Chapter 157: Jaseung, Holds On

Lee Jaseung’s dagger sliced through the air.

It was not a matter of faster and stronger.

It was complete.

The confidence that he would not lose to anyone settled into both fists, both feet, his shoulders. Into the dagger. It lived in all of it.

The second stage of Transcendent Peak Realm.

The very extreme of martial arts lay just above.

He had not been this greedy for martial arts before.

But now he wanted to reach the first stage as well.

What awaited in that realm?

In the process of unifying the Demonic Cult, he would inevitably have to cross blades with the masters of the Demonic Cult, and especially the Cult Leader.

What kind of martial arts did the Cult Leader possess?

With the invincible demonic art, Nine Divine Demonic Arts, lost to time, they would be evenly matched.

And there was one more person.

There was an opponent he wanted to face perhaps even more than the Cult Leader.

Lee Jaseung touched his chest. Whenever he undressed and looked in the mirror, the place his eyes went first was always the scar on his chest.

The one who had given him a defeat he could never forget.

He wanted to meet him again and decide the outcome. If unifying the martial world was his grand wish, then that fight was his personal wish.

Just then, Mujin stepped into the training yard.

“Surely you did not call me here to beat me up again, did you? With Captain Ma not here, I would take double the hits, no?”

At the sight of him, Mujin started joking.

Then a voice came from behind.

“Since he called me too, at least it isn’t to beat you it seems.”

Turning, he saw Dan Woobin coming in.

Mujin narrowed his eyes and spoke.

“Today could be the beginning for you too. There is always a beginning after all.”

“Don’t tell ridiculous jokes so seriously!”

“For a second it made your skin crawl, didn’t it?”

“Not at all.”

Maybe not a chill, but Dan Woobin had thought, what if?

Then, another line came from behind.

“I think it is unfair if only we get beaten.”

Turning, he saw Ma Young-gi enter.

Dan Woobin’s eyes went catlike.

“Surely you are not asking him to beat me as well, right?”

Ma Young-gi made a face that said why not.

Dan Woobin barked.

“Captain Ma! What if I take a blow to the head?”

“I trust the Alliance Leader.”

Meaning he would avoid the head and beat him properly.

“They say sound mind in a sound body.”

“Good grief! You’re being serious!”

Watching their banter, Lee Jaseung let out a faint laugh.

The old saying was not wrong.

Only when you lost something did you know its true value. Treat it well while you have it.

He would never lose it now. He would fight to the death not to lose it.

He had never really thought about how outstanding his talent was. He surely had some talent for martial arts.

But Lee Jaseung knew. Effort created talent. There was inborn talent, but there was also talent forged through effort.

The three stood in a line before Lee Jaseung.

“I called you today because there is one matter to discuss.”

Dan Woobin had a guess why Lee Jaseung had summoned them.

“Is it because of the Demonic Cult?”

Lee Jaseung nodded.

Everyone knew that Jang Wonso had joined hands with the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult, the Elder Demon Lord.

“The problem is that to draw the Elder Demon Lord in, he promised to give him the map of the Seven-Color Hidden Land.”

Everyone’s expressions turned grave.

After the failure at Myriad Yin Orb, he could no longer receive the map. But he would never have given up. He was not the kind to meekly abandon his aim.

While he was scheming, eyes fixed on the map, Jang Wonso died. Piled reasons led to the next certainty.

“He will surely try to find the map.”

Dan Woobin then pointed out one important thing.

“Do you think Jang Wonso told him as well? That when the Seven-Color Hidden Land opens, a rainbow appears over the Verdant Mountain?”

“I don’t think so. Jang Wonso was not the sort to share that kind of secret.”

They all nodded. By nature Jang Wonso was greedy. He would never say anything disadvantageous to himself while dealing with the Elder Demon Lord.

Of course the Elder Demon Lord might have known that from the start. There were several possibilities.

In any case, if we assume the Elder Demon Lord does not know the Seven-Color Hidden Land has opened, he will surely try to find the map.

This was why Lee Jaseung had gathered them.

“If the Elder Demon Lord interferes, how should we respond?”

After a brief thought, Dan Woobin spoke.

“It is not good for a variable to arise in this Alliance Leader selection.”

Dan Woobin was confident he could frame this Alliance Leader selection as a contest between old and new and raise Ban Yeo as Leader. But if the Demonic Cult intervened now, it could cause trouble.

“The two strongest candidates for the Leader seat other than Ban Yeo are the Blade of Oneness, Gwak Jinpung and Anhui’s Lone Hero, Sa Macheon. Among them, Gwak Jinpung is a representative anti-Demonic Cult figure. If the Demonic Cult makes trouble before the selection, the votes will likely flock to him. We must make the Elder Demon Lord take his hands off this.”

“How?”

Dan Woobin produced a countermeasure.

“We inform the Great Demon that the Elder Demon Lord joined hands with Jang Wonso. Since they are hostile with each other, they will inform the Cult Leader. If it is confirmed as fact, the Elder Demon Lord will take a massive blow.”

“Will the Cult Leader really believe it?”

“With evidence, he will.”

“The Elder Demon Lord would not have left evidence in his deal with Jang Wonso.”

“Yes, likely not.”

Dan Woobin’s mind began to race.

“Once the autopsy ends and the vigilance around the Alliance Alliance Leader’s Hall eases, he will send someone to find the map. A master adept at infiltration.”

“So you want to catch that man? But even if we catch him, the Elder Demon Lord will deny it flat, won’t he?”

He would claim he sent him for some other reason.

“He would indeed. But would the Cult Leader or Great Demon believe that? If he sends someone to find the map, that person must be someone the Elder Demon Lord truly trusts. Would they believe he inserted such a man into the Alliance Alliance Leader’s Hall at such a delicate time for some other reason?”

After hearing all of Dan Woobin’s intent, Lee Jaseung smiled with conviction.

“So the existence of the captured man becomes definitive proof that the Elder Demon Lord interfered in this matter.”

* * *

A few days after the autopsy ended, the vigilance around the Alliance Leader’s Hall loosened.

The head of the Guard Hall and many escort warriors had been hauled off for questioning and investigation.

In this unsettled atmosphere, guarding the Alliance Leader’s Hall, now without its master, was meaningless, so only a minimum number stood watch.

Slip.

Riding the darkness, a man in black flew into the Alliance Leader’s Hall.

He was able to infiltrate easily.

In truth, that was only natural.

Even under normal strict security he had the skill to slip into the Alliance Leader’s Hall.

He was Shadow Demon, a direct subordinate of the Elder Demon Lord.

Shadow Demon walked into the Alliance Leader’s Hall at a leisure pace. Though he walked as if at ease, he perceived every current of energy around him. There was no presence felt inside.

Shadow Demon sat on the grand chair and calmly surveyed everything visible from there.

He observed the interior. This was the one chance to examine the Alliance Leader’s Hall at leisure while it was empty.

The Elder Demon Lord had ordered him to bring back the map at all costs. His life hinged on this mission.

He rose and examined the grand chair. The armrests, the side wall, the carving behind, even the floor. He checked each part one by one.

After searching thoroughly around the chair, he walked to the back wall.

He examined the wall meticulously.

Confirming there was nothing there, he touched one section.

Slide.

A door to the underground chamber opened.

He already knew there was a mechanism there.

Since the underground chamber had been made public this time, many had learned how to descend. The agents of the Demonic Cult had extracted that information.

Shadow Demon mounted the mechanism. He even studied the inside of the mechanism carefully.

Slide.

He arrived underground.

The chamber was empty too. He slowly surveyed his surroundings. He checked the passage and room where Cheon Myeongin had been held, then the room where Lee Jaseung had lost consciousness.

As if reassembling a room from scratch, he pried and inspected every piece.

Even the faint scratch on the cabinet, even a single hair fallen on the floor, he checked with care.

If there were a profession devoted to searching and finding, his focus and observation would have earned the title of master.

In the end, that fearsome ability produced a result.

He found something in the room. It was something even Lee Jaseung had not discovered when he had examined the room before.

Cunningly hidden in the cabinet was an item, an iron key. It hung there like an ornament, and the key was double layered.

A strange light flashed in his eyes. Had it not been him, no one would have found it so easily. From how cleverly it was hidden, it had to be something truly important.

Its shape was not ordinary either. At a glance you could tell it was no common key.

He tucked the iron key into his robe and looked around again.

But no matter how he searched, there was nothing else odd.

His gaze tipped to the air. He sprang up and clung to the ceiling. Looking down from there, he dropped back to the floor.

Unless you knew the internal method from the Limitless Iron Chest’s body techniques, you could not tell that the view from the ceiling formed a diagram related to the inner cultivation method.

He dropped down again.

“Slowly. There is still plenty of time.”

He took a deep breath and steadied his mind.

Then a voice came from behind.

“I’m sorry, but I do not.”

Shadow Demon did not hesitate. He whirled like lightning and thrust a palm strike.

Swish!

Smash!

He possessed superb lightness skill and infiltration arts, and his martial skill surpassed even those. That was why he had become a direct subordinate of the Elder Demon Lord.

But the owner of the voice behind him was already gone.

Tap tap.

His opponent was already sealing Shadow Demon’s vital points.

His eyes bulged. He was startled for many reasons.

He had not sensed his opponent closing right up behind him. His sudden palm strike had been evaded with absurd ease, and then he himself had been subdued even more easily.

The man who subdued him was Lee Jaseung.

Thwack! Thwack!

Lee Jaseung sealed the mute point and the throat acupoint. The attempt to bite and crush the poison pellet failed.

With skill more practiced than Shadow Demon’s eye for detail, Lee Jaseung subdued him. He plucked out the poison pellet set in his molars, and even removed the spare pellet prepared for emergencies.

‘Just how?’

He still could not believe he had been taken so easily.

Yet his opponent handled him like a child, subduing him with incredible ease. It felt like a deft chef calmly breaking down ingredients.

Lee Jaseung took the iron key from his robe.

‘No!’

Shadow Demon was aghast. That meant his opponent had been watching him from the moment he discovered it.

‘How did he?’

If Lee Jaseung had meant to allow him that question, he would not have sealed his mute point.

Lee Jaseung allowed him only one thing.

A faint smile.

And within that smile was the confidence of a man whose plans were going just as intended.

* * *

The next day, the Murim Alliance made an astonishing announcement.

A Demonic Cult agent had infiltrated the Alliance Leader’s Hall and been captured. On any other day, with spies coming and going by the dozen, it might have been glossed over, but not this time.

The captured agent was revealed to be Shadow Demon. In an unusual step, the Alliance made public to the martial world the fact of his incursion.

When news spread that the Elder Demon Lord, Vice Cult Leader of the Asura Demon Sect, had lost his direct subordinate, the martial world stirred again.

Conspiracy theories spread that the Demonic Cult had a hand in Jang Wonso’s death. On that point, the Alliance made no statement.

But Lee Jaseung had already achieved his purpose.

Through a hidden line, Dan Woobin had already leaked to the Great Demon’s spy that the Elder Demon Lord had made a deal with Jang Wonso.

And with Shadow Demon captured in the underground chamber of the Alliance Leader’s Hall, that information gained enormous credibility. Now the Elder Demon Lord would be busy with this affair and would at least have no leisure to meddle in Alliance matters.

Thus, in a corner of a tavern buzzing with rumors about the Demonic Cult, Lee Jaseung sat. With a bamboo hat pulled low, no one recognized him.

A woman came and sat across from him. She was Nam Seohyang, head of the Golden Ants, the Great Ant.

“It is an honor that you called me in person.”

“I should be the one saying that. Thank you for coming yourself when you must be busy.”

“Think nothing of it.”

“You seem to have gotten thinner.”

At that, Nam Seohyang brightened with delight.

“You notice my change I see.”

“Don’t read the meaning into trifles. I just have good eyes.”

With a slight pout, she asked,

“But why did you ask to see me?”

“There is something I want to ask.”

“Please go ahead.”

Lee Jaseung took an item from his robe. It was the iron key Shadow Demon had found.

With a sharp gaze he asked,

“Do you know what this is?”

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