Chapter 520
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 520
Chapter Title: What to Do?
Saha Union Headquarters.
"Oh, right. What happened to those guys?"
Gongya Jangcheon asked Mun Inbaeksong, who was giving his report, as if the thought had just occurred to him.
"Pardon?"
"That Detailed Guanyin Cult or whatever they called themselves."
Mun Inbaeksong finally understood and nodded.
"None left."
"None?"
"At least not in our territory. We rounded up every last one hiding out and cleaned house."
"Must've killed a fair number."
Gongya Jangcheon said it casually in response to Mun Inbaeksong's answer.
"Not really. They were just common folk without even a scrap of basic martial arts... The moment word spread that we were hunting them down, they either fled beyond our borders or turned themselves over to the authorities."
Gongya Jangcheon nodded.
"Makes sense. And in Righteous Heaven Alliance territory?"
"Their side's a bit different from ours, probably because the Jegal Clan is pulling strings."
"Not our problem anyway."
Gongya Jangcheon said, his interest waning.
"What about Gangseo Province?"
"No movement there."
"Ha Mu-baek?"
"Hasn't shown up yet."
"Hmm."
Gongya Jangcheon fell into brief thought.
"No need to poke the hornet's nest. Shame, but let's leave Gangseo Province alone for now."
"Understood."
"Hmm."
Seok Mu-won.
He sat in his office, lost in thought.
It had been days with no word.
The last message was about discovering the hideout of those plotting the Detailed Guanyin Cult's scheme.
And news that they'd scout someone suitable there for the Soul Possession Great Law.
"Mu-pung going this quiet..."
An unwelcome assumption surfaced.
Yet he had to face it.
Mu-pung always sent updates every four or five days at the latest during operations.
It had been a full week since his last report—he'd waited long enough.
He must've been taken out by someone.
"Who could it be?"
His mind shifted there now.
Mu-pung wasn't someone who went down easy. That was why he operated solo, unlike the others.
He'd headed toward the Jegal Clan.
"The clan head? Or Jegal Cheolsan?"
The Demonic Cult's intel pegged Jegal Cheolsan as the Jegal Clan's top fighter right now.
Stronger elders from the previous generation had all stepped back from the front lines.
"Tch. What a waste."
Had he secured the Detailed Guanyin Cult through the Soul Possession Great Law, it could've made for an entertaining play.
A pity it didn't pan out.
Still, no major loss.
Mu-pung was just one limb.
Lose one, raise another.
Seok Mu-won pushed thoughts of Mu-pung and the Detailed Guanyin Cult aside.
He had no idea.
That Mu-pung had been captured by Ha Mu-baek, spilled everything he knew about the Soul Possession Great Law, and met his end.
Had he known, he wouldn't have brushed it off so lightly.
Righteous Heaven Alliance.
It was quiet as always.
With countless people bustling about daily, the absence of change just made it feel serene.
But beneath that surface calm, massive shifts were underway.
People simply hadn't noticed yet.
Heavenly Eye Pavilion Lord Gong Son Dan-gyeong was reading those changes from his office.
The pavilion's vast network of eyes and ears gathered intel from inside and outside the alliance, funneling reports his way.
"Something's up with the Jegal Clan."
Among the reports, those on the Jegal Clan stood out.
While sorting the Detailed Guanyin Cult files separately, he'd spotted shifts in their movements.
Shifts for the worse.
Jegal Cheolsan, who'd been away from the clan for a while, had returned, and the clan's covert force, the Shadow Tiger Unit, was mobilizing heavily.
The clan's ironclad security had finally loosened enough for infiltrators to slip in, but no major intel came back.
Just that the atmosphere was chaotic.
Like something huge had gone down.
They still hadn't uncovered Clan Head Jegal Namcheon's death.
The Jegal Clan was keeping it airtight.
"But... no sightings of the clan head... Jegal Namcheon. What are you scheming?"
Gong Son Dan-gyeong muttered, stroking his beard.
The only one on his level was Jegal Namcheon.
Though he had the blind spot of not knowing Ha Mu-baek's true nature.
With Ha Mu-baek involved this time, he might head for the Jegal Clan.
Gong Son Dan-gyeong wondered how to counter that.
'Not sure if I really know that guy's true face myself.'
The thought of Ha Mu-baek brought doubt.
Probably even Gong Son Dan-gyeong didn't fully grasp Ha Mu-baek's true self.
Just a bit more than most.
The next report noted the Detailed Guanyin Cult's forces shrinking noticeably.
Activity in Luoyang dwindling too.
No way this happened without cause.
Especially after their recent wildfire momentum.
"Did that guy already head to the Jegal Clan?"
Gong Son Dan-gyeong could only conclude as much.
The one unmeasurable variable was Ha Mu-baek.
"Then we should make our move too."
Finishing the reports, Gong Son Dan-gyeong rose.
Mu-geuk gazed silently at Gwang-hwi.
She sat leaning against a massive tree in the distance, eyes closed.
Lately, she spent more time like that.
"What on earth is she thinking..."
Even Mu-geuk couldn't read her mind.
Just as he was a fragment of the primordial origin, so was she.
Like how he'd merged with Ye-ui, she could merge with him—but they hadn't.
They both believed maintaining the status quo was best.
"Gaining more power here... who knows what I'd start thinking."
Mu-geuk had merged with Ye-ui for one reason.
The existence of Chaos.
The largest of the six fragments, no doubt.
To face him, Mu-geuk and Ye-ui had to combine forces.
They shared the same mindset, preparing for the unfathomable Chaos.
Merge another fragment now?
Even if it was Gwang-hwi, who wanted to preserve this world, drawing closer to the primordial might erode his own will.
So they stayed as is.
Mu-geuk judged this the ideal state.
'Hmm. What to do?'
She hadn't expected Yeon-ja to appear, leaving Gwang-hwi deep in thought lately.
Gwanggwanghwanju Cheonhwi Formation.
A formation designed to maximize her abyssal power.
The flaw: its sheer complexity. Could any human truly deploy it perfectly?
Imbued with abyssal energy, ordinary humans couldn't even perceive it.
One needed at least a trace of primordial essence to sense it.
The conditions were brutally harsh.
Thus, Gwang-hwi had given it no thought.
Then Yeon-ja appeared.
'Can that child truly master the formation perfectly?'
Impossible to say.
She knew herself well.
Of the six primordial fragments, she was the smallest.
Favorable matchup against darkness, but outclassed by the other four.
The Gwanggwanghwanju Cheonhwi Formation was her answer to that disadvantage.
Though its feasibility bordered on zero.
'If she pulls it off perfectly... what then?'
She pondered the aftermath but found no answer.
Even as Gwang-hwi, one of the supreme primordial fragments that birthed this world.
It wasn't a simple question.
"Hmm. Doing well."
A village where Ha Mu-baek rested for two days en route to Gangseo Province.
Extending his senses over the village, he murmured softly.
The Detailed Guanyin Cult had infiltrated here too.
Their doctrine of the world ending and a new one dawning held massive appeal for commoners.
Proof of how harsh life was.
But the gatherings showed noticeably fewer presences.
No traces of the Suggestion Formation anywhere.
The Jegal Clan had already moved.
Along the official roads to Gangseo, pigeons and hawks dotted the skies unusually.
Not just Gangseo—likely the entire Righteous Heaven Alliance territory.
The Suggestion Formation's disappearance had the biggest impact.
Many must've realized something was off.
Then their messengers vanished.
The focal point gone.
Naturally, they lost cohesion.
Plus, odd rumors spread among the followers.
The one they revered wasn't Heavenly Demon Guanyin—just Heavenly Demon.
No new world after destruction. That was it.
The Heavenly Demon just wanted annihilation.
Followers deserted in droves.
They'd spread fast precisely because they hadn't rooted yet—fading just as quick.
"Even rolling in shit, this life's better, they say. Well..."
New world or not, the current one ends the same.
But no afterlife changed minds.
People returned to routine, muttering as much.
Damnable lives, but better with family.
Most had fallen in via suggestion and brainwashing from absurd doctrine—snapping back to reality fast.
Ha Mu-baek confirmed the process village by village en route.
"Might be a shithole world... but what can you do? Can't destroy it even if you could change it."
Arriving at an empty Detailed Guanyin Cult gathering hall, he spotted one man looking around in confusion and muttered.
That one probably never fell under the suggestion.
One of those types using the cult for personal gain, like others he'd seen.
"Should wrap up soon."
Ha Mu-baek left the village with a leap.
Deep night, but irrelevant.
He hurried toward the Fierce Dragon Corps outpost in Gangseo Province.
The Jegal Clan buzzed with activity.
Because of Jegal Cheolsan's sudden return.
He was dismantling every Detailed Guanyin Cult operation they'd invested in.
Not a few opposed his abrupt moves, but no one could stop him.
Clan Head Jegal Namcheon hadn't shown himself.
Jegal Gopung, who'd returned with Cheolsan, neither opposed nor intervened—secluding himself instead.
He and Jegal Cheolsan had aided Jegal Namcheon most closely on the cult matter.
Cheolsan held next-highest authority after Namcheon, then Gopung.
With them aligned, the clan followed Cheolsan's lead.
A few dissenters rushed word to the Righteous Heaven Alliance.
To the Jegal Clan's acting young lord there, Jegal Yeongsan—but his reply crushed them.
Follow Cheolsan's orders.
Cheolsan had informed him first.
Via urgent ciphered letter, including the shocking truth from Gopung.
"We must find the clan head! Can't let Second Young Lord's recklessness stand. How can he tear down our clan's tower of hard work like this?!"
Yet the unyielding few desperately searched for Clan Head Jegal Namcheon.
But they wouldn't find him.