Chapter 47

Conclusion (2)

Wolf King and Cheon Seonhak ran frantically toward the Cheon Clan.

It was because the children's conditions were still not good, and even with internal energy, the limit was clear.

A fork in the road appeared before the two of them.

"But tell me, isn't that so-called Supreme Elder bastard still left behind?"

"That is so. As soon as we return, I intend to clearly reveal his crimes."

"Hm… that is how it should be, but no matter how I think about it, if that bastard is a lackey of the Demonic Cult, there's no way he'd just sit there and take it."

It was a pure question.

They said it was a grand plan spanning thirty years.

After infiltrating the Cheon Clan for that long, there was no way he would collapse this futilely.

"Doesn't he surely have some scheme? Perhaps he already moved while you and that impudent brat were gone."

"...."

It was a statement with more than enough merit.

'He's sharp.'

Even though he seemed to act simply, Wolf King was unexpectedly cool-headed.

'Well, if he didn't possess that level of judgment, he wouldn't have reached the realm of Hwagyung.'

The thought crossed Cheon Seonhak's mind that perhaps the Third Elder setting a trap at Mount Putuo had not been a coincidence.

"Then, are you saying we shouldn't go back right now?"

"Yeah, that's it. The lives of these children could end up in even greater danger."

Cheon Seonhak nodded.

He was right.

With everything uncertain right now, how could they throw the children they had barely saved back into a deadly situation?

"So?"

"Ah, it's nothing serious."

Wolf King gave a faint smile.

At the same time, an unfamiliar presence was felt.

"You all are…."

"Great Lord, why did you leave us behind and go on your own!"

With Wolyeong at the forefront, clearly bristling with anger, Neung Ryeoun and Cha Myeonghak were waiting.

"We greet the Great Lord."

"Why are you all here?"

Whoosh!

There was no need to ask.

Wolf King must have called them.

Cheon Seonhak glared at Wolf King.

"What are you thinking?"

"Don't misunderstand. I wasn't the one who called them. I spoke with the Family Head."

"The Family Head? My elder brother?"

"Yes."

"...?"

"Looks like he didn't tell you either."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that impudent brat—"

"The Eldest Young Master!"

Wolyeong's sharp voice cut Wolf King off.

At that, Wolf King chuckled.

"Your tongue is sharper than your sword."

"Elder!"

"Ahem, well, maybe not elder."

"Anyway!"

"Enough. Before that brat called me, I was already meeting the Family Head."

Cheon Seonhak's expression darkened.

A bad premonition washed over him.

"What did you talk about?"

"That so-called Supreme Elder. He said he would meet that man alone."

"Meet him alone…."

It was meaningful.

Why would he meet the Supreme Elder one on one?

Cheon Seonhak felt doubt rise within him.

"Could it be…."

"Yes. I only understood it after hearing the Dao Venerable's final words as well."

"The Family Head too?"

"I don't know whether it's hard evidence or just suspicion, but it seems he got a sense of it. That the current Supreme Elder might not be the man he once knew."

"...."

"If it's a trap, he said he'd willingly step into it himself."

Shing.

Cheon Seonhak drew his sword.

And immediately pointed it at Wolf King.

"What is your intention in only telling me this now?"

Chuckling.

Wolf King smiled.

"Do you still not know why I called these children separately?"

"...."

"At the very least, they are the ones who follow that child. That means they are the most trustworthy people in the entire Cheon Clan."

Starting with Wolyeong, Neung Ryeoun and Cha Myeonghak, and even Cheon Seonhak himself who stood here now, were all people of Cheon Muyang.

Still wearing a smile, Wolf King continued.

"You see, a trap is something like this."

"...."

"Sometimes, just shaking it from the outside is enough to make it collapse surprisingly easily."

Only then did Cheon Seonhak grasp what Wolf King was trying to say, and he finally sheathed his sword.

"I see. Truly a method befitting my elder brother."

"Do you understand now?"

Cheon Seonhak clenched his fist tightly.

Always, without exception, Cheon Wigang threw himself into the fire.

Everything he did was for the Cheon Clan, but in the end, it was also for the sake of protecting Cheon Seonhak.

"If that is the Family Head's will, then even if the road leads to hell, we must follow it."

"Good. But before that, getting these children to a safe place is the urgent priority."

The Cheon Clan was dangerous.

Because of that, they could not afford to take the children there while bearing such risk.

"Zhejiang—where in that province could we possibly avoid the eyes and ears of the Cheon Clan?"

"There's exactly one place."

"...?"

Wolf King answered clearly.

"Hangzhou's Wanderers' Pavilion. Go to the Wanderers' Pavilion. It'll be safe there."

"Are you certain?"

"Of course. The owner there is no ordinary man."

At Wolf King's confidence, Cheon Seonhak nodded.

There had to be a reason for such certainty.

"But will five be enough?"

There were two masters at the Hwagyung realm, yes.

But if someone like the Yama Dao Venerable lay in the trap Cheon Wigang stepped into, nothing could be guaranteed.

"Ah, about that—the impudent… the Eldest Young Master provided a solution."

Under Wolyeong's sharp glare, Wolf King corrected himself from Cheon Muyang to Eldest Young Master.

"And what would that be?"

"Do you know of the Heavenly Hound Corps?"

"I know of them, more or less."

Those who were once Ban-cheon.

Not only Cheon Seonhak, but even Cheon Wigang knew of their existence.

Including the fact that Cheon Muyang had brought them back under the Heavenly Hound Corps.

"Yes. That impud—no, the Eldest Young Master seems to have mobilized them."

"...."

"The Heavenly Hound Leader, was it? He's got skills worth using. He won't drag them down."

After a moment of silence, Cheon Seonhak nodded.

"It sounds doable."

"So you'll take the children and move together with those Heavenly Hound Corps fellows."

"And the Great Lord and Wolf King?"

"Do we look like we've got the leisure to walk around with underlings? Don't we?"

"We'll move separately."

"Understood."

"No, when I was talking you looked like you didn't want to go at all—why the sudden change in attitude?"

"...."

Neung Ryeoun and Cha Myeonghak lowered their heads, and Wolyeong answered in their place.

"Wolf King-nim is a guest, after all. And the Great Lord was once the Supreme Lord."

"And?"

"The weight is different."

"...."

Leaving behind a speechless Wolf King, Wolyeong also shouldered the children.

Then, she bowed her head.

"Still, thank you. For helping the Young Master."

"Tsk...."

Watching Wolyeong, who didn't even give him time to get angry, Wolf King smacked his lips.

Cheon Seonhak urged him on.

"Let's go."

"Hm. Yes. Let's."

As if by prior agreement, the two moved off in the same direction.

"Then we're going too!"

"...."

Neung Ryeoun and Cha Myeonghak followed behind the lively Wolyeong.

***

Drip.

The bitter taste of blood lingered at the tip of his tongue.

Spit!

Cheon Wigang spat out the blood that had pooled in his mouth.

Yet the foreign sensation clogging his throat refused to fade.

Whoosh!

Dozens—no, hundreds—of swords rushed at Cheon Wigang in a frenzy.

Each one was a lethal strike aimed precisely at vital points.

KWAANG!

With a single blow, Cheon Wigang forced dozens of swords back at once, but he could not stop the flow of blades that immediately filled the gap.

"How long do you think you can endure? Dying honorably would be the better choice."

A sticky, unpleasant voice rang out.

The Supreme Elder who had revealed his true colors—Cheon Jungho.

No, a figure of the Demonic Cult wearing his skin.

"As of today, the Cheon Clan shall belong to our sect."

Cheon Jungho sneered at Cheon Wigang.

That sneer began to sound… different.

"...."

Cheon Wigang saw it clearly.

Height, frame, skin, even the voice—everything began to change.

"As of today, I shall become the Family Head of the Cheon Clan."

Crunch!

Cheon Wigang bit his lip.

Adding a few more drops of blood to a mouth already filled with it did nothing to change the taste.

"When did it start?"

"Where do you think a thirty-year grand plan truly begins?"

"Don't tell me…."

"Yes. Not with your father's death—but with Cheon Jungho's."

Cheon Jungho had died, and the one who took his place was the mastermind and root cause of everything.

"I believed that even if your path differed, you would never harm the Cheon Clan. Was all of that a lie?"

At Cheon Wigang's lament, Cheon Jungho burst into mad laughter.

The end of a plan spanning thirty years was right before him, and he wanted to mock the foolishness of those who had failed to notice it for so long.

"Everything was a lie. Injured internally, the one you trusted most was me—and the prey that walked willingly into the tiger's den was your father."

Back then, the Family Head of the Cheon Clan had suffered a mysterious sudden attack.

The attackers were members of the Demonic Cult dressed in Cheon Clan martial uniforms, and believing there to be a traitor within, the former Family Head, Cheon Daeho, went to see Cheon Jungho.

"Hehehe. After that, it was easy. The Tang Clan's poison worked beautifully."

The Tang Clan possessed many poisons beyond those known to the world.

Among them were poisons capable of affecting even those who had reached the Hwagyung realm—yet left no trace behind.

"Death by unknown causes."

The death of the former Family Head, Cheon Daeho, remained a mass of unanswered questions.

However, the truth behind it all was both absurdly simple and utterly hollow.

"Even that alone would have been the best possible outcome, but what do you know—the Eldest Young Master got caught too?"

As if to shake the despairing Cheon Wigang, he smoothly laid out every detail of the plot.

It was likely because he could see Cheon Wigang's sword visibly crumbling.

"The Eldest Young Master…."

"Things went so smoothly, it was almost laughable."

Hoping to see Cheon Wigang fall into the abyss, he spilled the entire truth.

Puuuk!

It was after confirming that Cheon Wigang's iron wall had been pierced, and that a sword had slipped through the gap and lodged itself in his side.

"Becoming the Supreme Elder, Cheon Jungho—that was the core of the entire grand plan."

"...."

"And then the Eldest Young Master came to see me himself. Asked me to help him."

They said the Cheon Clan had three pillars that supported the family.

Two pillars were Cheon Seonhak and Cheon Wigang.

And the third pillar was the Supreme Elder, Cheon Jungho.

Who could have known?

That the third pillar was in fact the shadow behind everything—and the true root of it all.

"Do you know about the Ban-cheon?"

"I… know of them."

"They supported the Eldest Young Master."

Cheon Wigang's older brother.

The previous generation's Eldest Young Master, Cheon Muguk, was a martial prodigy born with the Heavenly Martial Physique.

As such, he was more than qualified to become the Family Head of the Cheon Clan.

And so, judging that there was something suspicious about the Family Head's death, Cheon Muguk also went to see Cheon Jungho.

"But when that Eldest Young Master came to me asking for help, it was so ridiculous. Even I had trouble holding back my laughter."

Who was loyal to Cheon Muguk.

After grasping every last detail, Cheon Jungho eliminated Cheon Muguk as well.

Under the pretense of disappearance.

"Do you understand now?"

All of this was meant to make everyone in the clan suspect Cheon Wigang.

By doing so, the authority of the Family Head was weakened, while the power of the Council of Elders was expanded—until now, there was scarcely a single appointment untouched by their influence.

"Then who attacked my father?"

The former Family Head, Cheon Daeho, was a master who had reached the Hwagyung realm.

It made no sense that he could have been taken by surprise.

"The Yama Dao Venerable."

"...."

"And aren't you curious about who killed the Eldest Young Master?"

Cheon Jungho wore a greasy smile.

"It was me."

The moment those words ended—

From Cheon Wigang's entire body, which had been bleeding profusely, the firm aura of an iron wall surged forth once more.

"...!"

As if nothing had happened.

The bleeding stopped.

The countless wounds covering his body were, in truth, nothing more than shallow cuts and abrasions.

"Y-you bastard…!"

"At last, all my questions have been answered."

Cheon Wigang's expression was blank.

His presence was as immovable as stone, yet the rage burning deep within him was like molten lava.

"And for that price, I will kill you in utter misery."

Hoooooong!

Beyond mere weight, dominance itself was imbued into Cheon Wigang's sword.

The strongest shield, paradoxically, was also the strongest sword—one that shattered the enemy.

"You'd better prepare yourself."

The steel sword of Cheon Wigang devoured the hundreds of surging blades as if ravenous.

KWAANG!

A thunderous roar erupted.

"...!"

Around Cheon Wigang, in the devastated surroundings, there was not a single person who dared to stand nearby.