He was appalled.

A strange sensation washed over him, as if he were standing naked.

Wang Jinmyeong’s face turned even paler.

His lips trembled.

“Th— what is this....”

“Since I have come here, blood must be scattered, and there must be a scapegoat.”

Further talk was meaningless.

At least, there was nothing more to say to Wang Jinmyeong.

His grip tightened.

CRACK—!

When he relaxed his hand, Wang Jinmyeong, his neck broken, crumpled to the floor.

Unhwi turned his head and spoke.

“Stop.”

At that word, every member of Cheonrakbu ceased moving.

As if by prior promise, they formed ranks behind Unhwi.

Unhwi was looking toward the entrance of the governor’s office, where blood had pooled into a pond.

He smiled.

“You’re a little late, Senior Jang.”

Jang Icheong, who had been glaring at Unhwi with a face gone cold and hard, ground his lips between his teeth.

***

He tasted blood in his mouth.

At this moment, Jang Icheong was truly enraged.

And yet within that rage there was also puzzlement and dismay.

It was only natural.

The perfect plan had gone awry.

The plan, to begin with, had been as follows.

First, make Unhwi kill bandits disguised as government troops.

Nothing else was needed; that alone would serve as pretext.

The pretext that Unhwi had laid hands on government troops.

If that were reported to the royal court of Un Nation, forcing the state itself to repudiate Unhwi, then no matter how reckless he was, even Unhwi would have no choice but to back down.

To put it plainly, Unhwi’s backing was the Everlasting Snow Palace.

It was neither a nation nor a formal sect—an in-between entity—but its power could not be ignored.

If the pretext could be created that Unhwi had committed a crime, then even the Everlasting Snow Palace would have no means to protect him; and Unhwi, mindful of the Palace’s face, would have no choice but to retreat.

That would become a leash.

More than anything, the Ihwa Sword-Heaven Sect’s Sect Lord was the practical master of Cheonrim.

News had spread that Yang Seoljin, the previous Forest Lord, had died; naturally, the Sect Lord appeared poised to assume that seat by proxy, and Cheonrim’s network extended deep into the royal court of Un Nation.

This was something even the Everlasting Snow Palace could not counter; in this respect, Ihwa Sword-Heaven Sect had absolute superiority.

From Jang Icheong’s perspective, Unhwi’s current act of sweeping the governor’s office should have been entirely gratifying—but he had not imagined it would go this far.

He had never imagined it would be this outrageous.

No—he hadn’t just killed a few. He had killed the provincial governor as well, and butchered eight-tenths of all living beings inside the office.

This was madness.

Connections in Cheonrim or whatever else—this went beyond that; it had become a grave matter that could spark war between Un Nation and the Everlasting Snow Palace.

This was wrong.

This was not the plan.

Clearly, the direction of the “first plan” should not have taken this form.

“You seem disconcerted.”

“...Are you in your right mind...?”

“I believe I am. It seems, Senior Jang, that to your eyes I am not.”

“......”

“Is it the excess that startled you?”

“...Are those words, now? If it comes to this, you too will be in difficulty.”

Unhwi gave a faint chuckle.

Yes.

He chuckled.

This was no time to laugh, and yet this lunatic was smirking—as if something amused him.

“You will find yourself in far greater difficulty than I.”

“...What?”

“Senior Jang. No matter how I wrung my brain, I could arrive at only one answer.”

“...Only one?”

“Yes.”

It was nothing new.

Unhwi had kept thinking.

When he received information from Gaebang’s Ham Jang-sik, when he received Heukmyeong’s letter from Heukcheon Masugung—

And before that, when he heard that the Green Forest strongholds had vanished from sight—

He thought without cease, and from within that situation, he picked the method that could catch everyone off guard and overturn the board.

This was it.

Fundamentally speaking, why had the Green Forest vanished all at once?

Nokwang Im Cheongsan wasn’t so clever a man—so why, of all places, would he hide in the governor’s office?

No matter how you looked at it, there was no profit in it. It was truly foolish.

Even if they had seized upon the weaknesses of district magistrates or provincial governors, those were only temporary weaknesses.

Merely entering the governor’s office as Green Forest bandits would be enough to raze everything around the Heavenly Righteous Alliance to scorched earth.

Cleanup? They would manage it somehow.

With Cheonrim’s power, it would be stranger if they could not.

That was the problem.

Why go so far—without any need?

Because of where Unhwi stood.

To drive Unhwi out of the Heavenly Righteous Alliance, to collar him, to pressure him in any fashion—the state itself would have to move.

In the end, Unhwi had been dispatched from the Everlasting Snow Palace.

“Do you wish to control me?”

At Unhwi’s words, a twitch ran between Jang Icheong’s brows.

“Seo Hyo must have delivered it clearly. And ‘Muksehoe’ surely conveyed its intent as well. If you failed to receive it, then that’s a question of competence... it seems you did not receive it.”

Unhwi did not miss the flicker in Jang Icheong’s gaze.

Interesting.

“So you even know of Muksehoe’s existence. An organization even Seo Hyo didn’t know.”

“...It is encouraging that you would stand with ‘us,’ but you are exceedingly ferocious. And is it not an obvious conclusion that one must have the means to restrain so ferocious a man?”

The distance between Unhwi and Jang Icheong was very small.

They spoke in voices so low none around them could hear—almost whispering—and in that moment Jang Icheong’s manner of speech changed.

“It must have been tiring to keep your mask on.”

“And you care about such trifles? More importantly, what will you do? How will you clean up this board?”

“Why ask me that?”

“......”

“Yes. It was a rather decent stratagem. Even if I say I stand with ‘your will,’ my current standing is that of a Polar Heir of the Everlasting Snow Palace. If I am forced to leave here against my will, I will lose face and be plunged into disgrace.”

“......”

“I must bring back results—yet before that, Un Nation raises a formal issue... It is a neat scheme. The direct intelligence and connections of Cheonrim’s master, the Forest Lord, are at a level I cannot hope to match right now. Even if I mobilized Gaebang, it would be difficult. In the end, they are not truly my people.”

He smiled thinly.

“Do you know the most reliable way to smash a scheme someone else has laid out?”

“What is it?”

“The direct method.”

“...What?”

“You simply meet it head-on, as now, and smash straight through.”

Jang Icheong could not understand.

This was a direct method? To meet it head-on?

What nonsense...?

“It’s simple. I’ll just turn the Ihwa Sword-Heaven Sect into an enemy.”

He thought he’d misheard.

“I will personally declare that the Ihwa Sword-Heaven Sect joined hands with the Green Forest. That is why I struck the governor’s office, and why I purged the bandits wearing official uniforms. I have evidence in abundance; if it proves lacking, I intend to create more.”

“...You will fabricate and agitate?”

“Something like that. Now, consider what follows.”

“......”

“In the martial world, when no one knows what the truth is, there is a saying: the victor’s words are the truth. While both sides fight to claim truth, the relationship between the Ihwa Sword-Heaven Sect and the Everlasting Snow Palace will sour, and so will the relationship between me and Cheonrim.”

“...You cur....”

“As you well know, I have never backed down from a fight once I’ve stepped onto the path. I’ll tell you the foreseeable future. In the end, your ploy to collar me will backfire, smearing the Ihwa Sword-Heaven Sect’s reputation, and leaving you mired in the rumor that you rolled in the mud with the likes of the Green Forest. For quite a long time, at that.”

Though Jang Icheong had come bearing a secret order from the Sect Lord, that did not grant him authority to meddle in every affair of the Ihwa Sword-Heaven Sect. His expression hardened.

“It was clever and plausible, but beneath standard. This kind of thing shouldn’t even count as a stratagem. Honestly.”

A sigh slipped out.

“The man called the Manhwa Sword Sovereign of the Ihwa Sword-Heaven Sect—are such petty tricks all he can manage?”

Unhwi’s voice was like a slab of ice, like an awl boring into the chest.

“Even in a world that has lost the notion of shame, as a warrior who has reached the far edge of Cheonjisagyeong, one ought to possess basic dignity.”

Breaking off his words, Unhwi gave a slight shake of the head and even sighed, and Jang Icheong’s fists trembled. Yet he did not resort to force. He must not; and even if he did, it would be meaningless.

There were eyes upon them, and those dispatched to the Heavenly Righteous Alliance—at least ‘officially’—might oppose one another, but could not kill.

If they did, it would immediately spiral into a war between their parent factions.

“Even according me the treatment due a senior must have its limits. It is becoming quite difficult. Senior Jang, I did not come all the way to Cheonsu to engage in such lowborn struggles.”

Unhwi took one step closer and spoke.

“Do you understand?”

Commander Seong, watching at his side, wore a troubled expression, but unexpectedly Jang Icheong maintained his silence.

There was nothing to say. More precisely, nothing he could say.

After a long silence, Jang Icheong took a step back and opened his mouth.

“I... have fully understood what you mean.”

“Have you.”

Jang Icheong let out a deep sigh.

“This arose from mutual misunderstanding. Heavens—how could Green Forest bandits possibly infiltrate a governor’s office? I am, at this very moment, profoundly shocked by that fact. Above all, I am impressed by Young Lord Seol’s discernment in being the first to perceive it and act.”

His tone had changed; his manner had changed.

Unhwi kept his face as expressionless as possible, but inwardly, he was not.

To wear so sturdy a mask—he truly treasured his face.

That much could be conceded.

In the stratagem Unhwi had discerned, there # Nоvеlight # was at least an ‘end,’ and that end had not yet been reached.

“I will mobilize everyone I can to assist in purging the Green Forest bandits. Of course, all the credit will rightly belong to Young Lord Seol.”

“I am grateful to hear you say so, Senior Jang.”

As such words were being exchanged, Jang Icheong suddenly said something utterly out of the blue.

“Come to think of it, I hear the air over on Bongguk Mountain is excellent. In times like these, it seems a fine day for a climb. What say you to paying it a visit?”

“Bongguk Mountain?”

“The scenery is so fine that in ages past, kings themselves made personal excursions there—or so I’ve heard. Have you perhaps never heard of it?”

Unhwi smiled.

“I’ve never heard of it, but if it’s that fine, I suppose I should go have a look.”

It was obvious.

Bongguksan. That was where Nokwang Im Cheongsan was hiding.

This was an attempt to tamp down Unhwi’s wrath by selling information now; and Unhwi accepted it.

But that could not be all.

No—if that were all, it would not do.