Chapter 585: Side Story 85

Chapter side_85

“Heaven and Earth Sect…? Have you heard of it?”

Bi Cheon-woong nodded at Gwon Mu-jin’s words.

Unlike the other Five Emperors, Bi Cheon-woong was still active in Murim, and thus heard many things picked up here and there.

As such, he had naturally heard of the Heaven and Earth Sect, but that did not mean he knew the details. He did not pay much attention to things unless they involved a client or a target.

All he knew was…

“……There are also those who call it the Cult of Madness.”

“C-Cult of Madness?”

The moment he heard that, Gwon Mu-jin broke into a cold sweat.

The fact that they had the alias of the Cult of Madness despite having the name Heaven and Earth Sect meant that their evil deeds were no different from those of madmen.

“Why would such a place… target the Dan Family?”

“……The family head must have gotten involved.”

“Ah-”

Gwon Mu-jin nodded and sighed at Bi Cheon-woong’s words.

‘Of course.’

It would be strange if those people went out and didn’t get involved in something. He felt as if all of this was a natural sequence of events.

Unconsciously, he shook his head.

Ever since those two strange guys arrived, he had thought it would not be an easy journey, but why did they have to get involved with these madmen of all people?

To the current Murim, it was no different from a blessing, and to the Heaven and Earth Sect, it would be an absolute disaster. On the other hand, from the perspective of the family head, Dan Woo-hyun, a highly annoying situation had occurred.

Gwon Mu-jin could already picture the two old men who would be excited, and Dan Woo-hyun’s face, which would look calm but filled with annoyance.

“Sigh… I wonder how it will turn out… More than that, what do we do with this guy?”

Gwon Mu-jin glanced at the cultist who was covered in blood. It was truly pitiful to see him trembling as if he did not even have the energy to open his mouth anymore.

He looked like he would answer smoothly to any question, but they already knew the whole situation and had nothing more to ask.

Still, since he had tried to attack the Dan Family, they could not just let him go, so should they hand him over to the local government office?

Just as he was thinking that,

Crack!

Bi Cheon-woong’s blade suddenly flew in and pierced between the man’s eyebrows.

“Gasp?!”

“……? Why are you reacting like that?”

“Oh, n-no… It’s nothing.”

Pale from the tragedy that had occurred right before his eyes, Gwon Mu-jin shook his head. He knew Bi Cheon-woong was this kind of person, but since he hadn’t seen his cruel side while they were at the Dan Family, he was surprised anew.

“……Their base is said to be in Shanxi.”

“S-Surely, the family head went that way too.”

As Bi Cheon-woong spoke of the information he had obtained through torture, Gwon Mu-jin considered Dan Woo-hyun’s personality and grasped their movement.

If they went as far as to attack the Dan Family, it meant they had become deeply entangled in an ill-fated relationship. No matter how lazy Dan Woo-hyun was, it was only natural for him to pull out the roots for the sake of the future.

“What is it? Does that mean if we go to Shanxi, we can see my husband?”

Just then, Mae-hyang quietly opened the door and stepped inside.

She widened her eyes at the corpse in front of her, but soon collected herself, taking a slow breath as she looked at Gwon Mu-jin.

Rather than the scattered corpses, whether or not she could meet her husband, Jang Sam-tae, seemed to be of utmost importance to her right now.

“Ah, probably so? But the road to that place is…”

“It means even if we stay here, we could be attacked by strange guys. In that case, it’s better to go look for my husband. It will be much safer.”

Gwon Mu-jin sighed at those words.

The journey from Hunan to Shanxi was by no means easy. Since they had to travel to such a place with two children, he thought it was not an easy decision to make.

However, Mae-hyang seemed to have already made up her mind.

She wouldn’t listen even if he tried to stop her, and since he couldn’t leave her behind either, there could only be one answer in the end.

Mae-hyang smiled brightly.

“Then I’ll pack up with the children and come back.”

“A-Ah, wait a minute…!”

Gwon Mu-jin tried his best to stop her somehow, but Mae-hyang ignored him and headed toward her quarters with light steps.

Although Jang Sam-tae had greatly upset Mae-hyang by leaving without a word, it seemed the fact that he was her one and only husband in the world remained unchanged, as her steps to pack her bags to see him appeared extremely light.

Gwon Mu-jin smiled bitterly at that sight and turned his gaze.

“W-What about you, Elder…?”

“……If I go, I will be able to see So-mi, right?”

“Naturally… shouldn’t you be able to see her?”

“…….”

Bi Cheon-woong fell into thought for a moment.

Although she stopped by occasionally, she had not returned for quite a long time this time. Since it had already been five years, he was curious about how Dan So-mi had changed.

Since he did not know when she would return again if he missed this opportunity, it seemed like a wise choice to at least see her face.

Thus, his thoughts did not last long.

“Let us go together.”

“Understood.”

Gwon Mu-jin let out a sigh of relief at Bi Cheon-woong’s words. Protecting Mae-hyang and the two children alone on the journey to Shanxi was not an easy task.

It was not that he couldn’t do it, but a small mistake could result in a disaster, so having Bi Cheon-woong along would be the most reassuring thing.

“Then I will also prepare and return.”

After Gwon Mu-jin bowed and left the place, Bi Cheon-woong was left alone. As he quietly looked around the barn, a motionless corpse caught his eye.

“…….”

‘I should clean it up, right?’

Normally, this would be a task for other guys like Jang Sam-tae or Gwon Mu-jin, but Jang Sam-tae was away and Gwon Mu-jin would be busy packing.

However, knowing that leaving it here would make dealing with the aftermath impossible once Dan Woo-hyun returned, Bi Cheon-woong had no choice but to start cleaning up the corpse.

He had to clean it up thoroughly, leaving not even a trace.

That was, if he didn’t want to die.

* * *

Shanxi had been a noisy place since ancient times.

The Unorthodox Faction had joined forces to drive out the Orthodox path and built a new castle of their own, which was the Martial Sovereign Castle. Since it was a place created by the gathering of absolute masters who led the Unorthodox Faction, orthodox and unorthodox practitioners alike thought that entering the Martial Sovereign Castle was the greatest honor.

The innermost part of the Martial Sovereign Castle, a place so deep that people could not easily access it, and a secret space where nothing would leak out no matter what happened.

“Cough, cough!”

In such a place, an old man coughed and spat blood.

His deathly pale complexion made one feel that his condition was extremely poor, and his body, which showed no flesh to the point where bones were visible, indicated that he had not even eaten proper meals.

In fact, the old man’s condition appeared so severe that it felt miraculous he was even alive.

“Please drink.”

Just then, the door opened and a man appeared.

In one hand, he held a small water bowl, apparently having fetched water for the continuously coughing old man.

However, the old man, who glanced at the water bowl, paid no heed to the sincerity of the man who brought the water and reached out to knock the bowl away.

Crash!

As the bowl shattered with a loud clatter, the man sighed.

“That person does not wish for your death. So… you must live.”

“……You damn bastards! How dare you treat me, Jeok Mu-seong, like… Cough, cough!”

“…….”

The one who was once a pillar of the Unorthodox Faction, one of the Five Emperors, and who looked down on the world. That Jeok Mu-seong gritted his teeth and vented his grief with a fiery expression.

Without even knowing why, he was corroded by an unknown poison, and the acupoints throughout his body were blocked. What happened next was that those he had trusted so much discarded their loyalty, imprisoned him under the pretext of treatment, controlled the Martial Sovereign Castle to their liking, and stripped away all of his power and authority.

“I… I will never leave you bastards alone…”

“…….”

The man sneered at the master he had once served and turned his back. Jeok Mu-seong, corroded by the poison prepared by ‘them,’ had all the acupoints in his body blocked, unable to use even a handful of internal energy.

Furthermore, his body, which was no exaggeration to say was nothing but bones, was nothing more than that of an old man who felt like he would break at a mere touch.

“Since you have enjoyed your position for long enough… now please yield your place, Castle Lord.”

“Ugh, urgh! You bastard…!”

Chief Counselor Gwan Tae-hyeong sneered as he looked at Jeok Mu-seong, who was venting his rage.

Too long trapped in the shadow of Jeok Mu-seong, the Unorthodox Faction had no development.

They were unable to move forward.

However, the Unorthodox Faction would change now.

They were no longer the ones of the past who were crushed, ignored, and mistreated by the Orthodox Faction and the Demonic Cult. With a new power and a new strength, they would step into the Central Plains once again.

“You will never… leave this place on your own two feet, Castle Lord.”

“You bastard…!”

And at his spoken words, Jeok Mu-seong clenched his fists. Because his energy had waned so much, exerting such effort was difficult for him, yet he stared at him as if venting his accumulated rage.

As Gwan Tae-hyeong soon stepped outside, Jeok Mu-seong, who stared blankly at the spot for a long while, sighed as if spitting out the grief built up inside him.

Soon, he shut his eyes tightly and took a posture to circulate his energy. It was due to the hope that if he could somehow open his acupoints, he could bring down divine punishment upon those bastards.

However, although internal energy could be felt in his dantian, it did not budge at all. Despite doing this for several years now, the fact that he could not open even a single acupoint meant that the poison used by someone was certainly out of the ordinary.

In the end, Jeok Mu-seong, who had tried to move his internal energy somehow for two hours, let out another sigh and slowly opened his eyes.

“This is ridiculous…”

Who would have known that the great Jeok Mu-seong would end up like this?

Had he known he would be abandoned like this, he would not have left the Hunan Dan Family. Or, he should have brought Gwon Mu-jin and kept him by his side by any means necessary.

For there was no one he could trust as much as him.

Jeok Mu-seong let out a deep sigh, lamenting his choice.

What are those two bastards doing right now?

Are they still playing Go and bickering?

Thinking of those two bastards, he unconsciously frowned.

“Heh… heh…”

If they were to find out about this situation right now, what kind of expressions would they make? The faces of Namgung Cheon and Sa Do-hak naturally drew in his mind.

They would mock and tease him in disbelief.

The thought of that made his anger flare up even more than before.

He could never show them this kind of state under any circumstances.

Jeok Mu-seong painfully sat cross-legged once again.

“No matter… no matter what happens… I will not show this state to those bastards.”

Jeok Mu-seong gritted his teeth, displaying an even stronger anger and fighting spirit than the grief he had vented moments ago.

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