Chapter 451

Chapter 451
## Chapter 451. The Definition of Justice (6)

—

The envoy from the Martial Alliance abandoned their intended carriages and attendants, choosing instead to push forward at breakneck speed with only their elite members. Ever since they departed the Tae-eul Sect’s grand celebration upon hearing the revelations from Jin So-un, this premier journey of the Alliance Leader and the Chief Strategist had devolved into total chaos.

The group pressed on toward the Martial Alliance without pausing for breath. Given that every member was a highly skilled martial arts master, none betrayed any outward signs of fatigue, yet the mood remained profoundly dark. To ensure they traveled by the absolute shortest route, they bypassed every single inn they had previously booked, electing instead to sleep beneath the stars each night.

Observing the rigid, stony expression on Hyeok Mu-gang’s face, Zhuge So-myeong broke the silence.

“Try not to weigh your mind too heavily with worry.”

“…….”

“I have dispatched messages to both the Nanjing branch and the Suzhou branch, meaning reinforcement will arrive swiftly.”

Despite these comforting words from Zhuge So-myeong, the tension on Hyeok Mu-gang’s face did not dissipate.

“I would prefer to ride out and handle this personally at this very moment……”

“Do not entertain such thoughts for even a second.”

Zhuge So-myeong intervened with absolute finality.

“You would be burning down the family estate just to rid it of a few pests. Were the Alliance Leader to make a move right now, local power lords across every province would seize the chaos as a green light to act entirely according to their own ambitions.”

In truth, what had been their original reason for moving together despite knowing their actions would draw intense scrutiny? It was to excise the infected tissue while keeping broader political movements firmly in check. If the Alliance Leader and his strategist deviated from their path now, there was no telling what kind of excuse would be manufactured or how devastating a massacre it might provoke. Such was the volatile nature of politics.

“…….”

Hyeok Mu-gang stared ahead, looking as though he still couldn’t fully stomach this ruthless political landscape, despite navigating it for decades. Who could truly find serenity in a dilemma like this? Even Zhuge So-myeong, who prided himself on orchestrating movements from above the heads of the ruling class as the Chief Strategist, found this current crisis incredibly difficult to digest.

“It is completely unacceptable for the Mosan Sect to be wiped out right when an inevitable confrontation with the Demonic Cult is looming on the horizon.”

“I am well aware of that reality.”

Even so, in this exact moment, a brutal and immediate calculation had to be made.

“If I were forced to make a choice between the survival of the Zhuge Clan and the Mosan Sect, I would pick the Mosan Sect without a single shred of hesitation.”

“!”

Hyeok Mu-gang gasped, visibly shaken by Zhuge So-myeong’s chilling declaration. At that exact moment, he was reminded of a dark truth he occasionally had to face: possessing ultimate authority was not about reaching a peak where one could achieve anything, but rather standing in a place where one had to carry the crushing burden of deciding who must be thrown to the wolves.

“However, the Alliance Leader rushing to the Mosan Sect right now will only trigger an even greater loss of life.”

On the flip side, it remained a confusing premise. If the sect held such vital importance, shouldn’t their immediate salvation be the absolute priority?

“……What exactly do you mean by that?”

“The reason is simple: a traitor is operating from within the Execution Squad.”

“What did you say?”

Unlike Hyeok Mu-gang, whose jaw dropped in sheer disbelief, Zhuge So-myeong’s expression grew dangerously dark.

“The truth struck me the moment the message reached us. Someone deliberately leaked the Mosan Sect onto the Kill List, a document that should have been guarded with the highest level of secrecy.”

“Who would dare commit such treason……!”

This particular initiative required the absolute highest degree of discretion. While the persecution of unorthodox sects via fabricated personal grievances was strictly outlawed by the Alliance Leader’s explicit decree, they were currently hunting down and putting to death those within the orthodox White Path who secretly practiced and analyzed forbidden arts. Should the details of this purge leak to the public, a chaotic frenzy would erupt, with every faction turning a blind eye to their friends while butchering their rivals to serve their own hidden agendas.

Because this exact disaster had repeated itself time and again throughout their long, bloody history, Zhuge So-myeong had taken every conceivable precaution. He had structured the task around specific departments of the Inspection Hall and executed the orders utilizing only the Black Coffins. Furthermore, an independent Execution Squad had been put together specifically to offer reinforcement.

Even though he had implemented so many protective measures and vetting processes to guarantee security, an entity that should have never been targeted for assassination had been marked for death anyway. The only logical conclusion was that an insider had compromised them.

“The real dilemma is identifying which faction they truly answer to.”

“Their faction?”

Hyeok Mu-gang frowned in confusion. Why would their background matter so much in a life-or-death crisis like this?

“It would actually be manageable if they had engineered this solely to elevate the status of their own circle.”

“How can you say it wouldn’t matter! This act alone is……”

Zhuge So-myeong gave a firm, dismissive shake of his head. Had they deployed these underhanded tactics merely to advance their own allies, this blunder could easily be turned into a flawless political weapon to dismantle them. However,

“I mean it is insignificant when compared to a far more terrifying hazard.”

“A more terrifying hazard?”

Zhuge So-myeong exhaled a long, heavy breath.

“What if the masterminds behind this betrayal do not belong to the Righteous Assembly, the White Path Assembly, or the Twelve Peaks and Stars?”

“W-What are you implying by that……!”

“Infiltrating and nurturing an asset takes decades and astronomical sums of wealth. This is precisely why we have never spent sleepless nights worrying about infiltrators sent by the Four Black Lotus Alliance, the coalition of the dark path.

As Zhuge So-myeong laid out his reasoning, Hyeok Mu-gang’s expression turned as rigid as stone. Up until this point, he had only ever focused on threats originating from the outside, never once pausing to consider that the house could be rotting from within.

“In contrast, we are currently the ones who have successfully embedded assets inside the Four Black Lotus Alliance. The Heavenly Eye Pavilion and the Inspection Hall are working hand in hand to insert eyes and ears as deep as possible into the hierarchy of the Four Black Lotus Alliance. Yet…… that initiative is still going to require a massive amount of time.”

Hyeok Mu-gang found himself completely tongue-tied. The words simply would not come.

“The Hall Masters governing the Inspection Hall, the elite of the Black Coffins, and every operative within the Execution Squad—all of them have cleared rigorous internal loyalty checks on multiple occasions. On paper, they are completely beyond reproach.”

Zhuge So-myeong paused for a brief moment, his eyes shifting into a piercing, icy glare.

“Yet…… our armor has been pierced.”

And for the briefest instant, his unshakeable composure trembled.

“And if the entity that slipped through that vulnerability belongs neither to an internal rival nor the Four Black Lotus Alliance……”

“……!”

Confronted with a horrifying reality he did not even want to acknowledge, the hairs on his neck stood up as cold shivers raced across his skin. This ceased to be a localized failure of the Black Coffins and the Inspection Hall. It meant the enemy’s reach had already penetrated the most secure, innermost sanctum of the Martial Alliance.

“W-What kind of madness is this……”

“I am merely speaking of a possibility. But if that possibility is real……”

A deep note of hopeless despair crept into Zhuge So-myeong’s voice.

“The Martial Alliance is currently facing the absolute deadliest threat it has encountered since its inception.”

Hyeok Mu-gang’s thoughts ground to a complete, stunned halt.

The razor-sharp aura of malice that had been slicing through the air began to recede. The stifling weight that had crushed down upon them and the raw bloodlust that made their skin crawl slowly drifted away.

Those who had spent the crisis shielding the children and their younger martial siblings while barely clinging to consciousness began to move. The young ones, who had spent the ordeal covering their ears and squeezing their eyes tight, gradually emerged from their paralysis, suddenly aware of the immense physical strain that had overtaken their bodies.

“S-Sa-jeo, I can barely draw a breath.”

“Oh! Oh…… I-I am so sorry.”

Deep, red imprints had been dug into the younger disciple’s shoulders. How could the hands of a young woman who had spent her entire existence handling nothing but literature and calligraphy be capable of such a brutal grip? It was the raw physical proof of her desperate, instinctive urge to keep her younger martial brother safe in the jaws of death. The boy, who had been squeezed so fiercely that his ribs throbbed with pain, felt tears welling up in his eyes—not from the physical discomfort, but from the overwhelming devotion of his *Sa-jeo* who had tried to shield him with her life.

“Are we…… are we actually alive……?”

The chorus of agonized shrieks had finally quieted down just moments prior. The blazing inferno consuming the various pavilions still roared violently, but the terrible sounds of people drawing their final breath in agony had ceased.

“I…… I honestly do not know.”

“…….”

“Remain hidden here for just a moment. I am going to step out and assess the situation……”

“You must not, *Sa-jeo*. Let me be the one to go and look……”

“Ensuring the safety of our youngest *Sa-je* is our primary duty.”

“…….”

Faced with the unyielding tone of his usually gentle *Sa-jeo*, the young disciple’s face hardened with worry.

“……If you fail to walk back through that door within one *il-gak*, I am coming out to find you.”

Watching the young boy, whose face hadn’t even grown its first whiskers, trying so hard to present a brave, manly front, the *Sa-jeo* momentarily forgot the horror of their circumstances and allowed a ghost of a smile to grace her lips.

“I hear you. I shall return shortly, so please remain here just a bit longer.”

*Kiii-ik—*

The groan of the door hinges, a sound she normally never gave a second thought to, pierced the silence with unnatural sharpness. She carefully eased the door shut behind her and lifted her gaze; the landscape stretching out before her was an absolute nightmare.

The *Sa-suk* (uncles) who always used to tease her with lighthearted jokes, the *Sa-baek* (senior uncles) who had guided her with endless patience and kindness—even the dedicated guards of the Mosan Sect and the estate servants—all of them had been reduced to mutilated corpses scattered across the courtyard.

‘Ah…….’

She barely managed to choke back the scream of pure horror that threatened to tear from her throat. Forcing her tightly shut eyes open, she stepped forward into the carnage. Mixed among the numerous fallen members of the Mosan Sect, the bodies of several attackers lay scattered across the ground. At that sight, Ok Hwa-jeong collapsed into silent, weeping sobs.

‘Ah…… how could this happen…….’

The members of the Mosan Sect, who possessed far inferior martial prowess, had thrown their own bodies into the fray to halt the killers. They did it solely because they knew the young disciples were hiding nearby. People who had never properly mastered a sword had thrown themselves at the feet of the Black Coffins, dying by the blade just to buy time. Even so, the gap in combat ability had made it a completely one-sided slaughter; compared to the few dead bodies left behind by the Black Coffins, an untold number of Mosan Sect lives had been extinguished.

Ok Hwa-jeong pressed onward through her blinding tears. She desperately needed to evaluate the true scale of the disaster so she could figure out a path forward for herself and the children. It felt as though an eternity had passed by the time she finally neared the Cheong-un Pavilion, a trek that normally took her mere moments.

“*Keub*……”

As she stepped forward, stifling her sobs and doing everything in her power to mute the sound of her movements—

*Tak—*

A stray pebble caught the edge of her slipper and skittered several paces ahead. Her entire body froze solid in sheer panic. In that precise, vulnerable fraction of a second, a figure cloaked in midnight-black martial robes materialized in front of her like an apparition.

“Kyah!”

Just as she lost her balance and began to tumble backward with a scream, a figure bearing a large shield drifted to her side like a phantom.

‘I-Is this where I die?’

The moment she clamped her eyes shut in anticipation of the fatal blow—

*Pok.*

‘Huh?’

Contrary to her terrifying expectations, she found herself caught in a gentle, secure hold. When she tentatively opened her eyes to look up—

“Are you unharmed?”

A man was steadying her back, preventing her from crashing onto the hard ground. Ok Hwa-jeong stammered out instinctively.

“W-Who are you?”

“I am known as Geum-pyo of the Tae-eul Sect.”

“The Tae-eul Sect……?”

The martial artist who called himself Geum-pyo swept his eyes over the immediate surroundings before offering an explanation.

“For the moment, I have completely neutralized all of the hostiles who managed to infiltrate the inner grounds.”

“Neutralized……”

“It means you can breathe easy for the time being.”

Ok Hwa-jeong could only stare blankly at the man’s face, entirely dazed.

By a stroke of fortune, the Soul-Destroying Formation had executed its purpose effectively. The vast majority of the Black Coffins who had successfully breached the inner perimeter lay dead. Naturally, an exponentially higher number of Mosan Sect defenders who rose up to meet them had perished in the struggle. There was no sense of triumph in having plugged the breach, nor was there any celebration of victory. Every survivor was completely paralyzed by the grim reality before them and the crushing grief for their fallen family.

“……Y-You have my deepest gratitude.”

Gu Song-baek, who had been staring blankly into space for a long time after witnessing the slaughter, finally managed to speak. I remained silent, unable to find any words that could serve as a proper response. Gu Song-baek shifted his focus once more, hollowly sweeping his gaze across the field of blood. Crimson drops were still weeping from one of his eyes, yet he didn’t even possess the presence of mind to stem the bleeding.

“Yong So-ah…… it was unmistakably Yong So-ah……. Has the Martial Alliance…… finally decided to cast us aside?”

He must have been profoundly shaken to encounter Yong So-ah at the very climax of the assault. Frankly, anyone in his position would be driven to madness seeing Yong So-ah in the middle of this butchery. The man was essentially the living manifestation of an absolute, unyielding decree.

“*Mun-ju-nim*.”

“…….”

But it was imperative that he did not misinterpret the situation.

“Yong So-ah does not represent the true intent of the Martial Alliance.”

“What?”

He is not the voice of the collective Alliance.

“Yong So-ah acts purely as Yong So-ah.”

Gu Song-baek stared at me with wide, hollow eyes for a long duration. Only after that silence did a spark of clarity return to his face, as if a realization had finally dawned on him.

“*So-hyeop*, are you alright? Your injuries……”

Just as he noted, blood was seeping from wounds across my entire body. However, thanks to my accelerated healing capabilities, it wasn’t a cause for serious concern.

“Shouldn’t our immediate focus be on restoring order? The disciples are completely overwhelmed by panic.”

“Y-You are entirely right.”

Gu Song-baek stumbled slightly as his eyes caught the horrific view once more. He had to be desperately, forcefully anchoring his mind, which felt on the verge of shattering completely under the weight of the horror. Yet, because the mantle of Sect Leader rested on his shoulders, he forced his spine to straighten.

“Disciples, search for any remaining survivors and tend to the injured immediately.”

Following Gu Song-baek’s command, the figures who had collapsed in despair began to push themselves up from the dirt one after another.

The darkness of night deepened around us.

When all the remaining survivors were brought together, fewer than a hundred individuals were left standing. Even taking into account the members who were currently away on assignments, it was an incredibly grim count. To make matters worse, the reality that the survivors consisted mostly of young, inexperienced disciples made the loss feel even heavier.

“What…… what is our next step?”

There was no formal council of elders to consult. Gu Song-baek simply open-sourced the question to the group while the survivors huddled together in a tight circle on one side of the courtyard.

“…….”
“…….”
“…….”

Yet no one could summon a coherent suggestion. Every head remained bowed in profound, unexpected misery. Gu Song-baek refrained from demanding an answer, showing that he deeply understood the paralysis gripping their hearts. For my own part, I drifted into a private, intense train of thought.

‘Yong So-ah.’

The face of that insufferable bastard I had traded blows with only a short while ago flashed through my mind. That monstrous, godly martial prowess—that entirely illogical set of skills. Now that the very scenarios I had dreaded were unfolding right in front of me, a heavy weight settled into my chest. What on earth was that man’s true origin?

Right as I was sinking deeper into these calculations, a voice pulled me back to reality.

“*Jin So-hyeop*…… what is your perspective on this?”

It was Gu Song-baek asking.

“!”
“!”

Shocked expressions rippled across the faces of the Gold-Silver-Bronze brothers and Sa-ryeon. The very survival of their entire sect was hanging by a thread. Under such circumstances, seeking counsel from a complete outsider was an unprecedented breach of tradition.

I cleared my mind of the questions surrounding Yong So-ah and offered my analysis.

“Is it within your power to alter the core of the array into a killing array (*Sal-jin*)?”

The grand defensive formations of the Mosan Sect were heralded as peerless under heaven. Had they simply pivoted the array to an offensive killing configuration from the start, this massacre would have been averted entirely.

“Tragically, that path is closed to us. The foundation of the formation has already suffered critical failure. Were we to attempt a forced reconfiguration, the feedback loop would likely detonate the inner structures of the estate.”

“I see.”

If only the main forces of the Martial Alliance—or at the very least, the regional branch forces—could sprint to this location and lock down the perimeter, the total erasure of the sect could be averted. The fatal flaw in that hope was that the enemy had no intention of granting them that kind of time.

‘Fundamentally, there are massive, glaring inconsistencies surrounding this entire raid, but sorting out that puzzle will have to wait until we survive the immediate threat.’

Moreover, the fact that a monster like Yong So-ah had arrived as a hand picked member of the Execution Squad meant that the remaining prodigies of the ‘Dragon and Phoenix’ were undoubtedly deployed nearby as well. It was a mathematical certainty that they would attempt to wipe the Mosan Sect off the map before any regional reinforcements could arrive. We were completely trapped between a rock and a hard place.

“*Mun-ju-nim*!”

In that exact instant, a bloodied Mosan Sect disciple sprinted toward our group, clutching a stray arrow tightly in his hand.

“This was discovered embedded at the Main Hall……”

A parchment was bound securely to the shaft of the arrow. Gu Song-baek hastily unraveled the message, his eyes widening in shock as he silently digested the text. He gripped the paper tightly, falling into a prolonged, heavy silence. His face betrayed a profound sense of helplessness, as if he had no idea how to process what he was reading. After a long pause, he extended the message toward me with exhausted, trembling eyes.

“This…… this note was addressed to you, not to our sect.”

The correspondence originated from Namgung San, the man who had unexpectedly materialized to disrupt the battlefield during my life-and-death struggle with Yong So-ah.

‘A message delivered in the middle of this bloodbath?’

I unrolled the parchment, a faint glimmer of anticipation rising within me.

*- Jin So-un.*

*I deeply regret that events have collapsed into this state. I am equally blindsided by the current turn of affairs. There are critical truths I must relay to you regarding this chain of disasters. I require an immediate face-to-face meeting with you at the earliest possible moment.*