
***
Sa Ha Alliance headquarters.
“What is it?”
Gong Ya Jang-cheon eyed Mun In Baek-song, who had come to him unbidden.
Whenever Mun In Baek-song sought him out first, it rarely brought good news, so Gong Ya Jang-cheon’s expression soured.
“A heretical cult is spreading.”
“Heretical cult?”
Gong Ya Jang-cheon frowned at the report.
They might be unorthodox, but heretical cults were another breed entirely.
Groups that deceived the masses and plunged the world into chaos.
Blood Cult and Demonic Cult were prime examples.
Whether they truly qualified as religions was debatable, but they bore the “cult” name.
“With the Blood Cult gone, other scum are stirring?”
His voice dripped with irritation.
“They call themselves the Meticulous Guanyin Cult.”
Mun In Baek-song pulled a small wooden statue from his robes.
“This is the Heavenly Demon Guanyin statue they worship.”
Gong Ya Jang-cheon’s aura darkened as he examined it.
“Demonic Cult bastards?”
The statue’s face eerily resembled an unforgettable foe.
The previous Demonic Cult Leader, Sek Won-cho.
He and Gae Hong-cheon had suffered endlessly because of that man.
But Mun In Baek-song shook his head.
“The Jegal Clan.”
Gong Ya Jang-cheon double-checked at the unexpected answer.
“Jegal Clan?”
“Yes. We investigated thoroughly given the gravity—it took time, but it’s definitely them. We captured and interrogated some of their emissaries, and every one confessed to coming from Mt. Yungjung.”
“Hmph.”
Gong Ya Jang-cheon’s brow furrowed.
“Those fools pulling off something this sloppy?”
It had taken time, sure, but uncovering the culprits this easily screamed incompetence.
At least, not the Jegal Clan he knew.
“I worried it might be a ploy by Gongseong Ji-gye, but... the cult’s spread covers all of Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, and Hubei. And it’s slowly creeping outward.”
“All Righteous Heaven Alliance territory. What’s their game? Internal strife?”
Gong Ya Jang-cheon’s face showed pure bafflement.
He’d long known of the power struggles between the White Path Society and the New Eight Gates in the Alliance.
“That’s not our concern, frankly. The problem is it’s seeping into Sa Ha Alliance territory too.”
That was the real issue.
“The Jegal Clan’s doing?”
“No. It’s spreading organically among the common folk, seemingly migrating from Hubei to Hunan. Without any official emissaries— just influential believers expanding the flock bit by bit.”
Gong Ya Jang-cheon’s eyes gleamed oddly at Mun In Baek-song’s explanation.
“They’ve lost full control.”
“That’s how cults work. Unless you run it like the Demonic or Blood Cults, total control’s impossible—especially targeting random commoners who could bolt anywhere.”
“Why’s it a problem?”
“Their doctrine.”
Mun In Baek-song explained slowly and methodically.
Having heard it all, Gong Ya Jang-cheon shrugged it off.
“Simple. Root them all out.”
“Pardon?”
“Cut out the rot before it spreads. Our way. And make sure they don’t set foot in our domain. I wonder if they’ll keep chasing their Guanyin god once they realize they’ll die first.”
A sinister smile curled Gong Ya Jang-cheon’s lips.
“Understood.”
Mun In Baek-song bowed and withdrew.
A similar smile played on his lips.
He’d come wondering how to convince him of this approach, but Gong Ya Jang-cheon had voiced it first.
He sometimes forgot amid the man’s milder moments, but Gong Ya Jang-cheon was undeniably the unorthodox leader.
Ruthless when it counted.
“At least it won’t be a bloodbath.”
The spread centered on grassroots believers who’d gained local sway—not Jegal emissaries.
Without the clan’s formations or hypnosis, propagation was slow.
Yet it persisted, proof that doomsayers lurked everywhere.
Gong Ya Jang-cheon gazed north as he walked the Sa Ha Alliance paths.
“What will you do, Gong Son Dan-gyeong? Heh heh.”
The unorthodox like them differed from the righteous.
Even thwarting the Jegal Clan’s plot wouldn’t stop this self-sustaining cult.
The resulting chaos in Righteous Heaven Alliance lands?
The Sa Ha Alliance could sit back and watch them snuff their own noses.
Courtesy of one of the Alliance’s pillars, the Jegal Clan.
***
“Peaceful.”
Ha Mu-baek leisurely surveyed the scene before him.
A spur of Mt. Yungjung.
A vast clan estate sprawling across the mountainside.
The Jegal Clan.
They lay beneath his gaze.
He’d reached a peak on Mt. Yungjung with a clear view of the entire clan.
An’gang or Mt. Yungjung.
Ha Mu-baek had chosen the mountain.
Even if the cult’s headquarters was in An’gang, the true culprits were here.
Now, he observed the Jegal Clan.
As expected, nothing unusual.
Which made sense.
No matter how many clues they’d dropped, they wouldn’t scheme right in their own backyard.
Mt. Yungjung was vast and towering.
Dozens of peaks.
They were plotting somewhere among them.
He’d come here first to scout the clan itself.
As anticipated, it was serene and tranquil.
“Still, shall I take a quick peek?”
Ha Mu-baek lightly kicked off a tree branch.
His form glided silently and stealthily toward the Jegal Clan.