Chapter 25

 Seizing Control of the Inspectorate

Cheon Muyang raised three fingers.

Then, folding down his index finger, he spoke.

"One."

He had investigated every member of the Inspectorate in advance.

In case—just in case—there might be someone among them who had not committed any crimes.

But it was nothing more than a needless worry.

The entire Inspectorate was made up of irredeemable trash.

"Two."

He folded down his thumb.

The former Inspectorate Head, Cheon Ahaeng, had already been imprisoned in the underground dungeon.

Even so, the reason they were still standing their ground was obvious.

It meant they had a powerful backer—and Cheon Muyang knew exactly who that was.

'The Third Elder.'

No one else would concoct a scheme this petty.

At the very least, the Supreme Elder Cheon Jung-ho was someone who understood decorum.

"Three."

Without folding his middle finger, Cheon Muyang deliberately held it up for them to see—

Then, very slowly, he bent it down.

"...."

No one left.

Rather, that was for the best.

"That's a relief."

Every single one of them was cut from the same cloth as Cheon Ahaeng.

They had joined the Inspectorate through bribes or connections, and every last one of them lined their pockets with illicit money.

So truly, it was a relief.

If even one of them had escaped, they would simply repeat the same garbage behavior somewhere else.

"That none of you ran away."

"Eldest young master, behind us is—"

"I know who's backing you."

"...!"

"But if you think I can't cut you down just because you're relying on something so pathetic..."

With utterly indifferent eyes, Cheon Muyang swung Cheon-gwang as casually as cutting a pebble by the roadside.

"Ghk!"

It was unbelievably fast.

Everyone's eyes flew wide open.

In the next instant, the chest of the man standing closest split open.

Thud!

His body collapsed to the ground.

Cheon Muyang flicked the blood off Cheon-gwang a few times.

"You're mistaken."

"Y– you bastard!"

They panicked.

They had never imagined things would unfold like this.

"Well? What are you doing—aren't you going to attack?"

"How could we possibly swing our swords at the eldest young master?"

"Oh, really? Then let's do this. I swear it as the eldest young master of the Cheon Clan. Even if you kill me, no one will lay a hand on you."

"How can we trust that!"

"If you don't trust me, then just die."

"Ugh...!"

"Either way, it's not like you have a choice."

Cheon Muyang deliberately provoked them.

After undergoing bone-reforging transformation, he wanted to see just how much he had changed.

Opponents capable of manifesting sword qi were the perfect test subjects.

Crunch.

They realized it then.

That they had no choice at all.

It was when the rabbit dies, the hunting dogs are boiled.

And so, they unleashed dense killing intent toward Cheon Muyang.

"Good. You should've done that from the start."

"Lord! It's dangerous!"

Cha Myeong-hak tried to stop him, but Neung Ryeo-un shook his head.

"You two, stay out of this."

"Yes."

With Neung Ryeo-un's reply—

Countless blades flew toward Cheon Muyang.

Kaaang!

Yet not a single blade reached him.

"H– how can this be...!"

The force imbued in Cheon-gwang was so overwhelming that some swords were knocked away violently, tearing their owners' hands open in the process.

"Hm. Looks like both my strength and reflexes have definitely improved."

Cheon Muyang clearly felt just how vastly superior his body had become compared to before.

Their all-out sword strikes looked slow enough to make him yawn.

And even without exerting his full strength, he had enough power to knock their blades away effortlessly.

Clench.

Cheon Muyang gripped Cheon-gwang tightly.

"In that case..."

A sudden curiosity surfaced.

What would happen if, with this body, he were to cleave the heavens with his full strength?

He grinned.

Smirk.

Cheon Muyang wore a smile full of curiosity.

It was no different from the smile he had worn back when he was a brute—but everything else about Cheon Muyang had changed.

Hooong!

Cheon-gwang shot up toward the sky.

That alone wrapped them in pressure as though Mount Tai itself were bearing down upon them.

Tremble, tremble.

Their legs shook.

It felt difficult even to remain standing.

They clenched their teeth and tried to endure, but the sight unfolding before them left them pale with shock.

"Ah...!"

All of them had learned the sword techniques of the Cheon Clan.

Even if they had only grasped them superficially, like skimming the surface of a melon, it was unmistakably clear.

Hooong!

The loftiness of the heavens contained within Cheon Muyang's sword.

From an unfathomably high place they could never reach, Cheon Muyang looked down at them with indifferent eyes.

Hwaaaak!

In an instant, that sky collapsed.

There was nothing that could block it, nowhere to escape.

At this moment, their power over life and death rested solely in Cheon Muyang's will.

'I won't kill them.'

Death was a luxury they did not deserve until they had paid every last bit of their sins.

Letting them rot for the rest of their lives beneath the underground prison—that was Cheon Muyang's justice.

"Hoo...."

When Cheon-gwang came to a halt—

There was no one left standing before Cheon Muyang.

"Ugh...!"

No one had died.

But a gruesome scene lay spread before his eyes.

Cheon Muyang had severed their right arms so that they would never again be able to wield a sword.

"All of you are expelled."

Delivering judgment with indifferent eyes, Cheon Muyang issued his first order to Neung Ryeo-un and Cha Myeong-hak.

"Throw every one of them into the underground dungeon."

"Yes, my lord."

The two trembled.

Through Cheon Muyang, they had glimpsed their own respective heavens.

And because of that, the true intent behind the sword he had shown them sent chills through their bodies.

"Tsk."

Following the naturally opened path, Cheon Muyang moved to head toward the Inspectorate office.

Kwaaang!

At that moment—

A thunderous crash rang out from not too far away.

Whip!

Cheon Muyang snapped his head toward it.

From that direction, he felt intense demonic energy.

It was far deeper and denser than that of So-Eungbang—on a completely different level.

"This is...."

He had thought So-Eungbang's demonic energy was a form that had yet to be completed.

But the demonic energy now felt was identical to the dark, ominous presence that had once descended upon the Cheon Clan in the past.

Crunch.

Cheon Muyang grew enraged.

'Starting with So-Eungbang... just how far has the Demonic Cult's reach extended?'

The Demonic Cult never revealed itself openly.

Yet it had already taken root deep within the Central Plains' martial world.

"At the very least, I won't tolerate it in my own house."

Cheon Muyang raised Cheon-gwang.

Wooong!

Cheon-gwang reacted to the demonic energy.

At the same time, he realized that the one emitting that vile demonic aura was approaching this place.

"Perfect. Coming to me on your own."

"Cheon Muyang!"

Soon, the one who appeared—

Was Cheon Ahaeng, hair disheveled and shackles still clamped around his wrists.

It was the appearance of someone who had escaped the underground dungeon.

Heh.

Cheon Muyang smiled.

"Cut down the trash, and even bigger trash comes crawling in."

"How dare you! You dare reduce me to this state?!"

Cheon Ahaeng's eyes were filled with madness.

Nothing remained in them except rage directed at Cheon Muyang.

"You must have clearly seen how So-Eungbang ended...."

Had Cheon Ahaeng not been there as well?

Yet Cheon Ahaeng sneered at Cheon Muyang with a greasy smile.

"Don't compare me to that piece of trash. The pill I gave him was incomplete."

"Incomplete...."

"It means I have more than enough power to tear you apart and escape."

"I like that. My body was still stiff anyway."

"Shut up! I will tear you to pieces myself!"

Cheon Muyang knew Cheon Ahaeng well.

A man who lived only for himself—someone who had learned martial arts but had never once fought while risking his life, like a flower grown in a greenhouse.

'Does it even change one's temperament?'

Yet the Cheon Ahaeng now charging so recklessly looked like an entirely different person.

Perhaps because of the madness lodged in his eyes, the whites showed even more starkly.

"Then stop talking and come at me."

"Fine! That's exactly what I intend to do."

Glance.

Cheon Ahaeng tore at the chains as though ripping them apart, freeing himself.

Then he glanced at a sword lying on the ground.

"Pick it up. If you're going to do it, do it properly."

"...."

Cheon Ahaeng took hold of the sword.

In an instant, the blade was dyed pitch-black.

The surrounding area seemed to darken under the oppressive demonic energy.

Sensing the danger, even Neung Ryeo-un tried to stop Cheon Muyang.

"My lord!"

"It's fine. Let me loosen up the rest of the way."

"You arrogant bastard!"

As though being chased by something, Cheon Ahaeng rushed desperately toward Cheon Muyang.

"I'll kill you before Cheon Wi-gang and Cheon Seon-hak arrive!"

The mere noise of Cheon Ahaeng breaking out of the underground dungeon was enough to constitute an emergency.

As such, Cheon Wi-gang's safety would naturally take top priority.

For that reason, all of the Cheon Clan's armed forces—as well as Cheon Seon-hak—would have gone to Cheon Wi-gang.

Thus, the time Cheon Ahaeng had before realizing that Cheon Muyang was his true target was limited.

"You seem to be mistaken...."

Cheon Ahaeng was gravely mistaken.

Mistaken in thinking that such false power would be enough to kill Cheon Muyang.

"I'm more than enough on my own."

Kaaang!

The two swords collided.

From the point where they met, a violent shockwave exploded in all directions.

"...!"

Even though they were only watching, Neung Ryeo-un and Cha Myeong-hak were forced to draw up their internal energy.

"Look at this overwhelming power! Do you really think a brute like you could handle this just by training for a few months?!"

Just like So-Eungbang had—

Cheon Ahaeng, too, was intoxicated by the power granted by demonic energy.

"They told you the same thing in So-Eungbang's case—that power isn't yours."

"Shut up. Shut up!"

Kugugugugung!

Cheon Ahaeng's sword qi grew even more ferocious.

The demonic energy pouring from him dyed the skies above the Cheon Clan in darkness.

"The Cheon Clan's sky is nothing special after all! Strutting around with nothing but this pathetic excuse for a sky!"

Cheon Ahaeng burst into mad laughter.

Jealousy and envy toward Cheon Wi-gwang and Cheon Seon-hak were plainly evident.

"For someone bearing the Cheon surname to forget the very essence—why is the shame mine to bear?!"

It was shameful.

How could someone of the Cheon Clan deny its very essence—deny the heavens themselves?

"Shut up!"

"The one who should shut up is your filthy mouth."

"...!"

"And what needs to be cut down is that dirty, false demonic energy."

Hooong!

An even clearer, purer aura seeped into Cheon-gwang than before.

"A frog in a well can only see a sky as wide as the mouth of the well."

Thus, the frog could never know the sky beyond it.

"You foolish frog who knows nothing of the sky outside the well."

The frog in the well was Cheon Ahaeng.

"...!"

"Do you think you've stained the heavens?"

The blackened sword qi had certainly defiled the sky.

But there was something he needed to understand.

You might taint a part of it—

But you could never stain the entire sky.

"The sky you dirtied is nothing more than the sky you saw from inside your well."

Cheon-gwang, cradling streams of blue sword qi, sliced through a portion of the blackened sky.

Space warped.

Heat haze shimmered, and through the distortion, Cheon Ahaeng's demonic energy was swept away.

"N– no!"

"So understand it—even in death."

He would not understand, even in death.

"That the Cheon Clan's sky is not so low as to be within your reach."

Cheon-gwang cut straight through Cheon Ahaeng's darkness itself.

Slice.

Cheon Ahaeng's head fell.

Nowhere remained the irreverent darkness that sought to defile the heavens.

For the Dark Heaven had been severed.

"To cut the Dark Heaven… Dark Heaven Severance, then."

Cheon Muyang etched that sensation into memory.

It would be effective against those who bore demonic energy.

"...."

From Cheon Ahaeng's corpse, dark crimson blood spilled out.

It seemed the vile demonic energy had even consumed the body's fundamental life force.

Creak, crunch!

Then Cheon Ahaeng's corpse began to twist grotesquely.

It was a revolting, horrific sight—but Cheon Muyang merely watched with indifferent eyes.

"Eldest young master!"

At that moment, those who had been tracking the source of the explosion arrived.

Kwaang!

Filling his voice with internal energy, Cheon Muyang shouted in all directions.

"No one!"

"...!"

"Will ever defile the Cheon Clan's sky!"

Everyone flinched.

For there was solemn authority lodged in Cheon Muyang's piercing gaze.

"Clear this away."

With indifferent eyes, Cheon Muyang walked past what had once been Cheon Ahaeng—and past the former Inspectorate members, still writhing in agony with their right arms severed.

.