Chapter 388: Declaration of War (4)

The Murim Alliance’s declaration of war against the Heavenly Demon Cult.

In response to this unprecedented situation, the military advisor Jegal Eun reacted like this.

“…Has the Alliance Leader gone insane?”

That she would utter such an unspeakable remark only underscored how absurd the matter was.

“Eun-ah.”

Baek Sang-ah glanced at her with a worried look.

If her own flaw was her violent actions, then Jegal Eun’s problem was her venomous mouth.

Yet Jegal Eun still looked ready to breathe fire as she shouted.

“No! It’s not even like we’re trying to kill ourselves—why provoke the Cult when it’s just sitting still?! Do they want enemies pouring in from the west, south, and north all at once?!”

To the north lay the Heavenly Demon Cult. To the west, the Evil Overlords of Heaven. To the south, the Evil Path Castle.

Right now, the Heavenly Demon Cult was said to be in the greatest peak of its entire history. To confront them, only a joint force of the orthodox factions could barely tip the scales.

No matter how foolish the Murim Alliance was, surely they weren’t so idiotic as to be unaware of that fact?

Seo Muwon nodded as if he understood.

“Indeed, unless Sword Supreme Sage Gwan Hyun has gone mad, it’s an incomprehensible decision.”

“……”

Baek Sang-ah’s expression grew grave.

She knew of Murim Alliance Leader Gwan Hyun’s dual identity, and she had also heard about the pact he had made with Jin Yeomyung.

‘Betrayal? No, that can’t be it.’

Once someone turned their back on an organization, there was no going back.

Especially not with organizations so secretive they must never be exposed to the world.

Just then, a voice came from outside.

“Renju-nim. Plum Blossom White Sword requests an audience with you.”

“…Let him in.”

Normally, she could not afford to reveal her injury to someone from the orthodox sects, but Plum Blossom White Sword, who had witnessed the battle firsthand, was an exception.

Moreover, since the Mount Hua Sect had been betrayed by the Jongnam Sect—an ally of the Heaven-Defying Society—the risk of betrayal here was relatively low.

Still, she couldn’t afford to let her guard down entirely.

Soon, the door opened, and Plum Blossom White Sword appeared.

“Hm, how’s the wound, Renju?”

Baek Sang-ah responded curtly.

“So-so.”

Her curt reply made Plum Blossom White Sword’s face darken slightly.

“You… must’ve heard the news.”

“Indeed. Thanks to that, my head’s still ringing from the blow.”

Plum Blossom White Sword let out a sigh.

“If I may offer a defense… this wasn’t the will of the Alliance Leader.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Just what I said.”

Everyone in the room stiffened at what followed.

“It seems the Alliance Leader has lost the internal power struggle.”

“…What?”

“According to Elder Plum Palm Sword, who was dispatched to the Alliance, the true mastermind behind this incident is Jegal Cheon, a new military advisor in the Military Strategy Division.”

Jegal Cheon?

“That’s a name I’ve never heard before.”

Baek Sang-ah subtly glanced at Jegal Eun.

She couldn’t let Plum Blossom White Sword learn her surname, but the fact that the man who had staged a revolution within the Murim Alliance shared her surname greatly intensified her curiosity.

However—

“Who… is that?”

“…What?”

Though her face was hidden by a mask, Jegal Eun’s expression was clearly contorted.

“There’s no such name as Jegal Cheon in the Jegal Clan. Maybe in a distant branch family, but among the direct or senior members, no such person exists.”

Baek Sang-ah, Jo Gongmyeong, and Seo Muwon’s faces all hardened simultaneously.

Seo Muwon muttered behind his hand.

“There’s no way the Jegal Clan would ever let a branch family member into the Military Strategy Division…”

Because of its nature, the members of the Military Strategy Division were never publicly revealed.

But generally speaking, only those whose bloodline and abilities were both acknowledged were granted entry.

The idea that even the Jegal Clan would let a branch family member into such a place was unthinkable.

Even if a branch family descendant had been recognized as the reincarnation of Jegal Muhu and accepted into the Military Strategy Division, someone from the main bloodline—like her—would have known about it.

“Things may be worse than we thought.”

The Jegal Clan, with its long and illustrious history in Murim, may have already fallen entirely into the enemy’s hands.

Seo Muwon offered a few words of appreciation to Plum Blossom White Sword and then asked him to excuse himself.

Though framed as thanks, it was effectively an expulsion. Still, understanding the situation, Plum Blossom White Sword quietly withdrew.

Once he was gone—

As soon as they took off their Black Sky Master Masks, their grim expressions came into view.

“Do you think what he said is true?”

Jegal Eun frowned, still unable to believe the situation.

“Someone like Plum Blossom White Sword wouldn’t lie to us for no reason…”

“…Right.”

She lowered her head, disheartened, at Seo Muwon’s words.

Plum Blossom White Sword Jo Gongmyeong was a renowned orthodox master, a name recognized even among the Eight Armies.

There was no real reason for someone like him to tarnish his own name with a lie.

“What I don’t understand is—how did Gwan Hyun fall so easily?”

Gwan Hyun’s resourcefulness was fairly well known among the wisest minds of Murim.

“There’s every possibility it’s true.”

At that moment, Baek Sang-ah spoke in a low voice.

“If they’re involved.”

“Hmm…!”

Seo Muwon had originally had nothing to do with Murim’s underbelly.

But after being entangled with the incident at the southern Yuga Yeongsan, he had come to learn parts of the truth.

“There are collaborators hidden throughout the orthodox factions. The Jongnam Sect was one, and even the Mount Hua Sect was once their ally.”

Seo Muwon nodded.

“If what Renju says is true, and half of the Five Great Clans of the Nine Orthodox Sects are under their control, then replacing a single Alliance Leader wouldn’t be hard at all…”

“There are two problems we face now.”

Baek Sang-ah concisely summarized the situation.

“Eun, you take charge of investigating the Jegal Clan. Dig into the identity of this Jegal Cheon thoroughly.”

“…Understood.”

“Military Advisor Seo, please take charge of the Murim Alliance. We must determine whether this stops at a declaration of war or if they truly intend to mobilize troops toward Ten Thousand Mountain. Monitor their movements constantly.”

“Leave it to me.”

“Also, recall Plum Blossom White Sword and solidify our relations with Mount Hua and the Gongdong Sect. A misstep here could cut off our retreat to Luoyang.”

Two people nodded with heavy expressions.

It was now common knowledge that the Black Lotus Hall was connected to the Heavenly Demon Cult.

However, with the Murim Alliance declaring war not on the Evil Overlords of Heaven, but on the Heavenly Demon Cult, the Black Lotus Hall—who had arrived under the pretense of aiding the righteous sects—was now placed in a rather ambiguous position.

“In the worst-case scenario, we’ll be surrounded by enemies from both sides. If we misread the situation even slightly, we’ll be crushed to death.”

If the Murim Alliance truly intended to strike the Heavenly Demon Cult, there was no way they would overlook the Black Lotus Hall, which lay directly in their path.

Baek Sang-ah, who had been suddenly caught in this downpour, furrowed her brow lightly.

“It would’ve been nice if at least the Evil Overlords of Heaven had been dealt with…”

If the Evil Overlords of Heaven had been firmly repelled, they could have turned their forces toward Luoyang without any burden before the Murim Alliance took any action.

And then it happened.

“Should I take care of that?”

“…?”

“…??”

So Cheon, who had until now neither moved nor spoken, suddenly opened his mouth.

“…How?”

Baek Sang-ah felt a strange, ominous foreboding in that instant.

Snap! Crack!

The bandages wrapped around So Cheon’s body suddenly began to tear and fall off.

“I’ll go assassinate that Evil Overlord. He looks like someone I could manage.”

Everyone in the hall gasped at his words.

“A-Are you insane?!”

Even if he was more free to move than Baek Sang-ah, the wounds on So Cheon’s body hadn’t disappeared.

More than anything—he was talking about the Evil Overlord!

It wasn’t as if they were facing each other one-on-one on the battlefield. He was proposing to infiltrate a camp guarded by hundreds, even thousands, of masters just to take the head of its commander?

Not even the greatest assassin in all of history could pull that off.

Crack! Crack!

As he loosened every joint in his body, So Cheon spoke.

“Well, my body’s been feeling a bit stiff anyway, and it seems like a good time to put Yeomyung’s words into practice.”

“Young Master Jin’s words? What are they?”

So Cheon looked at Baek Sang-ah with an indifferent gaze.

Yet deep within that gaze, an unexpected emotion flickered faintly.

“They say… a man should show himself when he’s capable, to the one he wants to prove it to…”

He seemed to have muttered something in the middle, but it was so quiet that it was even harder to make out than a whisper.

“What are you even saying…”

“Anyway, I’ll be back.”

Just as So Cheon threw open the window of the tenth-floor pavilion and was about to leap out—

“C-Catch him!”

Still barely able to move, Baek Sang-ah shouted toward the others.

Jegal Eun, whose martial arts were relatively inferior, reacted a beat too late, but Seo Muwon—one of the Ten Talents—responded swiftly to her command.

Whoosh!

The fan in his hand lunged straight for So Cheon’s vital acupoint.

But—

Sssssh!

So Cheon evaded every one of Seo Muwon’s techniques with movements so fluid, it was hard to believe he was even injured.

“…Huh?!”

He had always known So Cheon was strong, but for his techniques—so close to the Transformation Realm—not to even graze him?

In the blink of an eye, So Cheon dismantled Seo Muwon’s technique and vanished as if swallowed by the air.

It was So Cheon’s signature transcendence technique—Ten Thousand Forms of the Supreme Ultimate.

“W-What?! Young Master So Cheon! Hey! Get back here right now!”

Baek Sang-ah shouted at the top of her lungs, but the vanished So Cheon did not return.

“Seriously! Ever since he learned from that damn Bandage Master, he’s been harder to control than ever!”

She pressed hard against her temple, clearly suffering from a migraine.

And then—

Jegal Eun, who had never taken kindly to So Cheon, stared at the spot where he had disappeared, his gaze filled with something unidentifiable.

***

Breaking through the darkness of Heavenly Demon’s Dominance, Cheon Jumyeong appeared with Third Elder Cheon Rain.

“T-The Clan Leader!”

“…Heavenly Thunder Corps Leader!”

Many were unexpectedly shaken by the appearance of Cheon Jumyeong.

His rise to Clan Leader had originally been a unilateral decision by the Council of the Seven Elders and the man behind them, Cheon Juchun—it had never truly reflected the unified will of the entire Cheon Clan.

Of course, Fifth Elder and Sixth Elder, who were just a step away from following the late Saro in death, wore faces full of relief.

Each time Cheon Jumyeong approached me, the tension within the hall heightened to the extreme.

And at the peak of that tension, Cheon Jumyeong finally opened his mouth.

“You’ve run amok enough. How about stopping now?”

“Stop?”

“Should such bloodshed happen right before I ascend as the new Clan Leader of the Cheon Clan?”

I curled my lips in mockery and sneered at him as much as I could.

“And if I don’t?”

Cheon Jumyeong let out a smirk and spoke as if reading from a primer.

“As the new master of the Cheon Clan, I should put a stop to your tyranny, Demonic Faction Lord.”

“Fine, then go ahead and try.”

There was no further conversation.

Cheon Jumyeong and I moved simultaneously, as if we had planned it beforehand.

“W-Wait! That’s it for negotiations?!”

Third Elder, who had been observing the situation, shouted something.

But we ignored him and launched palm techniques at each other with full force in midair.

Kwa-gwagwang!

A clash completely unlike anything before—truly a battle worthy of the title among masters—unfolded before the eyes of the Cheon Clan warriors.

“O-Ohhh!”

Someone watching our clash exclaimed.

“Th-They’re evenly matched!”

“Was the Clan Leader’s martial arts always that strong?!”

Just as they said, Cheon Jumyeong’s palm was in no way inferior to mine. It created a massive force of energy in midair.

Papapapat!

Cheon Jumyeong and I exchanged countless palm strikes in midair, unleashing a fierce contest of palm techniques.

Visually, at least, Cheon Jumyeong’s level of martial arts appeared to be on par with mine.

“…What a spectacle.”

Cheon Yura let out a small, amused laugh as she observed us.

Having reached the Transcendent Demon Realm, she was clearly tracking the paths of our techniques—unlike the others below our level.

And then, at a certain moment—

Heaven-Cracking Great Beast

Secret Single Technique

Heaven-Slaying Qi

Reverse Soul Flame

Cheon Jumyeong and I simultaneously unleashed distinct ultimate techniques in the air.

The aftermath of those techniques, instead of neutralizing one another, began spreading in all directions.

“G-Get out of the way!”

A few individuals who recognized the devastating potential of the shockwave raining down like a meteor shower toward the earth began screaming at their surroundings.

And as if by ‘coincidence,’ the thickest of those shockwaves flew straight toward Fifth Elder and Sixth Elder, who were standing at some distance!

“…Huh?!”

Kwa-gwagwagwang!

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