Chapter 194: Heavenly Orchid Society (6)

While arrows of criticism were flying toward the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord, an elder from the Namgung Family spoke up.

"Now, now. There's no need to blame the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord. He's just compiling information that has been circulating in Xinjiang. The way I see it, this is probably just another case of those fanatics idolizing their cult."

A few of those attending the meeting nodded as if they found this reasonable.

"Or maybe the rumors have just gotten blown way out of proportion. You know what they say, a rumor without legs can travel a thousand li, and it gets bigger with every person who passes it along."

This time, an elder from the Wudang Sect offered another opinion.

Either way, both opinions amounted to not believing the rumors.

"Tch. Those Demonic Cult bastards are idiots as usual."

The elder from Mount Hua Sect seemed to agree with both views, clicking his tongue dismissively as he disparaged the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

True to as an elder from Mount Hua—the sect that had been devastated and rebuilt after the Kongtong Sect annihilation—he showed absolute hostility toward the Demonic Cult.

But strangely enough, that malice was closer to 'contempt' or 'disdain.'

This was evident in that he was not insisting they should immediately hunt down those bastards and wipe them out.

Which made a certain kind of sense. It had been over six hundred years since the Kongtong Sect was annihilated by the Heavenly Demon of that era.

On top of that, it had been over two hundred years since the Demonic Cult was driven to Xinjiang, so revenge was pretty much already achieved.

Mount Hua's last direct clash with the Demonic Cult was during the previous Heavenly Demon’s reign about ninety years ago, so any desire for revenge naturally faded over time.

It was so long ago that hardly anyone who participated in those battles was still alive.

Of course, their ideological indoctrination continued even now.

If you asked any Mount Hua disciple, "Who is our main enemy?" they'd answer, "The Demonic Cult!" without hesitation.

But honestly, Mount Hua disciples had other people they really wanted to tear apart.

Namely, their competitors who fought them almost daily for dominance in Shaanxi Province, the Zhongnan Sect.

This was also true for the Qingcheng and Diancang Sects in similar situations.

Qingcheng was too busy dealing with their rivals in Sichuan, and Diancang was stuck between a rock and a hard place with the Sichuan powers above them and the Hainan Sect to the east.

“Tsk. We wasted all this time and effort worrying about the Demonic Cult’s garbage.”

Since the rumors about the Eighth Young Master of the Demonic Cult were so absurd, the meeting attendees eventually lost interest in the topic.

Instead, they started bringing up topics related to their own sects' interests one by one.

The meaningless meeting dragged on for quite a while.

Right after the colossal waste of time finally ended, the Chief Strategist Gongsun Hyeon called the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord aside.

"You've had a hard time."

At Gongsun Hyeon's praise, the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord suppressed his resentment and replied.

"I only did what needed to be done, Chief Strategist.”

The reason he had revealed the rumors about Il-mok exactly as they were in the meeting today was because of the Chief Strategist’s directive.

Thanks to those orders, the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord had endured insulting remarks from various elders, but he didn't question the Chief Strategist about it or ask why it had to be done.

The Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord believed that when a superior gives an order, a subordinate should carry it out without question.

Of course, this also meant he expected his subordinates to act the same way when he gave them orders.

But Chief Strategist Gongsun Hyeon was a bit different.

"Aren't you curious why I specifically told you to relay such absurd rumors as they were?"

He believed that people needed to understand the purpose of their work to follow through properly.

Of course, he was only speaking up because he had accurately grasped the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord's personality.

"I simply do my best to carry out whatever the Chief Strategist orders."

Gongsun Hyeon smiled faintly at the perfectly straight answer from his perfectly loyal man.

"I did it on purpose. I wanted the Nine Sects and One Gang, and the Seven Great Families to keep looking down on those cultists."

"!?"

Even the loyal Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord couldn't hide his expression at such a reason.

"Won’t that be dangerous?"

"It will be dangerous. But don't men have to take risks to achieve their goals?"

After uttering these cryptic words, the Chief Strategist’s expression had already turned grave.

"Think about how the martial world operates these days. The Murim Alliance's name is famous, but it holds no meaning. Am I wrong to say that everything is actually decided by the old fogeys from the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Seven Great Families?"

"..."

“What do you think? Are those people really righteous? Are they just?”

"..."

At Gongsun Hyeon's pointed questions, the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord couldn't give any answer.

Sure, there were a few good apples in the barrel. A few sects and a few people who genuinely tried to be heroes and do the right thing.

But looking at the whole picture, they were just a small minority.

"Am I wrong to say that they just strut around trampling and making a mockery of martial world justice, simply because they happened to join good sects when they were young or were born into prestigious families?"

"..."

Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord remembered what had happened earlier.

Despite reaching the position of Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord of the Murim Alliance and wielding power that ranked in the top five within the alliance, he had to endure criticism from elders—not even sect leaders—of the Nine Sects and One Gang and Seven Great Families during today's meeting.

And the same was true for Gongsun Hyeon.

The only reason a man like him, a nobody from a minor sect, had managed to climb so high was because all the big powers were too busy fighting each other to let any one of their own take the top spot.

Despite holding the title of Chief Strategist, his power was only half of what it should be.

In reality, the Zhuge Family ran around acting like they were the real brains of the Alliance.

In reality, the Zhuge Family ran around acting like they

were the real brains of the Alliance.

Gongsun Hyeon knew exactly how frustrated the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord felt because he felt the exact same way. And that’s why he willingly revealed his inner thoughts to him.

But then again, Gongson Hyeon was smart enough to become the Chief Strategist without having a powerful family to back him up.

He also knew how foolish it was to 'trust' someone.

He simply knew how to make others move according to his will.

"Shall we cast out those hypocrites and properly establish justice in the martial world under the banner of the Murim Alliance?"

Just like now, wrapping the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord's resentment in the name of justice to draw him in.

"So you're planning to let those Demonic Cult bastards invade the Central Plains? By making the Nine Sects and One Gang and Seven Great Families drop their guard?"

“Exactly. Think about it. Why was the Murim Alliance even created in the first place? To fight the Demonic Cult. When you’re facing a big enough threat that everyone has to team up to survive, power naturally flows to the top. Right to us, the Murim Alliance.”

He had already hatched the plan by making all those elders in the meeting drop their guard. But he was a sharp man, and he knew a plan this big would take a lot of effort and manpower to pull off.

“Which is why I have a secret mission for you. I want you to take your most trusted guys—the ones who know how to keep their mouths shut—and find out everything you can about the Eighth Young Master.”

"The Eighth Young Master?"

Why him? Why the kid from the crazy stories?

Gongsun Hyeon smiled coldly.

"They say there's no smoke without fire. The rumors themselves might be exaggerated, but there must be a reason for them to have spread. Above all, if he is a disciple cherished by that fearsome Heavenly Demon, there must be a reason, right?"

What Gongsun Hyeon wanted was simply to use the Demonic Cult's invasion as an opportunity to overturn the Central Plains' power structure.

He had absolutely no intention of handing the Central Plains over to the Demonic Cult.

“As you command! I’ll find out everything about the Eighth Young Master, right down to how many hairs are on his head!”

Moved by Gongsun Hyeon's words, the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord saluted with his eyes blazing with newfound purpose.

***

Back in the present. The battlefield was dead silent, probably because everyone who wasn't on their side was dead.

GULP.

The sound of Il-mok swallowing after hearing about Dam Bin's side effects echoed unusually loud.

Looking somewhat tense, Il-mok asked, “So, uh, that side effect… you doing okay with it?”

Dam Bin still wore her bewitching smile as she answered:

"Since I've transcended the Extremity stage, it's been bearable enough for several years now."

"I, I see."

Right after Il-mok answered with a somewhat awkward voice, an uncomfortable silence hung between the two for just a moment.

"Big brother!"

Hyeokryeon Seon-ah's voice shattered that silence.

Moving swiftly toward Il-mok, she looked up at him with watery eyes. "Are you alright, big brother?"

Thanks to Seon-ah's appearance, Il-mok escaped the awkward atmosphere and answered with a worried expression.

"I'm fine. But what about you, Seon-ah? How did you end up covered in blood like this?"

He was pointing at the splatters all over her face and clothes.

"Thanks to big brother's concern, I'm perfectly safe!"

Seon-ah said this with a face that seemed to beg for praise.

Il-mok reached out to stroke Hyeokryeon Seon-ah's red hair, then hesitated.

—Are your eyes just for decoration?! There's blood all over her!

His hygiene obsession was too strong to touch someone covered in blood, even if that person was his adorable younger sister.

When Il-mok's approaching hand stopped, Hyeokryeon Seon-ah looked at his hand with the most regretful expression in the world.

If those who had died with their hearts and throats pierced by her fingernails had seen that expression, they would have died all over again from shock.

Finally giving up on patting Seol-ah's head, Il-mok said awkwardly, "You worked hard. Miss Jin and Young Master Baek worked hard too."

It turned out Seol-ah had just sprinted ahead of her team. Jin Hayeon and Baek Cheon had now caught up and entered the leader's chamber.

"I'm fine. You've also worked hard, Young Master, " Jin Hayeon replied dispassionately.

“Hahaha! That was nothing! A walk in the park, Eighth Young Master!" Followed the boisterous Baekcheon.

"Young Master!"

“No way!”

Ju Seo-yeon and Ouyang Mun looked at Il-mok with faces as if the sky were falling.

And in a way, it had. The fight was already over, so their genius plan to get hurt saving Il-mok so Jin Hayeon would have to cradle them in her loving arms was officially up in smoke.

‘Damnit. If only it hadn’t been for those men at the last moment!’

'If I'd known, I would've just taken a sword to the gut to end it faster!'

Both of them were thinking the exact same thing.

On their way to the Society Leader's chamber, the remaining two Peak Realm masters of the Heavenly Orchid Society had blocked their path.

But with Jeong Hyeon playing sniper support, there was no way two Peak masters could stop them. So they’d killed them and rushed over, but it was too late.

While the two weirdos were moping, Il-mok turned to the girl trying to make herself invisible in the corner.

"Miss Jeong also worked hard."

"I, I just did wh-what I had to do."

Il-mok had no intention of telling Ouyang Mun and Ju Seo-yeon that they worked hard.

'They were probably hoping I'd get in trouble. Fucking bastards.'

He could practically read what these two sasaeng fans were thinking just from one look at their eyes.

Once everyone was accounted for, Il-mok got down to business.

“Did you clean up all the Heavenly Orchid Society scums you ran into?"

"Yes, Young Master."

“Good. Gather the bodies. We’re burning them to get rid of the evidence.”

The evidence Il-mok was talking about was the wounds on the corpses.

The wounds were basically a signature of their Demonic Arts. If they left them be, someone might figure out who they were.

He doubted the Murim Alliance bastards would bother investigating the details of some backwater Gansu Province.

'Better safe than sorry.'

For Il-mok, who had to live with the paranoid voice of his own Demonic Art, destroying the evidence was just second nature.