Chapter 114
Mukho Cheolryeong.
It was a token given only to high-ranking members of the Guangjin Cult.
The hexagonal piece of metal was made of mukcheol, making it hard and pitch-black, and carved upon it in white was a single emblem.
The emblem of a sun rising in a round shape.
That sun emblem was the symbol representing the Guangjin Cult.
‘No doubt about it.’
And on the black piece in that drawing, there was likewise a white sun depicted.
It was definitely a drawing of the Mukho Cheolryeong.
The moment I realized that, my heart turned cold.
‘Why?’
Until now, the Murim Alliance had never managed to find even a proper clue about the Guangjin Cult.
Of course. The Guangjin Cult had been destroyed long ago, and even the people who remained were hiding on a cliff, living in constant fear that they might be discovered at any moment.
So no matter how hard they tried, they wouldn’t be able to find even a trace of the Guangjin Cult. I had thought that the orthodox Murim world would eventually destroy itself, bickering among themselves about some Demon Cult or whatever, and that day couldn’t be far off…
‘But the real token has fallen into their hands.’
Could it be that the Murim Alliance had captured a high-ranking member of the original cult?
Or had they failed to capture one, but only obtained the token?
Where on earth had they found it? Could it belong to one of the Twelve Beast Kings who had gone missing?
“So is this pattern a sun, or a flower?”
“W-Well, at first glance, it looks like a sun…”
“Hmm… Just looking at it, I can’t tell if it’s really such an important object. It could just be a chunk of metal.”
“Even so, it is undoubtedly an important clue concerning the Demon Cult. The Alliance Leader judged it as such and sent the entire Investigation Corps to every suspicious place in order to find the owner of the object.”
‘The entire Investigation Corps?’
It wasn’t merely a few people. If the Alliance’s entire Investigation Corps had gone out of their way to investigate, it meant that the Alliance Leader considered this matter important.
Were they really certain that the Mukho Cheolryeong was a token of the Guangjin Cult? How?
“Look at it closely. Isn’t there anything suspicious? Could there be a code hidden beneath the pattern?”
“Hah, this is only a rubbing. Even if we inspected the actual object, we’d be lucky to find a code, so what are we supposed to figure out from a mere copied drawing?”
“There’s nothing to lose by trying. And what makes you act so high and mighty when you haven’t figured out anything either, Rangrang?”
“You little shrimp, seriously…”
I watched them in silence. Just then, the Woonhak Daoist intervened to stop the two and spoke.
“Both of you, calm down. In any case, the Alliance has designated a suspicious group, so we can simply investigate them calmly. If we follow their traces, don’t you think something will turn up?”
‘A suspicious group.’
Come to think of it, that was true.
They had been chasing someone ever since earlier. They had gone around the village gathering information, saying that they had come looking for where those people might be. A little while ago, Dang Hee had even gotten annoyed and asked whether they were really here.
Then who were the people they were looking for?
The group connected to the Mukho Cheolryeong… or, more precisely, the group connected to the Guangjin Cult was…
“We recently received information that one of the religions in the Central Plains appears to have some connection to the Guangjin Cult. It’s called the Sacred Flame Cult.”
‘The Sacred Flame Cult.’
That was what Sahyeon had said. That some promising information had come in. That the leader of the Sacred Flame Cult might be one of the Twelve Beast Kings who had left the original cult.
And he had said this as well. A member of the Sacred Flame Cult had recently appeared in Jinhae. That was why I had come all the way here.
‘If that’s the case.’
What if they had also learned that information and come here?
Could the Murim Alliance Leader not have discovered the information Sahyeon had uncovered? Even if he didn’t know their exact relationship with the Guangjin Cult, couldn’t there have been circumstances that made them suspicious?
And if, in fact, the owner of that Mukho Cheolryeong belonged to the leader of the Sacred Flame Cult…
‘I have to stop them.’
Stop them from finding the Sacred Flame Cult, from finding the Guangjin Cult.
My breathing settled. I swept my gaze over them with an expressionless face.
Three swordsmen, one saber wielder, one using judge’s pens, one using throwing knives and poison, and one specializing in fist-and-foot techniques…
Of the seven, the most troublesome was obviously the poison user. Though I had antidotes from Uncle Eom, the Sichuan Tang Clan was a family well-versed in poison. If I were caught off guard, my bones would melt away without a trace.
If I wanted to ambush them, I had to take out the poison user first. After that, I could quickly deal with the Zhuge and Paeng Ga closest to me, whose weaknesses I had already spotted, and then face the swordsmen one by one.
The Shaolin monk, who was the head disciple of the Arhat Hall, was troublesome, but I could only hope that his young age meant his internal energy was still lacking.
‘As for Leeyeon……’
I might have to deal with him last.
“Is that really the suspicious place? Honestly, judging by the name alone, it just sounds like an ordinary Demonic Path group.”
“How can you tell from a name?”
“Still, if they’re connected to the Demon Cult, you’d expect them to have some grandiose name. Something like the Asura Sect or Blood Luo Clan. But that place…”
Should I bury them in the ground?
Throw them off a cliff?
Then disguise it as the work of another Demonic Path group.
“‘Pleasure Pavilion’?!”
And then… Huh?
I blinked blankly.
W-What did he say?
“Judging by the name alone, doesn’t it sound like some ordinary Demonic Path gang that would do anything for their own pleasure? But are they really connected to the Demon Cult? Could the Alliance Leader have gotten it wrong?”
“Still, the Alliance Leader wouldn’t have suspected some random gang without reason. They might be committing acts that abandon basic morality for the sake of pleasure…”
As I listened to their conversation in a daze, my sense of reality slowly returned.
So the ones they were looking for were…
The Pleasure Pavilion?
Not the Sacred Flame Cult, but the Pleasure Pavilion?
No, seriously, these guys.
‘Say the subject properly!’
Only then did I finally relax my body.
Even after I continued listening to them for a while, all they talked about was the Pleasure Pavilion. They didn’t mention the Sacred Flame Cult.
…Well, they did mention it once.
“Still, it’s strange that they haven’t shown themselves like this. Could something have happened? I heard there was already friction between the Pleasure Pavilion and the Sacred Flame Cult.”
“The Sacred Flame Cult? What kind of heretical religion is that?”
“I’m not sure, but I heard they’re not that bad of a group. They have strange beliefs, but they don’t harm the common people and go around helping those in difficult circumstances.”
“Even so, a heretical religion is a heretical religion. Who knows what kind of strange things they might be doing in secret?”
‘Are they seriously looking down on my cult?’
The Woonhak Daoist went on to explain that it seemed a conflict had arisen between the two groups because the Sacred Flame Cult had been helping people within the Pleasure Pavilion’s territory, but I let it go in one ear and out the other.
That story was interesting too, but… there was something else that mattered more.
‘They don’t seem suspicious of the Sacred Flame Cult, right?’
They didn’t seem particularly interested in the Sacred Flame Cult.
…But it wasn’t time to relax yet.
The fact that they truly possessed a token of the Guangjin Cult couldn’t be denied.
‘I haven’t learned anything yet.’
How had the Murim Alliance obtained that token? What exactly was the other place they were suspicious of?
Moreover, if there really was some grudge between the Pleasure Pavilion and the Sacred Flame Cult, there was a chance they would encounter the Sacred Flame Cult. If they then realized that the truly suspicious people were the Sacred Flame Cult, it would be a disaster.
So I needed a mole. A mole who could stay by their side and feed them false information.
“…So the last person who saw the Pleasure Pavilion said they went toward the mountain, so we searched the mountain, but we haven’t found anything…”
At the Woonhak Daoist’s sigh, Zhuge Ye complained from beside him.
“That’s why I said we should ask Brother Dan! Even without showing him the evidence, if we’d simply asked whether he’d seen the Pleasure Pavilion, we might have gotten some clue…”
At those words, the Paeng clan member shouted angrily.
“What makes you trust that guy?! How do we know he hasn’t joined forces with the Pleasure Pavilion just because they’re both Demonic Path? It was suspicious that we happened to meet him there in the first place. What if all the Demonic Path people are in on it together?”
‘Would we really be in on it together?’
“It really seemed like a coincidence. Brother Dan looked surprised too…. Brother Paeng, why do you get angry whenever Brother Dan comes up? Are you jealous?”
“J-Jea–jealous? Me? What the hell!”
As another argument was about to begin, Dang Hee shook her head.
“Ahh, enough! If we’re going to keep doing this, let’s just go back to the village. It’s going to get dark soon, and I don’t want to sleep rough in the mountains!”
After arguing among themselves for a while longer, they set off again.
Normally, I would have followed them, but I no longer chased after them. Instead, I sat down against a tree.
Then I crossed my arms and closed my eyes.
‘The Pleasure Pavilion, the Mukho Cheolryeong, and the Sacred Flame Cult…’
Neither of the two matters could be taken lightly.
The Mukho Cheolryeong was unquestionably a token of the original cult, and there were also circumstances suggesting that the Sacred Flame Cult was connected to the original cult.
But somehow, I had a feeling.
It felt as though whichever one I followed would eventually lead to the other. Perhaps if I dug deeply enough into either matter, the truth behind the other would naturally be revealed as well.
‘If that’s the case……’
Only then did I open my eyes. It had already grown dark around me. I stared intently into the darkness, then briefly looked around.
There wasn’t a trace of anyone nearby. Everything was quiet.
Only then did I climb down from the tree. Then I began walking without hesitation toward my intended destination.
Toward the village.
***
The next morning.
“Ta-da!”
I spread both arms wide in front of the Investigation Corps.
“Yours truly has arrived!”
Comments (0)