Chapter 363

Chapter 363: Truth (3)

“S-so, does this mean the alliance can be maintained?”

Il-mok gave a small nod in response to Jeong Hyeon’s question.

“We actually have a real chance of keeping the alliance together now. All because we’ve just gained a colossal common enemy, the Imperial Family.”

No matter how loudly the Orthodox Faction preached their pact of non-interference between the martial world and the court, they had never actually viewed the court as a literal enemy.

But if it came to light that the Imperial Family had been scheming to massacre martial artists, they’d have no choice but to resist, if only to survive.

The maids’ expressions shifted to understanding as Il-mok explained, but tilted their heads in unison a moment later.

According to his logic, the biggest problem they faced had essentially solved itself.

So why had Il-mok been wearing that complicated look on his face until just now?

“Then what’s troubling you, Big Brother?”

“C-could it be that you’re worried about how to actually fight the Imperial Family?”

As Hyeokryeon Seon-ah and Jeong Hyeon took turns asking, Il-mok gave his answer.

“I’m trying to figure out when and how to reveal all of this.”

“C-can’t you just send it in a letter?”

Il-mok shook his head at that.

“To bring up the Imperial Family’s plot, we also have to expose that Deung Bi was their spy. On top of that, the Alliance Leader’s letter was written in the Eastern Depot’s cipher. To decode it, we’d have to reveal the investigation records of the Dark Shadow Pavilion in the Eastern Depot. In the end, exposing this conspiracy means exposing who we really are.”

The maids finally understood exactly what was eating at him.

Words were tricky things.

The same thing could land completely differently depending on how it was said, and it could change again depending on the mood or situation of whoever was listening.

From the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s perspective which has been deceiving their allies for years, they needed to choose the right moment to come clean and bring those allies to their side. If they just recklessly blurted it out, they risked shattering the alliance with their own two hands.

Just then, Jin Hayeon raised a question.

“Young Master, what is your reason for clinging so hard to an alliance with those hypocrites from the Orthodox Faction? Is it for the sake of our cult, or… could it be because of that woman from the Hwangbo Family?”

Struck speechless by the wildly unexpected question, Il-mok went blank for a moment before breaking into laughter.

“Hahaha. Miss Jin, it seems you really are getting close to Transcendence. I can’t believe you’re actually cracking jokes now!”

Jin Hayeon simply kept her expression blank as he laughed.

It was true that her cultivation had edged closer to Transcendence, and that her emotions had returned to some degree.

But she hadn’t been joking.

If anything, what she’d felt was closer to anxiety or maybe jealousy.

Completely oblivious to her complicated inner turmoil, Il-mok stifled his chuckles and continued explaining.

“It’s obviously for the Divine Cult’s sake. Besides, if we end up revealing our true identities and have to cement the alliance through a political marriage, the one marrying the Hwangbo Family’s precious daughter wouldn’t be me. It would be my Eldest Brother who has ascended to the throne of the Cult Leader.”

“Ah…”

Only then did Jin Hayeon realize she’d overlooked that detail entirely, and a soft sound of surprise slipped past her lips.

Although it was incredibly subtle, a faint blush of embarrassment crept onto her pale cheeks.

She was embarrassed with herself for losing control of her newly returned emotions and blurting out such a stupid question.

Luckily for her, Jin Hayeon’s subtle reaction went completely unnoticed.

This was mostly because the rest of the maids had also completely forgotten about First Young Master and their reactions ended up being even bigger than hers.

Seeing their shocked faces, Il-mok awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

‘Did they all think I was desperate for this alliance because of Hwangbo Se-hui?’

Feeling strangely self-conscious, Il-mok quickly tossed out a lighthearted joke to clear the air.

“Not that I haven’t thought about it, actually. Eldest Brother is still unmarried, so I genuinely considered whether setting him up in a political marriage would be the best way to secure an ironclad alliance. But realistically, I can’t exactly arrange him to marry a celibate Taoist or a beggar, so the idea was pretty useless.”

“So outside of the Hwangbo Family, a marriage alliance isn’t really feasible.”

“Seems that way.”

Having lightened the mood just enough, Il-mok turned his gaze toward the window and muttered under his breath.

“It sure would be nice if the Blood Cult would just pop their heads out and leave a trace for us.”

If evidence emerged that the Blood Cult hadn’t truly been destroyed, revealing the truth about the Imperial Family would become a whole lot easier.

He could easily use the lingering threat of the Blood Cult as the perfect excuse to tighten the alliance, and since Il-mok was the one who originally proved the Imperial Court’s Jiangshi was a fake, his credibility would skyrocket.

Somewhere in the Central Plains, within a cave that served as a storehouse for the Heavenly Blood Corpses and as the hiding place of the Blood Cult Leader.

“How are our followers?”

Hearing the Blood Cult Leader’s question, the subordinate who had come to report pressed himself flat against the ground and answered.

“Following your orders, they are all lying low and staying out of sight.”

“Good. Until those Orthodox hypocrites start killing each other. Until I give the order, no one is to make a move. Is that understood?”

“I will make sure to issue the enforce warning.”

Hearing the subordinate’s fierce pledge, the Blood Cult Leader gritted his teeth and glared out into the dark abyss of the cave.

He had originally planned to lie low and gather his strength for a while, but he never intended to be forced into such a pathetic state.

And out of nowhere, explosive rumors claiming ‘The Blood Cult is still alive!’ had suddenly begun sweeping across the Central Plains like wildfire.

Startled by this, the Blood Cult Leader issued a strict warning not to move carelessly under any circumstances.

Forced to cower in the shadows, they spent a long time scraping together intelligence from the outside world. And it was only recently that the Blood Cult finally managed to track down the source of the damnable rumors.

“The Maitreya Luminous Cult…”

The Blood Cult Leader muttered the name with his eyes swirling in crimson light.

He wanted to rip them apart because the rumors currently throwing a wrench in his plans had been deliberately manufactured by the Maitreya Luminous Cult.

Actually, no. It wasn’t just this one time.

Looking back on their recent history, every single plan the Blood Cult had set into motion had been unraveled because of that damn Maitreya Luminous Cult. Especially the Sichuan massacre, which should have been a grand spectacle of their revival.

But surprisingly, the news flowing into his dark cave wasn’t all bad.

Word had also reached them that Martial Alliance Leader Cheok Pae-myeong and the self-proclaimed Incarnation of the Maitreya Luminous Cult were at each other’s throats.

And as it happened, those two were precisely the people the Blood Cult Leader considered his greatest enemies.

“The day those two wretches go to war with each other… that will be the day I announce the revival of the Blood Cult. I will quench my thirst with their blood, and I will complete the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi!!”

A few days later, Il-mok sat down and penned several letters.

One was addressed to the main headquarters in Xinjiang, while the others were meant for the Hwangbo Family, the Qingcheng Sect, the Wudang Sect, and the Beggars’ Gang, respectively.

The maids and Seo Wan-pyeong watched as he wrote, and it was Seo Wan-pyeong who stepped forward to ask.

“Have you made up your mind?”

“Yes. The Imperial Family already knows the letter was taken from them, so dragging this out won’t do us any good either.”

Il-mok knew that once the Imperial Court mobilized its forces in earnest, keeping the secret connection between the Maitreya Luminous Cult and the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult hidden would be next to impossible.

He’d waited a few days, hoping something from the Blood Cult would surface, but he couldn’t wait forever.

Listening closely to their exchange, Jin Hayeon interjected with a question.

“And if they refuse to believe your warnings, Young Master, what is your plan?”

Faced with the grim possibility of the alliance falling apart, Il-mok offered a self-deprecating smile.

“I’m considering abandoning this place and pulling back. Entrenching ourselves in here and fighting the Orthodox Faction would be no different from doing the Imperial Family’s work for them.”

Now that they knew the Imperial Family was angling for both sides to bleed each other dry, there was no way around it. Seo Wan-pyeong and the maids were all aware of this and looked at Il-mok with grim expressions.

“All the work you put into building this place, and it may come to nothing. What a shame.”

“Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that, Third Brother.”

Seo Wan-pyeong nodded, then held out his right hand.

“Hand over the letter for Eldest Brother to me. I was planning to visit the main headquarters anyway.”

“Having you step in is really reassuring, Third Brother.”

Il-mok passed him the letter meant for the headquarters.

After Seo Wan-pyeong departed with the letter, Il-mok summoned the Maitreya Luminous Cult’s warriors and handed each of the four remaining letters to them separately.

While those messengers scattered to the four winds of the Central Plains to deliver Il-mok’s words, a group of around fifteen people was crossing the northern border of Shaanxi Province and heading into the Northern Steppes.

Upon entering the vast grasslands, the group immediately adjusted its heading and marched straight west.

At first, they came across ordinary nomadic encampments near the Shaanxi border, but after several days of riding west, they finally encountered a nomadic settlement that had been fully converted by the Maitreya Luminous Cult.

The group had taken a similar approach of disguising themselves as merchants, except their methods were entirely different.

“Slaughter half of them, and cripple the rest. But make sure you capture the bastard wearing the mask alive.”

Instead of carefully gathering information, they chose a violent method.

They slipped into the nomadic settlement under the pretense of lodging for the night, then suddenly drew their weapons and threw themselves at the nomads.

The completely blindsided nomads desperately fought back, but it was a completely one-sided slaughter.

Slash.

The crude scimitars and wooden spears of the nomads were effortlessly sheared in half by blades surging with lethal Sword and Saber Qi.

“Everyone, evacuate immediately!!”

As the warriors fell one after another, the horrified tribal chief frantically began hauling the children onto the backs of horses.

Nomad children learned to ride from the time they were young, and he trusted that even the smallest of them could ride far enough to escape.

But before even half the children had been sent off —

Slash.

The warriors who’d been holding the attackers back were all cut down and crumpled to the ground.

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

The Maitreya Luminous Cult’s missionary who had been helping the chieftain evacuate the children realized things had gone wrong and murmured the final invocation through clenched teeth.

Crack.

The poison capsule he’d kept wedged between his teeth shattered, and the poison spilled down his throat.

“Ugh…”

He coughed up blood and collapsed, and the faces of those who had been rushing to capture him alive twisted in frustration.

“Son of a bitch!!”

As the men in blood-red robes cursed furiously, the elder who had been giving orders cut them off with a sharp bark.

“What are you all doing?! Go after the ones who escaped!”

His voice was surprisingly shrill for an old man, as though he had never gone through puberty.

Startled by the old man’s furious orders, the subordinates immediately executed their lightness skills, blurring across the plains to chase down the fleeing children on horseback.

Meanwhile, the old man remained behind to secure the surviving nomads.

Flick.

Each time the elder flicked a finger through the air, the women and children still alive in the settlement crumpled to the ground one after another.

He wasn’t killing them, but merely sealing their acupoints.

And roughly an hour or so later, the ones who’d given chase returned with the captured children.

“Did you get all of them?”

One of the men hesitated before stammering out a reply.

“…The child who fled first got too far ahead. We couldn’t catch him.”

Before he’d even finished speaking, the elder slapped him across the face.

Smack.

“Useless.”

After making an example of the man, the elder swept his gaze across the rest and spoke.

“The penalty for failing this time will be dealt after the mission is done, since handing it out now would only get in the way. However, if you wish to keep your heads attached to your shoulders, you’d better make up for it with a bigger contribution. Understood?”

“Yes, Grand Eunuch!”

The moment their answer came, the one called the Grand Eunuch issued his next order.

“Interrogate them. Find out everything there is to know about the Maitreya Luminous Cult.”

With a burning gleam in their eyes, the subordinates immediately descended upon the captives and began the torture.

The agonized screams of the children who had failed to escape and the women left in the settlement rang out without pause across the wide open plains.

Even though they were torturing children and women, not one of them showed the slightest hesitation or a shred of pity.

Life in the Imperial Palace meant dying over a single careless word or a misstep and no one is an exception to that. And the very men here were the ones who made a practice of seizing on exactly those who slip to carry out torture and murder.