Chapter 27

Defying Heaven (2)

The atmosphere grew heavy.

Amid it, Geumsan opened his mouth.

His eyes were filled with suspicion.

"How do you know that name?"

"I'm relieved. That you didn't deny it."

Cheon Muyang smiled faintly.

However, Geumsan's expression remained stiff and cold.

"Young Master, that name is dangerous."

"Ah, I know."

"Then how could you—!"

"Because I need them."

"…What?"

"I want to make them my people."

Geumsan was stunned.

He must have truly gone mad—thoroughly mad.

"Young Master, do you truly say this without knowing what kind of people they are?"

"I know. They were loyal retainers of the Cheon Clan. And now, they are vengeful wraiths who cry out for Defying Heaven."

"Knowing that, do you truly believe it's possible?"

There was no one among them who still held loyalty to the Cheon Clan.

Defying Heaven was a blasphemous phrase that wished for the downfall of the Cheon Clan.

"It'll probably be difficult."

"...."

"But someone has to do it. The mistakes of the past must be corrected."

"...."

"I'm not telling them to be loyal to the Cheon Clan again."

"Then what?"

"I'm asking them to become my people."

"You've completely lost your mind."

"I was always a mad bastard to begin with."

"Even the Clan Head couldn't do it. Do you think you can?"

Cheon Muyang grinned.

He spoke with absolute certainty.

"Yes. I can."

"Hoo… I think I've gone mad too. Listening to you, Young Master, I find myself wanting to believe."

At the very least, Geumsan knew.

Cheon Muyang was no longer the same debauched Young Master he once was.

'Perhaps… perhaps he truly could persuade them through the Young Master.'

He wanted to believe.

However, there was a major problem.

There were already others who had approached them.

"But tell me, Young Master. What if I told you there's already a force that's made contact with them?"

"The Demonic Cult approached them, didn't they?"

"...!"

Geumsan was shocked.

How could he possibly know that?

"It's obvious. I already know that the Demonic Cult has infiltrated the Central Plains' martial world."

Grit.

Cheon Muyang clenched his teeth.

Unfiltered fury toward the Demonic Cult surfaced in his eyes.

"Which is why those who fell for their temptation will, regrettably, have to be cut down."

He couldn't persuade everyone.

There would surely be those who had already fallen for the Demonic Cult's insidious schemes.

If that was the case, then they had crossed a river of no return in the name of revenge—and would have to be slain.

"...."

"Joining hands with the Demonic Cult means choosing a path beyond humanity."

In the orthodox martial world, the unorthodox factions and the Demonic Cult were lumped together as heretical outsiders.

But that classification was wrong.

"If it had been the unorthodox factions instead, I wouldn't have hesitated at all."

The unorthodox sought their own gain and committed all manner of evils, but they did not reject the world itself.

They understood that without the world, they too could not survive.

Their ambitions stayed within the bounds of coexistence.

Of course, blood-crazed maniacs appeared among them from time to time—but wasn't that also true of the orthodox sects?

"But the Demonic Cult is different."

They were beings steeped in vicious hatred.

They hated the living and longed not for life, but for death.

Each cultist was a fanatic, valuing the Demonic Cult's grand cause above even their own lives.

"They've abandoned being human."

They worshipped fire.

The fire that would cleanse the world—calamity flame.

Completely purifying the world through fire was the Demonic Cult's ultimate goal.

They knew nothing of coexistence.

"And so, they must be cut down. Slaying them while they can still be called human is the final mercy we can offer."

"Even if they merely joined hands with the Demonic Cult, without actually becoming cultists?"

"Everyone who joined them must have thought they were using the Demonic Cult. But do you know how all of them ended up?"

The fates of those who joined hands with the Demonic Cult were horrific.

So Eungbang ended up.

So did Cheon A-haeng.

"They lose all humanity, become monsters who hate the living, and in the end… they vanish into dust without leaving even a corpse."

Gulp!

Geumsan swallowed hard.

He felt a strange, oppressive aura.

"I will cut down those people. Those who are not like that, I will take in. That is my will."

"...."

After a moment of silence, Geumsan finally spoke.

"Tomorrow night, starting at midnight, a market opens in the back alleys of Hangzhou."

"A market, you say."

"Go there."

"And after I go?"

"Everything after that is up to you, Young Master."

"Fine. I'll do that."

"Yes. I wish you good fortune in battle."

Geumsan left.

Afterward, Cheon Muyang summoned Neung Ryeo-un and Cha Myeong-hak.

"I plan to go to Hangzhou tomorrow. Make preparations in advance."

"Yes."

"I'll warn you beforehand—be fully prepared."

"Yes."

Seeing the two burn with competitive spirit rather than fear, Cheon Muyang smiled.

"Good. I'll see you tomorrow."

The two left.

Left alone, Cheon Muyang organized his thoughts about the Demonic Cult.

'The Council of Elders and the Demonic Cult are in collusion.'

That much was certain.

Which raised a question.

'But why?'

Supreme Elder, Cheon Jung-ho.

He was not someone easily dealt with.

'Then why did he just stand by and watch as the Cheon Clan was wiped out by the Demonic Cult?'

Even if he had been at odds with Cheon Wi-gang, Cheon Jung-ho was not someone who could be easily overcome by the Demonic Cult.

'Was his goal never to seize power over the Cheon Clan?'

Power only had meaning if the Cheon Clan existed.

If the Cheon Clan was annihilated, what use was power?

'Could it be that his goal was never to take control of the Cheon Clan in the first place?'

Up until now, Cheon Muyang had believed that Cheon Jung-ho's objective was to seize the clan's authority.

That was why he thought Cheon Jung-ho had stripped the Clan Head of real power, expanded the Council of Elders' authority, and deliberately fractured the Cheon Clan.

'No. What if, from the very beginning, his goal was the annihilation of the Cheon Clan…?'

A chill ran through him.

Cheon Muyang shuddered.

One hypothesis surfaced.

'What if… Cheon Jung-ho was a member of the Demonic Cult from the start?'

When the Demonic Cult had once risen, the entire martial world of the Central Plains had been thrown into shock.

The reason was that the Demonic Cult had already taken root deep within the martial world—and…

'Elders of the Nine Great Sects, the Five Great Families, and other major factions of equal standing were revealed to be members of the Demonic Cult.'

For example, an elder of Mount Hua had been exposed as a Demonic Cult member.

What a devastating revelation that had been.

A deep mistrust, where no one could trust anyone, settled over the martial world.

That was why, even when the Cheon Clan was pushed to the brink of destruction, no faction dared to help recklessly.

'It would be fair to say the Demonic Cult engineered that situation from the start.'

What happened to the future after that, even Cheon Muyang did not know.

'But I can roughly guess.'

Unable to unite, the martial world of the Central Plains was likely brought to ruin by a Demonic Cult that had prepared thoroughly from the shadows.

'It's only a hypothesis for now… but there's more than enough reason to suspect it.'

If that were true, then all the more—

There would be even more reason to cut down the entire Council of Elders.

He had to uncover Cheon Jung-ho's true identity.

"Soon enough, I'll know."

Cheon Muyang stared out the window, gazing at the distant Council Hall.

"The moment the truth is revealed, my sword will be aimed at you."

Cheon Muyang withdrew his gaze.

Heavy silence settled over the office.

***

A day passed.

To leave the clan discreetly, Cheon Muyang decided to use a secret passage of the Inspectorate.

"I'd heard rumors that the Inspectorate had a secret passage for covert inspections…"

They had only been rumors.

In the past, even Nameless had never uncovered the truth.

But the rumors were real.

'With a secret passage like this, no wonder Cheon A-haeng's corruption went unnoticed.'

Inspection relied on secrecy.

The passage must have been built for that purpose, only to be abused by Cheon A-haeng—no doubt its designer would have felt wronged.

"Don't worry. I'll put it to proper use now."

Cheon Muyang walked through the passage, one that must have existed since the founding of the Cheon Clan.

"Hm…."

Scars were carved all over the passage.

Yet somehow, they looked familiar.

Step.

Cheon Muyang stopped.

He stared at the scars, which flowed together as a single sequence.

"This is… a sword path."

That sword path ultimately drew the shape of a single sky.

Wondering if it might be the sky he had seen in the Heavenly Dragon Archive, Cheon Muyang studied it closely—then tilted his head.

"It's a sky I've never seen before."

It seemed there was a Sky of the Sword passed down solely to the Inspectorate Head.

"A sky passed down through generations…"

His interest was piqued.

Had Cheon Muyang not resolved to embrace every sky?

Then this sky, too, was one he had to claim.

"So this is how fate connects us."

Cheon A-haeng had been unworthy.

And he had been someone to whom fate never connected.

That was why, even after passing through this corridor dozens, hundreds, thousands of times, he had never realized it.

"A sky, yet…"

He looked upon the sky.

However, that sky was filled with nothing but clouds.

"This isn't the sky."

Whoooong!

Cheon Muyang raised the Cheon Radiance.

The Cheon Radiance drifted leisurely along the cloud-like sky.

As he swung it, realization dawned.

"I see."

The Inspectorate Head was directly subordinate to the Clan Head.

In other words, the sword passed down through generations was a sky that supported the sky once wielded by the Clan Head of the Cheon Clan.

"So the sky cannot exist alone."

The sky could not exist by itself.

There had to be a sun, clouds, a moon, and stars for it to be called the sky.

"The Inspectorate is the clouds."

The sky above the clouds.

That sky was the Clan Head.

It was a sword that embodied the relationship between the Clan Head and the Inspectorate.

"And the sky lies above the clouds."

In other words—

Without passing through the clouds, one could not reach the sky.

Whoooong!

What was this feeling?

The Cheon Radiance surged upward from the earth to the heavens, like a dragon ascending.

Sword energy scattered around it, spiraling violently like a vortex.

"A heavenly dragon ascends to the sky."

Cheon Muyang had been mistaken.

He had believed that to embrace the sky, the sword must always be above.

That was why, until now, his sword had always moved from above to below.

"That wasn't it."

It could also surge upward—from the earth to the sky.

Uncheon, the cloud-filled sky, granted him that realization.

"To think I failed to grasp something so simple. And yet I spoke of embracing all skies."

Cheon Muyang reproached his own ignorance.

Hadn't he already realized?

That the sky, like the Dao, could not be rigidly defined.

"I must keep an open mind."

That was the only way to embrace the sky of the Cheon Clan.

Cheon Muyang offered thanks to the successive Inspectorate Heads who had bestowed this enlightenment upon him.

'Of course, except Cheon A-haeng.'

An unanticipated stroke of fortune.

Cheon Muyang bowed deeply.

"Thank you."

Perhaps it was coincidence.

But the scars carved into the wall, once faint, now seemed strangely vivid.

Step. Step.

Cheon Muyang stepped out of the passage.

The sky he now faced looked markedly different from before.

"Let's not look only at the sky."

Below it.

Beneath the sky.

There were countless things yet to be embraced.

"I still have a long way to go."

It was a distant path.

Yet Cheon Muyang smiled.

"It's fun."

After all, it was a path that only he could walk in this world.

"Shall we go?"

Cheon Muyang headed for Hangzhou.