Chapter 519
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 519
Chapter Title: Watching Closely
‘A formation that should never be broken... shattered so pointlessly...’
Jegal Cheol-san stared at Ha Mu-baek in disbelief.
This wasn’t a formation that could be destroyed so easily.
Destroying the core pillars had completely scattered its energy.
If even one of them had remained intact, the energy wouldn’t have dispersed so futilely.
That’s why he’d even thought this formation was absolutely unbreakable.
After all, destroying all those cores was nearly impossible.
Yet this man had hurled six daggers at once using flying sword techniques and casually obliterated them.
Ha Mu-baek.
Was this guy truly a monster?
“H-How could this...”
The cult followers’ faces turned blank and stupid.
And small wonder—the daggers, which had flown off in all directions, had returned with massive explosions as if guided by their own will.
A few followers had seen people practicing martial arts through messengers before, but a master of this caliber was a first.
Even the Great Messenger hadn’t displayed anything like this.
Ha Mu-baek turned to look at those followers.
“There must be a few sane ones here too, right? Don’t try any funny business—just get the hell out. This place is about to vanish, so don’t let greed bring you disaster.”
Ha Mu-baek’s cold voice drilled straight into the ears of the gathered followers.
Ji Gwang flinched at those words.
He reacted to “sane” and “funny business.”
And no surprise—what Ha Mu-baek had just shown them looked godlike.
But he was clearly human, so not a god. Maybe a true Great Messenger of the Guanyin God or even the Cult Leader himself? That thought had just crossed his mind.
He’d been scheming that if he and his gang pushed hard enough, they might even drive out the Great Messenger’s faction.
But that chilling voice sent chills down his spine, halting his thoughts.
“That fiend is an enemy of the Faith! Followers, strike down this wicked foe at once!”
Jegal Cheol-san knew full well it was impossible.
But the Ha Mu-baek he knew wouldn’t strike lethal blows at clueless commoners ignorant of even basic stances, so this was just a command to buy time.
Yet...
The followers didn’t move.
They merely flinched, without acting.
It could be due to Ha Mu-baek’s overwhelming display, but these were people whose brains had already been washed.
Except for Ji Gwang and his gang—they should have acted even knowing it meant death.
Jegal Cheol-san’s shout had infused an suggestive energy through his internal power.
Ha Mu-baek smirked and looked at Jegal Cheol-san.
“You know it’s useless, don’t you? You can feel it already, right?”
He already knew the formation was broken.
Even so, he’d thought some brainwashing energy lingered, but for the suggestion to fail so immediately?
This was something he hadn’t anticipated.
He’d never tested it in such a scenario.
‘Did the clan get too arrogant...?’
No one in the Jegal Clan had even considered the suggestion formation could be destroyed.
Jegal Cheol-san was dumbfounded.
‘No, Myeong did warn me.’
When they first drafted the suggestion formation, Jegal Myeong—upon hearing of it—had sent what was disguised as advice but was really a warning.
That such a formation had no place in the martial world and should be abandoned immediately.
It wasn’t omnipotent and could shatter anytime; considering the backlash to the Jegal Clan if it did, it should be burned at once.
In the Jegal Clan, full of smart minds, Jegal Myeong had been the only one to foresee the formation’s destruction.
Even Jegal Cheol-san himself had believed it unbreakable.
Even when his son I-jong fell to Ha Mu-baek, he’d thought the formation itself remained intact.
Already, some followers were tilting their heads in confusion.
They were slowly awakening from the brainwashing, regaining their senses.
“I... that is...”
One person retracing their actions from memory.
“Th-The Guanyin God will come... He’ll open a new world for us...”
Another desperately clinging even harder to the Guanyin God.
“What the hell have I been doing? Was I insane?”
Someone grasping reality and lamenting.
All sorts of reactions began bubbling up.
“This is a cult created by ruthless fiends of the martial world! I’m here to punish them, so those who know nothing—get out now!”
The shout carried thick killing intent.
For those just emerging from brainwashing, it pierced their ears like a massive shock.
“Eek!”
“Aaaack!”
Screams erupted as people bolted in all directions.
Ji Gwang, meanwhile, trembled in place.
His gang was the same.
Unbrainwashed, they faced no post-formation confusion.
The killing intent, used as shock therapy to snap the brainwashed out of it, hit them full force.
Some even pissed themselves.
The worse ones fainted outright in their spots.
This wasn’t killing intent ordinary folk could endure unscathed.
Ha Mu-baek glanced at them, then strode toward Jegal Cheol-san.
“Ha Mu-baek...”
Jegal Cheol-san murmured his name in a voice thick with emotions.
“Who the hell are you?”
The face was familiar, but the name wasn’t.
At the question, Jegal Cheol-san gave a self-mocking smile before asking,
“What did you do with I-jong?”
“I-jong?”
The sudden question and unfamiliar name.
Ha Mu-baek repeated it, then recalled Jegal I-jong after a moment.
“Did you kill him?”
“He wasn’t even worth killing.”
Despite the assurance he lived, Jegal Cheol-san frowned.
At the attitude treating his son so lightly.
“He’s the son of the great Jegal Clan. Not someone to be dismissed like that.”
“Not some thunderbolt-headed brat ignorant of the world’s dangers?”
Jegal Cheol-san drew his sword.
“You’re just too much of a monster. Not even human.”
“Tch. What the hell was Jegal I-jong anyway?”
“My son.”
Ha Mu-baek flinched for a split second at the response.
He’d just insulted the man’s son before his father.
Ha Mu-baek sized up Jegal Cheol-san carefully.
“Hmm. A tiger father with a dog son? Seems about right.”
Recalling Jegal I-jong from the Seseguanum Cult gathering, Ha Mu-baek said,
“He’s just a big-shot wannabe.”
Ha Mu-baek smirked.
As if that mattered.
“You raised him too precious. That thunderbolt brat. The immature punk who hid to watch that brutal fight back then—he hadn’t changed a bit.”
Jegal Cheol-san fell silent at Ha Mu-baek’s words.
He hadn’t expected Ha Mu-baek to remember his son’s reckless, childish actions.
“And that’s not what’s important right now, is it?”
“Nothing weighs heavier on a father than his child’s safety.”
“More than the Jegal Clan?”
“...”
He had no reply to that.
“He’s probably alive. If you found him quick enough, he might’ve just spent a few days starving and shitting himself.”
“You dare... to my son...”
Jegal I-jong was Jegal Cheol-san’s hard-won late son, raised like pure gold and jade.
Ha Mu-baek looked at the furious Jegal Cheol-san with exasperation.
“Not a tiger father after all—a dog father. Who are you anyway? Jegal Nam-cheon’s son?”
A face he remembered from around Jegal Nam-cheon during the last war.
Then and now, his aura outshone any other Jegal Clan member Ha Mu-baek had encountered.
Among the Jegal Clan foes he’d faced, this man seemed the strongest.
“That’s right. Jegal Cheol-san—that’s my name.”
Azure sword aura bloomed from his blade.
Ha Mu-baek casually flicked his hand.
“Kuh.”
“Ugh.”
“Agh.”
With that, screams erupted from three spots as three figures revealed themselves.
All clutching their dantians, faces twisted in agony.
Jegal Cheol-san stared blankly.
“You showed me last time during the Blood Cult’s Yungjung Mountain raid that cheap tricks like this won’t work on me, didn’t you?”
These were escorts stronger than the Blood Cult elites back then.
For them to fall so pathetically...
“You gonna keep coming?”
Ha Mu-baek stared intently at Jegal Cheol-san.
Distract him with talk of his son, feign excessive rage over the boy’s safety.
Then, while his attention scattered, ambush from three sides at once.
The blooming azure sword aura had been the signal.
Yet they were subdued before they could even move.
All clutching their dantians—no telling if their internal energy was intact.
Jegal Cheol-san bit his lip.
No one remained here now. Even Ji Gwang’s gang had come to their senses and fled.
His face full of anguish.
Ha Mu-baek, reading that expression, spoke on a hunch.
“You stashed firebombs everywhere here? If you’re thinking of blowing them up to take us all down, forget it. You’ll just kill yourselves.”
Jegal Cheol-san flinched at Ha Mu-baek’s words.
Truth be told, if followers had stayed, he’d planned to hold them hostage and threaten Ha Mu-baek.
Using the firebombs buried all over the estate grounds.
But Ha Mu-baek’s first move had been chasing them off, leaving only the bombs’ power—which he’d sniffed out.
“Huh?”
Ha Mu-baek’s eyes widened at Jegal Cheol-san’s flinch.
“For real?”
A shot in the dark, and he’d reacted.
Meant it was true.
Ha Mu-baek wore an incredulous look.
“What the hell—something Blood Cult or Demonic Cult scum would do...”
Anger laced his voice.
The bombs’ targets were obvious.
His appearance and clearing everyone out must’ve been an unforeseen accident.
Chilling energy rose from Ha Mu-baek’s body.
The swirling frost dove straight into the ground.
It seeped slowly beneath the entire estate, freezing everything solid.
Jegal Cheol-san gaped at the sight.
Was this energy something a human—or even a monster—could wield?
Ha Mu-baek drew his sword, gripped it reverse, and thrust it into the earth.
“Disappear.”
A soft murmur, and then—
Kaboom! Kwarung-kwarung-kwarung!
The frozen ground upheaved and exploded, deafening roars engulfing the estate.
In the process, the frozen firebombs shattered to pieces.
The gunpowder iced over, preventing detonation.
Ha Mu-baek’s energy alone had flipped the entire estate’s soil and pulverized every bomb.
Ha Mu-baek looked at Jegal Cheol-san and said,
“Seseguanum Cult. You spread it, so you clean it up. You get a hundred days.”
Ha Mu-baek glared at him with eyes brimming with killing intent.
“Uh, uhh, uhhh.”
Jegal Cheol-san couldn’t withstand the pressure and groaned.
His sword aura faded away.
Clang.
The dropped sword clattered against a rock jutting from the upturned earth.
“I’m watching. Botch the cleanup, and the Jegal Clan ends up like this. Next time, I won’t leave a single thing intact.”
With that, Ha Mu-baek leaped away.
Alone in the ruined estate, Jegal Cheol-san collapsed to his knees.
“D-D-Demon...”
No other words came to mind.
Even a glance at the estate showed all the buildings intact.
Only the bare ground—where no structures stood—was flipped.
He’d hidden bombs under the buildings too, but the earlier frost had rendered them useless.
How could such a monster exist in today’s martial world?
Jegal Cheol-san looked up at the sky with resentful eyes.
He cursed the heavens bitterly, but nothing would change.