Chapter 365

“YOU ABSOLUTE BASTARD!!”

The deafening shout reverberated from somewhere behind, and the Grand Eunuch didn’t dare to turn around. He focused entirely on forcing his legs to move with maximum speed.

Fortunately, his velocity was sufficient.

The Eastern Depot focused heavily on surveillance and assassination, meaning its operatives possessed a highly advanced mastery of lightness skill.

Though he was completely outmatched in a straight sword fight, his swiftness was great enough to prevent Dokyo Ryong from overtaking him. The terrifying prospect of being forced into close-quarters combat with that lunatic would remain a distant worry, provided the interval between them did not decrease.

“I will never allow you to escape!!”

Dokgo Ryong’s vocal cords must have been forged from iron, because the pursuer simply refused to cease his screaming.

“Hah… pant…”

How long had it been since he had exerted himself to such a desperate degree?

Having spent so long within the Realm of Truth, Grand Eunuch Cha had nearly lost the memory of what it felt like to have the metallic taste of blood fill his throat, but the sensation was vivid now. He had been pushing his lightness skill to its absolute limits for hours. This was no longer just a matter of physical exhaustion or burning muscles. The vast reservoirs of internal energy that had seemed completely boundless since his ascension to the Realm of Truth were currently on the verge of total depletion.

“You are not leaving this place alive!!”

Grand Eunuch Cha blocked out the roaring from behind and maintained his sprint.

Suddenly, the Grand Eunuch’s weary eyes dilated with pure excitement.

A horse was ahead.

A lone horse was grazing quietly upon the vast grassland.

It was impossible to tell if the animal had strayed from a local tribe by accident, or if it belonged to one of the nomads they had slaughtered and was simply drifting through the area.

In truth, the Grand Eunuch lacked the mental capacity to care about its origins.

“Hah… hah…”

He lunged toward the beast and managed to throw himself onto its back.

“NEIGH!!”

The creature reared and bucked violently in opposition, but Grand Eunuch Cha channeled his internal energy through his hands, gripping tight with all his might until the beast finally relented.

“Move!!”

He dug his heels in, and the horse dashed forward in his chosen direction.

Only at that moment did he allow himself to steal a glance backward, and the sight made his intestines twist.

Dokgo Ryong was closing in directly behind him.

The horse’s initial resistance had completely erased the distance he had worked so hard to establish.

“I will sever every single one of your limbs!!”

Dokgo Ryong screamed and delivered a massive swing of his greatsword, sending a wave of Force Qi tearing through the air directly toward Cha and the mount beneath him.

“Blast it!!”

Grand Eunuch Cha reached into his dantian and extracted the absolute last drops of his internal energy to launch a counter-blast.

BOOM!!!

A cataclysmic detonation shattered the silence of the wilderness, and the panicked horse surged ahead with a sudden, desperate burst of speed.

Intent on butchering both the animal and the rider, Dokgo Ryong ruthlessly unleashed slice after slice with his massive blade. Realizing full well that he would be finished the moment his mount dropped, Grand Eunuch Cha endured the concussive force and struck back repeatedly, refusing to relent even as the internal shockwaves damaged his own meridians.

“Ugh…”

A stream of crimson trickled from his lip. His internal organs felt as though they had been tossed into a sack and violently disrupted. Yet, he persisted in deflecting Dokgo Ryong’s incoming strikes.

After what seemed like an eternity, the space separating the two began to expand once more.

Dokgo Ryong had exhausted his own internal energy reserves after continuously unleashing force techniques while simultaneously maintaining his high-speed movement.

“YOU EUNUCH DOG!!”

Even as his pace slowed, Dokgo Ryong’s massive bellows continued to shake the skies, allowing the battered Grand Eunuch to exhale a ragged, blood-tinted breath of relief.

Even so, a lingering panic prevented him from relaxing completely, and he kept riding the horse hard until Dokgo Ryong dissolved entirely into the background.

“Hah. Hah.”

Once he confirmed the coast was clear, he finally brought the horse to a halt and crossed his legs to perform breathing techniques to stabilize his chaotic energy. He spent a vast duration of time resting there, completely immersed in his internal cultivation, when an abrupt scream snapped him back to reality with intense dread.

“NOT EVEN THE NETHERWORLD WILL SHIELD YOU, YOU MERCILESS BASTARD!!!”

Dokgo Ryong’s thunderous tone had returned.

Because of the sudden disruption during his deep cultivation, Grand Eunuch Cha came incredibly close to suffering Qi Deviation. He barely managed to bind his internal energy back into place and whipped his head toward the source of the noise, spotting Dokgo Ryong charging directly toward him on horseback.

The martial artists of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult were riding alongside him as well. They had successfully eliminated the lesser eunuchs that Grand Eunuch Cha had abandoned as decoys and had unified with Dokgo Ryong on fresh mounts.

Grand Eunuch Cha threw himself back onto his horse and fled toward the southeast.

“STOP RUNNING!!!”

It became a agonizing, nightmarish ordeal of a journey.

After riding hard for another full half-day, the Grand Eunuch’s captured horse simply collapsed from total physical failure, forcing him to ditch the animal and count on his personal lightness skill once more. Fortunately, the steeds of the Demonic Cult operatives were similarly spent, leveling the playing field.

From that point onward, the pursuit shifted to a footrace.

For an entire day, both individuals pushed their physical and spiritual arts to the absolute maximum.

The surviving members of the Demonic Cult dropped further and further behind until they faded completely from view. However, so long as Dokgo Ryong continued to advance, stopping was out of the question.

Once their internal stores of energy were fully drained, the supernatural chase degraded into a grueling, primitive footrace.

They simply kept running without consuming a single bite of food or obtaining a moment of rest.

His consciousness was beginning to waver, yet even through the mental fog, those murderous screams continued to echo within his ears.

“YOU WILL NEVER GET AWAY FROM ME!”

By this stage, any thoughts regarding his objective or securing the favor of the Supreme Eunuch had been completely erased from his mind. The singular instinct that prevented Grand Eunuch Cha from collapsing was the desperate, raw urge to distance himself from Dokgo Ryong and stay alive.

Gore and grime blanketed his form, but to make matters worse, he was forced to continue running even as his bodily functions failed and he soiled his own garments.

He compelled his legs to move like an animated corpse.

After navigating the precipice of death for what felt like an infinite span, a recognizable structure materialized in the distance ahead.

“Hah. Hah.”

It felt like catching sight of the celestial gates of paradise itself. The Grand Eunuch ran blindly toward the far-off stone structures.

“YOU TRASH!!!”

Dokgo Ryong bellowed and moved to give chase, but then his eyes registered what lay across the plain and he skidded to a complete halt.

Positioned ahead was a massive, heavily reinforced military outpost established by the Imperial Army specifically to hold off barbarian incursions.

He let out a harsh, aggressive breath through his nostrils.

“Hmph.”

Dokgo Ryong had driven his own physical vessel well past its thresholds to hunt the evasive eunuch down.

His dantian was entirely drained of any internal energy, and his muscles were failing to respond correctly.

It would be an entirely different story if he were at peak physical strength, but Dokgo Ryong understood perfectly well that launching an assault on that fortress in his current state was nothing short of a suicide mission.

Though his inherently volatile temper and the decades of cumulative side effects from training in his Demonic Art caused him to behave like a wild madman, he was entirely devoid of stupidity.

He was no longer a slave to the madness of his own Demonic Art.

‘I would willingly give my life for the sake of the Divine Cult. But throwing it away inside that outpost right now would be foolish and completely useless.’

He ceased his advance. Then, he unloosed a final, earth-shattering shout utilizing the absolute maximum of his remaining lung capacity.

“I DO NOT CARE IF IT TAKES DECADES! REMEMBER MY WORDS, YOU SNIVELING DOG OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE! NO MATTER THE TIME OR THE PLACE, MY BLADE WILL FIND YOUR THROAT! SO YOU HAD BETTER KEEP THAT NECK OF YOURS PRISTINE UNTIL THAT DAY ARRIVES!!!”

Upon hearing that final scream, Grand Eunuch Cha, who was dragging his broken body toward the safety of the fortress walls, shuddered in absolute terror.

Concurrently, a separate group was making its journey into the region of Lanzhou.

The majority of them, regardless of gender, possessed exceptionally large and powerful builds.

Nearly every single individual in the group, both male and female, displayed remarkably broad, heavily muscled physiques.

These individuals comprised the top tier elites of the Hwangbo Family of Shandong.

Hwangbo Ak, the patriarch of the Hwangbo Family, alongside his two daughters, observed the sights of Lanzhou, a city they had not set foot in for close to a year, and directed their steps toward the scripture hall belonging to the Maitreya Luminous Cult.

Upon their arrival, the disciples of the Cult were already stationed outside to escort them into the interior.

“Patriarch. The Incarnation of Maitreya is expecting your arrival.”

Taking only Hwangbo Yeon and Hwangbo Se-hui into the building with him, Hwangbo Ak followed the attendants into a secluded inner chamber that had been set aside for their arrival.

Inside the room, the Beggar King and the Little Tiger Beggar were already taking their positions.

Directly beside them sat the leader of the Qingcheng sect along with Taoist Master Cheongmok. Furthermore, the Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal of the Wudang sect was present alongside Taoist Un-baek.

Given that the Hwangbo Family operated out of Shandong, the other leaders had already gathered in Lanzhou ahead of time and had been waiting for their arrival to officially commence the council.

“I offer my sincerest appreciation to everyone here for undertaking this long journey.”

Observing that every crucial leader was finally gathered, Il-mok pressed his fists together and offered a respectful greeting to the assembled martial masters.

“What exactly was the emergency that required you to assemble us all in this fashion? Have your people uncovered fresh information regarding the Blood Cult?”

The Qingcheng Leader was the first to voice the question.

His organization had spent the better part of a year pursuing the leads provided by the Maitreya Luminous Cult in an attempt to locate the Blood Cult’s path, yet they had produced nothing substantial. The remaining groups were experiencing the exact same lack of progress, a reality written clearly across the countenances of everyone staring at Il-mok.

“To be perfectly candid, our Maitreya Luminous Cult has also been unable to locate any direct footprints of the Blood Cult. However, during our investigations, we crossed paths with evidence of something far more sinister.”

“What could possibly be more sinister than the Blood Cult?”

“Good heavens, please do not tell me you have uncovered the path of the Demonic Cult?”

Their inquiries were intense, but Il-mok maintained his composure and proceeded with his explanation.

“To begin, as I have previously mentioned, our Maitreya Cult is completely convinced that the Blood Cult deliberately engineered the illusion of their own destruction as a strategy of misdirection. Yet, that specific point is where our doubts initially took root. Why would they execute that horrific slaughter in Guizhou Province of all places if their true objective was to slip into the shadows?”

A handful of the leaders tilted their heads in confusion, while several others nodded slowly as the fundamental contradiction became clear to them.

“Well, they are the Blood Cult. Is it not their standard practice to slaughter populations for the sake of their dark rituals and forbidden sorceries?” Hwangbo Ak voiced the collective thought on behalf of the gathered masters.

The vast majority of martial artists had shared that exact perspective, which was precisely why no one had thought to challenge the narrative when it occurred. The Blood Cult executing a mass slaughter was terrifying, but it was certainly within the realm of expectations for their organization.

“If you take a moment to look back at the political environment of the Central Plains during that period, their choices make absolutely no sense for their goals. While the leaders present in this room did not participate, there were certainly multiple organizations utilizing the threat of the Blood Cult as a convenient excuse to launch territorial wars against one another back then, were there not?”

A few individuals grimaced at the memory while others made clicking noises with their tongues in profound disgust. Their disapproval was not aimed at Il-mok, but rather at the avaricious organizations that had acted so shamefully during a global emergency.

“They possessed the ultimate opening to systematically dismantle the martial world while it was fractured by internal strife. Instead of capitalizing on such a perfect scenario, they abandoned the opportunity merely to perpetrate a slaughter, meaning the Blood Cult must have obtained an immense prize in exchange. An objective such as finalizing the creation of the Jiangshi they failed to complete during the Sichuan slaughter, or perhaps some alternative blood ritual. If that is the case, I must ask this. Why are they continuing to conceal themselves after going through such extreme measures to finish it?”

Only at that moment did the gathered masters within the chamber comprehend that something was deeply wrong.

Il-mok pressed forward.

“Consequently, we attempted to analyze the problem from the opposite direction. What if the slaughter was not the work of the Blood Cult at all, but rather the action of an unaligned third party? Operating under that theory, we conducted a thorough investigation of the territory surrounding Guizhou Province where the killings occurred, and we uncovered the distinct signature of a particular organization.”

The gaze of every single martial arts master in the room sharpened instantly as they focused entirely on Il-mok’s revelation.

“Who was responsible?”

“Initially, we were left without answers as well. But as we mapped out the path, we eventually came face-to-face with the perpetrators. They were palace eunuchs.”

“The Eastern Depot!!”

A multitude of the leaders stood up abruptly from their seats the moment the word ‘eunuchs’ hung in the air.

Il-mok offered a nod of confirmation, prompting the Beggar King to inquire. “Why under the sun would the Eastern Depot mastermind an atrocity of that nature?”

Not just the Beggar King, but the alternative leaders as well wore expressions that blended total confusion with outright skepticism.

“We found their underlying reasons completely baffling as well, which is precisely why we refused to stop tracking the Eastern Depot’s internal movements. Though a significant number of our operatives unfortunately lost their lives during the investigation, we succeeded in gathering extremely critical intelligence.”

The room fell completely silent at that statement, though their quietness was merely a silent demand for Il-mok to deliver the core information.

Il-mok then reached inside his traditional garments and produced a collection of correspondence, laying them out upon the surface of the table.

These were the exact same messages that the Dark Shadow Pavilion had spilled immense blood to seize from the couriers of the Eastern Depot.

“These communications were seized through direct, violent encounters with the Eastern Depot. By comparing these specific records against the testimonies of a small number of eunuchs we were fortunate enough to take alive, we succeeded in decoding their secret cipher to a notable degree.”

Finally, Il-mok extracted the specific missive that Seo Wan-pyeong had sacrificed his life to secure and placed it down upon the wooden surface.

“Furthermore, this particular text was penned by the Alliance Leader Cheok Pae-myeong himself. If anyone present is familiar with the signature brushwork of the Alliance Leader, you are entirely welcome to inspect it for yourself.”

The mere mention of the supreme head of the Martial Alliance sent a secondary shockwave of disbelief through the assembled group.

In the middle of the rising tension, the Beggar King stepped forward to carefully examine the text of Cheok Pae-myeong’s message.

“The written message itself contains nothing out of the ordinary, but the stroke work is completely identical to the hand of the Alliance Leader.”

“We intercepted this document while keeping tabs on the operatives of the Eastern Depot. Suspecting that it might be encrypted with their specialized cipher, we ran it through the translation process, and the resulting text was shocking, to say the very least.”

“What exactly did the decoded text reveal?”

“It was an explicit directive to dispatch an operative into northern territories to unearth the underlying vulnerabilities of our Maitreya Luminous Cult.”

Upon hearing this statement, the perspective among the gathered listeners fractured severely.

While certain individuals were profoundly startled and felt inclined to trust the information, alternative leaders made absolutely no effort to mask their profound doubt.

“To be completely honest, this stretches the boundaries of belief.”

“Does this data not appear remarkably convenient for the survival of the Maitreya Luminous Cult?”

The Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal of the Wudang sect and the leader of the Qingcheng sect voiced their doubts one after the other.

Even the Beggar King pulled back slightly, visibly striving to preserve an attitude of absolute neutrality.

“You are completely free to verify the cipher keys against the alternative recovered Eastern Depot materials currently resting on this table. However, I did not bring this matter to light merely to argue that Alliance Leader Cheok Pae-myeong is a covert asset of the throne. As you both have quite accurately noted, such a claim is far too convenient for our organization.”

“???”

Discerning that this massive disclosure was not even the primary objective of the gathering, deep confusion spread across the faces of everyone seated around the table.

“As I stated moments ago, we followed the trail of the Eastern Depot. And as completely preposterous as it may sound, their intelligence network did not terminate at the threshold of the Martial Alliance. It penetrated deeply into the fabric of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult as well.”

Il-mok refused to pause there.

He went on to explain that their counter-espionage efforts had brought to light even more unbelievable realities.

Struck by a continuous barrage of world-altering disclosures, the martial masters within the room stood perfectly still, their expressions paralyzed with sheer astonishment.

“Hold on, are you asserting that the Eastern Depot has been actively manipulating both the Martial Alliance and the Demonic Cult simultaneously?

“That is the absolute truth.”

“An entity would have to be completely unhinged to find any logical purpose in doing such a thing.”

“Precisely. Why would the Sovereign go to the trouble of embedding spies within the structure of the Martial Alliance when we already exist as his legal subjects? Furthermore, what could the throne possibly harvest by seizing control of both entities at the same time? The Demonic Cult would never offer its submission to the Imperial Court. Additionally, the ancient covenant of non-interference strictly divides the administration of the state from the affairs of the martial world. What practical utility is there in maintaining an imperial puppet as the head of the Alliance?”

As theories and arguments were traded from every section of the chamber, Il-mok stood in absolute silence and permitted them to exhaust their dialogue.

Then, taking advantage of a sudden lull in the conversation, he dropped his central question.

“Our leadership group shared that exact line of thinking initially. However, I ask that you look at the scenario from a fundamentally different perspective. What if the Imperial Court embedded deep-cover assets inside both the Demonic Cult and the Martial Alliance with absolutely no desire to govern them from the very beginning?”

While the assembly looked on in bewilderment, struggling to comprehend the meaning behind the query.

The Beggar King, whose entire existence had been dedicated to synthesizing scattered pieces of raw data into coherent narratives, suddenly spoke in a low murmur as the color drained completely from his face.

“The Imperial Court was organizing the absolute liquidation of every single practitioner within the martial world.”

Those possessing minds sharp enough to catch the thread grasped the terrifying reality instantly from that single observation alone.

“Merciful heavens…”

As absolute panic rippled through the inner sanctuary, the Beggar King, who had been the first to synthesize the pieces, bunched his eyebrows together.

It was because his mind had settled on a highly peculiar detail.

“Who exactly are you people?”

As the rest of the masters looked confused by his sudden, aggressive questioning, the Beggar King pushed the matter further.

“I do not utter these words out of personal vanity, but our Beggars’ Gang is universally recognized as the absolute apex of information networking within the martial world. Even so, your organization’s surveillance apparatus completely overshadows our own. For a spiritual movement that essentially materialized out of thin air within the Central Plains a mere handful of years ago, your operational resources are absurdly disproportionate.”

Beneath the surface of his heavy disguise, Il-mok silently repressed a profound sigh.

It was because he had anticipated to a certain degree that the conversation would inevitably arrive at this juncture.

The inquiry struck a chord with the remaining masters in the room, and they all shifted their attention toward Il-mok, their countenances mirroring the exact same unspoken demand for answers.

Il-mok deliberately swept his eyes across the interior of the room, locking eyes with each individual leader one after the other.

Then, he brought his hand upward and steadily peeled away the visage of the furious Heavenly King that had kept his true identity concealed from the world.

Thud.