Chapter 356

Chapter 356: Intelligence (1)

Il-mok spoke directly to his attendants. “Regardess of how things play out, the predicament in the north looks like it will be resolved by their own people, so our primary task is to maintain absolute order within our own territories. This must extend to our merchant caravan, along with vital regions like Gansu and Sichuan. Hostile infiltrators will undoubtedly attempt to penetrate our borders to extract information on our operations.”

“The devotees of the Maitreya Luminous Cult genuinely believe our organization is the authentic Maitreya Luminous Cult, so that specific front remains secure. My priority will be to place the operatives who arrived from the Divine Cult on maximum vigilance.”

With those final directives, they concluded their strategic mapping for the immediate future. The attendants exited the chambers in an orderly fashion to execute Il-mok’s commands.

Left completely to his own devices, Il-mok allowed his composed façade to crumble. He leaned his head backward, fixing his gaze upon the rafters with a countenance that laid bare the agonizing stress consuming his thoughts.

There was a singular reality that Il-mok had deliberately withheld from the others during their strategic council.

Every solitary defense mechanism he had just established was nothing more than a superficial fix.

They functioned merely as fleeting, stopgap tactics designed to purchase precious moments. None of these maneuvers possessed the power to permanently prevent an all-out confrontation with the Martial Alliance.

‘It would be ideal if we could sustain this masquerade for another five years or longer, but I am likely just indulging in empty daydreams.’

Because Il-mok had not formally ascended to the position of Cult Leader, he remained entirely ignorant of the final directive his deceased Master had entrusted solely to the Hidden Guard Pavilion Lord.

Yet even without that explicit knowledge, Il-mok’s strategic calculations had brought him to the precise conclusion forged by Hyeokryeon Il-hwi.

Engaging the collective power of the Central Plains using nothing but the current military capability of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was a path straight to total annihilation.

Securing a triumph in such a theater of war would be an agonizing ordeal in its own right, but even if fortune favored them with a win, the likelihood of it becoming a ruinous, pyrrhic victory—where their losses utterly eclipsed their gains—was terrifyingly high.

Owing to his previous existence spent as an entry-level public servant, Il-mok recognized more clearly than anyone that achieving a military conquest and effectively administering the dominated territory were two completely separate challenges.

Having endured a prior life pulling long shifts as a bureaucrat, Il-mok grasped better than most that prevailing in a conflict and actually managing the lands you had captured presented entirely different logistical hurdles. He had operated at the lowest tier of administration, interacting with ordinary citizens day after day, which gave him a crystal-clear understanding of public compliance.

In his previous world, citizens frequently disregarded the directives of public officials even within a nation that had been managed by the identical ruling body for generations. Consequently, if an unfamiliar, widely despised faction suddenly marched in and attempted to dictate terms of governance, there was absolutely no chance the local populace would submit to their authority.

If their true objective was to occupy and successfully oversee the vast expanse of the Central Plains, military supremacy alone would never suffice. They required an immense reserve of surviving administrative personnel after the fighting ceased to actually institutionalize their authority.

This pressing necessity was the exact reason he was exhausting his options to delay the inevitable conflict.

They desperately required an extension of time to cultivate their strength.

“Finding a trustworthy ally would alter the entire equation.”

Il-mok spoke the words aloud to the quiet, vacant chamber.

How much more manageable would their strategy become if their current partnerships could survive the moment their hidden background was brought to light?

While analyzing the potential for structural partnerships, a specific historical narrative he had memorized while preparing for his Korean history examinations drifted into his thoughts.

The chronicle of Goryeo, the ancient dynasty that successfully established a centralized realm by systematically integrating the powerful local gentry.

‘Interesting. Would it be a viable strategy to introduce Hwangbo Se-hui to Eldest Brother?’

He was genuinely weighing the utility of matrimonial pacts to politically bind the influential martial families, who functioned as the Jianghu equivalent of local gentry. Given that his Eldest Brother had not yet taken a wife, he reasoned this might be the perfect window to arrange a household of nearly thirty spouses for him.

‘Then again, a political marriage yields nothing if you are uniting with a faction of vagrants or an order of reclusive Taoists, so that line of thinking leads straight into a wall.’

He let out a soft, self-deprecating scoff at the wild directions his thoughts were taking, and then his facial expression hardened completely.

An unconventional concept had crystallized amidst the mental clutter, and it possessed just enough unorthodox logic that it might actually succeed.

There existed precisely one definitive method to prevent their current pacts from disintegrating, even if they were unmasked as the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

‘We simply require the presence of a far more menacing common adversary.’

The archives of history demonstrated repeatedly that the most efficient way to stop internal coalitions from fracturing was to introduce an overwhelming external danger.

The true obstacle lay in identifying an entity of sufficient malice. From the standpoint of the Orthodox Faction of the Central Plains, who on earth could possibly be viewed as a more sinister antagonist than the Demonic Cult?

‘Utilizing the Blood Cult… frankly, that feels like a reach.’

Granted, the sheer brutality of their actions was undeniable, but from the vantage point of the Orthodox Faction, they did not yet represent a peril severe enough to compel an alliance with the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

That calculation only changed if that concealed Jiangshi of theirs manifested as an existential, apocalyptic threat to the world.

‘Relying on the Imperial Family is similarly unfeasible.’

If his deductions held true and the throne was indeed the hidden hand behind the horrific executions in Guizhou, then their depravity matched that of the Blood Cult, if not exceeding it.

Yet, even that revelation felt insufficient to completely sway the mindset of the Orthodox Faction.

When stripped of justifications, launching a military campaign against the sovereign ruler amounted to unambiguous high treason, regardless of how one attempted to rationalize the action.

‘Considering the reality that we manufactured an entire web of lies regarding our true identities, we are going to require an incident of far greater magnitude. A disaster so profound that it utterly eclipses our deceptions, forcing our partners into a position where they must desperately grasp our hands to survive…’

As he structured these convoluted plots within his mind, Il-mok let out a heavy breath accompanied by a bitter laugh while keeping his gaze locked onto the ceiling above.

“Still, I suppose it is a positive sign that a microscopic sliver of opportunity exists.”

If the sovereign court truly functioned as the architect behind the devastation in Guizhou Province, a monumental enigma remained unresolved.

What conceivable objective could drive them to mastermind such a monstrous atrocity?

And perhaps, that hidden motivation would serve as the definitive piece required to realize the grand design Il-mok was attempting to construct.

Two days afterward.

“We shall begin our journey.”

Hwangbo Ak commenced his departure from Lanzhou, accompanied by the entirety of his immediate retinue. Taoist Un-baek of the Wudang Sect set out along with their group as well.

Il-mok had exerted every effort to perform as an impeccable coordinator, allocating specific intervals throughout their stay to engage in deep discussions with Hwangbo Ak, Hwangbo Yeon, and Un-baek.

He had gone so far as to participate in a martial exchange with Taoist Un-baek, despite the fact that the swordsman’s cultivation was vastly inferior to his own mastery.

He refrained from explicitly lecturing him on internal mechanics, but Il-mok willingly exchanged techniques with him across more than thirty distinct passes. Given Taoist Un-baek’s inherent aptitude, that singular engagement provided more than enough stimulus to trigger a profound breakthrough in his understanding.

To view the matter objectively, Un-baek’s personal capability was remarkably impressive, considering he had successfully broken through to the Peak Realm at merely thirty years of age. It was simply that Il-mok’s personal advancement trajectory was so staggeringly abnormal that an independent thirty-year-old Peak Realm adept appeared utterly mundane to anyone operating within his immediate circle.

Whether his perspective was shaped by that martial exchange or by the undeniable fact that every single devotee of the Maitreya Luminous Cult residing within Lanzhou radiated genuine contentment, Un-baek was departing the gates of Lanzhou with absolute conviction written across his features.

“Precisely as the two young mistresses observed, I have attained absolute certainty that the core populace of the Maitreya Luminous Cult consists of fundamentally righteous individuals, regardless of the slander circulated by the wider martial community.”

He voiced this realization during a casual conversation with Hwangbo Yeon and Hwangbo Se-hui, the two companions with whom he had spent nearly every waking hour over the preceding forty-eight hours.

Had Il-mok been present to witness this exchange, a massive grin would have overtaken his face.

The entire rationale behind his exhaustive efforts to trade blows with Taoist Un-baek had been calculated specifically to cultivate that exact brand of unshakeable allegiance.

Once their departing figures had receded entirely into the distance, Il-mok turned his attention back to his attendants.

“Now that the individuals who demanded our absolute discretion have departed, it is time for me to inspect that particular sector.”

“When you refer to ‘that particular sector,’ which specific location are you intending to visit, Young Master?”

“I am referring to the Faith Education Center.”

During the period when he was actively settling scores with the Hao Clan, the Faith Education Center was an infrastructure he had designed for the explicit purpose of identifying and isolating their covert operatives.

In its initial phase, it operated merely as a rudimentary conditioning ground for raw enlistees, but its structural objective had now undergone a complete transformation.

Presently, it functioned as a secure perimeter where only the most fiercely loyal devotees of the Maitreya Luminous Cult were brought together to be enlightened regarding the true nature of the organization.

The following morning, Il-mok departed Lanzhou and made his way to the hidden perimeter of the Faith Education Center.

With investigative assets from the Martial Alliance tightening their dragnet, this location had transformed into an incredibly volatile asset. A single indiscreet remark from an individual initiated into the secrets guarded here could decimate every ounce of progress they had secured overnight.

Yet concurrently, it was precisely because the external pressure was escalating so rapidly that maintaining this facility was of paramount importance.

In a worst-case scenario, if their true lineage was unmasked far ahead of the timeline Il-mok had calculated, this installation would serve as their ultimate defensive stronghold. Even if the combat units of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult chose to withdraw deep into Xinjiang to evade a confrontation they were unequipped to handle, the devotees conditioned within these walls could remain stationed throughout the Central Plains to function as deep-cover assets.

That specific utility was why he demanded a first-hand assessment.

He required an exact understanding of the psychological conditioning modules being utilized within the facility. He needed absolute certainty that the followers emerging from this curriculum were individuals to whom he could confidently entrust his survival.

Il-mok slipped past the outer perimeter without attracting notice, escorted by one of the primary trainers managing the curriculum to ensure they did not interrupt the active seminar inside.

Guided by the trainer, he arrived at his observation vantage point and looked down upon the scene unfolding in the main hall.

“After the passage of infinite cycles of suffering, the Maitreya stands as the sovereign architect who shall dismantle this broken world to forge it anew.”

A trainer occupied the central elevated platform, passionately driving home the core tenets of their theology.

“Ahhh. O Sovereign Maitreya.”

“We beg you to release us from this mortal agony.”

In the gallery below, the most zealous adherents of the Maitreya Luminous Cult were hanging on every spoken syllable of the presentation with absolute fervor.

“Close your eyes and descend back into the depths of your history. Recall those who systematically crushed your spirit. Those who inflicted unendurable agony upon your lives against your volition.”

“Aaah…”

“The memory is too dark to endure.”

In immediate response to the trainer’s psychological prompt, several individuals squeezed their eyelids shut as tears flowed freely, while others began to shake violently under the weight of remembered terror.

Such was the trauma haunting a woman who had been seized by criminal elements of the Unorthodox Faction and sold into an illegal pleasure house where her autonomy was stripped away, and the exact same despair plagued a middle-aged laborer who had been stripped of his livelihood by predatory lenders enforcing illegal interest rates on capital they had coerced him into accepting.

These broken individuals, whose deep psychological trauma had only recently begun to mend under the care of the Maitreya Luminous Cult, were now weeping openly as they re-experienced their most agonizing memories.

“The savior that our Maitreya Luminous Cult pledges to deliver is a deity who will ruthlessly execute every last one of those oppressors, willingly shoulder the collective transgressions of existence, and burn away the corruption.”

“Aaah…”

“O’ Maitreya!!”

“Sunder our chains of despair!”

When stripped down to its core mechanics, the theology of the Maitreya Luminous Cult was nothing more than the foundational tenets of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult wrapped inside a superficial veneer of Buddhist terminology.

“Therefore, let me put the question to you once more. What fundamental process is required to remake this existence from the ashes?”

“Total destruction.”

“Annihilate the corrupt, and deliver true salvation.”

“The Advent of Maitreya! Salvation for All!!!

And the trainer anchoring the elevated platform was now methodically stripping away that superficial veneer, layer by layer.

“Yet the established authorities of this world brand this necessary destruction as a violation of their sacred laws, labeling our path as pure evil.”

“Never! It is a lie!”

“Maitreya can never be evil!!”

As the congregation cried out in fierce rejection of the statement, the trainer slowly shook his head in negation.

“Inscribe this upon your hearts. Evil is indeed evil. And Maitreya deliberately wraps himself in that terrifying reputation. He claims the title of absolute evil with pride, utilizing that power to crush the hypocritical, lesser evils of this world! He functions as a Demon who thoroughly purifies corruption. The ultimate Demon appointed by the heavens to cleanse this realm. That is Maitreya! That is the Heavenly Demon.”

“Aahhh…”

At the trainer’s definitive pronouncement, the gathered masses shuddered uniformly, as though struck by a collective physical shock.

“Heed my words! We are the chosen instruments who await the savior destined to purge the wickedness of this world! Yet the established order will condemn him as a monster for shattering their corrupt framework, and they will seek to execute us for walking in his shadow! For this exact reason, we must shroud his true identity, proclaiming him as the Maitreya rather than the Heavenly Demon, while we quietly and faithfully await his arrival! Have my words reached your souls!”

“They have! We swear it!”

“Grant us deliverance!!”

As the assembled followers dissolved into a state of spiritual ecstasy throughout the sanctuary, the trainer began striking his traditional wooden instrument in a measured, repetitive cadence, initiating a low, rhythmic intonation.

“The Advent of Maitreya! Salvation for All!!!

“The Advent of Maitreya! Salvation for All!!!

Once the completely transfixed audience adjusted their breathing to mirror his tempo, the sacred mantra rolling from his lips underwent a sudden, radical shift.

“Heavenly Demon Descends. Ten Thousand Demons Obeys.”

“Heavenly Demon Descends!!! Ten Thousand Demons Obeys!!!”

The devotees bellowed the declaration with the absolute limit of their lung capacity, channeling the entirety of their desperation into a collective plea that the systematic torment forced upon their lives would finally be obliterated.

“……”

Il-mok, who had maintained a silent, detached observation of the intense scene from the shadows at the rear of the hall, silently pivoted and exited the perimeter of the Faith Education Center.

It was a profoundly unsettling spectacle to analyze.

Utilizing his advanced perception, Il-mok was capable of verifying with absolute certainty that there was zero mechanical manipulation or coercion involved in their instructional methodology.

They were not administering esoteric narcotics like that deceptive Ghost Valley Master, nor were they physically restraining the subjects and forcing compliance by screaming scripture into their ears.

If the facility had been operating on those dark principles, Il-mok would have immediately intervened, executed the instructional staff, and ordered the entire compound razed to the ground.

What he had just observed was merely the unvarnished truth being laid bare.

At most, there was a high degree of rhetorical sophistication in how the concepts were framed, but even that styling would have failed to resonate with anyone who was not already a deep believer. To an outsider, it would have sounded like the incoherent rants of an unhinged zealot.

That reality was the precise reason he had removed himself from the room without offering a single comment.

‘There is no possible way those psychological symptoms were fabricated.’

The followers packed into that sanctuary were genuinely operating at that level of spiritual devotion.

To ordinary people who had been systematically exploited and discarded by the dominant factions of society, the Maitreya Luminous Cult—and, by structural extension, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult—represented a blinding beacon of hope slicing through their absolute darkness.

To put it plainly, this installation did not exist to enforce brainwashing.

It existed to reveal the ultimate truth to individuals who had already committed their souls to the cause, ensuring they fully understood the absolute necessity of maintaining total operational secrecy.

“Given that tier of spiritual allegiance, the threat of betrayal is the very last variable I need to factor into my calculations.”

As long as the physical coordinates of the Faith Education Center remained completely secure, the infrastructure presented no immediate operational risk.

“The strategy remains perfectly intact, with the sole exception being…”

As Il-mok replayed the entire sequence within his mind, his facial expression settled into a look of mild, profound discomfort.

“I don’t think I can realistically dispute the ‘fanatical’ cult designation anymore.”

The sheer intensity of the congregation’s absolute devotion had left a lingering chill running down his spine that he couldn’t entirely shake off.