Chapter 104: An Unexpected Variable (4)

“It won’t just end like that?”

Yeo-jin blinked in confusion.

At her naïve reaction, Wang Garak clicked his tongue.

“Well, I suppose you wouldn’t care much about the internal matters of the cult unless they concern the Cult Leader.”

“What do you mean by that, Elder of the Blood Resonance Chamber?”

“Nothing much. I only meant that your loyalty is quite strong.”

Wang Garak shrugged his shoulders as the eerie chill from Yeo-jin washed over him.

The Cult was full of lunatics who’d go berserk at the slightest provocation, making it an exhausting place for someone as rational as himself.

“So, what do you mean it won’t just end here?”

“Well… it’s not something I should say here.”

Wang Garak led Yeo-jin out of the Elders’ Hall.

Only after they reached a place devoid of any presence did he finally speak up.

“Obviously, this could all be a self-fabricated incident orchestrated by the Hwan Clan.”

“A self-fabricated… incident?!”

“Lady Yeo, let me tell you one thing. The Hwan Clan isn’t the kind of place that would handle things this sloppily.”

The Heavenly Illusion Hwan Clan, along with the Hidden Shadow So Clan, had the least external activity, forming an extremely closed and rigid society.

“They’re the ones with the most meticulous hierarchy and rank system. It’s not a place where a single loach can muddy the waters.”

“Then the reason the Asura King rushed out…?”

“He must’ve truly thought his eldest son was in danger. Because of the Hwan Clan’s scheming.”

“…!”

If this really was the Hwan Clan’s self-fabricated incident?

Was it to keep the Jin Clan in check? Or was there another hidden intention?

As of now, any guess could either be right or wrong.

“Then… do you think the Cult Leader knows about this?”

“I don’t know. But seeing the Grand Elder, the de facto full proxy of the Cult Leader, respond so carelessly… whew, who knows. I really can’t tell how this is going.”

“……”

“Lady Yeo. If you’re thinking of going to the Cult Leader over this… don’t.”

Perhaps he had read her thoughts, as Yeo-jin flinched in surprise and waved her hands hastily.

“N-No, I wasn’t planning on that.”

“You’ve noticed it too, haven’t you? That the Cult Leader currently wants chaos within the Cult.”

“But…”

Yeo-jin hesitated slightly before speaking.

“This… feels different from the kind of chaos the Cult Leader wants.”

“Different, how?”

“Yes. This matter with the Hwan Clan—maybe it’s something the Cult Leader didn’t intend at all…”

Wang Garak paused for a moment at her words, but his expression soon hardened again.

“Even so, don’t get involved unnecessarily. Small folks like us meddling in a battle between whales like the Six Clans? We’ll get our backs torn open.”

“Yes, I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you, Brother Wang.”

Yeo-jin bowed her head obediently. But that’s why Wang Garak didn’t see it.

The glint in her eyes had changed completely from before.

***

‘Surprisingly, I don’t have much to do now.’

After finishing the day’s routine at the Thousand-Day Pass, I washed off my sweat in the valley stream and gazed blankly up at the sky.

After getting involved in the Black Gold Sa Clan’s affairs and running into both the Demonic Gentleman and the King of the Underworld Investigators…

Aside from waiting for the next Exchange Ceremony two weeks from now, I had been enjoying a peaceful daily routine of training at the Thousand-Day Pass.

“Hey! Don’t move even if it hurts! Your bone’s sticking out!”

“Grrrrgh! I think my leg’s broken!”

“Carefully! Move him to the Medicine Hall!”

“……”

Well, of course, it’s undeniable that life at the Thousand-Day Pass was soaked in violence and injuries!

I called out to the Three Attendants, who were dunking their faces in the stream nearby.

“You guys, how’s your progress with the Conqueror’s Art?”

The Three Attendant—Baeksa, Heuksa, and Jeoksa—hurriedly lifted their heads.

“P-Progress is going well! It’s just… really difficult!”

“Y-Yeah, I can feel myself getting insanely stronger! The training is just… really intense!”

“S-Save me…”

“Hm, not bad.”

I stroked my chin, ignoring Jeoksa’s final words.

With the transmission of the Conqueror’s Art and the secret methods of the Nine Moons Blade Hall, the Three Attendant’s internal energy had grown to the point that they were now considered top-tier even within the Thousand-Day Pass.

And since I hadn’t held back in passing down the supplementary martial arts from my clan, even a collateral branch member of the Blood Dragon Demonic Clan like Ma Jinseong would now need to take things seriously if facing them one-on-one.

“D-Disciple! You’ll die if you collapse here!”

“He’s swallowed too much water! Get him out quickly!”

…Of course, it was only natural that their skills had come from training that could only be described as hellish.

“D-Damn you, Black Iron Ball…”

Jeoksa muttered those final words before letting his head droop.

Anyone who saw this would think he had died gloriously in battle.

‘They’re the ones who said they wanted to wear the same ones as me. Tsk, tsk…’

Originally, the weights on the Three Attendant’s limbs were lighter iron ones.

But after purifying their internal energy at the Nine Moons Blade Hall and downing a few elixirs, their confidence shot up. They strongly requested to wear the same Black Iron Ball weights I used.

And since I wasn’t stingy when it came to investing in my subordinates’ growth, I readily granted their request.

Since then, the Three Attendant had always ended up like this—half-dead corpses.

‘Reaping what they sowed, really.’

Baeksa and Heuksa gave me pitiful eyes as they dragged Jeoksa away, but I only shrugged and shook my head.

I had no intention of taking back their choice.

‘They’ve got a lot more to go, so they’d better endure this. Do they even know how much I invested in them?’

At this rate, in a few years, they wouldn’t be called the Three Demonic Snake anymore—they’d be the Three Demonic Dragons.

Just as I wrapped up training and was about to head back to the dorm—

“Jin Yeomyung.”

“Hm?”

It was Ma Jinseong, who usually didn’t initiate conversation with me.

“What is it? You want Black Iron Ball weights too? Sorry, but check with your clan. I don’t have any spare to hand out to someone from the Blood Dragon Demonic Clan.”

“T-That’s not it!”

Ma Jinseong waved his hands frantically. After training with me to some extent, he too had started wearing the lighter iron weights on his limbs… but honestly, even from his perspective, wearing the Black Iron Ball was nothing short of suicidal.

“Then what? You’ve been training well lately. Hit a wall or something?”

“That’s not it either…”

“What is it, then?”

Ma Jinseong hesitated, glancing at me nervously.

It was a stark contrast to his usual reckless, head-on attitude.

“You… unlike us, you can leave the Thousand-Day Pass freely, right? Especially if it’s for an Exchange Ceremony with the Young Cult Leader.”

“So?”

“There’s something I want to ask you.”

“…?”

Why was this guy suddenly bringing up the Exchange Ceremony?

Don’t tell me he’d suddenly taken an interest in Cheon Yura?

‘If that’s the case, I definitely can’t let it slide.’

I waited for Ma Jinseong’s next words, ready to take action if necessary.

“It’s about… Brother Ma Jinyoon.”

“Hm? Ma Jinyoon?”

Why was Ma Jinyoon being brought up so suddenly?

“Didn’t something strange happen with Brother Ma Jinyoon during the Exchange Ceremony?”

“Something strange?”

I furrowed my brow and recalled the events of the previous Exchange Ceremony.

Ma Jinyoon… he had definitely prepared something, yet remained unusually quiet, hadn’t he?

“Not really?”

“Is that so?”

Ma Jinseong nodded, as if he had expected that response.

“Well, it’s not like you’d tell me the truth anyway.”

“…I don’t know what you’re misunderstanding, but seriously, nothing happened.”

I then explained in more detail what happened during the Exchange Ceremony.

Hearing that Ma Jinyoon had remained silent the whole time, Ma Jinseong’s expression grew even more serious.

“Hmm…”

‘Now I’m the one getting curious.’

I had a hunch from his behavior that Ma Jinseong was hiding something.

“Did something happen?”

“Well…”

Ma Jinseong hesitated to speak.

If he was coming to *me* for advice, then it was probably something serious.

“If it’s hard to talk about, you don’t have to.”

“I have a favor to ask, Jin Yeomyung.”

A favor, suddenly?

“Let’s hear it first.”

“In the Exchange Ceremony… eliminate Brother Ma Jinyoon.”

“…?!”

I blinked in disbelief at what I’d just heard.

He’d said his most respected figure was Ma Chulsoo, and now he was asking me to eliminate Ma Jinyoon—someone close to that same Ma Chulsoo?

“Are you… with the First Son’s side?”

By First Son, I meant Ma Jeongcheon, the eldest of the Ma Clan.

“N-No! I still want Brother Chulsoo to become the clan head!”

“Then why ask me to eliminate Ma Jinyoon?”

“Well, that’s…”

Ma Jinseong clammed up again.

Just as I was starting to get irritated by his hesitation, his next words shocked me.

“Brother Jinyoon… apparently killed someone.”

“What?”

“During a spar, they said his strike was too excessive. Almost like… he couldn’t control his demonic energy…”

My expression grew grave.

A Demonic Cultivator losing control of their demonic energy and going berserk, or falling into Qi Deviation, was not that uncommon.

But that’s unusual to happen at lower levels—no clan from the Six Great Demonic Clans would teach demonic arts so carelessly.

Unless someone was a discarded child like me, elders or instructors from the clan would strictly supervise and train them.

Even Ma Jinseong in front of me would’ve received martial arts instruction that way.

“What happened afterward?”

“They said nothing serious occurred. His energy was a little fierce, but the elders examined Brother Jinyoon’s condition right after.”

“Then wasn’t it just an accident?”

But Ma Jinseong’s eyes widened as he shouted in frustration.

“I can tell! Brother Jinyoon isn’t someone who would kill by accident! Something’s definitely wrong!”

“….”

I sensed a subtle dissonance in Ma Jinseong’s behavior.

“You’re hiding something more, aren’t you?”

“U-Ugh!”

“Spill everything. Only then can I decide whether I can help or not.”

He wouldn’t have come to me just for this one issue.

There was definitely more he wasn’t saying.

“Brother Jinyoon… he’s secretly receiving martial arts instruction from someone in the Cheon Clan.”

“What?”

“Brother Chulsoo told me. He said Brother Jinyoon’s temperament had slowly begun to change because of it…”

With that, it felt like a thread had unraveled and I grabbed hold of the truth.

‘The Demonic Gentleman, Cheon Jumyeong?!’

The man who disguised himself as a Ma Clan bodyguard during the last Exchange Ceremony and stayed close to Ma Jinyoon.

At the time, all I knew was that he was an elite martial artist, and only later did I piece together his identity.

If Cheon Jumyeong was with Ma Jinyoon, that explained a lot.

‘The Cult Leader’s plan!’

The plan to throw the entire Six Great Demonic Clans into chaos to buy time for Cheon Yura’s growth.

If Cheon Jumyeong was involved, then Ma Jinyoon was clearly being used as one of the pawns for that plan!

As I fell silent in thought, Ma Jinseong’s face gradually filled with anxiety.

“This is getting messy…”

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t need to know.”

Twuung!

As I infused a bit of internal energy into my wet robe, it rippled with force and shook off all the water.

Seeing a technique that most seasoned martial artists wouldn’t even dare attempt, Ma Jinseong’s eyes twisted in disbelief.

“You monster bastard…”

“I’ll seriously consider your request. Depending on how Ma Jinyoon behaves in the next Exchange Ceremony, things might change.”

“Y-You will?!”

“But of course, any favor requires compensation.”

“W-What kind?”

“Information on the Ma Clan. Especially anything involving Ma Jinyoon and any Cheon Clan figures—send that to me as soon as it comes in.”

“If that’s all…”

Though he flinched at the word ‘clan information,’ Ma Jinseong was prepared to accept that risk for the sake of his respected brothers.

Of course, if he got caught, he’d be dragged back to the clan and thoroughly punished!

‘…This guy’s nuts too.’

To hand over clan secrets without a second thought?

Clearly, even if they seem calm on the outside, the members of the Blood Dragon Demonic Clan are insane at heart.

Just as the conversation with Ma Jinseong was wrapping up—

“Young Master.”

Suddenly, Gu Chil appeared before me wearing a mask.

“Gu Chil? I told you not to make contact during the Thousand-Day Pass’s activity hours…”

“The Clan Head has sent you a letter.”

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